Bible Dictionaries
Chronology of the Biblical Period

Holman Bible Dictionary

When speaking of chronology, one must differentiate between relative and absolute chronology. Absolute chronology is tied to fixed dates—events which are known to have occurred on a specific date (i.e. John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22,1963). Relative chronology places events in their chronological order but without a fixed date (i.e., Jesus was baptized, then tempted, then began His public ministry). Most of the biblical events are dated relatively rather than absolutely. For this reason many chronological charts have differences in specific dates B.C. or A.D., but generally agree on the relative order of most events.

The Old Testament Period The Patriarchal period is usually dated in the Middle Bronze Age between about 1800,1600 B.C. Recent finds at Ebla have indicated a high degree of civilization in Syria-Palestine at least 500 years earlier. It is generally assumed that the Hebrews migrated to Egypt during the Hyksos period about (1700 to 1500 B.C.) when Semitic people ruled Egypt. The Exodus is usually associated with the reign of Ramsees II shortly after 1290 B.C. Following the wilderness-wandering period of forty years, the conquest of Canaan began about 1250 B.C. Pharaoh Merneptah (1224-1214 B.C.) mounted a campaign against Canaan in the fifth year of his reign (about 1220). In his record of that campaign, he records that, among others, Israel was utterly destroyed. Thus by that date, the people Israel were a recognized group in Canaan.

The period of the Judges lasted from shortly after the conquest until ca. 1025 B.C., when Saul was made king. The length of his reign is uncertain, 1 Samuel 13:1 reads, “Son of a year was Saul in his ruling, and two years he ruled over Israel.” Acts 13:21 says he ruled 40 years. Compare several translations. It is often put at about 20 years. The forty-year reigns of David and Solomon would then have lasted to about 924 B.C. One major event during the reign of Solomon was the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, beginning in the fourth year in his reign ( 1 Kings 6:1 ) and completed in the eleventh year of his reign (1 Kings 6:38 ). The divided monarchy of Israel and Judah began with the ascension of Rehoboam following Solomon's death, and lasted until the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C. The destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. ended Judah's existence as a monarchy. This period of the monarchy is also the period of the pre-exilic prophets (such as Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah). 1,2Kings gives many synchronisms between the kings of Judah and Israel, following this pattern; “In the _____ year of _____, son of _____, king of Judah, _____ began to reign over Israel in Samaria.” (See 1 Kings 22:51; 2 Kings 3:1 .) Even with these synchronisms, some difficulty remains in establishing dates and precise parallels because the kings of Judah, and Israel figured their reigns differently during a portion of this time. The kings of Judah figured their reign from their first full year as king. A part of a year would be designated as the former king's last year of rule. In Israel, a part year was designated as the previous king's last year and the new king's first year. Therefore, the length of reign for a king of Israel was counted as one year longer than a similar reign for a king of Judah.

The last days of the kingdom of Judah involve the kings of Babylon, thus giving an outside source to date Judah's history. These external synchronisms can be used to fix the date of the fall of Jerusalem at ca. 586 B.C.

The period of Exile began with the capture of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, and the second deportation of leading citizens in 586 B.C. (An earlier deportation in 597 B.C. had taken King Jehoiachin and his family and many top officials to Babylon.) Ezekiel is a leading prophet among the exiles during this time. Exile ended in 538 B.C. after the capture of Babylon by the Persians under Cyrus in 539 B.C. and Cyrus' edict permitting displaced persons to return to their homelands. The rebuilding of the Temple is dated between 520,515 B.C. according to dates from Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1; and Ezra 4:24 , Ezra 6:15 .

Much more difficult is the date of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra returned from Exile in the seventh year of Artaxerxes (Ezra 7:1 ,Ezra 7:1,7:6-7 ). Nehemiah returned to Judah in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 1:1 ). What is difficult is whether these two came during the reign of Artaxerxes I (464-423 B.C.) or Artaxerxes II (404-358 B.C.), or even if both returned during the reign of the same king.

SIGNIFICANT DATES IN OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE HISTORY

Periods of History	Critical	Traditional
Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)	1700-1500	2000
Exodus	1290	1450
Conquest	1250	1400
Judges	1200-1025	1360-1025
Kings
Kings of United Israel	Critical	Traditional
Saul	1025-1005	1020-1004
David	1005-965	1004-965
Solomon	965-925	965-931

Kings of the Divided Kingdom

Judah	Israel	Critical	Traditional
Rehoboam		924-907	931-913
	Jeroboam	924-903	926-909
Abijam (Abijah)		907-906	913-910
Asa		905-874	910-869
	Nadab	903-902	909-908
	Baasha	902-886	908-886
	Elah	886-885	886-885
	Zimri	885	885
	(Tibni, 1 Kings 16:21 )	885-881	885-880
	Omri	885-873	885-874
Jehoshaphat		874-850	873-848
	Ahab	873-851	874-853
	Ahaziah	851-849	853-852
Jehoram (Joram)		850-843	853-841
	Jehoram	849-843	852-841
Ahaziah		843	841
Athaliah		843-837	841-835
	Jehu	843-816	841-814
Joash (Jehoash)		837-796	835-796
	Jehoahaz	816-800	814-798
Amaziah		798-767	796-767
	Joash (Jehoash)	800-785	798-782
Uzziah (Azariah)		791-740	792-740
	Jeroboam II	785-745	793-753
Jotham		750-742	750-732
	Zechariah	745	753-752
	Shallum	745	752
	Menahem	745-736	752-742
Jehoahaz I (Ahaz)		742-727	735-715
	Pekahiah	736-735	742-740
	Pekah	735-732	752-732
	Hoshea	732-723	732-723
Hezekiah		727-698	715-686
	Fall of Samaria	722	723/722
Manasseh		697-642	696-642
Amon		642-640	642-640
Josiah		639-606	640-609
Jehoahaz II		609	609
Jehoiakim		608-598	609-597
Jehoiachin		598-597	597
Zedekiah		597-586	597-586
Fall of Jerusalem		586	586

BABYLONIAN EXILE AND RESTORATION UNDER PERSIAN RULE

Jehoiachin and leaders exiled to Babylon including Ezekiel	597
Jerusalem destroyed, remaining leaders exiled to Babylon	586
Gedaliah set over Judea	58
Gedaliah assassinated	581 (?)
Jeremiah taken with other Judeans to Egypt	581 (?)
Judeans deported to Babylon	581
Cyrus, king of Persia	559-530
Babylon captured	539
Edict allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel	538
Temple restoration begun but quickly halted	538
Cambysses, king of Persia	530-522
Darius, king of Persia	522-486
Haggai and Zechariah lead rebuilding of Temple	520-515
Temple completed and rededicated	515
Xerxes, king of Persia	486-465
Artaxerxes I, king of Persia	465-424
Ezra returns to Jerusalem and teaches the law	458
Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem and rebuilds the walls	445

NOTE: Overlapping dates of kings such as between Uzziah and Jotham result from coregencies, that is, a father installing his son as king during the father's lifetime and allowing the son to exercise royal power. Critical dates are adapted from a system proposed by J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes. Traditional dates are adapted from a system proposed by E. R. Thiele.

The Intertestamental Period During the Intertestamental Period, Palestine was first under the control of the Persians. Persian rule ended with the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great in 333-332 B.C. After the death of Alexander, Palestine fell first under Ptolemaic rule (323-198 B.C.) and then under Seleucid rule (198-164 B.C.). During the period of Ptolemaic rule the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) was made in Egypt. Seleucid rule brought a strong move to bring Hellenistic culture to Palestine, ending with the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem and the persecution of Jews by Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) in 167 B.C. The following Jewish revolt led by Judas Maccabeus resulted in the defeat of the Seleucids and the Second Jewish Commonwealth (164 B.C.-63 B.C.). The Temple was reconsecrated in 164 B.C. These events are recorded in the Apocrypha in 1 Maccabees 1-4 . The successors to the Maccabees are usually called the Hasmonean rulers. Hasmonean ruled ended in 63 B.C. when Pompey occupied Jerusalem and Judea was again under foreign domination.

