Traditional Jewish chronology

Jewish tradition has long preserved a record of dates and time sequences of important historical events related to the Jewish nation, including but not limited to the dates fixed for the building and destruction of the Second Temple, and which same fixed points in time (henceforth: chronological dates) are well-documented and supported by ancient works, although when compared to the synchronistic chronological tables of modern-day chroniclers, belabored mostly by western scholars of history, they are, notwithstanding, often at variance with their modern dating system.[1] Discrepancies between the two systems may be as much as 2 years, or well-over 100 years, depending on the event.[2] Prior to the adoption of the BC / AD era of computation and its synchronization with the regnal years of kings and Caesars recorded in historical records, Jews made use of the earlier Seleucid era counting (also known as the Year of Alexander), or, in Hebrew, minyan li-šṭarōth ("era of contracts"), by which historical dates were marked, from the time of Alexander the Great.

In ordinary time-keeping, often one single, major event was used as a datum point for reckoning time, meaning, given the enormity of a certain event, historians would make note of how long time had passed since that very event in relation to some later event, as is also the case in Jewish chronology.

Brief history of chronology

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The Greek historian Timaeus of Tauromenium (c. 365 BCE–260 BCE) introduced the system of reckoning by Olympiads. Nepos is generally acclaimed to have been the first Roman writer of chronography. He marks the birth of Alexander the Great in the 385th year after the foundation of Rome, giving also the names of the consuls for that year. Rome's founding, or what is known as "A.U.C.," ab urbe condita, "from the foundation of the city [of Rome]," is fixed by Nepos, as also by Polybius, as falling in "the second year of the seventh Olympiad," a year corresponding roughly with 751/0 BCE.[3] Like ancient Hebrew writers of history, their delineations of imperial chronology were centered mostly around provincial, or local, history.

Josephus, when bringing down the regnal years of the Babylonian kings who feature highly in Israel's history, cites the third book of Berossus.[4]

Manetho, who was a high priest and scribe of Egypt, copied down from the ancient Egyptian inscriptions a chronological list of eight early Persian kings for Ptolemy Philadelphus (266–228 BCE), beginning with Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, and omitting only the magi's interim rule.[5][6]

Suetonius's De vita Caesarum (Lives of the Caesars), Josephus's The Jewish War, and Epiphanius's On Weights and Measures (Syriac version), all have attempted to accurately portray the regnal years of the Roman emperors, and, despite their good efforts, there are still discrepancies between them.[7] These variants will invariably lead to discrepancies in the accepted chronologies. In Jerome's Chronici Canones (Chronicle) which he completed in 381 CE, the first regnal year of Julius Caesar, the first Roman emperor: Romanorum primus Caius Iulius Caesar, is marked as 48 BCE, but which Jerome in his original document had written in Roman numerals and given only the number of the Olympiad for events, and no more.[8] Indeed, the corresponding BCE dates which are now present in this work are only the additions of the modern editor, Rudolf Helm.

"For modern scholarship the problem," in E. J. Bickerman's words, "is 'how we know Caesar was assassinated on March 15, 44 BC[E].' Before 480 BC[E], no date can be precise in terms of the Julian calendar unless confirmed by astronomical phenomena."[9] There is also considerable disagreement among scholarship as to when to reckon the beginning of Augustus Caesar's imperium.[10]

Echoing these great difficulties in chronological notations, D. MacNaughton wrote: "Systems of ancient chronology, propounded even since the days of George Smith, have been many and various, and while in one year one date is assigned with an air of finality to a certain king, a few years later the date is abandoned as erroneous. These changes are natural."[11] In fact, it has taken many hundreds of years for scholars to arrive at the dates that are now assumed to be accurate, as purported by Grafton in his book on "Joseph Scaliger," and where he shows how long it took for Roman consular dates (and archon dates, etc.) to be converted into BC/AD.[12] All the ancient dating systems had to be aligned and converted into the modern system, and cross-referenced, and where others were not easily translatable.

For the chronologies of Babylonian kings up to the fall of Babylon, as well as the chronologies of Persian kings, beginning with Cyrus the Great, modern-day historians rely principally upon the work Ptolemy's canon.[13]

Cornerstones in Jewish tradition

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Amongst Jews, the era known as the Seleucid era has been used in antiquity to mark chronological events. It was used extensively by Sherira Gaon in the writing of his Iggeret. The practice of reckoning years by this system is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 10a): "Said Rav Nahman: In the Diaspora, it is not permissible to count [the date in years] except only by the kings of the Grecians." Its usage was common throughout the Jewish world until the sixteenth century,[14] and has been used by Yemenite Diaspora Jews as late as the 1940s, until their immigration to the Land of Israel. By their recollection of the current calendar year, it is shown to have started in the Fall (Tishri) of 312 BCE, which agrees with modern scholarship (312/311).[15][16][17][18]

It is disputed, however, how Alexander the Great fits-in with this Hellenistic dating era. Talmudic exegete, Rabbeinu Chananel, following Seder Olam, alleged that the Seleucid era commenced in the 6th-year of the reign of Alexander the Great,[19] and that there were 40 years from the building of the Second Temple (during the reign of the Persian king Darius the Great) until the 6th year of the reign of Alexander the Great, namely, in 312 BCE. According to Rabbeinu Chananel, this 40-year period marked the building of the Second Temple under Darius the Great in 352 BCE and the beginning of Grecian hegemony over Israel in 312 BCE. Modern-day chroniclers assign different dates for Alexander's reign. Modern-day chroniclers also contend that from Darius the Great who laid the foundation of the Second Temple to Alexander the Great there was a span of 190 years, rather than a mere 40 years.

According to Josephus, Alexander the Great died in the 114th Olympiad, after reigning 12 years.[20] If so, the 114th Olympiad would have corresponded with about 326 BCE, or what was then 15 years before they began to make use of the Seleucid era counting! Others put his death in 323 BCE, 12 years before the start of the Seleucid era.[21] It is said that the Jews started this system of reckoning the years, in recognition of Alexander the Great who passed through their country and who received warmly the Jewish High Priest who came out to greet him.[22] Others say that the introduction of this new era was in commemoration of the year in which Seleucus I reconquered Babylon and got the dominion over Syria,[15] which last opinion seems to be that of Josephus as well (cf. Antiquities 13.6.7.).

The advantage of the Seleucid era counting system is that dates marked in this era do not require later synchronization with the BC / AD era configurations based on kings' reigns, configurations added later by modern chroniclers when trying to fixate the regnal years of various kings. Rather, all that was required of the Seleucid era counting was to simply convert it into the date used in the Common Era, without consideration for the rest. While the Seleucid Era counting has been abandoned in the writing of legal deeds, promissory notes, court attestations, etc., it is still relied upon by all observant Jews when determining the 2nd Temple's destruction.[23] It is also considered very reliable when seeking to determine dates of events in relation to the Common Era, making for a more precise fixation of an event.

Another reason for the popularity of the Seleucid era counting amongst Jews is that the commencement of the Seleucid era was seen as a key fixed point of reference, being, according to Seder Olam, 1,000 years after the giving of the law at Sinai, or, precisely one-thousand years after Israel's departure out of Egypt.[24][25][26][27]

Typically, a Jewish date is only informative if it can be identified in relation to some other point of reference, in this case, usually another calendar.[28] Today, however, Jews make use of the era known as Anno Mundi, the "era of creation," in their transaction of dates.[29][30]

Second Temple: Its years of duration and year of destruction

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Jewish tradition holds that the Second Temple stood for 420 years.[31][32][33] The same Jewish tradition holds that the Second Temple was destroyed in the lunar month Av (August), in the year 68 of the Common Era (rather than in year 70),[34][35] naturally implying that the Second Temple was built in the year 352 BCE. Since it was during the reign of the Persian king, Darius the Great (Darius b. Hystaspes), that the Second Temple was constructed (Ezra 6:15),[36] in the sixth-year of his reign, the timeframe given for this Persian king in Jewish chronology (whose reign, accordingly, began in 358 BCE) stands at variance with the time-frame given for the same king in conventional chronology (who is said to have reigned between 521 BCE–486 BCE),[37] a 163-year disparity.

Jews have traditionally held the view that the date in which they are to reckon the 2nd Temple's destruction is the year which preceded the 380th year of the Seleucid era, also known as the Year of Alexander (a date which corresponds to anno 69 CE).[38] This means the destruction of the 2nd Temple fell out in the lunar month of Av in the 379th year of the Seleucid era counting (Year of Alexander), or what corresponds to anno 68 CE.[39]

The two most ancient historical sources used to support this tradition are the Jewish historian Josephus, citing the Book of Maccabees, and the Aramaic Scroll of Antiochus (compiled, according to Saadia Gaon, by the elders of the Schools of Hillel and Shammai).[40] The Scroll of Antiochus would have been written in the early first century CE, before Suetonius wrote his Lives of the Caesars. However, there is a proclivity among modern-day chroniclers to bypass these Jewish sources, in favor of others.

According to the Aramaic Scroll of Antiochus, from the Second Temple's rebuilding till the 23rd year of the reign of Antiochus Eupator, son of Antiochus Epiphanes who invaded Judaea, there had transpired 213 years in total (i.e. since the Second Temple's construction under Darius). Quoting verbatim from that ancient Aramaic record:

בִּשׁנַת עַסרִין וּתלָת שְׁנִין לְמִמלְכֵיהּ, בִּשׁנַת מָאתַן וּתלָת עֲסַר שְׁנִין לְבִניַין בֵּית אֱלָהָא דֵין, שַׁוִּי אַנפּוֹהִי לְמִיסַּק לִירוּשְׁלֵם‎
(Literal translation: In the twenty third year of his kingdom, in the two-hundred and thirteenth year of the rebuilding of this, God's house, he (Antiochus Eupator) put his face to go up to Jerusalem.)[41]

This time period given for Antiochus Eupator's reign is taken in conjunction with another record mentioned by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (12.9.2.). Based on Josephus's record, who cites from the First Book of Maccabees (6:16), Antiochus Eupator began his reign after his father's death (Antiochus Epiphanes) in anno 149 of the Seleucid era (= 162 BCE).[42] Twenty-three years into Antiochus Eupator's reign would have then been anno 172 of the Seleucid Era, or what was then 139 BCE.[43] Since, according to the Scroll of Antiochus, the Second Temple had already been standing 213 years, this means that the Second Temple was completed in anno 352 BCE, being what was then the 6th year of the reign of Darius the king (i.e. Darius, the son of Hystaspes), the year in which the king finished its building according to Ezra 6:15. Jewish tradition, which assigns 420 years to its duration, means that its destruction occurred in 68 CE.

Although this date of the Temple's rebuilding largely disagrees with modern scholarship who base their chronologies upon the Babylonian Chronicles and its rebuilding in 516 BCE when Darius I was thought to have reigned,[44] it has, nonetheless, long been held by religious Jewish circles as being accurate and reliable, since it is founded upon a tradition passed down generation after generation.[23] Modern scholars seek to rectify this apparent disparity in time by saying that "the Darius in whose reign the Second Temple was built, was not Darius I, as is commonly supposed, but Darius II."[45] In this case, the chronology thus established is in striking agreement with certain chronological data or implications in Josephus and rabbinic literature [45] as well as the writing of a letter to Artaxerxes Ezra 4:7 before Darius II's decree to rebuild (Ezra 6:12) – Artaxerxes I ruled between Darius I and II. On the other hand, the first decree to rebuild occurred before Darius I, by Cyrus Ezra 1:2, and during Artaxerxes I's reign work was begun on rebuilding the city of Jerusalem during which a chamber of the temple is in use Nehemiah 13:6–7. If the Darius in whose reign the Second Temple was built was Darius I, the date of its construction must, of necessity, be pulled back earlier to 516 BCE.[46]

Counter-arguments against Seder Olam

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The Greek historian Herodotus lived from circa 484 BCE to 425 BCE, and wrote about the dynastic history of four Persian kings in nine books: Cyrus (557–530 BCE, Book 1); Cambyses (530–522 BCE, Book 2 and part of Book 3); Darius (521–486 BCE, the rest of Book 3 and Books 4,5,6); and Xerxes (486–479 BCE, Books 7, 8, 9).

