The Book of Truthful Historical Dates

1. With what events of history are we personally acquainted?

THERE is no question in our minds as to where we are as of this moment, and we, of course, know how we got here. We are also quite conscious of time in relation to events we have personally experienced. We know, for instance, where we were and what we did an hour ago, a day ago, a week ago. Most of us know how old we are, and we can relate with a good deal of accuracy some of the great events in our lifetime.

2, 3. What are some important questions concerning past historical events?

² But what about the distant past before our time? What do we know about dates and events that were no part of our personal experience? For example, do we know what year Jesus was born or, more important, the date of his death? After all, he was the greatest man ever to walk this earth. Do we know what year Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians? That particular date is highly important if we are to understand why certain events have occurred in our lifetime. Where are we today on the stream of time? Do we know that the seventh year from now will conclude the 6,000th year since Adam was created? And if we live to that year 1975, what should we expect to happen?

³ These are certainly interesting and important questions, but where can we find truthful answers to them? Since events that occurred long before we were born have a great bearing on these matters, how may we obtain the facts? What written records of the past can we rely upon as factual and true?

4. What encouragement do we have to aid in finding answers to our questions?

⁴ The honest seeker of the truth should not be stymied in his search for answers to these questions, thinking it is a hopeless undertaking. In reality he has at his disposal the most ancient book of history and, more important, one that can be trusted and depended upon as the supreme authority, one by which all other testimony can be measured and judged. Fortunately, this historical document is now translated in the language the inquirer can read. This book is the Holy Bible, the inspired and sacred Word of Jehovah God. Jehovah alone knows both the end and the beginning.—Isa. 46:10.

5. Of what value is the Bible as a book of history?

⁵ Secular historians who reach back in time to tell us of the distant past, but who scornfully ignore the Bible’s record, are compelled to fill in the gaps between their meager fragmentary archaeological findings with unreliable traditions, fancy calculations and outright guesswork. On the other hand, honest investigators, and there are many, recognize the truly genuine worth of the Bible as unimpeachable testimony, confirmed by all the discoveries that have been unearthed. When put to the test, the Bible indeed has proved its worth as the most complete record of ancient happenings and as a book of sterling accuracy. We are therefore equipped, with this book of truthful historical dates in hand, to count all the way back to Adam’s creation with little difficulty, filling in the gaps of secular history with dependable data. What is more, we can do so quickly and with little effort.

CHANGES IN THE CALENDARS

6. When was our present calendar adopted, and how accurate is it?

⁶ Today we measure time on the Gregorian calendar, but this yardstick is less than 400 years old. It was Pope Gregory XIII, who, in 1582, did away with the Julian calendar, which by that year was some ten days out of time with the sun. To correct the discrepancy the pope ordered ten days dropped out of the month of October. So October 5 was made October 15, 1582. This present calendar is so accurate that there is only about 26.3 seconds difference between it and the true solar year, and this difference increases at the very small rate of 0.53 seconds every century. That is a difference of less than nine minutes every hundred thousand years, less than a day every sixteen million years.

7. When was the Julian calendar put into use, and what discrepancy did it correct?

⁷ The Julian calendar, which the Gregorian calendar superceded, was instituted by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.E., known as “the year of confusion.” This was because at that time the older calendars were some three months ahead of the suns schedule, making it necessary for the year 46 B.C.E. to have 445 days so the sun could catch up with the calendar, so to speak.

8. How were events in the Bible dated, and what problem does this present in terms of our present-day calendar?

⁸ If events recorded in the Bible were dated according to the Julian or other preceding calendars, it would be a rather simple matter to convert such dates to the Gregorian calendar. But not so. The Bible tells of particular and often detached periods and events, and these are dated in their own special ways, independent of one another. Sometimes they are dated according to the beginning of a certain king’s reign (Neh. 2:1; Esther 1:1-3; Dan. 9:1, 2; Luke 3:1), or by a military victory or the destruction of a great nation (1 Ki. 6:1; Ezek. 1:1, 2; 8:1; 20:1; 40:1), or they are dated in relation to an unusual event such as the flood of Noah’s day. (Gen. 9:28, 29) The difficult task, then, is to determine when these Bible events occurred if measured by our present-day calendar.

9, 10. (a) How may the problem be illustrated? (b) What is the first thing our traveler should do to solve his problem?

⁹ The problem may be illustrated by the following story. An English traveler, visiting a historic place on the continent of Europe, left his hotel one morning and slowly walked through the woods, stopping briefly at the scenic spots and the refreshing pools along the way. Sometime during the afternoon he crossed a stream and followed the path over the mountain. Toward the close of the day the question of how far he had traveled came to mind. He remembered that earlier during the day the distances between the places where he stopped were clearly marked in meters on the signposts, but after crossing the bridge the signposts were discontinued.

¹⁰ To learn how far he had come, it was not enough for our traveler to go back and translate from meters to feet the recorded distances on the early part of his journey. He must first of all measure back from his present position, over the mountain and across the bridge, to the last-recorded marker. Once this distance was determined, the rest would be comparatively easy, if he would but trust the figures on the signposts.

11. (a) What, then, is the first thing to do in learning where we are on the pathway of time? (b) What is meant by an “absolute date,” and of what value is such a date?

¹¹ So too in determining where mankind is on the pathway of time, it will not solve the problem simply to translate ancient calendars into present-day systems. One must first measure back in time across the gulf that separates the present from the ancient Biblical record of the past, to a stationary point in history, to a fixed date of the past, to an absolute date, if you please. Such a date must be one where sacred and secular historical events coincide and are linked in perfect agreement with current methods of measuring time distances. With such a date fixed in terms of the Gregorian yardstick we will know how far we have come from that point and where we are at present. Then from that pivot point we can also measure either forward or backward in dating other events of Bible history even though originally they were dated according to a different system.

THE ABSOLUTE DATE OF 539 B.C.E.

12. What absolute date do we have in connection with the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus?

¹² One such fixed or absolute date is in connection with the events recorded in the fifth chapter of Daniel, verses one to thirty-one. That was concerning the time when the Medes and Persians under Cyrus the Great broke up Belshazzar’s notorious carousal, captured the city of Babylon, and overthrew the Third World Empire. The year was 539 B.C.E. on the Gregorian calendar, four years after the Buddhist Era began in India.

13, 14. The determining of 539 B.C.E. as the year of Babylon’s fall is based upon what important find?

¹³ The fixing of 539 B.C.E. as the year when this historical event occurred is based on a stone document known as the Nabonidus (Nabunaid) Chronicle. This important find was discovered in ruins near the city of Baghdad in 1879, and it is now preserved in the British Museum. A translation of this finding was published by Sidney Smith in Babylonian Historical Texts Relating to the Capture and Downfall of Babylon, London, 1924. The document reads in part:

¹⁴ “In the month of Tashritu [Tishri, Hebrew 7th month], when Cyrus attacked the army of Akkad in Opis on the Tigris, the inhabitants of Akkad revolted, but he (Nabonidus) massacred the confused inhabitants. The 14th day, Sippar was seized without battle. Nabonidus fled. The 16th day [October 11-12, 539 B.C.E., Julian, or October 5-6, Gregorian] Gobryas (Ugbaru), the governor of Gutium and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle. Afterwards Nabonidus was arrested in Babylon when he returned (there). . . . In the month of Arahshamnu [Heshvan, Hebrew 8th month], the 3rd day [October 28-29, Julian], Cyrus entered Babylon, green twigs were spread in front of him—the state of ‘Peace’ (Sulmu) was imposed upon the city.”—Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton; 1955), James B. Pritchard, p. 306.

15, 16. What accounts for the fact that the Nabonidus Chronicle makes no mention of Belshazzar in connection with the fall of Babylon?

