is there any biblical event that has a universally accepted date on which it occurred? (page 2)

Crazyguy

Yeah 539 would be it and 70 ce for the second destruction of Jerusalem, but there is also overwhelming evidence that jerusalem was also destroyed in 587 bce. As long as you question everything you were taught as a JW you will be fine.

DesirousOfChange

I believe 539 B.C. is the accepted date for Cyrus conquering Babylon.

Yep. My mistake of thinking backwards with BCE numbers, or actually for thinking forward when they are actually backwards.......or something like that.

If it was a WT date it wouldn't matter if it was right or wrong, it would still eventually be proven wrong. History isn't like that.

Doc

AnnOMaly

597 BCE as the date of besieged Jerusalem's surrender and the deportation of Jehoiachin and the royal family. Dated both in the Bible and in the Babylonian Chronicle.

Over%forme

Funk and Wagnalls Encyciopedia also says

Jehoiakim begin to rule in 6o9 sothis would make

608 his first year.608-10=598.

Zedekiah begin in 598. 598-11=587.

Any way you look at it, Makes the JW wrong.

scholar

Jeremiah 18:5-10

The only suitable candidate in answer to your question is the Fall of Babylon in 539 BCE. This date is well cinfirmed by secular chronology and is well documented in the Bible. For these reasons it was chosen by the celebrated WT scholars to be a Absolute or Pivotal Date for dating events for the OT.

Other scholars have and do propose other secular dates as absolute dates but none of these are as solidly based as the Fall of Babylon in 539 BCE for it alone ticks all the boxes for the purpose of constructing a Bible Chronology.

scholar JW

QC

Absolute dates (anchor dates, uncontested by historians, archeologist and chronologist):

539 BC

defeat of Babylon (Nabonidus and Belshazzar) by Cyrus (Persian) and Darius (Mede)

31 BC

Battle of Actium, Roman Republic becomes the Roman Empire by defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra (of Egypt)

15 AD

Tiberius Caesar’s 1st regnal year, in 15th regnal is Jesus’ baptismal as Messiah

Definitive work on 587 BC desolation of Jerusalem is Gentile Times Reconsidered, by Carl Olof Jonson, download here at item #9, follow instructions

QC

Yes, absolute date also is:

70 AD

Titus brings Roman desolation of Jerusalem (second time), start of Jews scattering globally.

AnnOMaly

Neil,

Nice of you to drop by. There's some unfinished business between you and Jeffro on THIS THREAD. Just a reminder.

kepler

I don't think anyone mentioned Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem recounted in Isaiah chapter 39 and 2nd Kings. Sennacherib gave his own account and his mishaps dealing with Egypt on his own obelisk. Our Biblical accounts have less provenance when you consider that Isaiah and 2nd Kings are almost the same, word for word. Did Isaiah write Kings, or did the chronicles of write Isaiah? No big deal except if you believe Isaiah wrote everything in Isaiah because that's its title.

Books I and II of Maccabees describe numerous events correlated by Josephus in his account of the Jewish War describing the siege and destruction of Jerusalem ( 70 AD) already mentioned. Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes lived, reigned, desecrated the Temple and put down a Jewish rebellion in the 160s BC. Re-examining it, the writing is clear, blunt and devoid of mystery or miracle - save for the lamps and their oil burning for days and instituting millenia of Channuka observances.

The issue, of course, is what constitutes an historical event written in the Bible. Many of the Bibles compiled throughout the world, which included for some time KJV, included Maccabees I & II under the title of deutero-canonical. Others no longer retain them, as well as other chapters that throw spanners into the works of theological sand castles. For example, the 14th chapter of Daniel: "When King Astyages joined his ancestors Cyrus of Persia succeeded him. Daniel was very close to the king, who respected more than any of his other friends..."

Well, forget for a moment about whether or not Daniel served more rulers of Babylon than Talleyrand did with Parisian kings and Emperors or whether he was any more than a fictional hero.

Who was Astyages?

According to Herodotus and other sources, the King of the Medes.

Once again. Who succeeded him?

Cyrus the Persian.

What about Darius the Mede?

Read a good translation of Thucydides and ask yourself who was king when the Greeks fended off at Marathon an invading force they characterized as "Medes".

Then tell me all about 2520 days.

scholar

AnnOMaly

Post 3904

Thanks. I have not forgotten.

scholar JW

is there any biblical event that has a universally accepted date on which it occurred?

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