Reader's Guide to my articles

The "Categories" table, just below, has a list of articles by category. This should be useful in case you are interested in a particular subject and want to see what I and my co-authors, all of whom give precedence to the accuracy of the Bible, have to say on that subject.
A second table (click here) lists articles in order of their date of publication.
Below that (click here) is an explanation of my work that was requested by a friend, with an explanation of how I differ from Thiele in some places.

Following is the table that groups articles by category.
Some articles appear in more than one category. Categories are:
New Testament chronology (includes Herodian studies)
Chronology of the kingdom period
Establishing the year of the Exodus
Coucke studies
Jubilee and Sabbatical years
Daniel Studies
Proper metholodogy in chronological studies
Agreement of Biblical chronology with extra-biblical dates
Historical accuracy of Bible's chronology is because of its divine inspiration
Miscellaneous

Categories
Category: New Testament Chronology (includes Herodian Studies) Picture of broken foundation and solid foundation
The consensus (Schurer) chronology for Herod that puts his becoming king in 40 BC and dying in 4 BC is dependent on four critical issues: (1) That Herod's regnal years started in Nisan; (2) That inclusive numbering is used for the years of his reign and events during those years; (3) That Herod's sons reckoned the start of their reigns from the death of Herod; and (4) That the Sabbatical-year calendar of Zuckermann is correct. If any one of these is not true, the entire consensus chronology becomes incoherent. The four papers by Andrew Steinmann and myself deal with each of these issues in turn and show that every one of them is false. Readers who are familiar with Greek should particularly be interested in the demonstration in the Elapsed Times paper, pp. 313-14, that Josephus is explicit in stating that governmental affairs, which would include the reckoning of the years of a Judean king or tetrarch, were calculated according to a Tishri-based calendar.

   Studies are:
  --Roman history (Plutarch, Ventidius, Dio Cassius) rules out Herod dying in 4 BC:
NT Chronology & Death of Herod (PPoint presentation, 2019)   pdf file   html file
  --Well-established dates in career of Caligula rule out Herod dying in 4 BC:
Caligula's Statue (JETS, 2019)   pdf file   html file
  --The way Josephus (and Herod) measured years rules out Herod dying in 4 BC:
Elapsed Times for Herod the Great (BSac, 2020)   pdf file  html file
  --Correct Sabbatical-year chronology rules out Herod dying in 4 BC:
Consular Years and Sabbatical Years in Herod's Life (BSac, 2020)   pdf file  html file
  --Coins of Herod and his sons rule out Herod dying in 4 BC:
Dating the Death of Herod and the Reigns of His Sons (BSac, 2021; published 2023)  pdf file  html file

