Bibliography — A Note on This Bibliography

This book is a synthesis. Its claims rest on the convergence of multiple independent fields — Hebrew lexicography, Persian regnal chronology, Egyptian dynastic correlation, Assyrian eponym lists, Babylonian astronomical tablets, Roman provincial papyri, NASA computational astronomy, Dead Sea seismic geology, archaeological epigraphy from Tel Dan and Caesarea Maritima, patristic exegesis, rabbinic tradition, and the published work of biblical chronologists from Ussher through Thiele to Floyd Jones. The bibliography below documents the principal sources on which the synthesis rests. It is not exhaustive. It is intended to give the serious reader the entry points into each field.

The bibliography is organised by category rather than alphabetically, because the same surname (Newton, for example) appears in multiple categories and the categorical organisation makes the field-by-field architecture of the case visible.

I. Biblical chronology

Anderson, Sir Robert. The Coming Prince. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1894 (multiple subsequent editions, currently in print through Kregel Classics). The classic dispensational treatment of Daniel's seventy weeks, anchored to 444 BC and the Nehemiah decree. This book disputes Anderson's anchoring (see chapter 7) but acknowledges his methodological rigour.

Horn, Siegfried H., and Lynn H. Wood. The Chronology of Ezra 7. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1953 (revised 1970). The forensic reconstruction of the Persian regnal-year convention used by the Jewish diaspora community at Elephantine, establishing the seventh year of Artaxerxes I by Tishri-to-Tishri reckoning as autumn 458 to autumn 457 BC. Supporting for the master clock's start anchor; the count from 457 rests on the boundary of the sabbatical cycle (Appendix A, Part One).

Jones, Floyd Nolen. The Chronology of the Old Testament. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2005 (sixteenth edition). The most thorough modern reconstruction of the Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 genealogies, anchoring the creation of Adam at approximately 4004 BC and resolving the Terah–Abraham ambiguity in the patriarchal record.

Newton, Sir Isaac. Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John. London: Darby and Browne, 1733 (posthumous; multiple modern reprints, including Cambridge University Press, 1991). Newton's independent forensic conclusion that the seventy weeks must run from the seventh year of Artaxerxes (457 BC), arrived at without the benefit of the Elephantine papyri or modern Persian chronology.

Thiele, Edwin R. The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965 (third revised edition, 1983). The three-principle reconstruction of the chronology of the Divided Kingdom, resolving the apparent contradictions in 1–2 Kings against the Assyrian eponym lists. Foundational for the chronology between Solomon's temple and the Babylonian destruction.

Young, Rodger C. "When Did Jerusalem Fall?" Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47/1 (2004): 21–38; "When Did Solomon Die?" JETS 46/4 (2003): 589–603. The sharpest modern defence of 587 BC as the year of the destruction, built on the finding that 2 Kings and Jeremiah each use their own accession-year convention, and that Ezekiel 40:1 leans toward 587 on the grammar of lamed and achar. This book reckons on 586 and carries the ±1 visibly (see chapter 5); Young is cited there at first hand, not at second.

Ussher, James. Annals of the World. London: 1658 (modern revised edition: Larry and Marion Pierce, eds., Master Books, 2003). The seventeenth-century Anglican Archbishop's chronological synthesis, placing creation at 4004 BC. Frequently caricatured in modern scholarship; recovered as foundational by Floyd Jones and others.

II. Ancient Near Eastern chronology and archaeology

Frova, Antonio. "L'iscrizione di Ponzio Pilato a Cesarea." Rendiconti dell'Istituto Lombardo, Accademia di Scienze e Lettere 95 (1961): 419–434. The first publication of the Pilate Stone, recovered at the Roman theatre at Caesarea Maritima in June 1961.

Parker, Richard A., and Waldo H. Dubberstein. Babylonian Chronology, 626 B.C.–A.D. 75. Brown University Studies, vol. 19. Providence: Brown University Press, 1956. The standard reference work for Babylonian and Persian regnal chronology, derived from the cuneiform astronomical tablets recovered in the British Museum collection. Foundational for the 457 BC anchor.

