A further and serious difficulty in the reproduction of events in their historic exactitude is introduced by the certainty that many books of the Bible, in their present form, represent the results arrived at after their recension by successive editors, some of whom lived many centuries after the events recorded. In the Books of Kings we probably see many _nuances_ which were not introduced till after the epoch-making discovery of the Book of the Law (perhaps the essential parts of the Book of Deuteronomy) in the reign of Josiah, B.C. 621 (2 Kings xxii. 8-14). It is, for instance, impossible to declare with certainty what parts of the Temple service were really coæval with David and Solomon, and what parts had arisen in later days. There appear to be liturgical touches, or alterations as indicated by the variations of the text in 1 Kings viii. 4, 12, 13. In xviii. 29-36 the allusion to the _Minchah_ is absent from the LXX. in verse 36, and in 2 Kings iii. 20 another reading is suggested.
B. As regards the difficult question of _Chronology_ we need add but little to what has been elsewhere said.[31] Even the most conservative critics admit that (1) the numbers of the Biblical text have often become corrupt or uncertain; and (2) that the ancient Hebrews were careless on the subject of exact chronology. The Chronology of the Kings, as it now stands, is historically true in its general outlines, but in its details presents us with data which are mutually irreconcilable. It is obviously artificial, and is dominated by slight modifications of the round number 40.[32] Thus from the Exodus to the Building of the Temple is stated at 480 years, and from that period to the fiftieth year of the Exile also at 480 years. In the Chronicles there are eleven high priests from Azariah ben-Ahimaaz to the Exile of Jozadak, which, with the Exile period, gives twelve generations of 40 years each. Again, from Rehoboam to the Fall of Samaria in the sixth year of Hezekiah, following the 40 years' reign of Saul, of David, and of Solomon, we have:--
Rehoboam, Abijah 20 years. Asa 41 " Jehoshaphat, Jehoram} 40 " Ahaziah, Athaliah } Joash 40 " Amaziah, Uzziah 81 " Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah 38 "
After the Fall of Samaria we have:--
Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon 80 "
and it can hardly be a mere accident that in these lists the number 40 is only modified by slight necessary details.
The history of the Northern Kingdom seems to be roughly trisected into 80 years before Benhadad's first invasion, 80 years of Syrian war, 40 years of prosperity under Jeroboam II., and 40 years of decline.[33] This is probably a result of chronological system, not uninfluenced by mystical considerations. For 480 = 40 × 12. _Forty_ is repeatedly used as a sacred number in connexion with epochs of penitence and punishment. _Twelve_ (4 × 3) is, according to Bähr (the chief student of numerical and other symbolism), "the signature of the people of Israel"--as a whole (4), in the midst of which God (3) resides. Similarly Stade thinks that 16 is the basal number for the reigns of kings from Jehu to Hoshea, and 12 from Jeroboam to Jehu.[34]
It is possible that the synchronistic data did not proceed from the compiler of the Book of Kings, but were added by the last redactor.
Are these critical conclusions so formidable? Are they fraught with disastrous consequences? Which is really dangerous--truth laboriously sought for, or error accepted with unreasoning blindness and maintained with invincible prejudice?