   An earlier article by Dr. Steinmann might be considered the seminal work in this series:
"When Did Herod the Great Reign?" (NovT, 2009)    pdf file  html file
Category: Chronology of the kingdom period
When Did Solomon Die?   pdf file   html file
When Did Jerusalem Fall?    pdf file   html file
When Was Samaria Captured?    pdf file   html file Partial table of synchronisms
Tables of Reign Lengths    pdf file   html file
Ezekiel 40:1 As a Corrective    pdf file   html file
The Talmud's Two Jubilees    pdf file   html file
Seder Olam and the Sabbaticals
   First part    
   pdf file   html file
   Second part   pdf file   html file
Three Verifications    pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy from an Unexpected Source: OT Chronology    pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy from a Second Unexpected Source    pdf file   html file
Correlation of Select Classical Sources    pdf file   html file
The Parian Marble and Other Surprises   pdf file   html file
Solomon and the Kings of Tyre    pdf file   html file
Ussher Explained and Corrected    pdf file   html file
Moses at the Red Sea Category: Establishing the year of the Exodus
When Did Solomon Die? (pages 173-179)   pdf file   html file
The Talmud's Two Jubilees (all)   pdf file   html file
Ezekiel 40:1 As a Corrective (pages 276-281)   pdf file   html file
Three Verifications (pages 173-179)   pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy from the Jubilee and Sabbatical Year Cycles (all)   pdf file   html file
A Critical Analysis of the Evidence . . . for a Late-Date Exodus (pages 234-239)   pdf file   html file
Date of the death of Herod the great (PowerPoint presentation)   pdf file   html file
Was there an Exodus? (Zoom/PowerPoint presentation)   pdf file   html file
Mt. Ebal altars and the Curse Tablet (PowerPoint presentation)   pdf file
Category: Coucke studies Photo of V. Coucke
The Parian Marble and Other Surprises from Chronologist V. Coucke   pdf file   html file
Translation of Coucke's 1928 article on OT chronology   pdf file   html file
Correlation of Select Classical Sources   pdf file   html file
Valerius Coucke (1888-1951) was a Jesuit scholar who published two articles on biblical chronology, the longer of which is given in the translation available just above. He is notable for discovering the main principles that underlie the complex chronological data of the Hebrew kingdom period that Edwin Thiele, about two decades later, also discovered but applied in a somewhat more consistent manner that did Coucke. Neither Thiele nor I had read Coucke when we first began publishing; I was particularly gratified that Coucke's years for Solomon, one year earlier than those of Thiele, were what I had determined in my "When Did Solomon Die?" article. Coucke's other breakthrough was to derive the year that Solomon began construction of the Temple solely from classical, i.e. non-biblical sources. For how he did this, see the bottom of page 3 and all of page 4 in the translation of his 1928 article.
Category: Jubilee and Sabbatical years Liberty Bell
When Did Solomon Die? pages 599-603   pdf file   html file
Ezekiel 40:1 As a Corrective    pdf file   html file
The Talmud's Two Jubilees   pdf file   html file
Seder Olam and the Sabbaticals
   First part
     pdf file   html file
   Second part pdf file   html file
Three Verifications, pages 178-179   pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy from a Second Unexpected Source: The Jubilee and Sabbatical Cycles    pdf file   html file
Category: Daniel Studies The Harran Stela
The Remembrance of Daniel's "Darius the Mede" in Berossus and Harpocration (with Steven D. Anderson) pdf file   html file
Xenophon's Cyaxares:Uncle of Cyrus, Friend of Daniel pdf file   html file
How Belshazzar Was Deleted from History and Who Did It  pdf file   html file
How Darius the Mede Was Deleted from History and Who Did It  pdf file   html file

  The four papers above are built on the breakthrough in Daniel studies accomplished in the research of Steven D. Anderson for his doctoral dissertation at Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Anderson has subsequently made an expanded version of his thesis available on
his Academia.edu page and also at Amazon.com.

On a different topic, but still in the book of Daniel, and guaranteed to be controversial:
The Exactness of Daniel's 70 Weeks  pdf file   html file

Category: Proper methodology in chronological studies A Decision Table
When Was Samaria Captured? The Need for Precision in Biblical Chronologies, pages 577-580. pdf file   html file
Tables of Reign Lengths, page 242. pdf file   html file
Inductive and Deductive Methods as Applied to OT Chronology. pdf file   html file
Ezekiel 40:1 As a Corrective for Seven Wrong Ideas . . . pdf file   html file
Ussher Explained and Corrected. (all) pdf file   html file
Category: Agreement of the correct Biblical chronology
with extra-Biblical dates from ancient history
Trojan War scene
Three Verifications, pages 179-187.  pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy from an Unexpected Source: OT Chronology (p. 62).   pdf file   html file
Coucke's 1928 article, pages 3 (bottom) and 4.  pdf file   html file
Solomon and the Kings of Tyre (all).   pdf file   html file
Inductive and Deductive Methods (pages 112-115).  pdf file   html file
Ussher Explained and Corrected, pages 49-52.  pdf file   html file
Correlation of Select Classical Sources (all).   pdf file   html file

