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matter doth not require it. And we have evident Proof of this in the Scriptures. The time of the fojourning of the Children of Ifrael in the Land of Canaan, and of their dwelling in Egypt is faid to be the fpace of four hundred years, Gen. xv. 13. Acts vii. 6. which yet was in all four hundred and thirty years, Exod. xii. 40. Gal. iii. 17. The Ifraelites, who came out of Egypt, are computed to be fix hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty, Num. i. 46. ii. 32. but Mofes fpeaking of them, Num. xi. 21. leaves out the three thousand and five hundred and fifty. Ferubbual or Gideon is faid to have had threescore and ten Sons by his Wives, befides Abimelech, whom he had by a Concubine, Judg. viii. 30, 31. and Abimelech is often faid to have flain these threefcore and ten Brethren, though Jotham the youngest of them is at the fame time faid to have escaped, Judg. ix. 5, 18, 24, 56. The Benjamites that were flain, Judg. xx. 35. are faid to be twenty and five thousand and an hundred men, whereas verf. 46. they are reckon'd only twenty and five thoufand Men. I Cor. xv. 5. we read that our Saviour was feen of Cephas, then of the twelve, though St. Matthias was not chofen into the number of the Apostles till after the Afcenfion of Chrift, and S. Mark fays precifely that he appeared unto the eleven, as they fa at meat, Mark xvi. 14. Thus in Heathen Authors the Trojan Fleet is faid to confift of a thousand Ships, whereas Homer makes them two hundred more, as • Thucydides reckons them, or one hundred fixty fix, by his Scholiaft's counting, but the Hiftorian did not care to be fo punctual. An Phundred Acres of Land

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was

Si, inquam, numerus non eft ad amuffim; ut non eft, cum dicimus mille naves iiffe ad Trojam, centumvirale effe judicium Romæ. Varro de Re Ruft. l. ii. c. I.

Thucyd. l. i. c. 10.

▸ Centuriam nunc dicimus (ut idem Varro ait) ducentorum juge. rum modum: olim autem ab centum jugeribus vocabatur Centuria;

fed

r

was by the Romans call'd Centuria; but in process of time the fame Name was given to double that Number of Acres. The Tribes had that Denomination, because they at first were but Three; but ftill kept that Name, though they were 9 Thirty five. The Judges ftyled Centumviri, were at first five more than an hundred, and afterwards almost twice that number, yet ftill they retain❜d the fame Name; as the LXXII Interpreters are commonly ftyled the Septuagint. Since therefore it is manifeft, that the leffer Numbers are fometimes omitted both in the Old and New Teftament, as well as in other Authors, and the principal and greater numbers, whether more or less than the precife Calculation, are only fet down, and at other times the lesser Numbers are specified, it is reasonable to make Abatements for this in adjusting the accounts of Chronology.

3. Sometimes an Epocha may be mistaken by Chronologers as Gen. vi. 3. And the Lord faid, my Spirit shall not always ftrive with man: for that he also is flesh, yet bis days fhall be an hundred and twenty years. But from Gen. v. 32. compared with Gen. viii. 13. the Flood muft happen but an hundred years after these Words feem to have been spoken: though if we compute not from the time, when this was threatned but from the beginning of Man's Apoftafy, which we may suppose then to have been already Twenty years, there will be no Difficulty in it. Or elfe the Threatning, though placed after it, might be denounced Twenty years before the Five hundredth year of Noab's Age, which falls under the Obfervation abovemention'd of St. Austin. St. Jerom indeed fays, that the time allow'd Mankind for Repentance was

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fed mox duplicata nomen retinuit: ficuti Tribus dictæ primum à partibus populi tripartito divifi, quæ tamen nunc multiplicatæ priftinum nomen poffident. Columell. lib. v. c. I.

a Cic. in Rullum.
* Hieron. Qu. in Genef.

Plin, 1. vi. Epift. 33.

fhortned

fhortned for their Contumacy, and the Flood was brought upon the World twenty years fooner than was defign'd, if their Provocations had not haften'd it.

