The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

230 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
(5) The seventy years of servitude began many years before the
destruction of Jerusalem: Jeremiah chapters 27, 28, and 35; Daniel
1:1–4; 2:1; 2 Kings 24:1–7; the Babylonian chronicles, and
Berossus.
(6) Zechariah 1:7–12 and 7:1–5 are not references to Jeremiah’s prophecy,
but refer to the period from the siege and destruction of
Jerusalem in the years 589–587 to the rebuilding of the temple in
the years 520–515 B.C.E.
The application given by the Watch Tower Society to the
seventy-year prophecy, that it refers to Judah only, and to the
period of complete desolation of the land, “without an inhabitant,”
following the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, is seen to be
in direct conflict with each of the above established Biblical and
historical facts.
An application that is in clear conflict with both the Bible and
such historical facts cannot have anything to do with reality. In a
serious discussion of possible applications of the seventy years, this
alternative is the first which must be rejected. It is held to by the Watch
Tower Society, not because it can be supported by the Bible and
historical facts, but because it is a necessary prerequisite for their
calculation of the supposed 2,520 years of Gentile times, 607
B.C.E.–1914 C.E.
If their application of the seventy years is dropped, the Gentile
times calculation leading to 1914 C.E. immediately proves false,
together with all the prophetic claims and speculations that are tied
to it.
G-1: The use of “seventy” as a “round” number
The conclusion arrived at in the above discussion is that Judah
and a number of the surrounding nations became vassals to the
king of Babylon soon after the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C.E.
Does this mean that the seventy-year period “for Babylon” must be
applied to the period 605–539 B.C.E.? To this suggestion it may
quite naturally be objected that the length of this period is not
seventy, but a little more than sixty-six years, which is, of course,
true.
Many scholars argue, however, that the numeral “70” in the
Bible often seems to be used as “a round number” It occurs fiftytwo
times independently in the Old Testament, and is used with a
variety of different meanings—for weights, lengths of
measurements, numbers of people, periods of time, and so forth. 50
In a discussion of the biblical use of the numeral “70,” which also
includes extra-biblical occurrences, Dr. F. C. Fensham concludes: