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Statement of belief: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word
is truth.” (John 17:17 KJV)
Completely re-written 5928± 10 30 2024 [2008-01-10]
Updated 5925[(*??*)] 08 29 2029
[2012-12-14] – completely reviewed and corrected.
"Forty and six years was
this temple
in building…?"
John
Contributing
towards a better understanding
of
the New Testament timeline
Abstract:
What exactly
happened at the beginning of the time period referenced by the words “forty and
six years was this temple in building” (John 2:20) and what did not happen?
When searching
for the answers to the above question I am once again realizing the importance
of reviewing my own prior presumptions and the basis I’ve thus far been
building upon and to correct whatever needs correction or improvement in view
of my most up to date discoveries.
Certainly a
building project going on for forty six years is likely to proceed with more
than one revision of prior plans, is it not? It is only all too easy, when
reading a sketchy account, to make false assumptions based upon a simplistic
understanding or upon a too superficial reading of the available records, is it
not?
Thus, when
re-studying Josephus’ rather lengthy writings re the events surrounding Herod
the Great and his many and extensive building projects, I came to realize that
his references to the building of the temple in his 15th year in one
book and his building of the temple, beginning in his 18th year, in
another book of his are not conflicting or erroneous statements. Rather these
statements are complementary and referencing two separate events: The first
one, in Herod’s 15th de jure year, referencing a restoration
of the existing temple building begun in the time in Ezra, and the second one, in
Herod’s 18th de facto year, six (!) years later, referencing
a complete re-building from the foundation of the entire temple building
proper. Cf. blue font text in this
table!
Based upon Josephus’ brief time
references, in different books of his, re these projects it appears as though
the restoration in Herod’s 15th de jure year was completed
within one calendar year and that the complete rebuilding of “the temple
itself…,” beginning in Herod’s 18th de facto year of reign,
“was built by the priests in a year and six months.” As best I can tell “the
cloisters and the outer enclosures…,” which “he built in eight years…,” were finished
“in the tenth year…,” which was, “the twenty-eighth [de facto] year of
Herod's reign…,” which year spilled “into the hundred and ninety-second
olympiad.”
Thus I find that Herod’s first
restoration project was completed, from beginning to end, within the year
beginning Tishri 22, 32 BCE, while Herod’s second temple project was a “very
great work…” making the temple “larger in compass, and to raise it to a most
magnificent altitude” was begun in the year beginning Tishri 22, 26 BCE and
completed ten years later in the year beginning Tishri 22, 16 BCE, the main
temple having probably been completed in time for Passover, 23 BCE.
Considering the following words of
Josephus it is clear that more was to follow (as implicated also by the word in
Luke 2:20:)
“So Herod took away the old foundations, and laid
others, and erected the temple upon them, being … in height twenty additional
cubits, which [twenty], upon the sinking of their foundations fell down; and this part it was that we
resolved to raise again in the days of Nero.”
Considerations
and references:
Quoting Scriptures:
“And the Jews' passover
was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem…” John 2:13 (KJV)
“Then said the Jews, Forty
and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in
three days?” John 2:20 (KJV)
Quoting from Ronald L.
Conte Jr.:
“Josephus makes several
conflicting statements about when the
777
Josephus, The
Antiquities of the Jews, 15.380.
778
Josephus, The Wars of
the Jews,
1.401.
While
thus Josephus’ statements may seem “conflicting” at first, a closer study of
Josephus’ works may reveal differently, or why would it be more likely that our
original source is in error and not a late interpreter in a very different
culture and using a very different language?
Quoting
from Josephus:
“Antiquities of the Jews - Book XV
“CONTAINING
THE INTERVAL OF EIGHTEEN
YEARS.
“FROM THE DEATH OF
ANTIGONUS TO THE FINISHING OF THE TEMPLE
“CHAPTER 1.
…
“CHAPTER 11.
“HOW HEROD REBUILT THE TEMPLE
“1.
AND now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a
very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, (22)
and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude,
as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was,
to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an everlasting
memorial of him; but as he knew the multitude were not ready nor willing to
assist him in so vast a design, he thought to prepare them first by making a
speech to them, and then set about the work itself; so he called them together,
and spake thus to them…
”6.
