-^ ,<:^ .^^ aS^ /•• .- • 1.: "o .0 o. >?:^ ,^^^ %-^ ^•^ 0^ .% <><^^ L^<> -:>. ^ , X ■* ^G^ n*^. c^. J^ f, N .. .0 8 „ '?: .,\' .#■ C- v-5^' c\^^ .^- \ ^. ^^^ . %'"'^' -? ^ .0^ v^' . >< -v ? ! ^ O^ 'u ,#■ ^'^^■ •^0^ f^; -^ >^ ''^v 3 .4 C.C.- ■^, '^ .-■ ^ 0- \^ v^' <0^ 1 " , ^ ,#• '^^ I- ^ V .\^' '^/^. -^^ V^' \ ^ // C -^ -^^ ■V ^^. oo' ^^. ' r '"^ i<^ "*.. .^^ 5^ A .^ -^c^ ,^ v") •' ^ '^ ^ ' >•/ "C . • vV ". -^^ ■^ " * ' ^'i' c ° "^ ' » '> ,0o. ■V' "^A V^^ .^"^-^ ''/• A^'■ A^ osc * "-^^^ '% •^^ .V V ^ •X^ vV' ... .vws£^ kii^oj the Egyptians, as Champollion says, often put only s :f , in lieu of miter <^>P only n P, in lieu of her ^^ only k /I\, in lieu of onch '^^■y only o y, instead of ^j>t^ 2 only^ D, instead t^y hk only \h, and so on. How can any man conceive of such a method of writ- ing designed to be intelligible to all men? In every passage of five hundred hieroglyphics we are requir- ed in four hundred instances to regard one letter as expressing two or three consonants. How would it then have been possible to understand a single line in the sense which the writer intended to convey? — Fifty years ago it was the custom in Germany of add- ing the letters U. A. w. g. (the favor of an answer is requested) at the bottom of invitation-cards which provoked a play-writer (Kotzebue) to write an entire comedy in order to exhibit the multiplicity of senses, in which the initials in question may be taken, by way of ridicule. Every one interpreted these abbre- viations according to his fancy; the gourmands read them : " there will be drinking of choice Hungarian wines ;" the young ladies insisted, that they meant : 52 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. ^'and in the evening there will be dancing." Had Champollion not been stricken with blindness, he would have observed as early as 1824, that those iso- lated hieroglyphics, which are expressive of entire words, were no abbreviations, but were to be pronoun- ced syllabically, and that they served to express the sounds contained in their names, and hence phoneti- cally entire words, the same words which were some- times written alphabetically. From this system of Champollion, that of Messrs. Lepsius, Birch and Bunsen differs in only one parti- cular. It is the opinion of these gentlemen, that those isolated hieroglyphics, which are expressive of entire words, were not always abbreviations of the same groups, but sometimes abbreviations of entirely dif- ferent words. They explained the matter thus : In the earliest times the Egyptian words were all expressed symbolically, according to some undiscovered prin- ciple by means of two or three hieroglyphic signs. Subsequently the second and the third hieroglyphic were omitted, and the first was taken in the sense of the original group. At a still later period this remaining hieroglyphic was, besides, used to express syllabically other and entirely different words. — Surely this is treating the sound common sense of mankind with contempt! Who can for a moment reconcile his mind to a system presenting such a mass of confusion.* There was, at least, something to be said in favor of Cham- pollion's system. For the Egyptians really did express many words invariably by the same hieroglyphics, THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 53 partly because they selected such figures, of which the names themselves contained the vowels of the words to be expressed, and partly for the purpose of esta- blishing a logical connexion between the words to be expressed and the figures employed to express them. Thus, for instance, the word ^{im Q '=^ Egypt, was not denoted by the lion's paw "H^ C ^_^ , which was read home and thus also contains the sound hm^ but by the reed- Itam^ because the latter contained the same vowel, and is, moreover, logically related to Egypt, which abounds in reeds. Thus then Champollion's doctrine, although incorrect, had, at least, something in its favor. For we can conceive of such a thing, as that the Egyptians had abbreviated certain words, because these words invariably began with the same sign, and were gene- rally known. But that doctrine which exhibits a con- fusion worse confounded, and according to which a hieroglyphic denotes all the words that begin with the same hieroglyphic, is so absurd, that it is unne- cessary to waste another word upon it. We must, however, guard against the assumption, that this mixed system leads to the same results, as the syllabic. For, if we look for the names belong- ing to our six hundred and thirty hieroglyphics, we perceive at once what consonants each of them con- tained, and consequently also what words were express- ed by each one of them. But according to the mixed system it would first of all be necessary to ascertain in what manner each word was, in the earliest ages, symbolically expressed by several signs, and what hie- 54 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. roglyphics originally lay back of any particular figure, in order to ascertain its syllabic signification, in places where it expresses an entire word. Tbe Egyp- tians, however, have never and under no circumstan- ces written in such a primitive symbolic manner, so that it is impossible to find the syllabic signification of all the hieroglyphics by such a process. And yet men like Lepsius and Birch have endeavored to de- termine the syllabic signification of the hieroglyphics in conformity with this chimerical principle ; which, however, they never applied to more than seventy ; and even in respect of two-thirds of these they were utterly mistaken, because their inquiries were confin- ed to hieroglyphic groups which were entirely irrele- vant. Such then is the character of the world-renowned system of Champollion. But how, it will be asked, could the whole world regard and recommend this as the veritable key to the literature of the ancient Egyptians? — The question is easily answered. The fa- cility of the French language gave his doctrine ready access everywhere ; and our brain is a tablet of marble. Whatever is first engraven on it, will endure as long as the material itself. Besides, every one knows, that, the world gives credence to novelties the more readily, the more marvellous and chimerical they are. Gothe somewhere remarks: "The world cannot comprehend the True^ because it is too simple." And now we will proceed to ascertain still farther, by practical tests, what Champollion's system amounts THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 55 to. Champollion had the inscription of Rosetta, with its Greek translation, lying on his table for forty en- tire years, and yet to his dying hour he was never able to translate this inscription. And why not? Simply because this inscription was based upon a me- thod of writing, differing altogether, in its principle, from the one found by Champollion ; because he had no conception whatever of the true key to the hiero- glyphics. Champollion was twice in Rome, and examined all the thirteen Obelisks of the " Eternal City," and yet he could not find the obelisk translated by Hermapi- on, although it stood before the eyes of all men, close by the Porta del popolo. One day, in 1826, he even asked me, in Rome, whether I had found the obelisk in question, but added, without waiting for my an- swer ; " sara ancora in una cantina," it must still lie in some cellar. But although I already knew it well, I still considered it the part of prudence to maintain silence a while longer, in order to secure what I had acquired. ChampoUion's successor, De Rouge, the present di- rector of the Egyptian Museum at Paris, published, about four years ago, a translation of a remarkable inscription from the time of Moses, in which he for- mally renounces ChampoUion's system and adopts my syllabic alphabet, of which he possessed a copy, as the basis of his version. He says : " It would have been impossible, to translate this inscription according to ChampoUion's system, in the condition in which 66 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. he left it." — And all Egyptologists have now, like him, gradually adopted my syllabic princii^le.* A great many proper names of kings and gods, especially those of the Decani, Champollion was un- able to read. And why? Because they were ex- pressed syllabically. All the Agnomina of the kings were explained symbolically by him. But these also were syllabic, as we learn from the translations of Eratosthenes and Manetho. After Champollion's death his most distinguished disciples, Ungarelli and Rosellini, published a trans- lation of the inscriptions on the said obelisk at the Porta del popolo, made exactly after Champollion's system, in accordance with his grammar and his dictionary. It was now time for me to come out with Hermapion's translation of the Elaminian obelisk, which I had discovered in 1826. And what was the result ? According to Champollion's system the sense of the entire inscription had been mistaken ; of three words only half a one had been correctly rendered, and not a single one correctly explained.! Thus, for example, Champollion's system gave rise to the fol- lowing version of the second column on the east-side of the obelisk : " From his magnificence this edifice to his beloved, by making his name immortal." — Old Hermapion, on the contrary, had rendered thus : (**a * Gersdorf, Repertorium der deutschen und auslandischen Literatur. 1853. II. p. 155, 1853. I. p. 26, 1849. II. p. 1. t Ungarelli, Interpretatio Obeliscorum Urbis. Rome, 1842.; and my treatise concerning it in Gersdorf, Repertorium der d. u. a. Liter. 1844. 11. p. 309. THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 57 testimonial) of tlie king, who adorned the abode of the gods, which he had erected, with beautiful Taau- tic sculptures on the inclosing walls ;" meaning, that he adorned them with hieroglyphic figures. There is here a reference to Osimandya (1700 B. C), the greatest of all the Egyptian kings, and to his world- renowned Osimandyeum, the ruins of which are* now to be seen at Karnak. We will now proceed to inquire, what the inductive proof is worth. Champollion left behind him a large dictionary of hieroglyphics with 6000 articles. The signification of these 6000 groups and figures he determined in the following manner. He ascribes no syllabic signification to any of the hieroglyphics ; he very ingeniously represented one half of the hiero- glyphics of an inscription to be symbolic, and gave to the groups, which were followed by a determina- tive, the signification required by the determinative, taken in a symbolical sense. But he did not translate a continuous or connected text, but only short sen- tences, severed from the context, or isolated words. Now, if Champollion's system is correct, then the translation of any and every continuous text made with the assistance of Champollion's dictionary must yield a rational meaning, or good sense. If, on the other hand, it is erroneous, it will inevitably give rise to nonsense. We select, as a specimen, a portion of one of the religious books of the ancient Egyptians, of which the contents are indicated by a preceding vignette. It exhibits the image of the Creator in 3* 58 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. front of the image of the sun, which is emitting burning rays, or, as we say, drawing water, as is wont to be the case when a thunder-storm is approaching. This text, when translated according to Champollion's system and dictionary, reads as follows. All 4he words occurring in this text are, with few exceptions, defined and translated in Champollion's dictionnaire. But let us hear.=^ " The chapter relating to the eye, the god Scara- baeus, the mummy of God, appointed the hour, or rather towards the main-road, the darkness, the night." '^ This is the image of the truth-speaking Osiris : I am the gazelle — the comely one, the instrument, the lake of the heavenly waters, the woman, the illu- minating one, the hour, splendor. The beginning, the hour towards the main-road, the darkness, the night. — The night to the mouth, duality, women, or rather mouth. — Man inhabiting, my sprout I am the bride, the hour, the darkness, the night, are going to the man, the hour, the darkness, the night, he the mouth illumining — te me, he duality, stone of the habitations above the heavens, above fame, this lord with him ; to go to me ; he towards the mouth illu- mining — to me the royal crown, the entire domina- tion ; he the mouth illumining and the meadow-field and enamel — and the two ostrich-feathers, my sprig, to will he, the purse, the belonging to me — I who am * Jahresbericht der deutsch. morgenl. Gesell. 1846. p. 71 ; with my treatise : Bemerkungen viber das Turiner Hymnologium, Lepsius' Todtenbuch. THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 69 the bride, the hour, the darkness, the night, to come to me the hour, the darkness, the night ;" and so on. The real import, however, of this section is as fol- lows : " The discourse concerning the nature of God, the creator, who speaks in trumpets, and causes the clouds of heaven to flash with lightning." " Thus saith the High and Holy One K N., the weigher and measurer : it is I who cause the gleaming garment of the heavenly firmament to be shrouded in sack-cloth, when I purpose to speak with my brazen trumpet. Behold the trumpet, the lightnings of the clouds of heaven, the thunder-peals of heaven, which proclaim : Fall down (upon your knees), ye women ! and say : Be afraid, be afraid, ye men I Listen to my voice .... I am the holder (keeper) of the trumpet of the clouds of heaven. Prostrate yourselves before me, before my trumpet of the clouds of heaven, when my mouth speaks in thunders ; prostrate yourselves before me, when I cause the stones of the houses under the heavens to fall down, and chastise those who enter into their chambers. Prostrate yourselves before me, when my mouth calls ; who am crowned with the crown of power. When my mouth calls, bring ye byssus, flax, meal ; bring me frankincense for an ofiering ; give each of you a little fruit, dried grapes, every month of the year. For, I am the holder of the trumpet of heaven, the Lord. Pros- trate yourselves before me, before the trumpet of the clouds of heaven, before the Lord ;" and so on. After these unedifying, but necessary digressions, 60 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. we return to our Egyptian antiquities, or more par- ticularly to the papyri in Dr. Abbott's Museum, in order to ascertain wbat they have to say to us. We will first take up the three largest. III. THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EaYPTIANS. There was, as is well-known, a primitive revelation which was transmitted from generation to generation, and which even before the flood was recorded in sacred writings, now no longer extant. Immediately after the fall, the Lord said to the serpent : " It shall bruise thy head," and at the time of Seth it is said : " then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." One of these sacred books was that of Enoch, mentioned in the New Testament, differing, however, from the Pseudo-Enoch now published. The Hindoos likewise relate, that there were sacred records anterior to the flood, after the loss of which men became wicked ; whereupon God concluded to extirpate the entire human race. Through Noah those primitive revelations were handed down to all the nations that sprang from his descendants. This accounts for the fact, that all the ancient nations were in possession of certain sacred books, like the Sibylline of the Greeks and Romans, the Zendavesta, the Vedas, the Taautic writings of the Egyptians. This too accounts for the fact, that among all these nations of antiquity we meet with THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 61 traces of a Triune God, expectations of a Saviour in the course of the sixth millennium after the creation, like doctrines concerning the angels, like temples, like sacrifices, like festival-days, like forms of wor- ship, like priests, &c. This accounts, lastly, for Vir- gil's (Buc. I. 498.) singing shortly before the advent of Christ ; " The last age of the world is already approaching. Be propitious to the coming child, with whom the iron age will end, chaste Lucina ! be pro- pitious to him. Then, then will be effaced the traces of our guilt and then the earthwill be redeemed from its perpetual terror. — The serpent will die. Accept, the time is already approaching, accept the exalted honors, thou dear child of God, descended from great Jupiter." Moses himself has received these primitive reve- lations, which he transmitted to posterity, enriched by new and more definite ones from Sinai. The Egyptians, in all probability, likewise received pri- mitive revelatipns of a similar description in their forty-two sacred records, which, according to their traditions, came from Thoth, or Athothis, the son of their first king Menes, 666 years after the flood. If these books had contained no truth of a higher order, they would certainly never have been mentioned and described by the church-fathers, as e. g. by Clemens Aldxandrinus ; they would never have been copied so often and as late as the times of the apostles. Now the three large papyrus-scrolls in Dr. Abbott's Muse- um, and all others like them, are precisely such 62 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. copies ; as I proved in a book, concerning the Berlin- papyri, as early as 1826. In the European Museums there are nearly &\e hundred such hieroglyphic, hie- ratic and also demotic manuscript copies of these forty-two sacred books of the ancient Egyptians, more or less complete. The most complete is that of Turin, which is sixty feet in length. Now what may be the contents of these books, which are now upwards of 4600 years old ? The first book contains the follow- ing text.=* Title : " This is the book of prayers, for the praise of the Lord Lord, who has resolved to create servants, serving the eternal counsellor, the creator of all things." " The Lord Lord declares, at the same time, in this mummy-scroll, how the deceased Ahabanuk, the child of the Most-Holy, the just, the son of the daughter of Phaminis, the just, his mother, has been exalted." All the papyrus-scrolls of this description belonged to some particular individual, and were, after his decease, deposited with his corpse in the grave, pro- vided he had led a virtuous life. In this case the name of the deceased was subsequently inserted after that of the Creator in a space, designedly left vacant in transcribing, in order to indicate, that the sozd of the departed was thenceforward to become partaker * Theologische Schriften der alten -^gypter, cet. Gotha, 1855 ; and my Bemerkungen uber die ^gyptische Papyrus zu Berlin. Leipz. 1826. THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 63 of all the glories of God. — ^I now proceed to the trans- lation of the first sacred book, perhaps the most ancient extant in the world. " There is a Most-Holy One (a God), a creator of the fullness of the earth, a ruler of days (a Providence)." " I am (saith the Lord) the God of gods, the exalt- ed maker of the planets, and of the (heavenly) hosts, which are praising me above thy head ; and (I) the Creator of the exalted race of the (heavenly) mighty princes and governors ; (I) who sit in judgment ; (I) the Most-Holy One, who condemn the wicked ; I am myself my king, the preserver of the laws, as long as he walks in the valley of thy promises, 0, most-holy (God)." — (The persons are here sometimes confounded, as in other oriental texts.) " I am the Creator of the exalted generations of the mighty (the celestial powers), of the children of heaven, which (the starry heaven) moves in order to disclose the murderers and persecuters of the pious, in order to find the deceivers, the children of the traducer (of Satan) before his (i. e. before the Crea- tor's) countenance, as long as they walk in the valley of thy promises (i. e. on earth); I, the king of my hosts above thee ; I, the planter of my herbs beneath thee." " I am myself the world, the judge of every deed ; myself the light (i. e. the sun), that convicts the evil- doer ; myself my king, the preserver of the laws of Egypt, who dwell at On, the city of the sun." *' I am the light, the son of the primeval light. I 64: THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. dwell in the exalted land of light and was born in the land of light (with me there is no night.)" " The government is mine, ye men and women of Egypt ! Mine, who am the high and holy institutor of the adorations, which in the temples of both Egypts concern the Most Holy One (the Creator j ; mine, who sit in judgment (the holder of courts), the Most Holy One, that convicteth the wicked ; mine, who have joined together the glory of the sun, the king of the world ; mine, who am the judge and condemner of the wicked ; mine who have fashioned the verdure of the earthly pasture." " The government is mine, who am the prince of my sun, which clothes all lands, the abodes of men ; which illumines the house of worship (the world), which manifests the heart of the persecuter of the just ; mine, who determined to make burnt-offerings and victims of sacrifice for him, whom all the world feareth." " The government is mine, who am the Lord, who have made my arm, my right arm to be dreaded ; the Most-Holy One, who hath trampled under foot the abode of the wicked ; who hath destroyed (in the de- luge) the polluted race of the world, who hath made the children of the deceiver (of Satan) and the inso- lent in the habitation of wickedness upon earth to tremble." " The government is mine, who am the prince, the Lord of the festive assemblies of the Most-Holy, of the good spirit, of the judge (i. e. the triune God); THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 65 who have ordered the solar years, who have com- manded the sanctification of the seventh day of the week, the celebration of the new moon at On, " the city of the sun." " I am that I am, mine own priest at Tantatho, (the sacred city), who slays the victim at Abydos, the comely city; who slaughters the burnt-offering of trespasses for thee ; and the high-priest at Aby- dos, the comely city; the lord of the offering of unrighteousness for thee ; the supreme offerer of burnt-offerings and of sacrifices, which are brought to him, whom all the world feareth." " It is I, who slay the sacred sin-offering of the lamb for thee at Tantatho, and who burn it in his flames." " It is I, that weave the garments (i. e. the bodies of men), as I am also the inventor of the loom ; I, that devised the woof (in the human body.'') " It is I, that produced the vine, grain, sheaves, threshing and meal in the kingdom of Egypt, the magnificent." " There is one, who has made the walk of the servants, of the (walking) statues in the house of the Most Holy One (i. e. in the world) to be upright, who had made your walk upright; it is the spirit (the wisdom) of the Most Holy and just One ; your Sovereign." " The Most Holy One lives ; he seeth, as ye see ; he heareth, as ye hear; he standeth, as ye stand; he sitteth, as ye sit." 66 THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. " There is one, who giveth to the servants, to tho (walking) statues in the house of the Most Holy One fruit and refreshing drinks of every kind ; who giveth to you fruit and refreshing drinks of every kind, every (new) year of the Most Holy One ; and he is your sovereign." " There is one, who hath lighted the lamps of heaven ; one, who hath woven the star-covered path (the milky-way) for his servants, the (walking) sta- tues in the house of the Most Holy One ; who hath lighted the heavenly lamps ^or you, who hath woven the star-covered path for you/ and that is the Most Holy One, your sovereign ;" " He, whom my prayer in the house of the Most Holy One exalteth, whom my song of praise exalt- eth, whom the choral anthem praiseth ; he the Most Holy and Just ;" "He, to whom all the world crieth, and whom they seek and worship on bended knees ; whom the choir of the anthems of praise exalteth, to whom the circle of musicians shouteth, he, the sit- ter in judgment over his harvest-fields on earth, who walketh about in his plantations, your sove- reign." "Yea, the Most Holy One walketh through the terrestrial hosts, when evening hath come, and findeth the derider of those who seek after righte- ousness, as well as the obscurity of the just, who are concerned for the safety (salvation) of many, who instruct the other servants in the fear of the law." THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. . 67 " He findeth every one that reveres what is sacred^ every one that humbles his head, every one that is willing to attend to thy work, to the hosts of heavenly powers." " Praise me, (saith the Lord), the Almighty ; seek him who npholdeth the terrestrial hosts, augment your care for the hosts of the heavenly powers, of the inhabitants of the celestial firmament, who occupy a habitation like unto your habitation, who walk above the head of the terrestrial hosts." " I (the Lord) look and take note who offers to the Lord of hosts, whose image (the sun) is sailing upon the heavenly floods (in the blue firmament) sin- offerings and thank-offerings ; who worships him on bended knees with humility ;" " Thus also look ye up to me, all ye children of men in the house of praise ; look up, too, to the hosts of heavenly powers, to the shining garment of the* sky, to the carpet of glory (the starry hea- vens), to the mansions of ^ the hosts of the mighty, who work for their tnaster, for my glory / look up to me, who have established my kingdom above the heavens." " Hearken unto me, my servant ! Weave garments, weave cloths, weave linen, girdles, bracelets of thanks for me in humility of heart, and in profoundest re- verence for me, who am the Lord of All." Here begins the anthem of praise to God, as follows. " Praise be to thy countenance, who hast woven the hosts of worlds, thou High and Holy God ! 68 . THE KEY TO THE IHEROGLYPHICS. Thou Lord of all that breathe the breath of life I Who adornest the entire earth I Let me praise the architect who has made the terrestrial hosts ; who. at the appointed time, hath caused all things on earth and beyond the world to spring into exist- ence ; who hath constructed them all for me." " Songs and anthems of praise to the Master- Architect, who made the world for me, who made it for the habitation of man, the Creator's image : praise be to him, who once created that splendid garment of the sky, that alternation of the two heavenly luminaries (sun and moon) every year around." " I shout praises to the Lord, to the Good Spirit, to the Holy One ; I serve the Lord, whom all lands fear, to the Most-Holy One at Tantatho (in the land of light)." "I extol the works of the Lord, which delight my heart, as long as I walk in the house of the Lord (on earth)." " 0, may my humble efforts have proved accep- table !" Here follow now the concluding observations to this first book of the sacred writings of the ancient Egyptians : " Here endeth the first book, the introduction to the writings contained in this sacred mummy-scroll, which glorifies the Lord of the universe." " 0, that the Lord might be exalted in his holy temple, that he might be worshipped with bended THE KEY TO THE HIEROGLYPHICS. 69 knees, that corn of every kind, refreshing drinks, sheaves, textures of linen and wool might be brought to him upon the altar of the Lord ; (might be brought) to him, before whom the meadows and woods of both upper and lower Egypt are bowing their heads ; that fields and gardens might be offer- ed to him (to his temples)." "For his is the end, as is his the beginning (of all things)."— Now what do we learn from these religious books of the ancient Egyptians, which have so long been enveloped in impenetrable darkness ? They tell us, in' the first place, how men, whose descendants we are, thought, spoke, acted and worshipped our Lord and Master 4600 years ago. Such, and perhaps still better may have been the state of things 6Q6 years earlier in the family of Noah. Whether the world in general has at the present time advanced farther in piety like this, I leave to every one to answer for himself. We, in the next place, find here another proof, that there really was a primitive revelation. For, of themselves the ancient Egyptians would never have known anything concerning a triune God, con- cerning the angels, his ministers ; concerning a fa- ther of lies ; concerning the creation, the flood, the sanctification of the Sabbath, concerning the typical sacrifice of the lamb; concernirig the high and other priests. 70 THE MYTHOLOGY, &C. IV. THE MYTHOLOaY AND THE OBJECT OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AMONG ALL THE AN- CIENT NATIONS OF THE GLOBE. Jeremiali Chap. 1, 7. says : " Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of her wine ; therefore the nations are mad." Indeed, we find always in the ancient world, the same father of the gods, the same seven Kabiri, the same twelve great gods, the same myths ; but nobody could make out what they meant. Mythology was, during 1800 years, enveloped in impenetrable darkness ! We learn from the said sacred writings of the Egyp- tians in the last place, what was properly the object of religious worship among all the ancient nations of the globe. The highest object of every form of wor- ship was the Creator and governor of all things; the <'Most Holy One," "the Father of gods and men," " Zeus," the '* Deus Optimus Maximus," the " Zedek (the just one) with his seven sons (Angels)," the " great king with his seven ministers," as the ancient people say. Consequently they did not, as is now generally assumed, worship the local powers of nature, animals, plants, but next to the Lord higher beings, created by God, and of an intermediate nature between God and man, who, as we have seen, work for their Lord and for his glory. These are the above-named sons of Ze- dek, those seven Kabiri of the Greeks, the Romans and others ; those seven ministers of the Most-High, OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 71 through whom he governs the world. According to the already corrupted opinion of the Ancients, the seven planets were the bodies of these seven Kabiri ; and the twelve Constellations of the Zodiac were the mansions of the twelve Dii Majores. Sacred animals were held in veneration by the ancient Egpytians merely because they were, according to the statement of the Ancients themselves, regarded as the " symbols of the divine creative powers, which revealed the single deities." This object has been treated more in exten- so in my Theologische Schriften der alten ^gypter, p. 12; Grundsatze der Mythologieund alten Eeligions- geschichte ; Leipz. 1843. Berichtigungen der Ge- schichte und Zeitrechnung, p. 130 ; Astronomia ^gyp- tiaca, Leipz. 1833, Vol. II ; iiber die hochsten acht Gottheiten, die Kabiren der Germanischen Yolker in Illgen's Zeitschrift fiir historische Theologie, 1834. Yol. IV. Fasc. 2. ; Neue Beitrage zur Indischen My- thologie und allgemeinen Eeligionsgeschichte in Ill- gen's Zeitschrift fiir historische Theologie, 1841 ; Fasc. 3. Ueber Opferplatze und Religion der alten Deut- schen, in Neues Lausitzer Magazin, 1842, Vol. YI. Fasc. 2. Besides this, it is extremely probable, that these sacred writings will in time make us acquainted with many other things, of which we at present have scarce- ly any conception ; they will bring nearer to us an age and a world, which thus far has lain far beyond O'.jr horizon. 72 THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD. V. THE JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD, REPRE- SENTED IN EGYPTIAN PAPYRI. Nearly all the manuscript copies of the sacred records of the Egyptians contain a pictorial representation of the judgment, to which the souls of the deceased were forced to submit, before they were either united with the Lord, or consigned to perdition. They nearly all contain the same figures, and are accompanied by almost the same inscriptions. The entire picture in the large Papyrus-scroll at Turin (the Todtenbuch) represents the celestial judgment-hall. In the mid- dle of the top of it are inscribed the words : " House of the Tribunal." On both sides are six times repeat- ed the words : " Light, revelation, justice." In the background towards the left is seated the Most Holy One upon his throne, surrounded by the Holy of the Holies. Before him are stationed the witnesses of the tribunal, of which all are personified, as for ex- ample, the forty-two personages on the pediment, sig- nifying the forty- two cardinal virtues (justitiaej Dio- dor. I. 92.) ; below appear piety, loyalty, just weight and measure, the four seasons of the year (the four Horae), which had witnessed all the actions of the de- ceased ; farther to the right stands Thoth (the World). Behind him are seen both the Kabiri : Day (Horus) and Night (Anubis), which are balancing the Virtue of the deceased and the foibles of his heart against each other on a pair of scales. The result is record- ed by Thoth upon a tablet, in order to present it to REPRESENTED IN EGYPTIAN PAPYRI. 73 the Judge. Hereupon follows the woman, Justice, who introduces the soul of the deceased into the sacred mansion of God (into heaven), in order that there it may worship the Creator face to face, throughout all eternity. The soul, thus introduced by Justice, ap- proaches the Most-Holy One with the following words, which are annexed to the figure. " Let me (0 Lord) enter in among thy people for all times. I have carefully refrained from committing murder; I have carefully refrained from trespassing (robbery) ; I have carefully refrained from secret fraud and deception (from lying) ; I have maintained reverence for the gods and respect for the law. I have praised thy countenance, thou creator of the fulness of the earth, thou sacred Being, God, Lord of Abydos (Lord of Time), who impartest light to thy servants, flashes of light to the darkness of night. Lord ; I have loved thy servants, who walk in the house of thanksgiving and praise (on earth). I have exalted, I have glorified him, who has made all the world, in this house of creation, even since I have walked among the terrestrial hosts. I have brought sacrifices in abundance in the house of worship, in the house of praise (upon earth).^ * Theologische Schrifien der alien ^gypter, p. 25. 74 DEMOTIC DOCUMENTS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. VI, THE DEMOTIC DOCUMENTS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. The administration of justice among tlie ancient Egyptians was formerly entirely unknown to us. In the course of time, however, a multitude of demotic, hieratic and Greek papyri were brought into Europe, which documents diffused a great deal of light on this point, and enlightened us respecting the history of ancient jurisprudence. The Greek translations and postscripts of judicial documents from all parts of Egypt served especially as valuable aids in this re- spect. Now we know, that there were tribunals or courts of justice in every city, that all sales or convey- ances of property were required to be made according to a regular legal process, that sixteen witnesses were necessary to their validity, that of every deed there existed an original document and an antigraphon (du- plicate), that purchases and sales were effected with the utmost circumstantiality and caution, and that the persons concerned were as minutely described as in lettres de cachet. All the documents of this kind be- gan with the year ^f, i. e. abot re, solar year, month and day of the reigning sovereign ; they make men- tion of his predecessors and of the priests and priest- esses then living. No American deed can offer great- er security than one of these papyri of the ancient Egyptians. Precisely the same arrangement is to be observed in the legal documents from the time of THE PHGENIX AND THE PHCENIX-PERIODS. 75 Psametichus, Darius, Xerxes, Ramses (1650 B. C.) and Amos (1800 B. C), which are preserved in the Muse- um of Turin. Dr. Abbott's collection contains six documents of this kind, and even a large papyrus, which is not yet cut asunder, and presents both the original document and its antigraphon. These are all from the time of the Lagidae ; more particularly from the age of Ptolemaeus Epiphanes, two hundred and two years B. C, and will furnish many a valuable contribution to the history of jurisprudence. YII. THE PHCENIX AND THE PHCENIX-PERIODS OF THE ANCIENTS. Nearly all the copies of the sacred writings of Egypt contain, as is evident from the Turin Todten- buch, p. XXXL, Dr. Abbott's papyrus, No. 766, among others, a religious consideration of two birds Penoh ^^■^[^and CJioli ^^% placed side by side, and distinguished from each other only by the long feathers which adorn the head of the former. These two birds have reference to the well-known myth concerning the Phoenix. For the word Penoh is iden- tical with Phoeni:^, or Phoeni ; and Hermapion trans- lates the picture of that bird sitting on his funeral pile ^^L , which is to be observed in the Flaminian Obelisk, by Phoenix. The name Choli corresponds ex- actly with the name of Phoenix in the book of Job, where it is Chol^ and also with the later Coptic Al~ 76 THE PHCEx\IX AND THE PHCENIX-PERIODS loe^ (the Phoenix). Now what may be the true mean- ing of the ancient myth concerning the Phoenix, which has been preserved and transmitted upon mo- numents and coins even down to the time of St. Cae- cilia.* The Ancients themselves, who were well ac- quainted with the import of this myth, give us only the following brief account of it. There is a bird, of which there exists but one specimen in the world, and which comes flying from the East once in the course of six hundred and fifty-one years, in company with many other birds ; and after its arrival in the city of the sun (Heliopolis), there burns itself up about the time of the vernal equinox, whereupon it rises again out of its ashes, and flies away again, to return no more till after the expiration of six hundred and fifty-one years. This Phoenix made his first appear- ance in the reign of Sesostris, a king of the twelfth Egyptian Dynasty, about 2500 B. C, then again, dur- ing the reign of Amos, in the eighteenth Dynasty, about 1900 B. C, and, the last time, amid great festivities, in the sixth year of Claudius (50 A. C.) There was, however, also a pseudo-Phoenix (Choi), which consign- ed itself to the flames as early as the autumn of the ^YQ hundred and thirty-ninth year, and besides made its appearance repeatedly during the interval. The latter event occurred under the Consuls A. 310 B. C, under the king Evergetes I., under the Consuls 37 after * Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenl. Gesellschaft, 1849; p. 63, with my treatise : Die Phoenixperiode. Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte und Zeitrechnung ; p. 250. OF THE ANCIENTS. 77 Christ, under Trajan, during the second and sixth year of the reign of the Antoninus Pius, under Cara- calla, Carus, Constantine the Great, Constantine II. and others. — It has now been ascertained, that this singu- lar myth signified nothing rn^ore than the transit of Mermiry across the disk of the sun. The bird Phoe- nix was an emblem of Mercury, as we are informed by the Isis-table (Tabula Bembina^*^). There is but one planet Mercury, as there was but one Phoenix. The city of the sun, in which the Phoenix was accus- tomed to consign himself to the flames, is simply the sun, or the house of the god Sun, in w^hich Mercury during his passage through the disk, may be said to be consumed by fire. As the Phoenix burns himself up every six hundred and fifty-one years, about the time of the vernal equinox, so Mercury subjects himself to a similar process every six hundred and fifty-one years, on nearly the same days of the year. Mercury passes always from east to west across the disk of the sun : it is exactly the same with the Phoenix. Whilst Mercury enters upon his passage across the disk of the sun, he is attended by a multitude of stars ; and in a similar manner the Phoenix is accompanied by a mul- titude of minor birds (flying stars). As the Phoenix came forth anew out of his ashes in the sixth year of Claudius, under Amos and Sesostris, and always at the expiration of six hundred and fifty-one years, so Mer- cury was likewise, as it were, born again in the years 60 A. C, in 1904 and 2555 B. C. Precisely, as another * Astronomia ^gyptiaca ; Tab. VIII. No. II. 78 THE PHCENIX AND THE PHCENIX-PERIODS. and diiferent Phoenix consigns himself to the flames in the autumn, always after the expiration of five hundred and thirty-nine years, and, according to cir- cumstances, still more frequently ; so also does Mer- cury. Like the Phoenix, Mercury has also made his transits over the sun's disk on October tenth A. 310 B. C, on April eleventh A. 227 B. C, on April thirteenth A. D. 37, on April nineteenth A. D. 109, on October twenty fifth A. D. 138, on April eighteenth A. D. 142, on October twenty-fourth A. D. 217, on October twenty- third A. D. 283, on April twentieth A. D. 326, and on April twenty-second A. D. 339. In a word, there was a Phoenix-period and a Mercurial-period of six hun- dred and fifty-one and of five hundred and thirty- nine years. In all the years, in which the Phoenix had destroyed himself with fire in the city of the sun, Mercury had likewise performed his transits over the sun. But it will be asked, what benefit can we derive from these astronomical observations of the Egyp- tians, which go back as far as the year 2555 B. C. ? They show us, in the first place, how far this nation had already at that time advanced in the science of astronomy. And, moreover, as transits of Mercury very rarely occur and are based upon infallible calcu- lations; these facts, as they are distinctly stated to have occurred in particular specified years of certain sovereigns, will serve to rectify ancient history and chronology. They will, as we shall see hereafter, as- sist us in showing, that Petavius, the originator of the THE APIS-MUMMIES IN EGYPT AND NEW- YORK. 79 chronology now generally in usc^ has put all the events of Greek and Roman history one year, and, respective' ly, two years too high i and that the whole history of Egypt, as determined hy Boeckh, Bunsen and Lep' sius will have to move down three thousand years, yni. THE APIS-MUMMIES IN EGYPT AND NEW-YORK. It is true, that no other Egyptian Museum is- as yet in possession of such an Apis-Mummy. But what infor- mation can we gain from these ancient bulls ? The voice of no bull is at all agreeable to the ear; and yet from these we shall learn very agreeable things. We learn from them, in the first place, how admirably the ancient Egyptians understood the art of preserving dead bodies for thousands of years. How can they have effected this ? Herodotus affirms, that they em- ployed olvoq (poLvcKiog, and that the process occupied the space of several months. But what may have been this palm-wine, which is the literal translation of the word ? This substance was, as we now know, nothing more, than pyroligneous acid, which is found in the smoke of burning wood, and contains a large quan- tity of creosote. Thus the mummies of the ancients, specimens of which are to be found in Dr. Abbott's Museum and at St. Louis in Wyman's Hall, were no- thing more than our smoked hams. Creosote and pyro- ligneous acid possess the property of desiccating meat or flesh completely in the process of time, and of pre- 80 THE APIS-MUMMLES IN EGYPT AND NEW-YORK. serving it against putrefaction and worms. If the practice, besides, should be revived of administering the flesh of mummies as medicine, to which purpose our ancestors probably appropriated many an entire mammy, then these three bulls in Br. Abbott's Mu- seum would alone suffice, to supply all the apotheca- ry-shops of America with pills three thousand years old. But these Apis-Mummies have yet another much more important value, even in confirming the truth of the Sacred Scriptures.* The Egyptians are known to have computed their time, in the transactions of ordinary life according to vague years of three hun- dred and sixty-five days, without any intercalary day. Hence it happened, that the first day of the year, would come one day too early once in every four years ; and so it went on, till after the expiration of one thou- sand four hundred and sixty-one vague years, the new- year's-day, which was the first day of the month Thoth, would again coincide with our twentieth of July. On the same day the dog-star Sirius rose in Egypt shortly before sun- rise. Hence it came, that the Egyp- tians denominated the period of one thousand four hundred and sixty-one vague years, which began in the year, in which the dog-star rose heliacally (i. e. be- fore sun-rise) on the first of Thoth, or on our twen- tieth of July, a canicular period, or Periodus Sothica. Now these canicular periods commenced on the twen- * Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte und Zeitrechnung ; p. 10. THE APIS-RIUMMIES IN EGYPT AND NEW- YORK. 81 tieth of July in the years 2782 and 1322 B. C, and the last time, in the year 139 A. C. About the year 1322 B. C. the Egyptians made the important discovery, that at the commencement of the second canicular-period, on the first of Thoth 1322 B. C, the moon was in its first quarter, exactly as it had been on the first of Thoth, twenty-five years be- fore ; in short, tliat after the lapse of twenty-five vague years the moon presented again precisely the same shape, on the same day, and at the same hour. This observation, which proved conclusively, that the Creator had from eternity so ordained the course of the sun and moon, that after the lapse of twenty-five years, they would again be at exactly the same dis- tances from each other, appeared of such importance to the pious Egyptians, that, for this reason, they in- stituted a division of time into periods of twenty-five years, and expressed this sacred period by a living symbol, by the Apis-Bull. The bull was among the Egyptians an emblem of the sun ; the apis-bull, how- ever, representing, as it did, at the same time also the moon, and the conjunction of sun and moon on the first of Thoth, required to have, marked upon it tho symbolic signs of the moon. The Egyptians there- fore selected for the worship of Apis, who, according to Plutarch, was to them a living image of the divine wisdom, of the soul of Osiris, a black bull, which had a crescent on its side and a wart in the shape of a beetle (which likewise designated the moon) under the tongue. This apis-bull was worshipped in a 82 THE APIS-MUMMIES IN EGYPT AND NEW-YOKK. temple of his own at Memphis, and at the expiration of twenty-five years, when the apis-period was at an end, he was killed, embalmed in the shape of a mummy, and in commemoration of the quarter of a century just past, solemnly interred for preservation in one of the apis-catacomhs. An apis-catacomb of this description, full of apis-mummies and inscrip- tions, was discovered a few years ago by Mariette in the vicinity of Cairo, the old Memphis, where the temple of the Apis stood. But the question now arises, in what years the apis-periods began. This question is answered by several coins, which were struck under the Roman emperors after the commencement of the third cani- cular period, and which dated the beginning of the apis-period from the same year, with which the cani- cular period had begun, i. e. the year 139 A. C. The apis-periods therefore commenced simultaneously with the canicular periods, 139 A. C. and 1322 B. C. on the first day of the month Thoth, as is manifested from the moon-crescent on the side of the apis-bull, and from the nature of the case itself. This is a fact of great importance in ancient history. For, the ancient historians record in several places, in what years of the Persian, Greek and Roman sovereigns an apis-period commenced again. And thus it has been ascertained, that the unfortunate Petavius, whom all our historians have, to this day, implicitly followed, has put the dates of all these sovereigns too far back by two years. Thus Alexander the Great did not die THE APIS-MUMMIES IN EGYPT AND NEW-YORK. 83 324 or 323, but not until 321 years B. C. ; the seventh year of Cambyses was not 723, but 721 B. C; Cyrus did not ascend the throne in 538, but in 534 B. C. ; as is proved by still other incontrovertible facts, espe- cially by the eclipses of this time.* This goes in the next place to establish and confirm a biblical tradition, which ought never to have been so rashly and unscrupulously assailed. The prophets and chroniclers assure us repeatedly, that the Baby- lonian captivity lasted seventy entire years. But according to Petavius we can not even make out sixty- six years, simply because he had put Cyrus four years too early. But as Cyrus is now brought down to a date by four years later, that is to the 534th year B, C, the Babylonian captivity actually did extend through a period of seventy years. In the spring of the year 533 the Hebrews returned to Jerusalem, and on the 25th of Sept. of the year 533 B. C. on a Satur- day, the twenty-four classes of priests commenced again their weekly rounds of duty, until, on the 22d Sept. of the second year before the commencement of the Christian Era, the birth of John the Baptist was announced to Zacharias, who belonged to the eighth class of priests, to the class Abia. From these corrections of the ancient history, it likewise follows, as many have already surmised, that the entire historical canon of Ptolemy down to Titus * German translation of Layard's Nineveh, Leipz. 1854, 2d edition, with my treatise : Die aegyptischen Alterthiimer in Nimrod ; Berich- tigungen der alten Gesch. u. Zeitrech., p. 11. 84 THE APIS-MUMMIES IN EGYPT AND NEW- YORK. is entirely erroneous. Consequently, the eclipses, re- corded by the ancients, must have been different from those, which Ptolemy calculated; and our lunar tables must be based upon a different motion of lunar nodes from that assumed by Ptolemy. In the year 180 A. C. Ptolemy undertook to construct the first lunar tables, in which he endeavored to determine the elements of the lunar motion. With this end in view, he started upon the basis of the earliest eclipses of the moon and his own observations. He found, however, in older authorities nothing further than the bare announcement of the fact, that in certain years of the reign of certain kings, as far back as 721 B. C. fourteen different eclipses of the moon had been witnessed. But in prosecuting his task, he had the misfortune to be guided by erroneous chronological tables, in consequence of which he placed the eclip- ses in question into wrong years, and necessarily deter- mined the place of the moon's nodes incorrectly. The later astronomers as far down as the time of Burck- hardt and Damoiseau, without any regard whatever to the facts of history, labored under the delusion, that those lunar eclipses, mentioned by Ptolemy, had been observed to the nicety of a minute by the Baby- lonians themselves ; and hence their repetition of the errors of Ptolemy. We can easily conceive that these new lunar-tables, which were based upon entirely false premises, could only for a short time correspond with the observations of later eclipses. It was therefore necessary to construct new tables every one hundred THE ASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 85 years, and even still more frequently. We now com- prehend at last, why it is that all the lunar tables thus far in use, are not in harmony with the most recent observations of eclipses, as is proved by the total eclipse of the sun which occurred in Germany in 1851, and also in what place the lunar node must really have been in 721 B. C— In the year 800 B. C. the moon's node was nearly 8° shorter than Ptolemy cal- culated.=^ It is obvious that this fact is one of the utmost im- portance in astronomy. We now also know the dgite of the celebrated total eclipse of the sun, so long an object of anxious inquiry, mentioned by Thales, as having occurred during the battle between the Medes and Lydians on the river Halys in Asia-minor. It did not take place 610 B. C, according to which the mo- ther of Cyrus would have been but twelve years of age at the time of her marriage ; but on the 18th of May, 622 B. C, which would make Mandane twenty- three years of age. IX. THE ASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENT EGYP- TIANS. Diodorus Siculus reports (I. c. 81 — 88) as an eye- witness, that the Eg}^ptians " from time immemorial had been in the habit of making and recording astro- * Jahn's Astronomische Unterhaltungen, Leipz. 1853, No. 23, p. 177, with my treatise : Beitrage zur Geschichte der Astronomic. — Klotz, Archiv fiir Philologik u. Padagogik, 1848, p. 586, with my treatise: Ueber die Sonnen- und Mondfinsternisse der Alten. — Berichtigungen der alten Gesch. u. Zcitrechn., p. 28. 