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ANTIQUITY

AND

UNITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.- - VIEW OF THE BIBLE CHRONOLOGY.

The Subject recently come into Notice. — Former general Assent to the received Chronology of Man's Creation. Testimony of Hitchcock and Lyell. - Origin of recent Doubts concerning it. - Geological Discoveries. Ethnology and Comparative Philology. Systems of Chronology. -System of Bunsen. System of Boeckh.

--

System of Rodier.

never critically examined.

-

- These Systems - Call for a new Discussion of the

Subject.- View of the Scripture Chronology. ―Three Versions of the Pentateuch. Period I. From the Creation to the Flood. II. From the Flood to the Birth of Abraham. III. From the Birth of Abraham to the Exodus. - IV. From the Exodus to the Founding of the Temple. - V. From the Founding of the Temple to its first Destruction. - VI. From the Destruction of the Temple to the Birth of Christ. Statements of heathen Writers.

THE Antiquity of Man is one of those subjects which have very recently come into prominent notice among learned men. It is scarcely a fourth of a

century since the apparent teachings of the Bible chronology, which fix his creation at less than six thousand years ago, were generally received without question. For a little time, indeed, the discoveries of the new science of geology had disturbed the commonly received views on this subject, as astronomy in the days of Copernicus and Galileo had so greatly modified the ancient theories of the physical structure of the universe. But a re-examination of the sacred text, with the aid of a broader philology, soon demonstrated that there was no necessary discrepancy between it and the new science; nay, even derived fresh evidence from the very facts adduced by the latter in support of its own correctness. It was seen that the first verse of Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," would permit the date of the creation to be carried back to any indefinite antiquity, leaving the subsequent account to cover successive periods in which the earth was fitted for human abode, stocked with the present species of vegetable and animal life, and lastly, crowned with the introduction of man, the destined lord and proprietor of all. In this fact of the comparatively recent origin of man, Genesis and geology were entirely agreed. Says Dr. Hitchcock, "As to the period when the creation of such a being by the most astonishing of all miracles took place, I

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