Agreed! Ezekiel 40:1 simply refers to the fact that Ezekiel prophesied in the 25th year of the exile and the 14th year after the city had been struck down. So what?
Don't plead ignorance, 'scholar'. We already know how ignorant you are, but we also know that ignorance to be wilful. The bible specifically indicates that the exile began long before the temple's destruction, and there was a further exile in Nebuchadnezzar's 23rd year. The period of exile is simply not the terms of the seventy years that Jeremiah described.
I love facts and I love Jeremiah 25:12 because it is my favourite text. I love that scripture. Your interpretation of that text is bogus and nonsense and our interpretation is better than yours.
You don't love scripture or facts. You love the Society's distortions of the bible, and you display an arrogant dislike of facts. You rarely post facts at all - instead you usually post claims, ad hominem attacks, and denials. You ignore the plain and obvious reading of Jeremiah 25:12, which clearly indicates the event that ended the 70 years. If that weren't enough to clinch it, Daniel 5:26-31 puts the nail in the coffin for your supposed claim of 'love of facts'.
There is no need to twist the scripture because they read plainly and simply for Jeremiah consistently states that the land would become a desolated place without an inhabitant and even tells its duration in that state of seventy years and not fifty. The major exile began with the final destruction of the city duriung Neb's 18th year and the last year of Zedekiah when the land was totally emptied. No other interpretation makes sense.
Jeremiah at no point states that Jerusalem would be without an inhabitant for any specific period of time. The bible is abundantly clear that the main exile was prior to Jerusalem's destruction, and that there was another exile 5 years after that destruction - plain numbers printed in black and white. Jeremiah 52:28-30. Your dishonesty is evident for all to see. It's amazing you can sleep at night.
Further, in Neb's 23 rd year other exiles were taken from other areas outside of Judah so there is no problem here.
Pure speculation and grasping at straws.
If your chronology is superior to Jonsson then Jonsson would like to know and you will make trouble for yourself with other apostates. Interestingly other scholars using the same secular chronology propose 588 and 589 so the matter is further confused.
I neither know nor care what 'trouble' you imagine I might make for myself. Other people's confusion is their own issue. I have posted the evidence for 587, and I have invited all readers to give their thoughts or to provide any supporing evidence for any alternative year.
You cast aspersions on other Witnesses becaus ethey do not go outside the square but you forget that scholar has gone outside the square and has been studying chronology and has many books on chron ology not published by the Society since the seventies. This means that scholar is familiar with all aspects of chronology and is well qualified to endorse as accurate that chronology.
At least most Witnesses, although wrong, are at least sincere. You, on the other hand, are a hypocrite for associating with those you've been told not to, and for reading what you've been told not to. In real terms, your going 'outside the square' might be seen as being to your credit, but that is counteracted by your bombastic tenacity in accepting lies. You boldly deny facts, yet refuse to post anything that either refutes those facts or provides any alternative - you merely post claims, speculations, catchphrases and out-of-context exerpts. Post something real.
Regarding the twenty year gap during the short Neo- Babylonian period is not of my making but simply comes into existence when the seventy years is fed into the mix. Now if we omit the seventy years then all is well but if we p;ut it in as we must do as it represents a major period of biblical history in that rather short period of Neo-Babyloian history., In fact, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzer to the last king Nabonidus we have a total period of some 66-67 years which is dominated by the lon ger period of sev enty years contemporaneous with that same period. This means that the seventy years demands scholarly acceptance and any attempt to ignore this critical period is dishonest, deceitful scholarship and I condemn all those guilty of such subterfuge.
Such pompous arrogance! The Society's interpretation of the 70 years hasn't been put in for any desire for historical accuracy. It exists merely to bolster its faulty 1914 doctrine. Your conclusion about the 66-67 years giving some support to your interpretation is rediculous and unclear.
How then care there be any other evidence for that period could overide the most outstanding piece of biblical history. The seventy years obliterates totally all other secular evidence of the NB period for the purposes of constructing a chronology. In short, the seventy years makes such so-called evidence farcical and redundant. Jonsson's so called 18 lines of evidence is irrelevant when compared to the historical validity of the biblical seventy years. Therefore, this fact alone ensures the validity of 607 BCE from all other pretenders such as 589, 588, 587, 586 BCE.
The seventy years of the bible is completely reconcilable with secular history. It is only when you introduce lies, putting words in Jeremiah's mouth like "without an inhabitant for 70 years". And there's no need to try to add ambiguity with your trite "589, 588, 587, 586" rot. Indeed, it is because of arrogant religionists like yourself that the ambiguity of the spurious 586 exists at all.
Yes the word that was accomplished in Chronicles was the Return of the Exiles in 537 and not the Fall of Babylon in 539 BCE and such Return ended that seventy years. So it was that those exiles became servant to Babylon until a new ruler at Babylon namely Cyrus who then released the exiles in 537 BCE. The date of 537 for the return is certainly compatible with known history of that period as most reference works attest, There is no reference publsihed that offers anything other that 537 is the date for the return.
Both 'words' of Jeremiah were accomplished, but Jeremiah prophesied both of those things separately. You have no point, and your vagueness and misdirection are irrelevant. The Fall of Babylon at 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 fulfilled the 'word of Jeremiah' from Jeremiah 25, and the Return of the Jews at 2 Chronicles 36:22 fulfilled the 'word of Jeremiah' from Jeremiah 29. Why don't you provide some of these 'references' that support 537, and how that year is consistent with known history? You will claim that it's because you're (endlessly) 'waiting' to see others' comments, but the truth is you simply cannot.
I do need to grasp at straws because my situation is not desperate for we make our views publicly known and are quite able to public defend such views. The Bible reads plainly and simply on these matters so we have nothing to fear.
You demonstrate with every post that you are not able to properly defend your chronology. You feel comfortable in your house of cards because of your self-delusion, but the fact is that you will die with your dreams unfulfilled.
Jeremiah quite clearly refers to the seventy years as a period of desolation, exile and servitude and Josephus also agrees.
Indicate where Jeremiah refers to the seventy years as a period of exile.