BIBLICAL Horizons, No. 88
October, 1996
Copyright 1996 Biblical Horizons
These numbers are statements of fact, but there are two reasons to investigate them more closely. First, the Bible never gives precise numbers without a reason, even if we cannot ascertain it immediately. Second, the Babylonians paid close attention to numbers, and may well have had a reason for these numbers.
In fact, I believe that they did have a reason, and the purpose of this essay is to set it out. Notice first of all that the total of these three smaller deporations is 4600, and that this total was reached in the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar. These two numbers are related: 4600 = 2 x 23 x 100. There is, thus, a relationship between the total number of people taken and the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.
This being the case, can we find a relationship between the 7th year of Nebuchadnezzar and the deporation of 3023 Jews? The number 7 does not divide evenly into 3023, which is in fact a prime number. There is, however, a relationship.
We have to remember that in both Genesis 5 and in the two censuses of Numbers we find astral numbers. The ages of the patriarchs in Genesis 5 and the census numbers of Numbers correspond to astral cycles, such as the number of days in a solar year, in a lunar year, and in the synodical periods of the five planets. Synodical periods are the number of days it takes for a planet to return to the same place in the firmament, not the number of days it takes for the planet to go around the sun. (For a full and detailed study of these astral cycles, see James B. Jordan, A Chronological and Calendrical Commentary on the Pentateuch, and M. Barnouin, The Censuses of the Book of Numbers and Babylonian Astronomy, both available from Biblical Horizons .)
Genesis 1 tells that one of the purposes of the lights placed in the firmament is to measure time, especially the times of governors and rulers, which they symbolize. We shall see that these measuring times occur in Jeremiah 52, indicating perhaps the end of Israel’s time as a nation among nations.
The relevant numbers under consideration are these:
Synodical period of Mercury 116 days
Synodical period of Venus 584 days
Synodical period of Mars 780 days
Synodical period of Jupiter 399 days
Synodical period of Saturn 378 days
Solar year 365 days
Solar quarter 91 days
Lunar year 354/5 days
The number 3023 is arrived at by taking the following, each of which is one year:
Mercury 116
Venus 584
Mars 780
Saturn 378
Solar year 365
Lunar year 354
Lunar year 355 (long)
Quarter year 91
The total is 3023, which represents seven years plus a quarter year. Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne in the last year of his father, which is Nebuchadnezzar’s Year O. Thus, seven years and a fraction covers the time of his reign to the year of this exile.
One can also arrive at 3023 with only seven astral cycles:
Mercury 116
Venus 584 x 3
Jupiter 399
Saturn 378 x 2
The next number under consideration is 832, which brings us to the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. There is no way that 832 covers eleven years, and so we look for another possibility. Adding 832 and 3023, we come to a total of 3855 for the 18 years.
Mercury 116 x 13
Mars 584
Saturn 378 x 2
Solar year 365
Lunar year 355 (long)
Quarter year 91
Or, without the quarter year:
Mercury 116 x 11
Jupiter 399 x 4
Solar year 365 x 2
Lunar year 354 x 4
Now, to come up with 23 astral cycles for 4600 persons can be done several ways, both using and omitting the 91-day quarter year for Nebuchadnezzar’s Year 0. This is because the higher the number goes, the more combinations of numbers can be used to reach it.
The purpose of this essay is to explore the possibility that Israel as a heavenly people is in the background of the God-ordained numbers of the exiles. The original census figures of the Israelites are related to the astral cycles we have considered. It may be that the exile census figures are also related to those same astral cycles, thus effecting closure on the imagery. There are many combinations of astral cycles that will yield the numbers 3023, 3855, and 4600, but we have investigated to see if any of those combinations are related to the years of Nebuchadnezzar, which are mentioned in connection with them. We have found that this is so.
Now, whether this is a valid interpretation of the text or not, I do not know. I have offered it here as a speculative possibility only.
(Special thanks to Mr. Robbie Peele of Atlanta, Georgia, for preparing a list of the combinations of the synodical periods of the planets, without which this essay would not have been possible.)
BIBLICAL Horizons, No. 88
October, 1996
Copyright 1996 Biblical Horizons
Midwives are rarely mentioned in Scripture, but play a prominent role in the first chapter of Exodus. The word midwife is used seven times in verses 15-22, though it is used only twice elsewhere in the Old Testament. The reason, I think, is not merely that the midwives were heroic women who saved the male children of Israel from Pharaoh’s satanic plot. Rather, the midwives are introduced and given prominence here for thematic and theological reasons.
