The statements of Africanus as to the Antediluvian period, entirely agree with those of the Septuagint, which shows that he had taken his numbers from a more correct copy of that version, and one that agreed in this respect with the celebrated Alexandrine codex now deposited in the British Museum. He confirms the truth of his particular statements by the following summary ones: _first_—“Therefore, from Adam till the birth of Enos all the years are 435;” _second_,—“Therefore, from Adam till Noah and the flood are 2262 years.”[73] As to the statements of Eusebius, and the author of the Paschal Chronicle, they are of a later age, and must therefore have been copied from one or other of the former authors, or from the copies of the Septuagint extant in their time. From the notes upon the Chronicon of Africanus, added by Routh,[74] it is evident that both Eusebius and Syncellus adopted the numbers in the preceding table which we have arranged under the name of the former; and that Epiphanius and the author of the _Paschal_ or _Alexandrine_ Chronicle adopted the correct numbers of the Septuagint, which we have placed under the title of that work. After stating that according to Africanus, “there were 3000 years from Adam to the death of Peleg;” Syncellus adds, “but according to Eusebius, 2980 years;” the difference between these numbers is 20 years, which is precisely the same as the difference between their dates of the year of the flood, viz: A.M. 2262, and A.M. 2242. Moreover, although Syncellus states that Africanus gives the former of these dates, as the true epoch of the deluge; he adds his own opinion, that “from Adam to the flood there were 2242 years,” and “contra Africanum pugnat,” _fights against Africanus_, in favour of the erroneous number. The author of the Paschal Chronicle says explicitly, that “in the 100th year of Shem, the 600th of Noah, and the 2262d year of the world, the flood was upon the earth; and this is the exact number which Africanus exhibits at this epoch since the correct copies of Genesis shew 187 years as the age of Methuselah when he begat Lamech.” Epiphanius, in his first book “against Heretics,” after narrating that Noah was saved in the ark, says “and thus the 10th generation extended to the 2262d year [of the world,] and the flood brought it to an end.” Thus it appears to have been the general opinion of the oldest and best writers that the _First age_ of the world was of the _precise length_ which we have assigned to it; and that the only difference among them was, whether it were not shorter by 20 years, in consequence of some foolish mistake committed by an early transcriber in the _Antepaidogonian age_ of Methuselah; for in this age, the correct copies of the Septuagint perfectly agree with the Hebrew text.