The Chronology of the Bible (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NOTES. CONTAINING THE AUTHORITIES FOE THE FOREGOING TABLE OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH, ISRAEL, AND BABYLON. (1.) David reigned forty years, namely, seven years and six months in Hebron over Judah, and then in Jerusalem thirty-three years over both Israel and Judah; 2 Samuel v. 5. (2.) Solomon reigned forty years over all Israel; 1 Kings xi. 42. Some small portion of this may have been jointly with his father David. (3.) Kehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned seventeen years over Judah; 1 Kings xiv. 21. (4.) Abijam, the son of Kehoboam, began to reign in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, and reigned three years over Judah; 1 Kings xv. 1. To this reign, said to be of three years, we can only allow two; and the same dropping of a year will be observed in many other cases. This is explained in the Mishna, in treatise Bosh Has- hanah, chap. i., where we read that the years of a king's reign were said to end with the New Year's day; and thus the first year of every reign may have consisted of only a few weeks or even a few days. The same, of course, was the case with the last year of a reign. Thus the last year of one king and the first of his successor together only filled twelve months. This mode of reckoning the regnal years was used throughout Egypt, Babylonia, Syria, and Asia Minor, even for the Greek kings and Roman emperors who afterwards reigned over those countries; and it will have to be attended to when we meet with authors who lived in those countries dating the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus by means of the years of an emperor's reign. (5.) Asa, the son of Abijam, began to reign over Judah in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, and reigned forty-one years; 1 Kings Xt. 9. (6.) Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa ...