The Watchtower 1968

The sources for dating the fall of Babylon to 539 BC are covered extensively in The Watchtower article 'The Book of Truthful Historical Dates' [1].

The Nabonidus Chronicle

The Watch Tower again claims that the Nabonidus chronicle may be used to determine the date 539 B.C [1, p. 490].

The fixing of 539 B.C.E. as the year when this historical event occurred is based on a stone document known as the Nabonidus (Nabunaid) Chronicle. This important find was discovered in ruins near the city of Baghdad in 1879, and it is now preserved in the British Museum. A translation of this finding was published by Sidney Smith in Babylonian Historical Texts Relating to the Capture and Downfall of Babylon, London, 1924, and reads in part:

“In the month of Tashritu [Tishri, Hebrew 7th month], when Cyrus attacked the army of Akkad in Opis on the Tigris, the inhabitants of Akkad revolted, but he (Nabonidus) massacred the confused inhabitants. The 14th day, Sippar was seized without battle. Nabonidus fled. The 16th day [October 11-12, 539 B.C.E., Julian, or October 5-6, Gregorian] Gobryas (Ugbaru), the governor of Gutium and the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle. Afterwards Nabonidus was arrested in Babylon when he returned (there). . . . In the month of Arahshamnu [Heshvan, Hebrew 8th month], the 3rd day [October 28-29, Julian], Cyrus entered Babylon, green twigs were spread in front of him—the state of ‘Peace’ (Sulmu) was imposed upon the city.”—Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton; 1955), James B. Pritchard, p. 306.

Please note, the Nabonidus Chronicle gives precise details as to the time when these events took place. This, in turn, enables modern scholars, with their knowledge of astronomy, to translate these dates into terms of the Julian or Gregorian calendars.

However, as we have already seen in the previous two sections this does not make sense; the Nabonidus chronicle doesn't contain a year for the fall of Babylon, nor any datable astronomical observations.

Furthermore, it should be noted that the Julian dates (in square brackets) were not part of Pritchard's translation [2, p. 306]; presumably they were added by the author of this Watchtower article.

The next paragraph also directly quotes Parker and Dubberstein's page on Nabonidus reign [3, p. 13], but as already noted in the previous section, their chronology is based upon the Ptolemaic canon which is incompatible with the Watch Tower's 'Biblical' chronology [3, pp. 10, 18].

Encyclopedia Quotations etc.

The Watchtower offers a new set of quotations from 21 sources that support the 539 BC date [1, p. 491]. They also note that this date has been 'generally accepted for the past sixty years' which raises the question of why their earlier publications such as the 1943 The Truth Shall Make You Free were still using incorrect dates for the fall of Babylon?

Recognized authorities of today accept 539 B.C.E. without any question as the year Babylon was overthrown by Cyrus the Great. In addition to the above quotations the following gives a small sampling from books of history representing a cross section of both general reference works and elementary textbooks. These brief quotations also show that this is not a date recently suggested, but one thoroughly investigated and generally accepted for the past sixty years.

However, if we look up each of these sources we find:

1. The Encyclopædia Britannica (14th Edition, 1929): 'Zedkiah's revolt in 588 B.C. led to another siege of Jerusalem, which was taken and destroyed in 586 B.C.' [4, p. 185]. (Also see 1972 edition: 'Jerusalem was sacked in 587 B.C.' [5, p. 157]).

2. The Encyclopedia Americana (1968): 'In 586 B.C. he destroyed Jerusalem' [6, p. 48b].

3. Nabonidus and Belshazzar (1929): 'Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C.' [7, pp. 36, 58].

4. The World Book Encyclopedia (1988): 'He captured Jerusalem in 587 or 586 B.C.' [8, p. 116].

5. Readings in Ancient History (1913): The Watchtower quotation appears to be in error since I cannot find it in the cited publication [9, p. 64]. It is likely that this was confused with another publication by Webster: Early European History (1917) where the exact quote can instead be found on page 38. The pages before say 'He captured Jerusalem in 586 B.C.' [10, p. 36].

6. The Story of the Ancient Nations (1912): 'finally, in the year 586 B.C., Jerusalem itself was taken and destroyed.' [11, p. 69].

7. History of the Hebrews (1914): 'In July, 586 B.C., a year and a half after the first appearance of the Chaldeans (II Ki. 25: 1-3), a breach was made in the wall of Jerusalem' [12, p. 198].

8. The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion (1955): 'Finally, in August, 587, Jerusalem was stormed' [13, p. 47].

9. Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary (1963): 'there is no record of the final and brutal devastation of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.' [14, p. 576].

10. World History at a Glance (1942): '586 Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem' [15, p. 2].

11. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (1962): 'There is then no reasonable escape from a 586 date for Jerusalem's fall' [16, p. 598].

12. The Popular and Critical Bible Encyclopaedia (1922): 'Nebuchadnezzar, who finally captured Jerusalem in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign (B.C. 588)' [17, p. 1222].

13. A New Standard Bible Dictionary (1926): 'During and after the fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.)' [18, p. 609].

14. The Universal Bible Dictionary (1912): 'The “Canon of Ptolemy” gives us the succession of the Babylonian monarchs' [19, p. 69], 'It was thrice taken in the years B.C. 607, 597 and 586, in the last of which it was utterly destroyed.' [19, p. 310]

15. Darius the Mede (1959): 'Nebuchadnezzar... (605-562 B.C.)' [20, p. 74].

16. Ancient and Medieval History (1929?): 'Nebuchadnezzar who ruled from 605 to 562 B.C.' [21, p. 90].

17. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913): 'His long reign of forty-three years (c. 605-562 B.C.)' [22, p. 666]

18. Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Encyclopedia (1931): 'Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylonia (605-562 B.C.)' [23, p. 8]

19. The Outline of History (1921): 'Nebuchadnezzar, after a trial of three puppet kings, carried off the greater part of the people into captivity in Babylon (586 B.C)' [24, p. 230]

20. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915): 'Fall of Jerus and Third Deportation... 586' [25, p. 637]

21. TODO

References