of dates for the Mosaio Exodus, as Computed by Usher from the Hebrew Text, and generally
appended to the English translation authorized sinoe the reign of king James, a. d. 1611 •
and by Hales from the Greek Septuagint version. The new synchronisms between Hebrew
and Egyptian events, put forward by Lepsius, may assist the hierological student in authenticating
monumental history through what are still called the established dates of Scripture
It will be remarked that, while Hales extends, Lepsius reduces the antiquity assigned to
each Israelitish era by archbishop Usher.
Biblical Synchronisms.
* A. d. 1 080. A. d. 1 8 3 0 . A. d. 1849.
Epoch o f Pharaonic Contemporaries. Ush e r . H a le s . Lepsius.
A b r a h am Am u n op h m . (Memnon) b. 0. 1 9 2 0 . . . . . . . . . 2 0 7 7 . a b o u t i s m #
s e t i i . (Setiws) ............................... 1 1706 . . ....... 186; g i t j i ;
Moses ................. R am se sII. (Jewish oppression ■> /-iqcu n0oo
Exodus(b.c. 13 2 2 ? ) Meneptha ..................... ..................j “ ............. 1648 *"
Jewish computation by “ forties” ceases so soon*as we ascend beyond Mosesq who was
40 years old when he fled from Egypt; 40 years older when, after dwelling with Jethro he
returned to liberate his people; and oldest by 40 more years when he died at the age of 120
— “ but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day."(559) Vico supplies a formulary:
I ~ ""¥»*« nature ° f the huma» mind is the cause that man,makes of himself the rule of the Universe. plunged in ignoorraannccee,
It is from this truth that are derived the two human tendencies thus expressed ■ Fame
crescit eundo .et mmmt prcesmtia famam. Fame has travelled, since the worid’s ■Creation •
very long road; and it is during the voyage that she has collected opinions so magnificent
and so exaggerated upon epoehas which to us are but imperfectly known. This disposition I
of the human intellect is indicated to us by Tacitus, in his ‘Life of Agricola,’ where he
tells u s : — Omne ignotumpro magnifico est.” (560)
From Moses backwards' to Abraham, post-Christian Jewish computation assumed 100
years for .each generation; but every dozen MSS. of the Text or versions differ; and the
general principle followed seems to have been, to make generations the longer, in the ratio
that the lifetime of a given hero was more and more distant from each Judsean writer’s day.
The model copied was a Grecian theogonie idea, because the Esdraio Jews proceeded by
the four Hesiodic ages ; considering their own period to be the Iron ; the Davidic the Brazen;
the Mosaic the Silver; and that from theAbrahamic to the Adamic, to have been the Goldm
age of Hebrew humanity. To Moses, in consequence, they assigned only 120 years of
longevity; but his worthier antecedents had theiniolier lives extended along a sliding scale
of which the numbers 240, 480, and 960, are the simple arithmetical proportion: theh
divisor being “ 40.”
Here, then, we have finally arrived at the great fact; which, in different or less outspoken
words,-aU the.scientific authors we havaquoted are at this day agreed upon: viz.:
that the. Jews knew not an atom more of “ Humanity’s Origins ” than we do now; and that as
they really had no human historical ancestor before Abraham (whose epoch floats between
Lepsius’s parallel at 1500, and Hales’s at 2077, B. o.), there is no chronology, strictly so-
called, in the Bible, anteriorly to the Mosaic age ; itself vague for one or more generations.
This posited, we shall close further argument with a Table of Hebrew Origins; conformably
to the same principles upon which we have already tabulated the distinct histories of
Egypt, China, and Assyria. Each of these nationalities possesses its historical, semi-histo- 1
rical, and mythical times. And, inasmuch as i t ! is conceded by every true historian
that the Israelites (under the literary aspect in which they first present themselves to the
gentile world), had been previously educated in Chaldcea; it will be interesting to place the
ante-diluvian “ patriarchs” of the preceptors alongside those of the pupils. Berosus,
Philo Byblius, Julius Africanus, Alexander Polyhistor, Eusebius, and the Syncellus, have
preserved for us transcripts of the original Chaldasan catalogues: the whole texts of which
are accessible in Cory’s Ancient Fragments, or in Bunsen. (561)
(559) Vent, xxxiv. 6. (560) Yioo : Scimm JSTuova; 1720 ; “ Elemento lmo.” (561) Egypt’s Place ; i. pp. 704-719.
