Dating Abel

His life

We know that Abel's father was Adam (Genesis 4:2), but there's no direct reference in the Bible to Adam's age when Abel was born. Abel's life was typical of the life of Jesus and so we can work out the dates of his birth from the birth of Jesus.

Firstly we can assume that like Jesus Abel was born on day 15 of month 7 on the first day of Tabernacles in the Lunar 354-day Gentile Calendar in use at the time.

To work out the year of his birth, we must assume that Abel was born at the first Jubilee, after 48 years 6 months in the current calendar.

His death

The death of Abel was also typical of the death of Jesus. So, like Jesus Abel must have lived for 33½ years and he must have been killed on the day 14 of month 1 at the date of Christ's Passover. Both their sacrifices were acceptable to God. Whereas Abel was a type of the crucified Christ, his brother Seth was a type of the resurrected Christ.

The period from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth was unreckoned by God in the Chronology of Redemption. Since we know from Genesis 5:3 that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, we can work out that this unreckoned period must be the remaining 48 years.

FIGURE: dating the life of ABEL as a type of Jesus

Abel's significance as a Type of Jesus

They both made sacrifices that were acceptable to God. By placing the birth of Abel at the first Jubilee in the Chronology of Redemption and by assuming that Abel and Jesus died at exactly the same age, we find that the Chronology of Redemption and the chronology of the life of Abel both fall into place.

Abel's name means Breath or Vapour and is associated with the shortness of his life. He was a shepherd and a possessor of flocks and herds. He feared God and thus he offered to God the best of his flock. His brother Cain on the other hand offered what he had gathered from the earth which represented his own effort and so was not accepted by the Lord. Cain became angry and killed Abel in the field (Genesis 4:1-15).

Abel's blood is placed alongside Christ's shed blood (Hebrews 12:24), which is better than Abel's because his blood cried out for vengeance, but the blood of Christ cries out for mercy.

Adam's life to read about the official date of the start of Adam's life after creation week
Jesus born to read about the date of Jesus' birth
Jubilee Years to read about the date the Jubilee year begins
The Death of Jesus to read about the date of Christ's death
Seth's life to read about the life of Abel's brother
Unreckoned period from the death of Abel to the birth of Seth
Unreckoned Periods