I became very interested in the article several months ago because I found it quite interesting that the Watchtower had actually few lunar position matches. So I decided to test different years following the procedure the Watchtower followed. I found 3 other years with an eclipse close to the date of the eclipse of year 568/567 (July 4). I decided to test all 36 observations (few observations were excluded because the date is missing) for all 5 years including the RIGHT YEAR and the infamous 607/606 B.C.E. The results appear in the tables below. Some of the wrong years actually get more matches than the Watchtower’s year. The 1 st table is organized in chronological order. The 2 nd table is organized from left to right, from best to worst performer; and from top to bottom, by type of observation. If you look at the column on the right with percentages, it’s easy to see why the Watchtower chose to talk about lunar observations, and decided to shun lunar threes and planetary positions. They got the fewest matches, and when one consider that the entire calendar fabricated by the Watchtower is not valid one can conclude there’s not a single match
Below are some of the false statements in the article “When was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed”(pg. 25-28 of the Nov. 2011 issue). The tables below prove all of them false. If anyone is interested in all the details of my study send me a PM.
1. “Because of the superior reliability of the lunar positions, researchers have carefully analyzed these 13 sets of lunar positions on VAT 4956”. FALSE. THE LUNAR POSITIONS ARE THE LEAST RELIABLE BECAUSE OBSERVATION/CALCULATION MATCHES APPEAR WITH A HIGH SUCCESS RATE EVEN IN THE WRONG YEARS
2. “all 13 sets match calculated positions for 20 years earlier, for the year 588/587 B.C.E.” FALSE . ONLY 6 FIT, AND IF ONE CONSIDERS THAT THE CALENDAR FABRICATED BY THE WATCHTOWER DOES NOT FIT WITH THE ACCEPTED AND LARGELY ATTESTED BABYLONIAN CALENDAR, THEN NONE OF THE CALCULATED POSITIONS FIT
3. “Clearly, much of the astronomical data in VAT 4956 fits the year 588 B.C.E. as the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar II” FALSE
4. “17. Babilonian… B ecause the cuneiform signs for many of the planetary positions are open to speculation and to several interpretations, these positions were not used in this survey to pinpoint the year intended by this astronomical diary.” FALSE , ALL PLANETARY POSITIONS AND NAMES ARE UNAMBIGUOUS AND FIT YEAR 587/586 B.C.E. NONE FIT 607/606 BCE.
5. “18a. These time intervals (“lunar threes”) are the measurement of time from, for example, sunset to moonset …. Such measurements were not reliable.” FALSE, ALL TIME MEASUREMENT ARE QUITE ADEQUATE, AND ALL 7 LUNAR THREES FIT YEAR 587/586 B.C.E. VERY WELL. ONLY ONE BARELY FITS YEAR 607/606 BCE
