The Gentile Times Reconsidered (page 27)

MeanMrMustard

@miseryloveselders: the site he is referencing is pretty good. I'm going through it now.

AnnOMaly, thanks for scanning in the relevant information, but the reference to "Brown University Studies, Vol. XIX, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C.—A.D. 75, (1956) Parker and Dubberstein, p. 29" was just a footnote contained in the following paragraph.

w68 8/15 pp. 493-494 par. 23 The Book of Truthful Historical Dates

He issued the famous edict permitting the Jews to return and rebuild Jehovah’s temple, copies of which were written and circulated throughout the realm. This allowed sufficient time for the Jews to resettle in their homeland, ‘establish the altar firmly upon its own site,’ and “from the first day of the seventh month” start offering up burnt sacrifices to Jehovah. This date, the “first day of the seventh month,” according to the best astronomical tables available, is calculated to be October 5 (Julian) or September 29 (Gregorian) 537 B.C.E.—Ezra 1:1-4; 3:1-6.

It's an astronomical table that illustrates how the seventh month from the decree of Cyrus in Ezra 3:1-6 collaborates with our calendar.

Leolaia

Spade....Enough with trying to prove that Cyrus' first regnal year was 538/537 BC. None of us is contesting that. Proving that Cyrus' first regnal year was 538/537 BC DOES NOT prove that he gave the decree in 537 BC as opposed to 538 BC. You were just as wrong in citing Parker & Dubberstein as you were citing Finegan (which I see you have done yet again).

AnnOMaly

"If there was no longer a king of Babylon once the reign of Persia began, how could the exiles serve him for two more years until they returned to their homeland? It would not be possible."
[Spade:] Cyrus II of Persia became the King of Babylon after the accession year upon his conquest.

True, he did. But the Bible is quite specific. The 'royalty of Persia' is not descended from or related to Nebuchadnezzar. Judah's and the other nations' servitude to the 'king of Babylon,' as defined in Scripture, was to cease once the Babylonian empire was overthrown by Persia.

(2 Chronicles 36:20) "Furthermore, he [Neb.] carried off those remaining from the sword captive to Babylon, and they came to be servants to him and his sons until the royalty of Persia began to reign"

(Jeremiah 27:7) "And all the nations must serve even him [Neb.] and his son and his grandson until the time even of his own land comes, and many nations and great kings must exploit him as a servant.'"

And despite all the c&ps, you still ignore the fact that nobody knows for sure WHEN in Cyrus' first year he issued the decree. There is a good case to be made for him issuing the decree in the EARLY part of his first year (as others have already shown you), thereby resulting in the exiles being settled back in their homeland by the seventh month 538 BCE.

miseryloveselders

Its funny to see Leolaia get upset on here cuz she NEVER spazzes out. Too funny.

Leolaia

miseryloveselders....Never mistake one's rhetorical stance with one's actual emotional state.

Spade....Interesting backtrack. Yesterday you were saying that this was "the information source for 537 as the date which Cyrus the Great decreed that the Israelites could return to Judea". This was, as you put it, your information source specifically for 537 as the date of the decree. Your source. Now you say that its merely "an astronomical table that illustrates how the seventh month from the decree of Cyrus in Ezra 3:1-6 collaborates with our calendar". Now it's suddenly no longer a source of 537 as the date of the decree, which makes sense, because p. 29 of Parker & Dubberstein has absolutely nothing to say about the decree. It also isn't your source for 537 because you had already decided upon that date as the year of the "seventh month" of Ezra 3:1-6 before making a reference to Parker & Dubberstein. It certainly isn't the book of Ezra that states that the "seventh month" was in the second year of Cyrus; the only prior calendrical reference is to Cyrus' first year, which as you continually remind us was 538/537 BC (the seventh month of which was September/October 538 BC). So why are you looking up what date the "seventh month" of Cyrus' second year fell on? Why Year II? The source for deciding definitively on Year II isn't Ezra, it isn't Parker & Dubberstein. Your source, as you revealed in your posts from yesterday, is actually the Watchtower.