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INSIGHT: The Journal of the Prophecy Society of Atlanta Volume 3, Number 1July, 2013

2012 Dan Bruce All Rights Reserved. ~ www.prophecysociety.org Page 1

How Useful is Seder Olam for Doing Research?by Dan Bruce

Seder Olam, the name generally used in biblical chronological circles to denote a work

also known as the Seder Olam Rabbah (

, The Long Order of the World), is a bookof Jewish rabbinical chronology explaining biblical events from the Creation down to the end of

the Achaemenid Persian Period and the advent of Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, with a brief

mention of the later bar Kochba revolt in 132-135 CE. It was compiled from traditional Hebrew

records first edited into a single volume by the famous early Talmudist, Rabbi Yose ben Halafta,

around 160 CE. It has 30 chapters, formed into three thematic gates, each encompassing ten

chapters. The purpose of the work appears to be calendrical, with specific chronological details

given for various biblical events, and with comments that seek to explain the many chronological

difficulties found throughout the Hebrew biblical text (Masoretic Text).

In my books, I have used selected chronologies from the Seder Olam, mainly as a way of

cross-checking the biblical chronology produced by my own research. For example, the SederOlam says that there were 155 years from the year that Solomon finished building and dedicating

the Temple until the year that Joash of Judah renovated the Temple in his 23rd regnal year, and

that there were 218 years from the renovation by Joash until the renovation by Josiah of Judah in

his 18th regnal year, which is known to have begun in 622 BCE. Using this information, one can

compute that the 23rd regnal year of Joash was the year 840 BCE (622 BCE + 218 years), and that

Solomon completed and dedicated the Temple in 995 BCE (840 BCE + 155 years). This cross-

references perfectly with what I calculated from the chronology for the kings of Israel and Judah

and the construction of the Temple given in biblical text, using the chronology provided in

Daniel, chapter 4, to define the starting date for the period of the divided monarchies. Thus, the

Seder Olam can be used as a cross-check on occasion, although it can never be used as the

primary source in biblical interpretation. That role is reserved for the biblical text itself.

In working out the chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah for my bookSacred

Chronology of the Hebrew Kings (complete text available online at no charge,click here), I have

found that the Seder Olam is fairly accurate with regards to its chronological relationships, such

as the example about the Temple given in the paragrah above, but not necessarily in its exact

dates. For the dates after the Babylonian Exile, the chronology in the Seder Olam seems to have

been subject to rather serious error, either accidental due to the turmoil of the times, or perhaps

even intentional later on to counter Christian exegesis relating to Jesus. For instance, the Persian

Period is shortened to only thirty-four years in duration (fifty-two in French manuscripts),probably to accommodate an erroneous post-Second Temple rabbinical interpretation derived

from Daniel, chapter 9, that interprets that passage to say that the time between the destruction of

the First Temple and the Second Temple had to be 490 years. Historians almost universally agree

that the First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, but the Seder Olam

produces a chronology for the destruction that has it occur in the year 423 BCE, a 165-year

difference from actual history, in this way allowing it conform to the incorrect 490-year rabbinic
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interpretation about the time span between the two Temple destructions. The duration of the

Persian Period is arbitrarily shortened in the Seder Olam to accommodate the rabbinical

chronology.

Wikipedia says this: The traditional dates of events in Jewish history are often expressed

in relation to the Gregorian calendar. For example, the traditional Jewish date for the destruction

of the First Temple (3338 AM = Gregorian 423 BCE) differs from the modern scientific date,

which is usually expressed using the Gregorian calendar as 586 BCE. Implicit in this practice is

the view that if all the differences in structure between the Hebrew and Gregorian calendars are

taken into consideration, the two dates can be derived from each other. This is not the case. If the

traditional dates of events before the Second Temple era are assumed to be using the standard

Hebrew calendar, they refer to different objective years than those of the secular dates. The

discrepancy is some 165 years.

My use of the Seder Olam for research purposes is confined mainly to cross-checking the

very accurate biblical chronology produced from the Bible, especially during the period of the

divided monarchies, and, I emphasize again, it is never used as the primary source to supplantthe biblical text. However, the Seder Olam can be a useful work for cross-checking and verifying

the chronological details of events and time periods that occurred before the Exile, but only after

the overall chronology has been derived from the biblical text.

Note: If you are a serious student of Bible chronology, you can secure a copy of an

English edition, as follows: Seder Olam: The Rabbinic View of Biblical Chronologyby Heinrich

W. Guggenheimer (ISBN978-0765760210).

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About Us

The Prophecy Society of Atlanta publishes books and papers about a widely-neglected

topic, sacred chronology, and provides access to Bible-based interpretations of chrono-specific

predictive prophecies that you may not have heard explained in your local church or synagogue.When you examine our publications, you will quickly discover that the chronologies and

interpretations presented by the Society answer many of the questions left unanswered, or poorly

answered, in the study Bibles and biblical commentaries popular today. Our research and its

resulting scholarship are centered on the Bible, which we believe is the revealed word of the one

true Living God, and it is sustained by the belief that the Bible can be understood by anyone who

is genuinely seeking to understand it with an open mind and a seeking heart. We trust that you

will find our Bible-based discussions thought-provoking and spiritually enriching. If there is

anything you don't understand about our publications, ask us about it. We're here to help you as

you seek to understand the mind of God. read more about us!

To read more

Daniel Unsealed

An exposition revealing what the seven chrono-specific predictive prophecies in the Book of

Daniel say about the history of the Jews, Jerusalem, and the Anointed One of Israel.

Paperback, 224 pages (6 x 9); ISBN 978-1489505415.(click here)

Sacred Chronology of the Hebrew KingsA harmony of the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah, and how the chronologies and histories

of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia synchronize with their reigns.

Paperback, 160 pages (6 x 9); ISBN 978-1489509048.(click here)

Synchronized Chronology

Synchronized Chronology of the Ancient Kingdoms of Israel, Judah, Egypt, Assyria, Tyre, and

Babylon from 1006 BCE to 560 BCE.

Paperback, 36 pages (8 x 11); ISBN 978-1489557773. (click here)
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