Sources

The first draft of the timeline was created entirely from scripture and specifically I have used the New King James Version for the most part.  I’m sure this will make some readers happy while others will attack the accuracy of that translation.  I have in some places noted discrepancies between the various biblical texts.

Orthodox Chronology

  • Creation to the Flood.  The ages and AM dates (Anno Mundi – In the year of the world) follow directly from Genesis, and given the translation used, from the Masoretic text.  The AM dates align with the Ussher Chronology[1], strictly because we used the same source and this yields an AM date of 1,656 for the flood[2]. I plan to write an article at some point in the future comparing other texts and sources for this period.
  • The Flood to Joseph.  These dates also come directly from Genesis but in this case I have used the Septuagint (NETS).  The Masoretic text (as found in the King James) has much shorter dates for each generation and would place the flood after the construction of the Great Pyramid.  The Septuagint provides date that are more in agreement with what we know from archaeology and other ancient texts.
  • Joseph.  The date currently provided for Joseph is based on a “long sojourn” in Egypt of 430 years and the coincidence that locals attribute an irrigation system to Joseph that archaeologists attribute to the reign of Senusret II who just happened to live 430 years before the Exodus.  Hmmm.  Clearly more scholarship is needed on this subject, but time and again the echoes passed down through time in local knowledge have proved to be correct.
  • Amenhotep II as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. My own work attempting to identify the Pharaoh of the Exodus based on I Kings 6:1 (480 years before Solomon’s 4th year) and modern chronologies for the Egyptian 18th and 19th dynasties had provided the options of Tutmose III and Amenhotep II.  The Choice of Amenhotep is based on a seminal article by Doug Petrovich[3]
  • The Judges. The dates shown for the Judges are based on my own work as this is a difficult period to precisely date.  See the article on this topic which also includes a graphic derived from Ussher and Dr. Floyd Nolen Jones.
  • The Kings. For the reignal dates of the kings of Israel and Judah I have followed the work of Edwin Thiele[4] who, I believe, authored the definitive work on the subject.
  • The Kings to the Christ. For events between the fall of Jerusalem and The Christ, I have used the generally accepted dates from history and archaeology and overlaid them with scripture as the dates provided in scripture for this period are largely prophetic rather than historical.
  • The Life of Christ.  The date of 33 AD for the crucifixion is based on the work of Sir Isaac Newton.  The generally accepted date for the birth of Christ is 4-7 BC based on a date of March, 4 BC for the death of Herod and other historical alignments.  I expect to put together a more detailed discussion of this at a later date.

New Chronology

The alternate timelines shown for the New Chronology are primarily from the work of David Rohl. 

  • Creation to the Flood.  I have not provided an alternative version here at this time.
  • The Flood to Joseph.  The biblical chronology remains the same in terms of the number of years (and continues to be based on the LXX).  Dates are shifted later however based on a short sojourn (1876 BC as the date for Abraham’s arrival in Canaan as opposed to Jacob’s arrival in Egypt).  Kings lists for Sumer are from Rohl, From Eden to Exile, as are those later for Assyria and Babylon
  • Joseph.  The archaeological evidence as articulated by Rohl, particularly in Exodus: Myth or History? is compelling to place Joseph at the end of the 12th dynasty in the reign of Amenemhat III.  This is not far from where he is placed in the orthodox chronology if a long sojourn is used.
  • Dudimose (or Tutimose) as the Pharaoh of the Exodus.  Again following Rohl for a short sojourn and an Exodus at the end of the 13th dynasty.
  • Ancient Greece.  Rohl’s work, The Lords of Avaris, was used as the basis for the line from the 15th dynasty of Egypt through the Greek Age of Heroes to the fall of Troy and for the Spartan kings.
  • The details of the Judges and Kings are unchanged in the New Chronology.  I should also note that the both orthodox and new chronology are aligned after certain dates, specifically after 664 BC for Egypt, after 912 for Assyria and 920 for Babylon.  From 979 for Tyre, and from the first Olympiad in 776 BC for Greece and from the founding of Rome.

Bibliography

  1. Various authors; The Bible, New King James Version.
  2. New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS), http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/
  3. The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, http://dssenglishbible.com/ Sadly the dead sea scrolls do not contain the genealogies of Genesis 5 or 11 with the exception of a fragment of Genesis 5:13 in scroll 4Q2 which is inconclusive.
  4. Ussher, (Bishop) James; The Annals of the World; English edition published 1658, Ed. Pierce, Larry and Marion; Green Forest,Arkansas, Master Books © 2003
  5. Petrovich, Doug; Amenhotep II and the Historicity of the Exodus Pharaoh; biblearchaology.org, Feb 4, 2010
  6. Wood, Bryant G; The Rise and Fall of the 13th Century Exodus-Conquest Theory; biblearchaeology.org, April 17, 2008
  7. Nolen Jones, Floyd; The Chronology of the Old Testament; Green Forest, Arkansas, Master Books, © 2015
  8. Thiele, Edwin R.; The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings; Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, © 1983. 
  9. Edwin R. Thiele, “The Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies 3, no. 3 (Jul., 1944): 137-186
  10. Finegan,Jack; Handbook of Biblical Chronology;Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, Revised Edition,© 1998; Finegan supports a late Exodus and places Joseph in the late Second Intermediate Period and is useful to becoming familiar with those theories.
  11. Rohl, David; Exodus: Myth or History; St. Louis Park, MN, Thinking Man Media, © 2015.  Rohl places Joseph in the reign of Amenemhat III based on the archaeological evidence.  He places the Exodus at the end of the 13th dynasty following a short sojourn.
  12. Rohl, David; From Eden to Exile: The Five-Thousand Year History of the People of the Bible; Lebanon, TN, Greenleaf Press, © 2009.  The tables in this book were the primary source for the regnal dates of the ancient kings in the New Chronology.
  13. Rohl, David; The Lords of Avaris; London, UK, Arrow Books, © 2008.  This book does not deal directly with the biblical narrative but instead focuses on the kings of ancient Greece and the dating of the Trojan War.

[1] Ussher, (Bishop) James; The Annals of the World; English edition published 1658, Ed. Pierce, Larry and Marion; Green Forest, Arkansas, Master Books © 2003

[2] The reader will note that will the AM dates match Ussher, the BC dates do not.

[3] Petrovich, Doug; Amenhotep II and the Historicity of the Exodus Pharaoh; biblearchaology.org, Feb 4, 2010

[4] Thiele, Edwin R.; The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings; Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan, © 1983

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