Chronology of the Old Testament: A Return to the Basics By FLOYD NOLEN JONES, Th.D., Ph.D. 2002 15th Edition Revised and Enlarged with Extended Appendix (First Edition 1993) KingsWord Press P. O. Box 130220 The Woodlands, Texas 77393-0220 Chronology of the Old Testament: A Return to the Basics Ó Copyright 1993 – 2002 · Floyd Nolen Jones. Floyd Jones Ministries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This book may be freely reproduced in any form as long as it is not distributed for any material gain or profit; however, this book may not be published without written permission. ISBN 0-9700328-3-8 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... I am gratefully indebted to Dr. Alfred Cawston (d. 3/21/91), founder of two Bible Colleges in India and former Dean and past President of Continental Bible College in Brussels, Belgium, and Jack Park, former President and teacher at Sterling Bible Institute in Kansas, now serving as a minister of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and President of Jesus' Missions Society in Huntsville, Texas. These Bible scholars painstakingly reviewed every Scripture reference and decision in the preparation of the Biblical time charts herewith submitted. My thanks also to: Mark Handley who entered the material into a CAD program giving us computer storage and retrieval capabilities, Paul Raybern and Barry Adkins for placing their vast computer skills at my every beckoning, my daughter Jennifer for her exhausting efforts – especially on the index, Julie Gates who tirelessly assisted and proofed most of the data, words fail – the Lord Himself shall bless and reward her for her kindness, competence and patience, and especially to my wife Shirley who for two years prior to the purchase of a drafting table put up with a dining room table constantly covered with charts and who lovingly understood my preoccupation with this project. Her proofing and insights along the way were truly a labor of love; her price is "far above rubies." Finally, to James Ussher (1581-1656), learned Archbishop of Armagh – the highest position in the Irish Anglican Church – scholar and historian of the first rank. Entering Trinity College at 13, he prepared a detailed work on Hebrew chronology in Latin at 15 and received a Master's degree when 18. At 19 he engaged in controversy the Jesuit scholar Henry Fitzsimons. Overthrowing him, none could thereafter match him in debate. An expert in Semitic languages and history, at 20 he was ordained. At 26, he earned a doctorate and became Professor of Divinity at Dublin. So great was his repute of tolerance, sincerity and amassed learning (characterized by Selden as "miraculous") that, despite the fact he had been critical of the rebellion against Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell greatly esteemed Ussher and awarded him a magnificent state funeral in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph reads: "Among scholars he was the most saintly, among saints the most scholarly." Ussher prepared a chronology of Biblical events based on his study of the Holy Scriptures, deriving 4004 BC as the year of the creation of the universe. His dates were almost universally accepted until the mid-nineteenth century when the satanic three pronged attack against the Word of God in the areas of evolution, textual criticism and Bible chronology was launched. This assault has resulted in clouding the minds of the human race against the veracity and accuracy of the Holy Writ and, subsequently, to God's claims on the lives of all mankind. Knowing little of Bishop Ussher until mid-way into my own investigations, my efforts often yielded results reflecting, or nearly so, those he made over 300 years ago. As admiration for his dedication and skill grew, inquiry into his life soon followed. Today, Ussher is oft maligned by men not worthy of his glance whose mind set is confident that modern scientific dating methods have punctured and totally invalidated his findings. However, those who know the trade secrets and the nuances concerning the differing radiometric dating techniques, be they radiocarbon, potassium-argon, uranium-lead etc., are neither impressed nor intimated by such pretensions. We are aware that the numerous scientifically invalid philosophical assumptions imposed upon the mathematics force the answers to balloon to enormous proportions in order to obtain sufficient time to justify the apparent feasibility of the untestable, unfalsifiable hypothesis of evolution. Moreover, the evolution hypothesis violates probability laws and numerous scientific laws in differing disciplines. Having thoroughly perused his Annals of the World, it can only be concluded that those who deprecate this unrivaled piece of classical scholarship either have not so examined or lack the ability to perceive that which they have before them. Having now studied the works of over forty other scholars in this field, this author affirms that for him, Ussher is and will remain the unrivaled "prince" of chronologists. iii PREFACE … This dissertation addresses the conflict between the presuppositions and methodologies utilized by the modern school of Biblical chronology whose procedure rests on the Assyrian Eponym Canon, the royal inscriptions of the Assyrians and Babylonians and the Ptolemaic Canon as being absolute and accurate as opposed to the traditional Biblically oriented school which regards the Holy Scripture as the factual source against which all other material must be weighed. The propositions advanced are: (1) There is academic justification that the chronology of the Biblical record can be fully substantiated with internal formulae documentation independent of religious overtones; and (2) This internal structure has been preserved in a specific rendering of the Biblical record, namely, the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Textus Receptus (the only current English translation being the King James Bible). In support of these propositions, standard objections, i.e., "generation gaps", "scribal errors", etc. will be met with forthright solutions and alternatives based upon the internal data, not by "emendations", "restorations" or "corrections" of the Text. The "Kings of the Divided Monarchy" portion of the Hebrew record, long considered the "Gordian knot of Sacred Chronology," is the major focus of this endeavor. Commonly purported as the most difficult and error prone period, it is actually capable of straightforward solution by use of the aforementioned internal composition. Moreover, an improvement on a previous technique by devising a specific "triangulation" formula has been introduced, applied and illustrated on the accompanying charts. This being done, the justified conclusion is substantiated that the dates as preserved in the King James Bible are reliable and demonstrable. Such must be seen to strongly argue that the Biblical text is a factual account of the actual history of the Hebrew people, that it is both accurate and self-consistent – complete and self-sufficient. A critical examination of the period of the Disruption naturally entails an investigation of the heretofore mentioned secular material in order to properly establish synchronisms if and when they exist. It will be shown that most of the conflict reported to exist between the Hebrew Text and that of the Assyrian Annals etc. is the result of misunderstanding, misreporting, misrepresenting, misapplication and/or the taking of unjustified liberties in the emendations and restorations by the translators of the Assyrian records. Some of the work of these scholars and their associates, referred to collectively under the title of the "Assyrian Academy" within this study, is thereby called into question by the author. Moreover, Dr. Edwin R. Thiele, long recognized as their leading proponent in the field of Biblical Chronology, while claiming to have defended the reliability of the Hebrew Text will be shown to have again and again applied these often mishandled Assyrian data in violation of the clear Hebrew history. In so doing, he created problems with and greatly undermined the integrity of the Hebrew Text. Dr. Thiele shall be refuted. A more exacting solution to the chronology of the "Judges" is included herein. In addition, a solution to the 483 year Daniel 9:25 prophecy based upon a modification to the previous work of Ussher which he founded largely upon the writings of the great Greek historian of the fifth century BC, Thucydides of Athens, is offered as decisive and final. iv INTRODUCTION ... Is it important for the Christian to have a reliable text as the basis for his faith and conduct? Moreover, should not the text preserved and passed down throughout the centuries to today's generation be academically defendable? As the Biblical text contains much information of a chronological and mathematical nature, a careful and thorough investigation of this data accompanied by detailed charts should serve as a decisive test as to its reliability and trustworthiness. Conversely, the failure of such a study could be seen as a falsification of the divine inspiration/preservation doctrine of the Sacred Writ, long held by the conservative wing of Christianity. Toward that end, a Standard Chronology of the Old Testament has been constructed utilizing diagrams, charts and other forms of graphic representation which addresses this complex subject in a Scriptural and scholarly yet easy to understand manner. Beginning with the Creation recorded in the first two Chapters of Genesis, the continuous unbroken line of dated events embedded within the Holy Scriptures is logically followed as it spans across forty centuries