The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

For Chapter Seven:
A REVIEW OF:
Appendix 353
ROLF FURULI, PERSIAN CHRONOLOGY AND THE
LENGTH OF THE BABYLONIAN EXILE OF THE JEWS
(OSLO: ROLF FURULI A/S, 2003)
Persian Chronology and the Length of the Babylonian Exile of the Jews is the
first of two volumes in which Rolf Furuli attempts to revise the
traditional chronology for the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods.
Furuli states that the reason for this venture is that this chronology
is in conflict with the Bible. He insists that the Bible
“unambiguously,” “explicitly,” and “definitely” shows that
Jerusalem and the land of Judah were desolate for 70 years, until
the Jewish exiles in Babylon returned to Judah as a result of the
decree Cyrus issued in his first regnal year, 538/37 B.C.E. (pp. 17,
89, 91). This implies that the desolation of Jerusalem in
Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th regnal year took place 70 years earlier, in
607 B.C.E. As has been amply documented in the present work,
this is contrary to modern historical research, which has fixed the
18th year of Nebuchadnezzar in 587/86 B.C.E. Furuli does not
explicitly mention the 607 B.C.E. date in this volume, perhaps
because a more detailed discussion of the Neo-Babylonian
chronology is reserved for his not-yet-published second volume.
Most of the ten chapters in this first volume, therefore, contain a
critical examination of the reigns of the Persian kings from Cyrus
to Darius II. The principal claim of this discussion is that the first
year of Artaxerxes I should be moved 10 years backward, from 464
to 474 B.C.E. Furuli does not mention that this is an old idea that
can be traced back to the noted Jesuit theologian Denis Petau,
better known as Dionysius Petavius, who first presented it in a
work published in 1627. Petavius’ revision had a theological basis,
because, if the “seventy weeks [of years],” or 490 years, of Daniel
9:24–27 are to be counted from the 20th regnal year of Artaxerxes
(Neh. 2:1ff.) to 36 C.E. (his date for the end of the period),
Artaxerxes’ 20th year must be moved from 445 back to 455 B.C.E.
Furuli says nothing about this underlying motive for his proposed
revision.