The science that treats of the computation and adjustment of time or periods of time, and of the record and arrangement of events in the order of time. The chronology of Jewish literature may be divided into two periods: (1) that of the Biblical books; and (2) that of post-Biblical times.
From the earliest periods the day was divided into night and morning. Genesis records the division into two parts of what is now termed the "tropical or solar day." It is probable that the Israelites divided the day into twelve "dihoræ," or twenty-four hours; but in the Hebrew texts no trace thereof is found. The earliest mention of the hour ("sha'ah") is in the Aramaic texts of Daniel (3:6,15). In documents of the Greek epoch, as also in the Assyrian texts, references occur to "night-watches" ("ashmurah"), by which the night was divided into three parts (Ps. xc. 4; Lamentations 2:19). As regards instruments for measuring time, 2 Kings (20:11) and Isaiah (38:8) give some vague information concerning the gnomon of King Ahaz, and the degrees marked on his sun-dial (see see DIAL).
The week, with the attribution of each day to one of the seven planets, is one of the most ancient institutions of the Babylonians. This nation commenced the hebdomadal period with the sun, followed by the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Every planet in succession presided over twenty-four hours, but not in the order assumed for their spheres, which was as follows: the sun, Venus, Mercury, the moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. Theinitial hour of the first day was consecrated to the sun; the twenty-fifth, or the initial hour of the second day, to the moon; the forty-ninth to Mars; the seventy-third to Mercury; the ninety-seventh to Jupiter; the one hundred and twenty-first to Venus; and the one hundred and forty-fifth to Saturn.
It has been claimed that this arrangement is of more modern invention; but indications of its existence are found in the earliest texts. The Mosaic accounts of Creation, of course, ignore the assignment of the week-days to divers stars; but, independently of all astral influence, the seventh day was instituted as a sacred day, quite distinct in character from the seventh day of the lunar synodic month, which was regarded as a holy day by the Chaldeans.
From the Mosaic times down the synodical month in the Jewish calendar was calculated, as in the Babylonian, from one new moon to the next. This is proved by the well-known passage in Exodus 12:2. Here no Egyptian influence may be assumed. But the system of thirty-day months, also, seems to have been recognized by the Jewish calendar.
The Jewish year was solar-lunar. In the early Biblical statements no indication whatever is found of an intercalary month. Still it is safely assumed that the difference of ten or eleven hours between the twelve synodical months and the tropical year was equalized by the insertion of an embolismic month; and in the cuneiform Sumerian texts express mention is made of this intercalation as far back as the fifth millennium B.C. It is very probable that the equivalence of 19 tropical years and 235 synodical months was known in the most remote times; but a regular intercalary system was not introduced before Greek influence asserted itself—that is, not before 367 B. C. In Chaldea the embolismic months were inserted merely for astrological reasons: the methods employed later by the Jewish authorities (CALENDAR) to adjust astronomical irregularities can not be held to have been in vogue among the Chaldeans.
The modern Jewish calendar is adapted to the Greek computation exclusively. The Talmudic tractate Rosh ha-Shanah (ch. ) indicates that four ways for commencing the year were known and observed. The day was divided into twenty-four hours, and each hour into 1,080 "ḥalaḳim." The passage in Rosh ha-Shanah gives, almost exactly, the length of the average synodical month as 29 days, 6 hours, and 793 ḥalaḳim (44 minutes, 3 1/3; seconds), which is only 4/9; second too long; the real duration being 29 days, 6 hours, 44 minutes, 2.89 seconds. This estimate is of Greek origin, like the Metonic embolismic cycle of the years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19 of the nineteen-year Metonic period. The new Jewish calendar seems to have been inaugurated in 363 (Tishri), and Rabbi Hillel apparently modified it by introducing some innovations; but it is not known exactly what they were. Some hints in Talmudic texts, which can not be dwelt upon here, seem to indicate that the "forbidden days"—that is, days of the week on which Rosh ha-Shanah (New-Year) could not fall—were introduced at that time. The Talmud speaks of Shabu'ot falling on a Saturday, which can not happen now. The first of Tishri can not fall on Sunday, Wednesday, or Friday (); nor can the first of Nisan be on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday (). These forbidden days cause a great complication of the calendar. As a starting-point for calculation, the first of Tishri in the year 1 is indicated by the symbol , signifying Monday (כ or second day of week), 5 (ה) hours, 204 () ḥalaḳim, corresponding to Oct. 7 in the Julian, or Sept. 7 in the Gregorian, calendar of the year 3761-3760 B.C. (6240 of the modern computation, which adds 10,000 years to the common era). This is the astronomical day 347,999. The cycles ("maḥzor") count from that epoch. In order to ascertain the year of the cycle, the number is divided by 19, the remainder giving the year of the cycle; for example: 5661 (1900-1901)÷19 = 297 +18; e., the year 5661 is the eighteenth year of the 298th cycle.
