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TABLE 4. 251 Years from the Exodus to the Era of Jerusalem
294 Years (6 Jubilees) after the Exodus

BC 1255

(251 x 5)

Exodus

1010

David rules after 245 yrs. (5 jubilees) after the Exodus.

1004

(251 x 4)

David captures Jerusalem 251 x 11 after Adam.

968 Temple founded

961 Temple finished and dedicated 294 yrs. (6 jubilees) after the Exodus,

49 yrs. (1 jubilee) after the Exodus

Jack Finegan’s Handbook of Biblical Chronology and the work of Kenneth Kitchen are compatible with the judges lasting about 111 and having 251 years from the Exodus to David. It is interesting that one of the periods is 251 years. This would be compatible with Hammurabi or “Aramphel” being killed by Abraham in about 1686 to 1674 BC, before Abraham was 86, as in the views of William F. Albright and Sidney Smith.

Why haven’t researchers settled on 1255 being the date of the Exodus? If there were a cure for cancer, would researchers expose it? If there were a carburetor that could get 100 miles per gallon, would researchers expose it? Kitchen says the Exodus was in about 1260 BC, and Finegan says it was in 1250. Why not 1255?

Archbishop James Ussher, in The Annals of the World, page 60, says David began ruling in a Jubilee year and continued for seven years in Hebron. He says David conquered Jerusalem, and “The ark of the covenant… was brought from Kirjathjearim in a Sabbatical year… David rejoiced before it, and sang a song.”

David ruled another 33 years in Jerusalem, and Solomon finished the temple in his 11^th year. “…in the next Jubilee year… he (Solomon) brought the ark into the Holy of Holies in the temple” (Ussher: page 60). Ussher continues on page 67 saying, “In the eleventh year of Solomon’s reign, in the eighth month, called Bul, the temple and its furnishings were completed. It had taken seven years and six months to build. The dedication of the temple was postponed until the autumn of the next year, because that was the beginning of the Jubilee year.”

We could connect these Sabbaticals with Noah’s son, Shem, who was 98 years (two Jubilees) old at the Flood, and the Exodus was 122 Sabbaticals (854 years) after the Flood, 294 years, (6 Jubilees) before the temple was finished (1656 + 854 = 2510).

A word of caution: The ark was taken by the Philistines and it remained at the house of Abinadab 20 years (I Sam. 7:1-2). David brought the ark from the house of Abinadab to Jerusalem (II Sam. 6:3). So, Rabbinic tradition says it was only gone for 20 years. Josephus says the period of Samuel, Saul and seven years of David were more like 56 years. The difference is 36 years, just as there are 36 years from David’s 33 yrs. in Jerusalem and Solomon’s three years in Jerusalem before founding the temple in 968 BC.

Rabbinic tradition also says there were 277 years from Solomon’s fourth year until the Assyrian captivity of Israel in 721 BC, but it is now known that the kings of Israel overlapped 30 years from 968 to 721 BC.

Without catching these flaws, the rabbinic tradition has 480 years from the Exodus to the temple (allegedly 1312 to 832 BC) and 480 years from the founding of the first temple to the founding of the second temple (832 to 352 BC), and their dates after 721 BC are 166 years off.