JW Insider

I can explain myself, but I admit that I made a mistake here: I do accept that you have been fairly consistent for a long time in basic agreement with Witness on this point. And I admit that I exaggerated your position, and misrepresented the position you have been making very clear for well over a year, at least. It's true that the account "4Jah2me" has been consistent about accepting the idea that the "True Anointed" are likely included among the JW Memorial partakers, but not limited to these persons. "John Butler" made some of the same points over a year ago, but did not start out that way, from what I remembered. Even "4Jah2me" would say things like what you said to Arauna recently under another topic: When you become wise enough to know that God & Christ are not part of the Watchtower / CCJW, then you will have spiritual wisdom. There are many JWs that agree that when judgement arrives, people will be judged as individuals, judged on their spiritual heart condition, NOT judged on whether they are a baptised JW or not. . . . Soon God through Christ, will show who the True Anointed are. Then we will get true interpretation of God's word. The deeper things of the scriptures are for the True Anointed to understand because they have been anointed of God's Holy Spirit and because Christ died for them. Rev 5 v 9 & 10 I know that this on its own does not contradict what you are saying, but when I put it all together, you appear to expect a separate "perfect" organization run by True Anointed, which is not related to the CCJW, which you say God and Christ have nothing to do with. About a year and a half ago, to Tom, you ("4J")said: But there will be an Organisation that stands tall above all others. A pure and truthful organisation run by true Anointed. It will suffer persecution because it will be so pure and good and because it will serve God through Jesus Christ properly. It will give true direction and not have to keep changing its mind. Unlike the JW Org that is as deep in the sh-t as all other religions are right now. The JW Org is not recognisable as being high above the others, it is not recognised for pure worship, it is seen as being just as filthy as all the others and seen as telling just as many lies too. Different lies of course but still lies. . . . So right now God does not have a reliable organisation, hence Judgement time must be a way off yet. Now, I know it's not really fair to pull up things you have said in the past, as if people can't expand and change their views. Also, I know that these statements can be reconciled with the idea that True Anointed exist within this organization. But I can show even more distancing from the CCJW by "John Butler." At any rate, I'll repeat that I made a mistake here: I do accept that you have been fairly consistent for a long time in basic agreement with "Witness" on this point. And I see that I misrepresented your current position on this topic. Sorry.

I also believe that true anointed persons make up a portion of the WTS. And I see no evidence that there would be any true anointed persons found among Mormons. I'm not trying to be a judge of who is and isn't a "true anointed" but I'm just giving an opinion based on evidence I've seen. But this view of yours is a fairly unique view among ex-JWs (and the JW acquaintance of mine who is now an ex-elder). It's one of those things that probably made/makes no sense to "John Butler" and "4Jah2me" even though those accounts have often sided with your critiques, but have also been very vocal about not believing that "true anointed" are to be found among JWs. When you say the anointed "Israel" resides in the WT, you also admitting that the truly anointed persons reside in the WT, but that they must also "get out of her." This means that the true anointed ("Israel") must pass through the WTS and then realize that they are in the wrong place and must get out of her. This also appears to associate the WTS directly with Babylon the Great. But I admit that I still can't follow the logic: How did the truly anointed "Israel" (God's people) get into the WTS in the first place? What attracted them? If they were attracted for good reasons, or necessary reasons, but must now come out, then the WTS acts as some kind of trap. There must be something special about the WTS that produces or attracts these anointed to stay in the first place. But if they continue to stay and don't come out, then whatever attracted them was a trap! If Satan is allowed to test them within the WTS then was it Satan who made this trap? Or do you think that the WTS is a good place for all anointed to pass through, assuming they also see that it is not a good place to stay, because they must get out of her? How long is the right amount of time to stay? What happens if whatever was supposed to to attract them to the WTS works, and gets them into the WTS, but they die just before realizing that they were also supposed to "get out of her." If one looks at the Hebrew Scriptures as a pattern, then God's people (Jews/"Israel") were forced into exile in Babylon as a punishment. Many stayed in Babylon and survived as "Babylonians" for a few years. Some even thrived as Babylonian/Persian citizens for centuries, and the worldly comforts and economy of Babylon held them "captive" from restoring pure worship in Jerusalem with their fellow Jews. This is why I don't think of Babylon the Great as a specific religion or group of false religions, but as a world of materialism and false ideologies of all kinds: the "world and its desire." This can definitely include all false religion (the general JW doctrine) but now that "location" is not the issue for pure worship, the idea of Babylon, Rome and Jerusalem must be spiritual concepts in Revelation: (John 4:21-24) . . .Jesus said to her: “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, because salvation begins with the Jews. 23 Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for indeed, the Father is looking for ones like these to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit, and those worshipping him must worship with spirit and truth.” Spiritually speaking, then, Sodom and Egypt, and Rome and Babylon have meanings in Revelation that are associated with their earlier "OT" counterparts. True Christians, whether heaven-bound or not, anointed or not, must get out of Babylon because she represents the "center" of a world of false religious beliefs, false ideologies, political associations, the commercial centers and ideologies. Like you, I believe this is happening now, because true Christians have conquered the world spiritually. As Jesus said, "I see Satan already fallen like lightning from heaven." (John 16:33) . . .. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage! I have conquered the world.” (1 John 2:14-17) . . .because you are strong and the word of God remains in you and you have conquered the wicked one. 15 Do not love either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; 16 because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. 17 Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. (1 John 5:4) 4 because everyone who has been born from God conquers the world. And this is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith. (Romans 8:37-39) 37 To the contrary, in all these things we are coming off completely victorious ["more than conquerors" KJV] through him that loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things now here nor things to come nor powers 39 nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I don't see anything in the context of Revelation's depiction of Babylon the Great that would limit it to a specific religion. I see it as something much bigger. I see it as the way in which Christians should know that the last world empire (e.g., "Rome") has already fallen for them, spiritually.

That takes a humility not found among all of us. Learning from our students rather than thinking only of ourselves as the teacher can be very beneficial. My wife and I have years of pioneering behind us, although we are less active now. We both learned a lot from studying with a couple where the wife was mentally ill ("possession" issues), and they became Witnesses with no further issues that I have heard about. My wife and I studied with another mentally ill woman who had been in a jail (NYC Creedmoor), and whose fleshly brother (also an addict) joined one time creating a scene that brought about an assault situation for the police. There was no success here in converting the person, but it created a deep friendship and evidently a life-long change in the woman who has overcome addiction, and is still loved deeply by us. She actually sees herself as a Witness, although the elders here would not allow baptism. I studied for years with persons inside medium and high-security prisons. Altogether, it's like a course in psychology. I studied with one family where the husband was a policeman, the wife took a year of studying and long late-night hours with me on the phone to help her overcome her smoking addiction. They were baptized together. Their two children were too young at the time, but one has been baptized since. This is a sad situation for me, because we love the family and have been close, but he is an elder now and realizes that I didn't believe in the 1914 chronology because of things he remembered in the way I studied it with him. He confirmed this by asking me directly, and has now asked that we have no more contact. Very early in my pioneering (pre-Bethel) I loved studying the Evolution book and the "Is the Bible Really the Word of God?" book with university students. It was easy to pick up a dozen Bible Studies, and this made the pioneering hour quota go by so easily. (Strangely, one of these studies left Missouri after getting baptized and joined the congregation I was assigned to in NY at Bethel.) My mother is pioneering as we speak and calls in to the meeting for service every day before letters or phone calls, and she currently has only one regular Bible Study. She stays on the line with one of the other sisters so they can talk together while writing letters, but getting in the quota is so slow-going for her. That can be read with a bit of ambiguity. If you care to, I am always happy to discuss. I either join or create a discussion on the topic about once a year on the forum, because I have now spent enough time on the topic to be convinced in my own mind. It's not something I feel is specifically important in the long run, but it's part of an ongoing and ever-resurfacing problem of trying to motivate activity (works) by emphasizing that we have special knowledge of the times and seasons. Going back to review how we (as an organization) received this 1914 tradition was an important lesson in humility for me. But sharing that lesson will just be seen by most as the exact opposite of humility and some will vehemently oppose discussing it reasonably. I've reached the same idea, and I know that other JWs have also concluded the same. One or two others have implied as much on this forum.

You were able to get right to the point in the way you worded the question. I tried the same question once with "Witness" because I also know someone else who has all kinds of problems with various doctrines and practices of the WTS, but who also expends so much energy on those problems. He is so negative that I have come very close to asking him why he hangs in there. He believes, of course, there is something special about the Witnesses, and believes that Jehovah is still using them. He expects "something very significant" to happen soon, centered around the WTS. This appears to be similar to the thinking of "Witness" in that she believes that true anointed persons will be attracted to the WTS, where they will be tested because Jehovah has allowed a distortion to occur within the WTS organization. So she has this idea that it is, to some extent, an organization used by Jehovah, but only up to the point of attracting truly anointed persons to go through a test. But this implies that Jehovah tests in a way that entices persons into a trap, which I think is impossible, according to James: (James 1:12, 13) . . .on becoming approved he will receive the crown of life, which Jehovah promised to those who continue loving Him. 13 When under trial, let no one say: “I am being tried by God.” For with evil things God cannot be tried, nor does he himself try anyone. The other (ex-elder) I know has hinted at an idea in his case that perhaps Jehovah might use him personally as a means to correct things. And he writes to the WTS regularly. I think putting oneself personally into such an equation is the most problematic part. I haven't heard anything directly from "Witness" that implies she thinks she has a personal responsibility in this regard or if she thinks it might be true of a "prophetess" named "Pearl" whom she often quotes. I guess it would be hypocritical to condemn on this idea alone, since all of us feel a personal responsibility to copy the example of Ezekiel as a "watchman." In that example, the person who feels they need to share a scriptural warning should feel a personal responsibility to share it. There is a person on a site who calls himself the "Watchman" (or is it e-Watchman), and I think this is their own argument about Watchtower criticisms. In any case, they all must think there is something very special about the WTS so that their energy goes against it instead of being equally shared among the problems of Mormons, Catholics, Scientologists, etc. There was another "Ezekiel Watchman" who regularly wrote to Fred Rusk at Bethel in the 1970's. Fred Rusk was the primary Watchtower magazine editor during those years, and although he laughed at most of the "Ezekiel Watchman" rants, he took them seriously enough to read through them before tossing them. He even shared one of the 10-page papers with me once. (We worked near each other, and he gave half of my wedding talk.) I don't have the impression that anyone at WTS HQ reads this site. But, who knows?

Sometimes, it's just a matter of how the question is asked. For example, take a question like this: "Even if your religious beliefs do not condone or support homosexuality (and/or LGBTQ+), do you think that homosexual (and/or LGBTQ+) persons should be discriminated against in the areas of jobs and housing?" Depending on the exact wording of the question, you could potentially get 100% of any religious group to "support" such a bill. Remember that they are not directly asking if you support some particular bill, per se, but asking about support of some of the measures which might be found in it. The fact that such a bill might be in the works is not necessarily even brought up. Or even if it is brought up as a proposed bill, the survey could overcome prejudice against the political party sponsoring the bill, or religious feelings by using questions like: Would you oppose any bill that tried to remove discrimination against LGBTQ+ persons? A Witness would not say they opposed such a bill, because they are generally neutral regarding political bills. Also, these are not simple yes or no questions in most surveys. They are often multiple choice such as the following, where the intro to the question can produce an implied meaning [in brackets] that may not even be in the "supported" bill: Question: This is about hiring and firing LGBTQ+ persons from jobs, or landlords being able to not rent to, or kick out LGBTQ+ persons from their buildings or homes. So . . . . are you: A. Highly in favor of discriminating against LGBTQ+ [i.e., immediately fire them - immediately make homeless] B. Somewhat in favor of discriminating against them [i.e., give them some advance notice before firing them from their jobs - or putting them out on the street] C. Somewhat in favor of not discriminating against them [i.e., allowing them to keep their jobs, apartments, homes in most cases] D. Highly in favor of of not discriminating [i.e., allowing them to keep their jobs, apartments, homes in all cases] If you interview about 1000 people, and 17 identify as JWs, then only 9 of them need to choose C, and 8 can choose A or B, and that would be the 53% (9 of 17) who supposedly "support" the bill, even if they knew nothing about the bill itself. I think all of us know Witnesses who would answer C to the question.

I think you would have removed several of the apostles from this designation if you had lived in the first century. When Jesus failed to perform any significant miracles in his hometown (Mark 6:5) I can just see you saying: "Well, it's not him, we still have to wait for a True Anointed. Maybe in 5 to 10 years."

To their credit, Russell and Rutherford and Franz and the current GB have all given good evidence that they hoped for the end. Sometimes a strong hope for the end will cloud one's judgment about the rationality of predicting a specific time period for the end. But there is a big difference in hoping for the end, which is always proper, and predicting a specific time period for the end, which is ALWAYS improper, according to Jesus. We have examples set before us in the Bible showing the folly of trying to predict the time period. The Bible gives many reasons why this is foolishness to try to predict the time period. Hoping for the end implies faithfulness and humility. Predicting a specific time period for the end implies presumptuousness and haughtiness.

Trolling "logic." @Matthew9969

Yes. Thanks. Hope no one was confused. Now I finally understand why CC gave me the downvote. 😉

Yes. But they stopped pointing to the end of the century back in the late 1980's as far as I remember. So in the 1990's one could only get this by implication, not from anything directly. So you didn't have a bunch of people actually getting closer to 1998, then 1999, who would start to say it must be by the year 2000 or 2001. And it wasn't the GB trying to get attention by continuing to "cry wolf" as you said above. That would be a sure way to get people to stop paying attention, just like it works out in the story of the boy who cried wolf. It more likely shows that the GB were so sure it was true that they were willing to risk revealing how sure they were, and therefore risk not being paid attention to. I think they would only do that if they thought it was important. On the other hand, I wish they didn't think that telling us how close we are to the end was so important. The point should always be how close we might be to the end so that we are prepared --not by thinking about signs and chronology-- but so that we are prepared by thinking about what sort of persons we ought to be. Development of true Christian character (i.e., love for God and neighbor) has always been much more important than trying to find visible signs upon which to hang our faith in the promises.

