The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 127
(3) Iddina-Marduk and his wife Ina-Esagila-ramât
Two other examples are the businessman Iddin-Marduk, son of Iqisha,
of the family of Nur-Sin, and his wife Ina-Esagila-ramât. Iddin-Marduk
appears as director of his business activities for the first time in a
text that earlier had been dated to the eighth year of
Nebuchadnezzar (597 B.C.E.). But a recent collation of the original
tablet revealed that the year number is damaged and probably
should be read as the 28th year (577 B.C.E.). Iddin-Marduk then
appears in hundreds of dated documents, the last of which is from
the third year of Cambyses, 527 B.C.E. Other documents indicate
that he died shortly before the fifth year of Darius I (517 B.C.E.).
If we assume that he was only twenty years old when he first
appears as director, he must have been about eighty years old at the
time of his death.
Iddin-Marduk’s wife, Ina-Esagila-ramât, survived her husband.
She, too, was involved in business activities. Documents show that
she got married to Iddin-Marduk no later than the 33rd year of
Nebuchadnezzar (572 B.C.E.). We must assume, therefore, that she
was at least twenty years old when she first appears as a contracting
party in a text dated to Nebuchadnezzar’s 34th year (571 B.C.E.).
She appears for the last time in a text dated to the 15th year of
Darius I (507 B.C.E.), at which time she must has been at least 84
years old. 78
Again, if we were to add twenty years to the Neo-Babylonian
era, we would increase the age of Iddina-Marduk to about 100
years, and the age of Ina-Esagila-ramât to at least 104 years. We
would also be forced to hold that she, at this age, was still actively
involved in the businesses.
(4) Daniel the prophet:
The Bible also provides some examples of its own. In the
accession year of Nebuchadnezzar (605 B.C.E.), Daniel, then a
youth of perhaps 15–20 years, was brought to Babylon (Daniel 1:1,
4, 6). He served at the Babylonian court until after the end of the
Neo-Babylonian period, being still alive in the third year of Cyrus,
in 536/ 35 B.C.E. (Daniel 1:21; 10:1). At that time he must have
been close to ninety years old. If another twenty years were added
to this period, Daniel would have been nearly 110 years old.
Is it really likely that people during the Neo-Babylonian period
frequently reached ages of 100, 110, or even 120 years? True, we
78 Cornelia Wunsch, Die Urkunden des babylonischen Geschäftsmannes Iddin-
Marduk, 1 (Groningen: STYX Publications, 1993), pp. 19,10 ftn. 43, 12, 66.