Another Evidence for 1400 B.C.

I know that a few of my former students check in on this blog from time to time, and I thought it might be helpful for them to see an addition I made last week in my lecture on the Conquest. I usually give three evidences from Scripture that Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan about 1400 B.C. (from 1 Kings 6:1, Judges 11:26, and 1 Chron 6:33-37). A recent article in the Journal of Evangelical Theological Society gives an additional evidence for this date, from passages in the Talmud. In the article (“When Did Solomon Die”, 46/4, Dec 2003), Rodger C. Young shows how the counting of the Years of Jubilees indicates an entrance into Israel in 1406 B.C. You’ll have to read this section of the article for all the details (pp. 599-603), but here’s my simplistic PowerPoint summary:

–The Talmud dates the 17th Jubilee to 574 B.C. (b. Arak 12a; cf. Ezek 40:1)
–The Talmud dates the 16th Jubilee to 623 B.C. (18th year of Josiah; b. Meg. 14b)

This establishes:
•Interval between Jubilees was 49 years (not 50)
•The counting for the first Jubilee year began in 1406 B.C. (17 cycles x 49 years = 833 years; 574 B.C. + 833 years = 1407 minus 1=1406 B.C.).