I have an accidental find to add to the twelve year rule.

In reading the Antiquities of the Jews I ran across this
gem; book 10-(25),
Yet while he was very zealous and diligent about the
worship of God, did he soon after fall into a severe
distemper, insomuch that the physicians despaired of him,
and expected no good issue of his sickness, as neither
did his friends; and besides the distemper itself, there
was a very melancholy circumstance that disordered the
king, which was the consideration that he was childless,
and was going to die, and leave his house and his
government without a successor of his own body;

This event appears to have occurred at about the same time
that the 185,000 corpses marched back to Nineveh. Hezekiah
died about 15 years later in 686 b.c.e. so the 185,000
corpses story must have occurred about 701 b.c.e. It is at
this time that Hezekiah is childless.

The New Jerusalem Bible , 2 Kings 21:1 reports the
reign of Manasseh being from 687 b.c.e. to 642 b.c.e. and
that he was twelve years old when he came to the
throne. My pesher math makes him 23 years old and I
am saying that he became a 1 year old child in 699 b.c.e. and
that Hezekiah was childless in 701 b.c.e. because his son
Manasseh had yet to celebrate his bar mitzvah.

thanks, offa

I have not gotten a satisfactory answer, in my opinion,
about "the twelve year rule". I feel that this post
caused Metacrock to post his Did Josephus Exist?
thread. I have been reading Richard Carrier and Rodahi
and am impressed. I offer my apologies for not recognizing
their genius. I now read what they write in a different
frame of mind.

I often run across the mention of Matthew being erroneous
in his mention of king Herod's death in 4 b.c.e. and Jesus'
supposed age of two years. This is not an error. Jesus was
born in 7 b.c.e. and celebrated his Essene Bar Mitzvah
in A.D. 6 as a one year old Child.

The twelve year old Jesus was actually 23 years old and was
going through a graduation exercise of questions and answers
when he is called a twelve year old in Luke.

Jesus was a real person but his biography is written as
fiction typed over history. The fundies have a
dual problem of trying to discredit Josephus, who
writes favorably about Jesus and in the same turn authenticate
the fantasies surrounding our Christ. I say "our Christ" in the
same sense as I would say "our Bugs Bunny". I am sure that
"Bugs" and "Jesus" share 90% of the same homes.

I am about, in the ensuing weeks, to begin attacking the
fundies in the same manner as they attack our agnostic
free thought. I will continue to bring this subject up until
I get some reasonable debate, instead, of the fundies running
off and starting a b.s. board of their own here on infidels.

thanks, offa

Offa: I have been reading Richard Carrier and Rodahi and am impressed. I offer my apologies for not recognizing their genius. I now read what they write in a different
frame of mind.

To have my name mentioned along with that of Richard Carrier's is a well-appreciated (not necessarily well-deserved) compliment. I thank you.

rodahi