Question about WT article about ancient city of Tyre

by EndofMysteries 33 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Leolaia

  If Ezekiel was deported at the very end of the year as was customary of the seventh (rather than the sixth) year, then most of his exile would have fallen in the 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar, which means year 1 of his exile would match year 8 of Nebuchadnezzar, a 7-year difference. Thus year 12, the year Jerusalem fell in the 5th month would fall in year 19, because 7 plus 12 is 19. It takes about 5 months to get word from Jerusalem to Babylon but that is with a large group, mostly on foot. A messenger riding horseback to speed news to Babylon would have taken less time. Even so Jerusalem fell in the 5th month and the 10th month of the exile of Ezekiel if he were deported at the very end of the year would allow sufficient time for word to reach Babylon, which is 4+ months.

  The same fact falls automatically from the same analysis I mentioned above, that Ezekiel was exiled at the same time as Jehoiachin and that he reckoned his years from Tishri. That would mean that Jerusalem fell in the 11th year of his exile but that Ezekiel received the news in his 12th year. This is confirmed by the oracle against Tyre in Ezekiel 26:1-2, which is dated to the 11th year but which also refers to the fall of Jerusalem as having occurred (v. 2). The distance to Tyre was shorter, particularly by ship which is what probably was the case (as Tyre was an insular nation). So Tyre had time to receive the news prior to Tishri, but your reckoning has Tyre reacting to the news of Jerusalem's fall a year too early. Note again that in 40:1 Ezekiel refers to Tishri as "the beginning of the year", and he dates this particular Tishri to the 25th year of his exile in the 14th year after the fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell in Ezekiel's 11th year and the end of the 1st year after its destruction occurred in Ezekiel's 12th year. The 14th year after the city's destruction spanned from August in Ezekiel's 24th year to August in Ezekiel's 25th year. Ezekiel's 25th year began in Tishri and the vision was given 10 days into his 25th year. This also fits perfectly with the biblical and rabbinical indications that the 25th year of Ezekiel was a sabbatical year and that Jerusalem fell late in a sabbatical year. If the 25th year was sabbatical, then the 11th and not the 12th would have been a sabbatical year.
• 

  Caedes

  I am certain from reading his posts that Larsinger is quite brilliant himself and has an amazing memory for detail. So I don't think that's quite fair to him, as much as I disagree with his views.

  There is a small but important distinction however between Leolaia and JCanon, one of the two clearly has all their oars in the water, the other has all their oars one one side of the boat.
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  Leolaia

  There are a few other things that pique my interest. I brought out before how Isaiah 23 alludes to the situation during Assyrian hegemony, particularly the events of Esarhaddon's reign, but there is also a remarkable similarity between Isaiah's reference to 70 years and a proclamation that Esarhaddon made during his reign. In making his prophecy about Tyre being forgotten for 70 years, the prophet reminded his readers of what happened to Babylon: "See the land of the Chaldeans! This is the people who no longer exist. Assyria assigned her to the wild beasts. They raised their siege towers, they stripped her citadels, making her a ruin" (v. 13). This is a reference to Sennacherib's sacking of Babylon in 689 BC. Eleven years later, Esarhaddon was the king of Assyria and he made reference to a prophesied 70-year abandonment of the city. It is thus probably no coincidence that Isaiah alluded to what Assyria did to Babylon in declaring a 70-year period of ignomity for Tyre. What is interesting in Esarhaddon's declaration is that the 70 years were conditional and not set in stone. He wrote:

  "Marduk was furious. He devised evil plans to devastate the land, to eliminate its people. From the Arahtu canal, mighty in high water, the likeness of a devastating flood swept over the city of his dwelling, his chapel, and brought it to ruin. Gods and goddesses who lived there returned to heaven. The people who lived there were forced by the horde into slavery. Seventy years, the allotment for its abandonment, is what he wrote, but compassionate Marduk quickly relented and turned it upside down [the cuneiform symbol for "70" when turned upside down is the symbol for "11"]. He declared that it would be inhabited in eleven years" (Black Stone Inscription).

  This might be an ex eventu prophecy, but the idea here certainly is that prophecy is conditional and the deity may relent and have a change of heart. This notion was shared with the Judean prophets, as Jeremiah made reference to the possibility that Yahweh may relent from the disaster he promised (Jeremiah 26:3-19, cf. Jonah 3:10).
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  Leolaia

  The analysis of Young, as mentioned above, accounts for all the biblical sixth-century BC chronological data; one simply assumes that Tishri reckoning was used in the latter chapters of 2 Kings (Judean kings only), Jeremiah (excepting the annalistic list in ch. 52), and Ezekiel, and that non-accession year reckoning was used exclusively in 2 Kings, Jeremiah (excepting the list in ch. 52 again), and Ezekiel, with 2 Kings having Nisan reckoning for Nebuchadnezzar and the list in Jeremiah 52 having both Nisan and accession-year reckoning for Nebuchadnezzar. I also posted above corroborating evidence from Ezekiel that he used Tishri reckoning. There is also corroborating evidence that the latter chapters of 2 Kings and Jeremiah used Tishri-to-Tishri years. We read in 2 Kings 22-23 that the discovery of the Deuteronomistic code occurred "in the 18th year of king Josiah" (22:3), and following this he ruined the high places from Geba to Beersheba (23:8), brought all the priests out of cities of Judah (v. 15), smote the priests of the high places in Samaria (v. 20), and then celebrated Passover (v. 23). However this Passover is also dated to "the 18th year of king Josiah". There is hardly enough time in a single fortnight for all these events to have occurred. But if Josiah's 18th year began in Tishri, then there would have been six months for him to carry out his reforms in the land. As far as Jeremiah is concerned, we read in 36:1 that he was instructed to have his prophecies written in a scroll "in the 4th year of Jehoiakim". Then once he completes his book, he commands Baruch to read the scroll in the Temple, which he does in the 5th year of Jehoiakim in the 9th month, i.e. Kislev (v. 9). That this was a winter month is also indicated by the fact that Jehoiakim is described as sitting in his winter apartment (v. 22). The account suggests that these events occurred in the space of several months or weeks, as the message was timely and not meant to be unnecesarily delayed. Now if Jehoiakim's reign was reckoned from Nisan to Nisan, it would mean that Jeremiah wrote the scroll in Adar (e.g. March) of Jehoiakim's 4th year at the latest and then Baruch waited at least nine months to read it in December (Kislev of Jehoiakim's 5th year). But if Jehoiakim's reign was reckoned from Tishri to Tishri, then Jeremiah could have had the scroll written at the end of the year in September and then had Baruch read it in the Temple a few months later in December. This makes much more sense.