Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
INSPIRED? INERRANT? INFALLIBLE? (Appendix)
Israel is back in the Land — Déjà vu all over again
Introduction
In another post on Medium, PROPHECY 101 Introduction to Bible Inerrancy, a follow-up article was promised to closely look at a Prophecy which foretold Yehovah would bring the remnant of His people back a second time. The Prophecy was in Isaiah 11:11–12. It was given about 120 years before Judah was exiled the first time. That was to to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.
The follow-up article has been published as INSPIRED? INERRANT? INFALLIBLE? Absolutely! From the very beginning.
It was noticed that the analyses and computations were long and torturous and took the focus off the results. This post is an appendix which contains only the nuts-&-bolts of the workings which led to the conclusions. It is to show that there is Biblical evidence available and this is not just a brain-fart snatched out of thin air.
It is not expected that any well-adjusted person should read this article in its entirety. Like most detailed appendices, it is neither necessary, nor expected, that anyone should read it unless some particular detail is required.
THE WORKINGS
Organising principle
A follow-the-bouncing-ball approach is used. Also, the basic assumption in this article is that no one who reads it knows anything. I’d rather offend those who are aware of this stuff than talk over the heads of those who don’t. Everyone is invited to increase their knowledge on the topic by finding my errors. Don’t bother to bury me with corrections, just educate yourself.
Even if you have a low view of the Bible, it seems obvious that a Prophecy spanning about 2¾ millennia is a tall order (has Stanford University extinguished that term, yet?) so only a few key points have been included. (Feel free to list all the others in less than 2000 words, and don’t let me know.)
The organising principle is, “One gram of inaccuracy is worth one tonne of explanation.”
Dates are important in order to give veracity to the inerrancy, or otherwise, of the Prophecy. If you haven’t noticed that Archaeology is not a precise pursuit you haven’t been paying attention. With each sunrise a new discovery is published about a refinement, although some have been robust enough to survive. For this type of exercise, however, the most important property is consistency — like grouping in target shooting; adjustments can be made when the range is correct. [Some interesting confirmations of early Archaeology dates come to light during this exercise.] The chosen reference is contained in pages 122–126 of “The Coming Prince” by Sir Robert Anderson.
An apparent error — which is not
When counting the years of the various periods the wording is very important. “In the 19th year,” is not exactly the same as, “19 years after.” Concentrate, it is easy to get lost.
A timeline linked to Bible verses
In about 720 BC YHVH Prophesied, through Isaiah, that he would bring Israel back from all corners of the Earth a second time. This was about 120 years before the were sent away the first time.
The First Exile
The Chaldean King Nebuchadnezzar (Read the Books of Daniel and Jeremiah) laid siege and subdued Jerusalem. This is recorded in the Bible as the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar . This was 605 BC.
He took some of the Elite of Judah to Babylon, including Daniel, and left a vassal king in Jerusalem on the condition that they behave. But Jerusalem didn’t behave. There was another siege, and more hostages taken, but Jerusalem still didn’t behave so Nebuchadnezzar razed the city and destroyed Solomon’s Temple in 587 BC (19 years after the first siege). This is recorded in the Bible as the 9th day of Av (a Hebrew month) in the 19th Year of Nebuchadnezzar (587 BC). What is important about these two dates is that the precision of the first one is one year while that of the second is one day. [Hold that thought.]
During those 19 years there were what is technically known as The Exile Prophets. Two of these were Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
• The relevant Prophecy in Jeremiah (there are many more Prophecies on other topics, as well) Jeremiah 25:11 || “This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
[Note: The words land and nations, in this context, are Hebraisms (Hebrew idioms) for the Children of Israel who chose to worship at the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem after the civil war. Also, Yehovah shows He equates the People of Israel with the Land of Israel because the Gentiles profane His Name when the People are not in the Land]
This is actually two Prophecies in one verse.
Servitude of the Nation: The loss of National Sovereignty. The Vassal State, could not conduct its own Foreign Policy.
HISTORY SHOWS THAT THE NEXT TIME ISRAEL IS IN THE POSITION TO CONDUCT IT’S OWN FOREIGN POLICY IS 1948.
That is 2,553 years hence. (Hold that thought. It helps cut through many other Prophecies.)
Desolations of the Nation: The loss of National Identity; the loss of the Temple 9th Av in 587 BC.
First return
Servitude of the Nation
Cyrus, king of Persia, defeats Babylon. Jews released to go home. This is in the 70th year after the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar (536 BC)
Desolations of the Nation
Temple rebuilding is finished in the 70th year after it was destroyed (518 BC).
In the meantime
During the 19 year gap between the the first and final siege of Nebuchadnezzar the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest in the land of the Chaldeans (Babylon). In Ezekiel 4:1–8 he was commanded to lie on his side for a total of 430 days, each day representing a year. These are the years that Yehovah will discipline Jerusalem for whoring after other gods. [Ephesians 5:31–33 shows that God uses the relationship between husband and wife as an analogy for that between Christ and His Church, just as it was between Yehovah and the unfaithful wife Israel. It is not an issue of sordid sex.]
