1) In Egyptology, we find that there is a relief that celebrates Raameses victory at Kadesh in 1180 B.C. This same victory is recorded in Judges 13:1, which the biblical record of successions tells us, is 331 years AFTER THE EXODUS. Therefore, this Pharaoh is not the one who died in the Red Sea during the Hebrew Exodus in the era of the Hebrew Judges of Israel, who judged IN ISRAEL.
And if we must amend our dating of the Battle of Kadesh to the Hebrew Outline, making 1220 as 331 years after the Exodus, for example, the Hebrew Exodus and all successive dates are pushed back further until Saul is exclusively 12th century B.C. and Solomon (David's son) is well over 100 years earlierthan all prior predictions. No...Ramesses II is dated by the confirmation and assurance of the Hebrew Chronologies from Moses to the fall of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 B.C., on its outline's face...and that historic literary outline is to be taken more literally.
After Kadesh, we are told at Karnak: "His Majesty turned back in peace to Egypt, together with his infantry and his chariotry being with him"
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2) Kadesh: 31 years earlier. In Judges 11:26, Jephthaa speaks of 300 years having passed from the entry of the Hebrews into Israel, to his time. Hence, Judges 11:26 is datable to 1211 B.C., and Kadesh is earlier, rather than later (as some date his battle to May 1300 B.C.)
The Judges, like Jephthaa, are more so contemporaneous with the Tell El-Amarna tablets, than is the Exodus to its contents. The tablets, dated by some to ca. 1375 - 1358 B.C., calls for Egypt to deliver the Philistine Lords from their ‘apiru” or ‘habiru’ oppressors.
Archer, Gleason L. “A Survey of Old Testament Introduction,” Chicago: Moody Press, ©1964, p. 164, (1974 edition.); cf. pp.241,289-295 (1994 edition.)
Shortly afterwards, we see one of these Canaanite satellite kings of Egypt strengthened against Israel, miraculously as if out of nowhere, with a General Sisera, etc.
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The Clementine Stromata Book 1, Chapter 21 with Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews and the Bible, presents us a clear outline.
1551 – 1486 B.C.
Joshua 24:29 ; Judges 2:8 -- “And Joshua the son of Nun…died, being a 110 years old.”
Clement: “As the book of Joshua relates, the above mentioned man was the successor of Moses 27 [ actual 25] years”
Clement: “After the close of Moses’s life, Joshua succeeded to the leadership of the people, and he, after warring for 65 years, rested in the good land other 25.” [Corrected by Josephus]
Josephus, Antiquities, 5.1.29: “So Joshua, when he had thus discoursed to them, died, having lived a 110 years; 40 of which he lived with Moses, … He also became their commander after his death for 25 years."
Hence: 1551 B.C - 65 years = 1486 B.C.
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1511 B.C. – 1471 B.C.
Judges 3:11 – “ And the land had rest 40 years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.”
Clement: “Gothoniel [ Othniel]. the younger brother of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, who, having slain the king of Mesopotamia, ruled over the people 40 years in succession.”
This section is the only one that I have found where the addition of years seems to infer one meaning while being translated as another, and likely is the one that throws most chronologists off the trail. I believe that the proper interpretation may be that Othoniel co-ruled with Joshua (as his general and then as his chief administrator) for 40 years. The notion that the Land had rest, may imply the East Bank lands of 2 1/2 tribes enjoyed the Shabbat, as did any lands the Hebrews immediately conquered. Unfortunately, this is a tenuous interpretation forced by the circumstance of all the other years of the chronology add up and correspond. Since Scripture is inerrant, I must therefore view the Scripture in the chronology it makes available for me to interpret from, using the information that it provides.
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1486-1471 B.C.
[Unknown 8 year tributary period at any time in this 15 year period]
Judges 3:8 -- “the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim 8 years.”
Clement: "Then the Hebrews having sinned, were delivered to Chusachar [ Chushan-rishathaim] king of Mesopotamia for 8 years.”
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1477 -1459 B.C.
Judges 3:12 -- “and the L-RD strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel.”
Clement: “ And… were delivered into the hands of Æglom [ Eglon] king of the Moabites for 18 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.4.1.: “Eglon, king of the Moabites…reduced [the Israelites] to poverty for 18 years.”
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1441 – 1361 B.C.
Judges 3:30 -- “So Moab was subdued …and the land had rest 80 years.”
Clement: “ But on their repentance, Aod, [ Ehud.] … was their leader for 80 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.4.3: “Ehud…died after he had held the government 80 years.”
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1361-1341 B.C.
--[actual “Jabin”, king of Canaan]
Judges 4:3 -- [Jabin for ] “20 years … mightily oppressed the children of Israel”.
Clement: “On the death of Aod [Ehud]… were delivered into the hand of Jabim,…20 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.5.1-2 - Israel subdued by Sisera to Jabin’s control, 20 years.
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1341-1301 B.C.
Clement: “Deborah ruled, judging the people 40 years”
Josephus AoJ 5.5.3-4 - Israel delivered to Deborah administration and commander Barak.
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{A Kadesh in May, 1300 BC would have encountered a simultaeneous Midianite bid for control of the plains and farmlands of the Hebrews.}
1301 – 1294 B.C.
Clement: “On her death, the people … were delivered into the hands of the Midianites 7 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.6.1: "For about 3 years the Israelites fought off the Midianites and Arabians, then retired to the mountains, and endured famine."
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1294-1254 B.C.
Clement: “Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh …ruled 40 years.”
Josephus AoJ 5.6.7 – "Gideon ruled over the government 40 years."
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1254-1251 B.C.
Clement: “The son of Ahimelech, 3 years.”
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1251-1229 B.C.
Clement: An Israelite judge [obscured by Clement]…“of the tribe of Ephraim, who ruled 23 years”
Josephus AoJ 5.7.6.: “Jair the Gileadite of the tribe of Manasseh…22 years.”
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1229 – 1211 B.C.
Clement: “The people having sinned again, were delivered to the Ammonites 18 years”
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1211-1205 B.C.
Judges 11:26 – [And Jepthaah inquired] - “While Israel dwelt in …all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, 300 years; wherefore did ye not recover them within that time?”
1511 B.C. - 300 years = 1211 B.C. We have a chronologicalmarker for accuracy in Judges 11;26.
Clement: “Jephtha the Gileadite, of the tribe of Manasseh… ruled 6 years ”
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1205 – 1198 B.C.
Clement: “Abatthan. of Bethlehem, of the tribe of Juda, ruled 7 years.”Cf. Judges 12:7,9
---------------------------------------------------------------
Clement: 1198 - 1190 B.C.
Clement: “Then Ebron the Zebulonite, 8 years”
Scripture: 1198 - 1188 B.C. Judges 12:11
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Clement: 1190 – 1182 B.C.
Scripture: 1188 – 1180 B.C.
Judges 12:13-14 "And after him Abdon... judged Israel...8 years."
Clement: “Then Eglom of Ephraim, 8 years”
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A Kadesh battle in 1180 B.C. regarding Rameses and the Hitites would have left a vacuum of power in Israel that is quickly filled by the Cretan based Philistines. That is exactly what appears to have happened.
Clement: 1182 – 1142 B.C.
Scripture 1180-1140 B.C.
Judges 13: 1 And the children of Israel ...into the hand of the Philistines 40 years."
