What is the Ahaziah contradiction?

Answer 1

Some believe that the passage in 2 Chronicles is actually speaking of the 'true' ruler's age - Athaliah, his mother being 42 years old. An interesting argument is presented in the Related Links for your reading pleasure.

Answer 2

The 'Ahaziah contradiction' commonly refers to the apparent contradiction between 2 Kings 8:26, which says that Ahaziah became king of Judah at the age of 22 years, and 2 Chronicles 22:2, which says Ahaziah was 42 when he became king of Judah.

There have been various interesting theological attempts to resolve this contradiction, but these do not look at the full context of the reign of Ahazaiah, where we find another related contradiction in the reign of his brother and successor, Jehoram. The biblical accounts say Ahab of Israel was the uncle of Ahaziah of Judah and the father of Ahaziah of Israel. Further analysis even raises the possibility that there was neither a King Ahaziah nor a King Jehoram of Judah.

Ahab's successors in Israel were his sons Ahaziah (parts of two years) and Jehoram (roughly seven according to 2 Chronicles, though the Deuteronomist gives him twelve years). In Judah, Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat reigned for at least seven years and Jehoram's son Ahaziah for less than a year. This means that Ahaziah and Jehoram ruled Israel for about eight years, and also that Jehoram and Ahaziah ruled Judah during approximately the same eight years. The duplication of the names, even if in reverse order, is startling and has led to speculation that Judah was really under Israelite rule for this period, which the southern scribes were unwilling to acknowledge.

If, in fact, there was neither a King Ahaziah nor a King Jehoram of Judah, a tradition could have arisen among the Judahites of two kings with the same names and approximately the same length of reign as the kings of Israel who actually ruled Judah during this period, even if some details were muddled - such as which king was first. However, the traditions were not firm enough to ensure that the Chronicler and the Deuteronomist would receive and record the same details in every instance. This hypothesis easily explains the contradictions between the Chronicler's record of Ahaziah's age and the length of Jehoram's reign, compared to those found in 2 Kings.

Answer 3

There is a seeming contradiction concerning the chronology of King Ahaziah. It is reconciled by the Seder Olam.

The Seder Olam is a combination of traditional chronology and commentary that was written by one of the greatest Jewish sages over 1800 years ago. It states that Ahaziah was at the biological age of 22 when he became king, but is poetically ascribed with the age of 42. These 42 years, which started 20 years before his birth, began with the advent of Omri's monarchy, who was Ahaziah's maternal grandfather. Ahaziah was a wicked king, who was killed in that 42nd year, the first year of his reign, in fulfillment of the prophecy that the descendants of Omri would be killed.

See also:

Reliability of the Hebrew Bible