The assumption that Stephen was mistaken is to be rejected; partly because it was vital to the purposes of his speech that his historic points should be accurately made――at least in harmony with current Jewish opinion――to say nothing of the further fact that he is before us as one “filled with the Holy Ghost” and specially inspired; partly because the history represents Terah as sympathizing fully in the spirit of the removal from Ur to Canaan, and apparently prevented from going only by the infirmities of age.――――The choice seems, therefore, to lie between the first named explanation and the last. The first――making the passage (Gen. 11: 26) mean only that Terah lived 70 years before the birth of his eldest, but became the father of three sons――leaving us at liberty to fix Abraham’s birth at his 130th year――is a possible construction, but is rendered somewhat improbable by Abram’s question (Gen. 17: 17) “Shall a son be born to him that is 100 years old”? How could he have thought this strange if in fact he himself had been born when his father was 130?――――There may be an error in the number of years of Terah’s life; the Samaritan text may be right in making it 145. This is below the average age of his fathers; but in those as in all other days, men were subject to die before they reached the maximum age of their generation. It would seem that he set out from Ur with the reasonable expectation of going to Canaan. Hence a probability that he died unexpectedly, and at an earlier age than his fathers. I can express no positive opinion upon this case. * * * * * Two other doubtful periods remain to be considered, viz. _The interval from the creation to the flood; and the interval from the flood to the call of Abram._ The question upon these two intervals is substantially the same, so that they may properly be presented together. It hinges in both cases upon the authority of the texts――viz. for the former interval, Gen. 5: 3–32; and for the latter, Gen. 11: 10–26.――――In form these tables are not chronological but genealogical. They do not reckon from any given era, as if (_e. g._) to show the interval from the creation to the flood, but give the age of each member of the genealogical line when his son of the same line was born. It is therefore by adding together these measured portions of each man’s life, viz. the years he lived before the next member in the line was born, that we obtain the entire interval.――――The tables give three facts as to each man’s life; (a.) how old he was when his son in this line was born; (b.) how long he lived afterwards; and (c.) the sum total of his years. If the chain is perfect, with neither missing nor supernumerary links, and if the numbers of the first class are all correct, the result must be reliable. But plainly the result will be changed at once by changing the first set of numbers and the second to correspond,――without changing the third at all.