When someone is investigating the reliability of the Old Testament, its accurate recording of history is surely a concern that deserves analysis. After all, the God of the universe claims to be declaring the events of the world from beginning to end (Isaiah 46:8-11). If God is claiming that, then certainly His word will hold up to even the harshest scrutiny. Many, if not most, Old Testament scholars hold to historical minimalism. This means that they believe there is little, if any, actual history in the Old Testament. I don't think that is the case. But, I don't want to hold a circular position wherein I simply proclaim the Bible accurate because it is the Word of God and then, upon being asked why it is the Word of God I say; "Because it says so." What I want to do and what we, as believers, should do, is be willing to put God's word to the test. It proves reliable again and again. When there is a real sticky issue that is very hard to figure out, we can trust that we just don't have all the information we need to finish the puzzle. That is exactly what the Biblical idea of faith is: trusting in the evidence of what is seen, so that you can trust what is not seen with full confidence (Hebrews 11:1).
This is not to say that a cursory look into secular history will succinctly and thoroughly demolish all supposed historical inaccuracies in the Old Testament. It will take some serious study. One of the biggest issues of note is the chronology of the reigning kings of Judah and Israel (Northern Kingdom). When you look at the years given for the various kings in the books of 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles, they don't match. When Solomon died and the Israelite kingdom split, Rehoboam became king in Judah while Jeroboam I became king in Israel which was sometimes called Ephraim. As an example of the convoluted chronology that comes from a straightforward reading of the Bible we have the following: from Rehoboam to Jehoshaphat in Judah, there are 79 years; from Jeroboam to Ahaziah in Israel, there are 86 years. This should be the same span of time. What gives? Well, here is where it gets somewhat complicated.
Edward R. Thiele resolved most of the issues with the chronology while working on his doctoral dissertation in the 1940's. Subsequently, he wrote a book, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, which you can find on google books and read most of it. I am also using a good summary of Thiele's work in The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable & Relevant? by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr (chapter 9).
In 1846 an Assyrian eponym list was found. It covered from 892 to 648 BC. It gave the eponym or "man-of-the-year" each year and sometimes recorded major events in Assyrian history. Essentially, this was a kings list. In studying the list, Thiele noted 4 things that helped him to unlock a fixed date for something in Kings or Chronicles. They are as follows:
1. An eclipse of the sun which, when calculated on the Julian calendar with astronomical data turned out to be June 15, 763 BC. This gave Thiele a fixed date which he could use to calculate everything else on the eponym list.
2. The battle of Qarqar, fought between Shalmaneser III and Ahab of Israel was calculated from the eclipse to be 853 BC. But, he still didn't know when Ahab's 22 year reign began or ended.
3. 12 years later, 841 BC, the lists tell of a tribute that Jehu, king of Israel, paid to Shalmaneser III.
4. Sennacherib's 3rd campaign, when he came up against Hezekiah of Judah was 152 years from the battle of Qarqar in 853 BC. The Hebrew chronology gives the same amount of years (152) and by subtraction, a date of 701 BC.
There are 2 kings in between Ahab and Jehu. They are Ahaziah (2 yrs; 1 Kings 22:51) and Joram (12 yrs; 2 Kings 3:1). This is actually 12 official years. This is due to the way Israel counted kingship years. We will discuss this in part 2. This means that 841 BC was Jehu's first year as king and thus, Thiele had a fixed date for a king of Israel. Sennacherib's campaign also gave a fixed date of 701 BC which was the 14th year of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:13). These 2 items then allowed Thiele to calculate the years of the kings of Judah and Israel. But, this is only the first hurdle and in part 2 it is going to get real complicated.
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