Old Testament Dates Confirmed
In 1853 an archeologist name Rosham found a cuneiform tablet in excavations at Nineveh and this gave a date of an eclipse at that location. This was the key to linking the ancient time record with modern time records because the movement of the moon is on a fixed schedule and can be precisely pinpointed in the past and the present and in the future – if you have just one date confirmed by an eclipse. Then in 1867 a George Smith translated this from cuneiform in the British museum. The eclipse was observed from Nineveh in Syria which gave him the specific location needed to date it specifically with lunar fixed movements. Then he looked at the solar eclipses that happened around 8th century BC. He could then easily find the one that engulfed Nineveh in darkness. Therefore, he found a date that was with complete certainty. It was June 15, 763 BC. Based on this time connected to biblical accounts and Assyrian records it fixed the specific dates as being 966BC for the buiding of Solomon’s temple and 480 years before that was the Exodus of Moses from Egypt in 1446 BC.
NASA has records of all lunar eclipse to 2000 BC and out to 3,000 AD and can predict where each eclipse will show up and where and what time to the very second.
1 Kings 6:1 (NIV84)
1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.
This scripture above gives a specific date for building the temple of Solomon and this was 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt.
NOTE: The BKC to their credit has the exact dates listed of 966BC for building Solomon’s temple and 1466 BC as the date of the Exodus from Egypt.
BKC
6:1. This verse is one of the most important in the Old Testament chronologically because it enables one to fix certain dates in Israel’s history. The dates of Solomon’s reign have been quite definitely established through references in ancient writings. They were 971–931 b.c. According to this verse, in the fourth year of his reign Solomon began to build the temple. That was in 966 b.c. The Exodus took place 480 years earlier (1446 b.c.). The month Ziv is April–May (see the chart “Calendar in Israel,” near Ex. 12:2). Interestingly the rebuilding of the temple, 430 years later under Zerubbabel (536), also began in the second month (Ezra 3:8).
Psalm 104:19 (NIV84)
19 The moon marks off the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.
The moon can mark off the seasons because it is a fixed orbit.
Genesis 1:14 (NASB95)
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years;
More importantly however is that the moon is also involved in identifying specific days and years which now can be accurately identified on NASA data for over 2,000 years into the past and also 3,000 years into the future are already listed. This information gives specific dates for long ago in biblical history.