Blair Collection > Celtic researches, on the origin, traditions & language, of the ancient Britons

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îîiust have been fully adequate to the pui-pose for which it
was intended. It must have operated, as an effetìual cor-
redion, or as a signal punishment, whieli disposed the remains
of the human race to comply with the Divine decree.
Chronology has not expressly marked the aira of Nimrod's
rebellion, or of the dispersion of his adherents. But as tlie
immediate objeft of the former was to prevent the executioa
of a decree, which appears to have been published at the time
of the birth of Peleg, we may conclude that it took place soon
after that event. Nimrod might now be 60 or öö years old,
about the same age as Salah, his parallel in descent. If so,
he wacs, not in early youtli, but in tlie prime of niiinhood. —
For though the patriarchal age w as hitherto of great extent,
yet it appears that men soon came to maturity. In the first
century after the deluge, they married and had children,
generall3' about the age of thirty.
The Samaritan copy regularly adds 100 years to the age of
the patriarchs both before and after the flood, at the birth oi'
their sons ; so that the birth of Peleg is removed to about 400
years after the deluge. IMany learned men adopt this chro-
nology, because it allows time for an increase of populatiou
suitable to the great events of his time.
]May I offer a few remarks on this subjeiTt?
1 . Down to the death of Noah, Moses regularly gives the
age of the father, at the birth of such a sou, he adds the
remaining years of his liie, and then sums up the whole. —
The constant chauge of this enumeration cannot have hap-
pened through the mere inadvertency of transcribers. Some
wilful and systematical corruption must be supposed^ either iii
the Hebrew or Samiiritau text.