Customer Reviews

The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This was my first book trying to establish the dates of Jerusalem's fall with accuracy. Theile weaves a web of Israel's and Judah's Kings together with interaction with other known Assyrian, Egyption, and Babylonian Kings. Also some Astronomical evidence is used from Ptolomy to nail down some dates as seemingly unquestionable, although I would like to see a more thorough verification of these astronomical dates. The technique Theile used is based on the Masonic text as there appears to be new dates added or changed in the greek and latin versions. Which came fist the chicken or the egg? Theile seems to prove it was the Masonic text that was most original? Theile's tricks to bring everything into agreement is the use of co-regency, assention vs non-assention dating, and nisan to nisan, vs tishri to tishri annual dating methods. I could follow everything he said, but don't believe I could recreate it. His main idea that pulls it all together is the coregency idea. This tends to always shorten the years of total rule. And to spite his assumtion that he started from the beginning and worked forward, I find his exact matchups a little too unbelievable. But his data is very precise with today's chronolgy for that period. By his own statements, the biggest support of his data is that it works. Although I liked his book, I think I will do more research. I find it a little unnerving that the hebrew kings are the only ones with significant coregencies, while the assyrians and babylonians have little to none. Overall a must have for chronological conquerors.

Finally! Someone has resolved the discrepancies between the reigns of the Judean and Hebrew kings... and in such a way that the very fact an explanation so intricate can actually work in every detail (and mesh with the chronology of the rest of the Middle East) gives it all the more credibility. For anyone interested in an area of history where the bible was thought to be "obviously wrong and inconsistent" and proven otherwise, this book is for you.

With all due respect to a preceding reviewer, her argument is based on an interpretation of the prophecy of Ezekiel that I would find flawed. Her conclusion is interpretative and not historical in nature. Thiele's argument does not rest on her interpretation of the prophecy.

Whether you are interested in Christian, Egyptian, or Middle East history or chronology in the period from the death of Solomon till the last king of Judah; this book is a must. The writing itself is maybe not of the most spellbounding type. The core of the matter, however, is the detailed search for the exact years and the synchronism between the historic dates of the kings of Israel, Judah, some Egyptian and "Levant" rulers. And that is brilliant.

Thiele explains in detail how the numbers found in the Bible for the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel can be synchronized. Quite simply, he has proposed an ingenious synchronization of the numbers through an analysis of how the two kingdoms, at times, used the nonaccession and accession-year systems simultaneously. Moreover, he also explains how coregencies can reconcile other major discrepancies in those numbers. For those who are good at crunching numbers, read this book; you will arrive at the same conclusion as I--namely, that Thiele has proposed the only chronology for the Hebrew kings that is mathematically consistent with the numbers recorded in the Bible. If you intend to read any book on this subject, this one is a must.

I usually breeze through books, but this one is so packed with information that I studied it for a month and made charts from the content so I could see the relationships visually. Without this excellent book, many Scriptures just did not make sense. Thank you Dr. Thiele!

I think that this is an invaluable read for anyone interested in biblical chronology. It has help me to start to work out biblical dates more accurately and I will post my conclusion shortly on my website [...]

Thiele does overturn the biblical chronology with his numerous co-regencies, which obviously sprang from the need to remove forty-five years from the history of the Kingdom of Judah. This, in turn, was due to Theile's almost religious reliance on some expert's interpretation of the Assyrian eponym lists, which are not even extant except as fragments. It takes creative interpretation of these fragments to even place the Assyrian kings at a particular time in history, and these are no grounds to overthrow the biblical chronology, which can be cross-checked from the separate data banks in the books of Kings and Chronicles. True, there are discrepencies in this data, but the crumbled cuneiform records of Assyria and Babylon are not the place to look in solving them. All the information needed is in the Bible itself. All we need to know to tie the biblical record in with history is the date of Nebuchadnezzar's ascension--and yes, a co-regency WAS involved.

The prophecy of Ezekiel 4:1-6 predicted a period of 390 years for Israel's defection. The defection started at the beginning of Jeroboam's reign and was completed at the seige of Jerusalem. Dr Theile ignored this prophecy and shortened the period by introducing coregencies and dual reigns. Thiele's coregencies and dual reigns are unscriptual.

The scriptures clearly stated that Jeroboam II began to reign in the 15th year of Amaziah. However, Dr Theile placed the commencement of Jeroboam's reign in the 5th year of Joash (from a suggested partnership). This has resulted in a twelve year problem throughout his entire chronology of the Hebrew Kings. He has added coregiencies and dual reigns in order to sinchronize the kings, hence the prophecy has been shortened by forty-five years.

When the Bible is taken as read, the chronology is simplified. The reigns of the kings sinchronize and total 390 years. The accuracy of the Scriptures is maintained. The chronology of Israel and Judah with their contemporaries Assyria and Babylon is outlined in my book "Chronology of the Hebrew Divided Kingdom" and can be used in conjuction with Dr. Theile's book. For the study of an accurate chronology, this book is a must!!

The prophecy of Ezekiel 4:1-6 predicted a period of 390 years for Israel's defection. The defection started at the beginning of Jeroboam's reign and was completed at the seige of Jerusalem. Dr Theile ignored this prophecy and shortened the period by introducing coregencies and dual reigns. Thiele's coregencies and dual reigns are unscriptual. The scriptures clearly stated that Jeroboam II began to reign in the 15th year of Amaziah. However, Dr Theile placed the commencement of Jeroboam's reign in the 5th year of Joash (from a suggested partnership). This has resulted in a twelve year problem throughout his entire chronology of the Hebrew Kings. He has added coregencies and dual reigns in order to synchronize the kings, hence the prophecy has been shortened by forty-five years.
When the Bible is taken as read, the chronology is simplified. The reigns of the kings synchronize and total 390 years. The accuracy of the Scriptures is maintained. The chronology of Israel and Judah with their contemporaries Assyria and Babylon is outlined in my book "Chronology of the Hebrew Divided Kingdom" and can be used in conjuction with Dr. Theile's book. For the study of an accurate chronology, this book is a must! ...