TABLE VII. MONARCHAL PERIODS. │ JOSEPHUS. │ TRUE │ │CHRONOLOGY. │ Periods. Reigns. │ The VIIIth Book comprehends │ 163 160│ 119 The IXth Book „ │ 157 180│ 190 The Xth Book „ │ 182½ 203½│ 185 │ ———— ————│ ———— Total, including Captivity │ 502½ 543½│ 494 Deduct the three years of Solomon │ 3 3│ 3 │ ———— ————│ ———— │ 499½ 540½│ 491 Deduct the years of the Captivity │ 70 70│ 52 │ ———— ————│ ———— Extent of the Fifth age │ 429½ 470½│ 439 Here the discrepancy between the amount of the _Periods_ and the amount of the _Reigns_ is manifest; and the cause of the discrepancy is plainly the 40 years surreptitiously added to Solomon’s reign; for if this number be subtracted from 470½ years, the result of the _reigns_, the remainder is 430½ years, which agrees with the result of the _periods_ to a single year, and this year may have been added for the 1st of Cyrus. The latter amount, however, still differs from the true period by 10 years; and this difference evidently arises from the omission of the interregnum of 12 years, and the addition of 2 years to the reign of Jehoram. The extraordinary want of agreement between the different _periods_ and the corresponding amount of the _reigns_, shows that the former must have been manufactured to serve some particular purpose, the most probable being the concealment of the error of 40 additional years in the reign of Solomon. This is so far ingeniously done, and might deceive a cursory reader; for the first period of 163 years is his exact interval from the _Foundation_ of the Temple to the end of _Jehoshaphat’s_ reign; the second period of 157 years is exactly 40 years less than his interval from the end of _Jehoshaphat’s_ reign to the end of _Hezekiah’s_ reign; and the third period of 182½ years is only 2 years more than his interval from the end of _Hezekiah’s_ reign to the end of the _captivity_.