Biblical literalist chronology is the attempt to correlate the historical dates used in the Bible with the chronology of actual events, typically starting with creation in Genesis 1:1.[1] Some of the better-known calculations include Archbishop James Ussher, who placed it in 4004 BC, Isaac Newton in 4000 BC (both off the Masoretic Hebrew Bible), Martin Luther in 3961 BC, the traditional Hebrew calendar date of 3760 BC, and lastly the dates based on the Septuagint, of roughly 4650 BC.[2] The dates between the Septuagint & Masoretic are conflicting by 650 years between the genealogy of Arphaxad to Nahor in Genesis 11:12-24. The Masoretic text, which lacks the 650 years of the Septuagint, is the text used by most modern Bibles. There is no consensus of which is right, however, without the additional 650 years in the Septuagint, according to Egyptologists[3] the great Pyramids of Giza would pre-date the Flood (yet show no signs of water erosion) and provide no time for Tower of Babel event.
Background
The Jewish Bible (the Christian Old Testament) dates events either by simple arithmetic taking the creation of the world as the starting point, or, in the later books, by correlations between the reigns of kings in Israel and Judah.[1] The data it provides falls into three periods:[4]
From the Creation to Abraham's migration to Canaan, during which events are dated by adding the ages of the patriarchs;
From Abraham's migration to the foundation of Solomon's temple, in which the chronology in Genesis continues to be arrived at by adding ages, but from Exodus on is usually given in statements;
From the foundation of the temple onward, which gives the reigns in years (sometimes shorter periods) of kings in Israel and Judah.
Some believe that for the biblical authors the chronology was theological in intent, functioning as prophecy and not as history.[5][6]Biblical literalism, however, does not treat it this way, because literalists have a profound respect for the Bible as the word of God.[7] This way of thinking had its origins in Christian fundamentalism, an early-20th-century movement which opposed then-current non-supernatural interpretations of the life of Jesus by stressing, among other things, the verbal inspiration of scripture.[8] The underlying concept or reasoning was that if anything in the Bible were not true, everything would collapse.[8]
Literalist chronologies
The creation of a literalist chronology of the Bible faces several hurdles, of which the following are the most significant:
There are different texts of the Jewish Bible, the major text-families being: the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the original Hebrew scriptures made in the last few centuries before Christ; the Masoretic text, a version of the Hebrew text curated by the Jewish rabbis but the earliest manuscripts of which date from the early years of the 2nd millennium CE; and the Samaritan text, restricted to the five books of the Torah plus the Book of Joshua. The three differ quite markedly from each other.[9]
Literalists prefer the Masoretic text, on which Protestant Bibles are based, but the Masoretic text sometimes contains absurdities, as when it states that Saul came to the throne at the age of one and reigned for two years. Such obvious errors can be corrected by reference to other versions of the Bible (in this case the Septuagint, which gives more realistic numbers), but their existence calls into question the fundamentalist idea that the MT text is the inspired word of God.[10] Most fundamentalists, with the notable exception of the King James Only movement, avoid this by holding that only the authors of the original autographs (the very first copies written by Moses and others) were inspired by God.[11]
Very few events in the Bible are mentioned in outside sources, making it difficult to move from a relative chronology (X happened before Y happened) to an absolute one (X happened in a known year).
The Bible is not always consistent.[12] For example, Exodus 12:40 states that the Israelites spent 430 years in Egypt, while Paul in Galatians 3:17 says the 430 years covers the period from Abraham to Moses.[13]
Literal interpretation of the earlier parts of Bible is in direct contradiction with modern science.[14]
Tables
The Bible measures events from the year of God's creation of the world, a type of calendar called Anno Mundi ("Year of the World"), shortened as AM. The task of a literal biblical chronology is to convert this to dates in the modern chronology expressed as years before or after Christ, BC and AD. There have been many attempts to do this, none of them universally accepted. The following tables (derived from Thomas L. Thompson, The Mythic Past; notes within the table as cited) divide the Bible's AM dates by the three periods into which they most naturally fall.[15]
Creation to Abraham's migration to Canaan
Abraham's entry into Canaan to the foundation of Solomon's temple
After Solomon's temple
Example of literalist chronology
The following tabulation of years and dates is according to the literal letter of the text of the Bible alone. Links to multiple translations and versions are provided for verification. For comparison, known historically dated events are associated with the resultant literal dates. Dates according to the famous Ussher chronology appear in small type italics "A.M." (Latin: "Year of the World"), "Ante C." (Latin: "Before Christ"). In ancient Israel a part year was designated as the previous king's last year and the new king's 1st year. The arithmetic can be checked by starting at the bottom of the table with the date of the destruction of the Temple in 587 and adding the number of years in the Scriptures (books of the Prophets and Chronicles through Genesis) back up to the beginning. Dates with events in italics appearing in small type for historical comparison are according to Bernard Grun's The Timetables of History. For the period after 587 BCE known historical dates are used as referents. Biblical source texts for stated numbers of years are referenced and linked. Reference sources are the RSVCE,[34] The New American Bible[35]The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun, and the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2003).
