Where God Dwells

1 Scripture gives no BC year. 1446 BC comes from 1 Kgs 6:1; Ussher has 1491 BC, and many scholars put the Exodus c. 1260 BC. Scripture’s own counts do not change. 1 Kings 6:1 puts the beginning of the Temple’s building in the 480th year after the Exodus, in the fourth year of Solomon, which this series dates to 967 BC. The 480th year comes 479 years after the Exodus, so 967 + 479 = 1446 BC. Young’s review of Steinmann’s book writes "Nisan 14, 1446 B.C." for the Exodus. Ussher dated the Exodus to 1491 BC. The late date, c. 1260 BC, reads the 480 years as a representative number for twelve generations and ties the city of Raamses (Exod 1:11) to Ramesses II; the ESV Study Bible says that both dates are held by established evangelical scholars. Another date moves every BC year on this chart that rests on the Exodus (1446 and 1445 BC here), but not the months, days and years that Scripture itself counts. (1 Kgs 6:1; Exod 1:11)

2 Young’s Table 2 puts Saul at 1051–1009 BC and David at 1009–969 BC and calls both sets of dates conjectural. David took Jerusalem about 1001, after 7½ years at Hebron. Young’s Table 2 (2005) has Saul from Tishri 1051 to Tishri 1009 and David from Tishri 1009 to Tishri 969, with the note that the dates are conjectural for Saul and David. David reigned in Hebron … over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem … thirty and three years (2 Sam 5:5), and 7½ years from Tishri 1009 is Nisan 1001, so his capture of Jerusalem and the events that follow it (the ark, the plan for the house) fall in the range 1001 to 969. The Bible does not date them more closely. (2 Sam 5:4–5; 1 Sam 13:1)

3 No verse dates the ark’s capture. It came in Eli’s last days (1 Sam 4:17–18), before Saul (1 Sam 8–10), so the chart gives the range from the crossing of the Jordan (1406) to Saul’s start (about 1051). Eli had judged Israel forty years when the ark was taken and he died (1 Sam 4:18). Samuel was old when Israel asked for a king (1 Sam 8:1, 5), and Saul was anointed after that (1 Sam 10:1); the ark stayed at Kirjathjearim at least twenty years (1 Sam 7:2) and was still there when David came to bring it up (1 Chr 13:5–6); in the days of Saul the people did not ask at it (1 Chr 13:3). Saul’s date, about 1051, is Young’s conjecture (see the note on Saul and David). The Bible’s own count gives almost the same: the 479 years to the Temple (1 Kgs 6:1) less the wilderness (40), Saul (40, Acts 13:21), David (40) and Solomon’s first three years (3) leave 356 years from the crossing, so Saul begins about 1406 − 356 = 1050. The ark’s capture, and the years at Shiloh, lie between. (1 Sam 4:17–18; 7:2; 8:1, 5; 10:1; 1 Chr 13:3–6; 1 Kgs 6:1; Acts 13:21; 1 Kgs 2:11)

4 The Temple was begun in 967 BC (Zif), finished seven years later (Bul), and dedicated at the feast of Ethanim, in 960 or 959 BC; the LORD’s second appearance came when the two houses were finished, about twenty years after the start (c. 947). 1 Kgs 6:1 and 2 Chr 3:2 put the foundation in Zif, the second month of Solomon’s fourth year (967 BC in this series), and 1 Kgs 6:37–38 puts the finishing in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month — seven years later, c. 960. 1 Kgs 8:2 names the month of the feast at the dedication, Ethanim, the seventh month, but not the year. The feast that followed the finishing in Bul fell in the autumn of 960 BC if Solomon’s years are counted from the autumn, or of 959 BC if they are counted from the spring, so the chart gives both. 1 Kgs 9:1–2 says that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time when he had finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house, and 1 Kgs 9:10 reckons that completion at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses: the Temple seven years (1 Kgs 6:38) and his own house thirteen (1 Kgs 7:1), so c. 947; 1 Kgs 9:1 adds that Solomon had also done all that he desired, so this is the earliest date the appearance can have. (1 Kgs 6:1, 37–38; 7:1; 8:2; 9:1–2, 10; 2 Chr 3:2)

