Antediluvian

The Antediluvian (alternatively Pre-Diluvian or Pre-Flood or even Tertiary) period—meaning "before the deluge"—is the time period referred to in the Bible between the Fall of man and the Noachian Deluge (the Genesis Flood) in the biblical cosmology. The narrative takes up chapters 1-6 (excluding the flood narrative) of the Book of Genesis. The term found its way into early geology and lingered in science until the late Victorian era. Colloquially, the term is used to refer to any ancient and murky period.

Timing the Antediluvian period

The Biblical Flood

In religious texts such as the Christian Bible and the Hebrew Torah, the Antediluvian period begins with the Creation according to Genesis and ends with the destruction of all life on the earth except those saved with Noah in the ark. According to Bishop Ussher's 17th-century chronology, the Antediluvian period lasted for 1656 years, from Creation at 4004 BC to the Flood at 2348 BC. The elements of the narrative include some of the best-known stories in the Bible — the creation, Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, followed by the genealogies tracing the descendants of Cain and Seth, the third mentioned son of Adam and Eve. (These genealogies provide the framework for the biblical chronology, in the form A lived X years and begat B).