Week 14 1 Kings
I ran into a dating problem.
Kings says: Elah…began to rule over Israel…in the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. (Elah) reigned in Israel two years.
Elah only reigned for two years because one of his commanders – Zimri – assassinated him. So then – when did Zimri become king? King says: Zimri began to rule over Israel…in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. So that doesn’t sound quite right.
If Elah started his two-year reign in Asa’s 26th year and if he reigned for two years then you’d think he was assassinated in Asa’s 28th year.
What do I do? I don’t know for sure so I’m guessing but one way to come at it is to figure that Elah’s two-year reign wasn’t a 365×2-year reign. In that case Elah became king in Asa’s 26th year (which counts as Elah’s year one) and he was assassinated in Asa’s 27th year (Elah’s second & last year).
Trying to deal with bible dates can be a nightmare. I’m maybe tempted to say to the writer “you’re wrong because Elah couldn’t have reigned for 730 days” but the writer comes back with “who’s saying anything about 730 days all I said was that he reigned during two calendar years?”
Trying to deal with bible dates is a real nightmare so while I’m reading-through I usually just read them and move on.
Today was an exception.
Note: quotes from 1 Kings 16:8 & 15 (NLT)