Clement: “Under the power of the foreigners, the Philistines, for 40 years” [Cretan based]
Welcome! Jesus Christ is my LORD and Savior! Romans 10:9-10,13; John 3:16
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In the Year of our LORD Jesus Christ 2025
Showing posts with label Exodus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Exodus. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Redating the Hebrew Exodus, part 2
A Matter of Perspective
There is never a serious debate as to whether Homer was a man or a woman among the ancients. There is never a truly serious debate as to whether Homer existed. The debate among the ancient Greeks, however, did rage about the period in which Homer lived in.
The same kind of debate is reminiscent of what should be said in our own day, regarding the reign of David, king of Israel. There is no real debate of King David’s existence in the ancients. Instead, the record is silent of such Orwellian rewriters of history...perhaps moreso to ease their consciences than scholarly investigation in lower critical support for such wild hypotheses.
There is no debate on whether Christ existed in the First Century as a real person: even by hostile writers who lived in His times, and within a generation after Him. Why is that? Why are those who are closest to the times unwilling to challenge the existence of Christ, or David who preceded Him by over 1,000 years, or Moses who preceded David by some 500 years more?
The answer is, because the ancients cannot always be held responsible for the intoxicated canards of its future generations. If the future descendants choose to discard truth for a lie, and live on in an hallucinogenic state, they do it willingly -- knowingly --and of their own free will. An unwilling mind can learn to talk himself into disbelieving just about anything.
Josephus' alternating Gr./Heb. calculations open the way:
The calculation of the last year of the Trojan War is affirmed in the ancient witnesses utilized by the Church Fathers: as being about 1031 - 1034 B.C. Now 1031 - 1032 B.C. is the 4th year of Solomon’s reign -- making both King Solomon, and his father David, as of an older date than modern “Intellectuals” will lead you to believe.
Using a separate Jewish calendar,
Josephus: reckons a total of 477 years and 6 months between the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and the building of Jerusalem by King David (Josephus, Wars of the Jews 6.10.).
This places David in Jerusalem in ca. January-February of 1063 B.C.
But in his Antiquities of the Jews, 8.3.1. Josephus uses the reckoning of the familiar Greek calendar (of his Roman audiences) to state that Solomon built the Temple 592 years after the Hebrew Exodus, before switching gears and reverting to the Jewish calendar of reckoning again.
Josephus knows the Scriptures use 480 years, as according to Hebrew reckoning, in I Kings 6:1.
The Greek calendar years of 592 times our inter-calculatory fraction is about 480.05 …or rounded off, 480 years.
In Antiquities of the Jews, 20.10.1, in discussing the lineage of the high priests from Moses to the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem; Josephus gives a similar length of time (612 short years). When calculated against our inter-calculatory fraction, we are given a new insight into Biblical History.
Josephus cites a rule of the high priesthood for the last 16 years of the 40 years in the wilderness, when Moses was 104 - 120 years old. This was followed, again, by a 480-year gap between the entry into the Promised Land by Joshua, and the Temple of Solomon’s dedication.{1}
Thus, Josephus also uses this methodology for preservation of Jewish history, when mentioning the Greek calendar, in Caesar’s library.
The testimony of the Galilean Israelite, Josephus, is that he agrees with the Greek reckoning that puts King David, in Jerusalem and building it, in circa 1060 to 1063 B.C.!
It appears that a few years elapsed before the actual major construction began. Thus, David’s reign is calculated to have begun no more recent or later than 1075 to 1070 B.C David reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years, and based on Josephus’ calculations, until ca. 1037 to 1036 B.C. (I Kings 2:11).
Therefore, for Solomon to dedicate the Temple in the fourth year of his reign (2 Kings 6:1), and for it to be 480 years after coming into the land from the Exodus: the Exodus entry into Canaan must date to ca. 1512 - 1511 B.C.
In I Kings 6:1, the literal reading show us that “…it was 480 years from the lasa’ah of the children of Israel from the Land of Egypt.” That is, it was the finishing moment, the end destination, the conclusion to -- leaving Egypt, being the end of 40 years in the wilderness, and the feet of all Israelites touching both sides of the Jordan. This makes the entry a certainty at 1511-1512 B.C.
This is hundreds of years before Rameses, and places the Exodus as being during the reign of the Hyksos! Therefore, Rameses now becomes Ra- Ameses or Ra-Amosis: ‘the wicked and afflicted Ameses’. Can that really be? The Egyptians priests, such as Ptolemy of Mendes, in his 3 volume work “Chronology”, cites “Amosis” as being king during the Hebrew Exodus; Inachus being his contemporary in the colony of Greece (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21).
In the same source, we read that Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his “Times”, told the ancients that the Argolic states were founded first by Inachus, and later evolved to the Hellenic states of his day. There are some who would tell us Ah-mose was a woman ruler, and that Thutmose I was the husband. So, what is the truth?
Pharaoh Histories in Chronological turmoil
In examining the Chronology of the Pharaohs that is recounted by Manetho, we find that unlike the Bible, the histories of Egyptian rulers are F.U.B.A.R.{2}
Modern Egyptology fails miserably in attempting to reckon its dates to any accuracy near the Biblical record. We are then to understand by the priests of Egypt, through Herodotus, that there are 330 rulers of Egypt from its beginnings until his time in the 450s B.C.
Upon closer examination, this is not the case. We find that the same ruler of Egypt may go by several names during his reign, and that a vice-Pharaoh subjoins him. That is, a Chief Executive Officer, and his Chief Operating Officer rule Egypt. There is also a sub-division under this of an upper and Lower Egypt that is also portioned out, in which the number of rulers multiply, while the generations reduce yet again.
So if for 800 years, Pharaohs “A” rule upper Egypt, while Pharaohs “B” rule lower Egypt, and each have 25 generations: then the number of Pharaohs become 50, with 50 more vice-Regents. There, in just 800 years, you now have 100 of the required 330. If each of the Pharaohs alone have a second identifying name in those 800 years, we now add another 50 names to the 330 cited by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus, and have now reached almost half our required number: 150 of 330. That is a total of 150 or almost half the required number of the 330, in just 800 years!
The notion of a neat and orderly chronology, as Egyptologists try to fancy, just obliterates like the tobacco off the end of a lit cigarette.
The dilemma becomes a question of who was really the de facto potentate. In the Bible, we have clear distinctions of Israel and Judah and its kings, their names and years of rule, and their genealogies. In Egyptology, we have guesswork. Upon closer examination of Manetho’s 3rd Century B.C. Histories of Egypt, we find that A-mosis is really both Ahmose, and Tethmosis (Thummosis) - the son of Alisphragmuthosis. Under his leadership, says Josephus in Against Apion 1.14, while citing Manetho, 480,000 Egyptians rallied around the city of Avaris, and expelled the Hyksos families of those who perished in the Red Sea with their king, Assiss (Asehre Khamudi). These families were expelled along the northern route out of the country, and settled in Judea.
In Manetho’s Chronology, through Josephus, we find a man called “Jonias” as the Greek equivalent of the Hyksos name of Moses’ step-grandfather. Modern Egyptologists disbelieve his existence, although he reigned 50 years and 1 month, his name -- and the length of his rule -- having been stricken from the histories by them. When dealing with this kind of mutilation of history, one is at the mercy of the prevailing opinions of the field, until the carnival tricks and literary slights of hand be exposed for what they are. This is why the Bible is so much superior to any religion or history of the world: it is consistent, it is reliable, it is verifiable, it is historical and outside the bounds of ready alterations, and it is above rational reproach -- against any work the world has to offer in its place.
Manetho’s Time-line adjusted and reconstructed -- B.C. format:
Dates and months are approximated to Manetho.
Name --------------- ----------------Reign
Tethmosis - Amosis March 1551 B.C. to July 1526 B.C. 25 Years 4 mos.
Chebron July 1526 B.C. to November 1513 B.C.
