The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 117
The results from our discussion of the Neo-Babylonian
historical records are summarized in the following table.
TABLE 3: THE REIGNS OF THE NEO-BABYLONIAN KINGS
ACCORDING TO THE NEO-BABYLONIAN HISTORICAL RECORDS
ROYAL THE NEO-BAB. THE URUK THE ROYAL B.C.E.
NAME CHRONICLES KING LIST INSCRIPTIONS DATES
Nabopolassar 21 years 21 years 21 years 625–605
Nebuchadnezzar 43 years*
Awel-Marduk 2 years*
43 (ye)ars
2 (ye)ars
43 years
2 years
604–562
561–560
Neriglissar 4 years* ‘3’ (y’s)+8 m’s 4 years 559–556
Labashi-Marduk some months* 3 months — 556
Nabonidus ‘17 years’ ‘17?’ (years) 17 years 555–539
* These figures in the chronicles are preserved only via Berossus and/or the
Royal Canon. See discussion.
As may be seen from the table, the Neo-Babylonian chronology
adopted by secular historians is very strongly supported by the
ancient cuneiform sources, some of which were produced during
the Neo-Babylonian era itself. Three different lines of evidence in
support of this chronology are provided by these sources:
(1) Although important parts of the Neo-Babylonian Chronicles are
missing and some figures in the Uruk kinglist are partially damaged,
the combined witness of these documents strongly supports the Neo-
Babylonian chronologies of Berossus and the Royal Canon, both of
which were actually— independently of each other—derived from
Neo-Babylonian chronicles and kinglists.
(2) The royal inscription Nabon. No. 18 and the Royal Chronicle
fix the second year of Nabonidus astronomically to 554/53 B.C.E.
The whole length of the Neo-Babylonian period prior to
Nabonidus is given by Nabon. No. 8, which gives the elapsed time
from the sixteenth year of Nabopolassar up to the accession-year
of Nabonidus as fifty-four years. The stele thus fixes the sixteenth
year of Nabopolassar to 610/09 and his first year to 625/24 B.C.E.
These two inscriptions, therefore, establish the length of the whole
Neo-Babylonian era.
(3) The Adad-guppi’ inscription gives the reigns of all the Neo-
Babylonian kings (except for Labashi-Marduk’s brief, months-long
reign, which may be disregarded) from Nabopolassar up to the
ninth year of Nabonidus. As the Watch Tower Society indirectly
accepts a seventeen-year rule for Nabonidus, this stele of itself
overthrows their 607 B.C.E. date for the desolation of Jerusalem.