The
orthodox period of reign of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V revised.
This weeks article continues with the revision of the
kings of Assyria in order to bring them in a chronological line with the
contemporary Biblical kings at the time. Our first article was the one of 01.07.2019: Assyriology revised. The
Biblical Assyrian kings Pul and Tiglath Pileser III are two separate kings and
not one. See link: http://bloggen.be/Robertdetelder/archief.php?startdatum=1561932000&stopdatum=1562536800
© Robert De Telder,
Dertig Jubeljaren, 2018, page 265
Assyriology has a fundamentalist approach in the way
they present the fixing of the Assyrian kings on the timescale of history.
Their fixing point of the reported Sun eclipse during the eponym of Bur-Sagale
over Nineveh in 763 BC may be correct their teaching however that no names are supposedly
missing or were ever deleted in the Assyrian kings list or Eponym lists is
impossible to accept. Other historical sources like the Bible and the historian
Flavius Josephus learn different but are rejected. This is however not my
viewpoint and this article and the ones to follow will show that some Assyrian
kings-names definitely went missing, were deleted from the kings list and that
on several occasions in their history the Assyrian kings had co-regencies and
consequently it is the Assyrian kings list and its modern chronology that needs
adjusting.
The successor of Tiglath Pileser III was his son
Shalmaneser V who is mentioned in the Bible as the Assyrian king who besieged
and conquered Samaria and carried away the ten tribes of Israel into captivity.
According to orthodox Assyriology it was Sargon II who took Samaria and was
responsible for the exile of the ten tribes Israel. The preserved annals of
Sargon II are regarded as truthful history recording? Orthodox Assyriology placed
the reign period of Shalmaneser V on the timescale from 727 BC till 719 BC
based on their interpretation of the Eponym list. The fall of Samaria is
accordingly in contradiction with the Bible, fixed at 722 BC instead of the year
717 BC. obtained when applying Flavius Josephus Biblical statements:
7b.
And such was
the end of the nation of the Hebrews, as it hath been delivered down to us, it
having twice gone beyond Euphrates; for the people of the ten tribes were carried out of Samaria by the Assyrians, in the
days of king Hoshea; after which the people of the two tribes that remained after Jerusalem was taken [were
carried away] by Nebuchadnezzar, the
king of Babylon and Chaldea. Now as to Shalmanezer,
he removed the Israelites out of their country, and placed therein the nation
of the Cutheans, who had formerly belonged to the inner parts of Persia and
Media, but were then called Samaritans, by taking the name of the country to
which they were removed; but the king of Babylon, who brought out the two
tribes, placed no other nation in their country, by which means all Judea and
Jerusalem, and the temple, continued to
be a desert for seventy years; but the
entire interval of time which passed from the captivity of the Israelites,
to the carrying away of the two tribes, proved to be a hundred and thirty years, six months, and ten days.
Flavius Josephus,
Antiquities, Chapter X, ix.7b
The exile of the
two tribes by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is fixed in the year 586 BC
in the month Ab or July/August. Which leads us to the year 717 BC for the
exiles of the ten tribes.
Assyriology has furthermore Sennacherib besieging
Jerusalem in 701 BC based on the same interpretation of the eponym list. The
Biblical year for this event is 709 BC. The fabricated years of 722 and 701 BC
are in contradiction with the Bible Book 2 Kings 18 that clearly states that
the fall of Samaria occurred in the sixth year of reign of Hezekiah and the
same Bible passage has Sennacherib at the gates of Jerusalem in year fourteen
of Hezekiah. One of the two sources is incorrect.
2 Kings 18:1 Now it came
to pass in the third year of Hoshea
son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah
the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 Twenty and five years old was
he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem.
His mother's name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. 3 And he did that
which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his
father did. 4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the
groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto
those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it
Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none
like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. 6 For he
clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his
commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him; and
he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and
he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not. 8 He smote the
Philistines, even unto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the
watchmen to the fenced city. 9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of
Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser
king of Assyria came up against
Samaria, and besieged it. 10 And at
the end of three years they took it: even in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that
is in the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 And
the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah
and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes: 12 Because
they obeyed not the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant,
and all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and would not hear them,
nor do them. 13 Now in the fourteenth
year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all
the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
The sixth year of reign of Hezekiah is according to my
revision established to be the year October 718/September 717 BC (TIJD en
TIJDEN, 2015, page 327/330) and is used as a navigation-point on the timescale. The fall of Samaria in the sixth
year of reign of king Hezekiah is as such fixed on the timescale in February of
the year 717 BC. The siege of Samaria had lasted three years after which the
city was taken. Scripture firmly fixes the kings of Judah and Israel on the
timescale.
The
obtained years deviate from the commonly accepted years 722 BC for the fall of
Samaria and 701 BC for the fourteenth year of Hezekiah. These years were fabricated by Edwin R. Thiele
(1895/1986) and published in his book The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew
Kings, 1977. Thiele shortened the reign lengths of the kings of Judah and
Israel in order to make them fit with the Assyrian Kings-list and bring them in
line with the supposedly years of reign of Sargon II and Sennacherib.
Not all researchers realize however that in order for
Thiele to offer his reconstruction of the chronology of the Hebrew Kings to the
world he had to declare that 2 Kings 18 was superficially added to the Bible. A
bold statement he made since he was not able to fix 2 Kings 18 to fit with the
Assyrian kings list and its supposedly fixed years. This is not however my
viewpoint and the article will show that it are the Assyrian years of reign of
Shalmaneser V, Sargon II and Sennacherib that need to be adjusted on the
timescale.
Let us start with the Eponym list and its interpretation
in order to adjust Shalmaneser s reign on the time scale and bring it in line
with Bible-chronology. It will also be shown that Shalmaneser reigned much
longer than the years granted according to the eponym list. Let us start with
the eponym list as it is usually interpreted:
[727/726]
During the eponomy of B�l-Harran-b�la-usur, the governor of
Guzana, campaign against [...]. Ðalmaneser
[V] ascended the throne.
[726/725]
During the eponomy of Marduk-b�la-usur, the governor of Amedi, the king stayed in the
land.
[725/724]
During the eponomy of Mahde, the governor of Nineveh, campaign against [.?.].
[724/723]
During the eponomy of Aðður-iðmanni, the governor of Kalizi, campaign against [.?.].
[723/722]
During the eponomy of Ðalmaneser, the king of Assyria, campaign against [.?.].
[722/721]
During the eponomy of Inurta-ilaya, the commander in chief.
[721/720]
During the eponomy of Nab�-taris, the governor of [.?.]ti.
[720/719]
During the eponomy of Aðður-nirka-da'in, the governor of [.?.]ru.
[719/718]
During the eponomy of Sargon [II], the
king of Assyria entered [.?.].
The number of question marks that are added in the
above mentioned text shows that not much is known about Shalmaneser based on
the eponym list only. The only discovered Assyrian source beside the eponym
list is a text-fragment on a small cylinder that is kept in the British Museum
(K.38345). The text as published by Daniel David Luckenbill, Chicago, 1926,
reads as follows:
829.
who did not bow in submission at his feet
the
mention of his name
his word (?)
bringing
hastely before him
those not
obedient to my (?) command
that
he caused to be surrounded, surrounding the
town
the god in whom he trusted
with his help not draw my (?) yoke
who
carried off
and was turning (them, it) to himself (his known use)
his word
and the mention of his name they did not fear, and did not dread his rule
overflowed his land (?) and laid it low like a deluge
his own
fell upon him
and his life was no more
I (?) carried off and brought to Assyria. 830. I am Shalmaneser the mighty king,
king of the universe, king of Assyria,
king of the four regions of the world, viceroy
of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, son of
, king of Assyria; most
precious scion of Assyria, seed of Royalty, of the eternal days
of Borsippa,
whose site (?) had been damaged by the
violence of the mighty floods
its damage I repaired and strengthened its
structure.
May Nabu look upon the temple with delight.
And that is all what we have on Shalmaneser V outside
the Bible and Flavius Josephus. The latter mentioned historian can also be used
to reconstruct the time of reign of Shalmaneser on the timescale after which it
is clear that a damnatio memoriae was carried out by Shalmaneser s
successor: Sargon II.
Assyriology does accept that Shalmaneser V laid siege
to Samaria as stated by the Bible. They read Samaria in the missing places in
the eponyms of Mahde, Assur-ismanni and Shalmaneser where we have a
question-mark between brackets in the above mentioned eponym list. Other
sources have Shamarain mentioned
in the eponym list. Although Shamarain deviates from the normally used Samerinaya
for Samaria by the Assyrians, one chooses for the identification with Samaria.
Against this identification spoke the well-known Albright (quoted by
Merrill F. Unger, Israel and the Aramaeans of Damascus, Chapter X, footnote
33). Shamarain or better Shabarain is
to be identified with Sibraim whereas Samarinaya remains Samarinaya for
Samaria.
The siege of Samaria lasted three years and the
conclusion should be that three years are herewith missing in the Eponym list
showing at the same time that the list is not complete and has definitely parts missing. This conclusion however was unthinkable for
Thiele when he made his shameless declaration about the Bible.
2 Kings 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine
years. 2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as
the kings of Israel that were before him. 3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his
servant, and gave him presents. 4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy
in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no
present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king
of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria came
up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three
years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and
carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the
river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7 For so it was, that the
children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought
them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt,
and had feared other gods, 8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom
the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of
Israel, which they had made.
The
Bible places Shalmaneser V much earlier on the throne of Assyria than the
Eponym list seems to learn. The above mentioned quotation places Shalmaneser on
the throne when Hoshea became king over Israel in the twelfth year of reign of
Ahaz. This year was established to be oct727/sep726 BC. But since Hoshea had
two terms of reign over Israel of nine years each, one as vassal of Assyria and
one as independent of Assyria we have to put Shalmaneser already as co-king
from 735 BC being year 20 since the death of king Jotham of Judah.
2 Kings 15:29 In the time
of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser
king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh and
Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and
deported the people to Assyria. 30 Then
Hoshea son of Elah conspired against Pekah son of Remaliah. He attacked and
assassinated him, and then succeeded him
as king in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah. 31 As for the other
events of Pekahs reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of
the annals of the kings of Israel?
Shalmaneser V was a co-regent of Tiglath Pileser III.
There was clearly more than one king in Assyria at the same time. Some kings in
co-regencies others even as co-kings. In his last year Pekah before he was
murdered by Hoshea marched against Jerusalem allied with Aram. It is in that
particular year that king Ahaz of Judah wrote a letter to the kings of Assyria (kings
in plural) for help against the deadly alliance of Samaria and Damascus.
2 Chronicles 28:16 At that
time did king Ahaz send unto the kings
of Assyria to help him. 17 For again the Edomites had come and smitten
Judah, and carried away captives. 18 The Philistines also had invaded the
cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken
Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof,
and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and
they dwelt there. 19 For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of
Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord. 20 And
Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came
unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
© Robert De Telder,
Dertig Jubeljaren, 2018, page 266
The letter was sent to the kings of Assyria in plural
but it was Tiglath Pileser III who descended to Damascus in 735 BC attacking
the Arameans from the rear thus relieving Judah. I have Shalmaneser V in my
revision sharing the crown of Assyria as from the year 735 BC.
Hereafter follows the adjusted eponym list for
Shalmaneser V. The years between brackets are the year of orthodox Assyriology:
730/729 [727/726] During the eponomy of B�l-Harran-b�la-usur,
the governor of Guzana, campaign against [.?.]. Ðalmaneser [V] ascended the throne.
729/728 [726/725] During the eponomy of Marduk-b�la-usur,
the governor of Amedi, the king stayed in the land.
728/727 [725/724] During the eponomy of Mahde, the governor of
Nineveh, campaign against [Shamarain?].
727/726 [724/723] During the eponomy of Aðður-iðmanni, the
governor of Kalizi, campaign against [Shamarain?].
726/725 [723/722] During the eponomy of Ðalmaneser, the king
of Assyria, campaign against [Shamarain?].
725/724 [722/721] During the eponomy of Inurta-ilaya, the
commander in chief.
724/723 [721/720] During the eponomy of Nab�-taris,
the governor of [.?.]ti.
723/722 [720/719] During the eponomy of Aðður-nirka-da'in,
the governor of [.?.]ru.
Comment:
In April 722 BC the month and year of the death of King Ahaz of Judah a mega-nature-catastrophe
struck the ancient world and is among other causes responsible for another
damnatio memoriae in Assyria carried out by the successor of Shalmaneser V:
Sargon II. The earlier mentioned text on a cylinder kept in the British Museum
refers to the violence of the mighty floods and is a description of the
destructions caused by the mega-nature-catastrophe.
We
do not know as yet what the whereabouts of Shalmaneser V where in the years
722/721 BC and 721/720 BC but from the spring of 720 BC till 717 BC we have him
definitely according to biblical chronology besieging Samaria. At the same time
we have Sargon II as a co-regent of Shalmaneser V campaigning against Ashdod
and other cities in the Levant while Shalmaneser V was besieging Samaria. After
the demise of Shalmaneser V much later his co-regent Sargon II claimed all the credit
for the siege of Samaria and the deportation of Israel in exile.
