Gen. xxiii, 1—2. And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

Abraham was therefore 137 years old when Sarah died: yet he is said to have married again, and to have begotten six children.

GEN. XXV, 1-2. Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

This account is repugnant to what went before. If Abraham, at the age of 100 years, laughed at the idea of his having a son, how does it happen that, when he was 137 years old, he marries again, and begets six children? We may easily believe that he was little likely, from physical causes, to have a son and heir at the age of or hundred years, and this improbability was likely to increas every succeeding year. There is no reason for believing that the children which were born to Abraham from Ketu rah, were children of promise, like Isaac; and the onl supposition by which the inconsistency can be explained is that Abraham had taken Keturah to wife at an earlie period of his life: for polygamy was common in thos days, and no less likely to have been practised by Abraha than it notoriously was by Abraham's grandson, Jacob, in the case of Leah, Rachel, and their two handmaids his concubines. This explanation, however, compels us to believe, not that Moses wrote the narrative, but a compiler in a later age, who, as is often done, ranges in successive dates events which really were contemporaneous,

3. Different accounts of the length of time which the Israelites sojourned in Egypt.

Among the many chronological difficulties which meet the reader of the Old Testament, may be noticed the un

certainty about the length of time which the Israelites spent in Egypt. The first impression which the Bible narrative tends to convey is that 400 years passed between the settling of Jacob's family in Egypt and the Exode under Moses. This was the period of time foretold to Abraham in Genesis.

But there is a variation in this number in other passages where the subject is referred to:. for in Exodus xii, 40-41, the number is stated, not at 400, but at 430 years. The same variation is observable in the two places of the New Testament, where the subject is mentioned. In Acts, vii, 6, we read four hundred, but in Galatians, iii, 17, four hundred and thirty years. The difference between these numbers is not important, if the book in which it occurs is to be judged by the same standard as other works of history; but if, on the other hand, it is to be considered as possessing an original authority which commands our belief without enquiry, and forbids us to test its accuracy, the variation of thirty years becomes a serious discrepancy, militating greatly against its pretension to infallibility.

It remains to adduce the passages where the subject is mentioned both in the Old and New Testaments, and to endeavour to solve the difficulty which they present.

EXODUS xii, 40-41. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

Note in the Family Bible:

The sojourning of the children of Egypt,] This includes their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and their sojourning in the land of Canaan as well as in Egypt. From the time of Abraham's coming from Charran into the land of Canaan, when this sojourning began, till the going of his descendants out of Egypt, was just 430 years. From his arrival in Canaan to the birth of Isaac was 25 years; Isaac was 60 years old when

he begat Jacob; and Jacob was 130 years old when he went down into Egypt, making together 215 years: and from his family's coming into Egypt till their departure was just 215 more.

This note alters the language of the text, but does not explain it. How can the "sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt" be supposed to begin 215 years before any of the children of Israel ever were in Egypt? Abraham certainly visited Egypt, 215 years before, but he did not sojourn there, and he was not one of the 'children of Israel'; for Israel was the name of his grandson Jacob. Besides which it is plainly written that the hosts of the Lord, i. e. the children of Israel, came out of Egypt, "on the self-same day," i. e. as they had come in, 430 years before. This cannot apply to Abraham, whose visit to Egypt had nothing to do with the slavery of his posterity in that country so many years afterwards.

Neither is it certain that 215 is the correct number of years between the visit of Abraham and the journey of Jacob, when he went to settle with his family in Egypt. We find in Genesis xii, 4, that

Abram was seventy five years old when he departed out of Haran : but we are not told that he went directly into Egypt: he may have resided some years in Canaan before he went down into Egypt, and so the interval would have been less than 215 years by the exact number of years that he remained first in Canaan.

It is also without good grounds that the commentators have decided that 215 years passed between the settling of Jacob's family in Egypt and the time of the Exodus. The Bible furnishes but very slender data for ascertaining the exact length of this interval. In Exodus vi, 16-20, we learn that Levi lived 137 years, his son Kohath 133, whose son Amram lived 134 years, whose son Moses was 80 years old, when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. But these

dates do not supply a total of 215 years; though they seem, by exhibiting four generations, to bear some reference to Genesis xv, 13, where the promise, made originally to Abraham, is found:

Gen. xv, 13. And he [God] said unto Abram, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years: And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will judge and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hitherto again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

Here we have a notice of 400 years, extending, it would seem, through four generations; which must clearly be counted from Jacob and not from Abraham, for if we reckon from Abraham, we make six generations, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses. Thus, we are involved in a double difficulty: if the sojourning lasted 430 years, it runs through six generations; but if it runs through only four generations, it may have lasted no more than 215 years. Bishops Patrick and Kidder have annotated on the last passage, as if it were clear and intelligible like any part of history ancient or modern, and presented no difficulty whatever to the critical enquirer.

And he said unto Abram, &c.] Three things were to befall Abram's seed: 1st That they "should be a stranger in a land not theirs;" and they sojourned partly in Canaan, partly in Egypt: 2dly, That they should "serve;" and they did serve the Egytians: 3dly, They should be "afflicted;" and so the Israelites were in a great degree, a long time before they came out of Egypt. The time from the birth of Isaac to the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt was 400 years.

But this is an evasion, not an explanation of the textfor the "affliction," the "servitude," did not begin in Canaan, but in Egypt, and it was to last, either 400 or 430 years, for this point now cannot be cleared up, and the

same variation is found in the New Testament also, where a reference is made to the sojourning in Egypt.

Acts vii, 6. [The high-priest speaks] and God spake on this wise, That his [Abraham's] seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil 400 years.

But this evilentreating according to the commentators lasted much less than even 215 years, for Jacob was treated well by the Egyptians whilst he was in Egypt, and so were his family for many years, until the new king arose "who knew not Joseph.",

GALATIANS iii, 17. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disammul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

From all these texts taken together I cannot see how we can avoid the inference that 400 or 430 years is the space of time that passed whilst the Israelites were in Egypt and not whilst they were partly in Egypt. Even the last passage from St Paul's epistle leads to the same inference, though some have brought it to prove that the 430 years must be reckoned from Abraham. But surely the promise was made to Isaac and to Jacob also, and not to Abraham only. The difficulty which these inconsistencies present can only be solved by the supposition that the book was written long after the events which it records, and at a time when it was impossible to arrive with certainty at the exact chronology of an age so long gone by.

4. Discrepancies in the history of David and Saul. Another discrepancy is observable between the two accounts of David's introduction to Saul, as related, the one in I Sam. xvi, 14-21, the other in I Sam. xvii, 38–00.

I SAMUEL XVI, 1421. But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, "Behold now, an evil spirit from the Lord troubleth thee.