ClaimChronology and 607 BCEverified1980sExplicit statement

Chronologie und 607 v. u. Z. · Claim record

Das ganze Schema ist an 539 v. u. Z. für den Fall Babylons verankert; die Organisation begründet dieses Jahr mit den antiken Geschichtsschreibern Diodor, Africanus, Eusebius und Herodot, mit Ptolemäus, mit datierten Keilschrifttafeln und mit einer astronomischen Tafel, die zwei Mondfinsternisse festhält.

Claim ID claim-chronology-539-pivotal-dateConcerns 1988Ausdrückliche Aussage

Die Aussage und ihre Belege

Ausdrückliche Aussage · 1988 Geprüft

Das ganze Schema ist an 539 v. u. Z. für den Fall Babylons verankert; die Organisation begründet dieses Jahr mit den antiken Geschichtsschreibern Diodor, Africanus, Eusebius und Herodot, mit Ptolemäus, mit datierten Keilschrifttafeln und mit einer astronomischen Tafel, die zwei Mondfinsternisse festhält. Source: Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 1, 1988Source: The Watchtower, 1. Oktober 2011

Die Position der Organisation oder ihre spätere Erklärung: Einsichten behandelt 539 v. u. Z. als ein „Schlüsseldatum“ und erklärt, darunter sei „ein Geschichtsdatum“ zu verstehen, „das weithin als gesichert gilt und einem hervorragenden Ereignis entspricht, das in der Bibel aufgezeichnet ist“.

Belege anzeigen (2 Quellen)
Primärveröffentlichung von Jehovas Zeugen Geprüft

Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 1, “Chronology”

1988 · pp.458-459 · under “From Human Creation to the Present” · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“Another date that can be used as a pivotal point is the year 539 B.C.E., supported by various historical sources as the year for the overthrow of Babylon by Cyrus the Persian. (Secular sources for Cyrus’ reign include Diodorus, Africanus, Eusebius, and Ptolemy, as well as the Babylonian tablets.)”

The article explains that a pivotal date must be “a date in history that has sound basis for acceptance and that corresponds with a particular event recorded in the Bible”, and reasons that Cyrus’ decree was issued by the winter of 538 or spring of 537 B.C.E., allowing the exiles to reach Jerusalem “by the seventh month (Tishri, or about October 1) of 537 B.C.E.”

Hinweis zu Herkunft und Überprüfung for Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 1, Chronology

Hinweis zur Vertrauensangabe. Full article fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026; the quotation and the page were confirmed against the text and its embedded page markers. Insight on the Scriptures is undated on the Online Library; the 1988 publication year is the work’s own imprint date.

Untermauert durch. src-chr-o-w-2011-1001-pivotal-539

Notes. Insight calls 539 BCE a “pivotal point”, not an “absolute date”; the earlier “absolute date” wording belongs to the 1968 Watchtower articles recorded separately. It names Ptolemy among its supports.

Abgerufen. 19. September 2026 · Quellenkennung. src-chr-o-it1-chronology-pivotal-539

Primärveröffentlichung von Jehovas Zeugen Geprüft

The Watchtower, “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One (box: “A Pivotal Date in History”)”

1. Oktober 2011 · p.28 · box · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“The date 539 B.C.E. when Cyrus II conquered Babylon is calculated using the testimony of: ▪ Ancient historical sources and cuneiform tablets: Diodorus of Sicily (c. 80-20 B.C.E.) … The Greek historian Herodotus (c. 485-425 B.C.E.) … Cuneiform tablets show that Cyrus ruled Babylon for nine years before his death.”

The box adds: “Confirmation by a cuneiform tablet: A Babylonian astronomical clay tablet (BM 33066) confirms the date of Cyrus’ death in 530 B.C.E. Though this tablet contains some errors regarding the astronomical positions, it contains the descriptions of two lunar eclipses that the tablet says occurred in the seventh year of Cambyses II”, identified with eclipses of 16 July 523 B.C.E. and 10 January 522 B.C.E.

Hinweis zu Herkunft und Überprüfung for The Watchtower, When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One (box: “A Pivotal Date in History”)

Hinweis zur Vertrauensangabe. Full document fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the quotation, the paragraph and the page were confirmed against the article text and its embedded page markers (span class=“pageNum”).

Untermauert durch. src-chr-o-it1-chronology-pivotal-539

Notes. The fixed point of the whole scheme, 539 BCE, is established from classical historians and from an astronomical tablet — the two classes of evidence the same series treats as unreliable for the Neo-Babylonian reigns.

Abgerufen. 19. September 2026 · Quellenkennung. src-chr-o-w-2011-1001-pivotal-539

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