One of the strongest counter-arguments that can be made against Seder Olam and its demarcations in time is that, if the Second Temple was completed in the 6th year of the reign of Darius the Great, as noted by the Hebrew scriptures (Ezra 6:15), and which Temple, according to Seder Olam, stood 420 years and was built in 352 BCE, this would put the Greek historian Herodotus as having written his Histories (compiled c. 430 BCE) long before the event detailing Darius's actions ever having taken place, or some 72 years before Darius the Great ever came to power. Based on the year in which Herodotus completed his Histories, and where he mentions Cyrus the Great as reigning 29 years, and his son Cambyses reigning 5 years, and Darius the Great reigning 36 years, this would point to a time much earlier than that presumed to have happened for these same events based on Seder Olam. These four kings were all before Herodotus died, as Herodotus could not possibly have written about kings that, according to the Seder Olam, supposedly lived after his time.

In conclusion, the terminus post quem for the Second Temple's construction would have been before Herodotus wrote his Histories. These arguments point to the primacy of Josephus' chronological timetable over those written in Seder Olam.

According to the Chronicle of Jerome, Herodotus became well-known in the 78th Olympiad, meaning, between 378 BCE–375 BCE, about 52–55 years after compiling his Histories.

Another difficulty with Seder Olam is in its chronological list of successive Babylonian and Persian kings (chapters 28–29), during the one-hundred years prior to the building of the Second Temple, and which stands in stark contrast to the earlier historical records for the same kings, as penned by Josephus who cites Berossus, as well as by Manetho and by Ptolemy of Alexandria in his Canon.

Seder Olam has contracted the Persian period into 34 years,[47] explained by Rashi to mean the time span between the building of the Second Temple under Darius in 352 BC (according to Jewish calculations) and Alexander the Great's rise to power in 318 BCE.[48] This time-frame, therefore, does not signify the end of the dynasties in Persia, but rather of their rule and hegemony over Israel before Alexander the Great rose to power. The difficulty besetting this explanation, however, lies in the fact that from Darius I who laid the foundation of the Second Temple to Alexander the Great, who brought an end to Persian hegemony over Israel, there are collected no less than 190 years.[49][50] This would suggest that the author of Seder Olam confounded Darius I with Darius III Codomannus, the latter Darius being a contemporary with Alexander the Great.[51]

Another variant argument against the priority of Seder Olam is that if there were only 34 years from Darius I to Alexander the Great, Haggai 1:1 informs its reader that the first high priest to officiate in the Second Tempe was Jeshua b. Josadek, and that this high priest was contemporary with Darius I. Josephus informs his readers that there was a succession of eight high priests from Jeshua b. Josadek to Simon the Just (see infra), which last high priest, according to the Talmud (Yoma 69a), was contemporary with Alexander the Great. Since the high-priesthood is passed down from father to son after the father's death, it strains credulity to think that, in only a short 34-year period, eight high priests served in that Temple. Even if one were to extrapolate from Josephus's words (Antiquities 11.8.4–5.) that Alexander the Great had actually met-up with the sixth line of high priests, namely, with Jaddua b. Jonathan, this would imply that each high priest served, on average, no longer than a little over 5.5 years. Contemporary chronology puts this same period at approximately 190 years, which, on average, makes each of the eight high priests serving for a period of about 24 years.

The Sabbatical year as a means to determine events

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The Jubilee and Sabbatical year provided a long-term means for dating events. Unfortunately, the Jewish method of calculating the recurring Sabbatical year (Shmita) has been greatly misunderstood by modern chroniclers of history, owing to their unfamiliarity with Jewish practice, largely due to its being ensconced in the Hebrew language, and which has led to many speculations and inconsistencies in computations. According to Maimonides (Mishne Torah, Hil. Shmita ve-Yovel 10:7), during the Second Temple period, the seven-year cycle which repeated itself every seven years was actually dependent upon the fixation of the Jubilee, or the fiftieth year, which year temporarily broke off the counting of the seven-year cycle. Moreover, the laws governing the Jubilee (e.g. release of Hebrew bondmen, and the return of leased property to its original owners, etc.) were never applied all throughout the Second Temple period, but the Jubilee was being used during the period of the Second Temple in order to fix and sanctify thereby the Sabbatical year.[87][88] A Sabbatical year could not be fixed without the year of the Jubilee, since the Jubilee serves to break-off the 7 x 7-year cycle, before resuming its count once again in the 51st year. While the 49th year is also a Sabbatical year, the fiftieth year is not the 1st year in a new seven-year cycle, but rather is the Jubilee. Its number is not incorporated into the seven-year cycle. Rather, the new seven-year cycle begins afresh in the 51st year, and in this manner is the cycle repeated.[89] After the Temple's destruction, the people began a new practice to number each seventh year as a Sabbatical year, without the necessity of adding a fiftieth year.[90][87]

According to Maimonides (1138-1205), the reckoning of the Sabbatical years and Jubilees was renewed in Israel when Ezra the Scribe came up to the land in the Temple's seventh year (346 BCE), and which same year became the 1st-year of the seven-year cycle, the first Sabbatical year being made seven years later when the Temple had stood for thirteen years.[91] Maimonides, in his Responsa, repeats the same claims, but is less specific.[92] Prior to Ezra's arrival, the Sabbatical years and Jubilee had been broken-off during the years of exile. This renewed counting, which Ezra initiated in the Temple's seventh year (six years after its rebuilding), happened to fall in anno 346 BCE, which year marked the 1st year of the new seven-year cycle.

Arguments in favor of the priority of this Jewish tradition are had in a statement made in the First Book of Maccabees, and later cited by Josephus in his Antiquities, where it is learnt that the "year 150 of the Seleucid dominion" was a Sabbatical year in the Land of Israel.[93] This same year corresponds to the Fall of 162 BCE (lunar month Tishri), continuing unto the Fall of the following year in 161 BCE (lunar month Elul).[94] By taking the year in which the seven-year cycle was reinstated in Israel with Ezra's return in 346 BCE (accounting for the adjustment of the Jubilee every 50 years and beginning anew the seven-year cycle in the 51st year), the year 162/161 BCE (being the 150th year of the Seleucid era) was, indeed, a Sabbatical year.

Other Sabbatical years mentioned by Josephus are anno 178 Seleucid era, corresponding with 134 BCE–133 BCE,[95][96] and anno 271 Seleucid era, corresponding with 41 BCE–40 BCE,[97] when Herod and Sosius captured Jerusalem, effectively ending the Hasmonean dominion.[98] Moreover, according to Jewish tradition, the destruction of, both, the First and the Second Temple was in a post-sabbatical year,[99][100] meaning, in the 1st year of the seven-year cycle. In all these cases, the dates of these events as brought down by conventional non-Jewish chronology cannot possibly coincide with the Sabbatical year and still be faithful to the Seleucid era counting. Only when viewed through the lens of Jewish tradition is there complete harmony in these dates.

Josephus's timeline of events

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It is difficult to reconcile Josephus's history of the Second Temple period with that of rabbinic tradition, if not impossible. Although the Seleucid era dates and Olympiads penned by Josephus are, indeed, accurate (see infra) and do not contradict rabbinic tradition, Josephus's accounts of the Jewish high priests and the great span of time in which they all officiated would make the Second Temple appear to have stood six-hundred and thirty-nine years.

Josephus, in his historical works, often makes use of the Seleucid era counting to mark important events, as well as the Olympiad era. Occasionally, he will use both dating systems to describe a single event. The Seleucid era counting began in 312/11 BCE.[15][16]

Assuming that the year of the Second Temple's destruction is the same for both Josephus and Seder Olam, in 68 CE, the following discrepancies are irreconcilable:

Comparative Jewish Chronology
Event Josephus Seder Olam
Creation of Adam [...] 3761 BCE
(1 anno mundi)
Great Deluge (in time of Noah) [...] 2105 BCE
(1656 anno mundi)[117][118]
From the creation of Adam to the Great Deluge 2262 years[119][120] 1656 years[117]
Israel's departure from Egypt [...] 1312 BCE
(2448 anno mundi)[121][122]
First Temple's duration 470 years[123] (411 years[124]) 410 years[125]
From destruction of First Temple to the beginning of the exiles' return to Jerusalem 19th year of reign of Nebuchadnezzar till after 50 years[126] 19th year of reign of Nebuchadnezzar till after 52 years[127]
(422 BCE–370 BCE)
Beginning and end of 70 years of captivity 19th-year of reign of Nebuchadnezzar till the 1st year of Cyrus (roughly corresponding with the 17th year of the reign of Nabonnedus)[128] Destruction of First Temple till the building of the Second Temple (the destruction of Jerusalem)[129][130]
(422 BCE–352 BCE)
Building of Second Temple under Darius (Artaxerxes[131]) Date: 571 BCE[132] Date: 352 BCE
Second Temple's duration 639 years[133] 420 years[134]
Beginning of new seven-year cycle under Ezra Date: 533 BCE[135] Date: 346 BCE[136][137]
Years of Persian dominion over Israel (571 BCE–335 BCE)[138] 34 years[129] (352 BCE–318 BCE)
Years of Grecian dominion over Israel 170 years[139] (335 BCE–165 BCE) 180 years[129] (318 BCE–138 BCE)
Duration of the Hasmonean dynasty 126 years[140] (165 BCE–39 BCE) 103 years[129] (138 BCE–35 BCE)
Duration of Herodian dynasty 107 years[141] (39 BCE–68 CE) 103 years[129] (35 BCE–68 CE)

Davidic line

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Several vital clues are provided by the 2nd-century authors of Seder Olam and the Tosefta, as to the placement of events in relation to the Jubilee and seven year cycle. Although no dates are provided in ancient records, general time-frames for certain events are also provided by an inference to their relation to either the First Temple's building or to the First Temple's destruction, and which Temple is said to have stood 410 years.[142][143][144] Since, according to Jewish oral tradition, the destruction of the First Temple occurred in 422 BCE,[145][146] a year which also corresponded to the 1st-year of the seven-year cycle,[147][148] scholars have sought to plot all events described in the Hebrew Scriptures based on these reference points. Other references include such facts (as brought down in Seder Olam) that the 11th-year of Solomon's reign, when he completed his building of the First Temple, was in the 4th-year of the seven-year cycle,[149] or, similarly, that Jehoiachin's exile began 25 years before the next Jubilee and during the fourth year of a Sabbatical year,[150] or that the 18th-year of Josiah's reign was the year of Jubilee,[151] and that the 14th-year after the First Temple's destruction was also a Jubilee.[152]

Moreover, the interval between the First Temple's destruction in 422 BCE and the Second Temple's destruction in 68 CE is put at 490 years.[153]

In the Jewish custom of recollecting regnal years of kings, the 1st day of the lunar month Nisan marks a New Year for kings, meaning, from this date was calculated the years of the reign of Israelite kings; thus if a king was enthroned in the preceding month, Adar, he begins his second year of reign in the next lunar month, following the 1st of Nisan.[154] Based on this unique way of reckoning regnal years, if King X died in the lunar month Nisan in the year 2022, and King XX succeeded him on the throne in Nisan of 2022, both kings are reckoned as having reigned one year in 2022. All dates provided in the following table showing King David's line of succession are, therefore, made subject to this caveat.

If the assumption is made that the date implicit in conventional chronology for the destruction of the First Temple is 586 BCE (instead of 422 BCE, as is found in rabbinic chronology), then 164 years should be added to all the dates in the "Seder Olam chronology" column showing David's dynasty.

Josephus's enumeration of High Priests during the Second Temple period

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Josephus painstakingly listed the complete panoply of Jewish high priests who served during the Second Temple period and which, by comparison of dates when each man officiated as high priest, can be used as a time indicator to determine the span of time in which the Second Temple had its existence. It is of primary importance to note that Josephus, who claims that the Second Temple stood 639 years (approximately from 571 BCE), is consistent with his figures and demarcations in time all throughout his histories. For example, Josephus claims that from the Second Temple's building until the end of the tenure of the High Priest Menelaus (removed from office in 162 BCE), there had transpired 414 years, with a total of 15 high priests during that span of time (for an average tenure of 27.6 years per high priest), beginning with Jesus the son of Josadek, and ending with Menelaus.[207] Indeed, a collection of these years amounts to a starting point for the Second Temple in around 576 BCE, within the margin of error for Josephus's figures.

Elsewhere, Josephus makes the remarkable claim that 471 years and 3 months had passed from the time that the exiles returned from the Babylonian captivity to the time that Aristobulus, the son of John Hyrcanus, began his reign as both king and high priest, the beginning of whose reign is put at c. 101 BCE.[208] Indeed, a calculation of these years points to a time when the Jewish exiles were being resettled in the country in c. 572 BCE, one year before the year in which Josephus gives as the Temple's rebuilding in 571 BCE.[209] In Josephus's Antiquities, the same period of en-masse Jewish immigration to the land of Israel after the Babylonian captivity is put at 481 years and 3 months prior to the reign of Aristobulus b. John Hyrcanus, or what would have been c. 582 BCE, some 11 years before the building of the Second Temple.[210]

According to Josephus, there were a total of 83 officiating high priests from the founding of the Israelite nation under Moses and Aaron, the first high priest, until the destruction of the Second Temple.[211][212] Of these, 28 high priests served the Jewish nation, over a span of 107 years, from Herod the Great until the temple's destruction.[213] The following table, with its approximate dates, lists in chronological order the Jewish high priests that officiated in the Second Temple, from its foundation laid by Darius the Great unto its destruction in the 2nd year of the reign of Vespasian:

List of Jewish High Priests [of the Second Temple] (source: Josephus)
Year[214] High Priest Contemporary persons / events Result
c. 515 BCE Jeshua b. Josadek
(ישוע בן יהוצדק‎) 		Jeshua was the first high priest to serve the nation after Israel's return from the Babylonian exile, and was contemporary with Haggai the prophet and Darius the Great. Jeshua (Joshua) is mentioned in Haggai 1:1, 1:12, 1:14, and in Zechariah 3:1. According to Josephus, from Jeshua b. Josadek to Antiochus Eupator, there were 15 high priests from his posterity, spanning a period of 414 years.[215] This high priest's lineage was replaced thereafter by Alcimus and by the Hasmoneans. Jeshua was succeeded by his son, Joacim (Yoiakim).[216]
c. 480 BCE Joacim b. Jeshua
(יויקים בן ישוע‎) 		Joacim assumed the title of high priest after his father. Joacim was contemporary with Xerxes, the son of Darius the Great, and with Ezra the scribe.[217] Josephus gives no indication as to how long he served as high priest. At his death, the high priesthood passed on to his son, Eliasib (Elyashiv).[218]
c. 443 BCE Eliasib b. Joacim
(אלישיב בן יויקים‎) 		Eliasib assumed the title of high priest after his father's death.[218] The wall of Jerusalem was rebuilt during his high priesthood.[219][220] Eliasib was contemporary with Mordecai and Esther, as well as with Nehemiah who served the Persian king Artaxerxes. Josephus gives no indication as to how long he served as high priest. At his death, the high priesthood passed on to his son, Joiada (Yoiada).[221]
c. 425 BCE Joiada b. Eliasib
(יוידע בן אלישיב‎) 		Joiada assumed the title of high priest after his father's death.[221] Josephus gives no indication as to how long he served as high priest. At his death, the high priesthood passed on to his son, Jonathan (Yonathan).
c. 408 BCE Jonathan b. Joiada
(יונתן בן יוידע‎) 		Jonathan assumed the title of high priest after his father's death.[221] Josephus gives no indication as to how long he served as high priest. Jonathan was a contemporary with the Persian king Artaxerxes II.[222] Jonathan's son, Manasseh, married the daughter of Sanballat (satrap of Samaria)[223] and officiated as the first high priest in the Samaritan temple in Mount Gerizim.[224] At his death, the high priesthood passed on to his son, Jaddua (Yaddua).
c. [?] BCE Jaddua b. Jonathan
(ידוע בן יונתן‎) 		Jaddua assumed the title of high priest after his father's death.[225] Friend and ally with the Persian king Darius III Codomannus, and a contemporary with Alexander the Great, b. Phillip, and who had actually met him.[226] In his days, the temple of the Samaritans was built in Mount Gerizim, with Jaddua's brother, Manasseh, serving as its first high priest. Josephus gives no indication as to how long Jaddua served as high priest. At his death, the high priesthood passed on to his son, Onias I.
c. 315 BCE Onias I. b. Jaddua
(נחוניו בן ידוע‎) 		Onias I assumed the title of high priest after his father's death.[227] Josephus gives no indication as to how long he served as high priest. Onias I lived around the time of Ptolemy I Soter and Demetrius I of Macedon and would have seen his country taken-over by Ptolemy Soter.[228] At his death, the high priesthood passed on to Simon, who was called The Just.
c. [?] BCE Simon the Just b. Onias I
(שמעון הצדיק בן נחוניו‎) 		Simon the Just was a highly acclaimed high priest, who is considered by the Sages of Israel to be one of the last remaining illustrious men of the Great Assembly.[229] The Sages say that he served as high priest for 40 years.[230] Simon the Just was a contemporary with Ptolemy Philadelphus. Simon's son, Onias II, was too young to hold the office of high priest after Simon had died, the office being conferred to Simon's brother, Eleazar.[231]
c. 307 BCE Eleazar b. Onias I
(אלעזר בן נחוניו‎) 		Eleazar was the brother of Simon the Just and served as high priest after the death of Simon the Just.[231] He was also a contemporary with both Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy Euergetes, and was the high priest that consented in having the Torah translated into Greek, known as the Septuagint (LXX).[232] Josephus leaves no indication as to the number of years in which he officiated as high priest. Manasseh, who was the uncle of Eleazar, succeeded him in the high priesthood.[233]
c. [?] BCE Manasseh b. Jaddua
(מנשה בן ידוע‎) 		Served as high priest after the death of Eleazar, the high priest.[233] Josephus leaves no indication as to the number of years in which he officiated as high priest. After Manasseh was deceased, Onias II b. Simon the Just succeeded him in the high priesthood.[233]
before 204–[?] BCE Onias II b. Simon the Just
(נחוניו בן שמעון הצדיק‎) 		Served as high priest after the high priest Manasseh.[234] Onias II was a contemporary with Antiochus III, with Ptolemy Euergetes and with Ptolemy Philopator.[233] Josephus leaves no indication as to the number of years in which he officiated as high priest. Simon b. Onias II succeeded him in the high priesthood.
c. ? BCE Shimon b. Onias II
(שמעון בן נחוניו‎) 		Served as high priest after the death of his father Onias II, the son of Simon the Just.[235] Josephus leaves no indication as to the number of years in which he officiated as high priest. Onias III succeeded him in the high priesthood.[235]
c. ? BCE Onias III b. Shimon
(נחוניו בן שמעון‎) 		The office of high priest conferred upon him after the death of the high priest Simon b. Onias II.[236] Josephus leaves no indication as to the number of years in which he officiated as high priest. Onias III was a contemporary with Ptolemy Epiphanes.[235] Upon the death of Onias III, the high priesthood was conferred upon Jesus (Jason), the son of Simon.
c. [?]–172 BCE Jesus b. Shimon (called Jason)
(יהושע בן שמעון הנקרא יסון‎) 		Presumed to have been appointed high priest by Antiochus Epiphanes after the death of the high priest Onias III.[236] Jesus (Jason) was removed from the high priesthood by Antiochus Epiphanes, who then appointed Jesus' brother to take his place.[237]
c. 172–162 BCE Onias IV b. Shimon (called Menelaus)
(נחוניו בן שמעון הנקרא מנלאוס‎) 		Made high priest by Ptolemy Philometor, king of Egypt. Brother of the former high priest Jesus (Jason), Onias IV served as Israel's high priest for 10 years,[238] until he was removed from this office by Antiochus Eupator who invaded Judea, and the title of high priest then given to Jacimus.[239] With the end of Onias' priesthood, there had been a total of 15 high priests officiating in the Second Temple from its rebuilding, which same period spanned 414 years, beginning with Jesus the son of Josadek, unto Menelaus (Onias IV).[239][236] Antiochus Eupator desecrated the Jewish Temple during his priesthood, in 169 BCE (anno 143 of the Seleucid era).[240] Onias IV was put to death at the insistence of Lysias, the general of Antiochus' army, in Berea (now, Aleppo Syria).[239]
c. 162–159 BCE Alcimus (called Jacimus)
(יקימון / יקים‎) 		Appointed as Israel's high priest by Antiochus Eupator,[241] who held the office of high priest for 3 years[242] This timeframe given for Alcimus is corroborated by the First Book of Maccabees (9:54–56), where it states that Alcimus was stricken with palsy in the 153rd year of the Seleucid era (159/8 BCE), and died shortly thereafter.[243] With Alcimus' death, the people conferred the high priesthood upon Judas Maccabeus,[244] after whom no man held the position of high priest for a period of seven years[242]
c. 159–156 BCE Judas b. Matthias
(יהודה בן מתתיה חשמונאי הנקרא מקבי‎) 		Judas served as Israel's high priest for 3 years, until his death.[245][246] Killed in battle, the high priesthood of Judas was conferred on his brother Jonathan nearly 8 years later.
c. 149–142 BCE Jonathan b. Matthias
(יונתן בן מתתיה חשמונאי‎) 		Jonathan held the title of high priest for 7 years until his death.[242][247] Prior to this time, there was an interlude of 7 years during which time the high priesthood remained in abeyance (from 156–149 BCE)[242] At Jonathan's capture and death, the high priesthood was conferred upon his brother Simon
c. 142–134 BCE) Simon b. Matthias
(שמעון בן מתתיה חשמונאי‎) 		In the year 170 of the Seleucid era (corresponding to 142/1 BCE), Simon released Israel from paying tribute to the Macedonian kings.[248][249] Simon held the title of high priest for nearly 8 years until his death[242] Simon's death is recorded as being in anno 177 of the Seleucid era (corresponding to 135/4 BCE).[250] At Simon's death, the high priesthood was conferred upon his son, John Hyrcanus
c. 134–101 BCE John b. Simon (called Hyrcanus I)
(יוחנן בן שמעון הנקרא הורקנוס‎) 		John Hyrcanus served as high priest over Israel for 33 years[251] (another opinion says 31 years,[252] and another 30 years[242]). In the Mishnah (Maaser Sheni 5:15, Parah 3:5, et al.) he is mentioned as Yoḥanan Cohen Gadōl (Yohanan the High Priest).[253] Antiochus VII Sidetes (known as Antiochus the Pious) invaded Judea during John Hyrcanus' tenure as high priest, during the 162nd Olympiad (c. 133 BCE).[254] He was contemporary with Ptolemy Lathyrus. After living an illustrious life as a Pharisee, he later turned Sadducee,[255] and died, leaving his office to his eldest son, Aristobulus.
c. 101–100 BCE Aristobulus (also called Judas) b. John Hyrcanus
(אריסטובלוס‎) 		Eldest son of John Hyrcanus. Assumed the position of, both, high priest and king after his father's death.[210][256][257] Served as high priest for only one year.[258] During this year, Aristobulus ruled conjointly with his brother Antigonus.[256] Aristobulus was succeeded in the high priesthood by his brother Alexander Jannaeus.
c. 100–73 BCE Alexander Jannaeus b. John Hyrcanus
(אלכסנדרוס ינאי‎) 		Alexander Jannaeus who reigned over Israel for a total of 27 years, as both king and high priest[259] In the Talmud and Midrash, he is simply known as Yannai ha-Melekh.[260] The king's brother-in-law was the famous rabbinic sage, Simeon ben Shetach. Upon Alexander Jannaeus' death his wife officiated as queen over the nation for 9 years. She gave the high priesthood to her son Hyrcanus.
c. 73–64 BCE Hyrcanus II b. Alexander Jannaeus
(הורקנוס בן ינאי‎) 		Appointed by his mother, the wife of Alexander Janneus, to officiate as high priest of the nation, and which position he held for 9 years, until his mother's death.[261][262] Upon the death of his mother, Aristobulus (brother of Hyrcanus) usurped the role of high priest
c. 64–61 BCE Aristobulus II b. Alexander Jannaeus
(אריסטובלוס בן ינאי‎) 		He served as high priest for 3 years and 3 months, until Pompey invaded the country and took Jerusalem by force[261] Pompey removed Aristobulus from the high priesthood and restored his brother Hyrcanus to that office[261][263]
c. 61–38 BCE Hyrcanus II b. Alexander Jannaeus
(הורקנוס בן ינאי‎) 		Pompey reinstated him as the high priest of Israel, which office and title he held for 24 years more.[261] Contemporary with Julius Caesar with whom a league of friendship was made.[264] When Herod the Great took the government he put to death the high priest Hyrcanus II
c. 38 BCE Antigonus b. Aristobulus II
(אנטגנס בן אריסטובלוס‎) 		Josephus does not indicate how long he served as high priest. With the removal of Antigonus from the high priesthood and his being sent in bonds to Antony in Alexandria and later to Antioch where he was killed, Herod began to reign as king in Judea[265]
c. 38–37 BCE Ananelus the Babylonian
(חננאל הבבלי‎) 		Originally from Babylonia and not related to the Hasmoneans, he was made high priest by Herod the Great after Herod had taken the government in the 185th Olympiad,[265] and which same year happened to be a Sabbatical year. He was temporarily replaced by Aristobulus b. Alexander[266]
c. 37–36 BCE Aristobulus b. Alexander
(אריסטובלוס בן אלכסנדרוס‎) 		Served as high priest of Israel for only 1 year, before being drowned.[267] The last high priest of the Hasmoneans. After his death, Herod the Great restored Ananelus the Babylonian to the high priesthood[267]
c. 36–[?] BCE Ananelus the Babylonian
(חננאל הבבלי‎) 		Reinstated to his post as high priest by Herod the Great[268] Succeeded by Jesus b. Phabet, perhaps after the death of Ananel.
c. [?]–28 BCE Jesus b. Phabet
(יהושע בן פיאבת‎) 		Made high priest by Herod the Great. Contemporary with Pollio (Abtalion) the teacher, and his disciple Sameas (Shamiah) Deprived of the high priesthood around the 13th year of Herod's reign, at which time, the office was conferred on Simon b. Boethus[269]
c. 28 BCE–8 BCE Simon b. Boethus
(שמעון בן ביתוס‎) 		Simon b. Boethus had originally come from Alexandria in Egypt.[269] Made high priest by Herod the Great on account of a marriage with Simon's daughter; Simon b. Boethus being Herod's father-in-law.[270] Later, she was divorced by Herod. Upon divorcing the high priest's daughter, Herod deprived his father-in-law of the high priesthood, conferring the title upon Matthias b. Theophilus[270]
c. 8 BCE Mattathias ben Theophilus
(מתתיה בן תפלוס‎) 		Made high priest by Herod the Great.[270] Matthias the high priest was born in Jerusalem. The high priest was unable to officiate in his duties for one day, conferring the office unto Joseph b. Ellemus for one day.[271]
c. 8 BCE Joseph b. Ellemus
(יוסף בן חלים‎) 		Made high priest for one day, because of a mishap that had befallen Matthias b. Theophilus[271] After serving as high priest on the fast of the Day of Atonement, the high priesthood was restored to Matthias b, Theophilus
c. 8 BCE–7 BCE Matthias b. Theophilus
(מתתיה בן תפלוס‎) 		Reinstated as high priest after recusing himself from his duties on the fast of the Day of Atonement[271] Herod the Great deprived him of the priesthood, giving it to Matthias' brother-in-law, Joazar b. Boethus.[271]
c. 7 BCE–6 BCE Joazar b. Boethus
(יועזר בן ביתוס‎) 		Made high priest by Herod the Great, shortly before Herod's death.[271][272] Contemporary with Caesar Augustus Archelaus deprived him of the high priesthood when he came as ethnarch of Judea.[273]
c. 6 BCE–3 CE Eleazar b. Boethus
(אלעזר בן ביתוס‎) 		Eleazar was appointed high priest by Archelaus, instead of his brother Joazar who held the post before him[273] Eleazar did not long endure in his role as high priest, as he was soon replaced by Jesus b. Sie.[273]
c. 3 CE Jesus b. Sie
(יהושע בן שיח‎) 		Jesus b. Sie replaced Eleazar during Eleazar's lifetime,[273] but even so, his tenure as high priest was short-lived. Josephus gives no indication as to how long Jesus b. Sie remained as high priest, but only that Joazar had been reconfirmed in the office of high priest.
c. 3 CE Joazar b. Boethus
(יועזר בן ביתוס‎) 		Josephus notes that the dignity of high priest was conferred on him by the people[274] Joazar may have returned to officiate as high priest after the 9th year of Archelaus' government, when Archelaus was banished by Caesar Augustus to Vienne in Gaul.[275] Cyrenius deprived Joazar of the high priesthood.[274]
c. 3 CE–11 CE Ananus b. Seth
(חנן בן שת‎) 		Appointed the high priest of Israel by Cyrenius, the governor of Greater Syria, thirty-seven years after Caesar's victory over Antony at Actium.[274] When Tiberius Caesar ascended to the imperial throne, he sent Valerius Gratus as procurator of Judea, who removed Ananus from the high priesthood and appointed Ismael b. Phabi in his stead.[276]
c. 11–16 CE Ismael b. Phabi
(ישמעאל בן פיאבי‎) 		Ismael had been appointed high priest by Gratus, the Roman procurator of Judea.[276] After a short time, Gratus removed him from his post. Ismael was succeeded in the high priesthood by Eleazar b. Ananus (Ananias).[276]
c. 16–17 CE Eleazar b. Ananus (Ananias)
(אלעזר בן חנן‎) 		Eleazar was appointed high priest by Gratus, the Roman procurator of Judea.[276] Eleazar had earlier served as high priest. After serving as high priest of Israel for one year, he was removed from his post and replaced by Simon b. Camithus.[276]
c. 17–18 CE Simon b. Camithus
(שמעון בן קמחית‎) 		Simon was appointed high priest by Gratus, the Roman procurator of Judea.[276] After serving in the high priesthood for no longer than a year, he was removed from his post and replaced by Joseph Caiaphas.[276]
c. 18–31 CE Joseph b. Caiaphas
(יהוסף כיפה‎) 		Contemporary with Tiberius Caesar Joseph b. Caiaphas was removed from the high priesthood by Vitellius the President of Syria
c. 31–33 CE Jonathan b. Ananus
(יונתן בן חנן‎) 		Appointed high priest by Vitellius towards the end of Tiberius Caesar's reign Herod the Tetrarch deprived Jonathan b. Ananus of the high priest and conferred the title on his brother, Theophilus b. Ananus.[277]
c. 33–34 CE Theophilus b. Ananus
(תפלוס בן חנן‎) 		Appointed high priest by Herod the Tetrarch during same year in which Tiberius Caesar died.[277] King Agrippa I removed Theophilus b. Ananus from his position as high priest and conferred the title upon Simon b. Boethus in his stead.[278]
c. 34–36 CE Simon b. Boethus (called Cantherus)
(שמעון בן ביתוס הנקרא קתרוס‎) 		He had already been high priest before and is the father of one of Herod's wives who was later divorced by him.[278] King Agrippa I removes Simon b. Boethus, called Cantherus, from the office of high priest and confers the title upon Jonathan b. Ananus, who then declines the honor (having already been high priest before), at which time the title is conferred upon his brother, Matthias b. Ananus.[279]
c. 36 CE Jonathan b. Ananus
(יונתן בן חנן‎) 		Appointed high priest but declines the honor[279] Jonathan b. Ananus was succeeded in the high priesthood by Matthias b. Ananus. Later, during the reign of Nero, Jonathan was killed by the Sicarii.[280]
c. 36–37 CE Matthias b. Ananus
(מתתיה בן חנן‎) 		Appointed by King Agrippa I. Brother of Jonathan b. Ananus Matthias b. Ananus b. Ananus was succeeded in the high priesthood by Elioneus b. Cantheras
c. 37–40 CE Elioneus b. Cantheras (called Cantherus)
(אליהו עיני בן הקף, מבית קתרוס‎) 		During the first eight years of Claudius Caesar's reign, there were 3 Jewish high priests: Cantheras, Joseph Camydus and Ananias b. Nebedeus. Elioneus, called Cantherus, was appointed high priest by King Agrippa I Elioneus, called Cantherus, was succeeded in the high priesthood by Joseph b. Camus
c. 40–43 CE Joseph b. Camus (Camydus)
(יוסף בן קומודיוס‎) 		During the first eight years of Claudius Caesar's reign, there were 3 Jewish high priests: Cantheras, Joseph Camydus and Ananias b. Nebedeus. Joseph b. Camus was appointed high priest by Herod of Chalcis after the death of Agrippa I.[281] Joseph b. Camus was succeeded in the high priesthood by Ananias b. Nebedeus
c. 43–45 CE Ananias b. Nebedeus
(חנניה בן נבדאי‎) 		During the first eight years of Claudius Caesar's reign, there were 3 Jewish high priests: Cantheras, Joseph Camydus and Ananias b. Nebedeus. Ananias b. Nebedeus was appointed high priest by Herod of Chalcis[282] Ananias b. Nebedeus was succeeded in the high priesthood by Ismael b. Phabi. Ananias, although no longer officiating as high priest, was killed in the internecine strife raging in Jerusalem in the month Gorpieus (lunar month Elul), in the year 64 CE.[283]
c. 45–46 CE Ismael b. Phabi
(ישמעאל בן פיאבי‎) 		Presumed to have been appointed high priest by King Agrippa II Ismael b. Phabi the high priest was detained in Rome by Nero, and replaced with Joseph b. Simon[284]
c. 46–49 CE Joseph (called Cabi) b. Simon
(יוסף בן שמעון הנקרא קיאבי‎) 		Appointed high priest by King Agrippa II, after having earlier served as high priest[284] Removed from office by King Agrippa, who then appointed Ananus b. Ananus in his stead[285]
c. 49 CE Ananus b. Ananus
(חנן בן חנן‎) 		Appointed high priest by King Agrippa II, but held the office for only 3 months.[285] Ananus belonged to the sect of the Sadducees. Removed from office by King Agrippa II, and the office given to Jesus b. Damneus
c. 49–55 CE Jesus b. Damneus
(ישוע בן דמנאי‎) 		Appointed high priest by King Agrippa II, during the tenure of Albinus the procurator[285] Removed from office by King Agrippa II, and was eventually replaced by Jesus b. Gamla.[286]
c. 55–62 CE Jesus b. (Gamliel) [Gamla]
(יהושע בן גמלה‎) 		Made high priest by King Agrippa II during the reign of Claudius Caesar.[287] He is mentioned in Mishnah Yoma 3:9 and Yebamot 6:4. Removed from office by King Agrippa II, and replaced by Matthias b. Theophilus.[287] Eventually, Jesus b. Gamla is murdered by the Idumeans under Simon bar Giora.[288]
c. 62–66 CE Matthias b. Theophilus
(מתתיה בן תפלוס‎) 		Matthias was already the High Priest when the war with the Romans broke out, in the 12th year of Nero’s reign Matthias was killed by Simon bar Giora for being suspected of siding with the Romans during the First Jewish-Roman war,[289] and his office given to Phannius b. Samuel after casting lots for his replacement.
c. 66–68 CE Phannias ben Samuel
(פני בן שמואל‎) 		Phannias was made the last high priest of Israel, in the midst of the internecine strife in Judea. The office of high priest was conferred upon him after casting lots to select a new high priest.[290] Being unqualified for the task, he was given instructions as to how to perform his sacerdotal duties.[290] With the destruction of the Second Temple in 68 CE, the function of the high priest's office was dissolved.

Josephus's timeline of high priests during the Second Temple period may have well been within a 420-year span of the Second Temple's existence (according to Seder Olam), although the same timeline given by Josephus does not strain credulity if it had spanned a 639-year period.

Disparities between Josephus and the Hebrew Scriptures

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While in the vast majority of instances, Josephus's figures coincide with those of the Hebrew Bible, Josephus's figures given for certain events during the First Temple period often stand in direct contradiction to the figures given for the same event in the Hebrew Scriptures. For example, where the Hebrew Bible (I Kings 6:1) assigns 480 years from the exodus to the building of the First Temple, Josephus wrote (Antiquities 8.3.1.) that it was built 592 years after the exodus. Where the Hebrew Bible (I Kings 11:42) assigns Solomon's reign as 40 years, Josephus (Antiquities 8.7.8.) puts his reign at 80 years. Josephus also grossly erred in writing that a span of 514 years transpired from the time of the first and last kings of David's dynasty (being 21 kings altogether).[291] The biblical accounts for this same period puts it at about 474 years. Whether they are copyist errors or not, such disparities cast a dark shadow on the reliability of Josephus's chronological timetable, since, in his own words, one of his expressed intentions was to convey the history of the Hebrews unto the Greeks, just as they are laid-up in the sacred writings.[292] Many of Josephus's figures differ from those of Seder Olam, a chronography dating back to the 2nd century CE and where timeframes are more closely aligned to those of the Hebrew Bible, and largely accepted by the vast majority in Israel.[293]

