The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

90 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
This is because the chronology of the Neo-Babylonian period does
not fall within the area of unverifiable assumptions.
As will be demonstrated in this and the subsequent chapter, the
length of the Neo-Babylonian period has been firmly established
today by at least seventeen different lines of evidence, fourteen of
which will be discussed in some detail in these two chapters.
In the previous chapter it was shown that the validity of the
Watch Tower Society’s prophetic interpretation of the 1914 date is
intimately connected with the length of the Neo-Babylonian
period. 1 That period ended when Babylon was captured by the
armies of the Persian king Cyrus in 539 B.C.E., an acknowledged,
reliable date.
In the first year of his reign over Babylon, Cyrus issued an edict
which permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles
36:22, 23; Ezra 1:1–4) According to the Watch Tower Society this
ended the seventy-year period mentioned at Jeremiah 25:11, 12;
29:10; Daniel 9:2, and 2 Chronicles 36:21.
If, as the Society maintains, the Jewish remnant returned to
Jerusalem in 537 B.C.E., the period of Babylonian domination
would have begun seventy years earlier, or in 607 B.C.E. 2 And
1 The term “Neo-Babylonian” usually refers to the period that began with the reign of
Nabopolassar (dated to 625–605 B.C.E.) and ended with Nabonidus (555–539
B.C.E.). It should be noticed, however, that many scholars use the term “Neo-
Babylonian” of a more extended period. The Assyrian Dictionary (eds. I. J. Gelb et
al., Chicago: Oriental Institute, 1956—), for example, starts the period in 1150
B.C.E. and ends it somewhere in the fourth century B.C.E. In the present work the
term is confined to the Babylonian dynasty that began with Nabopolassar and
ended with Nabonidus.
2 The first year of Cyrus extended from the spring (Nisan 1) of 538 to the spring of 537
B.C.E. If Ezra followed the Jewish method of counting the accession-year as the
first year, he may have reckoned 539/38 as the first year of Cyrus. However that
may be, the evidence is that Cyrus issued his edict not long after the fal1 of
Babylon. The so-called Cyrus Cylinder shows that Cyrus, soon after the conquest
of Babylon, issued a decree that allowed the different peoples that had been
deported to Babylonia to return to their respective home countries. (James B.
Pritchard [ed.], Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament [ANET],
Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1950,p. 316.) Most likely the
edict permitting the Jews to return to Jerusalem was a part of this general release
of exiled peoples. As shown by the book of Ezra, the Jews who responded to the
edict immediately began to organize themselves for the homeward journey (Ezra
1:5–2:70), and in “the seventh month” (Tishri, corresponding to parts of September
and October) they had settled in their home cities. (Ezra 3:1) The context seems to
imply that this was still in the “first year of Cyrus” (Ezra 1:1–3:1). Most authorities,
therefore, conclude that this was in the autumn of 538 B.C.E. and not in 537 as
the Watch Tower Society insists. (See for example Dr. T. C. Mitchell’s discussion in
The Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed., Vol. III:2, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991, pp. 430–432; also the thorough discussion of the
historicity of Cyrus’ edict by Elias Bickerman in Studies in Jewish and Christian
History, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976, pp. 72–108.) The Watch Tower Society, however,
cannot accept the 538 B.C.E. date for the return, as that would move the
beginning of their seventy-year period back to 608 B.C.E. This, of course, would
destroy their Gentile times calculation.