Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: Scripture’s measurement of time.

CLAIM: God is in the details.

Suppose we take what the Bible says to be true,

and suppose we examine its ‘year-stamps’,

i.e., statements of the form, ‘Such-and-such an event took place in the Xth year of Y’.

What happens?

Briefly put, a coherent picture emerges.

The first event to be explicitly year-stamped in Scripture is the death of Noah,

which is said to have taken place 350 years after the flood (Gen. 9.28).

The flood was a rather important event in world history,

so it would make sense for people to have grounded a calculation in it,

just as people did from the foundation of Rome.

The next year-stamp is found in Gen. 14, where Abraham refers to a form of regnal year, namely ‘the 13th year of Chedorlaomer, an Elamite king’ (14.1, 5).

If Abraham was at large in Canaan 430 years before the exodus took place (cf. Gal. 3 w. Gr. of Exod. 12), then the events of Gen. 14 would have taken place in the mid 19th cent.,

when Mesopotamian and Elamite kings are known to have formed coalitions,

and when an Elamite-led campaign ‘to the west’ is mentioned in the Mari texts (Durand 1998, Charpin 2003).

Our next year-stamp is found in Exod. 12.

The Israelites dwelt in Egypt (and poss. Caanan) for 430 years--a stay they may well have counted given YHWH’s promise to Abraham to bring them back to Canaan (Gen. 15.13).

The figure of 430 is significant for other reasons.

Moses says Israel left Rameses at the end of a 430 year period (cp. Gen. 47.11, Exod. 12.37), while Paul says the law was established at the end of the relevant 430 years, and both Rameses (רעמסס) and the law (νομος) have a gematrial value of 430.

As they leave Egypt, the Israelites are given a new calendar, which runs from Nisan (Mar./Apr.) to Nisan.

It would have been logical to view the year in terms of an agricultural cycle (from Tishri to Tishri):

crops were planted in late autumn, and the harvest came to its climax in late summer,

hence Ugarit’s yearly coronation ritual took place in autumn (KTU 1.41:50-55), and Israel’s Sabbatical year began in autumn (cp. the order of the verbs ‘sow’ and ‘gather’ in Lev. 25.3-4).

But, with the exodus, a new kind of year came into existence (cp. also Exod. 40.17, where the Tabernacle is erected on 1st Nisan),

hence the book of Exodus contains memories of an autumnal year (cp. Exod. 34.22, where the 7th month = ‘the turn of the year’, w. 23.15-16),

against the backdrop of which a new year is defined (12.2, 13.4, etc., Deut. 16.1).

At the same time, year-counts begin to be calibrated on the basis of ‘the year when Israel left Egypt’ (Exod. 40.17, Num. 9.1, 10.11, etc., Deut. 1.3).

The same method of year-stamp is employed in 1 Kgs. 6, where the Temple is said to (start to) be built in the 480th year since the exodus.

Meanwhile, in Num. 13.22, we come across a noteworthy editorial comment.

Hebron, we are told, was ‘built’ seven years before Zoan was ‘built’ (בנה).

In Scripture, cities are said to be ‘built up’ when they are fortified and established as a capital (e.g., in the case of Shechem in 1 Kgs. 12.25, and Samaria in 16.24).

In that sense, Zoan (Tanis) can be said to have been ‘built’ in c. 1001 BC (cf. Kitchen 2009):

Psusennes made Zoan a genuinely capital-like city, died in c. 1001, and handed the ‘kingdom’ over to his son (Amenemope), who is thought to have been the first king in the 21st Dynasty to be recognised in both Upper Egypt (Thebes) and Lower Egypt.

At the same time (i.e., in 1002/1001), David conquered Jerusalem (cf. Steinmann 2011), seven years prior to which he established Hebron as a capital city (1 Kgs. 2.11).

As such, Hebron can be said to have been ‘built’ = ‘established as a capital’ seven years before Zoan was.

(The return to Abraham’s city Hebron also has theological significance, but one thing at a time.)

