Calculating Date of Jerusalem's Destruction Using Watchtower Publications

[scholar JW]

The biblical 'seventy years' of Jeremiah have proved to be a vexed problem for scholars and JW critics. There has simply been no consensus as to the nature and chronology of this period. Numerous interpretations have appeared in the scholarly literature since the fifties and continues to this day. The related biblical texts affirm that this definite historic period was one of servitude to Babylon, Exile in Babylon and Desolation of Judah from 607 BCE until 537 BCE and all these other theories simply fail upon a critical examination of such claims. Sadly many apostates and even some brothers have been deceived by this nonsense about the seventy years lacking any definitive beginning or end point eg. Is it 605 or 609 BCE? Carl Jonsson despite his considerable research on the subject simply does not know.

scholar JW

[JW Insider]

21 hours ago, scholar JW said:

The biblical 'seventy years' of Jeremiah have proved to be a vexed problem for scholars and JW critics.

Actually there is nothing vexing about the seventy years from the perspective of the Bible and from the perspective of scholars. As you said:

21 hours ago, scholar JW said:

The related biblical texts affirm that this definite historic period was one of servitude to Babylon

Judah was just one of the nations that was to serve Babylon for 70 years. Tyre was another. Note what the Watchtower publications already figured out about the period:

*** ip-1 chap. 19 p. 253 par. 21 Jehovah Profanes the Pride of Tyre ***
Isaiah goes on to prophesy: “It must occur in that day that Tyre must be forgotten seventy years, the same as the days of one king.” (Isaiah 23:15a) Following the destruction of the mainland city by the Babylonians, the island-city of Tyre will “be forgotten.” True to the prophecy, for the duration of “one king”—the Babylonian Empire—the island-city of Tyre will not be an important financial power. Jehovah, through Jeremiah, includes Tyre among the nations that will be singled out to drink the wine of His rage. He says: “These nations will have to serve the king of Babylon seventy years.” (Jeremiah 25:8-17, 22, 27) True, the island-city of Tyre is not subject to Babylon for a full 70 years, since the Babylonian Empire falls in 539 B.C.E. Evidently, the 70 years represents the period of Babylonia’s greatest domination—when the Babylonian royal dynasty boasts of having lifted its throne even above “the stars of God.” (Isaiah 14:13) Different nations come under that domination at different times. But at the end of 70 years, that domination will crumble.

This is exactly the same explanation of the 70 years that fits not just Tyre, but also the other "nations that will be singled out ... to serve the king of Babylon seventy years." And one of those other nations that Jeremiah mentioned was Judah. So do we really need two sets of measurements, or can we just accept that the Bible is correct?

*** w01 6/1 pp. 4-5 Whose Standards Can You Trust? ***
Just as Jehovah’s promises are reliable and unchangeable, so are his standards of right and wrong. Would you trust a merchant who uses two sets of weights, only one of which is accurate? Certainly not. Likewise, “a cheating pair of scales is something detestable to Jehovah, but a complete stone-weight is a pleasure to him.” (Proverbs 11:1; 20:10) In the Law that he gave the Israelites, Jehovah included this command: “You must not commit injustice in judging, in measuring, in weighing or in measuring liquids. You should prove to have accurate scales, accurate weights, an accurate ephah and an accurate hin. Jehovah your God I am, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt.”—Leviticus 19:35, 36.

Most of us learned that the march of world powers included:

• Egypt
• Assyria
• Babylon between [612 - 539] or [608 - 539] or  [605 - 539]
• Medo-Persia
• Greece
• Rome

The above quote from the Isaiah book says that the Babylonian empire lasted 70 years, the period of Babylon's greatest domination. We know that Assyria was losing it's grip between the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE, and the fall of Harran in 605 BCE.The last powerful king of that monarchy was Ashur-uballit II from 612 to 608 BCE. Therefore the secular period of Babylonian hegemony, or period of their empire is exactly in line with the Bible period of 70 years.

[scholar JW]

JW Insider

There is much vexation as to the 'seventy years' and this is clearly evidenced if one were to check leading Bible Commentaries on Daniel and Jeremiah particularly and the scholarly literature. You need to research this subject at a much greater depth. Carl Jonsson could not even determine a precise beginning of the seventy years whether it was 605 or 609 BCE which is only one example of the confusion amongst others.