¹⁵ Please note, the Nabonidus Chronicle gives precise details as to the time when these events took place. This, in turn, enables modern scholars, with their knowledge of astronomy, to translate these dates into terms of the Julian or Gregorian calendars. Explaining why this Chronicle makes no particular reference to Belshazzar in connection with the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, and also confirming the date of 539, note what professor Jack Finegan says in Light from the Ancient Past (1959), pages 227-229:

¹⁶ “Nabunaid (Nabonidus) shared the kingship with his own oldest son Belshazzar. Belshazzar is named as the crown prince in Babylonian inscriptions. . . . Since, therefore, Belshazzar actually exercised the coregency at Babylon and may well have continued to do so unto the end, the book of Daniel (5:30) is not wrong in representing him as the last king of Babylon. In the seventeenth year of King Nabunaid, Babylon fell to Cyrus the Persian. The Nabunaid chronicle gives exact dates. In the month of Tashritu on the fourteenth day, October 10, 539 B.C., the Persian forces took Sippar; on the sixteenth day, October 12, ‘the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle’; and in the month of Arahsamnu, on the third day, October 29, Cyrus himself came into the city.”

17. What other authorities confirm the day, month and year of Babylon’s fall?

¹⁷ Other investigators say this: “The Nabunaid Chronicle . . . states that Sippar fell to Persian forces VII/14/17a (Oct. 10, 539),b that Babylon fell VII/16/17 (Oct. 12), and that Cyrus entered Babylon VIII/3/17c (Oct. 29). This fixes the end of Nabunaid’s reign and the beginning of the reign of Cyrus. Interestingly enough, the last tablet dated to Nabunaid from Uruk is dated the day after Babylon fell to Cyrus. News of its capture had not yet reached the southern city some 125 miles distant.”—Brown University Studies, Vol. XIX, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.—A.D. 75, Parker and Dubberstein, 1956, p. 13.

18. (a) On what date do some twenty historians and commentators agree? (b) Has this agreement only recently been reached?

¹⁸ Recognized authorities of today accept 539 B.C.E. without any question as the year Babylon was overthrown by Cyrus the Great. In addition to the above quotations the following gives a small sampling from books of history representing a cross section of both general reference works and elementary textbooks.d These brief quotations also show that this is not a date recently suggested, but one thoroughly investigated and generally accepted for the past sixty years.

“Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 B.C.” (Encyclopœdia Britannica, 1946, Vol. 2, p. 852) “When Cyrus defeated the army of Nabonidus, Babylon itself surrendered, in Oct. 539, to the Persian general Gobryas.”—Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 930.

“In 539 B.C. Babylon fell without a struggle to the Achaemenid Persian, Cyrus the Great.”—The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956, Vol. III, p. 9.

“Babylon was captured by Cyrus in 539 B.C.”—Yale Oriental Series · Researches · Vol. XV, 1929, Nabonidus and Belshazzar, Dougherty, p. 46.

“The Persians took the city in 539 B.C.” (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1966, Vol. 2, p. 10) “In 539 B.C., the Persians conquered Babylonia.” (Ibid., p. 13) “Nabonidus, the last king of Chaldean Babylonia, who reigned from 555 to 539 B.C.”—Ibid, p. 193.

“The downfall of Lydia prepared the way for a Persian attack on Babylonia. The conquest of that country proved unexpectedly easy. In 539 B.C. the great city of Babylon opened its gates to the Persian hosts.”—Ancient History, Hutton Webster, 1913, p. 64.

“In 539 B.C. Babylon, too, was captured by Cyrus.”—The Story of the Ancient Nations, W. L. Westermann, 1912, p. 73.

“In 539 B.C., however, Cyrus advanced for the conquest of Babylonia. . . . Sippar was taken without a blow and, two days later, the van of the army of Cyrus entered Babylon.”—History of the Hebrews, F. K. Sanders, 1914, p. 230.

“It is not likely that there was a long interval between his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] death and the fall of the Chaldean Empire before the onslaught of Cyrus in 539.”—The Biblical Period, W. F. Albright, Reprinted from The Jews; Their History, Culture and Religion, edited by Louis Finkelstein, 1955, p. 49.

“Cyrus entered Babylon on October 29, 539 B.C. and presented himself in the role of the liberator of the people.”—The Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary, 1965, p. 193; see also pages 93, 104, 198, 569.

“Nebuchadnezzar had surrounded Babylon with huge walls, but after the defeat of Belshazzar’s army the city surrendered with slight resistance in 539 B.C.”—World History at a Glance, Reither, 1942, pp. 28, 29.

“When the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to the Persians, Babylon opened its gates to Cyrus in 539 B.C. without opposition.”—The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1962, p. 335.

“In the seventeenth year of Nabonidus (B. C. 539), Cyrus captured Babylon.”—The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopœdia and Scriptural Dictionary, Fallows, 1913, Vol. 1, p. 207.

“Cyrus the Great, in 539 B.C., added the Babylonian to the other empires which he had acquired and consolidated with magical ease and celerity.”—A New Standard Bible Dictionary, 1926, p. 91.

“The city [Babylon] was taken by surprise B. C. 539.”—The Universal Bible Dictionary Peloubet, 1912, p. 69.

“539 B.C. marked the collapse of Semitic hegemony in the ancient Orient, and the introduction of Aryan leadership which continued for at least a thousand years. This conquest of Babylon by Cyrus laid the foundation for all the later developments under Greek and Roman rule.”—Darius the Mede, Whitcomb, 1959, Introduction, p. 2.

“It was Cyrus, also, who conquered Babylon in the year 539 B.C. and thus became master of Mesopotamia and Syria.”—Ancient and Medieval History, Hayes and Moon, 1930, p. 92.

“Nabonidus (Nabunaid) . . . was the last King of Babylon (555-539 B.C.).”—The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907, Vol. 2, p. 184.

“In 539 the kingdom of Babylon fell to Cyrus.”—The New Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia, 1952, Vol. 10, p. 3397.

“The Chaldean Empire, with its capital at Babylon (Second Babylonian Empire), lasted, . . . until 539 B.C., when it collapsed before the attack of Cyrus.”—The Outline of History, H. G. Wells, 1921, p. 140.

“Cyrus conquered Babylonia in 539 B. C.”—The International Standard Bible Encyclopœdia, 1960, Vol. 1, p. 367.

“In the year 539 Cyrus conquers the city Babylon, Babylonia becomes a province of the Persian Empire.”—Translated from the German Bibel-Lexikon, edited by Herbert Haag together with associates, printed in Switzerland, in 1951. See page 150 under Babylonia.

19. So, then, how long ago has it been since the fall of Babylon to the Persians?

¹⁹ With the date 539 B.C.E. so firmly fixed and agreed to by so many scholars, we are quite confident where we stand today in relation to the fall of Babylon twenty-five centuries ago. October 6, 1968, will mark 2,506 years since the fall of that third world empire.e Other important events which occurred prior to 539 may now be quite accurately dated. If one will accept the dates posted in the Bible, this becomes a rather easy matter, and some of the erroneous pitfalls into which traditional chronologers of Christendom have fallen will be avoided.

JERUSALEM DESTROYED, 607 B.C.E.

20. (a) Does the name “Darius” occur in cuneiform inscriptions? (b) But of what are we sure?

²⁰ Believers in Daniel’s God Jehovah know that the historical accuracy of the Bible does not rest upon undiscovered, incomplete, imperfect, uninspired worldly documents. So just because in the pagan cuneiform inscriptions so far discovered the name “Darius” is nowhere found, that does not alter in any way the truthfulness of the Bible’s testimony. The historical facts written under divine inspiration are clear: “In that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed, and Darius the Mede himself received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.” (Dan. 5:30, 31) Some investigators believe, and the argument is strong, that Darius was the same as Gubaru, Cyrus’ governor, who entered Babylon with him and who appointed governors in the city.f However, Daniel repeatedly speaks of Darius the Mede, not as Governor, but as King, even personally addressing him as such.—Dan. 6:1, 6-9, 12-25.