First, the first two chapters of Exodus focus on courageous and faithful women. The dominance of women in the first several events is astonishing; Moses enters a world of women. ("Daughter" is used six times in 2:1-10.) To begin with, midwives save the boys of Israel. Then, Jochebed, Moses’ mother, hides him for three months; though Amram no doubt cooperated in the concealment, he is mentioned only in passing in 2:1 and otherwise the text directs attention entirely to his resourceful wife. Then Pharaoh’s daughter appears surrounded by her maid servants, and has one of them draw Moses from the waters in which so many Hebrew boys had died. Instantly another girl appears, Miriam this time, who promises to find a nursemaid for the baby. When Moses grows to adulthood he becomes the deliverer of Israel, and one of his first acts is to deliver the daughters of Jethro from the shepherds at the well of Midian. His way, however, has been prepared by the actions of women.
Ultimately, the background to this is the promise to Adam and Eve in Gen 3:15: the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. Moses is a type of the Seed, but for the seed to come into the world, there must be women. The midwives, Jochebed, and Pharaoh’s daughter are a kind of collective Eve, working together to bring to life the deliverer who will crush Pharaoh, Leviathan, and redeem His people.
Second, it is significant that the women in Exodus 1:15-22 are midwives. Midwives mediate and oversee the coming into the world of new life, coaching a woman through the pain of labor and ensuring that the new child is born safely. Scripture compares the pain of oppression and judgment and tribulation to childbirth (cf. John 16:21). Our tribulations, Jesus says, are like childbirth because they is painful, but also because they issue in joy and new life. For those who are faithful judgment is unto life. The entire book of Exodus is about the birth of a new people of God through the great labor process of oppression and slavery, the birth of a new people from the convulsions of Egypt. (Compare Matthew 24:8.) So, it is fitting that the book begins with midwives. Just as Moses, having been deli-vered by the actions of faithful women, becomes the deliverer, so the duty of "midwifing" the birth of a new Israel is passed to Moses. As the "nursing father" (Numbers 11:12, KJV), he presides over the painful birth of a new people of God. Drawn out from the reeds along the Nile, he will later bring the people through the Sea of Reeds. As Everett Fox points out, the name "Moses" is formed from the active verb; his name means not "drawn out" but "the one who draws out." Midwifed through the death waters to new life, he will serve as midwife to others.
BIBLICAL Horizons, No. 88
October, 1996
Copyright 1996 Biblical Horizons
(Concluded from Biblical Horizons No. 87.)
Leviathan (41:1-11) is the climax of the theophany, the culmination of the Lord’s speech. His final answer to Job’s injudicious charges against God’s justice. After hearing God rehearse the characteristics of Leviathan and His absolute power over him, Job instantly repents in dust and ashes. He confesses, "I know now that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted" (42:2).
What or who is Leviathan? Later in OT history, under the inspiration of the Spirit, Leviathan becomes symbolic of Satan and the personal forces of evil arrayed against God’s people. I say "later" but these symbolic associations probably begin right here in Job. Consider a few representative passages:
Ps. 74:12-14: "But you, O God, are my king from of old; You bring salvation upon the earth. It was You who split open the sea by your power; You broke the heads of the monster in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness."
Isa. 51:9: "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Yahweh. Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent?"
Ezk. 29:3: "Speak, and say, `Thus says the Master Yahweh: "Behold, I am against you, O Pharaoh king of Egypt, O great monster [dragon] who lies in the midst of his rivers, Who has said, `My river is my own; I have made it for myself.’"’"
Ezk. 32:2: "Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: `You are like a young lion among the nations, and you are like a monster in the seas, bursting forth in your rivers, troubling the waters with your feet, and fouling their rivers.’"
Rev. 12:3-4: "And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. . . . And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born."
Rev. 12:9: "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the land, and his angels were cast out with him."
It is clear that later biblical writers identify Leviathan as symbolic of Satan. Where did they get this idea? From the book of Job!
Resolution
God can talk all He wants about the beauty and harmony and complexity of His creation (38-39), but as long as Leviathan/Satan is alive and well and wreaking havoc at will, there is a fly in the sacred ointment, a loose end that unravels the whole argument. The Lord answers this problem in chapter 41. God speaks of Satan using the serpentine language He uses in other parts of His Word. Satan is the serpent. (Isa. 27:1, "In that day, Yahweh will punish with His sword, His fierce, great, and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; He will slay the monster of the sea"). Remember the personal nature of evil. Evil is not metaphysical, some substance and stuff, or even some lack of substance. Evil is personal rebellion. Satan is evil: pure rebellion against God. Nevertheless, God has sovereign power over "the evil one." That is why we can ask the Lord to "deliver us from the evil one" in the Lord’s prayer. But, of course, we learned this in the prologue to the book of Job.
The same God who made and sustains the weird ostrich also made the "king of terrors" (18:14). Satan is a created being. Evil is completely within God’s control. He must appear before God’s court and give an account of his activity (Job 1:6 & 2:1). Yahweh leads Satan around with a ring in his nose (41:2)! He is an awesome creature, but a creature nonetheless. Job 41:33-34, "Nothing on earth is his equal–a creature without fear. He looks down on all that are haughty; he is king over the proud."
