The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

Appendix 315
the son of Josiah, king of Judah.” According to Jeremiah 25:1 “the
fourth year of Jehoiakim . . . was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar.”
But the Neo-Babylonian Chronicle 5 (B.M. 21946) clearly states that
this battle took place in Nebuchadnezzar’s accession year, not in his
first year. 6 The reason why Jeremiah reckons Nebuchadnezzar’s
accession year as his first year seems to be that Judah did not apply
the accession year system. Jeremiah, therefore, applied the Jewish
non-accession year system not only to Jehoiakim, but also to
Nebuchadnezzar.
2. In 2 Kings 24:12; 25:8, and Jeremiah 52:12 Jehoiachin’s
deportation and the destruction of Jerusalem are said to have taken
place in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighth and nineteenth regnal years, while
Jeremiah 52:28–30 seems to put these events in Nebuchadnezzar’s
seventh and eighteenth years, respectively. The difference in both cases
is one year. The Neo-Babylonian Chronicle 5 is in agreement with
Jeremiah 52:28 in stating that Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem
and captured Jehoiachin in his seventh year.
There is evidence to show that the last chapter of Jeremiah,
chapter 52, was not authored by Jeremiah himself. This is clearly
indicated by the concluding statement of the preceding chapter
(Jeremiah 51:64): “Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.” Chapter
52, in fact, is almost word for word taken from 2 Kings 24:18–
25:30, the only exception being Jeremiah 52:28–30, the verses containing
the divergence of one year in the reference to Nebuchadnezzar’s
regnal years. 7 Professor Albertus Pieters in all probability gives the
correct explanation of this difference when he states:
This difference is perfectly explained if we assume that the
section in question was added to the prophecies of Jeremiah by
someone in Babylon who had access to an official report or record,
in which the date would, of course, be set down according to the
Babylonian reckoning. 8
6 The Neo-Babylonian chronicles are discussed in Chapter Three, section B-1.
7 It cannot be determined whether chapter 52 was added by Jeremiah himself, his
scribe Baruch, or some other person. The reason why this section from 2 Kings
was included may have been “to show how Jeremiah’s prophecies were fulfilled.”—
Dr. J. A. Thompson, The Book of Jeremiah (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdman’s
Publishing Co., 1980), pp. 773, 774.
8 Albertus Pieters, “The Third Year of Jehoiakim,” in From the Pyramids to Paul, ed.
by Lewis Gaston Leary (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1935), p. 186. That
the information in Jeremiah 52:28–30 may have been added to the book of
Jeremiah in Babylonia is also supported by the fact that the Greek Septuagint
(LXX) version of Jeremiah, which was produced in Egypt (perhaps from a
manuscript preserved by the Jews in that country), does not include these verses.