r-. ''^_ CLASS-BOOK OF BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY: ^VITH NUMEROUS MAPS BY PROF. H. S. OSBORN, LL. D. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. COPYRIGHT, 1890. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. I PREFACE. This work is a Class-Book of the Old and the New Testaments treated as consecutive history. It includes the Jewish history of the centuries between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New. It presents those important elements of Biblical history which distinguish it from all other histories and which illustrate the plan and the purpose of the Bible as one Book. Whatever modern scholar- ship has accomplished to aid in the understanding of the original languages of Scripture in important points has been made use of, and whatever monu- mental or topographic discoveries would contribute to a better understanding of the geography or archaeology of the text-statements have been intro- duced where the history required it. The history of the centuries between the close of the Old Testament canon and the beginning of the Christian era includes that of its Jewish literature. This history greatly helps us to appreciate that 4 PREFACE. singular tenacity with which the earliest Christian church held to the Mosaic ritual. In the treatment of this history we have allowed no space for mere opinions or speculations. The work is purely historical, and its text is illustrated only by that which is pertinent and well authenti- cated, in either geographic or archaeological dis- covery. The entire subject matter is divided into Periods and chapters and subdivided into sections and para- graphs, the latter presented in such a form as gen- erally to suggest to the teacher the question and to the reader the topic of the paragraph. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PERIOD I. THE ANTE-DILUVIAN ERA. CHAPTER I. Creation, Eden: Chronology and its Sources g CHAPTER n. The Significance of Names 17 CHAPTER in. The Descendants of Adam 19 CHAPTER IV. The Lineage of the Patriarchs 22 CHAPTER V. The Flood - - - 25 PERIOD II. THE PATRIARCHAL ERA AFTER THE FLOOD TO THE DEATH OF JACOB. CHAPTER I. The Two Ararats. The Sons of Japheth 27 CHAPTER II. The Sons of Ham. Their More Recent Names ;i^ CHAPTER III. The Descendants of Shem. Job 42 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The Confusion of Tongues 46 CHAPTER V. The History of Abram and his Times 50 CHAPTER VI. The Patriarchs Isaac and Jacob 63 CHAPTER VII. Egyptian Testimonies 76 PERIOD LII. THE THEOCRACY TO THE JUDGES. CHAPTER I. The Israelites in Egypt 80 CHAPTER II. The Physical Geography of Sinai and the Desert 86 CHAPTER III. The Entrance into Canaan gi CHAPTER IV. The Battles of the Conquest 102 CHAPTER V. The Introduction of Idolatry 112 PERIOD IV. THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES. CHAPTER I. The Nature of the Office. The Chronology 115 CHAPTER II. The Scribes of the Age 121 CONTENTS. 7 PERIOD V. THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS TO THE CAPTIVITY. CHAPTER I. Origin of the Monarchy. Reign of Saul 124 CHAPTER n. The Reigns of David and of Solomon — . 135 CHAPTER III. The Division of the Kingdom 140 CHAPTER IV. Analysis of the Reigns of Judah and Israel 148 CHAPTER V. The Institution of the Prophetical Office 154 PERIOD VI. THE CAPTIVITY OF JUDAH TO THE CLOSE OF THE CANONICAL PERIOD. CHAPTER I. The Various Captivities 158 CHAPTER II. The Comparative Religious Spirit 164 CHAPTER III. The Captivity Ended - — 172 CHAPTER IV. The Canonical Books. Samaritan Pentateuch 184 CHAPTER V. What Was Scripture? The Septuagiiit 194 CHAPTER VI. The Origin of the Talmud .— 207 CHAPTER VII. Concluding Remarks 215 8 CONTENTS. PERIOD VIL THE NEW TESTAMENT ERA. CHAPTER I. From the Birth of Christ to his PubUc Ministry 220 CHAPTER n. The Public Ministry of our Saviour 233 CHAPTER III. From the First Passover to the Second 237 CHAPTER IV. From the Second Passover to the Third 244 CHAPTER V. The Third Passover 253 CHAPTER VI. The Beginning of the Christian Church 268 CHAPTER VII. The Gospel for Gentiles as well as Jews. Paul's First Mission 280 CHAPTER VIII. The Second and Third Missionary Tours of Paul 293 CHAPTER IX. Paul at Rome. The Seven Churches. Colosse and Hierapolis 305 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. PERIOD I. CHAPTER I. CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. 1. The first book of the Bible, which is Gene- sis, begins with a history of the Creation. The words " In the beginning," with which it opens, give lis no chronological data by which we are able to form any estimate of the time. Seven divisions, called " days," have special appointments assigned to each in that which is usually called "the work of creation," including the appointment of a day of rest. Before the beginning of the days there exist- ed a state of chaos, the earth being " without form and void " and darkness being upon the face of the waters. The first act was the calling into being Light. lO BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. The appointment of Day and Night closed the work of the first day. The separation of the waters beneath " the firma- ment," or expanse, from those above " the firma- ment " constituted the work of the second day. The formation of dry land, called earth, and the appearance of vegetable growth, called grass, herbs, and trees, occurred on the third day. On the fourth day lights appeared in " the firma- ment," or expanse, and on the fifth day the first ani- mal life moved in the waters and birds in the air, the latter called "winged fowl." On the sixth day the earth brought forth living creatures, "cattle, creeping things, and beasts ;" and finally man was created, made after God's image, with dominion over all that had been here created. The seventh day was set apart as a day of rest, a day of which it is said, "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." Gen. 2 : 3. 