The Gentile Times Reconsidered

568 Pages·2004·7.071 MB·English

by  Carl O. Jonsson

THE GENTILE TIMES
RECONSIDERED
Carl Olof Jonsson

Fourth Edition
Revised and Expanded

COMMENTARY PRESS • ATLANTA • 2004
Because of its subject matter, in this book Bible texts are generally
quoted from the New World Translation (represented by the
abbreviation NW), published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract
Society of New York, Inc. Abbreviations for other translations of
Biblical quotations, listed in the text or in the footnotes, are:

ASV American Standard Version
KJV King James Version
LXX Septuagint Version (Greek)
MT Masoretic text (Hebrew)
NAB N ew American Bible
NASB New American Standard Bible
NEB New English Bible
NIV New International Version
NKJV New King James Version
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
RSV Revised Standard Version
RV Revised Version

THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED
FIRST EDITION © 1983 by
Hart Publishers Ltd. of Lethbridge, Alta., Canada and Good News
Defenders of La Jolla, CA, U.S.A. for Christian Koinonia
International.
SECOND EDITION © 1986
Published by Commentary Press, Atlanta, GA 30336.
THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND EXPANDED © 1998
Published by Commentary Press, Atlanta, GA 30336.
FOURTH EDITION, REVISED AND EXPANDED ©
2004 Published by Commentary Press, Atlanta, GA
30336.
Internet edition: Tönis Tönisson, Vretstorp, 2009
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
ISBN: 0-914675-07-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 86-70168
Contents
Foreword v
Introduction 1
1 The History of an Interpretation 23
2 Biblical and Secular Chronology 72
3 The Length of Reigns
of the Neo-Babylonian Kings 89
4 The Absolute Chronology
of the Neo-Babylonian Era 153
5 The Seventy Years for Babylon 191
6 The “Seven Times” of Daniel 4 236
7 Attempts to Overcome the Evidence 283
Appendix
For Chapter 1 312
For Chapter 2 314
For Chapter 3 321
For Chapter 4 332
For Chapter 5 335
For Chapter 7 353
Additional material
The 20th year of Artaxerxes and the
“Seventy weeks” of Daniel 382
Professor Robert R. Newton, “Ptolemy’s Canon”,
and the “Crime of Claudius Ptolemy” 394
Rolf Furuli’s First Book – A Critical Review 401
Rolf Furuli — Sham Scholarship 457
Rolf Furuli’s Second Book – A Critical Review 484

Indexes 551
FOREWORD
T HE SUBJECT of the “Gentile times” is a crucial one today for
millions of persons. Christ employed that phrase on a single
occasion, as part of his response to his disciples’ question about his
future coming and the end of the age. In the centuries that
followed, numerous interpretations and time-applications of his
expression have developed.
While this book provides a remarkably broad view of the subject
it primarily focuses on one prominent interpretation, one that in a
very real sense defines for millions of Jehovahs Witnesses the time
in which they live, supplies what they consider a powerful criterion
to judge what constitutes “the good news of the Kingdom” which
Christ said would be preached, and acts for them as a touchstone
for assessing the validity of any religious organization’s claim to
represent Christ and the interests of his Kingdom. An unusual fact
is that the foundation of this interpretation is a “borrowed” one,
since, as the author documents, it originated nearly a half century
before their own religious organization began to appear on the
world scene.
Rarely has a single date played such a pervasive and defining role
in a religion’s theology as has the date focused on by this
interpretation: the date of 1914. But there is a date behind that date
and without its support 1914 is divested of its assigned significance.
That prior date is 607 B.C.E. and it is the Witness religion’s linking
of that date with a particular event—the overthrow of Jerusalem by
Babylon—that lies at the crux of the problem.
Those of us who have shared in editing this present work and
who were ourselves, twenty-seven years ago, part of the writing and
editorial staff at the international headquarters of Jehovah’s
Witnesses in Brooklyn, New York, can remember the rather
stunning effect the arrival of a treatise on the “Gentile times” from
Carl Olof Jonsson it Sweden had on us in August of 1977. Not
only the volume of the documentation, but even more so the
weight of the evidence left us feeling somewhat disconcerted. We
were, in effect, at a loss as to what to do with the material. That
treatise later formed the basis for Carl Olof Jonsson’s book The
:

