[Avodah] missing years in Hebrew Calendar

[Eli Turkel via Avodah]

The student newspaper of the Torah Academy of Bergen County had a series of
articles on the missing years in the Jewish calendar

http://www.tabc.org/student-publications/kol-torah/index.aspx   - see
achrei mot-kedoshim for the 3rd (final) article

They show how Seder Olam is self consistent and in particular it frequently
takes people in Tanach whom seem to be different and conflates them. In
sefer shoftim they take everything literally that each judge was for 40
years and no gaps between them etc.

They then address the difference between the secular and seder olam dates.
They also point out the difficulty in the sefer Isuah from chapter 39
onwards (Deutero-Isaiah)
1) the sudden change from rebuke and sestruction to comfort (many years
before the destruction)
2) Koresh is listed explicitly twice while prophecy tends to be general
3) Yeshayahu is mention 15 times in the first part but never is mentioned
in the second part

They conclude that the secular dates are correct
(as an aside archaeologists decide on these dates based on astronomical
events and carbon 14 dating of pollen seeds which are short lived)

They then explain seder olam dating
1) seder olam was not written as a historical text but has a moral side
2) seder olam ignores periods of time when nothing of Jewish importance
occurs
In particular the Persian era until Shimon Hagadol did not live up to the
expectations.
Hence, the prophecy of Isaiah-II (name unknown) was simply added to an
existing sefer
3) as with its practice conflates Darius I with Darius III.
4) The new Greek calendar (shtarot) was exactly 1000 years after the exodus.
In order to achieve this goal parts of the Persian history had to be
changed including the order of some kings, again conflating several
separate Persian kings which leads to a much shortened Persian kingdom.
Finally it removes 6 years from Alexander the great (ie seder olam states
Alexander ruled for 6 years in Greece and 6 years in Persia)

See above article for more details

-- 
Eli Turkel
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