21. In the first year of Darius’ reign what exciting discovery did Daniel make?

²¹ During the few months that Darius was on the throne Daniel made a startling chronological discovery: “In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, who had been made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans; in the first year of his reigning I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of Jehovah had occurred to Jeremiah the prophet, for fulfilling the devastations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” (Dan. 9:1, 2) Without a doubt the question as to when this time limit of seventy years would expire was one that pressed hard upon Daniel’s mind. Fortunately, he did not have to wait long for the answer.

22. How long did Darius I reign, and who succeeded him as king of Babylon?

²² The reign of Darius I was brief; mention of “the first year” of his reign infers he was king for at least a full year. (Dan. 9:1; 11:1) Cyrus followed him on the throne by late 538 and Jehovah’s prophet Daniel continued in his high office. “As for this Daniel, he prospered in the kingdom of Darius and in the kingdom of Cyrus the Persian.” (Dan. 6:2, 28) That there was a very close association between these two kings and their kingdoms is indicated by the repeated expression, “the law of the Medes and the Persians.”—Dan. 6:8, 12, 15.

23. (a) What grand prophecy was about to be fulfilled? (b) By what date were the Jews back in their homeland? Due to what speedy developments?

²³ Two centuries earlier Jehovah by the mouth of his prophet Isaiah had declared: “[I am] the One saying of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and all that I delight in he will completely carry out’; even in my saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘You will have your foundation laid.’” (Isa. 44:28) Without further delay this two-hundred-year-old prophecy was about to be fulfilled. Cyrus acceded to the throne and “in the first year” of his reign, at least before the spring of 537, “Jehovah roused the spirit of Cyrus.” He issued the famous edict permitting the Jews to return and rebuild Jehovah’s temple, copies of which were written and circulated throughout the realm. This allowed sufficient time for the Jews to resettle in their homeland, ‘establish the altar firmly upon its own site,’ and “from the first day of the seventh month” start offering up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah. This date, the “first day of the seventh month,” according to the best astronomical tables available,g is calculated to be October 5 (Julian) or September 29 (Gregorian) 537 B.C.E.—Ezra 1:1-4; 3:1-6.

24. So when did the seventy years of desolation begin, and when did they end?

²⁴ Here, then, very definitely established, is another milestone—the time when the seventy years of desolation of the land of Judah came to an end—about October 1, 537. (Jer. 25:11, 12; 29:10) It is now a simple formula to determine when the seventy years began. One has only to add 70 to 537 to get 607. So about October 1, 607 B.C.E., the desolating of the land of Judah and the complete emptying out of its inhabitants was fully accomplished.

25. The answer to what question is related to the year 607 B.C.E.?

²⁵ The importance of the year 607 B.C.E. in this Biblical chronology will become more apparent in the following article, as we seek an answer to the provocative question, When was Adam created?

Why Are You Looking Forward to 1975?

1, 2. (a) What has sparked special interest in the year 1975, and with what results? (b) But what questions are raised?

WHAT about all this talk concerning the year 1975? Lively discussions, some based on speculation, have burst into flame during recent months among serious students of the Bible. Their interest has been kindled by the belief that 1975 will mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adam’s creation. The nearness of such an important date indeed fires the imagination and presents unlimited possibilities for discussion.

² But wait! How do we know their calculations are correct? What basis is there for saying Adam was created nearly 5,993 years ago? Does the one Book that can be implicitly trusted for its truthful historical accuracy, namely, the Inspired Word of Jehovah, the Holy Bible, give support and credence to such a conclusion?

3. Is the date for Adam’s creation as found in many copies of the Bible part of the inspired Scriptures, and do all agree on the date?

³ In the marginal references of the Protestant Authorized or King James Version, and in the footnotes of certain editions of the Catholic Douay version, the date of man’s creation is said to be 4004 B.C.E. This marginal date, however, is no part of the inspired text of the Holy Scriptures, since it was first suggested more than fifteen centuries after the last Bible writer died, and was not added to any edition of the Bible until 1701 C.E. It is an insertion based upon the conclusions of an Irish prelate, the Anglican Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). Ussher’s chronology was only one of the many sincere efforts made during the past centuries to determine the time of Adam’s creation. A hundred years ago when a count was taken, no less than 140 different timetables had been published by serious scholars. In such chronologies the calculations as to when Adam was created vary all the way from 3616 B.C.E. to 6174 B.C.E., with one wild guess set at 20,000 B.C.E. Such conflicting answers contained in the voluminous libraries around the world certainly tend to compound the confusion when seeking an answer to the above questions.

4. What have we learned in our previous study, and, hence, what are we now prepared to do?

⁴ In the previous article we learned from the Inspired Writings themselves, independent of the uninspired marginal notes of some Bibles, that the seventy years of desolation of the land of Judah began to count about October 1, 607 B.C.E. The beginning of this seventy-year period was obviously tied to its ending, that is, with the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.E. So with 607 B.C.E. as dependably fixed on our Gregorian calendar as the absolute date of 539 B.C.E. we are prepared to move farther back in the count of time, to the dating of other important events in Bible history. For instance, the years when Saul, David and Solomon reigned successively over God’s chosen people can now be dated in terms of the present-day calendar.

5. What history-making events took place in 997 B.C.E.?

⁵ At the death of Solomon his kingdom was split into two parts. The southern two-tribe part, composed of Judah and Benjamin, continued to be ruled by Solomon’s descendants, and was known as the kingdom of Judah. The northern ten tribes made up the kingdom of Israel, sometimes called “Samaria” after the name of its later capital city, and were ruled over by Jeroboam and his successors. By our applying the prophetic time period of 390 years found in Ezekiel 4:1-9 with regard to Jerusalem’s destruction the death of Solomon is found to be in the year 997 B.C.E. This was 390 years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E.

ISRAEL’S ERRORS CARRIED 390 YEARS

6, 7. What time periods are referred to in Ezekiel 4:1-9?

⁶ Notice what is said on this matter by the prophet Ezekiel:

⁷ “And you, O son of man, take for yourself a brick, and you must put it before you, and engrave upon it a city, even Jerusalem. And you must lay siege against it . . . It is a sign to the house of Israel. And as for you, lie upon your left side, and you must lay the error of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you will lie upon it you will carry their error. And I myself must give to you the years of their error to the number of three hundred and ninety days, and you must carry the error of the house of Israel. And you must complete them. And you must lie upon your right side in the second case, and you must carry the error of the house of Judah forty days. A day for a year, a day for a year, is what I have given you. . . . And as for you, take for yourself wheat and barley and broad beans and lentils and millet and spelt, and you must put them in one utensil and make them into bread for you, for the number of the days that you are lying upon your side; three hundred and ninety days you will eat it.”—Ezek. 4:1-9.

8. When did the carrying of the “error” of the southern kingdom end?

⁸ This chapter 4 of Ezekiel, was not recounting past historical events but was prophecy of future events. It was telling of the time in the future when the glorious city of Jerusalem would be besieged and its inhabitants taken captive, all of which occurred in 607 B.C.E. So the forty years spoken of in the case of Judah ended in that year. The “error” of the northern kingdom, said to be carried for 390 years, was nearly tenfold greater when compared with the error of Judah carried for 40 years. When, then, did these 390 years end?

9. What indicates the “error” of the northern kingdom also ended in 607 B.C.E.?

⁹ They were not terminated in 740 B.C.E., when Samaria was destroyed, for the simple fact that Ezekiel enacted this prophetic drama sometime after “the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin,” which would make the termination not earlier than 613 B.C.E., that is, 127 years after the destruction of Samaria by Assyria. (Ezek. 1:2) Since this whole prophetic drama plainly pointed forward to the destruction of Jerusalem, and since both the house of Israel and the house of Judah were in reality one inseparable covenant-bound people, the remnant of whom would not be a divided people upon their return from exile, there is only one reasonable conclusion, namely, the errors of both houses ran concurrently and terminated at the same time in 607 B.C.E. In this way the 70 years of desolation of the land of Judah ended 70 years after the termination of carrying the error of both houses, so that thus a remnant of both houses could return to the site of Jerusalem.

