Biblical Chronology

Bible

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Biblical chronology is a measure of time with the assumption that the stories and events within the Bible are historically accurate, as well as concurrent as they are presented.

The most famous attempt at Biblical chronology reconstruction was done by James Ussher, who, working from Genesis, put the date of creation at October 23, 4004 B.C.

Hebrew Bible Chronologies[edit]

Researchers have developed a great number of chronologies for the Old Testament with various perspectives on the sources. Some of those on the monarchy are:

• The chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah. Gershon Galil. Leiden ; New York : E.J. Brill, 1996. (Galil accepts the synchronisms from the Assyrian Eponym Canon as does Albright, Hughes, Thiele, and those that built on their work.)
• Secrets of the times : myth and history in biblical chronology. Jeremy Hughes. Sheffield : JSOT Press, ©1990. (Hughes views the majority of the biblical numbers as "myth".)
• W. F. Albright. The Chronology of the Divided Monarchy of Israel. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research n100 (1945): 16-22. (Albright gives greater weight to numbers in 2 Chronicles than Thiele.)
• A new chronology for the kings of Israel and Judah and its implications for Biblical history and literature. John H. Hayes, Paul K. Hooker. Atlanta : John Knox Press, ©1988. (A development of Albright's work.)
• Edwin Richard Thiele. The mysterious numbers of the Hebrew kings. Grand Rapids, MI : Kregel, 1994.
• McFall, Leslie, A Translation Guide to the Chronological Data in Kings and Chronicles, Bibliotheca Sacra 148 (Jan–Mar 1991): 3–45. (A development of Thiele's work.)
• Rodger C. Young. WHEN DID SOLOMON DIE? . . .. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46/4 (December 2003) 589–603 (and other articles he wrote in JETS). (A development of Thiele's work.)
• Andrew Steinmann. From Abraham to Paul : a biblical chronology. St. Louis, MO : Concordia Pub. House, ©2011. (A development of Thiele's work.)
• Martin Anstey. Chronology of the Old Testament: Complete in One Volume. Kregel publications, 1973 (reprinted; original: Marshall brothers, 1913). (A development of Ussher.)

These chronologies are mostly independent of outside synchronisms (other than Assyria and Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon). New Chronology discusses the disputed synchronisms with Egypt.

Rodger Young published an independent confirmation of the Hebrew Bible chronological adjustments by Edwin Thiele using chronological information from Tyre.^[1]. He added archeological evidence to Barnes' earlier proof.^[2]

Watch Jeremy Sexton discuss a significant reexamination of primeval chronology.^[3]

New Testament Chronologies[edit]

• Harold W. Hoehner. Chronological aspects of the life of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, ©1977.

Further reading[edit]

• Jack Finegan. Handbook of biblical chronology : principles of time reckoning in the ancient world and problems of chronology in the Bible. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1964.
• Rodger C. Young (August 15, 2008). Evidence for Inerrancy from an Unexpected Source: OT Chronology. Associates for Biblical Research.

See also[edit]

• Biblical chronology dispute
• New Chronology
• Assyrian chronology
• Literalist Bible chronology
• Old Earth Creationism
• Assyrian Empire

References[edit]