v
vi THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED

Gentile Times Reconsidered, now in its fourth printing.
When we today read this book we become the beneficiaries of
more than three decades of thorough and careful research. Not just
the immense amount of time, but also the means of access to the
sources of information that made possible so intensive a study, are
something very few of us would have at our disposal. The author
has not only made use of such facilities as the British Museum but
also has had personal communication with, and assistance from,
members of its staff, as also Assyriologists of various countries.
The research takes us back some two and a half millennia in the
past. Many of us may think of those times as “primitive” and it
thus may come as a surprise to realize how advanced certain
ancient peoples were, their writings covering not merely historical
events and monarchical dynasties, but also dealing with dated
business documents such as ledgers, contracts, inventories, bills of
sale, promissory notes, deeds, and similar matters. Their
understanding of astronomy, of the progressive and cyclical
movements of the lunar, planetary and stellar bodies, in an age
unequipped with telescopes, is extraordinary. In the light of the
Genesis statement that those celestial luminaries serve to “mark the
fixed times, the days and the years,” this takes on true significance,
particularly in a study in which chronology plays a central role.1
Nothing, except the modern atomic clocks, surpasses those
heavenly bodies in precision in the measurement of time.
Of the quality of the research into the Neo-Babylonian period,
Professor of Assyriology Luigi Cagni writes:
Time and again during my reading [of Jonsson’s book] I was
overcome by feelings of admiration for, and deep satisfaction with,
the way in which the author deals with arguments related to the
field of Assyriology. This is especially true of his discussion of the
astronomy of Babylonia (and Egypt) and of the chronological
information found in cuneiform texts from the first millennium
B.C.E., sources that hold a central position in Jonsson’s
argumentation.
His seriousness and carefulness are evidenced in that he has
frequently contacted Assyriologists with a special competence in
the fields of astronomy and Babylonian chronology, such as
Professors H. Hunger, A. J. Sachs, D. J. Wiseman, Mr. C. B. F.
Walker at the British Museum and others.
1 Genesis 1:14, NAB.
Foreword vii

