67
edits
Biblical chronology dispute: Difference between revisions
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Jump to navigationJump to search
→Four Schools of Thought: Changed the language from "camps" to "traditions". The difference is important, but we are only talking about fifty years here. No need to point guns at each other...
(→The Ussher Camp: Added reference to the two major works of this school) |
(→Four Schools of Thought: Changed the language from "camps" to "traditions". The difference is important, but we are only talking about fifty years here. No need to point guns at each other...) |
||
| Line 9: | Line 9: | ||
Concerning the Exodus, secular archaeologists and Biblical scholars have often argued whether this event occurred in 1290 BC (the Late Date) or in either 1446 BC or earlier (the Early Date). But concerning the other dates, the disputes on them are merely the symptom of the ''actual'' sources of dispute, as the discussion will further show. | Concerning the Exodus, secular archaeologists and Biblical scholars have often argued whether this event occurred in 1290 BC (the Late Date) or in either 1446 BC or earlier (the Early Date). But concerning the other dates, the disputes on them are merely the symptom of the ''actual'' sources of dispute, as the discussion will further show. | ||
== | == Five Schools of Thought == | ||
The | The five traditions, each of which gives its own dates for the events detailed above and, by extension, the date of Creation, are the '''Hillel Tradition''', the '''Late Date Tradition''', the '''Ussher Tradition''', the '''Thiele Tradition''', and the '''Long Chronology Tradition'''. | ||
=== The Hillel | === The Hillel Tradition === | ||
This camp includes the great [[Rabbi]] [[Hillel II]], inventor of the nineteen-year-cyclic luni-solar [[Hebrew calendar]] used by [[Judaism|Jews]] worldwide, and especially in present-day [[Israel]].<ref name=JewFaq>Tracy R. Rich, "[http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm Jewish calendar]," ''[[Judaism]] 101'', 2005. Retrieved April 30, 2007.</ref> This calendar calculates Creation, which presumably would fall on 1 Tishri Year 1, as October 7, 3761 BC according to the [[Julian calendar]].<ref name=Converter>[http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/ Calendar Converter] by Fourmilab (requires JavaScript to operate)</ref> | This camp includes the great [[Rabbi]] [[Hillel II]], inventor of the nineteen-year-cyclic luni-solar [[Hebrew calendar]] used by [[Judaism|Jews]] worldwide, and especially in present-day [[Israel]].<ref name=JewFaq>Tracy R. Rich, "[http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm Jewish calendar]," ''[[Judaism]] 101'', 2005. Retrieved April 30, 2007.</ref> This calendar calculates Creation, which presumably would fall on 1 Tishri Year 1, as October 7, 3761 BC according to the [[Julian calendar]].<ref name=Converter>[http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/ Calendar Converter] by Fourmilab (requires JavaScript to operate)</ref> | ||
The Hillel | The Hillel Tradition is at its greatest odds with the others primarily because it assumes that the [[Messiah]] was ''not'' [[Jesus Christ]] at all, but a rebel leader named [[Simon bar Hochva]], who revolted against [[Rome]] in 135 AD, prompting [[Emperor]] [[Hadrian]] to scatter the Jews to the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire (the [[Diaspora]]) and rename the region from ''Judea'' to ''Palaestina'', which is the nearest equivalent to "Philistia" in [[Latin]]. | ||
The primary source for the Hillel Tradition is the ''Seder Olam'', a second century Targum of Rabbinic Judaism. | |||
=== The | === The Late Date Tradition === | ||
This | This newest of the five positions holds that the Exodus occurred later in the history of [[Egypt]] than do the other three--anywhere from 155 to 200 years later.<ref name=Bratcher>Dennis Bratcher, "[http://www.cresourcei.org/exodusdate.html The Date of the Exodus: The Historical Study of Scripture]," at the [http://www.crivoice.org/index.html CRI/Voice Institute], July 22, 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2007.</ref><ref name=Moore>D. Cameron Alexander Moore, "[http://members.tripod.com/Cameron_Moore/Exodus.html The Date of the Exodus: Introduction to the Competing Theories]," [http://members.tripod.com/Cameron_Moore/index.html Reformed Theological Study], 1998. Retrieved April 30, 2007.</ref><ref name=Dyer>Charles H. Dyer, [http://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/Ted_Hildebrandt/OTeSources/02-Exodus/Text/Articles/Dyer-DateExodus-BSac.pdf The Date of the Exodus Reexamined]," ''Bibliotheca Sacra'' 140 (1983) 225-43. Retrieved April 30, 2007. Requires PDF reader.</ref><ref name=Partin>Jon Partin, "[http://www.geocities.com/genesiscommentary/exodusdate.html Dating of the Exodus]," [http://www.geocities.com/genesiscommentary/ Genesis Commentary]. Retrieved April 30, 2007.</ref> | ||
