Reigns of Biblical kings, non accession years and 15 years of Tiberius' reign in Luke 3.

The Gregorian calendar is based on the birth of Jesus, and we live in an age where virtually everyone in the world is familiar with Christ. Furthermore, the standardization of the non accession years system allows us to accurately track the passage of time. The Bible records the accession years of the kings of Judah in great detail, but one point should be noted and summarized as a reminder.

How to use the Jewish calendar

1. Nisan - usually corresponds to spring and is the month in which Passover (Pesach) is celebrated to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
2. Iyar - the month following Nisan, primarily associated with the spring season. It is also the period during which the counting of the Omer takes place.
3. Sivan - In this month, Shavuot (Pentecost) is celebrated to commemorate Moses' reception of the Torah at Mount Sinai.
4. Tammuz - This is the month of summer and is associated with the destruction of the Temple and events symbolizing repentance.
5. Av - the month commemorating the destruction of the Temple, especially on the ninth day (Tisha Ava), a time of mourning.
6. Elul - a month of repentance and preparation for Rosh Hashana (New Year).
7. Tishrei - A month of important festivals such as Rosh Hashana (New Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and Sukkot (Feast of the Hermits).
8. Cheshvan - A month with fewer festivals, especially in the fall and winter months.
9. Kislev - Hanukkah is celebrated in this month.
10. Tevet - A cold winter month, primarily a time of repentance and prayer.
11. Shevat - Winter month, especially the blessing of nuts and fruits.
12. Adar - In this month, Purim is celebrated, commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from their enemies. In leap years, the 13th month, Adar II, is added.

Unraveling the Discrepancies of Judah and Israel’s Reign Durations

Explanation of non-accession year method

• Accession Year System
  The year of a king's accession to the throne as the “accession year,” is not counted as a year, but is counted from the following year as the first year of the king's reign. 
  
  
• Non-Accession Year System
  The year in which a king accedes to the throne is counted as the “first year,” and partial reigns in that year are also counted as one year. 

There are these two calculation methods, but for convenience, if we make the above assumption, bible adopts the latter non-accession-year method to determine the actual elapsed years. For example, a year is 12 months, but suppose that the first person in turn acceded to the throne for 4 months, the second person for 4 months, and the third person for 3 months, interchanging as king. There is still one month left to fill the year, and although the probability is low, suppose that three kings abdicated due to a series of unfortunate events, and a new fourth king acceded to the throne, and one month later, a new year began. Then, under the non-accession year system, the new king would be considered to have ruled for a full year even though he only ruled for one month in the latter half of the 12-months  period, and that would be the first year of his reign, and the following year would be counted as the second year.

In other words, the reign of a king who reigned a few months without passing the year is rounded down to the first year of the reign of the new king, even if the new king began to rule in the last month of the year to avoid duplication of years and prevent mistaken counting of the number of years passed during the transition of the times. Looking only at the reign year notation for the kings of Israel, it might seem that kings of Judah such as Asa also used the accession year calculation. However, as mentioned in the previous heading, this is because it records the “years when they were politically regarded as kings even during co-reigns,” and does not indicate the actual years passed.

Thus, in the illustration, Jehoahaz and Jehoiachin reigned for only about three months and did not pass the year, so Jehoiakim and Zedekiah are each counted as the first year of their reigns since they ascended to the throne and passed the new year during their time. Therefore, the actual number of years from Solomon's reign until Zedekiah's abdication from the throne at the beginning of the Babylonian captivity is 429 years, since the two three-month periods, totaling six months, are excluded from the count.

Harvest in the land of Judah after the abdication of King Zedekiah

The most important year is missing here. In Jeremiah 40-43, during the period when Zedekiah was taken captive to Babylon and retired from the throne, some Jews were harvesting in the land of Judah and living a normal life.

In chapter 41, after the seventh month, or the beginning of the Jewish calendar year, which switched to the New Year in October of autumn in the Roman calendar, Ishmael's invasion raid caused the Jews to flee to Egypt or be taken into Babylonian captivity. There was a time of harvest in the land after King Zedekiah's abdication, and the complete Babylonian captivity brought the end of the harvest and 70 years of rest to the land that had become desolate, as stated in 2 Chronicles 36:21.

It is easy to make a mistake, but instead of counting 70 years from the start of the Babylonian captivity, there was a period of harvest in the land of Judah after Zedekiah was deposed after the Babylonian captivity, so counting that would be 430 years.

