Old
Testament
Students
of biblical history must work with several overlapping systems of
chronology. This section defines several approaches and describes how
they are interconnected.
Absolute
and relative dates.
Absolute dates consist of a numerical value falling in one of two
eras, BC (“Before Christ”; also referred to as BCE,
“Before the Common Era”) or AD (Anno Domini, “in
the year of our Lord”; also referred to as CE, “Common
Era”). For example, Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC.
This system of absolute dating, a commonplace of modern life, was
devised only in the sixth century AD, so it is unknown in biblical
and other ancient sources. Instead of absolute dates, the Bible and
other ancient historiographic sources give relative dates; that is,
events are dated in relation to other recorded events, as in 1 Kings
15:1: “In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam son of
Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah.” The system of relative
dates in the OT can be collated to form a single relative chronology.
Using
royal histories.
For the purposes of constructing a unified chronology, the royal
history in Samuel-Kings and Chronicles is of central importance, with
its tabulations of the ages of the kings at accession and the lengths
of their reigns. The biblical chronology can then be assigned to
absolute dates by establishing synchronisms with other historical
chronicles (most usefully, from Mesopotamia), which in turn can be
fixed to a handful of absolute dates. Of particular importance are
records (all nonbiblical cuneiform texts) of observed astronomical
phenomena, the appearance of which in history can now be calculated
with a high degree of mathematical certainty. Annalistic sources
(documents that record an entry for each passing year, such as the
cuneiform eponym chronicles) are particularly valuable. The Bible
contains no annalistic sources, but rather is made up of chronistic
sources—that is, texts that record and quantify the passage of
time, but without a separate accounting of each year. When
miscalculations or textual corruptions affect chronistic records,
they are difficult to correct (see 1 Sam. 13:1). The biblical
data, consisting of summary figures, probably go back to annalistic
sources that were compiled from year to year (perhaps the records
mentioned in, e.g., 1 Kings 11:41; 14:19).
The
assembly of a unified biblical chronology on the basis of the royal
histories is further complicated by the fact that several
calendars—royal, agricultural, cultic—were in
simultaneous use. There may also have been a discrepancy between
Israel and Judah with regard to the reckoning of the cultic New Year.
Added to this, in several cases the biblical data imply a period of
coregency, during which the reigns of the outgoing king and his
appointed successor overlapped, creating the potential for the years
of the coregency to be counted twice. In biblical times there were
two systems of reckoning dates based on royal succession: the
“accession-year” system, which omitted from the length of
a king’s reign any partial year from his accession to the first
New Year, and the “nonaccession-year” system, which began
counting the years of a king’s reign as soon as he acceded. In
nonaccession-year dating, any year in which there are two kings gets
counted twice: once as the last year of the former king, and once as
the first year of the new king. The biblical chronologies appear to
use both systems, with a movement from the nonaccession-year system
to the accession-year system in later centuries. Obviously, the
choice of systems dictates the significance of the figures presented
in the Bible and must be taken into account in the collation of data.
Combining
royal regnal data and various genealogical tables (based on, e.g.,
Gen. 5; 11; the summary figures in Exod. 12:41; 1 Kings 6:1), it
is possible to reconstruct a putative world chronology from the
creation of Adam to the exile. Famously, in 1650 James Ussher
followed this procedure, working backward from absolute dates known
from classical sources, to determine that the world was created on
the night before October 23, 4004 BC. In its day, this was a work of
impressive scholarship, but Ussher’s chronology is too short to
encompass not only archaeological findings (from the land of Israel
itself, there are Neolithic and Chalcolithic artifacts going back ten
thousand years), but also findings in all branches of the sciences
that corroborate the age of the earth at about 4.5 billion years and
the appearance of modern humans approximately two hundred thousand
years before the present. Beginning in the first millennium BC,
however, the Bible provides chronological data that, with modest
adjustments, agree with other historical and archaeological findings.
Weighing
the sources.