86 THE ASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. nomical observations on all the planets." Simpli- cius (p. 27) saw in Egypt astronomical monuments that were older than 2000 years. An example of this is furnished us by the above-mentioned papyrus in Dr. Abbott's Museum, which besides, is remarkable for this reason also, that it contains demotic expla- nations, and that it is the only one of the kind at present known to us. But in what way did the ancient Egyptians express and preserve their astro- nomical observations ? In answering this inquiry, we find, in the first place, among the ancients a statement to the effect, that they designated the seven planets by means of the images of their seven supreme divinities, the Kabiri ; and the twelve signs of the Zodiac by means of the images of their twelve great gods. The ancients, in con- sequence of their ignorance of the telescope, were acquainted with only seven planets, arranged in a series according to their several velocities, thus : Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. The Zodiac is the belt of the heavens, within which these seven planets perform their perpetual revolutions. The middle of this belt is the line on which the sun advances, or the eclip- tic, a circle, which, like all others, was divided into three hundred and sixty degrees. The Zodiac is divided into twelve sections of thirty degrees, and each of these sections contained a group of stars, into which the imagination conjured figures of men^ t Systema Astrononiite ^gyptiacaj quadripcotitura. Lips. 1833. THE ASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 87 animals and utensils ; whence the name of the Zo- diac (which is literally the circle, or belt of ani- mals). These images or signs of the Zodiac are in their regular order as follows : Aries, Taurus, Ge- mini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces ; their course, when observed with the north-pole behind the spectator, is, like that of the sun, moon and planets, from right to left. Each of these signs of thirty degrees in length was again subdivided into three smaller sections of ten degrees (DecuriaB), into five sections of different lengths (Horia), into twelve sections of 2i degrees (Dodecatemoria) and lastly in thirty sec- tions of one degree (Moirae) ; and every one of these subdivisions of the Zodiac was presided over respec- tively by one of the inferior divinities. It was by means of these divinities and their symbols, therefore, that the Egyptians expressed their astronomical observations, and more particu- larly the position of the seven planets at the time of memorable events. They brought the images of the seven planetary gods in connexion with the images of the twelve zodiacal gods and with the subordinate deities of each sign with which a pla- net stood in conjunction. This would, of course, be accomplished in several ways, as we can show by a few examples. It is scarcely necessary to state beforehand, that with the assistance of our astro- nomical tables, these ancient planetary configurations can easily be calculated with mathematical certain- 88 THE ASTRONOMY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. ty to the year and day. For, a planetary configu- ration, showing only the signs of the Zodiac in which the seven planets formerly stood at a par- ticular time, can, according to well-known astrono- mical laws, occur but once in 2146 years ; but pla- netary configurations, showing the Decuriae, Horia, Dodecatemoria and degrees in which the seven planets formerly stood, can occur but once in the entire course of history, nay, even in millions of years. All the events of ancient history, to which such planetary configurations, as observed by the ancients themselves, are linked, are by means of these planetary configurations chronologically deter- mined with incontrovertible certainty. And this is of the utmost importance for the correction of an- cient history. Several hundred such planetary con- figurations have been preserved, partly in the histo- rical works of the ancients, partly on their monu- ments, on the pyramids, on temples, in the cata- combs, on the sarcophagi, mummy-chests, tablets of stone, papyrus-scrolls and other objects. Among the Egyptians they go back as far as the year 2781 B. C, among the Greeks as far as 778 B. C, among the Romans as far as 752 B. C. ; among the oriental nations as far as the years 8447 and 5871 B. C; Among the most remarkable of them are the fol- lowing. THE ZODIAC OF DENDERA IN PARIS. 8^ X, THE ZODIAC OF DENDERA IN PARIS. In the year 1799 the French savants who accom- panied Buonaparte to Egypt, discovered on the ceiling of the little temple of Dendera, a carved representation of the heavens with the signs of the Zodiac and other figures. 'After this stone-slab, which formed the ceiling of the temple, had been cut out with a saw, and transported to Paris, the grand discovery was made, that this monument was at least 17,000 years old, and that the flood and the creation in the Bible were myths. From that time to the year 1833, upwards of fifty works of this character have been published. This pre- adamite monument soon created so great a sensation that it was found expedient to make it invisible in Paris, by locking it up in a dark room. Meanwhile the key to the astronomical inscriptions of the an- cient Egyptians had been found and published in my Astronomia iBgyptiaca, Lips., 1833, from which it appeared, that this Zodiac of Dendera contains a planetary configuration, by means of which the exact date of this much discussed monument could be determined by its own evidence. We observe, namely, besides other heavenly constellations, ex- pressed by certain figures, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and also the images of the seven planetary gods, which are distinguished from all the rest by the circumstance that they, like the planetary gods on all other astronomical inscriptions, bear in their 90 •%'HE ISIS-TABLE, OR TABULA BEMBINA AT TURIN. hands the sceptre {zor, i. e. Power). ][ We find therefore, that at the time of the constrnction of the temple of Dendera, Saturn stood in the sign Virgo, Jupiter in Libra, Mars in Gemini, the Sun, Venus and Mercury in Aquarius, and the Moon in Taurus. " For a copy of the Zodiac, see the Descrip- tion de I'Egypte, Ant' Vol. V. Every planetary con- figuration of the kind can be easily calculated ; and what was now the result with reference to the date in question ? It was not the year 17,000 B. C, but the 11th of February of the 37th year A. C, which was the year of the birth of Nero. This emperor had, according to the account of the Roman writers, constructed and restored many temples in Egypt, and Nero's name is even at the present time still to be found on every side of the temple at Den- dera, and half of it even on the Zodiac at Paris. Thus has ended the merry tragedy of the Zodiac at Dendera in 1833 A. C* XI. THE ISIS-TABLE, OR TABULA BEMBINA AT TURIN. Two hundred years ago a magnificent bronze tablet or plate, inlaid with a great many silver figures of the gods, was dug up in the city of Rome, and came into the possession of cardinal * Some more notices are contained in* Gersdorf, Repertorium der deutsch. und ausl. Literat., Lips. 1849, Vol. II. p. 1. — Der "Lutherische Herold," New-York, Jan. 1st, 1856,— "Lutheran Standard," Columbus, O. AprU 4th, 1856. THE SARCOPHAGUS OF OSIMANDYA AT LONDON.^* 91 Bembi, whence it has been designated ever since, as the Tabula B6mbina. After an examination of many years, the discovery was made, that this table had been executed as early as the time of Moses, and that it contained the secrets of the magnetic needle, or, according to others, the mysteries ot Isis, or the original twelve commandments of Mo- ses, &c. A closer examination in the year 1833, however, led to the conclusion, that this table re- presented in its twelve squares nothing more than the twelve signs of the Zodiac, expressed by means of the twelve superior deities of the Egyptians, and that it furthermore contained in, certain squares or signs the figures of the seven Kabiri or- planets. It was thus found that this antemosaic and mag- netic Isis-table exhibits the planetary configuration of the year 54 A. C, in which year Trajan was born. And it actually contains the names : Caesar Trajanus and those of his wife and daughter Pla- tina and Sabina. For a fac-simile of the Tabula Bem- bina and the explanation of the whole, see my As- tronomia ^gyptiaca, Tab. YIIL XII. THE SARCOPHAGUS OF OSIMANDYA AT LONDON. About forty years ago Belzoni discovered near Thebes, in the valley Biban el Moluk (the graves of the kings) a large catacomb, which had never been opened, and which contained thousands of mummies : with these, however, he cooked Billah 92 ^^ THE SARCOPHAGUS OF OSLMANDYA AT LONDON. for himself and his fellahs. In the innermost cham- ber, however, he found a costly colossal, royal sarco- phagus made of alabaster, and covered both exter- nally and internally with inscriptions and images of divinities, which subsequently was brought into the museum of the architect Soane at London, through the agency of consul Salt. A fac-simile has been published by Sharpe (Egyptian inscriptions, London, 1840, No. v., pi. 61 — 67). This sarcophagus once con- tained the lifeless remains of Osimandya, > > 8 ^ ^ the greatest king of Egypt, and father of Ramses the Great, ySl (J>^ ^ffjO the last king of the XVIIIth dynasty. To this same Osimandya and Ramses was dedicated the obelisk, translated by Hermapion, now standing near the Porta del popolo at Rome. The sarcophagus of this Ramses the Great, was likewise discovered by Belzoni in a catacomb of the vicinity. It is now in Paris ; und in 1829 I found its lid or cover at Cambridge, in England. The diagrams of both these catacombs on papyrus-scrolls of the same age, showing all their chambers and their length, breadth and height, was found at Turin by myself in the year 1827. On these two sarcophagi are inscribed the planetary configurations at the birth of the two kings already named, from the years 1731 and 1691 B. C. The planetary configuration of Osimandya on Soane's sarcophagus is likewise preserved on the colossal ruins near Karnak in the vicinity of Thebes. It follows from this, that the ancient Osimandyeum, the largest edifice of antiquity, and minutely describ- THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION OF MENES, &C. 93 ed by Diodorus, was, what is now known as the ruins of Karnak. Its gigantic columns, which are so large that one hundred men can find standing-room upon one of its capitals, are still standing to this very day, simply because the vandal-hand of Cambyses was un- able to overturn them."^ XIIL THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION OF MENES IN EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS, Among the greatest curiosities of Dr. Abbott's Mu- seum in New- York is a necklace containing the name of Menes Athothis. (\ ' ' This work of art reminds us of the founder of the Egyptian empire, of the first king of the land, concerning whom there has been so much contention during the last three centuries. It is a fortunate circumstance, that the Egyptians made an observation of the fdanetary configuration at the time of Menes' arrival in Egypt, and that it has been preserved for us on their temples and in their sacred writings even to the present day. We are at present already acquainted with sixteen temples and monuments, which exhibit a representation of this very planetary configuration of Menes. On the majority of them the ancient Menes stands opposite to the row of the gods, his only garment being a tiger-skin ; on others his person and his name are ex- * For a copy of the Karnak-inscription and the explanation of both planetary configurations, see my Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte, p. 179, 187 and Tab. I. 94 THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION OF MENES, &C. pressed by means of the crescent ^^z^^ i. e. the letters MN 01 Menes. The most concise expression of this planetary constellation is to be found on the said Osi- mandyeum near Karnak from the year 1700 B. C. For a copy of this astronomical inscription and its explanation, see my " Berichtigungen der alten Ge- schichte," p. 198 and Tab. I. Each of the seven pla- netary gods is seated on a chair, together with one of the twelve gods, in whose sign the planet happened to stand at the time. We therefore find the Sun in Cancer 0°, the Moon in Scorpio, Saturn in Sagittarius, Jupiter in Aries, Mars in Sagittarius 10°, Venus in Cancer 10", Mercury in Cancer 5°. This planetary configuration, which has occurred but onceiin history, has reference to the year 2781 B. C, to the 16th of the Julian July, which was at that time the day of the summer-solstice. It is by such methods, therefore, that the Egyptians expressed and transmitted their astronomical obser- vations from Menes down to Constantine. Several hundreds of them have been preserved to this very day. They determine the natal year of the Pharaohs, of priests and private individuals, for example, from the years 2781, 1833, 1632, 1573, 1524, 1104, 787, 661, 631 B. C, and so on. PLANETARY CONFIGURATION Oj GREEKS AND ROMANS. 95 XIF, PLANETARY OONFiaUEATIONS OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. By means of the key to the astronomy of the an- cient Egyptians we have also found the key to the Greek and Roman astronomical monuments. We are already familiar with the manner in which the Greeks and Romans denominated their seven planets, and ex- pressed them by means of the images of their seven Kabiri (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury and Luna). To which signs of the Zodiac the twelve Dii majores of the Greeks and Romans related, the an- cients have themselves told us. It was consequently easy to explain also the astronomical monuments ot the GreeSs and Romans. Examples of this descrip- tion are found in their authors, on their temples, houses, altars, Etruscan vases, lamps, and other monu- ments of antiquity. Among the Greek planetary configurations, which were denominated lepal KXtvat (sacrae lecticae), we may mention the Olympian double- altars from the year 778 B. C, which was the com- mencement of the Olympiads ; the planetary configu- ration on the statue of the Olympic Zeus 490 B. C, having reference to the battle of Marathon ; the pla- netary configuration on the frieze of the Parthenon from the year 480 B. C, referring to the battle of Salamis ; and so on. In precisely the same way the Lectisternia of the Romans, mentioned by Livy and others, likewise de- noted planetary configurations ; as, for example, the 96 THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION AT THE COMMENCEMENT Lectisternium 397 B. C. under the tribunes Augurinus and Priscus, and that of 217 B. C. after the battle against Hannibal near lake Thrasimenus. The Ro- man altars (Arae) contain the planetary configurations at the birth of the Roman epaperors, to whom they were dedicated. We thus find on the Ara Albani the nativity of Augustus of the year 63 B. C, on the Piiteolian plinth that of Tiberius, of the year 40 B. C; on the Capitolian puteole and on the Ara Borghese that of Claudius, of the year 9 B. C, on the Gabinian Ara that of Yespasian, nine years after Christ ; and so forth. This subject has been treated more in extenso in my " Berichtigungen der alten Greschichte und Zeit- rechnung, Leipz. 1856. All the above-m^ioned as- tronomical and mythological monuments nave been published by Winckelmann and other antiquarians. XV. THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATIONS AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FOUR AGES OF THE WORLB. Astronomy is, according to the accounts of the an- cients, coeval with the human family. Josephus al- ready assures us, that Seth was the originator of this science, and the Egyptians trace it back to a period as early. That astronomy extends back to a period prior to the time of Noah, is manifest beyond a doubt from the fact, that among all the nations of antiquity we meet with the same Zodiac, and the same arbitrary divisions of it, with the so-called Hypsomata of the OF T£IE FOUR AGES OF THE WORLD. 97 planets, that is to say, certain remarkable degrees of the Zodiac, and others. Among these ancient nations we may instance particularly the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Arabians, Phoenicians, Chal- deans, Babylonians, Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese, Per- sians, and even Mexicans. It will consequently not be surprising to us that antiquity should have trans- mitted to us astronomical observations of a far earlier date ; observations, which, in whatever way we may explain them, go back as far as the creation of man. To these belong the four ages of the world and the planetary configurations observed at their respective commencements. All the ancient nations were acquainted with the gradual^volution of the entire starry heavens from West to East ; and their great world-period of 36,000 years was based upon this fact. What means this period ? On the day of the vernal equinox, for in- stance, in the year 1784 A. C. the disk of the sun may have covered a certain stl|p of the ecliptic ; but on the same day of the present year 1857 A. C. the same star stood beside the sun towards the east ; it removed during these seventy-two years one degree, or two diameters of the moon. This phenomenon is termed the precession of the equinoctial points. As the an- cients had no telescopes, they were unable to deter-, mine this phenomenon with sufficient accuracy, and assumed that the heavens moved but one degree in every hundred years. Now,, as the ecliptic, in which the sun performs its course{is divided into three hun- 5 98 THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION AT THE COMMENCEMENT dred and sixty degrees, the ancients calculated thirty- six thousand years for the revolution of the entire heavens ; and as the ecliptic was divided into twelve signs of thirty degrees each, the time of the preces- sion of the heavens through a sign, or thirty degrees, would consequently be three thousand years. The periods during which the equinoctial point passes through the different signs of thirty degrees, consti- tuted the basis of the so-called ages of the world among the ancients. The Greeks and Romans ex- pressed these ages by means of the reigns of the gods. In the first, or golden age, Uranus was on the throne ; in the second, or silver age, Saturn ; in the third, or brazen, Jupiter ; in the fourth, or i]^, Mars ; that is, consequently, in the four periods oi time in which the equinoctial point passed through the signs Gemini, Taurus, Aries and Pisces, in which at the present time the sun stands on the day of the vernal equinox. Each of these four ages of the world com- prised, as we have already shown, a period of three thousand years in round numbers ; as, however, the equinoctial point moves backward a degree even in seventy-two years, the exact number of years for each world-age is two thousand one hundred and fortv-six. We are now ready for the inquiry, in what years and on what days these four periods of the world may have begun. It is self-evident that this inquiry is of the utmost importance, inasmuch as these ages among all the ancient nations begin with the very year and the day of the creation and are based upon mathema- OF THE FOUR AGES OF THE WORLD. 99 tical and incontestible truth. Now the ancients have preserved the observations of the planetary configu- rations, as they took place at the commencement of these four periods respectively.* The planetary con- figuration at the commencement of the fourth age of the world, in which we still live, is to be found in the later Yedas, the sacred writings of the Hindoos. It relates to the year 598 A. C. ; and in that same year the equinoctial point passed out of Aries into Pisces. The planetary configuration at the beginning of the third age is preserved in the Ramayana, the celebrated epopee of the ancient Hindoos, and relates to the year 1579 B. C, to the same year, in which the equinoctial point passed out of Taurus into Aries. The planetary configuration at the commencement of the second age is recorded in the Zendavesta, the sacred scrip- tures of the Parsees, and relates to the year 3725 B. C, in which the equinoctial point passed out of Gemini into Taurus. And lastly, the planetary configuration at the commencement of the first age of the world has been preserved to us by all the nations of antiquitj^ We find it in the above-mentioned Hypsomata planeta- rum (beginnings of the planets) of the Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Arabians, Persians, Chaldaeans, Hindoos and others. The most explicit account of it is given by the translator of the chronicle of Ahu Djafar Moha- med Tahari^ an old Arabian writer. It is as follows ; " The following expositions are given more in oxtenso in my " Chro- nologia Sacra," Leipz. 1846, p. 149. 100 THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION, &C. " know then, that the astronomers Aristotle, Hippar- chus and other great masters of this science before us make mention of the time which is to elapse from Adam (peace be with him) to the day of judgment. — Those masters inform us that at the time when the Almighty and Incomparable One created the moon, the sun and planets, every one of these heavenly bodies remained motionless in its place, until the command went forth from God. At that time Saturn stood in Libra 21°, Jupiter in Cancer 15°, Mars in Capricornus 28°, the Sun in Aries 0°, (others incorrect- ly 19^), Yenus in Pisces 27°, Mercury in Pisces 27° (others incorrectly in Yirgo 15°) and the Moon in Taurus 8°. This was the beginning of the wprld^ and since that time the planets have never again heen in the same position. — And so it is ; for, such a planetary configuration can occur but once in millions of years. It took place in no other years and on no other day than the year 6871 B. C, and on 10th of Julian May, which at that time was the day of the vernal equinox and a Sunday. On that day the sun stood near the first star of Gemini (Castor and Pollux), which the celestial globes of the Arabians call Adam and Eve. As for the rest, it will be perceived that these epochs of the four ages of the world : 5871, 3725, 1579 B. C, and 598 A. C. are separated from each other by an in- terval of 2146 years, during which, as we have seen, the heavens advance through one sign of thirty degrees. It was the last age only that was made thirty years too long by the Hindoos. PLANETARY CONFIGUKATIOxX IN THE PRIMITIVE ALPHABET. 101 Among the most ancient astronomical observations of our forefathers we have yet to mention XVI. THE PLANETARY CONFIGURATION IN THE PRIMITIVE ALPHABET. What may he the age of our alphabet, and in what year was it invented, or at any rate, did it receive its present arrangement ? Many are now of the opin- ion, that our alphabet was invented by Cadmus, the Phoenician, about 1500 B. C. ; that, consequently, at the time of Enoch and of Moses the art of writing was as yet unknown, and that consequently the Pen- tateuch could not have originated with Moses. But, as respects the Phoenician Cadmus, this ancient tra- dition rather imports, that we owe the alphabet to the " Phoenicians from eternity," as Pliny says, i. e. to the Noachida3 ; and that the name Cadmus rather signifies in Hebrew the Ancient or the Ancestor, con- sequently none other than our ancestor Noah. Eirst of all it is obvious to every one that even before the deluge, during the long interval from the creation un- til Noah, which embraced a period of no less than two thousand four hundred and twenty- four years, an alphabet of some kind must have existed. Eor the New Testament makes express mention of the book of Enoch : the Koran, the Vedas, the book of the Zen- davesta, the apocryphal writings of the Old Testa- ment, Hyginus, the Phoenician Sanchunjathon, the Chaldean Berosus, and others affirm that books and 102 PLANETARY CONFIGURATION IN THE PRIMITIVE ALPHABET. an alphabet existed already before the flood, and that the latter was invented or newly arranged by Noah himself. These historical traditions are confirmed by the very :fact that all the alphabets of the world coin- cide with each other in point of the number, order, name, form and signification of the letters ; and con- sequently they must have originated at the time when there was as yet only one people in the world. All the ancient alphabets agree in respect of the first twenty-five letters ; and Plutarch has already remark- ed, that even the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyp- tians, whose literature goes back, as we have already seen, as far as the 666th year after the flood, also con- tained an alphabet of twenty-five letters, of which the first was A, as in all other alphabets. That in other countries a letter should have become obsolete and been eventually dropped entirely, or subsequent- ly some new letters appended to the last letter u, this can not be a matter of surprise. All the primitive alphabets commence with a, J), c, and end with 5, t, u. These twenty-five letters were originally pictures, or figures of objects belonging to ordinary life, from which they also derived their names ; and every let- ter expressed the sound with which its name began. The ancient A signifies a bulFs head, in the Hebrew alejph, and consequently expressed the vowel a. Now, if the alphabet had not been invented until 1900 years after the deluge, then the Greeks would have adapted to their own language an alphabet of letters, of which the names and forms were entirely foreign PLANETARY CONFIGURATION IN THE PRIMITIVE ALPHABET. 103 to tliem. In short, the agreement of all the ancient alphabets, among which we may likewise include the cuneiform letters of the Persians, Medes and Assy- rians, and the twenty- four radical signs of the Chinese and the Japanese, all go to confirm the tradition, according to which Noah rearranged and transmitted the primitive alphabet. To this we must add the special historical notices among the ancient Phoenicians, Chaldaeans, Greeks and others, according to which Noah, or his contem- poraries employed the alphabet to indicate the places of the seven planets in the Zodiac at the time of the flood, by means of the seven vowels.* The alphabets of the present time contain but ^ve or six vowels, but the ancient Egyptians still had seven ; and the two vowels e and e, which were afterwards dropped, had their place, according to the ancient Arabians, next to the Hebrew chet/ij the Latin L The Hebrews had, before their present system of vowels, invented by the Rabbis, 700 A. C, the same vowels as the Greeks, Ro- mans and other nations, as Jerome says, and the . Hebrew diphthongs prove.f The ancients still further specify to which particular planet each one of these * Seebode, Jahn und Klotz, Neue Jahrbucher fiir Philologie u. Pada- gogik, 1834, Supplem. II., Fasc. 4, with my treatise : Erklarung einer Stella in Sanchunjathon's Phonicische Geschichte bei Eusebius Praep. Evangel. I. 10. t This has been demonstrated in my pamphlet : Ueber die urspriing lichen Laute der hebraischen Buchstaben ; ein Beitrag zur Dialcctologie der Semitischen Volker, Leipz. 1824, and De pronunciatione literaruin Graecarum, 1824. 104 PLANETARY CONFIGURATION IN THE PRIMITIVE ALPHABET. seven distinct vowels respectively referred, that is : a to the Moon, e to Venus, e to the Sun, e to Mercury, i to Mars, o to Jupiter, u to Saturn. That the seven vowels of the Noachian alphabet, as the ancients affirm, really expressed a planetary configuration, is evident from the very fact, that those vowels which are entirely distinct from the consonants, are not put in juxta-position, either at the commencement, or in the middle, or at the end of the alphabet, but scat- tered, like the planets in different points of the Zo- diac. Now, if these traditions are correct, then the alpha- bet must indicate the planetary configuration at the end of the deluge, namely on the 7th of Sept. 3447 B. C. For, all the reliable traditions of antiquity, as we shall show hereafter, concur in the testimony, that the deluge ended in the year 8447 B. C. on the 7th day of September, on a Sabbath. If therefore the al- phabet was at that time a representation of the signs of the Zodiac, as Sanchunjathon and others expressly say ; then the twenty-five letters must be referred to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and that in such a manner, as that the two first letters are placed in Ge- mini, which was then the first sign of the Zodiac, and so forth. We then obtain the following places of the planets: the Moon {a) in Gemini 0° — 15°, Venus (e) in Leo 0°— 15°, the Sun (e) in Virgo 15°— 80°, Mer- cury (e) in Libra 0°— 15°, Mars {i) in Scorpio 15°— 80°, Jupiter {p) in Aquarius 15° — 80°, Saturn {%l) in Ge- mini 0° — 15°. And this is really, as every one can CORRECTIONS OF OUR PLANETARY TABLES. 105 find from his astronomical tables, the planetary con- figuration of Sept. 7th, Anno 3447 B. C. In the same year and on the same day the flood ended, according to the true biblical chronology. This subject has been explained more in extenso in my books, entitled : " Unser Alphabet ein Abbild des Thierkreises," Leipz. 1834, and " Unumstosslicher Beweis," cet. Leipz. 1842. " Alphabeta genuina," Lips. 1840. But it will be asked, what benefit or advantage can we derive from these ancient Asiatic, Egyptian, Greek and Koman astronomical traditions, although they have thus far been entirely unknown to us ? Let every one form his own judgment from what I shall now proceed to say. XVII. CORRECTIONS OF OUR PLANETARY TABLES. Our planetary tables are based upon the obser- vations of Ptolemy, 130 A. C. But as, at that time there were as yet no instruments for making astrono- mical measurements, these observations of Ptolemy must necessarily contain errors ; and these increase considerably in importance as we go back towards earlier dates. We are now acquainted with planetary places and constellations, which among the Romans are eight hundred, among the Greeks nine hundred, among the Egyptians three thousand years older than those of Ptolemy, by means of which our j)lanetary tables can be corrected. They furnish us in repeated 106 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT BASED instances with coincident, though, not very important, deviations from the ancient observations, and we have thus been already enabled to show, that the mean motions of the planets, their anomalies, nodes and apogees differed in some degree from those assumed in the tables constructed on the basis of Ptolemy's observations.^ It is therefore to be hoped, that astro- nomers by profession will make themselves acquainted with the astronomy of the ancient Egyptians. A simi- lar practical profit, as we have seen above, may be realized from more than one hundred ancient eclipses of the sun and the moon formerly unknown.^ XVm. THE HISTORY OF EGYPT BASED UPON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. The celebrated Lepsius, of Berlin, has in his great work on Egyptian history made the immortal disco- very, that Menes, the first king of the country, reigned before our dates of the flood and of the creation ; that " the deluge was confined to but a small portion of the globe ;" that " the sacred scriptures contain no history ;" that " the chronology of the Bible must ac- commodate itself to that of the Egyptians (N.B. as interpreted by Mr. Lepsius)," and so forth. This great savant, however, has exhibited in all his writ- ings to the present day, such a degree of ignorance, * Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte u. Zeitrechnung, p. 203. t See my treatise in the " Gottinger Gelehrte Anzeigen," No. 125, Aug-. 6, 1855, concerning the eclipses of the moon in Ptolemy's Alma- gest, and the eclipses of the sun in Greek and Roman authors. UPON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 107 heedlessness and levity, that there is no need of any refutation of his chimeras. Mr. Lepsius has not even learnt as yet, that all great kingdoms or empires have originated in smaller ones ; that consequently also, Manetho's dynasties must, from the very beginning, have been contemporaneous. Mr. Lepsius, knowing that the Vetus Chronicon, the oldest Egyptian history, gives to all the kings of the first fifteen dynasties since Menes no more than four hundred and forty- three years, makes the same dynasties successive, and gives them, in spite of genuine historical traditions, more than three thousand years. The whole history of Egypt is now determined, even to minute dates of years and days, by means of the many planetary con- figurations, mentioned above, as having occurred at the birth of the Pharaohs, at the commencement of the said four ages of the world, and at the beginning of the reign of Menes, the first Egyptian king ; by means of the transits of Mercury connected with the reign of certain monarchs, and lastly by means of the Phoenix-periods and Apis-periods, concerning which we have already spoken.^ On the basis of these mathematical truths, we, in the first place, find the commencement of the reign of Thuthmoses, the first king of the XYIII. Dynasty, during whose govern- ment the Hebrews emigrated, to have been in the year 1904 B. C. On the 7th April of the same year there * Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte und Zeitrechnunsf, p. 103. Theologische Schriften der alten JEgy^ter, p. 104. Die Phoenix-Pe- riode ; Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenl. Gesell., 1849, p. 64. 108 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT BASED was a renewal of the Phoenix-period of six hundred and fifty-one years, which is said to have taken place in the reign of this very Thuthmoses, or Amos I., and in the sixth year of the emperor Claudius. The arrival of the shepherd-kings (Hyksos), i. e. the Hebrews, as Josephus testifies, is ascertained with equal certainty. Even Manetho states, that these Hyksos became the builders of Jerusalem, subsequently to their expulsion from Egypt ; and, according to Africanus' copy of Manetho, they ruled contemporaneously with the Diospolite-kings of the XYIIth Dynasty, that is to say, in their land of Goshen. The Hebrews, therefore, arrived in Egypt, according to Manetho, in the 700th year of the canicular-period, (2782 B. C), consequent- ly in 2082 B. C. The precise time of Sesostris the Great, of the Xllth dynasty, is determined by the circumstance, that during his reign, and on the 6th of April, 2555 B. C. those Phoenix-periods of six hundred and fifty-one years commenced, which were subsequent- ly renewed in 1904 B. C. under Amos I., and in 50 A. C. under Claudius. The first year of Menes, namely the 2781 B. C, is determined by sixteen astronomical in- scriptions, and by the very fact, that the Yetus Chro- nicon, an old historical work of the Egyptians, places Menes in the first year of the canicular period, that is also in 2781 B. C. Thus it is evident, that between Menes and the XYIIIth dynasty, several dynasties must have ruled simultaneously in upper and lower E^ypt^ whicij was early divided into twelve provinces, or Nomi. The ^ue^tion now is, which of these Ma- w UPON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 109 nethonian dynasties were contemporaneous ? Eratos- thenes has left us a translation of a list of the Pha- raohs from Menes to the end of the XYIIIth dynasty (1647 B. C), together with a statement of the years ot the respective reigns of these kings ; and from these is manifest, not onlv that Menes did not come from Babylonia into Egypt until the afore-mentioned year 2781 B. C, but also that among the earlier dynasties enumerated by Manetho, the 1st, Xllth, XYIth, XVIIth, and XYIIIth only were successive, and that the intervening ones were contemjDoraneous with them. The same Egyptian history is established with still greater certainty by the Table of Abydos, now in the British Museum, of the year 1600 B. C, on which all the Egyptian kings of the 1st, Xllth, XYIth, XYIIth, and XYIIIth dynasties are enumerated in their regu- lar order, but all the intervening ones entirely omitted.^ Finally, we have, in addition, the Table of Karnak, of the year 1700 B. C, which divides the kings from Menes to the XYIIIth dynasty into two series, by arranging those that ruled successively on one side, and those who were their contemporaries on the other. — Thus then the strife, which has lasted so many years respecting Manetho's dynasties, and the true commencement of Egyptian history, has at last been set at rest. The history of Egypt did not * Berichte iiber die Verhandlungen der k. Sachs. Gesell. d. Wiss. 1846, n. p. 71 ; with my treatise : Ueber das Laterculum des Eratos- thenes. 110 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT BASED begin before the flood, not before the creation, and not before the year 2781 B C, but 666 years after the flood. It is true, that men may difi'er in opinion ; but astronomical and mathematical facts can never be controverted. Our next inquiry is, what may have been the date which the Egyptians assigned to the creation and the deluge ? The day of the creation was, according to their traditions, the day of the vernal equinox, as Philo and the Church Fathers testify. The said pla- netary constellation of the commencement of the first age of the world, also preserved by the Egyptians, refers us, as we have already shown, to the same day, the vernal equinox of the year 5871 B. C. Further- more, they placed the creation in the year in which Sirius, the dog-star, rose together with the sun on the day of the vernal equinox, as we are informed by Porphyry, by ^neas Gazasus and others. And this again could take place only in the year 5871 B. C. Lastly, we find it stated by the Alexandrian astro- nomer Theon, that in the year 27 B. C, the sixteenth of the reign of Augustus, on the 29th of August (the 1st of the month Thoth) a new canicular period (the fifth since the creation, comprising 1461 years) had commenced ; by which 5871 B. C. is again confirmed as the year of the creation. In short, the Egyptians, like all the other nations of antiquity, have assigned 5871 B. C. as the year of the creation. The history of the deluge they represented by the myth con- cerning the death of Osiris, which occurred on the UPON ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATL >NS. Ill same day, the iTtli of the month Athyr, on which the flood began, according to the Sacred Scriptures. But, how does this agree with Manetho and the Vetus Chronicon, which reckon 30,000 years from the beginning of time to Typhon, the murderer of his brother Osiris (i. e. to the flood ; for, Typhon signifies also the sea, as Osiris the mainland) ; and farther 3984 years from thence to Menes, and besides 217 additional years ? — We are informed by Censorinus, Horapollo and others, that the Egj^ptian word 0- abot^ hahof, (complexus) signified not only a year, but also a month, and also a season of two months. Conse- quently Manetho and the author of the Yetus Chro- nicon were authorized to calculate times according to such shorter years, without contradicting the other historical traditions of their nation. Now, we know moreover, that Manetho's history of Egypt was called the book of the Sothis, that is to say, the book of the great canicular period of 36,525 years. This number was obtained by the multiplication of the smaller Sothis of 1461 years with the Apis-period of twenty- five years and proximately coincided, as we have seen, with the great world-period of 36,000 years. Now since Manetho was very well acquainted with the very year of the creation 5871 B. C, which was recorded in the planetary constellations concerning the com- mencements of the three first ages of the world, he must have taken shorter years as the basis of those periods, of 30,000 and 3984 years, in order to include in his great Sothis of 36,525 years the entire history 112 THE HISTORY OF EGYPT, &C. of Egypt down to his time. In short, for the purpose of establishing a history of 36,525 years, called So- this, Manetho turned solar years into months by mul- tiplication, as we find it also among the ancient Chal- deans, Hindoos, Chinese, and others. He therefore regarded those 30,000 years of his from the creation to the flood as so many lunar months (abot), and con- sequently reckoned only 2424 solar years for the period in question. Moreover the 3984 years (Horae) from the deluge to Menes, of which each expressed a season of two months, give but 664 solar years ; and Manetho's third period of 217 years rather comprises the days from Menes' departure from Babjdonia to his arrival in Egypt. Hence there is nothing at all irreconcilable between Manetho's Sothis and the other traditions of his people All knew that, according to the above-men- tioned planetary configurations, the creation had taken place on the 10th of May, 5871 B. C, and the arrival of Menes on the 16th of July, 2781 B. C. Between the two epochs 3089 years intervene, and precisely this number we have in Manetho's periods of 30,000 months and 3984 Horae, with 217 days. In fine, as Manetho reckons from the creation down to Typhon (the deluge) 2424 solar years, the Egyptians placed the flood 2424 years subsequent to 5871 B. C, and therefore in the year 3447 B. C, to which year, as has already been said, the planetary configuration in the alphabet refers. THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS NEAR CAIRO. 113 XIX. THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS NEAR CAIRO. To the most remarkable among the antiquities in Dr. Abbott's Museum belongs a heavy, gold, signet- ring (No. 1050), bearing upon it the name of king Cheops ^— ^=^^4 ^ (KHPH). This was the king who, according to Herodotus built the great pyramid at Gizeh ; and his name has actually been found in a chamber of this pyramid. But at what precise time may this wonder of the world have been 'erected ? — Mr. Lepsius places the pyramid before the flood, and even before the creation ; this, coming from such an illustrious philosopher, does not surprise us at all. Yet it will be well to hear what Herodotus, whom Mr. Lepsius does not name, has to say on the subject. Herodotus, Book II. c. 99, mentions all the particular- ly remarkable kings from Menes (2781 B. C.) down to his own time. Among those who succeeded Menes, the more remarkable, according to Herodotus, were Moeris, the ninth king of the XYIIIth dynasty, 1777 B. C; after him his son Sesostris (Osimandya) 1731 B. C; then Pheron (Ramses the Great) 1694 B. C, then Proteus, at the time of the Trojan war; then Rhamp- sin^ ; then our Cheops ; then Chephren ; next Mykeri- nos ; next Asychis, and so on. Thus, then, the erection of the great pyramid occurred long subsequent to the end of the XVIIIth dynasty, the period of which is determined by reliable astronomical observations; nay, its date is later even than that of the Trojan war, which according to the unanimous testimony of anti- 114 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT quity, took place about 1200 years B. C. During this time Egypt was governed by the kings of the XXth dynasty, whose names the transcribers of Manetho have unfortunately not jDreserved. In short, the pyra- mid of Cheops was not built before the creation and the flood, but as late as the period of the XXth dy- nasty, later than the fall of Troy, and in the time of David. XX. THE TRUE CHROXOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT COXFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. The currently received chronology of the Old Tes- tament is based upon the " Doctrina Temporum" of Petavius (Paris, 1627). But this unfortunate chrono- logist adopted as the basis of his scheme, not the cor- rect statements of the Greek text of the Bible, but the changed numbers of the Hebrew, which shorten the period from the Creation to Abraham by fifteen hundred years. Petavius might, and ought to have known, as well as Perizonius (L'antiquite des Temps, Paris, 1687), that after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a certain Rabbi Akiba shortened the, ori- ginal chronological statements in the Hebrew text by fifteen hundred years, for the purpose of making Christ appear to have been a false Messiah, who had come fifteen hundred years before the time predicted by Habakkuk and others. Petavius ought to have , known, that Christ, the Apostles, the first Christian CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 115 Churches; nay, even the learned Jew Josephus, seventy years A. C, never knew of any other chrono- logy than that of the LXX. ; even the Arabians and the oldest Fathers of the Church bear witness to that intentional corruption ; and the Jews in Ethi- opia have retained, down to the present day, a bib- lical history longer by fifteen hundred years, than that of the present Hebrew text. However, even the Greek version of the Old Testament, made two hundred and fifty years before Christ, has, like all other ancient manuscripts, suffered from the carelessness of trans- cribers, so that we find mistakes in two passages. In the first place, according to the book of Judges, which states the years during which nearly all the Judges governed Israel, according to Josephus and ac- cording to the genealogies of the Old Testament, as evenPrichard (Egyptian Mythology, London, 1816) al- ready showed, it was eight hundred and eighty years from the Exody of the Hebrews out of Egypt down to the building of Solomon's temple. The Greek text (I. Kings 6, 1) makes it only four hundred and forty years, and the Hebrew four hundred and eighty, but the Hebrew of the Oriental Jews five hundred and ninety- two. This then would make the date of Is- rael's exody four hundred years earlier than Petavius would have us believe ; consequently in the year 1867 B. C. This correction of the present biblical reckon- ing is established beyond all possibility of doubt by a great number of mathematical and historical facts. Clemens Alexandrinus states that the Israelites emi- 116 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT grated five hundred and forty-five years before the be- ginning of the new Canicular Period, which began 1322 B. C; consequently in the year above mentioned, 1867 B. C. — Manetho informs us, that the shepherd- kings (Hyksos), who, according to him and Josephus, were the Israelites, had come to Egypt seven hundred years after the beginning of the first Canicular Pe- riod, beginning 2782 B. C, therefore in the year 2082 B. C. Now, as the Israelites departed again two hun- dred and fifteen years later, it is again obvious, that the year 1867 B. C. was indeed the year of their de- parture. This occurred, as is testified, by ecclesiastical antiquity, under Amos, the first king of the eighteenth Dynasty ; but this king reigned, as is shown by the planetary constellations of his successors, and the transit of Mercury, which occurred 1904 B. C. during his reign, from the year 1904 to the year 1867 B.C., when he perished in the Red Sea. — Joseph was, according to ecclesiastical traditions, sold into Egypt during the reign of Apo]3his (2213 B. C.) ; twenty-three years later the Israelites came to Goshen ; and this again proves that their Exody occurred 1867 B. C. — Josephus and the ancient Commentaries on Numbers 24, 17. inform us, that three years before the birth of Moses a remarkable Conjunction of Saturn and Ju- piter occurred in the sign of Pisces, which takes place, according to Kepler, only once in eight hundred years. But the only time when this can have occurred, is 1951 B. C, whence Moses was born 1948 B. C. But as Moses was, at the time of the Exody, eighty years CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 117 old, it is again obvious, that this Exody must have occurred 1867 B. C. — Furthermore, the Scriptures reckon from the flood, which ended on the seventh day of September, 3447 B. C, down to the Exody, fifteen hundred and eighty years. Now it has been ascer- tained that, according to the planetary configuration contained in the Alphabet, the deluge came to an end on the seventh of September, 3447 B. C, hence, again^the Israelites must have made their Exody, 1867 B. C. In short, from the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt down to the building of Solomon's temple, a period elapsed, not of four hundred and forty, or of four hundred and eighty, or -B.Ye hundred and ninety- two, but of eight hundred and eighty years. The same is proved by the succession of the Judges among the Hebrews in the Book of the Judges, and by the genealogies in the Chronicles. The second mistake made by transcribers of the Greek text is found in Genesis 5, 25. 26. This appears already from the difierent readings, and the contra- dictions that have grown out of them. If, at the birth of Lamech, Methuselah had been only one hundred and sixty-seyen years old, as the manuscript copies say, he would have survived the deluge. But if we read three hundred and forty-nine years, Methuselah's death occurred one hundred and sixty-eight years be- fore the flood. This being correct, a period, not of 2242, or 2262, but of 2424 years intervened between the Creation and the flood. In this way the history of the Old Testament is again reconciled with itself, 118 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT with the historical traditions current among all the other ancient nations, and, what is in itself decisive, with the ages of the world and the astronomical tra- ditions of all the nations of antiquity. For, from the planetary constellation at the beginning of the -first age of the world, on the tenth of May, 5871 B. C. down to the constellation at the end of the deluge on the seventh of September, 3447 B. C, we again have 2424 years. It has been ascertained that the Egyptians also reckoned, from the beginning of time to the death of Osiris by,Typhon, i. e. to the deluge, thirty thousand lunar-months, hence 2424 years. All ancient nations, and even Habakkuk reckoned six thousand years from the Creation to Tiberius and Christ. So definite a history of the Old Testament, accurately fixing not only years, but days, would never have come to light, had not the hand of Providence preserved for us so many antiquities of Egypt, together with so many astronomical observations from the time of the Eoman emperors back to the -day of Creation. The beginning of the first age of the world, according to the Julian year, that tenth of May, 5871 B. C, was really, as the traditions of the ancient nations reported, the day of the vernal-equinox, and at the same time the first day after the first Sabbath of the world. More extensive explanations are given in my Chrono- logia Sacra; Leipzig, 1846. Although these historical and astronomical traditions prove, that the true chronology from the Creation down to Abraham still exists, not in the Hebrew, but CONFIRxMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 119 in the Greek text of the Pentateuch, and that the Apostate Akiba, for the purpose of rejecting Christ and expecting another, did actually fifteen hun- dred years later, shorten the lives of fourteen Pa- triarchs ; yet many Christians, who, from their youth, have believed in the infallibility of the Hebrew chro- nology, will hesitate to change their conviction im- mediately. They will perhaps make the following philosophical objections. 1. The Lord could not permit any falsification of Tiis holy and revealed Word. — This is, however, a mere hypothesis, which confutes itself. For the ancient manuscripts of the Old and New Testament contain, as is well known, a great many corruptions: there are large collections of different readings in the He- brew and in the Greek Bible. Walton already re- marked, that the manuscripts of the Hebrew Testament differ very much the one from the other, particularly in figures and proper names. Kennicott, by compar- ing more than seventy Hebrew manuscripts, made the same discovery; and Teller, the translator of Kenni- cott's work, says:* "if we were to assume entire ab- sence of errors in the copies of this ancient book, we would have to take for granted a continuous miracle, performed in the case of every transcriber; and this infallibility would have lasted till the invention of typography." Further, as God has permitted all crimes of men since Adam, so he has j^ermitted also * Benj. Kennicott, Ratio textus hebraici V. T. interprete Ab. Teller. Lips. 1756. 120 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT both designed and unintentional alterations of his Holy Word, in respect to chronology and other subjects. The Samaritan Pentateuch, for instance, written ori- ginally with the same letters as the Hebrew, was, af- ter Solomon's death, regarded as the Word of God ; and yet we find in it an entirely different chronology from that in the present Hebrew text. Likewise the Greek translation of the Pentateuch, called the Sep- tuagint, also contains the Word of God; and yet from Adam to Abraham it gives fifteen hundred years more than the Hebrew Testament. Now, suppose the chronology' in the LXX. to be a falsified one; had God permitted the falsification of his Holy Word, or not? Did he not permit such a falsified Bible to get in the hands of many millions of Jews and Chris- tians, and to pass among them during two thousand years, even down to the present day, for the true Word of God ? Moreover, the Hebrew Bibles of the Jews in the Orient contain, as is well known, a chronology different from that in our printed Hebrew Bible. Even Luther and others already showed in many places, e. g. Is. 9, 6., that the Rabbis did, 800 A. C. falsify the Hebrew text, for the purpose of dis- crediting or obliterating certain prophecies in respect to Christ. How then may any one assert, or attempt to demonstrate, that God was obliged to preserve the Hebrew text of the Old Testament uncorrupted, even in the smallest particulars? A groundless supposi- tion proves nothing, but facts decide. Consequently we may assume a corrupted chronology in the Hebrew CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 121 text with the same right as others have assumed it in the LXX. Which has been corrupted, is to be decid- ed by the Word of God itself, or by other true histo- rical and astronomical facts. 