2. After the creation of man he was placed in a garden which the Lord God planted " eastward in Eden." The locality of Eden is unsettled, but the opinion of many scholars is that it is not far ojff from the head of the Persian Gulf. The garden is described as " eastward in Eden," and it is supposed to have been in the eastern part of a district called Eden. Prof. Sayce derives Eden from an ancient word meaning " the desert." If this be correct, the garden of Eden was more remarkable for its contrast with the great Syrian desert in its immediate vicin- CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AKD ITS SOURCES. II ity. The rivers mentioned by name are Pison, Gi- hon, Hiddekel, and Euphrates, The Euphrates at the present day joins the ancient Hiddekel, which is now called the Tigris, at a point one hundred miles northwest from the Persian Gulf, and the stream formed by the union of the two rivers is called the Sliat el-Arab. The Pison and Gihon have not been satisfactorily identified. It should be remembered that the geographical condition of this region is very unlike that which existed at the time we are considering. Dr. De- litzsch calculates that a delta of between forty and fifty miles in length has been formed since the sixth century B. C. Prof. Sayce says that in the time of Alexander, B. C. 323, the Tigris and Euphrates flowed, by different mouths, into the sea (gulf), as did also the Eulasus, or modern Karuii, in the Assy- rian epoch. ■^^ The increment of land about the delta has been found to be a mile in thirty years, which is about double the increase of any other delta, owing to the nature of the soil over which the rivers pass.f Under these changes it is probable that any but very large streams might disappear. 3, The Euphrates passes along a course of more than 1,780 miles from the head-waters of the Moiirad C]iai% and for about 700 miles it passes through a nearly level country on the east of the * "Ancient Empires of the East," p. 95. Pliny, N. H., VI. 130. t " Lippiiicott's Gazetteer," 1881. ."j: Pronounced Moo-rad'-clii {chi as in China). 12 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. great Syrian desert. It varies in depth from eight to twenty feet to its junction with the Tigris ; after its union with the Tigris its depth increases. It is nav- igable for about 700 miles or more from the Persian Gulf. The Tigris is shorter, being about 1,150 miles in length, and navigable for rafts for 300 miles. Some of the extreme head-sources of this river approach those of the Euphrates within the distance of two or three miles. The name Hiddekel is the same word as Hidiglat, which is its name in the Assyrian inscriptions, as Purat is the ancient Assyrian for Perath in Hebrew.* The land of Havilah, which was encompassed entirely by the river Pison, is unknown, but the " Ethiopia " encompassed by the river Gihon is in the Hebrew called Cush, and recent discoveries have proved that in very early times Cushite people in- habited a part of the region near the head of the Persian Gulf. There is little doubt that the land so called was a part of the plain of Babylonia where the cities of Nimrod were planted, Gen. 10: 10, Nimrod being a son of Cush. These discoveries show that, in after ages, the Cushites left Babylonia and emigrated southward along the Persian Gulf into Arabia, of which they occupied a very large part, and from its southern part crossed over to Africa to the country which in * Geikie, Vol. I., p. 108. - CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. I 3 after times was called by the Greek geographers Ethiopia. Dr. F. Delitzsch supposes that Havilah was the district lying west of the Euphrates and reaching to the Persian Gulf, and that the Gush of the text was the land adjoining on the east, having the present S/iat cl-Nil for its border line. The long stream west of the Euphrates, which was known to the Greeks as Pallacopas, Dr. Delitzsch considers as the Pison, and the Sliat cl-Nil as the Gihon (see the map). The Garden of Eden he places at that part where the Euphrates and Tigris approach each other very nearly, being at that place only twenty-five miles apart.* 4. In the Garden of Eden the Lord God put the first pair. Of the man it is said that he was placed in the garden "to dress it and to keep it;" and of the woman, that she should be " a help meet for him." How long this state of things continued is not related, but, through the serpent, temptation entered into the mind of Eve, and she gave of the forbidden fruit unto her husband and they did eat, "and their eyes were opened," apparently to the sense of guilt in violating the command which for- bade them to " eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." The curse then followed, and they were driven out from the garden, to which they were never to return. 5, After the expulsion Cain and Abel were * " Wo lag das Paradies ?" Dr. Delitzsch. 14 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. born, and the first murder took place in the killing of Abel by Cain, the latter being punished by being driven out " from the presence of the Lord." Cain went eastward and dwelt in the land of Nod, and his first-born son, Enoch, built the first city, which was named after him, Enoch. Neither the land of Nod nor the city Enoch has been certainly located. 