This table is not definitive. It is a column of known numbers in the Bible sequentially added together. It is not a Biblical harmony. It is not the result of any kind of research and is not here presented as research. The details and dates of events in tables derived by the method of mechanical arithmetic tabulation from the text of the Bible alone are not relied upon by scholars and historians as representing established historical facts.[note 1]SeeProoftext. Problems are briefly noted. This table is an illustrative demonstration only. It is not a recognized reliable resource for a Bible Quiz or a paper.
Adam to the Flood 4246–2590 BC
The Flood to Abram 2589–2211 BC
Abraham to Joseph 2198–1936 BC
Egypt to the Exodus 1914–1577 BCE
The Wilderness Period to the Conquest of Canaan 1576–1505 BC
The Judges to the United Monarchy 1505–1018 BCE
The Divided Monarchy to the Destruction of the Temple 982–587 BCE
The Babylonian Captivity to the Decree of Cyrus 586–539 BCE
The Second Temple to Alexander the Great 538–334 BCE
Jaddua the high priest to John Hyrcanus 333–104 BCE
Esther 11:1 – the 4th year of Ptolemy and Cleopatra as possibly 78–77 BCE
^As with the literalist reckoning of the Ussher Chronology, the dates associated with the literalist reckoning of the Seder 'Olam Rabbah (A.M.) should not be relied upon as fact. —Source: Jenkins, Everett, (The Creation: secular, Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim perspectives: The Seder Olam Chronology, p. 330)
^The King James Version of Genesis 21:14 translates ילד yeled as "child". According to Strong's Concordance of the BibleHebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of the Old Testament (Strong's number 3206) this word also means "young man".
^"lad": According to Strong's Concordance of the Bible, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of the Old Testament, number 5288. נער na'ar, a boy (as active) from the age of infancy to adolescence; by implication, a servant: – babe, boy, child, lad, servant, young (man). The same term is also applied (by interchange of gender) to a girl, a damsel, of similar latitude in age. Ishmael 17–20 years old by the reckoning in this table was also נער na'ar (Genesis 21:17–20), a "lad", a "boy", young (man), youth, when he and his mother Hagar were cast out after Isaac was weaned.
^ a bRa-amses/Rameses was the site of the new Hyksos capital (1638–1530 BCE) called Avaris before they were driven out by the Theban pharaoh Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, who then established a fortress and settlement on this site. Ahmose I's successors, down to Thutmose III, built and used a large royal compound just south of this site, which was in use until the reign of Amenhotep II. However, Pharaoh Raamses II/Ramesses II also built near this site. Source: "Pithom and Rameses", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1301.
^According to carbon-dating, Jericho (Jericho City IV) was destroyed between 1617 and 1530 BCE. The site remained uninhabited (Joshua's curse ? 6:26) until the city was refounded in the 9th century BCE. John Garstang determined that Jericho was destroyed by fire around 1400 BCE, corresponding to the biblical dating of the Israelite conquest current at that time. Kathleen Kenyon's findings disagreed with Garstang and the accepted biblical dating, and she dated the destruction and the city wall to a much earlier time, in the 1600–1500s, c. 1550. But she believed that the Exodus and the conquest under Joshua took place in the 1200s and declared that, since the city had already been long uninhabited through the entire 13th century, it was impossible that Jericho had been destroyed by Joshua according to the biblical account. "While critical scholars underline the conflict between archaeological data and the biblical conquest narrative, in reality there is no conflict here."—Karen Joines and Eric Mitchell. —Source: "Jericho", Karen Joines and Eric Mitchell, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 885–88. Israeli-Canadian journalist Simcha Jacobovici (The Exodus Decoded, 2006) pointed out that if researchers of the future insisted that the American Civil War took place at the time of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1960s at the time of the Vietnam War, and then looked for evidence supporting occurrence of the Civil War at that time, they would find none, and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln would be regarded as only legendary. If chronological dating provided by a more literal reading of the Tanakh were taken seriously, then concrete archaeological evidence for the historical accuracy of the biblical text would become more evident: "It's staring them in the face, and they don't recognize it."
