The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

104 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
set at 607 rather than 587 B.C.E., and that we add these twenty
years to the reign of Nabonidus, making it thirty-seven years
instead of seventeen. Then his first year must have been 575/74
B.C.E. instead of 555/54. Nabonidus’ sixth year, when Astyages
was defeated by Cyrus, would then be moved back from 550/49 to
570/69 B.C.E.
Those dates, however, are impossible, as Cyrus did not come to
power until c. 559 B.C.E., as was shown above. He clearly could
not have defeated Astyages ten years before he came to power!
This is why the Society correctly dates this battle in 550 B.C.E.,
thereby indicating Nabonidus’ reign of seventeen years to be
correct, as is held by all authorities and classical authors. 29
Though the chronicles available do not furnish a complete
chronology for the Neo-Babylonian period, the information which
they do preserve supports the dates for the lengths of the reigns of
the Neo-Babylonian kings given by Berossus and the Royal Canon.
As the earlier-presented evidence strongly indicates that both of
these sources derived their information from the Babylonian
chronicles independent of each other, and as their figures for the
Neo-Babylonian reigns agree, it is logical to conclude that the
chronological information originally given in the Neo-Babylonian
chronicles has been preserved unaltered by Berossus and the Royal
Canon.
Even if this is agreed upon, however, can the information given
by these Babylonian chronicles be trusted?
It is often pointed out that the Assyrian scribes distorted history
in order to glorify their kings and gods. “It is a well known fact that
in Assyrian royal inscriptions a serious military set-back is never
openly admitted.” 30 Sometimes scribes garbled the narration by
29 1nsight on the Scriptures (1988), Vol. 1, pp. 454, 566; Vol. 2, p. 612. That Astyages
was defeated in 550 B.C.E. may also be argued on other grounds. If, as stated by
Herodotus (Historiai I:130), Astyages ruled Media for thirty-five years, his reign
would have begun in 585 B.C.E. (550+35=585). He was the successor of his father
Cyaxares, who had died shortly after a battle with Alyattes of Lydia, which
according to Herodotus (Historiai I:73, 74) was interrupted by a solar eclipse.
Actually, a total solar eclipse visible in that area took place on May 28, 585
B.C.E., which is commonly identified with the one mentioned by Herodotus.—I. M.
Diakonoff, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1985), pp. 112, 126; cf. M. Miller, “The earlier Persian dates in
Herodotus,” Klio, Vol. 37 (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1959), p. 48.
30 A. K. Grayson, “Assyria and Babylonia,” Orientalia, Vol.49, Fasc. 2,1980, p. 171.
See also Antti Laato in Vetus Testamentum, Vol. XLV:2, April 1995, pp. 198–226.