The year 68 CE as a focal point of reference

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By counting in retrospect the regnal years of Caesars from this fixed point in time (68 CE), being, according to Jewish tradition, the year of the Second Temple's destruction and which came to its demise in the 2nd year of the reign of Vespasian, one is able to chart out and chronograph a rich past that might vary, in some respects, from the conventional views of modern-day chroniclers, as Josephus provides the avid scholar of history with a schematic chronology of the entire Second Temple period, with its successive chain of High Priests serving under the various rulers, with their respective tenures in office, as well as accompanied, occasionally, by dates inscribed in one of two epochs, the Seleucid era and the Olympiad era.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ According to one Jewish tradition, the seventy-year period of exile commences with the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, and concludes with the rise of Cyrus the Great who ordered the rebuilding of Jerusalem.
  2. ^ The scholars who deciphered The Babylonian Chronicles (inscribed on tablets) and who analyzed the delineation of years inscribed therein have put the fall of Babylon, in the 17th-year of Nabonidus, in 539 BCE.
  3. ^ In the Talmud, the name Nabonidus is not mentioned, whereas the presumed succession went from Nebuchadnezzar to his son Amel-Marduk, and from Amel-Marduk to his son Baltasar. Although the full regnal years of the man are not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, there is, however, a reference in Daniel 8:1 alluding to Baltasar's 3rd-year of reign, including a reference to Baltasar's death in Daniel 5:30–31. According to Rabbeinu Chananel on BT Megillah 11b, the seventy-year period spoken of by Jeremiah (25:11–12; 29:10) and by Daniel (9:1–2) refers to the period of time from the destruction of Jerusalem in the days of Nebuchadnezzar to the 2nd-year of the reign of Darius the Great, the same year being the 3rd and final year of Baltasar's reign.
  4. ^ In Parker's and Dubberstein's Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C. – A.D. 75, p. 14, Cyrus's reign takes up where Nabonidus' reign ends. The nine years given for Cyrus only reflect the number of regnal years remaining after Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BCE, bringing an end to Nabonidus' seventeen-year reign. Cyrus is thought to have died in 530 BCE.
  5. ^ The only reference in the Hebrew Bible mentioning the regnal years of Cyrus the Great is found in Daniel 10:1, viz., "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, etc." There is no indication as to how long he reigned.
  6. ^ It is to be noted that historians differ as to the number of his regnal years. Manetho puts down for this king that he reigned 5 years over his own kingdom in Persia, but 6 years over Egypt. Ptolemy's Canon writes that he reigned 8 years.
  7. ^ The regnal years for this king (14 years according to the Talmud), are not stated explicitly in the Hebrew Bible, and are thought to have only been inferred by the occurrence of four explicit timeframes mentioned in the Scroll of Esther and one that is inexplicit: the first being that Ahasuerus threw a large banqueting feast for his grandees and governors that lasted 180 days during the 3rd year of his reign [Esther 1:3]; the second being that he chose Esther (Hadassah) for his consort during the 7th year of his reign [Esther 2:16]; and the third being that during the 12th year of his reign [Esther 3:7], Haman desired to exterminate the entire Jewish nation and had contrived to commence the killing on a given day of a given month in the following year. On the following year [Esther 9:1], being now the 13th year of Ahasuerus, these orders were rescinded by the king's directives and the Jews found respite. Mordechai is said to have prospered from that time forward, while he and Esther sent out instructions on how the people of Israel were to observe the Purim festival: an allusion to the 14th year.
  8. ^ These two years are only mentioned by the Talmud (Megillah 11b) so as to mark the conclusion of the 70-year period of Jerusalem's destruction, when Darius, during his 2nd-year of reign, laid the foundation for the Second Temple's rebuilding. It does not imply the complete regnal years of Darius' reign.
  9. ^ According to the Talmud (Megillah 11b), this Darius is thought to have been the son of Ahasuerus, based on a verse in Daniel 9:1. Seder Olam erroneously places this Darius as a contemporary with Alexander the Great, and the last of the Persian kings. In conventional chronology, Darius the Great was not the son of Ahasuerus, but rather the son of Hystaspes, and is said to have reigned 36 years, and was succeeded by his son Xerxes. However, in Seder Olam's chronology, Darius is mentioned only with respect to his 2nd-year of reign when he laid the foundation of the Second Temple (356 BCE), a crucial point of reference considering that it is thought to have marked the end of the seventy-year period of Jerusalem's destruction. According to Ezra 6:15, Darius went on to fully complete the Temple in the sixth year of his reign (352 BCE), but since the entire period of Persian hegemony over Israel during the time of the Second Temple was thought by Seder Olam to have been a mere 34 years (from 352 BCE to 318 BCE),[76] this would imply that Grecian (Macedonian) hegemony over Israel began in 318 BCE, at the conclusion of Darius the Great's reign, or else at the beginning Xerxes' reign, when the Persian army was defeated by Alexander the Great. Modern scholarship has obviated the clear discrepancy in Seder Olam's chronology by saying that Tannaic scholars confounded Darius the Great with Darius III, and which caused the rabbis to omit ten other successive kings after Darius the Great.
  10. ^ According to Josephus (Antiquities 11.5.1–5), Ezra ascends to the Land of Israel, in the seventh year of his reign.
  11. ^ By some accounts, he is said to have also borne the name Ahasuerus, a contemporary of Esther and Mordecai.[77]
  12. ^ According to Isaac Abarbanel, this ruler is the same as Ahasuerus (אחשורוש‎), who reigned in the days of Esther and Mordecai. According to Abarbanel, some say that he reigned 14 years, while others say that he reigned 40 years.[80]
  13. ^ Years may vary depending on source used. Most authorities hold that the Persian period in the Land of Israel commenced in the year 539 BCE, and ended in 332 BCE, with Alexander the Great's victory over the Persians.[86] Mitchell First, who puts the Persian period at 207 years, reckons these years from when Cyrus first took Babylon in 539 BCE, rather than from Cyrus's first year of reign.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ First (1997), p. 96
  2. ^ First (1997), pp. 95–96
  3. ^ Based on the Olympiads used by Josephus, the foundation of Rome would have been in anno 754 BCE, or thereabouts. Josephus's Olympiads seem to be confirmed by E. J. Bickerman's 'Chronology of the Ancient World.' In Bickerman's momentous work, he includes a table to convert Rome's AUC dates to BCE/CE dates. AUC, or what is ab urbe condita = "from the foundation of the city" = i.e. when Rome was first founded in the days of Romulus and Remus, is put by Bickerman at 753 BCE. These figures are in nearly complete harmony with those of Josephus.
  4. ^ Josephus, Contra Apionem (Against Apion 1:19–20), and which regnal years agree, more or less, with the research conducted by Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein in their momentous work, Babylonian Chronology 626 BC – AD 75 (Providence 1956).
  5. ^ Cory 1828, p. 65.
  6. ^ On the Magi, see Herodotus's Histories, which has the Magian ruling Persia for 7 months after the death of Cambyses. Josephus, on the other hand, says they obtained the government of the Persians for a year.
  7. ^ Josephus (1980), p. 130 (note 1), where it is pointed out that, according to Josephus, Caesar Augustus's reign lasted 57 years, 6 months and 2 days, but in Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, he puts down for Augustus's reign 57 years, 5 months and 4 days. Epiphanius' Syriac version of his treatise On Weights and Measures puts Augustus's reign at 56 years and 6 months, which agrees with Josephus's statement in his Antiquities (18.2.2.), where Josephus (unlike his statement in The Jewish War) puts Augustus Caesar's reign as spanning 57 years, abating 6 months and 2 days.
  8. ^ Feeney 2007, pp. 29, 31.
  9. ^ Bickerman 1980.
  10. ^ Feeney 2007, pp. 172–182.
  11. ^ MacNaughton 1930, p. 1.
  12. ^ Feeney 2007, pp. 12, 171.
  13. ^ E. J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), pp. 81f
  14. ^ Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 164 (Seleucid era counting). This change in Israel's use of this dating system is said to have been initiated by Rabbi David ibn Zimra.
  15. ^ a b c Feeney 2007, p. 139.
  16. ^ a b Stern 2001, p. 281 (note 33).
  17. ^ Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 164 (The beginning of the Seleucid era counting), where its first year is said to have commenced in the Fall of 312 BCE and ending in the Fall of 311 BCE.
  18. ^ Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 37
  19. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 9b–10a, Commentary of Rabbeinu Chananel, s.v. מלכות פרס בפני הבית ל"ד שנה‎)
  20. ^ Josephus, Against Apion 1.22. Cf. Heckel and Yardley, Alexander the Great, pp. 279-80, quoting Diodorus Siculus, Alexander the Great's reign lasted 12 years and 7 months.
  21. ^ Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 164 (Seleucid era counting)
  22. ^ So is it written in the Sefer ha-Qabbalah of Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud, and so writes Rabbi David, the grandson of Rabbi Moses b. Maimon, in his commentary Midrash David, on Mishna Tractate Avoth (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:6).
  23. ^ a b The Radbaz Commentary (compiled in c. 1561 CE) states on Maimonides' H. Shemita veyovel: "On this calculation have all the people of the land of Israel relied… The opinion of our Master (Maimonides) it is the correct one, and is that which is practised in all our borders" (End Quote).
  24. ^ Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 30], pp. 99–100. Quote: “In the Jewish Diaspora they would write in their contracts, 'According to the counting of the Grecians, being a thousand [years since the exodus from Egypt'].” This arcane statement is explained by Eliyahu of Vilna, in his commentary on Seder Olam as follows: "Being a thousand. Meaning, from the exodus of Egypt is reckoned a thousand years. That is to say, 480 [years passed] till the building of the [first] temple, and 410 [years being] the time of its duration, and 52 [years passed] till the kingdom of Persia [usurped authority over the Babylonian kingdom], and 52 [years being the duration] of the Persian kingdom [until their hegemony over Israel was taken by Macedonia], and 6 [years] of the kingdom of Greece (i.e. 312 BCE, thought to have been the 6th year of Alexander's reign)– all total, one-thousand years. It was during that time that they began to reckon the date in contracts, 'According to the kingdom of Grecia'."
  25. ^ Cf. Nathan ben Abraham (1955), Introduction, p. 10. Quote: "Forty years after the Second Temple was built (i.e. in 312 BCE), being one-thousand years from the time of the giving if the law at Sinai, three things happened: 1) prophecy ceased from Israel; 2) Ezra the Scribe died; the first king of the Grecians stood-up to reign [over Israel], etc."
  26. ^ Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport (Erekh Millin, p.74) noted that the traditional Jewish chronology places the Exodus from Egypt at exactly 1000 years prior to the Seleucid era. He suggests that the authors of the traditional Jewish chronology intentionally omitted years from the Persian period in order to obtain this round number, with the intent that Jews who previously had counted years from the Exodus would be able to easily switch to the Seleucid era system used by Greek rulers at the time.
  27. ^ First, Mitchell (1997). Jewish History in Conflict: A Study of the Major Discrepancy between Rabbinic and Conventional Chronology. Lanham: Jason Aronson. pp. 125–132. ISBN 978-1-56821-970-7. OCLC 845250409.
  28. ^ Stern 2001, p. 106.
  29. ^ Sar-Shalom 1984, p. 161.
  30. ^ Solomon 2006, p. 61.
  31. ^ Ben-Halpetha (1971), p. 99 (Seder Olam Rabbah, chapter 30) where the 420 years of the Second Temple's existence are broken down into four periods of hegemony within the land: Persian (34 years), Grecian (180 years), Hasmonean (103 years) and Herodian (103 years); Tosefta (Zevahim 13:6); Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah 18a); Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b-12a; Arakhin 12b; Baba Bathra 4a)
  32. ^ Maimonides (1974), Hil. Shmita ve-yovel 10:3 (p. 185)
  33. ^ Hughes 1990, p. 253.
  34. ^ Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 161 (Comparative chronological dates), citing Seder Olam who puts the destruction in 3828 anno mundi = 68 CE.
  35. ^ Hadad 2005, p. 364.
  36. ^ Ezra 6:15
  37. ^ Parker & Dubberstein (1956), pp. 30–31
  38. ^ Jacob Saphir (1866), Iben Safir (vol. 1 & 2) Mʹkize Nirdamim: Lyck (Hebrew) OCLC 459358148
  39. ^ Sar-Shalom 1984, pp. 162 (The counting of the Second Temple's destruction, bottom).
  40. ^ Saadia Gaon, Agron (Kitāb asūl al-ša‘ar al-‘ibrāni), Introduction
  41. ^ Saadia Gaon (1981), Megillat benei Ḥashmūnnai 1:5, p. 226
  42. ^ On reign of Antiochus Eupator, see Antiquities 12.9.2. (12.360). Based on Josephus's record, Antiochus Eupator began his reign after his father's death in anno 149 of the Seleucid Era (= 162 BCE).
  43. ^ Meaning, anno 140/139 BCE, as brought down in Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 41
  44. ^ Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 30
  45. ^ a b Englander 1919, p. 85.
  46. ^ Englander 1919, p. 86.
  47. ^ Ben-Halpetha (1971), p. 99 (Seder Olam Rabbah, chapter 30)
  48. ^ Rashi’s commentary on Babylonian Talmud (Avodah Zarah 9a, s.v. מלכות פרס בפני הבית)
  49. ^ Based on the regnal years of successive Persian kings brought down by Herodotus, by Manetho, and by Ptolemy in his Canon of Kings, viz. Darius I (36 years) → Xerxes (Artaxerxes), the Great, b. Darius (21 years) → Artabanus (7 months) → Artaxerxes (Cyrus) b. Xerxes the Great (41 years) → Xerxes (2 months) → Sogdianus (7 months) → Darius, the son of Xerxes (19 years) → Artaxerxes II Mnemon (46 years) → Artaxerxes III Ochus (21 years) → Artaxerxes IV Arses (2 years) → Darius III Codomannus (6 years, but who, at the end of his 4th year, Alexander the Great usurped authority over the Persian empire's hold of Syria).
  50. ^ According to Parker's and Dubberstein's Babylonian Chronology, p. 36, the 6th-year of Alexander the Great's reign over Macedonia, which fell-out in 331 BCE, was the 5th-year of Darius III. During the same year, the Macedonians put an end to Persian hegemony over Israel. According to the same authors, Darius I (Darius the Great) rose to power in 522 BCE. From Darius I to Darius III are collected 191 years.
  51. ^ Cf. medieval exegete, Rabbeinu Chananel, and his statement in Avodah Zarah 9a that from the Second Temple's building (in 352 BCE) to the 6th-year of Alexander the Great (312 BCE) there had transpired 40 years, which same statement is repeated by Rabbi Nathan ben Abraham, in his Introduction to his Mishnah commentary.
  52. ^ a b c Parker, R.A.; Dubberstein, Waldo H. (1956). Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75. Providence: Brown University Press. OCLC 460027103.
  53. ^ a b c d Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. pp. 89, 91 (chapter 28). OCLC 233090728. (reprint of 1955 edition, Jerusalem)
  54. ^ Parker, R.A.; Dubberstein, Waldo H. (1956). Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75. Providence: Brown University Press. p. 12. OCLC 460027103.
  55. ^ Josephus, Against Apion 1:19–20 (1.146), citing Berossus.
  56. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b)
