and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before,
Humans have existed since the very beginning of the world and have been speaking since the moment the Earth formed.
Biology
59
passages in this field
Show this passage in
The cited passage
What current science says
Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago from a molten ball of rock and metal, with surface temperatures exceeding 1,000°C and an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen — not exactly move-in ready. The first life didn't appear for about 500 million years, and it was single-celled. Complex multicellular life took another 3 billion years. Anatomically modern humans appeared roughly 300,000 years ago, and evidence of complex language may only go back 50,000-100,000 years. Humans have existed for about 0.007% of Earth's history. We arrived at the very end of the story, not the opening scene.
What the text says
This comes from Acts 3:21, which says prophets have spoken 'since the world began' — implying that humans with language have been present since the creation of the Earth itself.
Three honest ways to read this passage
-
As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
-
As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
-
As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.