When interpreting the Time Prophecies of Daniel some writers set up Ptolemy’s Canon of Kings as a judge over God’s Word. When their interpretation of God’s message does not conform to the authority of Ptolemy’s Canon, then it just wouldn’t do. Concerning this, Martin Anstey, author of the Romance of Bible Chronology said:
“Ptolemy may be called as a witness. He cannot be allowed to arbitrate as a Judge. He cannot take the place of a Court of Final Appeal. He cannot be erected into a standard to correct the Chronology of the text of the Old Testament.”
I think Mr. Anstey was correct. Setting Ptolemy up as a judge has implications for the doctrines of inspiration of the Bible and the Omniscience of God.
INTRODUCTION
Claudius Ptolemy, circa AD 130, formulated the geocentric theory of the universe; the planets and stars revolve around a stationary earth. He was the greatest astronomer in antiquity because of his discoveries described in his Syntaxis (also called the Almagest). All modern Chronology and calendar of ancient history rest upon his calculations as outlined in his Canon of Kings (hereafter called Ptolemy’s Canon or the Canon) and this is the foundation of all secular Chronology. It is not known where or from whom Ptolemy got his dates. The Bible, on the other hand has its own Chronology and there are many differences between it and Ptolemy’s Canon.
In this blog, the main difference I am addressing is the duration of the Medo-Persian Empire. The Jewish rabbis gave 52 years to this period, Ptolemy has it at 205 years and the Bible (the books of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah) 123 years (calculated by Sir Robert Anderson in his book The coming Prince) giving a difference of 82 years between the Canon and the Bible.
Therefore, depending on whose chronology we use, there is a difference of 80-82 years between the Bible and Ptolemy’s canon.
In interpreting the time prophecies of the Bible, the chronology used is the essential thing. Therefore, all interpreters of Biblical prophecy who used any chronology based on this canon, would be misled. It is impossible to make these prophecies and the corresponding real Bible events agree with the chronology of Ptolemy by 80-82 (205-123=82) years for this period. This single fact makes many modern commentaries on Daniel’s Time Prophecies worthless, so far as their chronology is concerned.
Ptolemy’s Canon:
https://www.livius.org/articles/concept/ptolemys-canon/
This list of reigns, begins with year 1 of Nabonassar, a vassal king of Babylon under Assyria, and covers over 900 years down to Ptolemy’s day. It lists the Babylonian and Persian kings, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian successors in Egypt (the Ptolemies), and the Roman emperors down to Antoninus Pius. Alongside each king’s name is the length of his reign and the cumulative total beginning from the year 1 of Nabonassar at noon on February 26, 747 BC (-746 since astronomers use a year 0 in place of 1 BC). The Canon used the ancient Egyptian calendar year of 365 days, with no leap year (not the 365 ¼ day Julian year in use in Ptolemy’s day) as the Alexandrian civil year.
This uniform 365-day year was adopted by astronomers outside Egypt, long before Ptolemy; for astronomical theory requires observational data over a long period and a scale of years to measure long intervals.
The dating system numbering years as “year of King XYZ” (Dan. 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim) was inadequate. On the other hand, the 365-day Egyptian year allowed the computing of intervals of an exact number of days, an impossibility in the lunar calendars which had variable months and year. “Ptolemy’s Canon” was such a time scale.
PRESENT USE OF THE CANON
Ptolemy’s Canon of Kings is the only secular Chronology for this period.
Had Ptolemy never written, the connection between secular and Biblical Chronology before the end of the Persian Empire in the 1st year of Alexander the Great would be unintelligible and useless. Other than the Bible Chronology there is no other chronology in existence of the period from Cyrus the Great to Jesus Christ. Interpreters of Bible prophecy, especially Daniel’s “Seventy Sevens”, therefore, consult with Ptolemy’s canon to see if their results are in conformity.
I was able to trace this system as far back as Dr. Prideaux, however, it was subsequently enlarged by Sir Robert Anderson in his late 19th century book The Coming Prince.
There is no other chronology for this period except the Biblical Chronology given in the prophecies of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Therefore, although the Ptolemaic System of Astronomy was overthrown by Copernicus in the 16th Century, the use of Ptolemy’s Canon for Chronological purposes continues to this day.
Modern expositors of Biblical prophecy concerning this period, especially the time prophecy of Daniel of the Seventy Sevens (Weeks), use the dates of the Canon this way:
First, choose one of the Biblical chronologies compiled by various chronologists, Ussher, Lloyd, Clinton, Hales, Jackson or Marshall.
Second, assume the correctness of the selected chronology.
Third, search for a decree of a Persian king corresponding with the “The going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild…”. Here Ptolemy enters.
Fourth, search the New Testament for an incident in the lifetime of Christ, which would be close to 483 or 490 years away, depending on the interpretation of the prophecy, from the decree chosen above and according to the selected chronology.
