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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

The organisation's case for 607 BCE is that the Bible requires a literal seventy-year desolation of Judah ending when the exiles returned in 537 BCE, and that counting back seventy years from 537 gives 607. It holds that where secular chronology conflicts with that reading, the secular evidence is the weaker.

Claim ID claim-chronology-org-case-for-607Concerns 1 October 2011Organisation's explanation
Organisation's explanation · 1 October 2011 Verified

The organisation's case for 607 BCE is that the Bible requires a literal seventy-year desolation of Judah ending when the exiles returned in 537 BCE, and that counting back seventy years from 537 gives 607. It holds that where secular chronology conflicts with that reading, the secular evidence is the weaker. The Watchtower, 1 October 2011The Watchtower, 15 August 1968The Watchtower, 1 November 2011

The organisation’s position or later explanation: 'So why do Jehovah's Witnesses hold to a date that differs from widely accepted chronology by 20 years? In short, because of evidence within the Bible itself.'

Show the evidence (3 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?-Part One”

1 October 2011 · pp.26-31 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“So why do Jehovah's Witnesses hold to a date that differs from widely accepted chronology by 20 years? In short, because of evidence within the Bible itself.”

The organisation’s fullest modern statement of its case for 607 BCE. It opens by printing a reader’s question — “586 or 587 B.C.E. is generally accepted as the year of Jerusalem’s destruction. Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses say that it was 607 B.C.E.?” — and answers it. In its own words, in the summary box on page 31: “Secular historians usually say that Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 B.C.E.” The article rests its own date on a literal seventy-year exile ending in 537 BCE.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The whole article was fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read with the page markers (span class="pageNum") intact; the quotation falls between the markers for pages 26 and 27, that is, on page 26.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-w11-1101-part-two

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-w11-1001-part-one

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “The Book of Truthful Historical Dates”

15 August 1968 · pp.488-494 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“The fixing of 539 B.C.E. as the year when this historical event occurred is based on a stone document known as the Nabonidus (Nabunaid) Chronicle.”

Under the heading 'THE ABSOLUTE DATE OF 539 B.C.E.', the article explains that an absolute date 'must be one where sacred and secular historical events coincide', and derives 539 BCE from a Babylonian chronicle, quoting it from Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, p. 306.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The full article was fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read with page markers intact; the quotation is on page 490.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-pd-1942-p11-nabonidus-cyrus, src-chr-e-ebl-bm35382

Notes. The article then says of 607: 'It is now a simple formula to determine when the seventy years began. One has only to add 70 to 537 to get 607.'

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-w68-0815-absolute-539

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?-Part Two”

1 November 2011 · pp.22-28 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“Clearly, much of the astronomical data in VAT 4956 fits the year 588 B.C.E. as the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar II. This, therefore, supports the date of 607 B.C.E. for Jerusalem's destruction-just as the Bible indicates.”

The organisation's positive case from the cuneiform record. It argues that the Babylonian chronicles are incomplete, that business tablets show discrepancies at reign transitions, and that thirteen sets of lunar positions on VAT 4956 match 588/587 BCE.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The whole article was fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read with page markers intact; the quotation is on page 27.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-w11-1001-part-one

Notes. Note 21, the authority for the claim that the lunar position in line 3 matches Nisanu 9 of 588 BCE, is present in the Online Library text and reads: “VAT 4956 reads on line three: ‘The moon stood 1 cubit [or 2 degrees] in front of ß Virginis.’ The previously mentioned analysis concluded that on Nisanu 9, the moon was 2°04ʹ in front of and 0° below the star ß Virginis. It was considered an exact match.” It names no external authority: “the previously mentioned analysis” is the organisation’s own, described in note 19 as having been made with the software TheSky6, the freeware Cartes du Ciel / Sky Charts and a US Naval Observatory date converter. No astronomer, publication or independent calculation is cited for it.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-w11-1101-part-two

Claim page

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