Founga ʻo hono fakapapauʻi ʻo e ngaahi ʻaho

1. 15 June 763 BC

   An eclipse over Assyria

   FakapapauAn eclipse or a recorded sky position, datable by calculation today.

   The Assyrian scribes named each year after an official and kept the list in order. Against one of those years they noted that the sun was blotted out. Astronomers can say exactly when a total eclipse crossed Assyria: 15 June 763 BC.

   One dated event in a continuous list dates the whole list. From that eclipse the Assyrian year-names can be counted forwards and backwards, and every Assyrian king's reign lands on absolute years — which is what makes everything below possible.

   The eclipse is calculable and the list is continuous. This is the firmest date in the ancient Near East, and it was fixed before anyone asked what it might mean for the Bible.

   The Assyrian Eponym Canon and the eclipse of 763 BC

   Millard, The Eponyms of the Assyrian Empire 910–612 BC (1994)

2. 853 BC

   Ahab at the battle of Qarqar

   FakapapauA monument dated by the reign of the king who raised it.

   Shalmaneser III records, in his sixth year, fighting a coalition in Syria that included "Ahab the Israelite" with two thousand chariots. His sixth year is 853 BC by the eponym canon.

   The Bible never mentions Qarqar; Assyria never mentions the Bible. The overlap is the man: an Israelite king named Ahab, alive and fielding an army in a year Assyria dates for us.

   The Assyrian date is secure. The chariot number is a royal boast and is usually read as inflated.

   'I he Folofola: 1Ki 16:29, 1Ki 22:37

   The Kurkh Monolith — Ahab at Qarqar, 853 BC

   Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II (1996)

3. 841 BC

   Jehu's tribute to Shalmaneser III

   FakapapauA monument dated by the reign of the king who raised it.

   In his eighteenth year Shalmaneser receives tribute from "Jehu son of Omri", and the Black Obelisk shows the man bowing. The eighteenth year is 841 BC.

   Twelve years after Qarqar, Assyria names a different Israelite king — and the books of Kings put exactly that change of dynasty in between. Two fixed Assyrian dates now bracket a stretch of Israelite history.

   "Son of Omri" is an Assyrian label for the kingdom, not a claim about Jehu's father; the Bible has him overthrowing Omri's house.

   'I he Folofola: 2Ki 9:6, 2Ki 10:36

   The Black Obelisk — Jehu bows to Assyria, 841 BC

   Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II (1996)

4. c. 796 BC

   Joash of Samaria pays Adad-nirari III

   ʻI loto ʻi he taʻu ʻe taha pe uaA monument dated by the reign of the king who raised it.

   A stele from Tell al-Rimah lists the tribute of "Joash the Samarian" — an Israelite king named in an Assyrian record, in a reign the eponym canon dates.

   It anchors the northern kingdom's mid-eighth-century reigns, and it explains a silence: Assyrian pressure on Damascus is what gave Israel the room that 2 Kings describes as recovery.

   The stele is undated in itself; its date comes from Adad-nirari's reign, which the canon fixes, and the campaign it describes is placed within a few years.

   'I he Folofola: 2Ki 13:25

   Adad-nirari III's stele naming Joash of Samaria

   Page, Iraq 30 (1968)

5. 738 and 734 BC

   Menahem and Ahaz in the Assyrian tribute lists

   FakapapauA monument dated by the reign of the king who raised it.

   Tiglath-Pileser III lists tribute from Menahem of Samaria and, later, from Jehoahaz of Judah — the king the Bible calls Ahaz. Both entries fall in years the canon dates.

   2 Kings says Menahem paid Pul a thousand talents of silver, and that Ahaz sent silver and gold to Assyria for help. The Assyrian ledgers record the receipts.

   The payments are recorded by the collector, so the fact and the year are solid; the amounts in the two accounts are not directly comparable.

   'I he Folofola: 2Ki 15:19, 2Ki 16:8

   Tiglath-Pileser III's tribute lists — Menahem and Ahaz

   Tadmor, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III (1994)

6. 722 or 720 BC

   The fall of Samaria

   ʻI loto ʻi he taʻu ʻe taha pe uaA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

   The northern kingdom ends. A Babylonian chronicle has Shalmaneser V breaking the city; Sargon II, who took the throne in the same period, claims the deportation and gives numbers.

   This is where the ten tribes leave the story, and it is dated from outside it — twice, by two kings who both wanted the credit.

   The two-year spread is a real argument: whether the city fell to Shalmaneser in 722 or to Sargon in 720, and whether there were two captures. The event is not in doubt.

   'I he Folofola: 2Ki 17:6, 2Ki 18:10

   The Babylonian Chronicle on the fall of SamariaSargon II on Samaria: 27,290 taken away

   Becking, The Fall of Samaria (Brill, 1992)

7. 701 BC

   Sennacherib's third campaign

   FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

   Sennacherib's own annals date his campaign against Judah to his third year: 701 BC. He names Hezekiah, lists the tribute, and says he shut him up in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage.