Nevertheless, at the end of the book of Job, the Lord alone speaks the word that interprets Satan’s activity. Satan is reduced to silence. He appears in the prologue as "the Satan" (lit: the accuser), attempting to turn Yahweh’s faithful servant against Him. He is full of proud words. "Job will surely curse You to Your face," and the like. He continues to speak through Job’s faithless "friends." Eliphaz’s first speech establishes their link with the demonic spirit world (4:12-21). Job’s three "friends" become "satans," accusing Job of secret sins. At the conclusion of this long story, however, Satan has been silenced. His braggadocio has been exposed as a lie. Job has not cursed God, he has never disengaged himself from intense prayer to God–lamenting, pleading, even cursing his own life and the day of his birth so as not to turn his back on his Creator and Lord.
Is this not comforting? So what if you and I can’t put a ring on the nose of Leviathan and tame him. God can and will. So what is Satan is alive and well and living on planet earth? He is God’s servant. The Bible knows nothing of the Manichaean dualism inherent in so much of Evangelical talk about Satan. There is no ultimate war between good and evil, God and Satan. We have genuine evil here, but not dualism. There is not a smidgen of a hint in the Old or New Testament of an alien order of spirits or demons that forms a rival realm outside of God’s dominion. This is God’s answer to Job’s questions about God’s justice. Once again we have suficient reason to trust God. Why? He controls all things, including the powerful forces of evil: Leviathan & Leviathan’s cosmic counterpart, Satan himself.
Now, finally, Job discovers something that the reader has known since the beginning of the story. God has Satan on a short leash and therefore evil is completely under His control. Remember the prologue: Satan must report to Yahweh. Many people complain that the prologue introduces Satan, who appears before God twice, but then he disappears. Job never mentions him. His friends never mention him. I believe Job’s three "friends" take over Satan’s business and become accusers. No one in the story of Job seems to be aware of his presence. But he is there. And the conclusion of Job is unsatisfactory to many because they want some resolution, some answer to the Satan factor. Well, here it is. The fire that destroyed Job’s sheep and servants (1:16) parallels the fire of Leviathan’s breath (41:19-21). God uses Satan to further His own gracious purposes for His people.
Of course, I wouldn’t think of ending this short article without noting that the book of Job is prophetic of Christ. Jesus, the Greater Job, will suffer as the Lord’s uses Satan to further His salvific purposes for mankind. Poor Satan. Just a pawn. God’s errand boy. Terrifying to us, but completely under God’s thumb.
Biblical Chronology
Vol. 8, No. 10
October, 1996
Copyright © James B. Jordan 1996
by James B. Jordan
Jeremiah and the Beginning of Jehoiakim’s Reign
Now comes Jeremiah, at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, with similar words (Jeremiah 26). Harken to God’s law, he said, or else God will destroy the Temple the same way He sent the Philistines to tear down the Tabernacle at Shiloh (Jeremiah 26:6; 1 Samuel 4). Jeremiah 7:1-15 seems to provide the gist of this sermon. Possibly all of Jeremiah 7-10 is the sermon in full.
The response to Jeremiah’s sermon was interesting. The people, priests, and other prophets called for his death. They dragged him before a court of princes and officials. But after Jeremiah gave his defense the people changed sides, and the princes and officials decided to let him go. Then some of the older men spoke up and said that Jeremiah had spoken wisely and that the people should listen to him. These were the men who had participated in Josiah’s reforms, and were now concerned to see them being undone. At the same time, however, King Jehoiakim and his officials put to death another righteous prophet, Uriah.
Coming when it did, Jeremiah’s sermon warned the nation that religious and political nationalism was not the answer. They needed to serve Yahweh. As the older generation of Josiah’s reformation died off, however, fewer and fewer people listened to the truth.
For three years Jehoiakim served Neco of Egypt, but then in the spring of 605 BC, in Jehoiakim’s third year, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at Carchemish and conquered Palestine. Shortly thereafter, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (which began in October of 605 BC), Jerem-iah told the people that God had appointed Nebuchadnezzar king of kings, and that all the nations including Israel were to serve him (Jeremiah 25). He began his message by telling the people that he and other prophets had been preaching to them for 23 years, but that they had not listened. As a result, they were going to be given to judgment. Now, we have seen that Josiah’s reformation did take place, so some of the people did listen. We have also seen, however, that the icon worshippers of the high places did not accept the reformation, and that the rich and powerful were only waiting for an opportunity to begin abusing their power again. Thus, the poorer country people still harbored their images, and the rich city people still lusted for wealth and power. By and large, the people had not really listened.