^The account of Moses' death in the Book of Deuteronomy, among other texts in the Torah, suggests that Moses did not write the whole of what is contained in the Five Books of Moses. —Source: "Deuteronomy, book of", Daniel I. Block, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 415–19 [417a].
^"1498. The Exodus." See The Exodus Decoded: Simcha Jacobovici's arguments. Simcha Jacobovici coincidentally argues for a similar literalist date of c. 1500 BCE without directly adverting to the arithmetically derived textually based chronological date used in this table. His use of extra-biblical archæologically dated evidence in support of his arguments for a 16th/15th century date for the Exodus has been criticised and rejected by a majority of mainstream researchers (critical sources cited in article The Exodus Decoded#References).
^Harmonizing the 300 years of Judges 11:4–28 back to the time of Israel in the wilderness, and the 450 years of Acts 11:19–20 as the period of time between Joshua and King Saul, is an apparent inconsistency which is resolved simply by proposing the speculative possibility that one or both of these numbers is/are figures of speech used by the speakers, and/or that many of the saving actions of the "governors" שופטים shoftim ("judges") in Israel could have occurred simultaneously or overlapped in time. This is not explicitly stated in the Book of Judges, which "plainly" relates their exploits solely as a sequential series of events, so that taking the texts literally, without recourse to the method of grammatico-historical exegesis, confronts uninstructed readers of the Bible with what appears to them to be an impossible inconsistency which can be unsettling. SeeChronology of the Bible.
^Pharaoh Merneptah (1224–1214 BCE) mounted a campaign against Canaan in the 5th year of his reign (about 1220). In his record of that campaign, he records that, among others, Israel was utterly destroyed, evidence that the people of Israel were already a recognized group in Canaan. —Source: "Chronology of the Biblical Period", Joel F. Drinkard, Jr. and E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 293b.
^ a b c1183 BCE – from 1092 BCE back to 1183 BCE, 2 generations plus 10 years. Counting back literally 2 generations, mechanically allotting the traditional 40 years each (total 80), from the birth of David reckoned as 1092 BCE, literal count, plus 10 years according to Ruth 1:1 (total 90 years) = 1182 BCE (1092 + 90), a time of famine during the historically documented Bronze Age collapse 1206–1150 BCE. Such a literalist calculation is pure speculation and has no recognized historical value. The Ussher chronology places the famine in 1298 BCE. The Book of Ruth is not dated by reference to a ruler or specific event, other than a famine. The totalled numbers of the years of the 2 generations (80 years) cannot be drawn from the letter of the text of the Bible; the Bible does not give the ages and years of the 2 generations, only the genealogy of Boaz, father of Obed (1st generation), the father of Jesse (2nd generation), the father of David. Many dismiss the genealogy in 4:18–22 as irrelevant. —Source: "Ruth, book of", Daniel I. Block, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1422–24.
