Archæology and the BibleBarton, George A. (George Aaron)
Religion
Archæology and the Bible
Barton, George A. (George Aaron)
Bible -- Antiquities; Egypt -- Antiquities; Middle East -- Antiquities
(2) The Assyrian kings kept lists of years and of principal events, to
which scholars have given the name “Eponym Lists,” because each year was
named after the king or some officer. Tablets containing these lists have
been recovered on which we can still read the chronology from 893 to 666
B. C. This list accordingly overlaps the list or “canon” of Ptolemy. Some
of these Assyrian kings were also kings of Babylon, and where the lists
overlap they agree. One of these lists mentions an eclipse which occurred
at Nineveh in the month Sivan (May-June), 763 B. C. This eclipse has been
calculated and verified by modern astronomers, so that the chronology
covered by these lists rests upon a secure scientific basis.
(3) For dates in Assyrian history anterior to 893 B. C. we have to depend
upon incidental notices in the inscriptions. Thus Sennacherib, whose date
is fixed by the Eponym Lists as 705-681 B. C., relates that during his
reign he recovered from Babylon the images of two gods that had been taken
as booty by Marduknadinakhi, King of Babylon, from Tiglath-pileser, King
of Assyria, 418 years before Sennacherib brought them back. It follows
from this that Tiglath-pileser I of Assyria and Marduknadinakhi of
Babylon were ruling from about 1120 to 1100 B. C.
We also have a long inscription from the Tiglath-pileser mentioned here,
who relates that in his reign he restored a temple, which had been built
by Shamshi-Adad, ruler of Assyria, son of Ishmi-Dagan, ruler of Assyria,
641 years before the time of Ashur-dan, King of Assyria. Ashur-dan had, he
tells us, pulled the temple down and it had lain in ruins 60 years until
he (Tiglath-pileser) rebuilt it. By adding these numbers we reach 1819 or
1820 B. C. as the accession of Shamshi-Adad.
Again Sennacherib found at Babylon a seal which bore the following
inscription:
“Tukulti-Ninib, king of the world, son of Shalmaneser, King of
Assyria, conqueror of the land of Chaldæa. Whoever changes the writing
of my name, may Ashur and Adad destroy his name. This seal was
presented by the land of Assyria to the land of Akkad” (Babylonia).
To this Sennacherib added the following inscription:
“I, Sennacherib, after 600 years conquered Babylon, and from its
treasures brought it out and took it.”
We learn from this that Tukulti-Ninib was ruling in Assyria from about
1300 to 1290 B. C.
Andrae has recently (1914) published an inscription of Tukulti-Ninib in
which he states that he repaired a temple which had been built by his
ancestor, Ilu-shumma, King of Assyria, 720 years before. Ilu-shumma was,
accordingly, ruling in Assyria about 2020 to 2010 B. C.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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