Williams, Jefferson B., Markus J. Schwab, and Achim Brauer. "An early first-century earthquake in the Dead Sea." International Geology Review 54 (2012), published online 23 December 2011. doi:10.1080/00206814.2011.639996. The Ein Gedi sediment-core study dating a seismite to the AD 26–36 window (AD 31 or 32 ±5, depending on the count). It identifies no year: the ±5-year margin does not distinguish between the candidate years, and it therefore cannot bind the earthquake of Matthew 27:51 to AD 31 — see Appendix A, section 9.

Biran, Avraham, and Joseph Naveh. "An Aramaic Stele Fragment from Tel Dan." Israel Exploration Journal 43 (1993): 81–98; "The Tel Dan Inscription: A New Fragment." IEJ 45 (1995): 1–18. The discovery and publication of the Tel Dan Stele bearing the bytdwd — House of David — inscription, settling the historicity of the Davidic dynasty.

Cyrus Cylinder. British Museum, item ANE 90920 (recovered Babylon, 1879). The formal proclamation of Cyrus II announcing the policy of religious toleration toward captive peoples, including the Jewish repatriation decree of 538 BC.

Mesha Stele. The Louvre, item AO 5066 (recovered Dhiban, modern Jordan, 1868). The 840 BC Moabite inscription containing a second extra-biblical attestation of the House of David.

Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III. British Museum, item ANE 118885 (recovered Nimrud, 1846). The 841 BC Assyrian inscription depicting the tribute of Jehu of Israel to Shalmaneser III.

Elephantine Papyri. Multiple publications; principal modern edition: Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, eds., Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, 4 vols. Jerusalem: Hebrew University, 1986–1999. Documentary evidence for the Tishri-to-Tishri Jewish regnal-year convention used in Persian-period diaspora administration.

III. Astronomical computation

Espenak, Fred, and Jean Meeus. Five Millennium Canon of Solar Eclipses: −1999 to +3000. NASA Technical Publication TP–2006–214141. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center, 2006. The standard astronomical reference for solar eclipse computation across five millennia, used in this book for the projected solar eclipses of 2 August 2027 and 20 March 2034.

Espenak, Fred, and Jean Meeus. Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses: −1999 to +3000. NASA Technical Publication TP–2009–214172. Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center, 2009. The companion lunar eclipse reference, used for the AD 31 Passover eclipse of magnitude 0.34 — not 0.347; that third decimal suggested a precision the source does not carry — as documented in Appendix A and for the 2032–2034 lunar tetrad documented in chapter twelve.

Schaefer, Bradley E. "Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 31 (1990): 53–67. Computational study of the Passover lunar eclipse of AD 33 (and the comparative analysis of AD 30 and AD 31), foundational for the astronomical defence of the AD 31 crucifixion date.

Humphreys, Colin J., and W. G. Waddington. "The Date of the Crucifixion." Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 37 (1985): 2–10; "Astronomy and the Date of the Crucifixion." Nature 306 (1983): 743–746. Earlier computational work on the Passover eclipse and the crucifixion date.

IV. Patristic and early Christian sources

Epistle of Barnabas (anonymous, c. AD 100). Critical edition: Robert A. Kraft, The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 3: Barnabas and the Didache. New York: Thomas Nelson, 1965. Chapter 15 develops the six-thousand-year framework based on Genesis 1 and 2 Peter 3:8.

Irenaeus of Lyon. Adversus Haereses (c. AD 180). English translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1885. Book 5, chapter 28, develops the millennial framework foreshadowed by the seven days of creation.

Hippolytus of Rome. Commentary on Daniel (c. AD 220). Critical edition: T. C. Schmidt, Hippolytus of Rome: Commentary on Daniel and "Chronicon". Charleston: CreateSpace, 2010. The earliest extant Christian commentary on Daniel; carries the six-thousand-year framework forward into the third century.

Lactantius. Divinae Institutiones (c. AD 310). English translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7. Book 7, chapter 14, develops the six-thousand-year framework in the early fourth century.

Methodius of Olympus. Symposium of the Ten Virgins (c. AD 320). English translation in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6. Discourse 9, chapter 1, develops the millennial Sabbath framework.

