Kenneth Frank Doig 

1. After Judas Maccabee and his loyal Jews recaptured Jerusalem from the soldiers of Antiochus IV Epiphines, the Temple was rededicated on December 14, 164 BCE. The Jewish equivalent of this day is still celebrated as the Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah (Jesus was born on Hanukkah, equivalent in 5 BCE to December 25). Soon after this Antiochus IV died and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Antiochus V Eupator. Lysias waged war in the young king's name against Judas Maccabee, when "in the year 150 they assembled and stormed the citadel" in Jerusalem (1 Macc. 6:20). Judas moved away from Jerusalem and engaged in several battles, retreating from Beth‑zur, where the king "made peace with the men of Beth‑zur, and they evacuated the city, because they had no food there to enable them to stand a siege, for that was a Sabbath year in the land" (1 Macc. 6:49). Judas had further difficulties because "there were no provisions in the storerooms, because it was the seventh year, and the tide‑over provisions had been eaten up" (1 Macc. 6:53). However, due to problems in Antioch, the Syrians retreated, and the Jews gained their independence through a peace treaty. The year 150 is measured on the Seleucid Era beginning in the spring of 311 BCE, this according to Babylonian and Jewish reckoning (see the chapter, "The Evolution of the Jewish Calendar"). The year 150 began Nisan, or April 5, 162. The sabbatical year began in the fall of 163 and ended in 162. According to our chronology we will use the second half of the sabbatical year in 162. Josephus (Ant. XII, chapter 9) later retold the above account.

2. In the year John Hyrcanus became High Priest, he besieged Ptolemy at the fortress of Dagon, near Jericho. After the brutal slaying of his mother, Hyrcanus became disheartened and withdrew. The attack had been delayed until after Tishri 1, the "year on which the Jews use to rest came on; for the Jews observe this rest every seventh year, as they do every seventh day" (Ant. XIII 8:1; Wars I 2:4). John Hyrcanus became High Priest in 135. The reference to the sabbatical year was to the rest beginning in Tishri of 135. According to our chronology, this will be listed from Nisan of 134.

3. 37/36 BCE - See also Herodian Chronology. Herod's army besieged Jerusalem which was "distressed by famine and the want of necessaries, for this happened to be the Sabbatic Year" (Ant. XIV 16:2). "This destruction befell the city of Jerusalem when Marcus Aprippa and Caninius Gallus were Consuls at Rome, on the hundred and eighty-fifth Olympiad, on the third month, on the solemnity of the fast, as if a periodical revolution of calamities had returned since that which befell the Jews under Pompey; for the Jews were taken by him on the same day, as this was after twenty-seven years' time" (Ant. XIV 16:4). At that time the city was in distress, caused "in part by the Sabbatic Year, which was still going on, and forced the country to lie still uncultivated, since we are forbidden to sow the land in that year" (Ant. XV 1:2). The Consuls mentioned served in 37 BCE. The 185th Olympiad ended July 16, 37 BCE. The fast fell on Sivan 22 in memory of Jeroboam forbidding sacrifices in Jerusalem, or June 21, 37 BCE.

The sowing of the land occurs in the first half of the revised sabbatical year beginning in Tishri. Therefore, this reference is to the year 37 is for the period between September 7, 37 and October 15, 36. Again, according to our chronology, the second half of the sabbatical year when the crops were reaped will be used, that is 36 BCE.

4.  The Talmud relates that, "The day on which the first Temple was destroyed of the ninth of Ab, and it was at the going out of the Sabbath and at the end of the seventh year... The same happened the second time. But how is it possible that the second time it happened at the end of the septennate?" (Babylonian Talmud, Mishna, Arakin 11b, 12b; see also Shab. 33a). Thus, 70 CE when the Temple was destroyed was the second half of a sabbatical year, observed in 69/70. (The reference to the first Temple being destroyed during a sabbatical year must be an error, probably related to attempting to discern God's time cycles in worldly affairs. That Temple was destroyed in 586, whereas, the sabbatical years fell in 589 (590/589) and 582 (583/582). This would mean that the first Temple was destroyed in the second half of the sabbatical year, that is the first half of 589 or 582. Such cannot be established from Scripture or history.)

Thus, we have four dates for sabbatical years after 519. These are 162 BCE, 134 BCE, 36 BCE and 70 CE. These are all in seven year multiples of each other. It is not possible to interject any additional years for jubilee years on a fifty year cycle in the sequence and then maintain the seven year cycles. Thus, the exact seven-year cycle for sabbatical years and the forty-nine year cycle for jubilee years is established. These years also establish the sequence used in antiquity.

Proceeding from this base we take from our chronology the first sabbatical year as 1499 (Section BE). Joshua and Israel crossed the Jordan and entered the Promised Land in 1512. They fought and conquered the land in seven years, ending in 1506. During that year "the land had rest from war." (Josh. 14:15) As the year progressed the land was distributed and the first crops sown. The reaping of the first crop, and the first year of the first seven, was the following year, 1505. The seventh year, or first sabbatical year, was in 1499

According to the Talmud there were seven years of conquest, seven years to distribute the land and then seven years to the first sabbatical year (Seder Olam 12). Thus, the first sabbatical year would have been in the twenty-first year instead of the fourteenth year after the entry into Canaan. Nowhere in Scripture is there any indication that the distribution of the land took seven years. The war was over in the seventh year (Section BD). There is every expectation that the Jews, tired of manna and war, would have immediately have begun to plant throughout their conquered land. The time to distribute the land would have been short, and would not have prevented those who had already received a portion to begin to sow. Scripture does not support the Talmud's delay of seven years. This may have been an attempt by the Rabbis to shift the cycle forward seven years to have the jubilee year begin in 70 CE when the Temple was destroyed; then the land would seemingly be restored to its original owner, God.

Can we find a year in which a jubilee cycle is identified? The Book of Ezekiel opens, "Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth of the month in the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's exile..." (Ezek. 1:1‑2). Here the thirtieth year of a jubilee cycle is equated with the fifth year of Jehoiachin's exile (see section GL). The year was 593. On the following chart the eighteenth jubilee was in 623, and the thirtieth year following was in 593. The forty-ninth year was the following nineteenth jubilee in 574. Thus, the following table of sabbatical and jubilee years is in correct sequence, whatever the starting date. Ezekiel's dating is laid out as follows:

Ezekiel's Thirtieth Year