To review the detail proving the conclusion given here for any of these main discoveries please see the relevant section in earlier parts of our “Journey of Discovery through Time” series of articles.
The Bible record agrees with its own Prophecies and with Secular Chronology.
1. The main exile began with Jehoiachin 11 years before the final destruction of Jerusalem under Zedekiah - (Ezekiel, Esther 2, Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 52, Matthew 1), (see Part 4)
This was caused by Nebuchadnezzar with the exile of King Jehoiachin, when most of the ruling class and the skilled workers were taken away.
2. Repentance was the main requirement for restoration of Judah from exile – (Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 4, 1 Kings 8), (see Part 4)
It was not the conclusion of a time period.
3. 70 years of servitude, to Babylon was foretold and was already in progress when its length was foretold early in Judean King Jehoiakim’s reign – (Jeremiah 27), (see Part 4)
The servitude was to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, to Nebuchadnezzar and his son and successors. Not to Medo-Persia, nor in the location of Babylon itself.
4. These nations (including Judah) will have to serve Babylon 70 Years, when it would be called to account (in October 539) - (Jeremiah 25:11-12, 2 Chronicles 36:20-23, Daniel 5:26, Daniel 9:2), (see Part 4)
Time Period: October 609 BCE - October 539 BCE = 70 Years
Evidence: 539 BCE - Destruction of Babylon by Cyrus ends control of Judah by the King of Babylon and his descendants. Working back 70 years brings us to 609 BCE - With the fall of Harran, Assyria becomes part of Babylonian Empire, which becomes the world power. Babylon exercises its world power by invading and taking control of former Israel, and taking control over Judah.
5. Jerusalem suffered multiple devastations, not just one – (Jeremiah 25, Daniel 9), (see Part 5)
In Jehoiakim’s 4th Year, at the end of Jehoiakim’s reign through Jehoiachin’s 3-month reign, and in Zedekiah’s 11th Year, as a minimum.
6. Yoke of Babylon became harsher (iron instead of wood) because of resisting Jehovah in Zedekiah’s 4th Year – (Jeremiah 28), (see Part 5)
7. Babylonian domination would continue and last 70 years (Zedekiah’s 4th Year) - (Jeremiah 29:10), (see Part 5)
Time Period: Working Back from 539 BCE gives 609 BCE.
Evidence: “For” is used as it fits the context set by Jeremiah 25 (see 2) and footnotes and text in Section 3 and is the translation in almost all bibles. Other alternatives do not match the facts and context.
8. Desolation of Egypt for 40 years - (Ezekiel 29), (see Part 5)
Still possible with 48-year gap between destruction of Jerusalem and fall of Babylon.
9. Destruction of Jerusalem avoidable until the day it fell – (Jeremiah 38), (see Part 5)
If Zedekiah had surrendered Jerusalem would not have been destroyed, but Judah would still have continued under servitude to Babylon to the completion of the prescribed 70 years.
10. Judah could still be inhabited even after murder of Gedaliah – (Jeremiah 42), (see Part 5)
11. Daniel discerned the 70-year servitude to Babylon was now finished when he interpreted the writing on the wall to Babylonian King Belshazzar. Daniel would have died by the time of Cyrus destruction of Babylon if Jerusalem’s final destruction was 607 BCE with a 68-year exile rather than prospering as per the Bible account – (Daniel 6:28), (see Part 5)
A 70-year exile from the fall of Jerusalem in the 11th year of Zedekiah would mean Daniel being too old (95 years old) to prosper in the Kingdom of Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian. Daniel discerned the 70 year servitude had ended when Babylon fell to Cyrus in 539 BCE not two years later in 537 BCE.
12. The land of Judah was able to rest sufficiently to fulfill its missed Sabbath years. The Exile to Babylon and Release of Jews taken to Babylon at the final fall of Jerusalem coincided with the start and close of a Jewish 50-year Jubilee Year cycle - (2 Chronicles 36:20-23), (see Part 6)
Time Period: 7th Month 587 BCE to 7th Month 537 BCE = 50 years.
