Reign of Hoshea 730-721
Assassination of Pekah and succession
of Hoshea, mentioned by Tiglath-
pileser IV. .. 733 (or 732)[51]
Capture of Samaria by Sargon in
Hezekiah's Hezekiah's sixth year
(2 Kings xviii. 10) 721 722
Invasion of Judah by Sennacherib in
Hezekiah's fourteenth year (_ibid._
ver. 13) 713 701
Manifestly all the Biblical dates earlier than 733-732 B.C. are too
high, and must be considerably reduced: the two events, also, in
Hezekiah's reign--the fall of Samaria and the invasion of
Sennacherib--which the compiler of the book of Kings treats as separated
by an interval of _eight_ years, were separated in reality by an
interval of _twenty-one_ years.[52]
Much has been written on the chronology of the kings and many endeavours
have been made to readjust the Biblical figures so as to bring them into
consistency with themselves and at the same time into conformity with
the Assyrian dates. But, though the fact of there being errors in the
Biblical figures is patent, it is not equally clear at what points the
error lies, or how the available years ought to be redistributed between
the various reigns. It is in any case evident that the accession of Jehu
and Athaliah must be brought down from 884 to 842 B.C.; and this will
involve, naturally, a corresponding reduction of the dates of the
previous kings of both kingdoms, and of course, at the same time, of
those of Solomon, David and Saul. The difficulty is, however, greatest
in the 8th century. Here, in Judah, from the accession of Athaliah to
the accession of Ahaz, tradition gives 143 years, whereas, in fact,
there were but 106 years (842-736); and in Israel, from the death of
Menahem to the fall of Samaria, it gives 31 years, whereas from 738
(assuming that Menahem died in that year) to 722 there are actually only
16 years. The years assigned by tradition to the reigns in both kingdoms
in the middle part of the 8th century B.C. have thus to be materially
reduced. But in the following period, from the fall of Samaria in 722 to
the capture of Jerusalem by the Chaldaeans in 586, the Biblical dates,
so far as we can judge, are substantially correct. (See further the
table above.)
4. _From the Destruction of Jerusalem in 586 to the close of the Old
Testament History._--Here, though it is true that there are events in
the Biblical history which are not fully or unambiguously dated, there
is otherwise no difficulty. The lengths of the reigns of Nebuchadrezzar
and his successors on the throne of Babylon, and also, after the
conquest of Babylon, of Cyrus and the following Persian kings, are known
from the "Canon of Ptolemy," referred to above, the particulars in
which, for the earlier part of this period, are also confirmed by the
testimony of the monuments.
See, for further information on the subject, the article CHRONOLOGY,
and the same heading in the _Encyclopedia Biblica_, cols. 773-799,
with the literature referred to on col. 819 (especially the writings
of Noeldeke, Wellhausen, and Kamphausen there mentioned). (S. R. D.)
(B) NEW TESTAMENT.