BASES OF SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY, BY THE REV. S. G. GREEN, D.D. [The Chief English Authorities: Archbishop USHER, Annales Veteris et Nori Testamenti, 1630–54; and Dr. WILLIAM HALES, A New Analysis of Chronology, 1809-14.] I. Chronological data in the Bible itself. II. The first trustworthy synchronism with secular history, and consequent calculations. Other synchronisms: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece. III. Note on New Testament chronology. IV. The Era of the Creation. I. It is in the Bible itself that all chronological data for the Scripture history must be sought from the beginning to about 1000 years B.C. The material is to be found first in the genealogies, afterwards in other notes of time. With occasional breaks and uncertainties, the main conclusions are tolerably clear. Four periods may be specified before we come into any contact with the authentic dates of secular history: (1) From the Creation to the Deluge.-The dates of this era are ascertained by easy calculation from Gen. v.-"the book of the generations of Adam"-where the age of each antediluvian patriarch at the birth of his eldest son is given. The total of 1656 years is thus readily reached; this being the date accepted by 'common chronology" as Usher, and specified in the that of the Deluge. But this computation is peculiar to the Hebrew text; the Septuagint adding to the lives of six of the patriarchs 100 years each before their eldest sons were born, and six years to that of one other (Lamech). The whole genealogy, therefore, is 606 years longer in the LXX.; and Dr. Hales, accepting the authority of the latter (save in the six years added to Lamech), makes the total duration of the era 2256 years. This, it may be added, is the reckon ing of Josephus. (2) From the Deluge to the migration of Abram, ont of Haran into Canaan. The dates here are supplied in Gen. xi. 10-26, "the generations of Shem;" the calculation being exactly similar to the preceding, and giving, according to the Hebrew text, 292 years up to the birth of Terah's sons. The Septuagint, however, (1) adds 100 years again to the lives of sixt of the patriarchs before their eldest sons' birth; (2) adds 50 to the life of one (Nahor), and (3) interposes a Cainan between Arphaxad and Salah, making a difference of 130 years. This raises the total, up to the birth of Abram, Nahor, and Haran," to 1072. To each of these numbers add 75 for the age of Abram at his entrance upon Canaan (Gen. xii. 4), and we have for this According to period, Hebrew $67, LXX. 1147 years. Josephus, the period was 1063 years. But Usher, in following the Hebrew text, finds it necessary to add 60 years to the age of Terah at Abram's birth: (comp. Gen. xi. 32 with xii. 4), raising the date of the migration to A.M. 2083, as in the Table (1656+367+60). Hales, though in the main agreeing with the LXX., concurs in adding this 60 years, but rejects the 130 years of Cainan as an interpolation (notwithstanding Luke iii. 86). His date is, therefore, A.M. 3333 (2256+1147-60-130). With regard to the comparative probability of the two computations, it may be observed, that according to the shorter or Hebrew reckoning, the patriarch Shem, living for 502 years after the Flood, would have been contemporary with Abram for 210 years (or at least for 150), and that the time specified could hardly have been sufficient for the spread of population and the growth of kingdoms, e.g. that of Egypt. The longer computation, therefore, as adopted by Dr. Hales, seems the more consistent with the facts of the history. (3) From Abram's migration to the death of Joseph.Here some computation in detail is necessary. Abraham, being 100 years old at the birth of Isaac (Gen. xxi. 5), had at that time been in Canaan for 25 years; Isaac was 60 at the birth of Jacob (Gen. xxv. 26), and Jacob was 130 when he stood before Pharaoh (Gen. xlvii. 9). We thus reach a total of 215 years between Adam, Seth. Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Enoch. + Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg. Reu. Serug. This may be vindicated from Gen. xi. 26. by supposing Abram the youngest of the three, mentioned first because he was greatest. Abram's entrance into Canaan and Jacob's departure. $619. Bat Accord (4) From the Death of Joseph to the Erodius.