Mythological Periods.
Symbolical Ante-Diluvian Patriarchs.
Go'ccco-Chaldcmn Decade. Hébrcco-ClwMaean Decade. Phcenico-Chaldaxm Decade.
1. Alorus...... years 36,000 ADaM Protogonoe 1. — First-born.
2. Alaparus “ 10,800 SeTi Genos, Genea 2. =: Genus, family.
3. Almelon.......... “ 46,800 ANoSTi - Phos, pur, phlox 3. = Fire, light, flame.
4. Ammenon “ 43,200 KINaN Cassios, Libanos 4. = Cassius, Libanus (mounds).
6. Amelegarus “ 64,800 . MaHaLaLeL • Memrounos, ousoos 5. = Celsus, “ par coelo,” wood.
6. Daonus “ 36,000 IRaD Agrios, alieus 6. = Peasant, hunter, fisher.
7. Edoranchus.... <£ 64.800 EAeNUK Chrusor, hephaistos, ^ f Vulcan, fire, artificer,
8. Amempsinus... “ 36,000 MeTiTJSeLaKA artifex, geinos ~ 1 earth-worker.
9. Otiartes........... “ 28,800 LaMeK Agros, agroueros] 8. — Rustic, agriculturist.
10. Xisuthrus “ 64,800 NuEA Amunos, magos "" 9. — Warrior, magician.
Misor (Sydyc,Saduc) 10. = Egypt, and th e “ ju s t ”
Years 432,000 Tdrig, Me l c h is e d ek .
C H A L D Æ A N D E L U G E .
1st Note. — The 36 Decans of the Zqdiac, (562) multiplied by th e 12 months of the year, give th e mystic
number 432. The “ grand year ” of Astronomy — or the time anciently supposed to be
required for the sun, planets, and fixed stars, to return to the same celestial start^ig-point —
was a t first 25,000, then 36,000, and lastly 432,000 years ; being the supposed duration of the
ten Græco-Chaldæan generations. A Dduge terminated th e cycle. (563)
2d Note.—The Plioemco-Çhaldoean list, derived from Sanconiatho, presents us with th e Greek translations,
not with the real names of its lost Oriental original. The Phoenicians had originally crossed
from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, and their intercourse with Chaldæa was Incessant;
while th e two people spoke Semitic dialects. More saliently th an th e other two forms
of the same theogony, this Phoenician stream exhibits the rationale of its “ ex post facto ” construction.
According to it, we have the stages of family, hunter, fisherman, artisan, husbandman,
soldier, priest, and king, through which antique humanity developed itself. A parallelism
seems to be preserved in the offshoots of the Adamic stem in Genesis, where A be l the wandering
shepherd is hateful to Ca in the sedentary peasant.
Ch a ld a ic E th n o lo g ic a l Division -^contained in Xth Genesis.]
1 Theoretical Post - Diluvian Commencements.
N u K h.
(Obscurity.)
W h it e races. Y e l low races. Sw a r th y r a c e s .
Babylonish Theory eor Diversity op Tongues.
“ City and Tower of B a B y L ” - on = confusion = “ BaBeL-babblings.”
Hebrew Geographical Origins.
ARP/ta-KaSD = ORFA-the-CftaZdieow (District).
SaLaKA = S alacha (City)*
AeBeR = th e-yonderer (Tribe).
PeLeG ==' arsplit (Earthquake ?).
Earliest Legendary Ancestors.
R6U.
SeRUG.
NaKMJR.
TieRaKA.
(562) L e p s iu s : Chronologie; i. pp. 66-76. (563) D e B ro t o n n e : op. cit.; pp. 234-246.