Check users, creationist, Administrators
17,631
edits
Biblical chronology dispute: Difference between revisions
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Jump to navigationJump to search
→The Chronology of the United and Divided Kingdoms
| Line 110: | Line 110: | ||
All these dates presented serious problems for a strict reading of I and II Kings--primarily because Ussher calculated King Jehu as having acceded to the throne of Israel (and also killed King [[Ahaziah]] of Judah) in 884 BC (Ussher, ''Annals'', pgh. 535). Thiele solved this problem by ''moving forward the date of Jehu's campaign'' from 884 BC to 841 BC. That movement alone accounts for 43 of the 45 years by which the Ussher and Thiele dates of the Exodus and the Temple are discrepant. | All these dates presented serious problems for a strict reading of I and II Kings--primarily because Ussher calculated King Jehu as having acceded to the throne of Israel (and also killed King [[Ahaziah]] of Judah) in 884 BC (Ussher, ''Annals'', pgh. 535). Thiele solved this problem by ''moving forward the date of Jehu's campaign'' from 884 BC to 841 BC. That movement alone accounts for 43 of the 45 years by which the Ussher and Thiele dates of the Exodus and the Temple are discrepant. | ||
Having done that, Thiele evidently saw no reason to change the stated chronology of the Divided Kingdoms between Solomon's death and Jehu's ascendancy. But he compressed greatly the | Having done that, Thiele evidently saw no reason to change the stated chronology of the Divided Kingdoms between Solomon's death and Jehu's ascendancy. But he compressed greatly the history of the [[Northern Kingdom]] beyond Jehu, specifically by: | ||
Ussherites contend that while Ussher assumed the primacy of Scripture, Thiele assumed the primacy of secular historical records (what Ussher called "profane history"). Pierce in particular contends that Thiele's clues, such as they are, are not even grounded in anything approaching certainty. Ussherites also question Thiele's math--for example, Thiele seems to have assumed that Uzziah, whom II Kings states was 16 years old when he began to reign, was granted a viceroyship fully eight years before he was born! | # Assuming that the [[viceroy]]alty of [[Jeroboam II]] ran concurrently with his total reign, which Ussher did not. | ||
# Eliminating the two interregna immediately following the deaths of Jeroboam II and [[Pekah]]. | |||
# Assuming that Pekah and [[Menahem]] began their reigns together and that Pekah simply wiped out the short-lived "House" of Menahem after building a rebel power base for twelve of the twenty years he is supposed to have reigned. | |||
Thiele also greatly compressed and telescoped the reigns of [[Amaziah]], [[Uzziah]], and [[Jotham]] of the [[Southern Kingdom]] to force them to synchronized with this reworked chronology of the Northern Kingdom. | |||
Ussherites contend that while Ussher assumed the primacy of Scripture, Thiele assumed the primacy of secular historical records (what Ussher called "profane history"). Pierce in particular contends that Thiele had no right, according to the accepted canons of Biblical scholarship, to impart different meanings to verses that follow the same pattern without sufficient reason--an argument that [[Occam's razor|William of Occam]] might have made. Even if Thiele did have that right, Pierce maintains that Thiele's clues, such as they are, are not even grounded in anything approaching certainty. Ussherites also question Thiele's math--for example, Thiele seems to have assumed that Uzziah, whom II Kings states was 16 years old when he began to reign, was granted a viceroyship fully eight years before he was born! A later disciple of Thiele then claimed that what Thiele actually meant was that Uzziah became ''viceroy'' at sixteen, not ''sole ruler'' at sixteen. But McFall, according to Pierce, then proceeded to alter the text of Scripture itself (specifically {{Bible ref|book=II_Kings|chap=14|verses=21}} and {{Bible ref|book=II_Chronicles|chap=26|verses=1}}, a proposition Pierce denounced as outrageous. | |||
== A Synoptic Table == | == A Synoptic Table == | ||
