The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

THE 20TH YEAR OF ARTAXERXES
AND THE "SEVENTY WEEKS" OF DANIEL
The questions about the chronology of the reign of Artaxerxes I
and its supposed relation to the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24–27 would
require a minor book to answer, and such a book is, in fact, what I
have been planning to write for some years. I have been collecting
material on the subject for many years, and in 1989 I even wrote a
brief draft in Swedish. Other projects, however, have occupied my
spare time since then, and I don’t expect to be able to resume the
work on the 70 weeks within the next few years. The following
discussion is an examination of the arguments brought forth by the
Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society in support of the idea that
Artaxerxes I acceeded to the throne in 475 BC, not in 465 BC as is
held by modern historians.
What follows is a brief summary of the Swedish paper on the
chronology of Artaxerxes’ reign.
1. Was Xerxes a coregent with his father Darius?
It is true that the Watch Tower Society attempts to solve the
problems created by their prolongation of Artaxerxes’ length reign
from 41 to 51 years (his accession being dated to 475 instead of
465 BC) by abbreviating the reign of his predecessor Xerxes (485–
465 BC) from 21 to 11 years, arguing that the first 10 years of
Xerxes’ rule was a co-rule with his father Darius.
There is not the slightest evidence in support of such a coregency.
The Watch Tower Society’s discussion on pages 614–616 of its
Bible dictionary Insight on the Scriptures, volume 2 (1988), is a
miserable distortion of the historical evidence. Thus, on page 615
they claim:
There is solid evidence for a coregency of Xerxes with his
father Darius. The Greek historian Herodotus (VII, 3) says:
"Darius judged his [Xerxes’] plea [for kingship] to be just and
declared him king. But to my thinking Xerxes would have been
made king even without this advice." This indicates that Xerxes
was made king during the reign of his father Darius.
If we look up Herodotus’ statement, however, we will discover that
he, in the very next few sentences, directly contradicts the Watch
Tower Society's claim that there was a ten year long coregency of
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