A sense of the importance of a fixed standard of chronology was only
acquired gradually in the history of the world. Nations in a primitive
state of civilization were not, and are not, conscious of the need. When
the need began to be felt events were probably at first dated by the
regnal years of kings; the reigns of successive kings were then arranged
in order, and grouped, if necessary, in dynasties, and thus a fixed
standard was gradually constructed. Particular states also not
unfrequently introduced fixed eras, which obtained a more or less
extensive currency, as the era of the first Olympiad (776 B.C.), of the
foundation of Rome (753 B.C.), and of the Seleucidae at Antioch (312
B.C.), which is followed by the Jewish author of the first book of
Maccabees. Some of the earliest documents which we possess are dated by
the year in which some noticeable event took place, as in
contract-tablets of the age of Sargon of Agade (Akkad) (3800 B.C., or,
according to other authorities, 2800 B.C.), "In the year in which Sargon
conquered the land of Amurru [the Amorites]"; or, "In the year in which
Samsu-ditana [c. 1950 B.C.] made the statue of Marduk": Is. vi. 1 ("In
the year of King Uzziah's death"), xiv. 28, xx. 1, are examples of this
method of dating found even in the Old Testament. In process of time,
however, the custom of dating by the regnal year of the king became
general. The Babylonians and Assyrians were probably the first to
construct and employ a fixed chronological standard; and the numerous
contract-tablets, and list of kings and yearly officials, discovered
within recent years, afford striking evidence of the precision with
which they noted chronological details. Biblical chronology is,
unfortunately, in many respects uncertain. Prior to the establishment of
the monarchy the conditions for securing an exact and consecutive
chronology did not exist; the dates in the earlier period of the
history, though apparently in many cases precise, being in fact added
long after the events described, and often (as will appear below)
resting upon an artificial basis, so that the precision is in reality
illusory. And after the establishment of the monarchy, though the
conditions for an accurate chronology now existed, errors by some means
or other found their way into the figures; so that the dates, as we now
have them, are in many cases at fault by as much as two to three decades
of years. The _exact_ dates of events in Hebrew history can be
determined only when the figures given in the Old Testament, can be
checked and, if necessary, corrected by the contemporary monuments of
Assyria and Babylonia, or (as in the post-exilic period) by the
knowledge which we independently possess of the chronology of the
Persian kings. In the following parts of this article the chronological
character of each successive period of the Old Testament history will be
considered and explained as far as the limits of space at the writer's
disposal permit.
1. _From the Creation of Man to the Exodus._--In the whole of this
period the chronology, in so far as it consists of definite figures,
depends upon that part of the Pentateuch which is called by critics the
"Priestly Narrative." The figures are in most, if not in all cases
artificial, though the means now fail us of determining upon what
principles they were calculated. It is also to be noted that in the
Samaritan text of the Pentateuch, and in the LXX., the figures,
especially in the period from the Creation to the birth of Abraham,
differ considerably from those given in the Hebrew, yielding in Sam. a
lower, but in the LXX. a much higher total. The following tables will
make the details clear:--
(1) _From the Creation of Man to the Flood_ (Gen. v. and vii. 11).
+--------------------------+-----------------------------+
| |Age of each at birth of next.|
| +---------+---------+---------+
| | Heb. | Sam. | LXX. |
+--------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
| Adam (930) | 130 | 130 | 230 |
| Seth (912) | 105 | 105 | 205 |
| Enosh (905) | 90 | 90 | 190 |
| Kenan (910) | 70 | 70 | 170 |
| Mahalalel (895) | 65 | 65 | 165 |
| Jared (962) | 162 | 62 | 162 |
| Enoch (365) | 65 | 65 | 165 |
| Methuselah (969) | 187 | 67 | 187[26]|
| Lamech (777) | 182 | 53 | 188 |
| Noah (950); age at Flood | 600 | 600 | 600 |
| +---------+---------+---------+
| Total from the Creation | 1656 | 1307 | 2262 |
| of Man to the Flood | | | |
+--------------------------+---------+---------+---------+
The figures in parentheses indicate the entire ages assigned to the
several patriarchs; these are generally the same in the three texts. The
Sam., however, it will be noticed, makes in three cases the father's age
at the birth of his eldest son less than it is in the Heb. text, while
the LXX. makes it in several cases as much as 100 years higher, the
general result of these differences being that the total in the Sam. is
349 years less than in the Heb., while in the LXX. it is 606 years more.