Because of the variety of materials in the OT, it is crucial to
determine which sources are of historical value, weighing each in
terms of internal and external coherence. As noted above, the
backbone of OT chronology is the series of regnal data for the kings
of Israel and Judah found in Samuel-Kings and Chronicles. These data
are useful because they provide a continuous chronology of several
hundred years that can be anchored at several points to datable
events in external historical sources. In addition, the history of
the kings of Judah and Israel contains references to historical
figures known from extrabiblical records. In contrast, the chronology
of the OT prior to the period of judges, while internally coherent,
cannot be correlated to known absolute dates. Where non-Israelite
figures are mentioned, they are often unnamed (e.g., the pharaohs of
the eras of Abraham and Moses), anachronistically described (e.g.,
Abraham’s contacts with the Philistines [Gen. 21:34], a group
that did not appear in Palestine until long after the ostensible
Middle Bronze Age date of Abraham), or do not correspond to known
historical figures (e.g., Abimelek, Nimrod). Although
cultural-historical investigation may shed light on the patriarchal
narratives and their historical setting, such an approach yields
nothing more than vague chronological findings. In some cases, the
late date of the biblical texts has obscured chronological
indicators, interfering with the project of cultural history. Setting
aside questions of the historicity of the patriarchal narratives,
apart from the reports of their ages, there is little data to work
with when it comes to constructing a chronology of the patriarchs.
The
story of the exodus from Egypt presents an event that, in principle,
should be datable on the basis of external data. The mass migration
of millions of persons, the destruction of the army of a geopolitical
superpower, and the subsequent conquest of a small but powerful
country are events that promise to provide a chronological anchor for
the beginning of Israel’s history. Unfortunately, the event
recorded in the Bible has not left a clear mark, either in the
historiography of Egypt or in the archaeology of Palestine. On closer
inspection, the biblical text contains a number of features that
frustrate any attempt to date the events on their basis. Unlike in
the histories of the biblical monarchs, the pharaoh of the Exodus, a
figure of international stature in his own day, is never named in the
Bible. Some have attempted to fix a date to the exodus on the basis
of the occurrence of the name “Rameses” in Exod. 1:11;
12:37. This name was not current in Egypt before the thirteenth
century BC. If it provides a clue as to the date of the exodus, it
does so only at the expense of broader biblical chronology, according
to which the exodus occurred in the fifteenth century BC (in
particular, based on the figures given in Exod. 12:41; 1 Kings
6:1). It is not until we get into the monarchic period, when the
history of Israel is intertwined with that of named international
figures, that absolute dates can be established with certainty.
Biblical
events that can be assigned absolute dates based on cuneiform
historical records include the following. Ahab was king of Israel at
the time of the battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. The Kurkh monolith of
Shalmaneser III records his participation in the coalition of
Hadadezer, though the event is not mentioned in the Bible. Jehu was
on the throne of Judah in 841 BC, when Shalmaneser III recorded
that he gave tribute to Assyria. Joash was king of Israel in 796 BC,
when he rendered tribute to Adad-nirari III. Menahem was king in
740 and 738 BC (see 2 Kings 15:19), when he paid tribute to
Tiglath-pileser III (the biblical Pul). Ahaz paid tribute to
Tiglath-pileser in 734 BC, and Manasseh to Esarhaddon around 674 BC.
These synchronisms provide in each case upper and lower limits for
fixing the reign of the kings of Israel and Judah. In some cases, the
chronology of the book of Kings must be adjusted to fit these dates,
on the assumption that the Deuteronomistic Historian lacked firsthand
knowledge about the history of the northern kingdom, was attempting
to work with conflicting sources, or made errors in calculation.
Other important synchronisms include Hoshea’s coup against
Pekah (2 Kings 15:30), dated based on an inscription of
Tiglath-pileser III to 732 BC; the fall of Samaria (2 Kings
17:6), dated based on the Babylonian Chronicle to 722 BC;
Sennacherib’s Judean campaign in 701 BC (2 Kings
18:13–19:36); the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC (Jer. 46:2);
the capture of Jerusalem in 597 BC (2 Kings 24:12); and the
release of Jehoiachin from captivity in 561 BC, coinciding with the
accession of Amel-Marduk (2 Kings 25:27).
Periodization
of history.