  57. ^ See Parker, R.A.; Dubberstein, Waldo H. (1956). Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75. Providence: Brown University Press. p. 28. OCLC 460027103., who put down only two regnal years for this king; Josephus, Against Apion 1:19–20, citing Berossus. (It is to be noted that Josephus, elsewhere, contradicts himself, saying that Amel-Marduk reigned 18 years.)
  58. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b)
  59. ^ See Parker, R.A.; Dubberstein, Waldo H. (1956). Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75. Providence: Brown University Press. p. 29. OCLC 460027103., who put down only four regnal years for this king, and who is called by them Nergal-Shar-Usur; Josephus, Against Apion 1.147. (It is to be noted that Josephus, elsewhere, contradicts himself, saying that Neriglissar reigned 40 years).
  60. ^ Josephus, Against Apion 1.148
  61. ^ Josephus in his Antiquities (10.11.2–4.) wrote that Baltasar (Belshazzar) is simply another name for Nabonidus
  62. ^ Parker, R.A.; Dubberstein, Waldo H. (1956). Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75. Providence: Brown University Press. pp. 13–14. OCLC 460027103.
  63. ^ Josephus, Against Apion 1.150–151
  64. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b).
  65. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. p. 96 (chapter 29). OCLC 233090728. (reprint of 1955 edition, Jerusalem)
  66. ^ Herodotus (1975). G. P. Goold (ed.). Herodotus: The Persian Wars. Vol. 1 (Books I–II). Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. p. 269 s. 213–215 (Book I). ISBN 0-674-99130-3. (ISBN 0-434-99117-1 - British)
  67. ^ "The Babylonian Chronicle" by David Noel Freedman, in The Biblical Archaeologist, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Sep., 1956), pp. 49–60 (JSTOR 3209218)
  68. ^ Herodotus (1975). G. P. Goold (ed.). Herodotus: The Persian Wars. Vol. 1 (Books I–II). Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. p. 269 s. 213–215 (Book I). ISBN 0-674-99130-3. (ISBN 0-434-99117-1 - British)
  69. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b)
  70. ^ Herodotus (1921). G.P. Goold (ed.). Herodotus: The Persian Wars. Vol. 2 (Books III–IV). Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. p. 87 s. 65–68 (Book III). ISBN 0-674-99131-1. (ISBN 0 434 99118 X - British).
  71. ^ These years, according to the Talmud (Megillah 11b), are attributed unto Ahasuerus, who is thought to have reigned after Cyrus the Great.
  72. ^ Herodotus (1921). G. P. Goold (ed.). Herodotus: The Persian Wars. Vol. 2 (Books III–IV). Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. p. 87 s. 65–68 (Book III). ISBN 0-674-99131-1. (ISBN 0 434 99118 X - British)
  73. ^ Herodotus (1971). E.H. Warmington (ed.). Herodotus: The Persian Wars. Vol. 3 (Books V–VII). Translated by A. D. Godley. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. p. 305 (Book VII). ISBN 0-674-99133-8. (ISBN 0-434-99119-8 - British)
  74. ^ a b c d e f g Cory 1828, p. 65 (Manetho's list of eight successive Persian kings)
  75. ^ Rashi (Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 11b, s.v. באדין‎), following an opinion brought down elsewhere in the Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashana 3b), which, in turn, follows Seder Olam (chapter 30), says that Darius, Cyrus and Artaxerxes were all one and the same person.
  76. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. p. 99 (chapter 30). OCLC 233090728. (reprint of 1955 edition, Jerusalem)
  77. ^ In the Septuagint, the Book of Esther refers to the king as 'Artaxerxes,' (Ancient Greek: Ἀρταξέρξης); Josephus, Antiquities 11.6.1–13.
  78. ^ Ptolemy's Canon
  79. ^ Ptolemy's Canon
  80. ^ Abravanel, Isaac (1860). Maʻyenei ha-Yeshuʻah (Commentary on the Book of Daniel). Stettin, Poland: R. Grossmann & E. Shrentsel. p. 46a. OCLC 50864691. (Amsterdam 1647)
  81. ^ Ptolemy's Canon
  82. ^ Ptolemy's Canon
  83. ^ Ptolemy's Canon
  84. ^ Ptolemy's Canon
  85. ^ According to Parker's and Dubberstein's Babylonian Chronology, p. 36, the sixth year of Alexander the Great's reign over Macedonia, which fell-out in 331 BCE, was the fifth year of Darius III. During the same year, the Macedonians put an end to Persian hegemony over Israel.
  86. ^ First, Mitchell (1997). Jewish History in Conflict: A Study of the Major Discrepancy between Rabbinic and Conventional Chronology. Lanham: Jason Aronson. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-56821-970-7. OCLC 845250409.
  87. ^ a b Maimonides 1989, pp. 666–668.
  88. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Arakhin 32b)
  89. ^ Maimonides, Mishne Torah (Hil. Shmita ve-Yovel 10:7), whose ruling, in this case, follows that of the Sages in the Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 9a)
  90. ^ Maimonides, Mishne Torah (Hil. Shmita ve-Yovel 10:5–6)
  91. ^ Maimonides 1974, p. 185 (Hil. Shmita ve-yovel 10:3).
  92. ^ Maimonides 1989, p. 667 (responsum #389).
  93. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.9.3., 12.9.5). Based on I Maccabees (6:20, 49, 53), there was a famine in the land of Israel, which same year happened to be a Sabbatical year.
  94. ^ Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 41
  95. ^ Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 44
  96. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 13.8.1–2; The Jewish War 1.2.4.; cf. First Book of Maccabees 16:14-16
  97. ^ Parker & Dubberstein (1956), p. 44
  98. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 14.16.2.
  99. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Taanit 29a, Arakhin 11b); Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit 24a); Midrash Tehillim 94 (end); Seder Olam, ch. 30.
  100. ^ Neusner, J., ed. (2002). The Tosefta, Translation from the Hebrew with a New Introduction. Vol. 1. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 632 (Taanit 3:9). ISBN 9781565636422. OCLC 711874263. When the Temple was destroyed the first time, it was the day after the Sabbath and the year after the Sabbatical year
  101. ^ Josephus, Against Apion 1.22.
  102. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 12.5.3. (12.246). Josephus takes his dates from I Maccabees.
  103. ^ Titus Flavius Josephus, Delphi Complete Works of Josephus (Illustrated), Chapter 3
  104. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 12.5.4. (12.248). This is one of the rare instances where Josephus aligns the Seleucid era date with the date of the Olympiad. Josephus takes his dates from I Maccabees.
  105. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 12.7.6 (12.316). This is one of the rare instances where Josephus aligns the Seleucid era date with the date of the Olympiad. Josephus has taken the Seleucid era date of this event from I Maccabees 4:52, although the Olympiad era date does not appear in I Maccabees.
  106. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 12.9.2 (12.360)
  107. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 12.9.3 (12.362), and which source is taken from I Maccabees VI. 49, 53
  108. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 13.6.7. (13.213); The Jewish War 1.2.2 (1.50)
  109. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 13.8.2; (13.236). William Whiston, editor and translator of Josephus in English, thinks this date to have been an error by Josephus, and suggests to amend the date to the second year of the 161st Olympiad.
  110. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 13.8.4; (13.249). Cf. Sar-Shalom (1984), p. 71, whose computerized tables put the 15th day of the lunar month Nisan (Passover) for the year 3630 anno mundi (131–130 BCE), or what was precisely 130 BCE, falling on a Saturday, and which, subsequently, will put the 6th day of the lunar month Sivan, which is Pentecost (Shavu'ot), falling on a Sunday, next to a Sabbath day. It was during this same year that Antiochus the Pious was slain.
  111. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 14.1.2 (14.4), where, in the original Greek, is written: "Hyrcanus began his high priesthood on the third year of the hundred and seventy seventh Olympiad..., when presently Aristobulus began to make war against him." The 177th Olympiad corresponded with the 238th year of the Seleucid era, or what was then 73 BCE.
  112. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 14.4.3 (14.64); 14.16.4 (14.487). The capture of the city is said to have happened in the "third month, on the fast day." The third month, counting from Nisan, is Sivan. The editor of Josephus thinks this fast to have been "on the 23rd of Sivan, the annual fast for the defection and idolatry of Jeroboam, 'who made Israel to sin.'..." This fast day is mentioned in the Shulhan Arukh (Orach Chaim 580:2). It may have also been another fast day of that same month.
  113. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 14.14.5 (14.386)
  114. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 14.16.4 (14.487). According to Josephus (Antiquities 14.16.2.; 14.470), this same year happened to be a Sabbatical Year.
  115. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 15.5.1 (15.108); 15.5.2 (15.120). This date marks the 7th yr. of Herod's reign from his removing Antigonus and his taking of Judea.
  116. ^ Josephus, Antiquities 17.8.1 (17.188); The Jewish War 1.33.8 (1.665)
  117. ^ a b Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 1, p. 1. This time period conforms with the Masoretic Hebrew texts.
  118. ^ Cf. Nothaft, C.P.E. (2011). "Noah's Calendar: The Chronology of the Flood Narrative and the History of Astronomy in Sixteenth-and Seventeenth-Century Scholarship". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 74. The University of Chicago Press: 191–211. doi:10.1086/JWCI41418734. JSTOR 41418734. S2CID 163257573.
  119. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (1.3.3.), based on H. St. J. Thackeray's translation of the original Greek used by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities I, 81–82, Loeb Classical Library, vol. 1, p. 39). In William Whiston's English translation of Josephus's Antiquities, he relied on the Latin translation of Josephus's Antiquities and where it states that there were "two-thousand six-hundred [and] fifty-six [years]" (duo milia, sexcentis quinquanginta sex).
  120. ^ Wacholder (1968), p. 453 (note 3). Wacholder explains that Josephus's chronology of the antediluvian period conforms with the figures brought down in the Septuagint (LXX) for the lifespans of the ten generations from Adam to Noah, and which given lifespans in the LXX differ from the Masoretic Hebrew texts.
  121. ^ Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapters 1–3], pp. 1–13. These years are broken-down as follows: 2048 years from the first man, Adam, to the 99th year of Abraham, when his son Isaac was born; 60 years from the time of Isaac's birth to the time of Jacob's birth; 130 years from the time of Jacob's birth to the time when he went down into Egypt; 210 years from the time that Jacob and sons went down into Egypt to the time of Israel's departure out of Egypt. Total number of years: 2448 years.
  122. ^ Sar-Shalom, Rahamim (1984), p. 161
  123. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (10.8.5.)
  124. ^ Josephus here is inconsistent with a later timeline, where he places the duration of the First Temple as 470 years. This figure of 411 is had by conflating two statements made by Josephus, the first being in Antiquities 8.3.1., where he wrote: "From Adam to the building of the First Temple were 3102 years." Elsewhere, in Antiquities 10.8.5., Josephus wrote: "From Adam to the destruction of the First Temple were 3513 years" (based on Whiston's English translation of the Latin text of Josephus). The difference between its building and its destruction is 411 years. This figure is in close agreement with Seder Olam, which claims that it stood 410 years.
  125. ^ Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 28], p. 93
  126. ^ Josephus, Against Apion 1:21
  127. ^ Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 29], p. 95. This period of time of 52 years, during which time the country lay desolate, is also alluded to in the Babylonian Talmud (Ta'anit 25a), and which has ostensibly followed the dictates of Seder Olam. Eliyahu of Vilna explains this 52 year period as being the time when the Persian kingdom usurped authority over the Babylonian kingdom and permitted Jews to return to their own land.
  128. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.1.1.; 20.10.2.); Against Apion 1:19–21
  129. ^ a b c d e Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 30], p. 99
  130. ^ Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 29], p. 95.
  131. ^ The author of Seder Olam claims that Darius the Great was also known by the name Artaxerxes, mentioned in Ezra 7:1–6, and that all Persian kings had the honorary title of Artaxerxes conferred upon them.
  132. ^ Based on Josephus's view in The Jewish War (6.4.8.) [6.267] that the Second Temple stood 639 years. Even so, according to Josephus, this refers to when the foundations of the Second Temple were laid in the second year of Darius the Great (also called Cyrus). Based on this, the Second Temple was finished four years later, in the 6th year of Darius, in 567 BCE.
  133. ^ Josephus, Wars of the Jews (6.4.8.). According to Josephus, this refers to when the foundations of the Second Temple were laid in the second year of Darius the Great (also called Cyrus). Based on this, the Second Temple was finished four years later, in the 6th year of Darius, and stood 635 years.
  134. ^ Ben Halpetha (1971), [Seder Olam, chapter 28], p. 93. According to Rabbi Jose in Seder Olam, this figure is had by an exegesis on Daniel 9:24–27 and where "seventy weeks" is explained as being seven years for every week, for a total of 490 years, beginning with the time of the destruction of the First Temple, and ending with the destruction of the Second Temple, and where for seventy years after the First Temple was destroyed there was no Temple. This leaves 420 years for the duration of the Second Temple. The same teaching can be found in the Babylonian Talmud (Nazir 32b).
  135. ^ This date is had by conflating what Josephus wrote in Antiquities (11.5.2.) (when Ezra the Scribe came up to the Land of Israel in the seventh year of the reign of Xerxes, the son of Darius the Great) with the regnal years of the Persian kings as brought down by Manetho, who places the beginning of Xerxes' reign 30 years after the 6th-year of Darius, the year in which the Second Temple was built. Xerxes the Great gave leave of Ezra to return to his ancestral homeland, in the seventh year of his reign, in c. 534 BCE. The septennial year counting, said to have been started under Ezra, would have been started at the earliest in the eighth year of the reign of Xerxes, meaning in 533 BCE. If correct, the 150th year of the Seleucid era (i.e. 162/161 BCE), which was a sabbatical year according to Josephus, would have been the 3rd sabbatical in a seven-year cycle after the Year of Jubilee.
  136. ^ This date is built on Maimonides' rendering of the beginning of the new seven-year cycle (Shmita ve-yovel 10:3) when Ezra returned to the land in the days of Darius the Great, and whom the author of the book Seder Olam (chapter 30) says was also called Artaxerxes (Hebrew: ארתחשסתא), seeing that all Persian kings were given the honorary title of Artaxerxes.
  137. ^ Cf. Sar-Shalom, Rahamim (1984), p. 161, who places the year of Ezra's return to the Land of Israel, based on Seder Olam, in 3413 anno mundi, a year that corresponds with 348/347 BCE
  138. ^ By way of inference
  139. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (13.6.7.); The Jewish War (1.2.2.)
  140. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (14.16.4.)
  141. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.5.)
  142. ^ Tosefta (Zevahim 13:6)
  143. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. p. 93 (chapter 28). OCLC 233090728.