Jeremiah lists the nations that will be given to Nebuchadnezzar in 25:18-26. In Jeremiah 46-49 he expands on this threat in letters sent to all these nations at this time. Egypt he mocks for their recent defeat at Carchemish, and he tells them that they will not be able to escape a full conquest by Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 46). This message is discussed more fully below.
He sends a letter to the Philistines also (Jeremiah 47). In a few years, in 601 BC, Pharaoh Neco will temporarily hold off Nebuchadnezzar and will conquer Gaza. But he will not hold it, and the Babylonians will take Philistia, Tyre, and Sidon.
Moab, Ammon, Edom, Syria, and the descendants of Ishmael (Kedar) are next informed that Babylon will raze them and destroy their gods (48:1–49:33). Finally there is a prophecy against Elam (the Medes), but since Babylon did not war against them, the reference is not to Babylon. This prophecy is fulfilled in the book of Esther (49:34-39).
Toward the end of Jehoiakim’s fourth year, in the summer of 604 BC, Jeremiah was told by Yahweh to write up all his previous prophecies into a book and give them to King Jehoiakim (36:1-3). It seems that this is the first form of Jeremiah 1-20, the prophecies of which are not specifically dated, and also of the oracles against the nations, Jeremiah 46-49. Jeremiah dictated this condensation and summary of his previous 23 years of work to Baruch, his scribe. It seems that Baruch complained and grieved overly much about the judgments that Yahweh was threatening, and so Jeremiah rebuked him, but promised him that God would spare his life (Jeremiah 45).
Jeremiah himself had been barred from the Temple (36:5), probably as a result of the riot a number of months earlier (Jeremiah 26, see discussion above). So he told Baruch to go to the Temple and read the book on a fast day. The only appointed fast day was the Day of Atonement, which came on the 10th of the 7th month, and would have been in the 5th year of Jehoiakim. Evidently, however, this was not the day intended. Rather, Baruch got the people to proclaim a fast in the 9th month and read it then. A certain Micaiah heard it read, and reported to some of the more religious officials of the king. They called for Baruch to read it to them, and they were struck with fear. They told Baruch that he and Jeremiah should go into hiding, and then they took the scroll to King Jehoiakim. As the scroll was being read, the King cut it into pieces and burned it, and then sent some of his other officials to seize Baruch and Jeremiah, but they were well hidden. Then God told Jeremiah to write it all again, and to add more words to it.
This second, more complete version of Jeremiah’s prophecies to date is probably what we have as Jeremiah 1-20. From reading it, we realize that all was not rosy in the years of Josiah. And this is not strange. Liberal "scholars" today say that the priests produced the book of Deuteronomy and then "found" it in the Temple and gave it to Josiah. Doubtless many in Israel believed the same thing. The image-worshippers of the high places had always resented the official, God-given worship at the Temple, and they doubtless saw the "discovery" of this book as just another "protestant ploy" to destroy their "holy traditions." The callous rich, while happy with the ornate cathedral worship style of the Jerusalem Temple, no doubt regarded the laws in the Book of the Covenant as having been fabricated to despoil them of their wealth. These two groups would accuse Josiah, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah of trying to centralize power in Jerusalem. They would conspire against Jeremiah, as we see in these chapters they did.
Jeremiah 1-20 summarizes God’s revelations to Jeremiah and his prophecies during the reign of Josiah up to the early days of Jehoiakim. They are prophecies of doom. Two centuries earlier Jonah had prophesied for only three days that Nineveh would be destroyed, but the Assyrians repented and Nineveh was spared. But Jeremiah prophesied destruction for 23 years, yet Israel did not repent. Thus, his prophecies eventually came true for them.
Nebuchadnezzar’s Conquest of Israel
Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem in the summer of 605 BC and transported some of the youth of the nobility back to Babylon to be incorporated into his retinue. We have already discussed this in our studies in Daniel, but to get a complete picture of the "countdown to exile," we need to review it here.
In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it; and Yahweh gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his gods, and he brought them into the treasury of his gods. (Daniel 1:1-2)
This statement, that Nebuchadnezzar invested Jerusalem in the 3d year of Jehoiakim, has been regarded as problematic because of statements we find elsewhere in the Bible. To get a full picture, let us consider all of these. First, 2 Kings 23:36-24:1:
36
Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37And he did evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that his fathers had done. 1In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.2 Chronicles 36:6-7 adds more:
5
Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king, and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem; and he did evil in the sight of Yahweh his God. 6Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him and bound him with bronze to take him to Babylon. 7Nebuchadnezzar also brought of the articles of Yahweh’s house to Babylon and put them in his temple at Babylon.Neither of these passages tells us when Nebuchadnezzar came up to Jerusalem this first time. Jeremiah 25:1 adds light on the subject:
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the 4th year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the 1st year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon).