But the temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six months…”
Josephus,
The Antiquities of the Jews, XV:11:1&6.
“…in
the fifteenth
year of his reign, Herod
rebuilt the temple…”
Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, I:21:1.
Finding an initial anchor point in time for Herod the
Great’s reign and the beginning of the 46 years of building the temple:
Given the one true and reliable
reference, albeit not always correctly understood, I choose to base my
calculation initially upon the crucifixion in 19 CE, as shown elsewhere
within. The third Passover prior to
crucifixion, which was also the first Passover of Yeshua’s ministry (cf. this link!)
and the Passover at which the 46 year reference was given, occurred then at the
Passover in 16 CE.
Since the 46 years are given by John
in present tense, i.e. as an incomplete event, the beginning of the first of
these 46 years, must be the beginning of that biblical year within which the
Passover of 30 BCE is found [30 + 16 = 46 Passovers,] i.e. the year beginning
Tishri 22, 31 BCE. The event itself should be found in the year before that,
i.e. in the year beginning Tishri 22, 32 BCE.
Given also, as shown elsewhere
within, that Herod’s de facto rule in Judea began with his capture of Jerusalem
on the Day of Atonement in 43 BCE, and that his first de facto year of reign
began Tishri 22, 43 BCE, as recounted by Josephus, the first of the 46 years
corresponds to Herod’s 13th de
facto year of reign [beginning Tishri 22, 31 BCE,] with the actual beginning
being found within an accession year preceding said first year of the 46, i.e.
the year corresponding to Herod’s 12th de facto year of reign.
But this does not apparently agree
with either the 15th or the 18th year of Herod as given
in Josephus’ works as quoted above. How may this difference be reconciled, or
can it? Has Josephus or a translator of
Josephus made an error? Or, does the error belong on the part of the present
reader?
Quoting from Ronald L.
Conte Jr.:
“Herod was appointed as
king of the Jews by the Roman Senate, at the request of Marc Antony.741 However, the Romans did
not control
741 Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, 14.385-386.
I can only conclude that, based upon the fact that Judea
and
Quoting from
Josephus re the timing of Herod’s appointment in
“Antiquities of the Jews -
Book XIV
“CONTAINING THE
INTERVAL OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS.
“FROM THE DEATH OF QUEEN ALEXANDRA TO THE
DEATH OF ANTIGONUS.
“CHAPTER 14.
“HOW HEROD GOT AWAY FROM THE
KING OF ARABIA AND MADE HASTE TO GO INTO EGYPT AND THENCE WENT AWAY IN HASTE ALSO TO ROME; AND HOW, BY
PROMISING A GREAT DEAL OF MONEY TO ANTONY HE OBTAINED
OF THE SENATE AND OF CAESAR TO BE MADE KING OF THE JEWS.
“1. AS
for Herod, the great miseries he was in did not discourage him, but
made him sharp in discovering surprising undertakings…
“2.
Hereupon he resolved to go away, and did go very prudently the road to Egypt…
and made haste into the road to Pelusium;
and when the stationary ships that lay there hindered him from sailing
to Alexandria, he went to their captains, by whose assistance, and that out of
much reverence of and great regard to him, he was conducted into the city
[Alexandria], and was retained there by Cleopatra; yet was she not able to
prevail with him to stay there, because he was making haste to Rome, even
though the weather was stormy, and he was informed that the affairs of
Italy were very tumultuous, and in great disorder.
“3. So
he set sail from thence to Pamphylia, and falling into a violent storm,
he had much ado to escape to Rhodes, with the loss of the ship's burden;
and there it was that two of his friends, Sappinas and Ptolemeus, met with him;
and as he found that city very much damaged in the war against Cassius, though
he were in necessity himself, he neglected not to do it a kindness, but did
what he could to recover it to its former state. He also built there a
three-decked ship, and set sail thence, with his friends, for Italy,
and came to the port of Brundusium; and when he was come from thence to
Rome, he first related to Antony what had befallen him…
“4… Upon this the
senate was irritated; and
“5.
