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The
Three Bible Timelines:
Why and How They Differ
The
three most widely used Bible Timelines are:
- Usshers
Chronology - included in the margins of the Authorized King James Bible
is
based on the
Masoretic text of the Hebrew Old Testament. The Masoretic text
had an unbroken history of careful transcription for centuries.
- Thiele, a
modern Biblical chronologist whose work is accepted by secular Egyptologists as well as biblical scholars
- often used by modern Evangelicals.
- The Septuagint, on which
the Catholic Bible is based, is the
Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible translated between 300 BC and 1
BC.
Most
people who
try to compute a Bible timeline are faced with the same dilemmas.
The Rvd. Professor James Barr, a Scottish Old Testament
scholar, has
identified three distinct periods that Ussher, and all biblical
chronologists had to tackle:
- Early times
(Creation to
Solomon). Anyone who starts out reading the Bible with Genesis, as many
people do,
can easily compute the years from Adam to Solomon.
The key male players are all linked with genealogies and
ages.
It's later that the problems start. Although also
it's here that the Catholic and Protestant (King James) Bible timelines
differ. The Masoretic text and the Septuagint both link all
the key male players
but the Septuagint gives longer time frames for many of them.
There's a 1500
year difference between the two timelines.
- Early Age of Kings
(Solomon
to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity).
Now we have gaps in the record. Times have to be
calculated using cross links between various people mentioned in the
Bible and some inferences made.
- Late Age of Kings
(Ezra and
Nehemiah to the birth of Jesus). Here events are just mentioned with no
possible way to link or calculate time frames. Historians use
well known secular kings or events mentioned in the Bible (ie
Nebuchadnezzar) to calculate the Bible dates.
Thiele
is particularly interesting. He recalculated the dates
of the Northern Kingdoms based on a new understanding of how reigns of
kings were computed in ancient times. His calculation of the date
of 931
BC for the division of the Israelite kingdom has been used by secular
Egyptologists to give dates to Egypt's 22nd Dynasty.
The
Bible timelines differ because they are based on different original
texts (the Masoretic or the Septuagint), because some of the dates are
based on dating of secular events that have been recalculated by modern
historians and also by a re-reading of the Bible in light of new
knowledge.
Related article:
What is the date of the Exodus?
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