Many ex-JWs and opposers obsess over the fact that the Watchtower promoted these same expectations for the mid-1970's with a focus on the year 1975. My 3 children were all born in the period from the mid-to-late 80's, and I saw this same view beginning in my own children, matching that of the 11-year old "version" of the girl above. To those of us who had been Witnesses during the 1975 period, most of us probably thought it refreshing that there was no longer a specific set of years being pointed to any more, and we seemed "safe" from date-setting. But even young children picked up on the idea that all this "suffering" for the sake of the kingdom was only for a few short years, and there would never be a need to learn how to make a living in this system of things. It really did change their outlook on school and career and marriage and providing for one's family. "Jehovah will provide" became a catchphrase of sisters who assumed that brothers with good jobs would be coming into the truth in time to make good marriage mates if somehow the system lasted long enough for them to need a husband with "means." I dreaded that this kind of attitude would influence my own daughter. My own experiences with respect to 1975 might be considered sad to outsiders, but I don't look back at them with any remorse. I was baptized in 1967, and was still 15, almost 16, when I quit school in 1973 to begin f-t pioneering. I took to heart the Watchtower's counsel and advice that the system had only a few months after this 1975 period, not years. The commendations for selling houses and pioneering affected my family too. My father didn't believe in the 1975 hype, and even got in trouble (from the D.O.) after a circuit assembly talk, by adding that Jesus' words (about no one knowing the day or the hour) showed how we should also be balanced. That was rather unforgettable, but my father still sold our house and moved us into a rented house in 1974, so that my mother could begin f-t pioneering, too. My brother started an office-cleaning business in 1974 as many other pioneers had done. Only, he didn't pioneer himself but kept expanding the business with more accounts and ended up providing jobs for about 20 pioneers. He finally sold the business for about $20,000 to a full-time pioneer (in '77). I'm sure that the number of new businesses across the country called "Pioneer Cleaning Services" shot up considerably in this period. A lot of people probably don't know that "Rug Doctor" was started this way, and my brother was good friends with the Witness founder. Their web site only says that it was started more than 43 years ago (implying before 1977) but it was actually started in 1974/5. In 1977, my Bethel roommate, my brother, and the daughter of one of the Rug Doctor partners were the only people I knew (at the time) who had been invited to Bethel without any full-time pioneering experience. They had all involved themselves either in learning computer science or electronics (programmable microprocessor controllers) in my brother's case. So after Bethel, I got a bachelor's degree in computer science. The congregation and the elders were very prejudiced against it, but as long as I kept full-time pioneering during college I got away with it. Times are a bit different again, and college is definitely no guarantee of a better job. It often brings unnecessary debt and stress. But I never discouraged college for my three children and, as things turned out, I'm currently glad I didn't. But there is still a lot of prejudice against pioneering in most congregations I know. My kids all had music, orchestra, and choir in high school, and kept their skills up for another few years in college. They would draw the line at national anthems, too, but rarely bowed out of any other songs or performances. So much music is permeated with religious or political foundations anyway that it would be impossible to completely separate from it without getting out of orchestra or choir altogether. I think that most Witnesses compromise and hardly realize it when they participate in American high school music classes especially.

In the above video from reddit, the CIA guy interviewed after the exposure in the 1975 "Church Commission" should be watched to the end, as he shows how their method is always to plant a few true stories for every false one. You can plant them in a willing or "vulnerable" place and then easily leverage that initial false story from a small paper somewhere to be repeated in a larger newspaper where some journalist is on the CIA payroll -- and he says 700 well-known journalists were. Then when the story is printed in that bigger paper, backed up by the local paper reporting, it is picked up by the Associated Press and UPI and easily makes it to every paper in the country. And the purpose? He says that even though they didn't know of a single atrocity in one country, they reported them anyway . . . "to create the illusion of communists eating babies for breakfast."

Yes, but Jesus fixed everything by making the Net work. (John 21:11) . . .And though there were so many, the net did not burst.

NYT had to rescind the statements that produced the Pulitzer for the BLM-adjacent 1619 Project, too. Effectively losing the value of the Pulitzer. I know that this is controversial, but there is still no evidence that any "Holodomor" existed. Terrible, horrific famine existed, of course, although it was sometimes as bad before the "Bolsheviks." The goal of the anti-Pulitzer push is based on some "dark" politics. Grover Furr has traced the thoroughly dishonest methods of Ukraine propagandists in the entire process. The source of the "propaganda" problem seems to boil down to the fact that there are many Ukrainian nationals who are still very proud to be actual Nazis (as opposed to just neo-Nazi fascists) and they have had a huge influence on the Ukrainian government. The push for a "cemented" narrative has driven many of these Nazis to promote propaganda campaigns that would try to turn Stalin's worst mistakes into an "evil" that will be seen as even more evil than Hitler's Holocaust. In fact, the very name "Holodomor" was chosen to create a kind of subliminal verbal parity with the word "Holocaust." (It's not ultimately just about famine, which was very real, but about imputing evil motives for that famine.) Those who request real evidence (not just manufactured by tweaking true famine horror stories) will be called "Holodomor deniers." Thanks for posting "How CIA lies to you." I have several times been tempted to post it along with the entire Congressional hearings from the 1970's that go with it. Those same tactics have been successfully used again by "East Turkestan" to create a yet-unproven narrative of horrific Uyghur persecution by China, probably also created from a few horror stories.

This has been a common theme of 4Jah2me's. The point about the GB and CSA have also been some of his pet peeves. I think the impression of Romans 13:1 is that we are subject to the secular authorities, including their laws, and punishments --but not that we subject ourselves to them as if their authority was above Jehovah's. I think a more appropriate verse (allowing for conscientious alternative service) is the one Jesus gave here: (Matthew 5:41) ". . . and if someone in authority compels you into service for a mile, go with him two miles. . ."

The best explanation of what Furuli had tried to do was explained by COJ, even before COJ's explanation was confirmed by Hermann Hunger, the acknowledged expert in the field. I will include some additional context from COJ because it also helps explain why Furuli was so mixed-up in trying to promote the forgery idea: http://kristenfrihet.se/kf2/review.htm Finally, Furuli’s hypothesis is self-contradictory. If it were true that the planetary positions “represent backward calculations by an astrologer who believed that 568/67 was year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II,” and if it were true that “the original tablet that was copied in Seleucid times was made in 588/87,” which Furuli argues was the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar, then the astrologer/copyist must have dated the tablet to the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar from the very beginning! No modern manipulation of the date would then have been necessary. Furuli’s hypothesis is simply untenable. The only reason for his suggesting it is the desperate need to get rid of a tablet that inexorably demolishes his “Oslo [= Watchtower] chronology” and firmly establishes the absolute chronology for the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 BCE). As discussed in chapter 4 of my book The Gentile Times Reconsidered (Atlanta: Commentary Press, 2004), there are at least nine other astronomical tablets that perform the same service. Furuli’s futile attempts to undermine the enormous burden of evidence provided by these other astronomical tablets will be discussed in another, separate part of this review. The question that remains to be discussed here is Furuli’s claim that the lunar positions that were observed in the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar and are recorded on VAT 4956 fit the year 588/587 better than 568/567 BCE. ------ On the back cover of his new book Rolf Furuli states that the conclusion of his study is that “the lunar data on the tablet [VAT 4956] better fit 588 than 568 B.C.E., and that this is the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar II.” What about this claim? A careful examination of all the legible lunar positions recorded on this astronomical “diary” proves that the claim is false. Almost none of the lunar positions recorded on VAT 4956 fit the year 588/587 BCE, while nearly all of them excellently correspond to lunar positions in the year 568/567 BCE. The astronomy program used for this examination is Chris Marriott’s SkyMap Pro 11.04, which uses the modern complete ELP2000-82B lunar theory. The “delta-T” value used for the secular acceleration of the Moon is 1.7 milliseconds per century, which is the result of the extensive research presented by F. Richard Stephenson in his Historical Eclipses and Earth’s Rotation (Cambridge, 1997). The program used, therefore, maintains high accuracy far into the past, which is not true of many other modern astronomy programs. About a year before Furuli’s book had been published in the autumn of 2007 I had examined his claim (which he had published officially in advance) and found that none of the lunar positions fit the year 588/587 BCE. I shared the first half of my results with some of my correspondents. I did not know at that time that Furuli not only moves the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar 20 years back to 588/587 BCE, but that he also moves the 37th year about one extra month forward in the Julian calendar, which actually makes it fall too late in that year. The reason for this is the following: On the obverse, line 17, VAT 4956 states that on day 15 of month III (Simanu) there was a “lunar eclipse that was omitted.” The phrase refers to an eclipse that had been calculated in advance to be invisible from the Babylonian horizon. On page 126 Furuli explains that he has used this eclipse record as the “point of departure” for mapping “the regnal years, the intercalary months, and the beginning of each month in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, both from the point of view that 568/67 and 588/87 B.C.E. represent his year 37.” In the traditional date for the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar, this eclipse can easily be identified with the eclipse of July 4, 568 (Julian calendar). Thus the Babylonian date, the 15th of month III, corresponds to July 4, 568 BCE. From that date we may count backward to the 1st of month III, which must have been June 20/21 (sunset to sunset), 568. As the tablet further shows that the preceding Month II (Ayyaru) had 29 days and Month I (Nisannu) 30 days, it is easy to figure out that the 1st of Ayyaru fell on May 22/23, 568, and the 1st of Nisannu (i.e., the 1st day of year 37) on April 22/23, 568 BCE. On moving back 20 years to 588/87 BCE – the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar in Furuli’s alternative “Oslo Chronology” – we find that in this year, too, there was a lunar eclipse that could not be seen from the Babylonian horizon. It took place on July 15, 588 BCE. According to Furuli this is the eclipse that VAT 4956 dates to the 15th of month III (Simanu). Reckoning backwards from July 15, Furuli dates the 1st of month III to June 30, 588; the 1st of month II (Ayyaru) to June 1, 588, and the 1st of month I (Nisannu) to May 1. (In his discussions and/or calculations he is inconsistently alternating between May 1, May 2, and May 3). There are a number of problems with Furuli’s dates. The first one is that the first day of the Babylonian year, Nisannu 1, never began as late as in May! As shown by the tables on pages 27-47 in R. A. Parker & W. H. Dubberstein’s Babylonian Chronology (Brown Univeristy Press, 1956), the 1st of Nisannu never once in the 700-year period covered (626 BCE – CE 75) began as late as in May. The same holds true of the subsequent months: the 1st of Ayyaru never began as late as on June 1, and the 1st of Simanu never began as late as on June 30. For this reason alone the lunar eclipse that VAT 4956 dates to the 15th of month III cannot be that of July 15, 588 BCE! This eclipse must have fallen in the middle of month IV in the Babylonian calendar. Furuli’s “point of departure” for his “Oslo Chronology,” therefore, is quite clearly wrong. Very interestingly, the lunar eclipse of July 15, 588 BCE was recorded by the Babylonians on another cuneiform tablet, BM 38462, No. 1420 in A. Sachs’ LBAT catalogue, and No. 6 in H. Hunger’s Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia (ADT), Vol. V (Wien, 2001). I discussed this tablet on pages 180-182 of my book, The Gentile Times Reconsidered (3rd ed. 1998, 4th ed. 2004). The chronological strength of this tablet is just as decisive as that of VAT 4956. It contains annual lunar eclipse reports dating from the 1st to at least the 29th regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar (604/603 – 576/575 BCE). The preserved parts of the tablet contain as many as 37 records of eclipses, 22 of which were predicted, 14 observed, and one that is uncertain. The entry containing the record of the July 15, 588 BCE eclipse (obverse, lines 16-18) is dated to year 17, not year 37, of Nebuchadnezzar! This entry reports two lunar eclipses in this year, one “omitted” and one observed. The first, “omitted” one, which refers to the eclipse of July 15, 588, is dated to month IV (Duzu), not to month III (Simanu). So it cannot be the eclipse dated to month III on VAT 4956. That this eclipse really is the one of July 15, 588 is confirmed by the detailed information given about the second, observed lunar eclipse, which is dated to month X (Tebetu) of year 17. The details about the time and the magnitude help to identify this eclipse beyond all reasonable doubts. The whole entry reads according to H. Hunger’s translation in ADT V, page 29: “[Year] 17, Month IV, [omitted.] [Month] X, the 13th, morning watch, 1 beru 5o [before sunrise?] All of it was covered. [It set eclips]ed.” The second eclipse in month X – six months after the first – took place on January 8, 587 BCE. This date, therefore, corresponded to the 13th of month X in the Babylonian calendar. This agrees with Parker & Dubberstein’s tables, which show that the 1st of month X (Tebetu) fell on 26/27 December in 588 BCE. The Babylonians divided the 24-hour day into 12 beru or 360 USH (degrees), so one beru was two hours and 5 USH (= degrees of four minutes each) were 20 minutes. According to the tablet, then, this eclipse began 2 hours and 20 minutes before sunrise. It was total (“All of it was covered”), and it “[set eclips]ed,” i.e., it ended after moonset. What do modern computations of this eclipse show? My astroprogram shows that the eclipse of January 8, 587 BCE began “in the morning watch” at 04:51, and that sunrise occurred at 07:12. The eclipse, then, began 2 hours and 21 minutes before sunrise – exactly as the tablet says. The difference of one minute is not real, as the USH (time degree of 4 minutes) is the shortest time unit used in this text. [The USH was not the shortest time unit of the Babylonians, of course, as they also divided the USH into 12 “fingers” of 20 seconds each.] The totality began at 05:53 and ended at 07:38. As moonset occurred at 07:17 according to my program, the eclipse was still total at moonset. Thus the moon “set while eclipsed.” Furuli attempts to dismiss the enormous weight of evidence provided by this tablet in just a few very confusing statements on page 127 of his book. He erroneously claims that the many eclipses recorded “occurred in the month before they were expected, except in one case where the eclipse may have occurred two months before.” There is not the slightest truth in this statement. Both the predicted and the observed eclipses agree with modern computations. The statement seems to be based on the gross mistakes he has made on the previous page, where he has misidentified the months on LBAT 1421 with disastrous results for his calculations. In the examination below, the lunar positions recorded on VAT 4956 are tested both for 568/567 BCE as the generally accepted 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar and for Furuli’s alternative dates in 588/587 BCE as presented on pages 295-325 of his book.

So PM (Pekka Mansikka) recognizes that this eclipse was stated by the scribe to be not visible, and that scholars match it to July 4, 568. BCE, which is Simanu 15, 568 BCE. Scholars generally believe that this lunar eclipse was predicted in advance, and now that the predicted time came, the Babylonian scribe stated that the eclipse was not visible. However, it could be uncertain whether the entry related to this lunar eclipse was written in real time in 568 BC. Why? Because then one would have to draw the conclusion that the aforementioned positions of the moon and planets are also written down in real time. Wait! Almost all the lunar data on the tablet are a good match for 568. Except for the Nisanu 8/9 "typo" and a couple other difficult readings that PM doesn't mention. However, even Furuli admits that the planetary data is a good match for 568 (and not the 588 date he and the WTS would have hoped for). But PM says that because of a couple of minor typos, we can now imagine that there is uncertainty about the persons who were assigned to observe and write down their observations. PM wants us to believe that perhaps none of these were ever real-time observations. And why not? Because then we would have to accept that all of them were. (And we don't want that because it would be evidence that this tablet is actually for the year it says it is.) Such a convoluted bit of circular reasoning! PM admits that there are obvious observations on the tablet. Even if they are as mundane as a sick fox getting into the city, or a wolf that gets in and kills a couple of dogs. He thinks these probably belong to the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar as claimed. But the lunar data and the planetary data on the same tablet keep pointing to 568 BCE, which is the same place all the other Neo-Babylonian archaeological data also points to. So how do we get rid of this evidence against the WTS theory? Simple. We are asked to assume that the perfectly good 568 data for a lunar eclipse might not have been checked for, simply because the observer knew it was predicted to be not visible anyway. Yet, we have absolutely no evidence that the observer decided not to check for this eclipse. So why do we decide that he didn't? Because then we would have to admit that the other lunar and planetary data had been observed. (And that would be devastating to the WTS theory about 607. ) But then PM goes right ahead and contradicts himself anyway, and says that the line actually refers to a lunar eclipse that was observed in 588. Furuli's book calls this the "point of departure." PM paraphrases that idea by calling it the "one 'small' exception." This involves a very serious mistake. The inscription at the beginning of the clay tablet “the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule” is incorrect.The positions of the moon and planets in the starry sky described in this clay tablet were realized several years after the end of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. However, there is one, “small” exception to this. It has been estimated that this lunar eclipse would have taken place on 15 July 588 BC.6 In that case, it could be a real-time entry and would be part of the “historical data” listed earlier. However, it is uncertain whether such a late date can be applied to the 15th day of the simanu month. The beginning of the year would then be in early May. Of course, the confusion in PM's logic is directly inherited from the same confusion in Furuli. And there actually never was a predicted but unobserved eclipse in the third month of 588. Furuli tried hard to make one up by shifting the Babylonian calendar by one month. It was a clever plan because an unobserved eclipse will have no data associated with it, and should therefore be easier to "match" to any other unobserved eclipse. And all eclipses fall pretty much on the same day of the month, too, from the 13th through the 15th. So it was a good plan, but 588 did not have an eclipse in the third month. But it did have an eclipse in the 4th month. So all Furuli had to do was shift the Babylonian calendar to a place it had never been before, and say that the 4th month was actually the third month in 588. Of course, Furuli got "caught" trying to start the year in May, which had never been evidenced in many centuries of astronomical data left to us by the Babylonians. Even PM has to admit above: "However, it is uncertain whether such a late date can be applied to the 15th day of the simanu month. The beginning of the year would then be in early May." Ann O'maly already pointed out the strange mix of honesty and dishonesty when the authors of the pro-WT-theory site called vat4956.com were confronted by this objection: (You can see the page at VAT 4956 - Can be dated 20 years earlier to 588 BC instead of 568 BC) Common counter-arguments for the year 588 BC A Babylonian year never started as late as May Not according to Richard A. Parker and Waldo H. Dubberstein in Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C. – A.D. 45. The latest a year starts during this period according to them is April 26th, just 7 days earlier than May 2nd. To me this is a not-so-cleverly dishonest way possible of wording this, because they pretend that an authority agrees with them, and then when they quote the authority, you have to be careful to note that the authority disagrees with them. They realize that most of their readers who will believe them have a bias that would allow them to miss the dishonesty out of one side of their mouth, while admitting the authority disagrees with them out of the other side. There was another snag in Furuli's theory that this other 588 eclipse was NEB37. Another tablet that I already tested (in another topic, LBAT 1420) lists the same unobserved eclipse, except that it names it for Nebuchadnezzar's 17th year, 20 years earlier, just where we would expected it based on the archaeology. But, to make things worse for Furuli and PM, that tablet also had an observed eclipse in the same year. That provides even more sure evidence that Furuli's attempt was impossible and short-sighted.

PM mentioned the "typo" but didn't take it anywhere, yet. He leaves the idea hanging there while he changes the subject to "historical" data contained in the Diary: Historical data On closer inspection of the structure of the clay tablet VAT 4956, it can be seen that it is very exceptional. It seems that this is mainly an astronomical dissertation of antiquity. But it also includes historical records. Line 5 says: [nisannu] 20th, in the morning, the sun was surrounded by a halo. Around noon ... A rainbow stretched in the east. Lines 6 and 7 say: From the 8th of month to the 28th, the river level rose 3 cubits and 8 fingers. 2/3 cubits [….] to the high flood [….] were killed on order of the king. That month, a fox entered the city. Coughing and a little risutu-disease John Steele has written a lot about the general nature and the changing format of these diaries over the centuries. At the time of a 568 BCE astronomical diary, it was not 100% about astronomy. The day to day diaries could include river levels, grain prices, weather and other activities considered more or less significant. When the daily reports were collected, there was no need to include all the days where "nothing special happened today." But descriptions of sky events like halos around the moon, or perhaps even an exceptional rainbow might have been more than just mundane "history." One of the halo descriptions includes the name of a star covered within the 22 degree radius of the halo circle, and therefore helps us date the event (to 568). Also, a disease carrying fox that manages to get into a city with extremely high walls might have been more ominous to the Babylonian citizens than mere mundane history. Over time the scribes became purely recorders and observers, with little interest in recording mundane events that might be somehow related to celestial observations. Ultimately, they just stuck with observations with no attempt to interpret the observations, or link heavenly observations with gods or omens. Later, PM will try to use these types of items as if they have been somehow meshed in from a completely separate history of the year (588), but this ignores the fact that several such elements like these are not listed under their own lines but tied in with the astronomical observations on the same lines, on the same dates. No good reason is given for treating them separately as if they are from a different year. (A year that has no evidence going for it in the tablet.) Nevertheless, PM says this about them, but at least admits that he is making an "assumption" about them just because they aren't purely astronomical observations: Although this is dated to the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar, these lines 6 and 7 describe the end of the last month of the supposed 36th year of government. Many other lines can be found. Because of the things described in them, it is reasonable to assume that they describe historical, real-time recorded information. Indeed, this feature initially evokes great wonder when creating an accurate look at the astronomical markings on the clay tablet. Instead, one might assume that they were not written at the same time. Then PM goes on to this topic, skipping several lines of the tablet: Jupiter was above Scorpio This is a remarkable detail that has often been overlooked. Line 13 tells you what the view was like just when the third or simanu month began: Mercury passed below Mars to the East; Jupiter was above α Scorpii; What is the time of Jupiter's orbit around the sun? It is 11 years, 315 days, and 1.1 hours.4 Based on this, we can find out what years Jupiter can be found near the constellation Scorpio when we apply that term. So, has PM skipped to this line to show us where, in one of the planetary observations, that a year outside of 568 might be intended? Because of the chart, I will include a picture of the text: Jupiter Scorpio near the constellation [chart above] Jupiter can be found there on the date 18th-22nd June 568 BC. It is also found near Scorpio from 544 BC, 556 BC, 580 BC. and 592 BC. Of these only in 568 BC. was a lunar eclipse. Based on this, one could make an estimate and conclude that the astronomical measurements of VAT 4956 date back to 568 BC. That could be a let-down to some Witness readers. He agrees that this is about 568, not 588 which would please the WTS. (Of cource, Furuli also admitted that the planetary data matches 568, but resorted to the idea that it was "forged.") The fact that the planet Jupiter hits the constellation Scorpio above the orbit just at the beginning of the simanu month is a very rare event. It repeats about every 150 years, with a few of these “hit” every 12 years. And what can be found out when it was mentioned above that Mars and Mercury were close together? So above PM admits that he had no choice but to date this to 568. It's a very rare event. The chart showed that while Jupiter finds Scorpio just about every 12 years, it only happens at the beginning of the month Simanu (month III) every 150 years. And what about Mars and Mercury so close? Will we get another chance to see the WTS date of 586 evidenced here? Mars and Mercury in front of the Lion In the clay tablet, VAT 4956 reads the following on line 12: Mars and Mercury were 4 cubits in front of [Leonis ….] This was at the end of the last day of the time of the ajaru month, in 568 BC this was 20th June. The orbit of Mars around the sun is 686 days, or about 1 year, 10 months, and 21 days.5 In the meantime, this similarity does not appear to be found in the other years mentioned earlier. At that point, the translator has marked the name of the constellation “Leonis” in square brackets. It could suggest that the name of that constellation in the clay tablet is a bit damaged. But when comparing the years in the table above, Mars and Mercury were not close in those other years at the beginning of the same month. So, PM is still stuck with 568, the only year in which the first part of the data fits (Jupiter in Scorpio in month Simanu), and further confirmed with the next part of the planetary data (Mars and Mercury together in front of Leo). But next we can see why PM brought it up. Admittedly, that mention in VAT 4956 “at a distance of four cubits” would not properly fit the year 568 BC either. Let’s take a small screenshot of this on the next page, which also shows the Virgo constellation next to it. Comparing that distance to the previous image from the 8th day of the month of Nisannu, it appears that Mars and Mercury were only one cubic distance from the constellation Lion. Because it seems likely that VAT 4956 describes in 568 BC. astronomical phenomena, this would seem to suggest that the second error of Babylonian astrologers. It's because this is evidently the second mistake on the tablet. Possibly another typo. Just like the only previous example from the tablet, when Nisannu 8 lists either the wrong star or was a typo for Nisannu 9. PM does not try for an explanation of these these two typos, and does not try to say that they both point to another year. But there is one more reading for the month of Simanu, and it's about an eclipse on the 15th of the month. Lunar eclipse 568 BC The clay tablet VAT 4956 also states that there was a lunar eclipse on the 15th of the simanu month. July 4, 568 BC, has been applied to this lunar eclipse. This eclipse was not visible in Babylon. Line 17 describes this event as follows: A lunar eclipse which was omitted Scholars generally believe that this lunar eclipse was predicted in advance, and now that the predicted time came, the Babylonian scribe stated that the eclipse was not visible. So far, so good. We know from dozens of other eclipse reports that the expression "which was omitted" shows that the observers knew that an eclipse was predicted for the date, but expected to be invisible due to the time of day which would have put it below the horizon. We can easily check an astronomy program to see if the Babylonians were right (as usual) about their eclipse predictions, and they were. So what is it that PM thinks he can do with this eclipse, that we don't already know? I think the jump in logic is so amazing that I will discuss it in another post by itself.

So, now we can return to Mansikka's comments regarding VAT 4956. 1. Clay tablet VAT 4956 The first line of this clay tablet says of its date: “In the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.”2 Scholars have applied the information in this clay tablet to 568 BC.3 It has been perhaps the prisoner’s justification for the present ancient chronology. However, it has major shortcomings. It is a pleasure now to present new researched information on this topic. P.M. admits that the first line dates it to NEB37 and that scholars date it to 568 BCE. If NEB37 is 568 BCE, then NEB18 587 BCE. But the WTS says NEB18 is 607 BCE. So the attack plan is usually the same. Ask readers to think that almost all NB chronology is justified from this one artifact. (It isn't.) And then start focusing on the "typo" without admitting that most of the data is an excellent fit for the archaeological supported date. That's what P.M. does. Instead of pointing out that the opening rows actually start out with a perfect fit for 568 (and a bad fit for 588), P.M. skips down to the typo on line 3 and calls it "the opening rows." No mention that there is plenty of info on lines 1 and 2 and even additional info on line 3, that fits 568. Nisannu The opening rows of the clay tablet state that the moon was on the 9th day of the 1st month, or Nisannu, about an elbow away from the constellation Beta Virginis, or Virgo, “in front of it”. From this, the may have been in front of the imaginary “face” of the Virgo constellation. It could also be “in front of it” a little diagonally, even below the “hand”. According to scholars, in 568 BC. this distance was on April 29, which was the 8th day of the month of Nisannu. Scholars have argued that the Babylonian scribe made a mistake at this point. [picture of] Moon and Virgo constellation April 29, 568 BC. (8th Nisannu); Babylon, Iraq If there is an error, what is the cause of that error? Or could it be that no mistake has been made in that matter? Very clever. Just like "Sally's father" who dismisses the majority of good readings just so he can make something out of the typo. This one date typo (or perhaps a correct date but a misidentified star in the same constellation) doesn't actually fit 588 BCE, anyway, which would be the WTS chronology goal. Furuli and others have tried to make it seem like it fits, but it takes so much inconsistent manipulation of the evidence that Mansikka has obviously given up. He has looked at the attempts to do this by Furuli but he could not make enough of them work, so he dismissed Furuli's ideas and came up with his own explanation. Good, so far. But then Mansikka makes the most illogical blunders, and still somehow (of course) ends up with a conclusion (spoiler alert): Thus, these historical data could come from the actual 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar II, i.e. 588 BC. I'll deal with the in between stuff soon enough.

In the above "analogy," Sally's father flails wildly to make sure Sally's mother thinks that Sally's age-16 diary is fake, not Sally's. Or if it is Sally's it must be from when she was 11, not when she was 16. Yet it was marked "Sally . . . Age 16." And it contained information only appropriate for Sally. (Did I mention that only Sally had a south window next to the garbage cans?) Sally's father makes up problems where there aren't any, resorts to specious reasoning, and focuses on an obvious small mistake and tries to make it negate all the rest of the diary. What would you think of such a man who could find dozens of correctly marked dates for 1996, but decides it must be another year altogether, because just one of the dates doesn't fit 1996? I'm sure most everyone knows by now that very few Witnesses have been willing to publicly discuss the evidence from the VAT 4956 diary. And some have done so in a very similar manner to "Sally's father." They go immediately for line with the "typo" and a couple of mistaken or misunderstood readings, and "forget" to mention that the other 27 readings are just fine. But there are also at least a few Witnesses who have been willing to publicly discuss the evidence without resorting to wild flailing and tantrums. Here's Gerard Gertoux's take on it (uploaded in 2017). And, for good measure, I've included Gertoux's context because it includes his take on the 763 BCE solar eclipse which is so important to Pekka Mansikka: ( https://www.researchgate.net/publication/256488025_Dating_the_fall_of_Babylon_and_Ur_thanks_to_Astronomical_Events ) Thus, as there are exactly 154 canonical eponyms between Gargamisaiu and Bur-Sagale, which is dated 763 BCE, that involves to date the one of Gargamisaiu into 609 (= 763 – 154). The only solar eclipse over Assyria during the period 800-750 is the total eclipse dated June 15, 763 BCE. The partial solar eclipses dated June 4, 800 BCE and June 24, 791 BCE were not able to be viewed over Assyria. The fall of the Assyrian empire, which took place in October 609 BCE after the battle of Harran, is characterized by a quadruple synchronisms, since the year of Assur-uballit II corresponds to year 17 of Nabopolassar to Josiah's year 31 and year 1 of Necho II. According to the biography of Adad-Guppi12, mother of Nabonidus, Nabopolassar reigned 21 years, then Nebuchadnezzar 43 years, Amel-Marduk 2 years, Neriglissar 4 years just before Nabonidus. According to the Hillah's stele13 there were 54 years between the destruction of the temple of Sin, in Harran, and the beginning of the reign of Nabonidus. According to a Babylonian chronicle (BM 21901)14 and Adad-Guppi's stele, the temple of Harran was destroyed in the year 16 of Nabopolassar. Dated lunar eclipses15 are: year 1 and 2 of Merodachbaladan (March 19/20 721 BCE, March 8/9 and September 1/2 720 BCE); year 5 of Nabopolassar (April 21/22 621 BCE); year 2 of Samas-suma-ukîn (April 10/11 666 BCE); year 42 of Nebuchadnezzar (March 2/3 562 BCE). A diary (VAT 4956)16 contains numerous astronomical conjunctions in years 37 and 38 of Nebuchadnezzar dated from astronomy in 568 and 567 BCE. An astronomical journal (BM 38462)17 list some lunar eclipses in the years 1 to 27 of Nebuchadnezzar which are dated from 604 to 578 BCE. ------------Footnotes:------------- 12 J.B. PRITCHARD - Ancient Near Eastern Texts Princeton 1969 Ed. Princeton University Press p. 560-561. 13 P.A. BEAULIEU – The Reign of Nabonidus, King of Babylon 556-539 B.C. in: Yale Near Eastern Research 10 (1989) n°2. 14 J.J. GLASSNER – Chroniques mésopotamiennes n°22 Paris 1993 Éd. Belles Lettres pp. 193-197. 15 F.R. STEPHENSON - Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation Cambridge 1997 Ed. Cambridge University Press pp. 99-100, 151-152, 206. 16 A.J. SACHS, H. HUNGER - Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia vol. I . Wien 1988 Ed. Akademie der Wissenschaften (n° -567). 17 H. HUNGER - Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia vol. V n° 6 Wien 2001 Ed. Akademie der Wissenschaften pp. 27-30,396. Gertoux provides an exact fit for the chart I provided earlier. He even has an extra few verified points that I had not checked yet, such as dating year 42 of Nebuchadnezzar to 563/2 and year 5 of Nabopolassar to 621 and the battle of Harran to 609 (Nabopolassar's 17th year), etc. I will add the green highlight in the top row after I have checked these myself. 625 624 623 622 621 620 619 618 617 616 615 614 613 612 611 610 609 608 607 606 605 604 603 602 601 600 599 598 597 596 595 594 593 592 591 590 589 588 587 586 585 584 583 582 581 580 579 578 577 576 575 574 573 572 571 570 569 568 567 566 565 564 563 562 561 560 559 558 557 556 555 554 553 552 551 550 549 548 547 546 545 544 543 542 541 540 539 538 537 536 535 534 533 532 531 530 N A B O P O L A S S A R (21 years) N E B U C H A D N E Z Z A R II (reigned for 43 years) E-M Nerig- lissar N A B O N I D U S (17) C Y R U S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 1 2 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

If anyone got through all that reading, they surely won't mind indulging me in a little story about a girl who had trouble sleeping, so she kept a "sleep diary" for a few months. I think that a few here will already understand it even before I begin: It's 2021. Sally is grown now, about 40 years old, born in 1980, and had already moved out of her parents' house 10 years earlier. But her mother finds the diary while cleaning the basement, and reads a few of the entries: Sally's Sleep Diary. Age 16. Monday, January 8. Got up at 2 am. Cold. Saw one of those circular halos around the moon, a gray frosty circle through the skylight in kitchen. Cool. Monday, January 29. Woke up around 1:30 am with TV on. Must have fallen asleep during Super Bowl. Wanted to see Joe Montana. Wonder who won? Thursday, February 29. Went out for pizza in afternoon with Sarah. Got back before sundown at 5:30. Stomach bothered me until well after midnight. Lactose intolerance? Friday, March 15. Raccoons rustling in garbage kept me awake. Looked out the south window with flashlight and one looked very sick. Might have rabies. Tuesday, July 30. Got up well before sunrise today. The moon was full and bright through my east-facing window. Wednesday, July 31. Slept in late this morning, rained all day, sun didn't come out until 7:30pm. Saw a very spectacular rainbow out my east window, just before sunset. Glad I didn't go to bed early. Thursday, Sept 4. Couldn't sleep. Rain pounded the skylight loudly and the street drain must have clogged. Because water was several inches at the sidewalk and even came halfway up the driveway. The mother shows the father, and says: "Oh look at this dear. I found Sally's diary from when she was only 16. Let's see. What year was that? She was born in 1980, so that must have been 1996." But the husband says: "Now just wait a minute, dear. You are too trusting, too naive. We have 4 daughters, remember. We know that Sally was the one who had sleep problems, and she was the one with lactose intolerance, and she was our only daughter in the southeast bedroom with those two windows, and she was the only one who had a friend named Sarah, and she did kind of have a crush on Joe Montana. Why? I'll never know. But this diary might still be a product of deceit. Who says that this is really even about Sally? One of our other daughters could have been faking the name because they didn't want to use their own name for some reason, and wanted you to find this 20 years later. Besides, everyone knows that Super Bowls are on Sunday not Monday. And Sally didn't know that much about football, so it might have been a playoff game or some other game that Joe Montana was in. Let me look into this and try to see if it might be a fake." Two days later, the husband has the "proof" that this is a fake diary: OK, dear. Now I know that it must be fake. When a TV is on just after midnight, most people see this as the date the TV was left on, Sunday, not Monday. Even TV Guide lists late night TV under Sunday night, even though the diary is technically right that it was Monday because it's after midnight. On February 29, the sun went down at 5:45, not 5:30 as she stated in the diary. That mistake makes me suspicious, too. The moon was not full until July 31, and she says it was full on July 30. I looked it up. So why would she say she saw the full moon? And the final proof is that she said "Thursday, September 4," and September 4th was a Wednesday, not a Thursday. All the others are right for 1996 but this mistake shows it wasn't really written in 1996. So I looked into it, and the most recent THURSDAY, September 4th was not in 1995, or 1994, or 1993, or 1992. It was in 1991. So this diary might be hers, but it MUST have been written in 1991, when she was only 11 years old. The wife replies: "But wait, dear. . . . 1991 was not a leap year with a February 29th. And Joe Montana was out for the 1991 season with a bad arm. And she probably wrote that entry about the Super Bowl on Monday morning, like she says. Joe Montana was in the Super Bowl the night before. And she said she got home before sundown at 5:30, not at sundown at 5:45pm. And the difference between the full moon on July 30 and the full moon on July 31st is negligible. And a lot of people accidentally write down the wrong day of the week, especially in the summer when they are not on a weekly school schedule -- you've done it yourself." And besides, there are 30 entries, these are just the first 5, and there are no problems at all with any of the others. And if she was only 11, why would she call it "Sally's Sleep Diary. Age 16" ??? Husband: Who are you to question your husband? You charlatan!!! You Devil-influenced apostate!!!

"the OLD guy"? 😉

I hope no one got the impression that I wrote all that much in these last few posts. Most of this page is just quotes from others and a few lines with my comments interspersed.

Pekka Mansikka is not Furuli. But several of his arguments align with Furuli, and he references Furuli as a source. The arguments inherited from Furuli should be honestly evaluated before anyone takes them seriously. The author(s) at vat4956.com have paraphrased Furuli's arguments, and, most unfortunately, so did the Watchtower artilcle mentioned above: *** w11 11/1 p. 28 When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part Two *** 11. Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts From Babylonia, Volume V, edited by Hermann Hunger, published 2001, pages 2-3.

