Regarding the specific chronology of any period of 70 weeks, once a 70-week period was linked to a FIXED DATE, such as the coming of the messiah at the end of 69 weeks, then that FIXES all successions of the 70 weeks.
So indeed, various guesses or confusions over an "absolute" chronology may have not been well defined for all during these times, especially when you consider potential revisionism, which many scholars presume the Jews revised their history while others presume the pagans revised theirs, lending to the confusion. But after a 70-week period becomes fixed to a spcific event, then you don't have the choice to just move around the chronology any more. The beginning of a 70th week is dated to 29 CE. That means the 70-week jubilee period is also fixed in connection with 36 CE being the end of a 490-year period. So after 36 CE the jubilee week (7 days of 490 years each, a period of 70 jubilees) is FIXED. Note too, that 455 BCE absolutely begins that week, but as noted, there is more than one view as to exactly what occurred in 455 BCE. But there is no question about when it ends in 36 CE, 3-1/2 years after Jesus' death. That's why, calculating the modern-day 70th week is easy and skips past all the potential chronology issues from the NB and Persian Periods. 455 BCE and 1947 are directly linked and both fall on jubilee years. But 1947 becomes an especial jubilee because being the 10th jubilee of the 7th Day (3430 years, 7 x 490), it represents another fulfillment of the 70th week.
http://www.geocities.com/siaxares/jcovwk1996G.GIF (Jewish Covenant Week Chart)
So post 36 CE we can fix the jubillee cycle for ourselves with no problems.
But as far as the Jews being confused over the "absolute" chronology, the VAT4956 itself suggests the Jews never lost track of the "absolute" chronology. That is, the fact that the VAT4956 links to the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, a rulership clearly well-delineated in Biblical records suggests that Jewish astronomers were behind the creation of this text and the clever insertion of the 511 BCE references from the original chronology. The suggestion that Jews were astronomers and scientists is suggested by the Magi who came from the East after seeing a star, etc. at the time Christ was born. Further, the Jews were always (as now) seemingly on the cutting edge of the intellectual community. But having noted that, even though the Jews did what was politically correct because they liked the Persians and particular Artaxerxes who was also Xerxes, it doesn't mean the "absolute chronology" was lost. It just means it was suppressed.
Case in point is the later publishing of the "Rabinnical timeline" where the Jews are allegedly seriously dating year 6 of Darius I, the year the temple is completed to 352 BCE. This is only a few years before the end of the Persian Empire in 333 BCE! No way! Even so, there is suspicion that 352 BCE is really a cryptic reference connected to the original chronology. How so? Because from the 1st of Cyrus to the completion of the temple in the 6th year of Darius, there is an 82-year discrepancy between the Bible's chronology which dates the 1st of Cyrus in 455 BCE and the secular dating which dates that event in 537 BCE. Likewise, the year the temple is completed would be 434 BCE per the Bible and 416 BCE per secular chronology, again, an 82-year different. 352 BCE, however, is exactly 82 years after 434 BCE.
So it would appear, that some Jewish rabbis are having their cake and eating it too, on the one hand, basically thumbing their nose up at the gentiles (Christians) for their incorrect chronology, but without revealing what the true original chronology really is. At the the same time, they can publish the rabbinical timeline without problem, which secretly references the original chronology, because the dates are so ridiculous they are not taken seriously. So it is not possible to now absolutely claim that the Jews lost track of the original chronology. Apparently they didn't. But it remained their secret as much as the Persians.
Note further, that the Jews themselves may have help to mastermind the revisions. They certainly were cooperative. Case in point "Esdras". Esdras, originally one book makes up Ezra/Nehemiah. They re-wrote a substitute version of "Esdras" in which they remove the history of Nehemiah from the reign of Artaxerxes. That was their academic and historical solution for a book that would otherwise have shown Nehemiah returning at about age 30 with Zerubbabel in the 1st of Cyrus and living down into the reign of Darius II, which with the revised chronology would require Nehemiah to live over 143 years of age. So the revised "Esdras" simply describes Ezra and Nehemiah in relation to what they did when they first returned from Babylon and leave off what happened later with Artaxerxes. So the Jewish records clearly reflect they understand that Nehemiah returned in the 1st of Cyrus with Zerubbabel. But what happened later, when the canonical Ezra/Nehemiah came back into circulation, was that now the apocryphal "Esdras" is showing Nehemiah as returning with Zerubbabel. Few Christians bother to check this out, but deal with the problem by simply claiming as JWs do that the Nehemiah prince mentioned returning with Zerubbabel was a different Nehemiah than the one who served under Artaxerxes. Of course, it doesn't take much comparison to see that's not the case.