-This period is the most difficult of all to determine acco indeed, seems to throw light upon it in Gal. ii. 17, rately from the Scripture data. The Apostle Paul, where the interval between the call of Abraham and the giving of the Law is set down as "430 years" it is uncertain whether he specified this date on his own inspired authority, or simply adopted the current oc putation, according to the LXX. version of Exod i Hebrew text): "Now the sojourning of the children of 40 where the words in italics are an addition to the Canaan, was four hundred and thirty years. Israel and their fathers, who dwelt in Egypt and in this passage, the time seems limited to the residence ing to the Hebrew (and English authorised) text of in Egypt. Compare also Gen. xv. 13; Acts vii. 6, where the round number 400 years appears to be assigned to the period of oppression. The genealogies, bow. ever, seem to forbid the hypothesis of so long a sojourn in Egypt; and a possibly decisive clue to the chronology of this perplexed period is the statement that Israel aas (Gen. xv. 16), Moses, who appears to have been the brought out of Egypt "in the fourth generation great grandson of Levi (Exod. vi. 16-20, being eighty years old at the Exodus. Usher and Hales adopt the reckoning of St. Paul, and adding 430 years to the Exodus as A.M. 2513 and 3763 respectively. This gives date of Abraham's migration, bring out that of the 144 years as the time from the death of Joseph to the departure from Egypt. II. In proceeding to investigate the chronology of the period after the Exodus, we for the first time are aided by an important synchronism with secular history: (1) This was, it is true, many generations subsequent to the settlement of Israel in Canaan; but it enables us by the aid of Scripture data to travel backwards with some certainty. This earliest point of contact between the Bible history and the annals of the nations is given to us by an inscription in the palace-temple of Karnak. relating to the exploits of Sheshonk, or Sesonetss, king of Egypt, the Shishak of Scripture. The hieroglyphic represents, among other conquests, the subjugation of the kingdom of Judah, and bears the date of the 21st year of Sheshonk's reign. The invasion, be assigned to the 20th year of that king, which synaccordingly, of which we read in 1 Kings xiv. 25, may chronises therefore with the 5th year of Rehoboam. Now the Egyptian datat enable us to place the acces sion of Shishak approximately a few years later than 1000 B.C.-probably, according to the most exact chronologers, six or seven years later, or 993-in which case the (2) This, calculating backwards, gives the following invasion of Judah must be assigned to about a.c. 9. Accession of Rehoboam, 5 years earlier series:of Solomon, 40 years earlier (1 Kings xi. 42). of David, 40 years earlier (2 Sam. v. 4,5) 978,7 1018,7 of Saul, 40 years earlier (Acts xiii. 21) 160 (3) For the period between the Exodus and the accession of Saul, the Scripture data are apparently irreconcilable. These are a. The explicit statement (1 Kings vi. 1) that Solo It is possible, however, to refer this number to the entire statement of the verse. + See Brugsch's Histoire de l'Egypte, etc.; Rawlinson's Ancient History; and Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, article "Shishak" BASES OF SCRIPTURE CHRONOLOGY. mon's temple was begun in the 480th year after the Exodus. b. The declaration of St. Paul (Acts xiii. 20, received text) that the period of the Judges lasted for 450 years. c. The assignment by Jephthah (Judg. xi. 26) of 300 years as the period during which the Israelites had held the trans-Jordanic territory, i.e. since the close of the 40 years' wandering. d. The successive periods of oppression and deliverance specified in the Book. of Judges, amounting to 370 years, or with the judgeship of Eli to 410. If to this be added the period of Joshua and his immediate successors, the reckoning b is approximately made out. e. The genealogies, as of David and several others, which cover the interval between the conquest of Canaan and the days of Saul. tions of Egypt, Persia, and especially of Assyria, as published by Sir H. Rawlinson in 1862 from the recentlydisentombed cylinders. It is not pretended that no difficulties or apparent discrepancies remain; and some of the dates may yet have