The BibleGospel Companion
Building · The United Kingdomc. 1012 BC

The foundations of the temple are laid

Range across sources: 1012–970 BC

True span4004 BC – AD 100
Beginnings · 4004 BC – 1996 BC · 12 eventsBeginnings4004 BC – 1996 BCThe Patriarchs · 1996 BC – 1635 BC · 34 eventsPatriarchs1996 BC – 1635 BCEgypt and the Exodus · 1635 BC – 1451 BC · 19 eventsExodus1635 BC – 1451 BCConquest and Settlement · 1451 BC – 1400 BC · 7 eventsConquest1451 BC – 1400 BCThe Judges · 1405 BC – 1095 BC · 13 eventsJudges1405 BC – 1095 BCThe United Kingdom · 1095 BC – 975 BC · 38 eventsUnited Kgdm1095 BC – 975 BCIsrael and Judah · 933 BC – 721 BC · 27 eventsIsrael & Judah933 BC – 721 BCJudah Alone · 721 BC – 586 BC · 22 eventsJudah alone721 BC – 586 BCThe Exile · 586 BC – 538 BC · 7 eventsExile586 BC – 538 BCReturn and Restoration · 538 BC – 400 BC · 13 eventsReturn538 BC – 400 BCBetween the Testaments · 400 BC – 4 BC · 8 eventsBetween400 BC – 4 BCThe Life of Jesus · 6 BC – AD 33 · 42 eventsJesus6 BC – AD 33The Apostles and the Early Church · AD 30 – AD 100 · 29 eventsThe ChurchAD 30 – AD 1001095 BC — Israel asks Samuel for a king1095 BC — Samuel anoints Saul king1093 BC — Saul takes the kingdom over Israel1085 BC — David is born in Bethlehem1063 BC — Samuel anoints David at Bethlehem1060 BC — David takes refuge with Achish of Gath1057 BC — David raids from Ziklag1055 BC — Saul and Jonathan die on Mount Gilboa1053 BC — David is made king over Judah at Hebron1048 BC — Abner goes over to David and is killed1048 BC — David takes the stronghold of Zion1046 BC — David builds the city of David1045 BC — The ark is brought up to Jerusalem1044 BC — God's promise to David of a lasting house1038 BC — The Ammonites shame David's envoys; war follows1035 BC — Joab besieges Rabbah of the Ammonites1034 BC — David and Bathsheba; Nathan's rebuke1034 BC — Solomon is born1032 BC — Amnon wrongs Tamar; Absalom kills him1027 BC — Absalom is brought back to Jerusalem1023 BC — Absalom's revolt; David flees over the Jordan1021 BC — Three years of famine for Saul's bloodguilt1017 BC — David numbers Israel; the plague and the threshing floor1017 BC — David gathers the materials for the temple1015 BC — Adonijah's bid fails; Solomon is made king1015 BC — David dies after forty years as king1014 BC — Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter1013 BC — Hiram of Tyre sends timber for the temple1012 BC — The foundations of the temple are laid1005 BC — The temple is finished in Solomon's eleventh year1004 BC — Solomon dedicates the temple; the glory fills the house992 BC — Solomon finishes his own house975 BC — Solomon turns back to God and diesJonathan's raid; Saul's unlawful sacrifice — placed by its order in the narrativeSaul spares Agag and is rejected — placed by its order in the narrativeDavid kills Goliath in the valley of Elah — placed by its order in the narrativeSolomon asks for wisdom; the two mothers — placed by its order in the narrativeThe queen of Sheba visits Solomon — placed by its order in the narrative
the events of this period, each at its year — this one outlinedplaced only by its order in the narrativethe whole thread →

Told in

1 Kings 6:1–14In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the…2 Chronicles 3:1–2Then Solomon began to build Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where Yahweh appeared to David his father, which he prepared in the place that David had appointed, on the…
Opening words from the World English Bible (public domain); the passage list is in-house

Who and where

SolomonMoriah ›
Names and references: STEPBible, Tyndale House Cambridge · CC BY 4.0 · coordinates: OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding · CC BY 4.0

How we know the date

Ussher counts from the Bible's own numbers; ISBE counts back 37 years from the end of Solomon's reign, which it places in 933 BC, and so lands about forty years later. Ussher's Annals (1650) gives 1012 BC (its year of the world 2992 c); ISBE's Old Testament chronology (1915) gives 970 BC. The sources differ by 42 years; the year shown (1012 BC) is the one this timeline follows through this stretch, from Ussher's Annals (1650).

Written in-house from the sources below · every year is a quotation

The sources, word for word

“2992. a. … Anno CCCCLXXX. ab egressu Israelitarum ex /Egypto, anno quarto regni Salomonis, mensis secundi, qui Ziv tune dictus est, die secundo, Maii 21. feria secunda, templi fundamenta a Salomone jacta sunt*. 2993. b.”

Ussher, Annales Veteris Testamenti (1650), Latin text in The Whole Works of James Ussher, vols. VIII–XI (Dublin, 1864) · vol. VIII, AM 2992 c · gives 1012 BC

“In order to get the time limits of this period, it is necessary to count back 37 years from the end of Solomon's reign in 933 BC, and this brings us to that epoch-marking event, the laying of the foundations of the Temple in 969 or 970, the 4th year of his reign (1Ki 6:1); and from this event we are brought by the addition of the comprehensive number 479, given in the same verse, back to the year of the Exodus, approximately 1448 BC, making the total length of the period about 516 years.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT · gives 970 BC

Sources