In the oracle Yahweh says that Nebuchadnezzar is "My servant" (Jer. 25:9) and that all the "nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years" (v. 11).
So, Jeremiah says that Nebuchadnezzar’s 1st year is Jehoiakim’s 4th, and predicts that Nebuchadnezzar will conquer Judah and all surrounding nations; while Daniel 1:1 says that Nebuchadnezzar, as king, conquered Jerusalem in the 3d year of Jehoiakim. Is there a difficulty here?
Not yet. At this point the problem can easily be resolved. Sometime during the 3d year of Jehoiakim, Nabopolassar King of Babylon died and his son Nebuchadnezzar became king. This is Nebuchadnezzar’s Year 0, for the year is given to Nabopolassar as his last. During this year, Nebuchadnezzar invested and took Jerusalem. He brought Jehoiakim and some of the golden vessels of the Temple back to Babylon. Equivalent to the golden vessels were some of the nobility of Judah, which they symbolized, including Daniel and his friends; thus a party of the Judahite nobility’s youths was also brought to Babylon. Then Jehoiakim was sent back to rule Judah as Nebuchadnezzar’s vassal.
After Jehoiakim returned to Jerusalem, Jeremiah was given the prophecy recorded in Jeremiah 25, which was that from now on Nebuchadnezzar was going to rule the world. Keil in his commentary goes to great lengths to insist that this prophecy had to come before Nebuchadnezzar’s first investiture of Jerusalem, thus creating a conflict with Daniel 1:1. But Keil is simply being perverse. The prophecy of Jeremiah 25 says that Nebuchadnezzar is going to rule from now on, and that he will in time utterly destroy Jerusalem. Nothing in the prophecy conflicts with the notion that Nebuchadnezzar had already taken Jerusalem once.
In fact, the prediction in Jeremiah 25:9-11 certainly did not take place until the final destruction of Jerusalem:
9
"Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north," says Yahweh, "even to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, even against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I will put them under the ban and make them a horror and a hissing and an everlasting desolation. 10Moreover, I will cause to perish from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11And this whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years."If, however, someone still wants to insist that Jerem-iah 25 was prophesied before Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem the first time, the matter is still easy to explain. Daniel 1:1 simply says that Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim. Perhaps the siege was not completed until the 4th year of Jehoiakim. On the basis of Daniel 1-2, however, we must reject this possibility. (See discussion of Daniel 2 in the Daniel series.) And after all, there is no reason for such a convoluted explanation.
In 605 bc (using our present current consensus chronological dating system), Crown Prince Nebuchadnezzar was sent by his ailing father Nabopolassar to fight the Egyptians, who had three years previously invaded Babylonian territory and established themselves at Carchemish. In the spring of that year Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish, and then pursued them to Egypt. Thereafter he conquered Syria and Palestine. He probably took Jerusalem at this time, and probably without a fight. Pharaoh Neco had killed King Josiah at Megiddo three years earlier when he was advancing toward his futile attempt to reconquer Haran. Pharaoh had put Jehoiakim on the throne. Now that Pharaoh had been defeated, Jehoiakim could see the handwriting on the wall, and submitted to Nebuchadnezzar.
Then, on August 15, 605 bc, Nabopolassar King of Babylon died. Nebuchadnezzar immediately dropped everything and rushed to Babylon to take control before anarchy and conspiracy could get a foothold. He ascended the throne on September 7. This was still in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim.
The 4th year of Jehoiakim began in the fall, and thus shortly after Nebuchadnezzar became King of Babylon. After becoming king, Nebuchadnezzar quickly returned to Palestine and Syria and completed his conquests. He returned to Babylon with much spoil in late February of 604 bc. The Babylonians counted their kings’ regnal years from spring to spring, not from fall to fall; and Nebuchadnezzar shook hands with the statues of the gods Bel and Bel’s Son on the first day of Nisan (April 2, 604 bc). This began his first year of reign, by Babylonian reckoning, midway through the 4th year of Jehoiakim.
Putting it all together: In the summer of 605 bc Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and shipped back to Babylon some gold from the Temple, some of the youth of the nobility, and King Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar himself went to Babylon to become king shortly thereafter. Nebuchadnezzar is called King of Babylon in Daniel 1:1 because that is how he is known to history, even though he had not yet officially become king. A few months later, after Jehoiakim returned to Jerusalem, God told Jeremiah to inform him and the people that from now on Nebuchadnezzar was His servant, and all nations would need to submit to him. The message to Jehoiakim was: "Don’t even think about rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar."
Some have said, though, that the first year of Nebuchadnezzar did not start until April, and thus overlaps only the second half of Jehoiakim’s 4th year. Thus, Jeremiah had to be prophesying after Nebuchadnezzar became king officially, and had entered into his official first year. This argument assumes that Jeremiah is using the fall-to-fall reckoning for the kings of Judah and the spring-to-spring reckoning for Nebuchadnezzar. I don’t believe there is any reason to accept this line of thinking. The Bible itself teaches that national years are solar, and thus are reckoning from autumnal equinox to autumnal equinox, while religious months are lunar and are reckoned from vernal equinox to vernal equinox. There is no reason to think that Jeremiah or any other Bible writer would shift from the accepted way of reckoning years and adopt the Babylonian method, without a statement to that effect.
A more serious challenge seems to come from Jeremiah 46:2, which reads:
To Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, who went to the River Euphrates at Carchemish, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated, in the 4th year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah.
As this statement reads, it could mean that Nebuchadnezzar defeated Neco in the 4th year of Jehoiakim, or it could mean that the oracle is dated the 4th year of Jehoiakim. If the former, we have a problem, since it seems clear that Nebuchadnezzar defeated Neco at Carchemish in the 3rd year of Jehoiakim. This is not a likely interpretation, however. Virtually every other oracle and prophecy in Jeremiah is dated, and thus the date (4th year of Jehoiakim) is almost certainly the date of this oracle.
Now, the oracle itself begins with a description of the battle of Carchemish (Jer. 46:3-12), but since the heading of the letter has already stated that Pharaoh was defeated at Carchemish, the oracle must be taken as describing an event that has already taken place. In other words, at the beginning of the letter, Pharaoh Neco is addressed as someone who has already been defeated at Carchemish; this would make no sense if the battle had not already happened. Verses 3-4 call on the Egyptians to make ready for war, while verses 5-6 mock them for running away from the battle. Verses 7-9 describe the "rising of the Nile" as Egypt’s move into Babylonian territory four years previously, while verse 10 says that Egypt’s defeat was from the hand of Yahweh God. In verse 11a Egypt is invited to convert to the worship of Yahweh, while verses 11b and 12 state that their defeat has been visible to all the world.
Having described the defeat at Carchemish at the hands of Yahweh and His servant Nebuchadnezzar, Yahweh now tells Egypt that in the future Nebuchadnezzar will invade and conquer her (vv. 13-26). The point of the oracle seems to be this: God says, "I’ve defeated you once already, and I’m going to do so again. Repent and turn to Me!"
(to be continued)
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No. 29 Copyright (c) 1996 Biblical Horizons October, 1996
Concerning the Nations
by James B. Jordan
Revelation 21:24 says, concerning the light shining from the New Jerusalem, "and the nations will walk by her light, and the kings of the land will bring their glory into her." Similarly, Revelation 22:2 says, concerning the Tree of Life, that "the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Some (perhaps most) commentators still think that the New Heavens and New Earth and New Jerusalem are pictures of the _nal estate of humanity, after the Last Judgment. This is plainly impossible, because Revelation 22:17 reads, "And the Spirit and the bride say, `Come’; and let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost." Moreover, the gates are always open, according to Revelation 21:25-26: "And in the daytime – for there will be no night there – the gates will never be closed, and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into her."
The gates of the Church/Kingdom (New Jerusalem) are open, evangelism is ongoing, and the nations are transformed. This is just as Jesus commanded in the Great Commission: "disciple all nations."
What are "nations"? The Bible assumes that there are such things, and that they have distinct foci of existence (even if they have _uid and fuzzy boundaries historically and geographically). The Bible also assumes that it is right and proper for people to exist as parts of nations, thus condemning all drop-out sects like the Essenes and Anabaptists.
In my essay, "Tribes, Tongues, Peoples, Nations," in Studies in the Revelation No. 5, I pointed out that the Gentiles are routinely denoted by this four-fold phrase in Revelation. The term "nations" simply summarizes this more expansive description. I pointed out that "tongues" refers to the Patriarchal Era, after the Tower of Babel; "tribes" refers to the Sinaitic Era, the time of the Judges; "nations" refers to the Kingdom Era, when Israel was one nation among several; and "peoples" refers to the Restoration Era, when many peoples lived within the Ecumenical Imperia.
"Tongues" clearly is primary, or _rst. We can begin to de_ne a nation as a group having the same language, and consequently thinking the same way at this fundamental level. Languages set up associations and categories, and often a word in one language has no precise equivalent in another. People of one language group have a set of associations that they live by, which will not be the same as those living in another language group. This can be a dangerous thing, as nations fail to understand one another and get into con_ict; but it is also a glorious thing, as each language provides its own particular slant or perspective on God and the cosmos.
People speaking the same larger language may still employ various dialects, which create sub-cultures within the larger language culture. Think of the di_erences between British English, Indian English, Australian English, American English, Southern-American English, and Black-American English, for instance. These sub-languages have di_ering musical intonations, di_ering nuances of meaning, di_ering body language, and also some di_ering words and spellings.