6. We now have an account of the descendants of Adam, with the statement of their several ages. Upon this statement of ages a chronology has been based, usually called the Biblical Chronology. It is derived from that account which is recorded in the Hebrew, the language in which the history was orig- inally written. But there is another account which was given in the earliest extant translation of the Hebrew history, and this is called the Septuagint Greek, made about 286 B. C; and the chronology of this old translation differs materially from^ the He- brew original. There is yet another authority, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the manuscript of which is kept at Shechem, in Palestine, and is the oldest known inanuscript of the Bible in the world, hav- ing been written before the Captivity and in the old Hebrew letters.* These are the only three records of any import- ance, and the variations in these records are seen in the following table :f * Of this manuscript we shall give a description hereafter, as also of the Septuagint. t Schumann's " Commentary on Genesis." CREATION: CHRONOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES. 15 Adam Seth Enos Cainan Mahalaleel Jared Enoch Methuselah Another translation of tuagint Lamech Noali Sep- Lived before birtli of sons. HEB. 130 105 90 70 65 162 65 1S7 182 500 53 SEP. 230 205 190 170 165 162 165 187 167 165 After birth of sons. 800 807 815 840 830 800 300 7S2 595 785 300 653 600 SEP. 700 707 715 740 730 800 200 782 802 565 Total. HEB. 930 912 905 910 895 962 365 969 ni 847 720 653 962 969 753 It will be seen by the above table that the He- brew text affords data which give us 1,656 years from the creation of Adam to the Flood, for we must add 100 to Noah's age of 500, since the Flood began when Noah was 600 years old (Gen. 7 : 6). The Sa- maritan text takes away 100 years from the life of Jared, 120 from that of Methuselah, and 129 from that of Lamech, as compared with the Hebrew text, making the Flood occur 1,307 after Adam's creation, while the Septuagint adds 100 to the lives of each of the first five and to that of Enoch, and six to that of Lamech, making the Flood begin 2,262 years after the creation of Adam, according to one reading of the Septuagint, or 2,242 according to another. So that the aggregates of time from the Creation to the Flood, as deduced from the Hebrew, the Sa- maritan, and the Septuagint, severally are 1,656, 1,307, and 2,262. The Samaritan is the oldest man- uscript, but it cannot be made certain that the dates as given in that manuscript have suffered no alter- l6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. ation ; and hence the Hebrew account has been followed in our entire English version, the chronol- ogy of which was arranged by Archbishop Ussher (usually written Usher), A. D. 1580,* but it ''is of no inspired authority and of great uncertainty." 7. The subject of Biblical Chronology, as de- rived from data recorded in the Scripture, is neces- sarily unsettled; and this is so partly becausef the sacred writers speak of descendants of a given pro-, genitor as his sons, in accordance with Eastern cus- tom, and partly perhaps from the use of letters, for figures, in the early manuscripts,;!: which have suffered changes in subsequent transcriptions. But although these variations occur, discoveries connect- ed with the remains of other nations than the Jew- ish, and connected with other histories than the Jew- ish, are beginning to throw light upon the Scripture history and chronology. These collateral histories allude to persons and events of Jewish history and afford such data that in many instances we can determine from them the actual year of Scripture events. This aid is particu^ larly important as derived from both Assyrian and Egyptian discoveries, and this we shall have reason hereafter to show. * Schaff's " Bible Dictionary," p. 184. t Translation of Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol. IV., p. 315. t Eichhorn's " Einleitung," Vol. I., p. 90. Geikie, Vol. I., p. 83. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. I7 CHAPTER II. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NAMES. 1, 111 the earliest periods of human history names, either for persons, places, or things, had meanings which were in some sense applicable to the person, .place, or thing named. This was spe- cially true in Hebrew history, and of this we have already had illustrations ; for when Eve was brought to Adam "he called her name woman, because she was taken out of man," but afterwards, because Eve in the Hebrew meant life, he " called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." Adam's name denoted his relation to the ground (Hebrew, AdamaJi), from the dust of which he was taken ; and as Eve's body was derived from that of Adam, the name of the two was Adam (Gen. 5 : 2), which was the name given by God " in the day when they were created," and this name was exclusively the description of the first man and the first woman. In Gen. 2:23 we have the generic name given to the race in the Hebrew terms " hit'' and "■ IshaJi'" for "man" and "woman," given by Adam to himself and to the woman : " This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman (Ishah), because she was taken out of man (Ish)." 3. The root, or primitive meaning, of Ish is un- Ijiblical [liatory and Geography. 2 1 8 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. certain, but from its subsequent use we may infer that it denoted a characteristic of humanity higher than that expressed by the word Adam, and may have occurred to the father of men while naming tlie animals as an appellative distinguishing his own from the inferior order of the animate creation.