Method in Calculating the Regnal Years

2 Kings 8:19 ESV

Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant, since he promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.

Feedback: You have to show them what is an accession year (e.g., korean age, London elevator) or make them do the calculation themselves (if you were from the south, how many years did he reign? What if you were from the north?)

Explain clearly what is Nisan and what is Tishri. Show the months of the Bible and clearly explain as if they don’t know anything.

Introduction

This study is based on the 4th book of the History of Redemption Series written by Rev. Abraham Park, entitled “God’s Profound and Mysterious Providence as Revealed in the Genealogy of Jesus Christ from the time of David to the Exile in Babylon.” So why did he write this book? He wanted to prove something about God through the Kings period in the book of 1 and 2 Kings. He wanted to prove that God is in control, able to protect His people, and able to bring peace to His people. God is the true King, and He’s coming back soon to take His rightful place. So while we’re living in the in-between of Jesus’ first coming and His return, we too can eagerly wait for the glorious Sabbath that awaits us.

So what is it about the Kings period that lets us say God is the true King? It’s in chapter 5, where Rev. Abraham Park does the work of untangling. Untangling what? The timeline of the kings period.

So we’re going to look at three key concepts that kind of function like hair conditioner, but for untangling the timeline of the Kings period.

Key concept 1: Accession year and non-accession year dating methods

The Kings period was a time whereby the kingdom was divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Each kingdom had their own way of doing things, and that also applied to how they recorded the years of their kings.

The accession year is the year that a king takes to the throne.

Mr. Tharman will become the president of Singapore this Thursday on 14th September. So his accession year is 2023.

Now, if you were a historian from northern Israel, you would say that he became president in the year 2023. If you were from the south, however, you would say that he started in 2024. Why? Because the historians from southern Judah didn’t include the accession year as part of the king’s regnal years. The accession year isn’t counted as part of a king’s term in office.

So come January 2024, historians from the north would say it’s Tharman’s second year as president. Historians from the south would say it’s his first.

The writer of the book of Kings referred to historical records from both the northern and southern kingdom. There’s the Book of the Chronicle of the Kings of Israel, and the Book of the Chronicle of the Kings of Judah.

1 Kings 15:31 ESV

Now the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

1 Kings 15:23 ESV

Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in his old age he was diseased in his feet.

So if you were to open the book from the north, would it include the accession year? Yes. And if you opened the book from the south, it excludes the accession year. This means that the northern kingdom’s records would always have an additional year compared to the south.

So in the case of Asa, as we see here, his story was recorded by the south, in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. So what this means is that the regnal years in his record do not include the accession year. So when it says here

1 Kings 15:9 ESV

In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah,

It was actually Jeroboam’s 21st year of being king. And from this we also see another key idea.

Each kingdom used the other kingdom’s king as a timeline marker

The historians at the time didn’t have BC or AD. So how would they record the year of their king’s reign? They would say something like this.

1 Kings 15:9 ESV

In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah,

1 Kings 15:25 ESV

Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.

They would refer to the regnal year of the other kingdom’s king, to show the year of their own king. So each kingdom used the other kingdom’s king as a timeline marker.

Southern Judah followed the northern style for a while

So one day King Jehoshaphat of the south decides he wants to unite the two kingdoms together. He’s a godly man, a godly king. He knows that the north and south are all sons of Israel. So what does he do? He cozies up to King Ahab of the north, and they become allies. They go into battle together, and they have victories together. And to seal the alliance, Jehoshaphat of the south marries his son, Jehoram, to Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah.

2 Chronicles 18:1 ESV

Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honor, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.

So then what happens is that they import the northern princess into the south, where she becomes queen. And she brings with her the northern way of doing things. And as you might expect, the husband plays the yes man.

2 Kings 8:18 ESV

And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

This verse is talking about Jehoram.

*Show diagram slide*

So then what happens is that for the next fifty years, and across the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth kings of Judah, from Jehoram to Ahaziah to Athaliah to Joash, they follow the northern style of doing things. They begin to use the accession year method. That means they included the accession year into the king’s regnal record. That’s why there are differing records saying that Ahaziah starts both in the 12th and the 11th year of Joram king of Israel, as you can see here in 2 Kgs 8:25, and 2 Kgs 9:29.

2 Kings 8:25 ESV

In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, began to reign.

2 Kings 9:29 ESV

In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah.

Has the Bible got it’s facts wrong? No. It’s two different methods from two different sources in the same book.

Northern Israel changed to the southern style after a while

So what’s the southern style? The non-accession year method. They excluded the accession year from the regnal years. So the first year of each king begins from the first day of the first month of the following year.

