THE Heathen Chronology of the primitive nations of the world, both before and after the deluge, is involved in profound obscurity. Only a few scattered fragments of their annals have survived the wreck of ages, and these are "a rude and undigested mass," floating on the gulph of time, incongruous in themselves, and unconnected with each other, oppressed and smothered almost beneath successive accumulations of poetic fiction, philosophizing allegory, and recondite mysticism. See Vol. I. p. 266, 267.

Of the fragments respecting the Antediluvian ages, the most curious and valuable are the remains of the Phoenician history of Sanchoniatho, and of the Chaldean history of Berosus; which have been fortunately preserved in the writings of Josephus, Eusebius, and Syncellus, and other ancient chronographers.

Sanchoniatho, according to Porphyry, flourished about a century before the Trojan war; and among other historical materials consulted the records of Jerombaal, priest of the god Ievw † ; and dedicated his work to Abibalus †, king of Berytus in Pho

• Rudis indigestaque moles. Ovid.

+ Bochart ingeniously conjectures that Jerombaal was the Phoenician pronunciation of Jerubbaal, the surname of Gideon, the celebrated Judge of Israel, B.C. 1359. Judg. vi. 32; viii. by changing the first b into the kindred consonant m, as in Ambubaiæ, Sambuca, VOL. IV.

B

nicia, a most ancient city, between Byblos and Sidon. It was said to be translated into Greek by Philo Byblius, in Adrian's reign, who styles the author ανηρ πολυμαθής και πολυπράγμων, "a very learned and inquisitive person." Eusebius. Præparat. Evangel. I. § 9.

1. The following list of primeval generations of men, furnished by Sanchoniatho, and collected from Eusebius, ibid. § 10. is evidently caricatured from the Scriptural genealogies of Cain and Noah.

&c. And Gideon was self-appointed priest of the God Iɛvw, (the Phoenician pronunciation of the Hebrew Iaw,, or Iahoh, the God of Israel,) to whom "he made an ephod," or formed a religious establishment. Judg. viii. 27. See Vol. II. p. 283, 284, of this work. After Gideon's death the Israelites fell into the neighbouring idolatry of Baal Berith, or of the Sun, worshipped at Berytus. Judg. viii. 33. Supposing, therefore, with Porphyry, that Sanchoniatho was contemporary with Gideon, this would place him 176 years earlier than the destruction of Troy.

But it is not necessary to suppose that the Hebrew records, which Sanchoniatho consulted, were written by Jerombaal himself, or that they both were coeval. These records might rather have been of or concerning his acts, or administration, as judge, contained in the Old Testament; which might have been consulted by Sanchoniatho long after. If the Abibalus here mentioned as reigning when Sanchoniatho wrote his history was the father of Hiram, king of Tyre, who proposed riddles to Solomon, and assisted him in building the temple, according to Josephus, from the Tyrian records cited by the historian Dio, Ant. p. 340, Contr. Apion. p. 1340; this would make Sanchoniatho contemporary with David, who began to reign B.C. 1070, or above one hundred years after the destruction of Troy. And, indeed, there is abundant cause to suspect that Sanchoniatho lived at a much later period, from the ensuing sketch of his fragments.

For further information concerning Sanchoniatho and his writings, consult Bishop Cumberland, Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, Dodwell's Dissertation, the Ancient Universal History, Jackson's elaborate Dissertation of the Phoenician Antiquities and Chronology, Vol. III. p. 1-110, Bryant's Ancient Mythology, Faber on the Cabiri, and Richardson's Oriental Dissertations.

The first pair, in Sanchoniatho's list, evidently denote Adam the first man, and Eve "the mother of all living." Gen. iii. 20. Their names, Towтоуоvos, denoting "first born," and awwv, "living." They are supposed to have been both mortals, begotten of the Wind Koλria, and his wife Baau, signifying night. According to Aristotle, Eyкoλmaç is "a wind issuing from caverns,” (εK KOÀπwv;) and it resembles the SPIRIT OF GOD which brooded upon the face of the waters;" while the term Baau is plainly the Hebrew, Bhu, or Bhau, descriptive of the earth in its primary chaotic state, as "roid or waste;" when "darkness (or night) was upon the face of the abyss." Gen. i. 1, 2. See the Creation of the World, Vol. I. p. 310, of this work.