* It is remarkable that the ancient Assyrian name for the first man is Admu or Adamu, the Assyrian form of the Hebrew Adam.f 3. Ill the Hebrew history, therefore, names are not to be regarded as mere sounds or combina- tions of sounds, attached at random to certain objects or persons, so as to become the audible signs by which we distinguish them from each other, but very frequently proper names had a deeper meaning and were more closely connected in men's thoughts with character and condition than among any other ancient nation with the history and literature of which we are acquainted.;}: Thus it is that, as Arch- bishop Trench says, words are often the repositories of historical information. § * W. F. Wilkinson, " Personal Names in the Bible," p. lo. t Delitzsch, " Clialdaean Genealogy," p. 304. X Wilkinson, p. 15. § Trench, " Study of Words." THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. 1 9 CHAPTER III. THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. 1. As the history proceeds it becomes very- plain that the descendants of Adam are selected with a purpose, which a general acquaintance with Scripture reveals. That purpose w^as to record the ancestry of Abraham and so of the children of Israel. Other descendants are occasionally mentioned when any interesting or important event suggests itself to the historian, but the main purpose is never lost sight of. Thus the descendants of Cain are briefly enumer- ated through his first-born, Enoch, "the teacher," as his name signifies. He was the first builder of a city, and may, as Geikie suggests, have been the first to teach men "the culture of city life," or "the ele- ments of physical life." 2. His descendaiits were Irad, "the swift one," perhaps because of his hunter's life ; Mehujael, " the stricken of God," for some unrecorded transgression ; Methusael, probably bearing the name God in the syllable "el," and meaning " champion of God," sug- gesting some religious act; as if, even among the race of Cain, God " had not left himself without a witness."* 3. But we find Lamech, "a wild man," who first *" Geikie. 20 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. introduces polygamy, for ever hereafter to be associated in origin with the race of Cain, One of his two wives was named Adah, a Hebrew term for " ornament," and is found in the compounds Adaiah, " whom Jehovah adorns," and Maadiah, " ornament from Jehovah." There must have been a personal attraction w^hich made the name appropriate. 4. In the other wife's name, Zillah, it has been supposed that the termination "ah" has reference to the name of Jehovah ; it is more probable, how- ever, that the meaning is confined to the root of this word, which signifies "a shade." To her son, Tubal-Cain, we are indebted for the first work in copper and iron, as the sentence "instructor of every artificer in brass and iron " means. Perhaps we may say "bronze" for "brass," since brass is a compound of zinc and copper, and bronze is a compound of tin and copper, and the latter has been discovered in the most ancient ruins, which has not been true as to brass. Brass, however, is used in Scripture in some instances as the nam.e for copper.* Chisels have been taken from ruins in Egypt containing copper 94 per cent., tin 5.9, and iron o.i ; and a bowl from Nimrud, about twenty miles south of Nineveh, was composed of copper 89.57 per cent., and of tin * Copper is as abundant now as then. There is quite a trade in copper between Bagdad and Bassora near the head of the Persian Gulf. All household utensils are made of copper. When Xenophon arrived with his Ten Thousand, B. C. 400, in this region (in his time it was called the land of the Carduchi) he was astonished at the quantity of metallic utensils. Lenormant, "Ancient History of the East," Vol. II., p. 203. THE DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. 21 10.43. I^ the sepulchral furniture with which the oldest of the Chaldaean tombs were filled we already find more bronze than copper.* The excavations at Warka, the ancient Erech of Gen. lo: lo, ninety -five miles southeast of Babylon, seem to prove that the ancient Chaldseans made use of iron before the Egyptians.! 5. The name given to Jabal, the son of Adah, suggests that he led a pastoral life with his cattle. His name means "wanderer," and hence he was very appropriately "the father of such as dwell in tents." " His brother's name was Jubal ; he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ ;" the latter name suggesting some wind instrument or pipe. His name significantly means "the player." 6. To this list of " first things " may be added the first instance of poetical utterance, for the ad- dress of Lamech to his wives is in the form of the earliest Hebrew poetry. Gen. 4 : 23. Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, Wives of Lamech, hear my speech. I have slain a man for wounding me, A young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, Surely Lamech seventy-and-seven. With this ends the history of the descendants of Cain. The history of those descendants of Adam through whom the children of Israel traced their lineage is begun in the fifth chapter of Genesis. * Rawlinson, " The Five Great Monarchies," Vol. I., p. 98. t Pcrrot & Cliipiez, " Art in Chaldsea." 22 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. CHAPTER IV. THE LINEAGE OF THE PATRIARCHS. 1. Ten generations are given, from Adam to the Flood, and the remarkably long lives of the Pa- triarchs have suggested to many the probability of error or misunderstanding. Some have supposed that each name represents a tribe, the lives of whose leading members have been added together. Others have understood the years to mean only months, and others that numbers and dates are liable in the course of years to become obscured and exagger- ated.