the first first year of Zedekiah

[_prismsplay]

Lehi was called to be a prophet "in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah" (LDS 1 Nephi 1:4 / RLDS 1 Nephi 1:3).

There could be a difference between the commencement of a reign and the commencement of the first year of a reign, because when a new king acceded to the throne within what would be regarded as the last year of the previous king, the time from that accession to the beginning of the first regnal year was regarded as the beginning of the reign of the new king. Thus, Lehi was not called to be a prophet until a first year of Zedekiah had actually begun.

In contrast, the plates of brass that Lehi sent his sons to obtain were found to have scriptural coverage up to the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah but not into a first year of his reign: "... a record of the Jews from the beginning, even down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, and also the prophecies of the holy prophets from the beginning, even down to the commencement of the reign of Zedekiah, and also many prophecies which have been spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah" (LDS 1 Nephi 5:12-13 / RLDS 1 Nephi 1:161-163).

The words "spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah" are significant. They are a verbal link to the 36th chapter of Jeremiah: "Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book" (Jeremiah 36:4). "And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth? Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book" (Jeremiah 36:17-18).

Verses 1-7 of Jeremiah chapter 36 decribe events in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah chapter 45, a message to Baruch, follows those events. Verses 8-32 of Jeremiah chapter 36 describe events in the fifth year of Jehoiakim. As I will show, what was then regarded as the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, who was at that time in Babylon (Daniel 1:1-4 with 2 Chronicles 36:5-6). What was then regarded as the first year of Zedekiah would later be regarded as the fifth year of Jehoikim.

Only two months after the first year of Zedekiah had begun, Jehoiakim returned to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 36: 19-32), rendering Zedekiah's reign in the fourth and fifth years of Jehoiakim null and void. The regnal year of Judah's kings began in the seventh month of the sacred year. Therefore, Jehoiakim's return to Jerusalem, in the ninth month of his fifth year, was only two months after the commencement of the first first year of Zedekiah. So Lehi was called to be a prophet just prior to the return of Jehoiakim to Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was a king who hated and killed prophets of the Lord (Jeremiah 26:20-24).

Evidence that the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah was in the fourth year of Jehoikim exists. Jeremiah's prophecies to the nations (chapters 46-51) can be dated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 46:2). As the introduction to the Jewish Publication Society's 1973 edition of The Book of Jeremiah states: "... the oracles against the foreign nations, which in the Hebrew text are grouped near the end of the book (chapters 46-51) are located in the Greek [Septuagint] after 25:13." Jeremiah chapter 25 describes events in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1). Within the prophecies to the nations is a clear reference to the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah: "The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah..." (Jeremiah 49:34).

Let me add something in brackets to Jeremiah 28:1 that I believe to be justified: "And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year [of Jehoiakim], and in the fifth month..." For how can "the beginning of the reign", which preceded the first year of a king, also be the fourth year? It cannot, unless the situation is as I have shown, with Zedekiah acting as king while Jehoiakim was in Babylon.

Since Jehoiakim was a killer of prophets, while Zedekiah was not, it is understandable that Lehi and his followers would refer to the first year of Zedekiah instead of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, even after Jehoiakim's return to Jerusalem. And so we have the superscription of 3 Nephi stating that Lehi "came out of Jerusalem in the first year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah", even though Jehoiakim had replaced Zedekiah as king prior to Lehi's departure.

Perhaps the stolen 116 pages of Joseph Smith's translation from the Book of Lehi contained an account of the Jehoiakim-Zedekiah situation. Even if so, Joseph Smith revealed nothing about it. Nor did his inspired translation of the Bible make significant changes to the book of Jeremiah, which in my opinion has some internal conflicts that probably won't be resolved until the plates of brass hidden in Hill Cumorah in Mexico are found and translated.

Until then, this analysis may suggest that it may be foolish to be rattled that the accepted first year of Zedekiah occurs too late to have been 600 years before the birth Christ (the theory that lunar years was meant is wrong). There must have been two first years of Zedekiah, and it was from the first first year of Zedekiah that the 600 years should be counted (3 Nephi chapter 1). According to a chronological chart that I have studied, the fifth year of Jehoiakim, which was also the first first year of Zedekiah, began in the Autumn of 602 B.C. and ended in the Autumn of 601 B.C.

Jesus Christ was born on the equivalent of April 6th, 1 B.C.

from "History of Joseph Smith" in Times and Seasons (1842):

In this manner did the Lord continue to give us instructions from time to time, concerning the duties which now devolved upon us, and among many other things of the kind, we obtained of him the following, by the spirit of prophecy and revelation; which not only gave us much information, but also pointed out to us the precise day upon which, according to his will and commandment, we should proceed to organize his church once again, here upon the earth.

The rise of the church of Christ in these last days, being one thousand eight hundred and thirty years since the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the flesh, it being regularly organized and established agreeably to the laws of our country, by the will and commandments of God in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April ...

[_prismsplay]

Two major attempts, at odds with each other, for explaining the 600 years between Lehi's departure from Jerusalem to the birth of Christ, employ shortened years to arrive at 600 years between the two dates.

Evidence that Nephite years were standard solar years is found at Alma 46:40:

And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year was very frequent in the land — but not so much so with fevers because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases which was subsequent to man by the nature of the climate — [The Earliest Text]

Since there were "seasons of the year", each year began at the same point in the standard solar year.

[_karl61]

The first year of the reign of Zedekiah was 598 to 597 BC. I'm not sure why the 600 years before Christ is such an issue where it can't be adjusted. If Lehi was present in Jerusalem in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah then he was there in 598 BC.