The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

The Length of Reigns of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 135
This inscription, then, interlinks the reigns of Neriglissar and
Labashi-Marduk, and evidently also those of Labashi-Marduk and
Nabonidus. The possibility of inserting an “extra king” somewhere
between these three kings is ruled out by this text.
(8) Some legal documents, too, contain information that spans the
reigns of two or more kings. One example is Nabon. No. 13, which
is dated to “the 12th day of (the month) Shabatu [the eleventh
month], the accession year of Nabonidus, king of Babylon
[February 2, 555 B.C.E.]. “ The inscription tells about a woman,
Belilitu, who brought up the following case before the royal court:
Belilitu daughter of Bel-ushezib descendant of the messenger
declared the following to the judges of Nabonidus, king of
Babylon: ‘In the month of Abu, the first year of Nergal-shar-usur
[Neriglissar], king of Babylon [August–September, 559 B.C.E.], I
sold my slave Bazuzu to Nabu-ahhe-iddin son of Shula descendent
of Egibi for one-half mina five shekels of silver, but he did not pay
cash and drew up a promissory note.’ The royal judges listened (to
her) and commanded that Nabu-ahhe-iddin be brought before
them. Nabu-ahhe-iddin brought the contract that he had
concluded with Belilitu and showed the judges (the document
which indicated that) he had paid the silver for Bazuzu. 92
Reference is thus made to the reigns of Neriglissar and that of
Nabonidus. The generally accepted chronology would indicate that
about three and a half years had passed since Belilitu had sold her
slave in the first year of Neriglissar until she, in the accession year
of Nabonidus, made a fraudulent but futile attempt to receive
double payment for the slave. But if twenty years were to be added
somewhere between the reigns of Neriglissar and Nabonidus, then
Belilitu waited for twenty-three and a half years before she brought her
case before the court, something that appears extremely unlikely.
f) Nabonidus to Cyrus
That Nabonidus was the king of Babylon when Cyrus conquered
Babylonia in 539 B.C.E. is clearly shown by the Nabonidus Chronicle
(B.M. 35382) 93 The chronicle evidently dated this event
92 M. A. Dandamaev, Slavery in Babylonia (DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois
University Press, 1984), pp. 189, 190.
93 As early as 1877, W. St. Chad Boscawen found a document among the Egibi
tablets dated to the reign of Cyrus, “which stated that money was paid in the reign
of ‘Nabu-nahid the former king’ .” — Transactions of the Society of Biblical
Archaeology, Vol. VI (London, 1878), p. 29.