The idea of an era beginning with and counted from an historical event is an ingenious invention of the Greeks, who represented by an impersonal fact computations referring to a person. The first public application of it was the Seleucid era, dating from Oct., 312 (or, at Babylon, from April 2, 311) B.C.; and this era was accepted by the Jews, who maintained it generally down to the eleventh century; in Egypt, however, it survived into the sixteenth century, when Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra brought about its disuse, while in South Arabia it was used, along with the "aera mundi," even as late as the nineteenth century. For the Temple and the dating of private records there existed the era from the Exodus. Not only is the existence of this era a mathematical conclusion based on the 200 dates in Kings, but it is also definitely indicated in 1 Kings 6:1, where the beginning of the construction of Solomon's Temple is assigned to the year 480 of the Exodus era. The Hebrew context is of such characteristic precision that no one can seriously pretend this to be an intentional combination of 12 times 40 years. Why this number and not another? It would be no less absurd to claim that the 480 years of the Roman republic (510-30 B.C.) or the equal duration of the Parthian realm (256 B.C.-225 C.E.) had been assumed only in order to have the product of 12 × 40, or 60 × 8. The question to be decided is whether the date then obtained for the Exodus—viz., 1492 B.C.—is the real one; for whether or not the chroniclers of this period were mistaken as to the epoch or the era is quite a different matter for examination. Most of the eras in use assume a conventional starting date which is not accurately that of the event from which the name is derived. The Dionysian era of the birth of Jesus, perhaps the Mohammedan one of the Hegira, or flight of the prophet from Mecca to Medina, the Jewish one of the Creation, besides some 150 other modes of starting a chronological series, are illustrations of this common practise.
The months in the era employed by the Biblical chronographers were counted from Nisan, the first month, to Adar, the twelfth, or We-Adar, the thirteenth. On the other hand, it is found that Biblical texts in giving the years of the kings commence with the dates of their accession to the throne, just as the kings of England and the popes determinetheir regnal years. Thus in 2 Chronicles 29:3 the reference to the first day of the first month in year 1 of Hezekiah is not to the day of his accession, but to the first of Nisan of the first year of his reign; that is, according to the modern computation, March or April, 726 B.C. If the date of 1492 for the Exodus is correct, the starting date for the annals is 767 B.C. By this system it is possible to assign with certainty the destruction of the First Temple to Sunday, Aug. 27 (Julian), 587 B.C. (9413; astronomical day 1,507,261); that is, the 9th of Ab of the year 906 of the era of the Exodus.
The Biblical figures are given in the nth year; that is, from the accession to the throne down to the event there had elapsed n - 1 year plus a fraction of a year, which fraction is expressed by a Greek letter. For instance, Uzziah reigned fifty-two years; in his fifty-second year Pekah of Israel was king; and Uzziah died in the second year of Pekah. This example, among many similar ones, shows mathematically that the beginning of the royal years can not be the same. The problem may be stated as follows:
Uzziah reigned before Pekah | 51 | + α |
Uzziah reigned simultaneously with Pekah | 1 | + β |
______ | ||
Total length of Uzziah's reign | 52 | + (α + β) years |
where the sum of the fractions α and β does not amount to one-half.
All the Biblical calculations start from a different date, the date of accession; and the agreement of all these figures proves that the original date must have been changed to conform with the fixed harmonizing scheme of the annalist, the synchronous tables of the kings' reigns.
Jewish chronology includes: (1) the non-chronological, mythical numbers of Genesis; and (2) the real chronology, from the Exodus to the end of the Jewish dominion (1492 B.C. to 70 of the common era).
