That's alright Villobolo - I forgive you.
And now for Lesson 5 - looks like I'm mostly just talking to myself here - but that's okay - it's good exercise for the grey matter.
Re Samuel - Bible tells us he was a young lad when he revealed Jehovah's message to Eli - Josephus pegs it as 12 years and that fits young lad so I'll play with that one - Since Eli died in 1158 BC that would mean Samuel had to be born at least by 1170 BC. We don't know exactly but 70 is good enough to fit the other definition we want - how old was he when he annointed King Saul - will this fit? The Bible tells us at 1 Samuel chapter 8:1 that Samuel had grown old when he appointed his sons as judges and he was definitely old when he annointed King Saul cause it was enough time after the appointment of his sons that the people had discerned they did not want the sons to take the role of leadership - they had not walked in their father's ways - they wanted a king instead. The Bible defines old as 70 to 80 so if Samuel was age 70 when he participated in the matter of making Saul King it would fit 1100 BC. And that works nicely. Almost no one else grants Samuel that long a time of judging - I could only find one other - Pascal - most have been thrown off by the 20 years plus 7 months detail thinking that was the length but in truth I believe this was probably the beginning of his serving as a Priest for the nation - had to be at least age 30 and if one adds 12 to 21 we arrive at 33 - probably identifies the time Samuel begins - see 1 Samuel 7:1-5 - states he took up judging - so we have to allow some time for him to be judging after that. This would all fit into the age 70 scenario - so unfortunately this part of the chronology just human reasoning. But any shorter time span won't allow him to become old and grey before Saul selected. He was old enough the people were beginning to worry about the possibility of his passing away and who would be over them in that case.
Now the period of the Kings - just add up the years again for the various Kings of Judah - because that is the line through whom the Christ will come - and we get 513 - WTS gets 510 but they had to do some fancy footwork to arrive at that figure - not justified by the scripture record itself. I'll stick with the 513 myself - and just guess where that lands us - 587 BC. My, oh my. You can't imagine my surprise when that happened. But there was no way 607 was going to fit no matter what gyrations one tried to do - so I had to accept it - the GB is still unwilling to do so. But by just working with Scripture figures and trying to be reasonable in the gap periods - Joshua and Samuel - it anchors 587 BC as the end of the line of Kings. I'll stop for here - the rest has already been well covered by others.
Summary - 4130 beginning
2470 date for flood
2181 birthdate for Abraham
Thus 2081 birthdate for Isaac, 2021 birthdate for Jacob and Esau, etc. etc.
1676 date of the Exodus
1636 date for crossing the Jordan into Canaan
1630 for division of the land
1608 - death of Joshua
1158 - death of Eli
1100 - beginning of the line of Kings with Saul
587 - end of the period of the Kings with burning of Jerusalem
And the fun part about all these dates is that now all (or perhaps I should say most - may be some I have not investigated yet) the secular history dates for interlapping with other world powers jive right on. That is amazing and fun. And perhaps the best substantiated date of all is 609 BC - five different world powers interact - Josiah for Judah killed in this passage - the above chronology has his reign beginning in 640 BC - ending in 609 BC. The most critical tie-in is that of Assur-Umballit II of the Assyrians - his reign is only 2 years - from 611 to 609, The next - Egyptian recoreds indicate Necho's reign of 15 years from 610 to 595. That one fits perfectly. He was coming to aid Assur-Umballit II and it was Necho who kills Josiah. Nabopolasser of the Babylonians reigned from 626 to 605. So this makes a fourth confirmation - 609 marks the beginning of the Babylonian 70 years of world power - ending in 539 - perfection. It is 609 that Babylon finishes off the last Assyrian King for that period - and the ally of Nabopolasser was Cyaxerxes - his reign is a long one - 625 to 585 so he makes a 5th confirmation. But the most interesting factor about his history is Herodotus identified his death as being shortly after a battle with Alyattes of Lydia. This battle was interrupted by a total solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BC. Rather difficult for WTS to push that one around. So 609 BC is even better anchor than 539 BC in my opinion. These items are all identified in Carol Olof Jonnson's magnificent work. And the WTS has known about it for over 40 years yet they fail to adjust.
Another tidbit - Franz realized that Russell used to calculate 580 years for the I Kings 6:1 scripture thanks to Benjamin Wilson and the scripture actually says 480 years so that is what led Freddie to slash off a hundred years. Many Bible scholars consider this particular scripture to be a forgery - that the date has been inserted perhaps from a marginal notation. That item is open to debate but no chronologer has ever been successful at accommodating it - Solomon's Temple per my calculations was begun in 1016 - Solomon began reigning in 1020 BC - 4th year 2nd month pushes it to 1016 or maybe 1017. Funny thing if instead of trying to anchor the exodus from Egypt 480 years prior - which just will not work - it is possible that some scribe wrote the words 480 years and Exodus - in the margin - and if one proceeds forward instead of backward one arrives at an Exodus - but this time from Babylon - not Egypt. Don't know - just possibilities. But even the 70 years of fasting spoken about in Zechariah tie up to perfection with the 587 BC date. So one can only conclude the WTS is being "obtuse."
Another item that may anchor the WTS with their current dates is their whole basis for authority anchored to 1918 - used to be the double for Jacob's birth and they believed that signified the birth of a new nation - Spiritual Israel - which they think they represent. Of course now that double would be 2018. LOL. The Israel's double concept is mentioned in fine print footnote in Divine Proclaimer's Book but it used to carry great weight with the older brothers. Was eventually abandoned.
