Watchtower Gives Up Explaining 607 BCE Date! (page 12)

Jeffro

My considered view in respect of this data is a wait and see, that such data is provisional and that is the view of celebrated WT scholars.

So you admit that your view is the same as that for which the Society mocked Darwin.

The problem remains despite your efforts to ignore the facts. The seven years of interruption to Neb's kingship are omitted by the secular materials for whatever reason so these documents are not authentic history, It is far wiser to follow the lead of celebrated WT scholars and their interpretation of the faithful God's Word.

scholar JW

Sam the Man

Scholar,

you dont seriously believe that shit coming from your mouth do you?

sf

scholar,

I asked you a question. Perhaps you did not see it:

Are you Joel Elliot? THE Joel Elliot?

sKally

stevenyc

scholar::The seven years of interruption to Neb's kingship are omitted by the secular materials for whatever reason so these documents are not authentic history

Are you referring to his illness not being mentioned, or no documental evidence for his kingship during those seven years?

steve

Jeffro

The problem remains despite your efforts to ignore the facts. The seven years of interruption to Neb's kingship are omitted by the secular materials for whatever reason so these documents are not authentic history, It is far wiser to follow the lead of celebrated WT scholars and their interpretation of the faithful God's Word.

Your logic is completely in reverse. Most normal people would come up with an interpretation and test it against facts. But you prefer to say that the facts are wrong because they don't fit your interpretation. If you are really a 'scholar', who accredited you? Dr Seuss?

Alleymom

Steve asked Scholar: Are you referring to his illness not being mentioned, or no documental evidence for his kingship during those seven years?

Steve -- In case Scholar does not reply to this in a clear way, let me emphasize that there is documental evidence for EACH year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. The evidence consists of dated cuneiform tablets. The tablets are dated to the day, month, and year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. These administrative and legal tablets routinely include the names of the parties involved in whatever transaction is recorded as well as the names of the witnesses. Regards,
Marjorie

jeeprube

methodology and interpretation demonstrates a loyalty to God's inspired Word.

Believe or die!

Alleymom

Scholar wrote: As I have pointed out before there is some problems with the Babylonian King lists so when the Society's publications give certain figures for the kings it is simply presenting current scholarly opinion. Celebrated WT scholars have kindly informed us that in the case of Evil-Merodach there is a current acceptance that he reigned for two years and yet Josephus assigns a period of 18 years. In this case we are closing in on the twenty year gap between profane-secular chronology and true biblical chronology.
My considered view in respect of this data is a wait and see, that such data is provisional and that is the view of celebrated WT scholars.

Neil ---

You are misrepresenting the WT position stated in the literature I cited. There was no qualification or disclaimer. They didn't say "This is the currently accepted figure, but it's just provisional, it could be wrong." No, they presented the figures as facts.

Neo-Babylonian chronology is not based on later historian's king lists, which are tertiary at best. It is firmly grounded on the actual contemporary primary documents themselves. There are thousands of dated cuneiform tablets from the neo-Babylonian empire, with dated tablets for each year of each king. There are also documents which cover years from more than one king.

I recently discussed one of these tablets (it is catalogued as NBC 4897), and you have not replied to my post. It is an accounting tablet which records tallies from a flock of goats and sheep. It covers the sheep and goats separately, with each group broken down by age and sex. It includes entries for the payments of the herdsmen's wages as well as payments for shearing. Most significantly, it spans several kings. It covers the years from the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar through the 1st year of Neriglissar. And guess which king comes in between? Evil-Merodach, aka "Amel-Marduk." He reigned 2 years, just as the WT says in the literature I cited, and both of those years are covered in this accounting tablet.

Evil-Merodach did not reign 18 years, and the WT literature I cited did not suggest or imply any such figure.

The text of NBC 4897 has been carefully studied and research on it has been published by leading Assyriologists, including Stefan Zawadzki (whose article in volume 55 of the Journal of Cuneiform Studies I discussed a few weeks ago), Ronald Sack, Karen Nemet-Nejat, and G. van Driel.

Regarding Josephus: First of all, there are huge textual critical issues in the Josephus manuscripts and some recent collation of manuscripts has revealed some critical errors in the printed editions. Leaving that aside, Josephus, in any case, was hundreds of years removed from the actual events and he did not have the primary evidence of the dated cuneiform tablets that we have today. There are rabbinic legends (haggadah) about Evil-Merodach's rule with material that is neither Biblical nor historical. Josephus may have been familiar with these stories. The figure may also represent a time of co-regency when Evil-Merodach shared the throne.

Regards,
Marjorie

steve2

It is far wiser to follow the lead of celebrated WT scholars and their interpretation of the faithful God's Word.

And here we have it in a nutshell, people: The elevation of "celebrated WT scholars" to the level of ultimate interpreters "of the faithful God's Word".

By the way, too much celebration - whether by scholars or others - may distort thinking processes. Scholar's perseveration on the adjective "celebrated" has degenerated itself to a joke, producing clear evidence of distorted thinking processes.

Watchtower Gives Up Explaining 607 BCE Date!

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