The figures of Genesis, handed down in their original form by the Hebrew texts followed by the Vulgate, are the results of a fictitious reduction of the enormous numbers put forth by the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, and the Hindus. The Jews and Greeks were not willing to admit that the world had been created long before their appearance in history. The original figures of one of the systems named were reduced to a certain scale. Only one of the Chaldean systems, preserved by the fragments of Berosus, is known. It is probable that his figures are those of the Babylonian school; while those of Sippara and Orchoë had possibly other units of time to express the same original arithmetical numbers.
The Creation: One of the Chaldean schools assumed seven periods, each of 240,000 years; that is, 1,680,000 years. Each period of 10,000 years is measured by an hour of the seven days which comprise Creation in Genesis (168=7 × 24).
From the Creation to the Deluge: The Chaldeans admitted the eternity of the world without any beginning; but the existing astronomical bodies had a commencement. For the time from the creation of these to the great cataclysm, or the Deluge, they assumed a sexagesimal unit, the number of the seconds of the day: 60 × 60 × 24, or 86,400 units. The unit of the Babylonian school was 60 months, or 5 years; that is, 432,000 years. The Hindus fix the unit at 5,000 years, or 432,000,000. The Jews reduced this to 86,400 weeks, or 1,656 years; that is, 72 periods of 23 years each. The 23 years give just 8,400 days, or 1,200 weeks; the unit of 72 periods being divided into three unequal parts, containing respectively 20, 18 (which is one-fourth of 72), and 34 periods of 1,200 weeks or 23 years each. The number 23 is found in the number resulting from adding the years elapsing between the births of father and son in the three groups given in Genesis 5; namely:
The corresponding Babylonian figures relating to the ten antediluvian kings are:
The first three together | 93,600 | years | = 18,720 | lustra |
The following two together, | 108,000 | " | = 21,600 | " |
The remaining five (?) | 230,400 | " | = 46,080 | " |
______ | _______ | |||
432,000 | " | = 86,400 | " | |
The Bible has | 86,400 | weeks | ||
The Chaldean texts have | 86,400 | lustra |
The three periods correspond to legends now altogether lost, as the chronological tables in Genesis show.
The postdiluvian times down to the end of Genesis include:
From the Deluge to the birth of Abraham | 292 | years |
From the birth of Abraham to the end of Genesis | 361 | " |
___ | ||
653 | " |
These 292 and 361 years are the reduction to onesixtieth of the Berosian figures, which give:
For the first two kings | 5,100 | years |
For the 86 following | 34,080 | " |
_____ | ||
39,180 | " |
These 39,180 years are composed of 12 Sothic periods of 1,460 years, and of twelve lunar periods (Assyrian, "tupḳot nannar") of 1,805 years. After 1,805 years the eclipses recur in the same order; and this cycle was known to the Chaldeans, not by calculation, but by actual observations and registrations of eclipses during centuries and millennia.
The Babylonian figures are controlled by the sex-agesimal notation of soṣses ("shushi"= σῦσσος) of 60, ners ("neru"= νῆρος) of 600, and sars ("shar"= σάρος) of 3,600 years. There are thus:
12 Sothic | periods | of | 1,460 | years | = 17,520 | years, | or | 292 | sosses |
12 lunar | " | " | 1,805 | " | = 21,660 | " | " | 361 | " |
The Biblical number of 292 years, quoted by Josephus ("Ant." 1:6, § 5) comprises the nine generations from Arphaxad to Terah, the father of Abraham; namely:
2 + 35 + 30 + 34 + 30 + 32 + 29 + 30 + 70 = 292 years.
In order to obtain the necessary 292, Terah must have reached his seventieth year before begetting Abraham.
From the birth of Abraham to that of Isaac | 100 | years |
From the birth of Isaac to that of Jacob | 60 | " |
From the birth of Jacob to that of Joseph | 91 | " |
Lifetime of Joseph, end of Genesis | 110 | " |
___ | ||
361 | " |
In order to secure the total of 361 years which the system required, Joseph must be given neither more nor less than 110 years.
Besides this computation of generations, there existed another, originally quite independent thereof, enumerating only the years of life of each ancestor. These numbers referring to the length of life might have been derived from Babylonian statements; but the almost complete destruction of cuneiform historical documents has removed all tradition of this kind. It must be remarked that the prime number 23 is also found in the sums of this series, a phenomenon which is probably to be explaimed by assuming that some analogous fact existed in the Chaldean mythology.
