The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

EXCUR8 US ON CHRONOLOO T. 167
scriptural writings, notoriously been subjected in the course
of centuries to numerous alterations *.
If we cast a glance at these monuments, viz. at the
'Canon of Rulers' **, the 'List of Governors' ** and lastly
the 'Babylono-Assyrian tables', and ask the question, what
is their bearing on scriptural chronology, we arrive at
the following fixed dates :
858. SalmanaSSar II's eponym-year ***.
854. V"' (IV'") year (Dajan-A§ur). War with Ben-
hadad and Ahab. Battle at Karkar.
* It is hardly necessary for me to remind the intelligent reader
that also these monumental statements are not free from error and
are themselves chargeable with mistakes of various kinds and there-
fore they too should be employed with discrimination and judgment.
Further remarks on this subject may be read in my Keilinsch. u.
Gesch. pp. 42 foil., 299— 356. [We find copyists vacillating between
the forms Mu'ab and Ma'ab fer Moab, Arumu, Arimu and Aramu
for Aram, Samirina and Samiurna for Samaria etc. To these may
be added such lapsus calami as sarrfitija for §arrfiti§u, see Vol. I,
p. 184 line 90; the number of slain at the battle of Karkar 25,000 in
Salmanassar's obelisk inscription but 14,000 in the monolith inscription.
A further discrepancy in number may be observed in the footnote on
2 Maccab. I. 13. But while acknowledging the possibility of error on
the part of the cuneiform scribe, we must regard with considerable
suspicion any attempt to amend these ancient documents contemporary
with the events they describe, in order to support an hypothesis. And
yet this is what we find so sober a scholar as Kamphausen doing
(Chronologic der Hebraischen Konige p. 43 footnote), when he revives
a theory that Wellhausen has abandoned viz. that in the description
of the events of the year 854 in Salmanassar II's monolith-inscription
'Ahab' stands in line 91 by mistake for Joram.— Translator.]
** We retain these names as the most concise modes of expression
though aware of their inadequacy.
*** This was according to the ancient usage the second complete
year of the king's reign, who thus in reality ascended the throne in
the year 860 ; see Keilinsch. u. Geschichtsforschung p. 326 foil.