to be rectified. But the net result is not only the general but the remarkable confirmation of the sacred records. Thus, the date assigned to Zerah (Osorkon II.) on the Egyptian monuments corresponds with that of Asa's reign (2 Chron. xiv. 9); while the death of Shalmaneser and the accession of Sargon the usurper (Isa. XX. 1) nearly correspond in the Assyrian records with the downfall of Samaria in the Bible history. A considerable difficulty is then encountered in the adjustment of the Ninevite and Jewish histories during the contemporaneous reigns of Sennacherib and Hezekiah; and this is perhaps hardly yet settled; the main facts, however, as detailed in Scripture, being abundantly confirmed. Two points of further contact between the Jewish and Gentile world are in the battle between Josiah and Necho, son of Psammetichus king of Egypt, in which the Jewish monarch was slain, and in the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. dates of these events are well ascertained from independent sources, Biblical and secular. In fact, from the rise of the Babylonian empire onwards there is practically no difference between chronologers. Usher places the downfall of Jerusalem in B.C. 588; Hales, B.C. 586. The dates of Cyrus, of Darius, of Xerxes (the Ahasuerus of Esther), and of Artaxerxes Longimanus (Ezra vii.), are all determined with equal clearness from Greek and other authorities; and here the Old Testament history ceases. The On these it may be remarked, that a is a definite historical statement, which can scarcely be said of any of the rest. The reading of b is doubtful, and is in fact rejected by Lachmann as well as Tischendorf (in his last edition), on the authority of the earliest MSS., which by a transposition apply the 450 years to the period between the birth of Isaac and the occupation of Canaan. In d the recurrence of the number 40 (as also 20 and 80) suggests a want of literal exactness; besides which, it is more than probable that some of the oppressions and judgeships were contemporaneous in different parts of the land. The computation of Jephthah, c, if strictly taken, disagrees with all the other reckonings, and is probably only a rough esti mate. But the genealogies in e seem decisive in their confirmation of a, being utterly inconsistent with any other reckoning. With much confidence, therefore, we revert to 1 Kings vi. 1 as the basis of calculation, the assumption that the number 480 is a mistake of some transcriber being as needless as it is unsup-ciated with that of the early Roman empire, and may ported. According to Josephus, the number of years was 592. Reckoning back then 480 years from the fourth year of Solomon, or B.C. 1014, we should have the Exodus B.C. 1494; the entrance on Canaan B.C. 1454, and from that time to the accession of Saul, B.C. 1099, there would be 355 years to account for, including (1) the remainder of Joshua's life (25 years according to Josephus); (2) the days of the elders who "overlived Joshua" (generally set down at 10-20 years); (3) oppressions by the heathen and deliverances by the Judges; (4) Eli's judgeship of 40 years; (5) the judgeship of Samuel (more than 20 years, 1 Sam. vii. 2, but how long is not stated). The dates covering this period, as given in the Table, embody the most probable conjectures, as supported by minute indications, which it would occupy too much room to specify in detail. III. The chronology of the New Testament is assobe accurately determined, almost from year to year. The "Harmony of the Gospels" has naturally enlisted much thought and research for its elucidation; and although certainty is unattainable, the labours of Greswell, Dr. Robinson, Tischendorf (in his Synopsis Evangelica), with a host of others, have brought out valuable, and in the main concurrent, results. A main question is that of the feast referred to in John v. 1, which, with the majority of critics, we take to be the Passover. The dates in the Acts are chiefly determined by the time of Herod Agrippa's death, A.D. 44; with the annals of the Roman emperors and procurators. IV. It only remains to note the relation between the two eras, A.M. and B.C. In the earlier part of the Table it will be seen that the date of the creation is placed by Usher at 4001 B.C.; by Hales at 5411. The former (4) The discrepancies between the