Daniel's 70 weeks (4) Jeremiah's 70 years prophecy: Cyrus the Great wasn't the Biblical Cyrus!

In my previous video titled “Nabonidus was Nebuchadnezzar, proven by lunar eclipse in Nabonidus' 2nd year reign” I showed that historians gave the wrong date for the lunar eclipse that occurred in the 2nd year of Nabonidus which they dated September 26, 554 BC. I dated this lunar eclipse seven years earlier on August 15, 561 BC instead. 

The Reign of Nabonidus King of Babylon 556-539 BC, pg 127 last paragraph by Paul-Alain Beaulieu: It is known from the Royal Chronicle that the eclipse must have taken place in the second year of Nabonidus or slightly before…

If the lunar eclipse indeed took place on August 15, 561 BC during the early part of Nabonidus’ second year, then the first year of Nabonidus must have been in 562 BC instead of 556 BC, or six years earlier than the historically recognized date. 

We know for certain that Astyages, the last king of Media, was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of his Babylonian colleague Nabonidus as recorded in the Nabonidus Chronicle Column II lines 1-2:

[ii.1] [The sixth year: Astyages] mustered (his army) and marched against Cyrus, king of Anšan, for conquest [...]

[ii.2] The army rebelled against Astyages and he was taken prisoner. Th[ey handed him over] to Cyrus.

Since the first year of Nabonidus was actually in 562 BC, this means his sixth year starts from 557 BC and ends in  556 BC. I picked 556 BC instead of 557 BC as the last year of Astyages’ reign as this choice will put Darius the Great’s reign starting in 519 BC. Darius the Great was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire following Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II. I will explain later why 519 BC as the start of Darius I’s reign is Biblically significant. 

According to Herodotus Book I: Clio par. 214, Cyrus the Great who succeeded Astyages as king of Media, “had reigned in all thirty years wanting one (or twenty nine years)”. Counting twenty nine years from the end of Astyages’ reign in 556 BC (according to my dating) takes us to 527 BC as the end of Cyrus’ the Great’s reign. Now a Babylonian chronicle tells us exactly when Cyrus conquered Babylon, which was one of the more important highlights of Cyrus’ military career. The Nabonidus Chronicle Column III lines 5 and 18 tells us the following:

[iii.5] [The seventeenth year (of Nabonidus’ reign):]

[iii.18] On the third day of the month Arahsamna, Cyrus entered Babylon. 

The seventeenth year of Nabonidus whose reign started in 562 BC (according to my dating) is in 546 to 545 BC. The Babylonian month Arah Samnu corresponds to the Hebrew month Cheshvan. Using the Keisan calculator, one can see that Cheshvan 3, 546 BC falls in October 16, Julian calendar or October 10 Gregorian calendar. This is seven years earlier than the historically recognized date of October 29, 539 BC for Cyrus the Great’s triumphal entry into Babylon.

Shortly after this date, in his first year as king of Babylon (which started in the first day of the first month Nisan of the following year), Bible scholars and historians alike believe that Cyrus the Great liberated the exiled Israelis in Babylon and sent them back to Jerusalem (see Ezra chapter 1). This is in fulfillment of the following prophecy:

Jeremiah 25: 1,11 The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and … will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Jeremiah 29:10 This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”

The prophecy was given in the fourth year of Jehoiakim dated by historians in 606 to 605 BC and also during the first year of Nebuchadnezzar II dated by historians in 605 BC. It talks about the kingdom of Judah becoming desolate for seventy years. Bible scholars have debated as to when the seventy years prophecy started. 

Some say that it started in the third year of Jehoiakim, dated 607 to 606 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar ordered to bring into his service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility of Judah which included Daniel (see Daniel 1: 1-7).  This of course is unacceptable because the prophecy was made in the fourth year of Jehoiakim after Daniel and his companions were already exiled, besides the fact that Jerusalem and its Temple were not yet desolated at this time.

The Bible explicitly said that the land was to enjoy its Sabbath rests during the seventy years:

2 Chronicles 36: 21 The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.

Most Bible scholars agree (and I am one of them) that the start of the seventieth year was when Jerusalem and its Temple was destroyed either in the summer of 587 BC according to Albright or 586 BC according to Thiele. I am in favor of Thiele’s dating of 586 BC. However, seventy years after 586 BC takes us to 516 BC as the year when the Babylonian exile should have ended. 

My date for Cyrus the Great’s entry into Babylon, October 16, 546 BC Julian calendar, as well as the historically recognized date of October 29, 539 BC are both several years earlier than the prophesied date of the end of the Babylonian exile in 516 BC.

Clearly, Cyrus the Great was NOT the Biblical Cyrus king of Persia mentioned in Ezra chapter 1 who supposedly fulfilled Jermiah’s prophecy about the seventy years exile in Babylon. But if Cyrus the Great was not the Biblical Cyrus, then who was he? I will be revealing his identity in part five of this Daniel's seventy weeks video series.