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Cyberseeker
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The book of Kings is structured in the form of a ‘combination lock’ which, going backward unlocks the door to ancient history, and forward, tracks the messianic timetable. The books contain a repeating formula where the accession of a king is synchronised with the reign of his contemporary in the neighbouring kingdom (whether Judah or Israel) followed by the number of years that he reigned. Thus, “In the (x)th year of king (A) of Israel, king (B) of Judah began to reign and he reigned 
years.”
At first sight it seems like a cinch - just do the math and the formula should work? It might have been easy if not for several little quirks in the Hebrew calendar. The reign of some kings appear one year less than the stated length of time because the ancient method of counting treated part-years, beginning and ending a person’s reign, as if they were full ones. Even when a king died several weeks into the New Year it was counted as his final ‘year.’
Then there was Judah’s habit of treating the first full year as ‘number 1’ and Samaria’s method of counting from the part-year instead. Understanding these small variations reveal a finely tuned timeline running beneath the surface of scripture.
Here is my chronological timeline for the Kings of Israel and Judah.
As you can see, there are slight differences to Old Testament chronologists, Thiele, Galil, Kitchen, Ussher. Any discussion welcome on these differences and the historical dates of the Hebrew kings.
years.”At first sight it seems like a cinch - just do the math and the formula should work? It might have been easy if not for several little quirks in the Hebrew calendar. The reign of some kings appear one year less than the stated length of time because the ancient method of counting treated part-years, beginning and ending a person’s reign, as if they were full ones. Even when a king died several weeks into the New Year it was counted as his final ‘year.’
Then there was Judah’s habit of treating the first full year as ‘number 1’ and Samaria’s method of counting from the part-year instead. Understanding these small variations reveal a finely tuned timeline running beneath the surface of scripture.
Here is my chronological timeline for the Kings of Israel and Judah.
As you can see, there are slight differences to Old Testament chronologists, Thiele, Galil, Kitchen, Ussher. Any discussion welcome on these differences and the historical dates of the Hebrew kings.
