Inerrant Lie #83

Another lie from "God's ineffable, inerrant word":

Solomon the son of David was the final king over the twelve tribes of Israel. When Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, ascended the throne, his domestic policies caused a division in the tribes; leaving the line of David with two tribes (which are called one tribe: Judah) to rule, and the other ten tribes to fend for themselves.

While the throne in Jerusalem (after the demise of Saul, who was the original king of all the tribes of Israel; and a Benjamite) was passed down from father- to- son within the house of David: the throne over the ten separate tribes of Israel was the subject of a number of palace intrigues which necessarily crowned whichever reformer killed the previous king and wiped out his family line. The seat of this kingdom was the city of Samaria.

Ahab, who is perhaps the most infamous of all the kings who reigned over Israel in Samaria, was the son of Omri who killed Zimri to take the throne seven days after Zimri had killed Ela to likewise take the throne. Ahab died in Ramoth-gilead battling against the Syrians who had taken Ramoth-gilead from him. Ahaziah the son of Ahab was crowned king in Samaria at his father Ahab’s passing.

Now Ahaziah, having suffered an accident at home in Samaria, sent messengers to Ekron to enquire of Baal-zebub, one of the gods of the Philistines. For this inquiry, Ahaziah was reprimanded and cursed to die by the prophet Elijah. The record concerning Ahaziah’s inquiry of Baal-zebub and his presumably- resultant death is found in the first chapter of the second book of Kings.

2 Kings 1:17 says: “So [Ahaziah the son of Ahab] died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram [the son of Ahab] reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because [Ahaziah] had no son.” The lie, here, concerns the timing of Jehoram’s ascension to the throne of Samaria; and it's difficult to ascertain where the lie is found, what the lie is, and why the lie is told: given the number and conflicting nature of the accounts of Ahaziah's demise and Jehoram's ascension. The only obvious fact in this matter is that inconsistencies exist.

For instance, the first verse in the third chapter of the second book of Kings contradicts altogether the former statement at the end of the first chapter of the same book that Jehoram ascended the throne of Samaria in the second year of Jehoshaphat’s son, saying: “Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years [2 Kings 3:1].”

The difference, in years, between these two contradictory statements in Second Kings is no less than nine years, given that “Jehoshaphat… reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem [1 Kings 22:42].”