Page:EB1911 - Volume 03.djvu/892

 (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 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 or Assur-nasir-pal (885–860 ), Shalmaneser II. (860–825), Tiglath-pileser IV. (745–727), Sargon (722–705), Sennacherib (704–781), Esarhaddon (681–668), and Asshurbanipal or Assur-bani-pal (668–626). Thus from 893 the Assyrian chronology is certain and precise. Reducing now both the Assyrian and Biblical dates to a common standard, and adopting for the latter the computations of Ussher, we obtain the following singular series of discrepancies:—

Manifestly all the Biblical dates earlier than 733–732 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.