construction of the first temple. According to him not enough generations lived—as listed in the genealogy of David—to account for so long a period of time, and so he concludes that what the writer of Kings meant was the death of Joseph some 140 years earlier. Instead of 479 years he counts but 341 years, a shortage of 138 years, his calendar at this point being 202 years short.

Does Biberfeld have a strong point here? No, he does not; for, as previously pointed out in the Watch Tower publications, it appears that, due to the enmity of the seed of the Serpent, the line of descent of the seed of the woman experienced many difficulties in remaining unbroken, a son often being born when the father was very old.c Note, for example, that Noah’s son Shem was born when Noah was over 500 years old, whereas the average age of the father in the nine previous generations was but some 110 years till the next one in line was born. Then too, Terah appears to have had his first son when he was seventy years old, but Abraham was born to him when Terah was 130 years old. Likewise, it was when Abraham was far beyond the age of being able to beget a son that he begot Isaac, by the power of God’s holy spirit. It is also of interest to note that a generation was skipped by the seed proceeding from Judah by his daughter-in-law Tamar instead of by one of the sons of his legal wife. (Gen. 38:1-30) More examples could be given, but the foregoing should suffice to show that there is no basis for questioning the 479 years between the Exodus and the first temple because of the few generations listed in David’s ancestry.

Biberfeld next allows 385 years for the duration of the first temple instead of 427 years, thereby losing forty-two more years, for a total of 244 years short. He recognizes the seventy-year period of desolation, but lists the duration of the second temple, or from the return of the Jews from Babylon to the destruction of the second temple A.D. 70, as a period of 586 years. Counting back from A.D. 70, 586 years brings us to 517 B.C. Since both the Bible and secular history have united to prove that the Jews returned in 537 B.C., Biberfeld here is short another twenty years, making a total of 264 years difference between his chronology and that of the Bible. It is thus seen that he has failed to harmonize traditional Jewish chronology either with the Bible or with secular history.

To recapitulate. The two Jewish calendars that are based on the 3,760-year period before the common era, or Christian era, differ from that based on the Bible and published in the Watch Tower literature in the following respects:

Period Involved Watch Tower Halafta Diff. Biberfeld Diff.

Adam to Flood 1655 1656 1 1656 1

To Abraham’s birth 352 292 60 292 60

To the Exodus 505 500 5 500 5

To first temple 479 480 1 341 138

To desolation 427 410 17 385 42

To return of exiles 70 70 — 70 —

To A.D. 1 (autumn) 537 353 184 517 20

To present year 1957 1957 — 1957 —

Totals 5982 5718 264 5718 264

Anticlericism Dead or Dormant?

Spain is one of the tightest Catholic-controlled countries in the world. In his book on Spain, The Yoke and the Arrows, Herbert L. Matthews says that the Roman Catholic Church and General Franco have served each other in a most profitable way, However, the author adds: “If the Caudillo were to die tomorrow, it might go hard with the Church.”