* 2. But as to all these opinions it must be remembered, First, that the era from the creation of Adam to the Flood, 1,656 years, is to be divided by the number ten, the number of the Patriarchs, which would require an individual length of life much longer than that enjoyed at the present day; and. Secondly, no scientific reasons can be offered why human life should be limited in duration to its pres- ent length. It varies now according to the contin- gencies of accident and disease, and old age itself may be only a modified form of disease and not essential to a human organism. A clock made to run twenty-four hours is expected to run down in ■•" See " Speaker's Commentary," Vol. I., p. 62. Geikie, Vol. I., p. 1S4. THE LINEAGE OF THE PATRIARCHS. 23 about that time, but the clock-maker may, by adding one wheel, or to the length of the weight-cord, or by some other very simple rearrangement, make the very same clock run a week or a month. It is only a question of life, about which, as to its nature, we know little or nothing. Thirdly, as to the historic probability, it is a fact that traditions other than those of the Hebrew nation represent that in the earliest ages there was an enjoyment of exceedingly long lives. The chronology of Berosus, a Chaldsean priest and historian, B. C. 279 to 255, gives to the ten Babylonian kings who in the earliest traditions of that people reigned before the Babylonian deluge 2,221 years, or only 21 years less than the period given in the Septuagint as having elapsed between the Creation and the Deluge.* The earliest Aryan tradition states that the first man lived 1,000 years in Paradise. Other nations have kept the same tradition of long lives in the earliest times, which nations could not have received the tradition from the Scriptures. 3. But there is a probability arising from the fitness of long' lives, and that is seen in the neces- sity of a history which could thus be obtained by tra- dition when no written language existed. It will be seen that from Adam to the Flood tradition was delivered through only one person, so that Lamech could repeat to Noah what Adam had narrated to him of all the dealings of God in Eden and after the * See Vigouroux and Leiiormant, as quoted by Geikie, Vol. I., p. 86. 24 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. expulsion. Although Lamech lived during- the life- times of all the Patriarchs down to the Flood, which took place 1,656 years after the creation of Adam, he himself was only 'jj'] years old at death. Thus we see that tradition was more trustworthy then than at any time since. 4-. Moreover, Shem lived nearly a century before the death of Lamech, who could have narrated the story of Eden and the trials and experiences of his after-life, as well as the history of the Patriarchal times, to Shem, who was alive in the times of Abra- ham and his son Isaac. By that time writing was invented, and doubtless much of the history of the times before and after the Flood had been commit- ted to writing, which was invented several centuries before the death of Shem, as we learn from the an- cient Chaldaean records, 5. After the Flood long lives continued, but in much shorter terms, Arphaxad, Salah, and Eber each lived about four centuries, and each of the next three patriarchs lived over 200 years, and it was not till after the time of Judah, seven centuries after the Flood, that the length of a human life was reduced to about a century. THE FLOOD. 2$ CHAPTER V. THE FLOOD. 1. The Scripture statement of the occasion of the Flood is very brief. It is made plain, however, that the wickedness of men was so great that " t/ie earth was filled with violence and corrupt before God." 2. Noah was commanded to prepare an ark for his own safety and that of his family ; and he was also directed to provide for the preservation of a large number of " fowls, cattle, and creeping things." 3. Between the time of the announcement of the divine intention to destroy " man whom he had crea- ted " and the occurrence of the Flood God gave a warning era of 120 years, at the close of which the Flood began. " The waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days." After this time they were abated, and gradually retired till the earth was dry, and Noah and his family left the ark in which he had remained twelve months and ten days, or from the six hundred and first year, second month, and seventeenth day to the six hundred and second year, second month, and twenty-seventh day of Noah's life. 4. All interesting fact may here be stated. A few years ago there were discovered by excavations at the ancient site of Nineveh, on the Tigris, the palace of Assur-bani-pal, in which had been stored some 10,000 tablets of a library gathered by this king 26 BIDLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. B. C. 968. These tablets were shipped to the British Museum, of which George Smith, the Assyriologist, was librarian, and a large number of them transla- ted. Among these tablets was found a record of the Deluge, which was read by Mr. Smith in December, 1872, before the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London. 