13 years
Amenophis November 1513 B.C. to July 1491 B.C.
20 years 7 mos.
Amesses (Hatsheput) July 1491 B.C. to April 1469 B.C.
21 years 9 mos.
Memphres April 1469 B.C. to February 1456 B.C.
12 years 9 mos.
Memphramuthosis February 1456 B.C. to October 1432 B.C.
25 years 10 mos.
Tethmosis (II) October 1432 B.C. to June 1422 B.C.
9 Years 8 mos.
Amenophis (II) - Osiris {3} June 1422 B.C. to April 1391 B.C.
(Gk. diety as- Bacchyus) 30 Years 10 mos. (credited as though unbroken)
(Gk. diety as Dionysus) w/ Queen Isis {4}
Orus April 1391 B.C. to February 1354 B.C.
(Gk. diety as Apollo){5} 36 Years 10 months
Acenchres February 1354 B.C. to March 1342 B.C.
(Ikhnaton/Amenhotep’s wife) 12 years 1 month
(Egyptian - Nefertiti: “the beautiful one has arrived”)
(Gk. diety as Artemis/Diana){6}
Rathotis March 1342 B.C. to March 1333 B.C.
(Egyptian - Tutankhamen) 9 years
Acencheres (I) March 1333 B.C. to August 1321 B.C.
12 years 5 mos.
Acencheres (II) August 1321 B.C. to November 1308 B.C.
12 years 3 mos.
Armais November 1308 B.C. to December 1304 B.C.
4 years 1 mos.
Ra-Ameses (I) December 1304 B.C. to March 1302 B.C.
1 year 4 mos.
Armesses (Miamoun) March 1302 B.C. to May 1242 B.C. {7}
(perhaps Ra-Ameses II) 60 years 2 mos.
Amenophis (III) May 1242 B.C. to November 1223 B.C. {8}
19 years 6 mos.
Sethosis November 1223 B.C. to November 1210 B.C. {9}
13 years
Ra-Ameses (III) {10} November 1210 B.C. to November 1143 B.C.
67 years
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1 There were only 13 high priests ruling in all that time. 480 divided by 13 is about 37 years per high priest’s tenure. Contrast this with the 28 appointed high priests in the 107 years from Herod I to Titus’ conquest, in which the average high priest served for a little less than 4 years because of robbery and political corruption of the office.
2 A clear example can be seen in lineage trees that are drawn up for the dynastic families. One tree actually shows that Thutmosis - Isis - Akhenaten all share the same era of rule as though brothers and sisters, children of Amenhotep III and Tiye (Archaeology, Mar/Apr 2002, “All in the Family” by Mark Rose, p.22). It is a high affront and insult, for Egyptologists (in general) to reckon demands for stringent requirements of lineage upon Hebraic Kings and take great fabrication liberties and myth-making endeavors upon their own craft. If the world of academia did not take them so seriously, we would be permitted to equate their historical Egyptology “craft”, (at times), with base humor and thespian slapstick. Josephus is clearly at odds with these modern historians, citing that “Pharoah” was as much a “household” representation of the royal family as was “Caesar”. We would not place Brittanicus, son of Claudius, as a ruler of the Roman Empire simply because he was called a “Caesar”. But that is exactly what Egyptologists do with the history of the Pharaohs.
3 What few bones were left of Osiris, (if there are any), was buried under the Sphinx of Egypt, about 300 feet below the surface. (e.g., Archaeology, Sep/Oct 2000, “Tales from the Crypt” by Angela M.H. Schuster, pp. 30-33).
4 Isis was known as IO, Ceres, and Demeter among the Greeks. Demeter was known as the goddess of grain harvests. Therefore, upon marriage to Osiris, she not only brought culture to Greece, she was its grain benefactor as well.
5 The Tel Amarna tablets are written to the Sun deity, Orus (a type of counterfeit Messiah): in 1384 B.C. His city, and that of his father, is Heliopolis. The Greeks name the “sun” as “Helios”. Thus, to the Greeks, Heliopolis becomes the city of the sun deity, Apollo. The Romans call the sun after the Greek as “Teitan” or “titan”. In the Greek, this designation corresponds Gematrically to 666, the number of Anti-Christ and the Beast (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.30.3). In Greece, the priestesses of Delphi conferred “oracles” in Apollo’s name, being a cult of ‘Apollo’.
6 Artemis / Diana continued the work of her mother or grandmother as a benefactor of Attica. In Rome, she was remembered as the one who brought about the wharves of the Tiber, and fed Rome from Egypt -- justifying Rome’s relationship with the breadbasket economics of Egyptian wheat.
The Greeks may also have called her as Kore / Persephone, who was raped by her father (identified for us here as Osiris) by force. This activity appears to deal with the mother of Nefertiti as being either the victim of, or the offspring of Osiris. Based on the Chronology of Manetho, the raped child would have to have been anywhere from 1-10 years of age at the time of such an occurrence. This act was the reason why Osiris was slain by his own brother, who chopped him to pieces, scattering him to the far reaches of Egypt; to which we now call Osiris ‘Hades’, and ‘Pluto’, and the “Sphinx’ (under which what was left of Osiris is thought to be buried. Yet, this later offspring of rape is deified as love and beauty, whose Egyptian worshipers remembered her mother and grandmother’s angst by ritually beating their breasts.
As Nefertiti, Artemis/Diana married an Ethiopian from Thebes who moved the capitol from Thebes to Amarna. Amarna was about 130 miles north of the then Ethiopian controlled region of Egypt, and was probably a marriage contract for peace between two nations. Together, Nefertiti and her husband worshipped a sun deity, (the “Helios”) -- her deified “brother” Horus, whom was later, renamed “Apollo” in Greek adaptation of the mythology, was more than likely her uncle.
Egypt refused to continue abandonment of all its other deities upon her death, supposedly some 13 years after assuming the throne. Amarna wall inscriptions show she lost at least one child in its infancy, but that she was happily married with several children. The Egyptians eventually revolted against the racial crossbreeding of their queen, erasing her memory across Egypt; and then reinventing her history through worship and the mythology of Artemis/Diana. Although Orus was remembered as “a deity among the many”, there was never again a sole deity of Egypt.
7 In 1292 B.C., Saturn/Bellus comes into prominence, colonizing families Greece, Crete, and Italy (which is then called ‘lesser Greece’). The Jews call the Romans the children of Bel, and Beelzebub. Thus, the act of slandering another Jew by this name, is the same as accusing that one of being a ****, or illegitimate child of Roman stock, without the furnishing of proof.
In 1271 B.C., Ceres / Isis is deified by both Greeks and Egyptians, perhaps being the 100th anniversary of her death.
8 In 1231 B.C., Tyre is founded, either within or just beyond Egyptian military influence. The lineage is traced directly from Saturn, a Hyksos descendant born in the Egyptian colony of Greece.
9 The Babylonian language wanes as the universal - language of communication in the Middle East’s eastern Mediterranean region, circa 1211 B.C., as Egypt begins to expand its influence yet again.
10 This Ra-Ameses is listed in Judges 13:1 as being at Kadesh, 331 years after the Exodus!!! The testimony, as discussed in the next section, is supported by a victory relief in Karnak, Egypt. The fact that the myth of a wrong Ra-ameses, and other factual errors have existed for centuries, was probably based more on anti-Semitic and anti-Christian bias, than upon historic fact. Even just a few casual observations, discussed in the next section, make this clear.
There is never a serious debate as to whether Homer was a man or a woman among the ancients. There is never a truly serious debate as to whether Homer existed. The debate among the ancient Greeks, however, did rage about the period in which Homer lived in.
