• When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part Two
    The Watchtower—2011 | November 1

    • ● The Babylonian chronicles.

      What are they? The Babylonian chronicles are a series of tablets recording major events in Babylonian history.2

      What have experts said? R. H. Sack, a leading authority on cuneiform documents, states that the chronicles provide an incomplete record of important events.c He wrote that historians must probe “secondary sources . . . in the hope of determining what actually happened.”

      What do the documents show? There are gaps in the history recorded in the Babylonian chronicles.3 (See the box below.) Logically, then, the question arises, How reliable are deductions based on such an incomplete record?

  • When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part Two
    The Watchtower—2011 | November 1

    • [Box/​Chart on page 23]

      (For fully formatted text, see publication)

      THE BABYLONIAN CHRONICLES​—A HISTORY WITH GAPS

      The Babylonian chronicles provide an account for only 35 years of the Neo-Babylonian period, traditionally presumed to span some 88 years.

      A YEAR WITHOUT A CHRONICLE RECORD

      A YEAR WITH A CHRONICLE RECORD

      BM 21901

      BM 21946

      BM 35382

      NEO-BABYLONIAN PERIOD

      PERSIANS

      Nabopolassar

      Nebuchadnezzar II

      Amel-Marduk

      Nabonidus

      Neriglissar

      Labashi-Marduk

      BM 25127

      BM 22047

      BM 25124

      [Credit Lines]

      BM 21901 and BM 35382: Photograph taken by courtesy of the British Museum; BM 21946: Copyright British Museum; BM 22047, 25124, 25127: © The Trustees of the British Museum