The Biblical sums are as follows:
From Adam to Cainan | 3,657 | = | 23 | x | 159 | years |
From Mahalaleel to Shem | 5,520 | = | 23 | x | 240 | " |
From Arphaxad to Jacob | 2,898 | = | 23 | x | 126 | " |
_____ | ___ | " | ||||
12,075 | = | 23 | x | 525 | " |
It is, of course, very strange that these 12,075 years should be equal to 525 × 1,200 weeks, or 630,000 weeks; that is, the result of 70, 90, and 100. It would correspond to a Babylonian epoch of 3,150,000 years.
These two different traditions have been combined by the redactors of the Biblical text, in order to explain the now lost legends of the antediluvian and postdiluvian times of the Jewish people. An exact scrutiny of the figures as they are found in the present form of the text provides the basis for very singular and awkward results, of which Biblical tradition compels acceptance, and which have during many centuries caused numerous falsifications and discussions.
Year of Creation. | ||
---|---|---|
1 | Adam | born |
130 | Seth | " |
235 | Enos | " |
325 | Cainan born | |
395 | Mahalaleel born | |
460 | Jared born |
Year of Creation. | ||
---|---|---|
460 | Jared | born |
622 | Enoch | " |
687 | Methuselah | born |
874 | Lamech | " |
Year of Creation. | |
---|---|
874 | Lamech born |
930 | Adam dies |
987 | Enoch translated |
1042 | Seth dies |
1056 | Noah born |
1140 | Enos dies |
1235 | Cainan " |
1290 | Mahalaleel dies |
1422 | Jared dies |
1556 | Shem born |
1654 | Lamech dies |
1656 | Methuselah dies |
The Deluge |
Year of the Deluge. | ||
---|---|---|
2 | Arphaxad | born |
37 | Salah | " |
67 | Eber | " |
101 | Peleg | " |
131 | Reu | " |
163 | Serug | born |
192 | Nahor | " |
222 | Terah | " |
292 | Abraham born |
Year of the Deluge. | |||
---|---|---|---|
292 | Abraham born | ||
340 | Peleg | dies | |
341 | Nahor | " | |
350 | Noah | " | (!) |
367 | The calling of Abraham | ||
370 | Reu dies | ||
392 | Isaac born | ||
393 | Serug | dies | |
427 | Terah | " | |
440 | Arphaxad dies | ||
452 | Jacob born | ||
457 | Abraham | dies | |
470 | Salah | " | |
502 | Shem | dies | (!) |
531 | Eber | " | |
543 | Joseph born | ||
572 | Isaac dies | ||
582 | Arrival of Jacob in Egypt | ||
599 | Jacob | dies | |
653 | Joseph | " |
These figures had been known for centuries. Shem survived Abraham; therefore legends pretend that Melchizedek was really Shem and had handed down the antediluvian traditions. The antediluvian times produced a great many traditions that have been altogether lost. In the first fortunate period nobody died; in the second, death may have been threatened; in the third, all men perished, and the aged Methuselah died in the actual year of the Deluge.
The combination of the two systems has produced, considerable bewilderment among subsequent translators and exegetes. The LXX., to avoid awkward chronological results, hit upon the expedient of falsifying the real figures, by adding to each of the post-Semitic personages 100 years. Instead of 2 they have 102; for 35 they substituted 135; and so on.
When this chronology of cycles was invented, it is idle to discuss. It is highly possible that it arose during the time of the First Temple; and there is no reason for bringing its origin down to the post-exilian epoch. Israel and Judah had at this period a systematized chronology; and there had existed, beginning with the seventeenth century B.C., a close connection between Palestine and Chaldea.
1. From the Exodus to the Destruction of the First Temple (1492 to 587 B.C.).
The first part, the four centuries between the Exodus and David (1492-1047), can not be fixed with certainty. The duration of the several judges' reigns is involved in doubt, and arguments can not be advanced with the slightest hope of success; for the needed documents are wanting. With David commences a sound and really historical chronology. The two hundred chronological dates handed down by the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are, with one or two exceptions (e.g., the twelfth year of Ahaz, instead of the thirteenth year; see 2 Kings 17:1), of remarkable consistency. In a few cases, again, the figures are rightly given, but are by the present text attributed to some other event, owing to the transposition of the fragments of records saved from destruction at the fall of the First Temple. For example: the fourteenth year of Hezekiah is not the year of the expedition of Sennacherib, but that of the sickness of Hezekiah and of the embassy of Merodach-baladan, King of Babylon. The twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam II., King of Israel (2 Kings 15:1), is mentioned as the first year of Uzziah, in flagrant contradiction to all the statements of the previous chapter, which makes it correspond with the fifteenth or sixteenth year.
