testimony.doc
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Nov. 16, 2005
inspiration, would have meant that neither McFall nor anyone else could have combined
all 124 exact statistics into a coherent and rational chronology.
AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH THAT CHECKS SOME CRUCIAL DATES
Let us return to the question of why it has been so complicated to finally arrive at a
meaningful explanation of these chronological texts. Why do we need to thoroughly
understand the principles of accession vs. non-accession counting, Nisan vs. Tishri years,
coregencies and rival reigns, and now Decision Tables, before we can understand how
these texts fit together? Isn't there a simpler way?
There actually is a simpler way, but it only applies to the overall picture, not to the details
for each individual monarch. It is possible to verify that Thiele's starting date for the
divided monarchies, 931n in the Nisan/Tishri notation, is correct, and that this event is
the correct number of years from the destruction of Jerusalem in 587
BC
that ended the
monarchic period. The simpler way also provides some intervening checkpoints that
agree with the results derived by the tedious work of the inductive method. This
alternative method comes from the Sabbatical and Jubilee years introduced in Leviticus
25.
The system of Sabbatical and Jubilee years was a marvelous device for measuring time
over a long period. The interlocking nature of the two cycles, with seven Sabbatical
cycles making one Jubilee cycle, was a means of insuring accuracy throughout the
centuries of Israel's existence in its land. A lapse of one year would have been ruled out
by the shortness of the Sabbatical cycle, and the longer Jubilee cycle would have
preserved the correct span of time for long-term measurements. Although the people
were generally unfaithful in observing the stipulations of the Sabbatical and Jubilee
years, that did not lessen the obligation of the priests to keep track of when these years
were due. There are some mentions in the Scripture of activities associated with a
Sabbatical year, so that despite the general unfaithfulness it is clear that the timing of
those years was known. One such mention was the year of no sowing or reaping in Is
37:30 and 2 Kgs 19:29. Other activities associated with a Sabbatical year are the public
reading of the Law in Josiah's eighteenth year (2 Kgs 23:2; cf. Deut 31:10,11) and the