Now, eventually we shall have to discuss situations like Switzerland, where three languages exist in one culture; but let us postpone that matter, and here focus on languages as the basis of nations.
The Tower of Babel
The origin of many tongues and nations comes at the Tower of Babel. We read in Genesis 11:1 that the whole earth was of one lip and had one set of words. It is important to understand that "lip" does not refer to language, but to religious belief, as a concordance study of this term will reveal. (See Zephaniah 3:9; Psalm 81:4-5; Isaiah 6:5-7; etc. See James B. Jordan, The Bible and the Nations (1988), p. 9, available from Biblical Horizons .)
The people built a city and a tower; the city a cultural unit gathered by their one language, and the tower a religious artifact built in terms of their one belief-system. In Genesis 11:6-9 we read that God attacked their tower and scattered the people in terms of their "lip," their religious beliefs.
The foundational scattering was not in terms of language and culture, but in terms of religion. Instead of one idolatrous system in the world, there came to be many. To be sure, from an objective perspective all of these idolatries are pretty much the same, but the nations do not think so. There is hardly a dime’s worth of di_erence between Molech and Chemosh, but the Moabites and Ammonites did not think they were the same at all. There is hardly a dime’s worth of di_erence between Leninism and Maoism, but the Russians and Chinese did not think so. Until the nations turn to the true faith, God keeps them at war with one another in terms of their idolatries, and thus keeps them weak.
Language, however, was also diversi_ed. The original tongue (almost certainly Hebrew, or proto-Hebrew) was scattered into thousands. This also helped keep the nations divided and relatively powerless.
The Gift of Tongues
The Day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2, is a validation of all these separate languages and cultures, but it overturns the scattering of idolatrous religions. The Day of Pentecost calls all people back to the true faith, without calling them to leave their languages and nations. This shows us that linguistic and cultural diversity was always part of God’s plan, and in itself is a good thing.
The meaning of the Gift of Tongues is this: Formerly, only the Hebrew tongue was a _t vehicle for the Word of God; but now all languages will become _t vehicles for the Word of God. The Spirit will transform all languages and cultures, and over the course of time, they will become increasingly _t vehicles for God’s Word and Kingdom. The temporary miraculous manifestation of the Gift of Tongues was a sign to the Jews that this had taken place; indeed, as a judgment on the Jews the gospel was not preached in Hebrew at all. Jews from every nation heard the gospel in their own languages, not in Hebrew or Aramaic. The New Testament was written in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic.
But the coming of the Spirit is permanent, and so the Gift of Tongues is also permanent. Every time the Bible is translated into a new tongue, the Gift of Tongues, given to the Church as a whole, is in operation. Every improvement on an initial translation is also a manifestation of that Gift.
The Jews had no authorization to translate the Hebrew scriptures before Pentecost. The fact that a copy of these scriptures was kept hidden in the Temple shows that the scriptures were not published to the nations as such. The Jews did make a "translation" into Greek, called the Septuagint, but they put numerous errors into it, almost certainly as a sign to Jewish readers (and to Yahweh) that they were not making an accurate translation. One of the great failures of the early Church was her failure to make an accurate Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures. Instead, the early Church relied on the Septuagint, and certain errors crept into the Church as a result (erroneous chronologies; confusion over the Apocrypha; etc.).
At any rate, the abiding presence of the Spirit’s Gift of Tongues is a validation of all languages and cultures within the sphere of the one true "lip" (religious belief).
The Meaning of Language
The Second Person of God is the Word of God. God is Language; He is Word. Indeed, the alphabetical psalms show us that God is Alphabet: Aleph through Tav – and now that all languages are validates, Alpha through Omega, and Aye through Zee. The Spirit or Breath of God makes the Word sound aloud, with musical intonation. God speaks, and His Word is His Second Person, and His breath or musical intonation is His Third Person. This it not the only way to speak of the Triunity of God, of course, but it is one of the ways the Bible reveals, and it is the way we must speak of it here.
Human beings are made in the image of God. Like the Father, we breathe out our words with our breath (spirit). Thus, our language is part of the essence of what we are as human beings. Moreover, we are made particularly in the image of the Son of God, the Word. We are living words, living epistles, living torahs. The only thing more fundamental is our religious confession, our worship (primarily) of the Father. If we are _rst of all worshippers (homo adorans), we are also always second of all speakers.
The diversity of languages makes for a multiplicity of manifestations of the Word of God. The Son is revealed in the forms and structures (grammar) of languages. Language is a form of "natural revelation" that shows God to us, especially the Word of God. The structures of language are the structures of human life, as the work of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy points out.
Thus, the diversity of languages means a diversity of the image of God. The original image (Adam) is refracted into all the human beings who have ever lived, and at another level is refracted into all the language groups (nations) that have ever existed.
