The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

392 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
Such an error was easy to make, as the difference between ”41”
and ”51” in cuneiform is just a small wedge—one touch with the
stylus. Such errors are not unusual. The text with the figure ”50”
instead of ”40” is just another example of the same kind of error.
Professor Matthew W. Stolper explains:
Yes, it is quite an easy error. As you may know, the sign that
indicates ”year” before the numeral ends with four closely spaced
angle-wedges. The digit ”40” in ”41” is represented by four more
closely spaced angle-wedges, in slightly different configuration. It
would take a simple slip of the stylus to add the extra wedge. –
Letter Stolper-Jonsson, January 29, 1999.
Artaxerxes’ reign astronomically fixed
The decisive evidence for the length of Artaxerxes’ rule is the
astronomical information found on a number of tablets dated to
his reign. One such text is the astronomical "diary" "VAT 5047",
clearly dated to the 11th year of Artaxerxes. Although the text is
damaged, it preserves information about two lunar positions
relative to planets and the positions of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and
Saturn. This information suffices to identify the date of the text as
454 B.C. As this was the 11th year of Artaxerxes, the preceding
year, 455 BC, cannot have been his 20th year as the Watch Tower
Society claims, but his 10th year. His 20th year, then,must have
been 445/44 BC. (See Sachs/Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and
Related Texts from Babylonia, Vol. 1, Wien 1988, pp. 56–59.)
There are also some tablets dated to the 21st and last year of
Xerxes. One of them, BM 32234, which is dated to day 14 or 18 of
the 5th month of Xerxes’ 21st year, belongs to the group of
astronomical texts called "18-year texts" or "Saros texts". The
astronomical information preserved on this tablet fixes it to the
year 465 BC. The text includes the following interesting
information: "Month V 14 (+x) Xerxes was murdered by his son." This
text alone not only shows that Xerxes ruled for 21 year, but also
that his last year was 465 BC, not 475 as the Society holds!
There are several "Saros texts" of this type covering the reigns of
Xerxes and Artaxerxes. The many detailed and dated descriptions
of lunar eclipses from different years of their reigns establish the
chronology of this period as an absolute chronology.