The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

Appendix 325
Marduk’s accession-year, and that either Nebuchadnezzar ruled for
more than forty-three years or there was another, unknown king
between them.
Such assumptions, however, are disproved by the Bible itself. A
comparison of 2 Kings 24:12 and 2 Chronicles 36:10 with Jeremiah
52:28 shows that Jehoiachin’s exile began toward the end of
Nebuchadnezzar’s seventh regnal year. This would mean that at the
death of Nebuchadnezzar in his forty-third year Jehoiachin had
spent almost thirty-six years in exile (43-7=36), and that the thirtyseventh
year of exile began later in that same year, in the accessionyear
of Awel-Marduk (Evil-Merodach). And this is exactly what we
are told in Jeremiah 52:31:
But in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of
Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month,
Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year he came to the throne,
pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from
prison.—Jerusalem Bible. (Compare 2 Kings 25:27.)
Clearly, the Bible does not allow for any additional years
between the forty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar and the accessionyear
of Awel-Marduk.
Overlap Awel-Marduk/Neriglissar?
Before the publication of the CBT catalogues in 1986–88 (see p.
321, note 20), the latest tablet known from the reign of Awel-
Marduk was dated V/17/2 (Aug. 7, 560 B.C.E.), while the first tablet
from the reign of his successor Neriglissar was dated V/21/acc.
(Aug. 11, 560 B.C.E.). Only four days, then, separated the latest
tablet from Awel-Marduk’s reign from the first tablet dated to
Neriglissar. 31
In the CBT catalogues, however, there are two texts that seem
to create a considerable overlap between the reigns of Awel-
Marduk and Neriglissar. The first (BM 61325) is from the reign of
Awel-Marduk and is dated to the tenth month of his second regnal
year (X/19/2), or about five months later than the latest tablet
previously known from his reign. 32
This overlap of five months with the reign of Neriglissar is
further extended by the second text, BM 75489, which is dated to
31 Ronald H. Sack, “Nergal-sharra-usur, King of Babylon as seen in the Cuneiform,
Greek, Latin and Hebrew Sources ,” Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, Vol. 68 (Berlin,
1978), p. 132.
32 CBT VII, p.36. The catalogue has day “17”, which is corrected to “19” in Walker’s
list.