^ a b c d e fThe text of the manuscript, translation or version of the Bible being consulted will affect the calculation and tabulation of the years in a literalist chronology based on the Old Testament texts/translations of 1 Samuel 13:1. Saul's age when he began to reign and the number of years he reigned according to published texts vary and remain uncertain (the variant Bible versions in English are here abbreviated): Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 42 years (1105–1063/2). NIV, NLT, NASB, HCSB, ISV, NIRV Saul was [30] years old when he began to reign, and he reigned [42] years (1105 ? – 1063/2). GOD'S WORD Saul was [30] years old when he began to reign, and he reigned [40] years (1103 ? – 1063/2). NET Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned (?) years (unknown). Hexaplar Saul was 40 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 32 years (1095–1063/2). NLV Saul was 40 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned (?) years (unknown). ASV, WEB, Amplified (est.) Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 2 years (1065–1063/2). ERV Saul was (?) years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 2 years (1065–1063/2). CEV, Darby, Complete Jewish Bible (chabad.org), with Rashi commentary (chabad.org), Latin Vulgate, Luther Bibel 1545, MT (Masoretic) and JPS (1917) Jewish Hebrew-English, NRSV (Oremus) Saul was a son/child of one (1) year in his reigning/when he became king/began to reign, and he reigned 2 years over Israel. DR, Jubilee Bible 2000, Wycliffe Bible, YLT
^ a b c dCompare 1 Samuel 14:18 in multiple English translations together. Bible versions based on the Masoretic Text state that "the ark" was with Saul and the people as they went into battle. Bible versions based on the Septuagint state that "the ephod" was with Saul and the people as they went into battle – this reading is supported by the statement in the text (v. 19) that Saul told the high priest Ahijah "withdraw your hand" (from within the ephod). The possibility that after the death of Eli the ark was brought out of the house of Abinadab by Saul to go before the people in battle is only a speculation when the text of 1 Samuel 7:2 plainly states that the ark remained in the house of Abinadab in Kiriath-jearim for 20 years, "a long time", after the death of Eli. The possibility that Saul was king for 30, 28, 20 years (literal reckoning) as commander of 3,000 men of Israel (1 Samuel 13:2 and 14:52) before and during the battle with the Philistines when the ark was captured appears unlikely, when 1 Samuel 4–8 does not mention Saul and only long afterward in chapter 8 do the elders of the people say to Samuel, "Give us a king."
^See Acts 13:21 multiple text comparison and commentaries (biblehub.com).
^ a bActs 13:21. "...God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years." Saul was anointed king of Israel by the prophet Samuel long after the high priest Eli died (1 Samuel 4:10–8:10) "when Samuel became old" and Samuel was judge over Israel (1 Samuel 7:15–16). The subsequent 7 months after Eli died, and the 20-year period during which the ark of the covenant remained in the house of Abinadab after the death of Eli, until David removed it to Jerusalem, does not allow a literal 40-year reign after Eli died, plus a literal 7 years 6 months for David's reign over the house of Judah before he was crowned king over all Israel and Judah, after which he brought the ark up to Jerusalem: a total of at least 48 years 1 month. Taking literally the numerical data of 40 years at face value as presented by the letter of the text of Acts 13:21, together with the 20 years of 1 Samuel 7:2, plus the 7 years 6 months of 2 Samuel 5:4–5 after Saul died and before David brought the ark up to Jerusalem, Saul would thus have been king 28 years before the death of Eli when the Philistines captured the ark, returned it to Israel after 7 months, and it was placed in the house of Abinadab for 20 years: therefore (strictly according to a reading of the letter of the text) long after the death of Eli, when Samuel was old, Saul was anointed king and reigned 28 years before Eli died. This apparent paradox is resolved by literalist researchers using the literal letter of the text (letterism) as a beginning, and applying the historical-grammatical method of exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation, to uncover what they believe to be the real sensus litteralis historicus, the true "literal sense" of the text – the actual meaning intended by the biblical author. See below Historical-grammatical method in Biblical literalist chronology See above Apparent textual inconsistencies See alsoFigure of speech and Hyperbole —Sources: Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) n. 116 Martin Anstey, Romance of Bible Chronology Edwin Thiele, Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings
^ a bSeveral literalist Bible translators present Saul as being one year old when he became king (1 Samuel 13:1): "Saul was a child of one year when he began to reign..." Douay–Rheims Bible "Saul was a son of one year when he became king..." Jubilee Bible 2000 "Saul was a son of one year..." Wycliffe Bible "A son of a year [is] Saul in his reigning..." Young's Literal Translation See 1 Samuel 13:1 – multiple translations. Some versions state in footnotes that the "Hebrew text is defective", and "The number is lacking in Heb." Some Bible footnotes and commentaries offer additional speculative interpretations of the meaning of "one year" according to what their authors as researchers see as the actual "literal sense" according to the rules of sound exegesis (for example, Douay–Rheims Bible, Young's Literal Translation).
^Micah is an abbreviated form of Micaiah. Micah was prophet during reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah (758–697). The interval of years from last year of Jehoshaphat through 1st year of Hezekiah 895 through 726, 170 years inclusive, makes it unlikely that Micaiah and Micah are the same. Compare 1 Kings 22:28 "Hear, all you peoples!" and Micah 1:2 "Hear, you peoples, all of you!". —Source: "Micah", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1117, "Micaiah", p. 1119.
