Babylonian Captivity not 70 years?

[thephilosopher6]

Jeremiah prophesied that the Jews would be in captivity under the Babylonians for 70 years (Jeremiah 25). The first deportation began in 605 B.C, with mainly the Jewish elites being deported at first. Then in 598 B.C the second deportation occurred which included the general population. There was a third deportation in 586 B.C which resulted in the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, and there also seems to have been a fourth and final deportation in 583 B.C which also caused many Jews to flee into Egypt. Over 25% of the population was taken out of Judah, and it was certainly one of the largest mass exiles in history. The captivity ended in 537 B.C, when Persia had destroyed the Babylonians only a year earlier. However, doing the simple math, this only comes out to 68 years, unless I’m doing something wrong here? How do we explain this?

 

[Zaccheus]

Do we need to explain it?

 

[thephilosopher6]

I mean… It’d be nice…

 

[Wesrock]

I did some quick research. I can’t vouch for everything, but it seems there are two points commonly made:

• The Jewish calendar at the time before the Exile ran from Fall to Fall.
• Inclusive counting was commonly used by the Jews in reckoning time (look at the 3 days for the Resurrection, and other “three days” examples that, if looked at closely, don’t add up to 72 hours).

So the first captivity began in the spring of 605 BC and was part of a year that started in the fall of 606 BC (and before the new year that would begin in the Fall of 605 BC). Likewise, the release from captivity occurred after the start of the Jewish new year in the Fall of 537 BC. So you have 68 full solar years (Fall to Fall), plus one partial year before and one partial year after, which become part of the 70 years by inclusive counting. If the Jews used a year numbering system, then the start year and the end year would be seventy apart (though if you counted up the actual days you’d have less than 70 years, or maybe even less than 69 years. Going back to the Resurrection example for illustration, consider 3:00PM on Friday (with a new day starting at 6PM) to 12:00 AM on Sunday morning (new day starting at 6PM on what we’d reckon as Saturday), so that’s “Friday,” “Saturday,” “Sunday,” three days included, but only 39 hours, right? Same thing, but for years.

I personally wasn’t concerned even before doing the research, as I don’t see an issue with seeing the 70 year proclamation having an air of aboutness to it, but from what I’ve read, it can work out to 70 given the appropriate context.

 

[pianistclare]

Also, read up on the use of numbers and the significance of symbolic numbers in Scripture.