The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 103
years and if he was dethroned by Cyrus in 539 B.C.E., his first year
must have been 555/54 B .C.E. and his sixth year, when Cyrus
conquered Media, must have been 550/49 B.C.E.
The Watch Tower Society, in fact, agrees with these datings. The
reason is that the secular basis of its chronology, 539 B.C.E. as the
date for the fall of Babylon, is directly connected with the reign of
Cyrus. The Greek historian Herodotus, in the fifth century B.C.E.,
says that Cyrus’ total rule was twenty-nine years. 28 As Cyrus died in
530 B.C.E., in the ninth year of his rule over Babylonia, his first
year as king of Anshan must have begun in c. 559 B.C.E., or about
three years before Nabonidus acceded to the throne of Babylon.
Suppose now that twenty years have to be added to the Neo-
Babylonian era, which is required if the destruction of Jerusalem is
28 Herodotus’ Historiai I:210–216. Other ancient historians such as Ktesias, Dinon,
Diodorus, Africanus, and Eusebius roughly agree with this length of reign for
Cyrus. — See Insight on the Scriptures (1988), Vol. 1, p. 454.