The same kind of debate is reminiscent of what should be said in our own day, regarding the reign of David, king of Israel. There is no real debate of King David’s existence in the ancients. Instead, the record is silent of such Orwellian rewriters of history...perhaps moreso to ease their consciences than scholarly investigation in lower critical support for such wild hypotheses.
There is no debate on whether Christ existed in the First Century as a real person: even by hostile writers who lived in His times, and within a generation after Him. Why is that? Why are those who are closest to the times unwilling to challenge the existence of Christ, or David who preceded Him by over 1,000 years, or Moses who preceded David by some 500 years more?
The answer is, because the ancients cannot always be held responsible for the intoxicated canards of its future generations. If the future descendants choose to discard truth for a lie, and live on in an hallucinogenic state, they do it willingly -- knowingly --and of their own free will. An unwilling mind can learn to talk himself into disbelieving just about anything.
Josephus' alternating Gr./Heb. calculations open the way:
The calculation of the last year of the Trojan War is affirmed in the ancient witnesses utilized by the Church Fathers: as being about 1031 - 1034 B.C. Now 1031 - 1032 B.C. is the 4th year of Solomon’s reign -- making both King Solomon, and his father David, as of an older date than modern “Intellectuals” will lead you to believe.
Using a separate Jewish calendar,
Josephus: reckons a total of 477 years and 6 months between the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and the building of Jerusalem by King David (Josephus, Wars of the Jews 6.10.).
This places David in Jerusalem in ca. January-February of 1063 B.C.
But in his Antiquities of the Jews, 8.3.1. Josephus uses the reckoning of the familiar Greek calendar (of his Roman audiences) to state that Solomon built the Temple 592 years after the Hebrew Exodus, before switching gears and reverting to the Jewish calendar of reckoning again.
Josephus knows the Scriptures use 480 years, as according to Hebrew reckoning, in I Kings 6:1.
The Greek calendar years of 592 times our inter-calculatory fraction is about 480.05 …or rounded off, 480 years.
In Antiquities of the Jews, 20.10.1, in discussing the lineage of the high priests from Moses to the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem; Josephus gives a similar length of time (612 short years). When calculated against our inter-calculatory fraction, we are given a new insight into Biblical History.
Josephus cites a rule of the high priesthood for the last 16 years of the 40 years in the wilderness, when Moses was 104 - 120 years old. This was followed, again, by a 480-year gap between the entry into the Promised Land by Joshua, and the Temple of Solomon’s dedication.{1}
Thus, Josephus also uses this methodology for preservation of Jewish history, when mentioning the Greek calendar, in Caesar’s library.
The testimony of the Galilean Israelite, Josephus, is that he agrees with the Greek reckoning that puts King David, in Jerusalem and building it, in circa 1060 to 1063 B.C.!
It appears that a few years elapsed before the actual major construction began. Thus, David’s reign is calculated to have begun no more recent or later than 1075 to 1070 B.C David reigned in Jerusalem for 33 years, and based on Josephus’ calculations, until ca. 1037 to 1036 B.C. (I Kings 2:11).
Therefore, for Solomon to dedicate the Temple in the fourth year of his reign (2 Kings 6:1), and for it to be 480 years after coming into the land from the Exodus: the Exodus entry into Canaan must date to ca. 1512 - 1511 B.C.
In I Kings 6:1, the literal reading show us that “…it was 480 years from the lasa’ah of the children of Israel from the Land of Egypt.” That is, it was the finishing moment, the end destination, the conclusion to -- leaving Egypt, being the end of 40 years in the wilderness, and the feet of all Israelites touching both sides of the Jordan. This makes the entry a certainty at 1511-1512 B.C.
This is hundreds of years before Rameses, and places the Exodus as being during the reign of the Hyksos! Therefore, Rameses now becomes Ra- Ameses or Ra-Amosis: ‘the wicked and afflicted Ameses’. Can that really be? The Egyptians priests, such as Ptolemy of Mendes, in his 3 volume work “Chronology”, cites “Amosis” as being king during the Hebrew Exodus; Inachus being his contemporary in the colony of Greece (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21).
In the same source, we read that Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his “Times”, told the ancients that the Argolic states were founded first by Inachus, and later evolved to the Hellenic states of his day. There are some who would tell us Ah-mose was a woman ruler, and that Thutmose I was the husband. So, what is the truth?
Pharaoh Histories in Chronological turmoil
In examining the Chronology of the Pharaohs that is recounted by Manetho, we find that unlike the Bible, the histories of Egyptian rulers are F.U.B.A.R.{2}
Modern Egyptology fails miserably in attempting to reckon its dates to any accuracy near the Biblical record. We are then to understand by the priests of Egypt, through Herodotus, that there are 330 rulers of Egypt from its beginnings until his time in the 450s B.C.
Upon closer examination, this is not the case. We find that the same ruler of Egypt may go by several names during his reign, and that a vice-Pharaoh subjoins him. That is, a Chief Executive Officer, and his Chief Operating Officer rule Egypt. There is also a sub-division under this of an upper and Lower Egypt that is also portioned out, in which the number of rulers multiply, while the generations reduce yet again.
So if for 800 years, Pharaohs “A” rule upper Egypt, while Pharaohs “B” rule lower Egypt, and each have 25 generations: then the number of Pharaohs become 50, with 50 more vice-Regents. There, in just 800 years, you now have 100 of the required 330. If each of the Pharaohs alone have a second identifying name in those 800 years, we now add another 50 names to the 330 cited by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus, and have now reached almost half our required number: 150 of 330. That is a total of 150 or almost half the required number of the 330, in just 800 years!
The notion of a neat and orderly chronology, as Egyptologists try to fancy, just obliterates like the tobacco off the end of a lit cigarette.
The dilemma becomes a question of who was really the de facto potentate. In the Bible, we have clear distinctions of Israel and Judah and its kings, their names and years of rule, and their genealogies. In Egyptology, we have guesswork. Upon closer examination of Manetho’s 3rd Century B.C. Histories of Egypt, we find that A-mosis is really both Ahmose, and Tethmosis (Thummosis) - the son of Alisphragmuthosis. Under his leadership, says Josephus in Against Apion 1.14, while citing Manetho, 480,000 Egyptians rallied around the city of Avaris, and expelled the Hyksos families of those who perished in the Red Sea with their king, Assiss (Asehre Khamudi). These families were expelled along the northern route out of the country, and settled in Judea.
In Manetho’s Chronology, through Josephus, we find a man called “Jonias” as the Greek equivalent of the Hyksos name of Moses’ step-grandfather. Modern Egyptologists disbelieve his existence, although he reigned 50 years and 1 month, his name -- and the length of his rule -- having been stricken from the histories by them. When dealing with this kind of mutilation of history, one is at the mercy of the prevailing opinions of the field, until the carnival tricks and literary slights of hand be exposed for what they are. This is why the Bible is so much superior to any religion or history of the world: it is consistent, it is reliable, it is verifiable, it is historical and outside the bounds of ready alterations, and it is above rational reproach -- against any work the world has to offer in its place.
Manetho’s Time-line adjusted and reconstructed -- B.C. format:
Dates and months are approximated to Manetho.
Name --------------- ----------------Reign
Tethmosis - Amosis March 1551 B.C. to July 1526 B.C. 25 Years 4 mos.
Chebron July 1526 B.C. to November 1513 B.C.
13 years
Amenophis November 1513 B.C. to July 1491 B.C.
20 years 7 mos.
Amesses (Hatsheput) July 1491 B.C. to April 1469 B.C.
21 years 9 mos.