In addition to relative and absolute chronologies, biblical scholars
refer to several schemes of periodization defined by technological
and political developments.
The
most ancient scheme of periodization is implied in the Bible itself,
which conceives of periods of judges (Judg. 17:6), united monarchy,
divided monarchy, and exile. The transitions between phases in this
scheme are defined by dramatic social and political discontinuities.
Another approach to the periodization of Israelite history involves
defining the major transitions in terms of the material culture.
Prior to the fall of Jerusalem, modern biblical scholars and
archaeologists divide Syro-Palestinian history into several periods,
named for developments in metallurgical technology. While there is
some variety of opinion among scholars regarding the exact dates
used, the following scheme is widely used (given with rough
correlations to the biblical periods):
Early
Bronze Age – 3300 to 2200 BC (Primeval period?)
Middle
Bronze Age – 2200 to 1550 BC (Patriarch)
Late
Bronze Age – 1550 to 1200 BC (Period in Egypt, exodus)
Iron
Age – 1200 to 586 BC (Judges monarchy)
The
Iron Age is further subdivided as follows:
Iron
Age – 1200 to 1000 BC (Judges)
Iron
Age IIA – 1000 to 900 BC (United monarchy)
Iron
Age IIB – 900 to 700 BC (Divided monarchy)
Iron
Age IIC – 700 to 586 BC (Fall of Samaria to fall of Jerusalem
The
divisions between these periods are heuristic and do not correspond
to precisely dated developments in metallurgy. For instance, some
iron artifacts may be dated to the Bronze Age, though not widespread
iron metalworking on an industrial scale. Especially in the various
subdivisions of the Iron Age, transitions begin to be defined by
political events rather than the metal sequence: Iron IA
corresponds to the biblical period of the judges, Iron IIA to
the united monarchy, Iron IIB to the divided monarchy, and
Iron IIC to the period between the falls of Samaria and
Jerusalem, when the southern kingdom alone had political autonomy.
Some scholars round off the dates to avoid a periodization based on
short-term political events and to emphasize the gradual rate of
change in material culture and technology (e.g., using the round
dates 900, 700, 600).
For
events and dates after the fall of Jerusalem, historians employ a
scheme of periodization based heavily on political factors. The
series of periods are named for the dominant geopolitical powers in
Syria-Palestine:
Neo-Babylonian
period – 622 to 539 BC (Late Judean monarchy, exile)
Persian
period – 539 to 330 BC (Return from exile)
Hellenistic
period – 330 to 63 BC (Intertestamental)
Roman
period – 63 BC to AD 324 (New Testament events
Although
there was significant redaction (and, according to some, composition)
of biblical texts in the Hellenistic period, no biblical narratives
are ostensibly set in the period. Thus, the internal periodization of
history in the Hebrew Bible ends with the return from exile (the
Persian period).
New
Testament
The
birth of Jesus.
According to Matt. 2:1 (see also Luke 1:5), Jesus was born during the
lifetime of Herod the Great, who, as we know from Josephus, died in 4
BC (see Matt. 2:15–19). In his attempt to kill Jesus, Herod
ordered the slaughter of male children up to the age of two, based on
information that he obtained from the magi concerning the appearance
of the star heralding Jesus’ birth (Matt. 2:16). Thus,
Matthew’s account implies a date no later than 4 BC, but
possibly several years earlier. Some scholars have attempted to
correlate the magi’s observance of a star with one of several
striking celestial phenomena, including a conjunction of Jupiter,
Saturn, and Mars in 7 BC (so Johannes Kepler). Such attempts,
however, are weakened by the fact that Matthew’s description of
the star is vague, unnaturalistic, and difficult to identify
certainly with a planetary alignment or any other known phenomenon
(in particular, the star is said to move and then come to rest over
Jesus’ location). Another line of investigation involves Luke’s
correlation of Jesus’ birth with a Roman census that he dates
to the time of Quirinius (Luke 2:1–2). This report, however,
contradicts the testimony of Josephus, according to whom Quirinius
became governor in AD 6 (a decade after the death of Herod). Most
likely, Jesus was born shortly before 4 BC, during the reign of
Herod.