2. The Seventy Interjpreters exjpanded the original chronology of the Old Testament hy 1500 years for the purj^ose of harmonizing hoth histories. — This is, however, another groundless supposition, and an ob- vious mistake. For the Egpytians, according to the Vetus Chronicon, Manetho, Herodotus, Diodorus Sicu- lus and others, counted from the Creation to the De- luge 30,000 years, thence down to Menes, in the time of Phaleg, 3984 years, and 217 years from Menes to the Exody of the Israelites, in the time of Amos, more than 4000 years ; whilst the LXX., according to the usual editions, reckon only 2242 years from the Creation to the Deluge, thence till Menes only QQQ years, from Menes till the Exody only 1580 years. Moreover, the Egyptian history gives for the time from the Exody down to Solomon 880 years, whilst the LXX., accord- ing to the best manuscripts (1 Kings 6, 1.), mark only 440 years. Had then the seventy Interpreters enter- tained the purpose to harmonize the Hebrew chrono- logy and history with the Egyptian, they would have proposed quite different historical periods, and cer- tainly they never would have counted 440 years in- stead of 880 for the time that elapsed between the Exody and Solomon. That philosophers were capable of devising such an argument against the chronology in the LXX., is a matter of surprise. No ancient au- 6 122 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT tbor has ever made such an objection against the LXX. ; on the contrary, learned old Fathers of the Church and Arabian authors relate, that a certain apostate Akiba, about 100 A. C, shortened the origi- nal chronology in the Hebrew text by 1600 years in order to prove that Christ, born long before the time fixed by the Prophets, was a Pseudo-Messiah, and that the Jews might wait 1500 years longer for the true Christ. This is affirmed by the learned Abulfeda,*' who says: " The Jews proceeded in the same manner in reference to the lives of Adam's descendants. The reason of these alterations, it is said, was, to make it appear, that Christ entered the world during the fifth millennium or year-thousand, whilst the Pentateuch and other sacred books had predicted that the birth of the true Messiah would occur in the sixth year- thousand." Not less clear is the testimony of Abul- faragrf (the shortening of the chronology in the He- brew Bible) " is imputed to Jewish Rabbis. For, it being predicted in the Law and the Prophets, that the Messiah would be sent in the last times, they have, in order to reject Christ, shortened the lives of the Patriarchs down to Abraham one hundred years each. — Thus it happened, that, according to their reckoning, Christ was born during the fifth year-thousand. Now they say, we are still in the midst of the time ; the predicted time of the Messiah has not yet come." * Historia cet., ed. Fleischer. Lips. 1831, p. 7. t Historia Dynastiarum ; ed. Pokok. P. 72, Dyn. 7. CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 123 Add to these the decisive testimonies of the Evange- lists, the Apostles and the first Christian Churches, the first Fathers of the Church, as also Josephus and Philo, who ratify and confirm the chronology of the LXX. St. Augustine says :^ " (The Christian communi- ties) claim that it is incredible, that the seventy In- terpreters should have been capable of mistake, or that having no reason for so doing, they should have lied." In short, it is a false assertion, that the seventy Interpreters extended the chronology of the Bible for the purpose of harmonizing the Hebrew and Egyp- tian histories. No ancient author says any such thing; on the contrary all Christian antiquity, orthodox Jews and even learned Mahomedans tell us, that a short time after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus a certain Akiba, out of hostility to Christianity, short- ened the lives of fourteen patriarchs. 3. Supposing Akiha or Aquila had falsified some Hebrew PentateucKs^ lie would never have succeeded in interpolating all the other manuscripts in the hands of the Jews. — This is, altogether, a ridiculous objection. For, is it actually decided, that all copies of the He- brew Pentateuch in the world are in like manner fal- sified ? For my part, I am fully convinced, that there still exist, in Asia and Africa, Hebrew manuscripts * Augustin. Civ. D. XV. 11. 13 : Sed cum hoc dixero, continue re- fertur, illud Judaeorum esse mendacium. Inquiunt (Christiani), non esse credibile, Septuaginta interpretes errare potuisse, aut, ubi nihil eorum intererat, voluisse mentiri. — Judaei vero, dum nobis invident, quod Lex et Prophetae ad nos interpretando transierint, mutasse qusedam in codicibus suis, ut nostris minueretur auctoritas. 124 THE TRUE CHRONOIiOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT of the Old Testament, harmonizing with the LXX. and containing the same chronology which Josephus and the first Christian Chn relies found in their He- brew Testaments. Furthermore, after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, there were not yet so many Hebrew manuscripts in existence ; and thus it was easy for Aquila, to accomplish his object. For, sub- sequent to the time of Alexander the Great, the Greek language was so universal in the East and West, that the greater part of the Jews forgot the Hebrew and used the Septuagint. Even the Jews in Palestine, as innumerable Greek inscriptions there found, and the New Testament show, spoke Greek in preference to the Hebrew. It is probable, that in the time of Herod many a scribe still kept a copy of the Hebrew Bible ; but eighty years A. C, in the time of Akiba, after the temple-, the metropolis and all the cities of Palestine had been destroyed by fire, and two millions of Jews killed or sold as slaves ; in that time, certainly, He- brew manuscripts must have become scarce in the w^orld. Thus, then it was easy to alter the small number of manuscripts remaining in Palestine, according to Aki- ba's readings. Besides, in that time, as our ancient manuscripts sufficiently show, every book was full of mistakes and obliterations; and it was a custom among the Ancients, to compare diff'erent copies of a book, the one with the other, as often as possible, and to mark different readings in the margin or in the text itself. Therefore, whoever saw a He- brew Pentateuch altered according to Akiba, would CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 125 suppose, that he found here better and original read- ings, and mark them, as such, in his own copy. This alteration of the genuine Biblical chronology was particularly promoted by the supposition, that Aki- ba's or Aquila's new Greek translation of the Penta- teuch was based upon very old and correct manu- scripts. But apart, even, from this point, it is clear, why such a shortened Biblical chronology appeared very acceptable to all the Jews. For, if they re- tained the old chronology in the Hebrew text, they were obliged to believe in Christ, because he was born during the sixth year-thousand, in the time predicted by the Prophets ; hence they would have been obliged to submit to baptism. If, on the contrary, they adopted Akiba's chronology, then they had a show of right in waiting for another Messiah, who was to be their mighty temporal sovereign, and in crucifying the Lord a second time. Finally, the Academies of the Pharisees which existed, in the time of Akiba, at Jam- nia and Tiberias, and which boasted of possessing " the purest doctrine," may have contributed to the promulgation of Akiba's chronology. In short, after the destruction of Jerusalem it was possible to intro- duce a corrupted Biblical chronology. Whoever re- gards this as impossible, does not remember the Pha- risees, as they appear in the New Testament, nor similar examples found elsewhere. The chronology in the Samaritan Pentateuch is, as everybody knows, a corrupted one ; and yet we nevertheless find it in all Samaritan Peutateuchs now in existence. Whoever 126 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE »LD TESTAMENT takes the LXX. to be a falsified translation, must ad- mit that it was possible to establish and invest with authority a fraud before the eyes of Josephus, Philo, the Fathers of the Church, and many millions of Jews and Christians after the time of Ptolemy and of Christ. In the same way then it was possible also for Akiba's chronology gradually to acquire authority, as authentic, in the Synagogues and Western Christian Churches. Even the sacred writings of the Hindoos, furnish a similar example. They ascribed to their Yedas the highest antiquity when the English first became acquainted with them ; but at the beginning of this century some one found in those Vedas a por- tion of the history of Rome, by which the Brahmins were convicted of fraud and deception. Some years after, that same piece of Roman history was not to be found in any co]3y of the same sacred book. At last one of the Brahmins confessed and said, that the Brahmins had immediately ordered, throughout all India, the erasure of that piece of Roman history, by which they were convicted as liars. — ^There is extant, also, a modern edition of the Hebrew Bible with a German-Rabbinical interpretation, in which Daniel's seventy weeks are wanting. The assertion then, that in the time of Akiba a Hebrew Bible with a cor- rupted chronology would never have acquired autho- rity, cannot be sustained. 4. All the arguments in favor of the authenticity of the chronology given in the Septuagint were refuted already in the theological writings of the CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 127 last century. — This is, however, another incorrect assertion. It is true that many theologians endea- vored one hundred or one hundred and fifty years ago, to demonstrate in opposition to Perizonius, Isaac Yoss, Baronius, Gary, Jackson, Des Vignoles and others,^ that the true chronology had been exclusively preserved in the Hebrew Bible ; but how was this attempted? They began by taking .for granted, what ought first of all to have been demonstrated from the Word of God and by mathe- matical certainties, to wit, that it was impossible to change a single jot in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament; they paid no regard to either the testimonies of Christ, the Apostles and Evangelists, or the testimony of the Fathers of the Church and of the oldest Christian Churches ; they explained the greatest incongruities of history, arising from the chronology in the Hebrew Pentateuch, by means of alleged miracles ; they would neither hear nor see ; they pretended that the Cainan in the New Testament (Luke 8, 36), was another per- son than the Cainan of the Old Testament (Gen. 5, 9.; 1. Chron. 1, 2), in order to prove, that the Evangelists did not follow the chronology of the LXX., but that of the Hebrew, and that consequent- ly the chronology of the Septuagint was not sanc- tioned or confirmed by the New Testament. When they calculated in this manner, however, they did not recollect the fact, that Christ, the Apostles and * S. Wachler, Geschichte der Literatur. Lips. 1833, IV. 77. 128 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. Evangelists nowhere reject, but repeatedly adduce the LXX., and thus declare it to be the true Word of God, in spite of all who seek to force St. Luke into their service. Besides, these apologies for the Biblical chronology in the Hebrew text were not refuted as thoroughly and effectually as they might have been, and now can be ; but the work was ^3^e as well as the state of science at that time permitted. Now things are different from what they were a hundred years ago. For, since that time entirely new proofs, both historical and astro- nomical, confirming the chronology of the Septua- gint, have come to light ; and these, being as re- liable as the multiplication-table, are irrefutable. It is thus an erroneous assertion, that the chrono- logy in our present Hebrew Bible is placed beyond all question. 5. Moreover^ cautious and scrupulous men will, per- haps, say : suppose we grant that the true chronology is preserved, not in the Hebrew, hut in the Greeh Pen- tateuch, then the poor Christian people will lose all confidence in the Bible, and the whole Christian Church will be shaken to its foundation. We ought then, at least, to cast aside our Hebrew Bibles, together with Luther'' s translation and the authorized English version, and regard the Septuagint as alone contain- ing the Word of God, But, God be praised, nothing of the kind is necessary. For the Word of God, in all that is essential to our salvation, is contained in the Hebrew Bible, in Luther's translation, and in the CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 129 aiitliorized En-glish yersion, as well as in the Septua- gint. The question, whether Adam was created 2000 years earlier or later, does not at all belong to those articles of faith, which are vitally important to human salvation. From the time of the apostles down to the present day, two-thirds, at least, of the Christian Church, particularly in the East, have be- lieved and taught, that the true Biblical chronol(^y is preserved, not in the Hebrew but in the Greek text; and yet, the Christian Church has not crumbled into dust, but has increased and prospered since the days of the Apostles, in spite of those chronological varia- tions. Every body knows, that God has permitted a vast number of alterations, both unintentional and designed, in all copies of the Old and New Testa- ments ; that down to the present day, the critics re- main in doubt as respects the correct and original reading of many passages, not, however, of essential importance, in both the Old and New Testaments. Wherefore, then, should a Christian, whose one great concern it is to be a child of God, allow himself to be perplexed, and to become an infidel, upon hearing that the Hebrew Testament, or rather the manuscripts that are still accessible to us, contain a few errors more than they were known and proved, centuries ago, by Luther and others, to contain ? There is, moreover, no reason whatever for seeking, hence- forward, the Word of God rather in the Septuaginf,* than in the Hebrew Bible, or in Luther's or the English version. — 6* 180 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT For, in general, both texts agree entirely, and word for word: the differences are not numerous, and affect only points of minor importance, to which must be reckoned those shortened lives of fourteen patriarchs. Besides, it is possible that the Hebrew manuscripts used by the seventy translators, con- tained some errors which are now rectified in our printed Hebrew Bibles, in accordance with other and" better manuscripts. Finally, as the Rabbis have, since the eighth century, numbered the let- ters of every biblical section, recording their num- ber at the end of each, the Hebrew text has, of course, been copied with greater accuracy than its Greek translation. From all this we arrive at the conclusion, that in all passages in which the Greek text does not agree with the Hebrew, the latter must be preferred. Only those passages of the Septuagint are to be excepted, which have been quoted in the New Testament, and to have thus been sanctioned by Christ, the Apostles and Evan- gelists. It will now be evident that the question, whether the true Biblical chronology has been preserved in the Hebrew text or in th« Septuagint, which ques- tion has been debated in the Christian Church ever since the destruction of Jerusalem, has not yet, by any means, ceased to be a subject of disagreement and dispute. The East continues, to the present day, to prefer the Septuagint, the West, our He- brew text. But why should it be impossible to CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 131 arrive at a satisfactory, because correct, conclusion in the premises ? Are we to believe that Pro- vidence has failed to provide for our deliverance from such doubts and uncertainties? The follow- ing fact will I trust, serve, by the blessing of God, to convince every Christian of the truth of our po- sition, that the true chronology from the creation till the birth of Christ is to be found in the Sep- tuagint. 1. Christy the Evangelists and Apostles repeatedly quote passages of the Septuagint ^ a/nd^ to specify a particular instam^ce, St. ZuJce maTces mention of the patriarch Cainan^ whose name is now wanting in the Hebrew text^ but to whom the Septuagint ascribes 135 years prior to the birth of his son. It is well known that, since the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews condemn and reject the Sep- tuagint, as a corruption or falsification of the Word of God ; and the Talmud designates the origin of the Septuagint as a disastrous day.*= Suppose that the Septuagint or its chronology, in fixing the time of the Messiah's advent 1500 years earlier, were really chargeable with falsification : suppose, more- over, that the Hebrew text had not agreed with the Greek, ever since the day of Ptolemy, the con- trary of which is proved even by Josephus and Philo, would Christ, and the Apostles and Evan- gelists have, in the sight of all men, quoted, as the * Talmud, Tractat. Sophar 1 182 THE TRUE CHROiXOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT Word of God, a record tlius falsified ? Would they have appealed to a book justly condemned ?=^ Assuredly not. Thus the chronology of the Septua- gint is confirmed by the New Testament, and no Christian will demand any other proofs. Whosoever regards the New Testament as inspired, and this is, of course, the position maintained by the whole Christian Church, is thus bound to acknowledge that the Septuagint contains the true chronology. Whoever, on the contrary, rejects the testimony of Christ, and the Apostles and Evangelists, accepting the chronology in the Hebrew text as the true one, denies, in so doing, the inspiration of the New Testament, and is not, therefore, really a Christian, however much he may boast of his orthodoxy. 2. The projphets of the Old Testament foretold repeatedly, that Christ would come into the world six thousand years after the creation, and according to Daniel (9, 24.), fA)e hundred and thirty four years after the Babylonian cajptivity. But the He- brew text reckons from Adam to Christ only 4000 years, while, according to the Septuagint, Christ was born nearly 6000 years after the creation. Who- ever, then, accepts the Old Testament as an in- spired book, must acknowledge that the Septuagint contains the true biblical chronology. Those 6000 years from Adam to Christ we find first in Habak- kuk 3, 2. For " the midst of the years" signified, ■•= John 5, 89. Habak. 4, 2. CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 183 as at that time almost every one among the ancient nations knew, the half or middle of the world- period of 12,000 years, which was based upon the slow motion of the Zodiac,* This same era we find among the Chalda3ans, the Persians, in Hamza of Ispahan, in the Zendavesta, among the Egyptians, Greeks, Komans, Tuscans, and others. Habakkuk does not say, that after Christ's birth the world would exist six thousand years longer, for nobody knows the end of the world, "except the Father;" he says only, that Christ would be born in the midst of the era of 12,000 years, found by the an- cient sages and known everywhere. The same pe- riod was foretold as that of the Messiah's advent, by Isaiah (2,2.), and other prophets, by the words: "in the last days [time]." That is, as the six days of creation were followed by the Sabbath, so would the Christian Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Christian dispensation, be preceded by six days, each consist- ing of a thousand years ; a statement perfectly con- sistent with prophetic usage. For we find such days of a thousand years mentioned in the Psalms : such also were the six ages of the world among the ancient nations : the successive ages of gold, silver, brass, iroD, clay or the heroic, and the human. To these six ages of the world belongs also the gigantic image of time described in the second chapter of the book of Daniel, with its head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs * Chronologia Sacra, p. 104 sqq., p. Icrz. 134 THE TRUE CliROxXOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT of brass, legs of iron, and feet part of iron and part of clay ; although, in this place, the six ages denote monarchies, of which that of Nebuchad- nezzar was the first. In these and similar passages of the Old Testament, among which we may in- stance Exod. 31, 13 ; Gen. 2, 2, all ancient interpre- ters found the prophecy, that Christ would be born at the expiration of the sixth year- thousand, as is testified, in the first place, by learned Mahome- tans. For Abulfeda says, in the passage cited above : " The Pentateuch and other Hebrew hooks had promised, that the Messiah should come during the sixth millenium (year-thousand) after the crea- tion." Abulphanag says: "As had been foretold in the Law and the Prophets^ the IMessiah was to be sent in the last timey at the end of the sixth year- thousand after the creation." — -Again, Josephus re- ports, that during the Jewish war many pseudo- Messiahs arose, and were regarded as true Saviors ; and why was this ? Because the Jews knew, that, according to the predictions of the prophets, the advent of the Messiah was to occur six thousand years after the creation, and that, moreover, the sixth millenium or year-thousand was to end seven- ty years subsequent to the commencement of our era. Suetonius also, and Tacitus relate, that the entire East was, at that time, looking for the pro- mised Messiah."^ The Jews must, consequently have * Sueton Vespas. c. 4. Tacit, Hist. V 13. "Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in futis, ut eo tempore Judsea pro- CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 135 been aware, that the time for the advent of the Messiah had been fixed by the prophets in the sixth year-thousand. Had the Hebrews, at that time already, found the present shortened chrono- logy in their Hebrew Bible, they would surely not have expected the Messiah at that time, but fifteen hundred years later, as did the Jews in Spain, in the East, and the learned Abarbanel himself, four- teen hundred aud sixty years after Christ. Can any one point to a single passage of the Old Testament according to which we ought to re- fer the words, " the midst of the years," " the last days [time]," "the sixth day of the world," to the year four thousand after the creation ? So far from doing any thing of the kind, the Jews in Spain, after having become powerful in that country, openly assailed the Christian Church, A.D. 680, with the reproach that Christ, having been born fifteen hundred years too early, was therefore a false Mes- siah ; whilst they maintained that the true Messiah would come fifteen hundred years later, i. e. in the sixth year-thousand after the creation.^^ It was con- sequently known to every Jew, at that time, that, ac- cording to the prophets, Christ should come " in the fecti rerum potirentur. — Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum libris contineri, fore ut valesceret Oriens et e Judaea profecti rerum po- tirentur." * In confutation of these columnies Julian, the Bishop of Toledo, wrote, in 586, a large work in three volumes, entitled : " De demon stratione sextse setatis," first published Hagense, 1532 ; in this he de- monstrated that Christ was really born 6000 years after the creation. 136 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT midst of tlie years," i. e. six thousand years after the creation. About the year 1460 A. C, Abarbanel wrote his celebrated commentary on Daniel, in which he bade his brethren in the faith remember, that the true Messiah, foretold by the prophets, would be born in a very short time. It was stated, in 1810, by the missionary Fjeldstedt, an eye-witness, that all the Jews in the East were then anxiously expecting the advent of the Messiah ; and why ? Because, according to the peculiar chronology of the oriental Jews, the sixth millenium or year-thousand after the creation expired in 1810. — We derive still further confirmation of the chronology of the Septuagint from the primi- tive Christian Churches belonging to the apostolic age. For during the time of the apostles and the age immediately succeeding, the Christians expected the beginning of the great Sabbath, the seventh year- thousand after the creation, which began in the year 130 A. C. and expired in 1130. Would those primi- tive Christian Churches have openly spoken of the beginning of the seventh year-thousand, as then ex- pected, if they had not learned from the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church, or directly from the Bible itself, that the six thousand years subsequent to the creation would then have elapsed ? — The beginning of this seventh millenium or year-thousand was known even to the Pagans. For the old poet Linus had, at a much earlier period, sung : " When the seventh day [i. e. year- thou sand] shall come, the Almighty Father will accomplish all things ; and even this day belongs CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 137 to the pious."^ Hence the Romans, as vre learn froaa Virgil (Bucol. I. 498.) expected, in the time of Augustus, " the coming child, with which the iron (i. e. the sixth) age should end." In short, all the interpreters of the divine Word as recorded in the Old Testament, Christians, Jews, Mahometans and Pagans, knew thai, according to the prophets, Christ's advent would take place at the end of the sixth year-thou- sand. Whoever, then, regards the present chronology of the Hebrew Testament as infallibly correct, must, of necessity, also look upon the prophets as fallible men, and upon the Old Testament, as in the main, uninspired. But he that entertains such views is surely, in his heart, neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Mahometan. 8. T/ie earliest and most learned Fathers of the Church unanimously declare^ that the true chronology of the Pentateuch was preserved in the Sejptuagint^ hut shortened ly the Jews, after the destruction of Jerusalem. — Among them we specify Origen (Cont. C. I. 40), Justin Martyr (Dial. c. Tryph. 68. 71), Epi- phanius, Eusebius, Jerome, Augustine, Julian of To- ledo, Syncellus, besides many others. Eusebius and Jerome adopted the chronology of the Septuagint as the basis of their chronological tables. Jerome as- serts, again and again, that the Hebrew text had been corrupted by the Jews : e. g. ad Galat III. 10. 13. — Augustine combats, in a number of instances, the * Euseb. Praep. Ev. XIII. 12. 668. : Septinia cum veniet lux, cuncta absolvere ccEpit omnipotens pater; atque bonis est septinia et ipsa. 138 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT falsified chronology of tlie Hebrew text.^ "The Christians," says he, " will not refuse credence to those books which the Church has received as possessing the highest authority: they believe that the ^uth is contained rather in these their books than in those of the Jews." — ^^ The Christians maintain, ihat it is incredible, that the seventy interpreters could have erred, or would have lied, as they had nothing to gain by it ; but that, on the contrary, the Jews had made certain alterations in their books, in order thus to diminish the authority of ours."—*' The Christian people are accustomed to hear the translation of the seventy, which has teen approved hy the Ajjostles themselves.''^ — " The very highest respect is due to the translation of the Seventy (the Septuagint), who, as the better informed Churches maintain, translated under such an influence of the Holy Spirit, that all were of one and the same mind." — Julianus Pome- ranius, the Catholic bishop of Toledo, did not hesitate, A. D. 685, to demonstrate, in spite of the already * August. Civ. D. XV. 11. 13; XVIII. 