The Chronology of Kings and Chronicles, Part 3

In part 1 and part 2 of this series we looked at how we can begin to unravel the chronological mystery that is the reigns of the Judean and Israelite kings. Edward Thiele, in his book, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, showed how he came to a fixed date of King Jehu of Israel's accession in the year 841 BC. He used Assyrian eponym lists that listed kings and special events from 892-648 BC. Once he had a foothold he was able to calculate everything else. But, as we have seen, it wasn't as simple as counting years. He also discovered 3 rules that had to be considered when doing the regnal calculations. They are:

1. Judah started their year in the month of Tishri (our Sept/Oct); Israel started their year in the month of Nisan (our Mar/Apr)
2. Judah used accession year dating; Israel used non-accession year dating. Remember though, that when they were friendly for a time, they used the same non-accession year dating system, then both switched to accession year dating until they were conquered.
3. Judah and Israel used their own dating system when counting the other kings reigns.

Those 3 rules are really the complicated part. This last portion is very simple. Sometimes, when a king was old or, as in the Northern Kingdom, there was infighting between 2 people who wanted to rule, there were 2 kings at once. A list with times would be the simplest way to show this

Judah
1. Jehoshaphat co-reigned with Asa for 3 years
2. Jehoram co-reigned with Jehoshaphat for 5 year
3. Azariah (also called Uzziah) co-reigned with Amaziah for 25 years
4. Jotham co-reigned with Azariah for 10 years
5. Ahaz co-reigned with Jotham for 3 years
6. Mannaseh co-reigned with Hezekiah for 10 years

 Israel
1. Zimri ruled for 7 months which is already counted in Elah, Tibni, and Omri's counts; 1 year
2. Tibni and Omri ruled separate kingdoms at the same time in the North for 5 years
3. Jeroboam II co-reigned with Jehoash for 11 years
4. Zechariah ruled for 6 months which is already counted in Jeroboam II's count; 1 year
5. Shallum ruled for 1 month which is already counted in Menahem's count; 1 year


There is much more to learn about the chronologies in Kings and Chronicles. But, you will have to go get Thiele's book to go even more in depth. I hope this series has been helpful.

Resources
The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings by Edwin R. Thiele
The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable & Relevant? by Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. (ch. 9)