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Chronology and 607 BCE · Claim record

The organisation's description of the editorial history of line 3 of VAT 4956 is accurate: the tablet reads 'the 9th', and Sachs and Hunger print that reading while marking it in translation as an error for the 8th.

Claim ID claim-chronology-vat4956-line3-emendation-is-realConcerns 1 November 2011Context
Context · 1 November 2011 Verified

The organisation's description of the editorial history of line 3 of VAT 4956 is accurate: the tablet reads 'the 9th', and Sachs and Hunger print that reading while marking it in translation as an error for the 8th. The Watchtower, 1 November 2011electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), fragment VAT.4956, 1988

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

The Watchtower, “When Was Ancient Jerusalem Destroyed?-Part Two, box 'What Does VAT 4956 Really Say?'”

1 November 2011 · pp.26-27 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania

“(5) In 1988, Sachs and Hunger published the text as it actually reads, with a “9.” (6) Yet, they preserve the alteration in their English translation, calling the “9th” an “error for: 8th.””

The organisation's account of the editorial history of line 3 of VAT 4956. Its description of what Sachs and Hunger printed is accurate; the disagreement is over whether the emendation is justified.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the Watchtower Online Library text on 19 September 2026. The box carries the marker “[Box/Pictures on pages 26, 27]” and is headed “WHAT DOES VAT 4956 REALLY SAY?” Items (5) and (6) are the last two of a numbered list of six and are quoted here with their numbers. The published edition reproduced by the electronic Babylonian Library does print the 9 with the note “(error for: 8th)”, so this description checks out.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-ebl-vat4956-line3

Notes. The credit line reads “bpk/Vorderasiatisches Museum, SMB/Olaf M. Teßmer” (often transliterated Tessmer).

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-w11-1101-vat4956-box

Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), fragment VAT.4956, “Astronomical diary for year 37 of Nebuchadnezzar II, obverse line 3”

1988 · pp.46-53 (ADART I, No. -567) · Abraham J. Sachs and Hermann Hunger (edition); Reinhard Pirngruber (digital edition) · Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna (print edition)

“Night of the 9th (error for: 8th), beginning of the night, the moon stood 1 cubit in front of the hind leg of the Lion (= β Virginis).”

This is the line on which the Watch Tower's 2011 argument turns. The published edition prints the tablet's '9th' and marks it as a scribal error for the 8th; the editors do not silently alter the text.

Official source Archived or alternative copy

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the eBL API record downloaded on 19 September 2026. The transliteration shows the number as written and the English translation carries the editorial note “(error for: 8th)”, exactly as the Watchtower of 1 November 2011 describes. The star name is printed by the editors as “β Virginis” and is reproduced here unchanged.

Scan provenance. electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen. The edition reproduced there is that of Sachs and Hunger, digitised by Reinhard Pirngruber for the Astronomical Diaries Digital project (Austrian Academy of Sciences), CC BY-SA 3.0.

Corroborated by. src-chr-e-w11-1101-vat4956-box

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-chr-e-ebl-vat4956-line3

Claim page

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-chronology-vat4956-line3-emendation-is-real/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.