10. So when did the “error” of Israel begin?

¹⁰ If the “error of the house of Israel” ended in 607, its beginning, 390 years prior thereto, was in 997 B.C.E. It began the year that King Solomon died and Jeroboam committed error, yes, great error, in that Jeroboam, whose domain was ripped off from the house of David, “proceeded to part Israel from following Jehovah,” causing them “to sin with a great sin.”—2 Ki. 17:21.

DATE OF EXODUS, 1513 B.C.E.

11, 12. What other event in man’s history are we now prepared to date, and with the aid of what key text?

¹¹ Looking back into the distant past we see another milestone in man’s history, the never-to-be-forgotten exodus of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, under the leadership of Moses. Were it not for Jehovah’s faithful Word the Bible, it would be impossible to locate this great event accurately on the calendar, for Egyptian hieroglyphics are conspicuously silent concerning the humiliating defeat handed that first world power by Jehovah. But with the Bible’s chronology, how relatively simple it is to date that memorable event!

¹² At 1 Kings 6:1 we read: “And it came about in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, that is, the second month, after Solomon became king over Israel, that he proceeded to build the house to Jehovah.”

13, 14. (a) On the Gregorian calendar, in what year did Solomon begin to reign? (b) In what year did he begin the building of the temple?

¹³ With this information one has only to determine what calendar year Solomon began building the temple, and it is then an easy matter to figure when Pharaoh’s army was destroyed in the Red Sea.

¹⁴ “And the days that Solomon had reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel were forty years.” (1 Ki. 11:42) This means that his last full regnal year ended in the spring of 997 B.C.E.a Adding 40 to 997 gives 1037 B.C.E., the year that Solomon began his peaceful reign. He did not begin the temple building, as the account says, until the second month of the fourth year of his reign, which means he had ruled a full three years and one month. Thus subtracting 3 years from 1037 one gets 1034 B.C.E., the year that the building work began. The time of the year was the second month Ziv, that is, April-May. This, the Bible says, was “in the four hundred and eightieth year” after the Israelites left Egypt.

15. (a) Explain the difference between a cardinal and an ordinal number. (b) So when did the Israelites leave Egypt?

¹⁵ Anytime we put a “th” on the end of a number, for instance on the number 10, saying 10th, the number is changed from a cardinal to an ordinal number. When one speaks about playing baseball in the tenth inning of the game, it means that nine full innings have already been played, but only part of the tenth; ten innings are not yet completed. Likewise, when the Bible uses an ordinal number, saying that the building of the temple began in the 480th year after the Israelites left Egypt, and when that particular year on the calendar is known to be 1034 B.C.E., then we add 479 full years (not 480) to 1034 and arrive at the date 1513 B.C.E., the year of the Exodus. It too was springtime, Passover time, the 14th day of the month Nisan.

HOW LONG SINCE THE FLOOD?

16. How far back in history have we now penetrated, and what are the prospects of probing even deeper?

¹⁶ Already with the help supplied by the Bible we have accurately measured back from the spring of this year 1968 C.E. to the spring of 1513 B.C.E., a total of 3,480 years. With the continued faithful memory and accurate historical record of Jehovah’s Holy Word we can penetrate even deeper into the past, back to the flood of Noah’s day.

17. In recounting Israel’s experiences, to what events and to what time period does Stephen refer?

¹⁷ Stephen, the first martyred footstep follower of Jesus Christ, referred to what Jehovah said would befall Abraham’s offspring. “Moreover, God spoke to this effect, that his seed would be alien residents in a foreign land and the people would enslave them and afflict them for four hundred years.” (Acts 7:6; Gen. 15:13) Stephen here mentions three of Israel’s past experiences: As alien residents in a foreign land, as people in slavery, and as people afflicted for four hundred years.

18. What argues against the conclusion that these events were separate experiences following one another in consecutive order?

¹⁸ It would be a mistake to assume that all three of these experiences were of equal duration, or that they were separate individual experiences that followed one another in consecutive order. It was long after their entrance into Egypt as aliens that they were enslaved, more than 70 years later, and sometime after the death of Joseph. Rather, Stephen was saying that within the same 400-year period in which they were afflicted, they were also enslaved and were also alien residents.

19. How do we know the Israelites were “aliens” before entering Egypt?

¹⁹ Please note that, when Stephen said they were “alien residents in a foreign land . . . for four hundred years,” he did not say and he did not mean to imply that they were not alien residents before entering Egypt. So it is a mistake to insist that this text proves the Israelites were in Egypt for four hundred years. It is true that, upon entering Egypt and being presented before Pharaoh for the first time, Joseph’s brothers said: “We have come to reside as aliens in the land.” But they did not say nor did they mean that up until then they had not been alien residents, for on the same occasion their father Jacob, when asked by Pharaoh how old he was, declared: “The days of the years of my alien residences are a hundred and thirty years.” And not only had Jacob spent his whole lifetime as an alien resident before coming to Egypt, but he told Pharaoh that his forefathers before him also had been alien residents.—Gen. 47:4-9.

20. When did these 400 years end, and when did they begin?

²⁰ Since the affliction of Israel ended in 1513 B.C.E., it must have begun in 1913, 400 years earlier. That year would correspond to the time that Isaac was afflicted by Ishmael “poking fun” at him on the day that Isaac was weaned. At the time, Isaac was five years old, and this was long before the Israelites entered Egypt.—Gen. 21:8, 9.

21, 22. Were the Israelites 430 years in Egypt exclusively, and how do certain ancient manuscripts shed light on this point?

²¹ Well, then, how long were the Israelites down in Egypt as alien residents? Exodus 12:40, 41 says: “And the dwelling of the sons of Israel, who had dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came about at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, it even came about on this very day that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt.”

²² Here Ex 12 verse 40 in the Septuagint reads: “But the dwelling of the sons of Israel which they [and their fathers, Alexandrine MS] dwelt in the land of Egypt AND IN THE LAND OF CANAAN [was] four hundred and thirty years long.” The Samaritan Pentateuch reads: “IN THE LAND OF CANAAN and in the land of Egypt.” Thus both of these versions, which are based on Hebrew texts older than the Masoretic, include the words “in the land of Canaan” together with the word “Egypt.”

23. (a) So how long were the Israelites actually in Egypt, and how does Paul confirm this? (b) Explain the difference between the 400 and the 430 years mentioned in the Scriptures.

²³ From the time that Abraham entered Canaan until Isaac’s birth was 25 years;b from that time until Jacob’s birth, 60 more years; and after that it was another 130 years before Jacob entered Egypt. All together this makes a total of 215 years, exactly half of the 430 years, spent in Canaan before moving in to Egypt. (Gen. 12:4; 21:5; 25:26; 47:9) The apostle Paul, under inspiration, also confirms that from the making of the Abrahamic covenant at the time the patriarch moved into Canaan, it was 430 years down to the institution of the Law covenant.—Gal. 3:17.

24, 25. The Flood began in what calendar year, and how long was this before Abraham entered Canaan?

²⁴ By adding this 430 years to the 1513 it puts us back to 1943 B.C.E., the time when Abraham first entered Canaan following the death of his father Terah in Haran, Mesopotamia. It is now only a matter of adding up the years of a few generations to date the Flood correctly. The figures are given in Genesis, chapters 11 and 12, and may be summarized as follows:

From start of Flood

To Arpachshad’s birth (Gen. 11:10) 2 years

To birth of Shelah (11:12) 35 “

To birth of Eber (11:14) 30 “

To birth of Peleg (11:16) 34 “

To birth of Reu (11:18) 30 “

To birth of Serug (11:20) 32 “

To birth of Nahor (11:22) 30 “

To birth of Terah (11:24) 29 “

Total 427 years

²⁵ Adding these 427 years to the year 1943 B.C.E. dates the beginning of the Deluge at 2370 B.C.E., 4,337 years ago.