^ a bMany scholars divide the Book of Isaiah among 2 or more authors, but other scholars hold a single authorship. —Source: "Isaiah, book of", Harold Mosley and Steve Bond, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 837b–41b.
^ a bIn the 1899 edition of the Douay–Rheims Bible, prefatory notes correlate the period of the Book of Judith with the reign of Manasseh and state that the writer of this book was "generally believed to be the high priest Eliachim (also called Joachim)".
^Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of the Old Testament, 6950. קהל qahal, to convoke, assemble, gather. Qahal is the root of the word Qoheleth (Greek Ecclesiastes), translated "preacher", one who assembles or gathers the people.
^The Bible shows Josiah greater and wiser than Solomon, which is not the popular tradition. 2 Kings 23:25 and Sirach 49:1–5. Josiah's wisdom did not depart from him as it departed from Solomon in his old age. 1 Kings 11:4, 6, 11, 33; Ecclesiastes 2:9. Both Qoheleth (Hebrew) and Ecclesiastes (Greek) denote one who presides over an assembly, that is, a preacher or teacher (cf. 2 Kings 23:1–3 and 2 Chronicles 34:29–32). Traditionally, Solomon has been identified as the author of Ecclesiastes/Qoheleth, "but in modern times many, including a large number of conservative scholars" assign the book to an author and a period later than Solomon. The Bible does not state that Solomon ever read the Book of the Law, the Law of Moses, or the Torah, to the assembly of Israel. cf. 1 Kings 8 and 10:24, and 2 Chronicles 5:2–7:10 and 9:22–23 —Sources: "Josiah", M. Stephen Davis, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 954–56. "Ecclesiastes, book of", Stephen R. Miller, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 452b–55a.
^Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary of the Old Testament, 1892. הבל hebel, heh'-bel; or (rarely in the abstract) הבל hab-ale'; from 1891; emptiness or vanity; figuratively something transitory and unsatisfactory; often used as an adverb: – (in KJV from an idiom peculiar to the Hebrew) altogether, vain, vanity.
^Judith 4:1–3 (DR) citation is placed here according to a literal reading of the text which uncritically takes "Nabuchodonosor" as one of the forms of the name of Nebuchadnezzar II (as noted in the Douay–Rheims preface to Judith, and as used in Baruch 1:11–12 Douay–Rheims), also called Nebuchadrezzar in the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel; just as Tiglath-pileser is also called Tiglath-pilneser and Pul, and Azariah king of Judah is also called Uzziah, and Jehozadak the high priest is called Jozedech and Jozadak in 1 Chronicles (6:14–15), Ezra and Nehemiah. —Source: articles "Jehozadak", "Tiglath-Pileser", "Uzziah", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 879, 1595, 1644.
^The prophetic author of Obadiah in verses 10–14 refers to the past. The book itself belongs to the early postexilic period. —Source: "Obadiah 10.", "Obadiah, book of", Leslie C. Allen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1204b–05.
^There has been some debate as to when the second siege of Jerusalem took place. Though there is no dispute that Jerusalem fell the second time in the summer month of Tammuz (Jeremiah 52:6), William F. Albright dates the end of Zedekiah's reign (and the fall of Jerusalem) to 587 BCE, whereas Edwin R. Thiele offers 586 BCE, and Bernard Grun proposes 581 BCE (The Timetables of History). • Thiele, Edwin, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, (1st ed.; New York: Macmillan, 1951; 2nd ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965; 3rd ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983). ISBN 082543825X, 9780825438257. • Hughes, Jeremy, Secrets of the Times (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990) 229. • McFall, Leslie, "A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles", Bibliotheca Sacra 148 (1991) 45. • Strand, Kenneth, "Thiele's Biblical Chronology as a Corrective for Extrabiblical Dates", Andrews University Seminary Studies 34 (1996) 310, 317. • Finegan, Jack, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (rev. ed.; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998) 257–259. • Young, Rodger C., "When Did Jerusalem Fall?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47 (2004) 21–38.