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Æon, or Eve, is said to have found out the use of food from trees; plainly alluding to her transgression in eating the forbidden fruit. Gen. iii. 6.

2. The second pair strongly resemble Cain and his sister wife, by change of kindred letters, from the Hebrew P, Kain, and its feminine P, Kainah. Both are said to have been the offspring of the first pair. They dwelt in Phoenicia, and in seasons of drought stretched out their hands toward the heavens, to the sun, whom they accounted the only Lord of Heaven, calling him Bɛɛλσauɛv, a Phoenician variation of the Hebrew 'pu bya, Baal Shamim, "Master of the Heavens."

Thus does Sanchoniatho explicitly trace the origin of the Zabian idolatry, or adoration of the sun, moon, and stars, up to the time of Cain. This was unquestionably the earliest corruption of the pure primeval theology. Its revival, after the deluge, is noticed by Job with abhorrence, xxxi. 26-28. See Vol. II. p. 95.

It is indeed highly probable, that when Cain, after his transgression, was banished from the presence of the Lord, or the visible SHECHINAH, stationed before Paradise, he and his family, in the land of Nod, or of their "exile," (which is generally supposed to have been Chusistan, or Susiana*,) forgat GOD, and fell into that stupid idolatry of worshipping the creatures instead of THE CREATOR; of whom, the most glorious were the celestial luminaries. Diodorus Siculus, himself a hea

Instead of Susiana, eastward of Paradise, Sanchoniatho, to exalt his own country, placed Cain's family in Phoenicia, westward.

then, observes, that "the first men, looking upwards to the heavens, and struck with awe and admiration at their nature, supposed the sun and moon to be the chief and eternal Gods." Compare Wisd. xiv. 12, &c.

I have attempted to adjust the chronology of Sanchoniatho's list by reference to Cain's line, which is nearly related to Seth's. See Vol. II. p. 1. Assuming that Adam was only 130 years old at the birth of his first born Cain, and according to the Jewish apocryphal book, called the little Genesis, that Cain was 190 years old at the birth of his son Enoch; and that the remaining generations of both lines were equal in length respectively.

3. The third generation were said to have found out the art of kindling fire, by rubbing dry sticks together, and to have taught it to mankind. This was intimated in their names, Pws, light, Пvo, fire, and Plož, flame. Here we are led to remark, that the gradual discovery of the useful arts, and improvement of social life in the ensuing generations, is evidently borrowed from the scriptural account of their rise and progress in the family of Cain. Gen. iv. 17-22. See Vol. II. p. 32.

4. The fourth generation, their immediate offspring, were of uncommon bulk and stature, who are said to have given names to the mountainous regions which they occupied, namely, Cassius, Libanus, Antilibanus, and Brathys.

5. The offspring of these giants, begotten on prostitutes who lay with all the men they met, were named by their mothers Memrumus and Hypsouranius. This fifth generation strongly resembles that produced by the promiscuous intercourse of the sons of God, or pious Sethites, with the fair daughters of men of the idolatrous race of the Cainites, recorded in Scripture. Gen. vi. 1, 2. See Vol. II. p. 36.

Hypsouranius is said to have dwelt at Tyre, and to have invented the art of building huts of reeds, sedge and papyrus. His brother Usous, with whom he was at variance, first invented clothing for the body with the skins of wild beasts which he had contrived to catch. And when the friction of the trees in a wood, near Tyre, during violent storms of wind and rain, had set fire to the branches, Usous formed a canoe out of a tree, whose branches he had lopped off, and ventured first to embark therein on the sea. He consecrated two pillars to the Elements of Fire and Wind, and offered sacrifices and oblations to them of the wild beasts which he caught in hunting.