5. The record states that the tradition recorded is copied from a more ancient account which was in existence in the times of a king of the city of Accad (Gen. 10) many years after the time of Nimrod, who founded it. The remains of this city have been recently discovered forty-three miles north-northwest from Babylon. The name of the king of Accad was Sargon I., whose date appears from the monuments to have been about 3800 B. C. This Chaldsean history of the Deluge is so similar to that of the Scriptures as to leave no doubt that both record the same fact. 6. The simple narration as it occurs in Gen- esis is so free from the irrelevant and unnecessary additions, of the Chaldasan account as to show that the Biblical account is a record of true history. As the Chaldsean account is dated long before Abram left Chaldsea, and hence long before the birth of Moses, it could never have been derived from Scrip- ture, and proves that a tradition of such an event as that of the Flood must have existed very early in the history of the race. THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 2/ PERIOD 11. THE PATRIARCHAL ERA AFTER THE FLOOD TO THE DEATH OF JACOB. CHAPTER I. THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 1. Although the tradition of tlie Flood seems to have readied to almost every nation, it has been referred locally to some part of Western Asia, and particularly to that part known as Armenia. The Scriptures tell us that the ark rested upon "the inoviiitains of Ararat," Gen. 8 : 4, not upon any particular mountain called Ararat, as it has been assumed. 2, The word Ararat is found in the Assyrian in- scriptions for Armenia.* A mountain 500 miles north of Babylon is called Mt. Ararat by travellers, and seems first to have been announced as the " Mt. Ararat" in A. D. 1250, as Bochart says. Tlie other claimant is 50 miles north of Nine- veh and is called ML Kudiir, the meaning being "the great ship."f This view is supported by older * So Schrader in Geikie, Vol. I., p. 208. I Osborn's " Manual of Biblical Geography." 28 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. historians, such as Berosus and others. The Mt. Ararat of present travellers is a solitary double peak, called Mt. Massis by the Armenians, which rises 17,500 feet above the sea. THE DISTRIBUTION OF RACES. 3. The tenth chapter of Genesis is considered one of the most remarkable chapters because of the aid it affords in tracing the early emigrations and dis- tributions of the race. In this chapter the descend- ants of the three sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, are given. The descendants of Shem are known among scholars as Shemites or Semites, as those of Ham are known as Hamites. Although Shem is named first in order, Japheth is called the elder (ver. 2 1 ), and the genealogy begins with him. THE SONS OF JAPHETH : THEIR MORE RECENT NAMES. 4. {a) Gomer. These were the Cimmerians of antiquity, the Cimbri of Roman times, and the Cym- ry or Celts still existing. Their ancient country was north of the Black Sea, including the Crimea and the shores of the Sea of Azov. The name Crimea is a corruption of the ancient name. It is to this north land Ezekiel refers in chap. 38 : 2, 6. A part of them went southward to Asia Minor when driven out by the Scythians, and some emigrated to the west of Europe and to Britain, The Welsh call themselves Cymry. " The SONS OF THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 29 Gomer" were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togar- MAH." 5. Ashkenaz. The name means "the horse MILKERS," and suggests some race of a wandering tribe of the same general country of the Cimmerians or of that land northeast of them. The names Asca- nius, a river and lake in Asia Minor, and Scandia and Scandinavia, suggest that they may have entered Phrygia, as Bochart supposes, but the associations are uncertain. They seem in later times to have in some degree returned to a region near Armenia, since Jeremiah associates them with Ararat, Jer. 51:27. 6. Riphath seems to be suggested by the name of the Rhiphaean Mountains in the distant regions of the north of Scythia. More probably we may find some intimation of their presence near Armenia in the name Riphates, which is that of a mountain range in that vicinity. 7. Togarmah is supposed to be represented by the tribes of the Caucasus, Georgians and Ar- menians, who call themselves " the House of Tor- gona," the latter word being the same as Togar- mah. 8. {b) Magog, the name of the second son of Japheth, was also the name of a country. Slavonic tribes in the north and northeast of Europe are sup- posed to be comprehended under this term as de- scendants from the grandson of Japheth, and the original country of Magog was the Caucasian Moun- 30 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. tains and the country around the northern part of the Caspian Sea. 9. In the time of the prophet Ezekiel they had become a powerful people and had overrun the north of Europe. The Russians are, and the Scyth- ians were, the descendants of Magog, and Gog is the "prince of Rosh," of Meshech, and of Tubal. They are described by Ezekiel, chaps. 38: 15 and 39:3, as a wild race of mounted men armed with the bow. This seems also to describe the Scythians who inva- ded Palestine B. C. 625, and left the evidence of their presence in the city called Scythopolis, formerly Beth- shean, now Bcisan, on the Jordan.* 10. (c) Madai is the name by which the Medes are known on the Assyrian monuments. Their coun- try was south of the Caspian Sea. 11. {d) Javaii was the progenitor of the Greeks, and the name occurs on the Assyrian monuments as Javanu ; a term also used by Darius, the Mede.f 12. The sons of Javan were: (i.) Elishah, who settled in the northwest of Asia Minor from the Pro- pontis eastward throughout Mysia and Lydia and the adjacent islands. (2.) Tarshish, supposed to be the ancestor of the Etruscans who inhabited the north- ern part of Italy ; but the name as it occurs in Isa. 23 :6-io; Ezek. 27 : 12 and 38 : 13, seems to refer to a city on the southern coast of Spain whither Jonah attempted to escape. Jonah i : 3. (3.) Kittim. This * Full references in Bochart's " Geography," pp. 192, 193. t Schrader in Geikie, Vol. I., p. 234. THE TWO ARARATS. THE SONS OF JAPHETH. 