43: Christiaui nolentes dero- rogare fidem codicibus, quos in auctoritatem celebriorem suscepit ec- clesia; et credentes, Judseos potius, quam istos non habere, quodverum sit. — Sed cum hoc dixero, continuo refertur, illud .Tudseorum esse men- dacium. — Inquiunt, non esse credibile, septuaginta interpretes — errare potuisse, aut ubi nihil eorum intererat, voluisse mentiri. — Judaei veto — mutasse qusedam in codicibus suis, ut in nostris minueretur auctoritas. — Epist. ad Hieron. 0pp. II. f. 86 : Plebes Christi, quarum aures et corda illam interpretationem (Xj-&et ^vXarTovtri. Aristotel. De Ccelo II. 12. Simplicius p. 27, a. t Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte und Zeitrechnung. Tab. 1. 152 THE TRUE CIIiiONOLCGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT the chronology in our Masoretic text to be true, Me- nes did reign not in the time of Phaleg, but 1135 years before the deluge; then we must declare the general flood to be a myth. The LXX., on the con- trary, put Menes and Phaleg in the year 666 after the flood, which ended 3447 B. C. The same is proved by passages of Mercury (Phoe- nix) over the disk of the sun, and by the Phoenix-pe- riods of the ancients Egyptians. For, those periods of 652 years, as the Ancients tell, .began with Sesos- tris, a king of Manetho's twelfth Dynasty, the last one in the sixth year of the emperor Claudius; and, in fact. Mercury passed the sun-disk 2555 B. C, April sixth, in the time of Sesostris. Consequently Sesos- tris and all his predecessors must be placed before the deluge, according to the chronology of our Maso- retic text. Furthermore, the year of the deluge (2311 B. C. according to the Hebrew, 3447 B C. in the LXX.), is determined mathematically by several astronomical observations.^ First, the Ancients say, that the Al- phabet is as old as the language ; and, indeed, the one was inseparable from the other. Then we meet with the tradition among the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and other nations, that Noah, in the time of the flood, had brought the letters of the Al- phabet in a new order for the purpose of expressing, * Unser Alphabet ein Abbild des Thierkreises, am 7. Sept. 3446 v. Chr. Leipz., 1834. Unurastosslicher Beweis, cet. Leipz., 1839. Alphabeta genuina, cet. 1840. CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 163 by means of the seven vowels, the places of the seven planets in the Zodiac* Thus we find the following places of the planets : Saturn and Moon in the first part of Gemini, Jupiter in the second part of Aquarius, Mars in the second part of Scorpio, Venus in the first part of Leo, Mercury in the first part of Libra, the Sun in the second part of Virgo. As such a plane- tary configuration could not occur but once in millions of years, and did only occur in the year 8447 B. C, Sept. 7th ; the true epoch of the deluge is determined ; and then the Biblical chronology in the LXX. mathe- matically confirmed. The same epoch is ascertained by an old astronomical tradition, viz. " in the time of the deluge the luminous star Taurus (a Tauri) was four degrees only distant from the vernal equinoctial point." For, according to the shortened chronology in the Hebrew, which makes the deluge 1100 years later, the same star stood more than sixteen degrees off; and 2311 B. C. quite another planetary configu- ration was to be seen than that expressed in the Al- phabet. Lastly, even the year and day of the creation- are fixed by a great number of astronomical traditions, of which one confirms the other mathematically. In * Sanchunjathon in Euseb. P. E. ; I. 10: jjiiirjaaiievos rdv ovpavdv, tcov ^£cj»' oxLeii Kpovov re Kal raydvos Koi rwv Xotrrwi', iuTVitoiccv, tovs Upovg riHv oTotp^etwv ;(;apa/cr»jjoaf, i. e. " (Noah) made the Alphabet to be a sketch of the Zodiac, namely of its signs, of the houses of Saturn, Jupiter and the other gods." This passage has been explained in extenso in Seebode, Jahn and Klotz's Jahrbiicher fiir Philol. 1834. II. Suppl. B p. 505. 7* 154 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT the first place, all the nations of antiquity held, that between the creation and the time of Augustus nearly four great world-periods, averaging three thousand years each, intervened. Such periods were the Yugas of the Hindoos, the Saras of the Chaldaeans, the pe- riods of three thousand years in the Zendavesta, the four world-periods of the Orphici, and others.^ The first of these four periods began with the day of crea- tion, and each of them comprised the term during which the Zodiac progresses thirty degrees, and the equinoctial point recedes thirty degrees in the Zodiac. In reality the Zodiac moves thirty degrees towards the East, during the space of 2146 years ; but as the ancients, who had no astronomical instruments, found that the Zodiac moved forward one degree in one hundred years, they gave to every world-period three -thousand instead 2146 years. To those same periods the Grecian and Roman myths also refer, which re- present the world as having been governed, during the first age, by Uranus, until he was cast into Tarta- rus by his son Saturn, who then assumed the reins of government, and was afterwards himself dethroned and succeeded by his son, Jupiter. Saturn, so says the myth, devoured his own children, with the ex- ception of Jupiter; and thus the tradition states, that the flood swallowed up the children of the world during the time of Saturn's reign, i. e., at least 2146 years after the creation. * Prod, in Plat. Tim. 135. Creuzer's Symbolik, IV. 88. ed. 3. vide Chronologia Sacra, 153 sqq. CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 155 The ancients, moreover, divided each of these world-periods into three parts or astronomical ages of, in round numbers, a thousand years each, assuming that during one thousand years the Zodiac moved the third part of a sign, one Decuria, or ten degrees. But as the Zodiac requires only 715 years to advance ten degrees, each of these astronomical ages more properly comprised 715 years. These astronomical ages, then, were by the Hindoos called Avatarae (mu- tations) ; by the Parsees, small signs of the Zodiac, of which the first three, Aries, Taurus and Gemini, be- longed to the constellation of Gemini.*' According to the Hindoos, eight Avatara9 elapsed between the creation and the time of Augustus, and two more down to the present time, being ten altogether: the Parsees reckoned from the creation to the Sassanidas (641 B. C), nine such astronomical ages. Now it is shown, by an easy calculation, that in the 5871 B. C. the vernal equinoctial point occupied the last degree in the sign Gemini, and that in the year 8725 B. C. the same point was between Gemini and Taurus, in the year 1579 B. C. between Taurus and Aries, and lastly, in 568 A. C. between Aries and Pisces. In short, the ancients knew, that the first world-period of 2146 years began at the time when the equinoctial point was in the last degree of Gemini ; that from the creation to Augustus eight astronomical ages of 715 years had expired, and so on ; consequently it * Chronologia Sacra, 165. Zendavesta, Bun-Deh. XXXIV. p. 110. Kleuk. 156 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. was universally known, that the history of the world had commenced 5871 B. C. The same year of the creation is pointed out by the tradition, that, at the time of the creation, the dog-star, Sirius, rose to- gether with the Sun, and also by the astronomer Theon, who relates, that a new canicular period be- gan in the fifth year of Augustus (27 B. C), on the first day of Thoth (29th August).=^ For both these witnesses point to the year 5871 B. C, as the begin- ning of history. Thus then all these astronomical ob- servations, preserved and distinctly handed down by antediluvian records, or Noachian traditions, concur in again confirming the chronology of the Septuagint, and in confuting that which is contained in the pre- sent Masoretic text. Lastly, the hand of Providence has preserved for us even the planetary configurations, observed by the ancients at the beginning of those four world-periods.f That planetary configuration, which is connected with the commencement of the first world-period, and which, clearly explained by Hamza of Ispahan; was designated by all the nations of antiquity as the Hypsomata Planetarum (the beginnings of the pla- nets), exactly describes the places of the seven pla- '■* Porphyr. and ^Eneas Gaz. Ant. Nymph. 264. Comp. Schmidt's Zeits. f. Gesch. 11. 264. t Bentley, Historical View of the Hindoo Astronomy. Lond. 1825, p. 110. 15 Ramayana, I. 19. Zendavesta, H. 353. ed. Anquet , HI. 63. ed. Kleuk. Chronique d'Abou Dj. Moh. Tabari, Par. 1836. ed. Dubeux, C. 2. Ptolem. Quadrip. I. c. 20. p. 15. ed. Bas. Sext. Empir. V. c. 32. See Astronom.^Eg. I. 17. Cbronologia Sacra, p. 177. CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 157 nets on the tenth day of May (Julian style), in the year 5871 B. C, which day was, at that time, that of the vernal equinox, and a Sunday, on which day Christ, the second Adam, rose from the dead. The planetary configuration connected with the commencement of the second world-period, 2146 years subsequent to the first, gives the year 3725 B. C; the third, 2146 years later, brings us to 1519 B. C. ; the fourth and last, 2146 years later, to the year 598 A. D. All these have their origin, not in planetary configurations, are not the result of calculations ; for the ancients had neither the system of Copernicus, nor astronomical tables ; but from autoptical contem- plation of the starry heaven ; and this heavenly clock, mentioned already in Genesis 1, 14., has never run down or gone wrong since the day of its creation. In short, all these and the other astronomical observa- tions of the ancient world, which mutually confirm each other, concur in demonstrating with mathema- tical certainty, that between Adam and Christ not 4000, but 6000 years elapsed. Thus then, although many a Christian may, since the Yulgate was invested with canonical authority in the Occident, have enter- tained the conviction, that the true biblical chrono- logy was preserved in the Hebrew text, as found in manuscripts accessible 300 years ago in European libraries, and not in the Septuagint ; we may fairly hope that many readers will now change their opin- ion. May every one examine calmly and without prejudice the aforesaid arguments, which have just 158 THE TRUE CHRONOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT been presented, and of which we here give a brief resume. No man has ever proved, nor is it susceptible of proof, that God was under obligations to preserve in the Hebrew Pentateuch the true chronology. And the question, whether the true biblical chronology was handed down in the Hebrew text, or in the Sep- tuagint, which reckons 2000 years more, does not at all belong to those articles of faith, on which the salvation of the Christian Church, or of individuals depends. Christ, the Apostles and Evangelists did not reject either the Septuagint, or its chronology, but confirm- ed it, as is explicitly stated by St. Augustine, one of the Fathers of the Church. The Prophets of the Old Testament, who were un- der the guidance of the Holy Spirit, reckoned from Adam to Christ not 4000, but 6000 years, as all the ancient interpreters testify. The disciples of John the Baptist, the Pharisees, the first Christian Churches believed, without contra- diction, that Christ was to be revealed in the fullness of times, in the sixth millennium after the creation. The oldest and most learned Fathers of the Church, and Mahometans also, testify, that the Apostate Akiba shortened the original biblical chronology by about 1500 years. The Chiliasts in and after the time of the Apostles knew, that in their day not 4000, but nearly six thou- sand years had elapsed since the creation. CONFIRMED BY ASTRONOMICAL FACTS. 159 Philo, JosephuSj and the Jews in Ethiopia, and even the Mahometans confirm the chronology of the Septuagint. In the time of the seventy interpreters it was im- possible, but after the fall of Jerusalem it was quite possible, to propagate a corrupted biblical chronology. All ancient nations reckoned, in accordance with Noachian traditions, not 4000, but 6000 years from the Creation to Christ. The chronology of the present Masoretic text pre- sents the strangest contradictions and incongruities, whilst the Septuagint agrees with itself. Among all the nations of antiquity old astrono- mical observations were preserved, by means of which the beginning of each of the four world-periods, the date of the deluge, the arrival of Menes in Egypt, in the days of Phaleg, the arrival of the Israelites in Mizraim, the birth of Moses, the exody of the He- brews, and many other historical events become fixed as certainly as the multiplication-table ; and all these epochs thus fixed, do not harmonize with the Hebrew chronology, shortened by Akiba by 1500 years, but on the contrary, they agree with the Septuagint. And now I may be allowed to ask the reader, by what arguments these irrefutable facts can be contro- verted ? Or, who is able to refute what has been thus mathematically established as truth ? — 160 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTl)RY XXI. THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVA- TIONS The computation of time as respects the history of the Greeks and Romans, which is, at present, univer- sally in use, has been derived from Petavius, but also contains, as is well known, the greatest contra- dictions and incongruities. The most recent demon- stration of this will be found in the Chronological Tables of Clinton and Fischer. Thus, according to Grecian chronology, as given by Petavius, the Olym- pic games occurred in years differing from those ob- tained by means of his Roman chronology ; a great number of eclipses of the sun and the moon, which the historians place in the years of particular Consuls and Archons, occurred, according to the reckoning ot Petavius, a year or two later, than is affirmed by annalists and eye-witnesses ; and Petavius even pre- tended that many of them had been supernatural phenomena. All these contradictions and mathema- tical impossibilities, have now been rectified by means of Egyptian, Greek and Roman astronomical observations, and through the Apis-periods, and the re-appearances of the Phcenix.^ Petavius has, in his heedlessness, had the misfortune to take the consuls of 47 and 78 A. C, namely, L. Coccajus Commodus, * This subject has been treated in extenso in my " Berichtigungen der Romischen, Griechischen, Persischen Geschichte und Zeitrech- nung," Leipz, 1855. " Chronologia Sacra," Leipz. 1846, p. 9. 16. "Gottinger Gelehrte Anzeigen," 1855, No. 125, p. 1241. CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 161 associated with D. Novius Priscus, and the consuls Kufus, associated with Silvanus, for ordinarii, whereas, they were mere consules suffecti, or extraordinarii, as might and ought to have been ascertained from the Roman inscriptions and coins. Petavius, assign- ing to each of those consuls two entire years, inserted them in the succession of the ordinary consuls, and hence dated all their predecessors, consequently also the whole Roman and Grecian history too far back from Titus to Claudius by one year, and from Clau- dius backward, by two years. One example will elu- cidate this sufficiently. On account of the Consuls inserted in the years 47 and 78 A. C, Petavius was obliged to place Ctesar's death in the year 44 instead of 42 B. C. In the same year the Julian Calendar was introduced, and its first January, as we learn from the historians, and from the Julian coins, struck, at the same time, and for that purpose, began on the day of a new moon. But in the year 44 B. C. the new moon oc- curred twenty days later ; and only in the year 42 B. C. the new moon appeared on the first of January. Fur- ther, the last lunar year of the Romans must, for the very reason that it was a lunar year, have begun with a new moon. This last lunar year of the Romans, con- sisting of 445 days, had commenced, as is well-known, on the 13th of October. But neither in 46, nor in 47, and not until 44 B. C. did a new moon occur on the 13th of October ; again, therefore, two years later. The historians furthermore relate that on the night preceding Caesar's assassination, on the 15th of March, 162 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY Calpurnia, Ca3sar's wife, was awakened by the light of the full moon ; another impossibility for Petavius to dispose of; for not until 42 B. C. was the moon full in the night from the 14th to the 15th of March. A short time before Ca3sar's death the Romans wit- nessed a total eclipse of the moon ; but this could have occurred on the 13th of March only in the year 42 B. C. — In short, Petavius has incorrectly inserted the said consuls in 47 and 78 A. C, and Caesar's death did not occur in the year 44, and not until 42 B. C. The same is proved by all eclipses of that time, certified by the ancients ; for these eclipses oc- curred two years later, than would be required by the chronology of Petavius. As respects the Grecian history, we know that in the month of July next following Cassar's death, the Olympic games were celebrated. Now, as this did not occur in 44, but as late as 42 B. C; all Grecian history, as arranged by Petavius, must move down two years. This appears already from the aforemen- tioned planetary configuration at the beginning of the Olympiads, which occurred not 780, but 778 B. C. For the Olympiads, like all the eras of the Ancients, began with nought. Not until the close of the first Olympiad were events dated from their epochs, and therefore, for example. Olympiad 1, year second, signifies the second year of the second Olympiad. Thus then this second Olympiad began not 776, but 774^. C, i. e. two years later than Petavius taught. By means of these corrections in Grecian history two CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 163 other facts of great importance have come to light ; these facts, namely, that the Greeks and the Hebrews computed time, not by lunar months, but by fixed solar months. As respects the Greeks, this was main- tained already by Scaliger, Clinton, and many others, but they were prevented by the confusion which Petavius had introduced in Grecian history, from proving what they asserted, or giving a correct view of the solar calendar of the Greeks, which even Halma found in an ancient manuscript. The Attic month Gamelion, the Macedonian Apellaeus, always commenced on the fourth of December, according to the Julian year. That the Hebrews reckoned until after the destruction of Jerusalem, by fixed solar months of thirty days, we learn from Josephus, the earlier Rabbis, many passages of the Old Testament and the days of the Jewish Sabbaths assigned to cer- tain days of the month in certain years. The first day of the month Nisan of the ecclesiastical year of the Hebrews began on the sixth of March, Julian time. The arguments which prove that the Greeks and Hebrews always reckoned time according to solar months, are the following.* 1. Theodorus Gaza (Petavii Uranolog. c. 9.) says ex- pressly, that the ancient Greeks had for their reli- gious festivals a lunar year of 354 days, but for the civil life a solar year, consisting of 12 months of 30 * Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte u. Zeitrechnung, p. 17. Chronologia Sacra, p. 26. 164 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY days each, with 5, and in leap years, with 6 intercalary days. The same is affirmed by Censorinus (De die nat. c. 18), the best chronologist of the Ancients, who says also, that the years in which the Olympic games took place were solar leap-years. 2. Homer, 1000 B. C, Hesiod, 900 B. C, and Hero- dotus, 500 B. C, hence the most ancient poets and historians among the Greeks nowhere mention lu- nar months, but speak of the tropic, or exact solar year of the Greeks. 3. According to this same year, with its four seasons, and its twelve months of thirty days each, the ancient inhabitants of Attica were divided into four Philae, twelve Phratri^, and thirty tribes ; which do not at all agree with the thirteen months of lunar years, nor with the twenty-nine days of lunar months. 4. The well known chronological riddle of Cleo- bulus, in the time of Solon, 600 B. C, is based upon the 12 solar months, and the 30 days of the solar month. Those 12 mothers, and the 30 children of each, being on one side black, on the other white, obviously to signify the 12 months and their 30 days, being partly dark, and partly bright. 5. During the festival, called Daphnophoria, not 354, but 365 ribbons, emblems of the 365 days of the ordinary year, were suspended from a globe, re- presenting the Sun, the author of the year and its days. 6. Aristotle (Hist. An. VI. 20), Hippocrates (De CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 165 raorb. vulg. II. 1031.; De corn. p. 254), Julian (Or. IV. p. 155, Lips.) instance only solar months of thirty days, as the basis of their reckonings. 7. Supposing that the different countries and islands of Greece had a lunar calendar, like Meton's ; then their months would necessarily have everywhere begun with the same day, because the crescent was visible everywhere on the same evening. But the Greek historians relate, that the same months al- ways began in Sparta two days later, in Boeotia seven days earlier, in Corinth five days earlier, in Ephesus ten days earlier than they did in Attica, and so on ; which w^ould have been impossible ac- cording to lunar calendars. 8. At and subsequent to the time of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian months were introduced into all parts of Asia ; but we meet there always with Macedonian months of thirty days, and not with a lunar calendar. 9. The Scholiast to Pindar, 01. III. 35, relates, that the Olympic games, which were always cele- brated from the 11th to the 16th of the lunar month Hecatombaeon, happened sometimes in the month of Apollonius, sometimes in the month of Parthenius ; consequently the latter were solar months. 10. Alexander the Great was born during the Olympic games, that is on the 6th of Boedro- mion (Plut. Alex. 3. and others) ; consequently this month must have been a solar one. 166 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY 11. The Equinoxes and Solstices always occurred among the Greeks on the same days of the Grecian months (Aristot. Hist. An. Y. 9. 11. Theophr. H. P. TV. 12. VII. 1, and so forth), consequently the Greek calendar was a solar one. 12. In the year 489 B. C. a full moon happened on the 2d of Boedromion (Herod. YI. 106. 120). In the year 429 B. C. a crescent was observed by Me- ton on the 13th of Scirophorion (Diod. Sic. XII. 36). In the year 411 B. C. a total eclipse of the moon was observed on the 9th of Metageitnion (Thuc. YIL 50. Plut. Nik. 33). In the year 422 B. C. an eclipse of the sun was seen on the 16th of Anthes- terion (Thuc. lY. 52. Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. 581. Scaligeri Synag. and Euseb. 1658, p. 431). In the year 409 B. C. a new moon occurred on the 2d day of Hekatombseon (Corpus Insc. Grgec. Yol. I. P. II. No. 107). In the year 312 B. C. the 26th of the lu- nar month Gamelion corresponded with the 11th of the solar month Gamelion (Corp. Insc. Greec. Yol. I. P. II. No. 11). By means of these historical and mathematical traditions, as well as of many others of the same kind, it is demonstrated w4th incontrovertible cer- tainty, Jlrst, that both the Athenian and the Mace- donian civil months, which were of the same cha- racter (Demosth. D.C., Orat. Grsec. I. 280), were not at all, as many chronologists have asserted, lunar months like Meton's ; secondly, that the " Greek ca- lendar," discovered by Halma (Chronologie de Pto- CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSEliVATIOOS. 167 lemee, p. 40), in an old manuscript, which compares the Greek months with Julian days, as is shown below, was indeed that of the ancient Greeks. All the said astronomical observations of the Greeks correspond with the Julian days, which Raima's manuscript compares with Greek dates. According- ly, the civil months of the ancient Greeks always began on the annexed Julian days, that is to say, at sunset. Attic Calendar. Gamelion, Anthesterion, Elaphebolion, Munychion, Thargelion, Scirophorion, Hekatombaeon, Metageitnion, Boedromion, Pyanepsion, Maemacterion, Poseideon, 5 Epagomenoi, Macedonian Calendar. Apelleeus, Andynaeus, Peritius, Dystrus, Xanthicus, Artemisius, Dassius, Panemus, Lous, Gorpiseus, Hyperberetaeus, Dius, 5 Epagomenoi, Julian Days. 4th December. 8d January. 2d February* 4th March. 8d April. 8d May. 2d June. 2d July. 1st August. 81st August. 80th September. 80th October. 29th November. With the aid of this calendar it was easy to re- move all the chronological contradictions and in- congruities in Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, and similar Tables, and thus all the dates of Grecian history have now been definitely traced to distinct days of 168 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY our own reckoning, with which they precisely cor- respond. In respect of the Hebrew calendar it was also believed, that it consisted of lunar months.* This opinion was based upon the Kabbis, who pretend, that the Jewish calendar in use since the destruc- tion of Jerusalem by Titus, is as old as Moses. But these Rabbis are contradicted by others, and by their own falsehoods. For other Rabbis testify, that, down to the destruction of Jerusalem, the He- brews used solar months only. But who can be- lieve, that the Grand Synedrium of Jerusalem was thrice convened, at the time of every new moon, for the purpose of waiting for three reliable wit- nesses ; that thereupon they announced by fires, the crescent, whose arrival had been thus certified ; that after they had been imposed upon by the Sama- ritans, this announcement was, in later times, made by runners despatched to every part of Judfea, and that, finally, these witnesses were entertained at the public expense ? It was impossible for the whole of Palestine, which extended over fifty geographical miles, to begin the lunar months in this way, everywhere and always with the same evening, particularly if there happened to be cloudy weather in Jerusalem at the time of several con- secutive new moons. — The Hebrew name of the * See Zeitschrill der deutschen morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, 1848, p. 344, with my treatise : Haben die Hebraer schon vor Jeru- salems Zerstorung nach Mondmonaten gerechnet ? CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 169 new moon hodesh, proves nothing in favor of those Rabbis, as many have pretended. For Jwdesh^ as well as the Greek numenia (new moon) signifies both the first day of the solar and the first of the lunar month. The same remark applies to Jose- phus' dates, Itata selenen. For selene signified in Greek the middle of the month, the fifteenth day; and the months of the Jewish ecclesiastical year began in the middle, i. e., of the fifteenth day of the several civil months. As often then, as Jose- phus mentions a date, T<:ata selenen^ he means the months of the ecclesiastical year. That the He- brews, as well as the Christian Church had two different years, an ecclesiastical and a civil year, which (i. e. the civil), began 15 days later, we learn already from Haggai 2, 1. 