After
the siege of Samaria we know from Flavius Josephus that Shalmaneser started a
siege of Tyrus that would last five years.
1. WHEN Shalmaneser,
the king of Assyria, had it told him, that [Hoshea] the king of Israel had
sent privately to So, the king of Egypt, desiring his assistance against him,
he was very angry, and made an expedition against Samaria, in the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he
was not admitted [into the city] by the king, he besieged Samaria three years, and took it by force in the ninth year
of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh year of Hezekiah, king of
Jerusalem, and quite demolished the government of the Israelites, and
transplanted all the people into Media and Persia among whom he took king
Hoshea alive; and when he had removed these people out of this their land he
transplanted other nations out of Cuthah, a place so called, (for there is
[still] a river of that name in Persia,) into Samaria, and into the country of
the Israelites.
. 2. And now
the king of Assyria invaded all Syria and Phoenicia
in a hostile manner. The name of this king is also set down in the archives of Tyre, for he made an expedition against
Tyre in the reign of Eluleus; and
Menander attests to it, who, when he wrote his Chronology, and translated the
archives of Tyre into the Greek language, gives us the following history: One
whose name was Eluleus reigned
thirty-six years; this king, upon the revolt of the Citteans, sailed to
them, and reduced them again to a submission. Against these did the king of
Assyria send an army, and in a hostile manner overrun all Phoenicia, but soon
made peace with them all, and returned back; but Sidon, and Ace, and Palsetyrus
revolted; and many other cities there were which delivered themselves up to the
king of Assyria. Accordingly, when the Tyrians would not submit to him, the king returned, and fell upon them
again, while the Phoenicians had furnished him with threescore ships, and eight
hundred men to row them; and when the Tyrians had come upon them in twelve
ships, and the enemy's ships were dispersed, they took five hundred men
prisoners, and the reputation of all the citizens of Tyre was thereby
increased; but the king of Assyria returned, and placed guards at their rivers
and aqueducts, who should hinder the Tyrians from drawing water. This continued for five years; and
still the Tyrians bore the siege, and drank of the water they had out of the
wells they dug." And this is what
is written in the Tyrian archives concerning Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria.
Translation
by William Whiston: http://sacred-texts.com/jud/josephus/ant-9.htm )
The
five-year siege of Tyrus is not mentioned in the eponym list nor preserved otherwise
in Assyria. We only have the recording by Flavius Josephus who refers to the
archives of the Tyrians. It all shows clearly the damnatio memoriae carried
out by Sargon II regarding his predecessor Shalmaneser V.
The
siege of Tyrus by Shalmaneser V started in the year 717 BC and lasted till 712
BC. The Eponym of ðarru-emuranni in the year 712/711 BC has the king stayed in
the land, which is an euphemism regarding Sargon II for doing nothing. The
reason being the invasion of the Greeks in the Levant and Egypt in 712 BC. A
flood of Greek warriors that was repelled by Egyptian forces and was all over
by the end of the summer of 712 BC.
Orthodox
Assyriology identifies Shalmaneser V with a Babylonian king named Uloulaios who
according to the Ptolemy-canon reigned from 726 BC till 721 BC. In view of the
reconstruction of Shalmaneser Vs reign we do not have to seek this difficult
identification anymore and leave Uloulaios independent on the throne of Babylon
while Shalmaneser V was satisfied with a tributary-status regarding Babylon
just like his predecessor Tiglath Pileser III.
The
conclusion regarding the revision of the length of reign of Shalmaneser is that
he apparently reigned much longer than the Eponym-list is showing. Revised we
have him on the time-scale from at least 735 BC till 712 BC. The Greek invasion
revised to the year 712 BC interrupted the siege of Tyrus by the Assyrian army
of Shalmaneser V and probably caused the end of the king. Sargon II who had
stayed in the land that year took control of the state and carried out his
damnatio memoriae on Shalmaneser V the result being that today we only have a
small cylinder with a fragmentary text on it and a few lines in the
Eponym-list. Sargon II claimed the fall of Samaria to be his achievement as
well as the deportation of the ten tribes of Israel in Assyrian exile.
To
be continued
Robert
De Telder
Recent
publications (Dutch):
see link: https://boekentips.com/auteur/2508383/robert-de-telder
