Tony Malone & Saint Oxen Books

A New Biblical King Chronology 
Part 2: A List That Exactly Follows the Biblical Historian's Instructions
Tony Malone December 2004

This chart will prove that there was one Biblical historian organizing the mathematical king-reign information (as distinguished from the written histories of the kings, which were a separate piece of work), and that his mathematics were absolutely dependable. In order to place these dates, two rules were followed.

First Rule: Every year listed here is considered to be a year that a king began his reign, whether it was at the beginning, middle or end of that year. That means the last year listed for any king is actually the year when his final twelve month period begins.

For instance, Abijam (second from the top on the Southern list) reigned three years. He is listed in our chart as reigning from 946 to 944. His first year began sometime in 946 and finished in 945; his second began in 945 and finished in 944; and his last began in 944 and finished in 943, so although his entry says 946-944, his reign is not confined to those years. His final year listed (944) refers to when he began his last year.

If his son Asa started to reign after his father finished, then Asa's reign should begin in 943. But his cross reference places him a year earlier in 944, so we know that he spent his first year co-reigning with his father, during his father's final year.

In every case on our chart, the last year listed for a king is not completed until the following year, and this mathematical rule was applied to ALL numbers given by the Biblical record-keeper. It allows us to see how consistent his work was.

Second Rule: The list must adhere strictly to both the reign lengths and the cross references given by the Bible, trusting at all times that the record-keeper had a logical, set plan. This means: No time may be added to or subtracted from the kings' reigns. No inconsistencies in the record-keeper's methods may be assumed (vis: pretending that one king's co-regency was included in his total number of years listed, while another king's wasn't). No creative time-adjusting methods may be invented to force the data to work. And the whole timeline must finish at 586 BCE.
 

Note: because Tibni's reign is always missed by other lists but was included here - sixth from the top on the Northern list -
the total number of kings for this list is higher than the others by one.

Northern and Southern Kings Reign Lengths
Correct: 40 out of 40
Incorrect: 0 out of 40

Northern and Southern Kings Cross References
Correct: 28 out of 29
Incorrect: 1 out of 29
(Uzziah - tenth on the Southern list - is off by eleven years)

For this chart we were forced to ignore three extraneous cross references: Northern Jehoram and Hoshea, and Southern Ahaziah, each have two different cross references, of which, obviously, only one each could be used. Reasons for the choices made here - which the chart itself dictated - are explained in Parts 5c and 5d.

This list is solid. Of forty reign lengths and twenty-nine cross references, every one fits perfectly and intersects properly with its opposing list - except for one single cross reference. We will now examine the single dramatic error of eleven years which we find in Uzziah's cross reference. It seems to cause havoc, but we're only provided a few options, and there is a surprisingly easy answer to this puzzle.