4. Variations in Chronology may fometimes proceed from the Likeness of two Words, which occafion'd the writing the one for the other. Thus Acts xiii. 20. fome read, ὡς ἔτεσί τε τριακοσίοις, not ἔτεσι τετρακοσίοις. Telenorios. Some famous Copies, from whence most others now remaining may have been transcribed might happen to be uncorrect in fome of these lefs material parts of Scripture: the Numeral Letters were easily mistaken, as we see our Figures now are; and when they number'd by Letters, Mistakes might the oftner happen, because the Tranfcribers might unawares write down a Letter of the foregoing or following Word, instead of the true Numeral Letter, when there was any Likeness between them; and the Hebrew Letters being fome of them fo very much alike, might be a readier occafion of Mistake. This change of Numeral Letters fome think to have occafion'd the Difficulty concerning the Age of Abazia, Son of Jehoram King of Judah, when he began to reign 2 Kings viii. 26. 2 Chron. xxii. 2. And that fuch Miftakes have been made in tranfcribing the Septuagint, is evident, because the several Copies of that Version have different accounts of Chronology, and they also differ from the Copies made ufe of by Africanus and Eufebius. Mistakes of this kind are very "common in all Greek and Latin Authors; and to prevent this In

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conve

J. 20. bearing the like Refemblance to D. 40. as 7.3. does to . 40. which occafion'd the mistake of three days in the Septuagint, for forty in the Hebrew, Jon. iii. 4.

"Error fortaffe ex notis ortus- nufquam non ifto modo in bonis utriufque Linguæ Scriptoribus eft peccatum. Cafaub. ad Theoph. Charact. Proem. Sed non dubito Librariorum potius negligentia, præfertim tot jam feculis intercedentibus veritatem fuiffe corruptam,

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conveniency, Mr. Greaves acquaints us, that the Emperor Ulug Beg, Nephew to Tamerlane the Great, in his Aftronomical Tables (the most accurate of any in the Eaft) has exprefs'd the Numbers of the principal Epocha's, firft in Words at length, and again in Figures, and then a third time in particular Tables: whofe Example this excellent Author alledgeth for his own Exactness in defcribing the Dimensions of the Pyramids after the fame manner; fuppofing it very improbable, if any one of thefe Accounts fhould happen to be alter'd, that two of them should not agree, and that those two which agree, fhall not exprefs the true Number.

5. In fome places, the Alterations which caufe the differences in the Chronology of the Septuagint from that of the Hebrew Text, are fo uniform, that they could not be made but by defign of fome Tranfcribers, or of the Tranflators themselves. For instance, in the Lives of the five first Patriarchs, and of Enoch the seventh, they add an hundred years before their having Children, and deduct the fame number of years from the time they liv'd afterwards: which is conjectur'd to have been done, because they fuppos'd that by years there, are to be understood Lunar years, or Months, and fo they alter'd the Chronological account of their Lives. For if those be the years meant by the Hebrew account, they must have been Fathers of Children at 5, 6, 7, or 8 years of Age. This indeed is a very abfurd Suppofition, not only for the Reason now mention'd, and because Methuselah himfelf, by this account, would not have liv'd much more than Four score Solar years, but because Mofes in his Relation of the Flood, and upon other occafions exprefly divides the year into Months. But another

quam ut Propheta erraverit. Sicut in hoc ipfo noftro opufculo futurum credimus, ut defcribentium incuria, quæ non incuriofe à nobis funt digefta, vitientur. Sulpic. Sever. Hiftor. Sacr. lib. i. cap. 70. * Greaves Pyramidogr. y Vid. Lud. Capell. Chron. Sacr.

Conjecture

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Conjecture is, that it might be supposed, that as Mens Lives were longer then, fo the Age at which they were capable of Marriage, muft not be the fame that it is now, but must bear proportion to the length of their Lives; and therefore they altered the Chronology, to make the Patriarchs Fathers of Children at fuch an Age, as might answer to the Age at which Men are capable of having Children in these latter Times. But according to the Septuagint, Methuselah out-lived the Flood fifteen Years, which contradicts the History of the Flood, as it is related in that Verfion: This probably could not happen but by fome Alteration afterwards made; for tho' it was thus in * Eufebius's time in the Books, which were every where in common ufe, yet it was not in all Copies. However, this fhews that the Variations in the Septuagint, can with no reafon be alledged against the Authority of the Hebrew Account.

3

The mention of Cainan, the Son of Arphaxad, both in the Version of the Septuagint, and in the Gospel of St. Luke, tho' it be not in the Hebrew, is a matter of greater difficulty. But Bishop Walton notwithftanding, faw fufficient reafon to conclude however, with fuch caution and candor as became fo great a Judgment, that the Septuagint followed the Hebrew Copies of thofe Times: and the Answers to the Arguments brought to prove the contrary, have fince been confiderably enforced by the Learned Ifaac Voffius.

b

There is reafon to believe, that the Hebrew and the Samaritan Account were the fame in St. Jerom's time, and that the difference between them has happened fince.

z Eufeb. Chron.

a Prolegom. ix. §. 64, &c. b Caftigat. ad Script. Georg. Horn. c. 4.

Siquidem & in Hebræis & Samaritanorum libris ita fcriptum reperi. Et vixit Mathufala, &c. Hieron. Quæft. in Gen. vid. & Capell. Chron. Sacr.

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