Augustine of Hippo. De Civitate Dei (AD 413–426). Critical edition: Bernhard Dombart and Alfons Kalb, eds., Sancti Aurelii Augustini De Civitate Dei, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 47–48. Turnhout: Brepols, 1955. Book 20, chapter 7, sets aside the literal millennial framework that the earlier patristic tradition had developed; cited in Appendix E as the historical pivot at which the six-thousand-year framework recedes from mainstream Christian teaching.

V. Rabbinic and Jewish sources

Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, folio 97a. Standard editions: Soncino English Talmud (1935–1948); Steinsaltz Talmud Bavli (1965–2010). The Tanna debe Eliyahu tradition: the world is to exist six thousand years; two thousand of those years are tohu, two thousand are Torah, two thousand are the days of the Messiah. Foundational for the three-pair reading of the master clock developed in chapter eight.

Babylonian Talmud, tractate Avodah Zarah, folio 9a. Parallel to Sanhedrin 97a; the same six-thousand-year framework in a different rabbinic context.

Mishnah, tractates Pesachim and Sukkah. Standard editions including the Steinsaltz Mishnah. Foundational for the Hebrew festival calendar and the moedim of Leviticus 23 as developed in chapter nine.

VI. Historical sources from the New Testament era

Josephus, Flavius. The Antiquities of the Jews and The Wars of the Jews (c. AD 75–95). Standard English edition: William Whiston, ed., The Works of Josephus. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987 (multiple subsequent printings). The principal Jewish historical record of the Second Temple period, the Roman governorship including Pilate, and the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Tacitus, Cornelius. Annals (c. AD 115). Standard English edition: A. J. Woodman, trans., Tacitus: The Annals. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2004. The Roman historical record of the early empire, including the brief but explicit reference to Yeshua as Christus executed under Pilate (Annals 15.44).

Suetonius, Gaius. Lives of the Twelve Caesars (c. AD 121). Standard English edition: Robert Graves, trans., The Twelve Caesars. London: Penguin Classics, 1957. The Tiberius co-regency of AD 12 (Tiberius, chapter 21) is a documented constitutional fact, but it does not carry the Luke 3:1 dating: no ancient document counts Tiberius' regnal years from the co-regency. The AD 27 baptism rests on the eastern autumn reckoning — one route, see Appendix A, section 7.

VII. Textual criticism and Hebrew lexicography

Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012 (third edition). The standard modern reference for Masoretic textual criticism; cited in Appendix E for the consonantal-skeleton methodology and the Codex Leningradensis as the standard text.

Cross, Frank Moore, and David Noel Freedman. Early Hebrew Orthography: A Study of the Epigraphic Evidence. American Oriental Series, vol. 36. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1952. The foundational study of pre-Masoretic Hebrew orthography; basis for the consonantal skeleton (defective spelling) reading used in Appendix E.

Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (the BDB lexicon). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906 (multiple reprints; standard reference). Used throughout this book for the lexical analysis of karat, higbir, yashbit, zevach, minchah, and other Hebrew technical terms.

Köhler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (the HALOT). Translated and edited under the supervision of M. E. J. Richardson. Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000 (5 vols.). The standard modern critical Hebrew lexicon; used as a complement to BDB for the lexical case in Appendix E.

VIII. Companion volume by the present author

Visser, H. The Architect's Seal: The Sealed Book of Daniel, Opened. Published — the third volume of the trilogy. The exegetical companion to the present book, reading the whole book of Daniel text-first and developing the Hebrew text-internal analysis summarised in Appendix E: the Elohim word-count signature (86), the ga'al→Goel signature (34→40), the 17–34–51 word-position sequence, the decree-spine and structural architecture, the Wav-density analysis, and the honest weighing of the numeric resonances (358 on the qere; 359 as written) and of the ELS and alphabet claims.

Visser, H. The Master Clock of Revelation. Published — the first volume of the trilogy. The author's companion volume on the architecture of the book of Revelation: the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the woman of Revelation 12, the Bride and the Bridegroom of Revelation 19, and the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21–22.