The New Testament Period One might expect that the chronology of the New Testament would be much more certain than that of the Old Testament. In some respects that is the case, but not entirely so. Granted we have Greek and Roman histories and annals, but most of the biblical events still cannot be placed precisely in an absolute chronology. The complicating factors are at least twofold. In the first place, the events of the New Testament were not reported by the Greek and Roman historians, nor were many precise events from Greek and Roman history included in the New Testament. Secondly, the Romans and Jews used different calendars. The Romans had a solar calendar with the year beginning in January, but reckoned most events from the accession date of the emperor. Thus they had internal differences in their own calendar. The Jewish calendar only confused the matter more. Basically, the Jews used a lunar calendar of 354 days. Periodically, they added an additional month to keep their calendar in line with the seasons. Because of several calendar changes, the Jews in their history had two New Year's days, one in the fall and the other in the spring. The spring New Year marked the beginning of the cultic calendar and the beginning of the next year's reign of the Jewish king. The fall New Year marked the beginning of the civil year. The reign of foreign rulers was noted from this fall New Year. With such differences, it is no wonder that absolute chronology for New Testament events is very difficult.

The Life and Ministry of Jesus The births of both Jesus (Matthew 2:1 ) and John the Baptist (Luke 1:5 ) are set in the reign of Herod the Great. From Josephus we learn that Herod died in the thirty-seventh year after the Roman Senate decree naming him king (40 B.C.). This would place his death in 4 B.C. The further evidence Luke gives of a census while Cyrenius was governor of Syria presents some difficulty (Luke 2:2 ). Cyrenius conducted a census while serving as governor in 6-7 A.D., but there is no corroborating historical reference to a census during Herod's reign, nor to Cyrenius serving as governor at that time. This simply means that we cannot verify Luke's statement from presently available evidence. Luke may have referred to the census of 6-7 A.D. in Acts 5:37 . With Herod's death placed in 4 B.C., Jesus' birth should probably be dated about 7 or 6 B.C.

The beginning of John the Baptist's ministry is set in the fifteenth year of Tiberius (Luke 3:1-2 ). This would be A.D. 28 or 29, if Tiberius' reign is set following the death of Augustus. If, however, the years of Tiberius' co-rule with Augustus are included, his fifteenth year would be A.D. 26 or 27. This latter date would fit better with Luke's statement that Jesus was about thirty when He began His ministry (Luke 3:23 ). Jesus' ministry would thus have began about A.D. 27 or 28. The length of Jesus' ministry is also much debated. None of the four Gospels gives enough details to determine the precise length of the ministry. Lengths of one, two, and three years are most often proposed. John's Gospel mentions three Passover feasts (John 2:13; John 6:4; John 11:55 ). If these are distinct Passovers, then they would seem to indicate at least a ministry extending slightly more than two years.

Even the information concerning the date of Jesus' crucifixion is uncertain. All the Gospel accounts agree that Jesus died on Friday of Passover week. The Synoptics indicate that the Last Supper was a Passover meal (Matthew 26:17-20; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7-8 ). Passover was eaten on the evening of Nisan 15. John, on the other hand, indicates that Passover was eaten after Jesus was crucified (Luke 18:28; Luke 19:14 ). Then by John's account, Jesus was crucified on Nisan 14. Nisan 14,15 fell on a Friday four times within this time frame: A.D. 27,29, 30, and 33. The most likely date for the crucifixion is Nisan 14 or 15, A.D. 30.

The Apostles Dating the events and activities of the apostles is as vexing as dating the events of Jesus' life. There are very few fixed dates. The death of Herod Agrippa I, mentioned in Acts 12:23 , occurred in A.D. 44 according to Josephus. Likewise, the edict of Claudius expelling Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2 ), is usually dated to A.D. 49, and Gallio's term as deputy (Acts 18:12 ) belongs to A.D. 51-52.

Other events in Acts must be dated relatively, and problems remain. In particular, there is great difficulty in matching the chronology of Acts with the information in the Pauline epistles. However, in general, we can sketch with approximate dates the ministry of Paul as follows:

Conversion A.D. 33
First visit to Jerusalem, A.D. 36
Second visit to Jerusalem, during famine, A.D. 46
First missionary journey, A.D. 47-48
Conference in Jerusalem, A.D. 49
Second and third missionary journeys, A.D. 50-56
Final visit to Jerusalem, A.D. 57
Reaches Rome, A.D. 60

The datable events in the New Testament all occurred before the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70.

Joel F. Drinkard, Jr.