The Chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel—1 Kings 1:1

The fact that each nation or geographical region had its own system of keeping records, counting time, and establishing a yearly calendar has greatly complicated our understanding of ancient chronologies. The ancient world did not have a universal calendar or system of counting years as we do today in the anno Domini form of calendar years. To understand ancient chronology, we must correlate the dates found in the records of ancient Near Eastern kingdoms with those used in the current anno Domini system. Scholars achieved this first for the chronology of ancient Babylon. The detailed astronomical records that the Babylonians kept made it possible to correlate the reports of certain astronomical events with modern dates. Once historians had established a chronology for the kings of Babylon, it was possible to cross-reference Babylonian encounters with other nations, such as military campaigns, against other ancient Near Eastern kings and thus establish chronologies for neighboring countries such as Assyria and Egypt, as well as for Israel and Judah.

However, having an anno Domini year to go with biblical events is only the beginning to understanding the region’s complex chronology. Most of the ancient Near East employed a lunisolar calendar. It measured time by dividing the year according to the phases of the moon and the four different seasons. While this calendar had 12 months, because it was lunar, such a calendar would slowly get out of synchronization with the solar seasons (marked by solstices and equinoxes). To compensate, now and then, it would be necessary to add an extra month (a second Adar in Israel and Judah) to compensate. The time of the year when a country began its calendar also varied and scholars now recognize that Israel and Judah started their calendar years in different seasons (spring and fall respectively).

When it comes to understanding and building a chronology for the kings of Israel and Judah, we must take into account a few more details: how did people count the year of a king’s accession to the throne? Was there coregency? Did the systems of Israel and Judah differ in some way from each other?

The accession year system does not count the year when a king takes the throne as his first year but as his accession year. The following calendar year then becomes the first year of his reign. This system leaves no overlap in the transition between kings. The year the former king dies is the accession year of his son. In the non-accession year system, the year a king assumes the throne is year one of his reign even if only one month remains before the end of the calendar year. This system also created an overlap between the last year of the former king and the first year of his son.

After Israel’s division into the rival kingdoms of Judah and Israel, Israel adopted a non-accession year system, while Judah seems to have maintained an accession year system. However, due to influences from the northern kingdom during the marriage of Jehoram to Athaliah (2 Kings 8:18, 26), Judah switched to the non-accession year system from the time of Jehoram to that of Joash. After the reign of Joash, scribes seem to have returned to the accession year system, which they maintained until the Babylonian exile in 586 BC. While Israel started its time reckoning in the non-accession year system, evidence suggests that after the time of Jehoash of Israel, they adopted the accession year system, which remained in use until Israel’s final deportation in 722 BC.

While the sequence of months for both Israel and Judah went from Nisan to Adar, their regnal calendars followed different reckonings. In Judah, at least from the time of Solomon, scribes counted the regnal year from Tishri to Tishri. That is, the regnal years in Judah started in the fall. But in Israel, regnal years went from Nisan to Nisan, commencing therefore in the spring.

The biblical texts suggest several coregencies or periods of joint rulership. In Judah, all were legitimate father-son coregencies, while in Israel, some involved two rival kings reigning in different parts of the northern kingdom at the same time. The most common reason for a coregency between father and son is for a smoother transition and a way to avoid internal struggles for power between potential heirs.

Coregencies in Judah included:

• Asa and Jehoshaphat together for approximately four years, probably because of Asa’s severe illness (2 Kings 14:23; 2 Chron. 16:12).
• Jehoshaphat and Jehoram shared the throne for approximately six years. This coregency may have taken place after Jehoshaphat almost lost his life in battle against the Arameans (1 Kings 22:4, 32, 33; 2 Kings 8:16).
• Amaziah and Azariah reigned together for approximately 24 years. When the king of Israel took Amaziah captive, the people made his son Azariah (Uzziah) ruler in his absence (2 Kings 14:8–13, 21, 22; 2 Chron. 25:21-24).
• Azariah (Uzziah) and Jotham reigned together for approximately 10 years. Jotham became his father’s co-regent when Azariah contracted leprosy (2 Kings 15:5; 2 Chron. 26:21).
• Jotham and Ahaz were joint rulers for approximately three years. Their co-regency may have resulted because of the threat of a coalition between Israel and Aram-Damascus (2 Kings 16:7).
• Hezekiah and Manasseh jointly governed for approximately 10 years. It seems that after Hezekiah’s illness and recovery, he made his son coregent as soon as he reached the age of 12 (2 Kings 20:1-6; 21:1).

Coregencies and rival rulers in Israel included:

• Omri and Tibni, who governed different factions in the Northern Kingdom for four years. After the death of Tibni, Omri unified the country once more (1 Kings 16:21, 22).
• Jehoash and Jeroboam II, who served as coregents for about 12 years, probably starting when Jehoash went to war against Amaziah of Judah (2 Kings 14:8-13).
• Pekah was a rival to both Menahem and Pekaniah for a total of about 12 years (2 Kings 15:25-31).

Saul            1050-1011

United Monarch

David 1011-971

Solomon 971-931

Rochberg-Halton, “Calendars,” The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 810-814.

Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings.