The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 133
and second years of Awel-Marduk, and, as cited, for the first year
of Neriglissar. 88
This document, then, not only provides an additional
confirmation of the lengths of reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and
Awel-Marduk, but it also demonstrates that no extra kings or extra
years can be inserted between Nebuchadnezzar and Awel-Marduk,
or between Awel-Marduk and Neriglissar.
d) Neriglissar to Labashi-Marduk
(6) A cuneiform tablet in the Yale Babylonian collection, YBC 4012,
not only shows that Labashi-Marduk succeeded Neriglissar as king,
but also that he did this early in the fourth year of his father’s short
reign.
The document records that “in the month of Addaru [the
twelfth month], 3rd year of Nergal-[sharra-usur], king of Babylon”
(March–April, 556 B.C.E.), Mushezib-Marduk, the overseer of the
Eanna temple in Uruk, carried a considerable amount of money to
Babylon, partly as payment for work and material for the Eanna
temple. This document was drawn up about two months later,
evidently at Babylon before Mushezib-Marduk’s return to Uruk,
and is dated to the “month of Ajaru [the second month of the next
year], 22nd day, accession year of Labashi-Marduk, king of
Babylon” (May 2, 556 B.C.E.). 89
According to this document, Labashi-Marduk succeeded to the
throne sometime in the first or second month of Neriglissar’s
fourth year of reign. This is in good agreement with the evidence
given by the contract tablets, which show that the demise of the
crown occurred in the first month of Neriglissar’s fourth year. (See
“Appendix for Chapter 3”, pages 326, 327.)
88 For Nebuchadnezzar, only the year numbers are given. The royal names only
appear with the first year of each king. There are two entries each for the thirtyseventh,
thirty-eighth, and forty-first years (of Nebuchadnezzar), and no entries for
his thirty-ninth and fortieth years. As pointed out by van Driel and Nemet-Nejat,
“these errors can be easily explained: the outcome of the count for the previous
year is the starting point for the inventory of the next year. That is, if the
‘accountant’ had a complete file, he would find the same data in tablets dealing
with consecutive years: once at the end of one text and again at the beginning of
the succeeding text.” (Op. cit., p.54.) From the forty-first year of Nebuchadnezzar
until the first year of Neriglissar, though, the dates follow a regular pattern.
89 Ronald H. Sack, “Some Remarks on Sin-Iddina and Zerija, qipu and shatammu of
Eanna in Erech . . . 562–56 B.C.,” Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, Band 66 (Berlin, New
York: Walter de Gruyter, 1976), pp. 287, 288. As mentioned earlier, in the
Babylonian system the accession year of a king was the same as the last year of
his predecessor. According to our text the accession year of Labashi-Marduk
followed upon the third year of Neriglissar. Labashi-Marduk’s accession year,
therefore, was also the fourth and last year of Neriglissar.