2., where the 24th of the 6th coincided with the 11th (not 21st) day of thei 7th month, and from many other traditions. — Final- ly, the book, De Septennio, which has been ascrib- ed to Philo, but is wanting in nearly all manu- scripts, is refuted by Philo himself.- — It is then im- possible to demonstrate that the Hebrews used lu- nar months before the destruction of Jerusalem. The arguments which prove the use of the solar calendar by the ancient Hebrews are principally these. Credible Rabbis testify that the original months of the Old Testament were solar months. Haggai 2, 1. 2. is unmeaning without solar months. Josephus relates, that Moses, at the time of the exody, tctained the Egyptian calendars, and the 8 170 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY Egyptians never used lunar months. — Josephus and Philo assure us, that Easter always occurred on the " day of the vernal equinox," " the day of the crea- tion,** which would have been impossible according to lunar months. The earliest Fathers of the Church, and the first Christian communities derived none but solar months from the Jews and the Apostles, as, for instance, the Quartadecimana tes- tify. — Daniel andthe Apocalyse express three years and six months by 1260 days, because the calendar of the Hebrews consisted of solar months of thirty days. Josephus computes large intervals of time accord- ing to solar months, for instance, Ant. XYIII. 2. 2. Bell. Jud.VI. 4. 8.— From 1 Chron. 28, 1, and 1 Kings 4, 7. and 1 Sam. 20, 5. it is evident, that the He- brews had none but twelve solar months, which began on certain days. The history of the deluge is based upon solar months of thirty days each. — In the Old Testament we meet very often with periods of 80, of 60 and 90 days ; which correspond with solar months. — Suppose that the Hebrews had used dur- ing 2000 years a lunar year, with an intercalary month inserted after two or three years, there would be some mention or memorial of this; but there is no trace of an intercalary month either in the whole Old and New Testament, or in Josephus and Philo, or in the Apocrypha, or in the ancient Meno- logia, or in the ancient history of the Church. — Josephus very often compares Hebrew months and days with Macedonian months and days, and ex- CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 171 presses Hebrew dates by means of the Greek ca- lendar only, the latter,^ however, was a solar one. — According to solar months all remarkable events of the Old Testament happened on the days of the Equinoxes and the Solstices, for instance, the foun- dations and the dedications of the temples and altars. On the same cardinal days the most remark- able events of the New Testament happened, for in- stance, the annunciation, the birth, the resurrection of Christ, and the birth of John the Baptist. ' And thus we learn, that all remarkable epochs of the New Testament were typically sanctified a long time be- fore by the Old Testament, beginning at the day succeeding the end of the creation, which was the day of the vernal equinox, the day of the resurrec- tion. — During the crucifixion, on the 14th day of Nisan, Dionysius Areopagita saw in Ethiopia an eclipse of the sun ; which, according to lunar months, could not have happened on that day. — The Greeks, the Romans, Josephus, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament mention a great number of Hebrew dates that fell upon Saturdays or Sun- days ; and all these events according to lunar months, occurred on other days than those stated by the ancients. Thus the 6th of Sivan (10th May) 125 B. C. was a Sunday (Joseph. Ant. XIII. 8. 4), the 15th Nisan (20th March) 59 A. C. a Tuesday (Acts 20, 6—12), the 10th Lous (Ab), and the 8th Gorpiteus (Elul) 71 A. C, the 10th of Tischri 62 and 35 B. C. Saturdays, the 17th of ^isan 33 A. C. 172 THE GRECIAN AND ROMAN HISTORY a Sunday (Matt. 28, 1), and so on. By means of these mathematical and astronomical facts it was easy to re-establish both the ecclesiastic, and the civil solar calendar of the ancient Hebrews, sub- sequent to the Babylonian captivity, as follows. Ecclesiastical Year. Civil Year. Julian iear. 1st Nisan, 20th Adar, 6th March. 12th Intercalary days, 17th 17th 1st Nisan, 22d 1st Jjar [Zif or 15th 5th April. Ziv] 17th 1st Jjar or [Zif 21st 1st Sivan, 15th 5th May. 17th 1st Sivan, 21st 1st Tammuz, 15th 4th June. 17th 1st Tammuz, 20th 1st Ab, 15th 4th July. 17th 1st Ab, 20th 1st Elul, 15th 8d August. 17th 1st Elul, 19th 1st Tischri, 15th 2d September. 17th 1st Tishri, 18th 1st Marcheshvan, 15th 2d October. [Bui,] 17th 1st Marcheshvan, 18th Bui; 1st Cisleu, 15th 1st Noveniber. 17th 1st Kislev, 17th 1st Tebeth, 15th 1st December. CORRECTED BY ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 173 Ecclesiastical Year. Civil Year. Julian Year. 17th Tebeth, 1st Tebeth, 17tli December. IstShebat, 15th 31st 17th 1st Shebat, 16th January. 1st Adar, 15th 29th 17th 1st Adar, 15th February. Intercalary days, 15th 1st March. With the aid of this calendar it is possible now, to determine to the very day all dates in the New and Old Testament, and the days of the Hebrew festivals, as far back as the Babylonian captivity. The leap- years of the Hebrews were the same as the Grecian. Besides, this calendar is in perfect conformity with the ancient Arabian. XXII. THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT EE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. For a long series of years it has been very gene- rally believed and taught in a thousand books, that Christ did not appear in the sixth millenium of the world ; had not been announced, or born, or baptized, or crucified, or raised from the dead, in the years or days foretold by the Prophets, testified by the Evan- gelists and believed by the primitive Christian Churches. All these formerly received ejDochs of the New Testament have been transferred to another millenium, to other years and days ; and for what purpose?— In order to reduce the New Testament to a " Myth." 174 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT We are to consider Christianity under three dis- tinct aspects, the historical, the dogmatical and the ethical. Historical Christianity forms the basis of Christian faith and Christian love. For, suppose it were true that the Prophets, the Apostles and their disciples, the early Church-Fathers, were mistaken respecting the historical ground-work of the New Testament, that, for instance, Christ was born 1500 years before the time foretold by the prophets; then, of course, not the slightest credence would be due to them in respect of all other matters ; and therefore the structure of the Christian Church would, sooner or later, have to crumble into ruin. This the enemy had already perceived ; and therefore he began with. undermining the basis of the Christian Church, his- torical Christianity. Let us be thankful to God that, by means of the new historical and mathematical aids, which have been specified, we are now enabled to demonstrate the correctness of the dates, both as to years and days, of all the New Testament epochs, without exception, which have been transmitted to us by the Church.^ Everybody knows that the Christian era begins with the first of January next following the birth of Christ; that is, with the year which the astronomers designate with nought. If from the 1st of January * Chronologia Sacra. Untersuchungen iiber das Geburtsjahr des Herrn und die Zeitrechnung des Alten und Neuen Testaments ; Leipz. 1846. Berichtigungen der alten Geschichte und Zeitrechnung; Leipz. 1855. RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 175 of the current year 1856^we count back 1856 entire years, we arrive at what has just been stated to be the beginning of the Christian era. This is the or- der fixed by Dionysius Exiguus (625 A. C), the originator of our era, or method of computing time since the birth of Christ ; for his calculations of the Easter-full-moons for the entire Christian era are still extant. Dionysius places the first Easter- festival after the birth of Christ in the year nought.* It is, indeed, the opinion of many that according to Dionysius, the current year is the 1857th, and not the 1858th ; but they have forgotten the Easter-canon of Dionysius, and neglected to consider that all the eras of the Ancients began with a year nought, and had, of necessity, to begin in this way, in order that no ambiguities might arise. The same is true of the Olympiads and the Era^Saobis conditse, as astronomi- cal facts which were copied by Dionysius have demon- strated. In like manner the first hour after noon begins at the moment when the clock strikes twelve ; but it does not strike one until sixty minutes after noon, when the first hour after noon ends and the second hour commences. According to this ancient chronology our watchmakers put the 1 at the end of the first hour, as Dionysius put the 1 at the end of the first year of his Era. The present, or current century began, therefore, not on the first of January 1801, but on the same day 1800. And now let us * Ideler, Chronologie, Vol. II., p. 372. 292. 176 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT inquire, whether the New Testament is really « a fable." The first point that is fully confirmed, is, that Christ came into the world in that century, which is foresha- dowed by the six days of creation,* and foretold by the prophets Daniel 2, 81., Isaiah 2, 2., and Habakkuk 8, 2. For "the midst of the years," the "last days" was ac- cording to all the ancient nations, the middle of a period of 12000 years ; whence also the Greeks and Romans expected the Redeemer of the world at the time of Augustus.! Now, as all the astronomical tradi- tions of antiquity and especially the true chronology of the Old Testament place the Creation in the year 5871 B. C, Christ really came into the world " in the fullness of time," in the sixth year-thousand after Adam. The Jews, therefore, have no authority what- * D. Ambrosii 0pp. Bas. 1567. III. 140 : Sex itaque diebus factum mundum exprimit (Moses) non quod Deus tempore indiguerit ad consti- tutionem ejus, cui intra momentum suppedit facere quaevelit (dixit enim et facta sunt), sed quia ea, quae fiunt, ordinem quaerunt. — Heb- domas Vet. Testamenti, octava Novi, quando Christus resurrexit et dies omnibus novae salutis illuxit (6000 years elapsed from Adam till Christ.) — Ubi hominem fecit Deus, requievit ab omnibus operibus suis in die septima. — Ibid. V. 93 : Mills anni in conspectu Domini, tamquam dies una (Ps. 89.) — Malumus, sex dies per symbolum dici, quod sex diebus mundi opera sunt creata. — Et ideo mundi temporibus impletis, resurrectio futura monstratur. — Abulfeda, Histor. ed Fleischer, Lips. 1831, p. 7: Quum Pentateuchus aliique eorum libri Messiam ex- trcma mundi cEtate adventurum esse promitterent, Messiam autem re- vera in sexta mundi chiliade advenerit, etc. t Zendavesta, Bundehesch xxxiv. 119. ; I. 59. Hamza of Ispahan, Zendavesta, III. 62. Suidas at Tyrrhenia, Virgil's Eel. IV. Hora- tius Carmen saecul. 4. 21. Od. I. 2. 30. Plato in Phil. 66. Euseb. P. E. xiii. 12. 668. Sueton Vesp. c. 4. Tacit. Hist. v. ]3. See my Chronologia Sacra, p. 104. 154. RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 177 ever for still looking for tlie Messiah, as they do since the destruction of Jerusalem, in consequence of those two thousand years now wanting in the Hebrew text. Eurthermore, Christ was born, as is stated by Luke, in a census-year. A census of this kind was, at the time of Augustus, taken every seven years, for in- stance 69, and 27, and 20 and 9 B. C, 6 A. C, and 15 A. C.^ Now since the years of Augus- tus move down, as we have seen, two years; one census mentioned by the historians, occurred in the year 9 B. C, another in the year 6 A. C. Hence it follows that also in the year preceding our era, such a census was taken, although it is not mentioned by any of the Boman authors that have come down to us. Christ was, therefore, really born during the first census of Quirinus, as the New Testament relates. Herod is known to have died three months after the birth of Christ, and, according to the account of Josephus, two months after an eclipse of the moon.f Now since the years of his reign, which were linked to those of Augustus, are likewise brought nearer to us by two years, and since the lunar-eclipse in ques- tion can have taken place only on the 9th of January of the said year nought, therefore, Christ must have been born shortly before the commencement of our era, which begins, as we have seen, with the year nought. '" See Chron. S. p. 9. 248. 85; and the Ancyron Marbles, written by Augustus himself. t Chronologia S. p. 82. 292. 178 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT From Josephus (Ant. II. 9, 2. and 7.), and from the Rabbinical commentaries of Abarbanel, Elieser, and others, on Numbers c. 24, v. 15, it appears, that three years and some months before the birth of Moses a remarkable conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the sign of Pisces had taken place, which really did oc- cur in the year 1951 B. C, and that a similar con- junction was to occur three entire years previous to the birth of the Messiah.^ In fact, such a conjunc- tion did take place in the fourth year prior to the com- mencement of the Dionysian era. The eastern Magi, who were acquainted with this prediction of Baloam, came, of course, to Herod three years after that con- junction, i. e. shortly before the commencement of the year nought, and found the child at Bethlehem; whence it is again manifest that Christ was born shortly before the said commencement of our era. Eusebius, Tertullian and others place the birth of Christ in the same year of Augustus. And thus the prophecy of Daniel c. 9, v. 21. has been fulfilled in every particular. For, according to that remarkable prediction of the greatest of all prophets, quoted by Christ himself, Matt. 24, 15. ; John 5, 39 , the Saviour of mankind was to come in the world in the year 532 after the Babylonian captivity, which terminated in the first year of the reign of Cyrus 534 B. C. For, it must be born in mind that Daniel distinctly spe- fies in the Hebrew text seven years and sixty-two t Chonologia Sacra, p. 90. i RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 179 years; and that he reckons his weeks by years of six, twelve and twenty-four months, in conformity with the custom of his time, according to which the term month was applied indifferently to intervals of fif- teen, thirty and sixty days.^ Daniel's weeks of years, are periods of seven years computed in accordance with ^his manner of employing the term month. This is made evident even by the words, that " Christ was to die in the middle of a week," and yet " con- firm the convenant with many, for one entire week." * For, one week could not be equal to half a week of three years and six months, had Daniel not taken in the first place months of fifteen days and in the second ordinary months of thirty days. Besides, Daniel says, that Christ was to die sixty years and two years after the end' of the Babylonian captivity, which would make nonsense, if we reckongd accord- ing to years equal in both cases. For nobody dies before his birth. Consequently, those sixty years and two years, as we shall see, must also contain different years composed of different months of fif- teen, thirty and sixty days. This subject has been treated more in extenso in my Chronologia Sacra p. 107. All the former explanations of Daniel's . seventy weeks must prove abortive, because the in- terpreters thought Daniel's different weeks to be of the same length. Besides, they omitted to explain the sixty weeks and two weeks intervening between Christ's death and Cyrus; and finally they forgot * See Ideler, Chronology, Vol. I. p. 93. 180 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT that Daniel's reckoning begins, as he expressly says, with the end of the Babylonian captivity, in the year 534 B. C. Daniel, therefore, reckons from the first year of the reign of Cyrus (534 B. C.) to the birth of our Lord seven weeks of years consisting of years of twenty-four months each, in other words ninety-eight ordinary years; and then again sixty-two additional prophetic weeks, composed of years of twelve months each, in other words 434 years, which added together give us the sum of 532 years. Now, since Christ was born shortly before the commencement of the Dio- nysian era, he really came into the world 532 after the Babylonian captivity, as Daniel predicted 534 years before. The birth-day of Christ, which is the day of the winter-solstice, or our 22d of December, is determined in the first place by the testimony of the Gnostics. For, these heathen-Christians existed already before Christ, were waiting for the birth of the Saviour, and have left us a multitude of monu- ments, some very ancient, others more recent, accord- ing to which Christ was born on the day of the win- ter-solstice. Clemens Alexandrinus together with the oldest and most credible Fathers of the Church, gives his testimony in favor of the same day. The Constitutiones Apostolorum L. V., c. 13 , moreover, assign the Saviour's birth to the 2oth of December, which, according to the old Julian style, was the day of the winter-solstice. To this must be added the evidence afibrded by the chronograph, preserved in RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 181 the works of Cardinal Noris, according to which Christ was born on the day of the full-moon ; and the 22d of December of the year preceding the said commencement of our era was actually the day of a full-moon and a Sunday. The words of John the Baptist : " He must increase, but I must decrease " serve to prove, as is affirmed by the Fathers of the Church, that John was born on the longest day of the year, and Christ, who was six months younger, on the shortest, i. e. again on the 22d of December. — The same thing is proved by the sacerdotal class of Abia at the annunciation of John the Baptist. For in the year 538 B. C. the Jews returned to Jerusalem, and on Saturday the 25th September, upon the occasion of the dedication of the new altar of sacrifice, by Zerubbabel, the twenty-four classes of j^riests resumed once more their weekly turns of official duty (Esra 6, 18., 1 Esd. 7, 5.), which continued until the destruction of the temple, seventy-one years after Christ. Now it was in the year 2 before the commencement of our era, on Saturday the 22d of September, that this 8th sacerdotal class Abia, to which Zacharias be- longed, left the temple, after the birth of John the Baptist had been announced to him. Consequently John was really born on the 22d of June, and Christ, as he was six months younger, on the 22d of Decem- ber. Thus has the prophecy of Haggai c. 2y v. 6. 7. 18. been literally fulfilled. For, the 24th day of the 9th month, to which the Prophet points us, was, at that time, the day of the winter-solstice. It was on the 182 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT same day that tlie dedications of the temple by Heze- kiah and Judas Maccabeeus were typically performed. The baptism of Christ and the beginning of his prophetic ministry are first of all determined by the testimony of St. Luke. For, since the fifteenth year of Tiberius, in which the Baptist entered upon his prophetic ministry, is by our present calculation brought down two years later, Christ must have been baptized in the 29th year after the commencement of our era " at an age of nearly ((baei) thirty ;" to enter, forty days, later, upon his prophetic office. On the same day, the 22d df December, Christ was thirty years of age ; and as Christ, was, as he says, " born under the law," and consequently obliged to enter the priestly office on the first day of the 31st year ',* he must have commenced his public ministry on the 22d of December A. D. 29, and recei-ved his baptism on the 13th of November. Epiphanius sj^ecifies the 8th of November, simply because, on account of the shift- ing of the five 'EnayofievaL (the intercalary days), his 8th of November corresponds with our thirteenth. The Evangelists report, still farther, that Christ entered upon the duties of his prophetic ministry forty-six years after the erection of Herod's temple (John 2, 13). As the 18th year of Herod's reigo, in which he laid the foundation of the temple, on the 22d of March,! is now brought down two years later ; - * 1. Chroii. 23, 24. 23, 3. Num. 4, 3. See Chronologia Sacra, p. 92. t Joseph. Ant. XV. 11, 1. 5. 6. See Chronologia Sacra, p. 74, 100. RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 183 it again appears that Christ must have commenced his public ministry 29 A. D. The three years and seven months of our Lord's prophetic ministry are indicated with sufficient clear- ness in the parables concerning the fig-tree, (Luke 13, 6.) and the vine-dresser, (Luke 20, 9.; Mark 12, 9.) and by the four feasts of the passover, mentioned by St. John (John 2,13; 5, 1; 6,4; 19, 14.) This period is marked still more distinctly in the Apocalypse by 42 months, or 1260 days ; for, as the Hebrews always calculated by solar-months of thirty days, that state- ment will give us exactly three years and six months. Thus then the prophecy of DanieL according to which Christ " was to confirm the covenant with many for one week," was literally fulfilled ; for exactly three years and six months, that is 42 months, or 1260 days elapsed from the baptism of Christ to the effusion of the Holy Spirit, on the first Christian feast of Pente- cost. This prophetic week of Daniel, was, as we have already shown, composed of months of fifteen days, consequently of years of six solar months, of which seven make exactly three years and six months of our ordinary years. Dr. Luther has already given the exact explanation of Daniel's half week in his works Vol. YII. p. 1448. ed. Walch. The year of the death of Christ, A.D. 33, is in the first place, determined by the years of his priestly office, and of his birth. For, since our Lord was bap- tized in the 15th year of Tiberius (29 A, C.) " at the age of nearly thirty," and then preached the Gospel 184 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT during three and a half years afterwards, he must have died A. D. 33, and in the 18th year of the reign of Tiberius. The same year of Tiberius is named as that of the death of Christ by the Martyrologium Pauli, by Eusebius, Epiphanius, Prosper, Malala, by the Chronicon Paschale and others.^ And thus has the pro- phecy of Daniel again been fulfilled. Eor he reckon- ed from the end of the Babylonian captivity (534 B. C.) to the year in which Christ " shall be cut off and not be," according to the Hebrew text, an interval of twenty weeks of fourteen years each (i. e. 280 years), forty weeks of seven years each (i. e. again 280 years) and two weeks of three and a half years each (i. e. seven years), in all 567 years, he has con- sequently placed the death of Christ in the year A. D. 33. . It is well known, that the death of our Lord took place on the 14th of the month Nisan, on the day before the feast of the passover, which was called " the preparation, Parasceue." For in Exod. 12, 6; Lev. 23, 5; Num. 9, 3. we read: «Ye shall keep the lamb up until the fourteenth day of the same month (Nisan), and the whole congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening {ien haar- haim.) And they shall eat the flesh in that night." — Lev. 23, 5 : "In the fourteenth day of the first month (Nisan) at even is the Lord's passover. And (the following day) of the fifteenth day of the same t See Chonologia Sacra, p. 116. RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 185 month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord."~Deut. 16, 6: "Thou shalt sacrifice (kill) the passover at even (baareb), at the going down (kebo) of the sun (Conf. Ex. 29, 29)." Every He- brew day began with sunset, and the evening, the first part of every day, extended from sunset to sunrise (Gen. 1, 5.) As then the lamb was to be kept up until the fourteenth, and killed after sun- set, or hen haarbaim^ i. e. at six in the evening, at the end of the natural evening, and at the begin- ning of the civil evening; and as it was eaten in that night, on that even of the fourteenth day, while on the fifteenth of Nisan, twenty-four hours later, the feast of Easter began, Christ, of course, being born under the law, was obliged to eat the lamb after six o'clock during the evening of the 14th Nisan. And so he actually did. He was condemned on the 14th of Nisan. Eor the Talmud says: "There is no judgment on the 15th of Msan.'^ And the Evangelists testify, that the corpses were taken from the cross, lest they should remain hanging during the passover, the loth of Nisan, which was a high Sabbath." ^hdX pascha phagein (John 18, 28) explains itself. Eor in the time of the passover, as Josephus relates, two millions of Jews, who re- quired at least 50,000 lambs, were resident at Jeru- salem. As it was impossible to kill them all in the temple before the morning; many Jews were prevented from eating the lamb before Christ's condemnation. Besides, all the ancient Christian 186 THE fflSTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Cliiirches, particulaTly the Quartadecimani put Christ's death on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan. The name of the Quartadecimani, i. e. Christians who celebrated Christ's death always on the fourteenth of Nisan, originated from this eccle- siastical usage. • The Paraseue (14th Nisan) always corresponded, as we have already seen, with the 19th of the Julian March. It was on these same days of March, that the earliest Christian Churches, those which were founded by the Apostles themselves, always observed the festival of Easter, and more particularly the Quartadecimani, the Cappadocians, the Gauls, and others ; all place the death of Christ, the Passio, by which they meant the whole space of time intervening between the crucifixion and the resurrection, upon the 19th, 20th, 21st and 22d of March. The solar eclipse of Dionysius Areopagita confirms that as the day of Christ's death with mathematical certainty. While travel- ling in Egypt and Ethiopia, this author was wit- ness of an eclipse of the sun, at the sight of which he exclaimed : " Now the Lord is sufiering something." This solar eclipse on the 14th of Nisan, i. e. on the 19th of March, could have taken place only in the year 83 after Christ ; it occurred at two o'clock in the afternoon, consequently during the very same hours, in which Christ expired on the cross. It was, however, not at all visible in RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 187 Palestine."