An examination of this procedure shows the interpretation of time prophecies being controlled by the selected chronology which in turn relied on Ptolemy’s canon for the Medo-Persian period at least. Therefore, every interpretation which does not agree with Ptolemy’s Canon must be rejected.
Every existing chronological system covering the period from the beginning of the Medo-Persian monarchy to Christ is based upon the Canon although the supposed length of the reign of each monarch can be nothing but guesswork.
LIMITATIONS (CRITICISM) OF PTOLEMY’S CANON
Ptolemy had no means of accurately determining the Chronology of this period, so he contrived to make a Chronology (See below). He was a great astronomer and constructor of synthetic systems, however he cannot and should not be compared to Yahweh who knows “the end from the beginning.”
The Canon is contradicted by:
(1) the national traditions of Persia,
(2) the national traditions of the Jews. The Jewish Chronologists go upon the principle of no other kings of Persia other than those mentioned in their Scriptures and limiting their reigns to the number of years mentioned there. I believe this to be reasonable.
(3) the testimony of Josephus, and
(4) the conflicting evidence of authenticated events as the Conference of Solon with Croesus, and the flight of Themistocles to the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus.
The procedure is incorrect.
This procedure (above) is fundamentally wrong. It tries to make the events of Bible prophecy and its consequent history conform with a manmade chronological scheme. It pits Ptolemy, a man, against God with the sure result of the man coming out on top. But Ptolemy had no facts as to the length of the Persian period from Darius and Cyrus down to Alexander the Great. His guess that this period was about 205-207 years long has caused all the uncertainty for anyone attempting a construction of a Bible Chronology.
The opinion of other astronomers
Ptolemy’s reputation first came under scrutiny by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) and was overthrown in his heliocentric system “De Revolutionibus”. More recent, in 1977, John Hopkins physicist Robert Russell Newton, in his book, The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, https://archive.org/details/crime-of-cladius-ptolemy, labelled him the “the most successful fraud in the history of science.”
Newton’s meticulously documented study of Ptolemy’s works, revealed three things:
- fabricating regnal dates, in the absence of records,
- he worked backwards from results he was trying to prove, and made observations that could not have been done from Alexandria.
Newton concluded, “his models … conflict violently with elementary observation…Astronomy would be better off if Ptolemy’s Syntaxis (Almagest) had never been written.” The data at Ptolemy’s disposal was insufficient for him to fill the gaps in the secular chronology, much less fix the dates of the Chronology of this period.
Errors by Interpreters of prophecy who depended on the Canon.
Many scholars and writers, in the past used Ptolemy’s canon as authority, and have set dates for the return of Christ which proved to be wrong. A Google search of this makes interesting reading.
John the Baptist, Jesus Christ and John the Revelator taught that the Kingdom of God would begin in their time. They had no knowledge of the non-prophetic scheme of Ptolemy. Teachers and interpreters today, explain away this by saying the Jews rejected their Messiah King and therefore the Kingdom was “held in abeyance” until they are willing to accept Jesus as their Messiah. Other prophecies are still held to be some time in the future although the New Testament writer/historian Luke said, “all which are written” (Luke 21:22) would to be fulfilled in the destruction of the Holy city and Temple which occurred in AD 70.
The testimony of Josephus
Josephus’ gives six monarchs for the Medo-Persian Empire instead of Ptolemy’s ten. His last is contemporary with Jaddua, the son of Johannan, the son of Joiada. So that Jaddua was contemporary with Alexander the Great, and Jaddua’s father or uncle, the son of Joiada, was contemporary with Nehemiah, who chased him (Neh. 13:28). Therefore, from Nehemiah and Joiada to Alexander the Great is only one generation but Ptolemy makes it 100 years and when Artaxerxes of Nehemiah is identified with Darius Hystaspes, it is approximate to150 years. Josephus’ successions of the Jewish High Priests and the Kings of Persia are also good evidence against Ptolemy’s canon and in accordance with the Chronology of Daniel and Nehemiah.
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BIBLE
To illustrate I will use Daniel’s prophecy of the Seventy Weeks which does not need a chronology as the prophecy contains its own chronology. This divinely revealed time-measure, starts from the return of the Israelites out of Babylon and reached to the redemptive ministry of the Messiah and the destruction of the sanctuary and the Holy city.
The confusion associated with this prophecy lies in the attempt to make it conform to the man-made chronology (Ptolemy’s Canon) which is known to be different from the Bible’s chronology. The nature of bible prophecy guaranteed that in the Scriptures themselves, everything will be found for a right and clear understanding. Further, the whole interpretation must lie within the capacity of ordinary Christians. Based on Sola Scriptura, with confidence, they can understand every prophecy and its interpretation, and see for themselves whether it be supported by the Word of God.
The book of Daniel deals in a very special way with Christ and the nation through which He came into the world. He is seen in the fiery furnace delivering those who trusted in their God (3:25); and receiving an everlasting Kingdom (7:13, 14). Daniel was given the exact amount of time from the decree of Cyrus, an event in his own day, to the coming of Christ. God also revealed to Daniel the time of the crucifixion of Christ, as well as the judgment of his nation Israel, in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple.
