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Sacred Chronology

In the seventeenth century and the first decades of the eighteenth biblical study was pursued on a large scale; witness such English names as Ussher, Lightfoot, Prideaux, Hody, Whiston. These men did other things besides study the structure and contents of the existing Old Testament, but they did this thing; and they did it so well that their works and their opinions were still current by the late 19th Century. The work they did was good, up-to-date work for the time when they lived, though they often followed Josephus rather than the Old Testament, and were too much influenced by patristic tradition, and by theological bias. Thomas Hartwell Home's great work on Old Testament Introduction, published in 1818, is a monumental collection of the results of the labors of men of this school.

Bishop James Ussher was famous for his Chronology, the first part of which was published in 1650, and the second in 1654. Entering Trinity College at 13, he prepared a detailed work on Hebrew chronology in Latin at 15 and received a Master's degree when 18. At 19 he engaged in controversy the Jesuit scholar Henry Fitzsimons. Overthrowing him, none could thereafter match him in debate. An expert in Semitic languages and history, at 20 he was ordained. At 26, he earned a doctorate and became Professor of Divinity at Dublin. So great was his repute of tolerance, sincerity and amassed learning (characterized by Selden as "miraculous") that, despite the fact he had been critical of the rebellion against Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell greatly esteemed Ussher and awarded him a magnificent state funeral in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph reads: "Among scholars he was the most saintly, among saints the most scholarly." Ussher prepared a chronology of Biblical events based on his study of the Holy Scriptures, deriving 4004 BC as the year of the creation of the universe. His dates were almost universally accepted until the mid-nineteenth century.

Long found in the margins of many Bibles, Ussher's Chronology was at some points admirably accurate. The author, by fixing the three epochs of the deluge, the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and their return from Babylon, was held to have reconciled the chronologies of sacred and profane history. His chronological system, put the creation of the world in 4004 BC, the first day of the world being Sunday October 23rd. Its greatest fault was its attempt to reduce the history to millennial periods. Ussher believed that the earth was created just 4000 years before the birth of Jesus, and that Solomon's temple was dedicated just 1000 years before the birth of Jesus [the Bible numbers taken at their most obvious values make the interval 1007 years], and he pulled some parts of the chronology awry, to make it fit this theory. He regarded the biblical numbers for the times before Abraham as chronological.

The sacred scriptures do not fix the era of creation with perfect precision. Moreover, the date of the completion of the work varies in different copies of the Bible. The Hebrew copy, which is generally followed, fixes the creation of the world 3944 years before the birth of Christ. The Samaritan Bible makes it 4305 years, and the Greek translation known by the name of the Septuagint places it at 5270 years before that era. Different systems of chronology have also been formed from the same source. Usher, whose system is generally followed, makes out from the Hebrew Bible 4004 years between the creation and the Christian era; Josephus, from the same authority, 4658 years; and Pezron, with the help of the Septuagint, extends it to 5872 years.

In 1809 the Rev. William Hales, D.D. Rector of Killesandra, in Ireland deduced a rectified Era of the Creation, - BC 5111 - from the writings of two great luminaries of the Jewish and Christian Churches, Josephus and Theophilus. The leading elementary date, by reference to which the whole range of sacred and profane chronology is adjusted, is the birth of Cyrus, before Christ 599, which led to his accession to the throne of Persia, BC 559; of Media, BC 551; and of Babylonia, BC 530; for, from these several dates carefully and critically ascertained and verified, the several respective chronologies of these kingdoms branched off; and from the last especially, the destruction of Solomon's temple by Nebuchadnezzcr, BC 536, its correcter date, which led to its foundation, BC 1027; thence to the Kxude, BC 1648; thence to Abraham's birth, BC 2153; thence to the reign of Nimrod, 2554; thence to the deluge, BC 3155; and thence to the creation, BC 5111.

The uncertainty of the age of the world, as inferred from the Bible, may be gathered from the following. Kennedy, in his Scripture Chronology, says that 300 different opinions, founded upon the Bible, may be collected as to the length of time that has elapsed between the creation and the birth of Christ. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Antiquaria, has given a list of 140 of these calculations. Dr. Hales, in his New Analysis of Chronology, has exhibited above 120. Desvignolles, in his Chronology of Sacred History, states that he has collected upwards of 200 such calculations, of which the longest makes the lime from the creation to the birth of Christ 6984 years, and the shortest 3483. The uncertainty and controversy upon this subject have been occasioned principally by the disagreement in the lives attributed to the patriarchs, and some other numbers in the Bible.

The founding of the Assyrian empire is usually fixed at 2221 BC only 127 years after Ussher's date for the deluge. The ancient liistories represent that at this time there were numerous and populous nations, and in a very short period after, armies amounting: to hundreds of thousands of men were brought into the field. Cities also were built, of vast extent and astonishing magnificence. These facts lead to the belief that Usher's Chronology is defective, and that a much longer space of time elapsed between the foundmg of Assyria and the Deluge than is usually reckoned. By the middle of the 19th Century the opinion was gaining ground that Hales' Chronology was more nearly accurate than that of Usher, dating the Deluge to 3155 BC.