Talk:580s BC

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Fall of Jerusalem[edit]

Are we sure that it was in 586, instead of 587? From what I remember, Nebuchadrezzar's 18th regnal year went from 587 to 586, with Babylonian years starting around March. If Jerusalem was destroyed in October of that regnal year, it would have still been 587. If it had been destroyed in October of 586, that would have been in his 19th regnal year. Or am I wrong on something here?Tommstein 21:17, 18 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

2 Kings 32:1 refers to the siege beginning in Nebuchadnezzar's 18th year, which was 588 BC. Jeremiah 52:12-14 places the destruction of the temple on or shortly after the 10th day of the 5th month (corelating to the beginning of August) of 587 BC, being the 19th year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Nebuchadnezzar's reign began in 605 BC (Jeremiah did not use the accession-year system), making his 19th year 587 BC, NOT 586.--Jeffro77 04:10, 16 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know, I've always heard the date given academically as August 586 BCE.

Many religious historians have given the year as 586 due to a misunderstanding of the timing of scriptures (usually to do with confusion regarding which writers counted accession years) such as Daniel 1:1, Jeremiah 25:1 and others. Most secular historians agree with 587. The bible is in agreement with 587, as indicated above.--Jeffro77 03:58, 11 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

All religious Jewish scholars give the date of the Fall of Jerusalem as August 423 BCE. Where does this date 586 BCE come from? If there is no facts to back it up, it should be removed from this page and placed at it's proper date. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.239.203.111 (talk) 20:58, 14 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia of Jewish religious belief. There is a great body of evidence historians use to support the dating of the event in 587.--Jeffro77 (talk) 01:24, 5 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

eclipse of 585 predicted by Thales[edit]

I am sorry to report that this notice is one grand assumption built on a concatenation of misunderstandings that begins in antiquity. Herodotus (1.74) says an eclipse caused the warring parties to cease and desist. In a notice equivalent to footnote he says that Thales of Miletus won acclaim among the Ionians for having predicted the period in which that eclipse occurred. Herodotus gives no indication of date except that it coincided with a battle. Herodotus himself misunderstood eclipse phenomena. The date 28 May 585 is the result of back calculation of a likely date done in antiquity by learned encyclopedists who had lists of eclipses--most notably Pliny the Elder who gives the Olympiad date that equals 585. The 28 May day (and time) were added by 19th century historians of astronomy, e.g. Oppolzer's Kanon der Finsternisse, who then determine the central path of their eclipse shadow not by calculation, but by assuming the speculations antiquity was correct in these matters.``Worthen``3 Jan. 06