Because the entire review by Hunger is a bit hard to find unless one uses the "Wayback Machine" at archive.internet.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20110924024209/http://goto.glocalnet.net:80/kf4/reviewHunger.htm Here is the entire review of Furuli's book by Hermann Hunger. The remainder of this post is the full review: --------- Furuli, Rolf J., Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian Chronology. Volume II of Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian Chronology Compared with the Chronology of the Bible. Oslo, Awatu Publishers, 2nd ed., 2008. 376 pp., numerous photos and tables. – Reviewed by Professor Hermann Hunger, Vienna, Austria. Editorial comment: In his work on the chronology of the Ancient Near East Dr. Rolf Furuli in Oslo, Norway devotes much space to ancient astronomy. His discussion of the ancient Babylonian astronomical cuneiform tablets covers more than 140 pages. Of these, 93 pages – about a quarter of the book – contain a detailed astronomical and linguistic analysis of one particular tablet: VAT 4956, an astronomical “diary” dated to the 37th year of the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. It is most appropriate, therefore, that Rolf Furuli’s work is here reviewed by Professor Hermann Hunger, who not only is a world-famous authority on cuneiform and the languages of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, but who is also the leading expert on the astronomical observational cuneiform tablets. He has for decades been studying and translating these texts. His transcriptions and translations have so far been published in five large-sized volumes. Most of the references in Professor Hunger’s review to various works and articles are given in abbreviated form. The full titles are given in a reference list at the end of the review. After a preface and an introduction on “Assumptions and Perspectives”, the book has three parts, one each for Neo-Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Egyptian chronology. There is a closing chapter “Open-mindedness and the study of ancient chronology”, 6 appendices, and a bibliography. “Assumption and Perspectives” (p. 17-26) The introduction begins with a famous error from medicine about spinach which went undetected for a long time because people did not check the sources. Then it is noted that “presuppositions tend to color interpretations”, and that presuppositions ought to be clearly stated. I am completely on F.’s side that “truth” is not decided by “the consensus of the majority of scholars”. If truth cannot be found, the consensus may be of some help. Most of the introduction tries to show that chronology is uncertain because assumptions and interpretations are not certain. As an illustration F. mentions cuneiform tablets dated to Nebuchadnezzar and Amel-Marduk that seem to show that tablets were dated to a king after his death. F. states that the “traditional chronology” is based on Ptolemy, but this is at least an abbreviation: part of the basis of the “traditional chronology” is the so-called “Canon of Ptolemy”, which was included in some manuscripts of his “Handy Tables”. However, this list must be older than Ptolemy because such a list was needed by astronomers long before him. On p. 26 F. declares as the “approach of this book” that “the Bible, cuneiform tablets, and different kinds of historical data are put on the same level”. This overlooks the differences between these data: literature cannot be treated in the same way as daily records; royal inscriptions may stress the king’s achievements and forget his failures; texts far removed from the events they describe may be less reliable than those composed close to the time of the events, etc. A critical evaluation of the sources is unavoidable for history writing. “PART ONE: THE NEO-BABYLONIAN EMPIRE” (p. 27-133) The section on the Neo-Babylonian Empire begins with the heading of Chapter 1: “The Neo-Babylonian and Biblical Chronology contradict one another” (p. 28-43). F. first notes some of the sources for the traditional chronology, ascribing it to Ptolemy, and then claims: “the Bible says explicitly that Jerusalem was a desolate waste for a full 70 years” (p. 30). By assuming that Babylon was conquered by Cyrus in 539 and the Jews returned in 537, then “we reach the year 607 as the time for Jerusalem’s destruction”. This is the basic point of F.’s “Oslo chronology”. The statements about the full 70 years of desolation are not necessarily supported by the Biblical texts, as can be seen from C. O. Jonsson, The Gentile Times Reconsidered (4th ed., 2004), p. 191-235. F. presents his point of view on p. 32ff. Chapter 2 (p. 44-55) is used to cast doubts on the cuneiform texts concerning Neo-Babylonian history, the chronicles and royal inscriptions. Chapter 3 (p. 56-66) concerns business documents. F. begins with examples of errors by scholars in reading tablets (p. 56 note 60: a restoration is a modern scholar’s assumption which may be wrong, as in the case quoted; on the other hand, the extent to which the writing of a sign can vary does not depend on modern readers). F. then uses the unclear sequence of rulers towards the end of the Assyrian Empire to pretend that the tablets do not fit the traditional chronology. Note 66 on p. 58 is meant to prepare the way for the identification of Kandalanu and Nabopolassar. F. refers to the Akitu Chronicle, which states that “arki mKan-da-la-nu (‘after Kandalanu’), in the accession year of Nabopolassar”, claiming that arki mKan-da-la-nu can also be translated “thereafter Kandalanu” or “this other Kandalanu”. However, arki Kandalanu can NOT mean “this other Kandalanu”. The change of reign from Nebuchadnezzar to Amel-Marduk and Neriglissar is documented in NBC 4897; because this contradicts F.’s chronology, he says it “cannot be used” (see below on Appendix A). Chapter 4 (p. 67-89) looks for Neo-Babylonian kings not mentioned by Ptolemy (i.e., in the Ptolemaic Canon). Right away, on p. 67, one purpose of the discussion is stated: “if we have to push the reigns just one year back, VAT 4956 is valueless as a chronological witness”. I do not understand this: why is VAT 4956 valueless if we push back the chronology? We will have a hard time to push back the chronology because VAT 4956 simply provides a date for year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar. Since there were several pretenders to the Babylonian and Assyrian throne after Assurbanipal, adding up all their attested years leads to more years than are assumed in the traditional chronology. But of course this need not be a correct approach because some kings may have ruled at the same time. P. 73: Nabû-na’id’s inscriptions sometimes add adjectives to the word for reign (palû), like damqu or kinu. But palû does not refer to specific years of his reign, but to his reign in general. Therefore he qualifies it as “good” or “reliable, legitimate”. One cannot expect that a Babylonian king would ever consider his reign as not legitimate. No chronological inferences can be made from this use of words. P. 79: The Dynastic prophecy does not include all kings, and therefore is useless for chronology. The words “For three years” (broken before and after) need not even refer to a length of reign. P. 80: Another possible unknown Neo-Babylonian king suggested by F. he finds in the signs for the name idAG-GI on a tablet published by M. Jursa in 1997. F. erroneously transcribes the name as Nabû-šalim. But a name Nabû-šalim would mean “Nabû is well”, and this is not an appropriate statement (F.’s wrong translation: “Let Nabû have peace” is equally blasphemous). If GI stands for šalāmu, only -mušallim or -ušallim would make sense. P. 82: Why does a man named Mar-šarri-uṣur have to be a king? On the contrary this is a servant’s name. I have only remarked on some incorrect details. Throughout this chapter, the reader is presented with possible reasons for doubts about the traditional chronology, although no conclusions are offered. But the tendency to expand the length of the Neo-Babylonian Empire is always present. – [For additional details on chapter 4, see: http://goto.glocalnet.net/kf3/review4.htm - eds.] Chapter 5 (p. 90-95) deals with the astronomical diaries. First, the possibility of errors is stressed. Then, the asymmetric preservation is described: only few diaries exist from before 400 BC, and some of these are copies. To say that they are virtually non-existing is not justified; there are just few of them. F. turns the argument around and says that diaries were not made during that time. Since there exist tablets that contain planetary observations from this period, F. immediately suspects them to represent backward calculations. However, the positions obtained by calculating backwards would soon have been rather wrong. At least one could see by modern calculations that they were wrong. However, there is no reason why backward calculation should have been done at all (see below on Appendix F). In his summary, the existence of astronomical observation in the Neo-Babylonian Empire is denied. Chapter 6 (p. 96-125) deals with VAT 4956, called the “most important astronomical diary”. Most of the details are found again in Appendix C, but some have to be discussed here. I had the privilege to complete an edition of this tablet from a manuscript by A. J. Sachs in Diaries, vol. I. It will therefore be understandable that I respond in detail to F.’s statements which imply that I did a bad job. Of course any errors in the edition (two have been found, but are of no chronological consequence) are my responsibility. For the edition, I used the published copy of E. Weidner and a photo from a negative in the collection of the Vorderasiatische Museum which certainly was made before World War II. I did not collate the original. As will be seen immediately, I am very lucky that I never had this tablet in my hand! Right away, the possibility is entertained that the tablet is a forgery. An excursus on modern forgeries is brought to strengthen the possibility. However, these modern forgeries are made by molds, so they cannot contain information not originally present on a genuine tablet. If VAT 4956 were such a forgery, it would still give us the picture of a genuine tablet. The tablet was bought in Baghdad and came to the Vorderasiatische Museum in 1906. It is now baked and consists of three pieces glued together (p. 98). F. then describes “several strange things in connection with the publication of the tablet (p. 99). The first editors, P. V. Neugebauer and E. Weidner, did not mention that the tablet consisted of three pieces; F. thinks they ought to have mentioned it, and he raises the possibility that the tablet was not broken in 1915. He also thinks that it is strange that Weidner published line 18 of the reverse alone in 1912, and attributes this to Weidner’s competition with F. X. Kugler. In view of the importance of the tablet, Weidner ought to have published a copy as soon as possible. But a copy only appeared in 1953. F. concludes that Weidner and Neugebauer deliberately wanted to prevent colleagues from examining the original tablet, and that “they had something to hide” (p. 101). F. does not elaborate what they may have had to hide. I do not know the policy of the Vorderasiatische Museum at the time, but in general colleagues would have been allowed to see (and collate) a tablet that was already published. Nowadays one cannot ask Weidner any more for his reasons, but it is likely that they were not malicious. He may have been obliged to publish the copy in the Vorderasiatische Schriftdenkmäler (published by the Museum), and there may have been financial problems in production during the 1920s. The “strange features” which F. cannot explain as anything but “conscious tampering” will be discussed below (Appendix C). On p. 102 F. assumes that a “forger wrote the signs on the reverse side while he was looking at the original”. However, no modern forger would be able to copy cuneiform writing so as to seem original; years of scribal training are required. Besides, there is no way of successfully adding cuneiform writing to a dried tablet. The tablet would be too hard to produce the neat writing as is preserved on VAT 4956. P. 112: the passage concerning year 38 is a catch-line, giving the beginning of a tablet following the present tablet. Contrary to F.’s accusations it is extremely unlikely that a modern forger or tamperer would have bothered to add this. For an example of such a catch-line in another diary, see Diaries I p. 476f. No. -168 line A21’: the diary concerns months V to VIII, and the catch-line is the beginning of month IX. The existence of this catch-line on VAT 4956 is of course no indication that “the scribe had an agenda”. The following pages present more or less F.’s results from more detailed discussions in Appendix C, so I shall restrict myself to a few remarks. P. 117: F.’s argumentation that the use of the words “at that time” signifies “some uncertainty” and indicate that positions were “calculated rather than observed” is mistaken. inušu “at that time” introduces a summary of planetary positions; there is no uncertainty involved. In later diaries, this summary is usually placed at the end of each monthly section. P. 119: F. argues that the data on VAT 4956 stem from different sources, stating: “In lines 6 and 7, river levels and a report of the killing of someone at the order of the king are reported for an intercalary Addaru. This must refer to the previous year or to another year and would require a tablet different from those reporting lunar and planetary data. Yet this anomalous intercalary Addaru is found on VAT 4956 between months I and II.” However, lines 6 and 7 first report a change in river level that happened to stretch from the preceding intercalary Addaru to the current month. The killing of someone at the order of the king is not connected to this time span, but happened in month I; the day number, now broken, must have been mentioned in line 6. This is no indication of different sources. Further, F. holds that the diary was composed in Seleucid times, because “to view the constellations as animals, either alone, or as representing the 12 zodiacal signs, was a late custom, and there is no evidence of the zodiac from the Neo-Babylonian Empire or earlier.” To view some constellations as animals is not at all a late custom; the mulAPIN document from the early first millennium BC is full of such names, including their parts. These expressions can therefore NOT be used as an argument that the tablet was composed in Seleucid times. P. 122: In support of the claim that someone has tampered with the tablet F. states that the first line, where the date and the name of the king had been written, “is partly erased”. But in my opinion, the first line is not partly erased, but partly damaged. On this page, the suspicion that someone tampered with the tablet in modern times has, in F.’s mind, already become “evidence”. P. 123: Attempting to add 20 years to the Neo-Babylonian period F. suggests that the tablet originally was dated to year “57”, which a modern scholar changed to “37”. He says: “A person in the first part of the nineteenth century saw that the celestial positions fit 568/67 well, and on the basis of the accepted chronology he concluded that 57 was an error for 37.” However, no person in the first part of the 19th century would have been able to understand the celestial positions; the first reliable identifications of stars were made by Epping in 1881. I too can see what F. calls a “small angular wedge” under the three bigger (and clearer) angular wedges. This small impression is oriented differently and less deep; I consider(ed) it a scratch, not a wedge. As for someone adding the numbers 37 and 38, there is no way of successfully adding cuneiform writing to a dried tablet. The tablet would be too hard to produce a neat writing as is preserved on VAT 4956. There are examples of tablets which were inscribed after they had started to dry; this can be recognized easily (see e.g. Diaries III pl. 209 No. -104 Rev.). Also, only trained scribes can produce writing that looks like the ancient one. The modern fakes which F. discusses on p. 96f. are produced from molds, so they are not pertinent. Chapter 7: Other Astronomical Tablets (p. 126-133) (LBAT 1421, 1415, 1416, 1417, 1419, 1420, 1386; the Saturn tablets SBTU IV No. 171 and BM 76738+76813) P. 127f.: in LBAT 1421, it is not “difficult to explain” why the number 45 can come before year 42: 45 is not a year number. F. confuses the intercalary months for years 36 and 41 of Nebuchadnezzar: according to Parker & Dubberstein p. 5, year 36 had an intercalary Addaru, and year 41 an intercalary Ululu. Apart from this, F. inserts an unattested intercalary month between these years in order to displace the lunar eclipses of year 42 so that they do not fit 563 BC! F.’s proposal however is wrong even on his own assumptions: the eclipse of October 16, 583 BC occurs in month VII, and there was no eclipse in month XII (on March 13, 582 BC, the earth’s shadow missed the moon, see Huber & De Meis, Bab. Eclipse Observations, p. 186; consequently, no eclipse is listed in Kudlek & Mickler). LBAT 1421 may not prove any chronology but it agrees with the traditional one. In the meantime, F. has claimed on the ANE-2 internet forum that LBAT 1421 refers to year 42 of Artaxerxes I (for F., 433/2 BC), but this too can be proven to be incorrect. (See: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/12432 and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/12495) “PART TWO: THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE” (Chapters 8-13, p. 134-237) The second part discusses the Chronology of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This section begins on p. 134 with synchronisms between the Bible and Assyrian sources. These show that the chronologies cannot easily be brought in agreement. F. spends much time on discussing possible errors in Assyrian sources and on trying to undermine the reliability of king and eponym lists. In Chapter 11 (p. 183-195), F. tries to add years to the Neo-Assyrian Empire by attributing longer reigns to some kings (from dubious sources) or by confusing their rule in Babylonia or Assyria. Chapter 12 (p. 196-212) treats the “last kings of Assyria and their Babylonian counterparts”. First, the identity of Kandalanu is discussed. F. proposes to identify him with Nabopolassar. On p. 203, F. stresses the many possible readings of cuneiform signs. But while this is true in a general way, it does not justify confusing signs which are different. There may be occurrences of nu which look like pap, and vice versa. But in principle there is a clear difference between them, as can be seen from Labat’s sign list. So taking the sign nu as pap and reading it as a logogram for naṣaru requires supporting evidence; otherwise it remains a reading mistake. As a next step, F. contends that the sign kan is similar to ag, and that therefore the beginning of the name Kandalanu can be read AG and refer to the god Nabû. No mention is made of the required divine determinative. I looked up p. 33 and No. 143 in Labat, and I do not see the similarity postulated by F. Having by two misreadings made the name