interesting fact on the age of the earth...

I'm reading for my NT textual criticism class (that's fancy lingo for the science of looking at the various Greek manuscripts of the NT and comparing, contrasting, and evaluating the variant readings in texts to ascertain the original text) and I came across this fascinating fact.

"In some manuscripts we find at the close of a colophon in which the scribe mentions the date when the work of copying was completed. The year is usually given according to the Mundane or Adamic era. This was reckoned from September 1, 5509 B.C., which was believed to be the date of the creation of the world. . . ."

In Bruce Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible, 49.

NOTE: isn't that amazing that early scribes throughout the history of the Church (and even before!) dated their mss to the creation of the world. And the creation wasn't millions and billions of years ago; it was only about 5,500 years prior to their writing!