"However, I would like to highlight a few instances.
Let us go to the November 2011 Public Watchtower, page 28. Note 18, regarding VAT 4956 says,"Though the cuneiform sign for the moon is clear and unambiguous, some of the signs for the names of the planets and their positions are unclear. (Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy—Astrology, by David Brown, published 2000, pages 53-57) Because of this, the planetary observations are open to speculation and to several different interpretations."
Again setting aside whether 607 BC is correct, or if VAT 4569 is a reliable witness--the reference Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology is cited to support that idea why the planetary observations should be thrown out. However, the reference says no such thing. VAT 4956 contains clear and unambiguous planetary names.
Note 17 says,"Therefore, the first Babylonian month (Nisanu) would have started the new year two months earlier, on May 2/3. While normally the year of this eclipse would have begun on April 3/4, VAT 4956 states on line 6 that an extra month (intercalary) was added after the twelfth (last) month (Addaru) of the preceding year. (The tablet reads: “8th of month II2.”) Therefore, this made the new year actually not start until May 2/3."
In all the years of this calendar system, the month of Nissan never began in May. Intercalary months were only added so that the year would not begin before the spring equinox. It would never have been added in such a way to make the year start exceedingly late like this. Here, the Society readjusted the known calendar for this year in order to point to a lunar observation and force it agree with VAT 4956.
BTW--if VAT 4956 is irrelevant as you have previously said, why is the Society putting so much credence in this astronomical diary? Is this not "food at the proper time"? Are you not contradicting "the Slave"?
Finally, I would like to point out this link:
http://www.jehovahs- witness.net/watchtower/bible /224416/1/The-June-2012- citation-of-Ephraim-Stern
Here we see that the June 2012 Awake selectively quoting Ephraim Stern in an effort to prove the case for 607 BC. However, when reading the quotation in full context, it is a flagrant misrepresentation of what the scholar is saying.
There are many other misrepresentations in Part 1 & 2, as well as other articles, and AnnOMaly and others have pointed them out. For the benefit of the lurkers, as well as yourself, I would consult the following link of links about this subject. Digging will be required, but the secular quotations in their context can be found in abundance, as well as what some of these scholars thought of how they were quoted.
http://www.jehovahs- witness.net/watchtower/bible /222960/1/e2809cWHEN- WAS-ANCIENT-JERUSALEM- DESTROYED-e2809d-Why-does- it-matter-The-Watchtower- October-1-2011-and-November- 1-2011
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The post was made in this thread..
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/224385/4/Explain-in-a-FEW-words-why-the-607-date-is-incorrect#.U6ycal2t-o8
I'm not up to doing much more searching but a quick Google shows that you can buy the book 'Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology' referred to here on Amazon or download a pdf..
http://www.google.com/m?q=Mesopotamian+Planetary+Astronomy-Astrology
