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A close examination of the history of the period shows that the numbers of some of the reigns should be reduced by one to denote complete years. Such we regard the third, sixth, and thirteenth reigns. The grounds for this conclusion will be seen on comparing 1 Kings i. 1 and i. 10, 2 Kings viii. 16 and viii. 25, and xvi. 1 and xvii. 1. We have put down the time of those reigns accordingly.

PERIOD VI. FROM THE Destruction of the TempLE BY Nebuchadnezzar to the BirTH OF JESUS CHRIST.

The duration of this period cannot be determined by any scriptural data alone. For its commencement and chronological details we have to resort to profane history. In reference to this point, the Septuagint and the Hebrew occupy the same ground. For, as we have before intimated, all essential difference between the two is confined to the first two periods, or the patriarchal ages, there being only a slight discrepancy afterward, viz., in the fourth period, the years of Eli or the statement in 1 Kings vi. I. Since, then, our object is to give the chronology of the Septuagint, we, without discussion, remark that the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar has been fixed by means of Ptolemy's canon at about B. C. 586, by the ablest chronolo

*gers,* some varying two or three years on one side or the other of that date. Waiving the discussion of that point to another place, we assume that as the date of the destruction of the temple.

The chronology of the Septuagint, presented in tabular form, stands thus (that of the Hebrew being added for convenience of comparison) :

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The first column of figures in each system denotes the length of the periods, and the second, the date

*The author of "The History of the World," Philip Smith, B. A., one of the principal contributors to Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, in his Note on Chronology, p. 10, says, "The epoch of the destruction of the temple is fixed by a concurrence of proofs from sacred and profane history, with only a variation of one, or, at the most, two years, between B. C. 588 and 586. Clinton's date is June, B. C. 587." This margin should be extended a little on each side of 586, as some, as Bede, have 589, and some as low as 583.

of the epochs beginning them. It should be remarked, in regard to the Hebrew computation in the above table, that Hebraists generally make the second interval three hundred and fifty-two years, by regarding Abraham as the youngest son of Terah, and born when his father was one hundred and thirty years old, instead of seventy, and the fourth period, four hundred and eighty, from I Kings vi. 1, instead of six hundred, making the time from the creation to Christ sixty years less than it is in our table, placing the creation at B. C. 4006. The sum four thousand and four, as indicating the date of the creation in our received chronology, is made up, in addition to the above modifications, by shortening the fifth period. But our table presents what we regard as the correct Hebrew chronology.*

* Dates according to various authors:

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It should be further remarked, that most Septuagintarian chronologers make the first period twenty-two hundred and fifty-six, out of deference to Josephus; they likewise make the second period only ten hundred and seventy-two,* by putting the years of Nahor at seventy-nine instead of one hundred and seventy-nine; or nine hundred and fortytwo,† by leaving out the second Cainan with his generation of one hundred and thirty years; or ten hundred and two,‡ by giving Terah one hundred and thirty years to the birth of Abraham. We simply remark that our object is to present the chronology of the Septuagint according to the most approved texts. This we have done. We would state, however, that we think this version should be corrected to make it harmonize with Josephus in the length of the first period, since, by giving Methuselah only one hundred and sixty-seven years before the birth of Lamech, we make him survive the flood' fourteen years; and the one hundred and eighty-eight years of Lamech should doubtless be corrected by the Hebrew and Josephus, and made one hundred and eighty-two; we would likewise give to Eli forty instead of twenty years.

* As Jackson.

† As Eusebius.

As Hales. Hales, a Septuagintarian in chronology, gives Nahor seventy-nine, leaves out the second Cainan, and makes Terah one hundred and thirty at the birth of Abraham.

Thus it appears that the highest date of the creation of man, according to the Septuagint, and that

is according to Mai's edition, is B. C. 5532, and the lowest (arrived at by taking the lowest numbers found in any text, of Methuselah, viz., one hundred and sixty-seven, and Nahor, viz., seventy-nine, and the four hundred and forty of 1 Kings vi. 1, for the fourth period) is two hundred and sixty years less, i. e., B. C. 5272.

The difference between the Septuagint and the Hebrew, according to our computation, is fourteen hundred and sixty-six or fourteen hundred and * forty-six. This difference, by taking other numbers of the various readings, might be increased to sixteen hundred and twenty. It may be remarked, however, that the amount of difference, which is to be set down as the probable result of designed alteration in one or the other, is thirteen hundred years, or, if we include Cainan's generation in this class, fourteen hundred and thirty,* viz., six hundred in the period before, and seven hundred or eight hundred and thirty in the period after the flood, the lives of thirteen patriarchs before the birth of the son who succeeded being shortened or lengthened a century

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* We are inclined to the opinion, however, that the interpolation or omission of the second Cainan, whichever is adopted, is the result of mistake of copyists.

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