Evidence: Jerusalem Desolated in 5th Month 587 BCE and land emptied by 7th Month 587 BCE after murder of Gedaliah and flight to Egypt by remaining inhabitants, Cyrus release came sometime in 538 BCE – the Jubilee Year arriving back in their homeland by 7th month 537 BCE (see Ezra 3:1,2[i]). It was fittingly a Sabbath year cycle of 50 years when their release and return came. This would give the land rest to make up for all the Sabbath years that had been violated.
13. The 70-year period mentioned in Zechariah does not refer to servitude, but rather denunciation - (Zechariah 1:12), (see Part 6)
Time Period: 11th month 520 BCE to 10th month 589 BCE = 70 Years
Evidence: Zechariah writes 11th month 2nd Year Darius the Great (520 BCE). Denunciation of Jerusalem and Judah from start of siege and destruction of cities of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar his 17th Year, and 10th month 9th Year of Zedekiah. (See Jeremiah 52:4)
14. Many elderly Jews seeing Temple rebuilding starting in Darius the Great 2nd year were young enough to still remember Solomon’s Temple before its destruction. This only allows for a 48-year period rather than a 68-year gap between Jerusalem’s final destruction and the fall of Babylon to Cyrus - (Haggai 1 & 2), (see Part 6)
The Temple rebuilding restarted properly some 20 years after Babylon fell to Cyrus. These elderly Jews would therefore be in their 90's if Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 BCE. Being in their 70's was possible based on Jerusalem destruction in 587 BCE.
15. The 70 years of fasting mentioned in Zechariah 7 is not related to the 70 years of servitude. It covers from the year of writing in the 4th year of Darius the Great back to the final destruction of Jerusalem - (Zechariah 7:1,5), (see Part 6)
Time Period: 9th month 518 BCE to 7th month 587 BCE = 70 Years
Evidence: Temple destroyed 587 BCE, rebuilding restarted 520 BCE, the 2nd Year of Darius. Zechariah writes 4th Year of Darius the Great (518 BCE). Temple rebuilding completed by 516 BCE, 6th Year of Darius.
16. The 70-year period for Tyre was yet another unrelated 70-year period and has two possible periods that fulfill the requirements of the prophecy - (Isaiah 23:11-18), (see Part 6)
Time Period: 10th month 589 BCE? - 11th month 520 BCE? = 70 Years
Evidence: Jerusalem under siege from 589 BCE cutting off trade. Temple destroyed 587 BCE, rebuilding restarted 520 BCE, the 2nd Year of Darius the Great.
Resulting vital conclusions and implications of these 16 discoveries
- The Watchtower Organization teachings about Jerusalem’s final destruction by the Babylonians occurring in 607 BCE are clearly incorrect.
- If 607 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem is incorrect, then the Organization’s calculation of the Gentile Times of 7 times cannot start in 607 BCE and cannot end in 1914 CE.
- This means that 1914 CE cannot be the date of the establishment of Christ’s Kingdom in the heavens.
- The prophecy of 7 times / years in Daniel 4 was fulfilled in the punishment Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar suffered. There is no Biblical support for it to be anything more than that. There is no valid reason as to why Jehovah would use the restoration of a pagan King to his throne to represent Jesus being enthroned in heaven.
- As Jesus was not enthroned in 1914 CE on the basis of Bible prophecy,[ii] then there is no basis for claiming that the faithful and discreet slave was inspected and appointed a few years later in 1919 CE. See footnote in the July 2013 Study Watchtower study article.
- Without an inspection and appointment by Jesus and therefore no mandate from Jesus then the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses is clearly self-appointed and therefore not Jehovah's Earthly Organization.
- Would Jesus encourage anyone to mislead those that would come to him? Of course not. So then, how can Jesus be backing the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society / Jehovah’s Witnesses when they are clearly misleading people as to the date of Jesus enthronement.
- The truth of our theme scripture is borne out, “But let God be found true, though every man be found a liar”. (Romans 3:4)
[i] Ezra 3:1, 2 “When the seventh month arrived the sons of Israel were in [their] cities. And the people began to gather themselves as one man to Jerusalem. 2 And Jeshʹu·a the son of Je·hozʹa·dak and his brothers the priests and Ze·rubʹba·bel the son of She·alʹti·el and his brothers proceeded to rise up and build the altar of the God of Israel, to offer up burnt sacrifices upon it, according to what is written in the law of Moses the man of the [true] God.”
[ii] See separate article discussing – How can we prove when Jesus became King?
Archived Comments
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Comment by Leonardo Josephus on 2019-12-09 04:02:01
Thanks you Tadua for an exhaustive set of articles. Goodness knows how many years you actually spent putting that all together.
I am glad you have brought out the scriptures in Zechariah. Although you have highlighted the fact that Zechariah was not referring to the 70 years of servitude, these verses are some of the best, if not the best, to prove conclusively that 587/6 BCE is the date for the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.
The comments made in their publications on these verses also demonstrate that the GB are well aware of the meaning of these verses but refuse to bend.
From the Awake (1972 5/8 page27)
21 Furthermore, the land of Judah was to keep a “sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.” (2 Chronicles 36:21) How? By lying as a “desolate waste without man and domestic animal,” it having been “given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” (Jeremiah 32:43; 33:10-12) Both the prophet Zechariah and the angels knew that those seventy years of utter desolation of the land of Judah and Jerusalem without man and domestic animal had ended in the year 537 B.C.E. when the Jewish remnant returned from Babylon and reoccupied the land, they being reported back in their cities in the seventh month (Tishri) of that year. (Ezra 3:1, 2) Instead of its lying as a desolate waste any longer, crops began to be raised in the land, as the prophet Haggai reports seventeen years later. (Haggai 1:6-11; 2:16, 17) So those seventy years were long past!
22 If, at the time of Zechariah’s first vision, those seventy years were still continuing or were just now over, why would the angel, knowing what he did, speak as he did? Since he knew that the time period was definitely seventy years long, why would he say: “O Jehovah of armies, how long?” (Zechariah 1:12) Why, away back in the first year of Darius the Mede after the overthrow of Babylon in 539 B.C.E., the prophet Daniel “discerned by the books the number of the years concerning which the word of Jehovah had occurred to Jeremiah the prophet, for fulfilling the devastations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.” (Daniel 9:1, 2) And certainly Daniel verified the number of years, not seventeen long years before they were due to end, but immediately before the end of the seventy years in the first year of the reign of King Cyrus the Persian. Thus the aged prophet Daniel, who lived at least into “the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia,” could know that he had calculated the length of the time period correctly. (Daniel 10:1) Hence those “seventy years” did not extend to the time when Zechariah got his first vision, in 519 B.C.E.
And from the Aid book (p 567) See also Insight book I (p812)
Additional evidence is provided in the book of Zechariah. We read: “When you fasted and there was a wailing in the fifth month and in the seventh month, and this for seventy years, did you really fast to me, even me?” (Zech. 7:5; 1:12) The way this question is framed, with reference to specific months, certainly indicates that a period of seventy literal years was involved.
That the Jews in ancient times understood the seventy years as being literal and involving a total devastation of the land is apparent from the works of Josephus, a Jewish historian. In his Antiquities of the Jews, Book X, chap. 9, par. 7, he tells that “all Judea and Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to be a desert for seventy years.”
Comment by Frankie on 2019-12-09 16:25:40
Hello Tadua.
Many thanks for your epic work. I'm putting my hat down. Your work is very valuable because you used the Bible exclusively as the only source of information. The Bible must explain itself.
I consider the secular information (archeology, history, astronomy, psychology, etc.) only to be supportive and not crucial, because such information is not always reliable and this information often changes according to the development of human knowledge.
The absolute truth is in Bible. God's Word is the Truth. Therefore, I consider your work extraordinary compared to other analyzes that use also secular information.
Thank you again. FrankieReply by Tadua on 2019-12-10 07:56:31
Hi Frankie
Thank you for your comments.
I am glad you appreciate only use of the Bible, uncluttered by quotes from Josephus and evaluations of this tablet or that tablet.
For others information I did indeed investigate the Babylonian tablets, etc. I went there and got that tee-shirt but it didn’t fit properly or comfortably!
With regard to other historical sources there is so much to evaluate, and much is conjecture, many disputed, and many contradictory. It’s a pick and mix, and no basis on which to counteract a particular teaching.
As mentioned elsewhere the arguments presented stand whether Babylon was destroyed in 539BCE or any other date, as all the events move together as they are relative to each other.
Comment by A Journey of Discovery through Time - Part 6 - Beroean Pickets - JW.org Reviewer on 2020-05-07 13:13:23
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