^ a bDaniel 11:3–44. When read literally these verses plainly describe the dynastic histories of the Ptolemies in Egypt (the king of the south) and the Seleucids in Syria (the king of the north), the two divisions of the Hellenistic empire that were of interest to the author (verse 6). In verses 10–20 is described the struggle between the two kingdoms for control of Palestine, in which the Seleucids were eventually victorious. The reference in verse 20 is to Seleucus IV, who sent Heliodorus to plunder the temple treasure in Jerusalem (2 Maccabees 3). Finally, verses 21–45 describe the career of Antiochus IV and his persecution. —Source: New American Bible, Daniel 11:5–45 "The Hellenistic Age", footnotes. —Rulers and battles are listed individually by name with dates.
^Daniel's prophesy of the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes "among the mountains in a strange land" (2 Maccabees 9:28; Daniel 11:44–45) is controverted. Daniel 11:45 does not specify which "sea". Some students of the Bible [source: "Daniel", S. Miller, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary] identify Antiochus literally with Daniel 11:21–44, which accords with the description of his policies and actions in 1 and 2 Maccabees. 1 Maccabees 6:1–16 and 2 Maccabees 9:1–16, 28 shows that Antiochus died travelling on the great east-west highway running through Persia, northeast of Judea and Mount Zion and southwest of the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, in the mountainous Zagros region of Persia between Ecbatana and Babylon. It is evident that he did not die in Palestine between Mount Zion and the Mediterranean Sea. Traditionally, "the sea" and "the great sea" in the Bible is the Mediterranean (Joshua 1:4; 9:1; 15:12 and 15:47; 23:4;Isaiah 11:11; Jeremiah 25:19–22; Ezekiel 47:19;Daniel 7:2–3; compare Joel 2:20 "eastern sea" and "western sea", and Micah 7:12 "from sea to sea"). This is the understanding of a majority of Old Testament Biblical scholars such as C. L. Seow [Daniel, 2003, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, ISBN 9780664256753], and John J. Collins, Peter W. Flint, and others [The Book of Daniel: Volume 1 Composition and Reception, 2000, Brill, ISBN 9789004116757] Archived 2018-02-01 at the Wayback Machine who hold that Daniel 11:45 refers to the mountains of Judea between Mount Zion and the Mediterranean Sea, or more specifically to Mount Zion, and conclude that the prophesy that Antiochus would die in Palestine "is totally inaccurate" since he died in Persia. Bible translations of this passage differ: some have Antiochus pitching his pavilion "between the seas", others have it "on the glorious holy mountain", while others more literally have it "between the glorious holy mountain and the sea" (see variant translations at Daniel 11:44–45). The conclusion of most Old Testament scholars is that the account in Daniel 11 is completely accurate through verse 44, but wrong in verse 45, and therefore it must have been completed near the end of the reign of Antiochus but before his death in December 164, or at least before news of it reached Jerusalem. But this scholarly reading of "the sea" as the Mediterranean, and those translations having Antiochus' pavilion "on/in the glorious holy mountain (Zion)" in Palestine, are simply dismissed as wrong by a literalist plain reading of the Biblical text (context) as it relates to the death of Antiochus among the mountains of Persia "in a strange land" between the Caspian Sea and Mount Zion. —Sources: "Mediterranean Sea", Philip Lee, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1097–98. "Daniel, book of", Stephen R. Miller, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 386–88. "Antiochus", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 76–77. New American Bible, Daniel 11:5–45 and footnote; 1 Maccabees 6:1 and footnote; 2 Maccabees 9:1–28 and footnote.
^The Book of Judith is an oblique parabolic tale of the Maccabean triumph over the hostile forces of the enemies of God: Judith beheaded Holofernes and Judas Maccabeus beheaded Nicanor. See Judith 14:11:
"As soon as it was dawn they hung the head of Holofernes on the wall..." (RSVCE)
See 2 Maccabees 15:35–37:
"...he hung Nicanor's head from the citadel, a clear and conspicuous sign to every one of the help of the Lord.... And from that time the city has been in the possession of the Hebrews." (RSVCE)
See Judith 16:25:
"And no one ever again spread terror among the people of Israel in the days of Judith, or for a long time after her death."
^Aristobulus II (son of Alexander Jannaeus [ruled 103–76 BCE] son of John Hyrcanus). It is unlikely that the earlier Aristobulus I is indicated, who imprisoned his mother, killed his brother, and ruled less than one year 104–103 BCE as ethnarch and high priest. Ant. 13:11:1–3 (§§ 301–317).
