Doug Mason
Post 702
The Bible is quite specific that the seventy years ended at the beginning of Tishri, 537 BCE whereas their exile in Babylon ended on the specific month of their Return which time is not stated either in the Bible or secdular history. The Babylon book I would have thought is quite specific about these matters including the time to the very month of the beginning of the seventy years in Tishri, 607 BCE.
Your reconstruction by means of those four points is correct.
There is no inconsistency because it was the timing and celebration of the festal months in the year 607 and 537 BCE which would have been more important as as Jehovah God was concedrned so the seventy years began right on time, ended right on time spanning the complete period of seventy years in harmony with the cycle of sabbaths.
Ezra 3:1 does not need to have some sort of official sanction from a secular authority to narrate the significance of the festal month for that month Tishri began with a New Moon which informed the Jews that this sacred month had begun and now it was the time to worship Jehovah rejoicing now at their release to their homelamd.
There is nothing wrong in a selective quoting of a source for that is the prerogative of the writer but I would be interested in having a copy of that older EB article if you have it to hand. There is again nothing wrong with the use of other secular writers in order to construct chronology or history and this is what the celebrated WT scholars does.
scholar JW