The decree of Cyrus, allowing Israel to return to the land and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple was the starting point of the “determined” period of seventy sevens. This is clearly seen from the prophecy itself in connection with Ezra 1:1; Isaiah 44:28; 2Chronicles 36:22,23 and other Scriptures. His decree was also the termination of the Babylonian captivity, where one period ended, and another, seven times as long, began. Yet Ptolemy placed this event in the reign of Artaxerxes II and modern expositors of the prophecy has this king, rather than Cyrus, as ending the Captivity and making the decree.
The facts that the prophecy and related history was fulfilled long before Ptolemy’s Canon was devised, and before Dionysius Exiguus invented the present Chronology for the period, are entirely ignored. GOD was very clear about who He would use to free the Children of Israel from Babylon. He decreed it would be Cyrus the Great and it would be after 70 years desolation of Jerusalem was fulfilled. It was not Artaxerxes II. The resulting history recorded in the Bible shows that God was correct, yet writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries insist that it was Artaxerxes II.
There is one alternative, the prophecy of Daniel 9:24 – 27 which fixed the period “between the going forth of the commandment to return and to build Jerusalem (in the first year of Cyrus)” to the destruction of the Temple and the City of Jerusalem as a period of “seventy sevens”. During this period the Messiah would arrive to make a new covenant with Israel, fulfill His Redemptive Ministry to the Jews and be killed, and the temple and the city of Jerusalem destroyed.
This is the true Chronology of the period from the 1st year of Cyrus to the Destruction of Jerusalem. His chronology leaves only 123 years, instead of the 205 in Ptolemy’s Canon, for the duration of the Persian Empire.
Jewish tradition claims the last year of Darius Hystaspes as the year in which the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi died and the spirit of prophecy ceased from among the Children of Israel. It is also claimed that this is the “sealing up of vision and prophecy” spoken of by the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24). The same tradition make the Medo-Persian Empire ceased in the same year, for they believe this was the Darius whom Alexander the Great conquered, and the length the Persian Empire was only 52 years,
Darius the Median reigned 1 year.
Cyrus 3 years.
Cambyses (Ahasuerus who married Esther) 16 years.
Darius (the son of Esther) 32 years
Total years of Empire 52
The choice is between:
- The Jews tradition of 52 years.
- The prophet Daniel’s account together with Ezra and Nehemiah of 123 years.
- Ptolemy’s canon of Kings 205 years.
Duration of the Persian Empire 123 years (Confirmed by Sir Robert Anderson).
Beginning of Greek Empire to Christ 332 years.
From Christ to Destruction of Jerusalem and Sanctuary 70 years.
Therefore:
123 + 332 + 70 + 1* = 526 solar years of 365 ¼ days. Or 52.2 sevens.
*We must add 1 because there is no year 0.
Therefore, Seventy sevens = 526 solar years.
Is this Chronology represented anywhere in the Bible? I believe it is in the Chronology of Matthew where we are told of 14 generations between the carrying away to Babylon and Christ’s generation, the generation destroyed in AD 70.
A generation is 40 sabbath years and Jesus’ generation lived to AD70; so, 14 x 40 = 560 sabbath years. A sabbath year is defined as 49 weeks (7 x 7 = 49; See Leviticus 23 & 25 and Daniel’s Seventy Sevens).
The proof of Daniel’s 70 Sabbaths is that 560 x 49 = 27,740. There are 17 sabbaths from the 1 Nissan (beginning of the year) to the destruction of Jerusalem 9th Ab AD70 giving a total of 27,457 sabbaths.
Now, there are 365.25/7 = 52.2 sabbaths in a solar year. Multiplying, 526 x 52.2 gives us 27,457 sabbaths.
If, therefore, one begins by taking Ussher’s chronology (or any of the others) as the basis of his interpretation, he is forced to select a starting point about eighty years after King Cyrus, who (according to Scripture) was the true restorer, the man whom God specially raised up, and of whom He said, “He shall build My city.”
CONCLUSION
The dichotomy is summed up thus,
When interpreting the Biblical Prophecies, the authority of other extra-biblical sources can be corroborative or conflicting, but never the verdict of a jury pronouncing a judgement on the veracity of the Word of God. Therefore, Ptolemy’s canon may be compared with the Old Testament Record, but it must not be regarded as established truth and used to correct the testimony of the Word Of GOD. In the battle, Ptolemy versus God, God can never be the loser. However, this has not always been the case.
This important matter of the defective character of all existing secular chronologies is discussed in Martin Anstey’s The Romance of Bible Chronology, published in 1913, to which I refer those who wish to study the matter in more detail. A copy of this work is at:
https://ia600307.us.archive.org/26/items/romanceofbiblech01anst/romanceofbiblech01anst.pdf
THE END