And this was the principal instance of Antony's affection for Herod, that he
not only procured him a kingdom which he did not expect, (for he did not come
with an intention to ask the kingdom for himself, which he did not suppose the
Romans would grant him, who used to bestow it on some of the royal family, but
intended to desire it for his wife's brother, who was grandson by his father to
Aristobulus, and to Hyrcanus by his mother,) but that he procured it for him so
suddenly, that he obtained what he did not expect, and departed out of
Italy in so few days as seven in all.
This young man [the grandson] Herod afterward took care to have slain, as we
shall show in its proper place. But when the senate was dissolved,
“6. All
this while Antigonus besieged those that were in Masada, who had plenty
of all other necessaries, but were only in want of water (27)
insomuch that on this occasion Joseph, Herod's brother, was contriving to run
away from it, with two hundred of his dependents, to the Arabians; for he had
heard that Malchus repented of the offenses he had been guilty of with regard
to Herod; but God, by sending rain in the night time, prevented
his going away, for their cisterns were thereby filled, and he
was under no necessity of running away on that account; but they were now of
good courage, and the more so, because the sending that plenty of water
which they had been in want of seemed a mark of Divine Providence…”
Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews,XIV:14:1-6
Can the Olympiad calendar be firmly anchored upon an
astronomically based calendar?
Based
upon a statement of Origen (“ca. 185–ca.
254”) the Olympiad calendar may be
anchored to the astronomical calendar:
"And Phlegon also who
compiled the Olympiads writes about the same things in his 13th book in the
following words: 'In the fourth
year of the 202nd Olympiad (AD 32-33), and eclipse of the Sun took place
greater than any previously known, and night came on at the sixth hour
of the day, so that stars actually appeared in the sky; and a great earthquake took place in
Bithynia and overthrew the greater part of Niceaea;" (Origen, "Contra
Celsus")
How
common is a total solar eclipse “at the sixth hour,” i.e. between about 11 AM
and 12 AM local time, as visible from the
|
|
All
total
and annular solar eclipses between 06:30 and 13:30 UT |
Time UT |
Visible
from |
T |
T & visible |
A or H & visible |
|
|
1 |
June 30, 10 CE Total |
11:11 |
No |
T |
|
|
|
|
2 |
February
15, 17 CE Annular |
09:41 |
Yes |
A |
|
Yes |
|
|
3 |
August 10, 17 CE Hybrid |
11:17 |
No |
H |
|
|
|
|
4 |
June
21, 19 CE Total |
11:02 |
Yes |
T |
Yes |
|
|
|
5 |
December
3, 20 CE Hybrid |
10:59 |
North-Africa
only |
H |
|
Yes |
|
|
6 |
March 28, 24 CE Total |
11:02 |
No |
T |
|
|
|
|
7 |
August
1, 26 CE Total |
09:52 |
South-Africa
only |
T |
??? |
|
|
|
8 |
January
26, 27 CE Annular |
13:07 |
S.
and |
A |
|
Yes |
|
|
9 |
January 15, 28 CE Annular |
12:58 |
No |
A |
|
|
|
|
10 |
November 24, 29 CE Total |
09:12 |
Yes |
T |
Yes |
|
|
|
11 |
March 19, 33 CE Total |
10:38 |
No |
T |
|
|
|
|
12 |
September 12, 33 CE Annular |
09:42 |
No |
A |
|
|
|
|
13 |
September
1, 34 CE Annular |
10:56 |
|
A |
|
Yes |
|
|
14 |
January 5, 37 CE Annular |
07:14 |
No |
A |
|
|
|
|
15 |
December
25, 37 CE Annular |
09:53 |
|
A |
|
??? |
|
|
16 |
June
21, 38 CE Annular |
06:43 |
E.
Africa & |
A |
|
? |
|
|
17 |
August
1, 45 CE Total |
09:18 |
N.
Africa, |
T |
Yes |
|
|
Conventional
wisdom has it that the 1st year of the 195th Olympiad
corresponds with AD 1 / AD 2 (cf. Wikipedia.) The above
correlation between Origen’s statement and NASA’s solar eclipse listing provides
that the 4th year of the 195th Olympiad corresponds with
AD 1 / AD 2. Thus, using conventional wisdom, we find a three year difference
and no apparent agreement between Origen’s record and NASA’s solar eclipse
listing, i.e. unless the March 19, 33 CE total solar eclipse is considered.
