Calendar calculation has its problem. Gregorian Calendar is actually a refinement of Julian calendar involving a 0.002% correction in the length of the year. According to Latin, September (9th), October (10th), November (11th), and December (12th) are, respectively, the names of the 7th (“sept…”), 8th (“oct…”), 9th (“nov…”) and 10th (“dec…”) months – which is what they were, in the 10-month early-Roman year (which started at the spring Equinox, in “March”)… Subsequently, Julius Caesar switched to the 12-month/year calendar (invented at least a thousand years earlier by the Egyptians), adding the two additional months where we now have January (named after the two-headed Roman “god of beginnings, guardian of gates and doors, custodian of the universe”, Janus) and February (named after the Roman festival Februa, remnants of which are now in our Valentine’s day, basically a fertility festival “sanitized” by Christian “moralists”). Unfortunately, however, by adding the two months at the beginning of the year, then the numbered months 5 through 12 were “misnumbered”.
put youir thinking caps on.
by zeb 45 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Fisherman
AM, you are correct that 607 is Gregorian and not Jewish Calendar and 2520 figures in both calendars resulting in 1914 in Gregorian years but the 2520 in the Jewish calendar as you pointed out, also corresponds with 1914.
I do not know for sure if 607 is correct but it makes sense to me: 539-70 = 609. So, if the 70 years began after the assasination of king Zedekiah and if the Jews did stay in Babylon for 70 years, 607 is at the very least, plausible, based on the Bible.
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notsurewheretogo
Yeah I read about this when I was exiting...
Solar Years v Lunar Years isn't it? Just doesn't work...prophecy uses 360 days but fulfillment uses 365.
Cuckoo!!!!
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eyeuse2badub
Ignore the facts and just go with the lunatic bullsh*t from the wt. 'Ignorance is bliss' and "Welcome to the best way of life" lol
just saying!
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Half banana
So many assumptions! Who says there would be a complicated calculation for Christians to work out when Jesus was returning? I'll tell you who it was; it was those idiots who imagined that the Bible was sacred and unable to err and said that God would be unkind if he didn't leave a clue in the Bible. Thank you very much Charles Taze Russell and company!
But what did Jesus say with reference to the signs of the times? Mark 13,31 "I tell you this, the present generation will live to see it all". NEB (I threw away my NWT)
Jesus and therefore the Bible got it completely wrong. The Jesus story was another in a long line of false prophecies playing on the tender hopes of the desperately poor two millennia ago.
There was no get out clause like the Watchtower make out to say that if it didn't come in Jesus' generation it will come when the WTBTS says so. No! there is no mention of such a possibility. The Bible is rubbish for prophecy and is no yardstick for truth of any sort.
What it is good for however, is for beating the living daylights out of people and getting them to jump through hoops and making them believe that fairytales are real.
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Finkelstein
The Bible is rubbish for prophecy and is no yardstick for truth of any sort.
True but it is a usable historical reference for ancient mythological beliefs and practices.
The ancients truly looked up to the supernatural gods for help in the perils they had to endure and a portion of humanity still does to this day.
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Finkelstein
I do not know for sure if 607 is correct but it makes sense to me: 539-70 = 609
607 is impossible based upon the fact that Nebuchadnezzar didn't take the throne over of Babylon not until his father died in 605 , it was that year that he started to subjugate Jerusalem by force and in the process took some slaves back to Babylon. This forced subjugation continued on right up until he finally besieged Jerusalem destroying the Temple and took a large portion of the population back to Babylon.in 586 BCE.
When Josiah became king of Judah in c. 641/640 BCE, the international situation was in flux. To the east, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was beginning to disintegrate, the Neo-Babylonian Empire had not yet risen to replace it, and Egypt to the west was still recovering from Assyrian rule. In this power vacuum, Judah was able to govern itself for the time being without foreign intervention. However, in the spring of 609 BCE, Pharaoh Necho II personally led a sizable army up to the Euphrates to aid the Assyrians. Taking the coast route Via Maris into Syria at the head of a large army, Necho passed the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon. However, the passage over the ridge of hills which shuts in on the south of the great Jezreel Valley was blocked by the Judean army led by Josiah, who may have considered that the Assyrians and Egyptians were weakened by the death of the pharaoh Psamtik I only a year earlier (610 BCE). Presumably in an attempt to help the Babylonians, Josiah attempted to block the advance at Megiddo, where a fierce battle was fought and where Josiah was killed. Necho then joined forces with the Assyrian Ashur-uballit II and together they crossed the Euphrates and lay siege to Harran. The combined forces failed to capture the city, and Necho retreated back to northern Syria. The event also marked the disintegration of the Assyrian Empire.
On his return march to Egypt in 608 BCE, Necho found that Jehoahaz had been selected to succeed his father, Josiah. Necho deposed Jehoahaz, who had been king for only three months, and replaced him with his older brother, Jehoiakim. Necho imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver (about 3 3⁄4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons) and a talent of gold (about 34 kilograms (75 lb)). Necho then took Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, never to return.
Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians, paying a heavy tribute. However, when the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim changed allegiances, paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. In 601 BCE, in the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was repulsed with heavy losses. This failure led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant which owed allegiance to Babylon. Jehoiakim also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and took a pro-Egyptian position. Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with these rebellions. According to the Babylonian Chronicles, after invading "the land of Hatti (Syria/Palestine)" in 599 BC, he lay siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died in 598 BC during the siege, and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, carting all his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire. (2 Kings 24:14) Among them was Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon.
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Finkelstein
Just to clarify things a bit 605 -19 = 586 BCE
Jeremiah 52:12, 13 ...... ‘On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the LORD, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.'
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Fisherman
Fin, counting back 70 years from 539, you get to 609.
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Finkelstein
Yes I know but the actual history has the real occurrence not the prophetic mythical version told by Daniel. There is also an enormous amount of archeological findings to support further what ancient historians have concluded.