Previously the northern kingdom influenced the south. Now it’s the south’s turn to influence the north. How do we know this? Because both kings were named Joash at the same time, and the south even hired 100,000 soldiers from the north (2 Chr. 25:6).

So when does this happen? From the 12th king Joash all the way until the last king, Hoshea, when the northern kingdom was destroyed by Assyria.

*Show diagram slide*

All this sounds very complicated, but we don’t want to slack off when we’re laying the foundation for a skyscraper. Neither for our faith. This is the kind of hard work that lets us stand confidently on the Word of God.

Now there are two other key concepts that need unpacking, so let’s go through them quickly and conclude.

Key Concept 2: Nisan and Tishri Calendars

The northern way of doing things is they would consider Nisan as the first month of the year, and so they used a Nisan to Nisan calendar.

So if Nisan is the first month, then Tishri is the seventh month. Another name for Tishri is the month of Ethanim, which means ‘the seventh month.’

And the south considered Tishri as the first month of the year, and so they used a Tishri to Tishri calendar, also called the civil calendar. Why’s that? According to Jewish tradition, Adam and Eve were created on 1st day of Tishri. The Tishri calenar also fell in line with the early and latter rains in the land of Canaan, thus proving useful with regards to agriculture.

Here’s an example.

2 Kings 22:3 ESV

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying,

In the 18th year of King Josiah, many, many, many things happened.

He repairs the temple.

He finds the book of the law.

He carries out a huge religious reformation.

He destroys all the idols across the land of Judah.

He goes to the northern region of Samaria and destroys the idols there too.

And he comes back and keeps the Passover.

How long would all this have taken? At least a couple of months. But the Bible says that Josiah kept the Passover in the eighteenth year as king.

2 Kings 23:23 ESV

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.

The Passover is kept on which day? On the 14th day of Nisan.

*Show diagram slide*

So if Josiah repairs the temple in his 18th year according to the Nisan calendar, then he must have done all these things in less than two weeks. According to the Tishri calendar, however, Josiah gets six months and two weeks. Why? Because then the 18th year of his reign goes from Tishri to Tishri.

Nehemiah also uses the Tishri calendar when talking about the reign of Artaxerxes.

Nehemiah 1:1 (ESV)

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel,

Chislev is the ninth month. So in the ninth month of the twentieth year, Nehemiah hears that the wall of Jerusalem has been destroyed. And so he’s grieved, and he starts praying about it. And then he goes to a couple months later in Nisan, he goes to serve wine to King Artaxerxes.

Nehemiah 2:1 ESV

In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.

But it says

Key Concept 3: Overlapping reigns

Oftentimes, kings would appoint a regent king, coregent, or regent for short. What’s a regent? A regent is someone who on behalf of the king. If you were the king and you were going out to battle, the responsible thing to do is to appoint someone else to rule in case you die in battle. Then at least you’ve got a successor. If you don’t die in battle, then you can come back and you and your regent king can rule the nation together. That’s called a joint reign or overlapping reign.

Regents would also be appointed if the current king is too sick to perform his kingly duties. That’s what happens in the case of King Asa, who had a foot disease at the end of his reign.

2 Chronicles 16:12–13 ESV

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

2 Chronicles 17:1 ESV

Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel.

It says here that Jehoshaphat reigned in his place. From when? After Asa got the foot disease.

For southern Judah, the majority of joint reigns took place from between King Asa to King Manasseh. That’s across 12 kings.

Why is this important? It’s important because without this concept of overlapping reigns, there are too many regnal years to fit into the timeline.

*Show diagram slide*

For example, if you add up the total regnal years from the 9th king Amaziah to the 14th king Manasseh, you’ll get 197 years total. But the total duration of their reign is only 154 years. So at least 43 years out of the 197 were joint reigns with kings overlapping each other.

Conclusion

This morning we looked at the key concepts for untangling the timeline of the Kings period.

Can you see why all these countless chronological details need untangling? When the timeline is untangled, we can accurately calculate the dates of key events that took place during the Kings period.

We can know the years of the three deportations to Babylon.

We can know the year when the book of the Law was discovered during King Josiah’s time, and the ensuing religious reformation.

We can know that Josiah’s religious reformation took place during the time when Daniel was born. And since Daniel played a big part in the return from Babylonian captivity, we can know that God is mighty enough to steer history to fulfil His promises.

So what happens when it’s all untangled? We come face-to-face with the fact that God’s hand is on the steering wheel of history, that God’s headed for glory, and He’s bringing us along for the ride. Even your personal history, the big milestones, the tragedies, and the small daily happenings, God’s hand has been on the steering wheel. That changes everything. Even a Saturday like this is guided by God’s mighty right hand.

So let us stand firm on the Word of God, knowing that God has truly spoken, that His Word is reliable, and that His promises are true.