What happened when the Exile was completed?
It should have been that Israel behaved itself after the Babylonian Exile but it did not. Read the story in post-exile Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, Esther, Zechariah Malachi to see.
An earlier warning back in the time of Leviticus
Yehovah described Israel as a Stiff Necked People many times. They strayed, were disciplined, rescued, only to stray again, and the cycle repeated over and over. It is written in Leviticus 26:18–28 that He warned them that each time they strayed, He would chastise them seven times more than the previous punishment. [This is not a discussion about God’s Ethics. The scope is the reliability of the Prophecies.]
Back to the return from Babylon
The Ezekiel 4 Prophecy involved 430 years. After 70 years Israel did not behave so there were 360 years left. Applying the sevenfold penalty of Leviticus 26:18–28 means the 360 year duration is now increased to 2520 years (360*7). That is 2,590 years (2520+70) from 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar. Compare this to 2553 between 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar and 1948 (605+1948). The difference is 37 years but is not bad for 2½ millennia. It shows that we may well be in the correct zone but not good enough for God. However, there are refinements to be made.
Conflict of calendars
Calendars very in different cultures even today. There are several which have rubbed up against each other over the time concerned. Gregorian and Julian, for Gentiles; Jewish for Jews, who have both a secular and religious year off-set by seven months; and a little known one, the Prophetic Year, described here.
A technical term in prophecy, God’s Year
In Biblical eschatology a Prophetic Year or Prophetical Year is used. It is 360 days (12 x 30 day months) and explained in a short video on this web page. You will see that God applies it in both the books of Genesis and Revelation. A little bit of work shows that it is the year He works to. Converting the modern Gregorian year to the Prophecy Year means that 100 modern Gregorian years equates to approximately 101.46 Prophetic Years.
More on calendar conflicts
There is also the complexity of an overlap of about four months between the Gregorian and Hebrew years.
Add to this, the differences in applying the leap years. We are aware of the 29th February every fourth year. The Jewish system is to add an extra month of Adar (Adar 1 immediately before the beginning of the Religious year) every 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th year — making seven leap years on a 19 year cycle.
You may not be surprised when I tell you I’m not going to go into the intricacies of synchronising the different types of years when doing the calculation. Take it or leave it.
To eliminate the complexities caused by all these differences, it is best to use days in all cases rather than years, months or hours.
Computation of days
Calculating the entire duration of the effect of combining the Prophecies of Jeremiah 25:11 and Ezekiel 4, and applying the penalty of Leviticus 26:18–28, the Prophetic Year of 360 days is used.
The total number of Ezekiel’s years is 430 = 430*360 = 154,800 days … (a)
Babylonian Exile years is 70 = 70*360 = 25,200 days … (b)
Ezekiel years difference (430–70) = 360*360 = 129,600 days … ©
Sevenfold premium years (360*7) = 2,520*360 = 907,200 days … (d)
Total days of exile (b) + (d) = 932,400 days … (e)
But there is one more thing — working with imperfect knowledge
Because we don’t know the relative positions of the Hebrew and Gentile years with regard to leap years, we know that anyone calculating historical dates with absolute precision is cheating. (Cast out that lying spirit.) A reliable engineering method of calculating an error band was used to establish an acceptable accuracy limit. In this case, if the calculated answer was in a 30 day span (+15 days, -15 days) it could be confidently considered to be reliable.
The calculation was done using the Gregorian calendar to account for leap years, and adjustments when centuries switch over, with the aid of the Excel spreadsheet. However, the Excel algorithm breaks down for dates prior to January 1, 1900, so a phase change was applied. Adjustments were also made for the switch over from the Julian to Gregorian calendar and a few other things that happened through the centuries. The phase change was then reversed. Because the operating unit was ‘days’ the year relating to the Subjugation of the Nation was deemed to begin the day after 605 BC and end the day before 604 BC. This was because of the intermittent occurrence of Adar 1.
After applying all of the constraints
Excel result: Servitude of the Nation
THE YEAR WAS SUCCESSFULLY IDENTIFIED AS BEING 1948
That result showed that the adopted procedure had the range right. Now to become more precise.
Desolations of Jerusalem ended on 7th June, 1967 (on the 3rd day of the Six-Day War) with the reclamation of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem — calculated to the very day, as shown in the next Figure.
Excel result: Desolations of Jerusalem
That is, the Temple Mount was back in Israel’s hands in the 19th year after Israel returned to the Land to conduct it’s own Foreign Policy.
These results confirm that the Robert Anderson dates were shown to be quite good — regardless what anyone has ‘discovered’ in the meantime.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