5 Jerusalem fell in summer 586 if Zedekiah's years run from autumn after an accession year (Thiele, Horn); Albright (spring years) and Young (no accession year) have 587. The Bible dates the breach to the 9th day of the 4th month of Zedekiah's 11th year (2 Kgs 25:2–4; Jer 39:2; 52:5–7) and Nebuzaradan's coming, followed by the burning, to the 5th month of Nebuchadnezzar's 19th year (the 7th day in 2 Kgs 25:8–9, the 10th in Jer 52:12–13); no Babylonian record of the event survives. Counting Zedekiah's years from 1 Tishri (autumn) and from an accession year, his 11th year is autumn 587 – autumn 586, and Nebuchadnezzar's 19th year (Babylonian count from Nisan 586, or Judean count from Tishri 587) contains the 4th and 5th months only in 586: breach 18 July, Nebuzaradan's coming (the 7th of Ab) 14 August 586 (Julian dates, as Horn 1967 gives them; the 1942 Parker and Dubberstein table is a day later in three of Horn's four dates). Horn's figures for a spring-to-spring count of Zedekiah's years are 29 July and 25 August 587. Young (2004) argues for 587 with Zedekiah's years counted from autumn (Tishri) and Nebuchadnezzar's from Nisan, both without an accession year, the siege beginning in January 589 and Ezekiel's years counted from autumn 598. Jer 52:29 (832 taken in Nebuchadnezzar's 18th year) is read either as the fall (the usual 587 view) or as a deportation during the siege (the usual 586 view). This chart follows System A (586). (2 Kgs 25:1–9; Jer 39:1–2; 52:4–13, 29; Ezek 24:1–2; 33:21)

6 The tent was still in use at Gibeon in Solomon’s first years (2 Chr 1:3); 1 Kgs 8:4 says the tabernacle of the congregation was brought up with the ark, usually read as that tent. (1 Kgs 3:4; 2 Chr 1:3; 1 Kgs 8:4)

7 No verse dates Shiloh. Caleb is fourscore and five years old forty-five years after the word spoken at Kadesh in the second year, about 1400 BC (Josh 14:10); the assembly at Shiloh (Josh 18:1) comes later in the book. Caleb was forty when sent from Kadeshbarnea (Josh 14:7), and says: the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness (Josh 14:10). Israel left Sinai in the second year (Num 10:11–12) and the spies, whom Moses sent from Kadeshbarnea (Josh 14:7), came back to Kadesh (Num 13:26), so the word was spoken in year 2 (1445 BC) and the forty-five years end about 1400 BC. Caleb speaks at Gilgal (Josh 14:6), and the assembly at Shiloh follows the lots given to Judah and to Joseph’s sons (Josh 15–17), so about 1400 is the earliest date: the chart gives "c. 1400" and no later limit. (Josh 14:6–10; 18:1; Num 10:11–12; 13:26; 14:24)

8 Joshua gives no year number. The crossing follows Moses’s death, after month 11 of year 40 (Deut 1:3), so the first month (Josh 4:19) is the first month of year 41. (Josh 4:19; Deut 1:3; 34:8; Josh 1:11)

9 Josiah’s 18th year (2 Kgs 22:3) runs from Tishri 623 to Tishri 622 in Young’s table, and the Passover of that year (2 Chr 35:19) fell in Nisan 622. (2 Kgs 22:3; 2 Chr 35:19)

10 After this verse the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther name the ark no more; Jeremiah foretells that they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord (Jer 3:16). (2 Chr 35:3; Jer 3:16)

11 Rehoboam’s fifth year is the year from Tishri 927 BC in Young’s table. Young's Table 2 begins Rehoboam in 932t and counts his 17 years (1 Kgs 14:21) in the accession sense, so his fifth year is the year that begins in Tishri 927 (932 minus 5). (1 Kgs 14:21, 25)

12 Counted from Young’s official start in Tishri 836 (non-accession counting), Jehoash’s 23rd year begins in Tishri 814 (2 Kgs 12:6). (2 Kgs 12:1, 6)

13 Young’s Table 2 starts Hezekiah’s sole reign at 716t (715n by Nisan years), so the first month of his first year (2 Chr 29:3) is Nisan 715 or Nisan 714, depending on whether that year is counted from his accession or from the next Tishri (Young counts his 29 years with an accession year, which gives Nisan 714). The chart takes it as the first year of his sole reign, after Ahaz had shut up the doors of the house of the Lord (2 Chr 28:24). (2 Chr 29:3; 28:24; 2 Kgs 18:2)

14 Young’s table dates Jehoiakim’s reign from Tishri 609, so the beginning of the reign (Jer 26:1) falls in 609 or 608. (Jer 26:1)

15 The Chronicle dates the capture to Nebuchadnezzar's 7th year; 2 Kgs 24:12 says his eighth year — Judah counted his years from autumn 605 (Horn). Horn (1967): Judah counted Nebuchadnezzar's first year from 1 Tishri 605 (7 October), so its 8th year began in autumn 598; the Babylonian 7th year ran 27 March 598 – 12 April 597. Others explain the 8th year by the deportation itself taking place after Nisan 597 (2 Chr 36:10 when the year was expired). (2 Kgs 24:12; 2 Chr 36:10)