However, that eclipse shadow was only visible from the southernmost parts of
the Indian Ocean and Antarctica, so unless Origen’s statement is based solely
upon a slightly erroneous astronomical calculation of a solar eclipse and not
upon an actual observation that March 19, 33 CE eclipse does not seem to be a
possible fit, does it? And the way Origen’s statement is worded it certainly
does seem to be an actual observation, does it not? Cf. my table re
Herod’s reign and the 46 years and also this link
re Herod’s reign!
Accordingly,
I conclude that based upon Josephus, Origen, and NASA’s solar eclipse pages we
may firmly anchor all Olympiad dates provided by Josephus, among which are the
ones above quoted re the years of Herod’s reign and thus also the beginning of
the 46 years.
Sorting out the details re the
building of Herod’s temple:
As
may be perceived from my table Scripture
Chronology (cols L, M, N,) the 184th Olympiad is concurrent with
July 1, 47 BCE through June, 46 BCE. Notice that based upon the quotes above
Herod was made king in
Quoting Josephus re
Herod’s first restoration of the temple in his 15th de jure reign:
“The Wars Of The Jews Or The History Of
The Destruction Of Jerusalem
“CONTAINING
THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-SEVEN YEARS. FROM THE TAKING
OF
“CHAPTER 1.
…
“CHAPTER
20.
“HEROD
IS CONFIRMED IN HIS KINGDOM BY CAESAR, AND CULTIVATES A FRIENDSHIP WITH THE
EMPEROR BY MAGNIFICENT PRESENTS; WHILE CAESAR RETURNS HIS KINDNESS BY BESTOWING
ON HIM THAT PART OF HIS KINGDOM WHICH HAD BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM IT BY CLEOPATRA
WITH THE ADDITION OF ZENODORUSS COUNTRY ALSO.
…
“4.
Moreover, after the first games at Actium,
he added to his kingdom both the region called Trachonitis, and what lay in its
neighborhood, Batanea, and the country of Auranitis; and that on the
following occasion: Zenodorus, who had hired the house of Lysanias, had all
along sent robbers out of Trachonitis among the Damascenes; who thereupon had
recourse to Varro, the president of Syria, and desired of him that he would
represent the calamity they were in to Caesar. When Caesar was acquainted with
it, he sent back orders that this nest of robbers should be destroyed. Varro
therefore made an expedition against them, and cleared the land of those men,
and took it away from Zenodorus. Caesar did also afterward bestow it on Herod,
that it might not again become a receptacle for those robbers that had come
against
“CHAPTER
21.
“OF
THE [TEMPLE AND] CITIES THAT WERE BUILT BY HEROD AND ERECTED FROM THE VERY
FOUNDATIONS; AS ALSO OF THOSE OTHER EDIFICES THAT WERE ERECTED BY HIM; AND WHAT
MAGNIFICENCE HE SHOWED TO FOREIGNERS; AND HOW FORTUNE WAS IN ALL THINGS
FAVORABLE TO HIM.
“1.
ACCORDINGLY, in the fifteenth year of his reign,
Herod rebuilt the temple, and encompassed a piece of land about
it with a wall, which land was twice as large as that before enclosed. The
expenses he laid out upon it were vastly large also, and the riches about it
were unspeakable. A sign of which you have in the great cloisters that were
erected about the temple, and the citadel which was on its north side. The
cloisters he built from the foundation, but the citadel (32) he repaired at a
vast expense; nor was it other than a royal palace, which he called Antonia, in
honor of
“2.
Yet did he not preserve their memory by particular buildings only, with their
names given them, but his generosity went as far as entire cities; for when he
had built a most beautiful wall round a country in Samaria, twenty furlongs
long, and had brought six thousand inhabitants into it, and had allotted to it
a most fruitful piece of land, and in the midst of this city, thus built, had
erected a very large temple to Caesar, and had laid round about it a portion of
sacred land of three furlongs and a half, he called the city Sebaste, from
Sebastus, or Augustus, and settled the affairs of the city after a most regular
manner.”