6,000 YEARS FROM ADAM’S CREATION

26, 27. (a) How long before the Flood was Adam created? In what year? (b) What indicates that Adam was created in the fall of the year?

²⁶ In a similar manner it is only necessary to add up the following years involving ten pre-Flood generations to get the date of Adam’s creation, namely:

From Adam’s creation

To birth of Seth (Gen. 5:3) 130 years

To birth of Enosh (5:6) 105 “

To birth of Kenan (5:9) 90 “

To birth of Mahalalel (5:12) 70 “

To birth of Jared (5:15) 65 “

To birth of Enoch (5:18) 162 “

To birth of Methuselah (5:21) 65 “

To birth of Lamech (5:25) 187 “

To birth of Noah (5:28, 29) 182 “

To beginning of Flood (7:6) 600 “

Total 1,656 years

²⁷ Adding this figure 1,656 to 2,370 gives 4026 B.C.E., the Gregorian calendar year in which Adam was created. Since man naturally began to count time with his own beginning, and since man’s most ancient calendars started each year in the autumn, it is reasonable to assume that the first man Adam was created in the fall of the year.

28. How does this chronology differ from Ussher’s in regard to Adam’s creation?

²⁸ Thus, through a careful independent study by dedicated Bible scholars who have pursued the subject for a number of years, and who have not blindly followed some traditional chronological calculations of Christendom, we have arrived at a date for Adam’s creation that is 22 years more distant in the past than Ussher’s figure. This means time is running out two decades sooner than traditional chronology anticipates.

29. Why be concerned with the date of Adam’s creation?

²⁹ After much of the mathematics and genealogies, really, of what benefit is this information to us today? Is it not all dead history, as uninteresting and profitless as walking through a cemetery copying old dates off tombstones? After all, why should we be any more interested in the date of Adam’s creation than in the birth of King Tut? Well, for one thing, if 4,026 is added to 1,968 (allowing for the lack of a zero year between C.E. and B.C.E.) one gets a total of 5,993 years, come this autumn, since Adam’s creation. That means, in the fall of the year 1975, a little over seven years from now (and not in 1997 as would be the case if Ussher’s figures were correct), it will be 6,000 years since the creation of Adam, the father of all mankind!

ADAM CREATED AT CLOSE OF “SIXTH DAY”

30. What may occur before 1975, but what attitude should we take?

³⁰ Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly, but we wait to see how closely the seventh thousand-year period of man’s existence coincides with the sabbathlike thousand-year reign of Christ. If these two periods run parallel with each other as to the calendar year, it will not be by mere chance or accident but will be according to Jehovah’s loving and timely purposes. Our chronology, however, which is reasonably accurate (but admittedly not infallible), at the best only points to the autumn of 1975 as the end of 6,000 years of man’s existence on earth. It does not necessarily mean that 1975 marks the end of the first 6,000 years of Jehovah’s seventh creative “day.” Why not? Because after his creation Adam lived some time during the “sixth day,” which unknown amount of time would need to be subtracted from Adam’s 930 years, to determine when the sixth seven-thousand-year period or “day” ended, and how long Adam lived into the “seventh day.” And yet the end of that sixth creative “day” could end within the same Gregorian calendar year of Adam’s creation. It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years.

31. What do the first two chapters of Genesis disclose?

³¹ In regard to Adam’s creation it is good to read carefully what the Bible says. Moses in compiling the book of Genesis referred to written records or “histories” that predated the Flood. The first of these begins with Genesis 1:1 and ends at Genesis 2:4 with the words, “This is the history of the heavens and the earth . . . ” The second historical document begins with Genesis 2:5 and ends with Ge verse two of chapter five. Hence we have two separate accounts of creation from slightly different points of view. In the second of these accounts, in Genesis 2:19, the original Hebrew verb translated “was forming” is in the progressive imperfect form. This does not mean that the animals and birds were created after Adam was created. Genesis 1:20-28 shows it does not mean that. So, in order to avoid contradiction between Ge chapter one and chapter two, Genesis 2:19, 20 must be only a parenthetical remark thrown in to explain the need for creating a “helper” for man. So the progressive Hebrew verb form could also be rendered as “had been forming.”—See Rotherham’s translation (Ro), also Leeser’s (Le).

32. What indicates the sixth creative day did not end immediately with Adam’s creation?

³² These two creation accounts in the book of Genesis, though differing slightly in the treatment of the material, are in perfect agreement with each other on all points, including the fact that Eve was created after Adam. So not until after this event did the sixth creative day come to an end. Exactly how soon after Adam’s creation is not disclosed. “After that [Adam and Eve’s creation] God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.” (Gen. 1:31) After the sixth creative day ends, the seventh one begins.

33. (a) How do we know the end of the sixth creative day came very soon after Adam’s creation? (b) How does Genesis 1:31 prove the sixth day ended before Adam and Eve sinned?

³³ This time between Adam’s creation and the beginning of the seventh day, the day of rest, let it be noted, need not have been a long time. It could have been a rather short one. The naming of the animals by Adam, and his discovery that there was no complement for himself, required no great length of time. The animals were in subjection to Adam; they were peaceful; they came under God’s leading; they were not needing to be chased down and caught. It took Noah only seven days to get the same kinds of animals, male and female, into the Ark. (Gen. 7:1-4) Eve’s creation was quickly accomplished, ‘while Adam was sleeping.’ (Gen. 2:21) So the lapse of time between Adam’s creation and the end of the sixth creative day, though unknown, was a comparatively short period of time. The pronouncement at the end of the sixth day, “God saw everything he had made and, look! it was very good,” proves that the beginning of the great seventh day of the creative week did not wait until after Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

1975! . . . AND FAR BEYOND!

34. What has brought about a better understanding of Bible chronology?

³⁴ Bible chronology is an interesting study by which historic events are placed in their order of occurrence along the stream of time. The Watch Tower Society over the years has endeavored to keep its associates abreast with the latest scholarship that proves consistent with historic and prophetic events recorded in the Scriptures. Major problems in sacred chronology have been straightened out either due to fulfillment of Bible prophecies or by reason of archaeological discoveries or because better Bible translations convey more clearly the records of the original languages. However, several knotty problems of chronology of a minor nature are not yet resolved. For example, at the time of the exodus from Egypt when Jehovah changed the beginning of the year from autumn time on the secular calendar to spring time on the sacred calendar, was there, in the Jewish calendar, a loss or a gain of six months?—Ex. 12:1, 2.

35. Why is this no time for indifference and complacency?

³⁵ One thing is absolutely certain, Bible chronology reinforced with fulfilled Bible prophecy shows that six thousand years of man’s existence will soon be up, yes, within this generation! (Matt. 24:34) This is, therefore, no time to be indifferent and complacent. This is not the time to be toying with the words of Jesus that “concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matt. 24:36) To the contrary, it is a time when one should be keenly aware that the end of this system of things is rapidly coming to its violent end. Make no mistake, it is sufficient that the Father himself knows both the “day and hour”!

36. What helpful example did the apostles leave us in this regard?

³⁶ Even if one cannot see beyond 1975, is this any reason to be less active? The apostles could not see even this far; they knew nothing about 1975. All they could see was a short time ahead in which to finish the work assigned to them. (1 Pet. 4:7) Hence, there was a ring of alarm and a cry of urgency in all their writings. (Acts 20:20; 2 Tim. 4:2) And rightly so. If they had delayed or dillydallied and had been complacent with the idea the end was some thousands of years off they would never have finished running the race set before them. No, they ran hard and they ran fast, and they won! It was a life or death matter with them.—1 Cor. 9:24; 2 Tim. 4:7; Heb. 12:1.

