Regi 1
Rejith Regi
Rhet 1302
Section 014
The most mysterious and incredible book
What is one of the world’s most distributed books of all time? That’s right! It’s the Holy Bible. According to Jennifer Poland’s article, “The 10 Most Read Books In The World[Infographic]”, Poland notes that the Bible outsold any other book in the last 50 years with nearly 3.9 billion copies sold (Poland, 2012). Considering the historical analysis of biblical chronology and the historical accounts given by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus helps us to better understand the authenticity of biblical texts, ultimately giving us a reason to believe why the Bible is worth being one of the most sold books in the world.
In the Book of Genesis, we are given that in the time of Noah, a massive world-wide flood occurs. Many Christians believe that this world-wide event had occurred for real because it was an event even referred to by Jesus and the apostles in the Gospels. Many people also believe that this event was the ultimate cause for the split of the Pangaea due to massive earthquakes of high magnitudes along with an intense amount of volcanic activity. In the account given in the Book of Genesis about this event, we are given that the flood began in “the second month, the seventeenth day of the month”, “prevailed upon the earth [for one] hundred and fifty days”, and began to recede in the “seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month” (King James Version, Genesis 7.11-8.5). 150 days divided by 30 days per month gives us 5 months. This means that we are given a logical conclusion that between the 17th day of the 2nd month and the 17th day of the 7th month, there must be exactly 5 months consisting of 30 days per month. This implies that during the time of Noah, there would have been 360 days per year with 30 days per month and 12 months per year. But when does this eventually change to 365 days per year as we do have nowadays?
Today, we know that the Mayan and Egyptian calendars consist of 365 solar days per year. According to the Britannica encyclopedia, the Egyptians had originally employed a 360-day solar calendar, but that 5 extra days were added to the solar year at a later time. (Schmidt and Wiesenberg, 2019). Although some claim that these calendrical changes occurred thousands of years before the coming of Christ with weak evidence to support such claims, it is possible to consider that these calendars were changed after the time of the prophet Isaiah. According to biblical chronology, Isaiah lived in the 8th century BCE and is believed by many Christians to be responsible for the authorship of the Book of Isaiah (Valkanet, 2010). In the Book of Isaiah chapter 38, we are told of a supernatural event that changes time. In this chapter, the author of the book says that Yaweh tells him, “Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it [had] gone down” (King James Version, Isaiah 38.8). This passage mentions sundials, which, in ancient times were used to tell the time when there is sunlight. Ancient sundials usually consisted of 180 degrees on which 12 hours of sunlight would shine, which means that the other 180 degrees of a circle would be set aside for the 12 hours when there is no sunlight. In Cramer’s article, “360 Vs. 365”, Cramer argues that we would first have to consider a ratio of 12 hours of sunlight for a 360-degree circle just like there are 12-hour marks on a 360-degree modern clock. Therefore, by mathematical proportion, 10 degrees would amount to (⅓) hour or 20 minutes. This would mean that for a single year if there were 360 days per year in Isaiah’s time, 20 minutes multiplied by 360 twenty-four hour days would amount to 7,200 minutes, or 120 hours. Next, we would divide this by 24 hours per day to be 5 days. If we take this to consideration by picturing a whole year consisting of 360 twenty-four hour days, this means adding 5 days to the whole year would cause solar days to consist of 365 days per year. It is important to note that other Bible versions like the New International Version instead says, “I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz” (New International Version, Isaiah 38.8). This would be the same exact idea. The reason is that, as Cramer notes in his article, we would have to consider 360 steps on which 12 hours of sunlight would shine in one day. So 10 steps would also amount to (⅓) hours or 20 minutes. Certain temples in ancient times consisted of the number of steps as the exact number of days in a solar year. For example, according to the journal article, “Karst Detection Beneath the Pyramid of El Castillo, Chichen Itza, Mexico, by Non-Invasive ERT-3D Methods”, the El Castillo temple had 4 staircases consisting of 91 steps each including the platform. This would be 4 multiplied by 91 plus the platform to be 365 steps, the number of days in a solar year. (Chávez et al., 2018). Such a time change in biblical history would eventually provide a layout for the accuracy of a major messianic prophecy of the Book of Daniel, which was believed by the Christian apostles to be written by a man named Daniel who lived around the 6th century BCE (Valkanet, 2010).
