WAS AHAZIAH OF JUDAH OLDER THAN HIS FATHER?

As you’re reading the book of Chronicles in your King James Version, and you decide to closely follow the years of the kings you will come across the curious case of Ahaziah, king of Judah.

Ahaziah’s father was called Joram. Joram died at the age of 40 and his son was made king in his place.

 2 Chronicles 21:16, 20 (WEB) 

 16: Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians who are beside the Ethiopians;  20: He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He departed without being missed; and they buried him in David’s city, but not in the tombs of the kings.

 32+8 = 40 

So, Joram was 40 years old when he died.

This is all well and fine until you read the very next verse.

 2 Chronicles 22:1-2 (WEB) 

 1: The inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, because the band of men who came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the oldest. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah reigned. 2: Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. 

What?

Ahaziah was forty two years old  making him older than his Father.

Now, we have to take this seriously. If the scriptures are inspired then every word must be true because God does not err.

Yet how can this be? How can Ahaziah be 42 years old  when his father is 40 years old?

This question prompted several scholars to come up with several explanations for this number. Some said the 42 is being counted from the time of his grandfather, others gave similar explanations. However, the text speaks plainly that Ahaziah was 42 years old when he began to reign.

It gets worse. 

When you read the story from the book of Kings, it clashes all these explanations by disagreeing with the verse in Chronicles.

Let’s Read:

 2 Kings 8:24, 26 (WEB) 

 24: Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David’s city; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his place. 26: Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel. 

The book of Kings says Ahazia was 22 years old when he began to reign, not 42.

Now that makes more sense. His Father was 40 and he was 22. This means Joram had his first born son at 18. That makes sense.

However, this presents us with another problem. Does this now mean that the book of Chronicles is wrong and must be rejected? If we can’t trust one verse, then we can’t trust the whole book.

How do we explain this?

Let me give the explanation that I personally believe is true.

 HISTORY OF MANUSCRIPTS 

The people who wrote the scriptures were inspired by God  and the scriptures they wrote are without error. However, this was thousands of years ago. 3 000 years ago there were no printing presses, no computers, no copiers.

Manuscripts had to be copied by hand by people called scribes. These scribes had a very rigorous process which they underwent to make sure that every copy matches the original.

When an error was found in a copy, the copy would be destroyed.

However, because this process of copying is a human process which is not always done by men of faith, some copies that had scribal errors would seep through into certain communities, creating what we call variants.

These errors were not major errors that changed doctrines, but small writing errors that we would call TYPOS in modern day language. Nowadays we do not have the original manuscripts written by the authors. We have very old copies that were made thousands of years ago. Of the thousands of manuscripts we have there are several variants in certain minor spots. Nothing big, a missing word in this copy, an extra sentence in that copy.

The KJV and WEB mainly base their translation of the old testament books on a group of hebrew manuscripts called the Masoteric Text.

These copies are about 1000 years old. There are other copies of the old testament which are older, and contain certain minor differences in the text. But some of them are in Greek, meaning they are translated copies. The Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament are about two thousand years old. Which makes them older than the Masoteric text, though they are a translation from the original Hebrew.

SO, THERE ARE OTHER ANCIENT COPIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS WHERE THE VERSE IN CHRONICLES SAYS AHAZIAH was 22 years old.

Anyways, bible translators have to make a choice on which manuscripts are best. This is why we have different versions of the English bible. So if we go back to the same verse, and use a different translation you will find it different.

 2 Chronicles 22:2 (NET) 

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri.

NASB 1995
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri.

AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

NIV
Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

LITERAL STANDARD VERSION
Ahaziah [is] a son of twenty-two years in his reigning, and he has reigned one year in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother [is] Athaliah daughter of Omri;

………..

Whilst the KJV translates the old testament from the Masoteric Text, the other versions consult other ancient manuscripts. In some of the ancient Greek (Septuagint) and Syriac manuscripts, the text reads 22 years old. And on that bases, they concluded that the Masoteric text contained a scribal error.

 CONCLUSION 

My conclusion is that the Masoteric text, which the KJV is based on contains a scribal copyist error on 2 Chronicles 22:2. The scribe wanted to write 22 and he wrote 42.

We can confirm this because we have earlier Greek and Syriac manuscripts that say 22, and 22 agrees with the book of kings and makes sense as the age of Ahaziah when he became king. So inspite of the existence of writing and spelling mistakes in some manuscripts, God ensured that we have access to all the different manuscripts so that we can find the original preserved inspired word of scripture.

It is essential for people to know and understand why and how the different translation came about. Despite all this you will find that even in all these different variants and translations, the doctrine of God and of Christ remains unchanged. It is the same. The copyist errors are minor and easy to find and resolve by comparing with other manuscripts.

Whether you pick up an NIV, KJV, ESV, NET or NASB, you come out with the same doctrine of Christ same facts, same conclusions.

It is well. Stay Blessed