50. Quest. How long the Chaldean Empire and Monarchie continued.
There are three generall opinions hereof. 1. Some extend it not so farre as to 70. yeares: 2. some limit it vnto 70. yeares: 3. some make it farre to exceede the tear•••• of 70. yeares.
1. Of the first opinion are diuers, one disagreeing from an other: Berosus from the begin∣ning of Nabuchadnezers raigne to the ende of Balthazars, counteth but 65. yeares, as Iose∣phus alleadgeth him, lib. 1. cont. Appion. Alexander Polyhistor cited by Euseb. lib. 9. de praep. Evang. reckoneth but 62. yeares. Clemens Alex. lib. 1. stromat. and August. lib. 18. de ci∣vit. Dei, doe make the summe but 48. yeares. But the Scripture euidently conuinceth all these: which sheweth that the Chaldeans should rule ouer nations 70. yeares, Ierem. 25. 11. and so long the Iewes should be in captiuitie vnder them: but their captiuitie began vnder Nabuchadnezer: from the beginning then of his raigne to the ende of the Chaldean Mo∣narchie, there must be 70. yeares at the least.
2. Some make but iust 70. yeares, as Sulpit. lib. 2. sacr. histor. so also H. B. in the Concent of Scripture: Nabuchadnezers 45. Euilmerodachs 22. and Balthazars 3. doe fill vp the num∣ber of 70. yeares. But the captiuitie began not before the 8. yeare of Nabuchadnezers raigne, when Iechonia was carried away captiue, 2. king. 24. 12. from whence the Prophet Ezekiel counteth the yeares of captiuitie, Ezck. 1. 2. c. 8. 1. and in diuers other places.
3. Of the third sort,* 1.1 which extend the terme beyond 70. yeares: first Iosephus counteth an 118. yeares: to Nabuchadnezer he giueth 43. yeares, to Euilmerodach 18. to Niglasar 40. to Balthazar 17. yet Beda and Rupertus thinke that the place in Iosephus is corrupted: and Pererius also, because Iosephus in an other place, lib. 11. from the 18. yeare of Nabuchadne∣zer to the destruction of Babylon, reckoneth iust 70. yeares.
Paulus Orosius affirming that Babylon was taken by Cyrus at the same time when the kings were expelled out of Rome, which was in the 67. Olympiade, extendeth the Chaldean Monarchie 60. yeares beyond the due time; for Cyrus is held to haue begun to raigne in the 58. Olympiade.
Pererius holdeth that the Chaldean Monarchie endured 88. yeares, which he sheweth thus: the captiuitie of the Iewes began in the 18. yeare of Nabuchadnezer, when Ierusalem was taken, which continued 70. yeares; vnto this summe must be added 18. yeares, which were runne before of Nabuchadnezers raigne. But herein is Pererius error, he beginneth the captiuitie in the 18. yeare, whereas it must take beginning onely from the 8. yeare of his raigne, as is euident, 2. king. 24. 12. and shall afterward more fully be shewed.
4. Therefore the true account is this: the 70. yeares captiuitie beganne when Ieconia was caried into captiuitie: for so the Prophet Ezekiel vseth to recken: as c. 1. 2. he maketh men∣tion of the 5. yeare. c. 8. 1. of the sixt yeare. c. 29. 1. of the 10. yeare. c. 31. 1. of the 11. yeare. c. 32. 1. of the 12. yeare. c. 29. 17. of the 27. yeare: all which yeares are accounted from the captiuitie of Iechonia, as is euident c. 1. 2. which was in the 8. yeare of the raigne of Nabu∣chadnezer, 2. king. 24. 12. for then must begin the account of 70. yeares: vnto which must be added 8. yeares of Nabuchadnezers raigne, which were expired before: so the whole time of the Babylonian Monarchie, from the beginning of Nabuchadnezers raigne, was not precisely 70. yeares, as Polan. p. 398. but 78. yeares. Bulling.