Kan-da-la-nu somewhat similar to Nabû-apla-uṣur, F. still has to equate da-la with apla. The signs read ibila are NOT the same as tur (Labat 144); F. misunderstands Labat. peš and gal are not variants of the same sign; only peš-gal is attested as a (rare) logogram for aplu. F. then suggests that dal-la (sic; the signs written are da-la) could be a “direct reference to” aplu or synonymous with aplu because dallu is associated with the idea little. Actually, dallu means “inferior”. Confusion continues with the claim that kan could also be read šarru (LUGAL). Only a very sloppy LUGAL could approach the appearance of kan. However, this is not enough for F.: the reading šarru is replaced by bel, in order to produce a god’s name. In the next lines, Bel turns into Nabû without further discussion. The following paragraphs elaborate on how to make Bel (=Marduk) and Nabû synonyms. This is all added to confuse the reader more and more into making him believe that something real may be in these speculations. Just a philological note: F. keeps translating imperatives (uṣur “guard!”) by precative forms (“let ... save”); but there is a separate precative form in Akkadian, in this case liṣṣur. For one more text suggesting the impossibility of equating Kandalanu and Nabopolassar see ADRT vol. V, No. 52, where in col. II events in the time of Kandalanu are followed by events in the time of Nabopolassar, clearly considered separate persons. Chapter 13 (p. 213-237) presents new chronological schemes of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the first paragraph, we read “the eclipse of the sun in the eponymy of Bur-Sagale can refer to any one of several eclipses”. The solar eclipse in the eponymy of Bur-Sagale had to be impressive because an unexpected solar eclipse will only be noticed when it is total or almost total; even when 95% of the sun is eclipsed there is no noticeable diminution of brightness. The importance of this eclipse for dating the Assyrian eponym list is widely assumed, and therefore efforts are made by some people to undermine it. I noticed such an attempt recently on “Wikipedia”, and commented on it in AoF 35 (2008) 323-325. For an English translation, see: http://goto.glocalnet.net/kf4/dating.htm. F. also negates its value. On p. 247 he says that it is an issue of “faith versus faith: Do we believe that the solar eclipse of 763 is the one reported in the eponymy of Bur-Sagale, or do we believe in the chronology of 2 Kings?” One can however date the eponym list astronomically by other means than the solar eclipse. As shown in the above-mentioned article, there are other astronomical tablets from the seventh and eighth centuries BC that independently of each other support the traditional chronology for this period, including the date established for the solar eclipse. We can therefore identify the solar eclipse in the eponym list as that of 763 BC. At the same time, the traditional chronology of Assyria in the 1st millennium BC remains correct. Occasional wrongly identified eponyms or kings’ names in dates cannot detract from this. Whether there exists a chronology in the Bible that contradicts the traditional Assyrian chronology can be left to Bible scholars. Whatever they find may be independent of Assyrian chronology, but cannot change it. “PART THREE: THE EGYPTIAN EMPIRE” (p. 238-245) Chapter 14: “Egyptian Chronology” is dealt with on p. 238-245 very briefly. According to F., it cannot be absolutely dated and does not help to decide problems encountered in Babylonia and Assyria. “Open-mindedness and the Study of Ancient Chronology” The final chapter (15) talks of open-mindedness: since “any ancient chronological scheme is built on subjective interpretations, assumptions, and paradigms”, we should “manifest a humble attitude instead of insisting that our chronological scheme is the only correct one” (p. 246). F. then lists his main points why VAT 4956 is supposed not to be a usable chronological witness. In the end, F. reminds us that “we should weigh everything carefully” (p. 250). Having done so, and remembering the “spinach example”, I do not accept the many wrong arguments brought against the “traditional chronology” although these are printed in this book. APPENDICES: “Appendix A: An Analysis of the Ledger NBC 4897 from the Eanna Temple” Appendix A (p. 251-262) was dealt with by C. O. Jonsson at: http://goto.glocalnet.net/kf3/review4.htm. His result is: “The tablet NBC 4897 does show, clearly, that Nebuchadnezzar ruled for 43 years, and that his son and successor Amel-Marduk ruled for 2 years and was succeeded by Neriglissar”. The suspicions and suppositions of F. can therefore be disregarded. “Appendix B: An Analysis of the Celestial Positions of [the diary] BM 32312” (p. 263-270) F. uses the horizon system (altitude and azimuth) for planetary positions. This is not practical because one has to decide for which time of the night the positions are to be found. Whether an entry on the tablet is “right or wrong” could more easily be determined by longitude and latitude. Line i, 7: there is no day connected to this entry about Mercury’s and Saturn’s last appearances, but it is placed between the 14th and the 17th. As the text explicitly says, these phenomena were not observed because of bad weather. The guesses were not very good; for Mercury it is too early, for Saturn too late. Line i, 10: “it [Mars] came close” is not a vague formulation. As can be seen from line iv 15’f., “it came close” is the equivalent of a distance of 1 finger between the planet and a star. But even if it were a vague formulation, it does not necessarily imply calculation. I do not see why the words “lip” and “head” of the Scorpion suggest a zodiacal sign. On the contrary, they suggest an animal picture. A zodiacal sign would be referred to by “beginning” or “end”, if a more precise indication than just a sign was intended. Therefore, the inference (note 296) that there is an inconsistency between lines 10 and 12 (which is again used to suspect that the tablet was calculated backwards) is wrong. Line iii, 4’: “20” was marked as uncertain by a question mark and cannot be used for calculations. Line iv, 15’: “conjunction” means that two celestial bodies have the same longitude. This does not necessarily imply that they are very near to each other. “Front” of Aries was an attempt to read the signs at the beginning of the line. Of course, it would have to mean a specific star of Aries, otherwise a distance makes no sense. I have not tried to identify which star could have been meant. In footnote 300, F. puts forward the idea that an “astrologer wrote the words in order to cause his readers to believe that the tablet contained genuine observations”; characteristically, F. accuses the ancient scribe of lying. “Appendix D : An Analysis of [the diary] VAT 4956” (p. 271-333) Section C1 (p. 271-274): “An analysis of the published drawing of the tablet” P. 271: A drawing of VAT 4956 by E. F. Weidner is found in AfO, 1953, XVI:2, Tafel XVII. F. states that “the name of the one who made the drawing is not found in the periodical”, but that the drawing was made by Weidner is explicitly stated on page 220. F. first states that “the drawing is not accurate” because, while the picture of the reverse shows that the break on the tablet “continues up to the top of the tablet”, on the drawing it stops earlier, “perhaps going up to line 4”. But in this case it is the same as “up to the top of the tablet”, because a piece is broken out above line 4. So there is no fault with Weidner’s copy here. “The four other lines” were not drawn with help of a straight scale; especially the line after the first section of the obverse, and after the first section of the reverse as well, are quite similar to the line below line 11, except for the small interruption in the middle. I don’t know whether Weidner did his copy from a photo or from the original. P. 274: this is a comparison between Weidner’s copy and F.’s photo. In some cases, one can be uncertain. I note the following corrections to F.’s contentions: L 15: the three horizontal wedges in the vertical break are clearly visible, while F. sees only two. The vertical wedge is visible, but damaged by the break. L 16: the four horizontal wedges in the vertical break are seen, but vaguely. F. sees only two on his photo. I don’t understand the numbers 2:1, 2:3 etc. I tried to follow the horizontal break and find the signs from F.’s description. 2:1: all six heads are visible in the horizontal break. F. sees none on his photo. 2:3: two horizontal wedges are visible. F. sees none. 2:4: F. sees no wedge on his photo. I don’t understand it. The wedges drawn are there. 2:7: of the “three heads” on the copy, F. sees none on his photo. If the sign “3” is meant, just before the horizontal break meets the vertical one, three heads can be nicely seen on the enlarged photo on p. 279. 4:3: if this is in line 19, to the left of the break, then 6 wedges are seen, 4 even on F.’s photo (p. 281). 4:4: the drawing shows dele-bad across the break, which F. calls “misleading”, as his photo shows only parts of the signs. But even if the break goes right through the signs dele-bad, this is not that misleading because dele-bad is absolutely clear. 5:6: yes, the right upper wedge of “6” is lost in the break. If Weidner made his copy from the original, and if he did it soon after the tablet came to the Museum, one could argue that he still saw the wedge, and that it was lost later. 6:7: this seems to be line 21. Four horizontal wedges are seen on the drawing; on the photo, they are not clear (why?), but I would take them to be four, see again the enlargement on p. 286. 6:8: this is probably the sign TU (KU4 in my edition). In Weidner’s copy, the head of a vertical wedge is drawn on the upper side of the break; I assume F. means this by horizontal wedge. Its head is in fact missing on F.’s photo, lost in the break. This time I clearly see this lost head on my photo, and it is also clear on the reproduction on plate 3 of my edition. So this wedge definitely has been lost after Weidner’s copying. 7:1: this is on the edge; a photo is found on p. 288. The sign is a clear BAR, one vertical and one horizontal wedge. 7:4: the sign is not that obscure. It can be kalag: the lower part is partly broken off, but the right end of the lower horizontal is still visible. 8:4: Contrary to F.’s statement, parts of two oblique heads can be seen on the photo, even on the blurred one on p. 289. So much for Weidner’s copy. On the following pages, its supposed mistakes are criticized again; I shall not comment on this. Section C2 (p. 274-291) poses the question: “Do the three pieces of VAT 4956 belong together?” P. 274: “From line 7 to line 16, the signs ... are somewhat eroded or erased”. This is not the case. Table C.1 (p. 275, 276) contains “comments on the signs on the sides of the vertical break”. To these comments the following remarks have to be made: (Line) 3: the break goes through the number 19 but the reading is certain. F. tries to introduce an element of uncertainty by saying “we could have expected observations after day 19”. It is quite possible to have no observations for ten days. 4: the sign gur is quite clear, in spite of the break going through it. The words to the left of the break and those on the right form a continuous, meaningful sequence (reporting on prices) which is very frequent in diaries. It is conclusive that both sides belong to the same tablet. 6: Contrary to F.’s statement, there are only two horizontal wedges on the left side of the break; what he may have taken to be a wedge in the lower part of the sign is just a scratch. Also, there is no reason why the horizontal wedges should continue from the left side of the break to the right side. There are two horizontal wedges in the left part of the sign šap, and there are two or three in the right part, but those in the right part are not a continuation of the left ones, but start anew in the middle of the sign. Therefore, the alignment of the wedges can NOT suggest that the two pieces were not part of the same tablet. 9: on the right side of the break, there is one horizontal, one oblique and one vertical wedge. This is exactly the shape of the sign qa. The description of qa given by F. (“one horizontal, and two oblique wedges”) is incorrect. All wedges required for the signs ib-bat-qa are correct and well visible. 10: the break runs through the sign suhur; I don’t understand that there is no connection between right and left part. The wedges are NOT indistinct on the old photo, and Weidner’s copy represents them correctly. The somewhat abbreviated form of suhur used in the diaries can be seen e.g. on LBAT 176 rev. 4’ = No. -372 C rev. 4’ (ADRT I, p. 112, 113; see also photo on pl. 17 of the edition). 11: I don’t see why there is no connection between left and right part: the number “1” is to the left of the break, and the measure gur is to the right of it. 12: the sign ga2 is always slightly lower than hun, so the fact that they are of different height is of no significance. When talking about the sign hun, F. mistakes one vertical wedge to be a horizontal; thus he arrives at a wrong count. There is no vertical missing and no horizontal too much. Since the signs hun and ga2 form a meaningful word, there IS a connection between left and right part. 13: The break is running through the first vertical wedge of the number “2”, and thus there IS a clear connection between left and right part. 14: the sign a is clear on the photo, the upper vertical wedge is not lacking. The body of the upper horizontal wedge of kal is crossing the break; it is not lower on the right side than on the left. At least one of the two verticals in the middle is clearly visible on the photo. Therefore, this line does not speak against the left and right part belonging to one piece. 15: the sign ulu3 is quite likely. There are, as expected, three horizontal wedges on the left. Two (or maybe three) small vertical wedges run through the lower two horizontals, again as expected. The final vertical’s head is damaged by the break, but part of the head and its body can be seen on the photo. This clearly speaks for the left and right part being on piece. 16: the sign ge6 may not be seen by F., but most of it, three horizontals and one angular wedge, is clearly visible on the photo. There is an obvious continuation from left to right. 17: there is no horizontal wedge continuing across the break as F. says. The right end of mah is damaged by the break, and the head of the horizontal wedge belonging to the sign “½” is lost in the break. The rest of this horizontal is visible on the right side of the break. It is therefore meaningless to connect this horizontal to anything on the left side of the break, and the position of these traces has no bearing on the question of the two pieces being one tablet. The analysis of Table C1 shows that there are NO instances that speak against the one-piece possibility. It is quite clear that the two pieces form a single tablet. P. 277ff. F. examines the signs on the horizontal break on the reverse and contends that “in some cases the upper parts are displaced to the left and in others to the right, while most letters have no displacement at all”. Figure C.4 (p. 279-281) deals with the first 7 signs on line 18. 1: the heads of the vertical wedges of the sign “6” are small, but clearly visible. There is a displacement between the upper and the lower row; but this is not due to a displacement of the parts of the tablet, but to the way the sign is written. The upper row tends to be displaced to the left, or be more to the left than the lower row; this is even the case with the example F. brings from the obverse. The “something like the head of a horizontal wedge” to the left is a crack; a small piece is broken away at the edge, which is why neither S/H nor N/W mentioned this. 2: the sign is si, and is “indistinct” only on F.’s blurred photo which accompanies C.4 (I cannot avoid noting that only the photos of the reverse are blurred, while those from the obverse are nice and clear!) In speaking of the angle of the upper horizontal wedge, F. may have mistaken the break for a trace of the wedge. Otherwise, his comments are obscure to me; there is no displacement visible. So the most natural conclusion is that this sign is a nice si, and can easily be compared to the si photographed from the obverse. 3: the sign IS e. The two horizontal wedges are visible even on F.’s photo. There is no angle difference as F. states. On my (published) photo the upper horizontal can be seen in its entirety above the break; no angles are to be compared. The “right horizontal line” can only represent one horizontal wedge; I do not see how it can be displaced. The assertion that the space of this sign is broader on the lower part than on the upper comes from the fact that the upper of the two verticals on the right of the sign e is usually farther to the left than the lower one. We have seen a similar usage in writing the number 6 at the beginning of the line. In the old photo, the parts of the sign fit together perfectly. 4: the sign IS gu4. I do not see any displacement in the upper horizontal (for the supposed displacement in the preceding sign e, see above). The two angular wedges at the right end of gu4 can be nicely seen on the old photo. The proposed alternative readings make no sense. 6: “The LOP [lower piece] and UP [upper piece] are perfectly joined together in this place, and this fact, together with the fact that there is no displacement in the previous sign, shows that the displacements on the other signs are real.” (p.281) I do not understand the logic of this statement. P. 282ff. examines the signs along the right part of the horizontal break. Figure C.6 (line 18): 1: it is a plausible conjecture to expect a measure after a number and before the words “below Venus”. 2: the break is just above the right part of šap, and this is why nothing is seen on the upper part. 3: dele-bad refers to Venus, not Mercury as F. states. The doubts voiced by F. about the sign bad are probably caused by the break going through the sign. 5: the sign IS u3. The horizontal wedge of the “ši” part is visible, and the second part of the sign in Neo-Babylonian frequently has only three horizontal wedges, see Labat’s sign-list. Figure C.7 (line 19), p. 283, 284: 1: F. says that the first part of a-kal “is not seen on the picture” (the close-up photo on p. 283). The sign is clear on the old photo, however, so the “picture” is irrelevant. I don’t know which a-kal on the obverse F. photographed, but the a-kal in line 6 looks very much like the one in rev. 19 – so NO difference in handwriting is discernible. 3: the sign which F. copied from Labat is not in as he claims, but rab (L 149); the drawings in Labat are not aligned on the left and right page, but the situation is clarified by dashed lines. The correct Neo-Babylonian form of in corresponds well with the sign on the tablet. On a good photo (see S/H plate 3) the six angular wedges are visible. 5: there is no doubt about the reading dele-bad. On F.s photo, it does indeed seem that parts of the two left wedges are displaced. On the old photo (S/H plate 3) there is no such displacement. If, as F. says, this “suggests that someone has tampered with the tablet”, then this happened after the old photo and the copy by Weidner were made. I very much hope that the displacement is only an artificial effect on F.’s photo. 