Judah was in servitude to Babylon for at least 70 years and so to were other nations such as Tyre, eventually Egypt and others but Judah was exceptional in that the period of seventy years was also one of exile and desolation of the land for a fixed and known period of time from the Fall in 607 BCE and the Return in 537 BCE. The seventy years for Tyre is very different to that of Judah for the only commonality was that of servitude so one needs to be careful in conflating these periods which only adds to the confusion. Our focus should be on Judah dominated by Babylon for seventy years from the time of its Fall.

scholar JW

[JW Insider]

3 hours ago, scholar JW said:

There is much vexation as to the 'seventy years' and this is clearly evidenced if one were to check leading Bible Commentaries on Daniel and Jeremiah particularly and the scholarly literature.

As a Witness, I have realized that we JWs are just about the only group who are vexed about the seventy years, because there are very few others who have any kind of a doctrinal stake or tradition that requires a specific interpretation of the 70 years. Naturally, there are a variety of interpretations of any Biblical passage. Not all scholars and commentaries believe it was a full 70 years. Neither do we as Jehovah's Witnesses since we like to end it a year or two after 2 Chronicles ends it.

(2 Chronicles 36:20-22) . . .He carried off captive to Babylon those who escaped the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia began to reign, 21 to fulfill Jehovah’s word spoken by Jeremiah, until the land had paid off its sabbaths. All the days it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill 70 years. 22 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order that Jehovah’s word spoken by Jeremiah would be fulfilled. . .

We believe that the kingdom of Persia began in 539, but believe the 70 years ended in 537. We needed two extra years because we have a doctrinal stake in keeping 607 instead of claiming, for example, that the Fall of Jerusalem actually happened in 608 or 609. 70 years prior to the first year of the King Cyrus.

This is like the much bigger problem that scholars and commentaries and our own Watch Tower publications have with Isaiah's words about Tyre, already mentioned above, when Isaiah says that "Tyre will be forgotten for 70 years." But we, as JWs, don't believe it was a full 70 years that Tyre was forgotten. In fact, our publications indicate that it was a much shorter period.

*** it-2 p. 179 Kittim ***
Similarly, many from Tyre evidently sought haven in Cyprus during Nebuchadnezzar’s 13-year siege of Tyre, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s proclamation.

*** it-2 p. 1136 Tyre ***
Since the nations mentioned in the prophecy of Jeremiah were to “serve the king of Babylon seventy years” (Jer 25:8-11), this suggests that both the prophecy of Isaiah and that of Jeremiah related to Nebuchadnezzar’s campaign against Tyre. Also through Ezekiel, a contemporary of Jeremiah, Jehovah pointed to calamity for Tyre at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar. (Eze 26:1–28:19) . . .(Eze 29:17-20) According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the siege lasted 13 years (Against Apion, I, 156 [21]), and it cost the Babylonians a great deal. Secular history does not record exactly how thorough or effective Nebuchadnezzar’s efforts were. But the loss in lives and property to the Tyrians must have been great.—Eze 26:7-12.
When the Israelites returned from Babylonian exile, however, the Tyrians were able to assist in supplying cedar timbers from Lebanon for a second temple, and they resumed their trade with the rebuilt city of Jerusalem.—Ezr 3:7; Ne 13:16.

*** w77 7/1 p. 389 How History Was Written Centuries in Advance ***
Secular history reports that Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Tyre sometime after destroying Jerusalem and the temple of Jehovah’s worship in 607 B.C.E. The Jewish historian Josephus, drawing upon Phoenician annals and other previously written history, states that Nebuchadnezzar’s siege against Tyre lasted thirteen years.

So if you have read this closely, and noticed the scriptures from Ezekiel you will see that the following secular dates would fit this 13-year period, when Tyre was forgotten. These particular dates can be found in many places. I pulled them from Livius.org based on an understanding of various chronicles and texts. http://www.livius.org/articles/person/nebuchadnezzar-ii/

598: Beginning of the siege of Tyre?

597: First capture of Jerusalem; king Jehoiachin is replaced by king Zedekiah

596: Campaign against Elam

595: Renewed campaigning in the west

587 (or 586): Second capture of Jerusalem; deportation of the Judaean elite

585: Peace with Tyre, after a siege that had lasted thirteen years

  Of course, you can just add 20 years to each of those dates to get the Watch Tower version of most secular dates in this period. Therefore 618 to 605 would be the Watch Tower dates of the same 13 year siege. Notice how this is completely contradictory to the claim made in the Insight book which claims it was started after the fall of Jerusalem when even our own date for it would have mapped to 618. .

