Who Was Claudius Ptolemy?

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Most Bible Students have probably never even heard of Claudius Ptolemy, but he has greatly influenced how we understand Biblical chronology, and therefore prophecy concerning Jesus. Ptolemy was an ancient astronomer and mathematician upon whose works modern historians base much of their data concerning the Jewish chronology from the time of the captivity and then the release of the Jews to about the rise of Alexander the Great. The dates of Nebuchadnezzar’s and Cyrus’ reigns and exploits are assumed to be fixed by Ptolemy’s seven lunar eclipses[1] dated from 747 BCE TO 330 BCE.[2] However, in any given year there could be a total of seven lunar and solar eclipses, five of the sun and two of the moon or four of the sun and three of the moon. The smallest number of eclipses that could occur in one calendar year is two, both of the sun.[3] To complicate matters even further, there are some 70 eclipses in any given 18 years period.[4] Moreover, the solar eclipses occur one third of the way around the earth in every 18-year cycle. Thus, a solar eclipse will occur in the same place at the same longitude every 54 years.[5]