Ages of the World

AGES OF THE WORLD, the times preceding the Birth of Jesus Christ, have been generally divided into six Ages.

The first extends from the beginning of the World to the Deluge; and comprehends one thousand six hundred and fifty six years.

The second Age, from the Deluge to Abraham’s coming into the Land of Promise, in 2082, comprehends four hundred and twenty six years.

The third Age of the World, from Abraham’s entrance into the Promised Land, to the deliverance of the Hebrews out of Egypt, in the year of the World 2523, includes four hundred and thirty years.

The fourth Age, from the going out of Egypt to the foundation of the Temple by Solomon, in the year of the World 2992, takes up four hundred and seventy nine years.

The fifth Age of the World, from Solomon’s laying the foundations of the Temple, to the Babylonish Captivity in the year of the World 3416, contains four hundred twenty four years.

The sixth Age of the World reaches from the Babylonish Captivity to the Birth of Jesus Christ, which happened in the year of the World 4000, and in the fourth year before the vulgar Æra, and includes five hundred fourscore and four years.

I shall not inlarge so far in this place as to reconcile, or even represent only, the different Systems of the antient and modern Chronologers concerning the years of the World. They who would be well informed of these matters, will without doubt go as far back as the first sources, and consult those Authors who have expressly treated on this subject. We for our parts have chosen to follow Usher in the Chronology of the Old Testament, with some little differences only, where we think we have reason to vary from him. Among the pieces annex’d to this Dictionary there is a chronological Table which is agreeable with this System, and we have endeavour’d to conform ourselves to it in all the dates which we have inserted in the course of this Work.

Every one knows that there is a great disproportion in the age of the Patriarchs, as it is expressed in the Septuagint, and in the Hebrew text. This difference, with regard to the time before the Deluge, amounts to about five hundred fourscore and six years. According to the Septuagint, the Deluge happened in the year of the World 2242, but according to the Hebrew and the Vulgate in 1656. And after the Deluge from the six hundred and first year of Noah, which is the next year after the Deluge, the Septuagint reckon eleven hundred seventy two years to the seventieth year of Terah, whereas the Vulgate reckons no more than two hundred ninety two years, which makes a difference of nine hundred and fourscore years; so that including the five hundred fourscore and six years before the Deluge, there will be, upon a computation, one thousand four hundred sixty six more in the Septuagint than in the Vulgate.

No one has hitherto been able to discover the true motive which could oblige the Septuagint thus to lengthen out the lives of the old Patriarchs: Some have conjectured, that their design herein was to secure the sacred Books from the censure of the Heathens, who not knowing how to credit the relation of the long lives of the Patriarchs, maintain’d that one of our years was equivalent to ten or five of theirs; so that one who had been said to live eight hundred years, in reality had lived no more than eighty, or at most but an hundred and sixty, and so in proportion of others. However this may be, there is scarce any question to be made but that the Septuagint multiplied the Patriarchs years; for there is no reason for placing the diminution of these years to the account of the Hebrew Writers.

As to the length of the year, according to the computation of Moses and the old Hebrews, there is no doubt but that from the time of Noah it consisted of twelve months of one and thirty days; the proof whereof appears in the particular account of the days of that year wherein the Deluge happened, which is very accurately given us by Moses. We shall speak of Cainan, whom the Septuagint, as some pretend, have added in the text, under the Article of Cainan. As to the differences between the Hebrew and the Septuagint, with relation to the years of the Patriarchs, the Reader may consult Isaac Vossius, De Ætate mundi, & de LXX Interpretibus, and F. Pezron, in his Antiquité des tems retablie.

You have here a particular account of the seven Ages of the World, according to the Greek text, together with the proofs abridg’d after M. Boivin the Elder’s System, who has been labouring with great application for fifty years to clear this part of ancient Chronology.

These 2262 years are attested by Julius Africanus, in Syncellus, p. 20, 53, 83, by Epiphanius in his Heresies, p. 5; by S. Austin, in his City of God, l. 15, c. 13, & 20. and upon Genes. ix. 2. This is according to five copies, viz. three Greek, one Latin, and one Syriac. By the Paschalion or Alexandrian Chronicle, by Godfrey of Viterbo, by Honorius of Autun, by all the Collections of various Readings upon the LXX.

Note, the 167 years from Methuselah to the birth of Lamech, instead of 187, are the Transcriber’s fault in most of our Greek Bibles. This mistake is not in the Greek editions of Basil and Strasburg; besides, it is corrected by the Hebrew, the Vulgate, and Josephus. According to this erroneous reading, the Deluge would have happen’d in the year of the World 2242. Methuselah therefore, who, according to all our Bibles and Josephus, lived 969 years, must have died fourteen years after the Deluge; whereas, according to the proper and right reading, he died six years before the Deluge, St. Austin’s City of God, 15, 13. at the end.

Note, Abraham was called in the year when Terah died; Terah therefore did not live above 145 years, as the Samaritan text imports, which is the Mosaick Hebrew: The 205 years therefore of the other text are the Copier’s fault, who makes the Bible contradict itself; for Abraham being born in the seventieth year of Terah, must have been 135 years old at the death of his Father, and not 75, as all the Texts say.

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