*** w77 7/1 p. 389 How History Was Written Centuries in Advance ***
Secular history reports that Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Tyre sometime after destroying Jerusalem and the temple of Jehovah’s worship. . .

And while we are on the subject, notice that Ezekiel can also help to date the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel dates his prophecies to the year of king Jehoiachin's exile, which started in 597 [617 Watch Tower]. This is why for example, our publications say the following:

*** it-1 p. 795 Ezekiel, Book of ***
In the 25th year of his exile (593 B.C.E.) Ezekiel had a remarkable vision . . . (Eze 40:1–48:35)

(Ezekiel 40:1) . . .In the 25th year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the 14th year after the city had fallen,. . .

and we know the end of the siege had to be completed in or before the 27th year because Ezekiel puts it in the past tense:

(Ezekiel 29:17, 18) 17 Now in the 27th year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 18 “Son of man, King Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar of Babylon made his army labor greatly against Tyre. Every head became bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his army received no wages for the labor he expended on Tyre.

Note that this, when combined with other Biblical and archaeological sources, also provides a bit of additional evidence for the 587/6 date for the fall of Jerusalem. The city had fallen in the 14th year, but it was now two years later when the Tyre siege had been put in the past tense in year 27, in the 16th year after the city had fallen. That siege ended in 585, putting a likely time for Jerusalem's fall in 587, no more than 2 years earlier.

The Watch Tower solved this particular "vexation" by saying that these 13 years of siege fulfilled the '70 years of being forgotten' referring to the 70 years for Babylon, even though it wasn't a full 70 years for Tyre itself. Isn't it amazing that this is the solution for Tyre? Yet we still hold out on Judah, even if it requires pseudo-archaeology to accomplish it.

(Jeremiah 25:11, 12) 11 And all this land will be reduced to ruins and will become an object of horror, and these nations will have to serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.”’ 12 “‘But when 70 years have been fulfilled, I will call to account the king of Babylon and that nation for their error. . .

In order to support our tradition about 607, we have gone so far as to mis-translate Jeremiah 29:10.

(Jeremiah 29:10) 10 “For this is what Jehovah says, ‘When 70 years at Babylon are fulfilled, I will turn my attention to you,and I will make good my promise by bringing you back to this place.’

The Hebrew in all our manuscripts says for Babylon, not at. Even the NWT translates the same Hebrew preposition as for elsewhere in such a situation, not at. Only here is it so important to mistranslate the Hebrew. And yet, oddly, we give it the meaning of "for" when similar language is used about Tyre. Also, only for would fit the previous mention of the 70 years quoted above from chapter 25.

This should give us an idea about just how vexed the Watch Tower has become over the 70 years. What's worse, is that Watch Tower publications don't even teach that exiles were in Babylon for 70 years. If we start from the first exiles, including Daniel, it could be upwards of nearly 90 years according to Watch Tower chronology, but this would make the 70 years with respect to Tyre a full 90 years long, not 70. If we start from the time the Watch Tower says that Jerusalem was destroyed, then those exiles from a destroyed Jerusalem could only have been "at" Babylon for 67 to 68 years. 607/6 to 539. Very vexing indeed in the Watch Tower's chronology attempts.

But it's not vexing at all if we look at the Bible and realize that, on this topic, the Bible has also been vindicated again by secular archaeology.

[scholar JW]

I enjoyed reading your last post and I have broken it down to 4 major points:

1. The Chronicler's end of the seventy years.

2. The Tyre Campaign

3. Ezekiel's Chronology

4. Translation of Jer.29:10

Good points but many errors of fact. Will respond not today as we have our Circuit Assembly and tomorrow, Sunday may have to do some volunteer work. So, next week will respond on each point.

scholar JW

[JW Insider]

3 hours ago, scholar JW said:

I enjoyed reading your last post and I have broken it down to 4 major points:

...

Sunday may have to do some volunteer work. So, next week will respond on each point.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to it.

[scholar JW]

I plan to answer points 1 and 4 and combine 2 and 3 later.

scholar JW