question on dates

[KBKMNN]

Wasn't sure where exactly to put this, and no, this is NOT a datesetting of the Rapture question.
I was wondering, how do we or the Jewish people rather, know the dates of when historical things happened. For example, Rosh Hashana and the creation of man. I'm talking early, early stuff, before Moses. Was it recorded by Adam or by Noah or someone?
I mean no one can even verify the date of the birth of Jesus. Does God not want us to know?
I understand the dating of the Passover, as that was a Covenant thing between God and His people Israel.
But how do we know the anniversary date of the creation, or of the flood of Noah? Did they actually record that back that far?
Sorry I seem so ignorant on this subject, but I do find it fascinating.

[Hootmon]

A lot of the 'dating' can still be done because the Hebrews followed the Lunar cycle for many if not most of their events.

Dating specific years is much less obvious objectively, and has a large component of 'tradition' thrown in. Not to mention that the dates that we do have are usually 'relative'; 'the third year of emperor doofus's reign' or 'in the 40th year in the life of'...

[PickensSlim]

But the Hebrews also intentionally messed up their calendars to prove that Jesus wasn't the Annointed One.

Slim

[Thermodynamics]

This is a good question in my opinion. As a history buff I am always interested in when and where an event took place. In many cases we can make an educated guess as to when a Biblical event happened, but we can almost never pin an event down to the exact year, much less the exact day of a given year.

In general, the traditional dates that have always been accepted have been shown by modern research and discoveries to be correct. There are groups who will try to discredit these dates, but they are most often using a flawed worldview as their starting point. For example, those who do not accept prophecy will argue that Daniel must have been written after 300 BC because it describes Alexander the Great and his kingdom in such detail. However, it has always been believed that Daniel was written in the 500s BC and a lot of modern discoveries have added further weight to that position.

[lmenningen]

...those who do not accept prophecy will argue that Daniel must have been written after 300 BC because...they don't accept the possibility of predictive prophecy, thus they came up with the Alexander the Great and other arguments merely to support their disbelief.

[Thermodynamics]

they don't accept the possibility of predictive prophecy, thus they came up with the Alexander the Great and other arguments merely to support their disbelief.

Right, they reject the evidence because it does not fit with what they want to believe.