Wrestling with and
finally making sense out of Josephus’ statement “Herod, in the eighteenth year
of his reign undertook… to build of himself the
Considering the fact
that Herod’s de jure reign began prior to his de facto reign over
Josephus’ reference to
Herod’s capture of
“4. This destruction befell
the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Agrippa and Caninius Gallus were consuls of
Rome (30)
on the hundred eighty and fifth olympiad, on the third month, on the solemnity
of the fast, as if a periodical revolution of calamities had returned
since that which befell the Jews under Pompey; for the Jews were taken by him
on the same day, and this was after twenty-seven years' time...” Josephus,
Antiquties, XIV:16:4.
In
the quote above we find the date (col L, M, N)
defining the beginning of Herod’s de facto reign (col P). Comparing said date with the last paragraph
below (beginning with “1. ABOUT this…”) it becomes clear that, at least in this
particular instance, Josephus is numbering the years of reign of Herod in terms
of de facto years. Obviously so since there are 28 years from the 185th
Olympiad to the 192nd Olympiad, and since Herod’s de facto reign
began with his capture and destruction of Jerusalem in the 185th
Olympiad:
“Antiquities of the Jews - Book XV
“CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF EIGHTEEN YEARS.
“FROM THE DEATH OF ANTIGONUS TO THE
FINISHING OF THE TEMPLE
“CHAPTER 1.
…
“CHAPTER 8.
“HOW TEN MEN OF THE CITIZENS [OF
…
“5. Since, therefore, he had now
the city fortified by the palace in which he lived, and by the temple which had a strong fortress by it, called Antonia,
and was rebuilt by himself, he contrived to make Samaria a
fortress for himself also against all the people, and called it Sebaste,
supposing that this place would be a strong hold against the country, not
inferior to the former. So he fortified that place, which was a
day's journey distant from
“CHAPTER 9.
“CONCERNING THE FAMINE THAT HAPPENED
IN JUDEA AND
“1. NOW on
this very year, which was the thirteenth year of the reign of Herod,
very great calamities came upon the country; whether they were derived from the
anger of God, or whether this misery returns again naturally in certain periods
of time (14)
for, in the first place, there were perpetual droughts, and for
that reason the ground was barren, and did not bring forth the same quantity of
fruits that it used to produce; and after this barrenness of the soil, that
change of food which the want of corn occasioned produced distempers in the
bodies of men, and a pestilential disease prevailed, one misery following upon
the back of another; and these circumstances, that they were destitute both of
methods of cure and of food, made the pestilential distemper, which began after
a violent manner, the more lasting. The destruction of men also after such a
manner deprived those that surived of all their courage, because they had no
way to provide remedies sufficient for the distresses they were in. When therefore the fruits of that year were spoiled, and
whatsoever they had laid up beforehand was spent, there was no foundation of
hope for relief remaining, but the misery, contrary to what they expected still
increased upon them; and this not only on that year, while they had nothing for
themselves left [at the end of it], but what seed they had sown perished also,
by reason of the ground not yielding its fruits on the second year. (15)
This distress they were in made them also, out of necessity, to eat many things
that did not use to be eaten; nor was the king himself free from this distress
any more than other men, as being deprived of that tribute he used to have from
the fruits of the ground, and having already expended what money he had, in his
liberality to those whose cities he had built; nor had he any people that were
worthy of his assistance, since this miserable state of things had procured him
the hatred of his subjects: for it is a constant rule, that misfortunes are
still laid to the account of those that govern.
…
“CHAPTER
11.
