Comparative Jewish 21 • Chronology? 1) The Jewish system for counting the age of the world accordingtotheeraofcreation (~n~'·t1?)isabbreviatedby thelettersAM for AeraMundi (theeraoftheworld). Thecivil datewearefamiliarwithisbasedon a Christianlegend, and is used world-wide even among those who adhere to other religions or believe in no religion at all. We might say the secular way of reckoning time has lost its religious con­ notation. We call this the Common Era (CE), and the years before the Common Era are indicated by the letters BCE. The Jewish world era, according to which the present Jewishyear 5751 corresponds to the secularyear 1990-91 of Selected Speeches. 255 the Common Era, isbased upon chronological dataprovided The year 2048 is tl)e year of the birth ofYitzchak (392 by the Tanach and by Rabbinic tradition. [The earliest years after the Flood). mention ofthis era (D?w~)is found in iT1T i'TTt:I3' 9b.] Accordingtothetradition(SederOlam R. III), theExodus from Egypt took place 400 years later; i.e. in the year 2448 2) The Biblical data up to the birth ofIsaac canbe easily after Creation. computed by anyone who can read the Chumash, by adding Accordingto Kings I 6:1 the buildingofthe FirstTemple together the years of all twenty generations from Adam to was begun 480 years after the Exodus i.e., 2928 years after Abraham (plus 100 years from Abraham's birth until Creation. Yitzchak's birth): The Talmud (Yoma 9a, Arachin 12b, Avodah Zarah 9b, . Jer. Megiliah I, basedonSederOlamXI; seealsoMidrashLev Adam 130 years R. 21:9 and Tossef. Korbanoth XIII) stipulates that the peri­ Sheth 105 years ods oftheFirstandSecondTempleslasted410 and420years _'. Enosh 90 years respectively, andwereseparatedby70yearsoftheBabylonian Kenan 70 years Exile. Mahalallel.... 65 years All this leads up to the simple computation as follows: Yered 162 years Henoch 65 years Exodus 2448 years after Creation Methuselah 187 years Rrst Temple begun 2928 years after Creation Lemech 182 years First Temple destroyed 3338 years after Creation Noah 600 years Second Temple consecrated 3408 years after Creation 1656 years after creation Second Temple destroyed 3828 years after Creation (The year 1656 is the year of the Flood) Arpachshad bom after the flood 2 years 3) TheacceptedtraditionalJewishcalendarwhichisused Arpachshad lived 35 years at the present time is based on a method of reckoning as Shelach lived 30 years follows: Eber lived 34 years The first Five Days ofCreation are called year 1. Peleg lived............................... 30 years The Sixth Day of Creation (when Adam was created) R'oo lived 32 years initiates the year 2. S'rug lived 30 years TheflrstdayofTishrei, thesecondR08hHashanah(when Nahor lived 29 years Adam became one year old) opens theyear 3. Terah lived 70 years TheMabbul (Flood) occurred 1655years later; namelyin Abraham lived 100 years year 16ii8. Yitzchakwasborn 392yearsafterthe Flood; i.e. in2050. 2048 years after creation 256 • RAV SHIMON SCHWAB Selected Speeches. 257 Exodus from Egypt occured 400 years later in......2450. ~lar year 70 CE and since according to our Talmudic First Temple was begun 480 years after the Exodus in traditiontheSecondTemplestoodfor only420years,lwemust ............................................................···· · 2930. of necessity assume reckoning backward in time that the First Temple was destroyed 410 years later in .....3340. SecondTemplewasconsecratedintheyear352-351BCEand Second Temple dedicated 70 years after the destruction that the Babylonian Captivity began immediately after the ofFirst Temple in 3410. destruction ofthe First Temple, in 422-421 BCE. SecondTempledestroyed420yearsafteritsconsecration We may be able to equate the Jewish and non-Jewish m 3830. data and arrive at the following conclusion: 4) However, these dates are at variance with the method AM BCE adoptedbytheauthorofthe&{erSederOlam,whichisfollowed Year of Creation 1 3760 bymostauthorities. SederOlam does notassignanynumberto Flood 1658 2103 the first year of-Creation including the first five days, and Birth of yitzchak 2050 1711 considersthesecondRoshHashanah, whenAdam becameone Exodus from Egypt 2450 1311 year old, the beginningofyear One (~~i"DV). (We also First Temple begun 2930 831 speakofa one-year-old child afterthis child has lived 12 full First Temple destroyed 3340 421 months andhasexperiencedhisfirstbirthday.)Accordingto Second Temple consecrated 3410 351 this system, all data given before have to be set back two Second Temple destroyed 3830 70 CE years; i.e. Creation-Year0; Adam 1 year old Year 1, and so Present Year 5751 1990-91 CE on. Thereisa discrepancyoftwoyearswhich we havetobear 6) The Torah-true historian is now confronted with a in mindwhen we attemptto engage in comparative chronol­ trulyvexingproblem. AncienthistoryoftheBabylonian and ogy. This may be the reason that we always add in our Persian Empirespresentsuswith completely differentdata. documents, after the words D'nviI ~ minyan she'anu These figures are the result of painstaking research by monim-according to our way ofcounting. hundredsofscholarsandareborneoutbyprofounderudition and by ever-increasing "authoritative" evidence. Here is a 5) Yet we follow the first method and assume that the short list ofcommonly accepted chronological data: widely accepted date for the destruction ofw~was in the BCE I The 420 years ofthe SecondTemple are calculated by our sages in Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem Auodah Zarah 98, lOb, basedon Seder Olam as follows: 34yearsfortheremainderofthePersianErawhichlastedalltogether and First Temple 587 only 52years. 180years for the Greek Era. 103years for the Hasmonian Cyrus conquers Babylonia 538 Era. 103years for the Herodian Era. For a total of420. Reign of Cyrus 539-530 258 • RAV SHIMON SCHWAB Selected Speeches. 259 1" J I Cambyses 530-523 which know ofonly four Median-Persian kings nilingover a Darius I 522-486 period of not more than 52 years, of which only 34 years BCE belongtotheperiod subsequenttothebuildingoftheSecond Xerxes I 486-465 Temple. Artaxerxes I 465-425 Xerxes II 425 8) The gravity of the dilemma posed by such enormous Darius II 424-404 discrepancies must not be underestimated. The unsuspect­ Artaxerxes " : 404-359 ingstudents ofhistory are faced with a puzzle that appears Artaxerxes 11/ 358-338 insoluble. How could it have been that ourforebears had no Darius 11/ 336-331 knowledge ofa historic period, otherwise widely known and Alexander the Great conquers Persia 334 amply documented, which lasted over a span ofat least 165 Alexander the Great dies 323 years and which was less than 600 years before the days of the Sages who recorded our traditional chronology in Seder Since, according to Ezra 6:15, the Second Temple was Dlam? Is it really possible to assume that some form of completedinthesixthyearofDariusI, thedate,followingthe historical amnesia had taken possession of the collective secularchronology, must havebeen 517 BCE, i.e. exactly 70 memory of an entire people? This would be like assuming yearsafterthedate (agaIn establishedbysecularhistorians) that some group of recognized historians of today would of the destruction of the First Temple (587 BCE). Conse­ publish a textbook on medieval history, ignoring all the quently, the first year ofthe era ofthe Second Temple was recordsof, say, thethirteenthandfourteenth centuriesofthe 517 BCE and not 351 BCE. As long as we do not doubt the Common Era. Would this not seem inconceivable to those date given for the destruction of the Second Temple (on or who, unfortunately, do not possess the necessary emunas about 70 CE) we arecompelled to admitthatthe '2V~must Chachamim to accept the word ofour Sages? have existed for no less than 586 years instead of the 420 years given by tradition. This amounts to a discrepancy of 9) This enormous discrepancy between sacred tradition over 165 years when compared with our Jewish way of andseculardatawould, atfirstglance, appeartofrustrateall reckoning! hope that it might be possible to compile a comparative chronology acceptable to OrthodoxJewry and secular histo­ 7) Furthermore, there are at least nine Persian kings rians alike. To us, who are faithful believers in the veracity beginningwith Cyrus until the beginningofthe Greek Era, of our most sacred literature, both Biblical and Rabbinic, during a period ofwell over 200 years. (Seven ofthese kings there seems to be left only the following two alternatives reigned afterthe consecration ofthe Temple). Comparewith between which to choose: thesefigures the statementsofSeder Dlam andofTalmudic­ One: To put our trust in the superior wisdom of our Rabbinic literature (Seder Dlam XXX, Rosh Hashanah 3b), inspired teachers ofTorah who have arrived at the absolute 260 • RAV SHIMON SCHWAB Selected Speeches. 261 truth and, consequently, to reject categorically and abso­ whether they have dealt satisfactorily with the aforemen­ lutely the right ofany scholar, even themost objective in his tioned problems ofJewish chronology. field, to contradict our convictions. In this case, it would (a) Many ofthe editors ofSederHadoros, by RavYechiel mean that we would have to declare that those 165 or more Halperin of Minsk, have a list of fIfteen Persian-Median years which our Tradition has ignored are, in fact, non­ kings who are identical with those known through non­ existent, and have been conjectured by secular historians Jewish sources. At the same time, the author follows the through errors in computation. According to this mode of Seder Olam andTalmudby registering34years