^Mahlon H. Smith states that Antiochus X Eusebes died fighting the Parthian Empire (which included Persian territory). See Antiochus X Eusebes: Mahlon H. Smith.
^Some scholars (The New American Bible for example) believe that the Antiochus referred to in this text of 2 Macc. 1:14 was Antiochus IV Epiphanes: "1, 14–17: A different account of the death of Antiochus IV is given in 2 Mc 9, 1–29 and another variant account in 1 Mc 6, 1–16. The writer of this letter [2 Macc. 1:10–2:18 one copy to Aristobulus in Jerusalem, one copy to the Jews in Egypt] probably heard a distorted rumor of the king's death. This fact and other indications show that the letter was written very soon after Antiochus IV died, hence in 164 BCE. —New American Bible, 2 Maccabees 1:14–17, footnote. As with the text of Daniel 11:45, a literalist interpretation of 2 Maccabees rejects the scholarly view of a "distorted rumor" in favor of an "inerrant" reading that takes the narrative as an accurate report, and therefore as not referring to the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, but to the actual death of another Antiochus who was slain by Parthians in the (Syrian) region of Persia/the Parthian Empire in the temple of Nanaya. The extra-biblical evidence cited by Mahlon H. Smith and others regarding the circumstances of the death of Antiochus X tends to support this literalist view, but this is currently a minority opinion.
References
Citations
^ a bBarr 2001, p. 96.
^The Septuagint Hebrew Bible contains an additional 650 years then the Masoretic of Genesis 11:12-24.
^Pyramids were built in 2550 B.C. according to National Geographic which would pre-date the Flood in 2350 B.C. according to creationist based on dates given in the Masoretic text.
^Barr 2001, pp. 96–97.
^Christensen 1990, p. 148.
^Thompson 2007, pp. 73–74.
^Olson 2011, p. 22.
^ a bWood 2005, p. 28.
^Northcote 2004, p. 1.
^Vriezen & van der Woude 2005, p. 98.
^Whelan 2012, p. unpaginated.
^Greenspahn 2016, p. 380.
^ a b cBarr 2001, p. 97.
^Israel's Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective. Springer. 28 March 2015. p. 5. ISBN 978-3-319-04768-3.
^Saint Joseph Edition of The New American Bible. Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York. 1987 [1980, 1970 by the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C].
^Clayton, Peter A., Chronicle of the Pharaohs, p. 42. Thames and Hudson, London, 2006. ISBN 9780500286289.
^Malek, Jaromir, "The Old Kingdom" in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, ed. Ian Shaw, Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 9780192804587, p. 88.
^Dates of Sargon according to Sumerian King List. Kramer, S. Noah, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character, Chicago, 1963.
^ a b c"Hammurabi", Gary D. Baldwin and E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 708–10.
^"Egypt", Daniel C. Browning, Jr. and Kirk Kilpatrick, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 463b–69.
^ a b c d e f gRyholt, Kim S. B., The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800–1550 BCE, (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications) vol 20, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997. p. 192.
^Ryholt, K. "The Date of Kings Sheshi and Ya'qub-Har and the Rise of the Fourteenth Dynasty", The Second Intermediate Period: Current Research, Future Prospects, edited by M. Maree, Orientalis Lovaniensis Analecta 192, Leuven, Peeters, 2010, pp. 109–26.
^ a b cThomas Schneider: Ancient Egyptian Chronology – Edited by Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton. Brill 2006. available online, scroll down to pp. 195–96 and footnote 135 for Schneider date 1658 BCE. "Providing any exact figure for the total duration of the period of Dyn. 13–17 is impossible." (p. 195)
^Shaw, Ian, ed. (2000) The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. p. 148. ISBN 0198150342.
^"one year old" – See The Pulpit Commentary: 1 Samuel 13.
^Hebrew text: RSVCE 2 Samuel 15:7 "And at the end of four years... – footnote: "Gk Syr: Heb. forty".
^"forty years": according to the New American Standard Bible (NASB), King James Version (KJV), King James Version 2000 (KJV 2000/Jubilee 2000), American King James Version (AKJV), Douay–Rheims Bible (DR), Darby's Translation (DARBY), English Revised Version (ERV), Webster's Translation (WT), World English Bible (WEB), Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
^ a b"Hosea", Billy K. Smith, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 784–85.