“HOW
HEROD REBUILT THE
“1. AND now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to
build of himself the temple of God,
(22)
and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude,
as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was,
to bring it to perfection; and that this would be sufficient for an everlasting
memorial of him; but as he knew the multitude were not ready nor willing to
assist him in so vast a design, he thought to prepare them first by making a
speech to them, and then set about the work itself; so he called them together,
and spake thus to them: "I think I need not speak to you, my countrymen,
about such other works as I have done since I came to the kingdom, although I
may say they have been performed in such a manner as to bring more security to
you than glory to myself; for I have neither been negligent in the most
difficult times about what tended to ease your necessities, nor have the
buildings. I have made been so proper to preserve me as yourselves from
injuries; and I imagine that, with God's assistance, I have advanced the nation
of the Jews to a degree of happiness which they never had before; and for the
particular edifices belonging to your own country, and your own cities, as also
to those cities that we have lately acquired, which we have erected and greatly
adorned, and thereby augmented the dignity of your nation, it seems to me a
needless task to enumerate them to you, since you well know them yourselves;
but as to that undertaking which I have a mind to set about at present, and
which will be a work of the greatest piety and excellence that can possibly be
undertaken by us, I will now declare it to you. Our fathers, indeed, when they
were returned from Babylon, built this temple to God Almighty, yet does it want
sixty cubits of its largeness in altitude; for so much did that first temple
which Solomon built exceed this temple; nor let any one condemn our fathers for
their negligence or want of piety herein, for it was not their fault that the
temple was no higher; for they were Cyrus, and Darius the son of Hystaspes, who
determined the measures for its rebuilding; and it hath been by reason of the
subjection of those fathers of ours to them and to their posterity, and after
them to the Macedonians, that they had not the opportunity to follow the
original model of this pious edifice, nor could raise it to its ancient
altitude; but since I am now, by God's will, your governor, and I have had
peace a long time, and have gained great riches and large revenues, and, what
is the principal filing of all, I am at amity with and well regarded by the
Romans, who, if I may so say, are the rulers of the whole world, I will do my
endeavor to correct that imperfection, which hath arisen from the necessity of
our affairs, and the slavery we have been under formerly, and to make a
thankful return, after the most pious manner, to God, for what blessings I have
received from him, by giving me this kingdom, and that by rendering his temple
as complete as I am able.” Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews,
XV:11:1.
“5… Thus was the first enclosure. In the midst
of which, and not far from it, was the second, to be gone up to by a few steps:
this was encompassed by a stone wall for a partition, with an inscription,
which forbade any foreigner to go in under pain of death. Now this inner
enclosure had on its southern and northern quarters three gates [equally]
distant one from another; but on the east quarter, towards the sun-rising,
there was one large gate, through which such as were pure came
in, together with their wives; but the temple further inward in that gate
was not allowed to the women; but still more inward was there a third
[court of the] temple, whereinto it was not lawful for any but the
priests alone to enter. The temple itself was within this; and before
that temple was the altar, upon which we offer our sacrifices and
burnt-offerings to God. Into none of these three did king Herod enter,
(24)
for he was forbidden, because he was not a priest. However, he took care
of the cloisters and the outer enclosures, and these he built in eight years.” Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, XV:11:5
“6. But the
temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six months; upon
which all the people were full of joy; and presently they returned thanks, in
the first place, to God; and in the next place, for the alacrity the king had
showed. They feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple: and for the
king, he sacrificed three hundred oxen to God, as did the rest every one
according to his ability; the number of which sacrifices is not possible to set
down, for it cannot be that we should truly relate it; for at the same
time with this celebration for the work about the temple fell also the day of
the king's inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a festival, and it
now coincided with the other, which coincidence of them both made the festival
most illustrious.” Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, XV:11:6.
…
“Antiquities of the Jews -
Book XVI
“CONTAINING
THE INTERVAL OF TWELVE YEARS.
“FROM THE FINISHING OF THE TEMPLE
“CHAPTER 1.
…
“CHAPTER
5.
“HOW
HEROD CELEBRATED THE GAMES THAT WERE TO RETURN EVERY FIFTH YEAR UPON THE
“1. ABOUT this time it was that Cesarea
Sebaste, which he had built, was finished. The entire building being
accomplished: in the tenth year, the solemnity of it fell into the
twenty-eighth year of Herod's reign, and into the hundred and ninety-second
olympiad.” Josephus, The
Antiquities of the Jews, XVI:5:1.
Looking at this last
paragraph I find the words “in the tenth year.” The 10th year of
what? “The entire building…” What “entire building?” For some time my
impression was that these words were in reference to “Cesarea Sebaste” in the
sentence just prior, but then I discovered that this cannot be. Why? Because we
are talking about Herod’s 28th year of reign, and in Antiquities
XV:8:5 – 9:1, quoted above, it is clear that Herod had been doing extensive
work on Cesarea Sebaste as early as in his 13th year. But that is 15
years prior, not 10! Clearly Josephus is referring to something else and isn’t
it true that the 28th year relates to the 18th year as
the 10th to the accession year before the 1st (cf. cols P and V)? And
what was begun in Herod’s 18th year if not his “very great work” or
rebuilding completely the temple in Jerusalem?!
