{"id":18187,"date":"2020-01-10T15:31:32","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=18187"},"modified":"2020-12-31T12:10:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T18:10:10","slug":"did-baasha-die-in-the-26th-year-of-king-asas-reign-or-was-he-still-alive-in-the-36th-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-baasha-die-in-the-26th-year-of-king-asas-reign-or-was-he-still-alive-in-the-36th-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Baasha die in the 26th year of King Asa’s reign or was he still alive in the 36th year?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Did Baasha, the king of Israel die in the 26th year of King Asa’s reign (I Kings 15:33), or was he still alive in the 36th year (II Chronicles 16:1)?<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

“In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king over all Israel at Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years<\/em>” (I Kings 15:33).<\/p>\n

“In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah<\/em>” (II Chronicles 16:1).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem is that if Baasha became king of Israel in Asa’s third year, then he died in the 27th year of Asa’s reign, according to I Kings. But II Chronicles has him battling Asa in Asa’s 36th year.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, decided that a mistake was made in the copying of the year in II Chronicles and that II Chronicles 16:1 should have said 26th year and that II Chronicles 15:19 should have said 25th year.<\/li>\n
  2. Similarly, others note that the letters for 16 and 36 are very similar and propose that II Chronicles 15:19 should be the 15th year and II Chronicles 16:1 should be the 16th year of Asa’s reign. In addition to the difficulty of the delayed punishment, now being 23 years later, the statement in II Chronicles 15:19 loses meaning. Asa made reforms in his 15th year (II Chronicles 15:10) and then it says that he had no more war until his 15th year? Unless the statement is actually saying that Asa’s first fifteen years on the throne was marked by peace. (The word “more” was added by the translators in some versions.)<\/li>\n
  3. Another solution is to note that the counting of reigns doesn’t always start with when a king takes the throne. II Chronicles 15:19 says there were no more wars until the 35th year of Asa’s reign.\n
      \n
    • Rehoboam reigned 17 years (II Chronicles 12:13)<\/li>\n
    • Abijah reigned 3 years (II Chronicles 13:2)<\/li>\n
    • Asa reigned 15 years (II Chronicles 15:10)<\/li>\n
    • Total: 35 years as stated in II Chronicles 15:19<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThis basically makes the count in II Chronicles 15:19 and II Chronicles 16:1 dealing with the years Asa’s kingdom (Judah) was in existence instead of Asa’s actual years on the throne. The problem is that II Chronicles 15:10 is worded the same, but it would refer to the years Asa was on the throne. It also means that Asa’s reforms that he did in his fifteenth year gained him no peace but instead is a statement that Judah didn’t encounter war for the first 35 years of the kingdom’s existence (until Asa’s fifteenth year of reigning). Thus, those who hold this view believe that the “of Asa” in II Chronicles 15:9 and 16:1 were a mistaken addition to the text.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Whether you hold view 2 or 3, Asa’s first 15 years on the throne were marked by peace. Then in his 15th year, Zerah of Ethiopia attacked and God gave a stunning victory to Asa (II Chronicles 14:9-15). This led Asa to make many serious reforms in his kingdom. The following year, Baasha decided to fortify his southern border to keep his people from migrating down into Asa’s territory (II Chronicles 15:9; 16:1). Asa then pays the king of Aram to distract Baasha with a war on his northern border while Asa tore down the southern fortification (II Chronicles 16:2-6). When God scolds Asa through the prophet Hanani for depending on Aram, Asa gets angry, imprisons the prophet, and turns against God for the rest of his reign (II Chronicles 16:7-10). This is why in his 39th year when he came down with a foot disease, he refused to ask God for help (II Chronicles 16:11-14).<\/p>\n

      Either views 2 or 3 fits the various timelines well.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Question: Did Baasha, the king of Israel die in the 26th year of King Asa’s reign (I Kings 15:33), or was he still alive in the 36th year (II Chronicles 16:1)? Answer: “In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king over all Israel at Tirzah, and reigned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,793],"class_list":["post-18187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-apparent-contradictions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16275,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lessons-from-the-reign-of-asa\/","url_meta":{"origin":18187,"position":0},"title":"Lessons from the Reign of Asa","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: I Kings 15:8-24 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Asa\u2019s reign was the third in Judah since the great division of Israel during the reign of Rehoboam \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His father, Abijam, only reigned three years. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Abijam was not a good king as the Lord counts goodness - I Kings 15:3 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17770,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-asa-and-jehoshaphats-reigns-overlap-in-judah\/","url_meta":{"origin":18187,"position":1},"title":"Did Asa and Jehoshaphat’s reigns overlap in Judah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: From the dates I can find, King Asa and Jehoshaphat overlapped in their reigns as kings. 873 - 870. Is that correct? And why the overlap? Also, when Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and went to Judah do we know for sure which king was reigning over Judah (Asa\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4448,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-king-jehoshaphat-remove-the-high-places-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":18187,"position":2},"title":"Did King Jehoshaphat remove the high places or not?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am looking for a source of information concerning the apparent discrepancy regarding Jehoshaphat and the high places of Judah. In\u00a0II Chronicles 17:6\u00a0the record says the king removed the high places and wooden images from Judah. The parallel account in\u00a0I Kings 22:43\u00a0says he failed to take away the high\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20313,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-ahaziah-begin-to-reign-in-the-eleventh-or-twelfth-year-of-jorams-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":18187,"position":3},"title":"Did Ahaziah begin to reign in the eleventh or twelfth year of Joram’s reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have another question regarding a couple of passages in II Kings. II Kings 8:25 and II Kings 9:29 concerning when Ahaziah began to reign as king. One passage says in the twelfth year of Joram and the other passage says in the eleventh year of Joram. This was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1687,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-ahaziah-begin-his-reign\/","url_meta":{"origin":18187,"position":4},"title":"When did Ahaziah begin his reign?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When comparing II Kings 8:26 and II Chronicles 22:2, which is the true age of Ahaziah when he began to reign? Answer: \"Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah the granddaughter of Omri, king of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38147,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/because-of-the-sins-of-jeroboam\/","url_meta":{"origin":18187,"position":5},"title":"Because of the Sins of Jeroboam","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Matthew 5:13-16 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Few credit the influence we have on the lives of those around us. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The things we do and say impact the lives of those we come in contact. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes our influence spreads to people we may not have seen. II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The example of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}