^ a b"Nineve or Nineveh", Edwin Yamauchi, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1192.
^ a b"Amos", Ray L. Honeycutt, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1192.
^"Tiglath-Pileser", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1595.
^"Micah", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1117.
^ a b"Joel, book of", Alvin O. Collins, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 929–30.
^"Merodach-Baladan", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1108.
^"Assyria", Daniel C. Browning, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 136.
^"Esarhaddon", M. Stephen Davis, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 502.
^"Nahum, book of", Scott Langston, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1170.
^ a b c d"Zephaniah 2.", "Zephaniah, book of", Paul L. Redditt and E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1706–07.
^ a b c"Ezekiel", Daniel I. Block, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 536–37.
^"Habakkuk", "Habakkuk, book of", John H. Tullock, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 696–594.[page needed]
^"Nabopolassar", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1167.
^"Necho", "Nechoh", "Neco", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1181.
^"Hophra", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 781.
^"Lamentations, book of", David K. Stabnow, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1008.
^"Johanan 1.", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 931.
^ a b"Babylon", Daniel C. Browning, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 155–60.
^"Evil-merodach, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 521.
^ a b"Cyrus", Mike Mitchell, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 377b–78.
^"Darius 1. Darius the Mede", T. J. Betts, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 389–90.
^"Haggai, book of", E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 701.
^"Sheshbazzar", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1485. "Zerubbabel", Paul L. Redditt, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1708–09.
^"Darius 2. Darius I", T. J. Betts, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 389–90. "Persia", Albert F. Bean, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1279–80.
^"Haggai", "Haggai, book of", E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 701–03.
^"Zechariah 18." "Zechariah, book of", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1701–02.
^"Obadiah", Leslie C. Allen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 1205.
^"Nabateans", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1166–67.
^"Ahasuerus", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 37. See also "Persia" pp. 1279–80, and "Xerxes" p. 1694.
^"Malachi, book of", E. Ray Clendenen, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 1070–71.
^"Jeshua 3.", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 898–99 "Joiakim", p. 940, "Eliashib 3." p. 477, "Joiada 2." p. 940b, "Jonathan 11. 12." p. 944
^New American Bible, Book of Job, prefatory notes.
^ a b"Alexander the Great", Lynn Jones, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 45.
^ a bSeeBook of Daniel: Symbolic imagery and historical chronology. See also "Daniel, book of," Stephen R. Miller, Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, pp. 386–88, "Outline", p. 388b. See also New American Bible, Daniel 7:1–27, footnote, 8:1–27, footnote, 11:2–4, footnote.
^"Jaddua", Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, p. 864b.
^New American Bible, 1 Maccabees 12:7, footnote.
^New American Bible, Daniel 11:6, footnote.
^New American Bible, Sirach 50:1, footnote; 1 Maccabees 12:7, footnote. "son of Jochanan", Onias I, high priest from 323 to 300 or 290 BCE.
^New American Bible, 2 Maccabees 3:1–3, footnotes. Onias III high priest, 196–175 BCE; Seleucus IV Philopator, reigned 187–175 BCE.
^Douay–Rheims Bible 1899 American edition, Esther 11:1, footnote
^New American Bible, 2 Maccabees 3–4, footnotes. The gymnasium where the youth exercised naked lay in the Tyropoeon Valley to the east of the citadel, directly next to the temple on its eastern side.
^New American Bible, 2 Maccabees 5:1, footnote. "168 BCE"
^New American Bible, 1 Maccabees 1:54, footnote.
^Psalms 48:1–2; 50:2
^New American Bible, 1 Maccabees 10:21, footnote.
^New American Bible, The Book of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Foreword, according to footnote 2: "Thirty-eighth...Euergetes: 132 BCE. The reference is to Ptolemy VII," [sic] "Physkon II Euergetes II (170–163; 145, 117 BCE)"
^New American Bible, 1 Maccabees 16:23–24, footnote.
^Saint Joseph Edition of The New American Bible, copyright 1987, 1980, 1970 by Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, The Book of Wisdom, prefatory notes, p. 750.
^Saint Joseph Edition of The New American Bible, copyright 1987, 1980, 1970 by Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, The Book of Judith, prefatory notes, p. 485.
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