7: F. mentions possible different readings, but he does not propose a meaningful sentence to be derived from them. His proposals therefore have only the purpose to produce the impression of uncertainty. Figure C.8 (line 20), p. 285, 286: 1: there is nothing strange about the two vertical wedges being deeper; the same is the case in the sign from the obverse compared by F. 5: because F. took the wrong sign from Labat, the sign on the tablet looks different. There is NO doubt that it is in. 6: see my remarks above on 5:6. 7: the sign was a nice gu4 (see photo in S/H plate 3), so F.’s alternative readings are ruled out. If it really is damaged now, this happened after Weidner’s copy. But F.’s photo may just be blurred. Figure C.9 (line 21), p. 286, 287: 1: F. questions the earlier reading of the sign: “The wedges of signs one, two, and three are obscure. We simply cannot know how many signs there are and where each sign starts and ends. So the reading of the three signs ur-bar-ra, as both N/W and S/H have, is simply conjecture.” (p. 286) This contention is ridiculous; the reading of former editors was not conjecture, but reading. The signs are not obscure (see photo in S/H plate 3), and their shapes conform to Labat’s list. 2: the sign for bar is obscure on F.’s photo only. 3: see above to 1. 6: the reading of the sign (sip) is clear. On F.’s detail photo it is blurred; his large photo on p. 272 and the old photo in S/H are better. 8: see my remarks above to 6:8 on p. 274. The four angular wedges are visible on the old photo, and I see them also on F.’s photo. So the sign IS ku4. Figure C.10 (upper edge), p. 287, 288: 1: there are not two horizontal wedges as F. contends, but one vertical and one horizontal. Because the head of the vertical wedge is very wide, one could mistake its right tip for a horizontal wedge body. Again, the sign is better visible on the old photo, S/H plate 1. It IS bar. 3: there are two horizontal wedges in this sign, not one as F. claims; the body of the upper one is not visible because the vertical wedges were drawn on top of it. The last vertical consists of two wedges on top of each other; I can see this even on F.’s picture. The “mark” below the horizontal wedge is very weak and certainly fortuitous; there are several such “marks” on the same picture which are certainly not intentional. 4: see my remark above on 7:4 on p. 274. 5: the sign may be obscure on F.’s picture, but it is a clear ma on the old photo. Figure C.11 (upper edge): See my remark above on 8:4 on p. 274. Section C3 (p. 291-296): “A difference in handwriting on the obverse and reverse sides” There are always small differences possible in the handwriting of the same person. To show that handwritings are different, the differences must be clearly discernible and consistently used. Unfortunately, F. does not give the line numbers from which he took his examples. On the whole, there is a tendency to use blurred pictures, mostly of the reverse. usan: the differences are negligible; the same number of wedges is used. an-ki-an: the second horizontal of an on the right is small but visible. No remarkable difference otherwise. nu: the pictures are blurred and useless. si: the obverse sign does not have a horizontal wedge as F. claims, but a vertical one (as is required for si). The reverse sign is blurred and only partly photographed, so a comparison is not possible. kur4: the signs look similar to si above, but both pictures are blurred. dib: I don’t know which reverse sign is used but the picture is not clear. What can be seen is quite similar to the obverse sign. e: the reverse sign is indistinct on F.’s picture. For the obverse sign, F. again mistakes a vertical wedge for a horizontal. e3: a sign can be written more narrowly depending on how much space is available. I don’t see why F. believes that a different tool was used for the reverse. en: I don’t know what is “more ‘primitive’” in the reverse sign. Since the exact place is not given, one cannot look at the sign independently. The second vertical wedge does have a head even on F.’s photo, but it is less clear. gaz: the heads may look bigger on the picture but this probably comes from lighting. The lowest angular wedge is very similar in both signs; on the reverse, it is slightly longer. illu: the picture of the reverse is so bad that nothing can be compared. ku4: the missing angular wedges are only missing on the bad picture in the book. na: this time the obverse picture is useless. The shape of both signs is the same, but more cannot be seen. pisan: I don’t understand the comments of F. Both signs have two horizontal heads. Since the place where the signs are on the tablet is not indicated, comparison is impossible. In conclusion, there is NO evidence that two different scribes wrote obverse and reverse. Section C4 (p. 296-300) asks: “Is the name ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ and the numbers ‘37’ and ‘38’ original?” The section begins with a repetition of F.’s suspicion that the tablet may have been tampered with. Then a photo is presented of the number 37 in line 1. This photo is blurred, but F. bases his discussion on it. The signs are not erased, but slightly damaged; the same happened to the signs at the end of line 1. F. says that the last part of the number “can be 7, if the sign represents a number”. No cuneiform sign other than the number 7 has this form, so the if-clause is superfluous and misleading. If F. had looked at the old photo (in S/H plate 3), he could have seen that there are three angular wedges, as is required for “30”. He could also have seen that the “mark that could be the rest of a fourth angular or oblique wedge” is probably a scratch. It is definitely impossible to read the number 50 or even 40. It is strange that no kam occurs after 37; but since kam is present in the other instances of year numbers on the tablet, this can be assumed to be a mistake of the scribe. F. makes much of the different appearance of the number 38 on the edge of the tablet when compared to other numbers “8”. However, this difference can be explained by the fact that this line is written on the edge. In order to write on the edge, the tablet must be held with the edge up, and the hand cannot be put on the tablet to find support in writing. But whether this explanation is true or not, the number is clearly 38. To assume a different tool is not necessary, but if so the tool can only have been a reed stylus. A drill or grinding machine would never have produced marks like those of a stylus. Since the 37 on the edge is quite normal, F. admits that it may be original, but still supposes that someone may have tampered with the tablet and in this case may have had “a better result than in the case with the number 38” (p. 299). On p. 300, F. says, “The conclusion is that there are several clues that the dates were incised into the tablet in modern times, but the evidence is not conclusive either way.” Rather, the conclusion must be that incisions made in modern times are not proven. There exist experts in such matters who could have determined with certainty by which tool the impressions were made. No such experts were consulted by F. Section C5 (p. 300-316) considers the “Identification of the celestial bodies” Table C.2 examines the positions of planets and stars. (Line) 2: the sign an can refer to Mars as F. says, but not here where it is a determinative. In S/H, sim was assumed to be an abbreviation of sim-mah which is a word for swallow. The translation is literal, but from other texts it is known that the “swallow” is a part of Pisces. The other readings for the sign sim listed by F. are simply wrong, they refer to different signs. If the sign were damaged, one could think about these readings, but the sign is clear. Therefore, only the first two of F.’s six translation proposals are meaningful (“‘Saturn was in front of sim.’ ‘Saturn was in front of Pisces.’”). 4: ana ūmi elû is a technical term for “acronychal rising”. Other translations are misunderstandings. The meaning of the text is certain. Acronychal rising in 568 BC is calculated for Month I, day 14. In 588 BC, it occurred in month VI; so 588 BC does not fit, contrary to F’s claim that “the information fits both 588 and 568”. 9: genna is given in Labat only in its Assyrian form, but Labat states that it is composed of TUR+DIŠ. This has two vertical wedges, contrary to F.’s statement. On VAT 4956, the sign is composed of TUR in its Neo-Babylonian form plus DIŠ (a single vertical). The remaining comments of F. on the sign are all wrong. ina igi cannot mean “be visible”. If igi is to be read as a form of amaru, ina amari means “in seeing”. But here igi is to be read panu “front”. The comments on sim are as wrong as before. Similarly, F.’s comments on mah concern things not written on the tablet and can be disregarded. The remaining “possibilities” only exist as long as one does not try to produce a correct Akkadian sentence; once this is taken into account, the meanings are clear. 10: The dele of dele-bad is clearly visible on the old photo. And the sign is NOT tar as F. states. The words about Venus are the remnants of an observation of the moon which is said to have stood to the west of Venus. The formulation is quite characteristic and can be found frequently in later diaries, for instance in No. ‑378:11’. F. says “The words can be interpreted in different ways and fit both 588 and 568 B.C.E.”; but in 588 Venus was a morning star which does not fit the text. 10: the discussion of alla and ku4 introduces signs which are not visible on the tablet and are therefore of no significance. It has to be stressed however that ku4 is correctly written, and it looks exactly like the Neo-Babylonian form given in Labat. The comments about ud and du are an excellent example of how readers can be led by F. to think that there are possible meanings to the signs which have been overlooked by earlier translators. F. says on p. 304 that “using ‘Praesepe’ as a reference for alla is, to the best of my knowledge, without parallel in the other diaries, and should not be used”. But there are similar expressions in ADRT V No. 54 rev. III 17’ and 61 rev. III 16, where a translation “Praesepe” fits the context (and the astronomy). When I chose Praesepe as a more precise meaning of alla in this line, I did so because of the observations reported: within 2 days, Mars could not move through all of Cancer, so alla here may have meant only part of it, and Praesepe is possible, as already stated by N/W. On the other hand, a translation “the 5th, a tempest blew” is impossible because ud is never used for tempest in the diaries. e3 (ud.du), “to go out”, is natural after “to enter”. The position of Mars in Cancer is impossible in 588 BC, but the position is not wrong, contrary to F., for 568 BC. 10: the ud sign does NOT have an extra oblique wedge to resemble pi as claimed by F.; this extra wedge is to be read ina. The remaining comments of F. about this sign are wrong. šu2 can mean “to set”, but ina šu2 can only mean “in the west”. It can also mean “during setting”, but that does not give a meaningful sentence. On the maš sign Furuli says, “The form of the sign is strange, and nothing is seen of a following tab sign” (p. 305). But maš is NOT strange, and the beginning of the following tab sign is clearly visible on the photo. The interpretation possibilities mentioned by F. do not exist. I restored “rose” which is not preserved on the tablet because a Mercury phenomenon is expected, and a first visibility in the west occurred on Ayyaru 12. 11: in astronomical texts, lugal can NOT refer to Mars or α Centauri. As for the computations, it is unfortunate that F. chose the horizon system which varies throughout the night. In the ecliptic system, Venus is clearly above Regulus on the date in 568 BC, but somewhat less than one cubit. 12: on Simanu 1 as given by F., Mercury and Mars were about 8° in longitude from Regulus, which corresponds well to 4 cubits. By choosing the horizon coordinates, F. gets confusing results. 13: as I stated in the Diaries edition, there are problems with understanding šer-tam DIB; but there are no problems in identifying the signs, contrary to the confusing comments by F. dib does NOT lack its vertical wedge, it is just below the uppermost horizontal. 13: si4: it may not be possible for F. to know which sign is written, but it IS si4 and means Antares. Why is the sign dele said to be not connected with bad? If one connects it to the sign before, no meaning appears. To list possible meanings of bad which are not applicable here, only produces confusion. tar is not strange, but a frequent Neo-Babylonian form of the sign. Of course good grammar would require ana tarṣi, but case endings are not well observed in Neo-Babylonian. kun may be zibbatu, but giš.kun is rapaštu. So giš.kun here cannot refer to Pisces, and rapaštu is a well-known part of the lion constellation. ur is not difficult to interpret, but difficult to explain away. The sign is there, and it confirms that we are dealing with a star in the Lion. 3’: Of the mul sign, F. says: “The sign is strange and difficult to identify. … The sign mul and the following four signs would hardly have been read as N/W and S/H do if Capricorni were not already calculated to be the star mentioned” (p. 309). But mulx is NOT a strange sign; it is AB2. It occurs several times on this tablet (and also on others) as a sign for “star”. The wedges of murub4 are not indistinct but clear; there is a small damage to the uppermost part of it but no wedge is lost. ša2 is not erased but partly broken. Of si, the upper horizontal is broken, not erased; the sign can be identified. maš2 looks as expected (and frequently found in diaries), see the Neo-Babylonian form in Labat No. 76. I do not understand why Weidner, Sachs and I are considered not competent enough to find the correct reading without computation. 5’: ki is certain. ṣir is exactly as it should be in Neo-Babylonian; F.’s statement that ṣir has three vertical wedges is correct only for Neo-Assyrian, so his comments are irrelevant. The sign bil is not erased, but the end is broken. bil has two horizontal wedges in the beginning, and so does the sign here; F.’s statement that it has only one horizontal is wrong. pa can NOT be read giš, and the following sign is not da, so considering Hyades is groundless. F.’s translations are to be discarded. 6’: suhur is somewhat abbreviated in the diaries, but the form seen here is frequent. maš2 looks exactly how the sign should look in Neo-Babylonian (see Labat), it is not unclear. While “the full name of Capricorn” is “suhur maš2”, maš2 is the usual abbreviation in the diaries and other astronomical texts. As for the position of Venus, “below” is probably a mistake for “above” because Venus almost never has a sufficiently negative latitude in Capricorn to be below γ or δ Cap. As usual, F. suspects calculation. 19’: dele-bad was discussed above for Figure C.7. ana is NOT erased but complete and clear. dur is NOT erased but slightly damaged. It is quite possible to see it. sim is not strange, but has the required form for Neo-Babylonian; no wedges are missing. The same is true for mah; it looks exactly as the example in Labat. Of the sign for ku4, F. says, “The sign has some resemblance with ku4, but there are several differences as well” (p. 312). ku4 has so much resemblance with ku4 that it can only be ku4. An observation of this kind can help to find where the “band” connecting one fish to the other lies, but it cannot be proven correct. 20’: for the supposedly invisible gu4 see my remarks on Figure C.8 above. There is a horizontal scratch below the dele of dele-bad. One cannot form igi out of this and the preceding u as does F. dele cannot be interpreted as idim; bad might be, but it makes no sense here. The gods mentioned by F. would have to be identified by the divine determinative. Only the reading dele-bad for Venus is possible. Of the name Anunitu, the signs a and nu are preserved (as can also be picked out on F’s photo on p. 272). The “conjecture” to restore Anunitu is based on the fact that a “band” is mentioned before. So the restoration is not ‘nothing but conjecture’ (p. 312), but is based on reasonable grounds. Table C.4 (p. 315-316): Alternate interpretations of the cuneiform signs Most of the errors in this table have already been dealt with above. Nisanu 1: only one interpretation about Pisces is possible. Nisanu 11 or 12: only “acronychal rising” is possible. Ayyaru 1 Saturn: see above on Table C.2; all translations by F. are wrong. Ayyaru 1 Mercury: only “was not visible” is correct. Ayyaru 3: the sign is Cancer; all other translations are wrong. Ayyaru 10: only “Mercury in the west” is possible. Ayyaru 18: see above on Table C.2 on line 11. lal2 means “to weigh”, not “to bind up”. Simanu 1-5: most of F.’s translations are impossible. Tebetu 19: β Capricorni is certain. Šabatu 1: F.’s translations are wrong; the only name that can be restored is Sagittarius. Šabatu 4: Capricorn is certain. Addaru c. 20 and 26: Venus and Mercury are certain. The conclusion is that F.’s “alternatives” are based on misunderstandings. Section C6 (p. 316-333) discusses “the lunar observations” The treatment of the lunar data by F. has been examined by C. O. Jonsson at the internet address http://goto.glocalnet.net/kf2/review.htm. Jonsson proves that the data fit 568/7 BC, and not 588/7 BC as claimed by F. I do not need to add anything to Jonsson’s calculations with which I agree completely. Only a few remarks on translation: Nisanu 1: It may seem unnecessary to remark on this, but the ingressive meaning “became visible” is deduced from the most likely reading innamir of the verb, and from the fact that the moon was not visible on the days before, so it “became visible” again. Ayyaru 1: “the moon in the sun standing” is pseudo-literal because it is not correct English – or may be understood as “the moon standing inside the sun”. The Akkadian infinitive construction ina šamši uzuzzi can be translated as “during the standing of the sun”; I tried to render this intelligible by using “while the sun stood there”. See W. von Soden, Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik, § 150 g. Simanu 5: I cannot find qararu “thick” in the modern Akkadian dictionaries. Anyway, in the phrase “thick end”, the adjective would have to follow the substantive in Akkadian. There is also a ša2 between kur4 and til. So the correct translation remains “the bright star at the end of the Lion’s foot”. Addaru 1: F. argues that, “The expression ‘at that time’ in connection with Jupiter is interesting, because it suggests that the planet positions are taken from a different source than the lunar positions” (p. 329). There is no reason to assume that the planet positions are taken from a different source. inūšu (“at that time”) begins a new sentence, so the position of Jupiter is independent of the moon. It may be interesting to mention an entirely different approach to evaluate the lunar data. In Under One Sky: Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East (J. M. Steele