I thought to do a graph or visual time line to assist me in studying the Bible. This time line would consist as a visual aid of the time periods that the kings in the Old Testaments reigned. All I would have to do is follow the reign of each king, then represent that reign time through allowing the time to represent space on a graph. It sounded easy enough, but I soon found it was not a simple task. In making my graph I ran into several anomalies.

Before I get into it I need to explain to you how the graph is laid out. The graph is in a vertical fashion with the kings of Judah being on the left side and Israel's kings being on the right side. The way I laid out how much space would be used to represent time is broke it down in inches. This is the numbering or decimal system I used, "year.year, month, day". So what we have is a decimal system like so 0.000.

If someone reigned 30 years, his or her time would take up 3 inches on the graph. So if someone reigned for 6 months the amount of space they would take up in inches would be 0.060". If someone reigned for 3 days the amount of space they would take up in inches would be 0.003". If someone reigned for 32 years the amount of space they would take up in inches would be 3.2". So what we have is a numbering system that can represent the amount of time someone reigned in inches. If someone reigned 25 years, 7 month and 4 days they would be represented in inches as 2.574". In keeping with the numbering system with all kings we should come up with a graph that proportionately represents the times of I and II Kings.

At first I thought to lay out the anomalies one by one and show details on each one but I found to many. So a found with in the writings of the anomalies a key saying or phrase, "year of". I did a phrase search on this saying in I and II Kgs. Of course I had to filter anything that had nothing to do with spotting the anomalies or the making of my time line graph. You can find the result of the search below. If the saying is an anomaly I simply wrote after the verse, "Anomaly". If the verse matches the graph I simply wrote, "OK". If the verse matches the graph but is off by some number I simply wrote how much it is off or gave an explanation.

Filtered search results on "year of", from I and II Kgs:

1Kgs:15:1: Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah.
This statement is off by one year and one month, according to the graph, which would be .11". The way I determine this is to create a rectangle that represents 18 years which would be 1.8 inches. I use this rectangle to measure the time of Jeroboam by laying it over and lining it up with the top of his reign. Theoretically it should have fell on the time when Abijam began to reign in Jerusalem. The measuring block was .11 inches beyond the time Abijam began to reign which would be 1 year 1 month. Lets see if this can be seen just with the Book itself.

We know Jeroboam reigned for 22 years. On Jeroboam's 18th year Abijam begins to reign in Jerusalem. So at that point Jeroboam has 4 years left in his reign. Abijam's total time of reign is 3 years. After Abijam's reign Jeroboam has 1 year left. So he is on his 21 year of reigning in Israel when Abijam's reign ends. This is the statement that shows the graph is correct thus far, IKgs15:9. As you can see the statement is off by 1 year. My graph shows 1 year and 1 month, pretty close.

1Kgs:15:9: And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah.
Off by 1 year 1 month, carried over from Ikgs15:1.

1Kgs:15:25: And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years.
OK

1Kgs:15:33: In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years.
My graph shows it to be off by about 1 year 2 months. If Nadab started to reign on the second year of Asa and reigned for two years Baasha could not have started his reign on the third year of Asa. So Baasha had to have started his reign in the 4th year of Asa.

1Kgs:16:8: In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years.
My graph shows this to be off 2 years and 1 month. What we need to do is add up Nadab and Baasha. Nadab starts to reign in the second year of Asa and reigns for 2 years so we are at the fourth year of Asa. Then Baasha starts to reign after Nadab and he reigns 24 years. So we have 24 + 2 + 2 = 28. So Elah had to have started his reign in the 28th year of Asa and that's what my graph shows.

1Kgs:16:15: In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
If Elah began to reign in the 26th year of Asa and reigned 2 years, Zimri had to have started his reign on the 29th year of Asa. That's with using the numbers from the record. Even with using the numbers provided by other statements from the Bible we see that Ikgs16:15 is off by 1 or 2 years. According to my graph the statement is off by 3 years. 2 of those years are carried over.

1Kgs:16:23: In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah.
What we need to do is add up all the reigns that began inside of Asa's reign. 2; from were Nadab started. 2; time of Nadab's reign. 24; time of Baasha's reign. 2; time of Elah's reign. We will skip Zimri because he only represents 7 days. So what we have is 2 + 2 + 24 + 2 = 30. So Omri would have started his reign in the 30th year of Asa. This is pretty close to 31. When I make a measuring block of 30 years it falls right on the time Omri begins to reign. So Ikgs16:23 is Ok.

