Chronology

THE OBJECTION

The Delphi inscription fixes a window rather than a term — it dates an acclamation of Claudius, and Gallio's year is inferred from it, with scholars dividing between AD 51-52 and 52-53. Because so much of Pauline chronology hangs on this one peg, Dixon Slingerland argued the standard reconstruction is held with more confidence than the evidence supports.

THE OBJECTION

The 701 date is secure; what scholars still argue over is whether there was one campaign or two. William F. Albright and John Bright proposed a second invasion in the 680s to account for the mention of Tirhakah in 2 Kings 19:9, since he was young in 701. Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor and most current historians hold to a single campaign.

THE OBJECTION

Two things about this scene are argued. The label reads 'Iaua son of Omri,' which P. Kyle McCarter took to mean Jehoram rather than Jehu, and it is not certain the kneeling figure is the king himself rather than the envoy who delivered the tribute on his behalf. The traditional identification remains the majority view.

THE OBJECTION

The two-year notation reflects a real and unresolved split. Whether the city fell in 587 or 586 depends on whether Judah counted regnal years from spring or autumn and whether it used accession-year reckoning — William F. Albright and Abraham Malamat argued 587, Edwin Thiele and Kenneth Kitchen 586. No text settles it directly.

THE OBJECTION

The battle date is secure, but 'Ahab's last year' is not something the Assyrian text says — it comes from Edwin Thiele's reconstruction of Israelite and Judean regnal years, and rival schemes from Gershon Galil, Rodger Young, and Kenneth Kitchen place Ahab's death differently. The inscription's claim that Ahab fielded 2,000 chariots is also widely judged inflated.

THE OBJECTION

Sargon II claims the capture, but he was not yet on the throne in 722 — a well-known case of an Assyrian king taking credit for a predecessor's victory. Hayim Tadmor, Bob Becking, and K. Lawson Younger reconstruct two events: Shalmaneser V took the city in 723/722, and Sargon put down a fresh revolt there in 720. So the annals cannot be read straight as dating the fall.

THE OBJECTION

Shoshenq's own record at Karnak never names Jerusalem, and the towns it does list lie mostly north and south of Judah's heartland rather than in it. Kevin Wilson has argued the list follows Egyptian conventions for triumphal reliefs and cannot be read as a straightforward itinerary at all, and the date itself rests on Egyptian chronology that is debated within a decade or two.