The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

Furuli’s First Book 417
How tablets 54 and 56 make mincemeat of Furuli’s Persian chronology
All Julian dates pointed to by tablets 54 and 56 fall within the reigns of
Darius I, Artaxerxes I, Darius II, and Artaxerxes II, not only according to the
traditional chronology but also according to Furuli’s Oslo Chronology. These tablets,
therefore, can be used to challenge his alternative chronology for these reigns.
It turns out that Furuli’s attempts to push the reign of Darius I one year
forward and the reign of Artaxerxes I 10 years backward are effectively blocked
by these two tablets. The Jupiter observations dated in year 32, for example,
clearly belong to year 490 BCE, not year 489 as required by Furuli’s revised
chronology. In fact, none of the observations dated to specific months and
days in the Babylonian luni-solar calendar can be moved forward or backward
in the way Furuli’s revisions require.
Jupiter’s period of revolution is close to 12 years, which means that on average
its position among the stars changes about 30 degrees a year. However, the
apparent movement among the stars displays stationary points and even
reversals of motion. Tablet 54 illustrates this by saying that in year 31, month
VI, on day 28, Jupiter “became stationary in [the constellation of] Gemini.”
This was exactly the position it held on October 4, 491 BCE, so this date
corresponds to day 28 of month VI in the Babylonian calendar. A year later,
Jupiter had moved about 30 degrees to a new position between the
constellations Leo and Cancer. The recorded position, then, does not allow the
31st year of Darius I to be moved one year forward. The Jupiter phenomena do
not repeat themselves at the same date within the lunar month for another 71 years,
the fact of which the Babylonian astronomers were fully aware. Therefore,
tablet 54 cannot be assigned to any reign other than that of Darius I. The
Jupiter positions in tablet 54 dated to the other four regnal years just as
inexorably block any attempt to change the absolute chronology established for
Darius’ 36-year reign.
Venus, with a period of revolution of only 224.7 days, returns to its position
in relation to various stars and constellations in less than a year. However, it
does not return to the same position at the same time of the year—not after one year or
after 10 years. Such returns occur at 8-year intervals, after 13 revolutions
(8x365.2422 = 13x224.7). The observations on tablet 56, then, which are dated
to specific regnal years, months and days, cannot be fitted into a chronology for
the reign of Artaxerxes I that is moved 10 years backward.
It might be argued that the observations on the two tablets could belong to
kings whose reigns fell in entirely different centuries. But such alternatives are
limited to kings whose reigns lasted at least 32 years (the highest preserved
regnal year in the Jupiter text No. 54) and 39 years (the highest preserved regnal
year in the Venus text No. 56).
Within the period to which all extant Babylonian observational astronomical
cuneiform texts belong (except for the Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa)—i.e.,
from the middle of the 8th century BCE to the 1st century CE—only five kings
are known to have ruled that long or longer: the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal
(42 years), the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (43 years), and the Persian