Isaiah to Malachi: The Prophets
This table will be found helpful in studying the prophets. The first portion of it covers the period from the beginning of the divided kingdom after the death of Solomon till the captivity of Israel. The dates furnished in the margin are more or less uncertain. They cannot be fixed absolutely because the figures furnished relative to the length of the reign of the kings of Judah and Israel in the two books of Kings do not in many instances agree. The difficulty of fixing the dates is also increased when taken relative to the Assyrian chronology, which has the advantage of following an exact system. (See Smith's Bible Dictionary, word Chronology.) The table herewith follows a modern revision that seems to be as reasonable in its approximation to a correct date as any. Objections can be taken to it, but no reconstruction of the chronology can be made that is entirely free from them. However, all chronologists come together at the date 722 or 721 B.C. And fortunately, from this date onward to the end of the destruction of Jerusalem in 388 or 587 B.C., the dates given by different chronologists vary by only a year or two.
Judaea was under Persian rule from 530 till about 330 B.C. After the death of Alexander the Great, the rule over Judaea was disputed by the Seleucids in Syria and the Ptolemies in Egypt till about the year 175 B.C. when it came wholly under Syrian rule under Antiochus the Great. In 167 B.C., the country obtained a quasi independence through the successful revolt of the Maccabees. This priestly rule continued until Jerusalem was captured by Pompeii in 63 B.C. This established the Roman power in Judea. Herod the Great was made King of Judaea in 37 B.C. He died in 4 B.C. The Lord was born of the remnant that same year, or in 5 B.C.
About the year 1763 Swedenborg made the following entry in his Spiritual Diary (No. 6082). Concerning Jerusalem and the temple after the captivity:
This is a remarkable table. Swedenborg's figures in the first column are not according to the Roman Era. The date which gives the means of computing them according to the current Christian Era is the last - the date of the Lord's birth - which he states as 605. This was the year 5 B.C. Therefore, the first date is 537 B.C. The date assigned in the lesson for the same event is 536 or 535 B.C. The other dates are equally near to those assigned by modern historians and chronologists given below. A comparison, with a few explanatory notes on the events, will be useful as the lessons from the prophets have much to do with the temple, the central feature of the city of Jerusalem.
516 B.C. The temple was completed in the 6th year of Darius. (Ezra 6:15) Haggai prophesied in the second year - 520 - when the building was renewed.
445. Nehemiah came from Babylon and inspired the Jews to build the walls of the city. The work was completed in 52 days. (Neh. 2)
"Haman sought to kill the Jews." This event, recorded in the Book of Esther, occurred in the reign of Ahasuerus. He is usually identified with Xerxes who reigned in Persia from 485-464. If it occurred in 394, as stated by Swedenborg, it belongs to the reign of Artaxerxes II.
170. Jerusalem was devastated and the temple plundered by Antiochus IV. (2 Maccabees 5)
168. Antiochus issued an edict to compel heathen worship in all his dominions. The temple was reconsecrated to Zeus Olympius, the worship of idols introduced there, an altar to Zeus set up on the brazen altar of Jehovah, pig's flesh offered thereon, and both sprinkled about the temple. The Jews were compelled to take part in these abominations. (2 Macc. 6; Josephus Ant. 13; Dan. 13:31)
165. The Maccabees entered Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and rededicated it in a feast which lasted eight days. This is the origin of the feast of dedication. (John 10:22)
160. Alcimus was a high priest who made alterations in the temple and demolished a wall or building held to be especially sacred as "the work of the prophets." (Macc. 9:54)
John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus his son, and Alexander Jannaeus his brother, were priests who ruled in Jerusalem from 135-107, 107-106, and 106-79 respectively.
Aristobulus was the second son of Alexander Jannaeus. He succeeded his elder brother Hyrcanus in 69 and ruled till the year 63.
63. After a severe conflict, Pompeii took Jerusalem.
40. Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, captured Jerusalem and was declared king.
40. The same year Herod went to Rome and was appointed by the senate king of Judaea.
37. Herod appeared before Jerusalem in 39 and again in 37, when, after a five months’ siege, he captured it.
20. Herod pulled down the old buildings of the temple and began to rebuild. (He may have done this at the instigation of Augustus.)
12. Eight years were spent in completing the work.
8 A.D. Some Samaritans polluted the temple by strewing human bones about the cloisters in secret during the night of the Passover. Up to this time, the Samaritans had been admitted to the temple. They were henceforth excluded. (John 4:9. About 24 years later.)
26 B.C. to 70 A.D. Additions were constantly being made to Herod's temple so that in the Lord’s time it was said to have taken "forty and six years" to build. (John 2:20)
The Lord was born in the year 5 or 4 B.C.
NOTE: In A.D. 70, the city and temple were completely destroyed by Titus. The latter was never rebuilt by the Jews. All of which is significant of the failure of religion in the past. The Holy City New Jerusalem is the symbol of the revival of religion and the progressive construction of the cooperative commonwealth of the world, despite all appearances to the contrary today.