In the Book of Daniel chapter 9, we are given that Daniel describes a vision that supposedly an angel named Gabriel gives to him. In this vision, he claims that the angel states, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in [troubled] times. And after threescore(1 score = 20) and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come [and] destroy the city and the sanctuary...” (King James Version, Daniel 9.24-9.26). If we examine the biblical history of the Old Testament, we will note that this prophecy involves the day-year principle in which a day in the past would amount to a year in the future. For example, in the Book of Numbers chapter 14, we are given that Yahweh tells the Israelites that they would wander the land for 40 years for rejecting him. It says, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise” (King James Version, Numbers 14.34). So using this principle, we can recognize that since the Babylonians had destroyed the city of Jerusalem around the year 587 BCE, we are given that the Messiah would come and start his ministry 69 weeks multiplied by 7 days per week to be 483 days or 483 prophetic years after the decree to restore the city of Jerusalem (Valkanet, 2010). To understand when the Messiah begins his ministry, we first need to figure out when the decree to restore Jerusalem was given. In the Book of Ezra, chapter 6, we are given that the city of Jerusalem would be finished being built after the decrees of Cyrus the Great, Darius I, and Artaxerxes I (King James Version, Ezra 6.14). But, later chapters of the book reveal that the city eventually gets rebuilt after the decree of Artaxerxes I, who reigned from 465 BCE to 424 BCE according to biblical chronology. So, when was Artaxerxes I’s decree made?
In the Book of Ezra chapter 7, we are given that the decree gets made in the seventh year of Artaxerxes I, which would be the year 458 BCE according to biblical chronology (Valkanet, 2010). The year 458 BCE makes sense to be the year of the King’s decree because of the clues given by the historical record of events by Flavius Josephus and even the gospels of Luke, Mathew, and John. If we consider 483 years consisting of 365 solar days per year after the time of the year 458 BCE, this would lead us to the year 26 AD because there is no such year as 0 BCE. But how can we conclude that Jesus would start his ministry around the year 26 AD? Well, according to the Gospel of Matthew, we are given that Jesus and his family had to flee to Egypt due to the reason that Herod the Great, who reigned from 37 BCE to 4 BCE, was seeking to kill Jesus. The author of this book, believed by many to be Mathew the tax collector, states, “When he arose, [Joseph] took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod” (King James Version, Mathew 2.14-2.15). If we consider that Jesus was born around late 5 BCE, we can consider that the time that was taken for the visitation of the Magi and the fleeing of Jesus and his family to Egypt, waiting until Herod's death would have been long enough to last until around April of 4 BCE. This would make sense because according to Josephus’ work, Antiquities of the Jews, translated by William Whiston, book 17, chapters 6 through 9, Herod died just right before a Jewish Passover takes place, which usually occurs around April in Jewish tradition. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 3, we are given that Jesus began his ministry after his baptism at the age of about 30. So if we consider 30 years from the fall of 5 BCE, the baptism would have taken place around the fall of 26 AD. Another point of reference for this date lies within the clues given in the Gospel of John chapter 2. The events of this chapter take place around the beginning of Jesus’ ministry after he has been baptized. The author of this book, believed by many to be John the Apostle, states, “Then said the Jews, ‘forty and six years [ago] was this temple [being built], and wilt thou rear it up in three days?’ But he [spoke] of the temple of his body” (King James Version, John 2.20). According to the writer of this gospel, we are given a clue that this scene was occurring during the time of a Passover. Earlier in the same chapter, the author states, “And the Jews' Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (King James Version, John 2.13). Again, since Jewish Passovers usually occur around April, the scenes of this chapter would have occurred around April of the year 27 AD. In this scene, Jesus was referring to his body as the temple of God, but the Jews thought that Jesus was referring to Herod's temple, which was being built over 46 years from around the years of 20-19 BCE. This in itself is a historical fact as we can verify from Josephus’ work, Antiquities of the Jews book 15, chapter 11. Josephus states, “And now Herod, in the eighteenth year of his reign, and after the acts already mentioned, undertook a very great work, that is, to build of himself the temple of God, and make it larger in compass, and to raise it to a most magnificent altitude, as esteeming it to be the most glorious of all his actions, as it really was” (Josephus, book 15.11.1). After all, this temple was, in fact, a great work of Herod the Great. As noted in the journal article, “Herod the Great’s Building Program”, by Andrew Teasdale, the temple’s entrance was “ornamented with golden vines and oversized grape clusters” and had a front facade that was about 172 feet high and 172 feet wide. (Teasdale 95). The eighteenth year of Herod’s reign as noted by Josephus, when Herod led the construction of this temple, would be around 20-19 BCE, which again matches the idea that the Messiah would come at the appointed time (Perowne, 2020). This fact shows us that Biblical chronology and prophecy also coincides well with the facts given by the Jewish scholar Flavius Josephus, thus also proving to be reliable.
The day to year principle can also be looked at from another angle. Christ did mention in Matthew 12, verse 40, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, sothe Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."(New International Version, Matthew 12.40). According to the Book of Jonah, after Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights, Jonah agreed topreach to the city of Nineveh.It states in the book, “Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city,proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown"(New International Version, Jonah 3.4). Because the city repented andturned towards Yaweh, the city was spared after 40 days. Just like Christhad many prophetic parallels to Old Testament prophets like say Moses for example,Christ insisted that he was a prophetic parallel and fulfillment of the prophet Jonah. Christwarned during his ministry regarding the fate of the city of Jerusalem due to the fact that most in the city were rejecting him.It says in Matthew 24, verse 2, “Do you see all these buildings?I tell you the truth, they will be completely demolished. Not one stone will be left on top of another!”According to biblical scholars, Christ’s crucifixion occurred 3.5 yearsafter his ministry began around the fall of 26 AD, which would be thebeginning of 30 AD. If we take the story of Jonah and the day toyear principle into account, around 40 years after Christ’scrucifixion and Jerusalem ultimately rejecting Christ, the cityof Jerusalem gets destroyed around 70 AD when the Jewish-Roman War began.
So, is the Bible worth the price for the information that it offers? It's something more mysterious and incredible than we could understand at first glance. Historical analysis of biblical chronology along with the historical accounts given by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus helps us to understand the authenticity of biblical texts.
Works Cited
“Blue Letter Bible.” Blue Letter Bible, www.blueletterbible.org/.
Chávez, René E., et al. “Karst Detection Beneath the Pyramid of El Castillo, Chichen Itza,
Mexico, by Non-Invasive ERT-3D Methods.” Scientific Reports, vol. 8, no. 1, 2018, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-33888-9.
Cramer, Guy. “360 Vs. 365.” 360 Vs. 365, xwalk.ca/360vs365.html.
Poland, Jennifer. “The 10 Most Read Books In The World [Infographic].” Business Insider
Australia, Business Insider Australia, 27 Dec. 2012,
www.businessinsider.com.au/the-top-10-most-read-books-in-the-world-infographic-2012-12.
Valkanet, Rich. “Bible Timeline.” Bible Timeline, 2010, biblehub.com/timeline/.
Josephus , Flavius. Www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu.
www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0037-0103,_Flavius_Josephus,_The_Antiquities_
Lin, Chao, and E.J. Bickerman. “The Egyptian Calendar.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 16 Dec. 2019,
www.britannica.com/science/calendar/The-Egyptian-calendar.
Teasdale, Andrew. “Herod the Great's Building Program.” Brigham Young University Studies,
vol. 36, no. 3, 1996, pp. 84–98. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43044119. Accessed 4 May 2020.
