An Universal History, in a Series of Letters

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: versions do not agree with that of the Greek of the seventy interpreters generally called the Septuagint. Many learned and talented men have endeavored to arrive at the age of the human race, as well from these sdurces, as from the works of the famed Jewish historian, Flavins Josephus, and other ancient...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: versions do not agree with that of the Greek of the seventy interpreters generally called the Septuagint. Many learned and talented men have endeavored to arrive at the age of the human race, as well from these sdurces, as from the works of the famed Jewish historian, Flavins Josephus, and other ancient writers, but the time has been unprofitably spent, as their computations have generally disagreed, even to the extent of 1700 years. Thus, for instance, Johannes Von Miiller assumes that 5722 years had elapsed from the creation of Adam to the birth of Christ. Other historians, of equal celebrity, have followed the chronology of Dyonysius Petavius, who computed that only 3983 years occurred between these epochs. This difference is the more remarkable, from the fact that both Miiller and Petavius took the chronology of Moses as the foundation of their computations, which proves, almost conclusively, the impossibility of arriving at the age of mankind. The many obstacles which man met with in his first attempts at civihzation, make it more probable that a longer, rather than a shorter period of time, transpired ere magnificent cities were erected and powerful empires established. I agree therefore with Von Miiller, who ascribes to mankind a greater age than with those who believe in a lesser. Still, as the generality of modern historians give but about 4000 years between the creation of man and the birth of Christ, we will follow the computation most generally assumed, and take it for granted that mankind have existed 4004 years anterior to the birth of Christ. But the nearer we approach the time of Christ, the greater certainty we find in the dates of those historical events which it will be my duty to relate; consequently, in order to be as correct as possible, I will date the...