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Bible Dictionaries
Concise Chronological Table of Bible History
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Note.—Most of the dates in Bible History, before the dedication of Solomon's temple, are very uncertain. There are two chief systems of chronology: one based upon the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and the other upon the Septuagint, or Greek text, and called the "short" and the "long" chronology. The dates in the margin of our English Bibles were computed by Archbishop Ussher (born 1580, died 1656), and based on the Hebrew or short chronology. Hales made a similar computation, based on the Greek text. The Septuagint text appears to make the patriarchal period 1466 years longer than the computations based on the Hebrew text, The following table shows the different dates according to Ussher and to Hales:
| Ussher, or Hebrew Dates. | Hales, or Greek Dates (nearly). | Events. |
| b.c. | b.c. | |
| 4004 | 5411 | Adam. |
| 3874 | 6181 | Birth of Seth. |
| 3382 | 4289 | " " Enoch. |
| 3317 | 4124 | " " Methuselah. |
| 2948 | 3755 | " " Noah. |
| 2348 | 3155 | The Flood, |
| 2233 | 2554 | Confusion of tongues. |
| 2165 | 2362 | Birth of Nahor. |
| 2126 | 2283 | " " Terah. |
| 1996 | 2153 | " " Abram. |
| 1896 | 2053 | " " Isaac. |
| 1836 | 1993 | " " Jacob. |
| 1706 | 1883 | Jacob moves to Egypt |
| 1671 | 1728 | Birth of Moses. |
| 1491 | 1648 | The Exodus. |
| 1151 | 1608 | Canaan entered. |
| b.c. | Events. | ||
| 1280 | Settlement in Canaan under Joshua. | ||
| 1258-1095 | The Judges—to Samuel and Saul. | ||
| 1095 | Saul. | ||
| 1055 | David. | ||
| 1007 | Solomon's Temple. (For table of kings of Judah and Israel, and of prophets, see next page.) Fall of Samaria. | ||
| 722-721 | |||
| 606 | Assyrian captivity began. | ||
| 588-7 | Jerusalem destroyed. | ||
| b.c. | Events. | ||
| 536 | First return of Jews—Zerubbabel. | ||
| 516-5 | Second temple completed. | ||
| 478 | Esther made queen by Xerxes I. | ||
| 457 | Return of Jews (second company) with Ezra. | ||
| 444 | Nehemiah appointed governor. Malachi, prophet. | ||
| 432 | Nehemiah again governor at Jerusalem. | ||
| 425 | Death of Artaxerxes, Xerxes II. (2 months). | ||
| Sogdianus, his half brother (7 months). | |||
| 424 | Darius II. (Nothus, king). | ||
End of Old Testament history.
CHRONOLOGY BETWEEN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
| 405 | Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon). |
| 359 | Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) |
| 351-331 | Jaddua high priest at J. |
| 339 | Arses (king). |
| 336 | Darius III. (Codomannus). |
| 332 | Alexander the Great. |
| 323 | Alexander's death. |
| 320 | Palestine under Ptolemy Soter. |
| 314 | " " Antigonus. |
| 311 | (Era of the Seleucidæ.) |
| 301 | Palestine under Ptolemies. |
| 280 | Hebrew O. T. translated into Greek about this time. |
| 205 | Palestine under Antiochus. |
| 170 | Temple plundered by Antiochus Epiphanes. |
| 167 | Mattathias, the Jewish patriot; father of the Maccabæans. |
| 165 | Judas Maecabæus recovers Jerusalem. |
| 141 | Simon Maccabæus frees the Jews. |
| Pompey conquers Judæa. | |
| Temple plundered by Crassus. | |
| Antipater made governor of Judæa by Cæsar. | |
| Parthians capture Jerusalem. | |
| Herod retakes Jerusalem. | |
| Herod begins to rebuild the temple. | |
| Birth of Christ. (The common Christian era was fixed four years too late.) |
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Concise Chronological Table of Bible History'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/c/concise-chronological-table-of-bible-history.html. 1893.