With respect to the subject field I am particularly familiar with,
the economic-administrative texts from the Neo-Babylonian and
Achaemenid periods, I can say that Jonsson has evaluated them
quite correctly. I put him to the test during the reading of the
book. When I finished the reading, I had to admit that he passed
the test splendidly?2
Readers of the first or second edition of this book will find
much that is new here. Entire sections, including some new
chapters have been added. Contributing to the readability of the
book is the inclusion of about thirty illustrations, including letters
and other documents. Many of the illustrations are rare and will
undoubtedly be new to most readers.
The original research behind the book inescapably brought the
author on a collision course with the Watch Tower organization
and—not unexpectedly—led to his excommunication as an
“apostate” or heretic in July 1982. This dramatic story, not told in
the first two editions, is now presented in the section of the
Introduction titled “The expulsion.”
The discussion of the chronology of the Neo-Babylonian period
has been greatly expanded. The seven lines of evidence against the
607 B.C.E. date presented in the first two editions have since been
more than doubled. The evidence from astronomical texts forms a
separate chapter. The burden of evidence presented in Chapters 3
and 4 is indeed enormous and reveals an insurmountable
disharmony with, and refutation of, the chronology of the Watch
Tower Society for this ancient period.
Despite the wealth of information from ancient secular sources,
this book remains primarily Biblical. In the chapter ‘Biblical and
Secular Chronology” it clears up a common and serious
misconception as to how we arrive at a ‘Biblical chronology,” as
also the erroneous idea that a rejection of the Watch Tower’s 607
B.C.E. date implies a placing of secular chronology as superior to
such “Biblical chronology.”
We are confident that the reading of this unique book will aid
many to gain, not only a more accurate knowledge of the past, but
also a more enlightened outlook regarding their own time, and
increased appreciation of the trustworthiness and historicity of the
Scriptures.
The Editors
2 From the preface to the Italian edition of The Gentile Times Reconsidered by Luigi
Cagni, Professor of Assyriology at the University of Naples, Italy. Professor Cagni
was, among other things, a leading expert on the Ebla tablets ,the about 16,000
cuneiform texts that have been excavated since 1975 in the roya1 palace of the
ancient city of Ebla (present Arabic name: Tell Mardikh) in Syria. Luigi Cagni died
in January, 1998.
viii
THE GENTILE TIMES
RECONSIDERED
INTRODUCTION
T HE DISILLUSIONING and sometimes dramatic process that
ended up in the decision to publish this treatise could fill a
whole book. Due to considerations of space, however, that
background can be only touched upon briefly here. Jehovah’s
Witnesses are taught to put great trust in the Watch Tower Society
and its leadership. Toward the end of my twenty-six years as an
active Jehovah’s Witness, however, the signs indicating that such
trust was mistaken had mounted. To the very last I had hoped that
the leaders of the organization would honestly face the facts
respecting their chronology, even if those facts should prove fatal
to some of the central doctrines and unique claims of their
organization. But when at last I realized that the Society’s leaders—
apparently for reasons of organizational or “ecclesiastical” policy
— were determined to perpetuate what, in the final analysis,
amounts to a deception of millions of persons, doing this by
suppressing information which they regarded and continue to
regard as undesirable, no other course seemed open to me but to
publish my findings, thus giving every individual who has a
concern for truth an opportunity to examine the evidence and draw
his or her own conclusions.
We are each responsible for what we know. If a person has
information on hand that others need in order to get a correct
understanding of their situation in life— information that furthermore is
withheld from them by their religious leaders—then it would be morally
wrong to remain silent. It becomes his or her duty to make that
information available to all who want to know the truth, however
this may appear. That is the reason why this book has been
published.
1
2 THE GENTILE TIMES RECONSIDERED

The role of chronology in the teachings of the
Watch Tower Society
Few people are fully cognizant of the very central role played by
chronology in the claims and teachings of the Watch Tower
Society. Even many of Jehovah’s Witnesses are not fully aware of
the indissoluble connection between the Society’s chronology and
the message they preach from door to door. Confronted with the
many evidences against their chronology, some Jehovah’s
Witnesses tend to downplay it as something they somehow can do
without. “Chronology is not so important, after all,” they say. Many
Witnesses would prefer not to discuss the subject at all. Just how
important, then, is the chronology for the Watch Tower
organization?
An examination of the evidence demonstrates that it constitutes
the very foundation for the claims and message of this movement.
The Watch Tower Society claims to be God’s “sole channel”
and “mouthpiece” on earth. Summing up its most distinctive
teachings: it asserts that the kingdom of God was established in
heaven in 1914, that the “last days” began that year, that Christ
returned invisibly at that time to “inspect” the Christian
denominations, and that he finally rejected all of them except the
Watch Tower Society and its associates, which he appointed in
1919 as his sole “instrument” on earth.
For about seventy years, the Society employed Jesus’ words at
Matthew 24:34 about “this generation” to teach clearly and
adamantly that the generation of 1914 would positively not pass
away until the final end came at the “battle of Armageddon,” when
every human alive except active members of the Watch Tower
organization would be destroyed forever. Thousands of Jehovah’s
Witnesses of the “1914 generation” fully expected to live to see and
to survive that doomsday and then to live forever in paradise on
earth.
As decades went by, leaving 1914 ever farther behind, this claim
became increasingly difficult to defend. After 80 years had passed,
the claim became virtually preposterous. So, in the November 1,
1995, issue of the Watchtower (pages 10 through 21), a new
definition of the phrase “this generation” was adopted, one that
allowed the organization to “unlink” it from the date of 1914 as a
starting point. Despite this monumental change, they still retained the
1914 date—in fact they could not do otherwise without dismantling
their major teachings regarding Christ’s “second presence,” the
start of the “time of the end,” and the appointment of their