Handbook of Biblical Chronology: Principles of Time Reckoning in the Ancient World and Problems of Chronology in the Bible

457 Pages·1998·13.58 MB·English

by  Jack Finegan

Handbook
Chronology
Principles of Time Reckoning in
the Ancient World and Problems
of Chronology in the Bible
R E V I S ED E D I T I ON
Jack Finegan
HENDMCKSON
Copyright © 1964, 1998 Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
R O. Box 3473
Peabody, Massachusetts 01961-3473
First edition © 1964 Princeton University Press
Assigned 1991 to Jack Finegan
Assigned 1992 to Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
Revised edition © 1998 Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing — April 1998
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Finegan, Jack, 1908-
Handbook of biblical chronology: principles of time reckoning in the
ancient world and problems of chronology in the Bible / by Jack
Finegan. — Rev. ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56563-143-9
1. Bible—Chronology—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title
BS637.2.F5 1995
220.9—dc20 95-30873
CIP
CONTENTS
Preface to the Second Edition, Revised and Expanded ix
Preface to the First Edition xi
List of Tables xiii
List of Ancient Sources xxi
Lists of Abbreviations
1. Books and Periodicals xxv
2. Biblical Books and Related Literature xxxi
3. Eras xxxiii
4. Days xxxiii
5. Months xxxiii
6. Miscellaneous xxxiv
Chronological Tables
1. Archaeological and Cultural Periods in the Holy Land xxxv
2. Egyptian Dynasties xxxvi
PART ONE
PRINCIPLES OF CHRONOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
I. NUMERALS 3
1. Hebrew Numerals 4
2. Greek Numerals 4
3. Roman Numerals 5
II. THE RECKONING OF TIME IN THE ANCIENT WORLD 6
A. UNITS OF TIME 6
1. The Day 6
2. The Week 12
3. The Month 14
4. The Year 16
HANDBOOK OF BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
B. CALENDARS 18
1. The Egyptian Calendar 18
(1) The Three Calendars 20
(2) The Months 22
(3) The Standard Civil Calendar with a Shifting Year 22
(4) The Standard Civil Calendar with a Fixed Year 24
2. The Babylonian Calendar 25
3. The Israelite Calendar 29
4. The Babylonian Calendar in Palestine 33
5. The Calendar at Qumran 39
6. The Calendar of Jubilees 43
7. The Greek Calendar 50
8. The Macedonian Calendar 51
(1) In Syria and in Babylonia 53
(2) In Arabia 59
(3) In Egypt 60
(4) In Palestine 63
9. The Roman Calendar 64
C. OFFICIAL AND REGNAL YEARS 68
1. In Egypt 68
2. In Mesopotamia 72
3. Among the Jews 76
4. In Greece 80
5. In Rome 81
(1) Consuls 81
(2) Honors 83
(3) Years of Reign 86
(4) Tables of Emperors 87
D. ERAS 92
1. The Era of the Olympiads 92
2. The Era of the City of Rome 98
3. The Seleucid Era ' 101
4. The Jewish Eras 105
(1) The Era of the Destruction of the Second Temple 106
(2) The Era of the World 108
5. The Era of Diocletian 113
6. The Christian Era 113
E. SABBATICAL YEARS, JUBILEES, AND PRIESTLY COURSES 116
1. Sabbatical Years 116
2. Jubilees 126
3. Priestly Courses 130
4. Qumran and Jerusalem 134
III. EARLY CHRONICLERS AND CHRONOGRAPHERS 139
1. Chronicles and Chronographies 139
(1) Greek and Roman 139
Table of Contents vii
(2) Jewish 140
(a) Demetrius 140
(b) Eupolemus 143
(c) Artapanus 145
(d) Pseudo-Eupolemus 146
(e) Enoch 147
(f) Jubilees 149
(g) Genesis Apocryphon 151
(h) Josephus 152
(3) Early Christian 153
2. The Chronoaraphies ot Africanus 154
3. The Chronicle of Eusebius 160
(1) Chronology in the Church History 161
(2) The Armenian Version of the Chronicle 165
(3) The Eatin Version of the Chronicle by Jerome 165
(4) From Adam to Abraham in the Chronicle 168
(5) From Abraham through the Egyptian Servitude 169
(6) From the Wandering in the Wilderness to the Foundation
of the Temple in the Fourth Year of Solomon 173
(7) From the Fifth Year of Solomon to the Destruction
of the Temple 174
