Bible Chronology (45): From the Temple to Artaxerxes (20)

After Necho killed Josiah, his son Jehoahaz became king for 3 months, before Necho replaced him with Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 25:1-3 proves that these 3 months were within his accession year. Daniel's Captivity in Babylon in the 3rd Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1, 2Kings 24:1) marked the start of the 70 years of Captivity. Thus, Israel came under Babylonian domination, one year BEFORE the famous Battle of Carchemish, when Babylon defeated Egypt in the 4th Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 46:2), which was also the accession year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:1), as confirmed by the Babylonian Chronicles which tell us that Nabopolassar died shortly after Carchemish. Unfortunately most chronologies ignore this Biblical evidence and assume that Daniel's Captivity must have been in the same year as Carchemish, rather than the year before. We provide further evidence that is assumption is false from Daniel, based on his 3 years of training (1:3-5), before he was brought before Nebuchadnezzar and given a position in the palace (1:18). These 3 years of training must have taken place before the events in Daniel 2, which were in the 2nd year of Nebuchadnezzar (2:1). This means that he must have gone into Captivity the year BEFORE Nebuchadnezzar's accession year in the 4th Jehoiakim, just as Daniel 1:1 states. This enables us to fix the 4th Jehoiakim from Tishri 606 - 605 BC, placing Carchemish in 605 BC in agreement with the Babylonian records. This means that Daniel went into captivity in the previous year, the 3rd Jehoiakim (Daniel 1:1), which was 607 - 606 BC. Thus, the 70 years of Israel's Captivity started in 607 - 606 BC, and they were ended by Cyrus Decree in 537 BC. Therefore, Daniel's Captivity must have started in 607 BC, giving us a perfect solution of 607 - 537 BC for the 70 years of Israel's Captivity. Daniel's Captivity in 607 BC also marked the start of the Times of the Gentiles, an extended era of 7x360 years = 2,520 years of Gentile Dominion over Israel, the main subject of the visions in Daniel, revealing the successive Gentile world-empires that would rule over Israel, before the Messiah returns from Heaven, to destroy all the kingdoms of this world, and to establish His Kingdom over all the earth (see my book and videos called: 'The 7 Times of the Gentiles' - the book is available on Amazon). We also note the significance of Jeremiah 25:1 in giving us a perfect connecting link between sacred and secular chronology (4th Jehoiakim - the Accession Year of Nebuchadnezzar), enabling us to fix absolute dates. The timing of this synchronism is appropriate, because it is from this very time that secular records became accurate and reliable. Moreover, it is appropriate that at the start of the era of Gentile dominion over Israel, God established a connecting link between Israel's chronology and the start of the reign of the first of these Gentile rulers - Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold (Daniel 2:38).