WHO WAS KING OF JUDAH WHEN SAMARIA FELL?
II. The First Rule: Counting the Years
by miriam berg
may, 1994




II. THE FIRST RULE: COUNTING THE YEARS

The writers of the books of the Kings tried to be very careful and accurate in giving us the reign of each king. They gave us the accession year of each king in terms of the regnal year of the other king, the number of years the king reigned, his age at accession, and the name of his mother. It is as if a modern historian were to write about the histories of Great Britain and the United States:

Now Franklin Roosevelt son of James Roosevelt became president in the 23rd year of the reign of George the Vth. He was 52 years old when he was elected and he served 13 years. His mother's name was Sara Delano.

George the VIth began to reign in the 4th year of the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, and reigned 17 years. He was 42 years old when he began to reign, and his mother's name was Mary of Teck, of the house of Wurttemburg.

Harry Truman son of John Truman became president in the 10th year of George the VIth and served for 8 years. He was 61 years old when he began to serve and his mother's name was Martha Ellen Young, the daughter of Solomon Young.

Elizabeth II began to reign in the 8th year of Harry Truman and has reigned unto this day. She was 26 years old when she began to reign and her mother's name was Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon of Strathmore.

Dwight Eisenhower son of David Eisenhower became president in the 2nd year of Elizabeth II and served for 8 years. He was 63 years old when he began to serve and his mother's name was Ida Stover of Lecompton, Kansas.

John Kennedy son of Joseph Kennedy became president in the 10th year of Elizabeth II and served for three years. He was 43 years old when he was elected and his mother's name was Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of John Fitzgerald.

Lyndon Johnson son of Samuel Ealy Johnson Jr. became president in the 12th year of Elizabeth II after John Kennedy was assassinated and he served for 6 years. He was 56 years old when he began to serve and his mother's name was Rebekah Baines.

Now while this seems to be pretty skimpy information at first glance it is actually sufficient for us to calculate the relative year of the beginning of each person's term. Thus, if we call the first year of Franklin Roosevelt the year 1 (1933), then George the VIth began to reign in year 4 (1936), which is correct; Harry Truman began to serve in year 13 (1945), the 10th year of George the VIth, which is correct; Elizabeth II was crowned in year 20 (1952), the 17th year of her father's reign, which is correct; Dwight Eisenhower began to serve in year 21 (1953), the 2nd year of Elizabeth II, which is correct; John Kennedy began to serve in year 29 (1961), the 10th year of Elizabeth II, which is correct; and Lyndon Johnson began to serve in year 31 (1963), the 12th year of Elizabeth II, which is correct.

From this illustration we can see that the first rule of the Hebrew historians, and the one which has caused the most difficulty in interpreting the books of the Kings, is that they counted both the first and last year of a king's reign in the total number of years for that king. That is, the accession year of a king was the first year of their reign, and the year they died was the last year of their reign. This is proven by many examples, such as:

a) Abijam, the son of Rehoboam, ruled for three years. But he began his reign in the 18th year of Jeroboam I, and Asa, his son, began his reign in the 20th year of Jeroboam I, so that the three years of Abijam's reign were the 18th, 19th, and 20th years of Jeroboam's reign, and not three full years, as shown in Figure I. 
              ________________________________________
             |                                        |
             |        JUDAH            ISRAEL         |
             |                                        |
             |       Rehoboam         Jeroboam        |
             |          |                |            |
             |          |                |            |
             |       Abijam (1st)      (18th)         |
             |          |   (2nd)        |            |
             |         Asa  (3rd)      (20th)         |
             |          |                             |
             |________________________________________|
                            FIGURE I
2) Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, reigned for two years beginning in the 2nd year of the reign of Asa of Judah. But Baasha assassinated Nadab and became king in the 3rd year of Asa's reign, so that the two years in which Nadab reigned were the 2nd and 3rd years of Asa, so that Nadab may have ruled less than twelve months in all! This is diagrammed in Figure II. 
    
    ___________________________________________________________
   |                                                           |
   |                  JUDAH            ISRAEL                  |
   |                                                           |
   |                   Asa               |                     |
   |   (2nd of Asa)     |              Nadab   (1st)           |
   |   (3rd of Asa)     |              Baasha  (2nd of Nadab)  |
   |                    |                |                     |
   |___________________________________________________________|
                           FIGURE II
3) Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, also reigned for two years. But he began his reign in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat and his brother Jehoram began his reign in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat, so that the two years of Ahaziah of Israel were the 17th and 18th years of Jehoshaphat's reign, and not two full years, as shown in Figure III. 
  
  __________________________________________________________________
 |                                                                  |
 |                       JUDAH            ISRAEL                    |
 |                                                                  |
 |                                        Ahab                      |
 |                         |                |                       |
 |                     Jehoshaphat          |                       |
 |                         |                |                       |
 |                         |                |                       |
 | (17th of Jehoshaphat)   |             Ahaziah  (1st)             |
 | (18th of Jehoshaphat)   |             Jehoram  (2nd of Ahaziah,  |
 |                         |                |      1st of Jehoram)  |
 |                         |                |                       |
 | (22nd of Jehoshaphat) Jehoram (1st)      | (5th of Jehoram)      |
 |                         |                |                       |
 |                         |                |                       |
 |    (8th of Jehoram)  Ahaziah             | (12th of Jehoram)     |
 |                         |                |                       |
 |__________________________________________________________________|
                            FIGURE III
Thus we can see that when the books of the Kings tell us that a king reigned a certain number of years, they mean that that king reigned DURING each of that number of years. But this means that the last year of the reign of each king is counted twice. Nowadays we do not count the accession year of a king in their total reign.

Another illustration of this principle is the reign of Jehoram of Israel, who is said to have reigned 12 years. But the Assyrian inscriptions tell us that Ahab was still alive in the year 854 BCE, and that Jehu was king in the year 842 BCE. G. Maspero exclaims in History of Egypt, vol. 7, in a footnote, that II Kings is "radically inaccurate", because there aren't enough years in between these two dates. Maspero reasons that Ahab died in 854 BCE, Ahaziah his son began his two-year reign in 853 BCE, and Jehoram couldn't have become king until the year 851 BCE. But if Jehu was king in 842 BCE, then he must have killed Jehoram and become king in 843 BCE, which leaves only 8 years for Jehoram's reign. But Maspero seems not to have understood this first principle of the Hebrew historians. Their analysis would have been as follows: Ahab died in 854 BCE, but not before the Assyrians could make a record of his being king; Ahaziah became king in 854 BCE, but died in 853 BCE, the 2nd year of his reign; Jehoram became king in 853 BCE, the 2nd year of Ahaziah, and was killed in 842 BCE, the 12th year of his reign; and Jehu did become king that year, in time for the Assyrians to take note of him. Today we would say that Ahaziah reigned ONE year, plus his accession year, and that Jehoram reigned 11 years, plus his accession year. Their reigns are shown also in Figure III. It is almost beyond belief that this principle has not been realized in all these centuries of study of the Bible. But none of the references I have consulted shows any awareness of it.