(8) The Seventy Years of Captivity 177
(9) From the Rebuilding of the Temple to the Birth of Jesus 182
(10) The Period of the Life of Jesus 184
(11) From after the Death of Jesus to the Final Destruction
of Jerusalem in the Second Year of Vespasian 186
(12) The Tables of the Chronicle from Julius Caesar to Vespasian 186
(13) Summary of the Chronicle 189
PART TWO
PROBLEMS OF CHRONOLOGY IN THE BIBLE
I. THE OED TESTAMENT 195
1. From Abraham to Jacob and Joseph 195
(1) Early Dating 197
(2) Eater Dating 200
(3) Biblical Numbers 201
2. Joseph 206
(1) In the Middle Kingdom 208
(2) In the Hyksos Age 213
3. The Exodus 224
(1) Exodus in the Eighteenth Dynasty and the
Fifteenth Century B.C. 225
(2) Exodus in the Nineteenth Dynasty and the
Thirteenth Century B.C. 232
4. The Kings of Judah and Israel 245
5. The Closing Period of the Kingdom of Judah 251
6. The Exile of Jehoiachin 262
viii HANDBOOK OF BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
7. The Dates in Ezekiel 264
8. Post-Exilic Dates 266
II. THE NEW TESTAMENT 270
A. THE LIFE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST 274
1. The Birth of John and the Course of Abijah 275
B. THE LIFE OF JESUS 279
1. The Birth of Jesus 279
(1) Caesar Augustus 279
(2) Herod the Great 291
(3) The Enrollment of Quirinius 302
(4) The Star 306
(5) The Day 320
(a) January 6 321
(b) December 25 325
2. The Public Ministry of Jesus 329
(1) The Beginning of the Public Ministry 329
(a) "In the Fifteenth Year of the Reign of Tiberius Caesar" 329
(b) "About Thirty Years of Age" 344
(c) "Not Yet Fifty Years Old" 346
(d) "Forty-six Years to Build This Temple" 346
(2) The Duration of the Ministry 349
(a) The Synoptic Gospels 350
(b) The Fourth Gospel 351
3. The Death of Jesus 353
(1) The Day of the Week 354
(2) The Date in the Jewish Month 354
(a) The Synoptic Representation 355
(b) The Johannine Representation 355
(3) The Hour of the Day 358
(4) The Calendar Date 359
4. Summary and Possible Chronological Schemes of
the Life ol Jesus 366
B. THE LIFE OF PETER 369
1. "He Departed and Went to Another Place" 370
2. Peter in Rome 374
C. THE LIFE OF PAUL 390
1. Gallic 391
2. Felix and Porcius Festus 397
APPENDIX: MODERN SYSTEMS OF BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY 404
1. The Annales Veteris et Novi Testament! of James Ussher 404
2. The Biblical Chronology of E. W Faulstich 405
General Index 409
Scripture Index 420
PREFACE TO THE
SECOND REVISED AND
EXPANDED EDITION
I am appreciative of the reception and wide usage of this book in its
original edition (1964), and of the many comments and inquiries about it which
came to me, to many of which, under the pressure of other necessary concerns,
I was unable to make proper acknowledgment or answer. Also, I am appreciative
of the many notices and reviews of this book, including those in
Book Review Digest 60 (1964): 400.
Christian Century 81 (June 11, 1964): 806.
America 111 (Dec 5, 1964): 745.
Catholic Biblical Quarterly 27 (Jan 1965): 59-61, by Robert North.
Journal of Biblical Literature 84 (Mar 1965): 76-80, by Simon J. DeVries.
Christianity Today (May 21, 1965): 34, by J. M. Bald.
Scientific American 213 (July 1965): 123.
Bibliotheca orientalis 22 (May-July 1965): 184-185, by E. J. Bickerman.
Palestine Exploration Quarterly 97 (July-Oct 1965): 173-174, by R R. Ackroyd.
American Historical Review 71 (Oct 1965): 126, by W F. Albright.
Journal of Bible and Religion 33 (Oct 1965): 344-345, by H. Neil Richardson.
Virginia Quarterly Review 71 (Winter 1965): 26.
Interpretation 20 (Jan 1966), by R. H. Boyd.
Revue biblique 73 (Jan 1966): 146-147, by R. de Vaux.
Journal of Theological Studies 17 (Apr 1966): 113-115, by G. R. Driver.
Journal of Semitic Studies 11 (Spring 1966): 117—118, by P Wernberg-M011er.
Review and Expositor 6^ (Summer 1966): 338-339, by R H. Kelley.