Now this is the important point: If individual human beings are images of God, and if also individual marriages and families are images of God, so are nations. Each nation is a distinct image of God, as distinct as individual human beings and individual families. The God who saves individuals and families is also a God who saves nations as nations.
This is the actual command of the Great Commission: Disciple all nations. Jesus might have said, "disciple the world," but that might have implied that nations are to disappear. He might have said, "disciple individuals" or "families," but that might have implied that nations as such are not to be discipled. The phrase "disciple the all nations" clearly means the whole world, and embraces individuals and families as well.
The mode of national discipleship, and of individual and family discipleship, is the transformation of warped, perverted, bad language patterns into _t, proper, and Godly language patterns, without destroying or replacing the language itself. This process begins when the Word is taken into a new language by an evangelist and is prophetically proclaimed in that new language. The Word (Bible) acts to transform the language (as Luther’s Bible transformed German, and as the King James Bible transformed English).
As a result, individuals, families, and nations begin to think in new ways, in new categories. One of the problems with missions lies at just this point. Missionaries tend to take the Christian cultural products of their own language-nation and impose them on their converts. Thus, we have the incredibly stupid phenomenon of Korean Christians singing American gospel songs. What needs to happen, however, is to take the Word (with sacrament and transformed life-in-community) into the new culture, and then let the new culture _ower into its own expressions. The linguistic tones and cadences of Korean will eventually produce Korean hymns, based _rst on the psalter and then arising from translations of the traditional hymns and new hymns written in Korean.
Tongues, Tribes, Nations, Peoples
There is a progression and a diversi_cation of the concept of "nation" in history, originating in linguistic diversity. The tribe speaks the same language, and rejoices in the sound of its language as sung, but does not usually have a set geographical location. The tribe moves about.
The nation has a set geographical location with a king and a capital city. Because of this, the nation may have on its fringe people who do not speak the o_cial language of the nation, but who are in the process of acculturating into the nation. We see this in the history of the United States.
The people, living within an empire or wider culture (e.g., Western Civilization), has its own language and culture, but is also part of a larger language and culture. There is a common language that everyone knows in addition to his own. In the Greek and Roman world, that language was Greek. In Western Civilization it used to be Latin, while today it is English.
Accordingly, we have to say that it is possible for a culture or a nation to have more than one language. There are many languages in China, but it is basically one (or two) culture(s). China overcomes its linguistic diversity by having one written language that consists of ideographs rather than of letters that spell out sounds. People of various languages can read the same ideographs, but will sound the words di_erently. Switzerland has three o_cial languages, and people are expected to know all three.
We should note, though, that all Chinese languages are of the same basic type, as are the three Swiss languages. But in the future, who knows what combinations of language and culture God will bring about?
Conclusion
What makes a group of people a nation is primarily its common language. Since language can exist at several levels, so can national organizations. Southern-American English and Black-American English both exist in the larger context of American English. Each Swiss Canton has its own language, but is part of the larger Swiss Confederation. All educated people in the ancient world spoke Greek, but also their own national languages. All educated people in the Middle Ages spoke Latin, but also their national languages. Though geography plays a role in determining what a nation is, it is secondary. Boundaries are less important than language and culture. Governments also play a role, but governments come and go, while language remains.
Afterword: Further Investigations
The various studies of Thomas Sowell have shown that national and sub-national cultural groups possess cultural abilities, disabilities, and tendencies. These characteristics are retained even when the group migrates into another national culture and learns a new language.
The explanation for this phenomenon can hardly be genetic (contrary to The Bell Curve), and is not cultural in the purely environmental sense. If the latter were the case, immigrant groups would lose their tendencies as they assimilate into the new nation.
A plausible explanation for this phenomenon is found in the research of Rupert Sheldrake and his associates, summarized in Sheldrake’s The Presence of the Past: Morphic Resonance and the Habits of Nature (New York: Random House Vintage Books, 1989). Sheldrake argues that while there is no inheritance of acquired characteristics in the genetic sense, there is such an inheritance in a "_eld" sense. Each animal, crystal, human society, etc. has a "type," and that "type" changes in time in response to changed conditions and as a result of habitual reinforcement. Changes in "type" of a_ect entire populations of a given kind of creature, and usually happen in response to catastrophic changes in environment. Such patterns or habits of existence exist at various hierarchical levels, so that as regards human life, certain sub-groups within a nation may become loosely patterned toward certain occupations, while the nation itself may become loosely patterned toward certain orientations, and the human race as a whole is being patterned by God’s hand toward her ful_llment and destiny.
I believe that what Sowell and Sheldrake are uncovering has much to say about God’s intentions for nations. God has diversi_ed the human race linguistically and also culturally, and all of these groups are to be transformed by and bring their blessings to the New Jerusalem. Further study is, however, needed in this area.
