Chronikon Hebraikon - The World's Age Scriptually Demonstrated

Fourth Period - The Time of the Judges "Until Samuel the Prophet"

Embraces 450 Years

A.M.Names and EventsReferenceB.C.
2533
2580


2588
2628
2646
2726
2746
2786
2793
2833
2836
2859
2881
2899
2905
2912
2922
2930
2970

2983
Death of Joshua
The elders outliving Joshua, and all their generation gathered to their
  fathers: another generation arises after them not knowing Yahweh, nor
  His works done for Israel, who serve Baal and Ashtaroth.
Subject judicially to Chusan-rishathaim, King of Mesopotamia
Delivered by Othniel, Caleb's younger brother, under whom the land rests
Servitude to the King of Moab
Ehud, Shamgar, and rest
"Israel mightily oppressed" by Jabin, King of Canaan
The land has rest under Deborah and Barak
Servitude to Midian
The country in quietness in the days of Gideon
Abimelech reigns over Israel
Tola degends Israel
Jair judges the nation
Israel sore distressed by Philistines and Ammonites
Jephthah judges Israel
Ibsan
Elon
Abdon
Israel subject to the Philistines 40 years, in the latter half of which the
  land is partially ruled by Samson 20 years
Eli's judgeship to the establishment of Samuel as the Prophet of Yahweh

Judg. 2:10; 20:28;
. . . 21:25

Judg. 3:8
Judg. 3:9,11
Judg. 3:14
Judg. 3:30
Judg. 4:2,3
Judg. 5:31
Judg. 6:1
Judg. 8:28
Judg. 9:22
Judg. 10:2
Judg. 10:3
Judg. 10:8
Judg. 12:7
Judg. 12:9
Judg. 12:11
Judg. 12:14
Judg. 13:1; 15:20

1 Sam. 3:20; 4:18
1556
1509


1501
1461
1443
1363
1343
1303
1296
1256
1253
1230
1208
1190
1184
1177
1167
1159
1119

1106


NOTES ON THE FOURTH PERIOD.

1.-Joshua's Age at the Exodus.

1. Some chronologists have rightly guessed the age of Joshua at the Exodus. Among these is Mr. Shimeall, who says "Joshua was 40 years old when sent out with the spies, and 45 when the land was divided; hence that division was effected five years after their first occupying of it in Joshua's 85th year." In proof of this, he tells the reader to "compare the references" given, as Josh. 14:7, 10. But, on turning to said references, we find the most extraordinary kind of proof! We find that instead of proving Joshua to be the alleged age, it says nothing about Joshua's age at all, but only of Caleb's! This is truly clerical logic; of which sort is the argument, that because Moses was 80 years old at the passage of the Red Sea, the Man in the Moon was then 80 also!

But, as I have said, chronologists have rightly guessed that Joshua and Caleb were of the same age at the Exodus, though they have failed to prove it. They have supposed it; but supposition will not do for a reliable chronological basis. It must be proved; and this is the proof I have to offer.

When administrations vacate office, they are immediately succeeded by others. Joshua's administration terminated with his death. He was 110 years old when he died; but it is not expressly stated how old he was when he succeeded Moses. It is therefore, a question, how many years elapsed during the administration of Joshua? This question has been answered by I Kings 6:1, and Paul. We learn from these, that as the time of Moses was succeeded by the time of Joshua; so the time of Joshua was succeeded by the time of the Judges. The text in Kings testifies to the time of Moses ending 480 years before the event Paul specifies in the words "Samuel the Prophet;" and Paul gives us further to understand, that the time of the Judges began 450 years before the same event. The difference between these two numbers, which is 30 years, is, therefore, the duration of the time of Joshua's administration, intervening between the time of Moses and the time of the Judges. Now Joshua died at the end of his official time, aged 110; or 70 years after the passage of the Red Sea. Deduct 70 from 110, and there remain 40, which was the age of Joshua at the Exodus.

2.-The Time of the Judges.

2. We come now to the time of the Judges. This has been a great trouble to chronologists. The great difficulties with them are what they term chasms, or breaks; the first, from the death of Joshua to the first servitude, of which, they say, the Scriptures say nothing; and the second, the periods of the administrations of Eli, Samuel, Samson, and Saul, concerning the dates of which the Old Testament affords them no light. Accepting this confession as the truth, it is manifestly useless to expect any aid from them. They are left in a hopeless quandary; hemmed in between two chasms they are unable to bridge.

The condition of the chronologists being so hapless, there remains no alternative but to abandon the subject, or to engineer deliverance for ourselves. I believe that the chasms can be spanned with solid and substantial bridges, upon which the wayfaring man may wend his way, with firm and steady step, from the death of Joshua to the House building for Yahweh in the 4th of Solomon.

In the first place, Paul does not lead us to suppose that the time each judge ruled, when added together, made 450 years. He simply affirms that, at a time subsequent to the distribution of the land by lot, the Deity gave Israel judges. These judges, his audience well knew, were raised up as occasional deliverers; not as consecutively elected or hereditary rulers. The regular government of the nation was the Mosaic Law administered by the High Priest and Elders. The aggregate time in which the individual judges "given," exercised secular and military authority, was 292 years. These years, Paul informs us, in effect, were distributed over a period of 450 years, ending at Samuel the prophet. The rest of this long period was made up of lesser periods, in which such conditions of public affairs obtained as created a necessity for divine assistance. These periods collectively make 158; which, added to the 292, make 450. After "Samuel the prophet," judges were no more given as aforetime; the time having come to place the nation under kings and hereditary civil chief magistrates.

In computing the constituent periods of this remarkable era, we are limited to "Samuel the prophet." Beyond this point the 450 years must not pass. And Paul tells us where to find that point, namely, forty years before the death of Saul. It follows then, that, as it was 480 years from Joshua's passage of the Jordan to Samuel the prophet, it was 520 years from the said passage, A.M. 2503, to the death of Saul A.M. 3023, which is 490 years, or Seventy Weeks, from the beginning of the 450 years. Thus the two chasms are spanned by one bridge of 490 years' span from the death of Joshua to the death of Saul, and the beginning of David's reign. This apportions 40 years to all the events transpiring between Samuel's installation and Saul's death. Calculating the servitudes and deliverances by judges, backwards from Samuel in the 13th of Eli, we have 403 years; leaving a space of 47 years from Chusan-rishathaim's conquest to the death of Joshua. This afforded time for the Elders who survived Joshua, and all their generation, to die out; and for another generation to arise, not knowing Yahweh and His works.

3. Eli judged Israel 40 years. He died at the end of this period on hearing that the Ark was taken, and that his sons, Hophni and Phineas, were slain. [Josephus reckons 32 years from the death of Eli to the death of Saul (Ant. 6:1  1); and Saul's reign as 20 years, 18 years during Samuel's life, and 2 after his death (Ant. 6:14  9).] When the Ark was returned it remained 20 years at Kirjath-jearim, when it was removed by David in the eighth of his reign, or seven years and six months after Saul's death; between which and the capture of the Ark and death of Eli, there could only have been 13 years. These 13 years deducted from the 40 of Acts 13:21, leave 27, which carry us back to the year of Eli's judgeship indicated by the phrase "Samuel the prophet," namely, to the 13th, which ended the 450 years of the judges.


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