Seder Olam Missing Years: Bible Dates: Dates of Creation: Bible CalendarsThe Seder Rabbah Olam is Jewish literature of second century A.D. - a midrashic chronological work, generally regarded as a work of the tanna Jose b. Halafta. The data provided was 154 years excessive. According to this book, there were 3828 years from Creation to the 70AD destruction of the temple, and 1656 years from Creation to the flood. Therefore, from the Flood to 70AD there are 2172 years.
What is the Seder Olam Rabbah and its Missing Years?
The Seder Rabbah Olam is Jewish literature of second century A.D. - a midrashic chronological work, generally regarded as a work of the tanna Jose b. Halafta. [The "tannaim" were the masters of the "oral law," i.e. the men who wrote the Talmud.]
It is a chronological record extending from Adam to the revolt of Bar Kokba in the reign of emperor Hadrian in the 130's A.D.. It is terribly flawed in the chronology it presents--thus the claim that Adam was only created in 3760 B.C..
I recently came across an article discussing chronological problems in relation to the Seder Olam Rabbah, specifically that it reduces the Persian Period of history from it's 200+ years to just a few decades. (Conventional chronology states that the Persians ruled Israel from 539 BC to 332 BC (207 years). Rabbinic chronology says the Persians ruled for 52 years. Jon Klein. Biblical Prophecy and Y2K)
As the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran, which is a chronological study of the books of the Bible, and of Josephus and of the Damascus Document of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and understanding that the ancients, principally between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), transcribed the legitimate chronological records of Israel into an artificial form consisting of 12 monhts of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 day years, (thereby extending the true history of Israel), I realised that the King's Calendar might be able to provide some clue to understanding the discrepancies in the Seder Olam Rabbah.
At the time I first wrote this article I knew little of the work, nor of the arguments surrounding it but from what chronological details I researched I did discover something interesting.
According to this book, there were 3828 years from Creation to the 70AD destruction of the temple, and 1656 years from Creation to the flood. Therefore, from the Flood to 70AD there are 2172 years.
From within the King's Calendar research, it can be seen that there exists evidence that the artificial calendar was used until at least 104 BCE. It can therefore be summised that from the period 104 BCE to 70 AD, chronological records were provided in true solar years, of which there were 173.
To subtract these 173 years from the period "The Flood to 70 AD", results in a figure of 1999 years. If these years be artificial which they most certainly are, those years convert into 1845 true solar years, a discrepancy of 154 years.
What is the significance of these years?
If the Seder Olam Rabbah was a serious attempt to chronologise the history of Israel, synchronising it with known historical events, then the data used during this period, was 154 years excessive.
In that article, there was a variance with Ussher's date for Creation of 152 years
Finding the calculations excessive would have been unacceptable in light of the reverence with which the Biblical records were held. It would have been necessary for the author/s of the Seder Olam Rabbah, to compress history. This is not a fanciful suggestion, for you can find example after example of this in any history book that deals with the Biblical Data. If the Biblical data is excessive of history, then it must be compressed to fit.
That at some point, true history was compressed, is not at all surprising. Believing that the records were utterly true and correct, there may have been no recourse but to adjust history (The converse of which takes place today). The only true flaw in the chronology, is that it's artificial nature was unrecognised. (We find the same in Josephus).
Copyright 2013 is held by the nominated authors on this article page.
The Download book does not contain a section on Seder Olam
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek also writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
He has been a Conversational English teacher in China since 2003 and as at 2013 is in SuZhou City Jiangsu Province.
Topic 13: Apportioning the 63 years left for Samuel & Saul
Topic 14: Seder Olam Rabbah : How many days in a Biblical year?
Topic 15: Chronologies of Samuel,Saul, David & Solomon
The Principle of Linear Causality
The King's Calendar is a very simple approach to Biblical Chronology. It substitutes a value of 336 days for every year listed in Scripture. As far as the Divided Kingdom is concerned, when you use this 336 day year value, the synchronisms actually work. To see how effective this method is, SEE:Appendix 5: Diagrammatic Reconstruction of Israelite History from 936 to 586 BCE
Because it is a mathematical system, the King's Calendar must abide by certain mathematical rules, the most important of which, is that if you change any date for any day, month, or year every other day, month, or year is effected and must also change. It's like a 'domino effect'. Chronological references cannot be 'forced' to fit, and nor can they simply be ignored or 'compressed' as is the usual case with historians and archaeologists.
If any King's Calendar chronological determination disagrees with anything in the history books, it must argue the case as to why the history books are wrong, or why the evidence for an assertion is untrustworthy. If the King's Calendar successfully defends its' position, then the history books cannot be treated as definitive, and if the King's Calendar is 'proven' wrong, then every other chronological reference it provides is also wrong.
Because of this, the King's Calendar Chronological Reconstruction of Israel's history is unique, in that its' methodology can be scientifically (mathematically) tested and demonstrated to be either true or false. Its' chronological predictions are able to be 'proved' or 'disproved'.