Intentional mutilation of the text and suppression of all notice of the temporary suspension of the independence of the kingdom of Israel by the Syrians are the real cause of the larger number (15 or 16) given in ch. : the end of that chapter, and Isaiah 7:3, which can not be understood otherwise, indicate clearly that for eleven years Jeroboam II. had been expelled from Samaria by the Syrians. The subsequent passages have been ruthlessly altered, in order to obviate the slightest mention of this cessation of Israel's realm. A similar mutilation has been practised at the end of ch. , where the interruption of Pekah's reign for nine years, and his supersession by Menahem II. mentioned in the Tiglath-pileser texts, are passed over in perfect silence.
The statements are always to be analyzed in the only possible mathematical manner; e., by the formula that the nth year signifies n - 1 years and a fraction of a year after the event.
For the absolute fixation we have the solar eclipse of the eponym "Isid-seti-igbi," June 13, 809 B.C., 91 years before which occurred the battle of Karkor, during Ahab's lifetime, and 78 years before which Jehu sent his tribute to Shalmaneser III. of Nineveh.
The eponymic tablets and the Babylonian chronicle fix the date of the downfall of Samaria as Jan., 721 B.C.
The two eclipses of the year 7 of Cambyses (523-522 B.C.) fix the date of Nebuchadnezzar's accession as May-June, 605 B.C., and the date of the delivery of Jehoiachin by Evil-merodach, son of Nebuchadnezzar, as the 27th (2 Kings 25:27) or 25th (Jeremiah 52:31) of Adar, either Sunday, Feb. 29, or Tuesday, March 2, 561 B.C.
These starting-points admit of the establishment of the chronology with certainty in the following manner—the only one possible—without alterations of the text in the historical documents:
David | 1047-1017 |
Solomon | 1017-978 |
Rehoboam | 978-960 |
Abijam (Abijah) | 960-958 |
Asa | 958-917 |
Jehoshaphat, alone | 917-895 |
Jehoshaphat and Joram | 895-892 |
Joram alone | 892-888 |
Ahaziah | 888-887 |
Athaliah (Queen) | 887-881 |
Joash | 881-840 |
Amaziah | 840-811 |
Uzziah or Azariah | 811-758 |
Jotham | 758-742 |
Ahaz | 742-727 |
Hezekiah | 727-698 |
Manasseh | 698-642 |
Amon | 642-640 |
Josiah | 640-609 |
Joahaz | -609 |
Jehoiakim | 609-598 |
Jehoiachin | -598 |
Zedekiah | 598-587 |
Destruction of the Temple, Sunday, Aug. 27, 587 B.C. |
Jeroboam I | 977-956 |
Nadab | 956-955 |
Baasha | 955-932 |
Elah | 932-931 |
Zimri (seven days) | -931 |
Omri with Tibni | 931-927 |
Omri, alone | 927-920 |
Ahab | 920-900 |
Ahaziah | 900-899 |
Joram | 899-887 |
Jehu | 887-859 |
Jehoahaz | 859-842 |
Joash | 842-825 |
Jeroboam II., first reign | 825-799 |
Domination of Syria | 799-788 |
Jeroboam II., second reign | 788-773 |
Zachariah (six months) | 773-772 |
Shallum (one month). | -772 |
Menahem I | 772-761 |
Pekahiah | 761-759 |
Pekah, first reign | 759-744 |
Menahem II., under the Assyrian Tiglathpileser | 744-735 |
Pekah, second reign | 735-730 |
Hoshea | 730-721 |
Destruction of Samaria, Jan., 721 B.C. |
The great chronologists of the seventeenth century have long pointed out the apparent discrepancy between the statements of the duration of the reigns of Jeroboam II. and Pekah and the time resulting from the synchronisms. But there is no error. Indeed, between the commencement and the end of the reign of Jeroboam II. fifty-two years elapsed; but during eleven of these he was superseded, and his de facto occupation of the throne counts only forty-one years, as the Biblical text affirms. Similarly Pekah reigned only twenty years in Samaria, although twenty-nine intervened between his accession and his death.