All big mistranslations in all English and Japanese translations, including the KJV.

In chapter 39 verse 2 of בְּעַשְׁתֵּי־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה לְצִדְקִיָּהוּ, if you do a search here, it is accurately translated as In the twelfth year of Zedekiah. Many Japanese translations make the mistake of adding words that are not in the original language, such as “in the middle of the eleventh year” or “after two years,” which is an intentional mistake. בְּ is the preposition meaning many nuance “in, at, with, for” different from the one of verse 1 is translated as "in the" form like verse 1 to emphasize the nuance of "in the middle of the 11th year" which is not in the original language, without consideration for the change of the meaning. The English translation of verse 1 differs from verse 2 in its proto-linguistic structure. The structure "in the year + ninth," with the Hebrew word for year at the beginning, implying "in the ninth year."

Verse 2 in the original text uses the original word and expression "After the entire eleven years of Zedekiah reigns have completed. in the fourth month," and the structure "at the point 11th completed+ year " emphasizes the completion of whole 11 years. The original word structure has the word year after 11 like "numbers + year" is the same one as in other passages of Scripture where a person's life span is listed, and the emphasis is on the fact that the 11 years have been exceeded.

For example, Genesis 5:5, which says, “Adam lived 930 years." Adam have lived 930 years and a few months, but the fraction of a year that never exceeded a year is rounded down, and the nuance of original language 930+year is that he exceeded 930 years but can be counted as the time exactly 930 years passed. (2024/10/29 I got an email back from a Jew saying that I may be right.)

Furthermore, unlike the feminine without a preposition “eleven years” of 2 Kings 24:18, the “eleven years” of Jeremiah 39:2 is the masculine form of 11 years, which is infinitely similar to the Hebrew form meaning 12. While it is a Hebrew rule to always assign masculine numerals to months, days, etc., since they are masculine nouns. It appears that there are some numbers like 10 multiples 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and so on where there is no masculine or feminine type, except for 10, but when a number has a gender both masculine and feminine forms as in 1 through 19 are used interchangeably in Scripture for feminine noun year. In particular, masculine numbers are assumed to mean “emphasis on completion” in ancient times.  (Ezekiel 31:1 uses prepositions and feminine type 11)

Blueletterbible is unaware that in ancient Hebrew numerals, the combination of the masculine number and feminine types noun can create different nuances, so there are cases where other numerals, including 11, are written as feminine or both/masculine and feminine. However, if there are two different forms of a feminine or masculine numeral, one used for the feminine noun year, and the other used for the masculine noun month, day, etc., then even if sometimes combines with oposite gender words each other, one is feminine and the other is masculine in the ancient Hebrew language, even though it is written as both. On the other hand, there are cases where the gender distinction is not actually made, even though the type is described as feminine. The use of different types of numbers in ancient times is an area of mystery and deep ignorance even for Jews today.

For example, in Genesis 5:3-5, it is stated that Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, but both 100 and 30 are used. However, the Hebrew word “וֹ” used in verse 5 for multiples of 100 does not indicate gender, and those two of both have exactly the same form as the 100 in Genesis 11:10, which is written in the feminine form. Therefore, Blueletterbible’s distinction between feminine and both based on the gender of the noun is a complete mistake, and it should be written as “both” for all instances. It is impossible to formulate hypotheses based on new insights by asking ChatGPT, Grok, or other similar services.

There is a clear distinction for numbers from 1 to 19 that are clearly marked as masculine and feminine, this is probably because only feminine numerals are used for feminine nouns such as year, while only masculine numerals are used for month, day, etc. in the bible, making them easier to identify. Jeremiah 39:2's 11, which we are discussing here, is described as both, but it clearly differs from the feminine in form and is a masculine number used for masculine noun months and days, and in most cases it is not used for years. The notation of Zedekiah's reign, including Ezekiel 26:1, which combines the same preposition with the masculine numeral 11 and the feminine noun year, is the only case with a clear gender distinction.

A simple sentence structure without a preposition indicating at what point in the number also suggests that the number is completed in a Hebrew sentence, whether or not there is a verb, regardless of masculine or feminine type. If the sentence structure that follows forms the same pattern as the previous sentence, it can be interpreted as an expiration in the feminine numeral.  However, it is often the case, especially when feminine numerals are combined with a specific preposition, that the effect of number completion is suppressed. This can lead to the interpretation that the event is not “completed,” but rather expresses an event in progress or at a specific point in time. In short, the “completed” meaning of a number may be adjusted by a particular preposition, changing the meaning of the entire sentence. This subtle role is closely related to the unique grammatical structure of Hebrew.