Someone who had not read my papers carefully made the charge that Young derives his chronology from Assyrian dates, not from the Bible. The same charge was made against Thiele by an advocate of Ussher's chronology or Ussher's chronology slightly modified. I showed the untruth of such charges in the Ussher Explained and Corrected paper, pages 49-52. Thiele, McFall, and I all started with the biblical data as given in the Scripture, and our basic approach was to determine the methods of the authors of the historical texts given in the Scripture, and only after that was done, to check against external dates. As was mentioned in pages 49-52 of "Ussher Explained," Thiele's Bible-based chronology has actually been used to correct dates in Assyrian history. To state that Thiele, McFall, or myself have twisted the biblical data to match the opinions of Assyriologists either shows a fundamental misreading of everything we have written, or otherwise a desperate attempt to discount assured Assyrian and/or Babylonian dates because the chronological scheme of the critic, which is usually not the true chronological scheme of the Bible, does not match assured dates in Babylonian or Assyrian history.
Category: Historical accuracy of Bible is because of its divine inspiration John 17:17: Thy word is truth
When Was Samaria Captured? last sentence.   pdf file   html file
Reign Lengths paper, pages 231-244.   pdf file   html file
Ezekiel 40:1 as a Corrective, pp. 277-83, esp. 279 ff.   pdf file   html file
Talmud's Two Jubilees, pages 81-83.   pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy: OT Chronology: all.   pdf file   html file
Evidence for Inerrancy: Jubilee and Sabbatical Cycles: all.   pdf file   html file
Lunar and Solar Eclipses Shed Light on Biblical Events, pages 40-43.   pdf file   html file
Mt. Ebal altars and the Curse Tablet (PowerPoint presentation)   
pdf file
Category: Miscellaneous Blood Moon eclipse
How Lunar and Solar Eclipses Shed Light on Biblical Events   pdf file   html file
Eclipses: The Science and the Pseudoscience   pdf file   html file
A Tribute to the Scholarship of Bryant Wood   pdf file   html file
Samuel Delgado interviews me on the Bible's chronology


Articles in order of publication
Year     Title
2003When Did Solomon Die?
2004When Did Jerusalem Fall?
2004When Was Samaria Captured? The Need for Precision in Biblical Chronologies
2005Tables of Reign Lengths from the Hebrew Court Recorders
2006Ezekiel 40:1 As a Corrective for Seven Wrong Ideas in Biblical Interpretation
2006The Talmud's Two Jubilees and Their Relevance to the Date of the Exodus
2006Seder Olam and the Sabbaticals Associated with the Two Destructions of Jerusalem (2 parts) First Part Second Part
2007Three Verifications of Thiele's Date for the Beginning of the Divided Kingdom
2007Inductive and Deductive Methods as Applied to OT Chronology
2008With Bryant Wood: A Critical Analysis of the Evidence from Ralph Hawkins for a Late-Date Exodus-Conquest
2008Evidence for Inerrancy from an Unexpected Source: OT Chronology
2008Evidence for Inerrancy from a Second Unexpected Source: the Jubilee and Sabbatical Cycles
2010The Parian Marble and Other Surprises from Chronologist V. Coucke
2008Translation of Coucke's 1928 article on OT chronology (unpublished except on my Web sites)
2012With Andrew Steinmann: Correlation of Select Classical Sources Related to the Trojan War with Assyrian and Biblical Chronologies
2013How Lunar and Solar Eclipses Shed Light on Biblical Events
2013Eclipses: The Science and the Pseudoscience
2016With Steven Anderson: The Remembrance of Daniel's "Darius the Mede" in Berossus and Harpocration
2017Solomon and the Kings of Tyre
2018Ussher Explained and Corrected
2019With Andrew Steinmann: Caligula's Statue for the Jerusalem Temple and Its Relation to the Chronology of Herod the Great
2019A Tribute to the Scholarship of Bryant Wood
2020With Andrew Steinmann:Elapsed Times for Herod the Great in Josephus
2020With Andrew Steinmann: Consular Years and Sabbatical Years in Herod's Life
2021Xenophon's Cyaxares: Uncle of Darius, Friend of Daniel
2022How Belshazzar Was Deleted from History and Who Did It
2022How Darius the Mede Was Deleted from History and Who Did It
2022The Theological Problem Presented by the Exactness of Daniel's 70 Weeks
2023 With Andrew Steinmann: Dating the Death of Herod and the Reigns of His Sons