16 2 Kgs 25:8 gives the 7th day of the 5th month, Jer 52:12 the 10th day (14 and 17 Aug 586 in Horn's figures). (2 Kgs 25:8; Jer 52:12)

17 Ezekiel counts years from king Jehoiachin's captivity (597). His call fell in July 593 — 1 July in the 1942 tables, 31 July as Zimmerli cites them. Year 5, month 4, day 5 (Ezek 1:2): Parker & Dubberstein's 1942 table gives 1 July 593; Zimmerli's commentary (citing Parker–Dubberstein) gives 31 July 593 — a one-month difference that comes from where an extra month was inserted. His last dated word (29:17), 1st of the 1st month of the 27th year, = 26 April 571 in both. Ezek 40:1 (the five and twentieth year of our captivity, the fourteenth year after that the city was smitten) = 573. (Ezek 1:1–2; 29:17; 33:21; 40:1)

18 Cyrus' first year (Ezra 1:1, Cyrus king of Persia) as king of Babylon began, by the Babylonian count, 1 Nisan = 24 March 538 BC (Julian); he had taken Babylon in October 539. Ezra does not say how he counts Cyrus' first year; this is the usual reading. The Cyrus Cylinder records that he returned the gods of the sacred centres "on the other side of the Tigris" (Ashur, Susa, Agade, Eshnunna and others) to their places and "gathered all their inhabitants and returned to them their dwellings"; it does not name the Jews. (Ezra 1:1)

19 Cyrus' first year began in spring 538 (by the Babylonian count). Ezra 3 dates the altar by month only (the seventh) and the foundation by the second year of their coming (the second month), with no BC year, so they fall in 538 or 537 and in 537 or 536. (Ezra 1:1; 3:1, 8)

20 Ezra 4:6–23 jumps ahead to an accusation under Ahasuerus (usually identified with Xerxes) and letters under Artaxerxes about the city walls; 4:24 returns to the temple under Darius. The chapter is generally understood to be arranged by subject — opposition to the Jews — not in time order (Ahasuerus is usually identified with Xerxes, 486–465, and Artaxerxes with Artaxerxes I, 465–424). (Ezra 4:5–7, 23–24)

21 Julian-calendar dates are read from Parker & Dubberstein's Babylonian tables; a few may be a day out, and Jerusalem's month could begin a day before Babylon's. Parker & Dubberstein (1942, pp. 23–24) say about 70 % of their dates are exact and the rest may be one day out; the crescent was visible at Jerusalem 37 minutes earlier than at Babylon. Their 1956 edition changed a few month starts by a day (e.g. 9 Tammuz 586 = 18 July in Horn's 1956 figures, 19 July in the 1942 table). A computer check of every month start used (new moon by Meeus' method) found none that is impossible.

22 3 Adar of Darius' 6th year = 12 March 515 (Parker & Dubberstein). His 6th year began in spring 516, but its 12th month fell in 515. (Ezra 6:15)

23 First Maccabees (1:54) dates the abomination to 15 Chislev, SE 145: Dec 167 BC counting the era from spring 311, Dec 168 BC from autumn 312. Most scholars take 167. SE 145 ran from autumn 168 to autumn 167 BC if the era is counted from autumn 312 (Macedonian reckoning), and from spring 167 to spring 166 BC if it is counted from spring 311 (Babylonian reckoning). Chislev, the ninth Jewish month, falls in November–December, so the abomination was set up in December 168 or December 167 BC. Most scholars read 1 Maccabees as counting Jewish events from spring 311 and so give December 167 BC. Sacrifice on the idol altar, set up on the altar of God (1 Macc 1:54), began on 25 Chislev (1 Macc 1:59); the rededication three years later was on the same day of the month (1 Macc 4:52–54). (Dan 11:31)

24 The rededication was on 25 Chislev SE 148 (1 Macc 4:52): Dec 165 BC counting the era from autumn 312, Dec 164 BC from spring 311 (the usual date). (John 10:22)

25 Josephus dates the start of the Temple rebuilding to Herod's 18th year (Ant. 15.11.1: 20/19 BC) or his 15th (War 1.21.1); John 2:20 says it had been 46 years in building. (John 2:20)

26 There is no year 0. Born 6, 5 or 4 BC, he was twelve in AD 7, 8 or 9 (from 5 BC to AD 8 is twelve years). (Luke 2:42)

27 John tells of a cleansing at the first Passover (John 2:13–22); the others at the last (Mark 11:15–17). Robertson counts two; many take them for one incident. Robertson (§31, note a): "Many scholars consider this the same incident as that in the Synoptic Gospels … But there is no inherent difficulty in the repetition of such an act …" This chart follows Robertson and shows both. (John 2:13–22; Mark 11:15–17; Matt 21:12–13; Luke 19:45–46)

