Chronology and geography

516 Pages·2012·18.48 MB·English

by  William Hales

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized
by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the
information in books and make it universally accessible.
http://books.google.com
or
otttv*

NEW ANALYSIS
OF
CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY,
HISTORY AND PROPHECY:
IN WHICH
THEIR ELEMENTS
ARE ATTEMPTED TO BE EXPLAINED, HARMONIZED, AND
VINDICATED,
UPON SCRIPTURAL AND SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES;
TENDING TO REMOVE THE IMPERFECTION AND DISCORDANCE OF
PRECEDINGSYSTEMS,AND TO ORVIATE THE CAVILS OF
SCEPTICS, JEWS, AND INFIDELS.
REV. WILLIAM HALES, D.D.
RECTOR OF KILLESANDRA, IN IRELAND; AND
FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF ORIENTAL
LANGUAGESIN THE UNIVERSITYOFDURLIN.
SECONDEDITION,CORRECTED AND IMPROVED.
IN FOUR VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR C. J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,
8T Paul's church-yard,
AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL.
MDCCCXXX.
-:r
LONDON :
gilbert and rivington, printers,
st. John'ssquare.
Fe- 592470
PREFACE
TO THE FIRST EDITION.
This work is the result ofmany years' study ofthe His
tory, Antiquities, and Prophecies, respecting the princi
pal nations recorded inthe Bible; namely, the Hebrews,
Israelites, and Jews, the Assyrians, Babylonians, and
Egyptians, the Medes and Persians, the Grecians and
Romans, the Saracens and Turks.
It was originally suggested, by the frequent interrup
tions and embarrassments experienced by the author in
his Historical Researches, from the imperfection and
discordance of the Chronological systems of the Jews,
Scaliger, Petavius, Usher, Lloyd, Marsham, Newton,
Jackson, &c. which he found utterly insufficient to ad
just and harmonise the leading dates of Sacred and
Profane History ; all ofthem differing from each other,
more or less, in the principles upon which they were
founded, and in the application of these principles ;
sometimes adjusting Sacred by Profane Chronology,
sometimes the reverse, without any settled rule or
standard.
Finding it impossible to extract from these systems
any uniform scheme which could render Sacred History
vi PREFACE.
consistent with itself, and with the great range of Pro
fane History connected therewith, he endeavoured to
trace the subject to its original sources, and to explore
the most ancient records, chronicles, and fragments still
extant, and the earliest Historians and Chronologers ;
namely, theMasorete and Samaritan Hebrew Texts ; the
Vatican and Alexandrine Greek Versions; the works of
Josephus, TheophUus, Eusebius, Syncellus, Abulfaragi,
and Eutychius ; the Greek and Latin Historians, Hero
dotus, Xenophon, Diodorus Siculus, Ctesias, Justin, &c-
the fragments of Sanchoniatho, Berosus, and Manetho,
respecting the Phoenician, Chaldean, and Egyptian an
tiquities, and the Hindu records published in the Asiatic
Researches.
His first attempt was to examine carefully the prin
ciples upon which the reigning systems were built, in
order to seek a solid foundation for a general system.
This led him into a minute investigation of the evi
dences for and against the longer and shorter compu
tations of the Patriarchal generations from Adam to
AbraJiam, found in the Masorete and Samaritan Hebrew
Texts, in the Greek Version, and in Josephns; and the
result was, a conviction of the untenableness of the
shorter computation, which he discovered to have been
first fabricated by the Jews, about the time of the pub
lication of the Seder Olam Rabba, their great system of
Chronology, in A.D. 130.
His next attempt was to retrieve the genuine Chro
nology of Josephus, many of whose leading dates had
been adulterated by his early editors, in order to make
them correspond with the Jewish system, which unfor
tunately was too soon adopted by several ofthe primi