37. So what will you be doing between now and 1975? And beyond that, what?

³⁷ So too with Jehovah’s faithful witnesses in this latter half of the twentieth century. They have the true Christian point of view. Their strenuous evangelistic activity is not something peculiar to this present decade. They have not dedicated their lives to serve Jehovah only until 1975. Christians have been running this way ever since Christ Jesus blazed the trail and commanded his disciples, “Follow me!” So keep this same mental attitude in you that was in Christ Jesus. Let nothing slow you down or cause you to tire and give out. Those who will flee Babylon the Great and this Satanic system of things are now running for their lives, headed for God’s kingdom, and they will not stop at 1975. O no! They will keep on in this glorious way that leads to everlasting life, praising and serving Jehovah for ever and ever!

[Footnotes]

How 1st-Century Events Are Dated in the 20th Century

1. Why is a further consideration of Bible dates important?

IN THE previous two articles the truthfulness of the Bible’s ancient history as far back as Adam’s creation has been tested and proved. Any consideration of historical dates, however, would certainly be incomplete if it failed to locate Jesus’ earthly ministry and that of his apostles on the stream of man’s history, for, indeed, no one ever walked this earth who had a more profound effect on the lives and destinies of men and nations the world over.

2. What is first necessary before first-century events can be dated?

² As already pointed out, neither our present Gregorian calendar, nor the Julian calendar, which it replaced less than 400 years ago, is in itself an adequate device for locating events recorded in the Christian Greek Scriptures. This is because the Bible used an entirely different system of dating important happenings. As a consequence, before any corelation of Bible events in terms of modern calendars can be made, it is necessary to have a common starting point in time, an absolute fixed date attested to by both the Bible and proved secular history. This accomplished, other historic events reported in the Bible can be dated according to the civil calendar.

3, 4. (a) When did Tiberius Caesar become emperor? (b) So John the Baptist began his preaching work in what year?

³ After the death of Julius Caesar, his adopted son, Gaius Octavius, adroitly suppressed the power of the Roman senate, skillfully changed the image of the Republic to that of an empire, and finally seated himself securely in the saddle as Rome’s first emperor. In 27 B.C.E., on his way to becoming deified, Octavius assumed a religious title of reverence, that of Augustus. He is also remembered for his renaming the month Sextilis on the Julian calendar after himself, and borrowing a day from the month of February so that the month of August would have as many days as July, which was named after his predecessor Julius Caesar. Now it so happened that Augustus Caesar died the 19th day of the month of his namesake, August, in the year 14 C.E., Julian calendar (August 17, Gregorian calendar). On the same day Augustus’ stepson and son-in-law, Tiberius, succeeded him as emperor.

⁴ August 19, 14 C.E., Julian calendar, therefore, is an established undisputed date in Roman history. All reasonable doubt is therefore removed as to what year it was when John the Baptist began his preaching work in the wilderness of the Jordan, for the historian Luke declares that it was “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.” (Luke 3:1) That “fifteenth year” did not end until August 16, 29 C.E., Gregorian calendar. It was in that year, evidently in the spring, when John the Baptist began his work.

5. How does Luke make sure for us when John the Baptist began his ministry?

⁵ Luke, perhaps anticipating that antagonists might attack this important event, reinforced it beyond a historical shadow of doubt. After saying that it was “the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,” Luke added that it was at the same time when six other important rulers were in office, namely, “when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea [27 to 37 C.E.], and Herod was district ruler of Galilee [until 40 C.E.], but Philip his brother was district ruler of the country of Ituraea and Trachonitis [until 34 C.E.], and Lysanias was district ruler of Abilene, in the days of chief priest Annas and of Caiaphas [about 18 to 36 C.E.].” (Luke 3:1, 2) With this array of rulers all in power at the same time in the fifteenth year of Tiberius’ reign it would be impossible for doubters to prove from Roman and Jewish history that John’s ministry did not begin in the year 29 C.E.

SEVENTY WEEKS-OF-YEARS

6. What other very important event occurred in the year 29 C.E.?

⁶ The year 29 C.E. is of interest not simply because it was the year John the Baptist began proclaiming: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens [or, of God] has drawn near,” but, more importantly, because the one whom God would anoint for that kingdom was standing at the very threshold. (Matt. 3:2) John as the forerunner was about six months older than Jesus. (Luke 1:34-38) It follows, therefore, that Jesus’ baptism and anointing took place in the autumn of that same year, 29 C.E., Jesus being at the time “about thirty years old.” (Luke 3:23) On that occasion John testified that Jesus there became the Anointed One, or Christ, being anointed with God’s holy spirit.—John 1:32-34.

7. (a) When, according to Daniel’s prophecy, was Messiah scheduled to come? (b) How long a period of waiting was this to be?

⁷ That the start of the teaching work of this Anointed One was in the fall of 29 C.E. is corroborated by the long-range prophecy of Daniel 9:25, which reads in part: “From the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah [meaning Anointed One] the Leader, there will be seven weeks, also sixty-two weeks.” If the seven plus sixty-two weeks, that is, sixty-nine weeks, were to be literal ones of seven days each, then the period of waiting for Messiah to put in an appearance would have amounted to only 483 literal twenty-four-hour days, a mere sixteen months! Rather, these weeks were prophetic ones. So, following the Bible rule of “a day for a year,” they would represent 483 years (69 weeks-of-years, not weeks-of-days).—Num. 14:34; Ezek. 4:6.

8. How do we know that the order to rebuild Jerusalem was not given in 537 B.C.E., or in the seventh year of Artaxerxes’ reign?

⁸ When, then, did “the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem” go forth? Not in 537 B.C.E., for the decree of Cyrus that year was not to restore and rebuild the city, but only to “rebuild the house [or temple] of Jehovah . . . which was in Jerusalem.” (Ezra 1:2, 3) Nor was it in 468 B.C.E., the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes I, king of Persia, when Ezra went to Jerusalem with a special letter from the king. Nowhere in that letter does it authorize or command the rebuilding of Jerusalem; it dealt only with matters pertaining to the temple services at Jerusalem.—Ezra 7:1-27.

9. What events occurred in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes’ reign that mark it as the time when the word went forth to rebuild Jerusalem?

⁹ But in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I it was reported to Nehemiah what “a very bad plight” the city of Jerusalem was in, and how “the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its very gates have been burned with fire.” So when the opportunity afforded, Nehemiah brought these matters to the king’s attention, and requested: “If to the king it does seem good, . . . that you would send me to Judah, to the city of the burial places of my forefathers, that I may rebuild it.” Furthermore, Nehemiah continued, “If to the king it does seem good, let letters be given me . . . a letter to Asaph the keeper of the park that belongs to the king, that he may give me trees to build with timber the gates of the Castle that belongs to the house, and for the wall of the city and for the house into which I am to enter.”—Neh. 1:2, 3; 2:5-8.

10. What time of the year was the decree to rebuild the city of Jerusalem issued? But when did it take effect?

¹⁰ This plea to the king was made in the spring of the year, in the month Nisan, but by the time the letters were drawn up and Nehemiah made the long trip of perhaps 900 miles, from the Persian palace in Shushan, over 400 miles east of Babylon to Jerusalem, and by the time he delivered the king’s letters to the governors “beyond the River” Euphrates, it was at the end of the lunar month Tammuz (tenth month) when Nehemiah arrived in the broken-down city. As he says, “At length I came to Jerusalem.” (Neh. 2:9-11) So it was in the latter half of Artaxerxes’ twentieth year of rule when the command “to restore and to rebuild” began to take effect, namely, Ab 3 or 4, 455 B.C.E., and when the 69 weeks of the prophecy began to count.—Neh. 2:11 to 6:15.

