Outstanding article. I think the JW's are starting to lose tons of patrons and are desperate to clamp down, labeling disfellowshipped individuals as
"mentally diseased" and no association by family, etal.
kristenfrihet.se...
WHEN WAS ANCIENT JERUSALEM DESTROYED?”
A critique of the two-part article published in the public editions of The Watchtower of October 1, 2011, Part One, pages 26-31 and The Watchtower of
November 1, 2011, Part Two, pages 22-28.
PART ONE
© Carl Olof Jonsson, Göteborg, Sweden, 2011
CONTENTS
An introductory background overview .......................................................................................................... 1
REVIEW OF “WHEN WAS ANCIENT JERUSALEM DESTROYED?” PART ONE. ............................. 3
“Seventy Years”for Whom? ………………………………………………………………………………………….……….4
When did “the Seventy Years” Start? ………………………………………………………………………………………7
When did “the Seventy Years” End? .……………………………………………………………………………… …….9
Classical Historians – How Accurate? – Berossus ...................................................................................... 10
Classical Historians – How Accurate? – The Canon of Ptolemy .…………………………………………………..12
The Canon of Ptolemy and the Uruk King List ..……………………………………………………………………….15
The Conclusion Based on this Evidence …………………………………………………………………………………20
1
AN INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND OVERVIEW
In 1977, when I sent a treatise entitled “The Gentile Times Reconsidered” to the Watchtower headquarters, correspondence was started that lasted
for three years, from May, 1977 until May, 1980. I finally realized that the leaders were not prepared to let any facts disturb the claim that the
Watchtower organization is “God‟s sole channel on earth”, a claim based upon the calculation that “the times of the Gentiles” is a period of
2520 years that started in 607 BCE and ended in 1914. The correspondence is available here:
kristenfrihet.se... .
This was confirmed the following year, 1981, when the book “Let Your Kingdom Come” was published. An Appendix on pages 186-189 contained a defense
of the Watchtower Society‟s chronology that was clearly directed against my treatise. As a consequence, I wrote a thorough refutation of the
Appendix and added it to my treatise, which was published in both English and Swedish in 1983. See The Gentile Times Reconsidered, 4th edition 2004
(hereafter referred to as GTR4), pages 283-307.
The Appendix in “Let Your Kingdom Come” has been the only official defense of the Society‟s chronology published in the Watchtower publications
since 1981. But now, after 30 years, the Watchtower leaders have finally decided to break the silence and make another attempt. In the two-part series
entitled “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?” and published in the public editions of The Watchtower magazine of October 1 and November 1,
2011, the authors try to undermine the enormous burden of evidence against 607 BCE as the date for Nebuchadnezzar‟s destruction of Jerusalem. The
articles are claimed to present “thoroughly researched and Bible-based answers to questions that have puzzled some readers.”
During the past decades an increasing number of Jehovah‟s Witnesses have become aware of the Biblical and historical problems with the 607 BCE date.
As a consequence...