The names, it need hardly be remarked, belong to the prehistoric period,
and equally with the figures are destitute of historical value.
(2) _From the Flood to the Call of Abraham_ (Gen. xi.).
+---------------------------------+--------------------------------+
| | Age of each at birth of next. |
| +----------+----------+----------+
| | Heb. | Sam. | LXX. |
+---------------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
| Arphaxad (438)[27] | 35[28] | 135 | 135 |
| Cainan (460) [cf. Luke iii. 27] | .. | .. | 130 |
| Shelah (433) | 30 | 130 | 130 |
| Eber (464) | 34 | 134 | 134 |
| Peleg (239) | 30 | 130 | 130 |
| Reu (239) | 32 | 132 | 132 |
| Serug (230) | 30 | 130 | 130 |
| Nahor (148) | 29 | 79 | 79 |
| Terah (205) | 70 | 70 | 70 |
| Abraham (175); age at Call | | | |
| (Gen. xii. 4) | 75 | 75 | 75 |
| +----------+----------+----------+
| Total from the Flood to | 365 | 1015 | 1145 |
| the Call of Abraham. | | | |
+---------------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
The variations are analogous to those under (1), except that here the
birth-years of the patriarchs in both Sam. and LXX. differ more
consistently in one direction, being, viz., almost uniformly higher by
100 years. It has been much debated, in both cases, which of the three
texts preserves the original figures. In (2) it is generally agreed that
the Heb. does this, the figures in Sam. and LXX. having been arbitrarily
increased for the purpose of lengthening the entire period. The majority
of scholars hold the same view in regard also to (1); but Dillmann gives
here the preference to the figures of the Sam. The figures, of course,
in no case possess historical value: accepting even Ussher's date of the
Exodus, 1491 B.C., which is earlier than is probable, we should obtain
from them for the creation of man 4157 B.C., or (LXX.) 5328,[29] and for
the confusion of tongues, which, according to Gen. xi. 1-9, immediately
followed the Flood, 2501 B.C., or (LXX.) 3066 B.C. But the monuments of
Egypt and Babylonia make it certain that man must have appeared upon the
earth long before either 4157 B.C. or 5328 B.C.; and numerous
inscriptions, written in three distinct languages--Egyptian, Sumerian
and Babylonian--are preserved dating from an age considerably earlier
than either 2501 B.C. or 3066 B.C.[30] The figures of Gen. v. and xi.
thus merely indicate the manner in which the author of the Priestly
Narrative--and probably to some extent tradition before him--pictured
the course of these early ages of the world's history. The ages assigned
to the several patriarchs (except Enoch) in Gen. v. are much greater
than those assigned to the patriarchs mentioned in Gen. xi., and
similarly the ages in Gen. xi. 10-18 are higher than those in Gen. xi.
19-26; it is thus a collateral aim of the author to exemplify the
supposed gradual diminution in the normal years of human life.
The Babylonians, according to Berossus, supposed that there were ten
antediluvian kings, who they declared had reigned for the portentous
period of 432,000 years: 432,000 years, however, it has been
ingeniously pointed out by Oppert (_Gott. Gel. Nachrichten_, 1877, p.
205 ff.) = 86,400 _lustra_, while 1656 years (the Heb. date of the
Flood) = 86,400 _weeks_ (1656 = 72 x 23; and 23 years being = 8395
days + 5 intercalary days = 8400 days = 1200 weeks); and hence the
inference has been drawn that the two periods have in some way been
developed from a common basis, the Hebrews taking as their unit a
week, where the Babylonians took a _lustrum_ of 5 years.
(3) _From the Call of Abraham to the Exodus._
From the Call of Abraham to the birth of Isaac
(Abraham being then aged 100, Gen. xxi. 5). 25 years
Age of Isaac at the birth of Esau and Jacob
(Gen. xxv. 26) 60 "
Age of Jacob when he went down into Egypt
(Gen. xlvii. 9) 130 "
----
The period of the Patriarchs' sojourn in Canaan
was thus 215 "
But the period of the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt,
according to Ex. xii. 40, 41, was 430 "