Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 18, RHI-SCR

SCR [ 783 ] SCR
Scripture.
*3
Mofaic
chronology
vindicated.
his materials ; Tome affirming that all the fa<5ts were re¬
vealed by infpiration, and others maintaining that he
procured them from tradition.
Some who have looked on themfelves as profound
philofophers, have rejefled many parts of the book of
Genefis as fabulous and abfurd : but it cannot be the
wifdom of philofophy, but the vanity of ignorance,
that could lead to fuch an opinion. In fadl, the book
of Genefis affords a key to many difficulties in philofo¬
phy which cannot otherwife be explained. It has been
fuppofed that the diverfities among mankind prove that
they are not defcended from one pair ; but it has been
fully thewn that all thefe diverfities may be accounted
for from natural caufes. It has been reckoned a great
difficulty to explain how foffil {hells were introduced
into the bowels of the earth 5 but the deluge explains
this fa6l better than all the romantic theories of philo¬
fophers. It is impoffible to account for the origin of
fuch a variety of languages in a more fatisfa&ory man¬
ner than is done in the account of the confufion of
tongues which took place at Babel. It would be no
eafy matter to fnew why the fea of Sodom is fo different
from every other fea on the globe which has yet been
explored, if w7e had not poffeffed the fcriptural account
of the miraculous deftruffion of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It is faturated with bitumen and fait, and contains no
fiffies. Thefe are very fingular facts, which have been
fully eftablifiied by late travellers. The book of Ge¬
nefis, too, has been treated with contempt, becaufo it
makes the world lefs ancient than is neceffary to fup-
port the theories of modern philofophers, and becaufe it
is difficult to reconcile the chronologies of feveral na¬
tions with the opinion that the world is not above 6000
or 7000 years old. The Chaldeans, -in the time of Ci¬
cero, reckoned up 470,000 years. The Egyptians pre¬
tend that they have records extending 50,000 years-
back ; and the Hindoos go beyond all bounds of pro¬
bability, carrying back their chronology,, according to
Halhed, more than 7,000,000 of years.
An attempt has been made by the unfortunate M.
Bailly, once mayor of Paris, to reconcile thefe magnified
calculations with the chronology of the Septuagint,
which is juftly preferred to the Hebrew. (See Septu¬
agint). He informs us, that the Hindoos, as well as
the Chaldeans and Egyptians, had years of arbitrary
determination. They had months of 15 days, and
years of 60 days, or two months. A month is a night
and day of the patriarchs; a year is a night and day of
the gods ; four thoufand years of the gods, are as many
hundred years of men. By attention to fuch modes of
computation, the age of the world will be found very
nearly the fame in the writings of Mofes, and in the cal¬
culations and traditions of the Bramins. With thefe
alfo we have a remarkable coincidence with the Perfian
chronology. Bailly has efhblifhed thefe remarkable
epochas from the Creation to the Deluge.
The Septuagint gives
The Chaldeans
The Egyptians
Th® Perfians
The Hindoos
The Chinefe
The fame author has alfo ffiewn the
22)6 years.
2222
2340
2000
2000
2300
fingular coinci¬
dence of the age of the world as given by four diftimfl Scripture,
and diftantly fituated people.
The ancient Egyptians
The Hindoos
The Perfians
1 he Jews, according to Jofephus,
Having made thefe few remarks, to ffiew that the
facts recorded in Genefis are not inconfiftent with truth,
■we ffiall now, by a few obfervations, eitablifii the evi¬
dence, from teftimony, that Mofes was the author, and
anfwer the objections that feem ftrongeft.
There arifes a great probability, from the book of
Genefis itfelf, that the author lived near the time of Jo-
feph j for as we advance towards the end of that book,
the faeffs gradually become more minute. The materials
of the antediluvian hitiory are very fcanty. The ac¬
count of Abraham is more complete •, but the hiftory
of Jacob and his family is {till more fully detailed. This
is indeed the cafe with every hiftory. In the early part,
the relation is very fliort and general; but when the hi-
ftorian approaches his own time, his materials accumu¬
late. It is certain, too, that the book of Genefis muff
have been written before the reft of the Pentateuch ;
for the allufions in the laft four books to the hiftory of
Abraham, of Ifaac, and Jacob, are very frequent. The
fimplicity of the ftyle (hows it to be one of the moft
ancient of the facred books ; and perhaps its fimilarity
to the ftyle of Mofes would determine a critic to aferibe
it to him. It will be allowed that no man was better
qualified than Mofes to compofe the hiftory of his an-
ceftors. He was learned in all the wifdom of the Egyp¬
tians, the moft enlightened nation of his time, and he
had the beft opportunities of obtaining accurate infor¬
mation. I he ffiort account of the antediluvian world
could eafily be remembered by Abraham, who might
obtain it from Shem, who was his contemporary. To
Shem it might be conveyed by Methutelah, who was
340 years old when Adam died. From Abraham to
Mofes, the interval was lefs than 400 years. The fplen-
did promifes made to that patriarch would cenainly be
carefully communicated to each generation, with the
concomitant fafts : and thus the hiftory might be con¬
veyed to Mofes by the moft diftinguiffied perfons. The
accounts refpefting Jacob and his fon Jofeph might be
given to Mofes by his grandfather Kohath, who muft
have been born long before the defeent into Egypt; and
Kohath might have heard all the faffs refpeSing Abra¬
ham and Ifaac from Jacob himfelf. Thus we can eafily
point out how Mofes might derive the materials of the
book of Genefis, and efpecially of the latt 38 chapters,
from the moft authentic fource.
It will now be neceffary to confider very fliortly the objeftions
objeffions which have been fuppofed to prove that Gene-to the au-
fis could not have been written by Mofes. 1. It is ob-^^nticity
jtffed, that the author of the firft chapters of Genefist'ie .
muft have lived in Mefopotamia, as he difeovers abated
knowledge of the rivers that watered Paradife, of the
cities Babylon, Erech, Refen, and Calneh of the gold
of Pifon j of the bdellium and onyx ftone. But if he
could not derive this knowledge from the wifdom of the
Egyptians, which is far from being improbable, he
might furely obtain it by tradition from Abraham, who
was born and brought up beyond the Euphrates. 2. In
Genefis
5544 years-
55°2
55oi
5555
5