Memphres April 1469 B.C. to February 1456 B.C.
12 years 9 mos.
Memphramuthosis February 1456 B.C. to October 1432 B.C.
25 years 10 mos.
Tethmosis (II) October 1432 B.C. to June 1422 B.C.
9 Years 8 mos.
Amenophis (II) - Osiris {3} June 1422 B.C. to April 1391 B.C.
(Gk. diety as- Bacchyus) 30 Years 10 mos. (credited as though unbroken)
(Gk. diety as Dionysus) w/ Queen Isis {4}
Orus April 1391 B.C. to February 1354 B.C.
(Gk. diety as Apollo){5} 36 Years 10 months
Acenchres February 1354 B.C. to March 1342 B.C.
(Ikhnaton/Amenhotep’s wife) 12 years 1 month
(Egyptian - Nefertiti: “the beautiful one has arrived”)
(Gk. diety as Artemis/Diana){6}
Rathotis March 1342 B.C. to March 1333 B.C.
(Egyptian - Tutankhamen) 9 years
Acencheres (I) March 1333 B.C. to August 1321 B.C.
12 years 5 mos.
Acencheres (II) August 1321 B.C. to November 1308 B.C.
12 years 3 mos.
Armais November 1308 B.C. to December 1304 B.C.
4 years 1 mos.
Ra-Ameses (I) December 1304 B.C. to March 1302 B.C.
1 year 4 mos.
Armesses (Miamoun) March 1302 B.C. to May 1242 B.C. {7}
(perhaps Ra-Ameses II) 60 years 2 mos.
Amenophis (III) May 1242 B.C. to November 1223 B.C. {8}
19 years 6 mos.
Sethosis November 1223 B.C. to November 1210 B.C. {9}
13 years
Ra-Ameses (III) {10} November 1210 B.C. to November 1143 B.C.
67 years
---------------------------------------------------------------
1 There were only 13 high priests ruling in all that time. 480 divided by 13 is about 37 years per high priest’s tenure. Contrast this with the 28 appointed high priests in the 107 years from Herod I to Titus’ conquest, in which the average high priest served for a little less than 4 years because of robbery and political corruption of the office.
2 A clear example can be seen in lineage trees that are drawn up for the dynastic families. One tree actually shows that Thutmosis - Isis - Akhenaten all share the same era of rule as though brothers and sisters, children of Amenhotep III and Tiye (Archaeology, Mar/Apr 2002, “All in the Family” by Mark Rose, p.22). It is a high affront and insult, for Egyptologists (in general) to reckon demands for stringent requirements of lineage upon Hebraic Kings and take great fabrication liberties and myth-making endeavors upon their own craft. If the world of academia did not take them so seriously, we would be permitted to equate their historical Egyptology “craft”, (at times), with base humor and thespian slapstick. Josephus is clearly at odds with these modern historians, citing that “Pharoah” was as much a “household” representation of the royal family as was “Caesar”. We would not place Brittanicus, son of Claudius, as a ruler of the Roman Empire simply because he was called a “Caesar”. But that is exactly what Egyptologists do with the history of the Pharaohs.
3 What few bones were left of Osiris, (if there are any), was buried under the Sphinx of Egypt, about 300 feet below the surface. (e.g., Archaeology, Sep/Oct 2000, “Tales from the Crypt” by Angela M.H. Schuster, pp. 30-33).
4 Isis was known as IO, Ceres, and Demeter among the Greeks. Demeter was known as the goddess of grain harvests. Therefore, upon marriage to Osiris, she not only brought culture to Greece, she was its grain benefactor as well.
5 The Tel Amarna tablets are written to the Sun deity, Orus (a type of counterfeit Messiah): in 1384 B.C. His city, and that of his father, is Heliopolis. The Greeks name the “sun” as “Helios”. Thus, to the Greeks, Heliopolis becomes the city of the sun deity, Apollo. The Romans call the sun after the Greek as “Teitan” or “titan”. In the Greek, this designation corresponds Gematrically to 666, the number of Anti-Christ and the Beast (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 5.30.3). In Greece, the priestesses of Delphi conferred “oracles” in Apollo’s name, being a cult of ‘Apollo’.
6 Artemis / Diana continued the work of her mother or grandmother as a benefactor of Attica. In Rome, she was remembered as the one who brought about the wharves of the Tiber, and fed Rome from Egypt -- justifying Rome’s relationship with the breadbasket economics of Egyptian wheat.
The Greeks may also have called her as Kore / Persephone, who was raped by her father (identified for us here as Osiris) by force. This activity appears to deal with the mother of Nefertiti as being either the victim of, or the offspring of Osiris. Based on the Chronology of Manetho, the raped child would have to have been anywhere from 1-10 years of age at the time of such an occurrence. This act was the reason why Osiris was slain by his own brother, who chopped him to pieces, scattering him to the far reaches of Egypt; to which we now call Osiris ‘Hades’, and ‘Pluto’, and the “Sphinx’ (under which what was left of Osiris is thought to be buried. Yet, this later offspring of rape is deified as love and beauty, whose Egyptian worshipers remembered her mother and grandmother’s angst by ritually beating their breasts.
As Nefertiti, Artemis/Diana married an Ethiopian from Thebes who moved the capitol from Thebes to Amarna. Amarna was about 130 miles north of the then Ethiopian controlled region of Egypt, and was probably a marriage contract for peace between two nations. Together, Nefertiti and her husband worshipped a sun deity, (the “Helios”) -- her deified “brother” Horus, whom was later, renamed “Apollo” in Greek adaptation of the mythology, was more than likely her uncle.
Egypt refused to continue abandonment of all its other deities upon her death, supposedly some 13 years after assuming the throne. Amarna wall inscriptions show she lost at least one child in its infancy, but that she was happily married with several children. The Egyptians eventually revolted against the racial crossbreeding of their queen, erasing her memory across Egypt; and then reinventing her history through worship and the mythology of Artemis/Diana. Although Orus was remembered as “a deity among the many”, there was never again a sole deity of Egypt.
7 In 1292 B.C., Saturn/Bellus comes into prominence, colonizing families Greece, Crete, and Italy (which is then called ‘lesser Greece’). The Jews call the Romans the children of Bel, and Beelzebub. Thus, the act of slandering another Jew by this name, is the same as accusing that one of being a ****, or illegitimate child of Roman stock, without the furnishing of proof.
In 1271 B.C., Ceres / Isis is deified by both Greeks and Egyptians, perhaps being the 100th anniversary of her death.
8 In 1231 B.C., Tyre is founded, either within or just beyond Egyptian military influence. The lineage is traced directly from Saturn, a Hyksos descendant born in the Egyptian colony of Greece.
9 The Babylonian language wanes as the universal - language of communication in the Middle East’s eastern Mediterranean region, circa 1211 B.C., as Egypt begins to expand its influence yet again.
10 This Ra-Ameses is listed in Judges 13:1 as being at Kadesh, 331 years after the Exodus!!! The testimony, as discussed in the next section, is supported by a victory relief in Karnak, Egypt. The fact that the myth of a wrong Ra-ameses, and other factual errors have existed for centuries, was probably based more on anti-Semitic and anti-Christian bias, than upon historic fact. Even just a few casual observations, discussed in the next section, make this clear.
Patristic etc. revising of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, Part 1
Introduction: From Christ ... back to Homer
There appears to be a certainty among the ancients that Christ was crucified in the second year of the 192nd Olympiad. By examining the Greek histories dealing with the Olympics, and historical markers along the way, we can more deeply appreciate the freshness and vitality of the history of the New Testament, and of Christ. Further, we find, that from the Greeks themselves, they have family ties to Egypt through the Hyksos; the Syrians who oppressed the Jews as Egyptians (cf. Isaiah 52:4); and that the Romans are themselves, de facto Greek cousins, and co-descendants of these same Hyksos.