In Genesis 7:6, the sentence reads as if Noah was over 600 years old, but there is no preposition with the feminine numeral used for 6. When there is no preposition, it is customary to use a feminine numeral because year is a feminine noun, and there is no distinction between masculine and feminine, just meaning completeness. However, to avoid misunderstanding, in verse 11 once more, it adds a preposition with multiple meanings, such as “in or at,” and uses feminine numerals as well as the previous sentence, implying that the number is “strictly speaking, the 600th year”. In 2 Kings 24:18, which says that Zedekiah ruled for 11 feminine years, but Jeremiah 39:2, with the preposition “at + masculine numeral 11 years,” flexibly conveys the nuance of “11 years have expired” by supplementing it with other words. When the specific preposition like בְּ in Jeremiah 39:2 is attached that the gender meaning of the number strongly differs. 

*In the Bible, ancient Hebrew numerals use thousands as the highest digit, with ten thousand, hundred thousand, million, and ten million represented by combinations of thousands, tens, and hundreds. 

When it comes to multiples of ten from 20 to 90, it is often said that the plural form is based on the masculine form, but the tens place is unified in the feminine form, and the same applies to multiples of ten from 100 to 900 in terms of the hundreds place. Then, for multiples of ten from 20 to 900, there is no distinction and only the feminine form is used. In ancient Hebrew from the biblical era, it seems that 1,000 was the highest digit, but the thousands place is uniformly masculine (Numbers 31:43), so 1,000 is also exclusively masculine with no distinction.

In other words, unlike small numbers like 1 to 19 that easily reach their expiration, numbers like thousand emphasize the collective nature of the masculine base, and even if only masculine numbers are used for digits above the thousand place, they are interpreted as intermediate steps due to the large scale when a preposition is attached. This is similar to cases where the plural form of Elohim is used to emphasize the existence of a single person depending on the context. However, modern Hebrew no longer distinguishes between genders, and there are now more types of notation for numbers above the thousands place where there may be patterns where large numbers are uniformly written using the feminine form only as no gender distinction.

To sum up for now, there is a gender distinction from 1 to 19, and no gender distinction in multiples of 10 from 20. Originally, both number of masculine and feminine types meant completion without a specific preposition, but when that is added to indicate at which point in the numeral, the feminine numeral becomes an intermediate step and there are cases where masculine figures suggest expiration without being affected.

All 11 masculine forms are listed here. An interesting point is that in Zechariah 1:7, the preposition לְ, which means the twelfth letter of the alphabet, is added before the 11 masculine forms. If we assume that 11 is a number indicating completion, we might be tempted to translate it as “the eleventh month of Shevat has been completed,” but as mentioned above, months and days are masculine nouns, so it is customary to assign masculine numbers to them, and the preposition in that passage is different from the one we are discussing here, so it probably simply refers to the eleventh month.

In conclusion, when a number has two patterns like 1〜19, masculine and feminine, if the conditions for the order of specific preposition + masculine numeral + feminine noun year, are met, it is considered to imply completion. The masculine meaning would take precedence in the strength/weakness relationship of feminine nouns = feminine numerals, masculine nouns = masculine numerals, masculine nouns > feminine numerals, and masculine numerals > feminine nouns.

• Without a specific prepositions, masculine and feminine numerals indicate completion or expiration as they are. 
• When a year (feminine noun) is combined with a feminine numeral and a specific preposition is added, the effect of the completion of the numeral is suppressed, indicating a process in progress, while the masculine numeral is unaffected, indicating completion.
• When a month or day (masculine noun) is combined with a masculine numeral and a specific preposition is added, the effect of the completion of the numeral is suppressed, implying an intermediate step.
• Although not confirmed so far in the Bible, if there is a case where a feminine numeral is used for a month or day that is a masculine noun, it will follow the nuance specified by the specific preposition due to the rule masculine noun = masculine numeral > feminine numeral.

