The Torah dating appears to use "480" code. From Yetziat Mitsrayim to Bayit Rishon was 480 years, says Melachim I, 6:1. From Bayit Risfhon to Bayit Sheni is 410 plus 70, says Seder Olam. Again 480. A code number, to make history symmetric. From Har Sinai to Bayit Rishon, is as from Bayit Rishon to Bayit Sheni. It seems that Seder Olam records a prophetic tradition from the time of Daniel. Bayit Sheni would stand for 420 years, and before that were 480 years to Bayit Rishon. The dates of events such as the destruction of Bayit Rishon, were calculated afterwards, from the actual year of destruction of Bayit Sheni. Daniel's numbers are all code - 420 years is half a week if 6000 years are 50 days - for the time of the End.
Multiply 480 symbolic years by 10/3 and get 1600 real years. How do I know 10/3? Firstly, there is a source for such a number - Daniel 7:25: עד-עידן ועידנין ופלג עידן. Secondly, multiply 70 by 10/3 and get 233 years and a third real years for Galut Bavel. That is close: Bayit Rishon was destroyed in Av 3175 and the building of Bayit Sheni was finished in the first half of 3409. Bayit Sheni was 3409 in our year count, as the Gemara says to add one to the Tana (Seder Olam). And we conclude: the beginning of the building of Bayit Rishon, the fourh year of the rule of Shlomo HaMelech, was 1600 years before 3409, in 1809.
Shlomo had a thousand wives. Did he marry every other week during all of his reign? Or did he marry every week for twenty years? Sheva Brachot every day? What about נקי יהיה לביתו שנה אחת? Taking a thousand wives must be a hint at a thousand years. Don't read נשים - read שנים. Not a thousand women - a thousand years.
[Note that the period in which the year count existed, and the period covered by Seder Olam are largely complementary. Seder Olam records symbolic years, for lack of a better word, from the beginning of time until the dedication of Bayit Sheni. Until Bayit Rishon, every earthly year equals a symbolic year. From Bayit Rishon to Bayit Sheni every symbolic year is 10/3 earthly years.]
I think that Tenach alludes quite explicitly to the factor 10/3 in the very matter of Shlomo's one thousand wives. Out of these thousand wives, three hundred are described as concubines, Pelagshim (Melachim I, 11). The three hundred are to the 480 revealed years as the 700 real wives are to the 1120 hidden years. The factor is 1.6. The 1120 hidden years are 164 of Galut Bavel (from 3175 to 3409 only seventy years are counted in Seder Olam) and 956 hidden years in which the sons of David ruled over all of Israel. Together with 44 revealed such years (Shlomo's 40 years and the first four years of Rechavam's rule, until the raid of Shishak who came to support Yarav'am - see Melachim I, 14:25) the sons of David ruled a thousand years over the united tribes of Israel. It follows that Paraoh Shishak, the first Paraoh Tenach mentions by name, took the riches of Israel in 2806.
The code is precise internally - "10/3" gives a thousand years from the first year of Shlomo to the raid of Shishak- yet historically it is approximate. I am not claiming that precisely 1000 historical years passed from Shlomo to Shishak. The proper interpretation of the 1000 years might be "many generations", during which Yerushalayim initially exercised regional power, but in the end only controlled (part of) the Land of Israel (Sanhedrin 20b).
In conventionally dated Egyptian history, Paraoh Soshenq (I) raided Israel and Yehudah in the year 2836, 30 years later then the code implies. From the raid by Shishak to the demise of the Bayit Rishon was 369 years in the Seder Olam code. After the raid of Shishak, Bayit Rishon stood only 339 historical years. Similarly, the code says that from the destruction of Bayit Rishon in Av 3175 to Bayit Sheni was 233 and 1/3 years. That brings one to Kislev 3409. The dedication of Bayit Sheni was a few months later, in Adar. One could argue that the code might be deeper than history. Conceivably, the dedication of Bayit Sheni should have taken place in Kislev (and Chanukka would be a repair of the "mistake"). Along this line, perhaps, Bayit Sheni should have been raided thirty years before it actually happened. Perhaps, then, the delay was in the merit of Abraham's 30 years of exile (see Counting the Centuries). For a somewhat similar concept in Chazal, see Rashi at Devarim 4:25.
If we would take the thousand years literally, and thus the fourth year of Shlomo would be 1809, subtract from that 480 years and get 1329, the time of Yetziat Mitzrayim, right in the old Egyptian kingdom. In 5769, that will be 4440 years ago. It seems that archeological findings regarding the destructions of Yericho and HaAi fit this chronology quite well, as well as the age of flood deposits in Mesopotamia. Among the thousand wives was the daughter of Par'oh. It appears to be another hint: The Hyksos who conquered the old world and became kings in Egypt were Bnei Yisrael, though in the records of Israel their years were not counted.
Let me illustrate the 480 code by using it to decipher Chazal's puzzling statements regarding the reign of Achashverosh in Megila 11. Chazal seem completely mistaken: They claim that Achashverosh was the direct successor of Koresh, and reigned for 14 years, his reign ending two years before the 70 years of Galut Bavel were over. This is a big puzzle. After Koresh, his son Cambyses ruled. There seems to be no connection between historical records and the statements of Chazal.
However, if Chazal is assumed to have used the above 10/3 scaling, their claim that Achashverosh' reign covered years 54 to 68 of the 70 years of Galut Bavel, has a surprising translation. Multiplying with 10/3, we get that his rule started 180 (54*10/3) after Churban Bayit Rishon, i.e., in 3355, and lasted 47 years (14*10/3). We conclude that Achashveros would have ruled from 3355-3402. In the historical records we find that Artaxerxes II ruled from 3357 to 3403. So that's him!
This could also be the solution of another enigma - the rule of Daryavesh the Mede. Chazal have him conquer Bavel right before, or together with, Koresh. There is no historical record at all of this Daryavesh. However, Artaxerxes II succeeded his father Daryavesh II, who ruled for 19 years, starting 161 years after the Churban. The Talmud has it that Daryavesh and Koresh ruled somehow together for five years, starting 49 years after the Churban. The ratio is quite ok: 49*10/3=163.
Do not conclude that Chazal were falsifying history. They understood reality differently. Their logic and perception escape us, but they are truly valid. Chazal are explaining to us how things are in the prophetic tradition. The are explaining to us things about the system that underlies reality. They understood that it must be that Bayit Sheni stood 420 years, Daniel's half a week. They understood that it must be that the Galut before these 420 years lasted for 70 years, as Yirimyahu had said. Finally, the Zohar explains the necessity of using code. As long as the Erev Rav is around, secrets must be hidden from them (Raya Mehemana Tzav 28a).
Finally, to finish the picture: The Talmud states that after Achashveros, another Daryavesh ruled. This is the Daryavesh mentioned in Ezra 4, who gave permission to finish Bayit Sheni, 70 years after Churban Bayit Rishon. He is Daryavesh I of history. The Artaxerxes mentioned in Ezra 4 is Achashveros. The author followed the chronology of the Talmud, but substituted what he knew to be a synonym.
יא