The reckoning of ancient histories outside the Bible is often a task of trying to complete a puzzle that is not clear to many ancient historians themselves. It is easier to attack the Bible, rather than to hold the same thoughtful consideration in reconstructing facts through the historical dative methods, et al.
To this day, there is hostility to biblical history spoken by those closest to the events.
The Church Fathers utilized the Greeks’ own histories against them. I have found that they could often do so successfully -- as long as they refrained to the reckoning within the first two millennia B.C. To the untrained eye, at the first, the numbers reckoning the years appear quite wild; but to the trained eye, knowing the use of Greek means of reckoning in the period in which the debate takes place, it is within the confinement of “reasonability” in a pre-calculator society.
The inability to understand ancient Greek history with certainty prior to Alexander the Great, may be summed up in this way: ‘The greatest difficulty lies with the Greek historians themselves, who were often wildly at variance with one another in their reckonings.’ And it is true, that when you have variances and debates of up to 420 or even 500 years difference among the Greek historians themselves, you have to really find whom the more reliable and non-speculative source data might be.
This search is exacerbated by modern academic hypocrisy when it comes to acceptance of ancient testimonies in regard to non-biblical history versus biblical history. Non-biblically related Greek and Roman histories are often accepted almost without question as if Gospel, and Gospel is scorned as fable or myth-making. Virtue is pooh-poohed upon 1100 and 1200 year severances between oldest manuscripts extant and its Greek and Roman original authors, with no chain of custody accountability in between. In contrast, the New Testament has over 24,000 more manuscripts extant, with portions to within a generation (30 - 40 years) of one of its authors, John the Apostle; and within two or three generations from others. Yet, the New Testament is attacked relentlessly.
In the case of the study of the chronologies of the ancient Greeks, the best handle of some of the wild variances their ancient historians gave for who did what, and when, -- in reference to the ages prior to the Olympiads, -- appears to have been grasped by early Church Fathers: Theophilus, Julius Africanus, Clement of Alexandria.
Julius Africanus tells us,
“Up to the time of the Olympiads there is no certain history among the Greeks, all things before that date being confused, and in no way consistent with each other.
But these Olympiads were thoroughly investigated (hekribonto) by many, as the Greeks made up the records of their history
-- not according to long spaces, but
-- in periods of 4 years.”
(Julius Africanus, fragment extant 13.1)
Even with the noteworthy Galilean Israelite, Josephus, there is a chronic margin of error, and inconsistency, that plagues his formulation and calculations as well.
Therefore, if we can place our calculations within a generation of the actual events, using Greek reckoning of how they arrived at such calculations, we are to consider ourselves within their own margin of error.
The following formula is probably as close as we can get in trying to establish what calculations the ancient Patristic writers and Josephus used.
The Formula
1) The Greeks who existed before Cyrus I conquering Babylon in circa 539 B.C., reckoned their years upon a 10-month or ca. 305-day calendar (Theophilus to Autolycus, 3.27). This was probably due to glacier recession on the European continent altering consistent seasonal reckonings.
Using the example of how the Hebraic 480 years of I Kings 6:1 is tabulated:
-- Pre-539 B.C., against a 10-month calendar of about 305 days. Hence, equal to Josephus' tabulation of 592 years in Antiquities, 8.3.1., according to what he calls as a "Macedonian" Greek calendar.
This is a fraction of about .8106 - .8108 of a now observed calendar year of 365.25 days. In other words, for every 81 years we have, they would have reckoned 100 years in their calculations in the pre-539 B.C. period.
2) It was with Cyrus I in Babylon, that the Greeks reckoned a 48-month cycle for each Olympiad in place of the 40-month cycle (Julias Africanus, Fragment 13 -.3). --Post-539 B.C., we are to calculate against a 12-month calendar.
3) According to Herodotus, by his era, the Greek calendar became reckoned as 12 months of 30 days, with every other year being given an extra inter-calculated month of 30 days -- Year 1 being 360 days, and Year 2 being 390 days, and then repeating itself thereafter (Herodotus, Histories, 1.33).
-- From 539 B.C. to 46 B.C., the average Macedonian / Greek year appears to have become tabulated on average of 375 days long: being 360 days 1 year, then 390 the next. So this era of 46-539 B.C. is the point of the greatest trouble in calculating actual years in Greek reckonings.
4) In 46 B.C., the Greeks adopted the standard Roman or Julian calendar of 365 days. In that particular year, adjustments were made, and 46 B.C appears to have been 445 days long.
5) The Olympiads were suspended during the Peloponnesian Wars, thus there lies a possibility of adding a 13-year addendum to any reckoning exclusively by Olympiads. My personal calculations, taking all data into advisement, point to a loss of 2 Olympiads, or another 8 years of common reckoning, during this period.
Inter-calulatory era:
As covered above, we are gaining time in our inter-calculatory period before the standard Roman calendar, and the auto-implementation of a 360-day Persian calendar. This adds one full year of inter-calculation between 46 B.C. and 539 B.C., for every 61 years that we must reckon within the confines of these years only. In short, a total of 8 years become now as variable. There appears to be a lack of consistent solar and lunar adjustments to the annual cycles, so that one Olympic might occur in summer, another in springtime, and yet another in winter; and still be true to their calendars.
It is questionable as to whether this variable is to be “factored-in” by the Patristic fathers - who must inter-calculate the Greek historical example they cite. If, however, we take the hypothetical example that the Greek reverts to the Macedonian calendar in 336 B.C.; after Herodotus’ histories -- we then find the reversion to the 10-month year of about 305 days. This will be the Macedonian influence of Philip and Alexander upon Greece, and the process (as respecting Greek calendar reckoning), thus reverts to the pre-Cyrian inter-calculation of times for only 336 B.C. to 46 B.C. This too, without the aid of the modern convenience of a calculator, led to some discrepancies in citing the same calculation in different years in different letters or apologetics.
The art of comparative dative analysis is much like the sifting of modern intelligence data. While in the process of determining exegetical accuracy, you can commit isogetical errors quite easily. The solution is to find a factual historical bane by which you can pinpoint and say, “Here. This year and event we know. Now, do the historians mention that point in time we know, and what is his calculations from that point in time?”
Julius Africanus tells us,
“…Cyrus became king of the Persians at the time of the 55th Olympiad,
as may be ascertained from the Bibliothecoe of Diodorus, and the
histories of Thallus and Castor, and from Polybius and Phlegon,
and others beside these, who have made the Olympiads a subject of
study. For the date is a matter of agreement among them all.
And Cyrus then, in the first year of his reign, which was the first year of the 55th Olympiad….” [ca.562 B.C.] (Julius Africanus, Extant 13.2)
The Olympiad reckoning
Traditionally, the first Olympiad is thought to have occurred around 776 B.C. In reality, the early Olympiads, which contained 4 years of 10 months each, first started when Ahaz reigned in his first year in Jerusalem, in 741 B.C. (Julius Africanus, Fragment 15).
Therefore, any year before 741 B.C. is pre-Olympic history to the Greeks. By being able to balance proper Biblical Chronology early on, we can more properly reckon the older dates of both Greek and Hebrew Histories as presented in Patristics.
It is entirely important that we know that 741 B.C., like the Diaspora of 586 B.C., be a fixed year and immutable. Once such a year is fixed firmly, such as the Bible does do for us, we can then springboard with greater accuracy as to what the testimony of the past really is.