2. From the Destruction of the of the First Temple to that of the Second under Titus (587 B. C. to 70 of the Common Era).
B.C. | |
---|---|
587-168 | Loss of Jewish independence. |
538 | Decree of Cyrus, King of Babylon, signed Oct., 539, allowing the Jews to return to Palestine. |
473 | Institution of the Feast of Purim under Xerxes (Ahasuerus); troubles in Palestine caused by the enemies of the Jews. |
398 | Ezra, under Artaxerxes Mnemon. |
385 | Nehemiah's second organization. Government of the high priest. |
332 | Alexander subdues Palestine. |
312 | Establishment of the Syrian power. |
170 | Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes) plunders Jerusalem. The Jews lose their independence, 168 B.C. to 6 C.E. |
168 | Mattathias the Hasmonean or Maccabean. |
58 | Herod supersedes the Hasmoneans. |
4 | Early in April, death of Herod, and division of Palestine into four independent provinces. |
C.E. | |
6 | Judea a province of Rome. |
69 | Revolt of the Jews. |
70 | Sunday, Aug. 5, destruction of the Second Temple. |
In this article there will be briefly given (1) the methods used for dating events and periods in the Old Testament; (2) the scientific data upon which the most reliable chronological system has been founded; and (3) the most valuable results in the fixing of important dates.
Two main stages may be distinguished in the attempts made by Bible writers of the various periods to indicate the times of occurrence of events. The first is that in which the narrator chooses any one out of a number of well-known events as a time-mark; and the second is that in which an authoritative system is assumed as already prevailing.
Unsystematic Usages: Reference is made to: (a) a memorable phenomenon of nature; thus Amos (1:1) dates from an earthquake (compare Zechariah 14:5); (b) a great national movement; thus, the establishment of the Hyksos dynasty in Egypt is marked by the building of the city of Zoan (Numbers 13:22); (c) a decisive military movement, as the expedition of Sargon of Assyria against Ashdod (Isaiah 20:1); (d) the death of a king of the writer's country, as of Uzziah or of Ahab (Isaiah 6:1. 14:28).
A Conventional System: Such devices as the abovenamed could have only local vogue and value. Familiarity with the businesslike methods of outside communities, especially in the days of the later kings and during the Exile, led to the adoption of a methodical scheme for the dating of events. The decisive epoch was the period between Isaiah and Jeremiah, when the Judahites were completely under Assyrian domination. Dates are attached to several individual prophecies of Jeremiah; and the statements are, for the most part, of contemporary origin (Jeremiah 27 et seq.). The point of departure in the reckoning is the beginning of the reign of the then King of Judah, sometimes with the addition of the regnal year of the great King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar (e.g., 32:1). A little later Ezekiel's prophecies were regularly dated, as was natural to a writer living in Babylonia. In accordance with the same custom several of the prophetical books were furnished with headings indicating the limits of the professional careers of the authors. But these were added by later editors.
More systematic and extensive are the chronological data of the books of Kings and Chronicles, where, throughout the history of the divided kingdoms, are found not only the lengths of the reigns of the several rulers, but the dates of their accessions, in two separate series of synchronisms. Thus it is said: "In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Asa to reign over Judah. . . . Forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem" (1 Kings 15:9,10). Many of the numbers given, especially the synchronisms, are erroneous, as is proved by the fact that no attempt to harmonize the two series has been successful [see, however, Chronology (I.)]. The sum of the years of the kings of Israel from the schism to the Exile is 242; while that of the years of the kings of Judah for the same period is 260. Startling inconsistencies are also found where the several synchronisms for the same king are worked out.
Thus, for the accession of Ahaz of Judah one has to choose between 727, 720, and 715 B.C., according as one set of data or another is followed. Inferential evidence points conclusively to the fact that all of these numbers were inserted, as a separate part of the narrative, in the editorial period that followed the loss of Jerusalem. It is equally certain that the synchronisms were a matter of independent calculation. But there is good reason to believe that if the regnal years were not found in surviving royal annals, they were at least preserved by a fairly reliable tradition supported in part by documentary testimony. By the help of Assyrian data they may be used with a fair degree of accuracy.