The
beginning and duration of Jesus’ public ministry.
According to Luke 3:23, Jesus was “about thirty years old”
at the time of his baptism and the beginning of his public ministry.
In John 8:57, Jesus is challenged: “You are not yet fifty years
old.” These two round numbers provide reasonable limits for the
age of Jesus during his ministry. Owing to a paucity of chronological
indicators in the Synoptic Gospels, the ministry of Jesus as depicted
in Matthew, Mark, and Luke could have taken place within the space of
a single year. In contrast, John narrates postbaptism events during
three occurrences of the annual Passover festival (John 2:13; 6:4;
11:55), suggesting that Jesus’ ministry lasted for three years
or longer. Unfortunately, the chronology of John appears in some
instances to be at odds with the other Gospels. Most significantly,
he places Jesus’ cleansing of the temple at the beginning,
rather than the end, of his ministry (John 2:13–22; cf. Mark
11:15–19 pars.). It is unclear to what degree strict chronology
has been modified in the interest of other concerns in each of the
Gospels. According to John’s account, the cleansing of the
temple occurred forty-six years after the beginning of its
construction, an event that Josephus dates to either the eighteenth
or the fifteenth year of Herod’s reign (John 2:20), placing the
incident in the year AD 28 or 31. Ultimately, there are two sources
of uncertainty pertaining to the chronology of Jesus’ ministry:
the imprecise (and possibly symbolic) report of his age in Luke 3:23
and the indeterminate length of his ministry.
The
death of Jesus.
All four Gospels agree that Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator of
Judea, was instrumental in the trial and execution of Jesus. Pilate
governed from AD 26 to 36; this provides a latest possible date for
the death of Jesus. To refine the chronology beyond this, scholars
have attempted to date the end of Jesus’ life based on its
occurrence during the Feast of Passover (15 Nisan in the Jewish
calendar) and by trying to determine in which year the feast would
have coincided with his crucifixion on a Friday. This approach is
complicated by the discrepancy between John, according to whom the
Passover meal was eaten in the evening following the crucifixion
(John 19:14), and Mark, who appears to have an imperfect knowledge of
Passover customs (Mark 14:12–16) and thus describes Jesus’
final supper with his disciples as a Passover meal (i.e., on 14
Nisan). Following John’s chronology yields a date for the
crucifixion of Friday, April 7 (Nisan 14), AD 30, or Friday, April 3
(Nisan 14), AD 33.
Of
these two options, the AD 30 date conforms more closely to Luke 3:23,
and it suggests that following a ministry of about three years, Jesus
was in his mid- to late thirties at the time of his crucifixion.
Paul’s
career.
The
chronology of Paul’s career remains a difficult question in
biblical studies. There are two major sources for this chronology:
the letters of Paul (esp. Galatians) and the book of Acts. When
independent chronologies are constructed from each of these sources,
several difficulties arise, including the absence of absolute anchors
in Paul’s letters, lack of clear agreement between Acts and the
letters regarding the number of visits to Jerusalem, and, by
implication, the periodization of Paul’s career into distinct
phases of concerted activity or “missionary journeys.”
These data must in turn be synchronized, sometimes requiring some
ingenuity, with other historically documented events such as the
dating of Claudius’s edict (Acts 18:2), the dates of Aretas’s
control of Damascus (2 Cor. 11:32–33), the death of Herod
Agrippa in AD 44 (mentioned in Acts 12:23), the presence of Sergius
Paulus in Cyprus during Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts
13:7 [this figure is known from inscriptions, but none of them
clearly bears on the question]), and Festus’s succession of
Felix as the procurator of Palestine (Acts 23–26), which
Josephus puts in AD 53.
If
we grant a fair measure of historical reliability to the outline of
Acts, Paul experienced his conversion around AD 33, visited Jerusalem
in AD 36 (Gal. 1:18), completed his first missionary journey and then
visited Jerusalem to confer with the other apostles (Acts 15:1–29;
Gal. 2:1) in the late 40s, conducted his second and third missionary
journeys in the first half of the 50s before being finally arrested
in Jerusalem around AD 57, and was taken to Rome in AD 59–60.