   The most closely dated event of Judah's history, and the one where both sides speak. He does not say he took the city; 2 Kings says the siege lifted.

   The date and the campaign are certain. Whether there was a second campaign, which would change how the biblical account lines up, is argued by a minority.

   'I he Folofola: 2Ki 18:13, 2Ki 19:36

   Sennacherib's Prism — Hezekiah shut up "like a bird in a cage"The Lachish Reliefs and the destruction of LachishThe seal impression of Hezekiah

   Grayson & Novotny, The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib (2012)

8. 605 BC

   Carchemish, and the rise of Babylon

   FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

   The Babylonian Chronicle records Nebuchadnezzar defeating Egypt at Carchemish in his father's twenty-first year, then taking the throne. Jeremiah dates a prophecy to the same battle and the same year.

   Two records, one written in Babylon and one in Jerusalem, name the same battle in the same year. From here the Babylonian chronicles carry the dating for a century.

   The chronicle is a government record, dated by regnal year, and the Babylonian regnal years are themselves fixed astronomically.

   'I he Folofola: Jer 46:2, Dan 1:1

   The Babylonian Chronicle on Carchemish, 605 BC

   Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (British Museum, 1956)

9. 16 March 597 BC

   Jerusalem taken — to the day

   FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

   The Babylonian Chronicle: in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, on the second day of the month Adar, he took the city of Judah, captured its king and appointed a king of his own choosing. That day converts to 16 March 597 BC.

   This is the sharpest point on the whole spine. 2 Kings 24 describes the same surrender, the same removal of a king and the same installation of a replacement. The chronicle supplies the date the Bible does not.

   Fixed to the day, because the Babylonian calendar is tied to the observed moon and its months can be converted exactly.

   'I he Folofola: 2Ki 24:12, 2Ki 24:17

   The Babylonian Chronicle — Jerusalem taken, 16 March 597 BC

   Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (British Museum, 1956)

10. 592 BC

    Rations for the king of Judah

    FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

    Tablets from a Babylonian storeroom, dated to Nebuchadnezzar's thirteenth year, list oil issued to "Jehoiachin, king of the land of Judah" and to his sons.

    The king taken in 597 is alive in Babylon five years later, on the palace ration list, still titled king — which is what 2 Kings says of him, down to the allowance he was given.

    Administrative tablets are dated by regnal year as a matter of routine; nothing about them is commemorative.

    'I he Folofola: 2Ki 25:27, 2Ki 25:30

    The Jehoiachin ration tablets

    Weidner, in Mélanges syriens offerts à René Dussaud (1939)

11. 587 or 586 BC

    The temple burned

    ʻI loto ʻi he taʻu ʻe taha pe uaA biblical date given in someone else's regnal year, which an outside record dates.

    Jerusalem falls and the temple is burned in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonian chronicle for these years is lost, so the date comes from the biblical regnal figure counted against the Babylonian king list.

    The instrument here is a synchronism, not a chronicle: outside records date Nebuchadnezzar, and the Bible dates the fall by his reign.

    The one-year spread is a genuine, long-running argument about how the years of a reign were counted in Judah and Babylon. Nobody argues about the decade.

    'I he Folofola: 2Ki 25:8, Jer 52:12

    The Lachish letters — "we are watching for the signals of Lachish"The Burnt House, AD 70

    Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (3rd ed., 1983)

12. 568/567 BC

    A year of Babylonian sky, written down

    FakapapauAn eclipse or a recorded sky position, datable by calculation today.

    An astronomical diary records the positions of the moon and planets month by month through the thirty-seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar. Those positions occur together in one year only: 568/567 BC.

    It independently checks the whole Babylonian king list against the sky, which is why the dates in this section can be given with confidence rather than assumed.

    Some of the tablet's observations are calculated rather than watched, but the combination still fixes the year.

    Sachs & Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia I (1988)

13. 12 October 539 BC

    Cyrus takes Babylon

    FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

    The Nabonidus Chronicle records the army of Cyrus entering Babylon without a battle, and the day it happened. The Cyrus Cylinder, written for the new king, announces the policy of sending captured peoples and their gods home.

    Ezra opens with a decree of Cyrus in his first year. The chronicle dates that first year, and the cylinder shows the policy was real and general — without naming Judah.

    The fall of Babylon is dated to the day. The cylinder is a royal proclamation, not a licence to read Ezra's decree into it word for word.

    'I he Folofola: Dan 5:30, Ezr 1:1

    The Nabonidus Chronicle — Babylon falls, October 539 BCThe Cyrus Cylinder

    Grayson, Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (1975)

14. 516 BC

    The second temple finished in Darius's sixth year

    FakapapauA monument dated by the reign of the king who raised it.

    Ezra dates the completion of the temple to the sixth year of Darius. Darius dates himself, at length and in three languages, on a cliff at Behistun — the inscription that let scholars read cuneiform at all.

    Persian regnal years are fixed by their own records and by Babylonian tablets dated within them, so a biblical date given in Darius's reign converts straight to the calendar.

    Which Darius is meant matters, and here it is the first — the sequence of Persian kings is not in doubt.

    'I he Folofola: Ezr 6:15, Hag 1:1

    The Behistun Inscription

    Kuhrt, The Persian Empire (Routledge, 2007)

15. 407 BC

    A letter that dates Nehemiah's Jerusalem

    FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

    Jewish soldiers at Elephantine in Egypt write to the governor of Judah asking permission to rebuild their temple. The letter is dated to the seventeenth year of Darius II, and it names Johanan the high priest in Jerusalem and the sons of Sanballat in Samaria.

    Nehemiah names both a high priest Johanan and an opponent Sanballat. A dated letter written by strangers, in another country, puts those men in office in a known year.

    The letter's date is explicit. How exactly its Johanan and Sanballat line up with Nehemiah's generations is still discussed.

    'I he Folofola: Neh 12:22, Neh 2:19

    The Elephantine papyri — Sanballat's sons, 407 BC

    Porten, The Elephantine Papyri in English (Brill, 1996)

16. 4 BC

    The death of Herod

    ʻOku kei fakakikihiʻiA biblical date given in someone else's regnal year, which an outside record dates.

    Josephus places Herod's death after a lunar eclipse and before a Passover, and dates his reign from Roman consuls. The usual reading gives 4 BC.

    Matthew and Luke put the birth of Jesus in Herod's lifetime, so Herod's death is the latest possible date for it — which is why the calendar era is out by a few years.

    A minority argues for 1 BC on a different eclipse. The disagreement is about which eclipse Josephus meant, not about whether Herod reigned.

    'I he Folofola: Mat 2:1, Mat 2:19

    Herodium, Masada and the Herodian building programme

    Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. ed. (1973)

17. AD 6, or earlier

    The census under Quirinius

    ʻOku kei fakakikihiʻiA biblical date given in someone else's regnal year, which an outside record dates.

    Luke dates the birth to a registration while Quirinius governed Syria. Quirinius is attested as governor conducting a census in AD 6 — which is after Herod's death, and Luke also places the birth in Herod's reign.

    This is the hardest knot in the chronology of the Gospels, and it is put here rather than left out.

    Proposed solutions include an earlier command for Quirinius, a translation reading "before Quirinius was governor", and an error. None commands agreement. Roman registrations themselves are well attested, in Judaea and elsewhere.

    'I he Folofola: Luk 2:1, Luk 2:2

    Quirinius, the census, and a date that will not settleBabatha's papers

    Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. ed. (1973)

18. AD 28/29

    The fifteenth year of Tiberius

    ʻI loto ʻi he taʻu ʻe taha pe uaA biblical date given in someone else's regnal year, which an outside record dates.

    Luke dates the beginning of John's preaching by the reign of Tiberius, the governorship of Pilate, and four other rulers at once — the most precisely dated sentence in the Gospels. Tiberius succeeded Augustus in AD 14.

    Roman reigns are dated by consular years, so a date given in Tiberius's fifteenth year converts directly. Pilate's presence is independently fixed by the stone from Caesarea that names him.

    AD 28 or 29 depending on whether the count starts from Tiberius's accession or from a co-regency. The other five rulers Luke names were all in office in those years.

    'I he Folofola: Luk 3:1, Luk 3:2

    The Pilate Stone

    Schürer, The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, rev. ed. (1973)

19. AD 51/52

    Gallio in Corinth — the pivot of Paul's chronology

    FakapapauA monument dated by the reign of the king who raised it.

    A letter of Claudius carved at Delphi is dated by his twenty-sixth acclamation as imperator, which falls in AD 52, and it mentions Gallio as proconsul of Achaia. Proconsuls served a year, so Gallio's term is AD 51/52.

    Acts has Paul dragged before Gallio in Corinth. One dated stone therefore fixes eighteen months of Paul's life, and everything else in his travels and letters is counted forwards and backwards from it.

    The inscription is fragmentary but the imperial titles that date it are legible. This is the single most useful date in New Testament chronology.

    'I he Folofola: Act 18:12, Act 18:11

    The Gallio Inscription — the clock of Paul's lifeThe Erastus pavement at CorinthCorinth: the synagogue lintel and the meat market

    Murphy-O'Connor, St Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology (3rd ed., 2002)

20. AD 70

    The temple burned again

    FakapapauA dated record written by the government that did the thing.

    Titus takes Jerusalem and the temple burns. Josephus was there; Roman coins struck IVDAEA CAPTA; and a burnt layer with the debris of a single day lies under the Jewish Quarter.

    The last fixed point that the New Testament writings sit before or around, and the reason so much of what this section shows was buried in the first place.

    Dated by Roman consular years and by the coinage; the day within the year is argued from Josephus.

    'I he Folofola: Mrk 13:2, Luk 21:6

    The Burnt House, AD 70The temple warning stone

    Josephus, Jewish War VI; Avigad, Discovering Jerusalem (1983)

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