A short description of my work
A friend and colleague said it would be beneficial if I could spell out where my chronology of the Hebrew kingdom period differs from that of Edwin R. Thiele (1895-1986), the most quoted authority in this matter. There are three places where we differ.
  1. My chronology for the monarchs of Judah, Solomon through Athaliah, is one year earlier than that of Thiele's final position in his third edition of Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. Thiele was aware he had a problem here but he was not able to resolve it.
  2. My chronology for Zedekiah, last king of Judah, puts his last year of reign and the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 587 BC instead of Thiele's 586. This brings into harmony the Biblical account and Babylonian records of the time.
  3. Thiele failed to recognize that Hezekiah had a coregency with his father Ahaz, even though he accepted coregencies of Ahaz with Jotham, Jotham with Uzziah, Uzziah with Amaziah, and Hezekiah with his son Manasseh. Following many other writers (Kitchen, McFall, etc.) who pointed out Thiele's inconsistency, I accept the Ahaz-Hezekiah coregency that is implied by the biblical data for these kings.
     

The corrections to Thiele just indicated are consistent with the data given in the Bible. They are also consistent with the inductive approach that is foundational to the scientific method, as opposed to the presupposition-based approach of critics who come to the Bible from an anti-supernatural viewpoint--i.e. that the Bible is an entirely the work of man, and any divine operation is ruled out a priori. (A priori judgments like this, although common among Bible critics, are the antithesis of the scientific method and sound philosophical thinking.) It may come as a great surprise to many, especially those of an anti-supernatural bent, that the approach of conservative scholarship has given credence to the inerrancy of the Bible in all the details that are used to construct the chronology of the Hebrew kingdom period (there are at least 126 of them), so that Egyptologists and Assyriologists have accepted the chronology worked out by Thiele in order to refine the chronologies of their own fields.

In addition to adding to the work of Thiele (despite his failure for Hezekiah) and others who have helped establish the Bible's historical accuracy in the kingdom period, there is one other consequence of my work. By making the two corrections 1) and 3) listed above, an important and surprising consequence is that the Jubilee implied in the Hebrew text of Ezekiel 40:1 is in exact agreement with the cycle of Jubilee and Sabbatical years starting in 1406 BC. This becomes even more relevant when we are willing to accept, without prejudice beforehand, the remarks in the rabbinic literature of the Seder 'Olam, the Tosefta, and the two Talmuds, that Ezekiel's Jubilee was the seventeenth. The arithmetic is then exact, producing the same years for the Exodus (1446 BC) and the entry to the land (1406 BC) that can be derived from 1 Kings 6:1. The full impact of this has not yet been realized. Since virtually all critics, conservative and anti-supernatural alike, acknowledge that the only credible source for the legislation of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years comes from chapters 25-27 of Leviticus, this means that those chapters were in effect in 1406 BC.

Guide to the papers above.

The earliest papers (Solomon, Jerusalem, Samaria, Tables of Reign Lengths) establish the chronology of the Hebrew kingdom period, for which I am especially indebted to the work of Thiele and Leslie McFall. In agreement with Thiele and McFall, I accept that the southern kingdom, Judah, reckoned that the regnal years of its kings began in the month Tishri (the fall), while the northern kingdom, Israel, began theirs in Nisan (the spring). I also agree that both kingdoms sometimes considered the partial year in which the king came to the throne as his "year one," and sometimes they only counted the first full year as "year one," although in a few places I disagree with Thiele and McFall on exactly which convention was used at a given time. After establishing the chronology of the kingdom period, later papers develop various aspects of the significance of the Jubilee and Sabbatical cycles, plus other themes related to the chronology of the Bible. The article that has received the most attention from casual readers, judging by the number of views shown on my Academia.edu page, is the one on lunar and solar eclipses as related to the Bible.