In the course of charting the life, judgeship, and ruler years listed in Scripture, it became obvious that the Hebrew scribes did not count those year spans in the same way that the Greco-Roman Western world would have counted them. For example:
And the anger of YHWH glowed against Israel. And He gave them over into the hand of Cushan-rishathaimm, king of Mesopotamia. And the children of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. | And when the children of Israel cried to YHWH, YHWH raised up a deliverer to the children of Israel, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them. . . . And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel son of Kenaz died. (Judge 3.8-11)
Othniel was the first judge to rule after the elders who ruled after Joshua had all died. But, according to Scripture, Othniel did not actually become a judge until eight years after the elders died. Once he had delivered Israel, the land had rest for 40 years. The Greco-Roman Western method counts these year spans as eight years of servitude followed by forty years of rest for a total of forty-eight years. Using the same method for the other judgeships yielded 450 years for the years of the judges alone, even without the 40 years spent in the wilderness and the 90 plus years for the conquest of Canaan and the kings of the United Kingdom. Obviously, this counting method did not work for the record in Scripture. However, if one includes the years of oppression within the years of the judgeships, the resulting year totals work with the information given in Scripture. Thus, the Hebrew scribes counted the judgeships as running continuously, one after the other, no matter when the judge actually became a judge within the years of his/her judgeship. A continuous running count of the judgeships not interrupted by the count of the years spent serving other nations came to a total of around 345 years. That left 135 years for the other events within the 480 years. Although it took some adjusting and re-adjusting of the probable year counts for how long Joshua and the elders led Israel before the judgeships began, how long Samuel was a judge, how long Saul reigned, and when Solomon's co-regency began within David's reign, the 135 years was enough time to work all the events recorded in Scripture from the Exodus to the fourth year of Solomon into the 480 year count. Antedating versus Postdating Ancient Near East civilizations used two different counting methods for their kings' reigns: antedating and postdating. The scribes did not count a king's reign from the day or month the last king died ( as the Romans did) but rather from the year the last king died. In antedating, the scribes counted the beginning of the next king's reign as starting in the same year as the last year of the previous king's reign. For example, using the Western calendar:
If King A reigned 40 years and died in 1200 B.C., the scribes counted his reign from 1239 B.C. to 1200 B.C. They then counted his successor's reign as starting in 1200 B.C., overlapping the two kings' reign counts.
In postdating, the scribes counted the next king's reign as starting in the year after the last year of the previous king's reign. The overlapping year in postdating was called the "accession year" and counted only with the previous king's reign. Taking the same example:
If King A died in 1200 B.C., the scribes started the reign count for his successor in 1199 B.C. The successor's "accession year" was 1200 B.C. and not included in the successor's reign count.
The Hebrew scribes antedated the judgeships using the religious (Nisan/Spring) year. When the kings began, the scribes continued to use the antedated religious year pattern until they had to deal with the co-regency of Solomon with his father David. Perhaps what the scribes did related to the time of year when David made Solomon his co-regent or perhaps they just felt it was too confusing to count Solomon's co-regency using the same religious year count they were using for David. For whatever reason, the scribes counted Solomon's reign using the civil year. When the kingdom split, the Judah scribes postdated the Judah kings' reigns using the civil year and the Israel kings' reigns using the religious year. However, the Israel scribes antedated the kings' reigns for both kingdoms. The only way to understand how the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah relate to one another is to chart it out. Another Time Wrinkle However, another factor is that the scribes counted the months per the religious year, even for the reigns they counted according to the civil year. For example, Scripture dates Solomon starting to build the Temple in the second month of Solomon's fourth year.
And it happened in the four hundred and eightieth year from the going out of the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, in the fourth year, in the month of Ziw (it is the second month) in the reigning of Solomon over Israel, he built the house for YHWH. (1 Kings 6.1)
The second month (Ziw) referenced here is the month Iyaar in the religious Hebrew calendar, the month following Abib (Nisan). But the count for the fourth year of Solomon's reign begins in the Tishri before this Ziw. Tishri is the first month in the civil calendar and the seventh month in the religious calendar. What that means is the 7th to 12th months of a Solomon reign year occurred before the 1st to 6th months of a Solomon reign year. Of course, this held true for the Judah scribes counting months in any of the Judah kings' reigns. It does not affect the Israel king's reigns because the scribes counted those reigns per the religious year starting in Nisan. From a Greco-Roman Western standpoint, this is an odd way to count the months. Conclusion While, on the surface, the Scripture record of the year spans of various events appears to include too many years, counting the way the Hebrew scribes counted resolves the problem. All the events recorded in Scripture from the Exodus to the fourth year of Solomon do fit within the 480 time frame given in 1 Kings 6.1.
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