1 and 2 K to preserve and harmonize in his syn- chronisms the recorded lengths of the reigns of kings, the question may arise whetlier in this period as well as the former ones the chronological data may not be partially conjectural or artilicial, complete historicad data for both the S. and N. king- dom not having been preserved. This is the view of \V. R. Smith, Stade, Wellhausen, and others. In its favour is the fact that from the founding of Solomon's temple to that of Zerubbabel, according to the biblical numbers, there are 480 years, and the duration of the N. kingdom (omitting the
2 years of Elah or reducing Baasha's to 22) is 240 years. The combinations seen in the length of the reigns suggest also, it is said, artificiality.
Solomon .
RehobooiD
AbiJ&iu .
Asa.
JehonhaphAt .
Jehoram
Ahaziah .
Athali&b
Jo«h
Amazi&h
. 4 . 4
OuT7 forward . 259
Brought forward Mfi
Jothom . Ahaz
Hezekiob . Hezckiah . Manasseb Amon Joaiah Jehoiakim Zedekiah . Captivity .
Total
10) 1« >88
«) 23 \ 56 [-80
2 ) 81 J
11 S-es 11 )
60
. 4S0
The combination of 4H-81 -(■38=40-^80-^40, it is said, cannot be mere chance.
A system likewise, it is claimed, appears in the years of the first eight kings of Israel.
Jeroboam
22i
Omri
Naflab .
2
■a
Ahab
Baaiha (24)
22
AhazUh
Elah
t'
Jorum
"1
. 12-'
Here are eight kings reigning 96 years, an aver- age of 12 for each. Three reign 12+10, three 12- 10, and two 12.
From the inaccuracy of some of the biblical numlierB, and from the symmetry of their sum, it is not improbable that missing lengths of the reigns of some kings were supplied by conjecture, so as to make the duration of the N. kingdom 24(i years, and the interval between the founding of the two temtiles 4SU years. Such an arrangement would be helpful to the memory and analogous to reckonings of the early periods of the world and of Israel, and such an arrangement also finds a counterpart in the genealogy of Jesus in Mt, where the generations are reduced to three series of 14 each. But, taking the biblical data as a whole for this period, they do not present sutlicient symmetry to be entirely or mainly artificial. Krrors doubt- less crept into lists of reigns, and the lengths of »ome probably were not preserved, and hence were supplied by conjecture.
V. C:iIRONOLOCiY OF THE POST-EXILIC PERIOD. —When Judah became a vassal, and her own kings ceased, the years of foreign rulers, as we have already seen at the beginning of the Captivity, were employed in dating events. The time of these rulers is fixed by the Canon of Ptolemy. The following table gives the principal OT chroino- logical references of this period : —
Nebuchadrezzar't 19tb
688
Fall of Jerusalem (2 K 258)
Oyrus* accession .
63!)
Capture of Babylon bv Cynu
„ Kt year .
63)i
tkiict for the Return (Ezr !»)
6:t7
Return under Zerubbabel
636
Founding of the Temple (Ea 3«)
Danos* accession .
6i;2
„ 2Qd year .
620
Hoptral and Zechariah pro- phesy (Uag 11, Zee U)
„ 6th „ .
616
Temple finished (Ezr 6")
Artaxerxes' accession .
4B.')
„ 7tb year .
468
Ezra arrives at Jerusalem
(Kzr?!')
tOtb „ .
446
Nchcmiah's mission to Jerusa- lem (Keh 21)
LiTBRATtiRa— For t!ie Chron. of the Hex. consult the Com- mentaries of Delitzsch, Dillmann, and other writers on that portion of the OT ; also Lenomiant, Brijinningi of Hutory, ch. vi. ; Budde, Die Bibliache Urijeschichte, ch. iii. ; Kittel, Uistory of the Hebrews, §§ 19, 25 ; (lor Chron. of Judces, § 30, 2); F. 0. Konig, *Beitrage zur Biblische Chronologie, in ZKn', 1883; Noldeke, Untersuchungen zur Kritik det A.T., pp. 173-198. For the regal period: Brandes, Abhandlungerx zur Getchichte dee Orients im Allerthum, 1874 ; Wellhausen, * Die Zeitrechnung dea Buches der Kbnige,* in JDTh, 1S75 ; 'Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah coraparL-d with the Monuments,* in Church Quart, iiev., Jan. 1886 ; S. Sharpe, Ueb. Nation and Lit., pp. 381 ff., 38a ff.: G. Smith, Assi/r. Epon. Canon, chs. i. and vii.; W. R. Smith, Joum. of Philology, X. p. 209 ff.; Kamphausen, Chron. der Uebrdischen Eimige, 1883 ; Schrader, COT ii. 161-176, supplemented by O. 0. Whitehnusc, pp. 320-324, 1888; Orr, 'Assvr. and Ileb. Chron.,' in Pres. Rev., Jan. 1889; Kittel, Hiit. of the Uebrs., § 63a, 1892; Wellhausen, Proleg. to Hist, of Israel, 285 f., 1883; Stade, GeschiehU da VoUcea Itraei, 88 B., 6680., 1887.
E. L. Curtis. CHRONOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. I. THE GOSPELS.
The data for the chronology of the Life of Chiist group themselves round three points, the Nativity, the Baptism, and the Crucifixion, and the intervals between these, namely, the age of Christ at the Baptism, and the duration of the Ministry. If some of them could be settled conclusively, the rest could be deduced at once : for instance, the date of Clirist's birth combined with his age when baptized would fix the date of the Baptism ; if the moments of the beginning and end of the Ministry are known, its length follows ; and so on. But as it is, since for no one of these dates or intervals is there demonstrative proof, while jet about each of them conclusions more or less probable can be reached, it is imperative to investigate them separately, and to check the tentative results by comparison with one another.