28 Forty and six years (John 2:20) from Herod's start, 20/19 BC, gives AD 27/28 (fits an AD 30 cross); from the shrine's completion, a year and six months later by Josephus (about 18/17 BC), AD 29/30. Josephus: Herod began the temple in his 18th year (Antiquities 15.11.1), the year Augustus came to Syria — 20 BC in Dio Cassius 54.7; the priests built the shrine itself in a year and six months (15.11.6); the whole was finished only under Albinus, c. AD 62–64 (20.9.7). Arithmetic: 20/19 BC + 46 years = AD 27/28; 18/17 BC + 46 = AD 29/30. Humphreys and Waddington (1992, n. 24) read John 2:20 of the finished shrine and cite Hoehner's AD 30 for this Passover; Edwards allows AD 31. (John 2:20)

29 Josephus says that the whole Temple was finished only under the procurator Albinus, c. AD 62–64 (Ant. 20.9.7).

30 Josephus: the war began in AD 66 (Nero's 12th year); the Temple was burned on the 10th of the month Lous (Ab), AD 70 — as Jesus foretold (Luke 21:6). (Luke 21:5–6, 20)

31 Revelation, which this chart does not date, ends with no temple: I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it (Rev 21:22), and the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them (Rev 21:3). (Rev 21:2–3, 22)

32 Acts 3–8 gives no years. These events fall between Pentecost (AD 33) and Saul's conversion (c. AD 34–35); their spacing on the chart is estimated. (Acts 3:1; 6:1; 9:1)

33 Acts does not date Stephen's death; it came before Saul's conversion (Acts 8:1; 22:20). The chart’s own estimate with System A is c. AD 34; with AD 30, c. AD 31–34. (Acts 7:58–8:1; 22:20)

34 Acts does not number Paul's journeys or give their years. The years are worked out from the Gallio anchor and Acts' time words; charts differ by a year or two. Berding (2021): 1st journey 47–48, 2nd 49–52, 3rd 52–57. "Three missionary journeys" is a modern way of dividing Acts. (Acts 13:1–21:16)

35 Paul wrote to Corinth at least three times: an earlier letter (1 Cor 5:9), 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. Many scholars add a fourth, the letter written with many tears (2 Cor 2:4). 2 Corinthians was written from Macedonia after Titus came (2 Cor 7:5–7), about a year after the collection was begun (2 Cor 8:10; 9:2). The closing line printed in the KJV after 1 Cor 16:24, "written from Philippi", is a later scribe's note, not part of the letter: 1 Cor 16:8 and 16:19 show Paul was at Ephesus, in Asia. The dates AD 55 and 56 are Berding's (2021); other writers differ by a year or two. (1 Cor 5:9; 2 Cor 2:3–4; 7:5–8; 8:10; 9:2)

36 Written in bonds (Eph 6:20; Col 4:3). Tradition and many scholars place these letters in Rome (c. AD 60–62); others in Caesarea (c. 57–59) or a possible imprisonment at Ephesus (c. 53–55). Rome: "The oldest tradition or conjecture dated all four epistles from Rome: and this is the opinion of most modern writers" (Lightfoot, Philippians); Berding 2021: Rome, AD 60–62. Caesarea: Böttger, Thiersch, Reuss and Meyer assigned Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon to it (listed by Lightfoot). Ephesus: Deissmann (1912) believed Paul was "then also a prisoner at Ephesus" when he wrote Philemon. Acts records no imprisonment at Ephesus, but Paul speaks of prisons more frequent (2 Cor 11:23). Many critical scholars also doubt that Paul wrote Ephesians (Kirby, quoting Kümmel), and many doubt Colossians. (Eph 6:20; Col 4:3; Phil 1:13; Phlm 9; 2 Cor 11:23)

37 Hebrews and 1 Peter name no date. Hebrews speaks as if priests still offer (Heb 8:4; 10:1–2), which fits a date before AD 70; others date it AD 80–95. 1 Peter was sent from "Babylon", taken to mean Rome. Hebrews: the author is unnamed — Origen: "who wrote the epistle, in truth, God knows" (Eusebius 6.25.14); it mentions Timothy’s release (Heb 13:23). 1 Peter: "Babylon" (1 Pet 5:13) = Rome "by a figure" (Eusebius 2.15.2, passing on the Roman tradition). Scholars’ dates for both range widely, so the chart gives wide ranges and grade E. (Heb 8:4; 10:1–2; 13:23; 1 Pet 5:13)