3 1 name is afterwards spelled Chittim, but it is the same word in the Hebrew text. It has the plural ending {im), and therefore refers to a people of that name. In Isa. 23 : i, 12, Chittim refers to the island of Cyprus ; but when " the isles of Chittim " are men- tioned, as in Jer. 2:10 and in Ezek. 27 : 6, the phrase includes the island of Crete and the islands along the coast of Asia Minor and the ^gean Sea, thus embracing a great sea district, with probably all Greece. In Dan. 1 1 : 30 Chittim includes Macedonia, because of its supposed settlement from the former, as Bochart shows.* (4.) DODANIM is the same as Rodanim, which is also in plural form, and refers to the Greeks of the island of Rhodes, which is particularly one of the islands of Kittim or Chittim. 13. The other sons of Japheth were : {e) Tu- bal and (/) Meshech and {g) Tiras. Of these Tubal and Meshech appear as tribes neighboring with the Scythians and other northern tribes, and perhaps remained about the southeastern parts of the Black Sea. The Tubal of Isa. 66: 19 was, as supposed, in Spain ; but a tribe called Tyrrhenians in later times settled the islands of Lemnos and Imbros.f The name is supposed to be derived from the turreted walls by which the early Tyrrhenians surrounded their fortifications, and not from Tyre, as some have said ; this Bochart shows. Tiras is supposed by some to represent ancient Thrace, but this is doubtful, as * Bochart, " Geog. Sac," p. 157. t Ibid., p. 586. 32 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. the people seem to have been associated with the Achaeans, Lydians, Sicilians, and Sardinians fourteen centuries B. C, in an invasion of Egypt, as Chabas shows.* They seem in remote antiquity to have been seafarers and pirates upon the Italian seas and Greek Archipelago.f * " Etudes de 1' antiquite historique." Paris, 1873. t Geikie, p. 234, Vol. I. THE SONS OF HAM. 33 CHAPTER II. THE SONS OF HAM. THEIR MORE RECENT NAMES. 1. {a) Cvish was the first mentioned son. Dr. Franz Delitzsch has shown that the Assyrian monu- ments now prove that Cushites settled in the early ages of the world near the northwest of the Persian Gulf. They afterwards migrated southward along the western shore of the Persian Gulf and onward to the south and southwest of Arabia. Some of these crossed the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb to Africa, and there established themselves in that part now known as Abyssinia, and called first by the Greek geogra- phers Ethiopia. 2. The Hebrew name Cush is translated Ethi- opia twenty of the twenty-one times it occurs in the Scripture. There can be no reasonable doubt that in the first mention of the word Ethiopia in Gen. 2:13 the region northwest of the Persian Gulf is meant. In after ages the Cushites had established themselves in Arabia, and the inhabitants in that region were called Cushites, or as it is in our English translation, " Ethiopians," as in the case of Moses* wife, who is called an " Ethiopian woman," Num. 12:1, but it is " Cushite " in the Hebrew. The varying meanings of the name Cushite afford an indication that all these passages of Scripture Biblical History and Geography. 2* 34 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. could not have been written in the same period of time. 3. The earliest iiioiiumeiits in Egypt make a strong distinction between the Ethiopians south of Egypt and the negro races, for although the Ethiopians were of a dark or dusky skin, they had straight hair, thin noses, and the form of the head of different shape. It is not apparent that any ref- erence in Scripture is made to the negro race as such; the passage in Jer. 13:23, "■Can the Ethiopian change his skin f may apply to the dark Ethiopian and not to the negro, whose native land was west of Ethiopia.* 4. Five races spring from Cush : Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha. These have gen- erally been referred to large tribes settling in Arabia. From Raamah we have the nations Sheba and De- dan. These have been located in Arabia, and it was the queen of the former who visited Solomon, i Kin. 10: I and 2 Chron. 9:1. Dedan was a district north of Sheba, and its inhabitants seem by caravans to have traded and settled northward until the time of Abraham, Gen. 25:3, when their descendants were numerous enough to be known by the old name of their ancestors. 5. Cush begat Nimrod, whose exceptional prow- ess and enterprise gave him precedence over all his brethren. He was a mighty hunter upon the plains of Babylon, and from the monuments of Assyria it * Lenormant, Vol. II., "Ancient History of the East," p. 236. THE SONS OF HAM. 35 seems that the lion was the chief object of his hunt- ing expeditions. He was the founder of some of the earliest cities. The first mentioned is Babel, after- wards called Babylon by the Greeks, which was built upon the Euphrates. 6. At that early time this city was about one hundred and seventy-five miles northwest from the head of the Persian Gulf, but it is now three hun- dred miles, the land having been extended south- eastward by the annual deposits brought down by the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Erech, the second city of Nimrod, was seventy-five miles northwest (now 200) of the same gulf ; Accad, recently dis- covered by Rassam, was forty-five miles almost due north from Babylon ; and Calneh about fifty miles southeast of Babylon ; it is now called Niffcr. 7. The land of Shinar was the district corres- ponding with that now known as the land of CJialdcEa. " Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh " is the statement made, and the monu- ments recently discovered have remarkably corrobo- rated this text, for the history shows the importance of Asshur, and that Nineveh, which was the capital of the Assyrian kingdom, was a more recent city than Babylon.