JW response to question posed on the certainty of the 537BCE date

by digderidoo 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  digderidoo

  This is a response to a question posed, " How do you know Cyrus released the Jews in 537BCE, rather than 538BCE or 536BCE?"

  By Cyrus' decree the Jewish exile was ended therefore fulfilling his commission as Jehovah's ‘anointed shepherd' for Israel. (2Ch 36:22, 23; Ezr 1:1-4) The proclamation was made "in the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia," meaning his first year as ruler toward conquered Babylon. The Bible record at Daniel 9:1 refers to "the first year of Darius," and this may have intervened between the fall of Babylon and "the first year of Cyrus" over Babylon. If it did, this would mean that the writer was perhaps viewing Cyrus' first year as having begun late in the year 538 B.C.E. However, if Darius' rule over Babylon were to be viewed as that of a viceroy, so that his reign ran concurrent with that of Cyrus, Babylonian custom would place Cyrus' first regnal year as running from Nisan of 538 to Nisan of 537 B.C.E.

  I will give the guy credit, at least he attempted a response. But notice all the if's and uncertainties in the answer. You would think that such a central doctrine that 1914 is to JW's that the 537BCE date should have some certainty to it.

  Paul
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  Galileo

  You're focusing on the wrong end. The real question is when did the Babylonian exile start? Why do they teach it started in 607 BCE when all the evidence (more than 10,000 pieces of archaeological evidence alone) say it started in 587 - 586 BCE?
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  VM44

  The Wiki article about Cyrus states:

  On October 29, [539 BC,] Cyrus himself entered the city of Babylon and arrested Nabonidus. He then assumed the titles of "king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four sides of the world."
• 

  blondie

  Actually, the WTS focuses on 539 BCE as an "absolute" now "pivotal" one they say can be calculated by the scriptures and secular history.

  Then they reason that 2 years elapsed before the Jews actually arrived in Israel.

  *** si p. 85 pars. 2-3 Bible Book Number 15—Ezra ***

  2

  Disaster befell Babylon on the night of October 5, 539 B.C.E. (Gregorian calendar), as the Babylonian king Belshazzar and his grandees were drinking toasts to their demon gods. Adding to their pagan debauchery, they were using the holy vessels from Jehovah’s temple as their cups of drunkenness! How fitting that Cyrus was outside Babylon’s walls that night to fulfill the prophecy!

  3

  This date 539 B.C.E. is a pivotal date, that is, a date that may be harmonized with both secular and Biblical history. During his first year as ruler of Babylon, Cyrus "caused a cry to pass through all his realm," authorizing the Jews to go up to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of Jehovah. This decree was evidently issued late in 538 B.C.E. or early in 537 B.C.E. A faithful remnant journeyed back to Jerusalem in time to set up the altar and offer the first sacrifices in "the seventh month" (Tishri, corresponding to September-October) of the year 537 B.C.E.—70 years to the month after Judah and Jerusalem’s desolation by Nebuchadnezzar.—Ezra 1:1-3; 3:1-6.
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  VM44

  "70 years to the month after Judah and Jerusalem’s desolation by Nebuchadnezzar"

  How did The Watchtower prove that statement?
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  blondie

  VM, the WTS would say that "evidently" that was true.
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  VM44

  VM, the WTS would say that "evidently" that was true.

  Without question!
• 

  Doug Mason

  For the WTS, the date of the Jew's return to Jerusalem IS CRITICAL!

  Their calculation for their false date of Jerusalem's destruction relies on their supposed date that the Jews returned.

  Material I have written on the WTS's problems with dating that event is at: http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/When_Did_the_Jews_Return_to_Jerusalem.pdf

  Doug