When discussing their histories in the Olympic periods of 741 B.C., onwards: the Greeks took care to designate an event as happening in the number of the Olympiad, and the year. Each Olympiad being a cycle of four years, they would thus say: “In the first year of the 12th Olympiad”, so-and-so did thus-and-thus. Therefore, we can calculate that 11 cycles of 4 years at the correct annual fraction to have occurred. This is 44 times that fraction from 741 B.C., or to circa 705 to 704 B.C. (for example), for such-and-such a one, doing thus-and-thus.
Preferably, in regards to the Greeks, the calculations should be limited to within the times of the first settlements of Attica, which appear to have begun as little as 40 years before the Israelite Exodus from Egypt.
By both a biblical Redating and some comparative Greek reckoning, that date of the Israelite Exodus occurred on or about First fruits, the 17th of Nisan, in the spring of 1551 B.C.
Properly dating Homer
One example of using the Patristic reckoning of Greek history is found in the dating of Homer, the author of many Greek myths and false deities. But in order to date Homer, we also need to date the fall of Troy.
During the times of the 62nd Olympiad, Heraclitus wrote that the Trojan War and the First Olympiad were separated by 407 [10-month] years (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21).
By that reckoning, the Trojan War ends in 1071 B.C. But Clement also cites the Greek historian Eratosthenes, who appears to “phrase” an oversight to historians.
a) From the capture of Troy to the descent (or expedition) of the Heraclidae: are 80 [10-month] years
b) From the Heraclidae to the founding of Ionia: are 60 [10-month] years
c) From the Heraclidae to the protectorate of Lycurgus: are 159 [10-month] years
d) From the protectorate of Lycurgus to the First Olympiad: are 108 [10-month] years
First Assumption ------------------------------- Actual Testimony
1070 B.C. --- The fall of Troy ------------------ 1032 B.C.
1005 B.C.--- The descent of Heraclidae ------------957 B.C.
957 B.C.---- Ionia is founded --- -----------------909 B.C.
828 B.C.--- The “Protectorate of Lycurgus” ------- 828 B.C.
741 B.C. ---- The First Olympiad ----------------- 741 B.C.
In the above, we find that the testimony hinges on a double reckoning from the descent of Heraclidae. Once this ‘double reckoning’ is established as being the ‘actual intent’ of the Greek historian: it is then corrected, and the Greek reckoning falls in line with the biblical testimony.
It also casts a light of importance on the ‘double reckoning’ as well, because to Eratosthenes, the descent of the Heraclidae is a major calculable event in Greek history. Therefore, prior to the Olympics, the Greeks must have used this as an event year from which to reckon from for about 216 years actual, or about 256 years on their calendars.
In analyzing this period, we find that the late Second Century A.D. scholar of Alexandria, Egypt, -- Clement of Alexandria -- cites Homer as having been an Egyptian, and not a Greek.
Like Herodotus, Clement lists all sorts of dates that various ancient Greeks have speculated through the centuries on the man called Homer. The most reliable of these historians, tells us that Homer died 90 years before the first Olympiad (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 1.15, 1.21).
Taken after the percentage of what a 10-month year is to a 12-month year, we then calculate 90 years times that fraction to achieve a death of Homer in 814 B.C. (the calculation being now about 73 years prior to the First Olympiad).
His birth, according to Philochorus, was 180 years after the Trojan War (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21). After the calculation of 180 years times the inter-calculatory fraction, the Greek percentage of a 10-month versus the later 12-month calendar, we find that Homer was born in 886 B.C. Therefore, by reckoning Greek history from fixed dates, we find that Homer died in his 71st or 72nd year of life. No more, and no less.
There appears to be a certainty among the ancients that Christ was crucified in the second year of the 192nd Olympiad. By examining the Greek histories dealing with the Olympics, and historical markers along the way, we can more deeply appreciate the freshness and vitality of the history of the New Testament, and of Christ. Further, we find, that from the Greeks themselves, they have family ties to Egypt through the Hyksos; the Syrians who oppressed the Jews as Egyptians (cf. Isaiah 52:4); and that the Romans are themselves, de facto Greek cousins, and co-descendants of these same Hyksos.
The reckoning of ancient histories outside the Bible is often a task of trying to complete a puzzle that is not clear to many ancient historians themselves. It is easier to attack the Bible, rather than to hold the same thoughtful consideration in reconstructing facts through the historical dative methods, et al.
To this day, there is hostility to biblical history spoken by those closest to the events.
The Church Fathers utilized the Greeks’ own histories against them. I have found that they could often do so successfully -- as long as they refrained to the reckoning within the first two millennia B.C. To the untrained eye, at the first, the numbers reckoning the years appear quite wild; but to the trained eye, knowing the use of Greek means of reckoning in the period in which the debate takes place, it is within the confinement of “reasonability” in a pre-calculator society.
The inability to understand ancient Greek history with certainty prior to Alexander the Great, may be summed up in this way: ‘The greatest difficulty lies with the Greek historians themselves, who were often wildly at variance with one another in their reckonings.’ And it is true, that when you have variances and debates of up to 420 or even 500 years difference among the Greek historians themselves, you have to really find whom the more reliable and non-speculative source data might be.
This search is exacerbated by modern academic hypocrisy when it comes to acceptance of ancient testimonies in regard to non-biblical history versus biblical history. Non-biblically related Greek and Roman histories are often accepted almost without question as if Gospel, and Gospel is scorned as fable or myth-making. Virtue is pooh-poohed upon 1100 and 1200 year severances between oldest manuscripts extant and its Greek and Roman original authors, with no chain of custody accountability in between. In contrast, the New Testament has over 24,000 more manuscripts extant, with portions to within a generation (30 - 40 years) of one of its authors, John the Apostle; and within two or three generations from others. Yet, the New Testament is attacked relentlessly.
In the case of the study of the chronologies of the ancient Greeks, the best handle of some of the wild variances their ancient historians gave for who did what, and when, -- in reference to the ages prior to the Olympiads, -- appears to have been grasped by early Church Fathers: Theophilus, Julius Africanus, Clement of Alexandria.
Julius Africanus tells us,
“Up to the time of the Olympiads there is no certain history among the Greeks, all things before that date being confused, and in no way consistent with each other.
But these Olympiads were thoroughly investigated (hekribonto) by many, as the Greeks made up the records of their history
-- not according to long spaces, but
-- in periods of 4 years.”
(Julius Africanus, fragment extant 13.1)
Even with the noteworthy Galilean Israelite, Josephus, there is a chronic margin of error, and inconsistency, that plagues his formulation and calculations as well.
Therefore, if we can place our calculations within a generation of the actual events, using Greek reckoning of how they arrived at such calculations, we are to consider ourselves within their own margin of error.
The following formula is probably as close as we can get in trying to establish what calculations the ancient Patristic writers and Josephus used.
The Formula
1) The Greeks who existed before Cyrus I conquering Babylon in circa 539 B.C., reckoned their years upon a 10-month or ca. 305-day calendar (Theophilus to Autolycus, 3.27). This was probably due to glacier recession on the European continent altering consistent seasonal reckonings.
Using the example of how the Hebraic 480 years of I Kings 6:1 is tabulated:
-- Pre-539 B.C., against a 10-month calendar of about 305 days. Hence, equal to Josephus' tabulation of 592 years in Antiquities, 8.3.1., according to what he calls as a "Macedonian" Greek calendar.
This is a fraction of about .8106 - .8108 of a now observed calendar year of 365.25 days. In other words, for every 81 years we have, they would have reckoned 100 years in their calculations in the pre-539 B.C. period.
