Calculations

2499: Joshua dies

2499: The First Apostasy begins

Regarding the death of Joshua, the text is a little confusing, because Joshua 24:31 and Judges 2:7-10 seem to suggest that Joshua lived at least a short while after the division of the Land and that the whole nation of Israel was faithful for even longer after that. However, Judges 11:26 shows that this is impossible (to be explored shortly), that Joshua must have died immediately, and that the faithless next generation sinned while their fathers were still dying out.

The idea that the First Apostasy occurred while members of the faithful Conquest Generation were still alive fits a little better timing-wise with:

• Caleb’s nephew Othniel being the first judge (as Caleb was part of the Exodus Generation, Othniel would have been part of the Conquest Generation).
• All the wickedness of Judges 17-21 happening during the lives of the Conquest Generation, as the Book of Judges jumps back in time after the death of Samson in Judges 16:
  • Judges 17 and 18 happened during the time the Danites were obtaining their possession (Judges 18:1).
  • Judges 19-21 happened around the same time as Judges 17 and 18 (Judges 19:1). Phinehas was high priest at this point (Judges 20:28).
• Joshua still being alive when Israel made the covenants with the Canaanites that angered God, stopped the conquest of the Land, and led to the First Apostasy (Judges 2:23).

Thematically, this makes sense in three ways:

• It represented a sin on a Sabbath (in this case, the Sabbath year of the week of Conquest years), much like the sin of Adam and Eve.
• Joshua 21:43-45 makes it clear that the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give Israel the Land of Canaan, was fulfilled in 2499. The First Apostasy thus fits the pattern of immediate failure after the establishment of a covenantal system, also as originally patterned by Adam and Eve.
• Even though the older Israelites may have been faithful through the lifetime of the elders of Joshua’s day, the nation as a whole had a tendency towards wickedness during Joshua’s lifetime (as evidenced by the covenants with the Canaanites) and fell immediately upon Joshua’s death, which is the exact pattern of the time of the judges (Judges 2:19).

Note: the NKJV rendering of Joshua 23:1 must be incorrect, as it suggests that Joshua gave his farewell address a long time after the division of the Land. The NIV would more accurately suggest that he gave his farewell address “after a long time had passed and the Lord had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them” (meaning after the seven years of conquest and the division of the Land).

2389: Joshua is born (Joshua 24:29)

2507: Othniel becomes judge (Judges 3:8-9)

2547: Othniel dies (Judges 3:11-12)

2547: The Second Apostasy begins 

2565: Ehud becomes judge (Judges 3:14-15)

2645: Ehud dies (Judges 3:30)

2645: The Third Apostasy begins (Judges 4:1)

2665: Barak and Deborah deliver Israel (Judges 4:3)

2705: The Fourth Apostasy begins (Judges 5:31)

2712: Gideon becomes judge (Judges 6:1)

2752: Gideon dies (Judges 8:28)

2752: The Fifth Apostasy begins (Judges 8:33)

2752: Abimelech makes himself king

2755: Abimelech dies (Judges 9:22)

2755: Tola becomes judge (Judges 10:1)

2778: Tola dies (Judges 10:2)

2778: Jair becomes judge (Judges 10:3)

2800: Jair dies (Judges 10:3-5)

2800: The Sixth Apostasy begins (Judges 10:6)

2818: Jephthah becomes judge and defeats the Ammonites (Judges 10:8)

In Judges 11, after Jephthah gains control of Israel’s army, he engages in a dialogue with the Ammonites who have invaded Israel. The Ammonite king claims he has come to reclaim land stolen by Israel during their time in the wilderness. Jephthah counters that Israel only took the land of the Amorites. He also asks, “While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and its villages, in Aroer and its villages, and in all the cities along the banks of the Arnon, for three hundred years, why did you not recover them within that time?” (Judges 11:26)

The only way this “300 years” can make sense with the chronological data in the Torah, Joshua, and the first half of Judges is if:

• Jephthah is starting that 300 years with the return of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half of the tribe of Manasseh to the land of the Amorites in Joshua 22 (when their “dwelling” in that land truly began), which happened in 2499 after the land was divided.
• Jephthah is ending the 300 years in 2799, the year before the Sixth Apostasy began and the Ammonites invaded (Judges 10:7).

Therefore, in Jephthah’s estimation, the Ammonites did nothing from 2499-2799, then first invaded Israel in 2800 on the pretense of reclaiming their stolen land and had been attempting to reclaim that land for 18 years at the time Jephthah became judge.

Because there is no reasonable way to take any of the time periods in Judges up to this point and make them overlap, nor can the beginning of Israel’s dwelling in the land of the Amorites have begun later than 2499, this confirms that Joshua’s death and the First Apostasy must have begun the same year the land was divided.

2824: Jephthah dies (Judges 12:7)

2824: Ibzan becomes judge (Judges 12:8)

2831: Ibzan dies (Judges 12:9-10)

2831: Elon becomes judge (Judges 12:11)

2841: Elon dies (Judges 12:11-12)

2841: Abdon becomes judge (Judges 12:13)

2849: Abdon dies (Judges 12:14-15)

2849: The Seventh Apostasy begins (Judges 13:1)

The Kingdom Begins

2798: Eli dies

2798: The ark is captured by the Philistines

2818: Samuel defeats the Philistines and becomes judge

2849: The second Philistine oppression begins

2849: Saul is anointed as king

2859: David is born

The Seventh Apostasy began in 2849. However, working backwards from 1 Kings 6:1 and looking at the timeline of the early kings of Israel, we can also see that this was the year Saul became king. The math would go as such:

The fourth year of Solomon’s reign was the 480^th year from the Exodus (1 Kings 6:1) and therefore would be 2933. Note: Based on the lack of any clarifying data about a one-year co-reign between David and Solomon (as well as the numerological implications of assuming there was no co-reign), I must conclude that 1 Kings 6:1 is meant to be interpreted differently than Numbers 1:1 (this is apparently a LOLI). The former verse indicates that the First Temple was begun 480 years after the Exodus, i.e., 2933, while the latter verse indicates that the first census of Israel occurred in the second year after the Exodus, with 2453 being the first year.

This means Solomon became king in 2929. Now, according to 2 Samuel 5:4 and 1 Kings 2:11, David reigned for 40 years. Therefore, he would have become king in 2889. Saul reigned for 40 years (Acts 13:21), which means he would have become king in 2849.

This presents an interesting framework for interpreting the flow of Israelite history. A basic reading of the Bible in canon order suggests that Samuel was after Samson, that Samuel was the last judge (excluding the brief tenure of his corrupt sons), and that the judges were replaced with the kings. This would also be the most obvious reading of Acts 13:16-22, which seems to suggest that there were 450 years of judges before Samuel, who was followed first by Saul and then by David.

However, this does not jive with the chronological information presented in the Bible. Instead, an alternative narrative emerges: Eli the judge was a contemporary of Tola and Jair. When he died, the ark of God was briefly in Philistia before returning to Israel and beginning a 20-year sojourn in Kirjath Jearim (1 Samuel 7:2). At the end of the 20 years, Israel was said to be experiencing oppression by the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:3), which Samuel put to an end (1 Samuel 7:13). This would be the end of the Sixth Apostasy.

Note that during the Sixth Apostasy, Israel was afflicted by both the Ammonites and the Philistines (Judges 10:7). However, the Book of Judges only relates the defeat of the Ammonites by Jephthah. Therefore, Samuel’s defeat of the Philistines must have been at the same time, so that Jephthah and Samuel became judges at the same time, and Israel experienced peace during most of Samuel’s tenure (not apostatizing until Abdon died and Samuel’s sons started judging corruptly).

The explanation for this dual judgeship comes from the geography of Israel (note: I read a mention by James B. Jordan somewhere that there could be dual judgeships in Israel based on geography, so partial credit for this framework goes to him). The Ammonites were closer to the northern tribes, and Jephthah was from Gilead in the North. The Philistines were closer to the southern territory that would later become the kingdom of Judah. The locations from which Samuel judged Israel that are mentioned in 1 Samuel 7:15-17 are all in the South. Thus, Samuel judged in the South, while Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon primarily judged in the North.