Next we come to the book of Judges, which mentions a number of reigns (of both Israel’s judges and oppressors),

yet does not mention any regnal years at all;

that is to say, it does not contain any statements of the form ‘such-and-such an event took place in the Nth year of X’s reign’.

Meanwhile, the intervals mentioned in Judges amount to a total beyond what Israel’s history can reasonably accommodate.

We read (in order) of 8 years of servitude, 40 of rest, 18 of servitude, 80 of rest, 20 of servitude, 40 of rest, and then figures of 7, 40, 3, 23, 22, 40, 18, 6, 7, 10, 8, 40, and 20,

all of which amounts to a total of 410 years,

yet (as we noted earlier) Solomon’s 4th year coincides with the 480th year of ‘the exodus era’ (1 Kgs. 6.1),

which does not allow enough time to accommodate the necessary events either side of Judges, namely,

40 years in the wilderness, the remainder of Joshua’s life, and the careers of Eli, Samuel, Saul, and David.

Many of the figures in Judges must, therefore, overlap,

which is exactly as one would expect.

The story of Judges is the story of a disintegrated nation.

Regnal years are not mentioned, since a monarchy does not exist.

The judges are local chieftains rather than kings,

and their tribes are isolated.

They must be summoned to help one another, and often do not come (Judg. 4-5),

and one tribe even develops a distinctive manner of pronunciation (cp. ‘Sibboleth’),

which presupposes a significant degree of disconnectedness between the tribes.

Not until Solomon and his successors arise do regular statements of regnal years begin to appear in the Biblical narrative,

which is as one would expect given the story of Joshua and Judges and their transition into Kings (via Samuel).

As for the specific regnal figures contained in the book of Kings, they are initially easy enough to follow, but soon become difficult to reconcile,

as scholars such as Thiele and after him McFall and Young have found out (though to their great credit have persevered with and ultimately reconciled).

The explanation for such difficulties is found in the Biblical text itself.

In the aftermath of Solomon’s reign, Israel splinters into two kingdoms, which operate independently from one another,

and the uniform calendar established in David and Solomon’s day dissolves.

Each kingdom then keeps time in their own way.

Indeed, Jeroboam is said to have instituted a northern kingdom feast ‘on the 15th day of the 8th month, like the feast in Judah’,

which is an important detail (1 Kgs. 12).

Apparently, the northern kingdom ‘intercalated’ independently--

that is to say, the northern kingdom inserted an extra (12th) month in its calendar, as kingdoms which achieve their independence frequently do by way of demonstration (cf. Stern 2012)--,

and held their own feast of Tabernacles (in Bethel rather than Jerusalem),

which, from the perspective of the southern kingdom’s calendar, looked like a Tabernacles-esque feast held in the 8th month rather than the 7th.

These calendars then operated independently of one another, until their respective kingdoms were exiled (in c. 722/721 & 587/586 reap.),

from which point on Scripture invariably reckons years by reference to the reign of Gentile kings or the dates of Israel’s exile and return.

We read of the 25th year of the exile (Ezek. 40), the 1st year of Cyrus (2 Chr. 36.22, Ezra 1.1),

the 2nd year of Israel’s return (Ezra 3.8), the 7th year of Artaxerxes (7.8), and so on,

and, in the NT, Luke continues the established system since he dates his narrative not by reference to Herod’s reign, but by ref. to Caesar’s (Luke 3.1).

Meanwhile, the Canaanite month names mentioned prior to the exile (Abib in Exod. 13.4, and Ziv and Bul in 1 Kgs. 6.1, 38)...

...are replaced by Mesopotamian months (Nisan, Adar, etc.), as one would expect given Mesopotamia’s influence on Israel.

In short, the Bible dates its event in the manner we would expect from an authentic and faithfully preserved source (free from ‘editorial assistance’).

That is not to say the Bible’s chronological details are always straightforward to understand,

but they repay careful study and attention.

They have been entrusted to us by God’s divine authorship of Scripture.