(Judg. x. 1, 2.) which are inadvertently omitted, between Abimelech and Jair, Ant. 5, 5-6, p. 209. but evidently were included in the original scheme of Josephus, as being requisite to complete the period of 621 years.

To Abdon no years are assigned by Josephus, Ant. 5, 7, 15. p. 215. perhaps designedly, for Clemens Alexandrinus relates, that "some chronologers connected together the years of Abatthan and Ebron, [Abdon and Elon] or made them contemporary." But we may easily reconcile Josephus with SCRIPTURE, by only deducting eight years from the 18 years interregnum after Joshua, which will give Abdon his quota of years, and leave that interregnum its juster length of 10 years.

It is truly remarkable, and a proof of the great skill and accuracy of Josephus, in forming the outline of this period, that he assigns, with St. Paul, a reign of 40 years to Saul, Acts xiii. 21. which is omitted in the OLD TESTAMENT. His outline, also, corresponds with St. Paul's period of 450 years, from the division of the conquered lands of Canaan until Samuel, the prophet, and will be rendered exactly conformable thereto, in detail, hereafter, in Sacred Chronology.

The only alteration made here, is in rejecting Solomon's spurious reign of 80 years, foisted into the present text of Josephus, Ant. 8, 7, 8. in opposition to Scripture, (which Josephus accurately follows in all the other reigns) and inconsistently with his own system. The insertion of the 11 years interregnum between Amaziah and Uzziah is warranted by Scripture, from the cor

respondences in the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel, 2 Kings xiv. 1, 2; and xv. 1; and is also necessary to fill up the outline of his period. It also furnishes an additional instance of his great skill in adjusting this period of his chronology; the greatest proof of which is furnished by another genuine date of 240 years, critically expressing that most perplexed and complicated period of the reigns of the kings of Israel, exclusive of two interregnums of 22 years and 10 years, amounting in the whole to 272 years current, or 271 years complete, as will be proved in the course of the ensuing rectification of Sacred Chronology. His detail of the reigns of the kings of Israel, in the present text, does not in its amount correspond with this curious and admirable date, which is found detached. Ant. 9, 14, 1.

Thus does the critical conformity of these several periods, composing his whole system, with the details of the particulars included therein, furnish demonstrative evidence, as it seems, of the accuracy of this rectification, from the agreement of the whole with the parts throughout, and evince the necessity of these few and slight emendations of his text, without altering a single date in the general outline, and only one (Solomon's spurious excrescence of 40 years) in the detail.

III. It only remains to rectify a slight error in the general outline of his system, which occurs in his second period, from the deluge to Abraham, amounting only to 993 years, which is 9 years deficient from the correcter length of it, 1002 years.

If we look back to his list of Patriarchal genealogies, we shall find that the present text of Josephus assigns 120 years to Nahor's generation; but he probably wrote 129, for 29 was the curtailed Hebrew generation, to which he rightly added a century, according to his system, where the Samaritan and Septuagint only added 50 in theirs. Since then the digit was 9, in all the rest there was a sufficient precedent for its retention by Josephus, whereas there was none for altering it into 0. Jackson also corrects it to 129. And that he originally wrote 129 is proved also from its being necessary to complete the correct period 1002, to which it appears he was no stranger, from his remarkable deviation from Scripture in the interval of 12 years, which he substitutes instead of 2 years, from the deluge to the birth of Arphaxad. For as Josephus adopted the vulgar error, that Abraham was Terah's eldest son, there was a deficiency of 60 years in Terah's generation, (which ought to have been 130

instead of 70 years;) and these 60 years, Josephus most ingeniously supplied, by adding 50 years to the correct length of Nahor's generation, 79 years, and 10 years more to the first interval of 2 years; which Jackson unskilfully supposed to be a mistake of his text, and altered to 2, and thereby made his period only 992 years. Vol. I. Table, p. 66.

This is a curious and remarkable instance, that a Chronologer may be perfectly correct in his outline, and yet incorrect in the detail, or distribution of the parts. Numerous instances might be adduced of this, drawn from the received systems of Chronology.

This rectification of the outline of Josephus raises his date of the Creation 5402 years before the Vulgar Era, to 5411.

This same rectified date, B.C. 5411, is verified also by its conformity with the rectified date furnished by Theophilus, who, according to Abulfaragi, p. 62, reckoned 5197 years from the Creation to the Era of the Seleucida, B.C. 312, which, added thereto, gives the date of the Creation, B.C. 5509. But this number requires a double correction: for, 1. Theophilus reckoned Adam's generation to Seth, 330 years, (p. 92) or a century too long; which being deducted, reduces it to B.C. 5409: And, 2. He omitted the two years from the deluge to the birth of Arphaxad; (p. 92,) which being added, we have the same rectified date, B.C. 5411, as before.

Thus have I endeavoured, and I trust not unsuccessfully, to vindicate the character of this illustrious Historian, profound Antiquary, and consummate Chronologer, Josephus, and to retrieve the integrity of his admirable system, by shewing its consistency throughout, both in the whole, and in the parts; thereby

furnishing a solid foundation for a durable system of Ancient Chronology, sacred and profane, built upon the rectified Era of the Creation, B.C. 5411, now first deduced from the writings of two great luminaries of the Jewish and Christian Churches, JOSEPHUS and THEOPHILUS.

It is rather a curious circumstance, that by a compensation of errors, taking B.C. 5300, the mean, between the extreme opinions of Alphonsus, B.C. 6984, and Rabbi Lipman, B.C. 3616, in the first list of this Introduction, it differs not much from the corrected Era, B.C. 5411, which, though its critical accuracy, from the nature of the subject, and the omission of the odd months, weeks, and days, of the years of the generations and reigns by which it was computed (according to the remark of Theophilus) cannot be strictly demonstrated, yet that it approximates nearer to THE TRUTH than any Epoch of the Creation hitherto proposed, may be asserted with confidence.