11. What year did Artaxerxes come to the throne? So when was the twentieth year of his reign?

¹¹ It is established on competent authority that Artaxerxes I began reigning in 474 B.C.E. The Greek historian Thucydides, who lived during Artaxerxes’ time, says that General Themistocles fled from Greece to Asia when Artaxerxes had “lately come to the throne,” and not during the reign of his father Xerxes. The Greek biographer Plutarch of the first century C.E., and Nepos the Roman historian of the first century B.C.E., both support Thucydides on this point. Upon his arrival in Ephesus (in Asia Minor) this General Themistocles asked Artaxerxes’ permission to study the Persian language for one year before appearing before the king. Permission was granted, the appearance was made, and, according to the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus of the first century C.E., Themistocles died in 471 B.C.E. In harmony with this, his arrival in Asia, as shown in Jerome’s Eusebius, was in 473, which would put Artaxerxes on the throne in 474. This means that the twentieth year of this king’s reign fell in or overlapped on 455 B.C.E. Based on this and other historical evidence the noted scholar Ernst Wm. Hengstenberg (1802-1869) in his Christology of the Old Testament, translated from the German by Reuel Keith, Volume 2, page 389, says: “The twentieth year of Artaxerxes is the year 455 before Christ. . . . ” And with this Archbishop Ussher and others agree.

12. Explain how this information about Artaxerxes’ reign helps fix the time of Jesus’ baptism?

¹² So, with the issuing and applying of Artaxerxes’ famous decree for the rebuilding of Jerusalem securely anchored to the year 455 B.C.E., the ending of the 483 years of waiting until Messiah made his appearance came in the latter half of 29 C.E.a With all these facts, proof as to when Jesus’ baptism and anointing occurred certainly is not lacking.

13, 14. (a) Since he was baptized in the year 29 C.E., when was Jesus born? (b) But when do some commentators say Jesus was born, and upon what evidence? (c) How does the year of Herod’s capture of Jerusalem help to determine the year of Jesus’ birth?

¹³ The fixing of Jesus’ baptism in the year 29 C.E., when he was thirty years old, also establishes the date of his birth as the year 2 B.C.E., in the fall. Jesus, then, was one year old in the fall of 1 B.C.E. There being no zero year, in the fall of the next year, 1 C.E., he was two years old, and in the fall of 29 C.E. he was thirty years old. Some chroniclers put the date of Jesus’ birth at 4 B.C.E., or even as early as 6 B.C.E., basing their conclusions on Josephus’ testimony that shortly before Herod’s death there was an eclipse of the moon. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, chap. VI, par. 4) It has been calculated that there was such an eclipse March 13, of the year 4 B.C.E., and so they say the Savior was born before that date, to allow for Herod’s order, calling for the killing of babies two years old and under, to be carried out.

¹⁴ However, this is not sufficient proof for setting Jesus’ birth at 4 B.C.E., since eclipses of the moon are a rather common occurrence, in many years there being two eclipse seasons. More significant is Josephus’ statement that Herod died thirty-seven years after being made king by the Romans. (Antiquities, Book XVII, chap. VIII, par. 1) Actually, Herod did not capture Jerusalem and begin his reign as king until the summer of 38 B.C.E. So if Josephus dated Herod’s reign from the capture of the city, and when he actually began ruling as king, and not from when the Roman senate gave their consent three years earlier, then it brings us to 1 B.C.E. as the year of Herod’s death. This easily allows time for Jesus’ birth in the fall of 2 B.C.E., the visit by the Chaldean astrologers, and for the slaughter of the innocent babes of Bethlehem.—Matt. 2:1-18.

15. If Messiah was cut off in the middle of the “seventieth week,” what year would that have been in our Common Era?

¹⁵ The rest of Daniel’s prophecy concerning the seventy weeks of years confirms these dates. Daniel 9:26, 27 says that “Messiah will be cut off, with nothing for himself,” an event that occurred after the 69 weeks-of-years and in the midst, or “at the half” of the 70th week. Since this last week, the seventieth, is logically the same length as each of the other sixty-nine, then it too was seven years long. Messiah was therefore cut off three and a half years after the fall of 29 C.E., “at the half” of the seven-year-long seventieth week, or in the spring of 33 C.E. “At the half of the week he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease” officially, for it was then that the Law covenant with its sacrifices was legally canceled “by nailing it to the torture stake.” (Dan. 9:27; Col. 2:14) This allowed time for Jesus to fit into his ministry the four annual Passover celebrations mentioned in the Scriptures.b

16. What astronomical facts give further proof that Jesus died Friday afternoon, April 1, 33 C.E.?

¹⁶ Certain astronomical facts also give confirmation that it was 33 C.E. when Jesus was put to death. This event occurred during the twenty-four-hour day of Nisan 14, which began with 6 p.m. on Thursday and ended at 6 p.m. on Friday. This means that Jesus died Friday afternoon about 3 p.m., “the ninth hour.” (Mark 15:34-37) The day after Passover, Nisan 15, was always a sabbath day regardless of what day of the week it came on. (Lev. 23:6, 7) If it fell on a scheduled weekly sabbath, then Nisan 15 was known as ‘a great sabbath,’ as was the case at the time of Jesus’ death. (John 19:31) Now astronomical tablesc show there was just such a Passover full moon on Thursday night, March 31, 33 C.E., Gregorian calendar. The only other occurrence of a full moon on Thursday night in the month of Nisan during Jesus’ ministry was in the year 30 C.E., but this is ruled out as the likely year of his death, since it would allow Messiah only a six-month ministry. It is, therefore, beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus died Friday afternoon, April 1, 33 C.E.

DATING EVENTS BETWEEN 36 C.E. AND 49 C.E.

17. What occurred during the balance of the “seventieth week,” and when did that week end?

¹⁷ The balance of the seventieth week after Messiah was put to death on the torture stake, a period of three and a half years, ran to the fall of 36 C.E., during which time Jehovah’s special invitation to be of the heavenly Kingdom class continued extended exclusively to the Jews and Jewish proselytes, just as the prophecy foretold: “He must keep the [Abrahamic] covenant in force for the many for one week.” (Dan. 9:27) It is for this reason that the good news of salvation did not go to the Gentiles until the fall of 36 C.E., when the apostle Peter was privileged to baptize Cornelius and members of his household.—Acts 10:1–11:18.

18. What was due to begin from the fall of 36 C.E.?

¹⁸ Now with the coming of autumn time of that year 36 C.E. the preaching work about the Christ was due to be greatly expanded, among the Gentile nations. Here, again, we see that Jehovah the Great Timekeeper, and the one who adequately provides precisely on time for every new feature of his work, had a man already well prepared to be the “apostle to the nations,” namely, Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul.—Rom. 11:13; Gal. 2:8, 9.

19. By the year 36 was Paul prepared for the assignment he received?

¹⁹ Paul was not a newly converted novice in the year 36. Because he was a Jew his conversion did not have to wait until 36. The light of truth, it appears, struck him within the first year after Jesus passed off the scene in the spring of 33. For the next two or two and a half years Paul worked in Damascus until it was necessary for him to make his escape in a basket through a hole in that city’s wall. He then went into Arabia for a time, and finally returned to Damascus briefly before going up to Jerusalem. Paul tells us that it was three years after his conversion, which would date it 36 C.E., when he first visited Peter and James in Jerusalem. He says: “After that I went into the regions of Syria and of Cilicia.”—Acts 9:23-25; Gal. 1:15-21.

20. When was the issue of circumcision decided by the governing body in Jerusalem?

²⁰ Continuing in this same letter to the Galatians, Paul writes: “Then after fourteen years I again went up to Jerusalem.” (Gal. 2:1) The fourteenth year from 36 would make it 49 C.E., according to the custom of those days of using ordinal numbers. On that visit to Jerusalem the issue of circumcision was brought before the governing body and was settled.—Acts 15:2-29; Gal. 2:3-9.

21, 22. What events mentioned in the Bible occurred between the years 41 and 49 C.E.?

²¹ There are some other interesting happenings related in the Bible that occurred between the years 36 and 49 C.E. For example, when Claudius was emperor and just prior to the death of Herod Agrippa I, the prophet Agabus, by and through Jehovah’s spirit, foretold a coming famine; the apostle James was put to death by Herod; and Peter was miraculously delivered from the same fate by Jehovah’s angel.—Acts 11:27–12:11.

²² Secular histories agree that these events occurred in 44 C.E., since Claudius was proclaimed emperor in 41 and Herod Agrippa I was eaten up with worms after the Passover of 44 C.E. (Acts 12:21-23) The foretold famine, however, did not come until the year 46, at which time Tiberius Alexander was the Roman procurator in Judea. So this allowed sufficient time, two full years, for the Christians of Antioch to prepare for the emergency and arrange for the relief measures mentioned in the account. Following these events the Bible continues in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Acts to tell of Paul’s first missionary tour. In company with Barnabas Paul visited the island of Cyprus and many cities in Asia Minor before returning to Antioch in Syria. This first trip, it seems, occupied the greater part of the years 47 and 48, yet leaving Paul sufficient time to return to his home in Antioch before making the aforementioned trip to Jerusalem in the spring of 49.

DATING OTHER EVENTS IN PAUL’S MINISTRY

23, 24. When did Paul set out on his exciting second missionary tour, and how long did it take him to get to Corinth, Greece?

²³ See now how helpful the Bible’s remarkable record is in fixing the date on our calendar of Paul’s second missionary journey, between the years 49 and 52 C.E. He returned to Antioch in the spring of 49 with the special letter drawn up by the governing body in Jerusalem, a copy of which is preserved for us. (Acts 15:23-29) The account says that “after some days,” probably by now the summer of the same year, 49, Barnabas returned to the work in Cyprus, but Paul and Silas set out to serve the congregations in Syria and adjacent Cilicia.—Acts 15:36-41.

²⁴ It therefore must have been springtime, 50 C.E., when Paul and Silas, having moved through Asia Minor, crossed over into Europe for the first time. (Acts 16:1-12) The next six months was a very busy time as these pioneers blazed a new trail and established new congregations in Philippi, Thessalonica, Beroea and Athens before reaching Corinth in the fall of 50. What a service year that had been! Just think of it, in a matter of perhaps fifteen months, these first-century missionaries had traveled some 1,300 miles, probably a great deal of it on foot, and had firmly established many new congregations made up of both Jews and Gentiles.

25. What historical evidence shows that Paul did not get to Corinth until the latter part of the year 50 C.E.?

²⁵ That it was late in the year 50 when Paul arrived in Corinth is confirmed by secular history. Paulus Orosius, a historian of the early fifth century, says that it was January 25 in the year 50 when Emperor Claudius ordered all Jews to leave Rome. So time is allowed for Aquila and Priscilla to pack up their belongings, obtain passage, sail for Corinth, arrive there and settle down in what was to be their new home for the next year and a half, and set up a tentmaking business, all this would have easily filled the months of time until Paul got to Corinth in the fall of the same year. As we read, Paul “found a certain Jew named Aquila . . . who had recently come from Italy, and Priscilla his wife, because of the fact that Claudius had ordered all the Jews to depart from Rome.”—Acts 18:2.

26. What find by archaeologists confirms Paul’s stay in Corinth as being from the fall of 50 to the spring of 52?

²⁶ Another point on which the historical accuracy of the Bible is confirmed is found in this same eighteenth chapter of Acts, Ac 18 verse 12. “Now while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up with one accord against Paul and led him to the judgment seat.” Archaeologists have found a fragment of an inscription, containing a rescript of Emperor Claudius, which proves that Gallio was proconsul of Achaia from the summer of 51 to the summer of 52. After Gallio threw this case out of court Paul remained in Corinth “quite some days longer” before leaving for Antioch in Syria. (Acts 18:18) So it appears that Paul arrived in Corinth in the fall of 50, was dragged before Gallio a year or so later, and left there in the spring of 52, as the Bible says, after a stay of eighteen months all together. (Acts 18:11) This allowed him time to reach Antioch by midsummer, 52 C.E.

27. Was Paul content to retire now that he was back home in Antioch?

²⁷ One might reasonably conclude that after so many busy years of full-time missionary service, and after enduring all the hazards and perils of first-century travel, Paul would have settled down in retirement here in Antioch for a good long and well-earned rest. (2 Cor. 11:26, 27) But no! Paul gave no thought to retiring. In all his writings, in all his activity, there is a constant and compelling urgency to press forward with the work with even greater speed and efficiency.

28. Tell about Paul’s third missionary tour, both the places visited and the time covered.

²⁸ We therefore are not surprised to find that after only a short time in Antioch this energetic missionary again took to the road. After “he had passed some time there” in Antioch it was probably the fall of 52 when he set out on his third tour. Traveling overland this time “from place to place through the country of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples,” he reached Ephesus where he probably stayed the next two and a half years. (Acts 18:23; 19:1-10) Then, as he says, he left there after the festival of Pentecost (now the year 55), went through Macedonia and down to Corinth, spending the winter there, before retracing his steps through Philippi by Passover time the next spring. This then allowed Paul sufficient time to reach Jerusalem at the time of Pentecost, 56 C.E.—1 Cor. 16:5-8; Acts 20:1-3, 6, 15, 16; 21:8, 15-17.

29. What dates are assigned to Paul’s experiences, from the time of his arrest in Jerusalem until his death in Rome?

²⁹ No sooner had Paul arrived in Jerusalem than he was pounced upon by his religious adversaries, and for safety’s sake he was secretly hustled down to Caesarea by Roman soldiers. There he remained in jail for two years, until bribe-seeking foxy Felix was replaced as governor by Festus. (Acts 21:27-33; 23:23-35; 24:27) As to the year Festus became governor, The Encyclopædia Britannica comments on the two schools of critics who contend for 55 and 60-61 respectively, saying: “It can be said confidently that the truth is between these two extremes, for the arguments urged in each case appear less to prove one extreme than to disprove its opposite.”d We therefore accept the year 58, in harmony with all the foregoing facts, as the time that Paul’s appeal to Caesar for a hearing of his case was granted, and he was shipped off to Rome. After surviving the most famous shipwreck of all history, and wintering on the island of Malta, the following spring, in 59, Paul arrived in Rome, where for the next two years he remained a prisoner, preaching and teaching, until the year 61. (Acts 27:1; 28:1, 11, 16, 30, 31) Paul’s second imprisonment in Rome, which terminated in his execution, was probably during the years 64-65 C.E.—2 Tim. 1:16; 4:6, 7.

30. Of what benefit has this study of first-century events proved to be?

³⁰ This review of first-century events has been both interesting and faith-building. The Bible writers knew nothing about modern calendars, yet their care and accuracy and the methods they used in dating events have proved most helpful in pinpointing ancient happenings on the stream of time. The harmony of sacred chronology in every detail, its integrity to the truth, adds to our confidence and trust in the Holy Scriptures, and our belief that the Bible is indeed Jehovah’s Word of Truth.

[Footnotes]

What Can I Do?

WHAT can I do? That is a good question. But more to the point, what do you want to do? Have you dedicated your life to the Giver of every good thing, Jehovah God? Would you now like to carry out that dedication in the fullest manner possible?

Possibly you are now employed in some kind of secular job. But if you are one of God’s dedicated ministers you can never make a career of that job, can you? You may even enjoy to some degree the luxuries of these modern days. But is it not a fact that these soon become commonplace? Car, television, comfortable home, and so on—they still do not fully satisfy. Nothing short of having the fullest share possible in the primary work of God’s devoted servants here on earth can really satisfy.

Well, there is a way for single men and women, and young married couples, yes, and older ones too, to gain more joy and peace in dedicated service. It is in a career