The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

102 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
Most of these chronicles are incomplete. The extant (actually
existing) parts of Chronicles 2-7 cover the following regnal years:
TABLE 2: EXTANT PARTS OF THE NEO-BABYLONIAN CHRONICLES 2–7
CHRONICLE NO. RULER REGNAL YEARS
COVERED
No.2 = B.M. 25127 Nabopolassar acc.-year – 3
3 = B.M. 21901 Nabopolassar 10 – 17
4 = B.M. 22047 Nabopolassar 18 – 20
5 = B.M. 21946 Nabopolassar 21
” ” ” Nebuchadnezzar acc.-year – 10
6 = B.M. 25124 Neriglissar 3
7 = B.M. 35382 Nabonidus 1 – 11
” ” ” Nabonidus 17
In all, the Neo-Babylonian period (625–539 B.C.E.) includes a
total of eighty-seven regnal years. As is seen in the preceding table,
less than half of these years are covered by the preserved parts of
the chronicles. Yet some important information may be gathered
from them.
Chronicle 5 (B.M. 21946) shows that Nabopolassar ruled Babylon
for twenty-one years, and that he was succeeded by his son
Nebuchadnezzar. That part of the text says:
For twenty-one years Nabopolassar ruled Babylon. On the
eighth day of the month Ab he died. In the month of Elul
Nebuchadnezzar (II) returned to Babylon and on the first day
of the month he ascended the royal throne in Babylon. 25
The last chronicle (B .M. 35382), the famous Nabonidus Chronicle,
covers the reign of Nabonidus, who was the father of Belshazzar.
This chronicle unfortunately is damaged. The portion covering
Nabonidus’ twelfth year to his sixteenth year of rule is lacking, and
the portion where the words for “seventeenth year” no doubt
originally could be read, is damaged. 26
Notably, however, for the sixth year it is stated that Cyrus, king
of Anshan, defeated the Median king Astyages and captured
Ecbatana, the capital of Media. 27 If Nabonidus ruled for seventeen
25 Grayson, ABC (1975), pp. 99, 100.
26 Ibid. p. 109.
27 Ibid., pp. 106, 107. “The sixth year,” too, is missing, but as the record for each year
is separated from the next year by a horizontal line, and as the account of
Astyages’ defeat immediately preceeds the record for the seventh year, it is quite
evident that it refers to the sixth year. – Anshan was a city and also an archaic
name of the province in which it was situated, Parsa (Persis), which lay at the
Persian Gulf southeast of Babylonia. At the time of Cyrus’ rise to power, Anshan
(Parsa) was a Median tributary kingdom.