The Watchtower, “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One”
“According to Bible chronology, then, the 70 years was a literal period of time that ended in 537 B.C.E. Counting back 70 years, the start date of the period would be 607 B.C.E.”
The preceding paragraph fixes the end of the exile: “The decree ending their exile was issued in ‘the first year of Cyrus the king of Persia.’ … Thus, by the fall of 537 B.C.E., the Jews had returned to Jerusalem to restore true worship.” The whole of the organisation’s date for 607 rests on this subtraction.
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Provenance and verification note for The Watchtower, When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?—Part One
Confidence note. Full document fetched from the Watchtower Online Library on 19 September 2026 and read in full; the quotation, the paragraph and the page were confirmed against the article text and its embedded page markers (span class=“pageNum”).
Corroborated by. src-chr-o-w-2011-1101-thesis, src-chr-o-it1-chronology-70-years
Notes. 607 BCE is reached by counting back from 537 BCE, not by dating the destruction directly.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-o-w-2011-1001-count-back