Reign of Kings Unlocked

[Cyberseeker]

Up till the middle of last century Bible commentaries and footnotes contained the dates of Bishop James Ussher. I have his book, ‘Annals of the World,’ and there can be no doubt it is a great work. However, his dates for the divided Kingdom of Israel didn’t add up. Most people concluded that ancient biblical dates could not be known accurately and we had to be satisfied with “approximate†and/or “gaps†in the record.

So, when Edwin Theile published ‘The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings’ in 1951 conservative biblical scholars acclaimed it as a breakthrough and his dates found their way into many study Bibles. If your commentary is a modern one it probably follows Theile’s system. However, Dr. Thiele needed a few tweaks too. Since 1951 followers (notably Leslie McFall) made a few useful refinements to his theories.

Giving credit where credit is due is the least we can do for scholars like these, but Theile made one fatal mistake. He deliberately fudged the period between Jotham and Hezekiah. Why? I’ll get back to this later. In the meanwhile, here is my timeline for the books of the Kings. They are a series of printable charts showing every year from David unto Zedekiah, the last of the southern kingdom.

Anyone interested in this subject, please take the time to check them out with the information found in 1 Kings, 2 Kings and Chronicles. Any feedback would be great too.

THE MIDDLE YEARS - David to Joash

FALL OF SAMARIA AND JERUSALEM - Amaziah to Zedekiah

Cyberseeker

 

[for_his_glory]

This is the problem with mans commentaries and theories as they are displayed with a logical carnal mind set of thinking just as many teach Gods word with a logical carnal mind that is enmity against God and leaves out the Spiritual knowledge that brings all truths, Romans 8:6-8.

Dates are important to the knowledge of Gods word for historical purposes and timelines, but does anyone actually know the exact dates as I think we can only get a proximity, but not the actuality.

 

[Free]

This is the problem with mans commentaries and theories as they are displayed with a logical carnal mind set of thinking just as many teach Gods word with a logical carnal mind that is enmity against God and leaves out the Spiritual knowledge that brings all truths, Romans 8:6-8.

With all due respect, this is dangerous thinking and is is rather quite presumptuous and comes across as quite arrogant and self-righteous. There is no reason to believe that commentaries are written with a "logical carnal mind," whatever that actually means, and that there is no "spiritual knowledge" in them, whatever that actually means. This type of thinking sets the individual up as higher and more spiritual then every theologian and scholar, with absolutely no basis for doing so.

Not to mention the error with lumping logic in together with a carnal mind, as though the two are synonymous or necessarily related somehow, or the problem with going against Scripture where God gives teachers for the building up of the body.

You may not be meaning that, that's just how it comes across.

 

[Cyberseeker]

Dates are important to the knowledge of Gods word for historical purposes and timelines, but does anyone actually know the exact dates ...

Yes, I believe so. Here's a bit more background info:

The book of Kings is structured in the form of a ‘combination lock’ which, if entered correctly, unlocks the gate to the early era. It contains a repeating formula where the ascension of a king is synchronised with the reign of his contemporary in the neighboring kingdom (whether Judah or Israel) followed by the number of years that he reigned. Thus, “In the (x)th year of king (A) of Israel, king (B) of Judah began to reign and he reigned (y) years.â€

It sounds straight forward enough, but a problem arises when we sum the reigns of the kings of Israel from the division of the kingdom unto the fall of Samaria (Jeroboam until Hoshea) getting a figure that is about twenty years less than when we sum the kings of Judah over the same period. (Rehoboam until Hezekiah) The periods given do not match. Also, archeological finds in the 19th century from Assyrian records fail to mesh with dates previously taught.

In 1951, Edwin Thiele cracked the mystery of the Hebrew kings publishing his findings and revolutionising the way people understood Old Testament dating. He proposed that many of the reigns in Judea included co-regencies, hence the stated lengths of reign sometimes overlapped. In this way Thiele constructed a time line that fitted the detail of the book of Kings at the same time as agreeing with known historical events in the surrounding empires. The effect of this construct was to shorten the Judean monarchs’ rule relative to those of Israel so that the period from the division until the fall of Samaria became the same for both kingdoms. A good example of co-regency is the case of Uzziah who shared rule at both ends of his lengthy reign. As a sixteen year old youth he became king with his father Amaziah, then in his latter years he shared with his son Jotham because he had become leprous and unable to perform his kingly role.

Anyway, I hope my charts help unravel some of the perplexing little problems in the date synchronisms between the two kingdoms. These 'contradictions' have been the source of scepticism concerning the reliability of scripture and that is my motivation for producing easily readable charts. Have a looksee.

 

[for_his_glory]

With all due respect, this is dangerous thinking and is is rather quite presumptuous and comes across as quite arrogant and self-righteous. There is no reason to believe that commentaries are written with a "logical carnal mind," whatever that actually means, and that there is no "spiritual knowledge" in them, whatever that actually means. This type of thinking sets the individual up as higher and more spiritual then every theologian and scholar, with absolutely no basis for doing so.

Not to mention the error with lumping logic in together with a carnal mind, as though the two are synonymous or necessarily related somehow, or the problem with going against Scripture where God gives teachers for the building up of the body.

You may not be meaning that, that's just how it comes across.

No, I did not mean this to come across as arrogant and self righteous, but only stating that we need to be careful for what we read that others write and teach as there are many false teachers out there that do teach from logic as they would rather follow another persons teachings rather than looking scripture up for themselves allowing the Holy Spirit confirm the teachings 1 John 4:1-8.

I have read many commentaries and listened to other teachings over the years that have not lined up with the word of God and all I am saying is beware of what you are reading or hearing and learn to discern truth from error by studying Gods word for yourself through the Holy Spirit as Satan has placed many false teachers behind the pulpit to deceive those who use a logical mind to make sense of Gods word instead of allowing the Holy Spirit teach them. If one learns how to discern then they will know who God is using to teach us and who Satan is using. Just because they label themselves Pastor, Rabbi, Priest, etc. etc. doesn't mean they have a Holy calling from God to be so as the gifts only come from the Holy Spirit for the purpose of lifting up and edifying the body of Christ.

 

[Sinthesis]

So, when Edwin Theile published ‘The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings’ in 1951 conservative biblical scholars acclaimed it as a breakthrough and his dates found their way into many study Bibles. If your commentary is a modern one it probably follows Theile’s system. However, Dr. Thiele needed a few tweaks too. Since 1951 followers (notably Leslie McFall) made a few useful refinements to his theories.

Giving credit where credit is due is the least we can do for scholars like these, but Theile made one fatal mistake. He deliberately fudged the period between Jotham and Hezekiah. Why? I’ll get back to this later. In the meanwhile, here is my timeline for the books of the Kings. They are a series of printable charts showing every year from David unto Zedekiah, the last of the southern kingdom.

Congradulations!

But where and how are your dates different from Theile?

 

[Cyberseeker]

Hi Sinthesis and thanks for taking the trouble to look. Its a bit academic - but important none-the-less.

In fairness to Thiele, his dates from Ahab to Solomon are rock solid. With these we can use the Bibles date synchronisms and work backwards with confidence. They are:

• 853 BC – Ahab died in the same year as the battle of Qarqar (well known in Assyrian history)
• 841 BC – 1st year of Jehu’s reign and corroborated by archaeological inscriptions.

With these absolute dates plus Thiele’s research into co-regencies and accession dating we can extrapolate the reign of kings backwards. No need to say, “nearly, thereabouts, approximately, or ummm.†The times are nailed! For example, the kingdom divided in 931 BC. Solomon started building the temple in 966 BC. The Exodus occurred 1445 BC.

But Theiles treatment of Hezekiah is badly skewed. I'll get back to this later because it might require a diagram to illustrate the problem.