Likewise, I express appreciation of attention to my work in other articles
and books, and among many I may mention especially the Auseinandersetzung
with my book in the notes to chapter 11, pp. 372—433, "A Chronology of Jesus'
x HANDBOOK OF BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Life," in A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus, vol. 1, The Roots of the
Problem and the Person (ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1991), by John R Meier,
Professor of New Testament at the Catholic University of America in Washing-
ton, D.C.1 In all of the above I have benefited from the discussion, presentation
of supplementary information, correction, and criticism, and my own notes in
the present book make not infrequent acknowledgment of the same as well as
indication of indebtedness in changes of my own opinions. Among many I will
mention especially Ernest L. Martin and Paul Keresztes. I also try to give fair
recognition to a number of opinions different from my own.
Finally, I thank Hendrickson Publishers for the invitation in August 1992
to prepare this "revised and expanded" edition, and for their patience with the
time it took me to accomplish the task.
1 Cf. John P. Meier, "Why Search for the Historical Jesus?" BR 9 (3, June 1993):
30ff.
PREFACE TO THE
FIRST EDITION
i. In Gal 4:4 Paul refers to Jesus and says that God sent forth his Son
"when the fulness of the time (TO TrXf|pa)|j.a TOU xpovou) was come." In various
other passages Paul uses another Greek word for time, Kcupo?, kairos, which
means a definite or fixed time, and hence can signify an opportune time, as in
Gal 6:10, or even the eschatological end time as in 1 Cor 4:5. In view of this
meaning of kairos, one might have expected that Paul would use it in speaking
of what was assuredly the particular and proper time when God sent forth his
Son. But instead, in Gal 4:4, he chooses to use for "time" the Greek word
Xpovog, chronos. Over against kairos, which is a particular and appropriate time,
chronos is time which is seen in its extent or duration. As chronos, time flows
ceaselessly past us, a stream which cannot be stopped but which can be
measured. It was in the fulness of this stream of chronos that the event of Jesus
Christ took place. Therefore in Christian faith and in biblical study we are
directed to the long sweep of time in which God has been working out his
or o
purpose, to time as chronos, and accordingly to the measurement of time, which
is chronometry, the writing about and recording of time, which is chronograph^,
and the science or doctrine of time, which is chronology.
ii. The chronological references in the biblical records are numerous
but not always easy to understand correctly. Bible time extends through thou-
sands of years and Bible history touches many different lands of the Near Eastern
and Mediterranean world. In the periods and places involved, many different
systems of time reckoning were employed, at least some of which may be
presupposed in the biblical references. The work of early chronographers and
commentators who occupied themselves with the biblical data is also important,
and this extends the range of necessary inquiry even further. In this extremely
complex and almost esoteric field much is, of course, not yet even known; what
is known to the specialists in the areas involved is often quite inaccessible to the
ordinary student and, if accessible, incomprehensible. A major part of our
xii HANDBOOK OF BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
undertaking, therefore, is to give a clear description of the various matters
involved and to provide, within the compass of one handbook, the necessary
lists and tables with which to work, as well as to indicate sources and further
literature.
ill. Then, on the basis of the best understanding we can obtain of the
ancient methods of time reckoning—many of which, it may be added, are of a
surprising degree of accuracy and sophistication—a further large part of the task
is to try to work out against that background the correct significance of the
biblical data themselves. Here it is not the attempt of the present handbook to
deal with all the data or solve all the problems, but rather to indicate ways of
taking up the problems in selected and representative areas. It may be hoped
that some of the problems have been solved correctly. It may also be hoped that
with the background materials of the first part of this handbook, and the sample
engagements with particular problems in the second part, others may go on with
those unfinished tasks in these areas, which will doubtless long continue to
challenge students of ancient history and biblical record.
iv. My own involvement with such matters has come about in connection
with the endeavor to write in the area of an archaeological approach to biblical
history. In revising my Light Jrom the Ancient Past, there has been a tendency to
introduce, particularly in footnotes and appendix, an increasing amount of
chronological material. Since the archaeological materials increase steadily too,
limits are reached. Also notes and appendix may be obscure places in which to
have to search. Therefore, with the permission of Princeton University Press,
some of the chronological sections have been taken out of that book and
incorporated in the present handbook, where they are set in a wider context of
specifically chronological considerations and made more readily available for
those interested.
v. Here, then, is a handbook prepared with the hope that it will be useful
to those who concern themselves with that framework in time in which the
events of Bible history are set. In his famous Chronicle Eusebius, who occupied
himself with many of the same problems as we, quoted the saying that "it is not
for you to know times or seasons (xpovov; TI Kaipoxi;)" (Acts 1:7) as applying not
only to the determination of the time of the end of the world but also to the
attempted solution of other chronological problems. By the quotation he incul-
cates a proper humility in the approach to chronological questions; at the same
time, by his own example in the vast labor of writing the Chronicle, he encourages
us to believe that concern with the chronological data is one of the indispensable
and unavoidable tasks in the study of the Bible. The materials in the present
handbook are intended to assist such study.