It shows that this is in the 480th year and in the fourth year of King Solomon's reign, because it is a mixture of the feminine numeral 4, the gender-neutral 80 and 100, and the prepositions in 1Kings 6:1, etc. Furthermore, in Jeremiah 1:3, the sentence that emphasizes the completion of the eleventh year in “until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign” is punctuated with the Hebrew word “until,” and then once again with “until the Babylonian captivity in the fifth month,” which seems to suggest that the twelfth year is reached. And of course, that 11th year is a masculine expiration form, as in chapter 39:2. 

It is even possible that the presence or absence or position of the preposition no longer matters, and that the mere combination of a feminine noun like year and a masculine numeral can always be the completion of the attribute that the numeral inherently retains!

In light of Jeremiah 1:3, the similarity of the masculine type in 11 and the feminine type in 12 suggests that there may have been a manuscript transcription error, just as in Kings 8:26: Ahaziah “became king at the age of 22” and Chronicles 22:2: Ahaziah “became king at the age of 42.”

Even us Japanese sometimes use Japanese incorrectly; the expression “It is convenient after 11:00 a.m.” has a meaning that passing 11:00 a.m. In other words, from 11:01 is also convenient. However, many times Japanese people think “after 11:00” but tend to use different word expression as the one including 11:00, not from 11:01, and the nuance is not strong enough for ambiguity. However, the precise meaning of the word “after 11:00” not includes 11:00. In Japanese, “after 11:00” and “ on or after（以降 after but including 11:00) 11:00” have different meanings. Very similar expression and most of us don't know what means each words though and very common amomg us using 以降 at every time. The same can be seen in the expression “the eleventh year” in Jeremiah 39:2, where the eleventh year means precisely the eleventh year that has passed, according to the structure of the original language, and a Jew who does not perceive any significant meaning in it may recognize it as the eleventh year without much concern.

The correct paraphrase is, in the original language, “in the fourth month in the twelfth year,” at which time Zedekiah would be deposed in the Babylonian captivity. In other words, since he abdicated in the 12th year and failed to enter the 13th year, i.e., failed to pass over Tishri, his reign was definitely the 11 years.

So it actually comes to the point where eleven years and nine months have passed since Tishri (the civil calendar, with autumn as the beginning of the year). Then in chapter 41:1 it switches to the New Year in the month of Tishri, which means that at that point three months have passed since Zedekiah abdicated, and eleven years, plus one year, would be 430 years.

There may be translation errors not only in Jeremiah 39 but also in other instances where a male-form numeral with the preposition for reign-years. Etymologically, it means “at the point of the fourth month after eleven years had passed,” meaning it was in the midst of the twelfth year.

Biblical recognition of the 15th year of Tiberius' reign

Similarly, for the fifteenth year of Tiberius's reign mentioned in Luke 3, to determine the actual elapsed years—rather than relying on the standard archaeological definition or the reign year notation based on political recognition timelines like those for Northern Israel—it is necessary to use the non-accession year calculation method.

However, unlike the notation of the number of years of Zedekiah's reign in Jeremiah 39:2, Greek numerals, like English, have no gender distinction, and Greek word meaning “in” is used in Luke 3:1, implying the middle of the 15th year of Tiberius' reign. The previous king was Augustus, who died on August 19, A.D. 14. Since the biblical method of calculating is for Tiberius to begin reigning from that date, Augustus would have his accession years up to the fall of 13 A.D., and Tiberius would have his first year of reign from the fall of 13 A.D. to the fall of Tishri in the year 14 AD, September 11. Similarly, in the Roman calendar, Augustus reigned until December of A.D. 13, and from January to December of A.D. 14 is the first year of Tiberius' reign.

So the first to second year of the reign of Tiberius was from 13 to 14 AD, the second to third year from 14 to 15 AD, the third to fourth year from 15 to 16 AD, and so on, and the year 0 is not the beginning. The 15th year of the reign of Tiberius would correspond to the fall of 27 to 28 A.D. in the Jewish calendar by 14 years were added. In the Roman calendar, the period from January to December of 28 AD. This means that John the Baptist prophesied the coming of Christ in the spring of 28AD, and Jesus was baptized by John six months later in the fall of 28AD, which is when the temple was completed without a second's delay.

The commonly held view that the 15th year of Tiberius' reign was from the fall of A.D. 28 to the fall of A.D. 29 is merely a chronological record, and is incompatible with the biblical non-accession year system and the dating system used by ordinary people at that time. Jesus was baptized by John and received the Holy Spirit of the dove sent from heaven after he emerged from the water in the fall of 28 AD, which would have been exactly 4,000 years after the birth of Adam without a second's delay. See here