Just for a little background, the chronology from the creation of Adam down to the Exodus is rather direct. You can follow the genealogies for this period. There is little debate for this period of 2513 years. Thus per the Insight book the creation of Adam is dated to 4026 and the Exodus dated to 1513 BCE.
From the Exodus down to the return from Babylon is a complex Biblical period to calculate if you don't use jubilee dating intervals. Then from the return from Babylon, which begins the "70 weeks" prophecy, you have 483 years down to the baptism of Christ. This represents a definite period in the Bible that many recognize. That is, even JWs date the beginning of the "70 weeks" to 455 BCE based on Christ's baptism in 29 CE.
So, again, there are three RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY periods that are very direct in the Bible that practically everyone agrees on: (1) the time from the creation of Adam to the Exodus, 2513 years; (2) the time from the Exodus to the 4th year of Solomon and the beginning of the building of the first temple, 480 years; and (3) the time from the beginning of the "70 weeks" prophecy until the baptism of Christ, 483 years.
What chronologists are challenged by and don't agree on are three other RELATIVE CHRONOLOGY periods: (1) the number of years from the 4th of Solomon down to the destruction of the first temple in the 19th of Nebuchadnezzar; (2) From the destruction of the temple down to the 1st of Cyrus; and (3) from the 1st of Cyrus when the Jews return from Babylon to the beginning of the "70 weeks."
Here are the basic comparisons between the WTS chronology, the popular secular chronology and the chronology I use which I call "strict Bible chronology":
WTS VS. SECULAR VS. STRICT BIBLE CHRONOLOGY
Basically, the WTS, secular and SBC all agree on the relative interval from the Exodus back to the creation of Adam. Secular chronology though dates the Exodus to 1446 BCE, the WTS to 1513 BCE and SBC to 1386 BCE. The variations have to do with the calculation of other intervals. The WTS' dating is some 67 years earlier than the secular. They add an additional 20 years for the Neo-Babylonian Period, then skip 47 years of co-rulerships the secular historians use based on Thiele's co-rulership calculations. The WTS and secular history agree on 539 BCE for the fall of Babylon though. So from the fall of Babylon back to the fall of Jerusalem, the WTS and secular vary by 20 years. The WTS dates the fall of Jerusalem to 607 BCE as we all know, and secular dates it to 587 BCE. From that point back to the 4th of Solomon, secular calculates 47 years of co-rulerships but the WTS couldn't figure that out so just follow the Judean line, end to end and presume lots of gaps in the Israelite rulerships (doh!), so they end up with 47 more years than secular. This distorts the Exodus dates by 67 years between the two; 1513 BCE vs 1446 BCE.
Strict Biblical chronology now based on the jubilee periods can use 1947 as the end of the 70th jubilee period to date the Exodus to 1386 BCE, which was the first celebrated jubilee. Thus SBC dates the Exodus some 60 years later than secular (1446 BCE) and some 127 years later than the WTS (1513 BCE).
WTS and secular follow the same chronology from 53 BCE to the completion of the second temple in the 6th of Darius in 515/516 BCE. But they vary from that point to the 20th of Artaxerxes. Secular history dates the 20th of Artaxerxes to 445 BCE and the WTS dates it to 455 BCE to match the "70 weeks" prophecy. They effect this by introducing a 10-year co-rulership between Darius I and Xerxes, which they loosely confirm by archaeology from Persepolis showing the co-rulership, but with no specific reference to a 10-year co-rulership. But WTS and secular are back in sync by the end of the rule of Artaxerxes I in 424 BCE. This is effected by adding 10 years to the reign of Artaxerxes I, claiming he ruled for 51 years instead of just 41 years per secular records. But they came up with two spurious dated texts to "year 51" of Artaxerxes, so they get by with that claim for the most part. From 424 BCE forward, WTS and secular agree.
Strict Bible chronology dates the Exodus to 1386 BCE as noted, using the jubilee period dating. But the jubilee dating also dates the jubilee of the return from Babylon to 455 BCE, which dates the beginning of the "70 weeks." Therefore, using SBC, you don't have to figure out the complex co-rulerships between the time of Solomon down into the NB Period. The jubilee of the return in 19 jubilees from the Exodus (19 x 49 = 931; 1386 - 931 = 455 BCE), dating the 1st of Cyrus to 455 BCE. This follows Martin Anstey and others who see the return and the beginning of the rebuilding as fulifilling the "70 weeks" prophecy, thus dating the 1st of Cyrus to 455 BCE. This varies from secular and WTS chronology which date that event to 537 BCE by some 82 years. SBC then follows Josephus and the Bible regading the 70-year exile period back to the last deportation in year 23 of Neb2. This is similar to the WTS who also introduces this 70-year interval, but from the return back to the fall of Jerusalem. Thus the WTS gets 607 BCE, year 28 of Neb-II for the beginning of the 70 years. SBC dates year 23 in 525 BCE (70 years earlier than 455 BCE), and the fall of Jerusalem in 529 BCE, year 19 of Nebuchadnezzar. SBC chronologists have discovered and removed the extra 82 years of Persian chronology from the 1st of Cyrus down to the 1st of Artaxerxes III when SBC, secular and WTS are all in sync in 358 BCE. SBC removes 1 years from Kambyses, 30 years each from Darius I (per Bible!) and Artaxerxes II, and 21 years from Artaxerxes I who ruled those years under the name of Xerxes; Xerxes and Artaxerxes I were the same king.
