The Kingdom Is At Hand (1944)

A year later the Watch Tower published The Kingdom Is At Hand making further changes to the chronology.

The date for Jerusalem's destruction remains unchanged from 606 BC [1, p. 171]:

The following chronology shows the date of Jerusalem’s destruction as in the year 607 before Christ. This recognizes the fact that the ancient reckoning of the vulgar year began in the fall. In other words, the vulgar year 606 B.C. really began in the fall of 607 B.C. As stated on page 239 (¶1) of “The Truth Shall Make You Free”: “Inasmuch as the count of the Gentile 'seven times' began its first year at the fall of 607 B.C., it is simple to calculate when they end. From the fall of 607 B.C. to the fall of B.C. 1 is exactly 606 years. ... Hence from the fall of B.C. 1 to the fall of A.D. 1914 is 1,914 years.”

However, the dates for the fall of Babylon and Cyrus’ first year have been shifted back by 1 year [1, p. 195]:

According to the most accurate histories, Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, his nephew, jointly took the capital of the Babylonian empire in 539 B.C. After Darius’ brief rule there, Cyrus came to power, in 537 B.C. That year marked the end of the seventy years’ desolation of Jerusalem, and that very year Jehovah God stirred up the heart of Cyrus to let his captives go free.

Issues

The Kingdom book is now using the correct year — 539 BC for Babylon's fall, but they are still insistent on two years rule for 'Darius the Mede' before Cyrus' first year began. Unfortunately no evidence is provided to show where they got these dates from.

References