and A. Imhausen [eds.], Münster 2002), pp. 423-428, F. R. Stephenson and D. M. Willis have evaluated the lunar data in VAT 4956 and come to the conclusion that the date 568/7 BC can be “confidently affirmed”. Stephenson and Willis used the “Lunar Three” to check the date. These are the following time intervals: sunset to moonset (SS-MS) on the first evening of the month; sunrise to moonset (SR-MS) on the first morning on which the almost full moon set after sunrise; and moonrise to sunrise (MR-SR) on the last morning on which the moon was visible before conjunction. I repeat the table from p. 424 of their article: Year 568/7 BC, beginning April 22/23 Month Day Julian Date Interval Text Computed Difference I 14 568 May 5 SR-MS 4 3.5 0.5 II 26 568 Jun 17 MR-SR 23 23.2 0.2 III 1 568 Jun 20 SS-MS 20 22.7 2.7 XI 1 567 Feb 12 SS-MS 14.5 17.0 2.5 XII 1 567 Mar 14 SS-MS 25 25.7 0.7 XII 12 567 Mar 26 SR-MS 1.5 0.7 0.8 As Stephenson and Willis say, each interval increases by about 12° per day, so the correct day can usually be identified by comparing text with computation. I have repeated their computations for 568/7 BC, and I agree with their results. In the following, I do the same computations for the year 588/7 BC, both for the dates given by Parker & Dubberstein, and for those claimed by F., which are shifted by about one month. Year 588/7 BC, beginning April 3/4 Month Day Julian Date Interval Text Computed Difference I 14 588 Apr 17/18! SR-MS 4 6 2 II 26 588 May 28/29 MR-SR 23 17.3 5.7 III 1 588 Jun 1/2 SS-MS 20 13.8 6.2 III 15 588 Jun 15/16 SR-MS 7.5 5.8 1.7 XI 1 587 Jan 24/25 SS-MS 14.5 16.5 2 XII 1 587 Feb 23/24 SS-MS 25 27.8 2.8 XII 12 587 Mar 7/8! SR-MS 1.5 1.8 0.3 Year 588/7 BC, beginning May 2/3 Month Day Julian Date Interval Text Computed Difference I 14 588 May 16/17! SR-MS 4 1 3 II 26 588 Jun 27/28! MR-SR 23 18.3 4.7 III 1 588 Jul 1/2! SS-MS 20 17.8 2.2 III 15 588 Jul 15/16! SR-MS 7.5 15.3 7.8 XI 1 587 Feb 22/23 SS-MS 14.5 9.8 4.7 XII 1 587 Mar 24/25 SS-MS 25 21.5 3.5 XII 12 587 Apr 6/7! SR-MS 1.5 4.8 3.3 The dates with an exclamation mark disagree with the calendar, in the sense that the measurements of the intervals could not have been taken on the date given on the tablet if the tablet were referring to year 588/7. The differences between text and computation are in both cases much larger than in 568/7 BC. Using the words of Stephenson and Willis, 588/7 BC can be confidently excluded. “Appendix D. The Use of Names in Akkadian” (p. 334-336) Appendix D, “The Use of Names in Akkadian”, only produces uncertainties by providing examples of misreadings of such names even by competent scholars, or by differing opinions on damaged passages. The forms of the name of the Babylonian king Nabû-kudurru-uṣur in the Bible cannot be used to make any statements about the Akkadian name because the scribes of the Bible need not have understood the name and could easily have misspelled it. So this is no justification for attributing two names to the king. I have commented above on the interpretation of names for which this appendix is supposed to prepare the way. “Appendix E. A Saturn Tablet Supposedly from the Reign of Kandalanu” (p. 337-351) Appendix E concerns a tablet published by C. B. F. Walker concerning Saturn. F. begins by listing only the completely preserved signs, giving translations of these. Broken passages are only partly indicated, so this table gives an unclear impression of what is on the tablet. There are also errors in the translations. The following has to be said to F.’s comments: Line 1: the sign in question looks more like nu than like pap, because the head of the crossing oblique wedge is below the horizontal; F.’s statement of the contrary is falsified by the copy. This applies to all three occurrences of this sign; it is ALWAYS nu. If F. can bring evidence from somewhere else (photo?), this would have to be clearly stated. Therefore, assuming the possibility that Nabopolassar was mentioned in line 1 is without basis. Line 4: Walker does NOT take nu to mean “not seen” but restores igi after nu. Line 6: How VAT 4956 writes mul is of no importance for the present tablet. There is more than one way to write the star determinative. Line 7: F.’s translation “in the end of month IV cloud not” is wrong because he left out part of the line; the correct translation is: “in the end of month IV, last appearance; clouds, not observed”. Line 8: the scribe would show his incompetence by using NIM to indicate “morning” since first appearances of Saturn are always in the morning. The signs mean “it was high” (šaqâ = NIM-a), which is frequent in diaries. Line 9: given the calendar dates, it is superfluous to entertain meanings like “cloud over” and “be dark”; the dates clearly refer to last appearances, as F. accepts anyway. Line 15: “Year 8 month VI, day 5 behind AB.SIN going down”; F. does not translate that month VI was intercalary; ŠU2 is not “going down”. Line 16: if Saturn was between Virgo and Libra, the restoration ina [DAL]-BAN is a good idea by Walker. Line 18’: writings that combine syllables and logograms do occur occasionally. ša3 is libbu, correctly translated by Walker as “within”. Line 20’: ba-il means “it was bright”; the word cannot refer to “ruler” in Akkadian. Line 23’: the translation of muššuh may be open to discussion, but “Hydra” is out of the question because ŠU2 occurs already before it; the indication of where the planet was at last appearance would have preceded ŠU2. ‘Hydra’ is impossible also because, if Saturn was near Antares (Scorpius) in Year 11, and was gradually moving into the region of Ophiuchus/Sagittarius about a year later in Year 12, how could it suddenly jump 30+ degrees in the opposite direction back to Hydra in the intervening months? On p. 340 F. makes the erroneous statement that words referring to body parts of constellations were not possible in the 7th century because they would require knowledge of the different signs of the zodiac. I don’t understand how he arrives at this opinion; maybe a misunderstanding of the difference between zodiacal constellations and zodiacal signs is the reason. On p. 341 F. gives coordinates for Saturn and ε Leonis in several years which are 59 years apart. He then says that in 646 “Saturn was not in the head of the Lion but 7° below”. This is unavoidable because Saturn’s latitude can never be more than 2.9°, and ε Leonis has a latitude of 9.5°. In addition, the use of the horizon coordinate system obscures the situation because its coordinates change in the course of the night. Walker used ecliptic coordinates; the longitude of Saturn is a much better indicator of how close the planet was to the star. F. also ignores that first and last appearances do not have to happen close to a star but can happen a few degrees away from it. The observer will tend to use well-known stars as reference. Therefore, unless distances between Saturn and a star are given, it is not meaningful to look for a “fit”. Year 2: Saturn is half a degree behind ε Leonis, so referring to the “head of the Lion” is correct. Year 4: “in the middle of the Lion” is correct because the Lion’s head (ε) is at 104° and its rear foot (β Vir) at 140° longitude. Year 6: that Saturn was much lower than β Virginis was not important; but Saturn was also much behind it. Year 7: Saturn is a little bit (0.2°) behind α Virginis. Year 8, last appearance: Saturn was 8° behind α Virginis, therefore “behind the Furrow” as the tablet states. There is no other bright star to refer to. The distance in latitude is only 4°. Year 9: F.’s doubt of the reading is not necessary. Year 10: while the later diaries speak of the “head of the Scorpion” and this tablet has “forehead of the Scorpion”, it is nevertheless likely that β Scorpii is meant. Its longitude is 207.1°, so Saturn is in front of it; and its latitude is 1.34°, not much different from 2.2° which is given in Walker’s text for Saturn. Year 12: since it is not known which star of Sagittarius (and Ophiuchus) was meant by “beginning/head” and “middle” of Pabilsag, one cannot state that “the position of Saturn is wrong”. Walker mentioned two stars (β Ophiuchi [p. 72] and θ Ophiuchi [p. 74]) which would have been in the appropriate position, but we do not know their Akkadian names. Assumptions about backward calculation are not required by the text. Year 13: see year 12. Contrary to F.’s claim on p. 345, of thirteen positions one is wrong (year 7), one is strange (year 6), two cannot be verified (year 12 and 13), and seven fit well. There is no reason to assume backward calculation on the basis of the two non-fitting data. Table E.2 (p. 346-347) gives the differences between last and first appearances in the text and according to calculation. “In the text” means that the year number is assumed to be regnal years of Kandalanu (by Walker) or regnal years of Nabopolassar (by F.). There are, as is to be expected, differences between text and calculation, and F. admits (p. 349) that with his proposal there are higher differences. But he not only considers this not decisive, he simply asserts that both(!) proposals “corroborate retrocalculation”. And even the sequence of intercalary months, briefly discussed on p. 350, is assumed to have been a product of the scribe who did the backward calculations. “Appendix F: Which Positions Could Be Calculated?” (p. 352-362) First F. quotes several modern scholars who state their belief that positions could be predicted. This means that future positions could be calculated in advance. F. however takes these statements to justify his belief that positions were calculated backwards. On p. 353, last paragraph, he also introduces the suspicion that a scribe by means of backward calculation wanted to give his readers a misleading impression that the other positions were observed. The statement that weather conditions were predicted in the Goal Year texts is wrong; there are no details of weather in them. The only weather that is quoted is “clouds” within the context of past observations to explain the lack of some data. On p. 355, F. quotes D. Brown as a source for the conclusion “that there is no evidence from the letters and reports with astrological contents that a detailed knowledge of the cycles of the moon and planets existed at that time”. But this is exactly why the texts from this time (even if preserved in copies) will contain observations, and only very rarely predictions. In the following pages, passages from the astrological correspondence of the Assyrian kings of the 7th century are used to find whether the constellations along the ecliptic were seen as animals. There are several misquotes here, and F. did not realize that the word for “star” is used for whole constellations as well. Thus his conclusion that the constellations of the 7th century had a different reference than the zodiacal signs of the second half of the 1st millennium is without foundation. As he correctly quotes, the zodiac of 12 signs of equal length was introduced in the 5th century; before that, a number of constellations along the ecliptic were used whose sizes were different from each other and cannot easily be determined. On p. 359, F. claims that “no scholar would deny that backward calculations did occur”. But the scholars he quotes speak only of “predicting”, not backward calculation. F. adduces the Goal Year texts as examples, quoting D. Brown. But Brown again only speaks of “predicting”. The Goal Year texts collect, from earlier diaries, those data for each planet which are one whole period in the past of the Goal year. So these texts make predictions for the future by means of past observations. There is no need to make calculations of the past; the scribes had the records of past observations, and they used them to predict future phenomena. To try to calculate positions in the past must have seemed superfluous to the authors of the Goal Year texts. Therefore, the “evidence” for backward calculation is based only on modern suspicion. The author states in his preface: “No claim is made that the Oslo chronology is the only true and reliable chronology”. Herewith the claim is made that the Oslo chronology is NOT a true and reliable chronology. An Emotional Section: At the end, I feel I have to add an emotional section. On p. 290f., we read: “A consideration of the data above together with the unusual publication history of the tablet leads to the following hypothesis: VAT 4956 is an authentic cuneiform tablet that was copied from older tablets in one of the last centuries B.C.E. It came to the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin in 1906 as one single entity. Someone discovered that the tablet was extremely important because it was an astronomical tablet with the hitherto oldest astronomical observations. These observations seemed to fit year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II according to the chronology of Ptolemy, but a clear connection with Nebuchadnezzar II was lacking. In order to make this connection perfectly clear, the one working with the tablet used a modern grinding machine on the edge of the tablet, thus incising the signs for ‘year 37’ and ‘year 38.’ The first line with the name of the king was also manipulated. Because of the vibration, the tablet broke into three pieces, which were then glued together. It was discovered that the fit of the signs on both sides of the break on the reverse side was not perfect, and a grinding machine was used to try to remedy this.” And on p. 333: “The following principal conclusions can be drawn on the basis of the discussion of VAT 4956: The Diary may be a genuine tablet made in Seleucid times, but in modern times someone has tampered with some of the cuneiform signs, or, the tablet was made in modern times; the obverse side was made by the help of a mold, and the signs on the reverse side and the edges were written by someone. Because of the excellent fit of all 13 lunar positions in 588/87, there are good reasons to believe that the lunar positions represent observations from that year, and that the original lunar tablet that was copied in Seleucid times was made in 588/87. Because so many of the planetary positions are approximately correct, but not completely correct, there are good reasons to believe that they represent backward calculations by an astrologer who believed that 568/67 was year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II. Thus, the lunar positions seem to be original observations from 588/87, and the planetary positions seem to be backward calculations for the positions of the planets in 568/67.” This conclusion accuses an unnamed person of criminal acts: this person at least “has tampered with some of the cuneiform signs”, but may even have faked half of the tablet. Since the tablet reached the Vorderasiatische Museum in 1906 and was published in 1915 in the condition reflected by the photo in the Museum’s archives, the accusation concerns any people working there at this time, including e. g. Ernst Weidner. In defence of him and all others possibly involved, I state that the accusation is utterly groundless, and I express my disgust of an author whose “open-mindedness” leads him to such accusations. Hermann Hunger Vienna References: ADRT I (S/H) – Sachs, A. J. and H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Related Texts from Babylonia, Vol. I: Diaries from 652 B.C. to 262 B.C. (Wien: Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988). ADRT II (S/H) – Sachs/Hunger, ibid., Vol. II: Diaries from 261 B.C. to 165 B.C. (Wien 1989). ADRT III (S/H) – Sachs/Hunger, ibid., Vol. III: Diaries from 164 B.C. to 61 B.C. (Wien 1996). ADRT V (S/H) – Sachs/Hunger, ibid., Vol. V: Lunar and Planetary Texts (Wien 2001). ADRT VI – Hunger, ibid., Vol. VI: Goal Year Texts (Wien 2006). AfO, 1953 – Archiv für Orientforschung, Band XVI, Zweiter Teil (1953). AoF 35 – Altorientalische Forschungen, Vol. 35 (2008). Brinkman, J. A., A Political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158-722 B.C. (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 1968). Brown, D., Mesopotamian Planetary Astronomy-Astrology (Groningen: Styx Publications, 2000). Diaries – see ADRT I, II, and III. Grayson, A. K., Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles (Locust Valley, N.Y.: J. J. Augustin, 1975; reprinted by Eisenbrauns, 2000). Huber, Peter J., and Salvo De Meis, Babylonian Eclipse Observations from 750 BC to 1 BC (Milano: Mimesis, 2004). Jonsson, C. O., The Gentile Times Reconsidered, 4th ed. (Atlanta: Commentary Press, 2004). Jursa 1997 – Jursa, Michael, “Neu- und spätbabylonische Texte aus den Sammlungen der Birmingham Museums und Art Gallery,” Iraq, Vol. LIX (1997), p. 97-174. Tablet No. 47. Kudlek, M., and E. H. Mickler, Solar and Lunar Eclipses of the Ancient Near East from 3000 B.C. to 0 with Maps (Kevelaer: Verlag Butzon & Bercker, 1971). Labat – Labat, René, and Florence Malbran-Labat, Manuel d’épigraphie akkadienne, 6th ed. (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1988). LBAT – Sachs, A. J., Late Babylonian Astronomical and Related Texts (Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press, 1955). mulAPIN – A cuneiform document comprising two tablets summarizing the astronomical knowledge before the seventh century B.C. Some forty copies have been found, the oldest dated copy of which is from 687 B.C. The original was probably composed about the beginning of the first millennium B.C. Translated and discussed by H. Hunger and D. Pingree, MUL.APIN: An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform (Archiv für Orientforschung, Beiheft 24; Verlag Ferdinand Berger and Söhne, Horn, Austria, 1989). N/W – Neugebauer, P. V., and E. F. Weidner, “Ein astronomischer Beobachtungstext aus dem 37. Jahre Nebukadnezars II. (-567/66),” Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig: Philologisch-Historische Klasse, Band 67:2, 1915, pp. 29-89. Parker, R. A., and W. H. Dubberstein, Babylonian Chronology 626 B.C. – A.D. 75 (Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University Press, 1956; reprinted by Wipf & Stock Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 2007). Parpola, Simo, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, Part II: Commentary and Appendices (Kevelaer – Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker – Neukirchener Verlag, 1983; reprinted by Eisenbrauns 2007). (A number of Simo Parpola’s volumes are available on the web: http://knp.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/lettersqueriesandreports/#top.) Steele, J. M. and A. Imhausen (eds.), Under One Sky. Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2002). Stephenson, F. R., and D. M. Willis, “The Earliest Datable Observation of the Aurora Borealis,” in J. M. Steele and A. Imhausen (eds.), Under One Sky. Astronomy and Mathematics in the Ancient Near East (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2002), pp. 421-428. Walker, C. B. F., “Babylonian observations of Saturn during the reign of Kandalanu,” in N. M. Swerdlow (ed.), Ancient Astronomy and Celestial Divinations (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: The MIT Press, 2000), pp. 61-76. Christopher Walker’s discussion of the Saturn tablet is also available on the web: http://www.caeno.org/_Eponym/pdf/Walker_Saturn%20in%20Kandalanu%20reign.pdf.