Trying to nail down 612 BCE as the date of Nineveh's destruction

[JW Insider]

As an aside, note that the entire relative timeline from the beginning of  Neo-Babylonian to the Persian empire can easily be figured out without any reference to astronomy or even BCE dates.

The whole reason the WTS makes such a big deal out of our "traditional" date for the destruction of Jerusalem is based on a relative chronology from 539, not an absolute chronology of the time period. So a relative chronology is all one needs to debunk it. You don't even need to know if 539 was correct or not. You don't need BCE dates at all. Just the widely available archaeology without any need for software or assumptions about any potential copyist's errors, eclipses, planetary positions.

The contemporary business documents alone are more than enough to debunk the WTS chronology. And there are tens of thousands of those stone "witnesses" all consistently pointing to the same timeline. That's why the great emphasis in the WTS publications to constantly sow seeds of doubt about those tablets. I think that, as a group, the WTS is the biggest opposer of the tablets -- and the biggest opposer of ALL Neo-Babylonian archaeology.

 

[JW Insider]

12 hours ago, George88 said:

I'm still waiting on JWI to have my post moved.

See the link above in response to the request. They had already been moved over an hour ago.

[BTK59]

4 hours ago, JW Insider said:

*** w86 4/1 p. 31 Questions From Readers ***
Approved association with Jehovah’s Witnesses requires accepting the entire range of the true teachings of the Bible, including those Scriptural beliefs that are unique to Jehovah’s Witnesses. What do such beliefs include?

What is the purpose of this demonstration for the public? Is it acceptable to surround yourself with negative influences? Wouldn't it be more comprehensive to include the beginning of the article, rather than just selecting a specific section to cater to your skeptical perspective? You should emphasize, for instance, not associating with people who act and behave like Pharisees. The article's main focus is precisely that. Did the Pharisees truly possess God's truth?

Why on earth would a Jehovah's Witness want to associate with someone who behaves in a way that goes against scripture? 

[JW Insider]

2 hours ago, George88 said:

JWI, thank you for your help. I was also talking about the other posts above.

As I said, I'll be happy to move as many or as few as you like. Since you still haven't said which ones specifically, I'll move a few more and you can tell me if there are still others. I went back into the conversation for two weeks, but found that this particular subset of the topic only went back for one week. So I moved more of your conversation with BTK going back one week. The others that still remain here are too tightly integrated into the current conversation. I suppose you could always copy information you presented here and repost it over there under the new topic. 

[JW Insider]

On 3/17/2024 at 4:18 PM, George88 said:

On 3/16/2024 at 6:33 AM, xero said:

How does that work, since nothing secular has attachments to anything we can verify w/o astronomical triangulation?

Understanding historical events involves delving into the past to gain insight into the present. A skilled researcher knows exactly where to find the necessary information, much like navigating by the stars. If the destruction of "Nineveh" occurred in 612 BC, what astronomical evidence supports this event?

Then you have references to the destruction of Nineveh in 606 BC and the siege of Nineveh in 635 BC.

Either we conduct our own research or acknowledge the flawed nature of JWI's research. It is not possible to have it both ways.

 

1 hour ago, George88 said:

Okay JWi.

1. Posted Sunday at 09:18 PM

I think that was it, thanks.

You mean that was it; that we got them all? Or that this one (requoted above) is one that you also want moved? It's dated Sunday at ?:18 PM, but ? refers to a different time zone from the one I'm in, so I couldn't tell exactly. And the use of VPN's can throw off the time zone on the time stamp.

I didn't move it before because it's on topic and it's not to BTK's question, but I'd still be happy to move it if you wish.

[JW Insider]

@xero, I don't know if you are still interested in the question, but many people have figured out a way to arrive at the answer without making use of any astronomy. I started a thread where I was looking at starting from scratch and just using the Bible at first to figure out the relative chronology that the Bible gives, and using the Bible's synchronisms with Babylonian kings. Basically, you probably worked this same out for yourself already, based on statements in the Bible that say things like:

• the battle of Carchimish was in the 4th year of Jehoiakim
• the first year of Evil-Merodach was in the 37th year of Jehoiachin's exile
• etc.

So I come up with the following, which makes no mention of any BC/BCE years, but still gives the relative points in time for Josiah's death, Carchemish, Nebuchadnezzar's first year and last year, the beginning of Jehoiachin's exile, the beginning of Evil-Merodach's reign. But we don't know how long Cyrus ruled, and how long Evil Merodach ruled and we don't know the exact number of years between his reign and Cyrus conquering Babylon.

 

The test will require only 3 or 4 steps. 

The next step would make use only of the secular, clay business/contract tablets to fill in the known kings of Babylon over this same period shown above. That turns out to be fairly easy because there are thousands of them, and they interconnect and show the order of each king and the lengths of their reign, including their accession year.

And then a third step will be to look at any other single inscription, or subset of the tablets, that might verify the record we would get from the overall set of Babylonian contract tablets. Turns out there are about 3 ways to do this, none of which will involve astronomy, or the need to identify any BCE dates.

Then the fourth step, after the relative timeline is complete, just pick any ONE date you think is confirmed. Could be 539 BCE, could be the Watchtower's date for Nebuchadnezzar's 18th year, could be a date for Josiah's death, or the fall of Nineveh. Just choose any source you think might be viable, because choosing any one will fill out the rest. Then you can check if the date chosen makes sense for the entire timeline.

 

[TrueTomHarley]

5 hours ago, JW Insider said:

the date chosen makes sense for the entire timeline.

 

You should not post such things in the open club. Try the closed club, where every sort of riff-raff abounds.

[TrueTomHarley]

4 hours ago, George88 said:

Finally, honesty in the open club, lol!

You should see the mirror-image posted there.