Bible News Prophecy with Dr Bob Thiel
Year 5787 or 5991 or 5995?
What biblical year is it? The Jews call the year that runs from sunset 11 September 2026 through sunset 1 October 2027 the year 5787. Supposedly that goes back to Genesis 1. Yet, Jewish scholars admit that the count most Jews use, which is in something called the 'Seder Olam Rabbah' is off by 164 or 165 years. Jewish tradition also teaches that the Messiah will come at the end of 6,000 years. Rabbi Mendel Kessin says that will be in the year 2240. But is that right, since Jewish scholars realize that the chronology in the 'Seder Olam Rabbah' does not agree with records of history? What if the 6,000 years ends over two centuries earlier? Did God have the Jewish Rabbi Akiva and others deliberately change the date chronology in the 2nd century A.D.? Or perhaps, as some have suggested, they changed the Jewish chronology because prophecies in the 9th chapter of the Book of Daniel pointed to Jesus being the Messiah and they did not want people to look to him, but instead to Simon Bar Kochba? Did that result in the death of over one million Jews? The Apostles Peter and Paul pointed to Jesus being around in the "last days." If that was near the end of day 4 of 6 one thousand year day or the beginning of the 5th of those days, when would we expect the 6000 years to end, and Jesus to possibly occur, such as in 2031 or by 2035? Based on scriptures in the Old and New Testaments, as well as historical records, might it now be the year 5991 or even 5995? If Jesus was resurrected between A.D. 31-35, would that point to His return by 2035 if there is a 6,000 year plan? Dr. Thiel addresses these points in this video.
A written article of related interest is available titled 'Is it near the year 5787 anno mundi or is that off by 2 centuries?' URL: https://www.cogwriter.com/news/religious-news/is-it-near-the-year-5786-anno-mundi-or-is-that-off-by-2-centuries/
The Jewish Year 5787, the Seder Olam, and When the 6,000 Years Really End
Dr. Bob Thiel questions the Jewish calendar's claim that this is the year 5787, tracing rabbinic admissions of a hidden 165-year gap in the Seder Olam and his own Genesis-to-New-Testament calculations pointing instead to a year closer to 5991 or 5995.
What Year Is It Really?
Dr. Bob Thiel opens the Bible News Prophecy program by posing an unusual question: not what year it is on the Roman calendar, but how many years have passed since God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. He explains that the Feast of Trumpets, which Jews renamed Rosh Hashanah, ties a new year count back to the Book of Genesis, and that the year running from sunset September 11, 2026 through sunset October 1, 2027 is claimed to be the Jewish year 5787. Thiel reads a passage from Israel365 News describing a framework attributed to Rabbi Mendel Kessin, in which the world's total span runs 6,000 years, corresponding to the six days of creation, ending in the year 2240. Thiel notes that such a long timeline leaves people feeling they have centuries left before any reckoning arrives, which he intends to challenge.
Cracks in the Seder Olam
Thiel turns to the Jewish chronology behind the 5787 figure, an ancient document called the Seder Olam. He says Jewish scholars themselves acknowledge problems with it: The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 states it contains information contrary to historical facts, and Thiel cites a Jewish scientist named Saul Kulik, who wrote in 2018 that the Seder Olam is out of sync with modern historical records by a difference of 164 years. Thiel then quotes Rabbi Simon Schwab, who called the gap between sacred tradition and secular data an enormous discrepancy that threatens any hope of a chronology acceptable to both Orthodox Jews and secular historians. Schwab asked whether people should trust the superior wisdom of inspired teachers of the Torah and reject secular scholars outright, a question Thiel stresses concerns the opinions of rabbis rather than the Bible itself. Thiel presents this as evidence that the standard 5787 figure rests on contested ground.
A Hidden 165 Years?
Thiel reads further from Rabbi Schwab, who raised the possibility that the sages covered up a 165-year period for reasons he called nothing short of a divine command, though Schwab later backed away from calling it divine. Thiel then cites a non-Jewish source who examined Schwab's writings and concluded the shortening in the Seder Olam was deliberate, suggesting the sages changed the calendar in the second century to falsify data and keep anyone from using Daniel's prophecies to predict the Messiah's arrival. Thiel connects this to Daniel 12:4, which speaks of sealing up the book until the time of the end, and notes Schwab's own admission that restoring the missing 165 years would show the world is much closer to the end of the sixth millennium than commonly believed. Thiel calls the alternative explanation, that God himself practiced deception, absurd, and turns to Amos 2 as a biblical warning about following false traditions.
Amos's Warning and the Cost of False Tradition
Thiel reads Amos chapter 2, verse 4, where God warns that Judah will be punished for despising His law and following the lies of their fathers, lies Thiel says can also be found in modern Jewish Publication Society and Complete Jewish Bible translations of the same verse. He argues that many people rely on tradition instead of truth, and applies this directly to the Jewish rejection of Jesus as Messiah following his death and resurrection in the 30s AD, despite what Thiel says Daniel chapter 9 had pointed to. Thiel recounts how a rabbi named Akiva instead promoted a man renamed Simon bar Kokhba as the Messiah, prompting a revolt against Rome that, Thiel says, led to the deaths of roughly 600,000 Jewish soldiers and another 1.2 million Jews from famine or disease, nearly two million lives lost, in his telling, because of reliance on a false date and a false Messiah.
Counting from Genesis and the New Testament
Thiel shifts to his own calculations, starting with the genealogies in Genesis chapters 5 and 11, which, combined with Galatians 3:17 and the dating of Solomon's temple, suggest Adam could have been created around 3983 BC, though he cautions this rests on assumptions about birthdates and calendar counting that cannot be fully verified. He then turns to the New Testament, noting that Jesus began preaching between 27 and 31 AD, which he places on day four or five of a proposed six 1,000-year-day framework, and cites Peter's reference in Acts 2 and the opening of Hebrews 1 to Jesus speaking in the last days. Thiel reasons that if Jesus's death and resurrection fell near the end of day four or the start of day five, the 6,000-year count should conclude no later than 2031 or 2035, placing Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden around 3969 to 3965 BC.
Off By Two Centuries
Thiel concludes that if Adam and Eve left Eden in 3965 BC, the current year would be 5991, and if in 3969 BC, it would be 5995, either figure placing the Jewish year 5787 more than 200 years behind his estimate. He warns that nearly two million Jews died partly because of false dating tied to Simon bar Kokhba, and that people today risk a similar complacency if they believe the end of the age lies centuries away. Thiel says early followers of Jesus taught he would return at the end of the 6,000 years, and ties this to Matthew 24:14 and the approach of the Great Tribulation. He closes by urging listeners not to rely on calculations or improper Jewish traditions, but to watch the signs Jesus listed in Matthew 24 and to believe the Bible, signing off as Dr. Bob Thiel for the Bible News Prophecy program.
