The Gentile Times Reconsidered Chronology Christ

522 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
(5) Neriglissar to Labashi-Marduk
In Table 3.5 on page 62 of his book Furuli presents ten tablets which he claims overlap the
end of the reign of Neriglissar with the reigns of the last two kings of in the Neo-
Babylonian period, his son Labashi-Marduk and Nabonidus. The dates on the four last
tablets from the 4 th regnal year of Neriglissar listed in the table are:
Month/day/year: Tablet no.:
I/02/04 BM 41401
I?/06/04 YBC 3433
II/02/04 BM 30334
II/01/04 ?
The earliest two tablets from the reign of Neriglissar’s successor Labashi-Marduk are dated
I/11+/acc. (Pinches 55, 432 = BM 58432) and I/23/acc. (NBC 4534), which seems to be a
few weeks earlier than the two latest tablets from the reign of Neriglissar in the table above,
BM 30334 and “?”. Furuli says:
“The first tablet from the reign of Labashi-Merodach is dated to day 11+ of
month I of his accession year, but this cannot be harmonized with the tablet
dated to month II of year 4 of Neriglissar.”
The date of BM 30334 in Furuli’s table, however, is wrong. A copy of the tablet by B. T. A.
Evetts was first published as no. 69 in Babylonische Texte (1892). In a table on page 3 he
shows the date to be I/02/04. The date on the tablet was collated and confirmed by Ronald
H. Sack, whose transliteration and translation of the tablet appears on page 208 of his work
on Neriglissar – King of Babylon (1994). The date creates no overlap between the two reigns.
Unfortunately, the last tablet in Furuli’s table on Neriglissar, dated II/01/04, has no
number. As Furuli admits on page 63 he has been unable to identify the tablet and verify the
date. He has found the date in an old article by F. H. Weissbach published in Zeitschrift der
Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Band 62, 1908, page 630. But Weissbach gives no
further reference. The date has probably turned out to be wrong. It was not included by R.
A. Parker and W. H. Dubberstein in their Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C. – A.D. 75 (1956),
nor has it been referred to in later articles on Neriglissar or in R. H. Sack’s work on this
regent. The date has to be rejected until Furuli can prove its correctness. The conclusion on
page 327 of my book (GTR4), therefore, still stands:
“The last two tablets known from the reign of Neriglissar are dated I/2/4
(April 12, 556 B.C.E.) and I?/6/4 (April 16). The first tablet known from the
reign of his son and successor, Labashi-Marduk, is dated I/23/acc. (May 3,
556 B.C.E.), that is, twenty-one, or possibly only seventeen days later. These
dates create no overlap between the two.”
(6) Labashi-Marduk to Nabonidus
According to Furuli’s Table 3.5, the latest tablet from the reign of Labashi-Marduk is dated
III/12/acc., while the earliest tablet from the reign of his successor Nabonidus is dated in
the previous month, on II/15/acc.:
The two latest tablets from the reign of Labashi-Marduk:
Month/day/year: Tablet no.:
III/11/acc. (= June 19) YBC 3817
III/12/acc. (= June 20) Evetts, Lab. No. 1 (PD p. 13)