The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

174 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
The lunar eclipse table LBAT 1417
The tablet records four lunar eclipses at 18-year intervals dated to
the 3rd year of Sennacherib, the accession year and 18th year of
Shamashshumukin, and the 16th year of Kandalanu. The four
eclipses may be shown to have occurred on April 22, 686; May 2,
668; May 13, 650, and on May 23, 632 B.C.E. — Published by A.
J. Sachs, Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts (Providence,
Rhode Island: Brown University Press, 1955), p. 223.
C-1: The lunar eclipse tablet LBAT 1417
LBAT 1417 records four lunar eclipses at 18-year intervals from
686 to 632 B.C.E .It seems to be a part of the same tablet as the
previous two texts in the series, LBAT 1415 and 1416. The first
entry records an eclipse from Sennacherib third year of reign in
Babylonia, 43 which may be identified with the eclipse that took
place on April 22, 686 B.C.E. Unfortunately, the year number is
damaged and only partially legible.
The next entry, dated to the accession year of
Shamashshumukin, gives this information:
Accession year Shamash-shum-ukin,
Ayyaru, 5 months,
which passed by.
At 40° after sunrise.
43 Babylonian chronicles and king lists show that the Assyrian king Sennacherib also,
for two periods, was the actual ruler of Babylonia, the first time for two years
(dated to 704–703 B.C.E.), and the second time for eight years (dated to 688–681
B.C.E.). Our text evidently refers to the second period.