Changes

=== The necessity of addressing these four issues ===

=== The necessity of addressing these four issues ===

Any system of chronology that does not take into consideration all these questions, and provide a satisfactory answer for them, does not give the Biblical texts a chance to speak for themselves and show which system the ancient scribes were using. These principles are derived from ancient inscriptions that were, in many cases, contemporaneous with the writings of the Scriptural authors. Early interpreters and chronologists, ignorant of these facts from the ancient world, can be excused for making various assumptions, such as interregna, in order to explain what did not fit their scheme. But it is not sound scholarship when modern writers still carry on the prejudices of anti-supernaturalist writers like Wellhausen and ignore these findings. Wellhausen decided, ''[[a priori]],'' that the involved chronological texts of Scripture could not be trustworthy, and so he imposed on them his own presuppositions, one of which was that there were no coregencies. That would seem to make the construction of a Biblical chronology much easier, but recent authors<ref>Jeremy Hughes, ''Secrets of the Times'' (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990); M. Christine Tetley, ''The Reconstructed Chronology of the Divided Kingdom'' (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2005).</ref> who follow Wellhausen in this unwarranted assumption have found it necessary to postulate a long series of additional assumptions in order to explain the disagreement of their system with the Scriptural texts and even with secular history.

Any system of chronology that does not take into consideration all these questions, and provide a satisfactory answer for them, does not give the Biblical texts a chance to speak for themselves and show which system the ancient [[Scribes (Bible)|scribes]] were using. These principles are derived from ancient inscriptions that were, in many cases, contemporaneous with the writings of the Scriptural authors. Early interpreters and chronologists, ignorant of these facts from the ancient world, can be excused for making various assumptions, such as interregna, in order to explain what did not fit their scheme. But it is not sound scholarship when modern writers still carry on the prejudices of anti-supernaturalist writers like Wellhausen and ignore these findings. Wellhausen decided, ''[[a priori]],'' that the involved chronological texts of Scripture could not be trustworthy, and so he imposed on them his own presuppositions, one of which was that there were no coregencies. That would seem to make the construction of a Biblical chronology much easier, but recent authors<ref>Jeremy Hughes, ''Secrets of the Times'' (Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990); M. Christine Tetley, ''The Reconstructed Chronology of the Divided Kingdom'' (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2005).</ref> who follow Wellhausen in this unwarranted assumption have found it necessary to postulate a long series of additional assumptions in order to explain the disagreement of their system with the Scriptural texts and even with secular history.

=== How Thiele addressed the issues ===

=== How Thiele addressed the issues ===