Note that the second Philistine oppression started with the Seventh Apostasy in 2849, the year Saul became king. 1 Samuel 9:16 indicates that the Philistines were already oppressing Israel when Saul was anointed. Furthermore, 1 Samuel 14:52 indicates that there was war with the Philistines all the days of Saul, and it was the Philistines who killed Saul (1 Samuel 31). This all supports the idea that the 40 years of Saul mentioned in Acts 13 coincided with the 40 years of the Philistines mentioned in Judges 13:1.

This is also supported by the genealogy of David. According to Matthew 1, Ruth 4, Luke 3, and 1 Chronicles 2, Nahshon begot Salmon, who begot Boaz, who begot Obed, who begot Jesse, who begot David. Nahshon was a member of the Exodus Generation, the head of the house of Judah (Numbers 1:7). Salmon was a member of the Conquest Generation and married Rahab (Matthew 1:5).

That puts the conception of Salmon no later than 2492 (as Nahshon did not enter the Promised Land) and the conception of Boaz no earlier than the conquest of Jericho in 2493. If the judges lasted for 450 years starting in 2499 (what I call the “long chronology” option for Judges), then the earliest Saul could have become king would be 2949, in which case David would have become king in 2989 at the age of thirty (2 Samuel 5:4). David would therefore have been born in 2959.

To evaluate the long chronology option, let’s assume that Salmon was born in 2493 and married Rahab after he came of age. There would be no less than 466 years between the births of Salmon and David. Therefore, the average lifespan of each of David’s ancestors starting with Salmon would be approximately 466 / 4 = 116. On average, that means Salmon would be 116 when he begot Boaz, Boaz would be 116 when he begot Obed, Obed would be 116 when he begot Jesse, and Jesse would be 116 when he begot David.

There are three issues with this timeline:

• Each man would have died 5 or at most 10 years after the birth of their son, which, while technically possible (except for Jesse), doesn’t seem likely.
• Jesse would have been at least 130, if not 140, when David killed Goliath, and we know from 1 Samuel 17:17 that Jesse was still alive at that time. By this point in human history, living past 120 was either extremely rare or never occurred at all.
• Rahab was already a prostitute at the time of the destruction of Jericho and therefore must have (hopefully!) been at least 16. So, in this timeline, she would be at least 16 years older than her eventual husband Salmon. That means she would have birthed Boaz at the age of at least 132, which would be a miracle that would put the conception of Isaac to shame.

If, however, the short chronology option is correct, there is a range of when Salmon could have been born, from 2435 (19 years before 2454, when Israelites 20 years and above were forbidden to enter the Promised Land) to 2493 (if Nahshon conceived him just before dying in 2492). David would be born in 2859 (thirty years before 2889). That means there was a range of between 366 and 424 years between the birth of Salmon and the birth of David.

At the short end of the spectrum, averaging out the lifespans of each generation between the two men would result in each man fathering his son at about the age of 92. At the long end, it would be 106.

Let’s aim for a middle ground and assume Salmon was 30 when he entered the Promised Land (as a working prostitute, Rahab was at least in her late teenage years and probably not a middle-aged woman yet, so this would make them close in age when they married). If he were born in 2463, that would put 396 years between his birth and David’s, which would average 99 years for the age of each man at the time of his son’s birth. That would put Boaz’s birth around 2562, Obed’s around 2661, Jesse’s around 2760, and David’s in 2859.

While requiring the men to be old when they fathered the next generation, it isn’t impossible, especially given that Jacob was 91 when he fathered Joseph. It would explain Boaz calling Ruth “my daughter” and indicating she would have naturally been inclined to pursue men younger than him (Ruth 3:10). It would also jive with Jesse being “advanced in years” when David was anointed (1 Samuel 17:12).

As we have discussed, Judges 17 jumps back in time to the First Apostasy, and the rest of the book stays in that time period. Ruth must take place after Judges 21, as Boaz is an older man in that book. If my conjecture that Obed would have been born around 2661 is correct, then the famine of Ruth 1 was probably due to the Third Apostasy, which started in 2645 and ended in 2665. The famine might have started when the apostasy started, and since the famine was ten years long (Ruth 1:4), that would put Obed’s conception in 2655 and birth in 2656. Or the famine might have started halfway through the Third Apostasy and ended when Barak and Deborah defeated Sisera and the land began 40 years of rest in 2665. Thus, Obed might have been conceived in 2665 and born in 2666. Either way is very close to the approximation I’ve calculated.

