reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 16:20).
4810+16=4826
4855 (-695). The beginning of Manasseh’s reign
“And he [Hezekiah] reigned 29 years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 18:2).
“And Hezekiah slept with his fathers: and Manasseh his son reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 20:21).
4826+29=4855
4910 (-640). The beginning of Amon’s [Ammon’s] reign
“Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty <and five> years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 21:1).
“And he [Manasseh] reigned 55 years in Jerusalem” (2 Chron 33:1).
“And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza: and Amon his son reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 21:18).
The conjecture <and five> here helps to remove inconsistency between 2 Kings 21:1 и 2 Chron 33:1. This numeral was probably lost in the process of copying the manuscript long before the Septuagint was created. It is also absent in the Jewish-Masoretic Torah.
4855+55=4910
4912 (-638). The beginning of Josiah’s reign
“And he [Amon] reigned 2 years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 21:19).
“And he [Amon] was buried in his sepulchre in the garden of Uzza: and Josiah his son reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 21:26).
4910+2=4912
4943 (-607). The battle of Megiddo, the reign of Jehoahaz, captivity in Egypt, the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim
“And he [Josiah] reigned 31 years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 22:1).
“In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead” (2 Kings 23:29—30).
“And he [Jehoahaz] reigned 3 months in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 23:31).
“And Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there” (2 Kings 23:34).
4912+31=4943
4954 (-596). The reign of Jehoiachin [Jeconiah], the Babylonian captivity, the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah
“And he [Jehoiakim] reigned 11 years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 23:36).
“So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 24:6).
“And he [Jehoiachin] reigned in Jerusalem 3 months” (2 Kings 24:8).
“And he [Nebuchadnezzar] carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king’s mother, and the king’s wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon” (2 Kings 24:15).
“And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his [Jehoiachin] father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah” (2 Kings 24:17).
4943+11=4954
4965 (-585). Judea is enslaved by Babylon
“And he [Zedekiah] reigned 11 years in Jerusalem” (2 Kings 24:18).
“So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire. And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away” (2 Kings 25:6—11).
Modern science dates the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (c. 634 – 562 BNE) to 586 BNE.
4954+11=4965
5012 (-538). The conquest of Babylon by Cyrus II, the end of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews
“And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil 70 years” (2 Chron 36:19—21; compare Jer 25:11—12; Jer 29:10; Dan 9:2; Zech 1:12; Zech 7:4—5).
Modern science dates the conquest of Babylon by the Persian king Cyrus II (c. 593 – 530 BNE) to 539 BNE. As you may have noticed, the beginning of the seventy-year devastation of Judah falls on the date of the battle of Megiddo, 608 BNE. Three major captivities were experienced by the Jews in this period. The first was the exile inflicted at the hands of the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II in 608 BNE. The second one happened in 597 BNE, and the third one was in 586 BNE. The last two times they were captured by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. Obviously, the 70-year-long period of the devastation of Judah is divided up into 11 years in Egypt and 59 years in Babylon.
4965+ (586—539) =5012
It is also important to note that 5550 years between the foundation of the world and the start of the new era is an approximate number. Taking into account the number of time intervals which make up the whole duration, as well as their number rounded to the accuracy of one year, the resulting error can roughly be estimated as plus or minus 50 years.
Modern-day scientists will, probably, disagree with dating the age the Earth as several thousand years. They will, most likely, cite scientific arguments in favor of the much older Solar system and Universe. It would be worth discussing this question separately, but it would probably require another book. At this time, let us limit ourselves to the information that we have from the Bible.
Section 3. Versions of the Gospel chronology
Christian sources on the life of Jesus Christ
The main sources of information on the life of Jesus Christ are the canonical Gospels written by the apostles
