Thiele's Chronology

Edwin R. Thiele (1895–1986) was a Seventh-day Adventist missionary in China, editor, archaeologist, writer, and Old Testament professor [1].

The key assumptions of his chronology include [2, p. 180]:

A careful examination indicates that all biblical writers of this period used the accession-year system for Hebrew, Babylonian, and Persian kings.

But there were wide diversities concerning the months with which regnal years began. The recorders in Kings continued to use Tishri years for Hebrew kings and apparently also for Babylonian rulers.

Such writers as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Haggai, and Zechariah used Nisan years for Hebrew kings and also for the rulers of Babylon and Persia.

Daniel used Tishri years for Hebrew kings.

Timeline

Discussion

Battle of Megiddo

Thiele claims that Josiah was killed at Megiddo in month IV (the same month as the attack on Harran) and that afterwards Jehoahaz ruled for 3 months into Tishri (month VII) [2, p. 182].

He does not appear to explain how the Egyptian army could have made the ~400 mile journey from Megiddo to Harran within this timeframe [3, p. 30].

Battle of Carchemish and the Subjugation of Judah

Thiele dates the subjugation of Judah at the same time as the battle of Carchemish [2, p. 183]:

Nabopolassar stayed at home in his twenty-first year, beginning with Nisan, 605, but sent Nebuchadnezzar with the army against Carchemish. A disastrous defeat was inflicted on the Egyptians. A remnant that fled to Hamath was wiped out with the result that "Nebuchadnezzar conquered the whole area of the Hatti-country." This includes all of Aram and the territory south to the borders of Egypt. Babylon rather than Egypt was now the master in Palestine. This was the attack mentioned in Daniel 1:1 that took place in the third year of Jehoiakim and in which Daniel and his companions were taken to Babylon. It should be noticed that this was the third year of Jehoiakim according to Tishri reckoning, but the fourth year according to Nisan years as mentioned in Jeremiah 46:2.

However, Thiele is referencing the older publication of BM 21946, which incorrectly translates 'Hamath' as 'Ḫatti-country', Malamat arguest against this interpretation [4, p. 130]:

the Chronicle itself does not bear out any widespread conquests in the West while Nebuchadnezzar was still Crown Prince. Immediately after the victory at Carchemish, as we now know, Nebuchadnezzar conquered only the "entire land of Ha[ma]th", and not the "entire land of Hatti" (that is, Syria-Palestine), as formerly read.

Thiele interprets Jeremiah 25:1 as referring to Nebuchadnezzar's accession year rather than 1st year [2, p. 184]:

The battle of Carchemish at the Euphrates in the fourth year of Jehoiakim is now definitively dated by Babylonian evidence (B.M. 21946) in the twenty-first year of Nabopolassar, 605 B.C In Jeremiah 25:1 the fourth year of Jehoiakim is equated with "the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon." Tadmor has pointed out that this השנה הראשנית of Nebuchadnezzar refers not to his official first year but to his initial year on the throne. the year of his accession.

Captures of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah

Jehoiachin's capture is explained in the context of Nisan vs Tishri years [2, p. 186]:

The biblical account places the capture of Jerusalem in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:12), but the Babylonian account places it in the seventh year. The Babylonian account is in accord with Nisan regnal years and the biblical account starts the years of Nebuchadnezzar with Tishri. The last half of the Babylonian Nisan year overlaps the first half of the Hebrew Tishri year. Thus Jerusalem fell to Nebuchadnezzar in his seventh year according to his own reckoning but in his eighth year according to the reckoning in Kings. The overlap was from Tishri in the fall of 598 to Nisan in the spring of 597. Since Jerusalem fell in Adar, the last month of the Babylonian year, this was in the spring of 597.

And likewise for Zedekiah [2, p. 190]:

The last event in the checkered history of the southern kingdom was the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. This siege began on the tenth day of the tenth month of Zedekiah's ninth year (2 Kings 25:1; Jer. 39:1; 52:4; cf. Ezek. 24:1-2), 15 January 588. The next year, in the midst of the siege, Jeremiah was imprisoned, this being the tenth year of Zedekiah and synchronizing with the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 32:1), 587. Famine prevailed, the city was broken, and the king fled, on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year (2 Kings 25:2-3; Jer. 39:2; 52:5-7), 18 July 586. On the seventh day of the fifth month the final destruction of the city began (2 Kings 25:8-10), 14 August 586. This was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 25:8; Jer. 52:12), which was from Nisan 586 to Nisan 585, Babylonian reckoning, or Tishri 587 to Tishri 586, Judean years. Gedaliah, who had been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar as governor of the land, was slain in the seventh month (2 Kings 25:22-25; Jer. 41:1-2). The month of Tishri began on 7 October 586. It must have been shortly after that, that the remnant left by Nebuzaradan with Gedaliah took Jeremiah and forced him to accompany them to Egypt (Jer. 43:2-7). Word of the fall of Jerusalem reached the captives in Babylon on the fifth day of the tenth month of the twelfth year of their captivity (Ezek. 33:21), 8 January 585. Zedekiah's reign thus was from 597 to 586.

Thiele does not offer any explanation for how the difference in the number of captives in Jeremiah 52:28-30 — there is no reference to this in his scripture index [2, p. 253].

Release of Jehoiachin

Thiele counts Jehoiachin's 37 years of captivity on a Tishri-to-Tishri calendar [2, p. 190]:

It should be noted that, according to the reckoning of Kings, the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity was from Tishri 562, to Tishri 561. But according to Ezekiel's and Jeremiah's method of reckoning, the thirty-seventh year of the captivity would not begin until Nisan 561.

References