I have done this with you up to this point to show you that we need to establish a margin of error. This is because if someone reigned for 2 years 3 months we have no way of knowing how this was recorded. Did they just round it off to two years or did they just call it three years? If this procedure is done continuously you can wind up with a pretty good margin of error. It appears that the recorder realized this while writing Ikgs16:23 and compensated for it. And that's how my graph went from showing a 2 year error back down to a 1 year error. This one year error is now only from not knowing if the recorder rounded off a year or counted it as a whole year. So we need to establish an error margin. The error margin we will establish is +/-3 years. So if the graph and the Bible show a deference greater than +/-3 years, I will call it an anomaly and show how far they are off. If it is within the +/-3 year margin, I will simply say Ok.

1Kgs:16:29: And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years.
My graph shows this to be off by 4 years so we need to investigate. We know that Asa reigned for 41 years and due to our previous calculation we know that Omri began his reign in Israel on the 30th year of Asa. We know Omri reigned for 12 years. So all we need to do is add 30 + 12 = 42. As you can see this exceeds Asa's reign period by 1 year. The passage says Ahab started his reign on the 38th year of Asa. If this was the case then the total reign time of all the kings of Israel that began their reign inside of Asa's reign in Judah would exceed the total amount of time we are told Asa reigned in Judah for. As we have shown it would exceed it by one year. So the graph is correct. Ahab had to have began his reign very close to the ending or after the first year of Jehoshaphat, as the graph shows.

1Kgs:22:41: And Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to reign over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
This is an incorrect statement. If we were to make this statement correct by editing something we would have to make previous statements incorrect.

1Kgs:22:51: Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel.
My graph shows this statement to be off by 5 years. This is 2 years beyond our acceptable margin of error. So let's see if we can determine what happen. First of all this statement is derived from Ikgs22:41 and that automatically gives it an error of 5 years according to the graph. The graph shows Ahab began to reign 1 year after Jehoshaphat. The statement says Jehoshaphat began his reign 4 years after Ahab so that's where we get our 5-year error. From our previous calculations we know the kings that started their reign in the time of Asa adds up to 1 year over his total time of reign. So we know Jehoshaphat could not have started his reign in the fourth year of Ahab. By the numbers, the graph continues to be correct in what it shows.

2Kgs:1:17: So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son.
This statement is off by 2 years. But it is within our acceptable margin of error.

2Kgs:3:1: 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.
I will no longer investigate or try o reason this out. From this point on I will simply show how far they are out or OK. This statement is off by 6 years.

2Kgs:8:16: And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.
I can't even begin to measure this statement. But in examining it, it may be revealing something that could point out a problem with our graph. All of this time we have been assuming that the kings reigned in a serial format. With this statement it becomes a possibility that the sons of kings reigned in parallel with their fathers. This could have been done to introduce the son to his new responsibilities as a king. In other words the son would act as an apprentice or a co-reign to the king. I will investigate this possibility later.

2Kgs:8:25: In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign.
This statement is off by about 4 years.

2Kgs:9:29: And in the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab began Ahaziah to reign over Judah.
This statement is off by about 3 years. And is in conflict with the previous statement through one year.

2Kgs:12:1: In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.
This statement is of by 4 years.

2Kgs:13:1: In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years.
This statement is off by 12 years.

2Kgs:13:10: In the thirty and seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years.
This statement is off by 5 years.

2Kgs:14:1: In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel reigned Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah.
This statement is off by 2 years.

2Kgs:14:23: In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and reigned forty and one years.
This statement is off by 3 years.

2Kgs:15:1: In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign.
This statement is off by 16 years.

2Kgs:15:8: In the thirty and eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.
This statement is off by 8 years.

2Kgs:15:13: Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria.
This statement is off by 8 years.

2Kgs:15:17: In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria.
Off by 8 years.

2Kgs:15:23: In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years.
Off by 9 years.

2Kgs:15:27: In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years.
Off by 9 years.

2Kgs:15:30: And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
Jotham only reigned for 16 years as indicated by IIKgs15:32-33.

2Kgs:15:32: In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign.
Off by 7 years.

2Kgs:16:1: In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
Off by 18 years.

2Kgs:17:1: In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
Off by 17 years.

2Kgs:18:1: Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
No need to go any further. My graph shows Israel's kingdom as ending.

2Kgs:18:9: And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it.

While I was in the process of comparing my graph to statements in the Bible I had an idea. I personally can not accept what has been revealed in this study. The errors are too great and can not be ignored. My graph was created using the times given to us through the Bible itself. So how is this possible? We must come up with a viable solution to what could be going on. A lot of people would just give up at this point, we legitimately acquired our numbers from the Bible to create our graph.

I have often thought the Bible could be written in more than one-dimensional settings. In other words when you are reading a conversation, which appears as one conversation, you are actually reading two or three conversations. It is highly possible when we made our graph we were not paying attention to the second conversation. I will test this theory and see if another graph appears.