Why does 2 Kings 8:26 say Ahaziah was 22, and 2 Chronicles 22:2 say he was 42?
Are these passages in contradiction with each other?
2 Kings 8:26
AMP - 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 granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
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Asked December 29 2015
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Adewale Ademola
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Cindy Jennings
From the MacArthur Commentary: 2 Kings 8:26 is correct. In fact, MacArthur puts Ahaziah's age at 22 in 2 Chron 22:2 as well. In his footnotes, he says, "some versions read "forty-two" here, which can be attributed to a copyist's error easily made due to the small stroke that differentiates two Hebrew letters. The reading from 2 Kings 8:26 of "twenty-two" should be followed."
Billy P Eldred
It seems there are two schools of thought regarding these two listed ages. Some scholars believe that 2 Chronicles was just a copyist error that has been passed down which would seem to be supported by the fact that some Syrian and some Greek versions of 2 Chronicles show the age as 22. The other school presented by Bible teacher Harold Camping suggest that the 42 refers to the 42nd year of the Omri dynasty as the "age" or time since Omri became king. I would suppose that this school of thought would pass off the Greek and Syrian versions of 2 Chronicles as an attempt to synchronize 2 Kings and 2nd Chronicles. Source Wikepedia
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