Post by Lee on Aug 12, 2014 23:58:41 GMT
The first verse of 1 Kings 6. reads thus: “And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” Dr. Thomas makes these 480 years to end 84 years before the fourth year of Solomon. Is the verse a mistranslation? If not, how can it be made to teach Dr. Thomas’s idea without violating its grammatical sense?—(J.G.)
ANSWER.—The translation is substantially correct, but not strictly so. Dr. Thomas’s translation is as follows: “And it was in the eighty years and four hundred years from the going out of the sons of Israel from the land of Mitzraim, in the fourth year, in the month Zif, which is the second month of the reigning of Solomon over Israel, he builds the house of Yahweh.” This is a literal translation capable of being understood in harmony with all facts of the case. What are these facts? That the whole interval from the departure of the children of Israel from Rameses to the fourth of Solomon is 604 years. This is shewn by the following statement of the chronology:
Time occupied in coming from Egypt to Canaan 40 years
Time after that to the death of Joshua
(who was 80 at the crossing of the Jordan and 110 at his death) 30 ” (Josh. 24:29.)
Time occupied by the subsequent Judges till Samuel 450 ” (Acts 13:20.)
Time occupied by Samuel and Saul 40 ” (Acts 13:21.)
Time occupied by David’s reign 40 ”
To fourth of Solomon 4 ”
---—
Total 604
The question is, how 1 Kings 6:1, is to be reconciled with these facts. The reconciliation is apparent in this way. The time from the entrance of Israel into Canaan till Samuel, is a complete and self-contained period of 480 years. It is the epoch of the Judges, with the exception of the 30 years occupied by Joshua, who does not come strictly under that denomination. It was therefore a marked and distinct period in Israel’s history, a thing to be noted and spoken of in national reckonings, as when the recorder is about to relate another great national event, the building of the temple. Israel occupied forty years in coming out of Egypt. The forty years are spoken of as the coming out.—(Mic. 7:15.) The 480 years are therefore, “after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt.” The commencement of Solomon’s temple was not in the fourth hundred and the eightieth, but after “the 480 years” subsequent to the coming out, viz., 84 years after, even in the fourth of Solomon. “In the four hundred and eighty years” is indefinite to English ears, and has misled the translators who made it “the four hundred and eightieth.” Strictly expressed, the verse might be paraphrased thus:
And it came to pass after the four hundred and eighty years that elapsed from the coming out of Egypt till Samuel (that marked and distinct epoch in Israel’s history,) even in the second month of the fourth year of Solomon which was eighty-four years after the termination of the said epoch, that Solomon began to build the house of Israel.
480 years which occupied 40 years
84 years,
--—
Total 604
This puts Kings and Acts in harmony. Reading 1 Kings 6:1 by itself, it would seem “violating its grammatical sense” to extract such an interpretation from it; but seeing that we have the facts to which it relates, testified to from several independent sources, we must read Kings in harmony with these, or else say that there is a mistake in Kings. We cannot say there is a mistake in the face of the over-powering evidence of the authority of Scripture. Therefore we are shut up to the conclusion that they must, as they do in fact, agree.
1875 Christadelphian: Volume 12. 2001 (electronic ed.) (373–374). Birmingham: Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association.
ANSWER.—The translation is substantially correct, but not strictly so. Dr. Thomas’s translation is as follows: “And it was in the eighty years and four hundred years from the going out of the sons of Israel from the land of Mitzraim, in the fourth year, in the month Zif, which is the second month of the reigning of Solomon over Israel, he builds the house of Yahweh.” This is a literal translation capable of being understood in harmony with all facts of the case. What are these facts? That the whole interval from the departure of the children of Israel from Rameses to the fourth of Solomon is 604 years. This is shewn by the following statement of the chronology:
Time occupied in coming from Egypt to Canaan 40 years
Time after that to the death of Joshua
(who was 80 at the crossing of the Jordan and 110 at his death) 30 ” (Josh. 24:29.)
Time occupied by the subsequent Judges till Samuel 450 ” (Acts 13:20.)
Time occupied by Samuel and Saul 40 ” (Acts 13:21.)
Time occupied by David’s reign 40 ”
To fourth of Solomon 4 ”
---—
Total 604
The question is, how 1 Kings 6:1, is to be reconciled with these facts. The reconciliation is apparent in this way. The time from the entrance of Israel into Canaan till Samuel, is a complete and self-contained period of 480 years. It is the epoch of the Judges, with the exception of the 30 years occupied by Joshua, who does not come strictly under that denomination. It was therefore a marked and distinct period in Israel’s history, a thing to be noted and spoken of in national reckonings, as when the recorder is about to relate another great national event, the building of the temple. Israel occupied forty years in coming out of Egypt. The forty years are spoken of as the coming out.—(Mic. 7:15.) The 480 years are therefore, “after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt.” The commencement of Solomon’s temple was not in the fourth hundred and the eightieth, but after “the 480 years” subsequent to the coming out, viz., 84 years after, even in the fourth of Solomon. “In the four hundred and eighty years” is indefinite to English ears, and has misled the translators who made it “the four hundred and eightieth.” Strictly expressed, the verse might be paraphrased thus:
And it came to pass after the four hundred and eighty years that elapsed from the coming out of Egypt till Samuel (that marked and distinct epoch in Israel’s history,) even in the second month of the fourth year of Solomon which was eighty-four years after the termination of the said epoch, that Solomon began to build the house of Israel.
480 years which occupied 40 years
84 years,
--—
Total 604
This puts Kings and Acts in harmony. Reading 1 Kings 6:1 by itself, it would seem “violating its grammatical sense” to extract such an interpretation from it; but seeing that we have the facts to which it relates, testified to from several independent sources, we must read Kings in harmony with these, or else say that there is a mistake in Kings. We cannot say there is a mistake in the face of the over-powering evidence of the authority of Scripture. Therefore we are shut up to the conclusion that they must, as they do in fact, agree.
1875 Christadelphian: Volume 12. 2001 (electronic ed.) (373–374). Birmingham: Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association.