Creation History

Category: Chronology

Posted by: Kenneth

While the Seder Olam espouses a truncated Jewish chronology of the world, two durations found within it strongly support the Ussher-Jones chronology.

The Seder Olam was a rabbinical chronology created by Yose ben Halafta shortly before the Bar Kochba Rebellion.  The Seder Olam deletes nearly half of the Achaemenid Era in order to justify Simon bar Kokhba as the awaited Messiah from Daniel's prophecy. Jews today still use the Seder Olam as the basis of the Hebrew calendar and chronology.

In Chapter 11 of this document, we find two durations that affirm the Ussher-Jones chronology.   In the passage about the Conquest verse 48, we find the following:

Caleb said to Joshua (Jos. 14:7): "I was 40 years old when Moses, the Eternal's servant, sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land" (v.10) "and now I am 85 years old." This teaches us that for seven years they were conquering. From where do we know that for seven years they were dividing up the land before they started to count years for tithes, sabbatical years, and jubilee years ? Now Israel stayed 850 years from the time they entered until they left, these are 17 complete Jubilee periods. And so it says (Ez. 40:1): "In the 25th year of our exile, on the day of the New Year, on the tenth of the month, 14 years after the destruction of the city [of Jerusalem]." When did he [Ezechiel] have this vision? At the beginning of a Jubilee period. If they stayed for 17 entire jubilee periods, how can there be an excess of 17 years ? One has to say that 14 years Israel spent at Gilgal, seven when they were conquering and seven when they we distributing.

We can see that the rabbis made two mistakes here.  First they assumed there were fifty full years in a Jubilee period, which careful study shows to be mistaken.  The Jubilee was the second half of the 49th year, and overlapped the first half of the first year of the new cycle.  Therefore the Jubilee cycle lasted 49 full years, not 50.  Second, they assumed that Joshua took seven years to divide the land.  The more obvious interpretation is that they spent six years in conquering the land, and the seventh year was the first sabbath in the land, and also the first Jubilee.

Despite these apparent errors of interpretation, we find that the rabbis knew the number of years from the crossing of the Jordan until the last batch of exiles were taken from Jerusalem when it fell to Nebuchadnezzar in the year 586 BC.  The total duration given by the Seder Olam is 850 plus 14 years from the conquest to the deportation.  Adding 864 years to 586 BC gives 1450 BC for the Conquest. Ussher-Jones sets the conquest in 1451 BC.

The second duration given pertains to how many years the Tabernacle was in use before it was destroyed. The Bible does not explicitly say that the Philistines destroyed Shiloh in the year they captured the Ark. However, the Book of Jeremiah strongly implies it. First in Jeremiah 7, God predicts that He will do to the Temple in Jerusalem the same that he did to Shiloh, because of the wickedness of the people:

“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you have done all these works,” says the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. -- Jeremiah 7:12-14

Then again, God instructs Jeremiah to say that the Temple shall be destroyed and desolated just as Shiloh had been:

And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded), then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”  -- Jeremiah 26:4-6

This gives the context for what the rabbis of the Seder Olam recorded about the number of years that Israel worshipped using the Tabernacle.

After that (Jos. 18:1) "All the congregation of the Children of Israel assembled at Shiloh and there they put up the Tabernacle." At that moment, they started to count years for tithes, sabbatical years, and Jubilee years. (Jos. 22:1-2) "Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the semi-tribe of Manasse and said to them: you kept everything that Moses, the Servant of God, had commanded you; you listened to my voice for all orders that I gave you." Joshua sent them to their tents and blessed them. On their return they built a big altar for view. Joshua celebrated with them the first sabbatical year ; he died before he finished the second one. The sanctuary at Shiloh was built on stone walls and was covered by gobelins; Israel worshipped in it for 369 years , then it was destroyed.

The rabbis interpreted the 369 years as beginning after 7 years of conquest, but before the seven years of dividing the land.  If we count seven years from 1450 BC, as indicated by the first duration, and then count down another 369 years, we come to the year 1074 BC, which is halfway through the reign of Saul.  This was about fifty years after the Ark was captured by the Philistines.

In the Ussher-Jones chronology, the Ark was captured, and presumably Shiloh and the Tabernacle were destroyed, in the year 1121 BC.  If we add 369 years to that date, we get 1490 BC, which was one year after the Exodus.  The Tabernacle was built during the first year the Israelites went to Sinai, and it was dedicated in 1490 BC, which the Bible calls "the second year" from the Exodus.  Therefore we can see that the Seder Olam preserves a valid duration, but misinterpreted it.  The Israelites worshipped in the Tabernacle for 369 years from the dedication of the Tabneracle in the Wilderness, until the capture of the Ark by the Philistines in 1121 BC.

These two durations confirm Ussher and Jones within one year.