One step backward beyond the division of the kingdom, Solomon, David, and Saul are each credited with a reign of forty years. This suggests a conjectural systematization. The hypothesis is strengthened by the frequent occurrence of the number forty in numerations made for still earlier personages and events. Indeed, the summation of the years between the Exodus and the beginning of Solomon's Temple, found in 1 Kings 6:1, has been plausibly conjectured to be made up of twelve generations, each of forty years. The number 480 thus given is, however, too large by one-half; since the Exodus can not have occurred much before 1200 B.C., and the Temple was built about 960 B.C.
For the chronology of the long period before Moses there are no sure data, since the numbers of the Masoretic text differ widely from those variously given by the Septuagint, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Book of Jubilees (first century C.E.). In the Masoretic data there are, moreover, several artificial schemes of systematization. For the details of these any good modern commentary on Genesis or special treatise on Bible chronology may be consulted.
All chronological accuracy depends upon the fulfilment of two conditions. To ascertain or verify the date of any event there must be a fixed point of departure, from which or to which the event in question is to be reckoned. Again, the data from which the time of the event is inferred must be adjusted to a connected system of time-reckoning reliable throughout. In other words, some ancient authority, referring to an established scheme or system, must have made a notation of the event itself or of something synchronous with it.
The Babylonians, and their kindred and disciples, the Assyrians, were the only people of Oriental antiquity who duly kept such a required system of time-notation. It is to them that the current divisions of time generally, as well as the beginnings of mathematics and astronomy, are due. They had already in their earliest recorded history the sense of number and computation. The Hebrew writers were still working withround numbers and employing primitive and uncertain eras thousands of years after the Babylonians had begun to keep their sacred and public records by separate and successive years and to preserve the results for later reference or tabulation.
Naturally, most is gained for Biblical chronology from the synchronisms with contemporary Assyrian or Babylonian history. Of special importance are those available for the period of the kings of Israel and Judah, when the relations with Assyria were close and continuous, and at the same time the Biblical data are most abundant. There are three main sources of information in the inscriptions. One is the royal annals, in which events are often described as occurring in a given year of the king's reign, or in the year of office of a given eponym. The second is the lists of such eponyms as were chosen successively from among Assyrian rulers of different grades to mark their respective years, which were accordingly called by their names. These lists are preserved in more than one form; and by combining them it is possible to make up a complete series for the period 893-666 B.C., as well as for shorter intervals both before and after. Their accuracy has been confirmed by every possible check. Not only historical events, but business documents also, were dated by the years of the proper eponyms. The third aid of this kind consists of lists of kings in the order of their succession, with the lengths of their several reigns, as well as brief summaries of important events, usually referred to by modern scholars as "chronicles."
An instance of the application of Assyrian data to Old Testament chronological problems may be given here. Shalmaneser II., who reigned 860-825 B.C., describes frequent expeditions to Syria and Palestine, and mentions by name Ahab and Jehu of Israel. He relates that in the year of his reign which is found to correspond to 842 B.C., he received tribute from Jehu. Presumably this was at the accession of Jehu, who would be anxious to secure support for his new pretensions; but this is only a conjecture. He mentions, also, that in 854 he fought a great battle against a league of western rulers, among whom were Ahab of Israel and Ben-hadad of Damascus. The history of Ahab, as given in the Bible, indicates that there was only one occasion on which Ahab and Ben-hadad could have made such a league with each other; namely, in the brief period between the peace of Aphek (1 Kings 20:34) and the death of Ahab in the third year thereafter (ib. 22:2 et seq.). The middle year of this interval suggests itself as the date of the league, 854 B.C. Ahab, therefore, must have died in 853 B.C. According to the narrative in Kings, Jehu came to the throne in the twelfth year thereafter; that is to say, in 842. Using with necessary caution the Biblical numbers, one may now reckon backward and forward from these dates and obtain a fairly correct chronology of the whole period from the schism to the close of the Exile.
The following are some of the most important dates which have been ascertained from combinations and inferences made upon the principles set forth above. Others had already been learned by the aid of Greek writers, especially Ptolemy.