The major chronological works of the Ussher | === The Ussher Tradition === | ||
This camp takes its name from [[James Ussher]] and includes every Biblical scholar, including [[Floyd Nolan Jones]] and [[Larry Pierce]], who supports Ussher's original chronology. Followers of Ussher's tradition insist that the chronological data found in the Scriptures, are impeccable and unimpeachable, and that conflicting data from non-Biblical sources ''must'' give way to it.<ref name=Ussher>[[James Ussher]], ''[[The Annals of the World]]'', [[Larry Pierce]], ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600)</ref><ref name=Pierce>[[Larry Pierce]], "[http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v15/i1/chronology.asp Evidentialism–the Bible and Assyrian chronology]," ''TJ'' 15(1):62–68 April 2001. Retrieved April 30, 2007</ref> Several of the major creation ministries, such as Answers in Genesis, and The Creation Research Institute, follow the Ussher Tradition. | |||
The major chronological works of the Ussher tradition are: | |||
*James Ussher, Annals of the World, 1654 | *James Ussher, Annals of the World, 1654 | ||
*Floyd Nolan Jones, The Chronology of the Old Testament, Master Books, 2005 | *Floyd Nolan Jones, The Chronology of the Old Testament, Master Books, 2005 | ||
=== The Thiele | === The Thiele Tradition === | ||
This camp takes its name from [[Edwin R. Thiele]], an archaeologist and Biblical scholar who was one of a few key investigators (another was [[William A. Fulbright]]) to attempt to reconcile the king lists given in I and II Kings to the accepted secular translations of [[Assyria|Assyrian]] stone tablets and other records--the [[Assyrian chronology]]. | This camp takes its name from [[Edwin R. Thiele]], an archaeologist and Biblical scholar who was one of a few key investigators (another was [[William A. Fulbright]]) to attempt to reconcile the king lists given in I and II Kings to the accepted secular translations of [[Assyria|Assyrian]] stone tablets and other records--the [[Assyrian chronology]]. | ||
Today, most evangelical scholars have joined the Thiele camp;<ref name=Wood>See, for example, Leon J. Wood, ''A Survey of Israel's History'', rev. ed. David O'Brien, Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN 031034770X)</ref>Fulbright and other competitors of Thiele are regarded as less important.<ref>Fulbright himself was a member of the Late Date camp; Thiele accepted an early date for the [[Exodus]].</ref> The Thiele camp makes some of the most controversial recommendations known to Biblical scholarship, and the dispute between the Thiele and Ussher camps is perhaps the most bitter. | Thiele's defining work on chronology was: | ||
*Edwin R. Theile - THE MYSTERIOUS NUMBERS OF THE HEBREW KINGS, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 1965 | |||
Today, most evangelical scholars have joined the Thiele camp;<ref name=Wood>See, for example, Leon J. Wood, ''A Survey of Israel's History'', rev. ed. David O'Brien, Grand Rapids, MI: Academie Books, 1986 (ISBN 031034770X)</ref> however the same evangelical scholars have mostly embraced various forms of theistic evolution. Fulbright and other competitors of Thiele are regarded as less important.<ref>Fulbright himself was a member of the Late Date camp; Thiele accepted an early date for the [[Exodus]].</ref> The Thiele camp makes some of the most controversial recommendations known to Biblical scholarship, and the dispute between the Thiele and Ussher camps is perhaps the most bitter. | |||
=== Variant Manuscript Traditions === | |||
Several creationist scholars such as Lambert Dolphin base their chronologies on the Septuagint or the Samaritan Text of the Old Testament. These variant manuscripts add about 1500 years to the age of the world if a chronology is constructed from them using the same method as Ussher and others. | |||
== Points of Agreement == | == Points of Agreement == | ||
