(intro)=
There are three parts to this book.
First, I will present the biblical chronology for the books of Kings constructed
by Edwin {cite}thiele_mysterious_1983
Leslie {cite}mcfall_translation_1991 and Rodger C. {cite}young_when_2003. I will show that under the assumption of biblical inerrancy this
is the only consistent chronology given all of the internal numerical data in Kings and Chronicles as well as the six external synchronism with Ancient Near
East events. Since biblical variants will become important in second two, I will show that the Masoretic Text and the LXX agree on this dates
used in this chronology. The texts do start to diverge with the critical time of the Exodus which will be considered in the second part.
Given this consistency proof any attack on the inconsistency claim would have to come from sources external to the Bible such as finding different absolute dates for the ANE events or identifying other ANE events not already known.
This section concludes with the claim that there exists one consistent bibical chronology from building of the first temple to the destrustion of Jerusalem and this consistent chronology confirms the dates in both the Masoret Text and the Septuagint.
There are two kinds of people who would like to make such attacks: nonbelievers who want to discredit the biblical account itself and believers in the biblical
account who
want to set up a different biblical chronology to establish a different date for creation, the flood or the Babel dispersion.
Both of these groups would have to focus on those ancient near east events.
Second, given an absolute date for the start of Solomon's sole reign and the beginning of the First Temple established by the chronology in the first part can trace the chronology with absolute dates back to Adam. This would be a simple task except for biblical variants in the manuscript traditions. In particular there are differences between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint regarding the dates of the patriarchs in Genesis.
These issues will be examined and alternate consistent chronologies will be constructed. Since this is an executable book, the reader will be able to create a chronology and test it for consistency against different variants of the text.
Evidence from outside the bible will be considered such as natural clocks based on magnetic moment decay, helium diffusion, ratioactive decay and genetic mutations. All of these will be considered with the assumption that the creation, the flood and the babel dispersion actually happened, because these events would have influenced some of these natural clocks. Those who don't accept these events could look at this assumption as an hypothesis that looks for a falsification.
Third, a review of the different chronologies, both consistent and inconsistent, some going back over two thousand years will be considered using the software in this book to check consistency.
Testing substitutions:
{{snippet}}