Just in passing, SBC and secular use the same interval from the Assyrian Period back to the invasion by Shishak, except they use two different eclipse dates for the Assyrian eponym eclipse. Secular uses 763 BCE, SBC uses 709 BCE, a 54-year difference. Thus secular dates Shishak's invasion to 925 BCE and SBC to 871 BCE (925 - 871 = 54), this representing the 54-year difference in eclipse dates, but the same general interval calculation which includes all those complex co-rulerships by Thiele that are ignored by the WTS. Also, SBC and secular follow the 41-year rule for Artaxerxes I rather than 51 per the WTS. Secular and SBC are back in sync by 358 BCE, the beginning of the rule of Artaxerxes III.
100-year WTS discrepancy trivia for creation of Adam: For those who want to research this further, you can look up the basis for the 1925 date when the WTS was expecting to go to heaven and Abraham and others to come and stay in San Diego at "Beth Sarem." The 1925 hype was based on 70 jubilees calculated as 70 x 50 = 3500 years. They began the jubilee dating with the entry and conquering of the land of the Promised Land and the division of the land and agricultural farming. 3500 - 1925 = 1575 + 1 = 1576 BCE. So for 1925 to work as the end of 3500 years, the Israelites would have begun their jubilee harvest period in 1576 BCE. That's really early for that event per any calculation. They now date the Exodus to 1513 and the division of land 50 years later around 1463, which is 113 years later. So that's where that "100 years" error comes in. Even so, you can see even the WTS observed the apparent jubilee cycle of 70 years.
The SBC calculation of 70 jubilees dates each jubilee as 49 years rather than 50 years. That means every 70 weeks is 490 years, a period of 10 jubilees. Thus 70 jubilees is 3430 years, 7 x 490. See the continuity? The final restoration to their homeland occurs in 1947, which marks the beginning of the final, 70th jubilee. Based on that interpretation the end of 70 jubilees occurs in 1996 and begins in 1435 BCE. The Exodus would be dated 49 years after that and thus in 1386 BCE. The return from Babylon would occur 931 years after the Exodus and thus in 455 BCE, which begins the "70 weeks" of 490 years to mark the advent of the first coming of the messiah. The final 490 years, from 1506 to 1996 marks the advent of the second-coming messiah during the 70th week of 1989-1996. The first time the messiah appears he fulfills the first half of the 70th week and thus Jesus' ministry was from 29-33 CE. The second time, the messiah arrives at mid-week and fulfills the second half of the 70th week and thus he arrives in 1992-1993 and has a ministry from 1993-1996 (i.e. 42 months of feeding the elect).
The 6000 years of man's existence and 1975: Finally, for those who are curious about the doctrine of the 1000 years occurring at the end of 6000 years and how that affects 1975 and how the WTS now explains that. As obvious from the above, 1975 was at least 127 years too early. Further they rushed the creation of Eve to 1 year after Adam was created, which is impractical. Even now, individuals need at least 20 or so years to develop personal maturity. Does it make much sense a mental 1-year old is saddled with a wife? Following the clue that Jesus became a sacrifice for Adam at age 30, when this is applied, Eve gets created when Adam was about 30 rather than 1 year old. If so, this pushes back the end of the 7th creative day back another 29 years. In that case, 29 + 127 (=156) to correct mankind's timeline means 6000 years of man's existence likely does not expire until 2131 AD. So there is no problem for the millennium of 1000 years to occur before the end of the 7th Creative Day c. 3101 AD.
But, this is not time to relax. There are two other complications. They are Satan's final test for "a short time" and "Judgment Day", both of which occur during the 7th Creative Day but after the sabbath rest from Satan's rule near the end of 6000 years of man's existence. If you assign 20 years for Satan's last test and 100 years for Judgment Day, you have to begin the millennium 120 years earlier than the last 1000 years of the 7th Creative Day. When we subtract 120 from 2131 we get 2011! (2131 - 120 = 2011 AD). The second coming occurred in 1992 after which Satan was let loose "a short while" to prepare the nations for Armageddon. If a "short while" is half a generation of 40 years, thus around 20 years, those 20 years expire in late December (Dec. 21-25) of 2012.
So all is well as far as the 7th Creative Day and the millennium when you have the correct chronology, which the WTS does not, they having worse chronology than even secular!
LS
