A dissertation on the true age of the world : $b in which is determined the chronology of the period from creation to the Christian eraWallace, R. (Robert)
Religion
A dissertation on the true age of the world : $b in which is determined the chronology of the period from creation to the Christian era
Wallace, R. (Robert)
Bible; Chronology; Chronology, Historical
The testimony of Josephus to the Extent of this age is very explicit. He
states that the Israelites “left Egypt in the 430th year after that our
father Abraham came into Canaan, and in the 215th year after the Eisodus
of Jacob into Egypt;”[81] and he mentions some of the minor intervals,
in a very clear and distinct manner, in his 2nd Book. It is evident
indeed that he rightly understood the testimony of Scripture as to the
true intervals of this prophetic period; although he seems to waver from
the truth in the 9th chapter of that Book, where he speaks of the
afflictions of the Israelites in Egypt for a period of 400 years,
according to Gen. xv. 13. The latter text, however, appears to have been
the stumbling block of Theophilus in his chronology; for he agrees with
the Scriptures, as regards the intervals from the call to the Eisodus;
and then he says that “the sojourning of the Hebrews in Egypt was 430
years!”[82] He seems therefore to have confounded the period of 400
years with the period of 430 years, and to have applied the whole period
to the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt alone, exclusive of Canaan,
contrary to the testimony of the Septuagint, Exodus xii. 40, Alexandrine
edition, and that of St. Paul, Galatians iii. 17. By this means, he
increases the Extent of the _Third age_ to 645 years, making it greater
than the true Extent, by 215 years! It would almost seem, therefore, as
if he had intended this error to compensate in some measure for those
which he committed in the preceding ages; inasmuch as it is of an
entirely opposite character. This excess of 215 years makes up not only
for the omission of the 20 years in the _Antepaidogonian age_ of
Methuselah before the flood, of the 130 years of the generation of the
_Second Cainan_, of the 2 years after the flood, and of the 4 years in
the _Antepaidogonian age_ of Nahor; but gives a surplus of 59 years at
the end of the _Third age_ in his chronology. For, adding the 40 years
wandering in the Wilderness to his amount of the _first three ages_, he
says that “all the years are 3938,”[83] from the Creation of the world
to the entrance of the Israelites into the promised Land. By a reference
to Table X. of our _first Part_, it will be seen that the true date of
this entrance is A.M. 3880, and making allowance for the single year we
have added to this date, on the ground specified at p. 65, it follows
that the date of Theophilus is erroneous in excess by 58 years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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