* Its ruins are two hundred and sev- * Some have recently offered a new reading of this text, as follows: " From that land he [NimrodJ went into Assyria;" but, beside what has been above said, Rosenmiiller observes that if this had been the mean- ing the Hebrew would have been different. We may add that the Sep- tuagint translators understood it as it is in our English version, that it was not Nimrod, but Asshur, who built Nineveh. 2)6 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. enty-five miles north by west from Babylon and upon the Tigris River. 8. But it will be seen that Asshur was a son of Shem, while Nimrod was a son of Ham, and recent discovery has sustained the distinction, showing that another people preceded the Assyrians and Baby- lonians which were not descendants of Shem. In connection with Nineveh are mentioned " the city Rehoboth "* and Calah : the former is not known, and the latter is supposed to be at the ruins nearly twenty miles south of Nineveh, now called Niinrnd, and a few miles north of the latter is supposed to be the site of Rcsen. Further excavations are needed to attest the accu- racy of these identifications. 9. {U) Mizraiiii is mentioned as the second son of Cush, and is supposed to have colonized Egypt. The word is in the dual form and indicates the dou- ble land of Egypt, which from the earliest times was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt. (i.) Mizraim's descendants are Ludim, proba- bly simply a name for the Egyptians themselves; they held themselves " the best of all men,"f and they were the same as Libyans or Lubim, 2 Chron. 12:3; 16:8; Nah. 3 : 9. The Libyans of the most * It has been supposed by some that the word " Rehoboth " does not refer to a city, but to the " zuide street " of Nineveh. The term is used in that sense in an inscription of Esar-haddon, in which he says that he paraded the heads of two kings of Sidon through (Rehoboth) "the streets" of Nineveh. W. A. I., Vol. I., p. 45 ; in " History of Esar-had- don," Budge, 1881, p. 41. t Herodotus, Vol. II., p. 121. THE SONS OP^ HAM. 3/ ancient era inhabited the west of the Nile and parts near the Mediterranean Sea. They appear of bright complexions as represented upon the Egyptian mon- uments. (2.) " Anamim and Lehabim and Naphtuhim and Path RU SIM " appear to be only names of the people of the different settlements along the Nile and not distinct races. (3.-) The Casluhim have been identi- fied with a people settling east of the Delta near the Mediterranean coast towards Palestine, and seemed to have been of Phoenician origin (Ebers). (4.) Caph- TORIM were the earliest settlers on the coast of the Delta or on its Mediterranean shore, even before the Egyptians occupied that part of Egypt (Ebers). The Philistines of Palestine (southwest coast) were de- scendants of both Casluhim and Caphtorim. " Kaft " was the Egyptian name of the latter people, who early settled in the island of Crete, but also, as we have stated, on the seacoast of the Nile, and gradu- ally moved through the lands of the Casluhim to their final resting-place in Palestine.* 10. Thus the passage in Amos 9 : 7 is explained by the discovery that the Philistines came from Caphtor (Crete), but they passed through the land of the Casluhim. This explains Deut. 2 : 33, wherein the inhabitants of Azzah (or Gaza) are called Caphto- rim, but more distinctly in Jer. 47 : 4, " the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor." So that the Philistines, who came originally from Crete (Caph- * Geikie, Vol. I., p. 247. 38 BIBLICAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. tor), settled on the Delta coast, and thence passing through the land of Casluhim, settled in Philistia, as Ebers has shown.* 11, A migration of the earliest Phoenicians to the coasts of the Delta is generally accepted as lead- ing to the invention of tlie alphabet, for these settlers soon learned the new form of hieroglyphics (called the hieratic or priestly form), and afterwards improved these signs, as in the Phoenician alphabet. The most ancient manuscript in hieratic is referred to an age in the third millennium B. C, or perhaps about 2500 B. C. In the trading intercourse between Egypt and Phoenicia this new form was introduced into Phoenicia, where the full alphabetic forms were originated. Wise men of that day must have very generally adopted the improved letters, and in the course of the centuries, but certainly before the time of the Exodus, the alphabet on the Phoenician model was well formed. De Rouge has shown that the Phoenicians adopted these hieratic forms long before the Exodus.f 13. This alphabet must have been known to Moses, and perhaps to all the elders of Israel, and became that Hebrew alphabet which furnished the source of the lettering of the law and its acces- sories. The similarity between the old Hebrew and the * More fully spoken of page 69. t The hieratic is written from right to left, as is the PhcEnician. See Sayce's "Ancient Empires of the East," Scribner, 1886, p^84. THE SONS OF HAM. 39 Phoenician letters has been fully shown in the dis- coveries of tablets near Tyre and in the Moabite stone, so called, which was discovered at some ruins east of the Dead Sea, upon the site of the ancient Dibon. It is probable therefore that the first ele- ments of the alphabetic form of letters were invented about this era of the world's history, when the Phoe- nicians began their trading with the races upon the shores of Egypt, which we have last mentioned. 13. The next son of Ham is (