2) It was with Cyrus I in Babylon, that the Greeks reckoned a 48-month cycle for each Olympiad in place of the 40-month cycle (Julias Africanus, Fragment 13 -.3). --Post-539 B.C., we are to calculate against a 12-month calendar.
3) According to Herodotus, by his era, the Greek calendar became reckoned as 12 months of 30 days, with every other year being given an extra inter-calculated month of 30 days -- Year 1 being 360 days, and Year 2 being 390 days, and then repeating itself thereafter (Herodotus, Histories, 1.33).
-- From 539 B.C. to 46 B.C., the average Macedonian / Greek year appears to have become tabulated on average of 375 days long: being 360 days 1 year, then 390 the next. So this era of 46-539 B.C. is the point of the greatest trouble in calculating actual years in Greek reckonings.
4) In 46 B.C., the Greeks adopted the standard Roman or Julian calendar of 365 days. In that particular year, adjustments were made, and 46 B.C appears to have been 445 days long.
5) The Olympiads were suspended during the Peloponnesian Wars, thus there lies a possibility of adding a 13-year addendum to any reckoning exclusively by Olympiads. My personal calculations, taking all data into advisement, point to a loss of 2 Olympiads, or another 8 years of common reckoning, during this period.
Inter-calulatory era:
As covered above, we are gaining time in our inter-calculatory period before the standard Roman calendar, and the auto-implementation of a 360-day Persian calendar. This adds one full year of inter-calculation between 46 B.C. and 539 B.C., for every 61 years that we must reckon within the confines of these years only. In short, a total of 8 years become now as variable. There appears to be a lack of consistent solar and lunar adjustments to the annual cycles, so that one Olympic might occur in summer, another in springtime, and yet another in winter; and still be true to their calendars.
It is questionable as to whether this variable is to be “factored-in” by the Patristic fathers - who must inter-calculate the Greek historical example they cite. If, however, we take the hypothetical example that the Greek reverts to the Macedonian calendar in 336 B.C.; after Herodotus’ histories -- we then find the reversion to the 10-month year of about 305 days. This will be the Macedonian influence of Philip and Alexander upon Greece, and the process (as respecting Greek calendar reckoning), thus reverts to the pre-Cyrian inter-calculation of times for only 336 B.C. to 46 B.C. This too, without the aid of the modern convenience of a calculator, led to some discrepancies in citing the same calculation in different years in different letters or apologetics.
The art of comparative dative analysis is much like the sifting of modern intelligence data. While in the process of determining exegetical accuracy, you can commit isogetical errors quite easily. The solution is to find a factual historical bane by which you can pinpoint and say, “Here. This year and event we know. Now, do the historians mention that point in time we know, and what is his calculations from that point in time?”
Julius Africanus tells us,
“…Cyrus became king of the Persians at the time of the 55th Olympiad,
as may be ascertained from the Bibliothecoe of Diodorus, and the
histories of Thallus and Castor, and from Polybius and Phlegon,
and others beside these, who have made the Olympiads a subject of
study. For the date is a matter of agreement among them all.
And Cyrus then, in the first year of his reign, which was the first year of the 55th Olympiad….” [ca.562 B.C.] (Julius Africanus, Extant 13.2)
The Olympiad reckoning
Traditionally, the first Olympiad is thought to have occurred around 776 B.C. In reality, the early Olympiads, which contained 4 years of 10 months each, first started when Ahaz reigned in his first year in Jerusalem, in 741 B.C. (Julius Africanus, Fragment 15).
Therefore, any year before 741 B.C. is pre-Olympic history to the Greeks. By being able to balance proper Biblical Chronology early on, we can more properly reckon the older dates of both Greek and Hebrew Histories as presented in Patristics.
It is entirely important that we know that 741 B.C., like the Diaspora of 586 B.C., be a fixed year and immutable. Once such a year is fixed firmly, such as the Bible does do for us, we can then springboard with greater accuracy as to what the testimony of the past really is.
When discussing their histories in the Olympic periods of 741 B.C., onwards: the Greeks took care to designate an event as happening in the number of the Olympiad, and the year. Each Olympiad being a cycle of four years, they would thus say: “In the first year of the 12th Olympiad”, so-and-so did thus-and-thus. Therefore, we can calculate that 11 cycles of 4 years at the correct annual fraction to have occurred. This is 44 times that fraction from 741 B.C., or to circa 705 to 704 B.C. (for example), for such-and-such a one, doing thus-and-thus.
Preferably, in regards to the Greeks, the calculations should be limited to within the times of the first settlements of Attica, which appear to have begun as little as 40 years before the Israelite Exodus from Egypt.
By both a biblical Redating and some comparative Greek reckoning, that date of the Israelite Exodus occurred on or about First fruits, the 17th of Nisan, in the spring of 1551 B.C.
Properly dating Homer
One example of using the Patristic reckoning of Greek history is found in the dating of Homer, the author of many Greek myths and false deities. But in order to date Homer, we also need to date the fall of Troy.
During the times of the 62nd Olympiad, Heraclitus wrote that the Trojan War and the First Olympiad were separated by 407 [10-month] years (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21).
By that reckoning, the Trojan War ends in 1071 B.C. But Clement also cites the Greek historian Eratosthenes, who appears to “phrase” an oversight to historians.
a) From the capture of Troy to the descent (or expedition) of the Heraclidae: are 80 [10-month] years
b) From the Heraclidae to the founding of Ionia: are 60 [10-month] years
c) From the Heraclidae to the protectorate of Lycurgus: are 159 [10-month] years
d) From the protectorate of Lycurgus to the First Olympiad: are 108 [10-month] years
First Assumption ------------------------------- Actual Testimony
1070 B.C. --- The fall of Troy ------------------ 1032 B.C.
1005 B.C.--- The descent of Heraclidae ------------957 B.C.
957 B.C.---- Ionia is founded --- -----------------909 B.C.
828 B.C.--- The “Protectorate of Lycurgus” ------- 828 B.C.
741 B.C. ---- The First Olympiad ----------------- 741 B.C.
In the above, we find that the testimony hinges on a double reckoning from the descent of Heraclidae. Once this ‘double reckoning’ is established as being the ‘actual intent’ of the Greek historian: it is then corrected, and the Greek reckoning falls in line with the biblical testimony.
It also casts a light of importance on the ‘double reckoning’ as well, because to Eratosthenes, the descent of the Heraclidae is a major calculable event in Greek history. Therefore, prior to the Olympics, the Greeks must have used this as an event year from which to reckon from for about 216 years actual, or about 256 years on their calendars.
In analyzing this period, we find that the late Second Century A.D. scholar of Alexandria, Egypt, -- Clement of Alexandria -- cites Homer as having been an Egyptian, and not a Greek.
Like Herodotus, Clement lists all sorts of dates that various ancient Greeks have speculated through the centuries on the man called Homer. The most reliable of these historians, tells us that Homer died 90 years before the first Olympiad (Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 1.15, 1.21).
Taken after the percentage of what a 10-month year is to a 12-month year, we then calculate 90 years times that fraction to achieve a death of Homer in 814 B.C. (the calculation being now about 73 years prior to the First Olympiad).
His birth, according to Philochorus, was 180 years after the Trojan War (Clement, Miscellanies, 1.21). After the calculation of 180 years times the inter-calculatory fraction, the Greek percentage of a 10-month versus the later 12-month calendar, we find that Homer was born in 886 B.C. Therefore, by reckoning Greek history from fixed dates, we find that Homer died in his 71st or 72nd year of life. No more, and no less.
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