The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

318 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
1. Jeremiah 1:3 states that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, after the
desolation of the city, “went into exile in the fifth month,” which is
also in agreement with the record in 2 Kings 25:8–12. Yet this fifth
month is said to have been at “the end of the eleventh year of
Zedekiah.” 15 Only if the regnal years were reckoned as beginning
from Tishri (the seventh month) could the fifth month be said to
be at “the end of’ Zedekiah’s eleventh regnal year, which then
ended with the next month, Elul, the sixth month.
2. According to 2 Kings 22:3–10 King Josiah of Judah, in his
eighteenth year, began repairs on the temple of Jerusalem. During
these repairs High Priest Hilkiah found “the book of the law” in
the temple. 16 This discovery resulted in an extensive campaign
against idolatry throughout the whole land. After that Josiah
reinstituted the passover on Nisan 14, two weeks after the
beginning of the new year according to the sacred calendar. Very
interestingly, this passover is said to have been celebrated “in the
eighteenth year of King Josiah.” (2 Kings 23:21–23) As the repairs of
the temple, the cleansing of the land from idolatry and many other
things recorded in 2 Kings 22:3–23:23 could not reasonably have
occurred within just two weeks, it seems obvious that Josiah’s
eighteenth regnal year was not counted from Nisan 1, but from
Tishri 1.
3. Another indication of a Tishri reckoning of regnal years in
Judah is given in Jeremiah 36. In “the fourth year of Jehoiakim”
(verse 1), Yahweh told Jeremiah to write in a book all the words he
had spoken to him against Israel, Judah, and all the nations (verse
2). This Jeremiah did through Baruch, his secretary (verse 4). When
Baruch had finished the work, Jeremiah asked him to “go, and
from the scroll you wrote at my dictation, read all the words of
Yahweh to the people in his Temple on the day of the fast.”
(Jeremiah 36:5, 6, JB). Which fast?
This was evidently a special fast proclaimed for some
unspecified reason. Most probably the reason was the battle of
Carchemish in May–June that same year, “in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim” (Jeremiah 46:2), and the subsequent events, including
the siege laid against Jerusalem in the same year according to
15 KIV, ASV, NASB, and other versions. The New World Translation (NW) uses the
word “completion”: “until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of
Josiah, the king of Judah, until Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month “
16 As argued by many commentators, the “book of the law” probably was the book of
Deuteronomy, which may have been lost for some time, but was now rediscovered.
Cf. Professor Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press,
1993), pp. 294–296.