In the early days of his reign, King Solomon walked in the ways of God and built the Temple as the divine "residence" on earth, but he deviated from these ways after several years. When he died, a war of succession began between his son Rehoboam and Jeroboam who led a coalition of the other tribes dissatisfied with Solomon. This was the split of the unified kingdom between Judea on the one hand under Rehoboam, with its capital Jerusalem and its Temple, and the northern kingdom, called the kingdom of Israel, under Jeroboam, with a capital that changed location over the course of the dynasties that succeeded one another.
Let's look at the continuation of the historical and biblical chronologies (for earlier dates, refer to the previous articles since Adam):
year 2699 (1061 BCE): reign of Saul, first king of Israel
year 2700 (1060 BCE): David against Goliath
year 2708 (1052 BCE): reign of David over all Israel
year 2745 (1015 BCE): reign of Solomon; start of the construction of the Temple
year 2752 (1008 BCE): inauguration of the Temple of Solomon
year 2781 (979 BCE): death of Solomon; his son Rehoboam succeeds him
year 2781 (979 BCE): revolt of Jeroboam; split of the kingdom
But the Israelites had a religious obligation to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem several times a year, during major festivals such as Passover. Now Jerusalem was in Judea... Jeroboam had to establish a different policy of worship, as explained in the Bible:
And Jeroboam said in his heart: 'Now will the kingdom return to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn back unto their god, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.'
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said unto them: 'You have gone up long enough to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he went up unto the altar; so did he in Beth-el, to sacrifice unto the calves that he had made; and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places that he had made. And he went up unto the altar which he had made in Beth-el on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up unto the altar, to offer. (I Kings 12:26-33)
Thus Jeroboam was at the origin of a pagan cult, with golden calves, on two cult centers: a temple in Dan in the north of the kingdom and a temple in Bethel in the south of the kingdom. These temples constituted a heresy. Also the northern kingdom went through periods of great instability, civil wars, successive dynasties... As for the southern kingdom, of Judea, it maintained a relative stability with the same dynasty descended from David and Solomon and the same capital, Jerusalem.
And to complete his heresy, Jeroboam had the strategy of changing the measurement of time, by establishing a new calendar as the text above explains. The new year was set on the 15th day of the 8th month, at the beginning of his reign, compared to the calendar used in Judea (I Kings 12:32). This 8th month was the month of Marshvevan, called "Bul" at the time. (I Kings 6:38). This was an important decision on his part because he knew that after a while, his people would adapt to the new calendar and forget the dates of official festivals and pilgrimages that the Temple of Jerusalem.
Archaeological excavations carried out at Tel Dan in the north and at Bethel in Samaria have confirmed the biblical account of this period with the discovery of the remains of these two temples. Concerning Dan, the choice was simple: it was the northernmost city of the kingdom of Jeroboam where there was already a cult that the tribe of Dan had established in the past. Indeed, Jerusalem was very far away, the people of Dan had thought they were doing well by establishing their own cult on site in their city. As for the choice of Bethel, located on the southern border of Jeroboam's kingdom, the choice was geographical (a place of worship in the south as a mirror of the worship in Dan in the north) but it was also strategic because Bethel had housed, in the past before the period of the Judges, the Tabernacle of Joshua for a few years. For more information on Bethel, a biblical site of great importance in Israel, click here.
I hope that this article on the theme "the Bible is true" was of interest to you. Do not hesitate to send me your comments, while waiting for a next biblical episode proven by history and archaeology.
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Albert Benhamou
Private tour guide in Israel
February 2025