And didn’t Josephus
say in Antiquities XV:11:5-6, quoted above, that “the cloisters and the outer
enclosures… he built in eight years… But the temple itself was built by the priests
in a year and six months?” (Beginning in an accession year prior to that!)
Well, it only makes sense that the temple portion of this project came before
“the cloisters and the outer enclosures,” does it not? Thus, the building of
the temple proper occupied the 1st and part of the 2nd of
these ten years. Thus the temple itself was finished prior to Zif, the second
month, and most likely also prior to Passover in the 2nd year. The
rest of the 2nd year serves as the accession year prior to the
subsequent full 8 years of building “the cloisters and the outer enclosures.”
And alas, “The entire building being accomplished: in the tenth year…”
There you have it!
Isn’t it clear as crystal now? Why did it take me so long to see it? And to top
it all off and make it even more clear, isn’t Josephus clearly stating in
Antiquities XV:8:5 above that “the temple… was rebuilt by himself ” no later than in Herod’s 13th year, i.e.
no less than five years prior to that second temple project which was begun in
his 18 year of reign?!!
When was “the day of the king’s inauguration” celebrated?:
“6.
But the temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six months…
at the same time with this
celebration for the work
about the temple fell also the
day of the king's inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a festival, and it now coincided with the other, which coincidence of them
both made the festival most illustrious.” Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, XV:11:6.
Now
that it has become clear to us when these temple projects were begun and
finished, and that we have learnt that the “year and six months” during which
“the temple itself was built by the priests” we can easily identify the timing
for “this celebration” and also Josephus’ words “the other” with Passover and
the Feast of Unleavened Bread, can we not? At the very least we are bound to
place all of these events some time after the beginning of Aviv, 23 BCE, which
month is the 6th full month following Tishri 22, 24 BCE.
But
that also tells us that Herod the Great was inaugurated as king in Rome (col O) at that
same time of the year 46 BCE, does it not? And doesn’t Josephus specifically
say that Herod “departed out of
Conclusions:
- Herod’s first project re the temple in
- This same 15th year of Herod’s de jure reign
(concurrent with Herod’s 12th de facto reign) is then
also serving as the accession year preceding the 46 years referenced in
Luke 2:20.
- Herod’s second project re the temple in
- “The temple itself was built by the priests in a year and six
months.” This was the first part of Herod’s 2nd project re
the temple in
- A celebration and thanksgiving was held during the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, 23 BCE: “6. But the temple itself was built by the
priests in a year and six months; upon which all the people were full
of joy; and presently they returned thanks, in the first place, to
God; and in the next place, for the alacrity the king had showed. They
feasted and celebrated this rebuilding of the temple… at the same time
with this celebration for the work about the temple fell also the day
of the king's inauguration, which he kept of an old custom as a
festival, and it now coincided with the other, which coincidence of
them both made the festival most illustrious.” (Josephus, The
Antiquities of the Jews, XV:11:6.)
- Based upon the above words of Josephus we are taught the
timing for Herod the Great’s inauguration in
- Furthermore, and because the festivities associated with Adar
and Esther, the queen, would not have been repeated in Adar II, i.e.
if the “sixth months” would have included and Adar II, after some
consideration I realized that, when reckoning the number of months of
e.g. someone’s reign, Tishri 22 through the end of the month becomes
an accession month, i.e. a month not counted, a naught, a zero! In
other words, the number zero is consistently built into the biblical
system of reckoning things! Zero is by no means a modern invention! To
me such a discovery means a lot of work reviewing and revising my
prior discoveries…
- The second part of this second project of Herod’s re the
- The exact placement of the Olympiad calendar as based upon a
statement of Origen and upon NASA’s lists of solar eclipses, is being
confirmed by Josephus’ works, and the many dates he provides, all of
which apparently fits perfectly into the within revised chronology.
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