different systems reckoning makes exactly 4000 years between the Creabecome slighter as the history advances, and when we tion and the birth of Christ (4 B.C.), the Christian era, reach the period of the kings of Israel and Judah, as adopted in the sixth century from Dionysius the course is comparatively easy. Of both kingdoms Exiguus, a Roman abbot, having been placed, as it is the chronological annals are carefully furnished by the now generally agreed, four years too late. Partly perScripture writers; but it will be found that the sum of haps the Jewish notion that the world is to last the years in the northern kingdom falls short of that in through 6000 years of conflict and 1000 of peace, these the southern by 19 years, a discrepancy which is met, millenniums corresponding with the six days and the either by supposing an interregnum twice in the his- sabbath of creation, has led to an arrangement so sustory of Israel; the first time after the reign of Jero-piciously symmetrical; the advent of the Saviour thus boam II., the second after that of Pekah; or else by coinciding with the dawn of the "fifth day" of the adding 10 years to the reign of the former monarch, world's history. The estimate of Dr. Hales rests on and 9 to that of the latter. no such à priori ground, but is taken simply from the comparison of dates. Perhaps the question is one that cannot be even approximately determined. If, however, we take the LXX. reckoning (in the main, as adopted by Dr. Hales) of 3763 years from the Creation to the Exodus, while by another computation we have shown that the Exodus probably took place 1494 years B.C., we have 5257 years from the Creation to the Christian era; and this is as near to a positive determination as we can arrive. De Vignoles, in the preface to his Chronology of Sacred History, asserts that he collected upwards of two hundred different calculations, the shortest of which reckons only 3483 years between the creation of the world and the commencement of the Vulgar era, and the longest 6984.† (5) The synchronisms in this period are established by the comparison of the sacred records with the dates given in the "Canon of Kings" preserved in the works of Ptolemy, the mathematician and astronomer (2nd century A.D.), who computes from the "era of Nabonassar," B.C. 747; as also with the monumental inscrip • See Judges iii. 8, 11, 14, 30; iv. 3; v. 31: vi. 1; viii. 28; ix. 22; x. 2, 3, 8; x 6, 9.11. 14; xv. 20; xvi. 13; 1 sam. iv, 18. † See on this point Introduction to Judges in Speaker's Com mentary, though the period there proposed seems too short. I The reasons, such as they are, for taking the phrase [in the 450th year, &c.) as an interpolation, may be seen in the Speaker's Comment try, supplementary note on 1 Kings vi An ingenious attempt has been made to reconcile all the calcu lations by interpreting the coming out of the land of Egypt" of the era of the settlement of larael peacefully in Canaan, Josh, xxi. 44 (Lieutenant Conder, CE, in Cassell's Biblical Educator, Vol III.). The phrase, however, will hardly admit of such a meaning. The numbers are, in Judah from Rehoboam until the 5th year of Hezekiah, 259 years: in Israel, from Jeroboam to the fall of Samaria in that year, 240 years. But it must be noted that in many cases incomplete years are given as complete. The dates in our Table mostly correspond with those of Canon Rawlinson's Anc. Hist. It is observable (2 Kings xviii. 9, 10) that Shalmaneser came up against Syria, and at the end of three years "they (the Assyrians) took it." It would seem as though Shalmaneser were in some way removed before the final capture of the city. His death and the accession of argon is an explanation all the more remarkable, as the name of the latter is not given in the history. See Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, Vol. II. pp. 29, 30. Mr. W. L. R. Cates, Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th edition, Vol. V., p. 713. A REVISED CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY OF BIBLE HISTORY FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.* THE PRINCIPAL EPOCHS FROM THE CREATION TO THE ENTRANCE INTO CANAAN, ACCORDING TO THE DATES GIVEN BY USHER AND BY HALES. ⚫ By permission of J. Gurney, Esq. Revised (with an Introduction and additional Table) by the Rev. S. G. Green, D.D. |