Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 48:3 (Sep 2005)
Article: The Mysterious Numbers Of The Book Of Judges
Author: Andrew E. Steinmann

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The Mysterious Numbers Of The Book Of Judges

Andrew E. Steinmann

Andrew Steinmann is associate professor of theology and Hebrew at Concordia University, River Forest, IL 60305–1499.

The chronology of the book of Judges has always presented a challenge. Many have noted that simply adding up the various years of the judges and foreign oppressions as listed in the book yields 410 years, and this does not include the time for the deaths of Joshua and the elders who served with him (Judg 2:7–8).1 Even if one assumes that the early date for the Exodus is correct (1446 bc, 479 years before Solomon began to build the Temple in the fourth year of his reign [967 bc]; 1 Kgs 6:1),2 this would mean that between the end of Joshua's conquest (1400 bc; Josh 14:10) and the beginning of David's reign (1009 bc) there is only 389 years. This is not adequate time for the events in Judges to have taken place, much less to account for the deaths of Joshua and the elders, the judgeships of Eli and Samuel, and the reign of Saul.

For this reason some have posited that the judges may have simply been local authorities and their reigns may have overlapped, while others simply discount the narratives in Judges as not historically accurate.3 While some offer timelines or chronologies of the judges as rough guides,4 the opinion

JETS 48:3 (September 2005) p. 492

expressed by Harrison over thirty years ago still represents the consensus of scholars who do not discount the historicity of the judges altogether.5

... it is obvious that the historical period in question presents difficulties both of chronology and of historical detail, and these cannot be resolved completely without fuller information.

For those who believe that the book of Judges does present accurate historical information, the chronological quagmire is compounded by the book itself, which seems to treat many of the judges' reigns as consecutive rather than overlapping, as when it is said that one judge died and another arose "after him" (e.g. Tola and Jair, Judg 10:2–3 or Jephthah and Ibzan, Judg 12:7–8).

Can simply following the information in the book itself unravel the chro...