Chronology (4): from Exodus to Solomon

In our Biblical chronology until the division of the promised land, we have seen that various milestones in the Biblical history coincide with striking dates. Not only did Abram’s year of birth coincide with the year Noah died but it was also the year 2000 since Adam. One hundred years later (2100) Isaac was born and four hundred years later (2500 AH) the Exodus out of Egypt took place. And another 50 years later (2550) the promised land was divided by drawing of lots after which the counting of the sabbatical years started. After Joshua died, the time period of the judges followed until Samuel the prophet. One has tried to determine the total length of this time period by adding all mentioned terms. Both the periods under foreign reign as well as the periods of the judges. But such a sum gives a distorted result for several reasons. In the first place, the judges didn’t necessarily follow each other up, but could have also been active simultaneously.  Furthermore, despite  Israel was oppressed by foreign rulership, it still could be headed by a judge simultaneously. For instance, judges 13:1 reads that the philistines dominated for forty years, but that during twenty of those years Samson was a judge over Israel. (Judges 15:2) This situation would be quite hopeless, were it not that a precious statement is made in 1 Kings 6:1

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which [is] the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

Without this statement the chain of Biblical chronology would miss a necessary shackle. With this statement however, two great milestones in time are connected. Solomon’s fourth year of rulership was the four hundred and eightieth year after the Exodus. So as the Exodus took place in the year 2500 AH, the temple construction started in the year (2500 + 480 =) 2980 AH. It took Solomon seven years to build the temple (1 Kings 6:38) and another thirteen years to build his own palace (1 Kings 7:1). So the construction of the whole complex, of both the temple and the palace took twenty years. That is why 2 Chron 8:1 (and also 1 Kings 9:10) reads:

And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house…

Which means that the completion of both the temple as well as the palace of the Davidian dynasty, brings us at the year 3000 AH. Again an extraordinarily striking year. Precisely a thousand years after the birth of Abram and five hundred years after the Exodus out of Egypt. And in addition a jubilee for Israel. The ninth in line since the land had been divided and the sixtieth (60 x 50) jubilee since Adam!  HB

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