Josephus says the temple lay desolate for 50 years

by JWB 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  JWB

  JOSEPHUS SAYS THE TEMPLE LAY DESOLATE FOR 50 YEARS
  
  "These accounts agree with the true history in our books; for in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in that state of obscurity for fifty years; but that in the second year of the reign of Cyrus, its foundations were laid, and it was finished again in the second year of Darius." - Extract from "Flavius Josephus Against Apion" 1.21
  
  It seems that some people mix up the seventy years of servitude mentioned in Jeremiah 25:11 (which included "all these nations") with the period during which "the land had enjoyed its sabbaths" (2 Chronicles 36:21). However, the scriptures simply show that the "sabbaths" finished at the end of the seventy year period.
  
  A period of 49 years of seven sabbaths followed by a 50th Jubilee year when land returned to its original owners was recognized by the Israelites as part of their law of land redemption:
  
  "You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family." - Leviticus 25:8-10 (NASB)
  
  "The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land" - Leviticus 25:23-24 (NASB)
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  dingo1

  tell a jew you repoed his land. good luck!
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  Bobcat

  Thanks. I was looking for that reference in Josephus just a few days ago.

  As a side note in connection with the land paying its Sabbaths, there is an interesting footnote in GTR4 that links 587 (date of destruction of Jerusalem) with 930 (date of split in the kingdom). Its on page 223, footnote 37.
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  breakfast of champions

  Thanks for this. I forgot where that Josephus quote was from.