Perkins - The Art of Prophesying by William Perkins

Author:William Perkins
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Monergism Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The wilderness wandering: 40 years

The leadership of Joshua: 17 years

Of Othniel: 40 years

Of Ehud and Shamgar: 80 years

Of Barak: 40 years

Of Gideon: 40 years

Of Abimelech: 3 years

Of Tola: 23 years

Of Jair: 22 years

The total is 305 years (not 300). The reason the extra five years are not mentioned is simply because the round number is easier to work with.

Again, a round number may be used simply for brevity: 'So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men' (Judg. 20:46). Here (as a glance at Judges 20:35 will indicate) a hundred Benjamites are not included.

(vi) A further consideration in interpreting the narratives of Old Testament history is the fact that when a king was hindered from exercising his role within the nation either by foreign war or old age, or because of some disease, he might appoint his son king in his place while he was still alive. In such co-regencies the calculations of the length of the reigns of the father and son sometimes include the years of joint reign, but at other times take account only of the years of the individual's reign.

This helps to resolve the difference between 2 Kings 1:17 and 2 Kings 3:1. In the seventeenth year of his reign Jehoshaphat determined to help king Ahab against the Syrians, and appointed his son Joram to be viceroy. In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat's reign (the second of his son's) Joram the son of Ahab reigned. Afterwards in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab, Jehoshaphat, now languishing in old age, confirmed his kingdom to Joram, who is then said to have reigned eight years: four while his father was alive, and four by himself after the death of his father.

Another illustration will be found by comparing 2 Kings 15:30 (which implies that Jotham reigned for twenty years) with 2 Kings 15:33 (which suggests that he reigned for only sixteen years). The difficulty is easily resolved. Jotham reigned for sixteen years on his own after the death of his father Uzziah; but in addition he reigned for four further years along with his father (i.e. twenty years in total) since he governed the kingdom for his father when the latter had leprosy.

(vii) In the ancient Near-East, the day was artificially divided both into 12 equal hours (commonly called planetary hours, cf. John 11:9) and into quadrants, each of which was denoted by the number of the hour with which the period began. This enables us to harmonise Mark 15:25 which says that Jesus was crucified at 'the third hour' with John 19:14 which states that it was already 'about the sixth hour' when Pilate presented Jesus to the Jews. These two numbers belong to different frames of reference. Different ways of counting the hours of the day are in view. Hence Christ may be said to have been crucified at the third hour, although he had not yet been taken to Golgotha at the sixth hour.

(viii) A lesser number is included in a greater and more complete number.

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