Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/103

 CHRONOLOGY, •expedient of artificially lengthening the northern series of years, by assuming (without any authority in the text) an “ interregnum of 11 years ” after the death of Jeroboam II., and an “ anarchy for some years ” between Pekah and Hoshea (see the margin of A.Y. at 2 Kings xiv. 29 : xv. 8, 29). (2) As we now know, the methods of chronological computation adopted by the Assyrians were particularly exact. Every year a special officer was appointed, who held office for that year, and gave his name to the year; and “ canons,” or lists, of these officers have been discovered, extending from 893 to 666 B.c.1 The accuracy of these canons can in many cases be checked by the full annals which we now possess of the reigns of many of the kings — as of Asshur-nazir-abal (885-860 B.c.), Shalmaneser II. (860-825), Tiglath-pileser III. (745-727), Sargon (722-705), Sennacherib (704-781), Esarhaddon (681-668), and Asshurbanipal (668-626). Thus from 893 B.c. the Assyrian chronology is certain and precise. Reducing now both the Assyrian and Biblical dates to a •common standard,2 and adopting for the latter the computations of Ussher, we obtain the following singular series of discrepancies :— Dates according Dates according to Ussher’s to Assyrian Chronology. Inscription. Reign of Ahab .... 918-897 Ahab mentioned at the battle of Karkar. . . . ... 854 Reign of Jehu 884-856 Jehu pays tribute to Shalmaneser II 842 ■Reign of Menahem .... 772-761 Menahem mentioned by Tiglathpileser III. 738 Reign of Pekah .... 759-739 Reign of Hoshea .... 730-721 Assassination of Pekah and succession of Hoshea, mentioned by Tiglath-pileser III. . 733 (or 732)3 Capture of Samaria by Sargon in 1 See George Smith, The Assyrian Eponym Canon (1875), pp. 29 ff., 57 ff.; Schrader, Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek (translations of Assyrian and2 Babylonian inscriptions), i. (1889), p. 204 ff. It may be explained here that the dates of the Assyrian and Babylonian kings can be reduced to years B.c. by means of the socalled “Canon of Ptolemy,” which is a list of the Babylonian and Persian kings, with the lengths of their reigns, extending from Nabonassar, 747 B.C., to Alexander the Great, drawn up in the 2nd century a.d. by the celebrated Egyptian mathematician and geographer Ptolemy: as the dates B.c. of the Persian kings are known independently, from Greek sources, the dates B.c. of the preceding Babylonian kings can, of course, be at once calculated by means of the Canon. The recently-discovered contemporary monuments have fully established the accuracy of the Canon. 3 Or, in any case, between 734 and 732 ; see Rost, Die Keilschrifttexte Tiglathpilesers III., 1893, pp. xii. 39, 81, with the discussion, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., xxxv.-xxxvi.

BIBLICAL 77 Hezekiah’s sixth year (2 Kings xviii. 10) 721 722 Invasion of Judah by Sennacherib in Hezekiah’s fourteenth year {ibid. ver. 13) ... . 713 701 Manifestly all the Biblical dates earlier than 733-32 B.c. are too high, and must be considerably reduced: the two events, also, in Hezekiah’s reign—the fall of Samaria and the invasion of Sennacherib—which the compiler of the Book of Kings treats as separated by an interval of eight years, were separated in reality by an interval of twenty-one years.4 Much has been written on the chronology of the kings and many endeavours have been made to readjust the Biblical figures so as to bring them into consistency with themselves and at the same time into conformity with the Assyrian dates. But, though the fact of there being errors in the Biblical figures is patent, it is not equally clear at what points the error lies, or how the available years ought to be redistributed between the various reigns. It is in any case evident that the accession of Jehu and Athaliah must be brought down from 884 to 842 B.c.; and this will involve, naturally, a corresponding reduction of the dates of the previous kings of both kingdoms, and of course, at the same time, of those of Solomon, David, and Saul. The difficulty is, however, greatest in the 8th century. Here, in Judah, from the accession of Athaliah to the accession of Ahaz, tradition gives 143 years, whereas, in fact, there were but 106 years (842-736); and in Israel, from the death of Menahem to the fall of Samaria, it gives 31 years, whereas from 738 (assuming that Menahem died in that year) to 722 there are actually only 16 years. The years assigned by tradition to the reigns in both kingdoms in the middle part of the 8th century B.c. have thus to be materially reduced. But in the following period, from the fall of Samaria in 722 to the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans in 586, the Biblical dates, so far as we can judge, are substantially correct. (See further the table beginning below.) IY. From the Destruction of Jerusalem in 586 to the dose of the Old Testament History.—Here, though it is true that there are events in the Biblical history which are not fully or unambiguously dated, there is otherwise no difficulty. The lengths of the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors on the throne of Babylon, and also, after the conquest of Babylon, of Cyrus and the following Persian kings, are known from the “ Canon of Ptolemy,” referred to above, the particulars in which, for the earlier part of this period, are also confirmed by the testimony of the monuments. 4 This interval does not depend upon a mere list of Eponym years ; we have in the annals of Sargon and Sennacherib full particulars of the events in all the intervening years.

Chronological Table. The dates printed in black type are certain, at least within a unit. Chronology of Ussher.

Probable Real Dates.

Biblical Events.

4004 Indeterminable, Creation of man but much before [41571] 7000 b.c.

Babylonia. 7-6000. Temple of Bel et Nippur founded

Events in Contemporary History. Assyria.

Egypt-3

2

c. 4000.2‘Lugal-zaggisi, king of Uruk (Erech, Gen. x. 10)

4777. Menes, the first historical king of Egypt

3998-3721. Fourth Dynasty 3969-3908. Cheops. The Great Pyramid built 1 The real Biblical dates, Ussher in Gen. xi. 26 interpolating 60 years, because it is said in Acts vii. 4 that Abraham left Haran after his father Terah’s death (ben. 2 xi. 32), and also (as explained above) interpreting wrongly Ex. xii. 40. Hilprecht’s dates (The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, vol. i. pt. i. 1893, pp. 11, 12 ; pt. ii. 1896, pp. 23, 24, 43, 44). 8 Petrie's dates (as far as Shishak), Hist, of Egypt, vol. i. (1895), pp. 20, 30, 233, 251, 252 ; vol. ii. (1897), p. 29.