  144. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. pp. 99-100 (chapter 30). OCLC 233090728. In the Jewish Diaspora they would write in their contracts, 'According to the counting of the Grecians, being a thousand [years since the exodus from Egypt']." This arcane statement is explained by Eliyahu of Vilna, in his commentary on Seder Olam as follows: "Being a thousand. Meaning, from the exodus of Egypt is reckoned a thousand years. That is to say, 480 [years passed] till the building of the [first] temple, and 410 [years being] the time of its duration, and 52 [years passed] till the kingdom of Persia [usurped authority over the Babylonian kingdom], and 52 [years being the duration] of the Persian kingdom [until their hegemony over Israel was taken by Macedonia], and 6 [years] of the kingdom of Greece (i.e. 312 BCE, thought to have been the 6th year of Alexander's reign)– all total, one-thousand years. It was during that time that they began to reckon the date in contracts, 'According to the kingdom of Grecia'.
  145. ^ Sar-Shalom, Rahamim (1984), p. 161. Sar-Shalom wrote there, in the section entitled "The Traditional Chronology based on Seder Olam", that the First Temple was destroyed in 3338 anno mundi, a year corresponding with 422 BCE.
  146. ^ Yerushalmi, M.D., ed. (1971), "Seder Olam Zutta", Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew), Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization, p. 109, OCLC 233091049, who wrote that Nebuchadnezzar exiled the people of Judah from their land, in the 11th-year of Zedekiah's reign, which year fell out in 3338 anno mundi (= 422 BCE).
  147. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Taanit 29a, Arakhin 11b); Jerusalem Talmud (Taanit 24a); Midrash Tehillim 94 (end); Seder Olam, ch. 30 (p. 100).
  148. ^ Neusner, J., ed. (2002). The Tosefta, Translation from the Hebrew with a New Introduction. Vol. 1. Translated by Jacob Neusner. Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 632 (Taanit 3:9). ISBN 9781565636422. OCLC 711874263. When the Temple was destroyed the first time, it was the day after the Sabbath and the year after the Sabbatical year
  149. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. p. 49 (chapter 15). OCLC 233090728.
  150. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. p. 81(chapter 25). OCLC 233090728.
  151. ^ Ben Halpetha, Jose (1971). M.D. Yerushalmi (ed.). Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew). Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization. p. 77(chapter 24). OCLC 233090728.
  152. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 11 (p. 39), which cites Ezekiel 40:1; Babylonian Talmud (Arakhin 12b)
  153. ^ Saleh, Y. (1979). Shimon Tzalach (ed.). The Complete 'Tiklal 'Eṣ Ḥayyim (in Hebrew). Vol. 2. Jerusalem: Ḳeren Agudat ha-Maharits. p. 173. OCLC 122866057. Commentary: In the lunar month Av of 5566 anno mundi (corresponding to 1806 CE), the Second Temple's destruction occurred 1738 years ago (i.e. in 68 CE), and the First Temple's destruction occurred 2228 years ago (i.e. in 422 BCE).
  154. ^ Danby, H., ed. (1977), The Mishnah, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 188 (note 4), ISBN 0-19-815402-X, s.v. Rosh Hashannah 1:1
  155. ^ 1 Kings 2:11; 2 Samuel 2:1–4
  156. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 15
  157. ^ 2 Samuel 5:1–5
  158. ^ 1 Kings 2:11–12; 1 Chronicles 29:27–28
  159. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 16 (p. 51); 1 Kings 11:42
  160. ^ 1 Kings 6:1; 1 Kings 6:37.
  161. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 15 (p. 51)
  162. ^ Abraham ibn Daud (1971), "Seder ha-Qabbalah le-Ravad", in Yerushalmi, M.D. (ed.), Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew), Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization, p. 4, OCLC 233091049, who wrote that the First Temple was built in 2909 anno mundi, a year corresponding with 852/851 BCE
  163. ^ 1 Kings 14:21; Seder Olam, ch. 16 (p. 51), based on the Vilna Gaon's correction of copyist error.
  164. ^ 2 Chronicles 12:2–4
  165. ^ 1 Kings 15:1–2; Seder Olam, ch. 16 (p. 51)
  166. ^ 1 Kings 15:9–10; Seder Olam, ch. 16 (p. 52)
  167. ^ 1 Kings 22:42; 2 Chronicles 20:31; Seder Olam, ch. 17 (p. 56); Josephus, Antiquities 9.3.2. (Antiq. 37.44)
  168. ^ 2 Kings 8:17; Seder Olam, ch. 17 (pp. 56–57)
  169. ^ 2 Kings 8:26; Seder Olam, ch. 17 (p. 57)
  170. ^ 2 Kings 11:1–3
  171. ^ 2 Kings 12:2; Seder Olam, ch. 18 (p. 58)
  172. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 18 (p. 58)
  173. ^ 2 Kings 14:2; Seder Olam, ch. 19 (p. 59)
  174. ^ 2 Kings 15:2; Seder Olam, ch. 19 (p. 60)
  175. ^ 2 Kings 15:33; 2 Chronicles 27:1; Seder Olam, ch. 22 (p. 70)
  176. ^ 2 Kings 16:2; Seder Olam, ch. 22 (p. 70)
  177. ^ 2 Kings 18:2; 2 Chronicles 29:1
  178. ^ Yerushalmi, M.D., ed. (1971), "Seder Olam Zutta", Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew), Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization, p. 108, OCLC 233091049
  179. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 22 (p. 73)
  180. ^ 2 Kings 18:9–11
  181. ^ Sar-Shalom, Rahamim (1984), p. 161, who wrote: "The destruction of Samaria and the second exile of the Ten Tribes [occurred in] 3205 anno mundi," a date corresponding with 556/555 BCE
  182. ^ 2 Kings 18:13; Isaiah 36:1
  183. ^ 2 Kings 21:1; Seder Olam, ch. 24 (p. 77)
  184. ^ 2 Kings 21:19; Seder Olam, ch. 24 (p. 77)
  185. ^ 2 Kings 22:1; Seder Olam, ch. 24 (p. 77)
  186. ^ a b Seder Olam, ch. 24 (p. 77)
  187. ^ 2 Kings 23:31; 2 Chronicles 36:1–4; Seder Olam, ch. 24 (p. 78)
  188. ^ 2 Kings 23:36
  189. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 24 (p. 78)
  190. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 25 (pp. 79–80)
  191. ^ Cf. Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b).
  192. ^ 2 Kings 24:8; Seder Olam, ch. 25 (p. 81)
  193. ^ 2 Kings 24:18; Seder Olam, ch. 25 (p. 82)
  194. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 25 (p. 81) states that Jehoiachin was exiled from the country during the half of the Jubilee, on the 4th year of the seven-year cycle. Indeed, on this very year, there were another 25 years until the next Jubilee in 408 BCE.
  195. ^ This same year is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b), where it states: "They were exiled in the seventh [year], [and] they were exiled in the eighth [year]. They were exiled in the eighteenth [year], [and] they were exiled in the nineteenth [year]. [Meaning], they were exiled in the seventh year after [Nebuchadnezzar's] conquest of Jehoiakim, being the [same year of] exile of Jehoiachin, which [year] is the eighth [year] of Nebuchadnezzar's reign." A reference to this exile is also mentioned in Jeremiah 52:28–29.
  196. ^ Jeremiah 52:4; Seder Olam, ch. 27 (p. 86; Josephus (Antiquities 10.7.3-4.)
  197. ^ 2 Kings 24:18
  198. ^ Josephus (Antiquities 10.7.3-4.)
  199. ^ 2 Kings 25:8–9; Jeremiah 52:12
  200. ^ This year is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 11b), where it states: "They were exiled in the seventh [year] [and] they were exiled in the eighth [year]. They were exiled in the eighteenth [year] [and] they were exiled in the nineteenth [year]. [Meaning], they were exiled in the eighteenth year starting from [Nebuchadnezzar's] conquest of Jehoiakim [in 440 BCE to the present year, 422 BCE], being the [same year] of Zedekiah's exile, which [year] corresponds to the nineteenth [year] of Nebuchadnezzar's reign." A reference to this exile is also mentioned in Jeremiah 52:28–29.
  201. ^ Cf. Abraham ibn Daud (1971), "Seder ha-Qabbalah le-Ravad", in Yerushalmi, M.D. (ed.), Seder Olam Rabba (in Hebrew), Gil Publishers, in affiliation with the Haredi Youth Organization, p. 5, OCLC 233091049, who deviates from the accounts written in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the Babylonian Talmud, and writes, instead, that in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, he (Nebuchadnezzar) exiled Zedekiah and destroyed the Temple.
  202. ^ Sar-Shalom, Rahamim (1984), p. 161. Sar-Shalom wrote there, in the section entitled "The Traditional Chronology based on Seder Olam", that the First Temple was destroyed in 3338 anno mundi, a year corresponding with 422 BCE.
  203. ^ Tosefta (Taanit 3:9); Babylonian Talmud (Arakhin 11b)
  204. ^ Jeremiah 52:30
  205. ^ Seder Olam, ch. 11 (p. 39), which cites Ezekiel 40:1; Babylonian Talmud (Arakhin 12b)
  206. ^ Rashi's commentary on Ezekiel 40:1, s.v. בראש השנה בעשור לחודש‎
  207. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.2–3.)
  208. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (1.2.8.–1.3.1.)
  209. ^ Based on Josephus's view in The Jewish War (6.4.8.) [6.267] that the Second Temple stood 639 years, and assuming that it was destroyed in 68 CE, in accordance with Jewish tradition.
  210. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (13.11.1.)
  211. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.1.)
  212. ^ The number of 83 is divided into three following periods: 13 high priests who served in the Tabernacle (first stationed in the wilderness, then at Gilgal, and in Shiloh, and in Nob and in Gibeon), 18 high priests who served in the First Temple, and the rest in the Second Temple. The figure of 83 high priests is also found in an oral tradition, stated as such in the Jerusalem Talmud (Yoma 1:1 [4b]): "In the beginning, when they would serve [by hereditary succession], he and his son and his grandson, eighteen [high] priests served therein (i.e. in the First Temple). However, in the Second [Temple], because they would take-up [the office] after purchasing it, while others say that they would kill one another [for the office] through acts of sorcery, there served in it [altogether] eighty [high] priests. Others say, eighty-one. Still, others say eighty-two, while others say eighty-three, and others say eighty-four, and still others say eighty-five. Of these, Simon the Just served forty years" (End Quote). The Jerusalem Talmud makes it appear as though there were 80 some-odd high priests serving in the Second Temple. The Babylonian Talmud (Yoma 9a) brings down a different teaching, saying that there were more than 300 high priests that served in the Second Temple. This high number has been refuted by Talmudic exegetes. Bear in mind that, where Josephus names these high priests, whenever a high priest was removed from office and later reinstated, he was not counted twice, in this case, but only once.
  213. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.5.)
  214. ^ The delineation of years herein appended are based on the regnal years of the Caesars and their contemporaries as brought down by Epiphanius, in his treatise On Weights and Measures (Syriac version), and as conflated with the information given for each high priest by Josephus, as well as starting with the point of reference of 68 CE as the year of the Second Temple's destruction (during the 2nd year of Vespasian's reign).
  215. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.2.)
  216. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.5.1.)
  217. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.5.1–2.)
  218. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (11.5.5.); cf. Nehemiah 12:10
  219. ^ Mitchell (1903), p. 89
  220. ^ Nehemiah, ch. 3
  221. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (11.7.1.); cf. Nehemiah 12:11
  222. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.7.1)
  223. ^ Schwartz (1990), p. 176; cf. Nehemiah 13:28
  224. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.8.2.)(11.297–347)
  225. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.7.2.); cf. Nehemiah 12:11
  226. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.8.4–5.); cf. Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 69a, where the same incident is related in the name of Simon the Just.
  227. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (11.8.7.)
  228. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.1.1.)
  229. ^ Danby (1977), Mishnah (Aboth 1:2)
  230. ^ Babylonian Talmud (Yoma 39a)
  231. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (12.2.5.)
  232. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.2.5–7.)
  233. ^ a b c d Josephus, Antiquities (12.4.1.)
  234. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.4.1.)
  235. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (12.4.10.)
  236. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (12.5.1.)
  237. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (15.3.1.)
  238. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.9.7.)
  239. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.2–3.)
  240. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.5.2–4.)
  241. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.9.7.)
  242. ^ a b c d e f Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.3.)
  243. ^ The First Book of Maccabees, 9:54–56, Coptic edition
  244. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.10.6.)
  245. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.10.6.)
  246. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (12.11.2.)
  247. ^ In Josephus' Life (sec. 1), Jonathan is described as being "the first of the sons of Asmoneus who was high priest," but in Josephus' Antiquities it is clear that he assumed this title only after Judas' death.
  248. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (13.6.7.)
  249. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (1.2.2.)
  250. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (13.230–234); I Maccabees 16:14–16
  251. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (1.2.8.)
  252. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (13.10.7.)
  253. ^ Danby (1977), Mishnah (Maaser Sheni 5:15 [p. 82 - note 3]; Parah 3:5)
  254. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (13.8.2.)
  255. ^ Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 29a
  256. ^ a b Josephus, The Jewish War (1.3.1–2.)
  257. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.3.)
  258. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (13.11.3.)
  259. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.4.)
  260. ^ Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 7:2 (48a); Nazir 5:3 (23b)
  261. ^ a b c d Josephus, Antiquities (20.10.4.)
  262. ^ Josephus wrote in his Antiquities (14.1.2.) that Hyrcanus began his high priesthood in the 3rd year of the 177th Olympiad, meaning in 73 BCE
  263. ^ Cassius Dio (1969), vol. 3, p. 127 (book XXXVII)
  264. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (14.10.1–26)
  265. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (14.16.4.)
  266. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (15.3.1.)
  267. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (15.3.3.)
  268. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (15.3.3.)
  269. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (15.9.3.)
  270. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (17.4.2.)
  271. ^ a b c d e Josephus, Antiquities (17.6.4.)
  272. ^ Horsley (1986), p. 32
  273. ^ a b c d Josephus, Antiquities (17.13.1.)
  274. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (18.2.1.)
  275. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (2.7.3.)
  276. ^ a b c d e f g Josephus, Antiquities (18.2.2.)
  277. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (18.5.3.)
  278. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (19.6.2.)
  279. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (19.6.4.)
  280. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (2.13.3.)
  281. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.1.3.)
  282. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.5.2.)
  283. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (2.17.8–9.)
  284. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (20.8.11.)
  285. ^ a b c Josephus, Antiquities (20.9.1.)
  286. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (20.9.4.)
  287. ^ a b Josephus, Antiquities (20.9.7.)
  288. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (4.5.2–3)
  289. ^ Josephus, The Jewish War (5.13.1. and 6.2.2.)
  290. ^ a b Josephus, The Jewish War (4.3.8.)
  291. ^ Josephus (Antiquities 10.8.4.; [10.143])
  292. ^ Josephus, Antiquities (Preface)
  293. ^ Solomon 2006, p. 61.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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