At any rate, there are indicators that the Jews knew about the revisions and did know about the original timeline and chronology. For instance, Josephus himself gives the reign of Evil-Merodach in "Antiquities" as 18 years, rather than just 2 years. Interesting, since that is precisely how long his rule would need to be by deduction. That is, the Bible's chronology is 26 years longer for the NB Period than secular history. It establishes a 45-year rule for Nebuchadnezzar and a 6-year rule for Darius the Mede specifically. That makes up 8 out of the 26 years, leaving an adjustment of 18 more years. Since Cyrus began ruling in Persia in the 6th year of Nabonidus and became king in Babylon 20 years later, we can calculate the number of years Nabonidus ruled by subtracting the 6-year rule of Darius the Mede for the entire period. That is the period of 20 years for the rule of Cyrus beginning the sixth year of Nabonidus means that we are looking at a total period of 25 years from the 1st of Nabonidus until when Cyrus became king at Babylon. We know Darius the Mede rule 6 of those years, so we substract 6 from 25, which gives us 19. Secular history reduced this by 2 years making his rule 17 years. But that just leaves 16 years to adjust during the reign of Niglassar and Evil-Merodach. Niglassar ruled for 4 years. If we do not adjust his rule, then the 2-year rule of Evil-Merodach would need to be extended by 16 years, in which case, as Josephus mentions, he ruled for 18 years before the changes.
So JOSEPHUS knew the specific "relative" chronology, with some rabbinical writings suggesting the absolute chronology was never lost either, simply suppressed. Fortunately, the VAT4956 double-dating leaves absolutely no doubt what the original dates for the rule of Nebuchadnezzar was as far as an absolute date and from there we can reconstruct the entire original timeline.
Generally speaking, therefore, if an author is Jewish, I presume a "conflict of interest" for them, since their own records and traditional history has always contradicted secular history. In fact, the first thing a representative of the Britsh Museum asked me when I presented the "misrepresentation" of Abraham Sachs in Line 18 of the VAT4956 was whether or not I was aware of the Jewish concept that the Persian Period was much shorter? So everybody is aware that the Jews contradict, at least superficially, the current timeline and claim the Persian Period is way too long. Problem is, they exaggerate how short it is to the point nobody even takes them seriously. But maybe that's the way they prefer it. They may not want to give away the true timeline, after all, it would tend to point to 29 CE as the year the "messiah" should arrive, and that tends to validate Jesus Christ as the messiah.
But even if the Jews did generally lose track of the true timeline in later ages, we know for a fact it was known during the Seleucid Period since the VAT4956 confirms this.
Finally, another huge giveaway that the Jews and Josephus clearly knew about the original chronology is their avoidance of the secular references to when the Exodus occurs. Manetho points to the Exodus occurring at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III. That is absolutely correct. Josephus, though, argues against this, while by doing so, documents the secular reference for when the Exodus occurs. So even now in the academic world, even though Manetho tells us who the pharaoh was when the Exodus occurs, the academic world pretends it's a big mystery. Fact is, though, once you link the Exodus to the end of the rule of Amenhotep III, it throws a big wrench into the revised dating. You see if the Exodus happens near the end of Amenhotep III's rule, it means Solomon gets dated much later than he is currently being date, that dating being based upon the revised NB and Persian dates. If you expose the date of the Exodus, you establish a new timeline based upon that per the Bible because all the years are accounted for from the Exodus down to the return from Babylon.
In other words, if you date the 1st of Cyrus to 455 BCE as a jubilee year that begins a 490-year period, then the Exodus occurs 19 jubilees earlier, 931 years earlier, in 1386 BCE. In that case the rule of Solomon is from 910-870 BCE rather than 970-930 BCE. But we now have RC14 dating from Rehov that points to Shishak's invasion occurring c. 871 BCE, which would fall in the 39th year of Solomon, giving us the same dating of 910-870 BCE. This contradicts the date of 925 BCE, based upon the revised NB Chronology as being scientifically challenged.
http://www.geocities.com/ed_maruyama/rehov872.html
So you see, if you're going to cover up for the revised NB Period, you have to fake not knowing which pharaoh died in the Red Sea as well. All the chronology is connected. So Josephus was quite aware of this, knew the absolute correct chronology, but had to play the politically correct historical game or his works would not continue to be published.
At any rate, Jews are presumed by certain researchers to know or believe what the original chronology is per their own history but considered to have a significant conflict of interest in coming forward with anything not politically correct and in line with the revised secular history. So we extend them that courtesy and just present the alternative argument in a WHAT IF? kind of way.
JCanon