All of this means the Bible jumps from the death of Samson in Judges 16 back to just after the division of the land in Judges 17 in order to explore the problems with there being no king yet (Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1; Judges 21:25). It then continues through the end of Judges, Ruth and 1 Samuel in order to provide a narrative of a different set of events happening in parallel to Judges 1-16, so as to give background context to David becoming king.

2700: Eli is born (1 Samuel 4:15)

2758: Eli becomes judge (1 Samuel 4:18)

2849: Saul is proclaimed king

2850: Saul is coronated

1 Samuel 13:1 indicates that Saul was “a son of one year” when he became king. According to Jordan, Saul’s “sonship” began with his anointing in 1 Samuel 10 (Samuel became his spiritual father at that time – Chronologies and Kings [I]). If, however, the entirety of Saul’s rule was contained within the 40 years of the Philistines, then the language implies that Saul was both anointed and proclaimed king in 2849. The confrontation with Nahash the Ammonite would have occurred in 2850, after which the kingdom was “renewed” at his coronation (1 Samuel 11:14), one year after Saul’s anointing. The accounting of his reign in 1 Samuel 13 is thus a little unique, but that is understandable for the first anointed king.

2851: Saul offers the unlawful sacrifice

The question then arises: were the two years Saul reigned (1 Samuel 13:1 – ibid) counted from his initial proclamation or his coronation? I would suggest his proclamation, because that would connect with Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. Saul has much in common with the Exodus Generation: initially faithful, initially triumphant, but after two years, their failure to love God with their whole hearts led to their ultimate destruction and replacement with a more faithful man/generation 38 years later. Saul’s offering of the unlawful sacrifice in 1 Samuel 13:7-14 was the moment Saul broke God’s commandment and became destined to lose his kingdom to David.

2849: Samson is born

2869: Samson starts judging Israel

2889: Saul and Jonathan die

2889: Samson ends the Philistine oppression with his death

Returning to Judges 13, we see that Samson was born after the 40 years of the Philistine oppression had begun (13:5). Samson judged Israel for 20 years (Judges 15:20; 16:31).

Looking at the beginning of 2 Samuel, we note that in the passages dealing with David being anointed as king of Judah and entering into a civil war with Saul’s house, there is no conflict with the Philistines mentioned. Samson must have therefore died and taken the 3000 Philistines with him (many of whom were leaders and nobles – Judges 16:27) almost immediately after Saul’s death. This would have shattered the might of the Philistines so much that they stopped oppressing Israel while they recovered and didn’t interfere with the “long war” between David and Ishbosheth (2 Samuel 3:1).

Samson therefore became a judge in 2869 (which means he began judging just as he was becoming old enough to marry, which fits his narrative). He was therefore judging Israel at the time David was anointed.

The Philistines did apparently recover to the point where they made an attempt to stop David from consolidating power in 2 Samuel 5:17-25, but they failed and were ultimately completely subdued (2 Samuel 8:1).

2889: David becomes king of Judah in Hebron

2889: Ishbosheth becomes king of Israel

2891: Ishbosheth dies

2891: David conquers Jerusalem

2896: David officially moves to Jerusalem

Ishbosheth ruled Israel for two years (2 Samuel 2:8-10), but David was in Hebron “over the house of Judah” for 7.5 years before moving to Jerusalem, where he spent the final 33 of his 40 years as king (2 Samuel 2:11; 2 Samuel 5:5; 1 Chronicles 3:4). There are two possible explanations for this discrepancy:

• Ishbosheth began ruling immediately after Saul’s death in the North, and these verses are intended to mean “David began ruling in Hebron over just the tribe of Judah and ruled for two years, then continued ruling over not just Judah but all Israel for the remainder of his time in Hebron, for a sum total of 7.5 years.”
• It took Abner five years to consolidate power under Ishbosheth, and David moved to Jerusalem immediately after becoming king of all Israel.

I find the first option much more plausible for two reasons:

• The northern tribes had been under Saul’s rule for 40 years. Why would it take five years to align them under Saul’s son Ishbosheth, the natural inheritor of Saul’s kingdom with Jonathan being dead?
• Given that David ruled for 40 years, this fits the same pattern of 2 years / 38 years we saw with the Exodus Generation and with Saul.

David would also have needed a commander for his army as soon as he became king of both Israel and Judah (especially with Abner dead), so it is logical that he would have selected one in the year 2891 by challenging his men to be the first to attack the Jebusites of Jerusalem, the city he wished to dwell in (1 Chronicles 11:6). 1 Chronicles 11:8 describes the repairs and improvements David and Joab made to Jerusalem after they conquered it, which would explain the five-year waiting period before David moved from Hebron to Jerusalem. David dwelt in the stronghold during that time (1 Chronicles 11:7), but it wasn’t until Hiram of Tyre built him his cedar house (1 Chronicles 14:1) and the city was completely repaired and fortified that David officially moved and the 7.5 years in Hebron ended.

As mentioned previously, the 7.5 years could also be thought of as “7 years,” because David crossed the New Year line seven times in Hebron, which explains 1 Kings 2:11 and 1 Chronicles 29:27.

2849: Ishbosheth is born (2 Samuel 2:10)

2884: Mephibosheth is born (2 Samuel 4:4)

2929: Solomon becomes co-regent with David in Judah

2929: David dies (2 Samuel 5:4; 2 Samuel 5:5; 1 Kings 2:11; 1 Chronicles 3:4; 1 Chronicles 29:27)

2929: Solomon becomes sole king of Judah

In 1 Kings 1, David establishes a co-reign with Solomon to stave off Adonijah’s attempt to seize the kingdom for himself. Moreover, in David’s last instructions to Solomon, he mentions Solomon’s “wisdom” (1 Kings 2:6), potentially implying that 1 Kings 3, which describes how Solomon obtained his great wisdom, was chronologically before 1 Kings 2 and was only placed after it to shift the text to a narrative focused more on Solomon than David.

David gave his final instructions to Solomon and Israel, arranged for Solomon to be made king “the second time” (1 Chronicles 29:22), then died. All of this happened in 2929.

2933: The foundation of the First Temple is laid (1 Kings 6:1; 1 Kings 6:37; 2 Chronicles 3:2)

2940: The First Temple is completed (1 Kings 6:38)

2940: Solomon dedicates the First Temple

The temple was dedicated in the seventh month (2 Chronicles 5:3) of the year 2940. The festivities lasted until the 23rd day of the month (2 Chronicles 7:10), and the final touches must have lasted an extra week or couple of weeks, for the temple was officially finished in the eighth month of that year (1 Kings 6:38).

2953: Solomon completes the king’s palace (1 Kings 7:1; 1 Kings 9:10; 2 Chronicles 8:1)

2969: Solomon dies (1 Kings 11:42; 2 Chronicles 9:30)

Commentary

Point 1

Saul became king on the 50^th Sabbath in the Promised Land ((2849 – 2499) / 7). The establishment of the first king on a Sabbath year signals that it represented rest from the problems associated with everyone in Israel doing what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25).

Point 2

The First Temple was completed and dedicated on the 60th Sabbath of Sabbaths (2940 = 60 x 7 x 7). This means the Jubilee of 2941 was the “first year” of temple worship.

Given that, we can finally see the explanation for Acts 13:16-22. In that passage, Paul says that the time of the judges started after the division of the Land and lasted about 450 years (as we previously established, that cannot be the length of time between the division of the Land and Samuel anointing Saul). The dedication of the Temple in 2940 would have been 441 years after the division of the Land in 2499 and is almost certainly what Paul was referring to when he said “about 450 years.” Paul would therefore be including the details of Saul and David in those 450 years (the “afterward” of Acts 13:21 would be after Samuel, not after the 450 years).

The logic of ending the time of the judges with the dedication of the Temple and the beginning of temple worship comes from 2 Samuel 7:10-11: “Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies.” The construction and dedication of the First Temple (which was an immovable building instead of a portable tent like the Tabernacle) and the restful (peaceful) reign of Solomon were therefore associated with the end of the oppressions that gave rise to the judges.