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Hebrew text at present, cannot possibly be correct; and requires to be amended. For though Abram himself had been Terah's youngest son, and born when Terah was seventy, the age of Terah at his death could not be computed as greater than seventy in addition to the age of Abraham at the time when Terah died. Now Terah was dead when Abraham was called into Canaan; and Abraham was seventy-five years old when he was called into Canaan P: the age of Terah then before this migration and at his death, could not possibly have been more than one hundred and forty-five; at which also it is represented in the Samaritan Pentateuch.

But the true length of the life of Terah, as it appears to me, was neither two hundred and five, nor one hundred and forty-five; but one hundred and thirty-five. It is not said of him how long he lived after he begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; his age must have been stated absolutely; viz. that he lived so many years and died: and hence the origin of the mistake. Moses might simply have written, The days of Terah were one hundred and thirty-five years; which some scribe considering to be distinct from the time before specified, that he lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; added the one to the other, as making up the sum total of his life. And this conjecture is greatly confirmed by the result. For 70 + 135 205. The Samaritan Pentateuch, in like manner, taking Abraham to have been born when Terah was seventy, added this to the number specified, Gen. xii. 4, of seventy-five; and so made the age of Terah to be one hundred and forty-five. It is not likely that Terah would enjoy a longer life than Abraham himself, who died at one hundred and seventy-five; or

p Gen. xi. 28. 31. Acts vii. 4. Gen. xii. 4.

than Isaac or Jacob, who died the former at one hundred and eighty, and the latter at one hundred and forty-seven 9*.

I conclude, then, that the age of Terah at his death was one hundred and thirty-five; whence, if he was born A. M. 1879, he died A. M. 2014. On this principle, Abraham, who was called into Canaan A. M. 2015, was called thither in the year after his father's death; as St. Stephen's words alone would almost suffice to imply. It is no unreasonable supposition that before this Terah might have been fourteen years resident in Charran; and consequently that the original call from Mesopotamia thither, in which he was concerned as well as Abraham, took place A. M. 2001. Still less unreasonable is it to suppose that this migration took place very soon after the death of Haran. The very name given to Haran, where they settled at first, would seem to imply that; and if Haran had been born when Terah was thirty or thirty-five, and had lived to be only seventy years old or not much more, he would not die before Terah was one hundred or one hundred and five at least; and if he also had been married at thirty, he might leave behind him children, the oldest of whom might then be forty; and Sarah in particular (who was sixty-four when Terah was one hundred and thirty-five years old, and therefore was born when Terah was seventy-one) would be about thirty years old; and consequently of a marriageable age. On this point however there is no need to descend into minutiæ.

The agreement of the assumed date of the Exodus,

*In the Septuagint, Gen. xi. 32. it stands: "And all the days of Terah in the land of Haran q Gen. xxv. 7. xxxv. 28. xlvii. 28.

were 205 years:" which is a manifest interpolation.

r Acts vii. 4.

s Gen. xi. 31.

B. C. 1560, with the history of things previous to that event having been thus established; its accordance with the detail of particulars subsequent to it is next to be shewn. And this I shall endeavour to effect as low down as the time of the building of the temple; after which it will not be necessary for us to proceed any further at present; insomuch as the date, which we shall be found to assign to the time of this building, will very nearly coincide with the date assigned to it also by the Bible chronology.

I. If the Exodus from Egypt took place exactly B. C. 1560. A. M. 2445, the Eisodus into the land of Canaan, forty years complete afterwards, took place B.C. 1520, A. M. 2425; at the same time of the year in either case t.

II. After the Eisodus, B. C. 1520, and five or six years of incessant warfare; the seventh, B. C. 1514, was the time when the settlement of the country was completed by the division of the conquered lands: as it may thus be proved.

Caleb was forty years old in the second year after the Exodus, B. C. 1559, at the time of the mission of the spies; and eighty-five years old at the time of the division of the lands, when Joshua assigned him Kirjath-arba. His language implies that at each of these times he was of such and such an age complete "; and the former of the two was the close of the summer of the year; therefore so was the latter. Hence if Caleb

was forty complete at the close of the

summer, B. C.

1559, he was eighty-five complete at the same time of the year, B. C. 1514. It follows, then, that with the summer of B. C. 1514. in the seventh year after the

*

Josephus, also, Ant. Jud. v. i. 21, 22: places the division

t Numb. xiv. 33, 34. Deut. i. 3. ii. 14. xiii. 20-25.

of the lands in the seventh month.

u Josh. xiv. 7. 10.

v Numb.

Eisodus, the division of the lands was either just complete or nearly so ". Whence from this time forward, but not before it, the land would have rest from war x; and the peaceful occupation of the country would begin.

The first cycle of sabbatic years, therefore, which began and expired with the autumn, would begin with the autumn of B. C. 1513; and the first sabbatic year itself would begin with the autumn B. C. 1507, and expire with the autumn B.C. 1506: the truth of which inference may further be confirmed as follows.

It has been proved heretofore, by data entirely independent of this assumption, that A. D. 27-28, in the first and second years of our Saviour's ministry, was a sabbatic year. To B. C. 1507-1506. add A. D. 27–28: the result is in each case 1534; a number, divisible by seven, with a remainder of one. If the first of the number then was a sabbatic year, so was the last-and if the last, so was the first. Nor is it without an observable propriety that, as the cycle of sabbatic years began and could begin only with the time when the land rested from war, or the people were first securely settled in their inheritances; so the time of this rest coincided with the seventh year after the Eisodus, and six years of incessant war. This seventh year itself would so far be tantamount to a sabbatic year; and it would make no difference whether we dated the first such year from B. C. 1514—B. C. 1513, or from B. C. 1507-B. C. 1506. Add 27-28. to the former, and the result, 1541, is divisible by seven with a remainder of one, as much as before.

In like manner the cycle of Jubiles, which were required to be celebrated every fiftieth year, and the

w Vide also Josh. xi. 23. xiv. 1. xxi. 43-45. x xiv. 15. xi. 23. y Dis. sertation xxii. vol. ii. 232-244.

recurrence and celebration of which were entirely independent of those of sabbatic years; would begin and proceed with the year of the Eisodus itself: and this conclusion also may be confirmed by the following argument.

It has often been considered probable that the institution of the year of Jubile had a secret reference to the spiritual benefits, which should arise from the death and passion of our Saviour Christ. If so, the true year of Jubile; the year of the spiritual release analogous preeminently to the legal; was that year, above all others, which ensued on the death and resurrection of our Lord. And though the observance of the years of Jubile, as part of the ritual of the Law, might have fallen into disuse at the time of the Christian era, this should make no difference. The first year of the publication of the Gospel as such, it might be expected, would still correspond with a legal year of Jubile. If that year was A. D. 30, and the cycle of Jubiles began B. C. 1520, this follows as matter of course: 1520 + 30 = 1550; a number in which there would be thirty-one Jubiles exactly: the first, in the fiftieth year from the Eisodus, B. C. 1471; the last, A. D. 30.

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III. There is no reason to suppose that Joshua was not a much older person than Caleb; and he is spoken of as a very old man directly after the settlement of the country'. Hence, if Caleb was eightyfive, B. C. 1514, Joshua might be more. Now he died at the age of one hundred and tena. Let us suppose that he survived the division of the lands ten years; and consequently that he was one hundred years old, B. C. 1514. He was ninety-four years old, B. C. 1520, when Caleb was seventy-nine: and he would die, B.C. 1504.

y Lev. xxv. I-22.

z Josh. xiii. 1.

a Josh. xxiv. 29.

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