B.C. | |
---|---|
934 | Division of the kingdom. |
886 | Omri made King of Israel. Samaria founded. |
855 | Peace with Damascus. |
853 | Death of Ahab. |
842 | Jehu made king and pays tribute to Assyria. |
797 | Damascus taken by the Assyrians. |
763 | Amos prophesies. |
738 | Isaiah prophesies. Death of King Uzziah. Northern Israel tributary to Tiglath-pileser III. |
734 | Judah under Ahaz pays homage to Assyria. |
733 | Damascus and Samaria taken by Tiglath-pileser. Part of Israel deported. |
722-21 | Fall of Samaria. Deportation of people by Sargon of Assyria, who acceded in Jan., 721. |
567 | Nebuchadnezzar invades Egypt. |
539 | In July, Babylon taken by Gobryas the Mede, general of Cyrus. In October, Cyrus himself enters the city. |
The chronological system of the Jews was derived, like most of their science, from the Greeks. They used the "minyan sheṭarot" (era of contracts, really the Seleucidan era, dating from 312 B.C.) till the Middle Ages, when the method of reckoning from the creation of the world was introduced—probably by the later geonim, as it was employed by R. Sherira (987 C.E.). This era begins with the year corresponding to 3760 B.C. Maimonides on occasions used no less than three eras, as in the Mishneh Torah (Shemiṭṭah, 10:4): "In the year 1107 of the destruction of the Temple, 1487 of the Seleucidan era, 4936 of the Creation." For a short time the era of the Hasmoneans, dating from the autumn of 143 B.C. (see I Macc. 13:41-42), was in use. See ERA.
The dates recorded according to these various eras are based in Jewish chronology on certain estimated intervals between important events in post-Biblical Jewish history. These intervals are given in 'Ab. Zarah 9a, 10a (probably derived from Seder 'Olam Rabbah, ), which counts 34 years from the Second Temple to Alexander; 180 for the Greek empire; 103 from the beginning of the Hasmonean dynasty under John Hyrcanus (135 B.C.) to Herod; 103 from Herod to the destruction of the Temple; making in all 420 years. According to this reckoning, the era of contracts is placed six years after that of Alexander, the interval between whose appearance in Palestine and the destruction of the Second Temple is much less than in reality. The date of the accession of Herod is placed two years too late; and that of the destruction of the Temple is fixed at 68, which is, of course, two years too early. Loeb ("Revue Etudes Juives," 19:202-205) has ingeniously explained these discrepancies as due to a desire on the part of R. Jose, the author of the Seder 'Olam Rabbah, to make them agree with the prediction of Daniel 9:24 et seq., that seventy weeks (of years), or 490 years, would elapse between the Return fromthe Exile and the destruction of the Second Temple. As the Exile was assumed to last seventy years, in accordance with Jeremiah, this left 420 years from the Return (537 B.C.) to the destruction of the Temple (70 C.E.), a discrepancy of 187 years. This is got rid of in part by making the Persian domination last 34 instead of 204 years (537-333 B.C.). This was done in order to make the interval between the Exodus and the era of contracts exactly 1,000 years.
Owing to these discrepancies, great confusion exists in the annals of the Jewish chroniclers, who have generally tried to combine the dates recorded by their predecessors with those of more recent events, using the era of creation almost exclusively (see I. Loeb, "Josef Haccohen et les Chroniqueurs Juifs," Paris, 1888, reprinted from "Revue Etudes Juives," , ); and it is dangerous to trust to their lists unless checked by contemporary annals. In the subjoined chronological table the dates of the most prominent events of Jewish history have been derived from Henrietta Szold's "Tables of Jewish History" in the index volume (pp. 104 et seq.) of the American edition of Graetz's "History of the Jews." For events of lesser importance the sources are in almost every case the local annalists as utilized by the historians of the Jews in the respective countries. Particular attention has been given to the successive stages of legislation, while only selections have been made from the many cases of autos da fé, blood accusations, expulsions, host-tragedies, and acts of emancipation, for all of which complete lists are given in separate articles under the respective headings.
In contradistinction to the usual custom, but few literary events have been included in the table, only those works which have affected the public opinion of the non-Jewish world having been regarded as of more direct historic importance. The ruling principle has been to confine the list to strictly historic events; e., to incidents affecting either directly or indirectly the relations of the Jews to the states in whose territories they have dwelt. Incidents affecting merely the internal concerns of the Jewish communities have not, as a rule, been included.A Jewish Chronology from the Destruction of Jerusalem to the Year 1902.