http://www.truebiblecode.com/understanding120.html
above:
John Brown's Gentile Times and 1914
__________________________________
IF YOU HAVE THE PATIENCE, the above is literally everything you've ever wanted to know about this topic
Where did Russell steal 606/7 BCE from ?
by Phizzy 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
Phizzy
This is from Usshers Annals: "3415c AM, 4125 JP, 589 BC 840. When Nebuchadnezzar had routed the Egyptian army, he presently returned to the siege of Jerusalem about the 15th day of the 3rd month, that is , 30 days before he took it. Eze 4:5,8 Jeremiah told Zedekiah that he would be given into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah then command him to be removed out of the Dungeon of the prison in Jonathan's house and taken into the court of the prison. He was to be given a roll of bread each day as long as there was any bread left in the city, Jer 37: 17,21 "
So, Bishop Ussher is only a year or so out for the real date of Jerusalem's temple destruction, so the 606 or 607 date came from Russell's back calculation of 70 years, and not from the Bishop.
Thanks for the link above Terry, that explains it all, and I love the last paragraph, can't argue with that !
-
AnnOMaly
Terry, that link is to Tönis Tönisson's unauthorized and amended pdf copy of Jonsson's book.
Instead, please go here: http://kristenfrihet.se/english/gtr4/contents.htm. Less user-friendly, but it's the real deal.
Phizzy, the chapter on where Russell's chronology came from is at http://kristenfrihet.se/english/gtr4/3%20gtr4%20rev%20kap1.pdf
606 was generally understood to be the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Russell/Barbour understood 606 as the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. They believed that Cyrus' 1st year was established to be 536 BCE and that the 70 years related to the land being 'desolate, without inhabitant' which could only be when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem.
It was only in 1943 (Knorr's time) that 607 began to be introduced as the new 70 year starting point. 1944 was when the 'zero year' was officially recognized.
-
Terry
Terry, that link is to Tönis Tönisson's unauthorized and amended pdf copy of Jonsson's book.
Oh Crap! You're right--can a moderator please pull that post off of here?
Sorry!
-
dropoffyourkeylee
I've seen the 606 BC date in other pre-1900 non-Russell literature. It was commonly accepted chronology at that time. It didn't originate with Russell, but at that time is was not an unusual belief. I seem to remember it appeared in an old copy of Scofield's reference Bible I used to have.
-
Witness My Fury
I bet that wasnt meant as Jerusalems destruction though, it would have been either Nebs 1st year or the Babylons rise under his dad. As such it was nearly correct.
-
-
-
Phizzy
Thanks all, and especially to AnnOmaly for the direct link to the exact point in C.O Jonsson's work.
It just goes to show what a wonderful place JWN is, filled with people who have patience with those like me who haven't done their own research.
I really should have read Carl Jonsson's book a long time ago, but did not as I considered the 2520 yrs and 1914 to be all done and dusted as far as I was concerned, i.e it was all nonsense, but of course, had I read his book my O.P questions would have been answered.
Consider me a chastened Phizzy.
I now see that C.O.J's book is really required reading for exiting JW's, as much as Ray Franz's C.O.C, both of which books really strip away any idea that from its inception until now the WT/JW movement have been in possesion of any kind of truth.
-
Old Goat
Rather than being a plagiarist, Russell was an adapter. Plagiarism implies the use of another’s words without attribution. Russell adapted other’s ideas for his own use. That’s not the same thing. But it is fair to say that Russell never had an original thought in his life.
Russell stuck to the 606 BC date. The 607 revision came later. But both dates have a history. Russell never read John A. Brown’s Even-Tide. Barbour did, but Brown does not point to 536 BC or 1914. He pointed to 1917.
The immediate source of the 606 date was E. B. Elliott’s Horae. The 607 date was advocated by Samuel Davies Baldwin. See his Armageddon: Or the Overthrow of Romanism and Monarchy’ The Existence of the United States Foretold in the Bible, Its Future Greatness; Invasion by Allied Europe; Annihilation of Monarchy; Expansion into the Millennial Republic, and its Dominion over the Whole World, Applegate and Company, Cincinnati, 1863, page 424.
Russell and his associates did not live in a vacuum. All this was discussed widely in the 1870s, not just by millenarians and Adventists, but by main-stream preachers. Russell, contrary to WatchTower claims, was not an independent Bible student. He read what others wrote and kept what appealed to his imagination, scriptural or not.
Some of this history is recounted in Schulz and de Vienne’s Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet. You should read both their books. Visit their blog here http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/