^ Christ died, therefore, precisely on the same day on which the paschal-lamb had been typically slain in Egypt ; that is to say, three days before the vernal equinox. The resurrection of Christ took place, as we all know, on the . following Sunday, which, in the year 83 A. C, was on the 22 d of March, the day of the vernal equinox. This fact is already attested by Augustine, (De Trin. IV. 5; CD. XVIII. 54); for he says, that Christ's death, or passion, occurred on the very day on which the annunciation to Mary had taken place. The Constitutiones Apostolorum also refer this annunciation to the day of the ver- nal equinox, and at the same time to " a Sunday."f Kow, this day of the vernal equinox occurred upon a Sunday only in the year preceding the com- mencement of our era ; from which it is again manifest, that the birth of Christ occurred on the 22d of December. The resurrection, therefore, took place on the very day that had already been typi- cally sanctified by the exody from Egypt, by the founding of the temples of Solomon and Herod, and by the dedication of Zerubbabel's temple.if In like manner the dedication of the Ark of the covenant, the entry into the promised land, and the dedication of the temple of Solomon, and the Altar of Zerubbabel, had been fixed upon the day on * See the calculation of this eclipse in my Chronologia Sac, p. 285. t Cotelerii Opera Patrum. Vol. I., Lib. V. c. 13. t Chronologia Sacra, p. 30. 71. 188 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT which the birth of John the Baptist was announced, which was the 22d of September, the day of the autumnal equinox. Finally, Christ, the second Adam, rose from the dead on the very day on which, as we have already shown, the Almighty had completed the work of creation. And thus the prophecy of Daniel has likewise been fulfilled, that Christ was to " confirm the covenant with many for one week," and to be " cut ofi" in the midst of the week. For as the Hebrew year commenced on the day of the autumnal equinox, the middle of the prophetic week must have been the day of the vernal equinox, i. e. the 22d March. Besides, since Christ died on the 19th of March and rose again on Sunday the 22d of March, he must have remained in the grave three days and three nights ; for this 19th March, A. D. 33, was a Thurs- day.* This is evident already from the testimony of the Evangelists. They make minute mention of all the events of the sacred week, and expressly refer Christ's death to Thursday, to the fourth day after Palm-Sunday, the third before the resurrection. Thus then, the typical death of Jonah, which our Saviour expressly referred to himself, found here its perfect antitype. Christ was really, like Jonah, in the " heart of the earth for three days and three nights." Formerly, it was, indeed, a general opinion, that our Lord died on a Friday ; this is, however, contradicted * A Table for calculating all da3's of the week from 6000 B. C. to 2000 A. C. is given in my Chronologia Sacra, p. 241. RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 189 by the Evangelists ; the opinion had its origin in the oldest Christian communions, which solemnly devoted Friday to mourning and fasting, because it began im- mediately after, or during the inhumation of Christ's body; as has been demonstrated in other places.* This chronology, however, requires that particular attention should be given to the Greek words Sabba- ton and Sabbatci^ which are treated as synonymous terms in the English translation of the New Testa- ment, for Sahhaton signified every extraordinary holiday, while Sabhata expressed the Saturday of every week. Thus, then, Christ died on the PrO' sahhaton^ or Parasceue, the day before Easter, and not on the day before the Saturday (Prosabbata). The following day was the Sabbaton^ Easterday ; the next was the Sdblata, our Saturday ; the following Mia Sabhaton, the Sunday, on which the resurrection took place. Therefore, the succession of events during the holy week was the following: — 14th March, 9th Nisan, Saturday ; Christ, " six days before Easter," in Bethany. John 12, 1. 15th March, 10th Nisan, Sunday: Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Matt. 21, 8. Mark 11, 12. Luke . 19,45. John 12, 1. 16th March, 11th Nisan, Monday: Christ again in Jerusalem. Matt. 21, 18. Mark 11, 12. 17th March, 12th Nisan, Tuesday: The fig- tree withered away. Matt. 21, 20. 18th March, 13th Nisan, Wednesday: "after two * Chron. S. p. 128. Lutherische Herold, New- York, Jime 15, 1856. 190 THE HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT days is the feast of the passover." Matt. 26, 2. Mark 14, 1. Six o'clock, P.M.: the lambs are being slaugh- tered. Ex. 12, 6. Lev. 23, 5. Deut. 16, 6 14:th Nisan (Thursday), which begins during our 18th March with sunset. Gen. 1, 15. Christ and the twelve sit down and eat. Matt. 26, 26. Mark 14, 22. Luke 22, 17. John 13, 1. 19th March, 14th Nisan, Thursday, midnight : Christ goes over- the brook Cedron. John 18, 1. Judas betrays Jesus. Matt. 26, 48. Mark 14, 44. Luke 22, 47. Christ arraigned before Hannas and afterwards before Caiphas. John 18, 12. Matt. 26, 57. Mark 14, 53. Six o'clock, A. M. : Christ arraigned before the Synedrium. Luke 22, 66. Pilate examines Christ. Matt. 27, 1. Mark 15,1. Luke 23, 1. John 18, 28. Christ conducted to Golgatha. Matt. 27, 32. Mark 15, 20. John 19, 16. Ninth hour, A. M. : Christ crucified. Matt. 27, 35. Mark 15, 24. Luke 23, 33. John 19, 18. Noon : Darkness and earthquake. Matt. 27, 45. Mark 15, S3. Luke 23, 44. Third hour, P. M. : Christ yields up the ghost. Matt. 27, 50. Mark 15, 37. Luke 23, 45. Sunset, the 15th Nisan (Friday): Christ in the tomb. Matt. 27, 59. Mark 15, 46. Luke 23, 53. John 19, 40. RE-ESTABLISHED BY MATHEMATICAL FACTS. 191 Easter-day begins, the Salhaton. John 19, 42. 20 th March, loth Nisan, Friday, Sabbaton: The women rest during the Sabbath-day, according to the commandment. Luke 23, 56. Sunset, 16th Nisan, (Saturday): the Sabbata begins. Mark 16, 1. 2. 21st March, 16th Nisan, Saturday, Sabbata : Christ still in the tomb. Luke 24, 1. Matt. 27, 62. Sunset, 17th Nisan, Mia Sabbaton (Sunday) begins ; The women prepare spices and oint- ments. Matt. 16, 1. Luke 23, 56. 22d March, 17th Nisan, Sunday, the day of the ver- nal equinox, on which the week of creation ex- pired. Philo de Septen. p. 1178. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to the grave. Matt. 28,1. Mark 16,1. Luke 24,1. John 20,1. ' Sunrise : Christ risen from the dead, after three days and three nights. Matt. 12, 40. Such, then, are some of the fruits, which the antiqui- ties of Egypt, preserved to us by Providence, have borne to us ; of that Egypt, out of which God designed " to call his Son.'' We have here a mathematically accurate confirmation of the entire Old and New Testament, a thorough and complete rectification of the Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Roman his- tories and chronologies down to Titus. And who can determine, beforehand, what advantage may yet, in time to come, accrue from this source to the Chris- tian Church ! 192 THE RUINS OF NINEVEH AND THE CUNEIFORM XXIII. THE RUINS OF NINEVEH AND THE CU- NEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS, PARTICULARLY AT ST. LOUIS. Among all the historic discoveries of modern times, none has awakened a more universal interest than that of the ruins of Nineveh; and, certainly, there is good reason for this. For, this immense city of the ancient world, destroyed, according to " Layard's Ni- neveh," in 626 B. C, is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible; its destruction was foretold by the Prophets; it exerted a most important influence upon the aflairs of the Hebrew nation. And then again, the antiqui- ties discovered in the ruins of Nineveh are far more remarkable than could have been expected. Al- though but few of those archaeological mounds have yet been excavated, the marble sculptures found in them, have, to say nothing of those which have been destroyed or sunk in the ocean, already formed entire Museums in London and Paris. The artistic value of those is so great, that no beholder can leave them without admiration ; as works of art they come very near those of the most flourishing periods of Greece and Italy. But these Museums leave behind one pain- ful impression, from the consideration that these anti- quities could not be preserved in their original connec- tion. Those Assyrian regal halls were not designed to preserve mere works of art ; on the contrary, these sculp- tures expressed in their connection a definite meaning. INSCRIPTIONS, PARTICULARLY AT ST. LOUIS. 193 The same fate has befallen the Etrurian vases and other vessels. The Etrurians were wont to place in their tombs a number of vases in a circular arrange- ment, in order, by their relative positions, to express important facts. Whenever such a tomb was dis- covered, the order of these vessels was immediately broken up; and thus has archa3ological vandalism for ever destroyed the higher scientific meaning which was expressed by the pictures upon the sepa- rate vessels, arranged in this proper order and con- nection. The same remarks apply to the Assyrian antiquities. Thus we find a large marble-slab at St. Louis, brought from Nimrud, and representing one of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, while others re- mained in Nineveh, or stand in the British Museum. But the ruins of Nineveh acquire additional im- portance from the fact, that they preserved entire libraries in stone, which serve for the elucidation ot the Sacred Scriptures, and will throw light upon countries and ages, concerning which we now know scarcely any thing, and which seemed to be enveloped in perpetual night. These cuneiform inscriptions will all, some day, be translated; the way is already prepared for the attainment of this result. In my Alphabeta Genuina I showed as early as 1840, that the thirty-six groups of the so-called Persian cunei- form character, correspond with the thirty-six letters of the modern Persians, and that the first twenty-four of these groups coincide with the Noachian alpha- 9 194 THE RUINS OF NINEVEH AND THE CUNEIFORM bet;* that now nearly two hundred groups of the Median cuneiform character express the same letters in combination with different vowels; all which was confirmed four years afterwards by Westergoord;f and that the Assyrian cuneiform groups very often denote, as among the Egyptians and the Chinese, syllabic combinations of consonants with other con- sonants. Although my alphabet was still incomplete, Rawlinson translated, with the aid of it, entire in- scriptions. The written monuments of Nineveh will therefore, in the course of time, constitute a distinct branch of ancient literature. Surely, then, the bring- ing to light again of the ruins of Nineveh with their countless works of art and their inscriptions, must be numbered among the most important historical dis- coveries of our century. Doubts have, however, been expressed, as to whether those palaces, dug up on the banks of the Tigris, near Mosul, really belonged to ancient Nineveh, and whether those ruins are actually to be referred to a date as early as 626 B. C. — Now it is a remark- able fact, that at the bottom of those heaps of ruined structures, many Egyptian antiquities have been found, among which a splendid ivory table, with the name of a well known Egyptian king inscribed upon ■■^ Alphabeta genuina u$]gyptiorum and Asianorum Uteris Persarum, Medorum, Assyriorumque cuneoformibus, Zendicis, Pehlvicis, Indicis subjecta, cet , Lips. 1840. t Westergoord, On the deciphering of the second Achsemenian, or Median species of arrow-headed writing. See Memoires de la Society dcs Antiquaires du Nord. Copenhag. 1844. INSCRlPnONS, PARTICULARLY AT ST. LOUIS. 195 it, makes it impossible any longer to doubt that those royal palaces on the Tigris were destroyed, not in the year 626 B. C, by Nabopolassar, the father of Nebucadnezzar, but at a much later period. To prove this^ we refer to " Layard's Nineveh," where the read- er will find (VoL II. p. 208,) an accurate copy of that table, now in the British Museum; and the royal cartouche, represented upon it, expresses, by its seven hieroglyphics, the following letters: AHB-N-HR-P ^^^T^l^i^- ^^* ^^ *^^6S6 letters Mr Birch con- trived, as is shown by Layard on the specified page, to conjure up, according to Chainpollion''s system, a king Aubnura, or Auvnura. Although, according to Manetho, Eratosthenes, Syncellus and others, no such king ever reigned in Egypt, Birch, nevertheless, con- ceived that he might have belonged to the XXII. Dynasty (950. B. C), or, perchance, to the XVIII. Dy- nasty (1900 B. C), or even to the Dynasty of the Ilyksos, to the Israelites, or Abrahamidas in the XVI. and XVII. Dynasty (2400 B. C.) With the aid of my grammar, however, we obtain the name which, in the Bible, is written Hophra, Hephre, and by Herodotus Hapries, Apries. This name is, in fact, composed of the Coptic roots ahaj),, hop^ to love, and hra^ ra^ sun, with the sign of the genitive case ^, and the article ji?. — It is well known, that the article ^, and the sign of the genitive case /^, were often omitted, so that, for instance, the Egyptian king Shischank, Sisonchosis, is in the Bible and on Egyptian monuments, simply called Shishak. Those hieroglyphics, therefore give 196 THE RUINS OF NINEVEH AND THE CUNEIFORM US the name: Ahab-Hra, abbreviated into Hop-Ra, the Biblical Hophra, i. e. the favorite of the Sun-god. Such names and combinations occurred very fre- quently among the Egyptians. — Thus the owner, al- ready mentioned, of the book of the Dead at Turin, and of his signet-stone in Dr. Abbott's Museum, was called : Ahap-Anuke, i. e. the favorite of the goddess Anuke + -'^^ ^ fj. For this name is also composed of the root aJiop^ hoj), to love, and the name Anuke, which goddess, herself represented on Layard's Hophra-table, is written with the ansated cross y, expressing syllabically the letters ANK. Now, it is well known, that king Hophra, Hapries, reigned at the time when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, in 585 B. C, and that he afforded the fugitive Jews an asylum in Egypt. And this gives us a clue to the manner in which those Egyptian antiquities found their way to Nineveh. After the destruction of Jerusalem Nebuchad- nezzar marched against Tyre, and thence against Hophra, because he had assisted the Jews. After conquering Egypt and dethroning Hophra, he re- turned from Egypt, as Josephus relates, with the trophies gathered during this campaign. Hence it now follows, that the ruins exhumed by Layard and others do not belong to the time of Nebuchad- nezzar's father, 626 B. C , because they contained in- scriptions much more recent. These researches have been explained more ex- tensively in the German translation of Layard's INSCRIPTIONS, PARTICULARLY AT ST. LOUIS. 197 Nineveh, Leipzig, 1855, in the Appendix (Die Mgyp' tischen Alterthiimer in Nimrud und das Jahr der Zerstorung Niniveh's.) In this connection I take the liberty of calling attention to two cuneiform inscriptions, which, the property of Mr. Marsh at St. Louis, are perhaps the greatest literary curiosity of that city, and the only specimens in the United States. The smaller one, of hard marble, although a fragment, is remark- able, because it contains the most beautiful cunei- form letters now extant. The other inscription is on a burnt brick, nearly twenty inches by twenty, and four inches thick, and was found in that same ancient city of Nineveh. An exact copy of the in- scription is given in the transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, 1857, Plate 4. The same inscription, a few groups excepted, is repeated upon all bricks found in the Central-Palace at Nimrud, as the fac-simile in Layard's Nineveh, New- York, 1849, Vol. II, p. 155, shows. What may be the import of the inscription of this brick, and to what epoch does it belong? There are four kinds of cuneiform inscriptions ; the so-called Persian, the Median, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian. The language, in which these in- scriptions speak to us, is the Old Persian, the mo- ther of the modern Persian, preserved in the Zend and Pehlevi, related to the Sanscrit, the Greek, Latin and Grerman, in short, to all the Japhetic languages. 198 THE RUINS OF NINE\TEH AND THE CUNEIFORM This cuneiform character was, a long time since, regarded as the primitive mode of writing, earlier than the Phoenician, Hebrew, Greek and other al^ phabets. In 1840, however, I demonstrated in the book mentioned above, that those cuneiform letters of the Persians, Medes, Assyrians, and probably of the Babylonians also, had the Hebrew, or rather the Noachian alphabet for their basis. For, all those groups of wedges originate from combinations of different wedges ; and by bringing them, particularly the S6 Persian groups in a row or file, according to the law of combination, it appears, that these letters then follow, the one after the other, like the letters of our alphabet a, hj Cj and so on. Thus the S6 cuneiform groups of ^the Persians correspond with the 36 letters of the modern Persians. Those 200 groups of the Median system express the same 36 letters pro- nounced with different vowels. The Assyrian groups, of which 400 are already known, signify- partly those 36 single letters, partly the same com- bined with vowels, partly the same joined to diffe- rent consonants ; as was first shown in my " Alpha- beta Genuina," and confirmed some years ago by Kawlinson. My cuneiform alphabet of the Assy- rians, which was published sixteen years ago, is not at all complete ; and my cuneiform Dictionary, as every body will find, upon referring to my book, p. 124 — 138, is a very poor one. It has, nevertheless been considered the first key to this immense new INSCRIPTIONS, PARTICULARLY AT ST. LOUIS. 199 literature. Rawlinson, in the midst of Assyrian antiquities, has adopted it, enlarged, and, without doubt, corrected it; his book, however, with his alphabet, Dictionary, and numerous translations of entire inscriptions I have not yet been able to exa- mine. I am happy, however, to be able to give some information concerning this Assyrian inscrip- tion, which, after many hundred years, has made its way from old Nineveh to St. Louis, through the instrumentality of an American missionary at Mosul. The cuneiform groups of the brick read as fol- lows. IIoiiro-Muzdasay pabou pdopala^ hosdo pa- malho^ pdbou paopala, Jioruzpaopala dah Koshaul- sah, huna Kha Dhalhahosh ^ i. e. Xerxes, th^ son of Darius, (namely Hystaspes 518 B. C), the Lord of the earth, the master of the earth, has given, (the building in question) to Honnuzd (the Persian name of God), to the Lord of the earth, to the 'king of the people. The name of Ilormuzdasa is written thus : j =K1 ^ ^ ? ^ '^C^^KWl h ail ro m ic z da sa This brick then is now 2300 years old; it was burnt in the time of Xerxes (d 463 B. C), and thus demonstrates, that the ruins of Nineveh, where this brick was dug up, or that, at least, some parts of Nineveh's ruins actually belong to a period 160 years later than the year 626 B. C, to which Layard has referred them. My deciphering, 1 confess, contains some doubt- 200 THE EGYPTIAN AND HEBREW MEASURES OF CAPACITY ful letters ; but the proper names and many other words are certain, as similar inscriptions prove. Nobody can give more than he has to give. XXIV. THE EGYPTIAN AND HEBREW MEA- SURES OF CAPACITY EXPLAINED BY EGYP- TIAN MONUMENTS IN DR. ABBOTT'S MUSEUM. Among the most remarkable curiosities of Dr. Abbott's Museum are two vessels, on which their measure of capacity is indicated. It is known that at the time of their departure from Egypt, the He- brews carried with them the Egyptian weights and measures, and retained these in use, until the destruc- tion of Jerusalem by Titus. All the names of these weights and measures are known to us from ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Hebrew and Greek authorities ; but until a few years ago no man was able to compare them with our modern measures. Attempts have been made to determine the weights of the Hebrews, and consequently those of the ancient Egyptians, by means of the Hebrew coins of the time of the Macca- bees. The result, howevei", is still an. uncertain one, and the weights preserved in Dr. Abbott's Museum may perhaps help to shed some additional light upon the subject. Since the 'B.ve cubic-measures have been found in the catacombs, we are, as they give all the Egyptian measures of length, with their names, even to the sixteenth part of an inch, in possession of an accurate criterion for determining the Hebrew and EXPLAINED BY EGYPTIAN MONUMENTS, &C. 201 Egyptian method of measuring length.* But the solid and liquid measures of the Hehrews and Egyp- tians are still wrapped in impenetrable darkness. Every conceivable method has been devised, in order to determine the capacity of the Hebrew liquid-mea- sures; for instance, that of the brazen sea in the temple of Solomon ; but the results reached are utter- ly unsatisfactory. Dr. Abbott's Museum is now the only one in the world, by means of which the subject in question can be settled. The carefully executed measure. No. 389 of the collection, contains the num- ber 19 ; probably, because it was capable of holding 19 Hins, which in Egypt and Palestine was the mea- sure most commonly in use, and equivalent to about a pint of our measure. In the same manner the large amphora. No. 6, contains, as a friend discovered, the number 4, probably because its capacity was equal to that of 4 Egyptian amphorse. But, it will be said, that these are matters of trifling consequence. It is * Die Biblischen Maasse durch die antiken -^gyptischen Ellen in den Museen zu Turin, Paris und Leyden bestimmt. See my " Alpha- beta Genuina," p. 139. That these Egyptian cubit-measures were those in common use, is easily proved. In 1827 I discovered at Turin some large Papyri, representing the ground plans of the catacombs of Osi mandya and of Ramses the Great (1700 B. C), near Thebes. The copies of these papyri are preserved in my " Bibliotheca ^gyptiaca Manuscripta," Vol. VII., No. 6937, 6938, 6936. At the same time the papyri indicate, how many cubits and inches long, and broad, and high each chamber was. Now the same catacombs and chambers have been measured by meters, during the French Expedition in 1799 ; and by comparing the ancient and the modern measurements with each other, it was discovered, that the said cubit-measures were actually those of the ancient Egyptians. 202 TUB ABRAXAS OF THE CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS true, they may be so ; but it is well known, that im- portant truths have often been brought to light by apparent trifles. XXV. THE ABRAXAS OF THE CHRISTIAN GNOS- TICS, PARTICULARLY THOSE IN DR. ABBOTT'S MUSEUM. In conclusion I would yet mention two signet- stones (Nos. 969 and 971), which were w^orn by Gnostic Christians. The name Abraxas, or Abrasax contains, as Matter (Gnosticismus 11. 30.) has first shown, the number S6o, according to the numerical value of the Greek letters, hence the number of the days of the year, and thus, the Lord of the year, or of time. The Gnostics considered Christ as the pro- mised Saviour of the world; but their creed contained an admixture of a variety of pagan superstitions ; and this accounts for the peculiar character of these Abraxas-stones. Thus Martian (450 A. C), who was a Gnostic, says : " Be saluted thou true image of the Gods and face of the Father, whose name consists of three letters expressing the number 608." This name written in Hebrew QHY and pronounced ^'et', is, indeed the Gnostic name of Christ Jcav, or keVj and expresses the number 608.^ The specimens of Abraxas-stones in * See my Gnindsatze der Mythologie und alten Religionsgeschichte, p. 27. Martian. De nupt. phil. II. 51 : Ignota vis celsa Patris vel prima propago — Regnum, naturae decus atque assertio divum — ul- tra mundanum fas est cui cernere Patrem. — Solem te Latium vocitat. — Te Serapim Nilus, Memphis veneratur Osirin, dissona sacra Mitram, THE ABRAXAS OF THE CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS. 203 Dr. Abbott's Museum belong to the most important monuments of the kind; they were entirely unknown to Prof. Matter, and afford a good deal of new and important information respecting the sect of the Gnostics. No. 969 is remarkable from the fact, that it presents the image of Christ with Pagan insignia and holding two Phoenixes in its hand. We learn from the Fathers of the Church and from Miinter, that the Phoenix was a Christian symbol, probably because the Phoenix, (or Mercury) had made its transit over the sun in the month October, i. e. at the beginning of the Hebrew year, immediately after the birth of Christ, and also after his resurrection, and had thus marked the resurrection and the commence- ment of a new Era. The Abraxas No. 971 exhibits an entirely new re- presention of Christ, and besides, four remarkable inscriptions, which, although they offer many difficul- ties to the translator, on account of the corrupt Coptic and Greek terms contained in them, are yet suscep- tible of an appropriate rendering. Christ's image is a God with a lion's head, with the ansated cross in his right hand, a sceptre in the left and the sun-disk, encompassed by the snake Uraeus, on his head. These sj^mbols phonetically denote the Lofty One, the Ditemque ferumque Typhorum ; Atys pulcher item curvi et puer almi aratri, Amnion et arentis Lybies et Byblius Adon. — Salve vera Deum facies vultusque paterne, octo et sexccnlis numeris ciii htera trina con- format sacrum nomen, cognomen et omen. 204 THE ABRAXAS OF THE CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS. prince, the mighty one, the Lord, by their Coptic names.^ Underneath we find the inscription: AM- M^Nm, i. e. «To the Illustrious One." For Caillaud's mummy at Paris contains the words : IIETAMENfli'IC O KAI AMM^NIOC, and Amun signifies in the Coptic the Illustrious One.f To the right of the figure we find the words: i2C OTCIP MI flC OPH TO O^C HTP ^AOH; on the other and left side: MI fiC MI QC lAP MICI M IE$E (i.e. Jehovah) ONOTE (i.e. NOH)IAE^C (i. e. Eloah's), which I have thus translated : " Great is Osiris, greater the Sun, the light, the fire, the flame ; but the greatest of all is Horus (Christ), the son of Jehovah, the out-breathing of Eloah." ^ On the re- verse we read: KAXei MOI O EN AEONTQnOAI THN KATOIKIAN KEKAHP^MENOC O EN TO, APIfi CHKi2 ENIAPTME- NOC O ACTPAHTSN KAI BPONTflN KAI ANEMi2N KTPIOC O THN ENOTPANION THC EflNIOT $TCEi2C KEKAHPfiMENOC ANANKHN. "I will praise him, who possesses a dwelling at Leontopolis, who is surrounded by the Holy of Holies, the Lord of the lightnings and of thunder, of the storms and of the winds, to whom belongeth the heavenly government of everlasting nature." Around the circumference of the edge we perceive the words : CT lOTAXXC (i. e. 6 67]ybg) E[A]EOCeEN HKOOC GEOC MEPAAOAOaOC AE0NT0M0P0$0C O [EJNMOAAC {i. e. evfiaXog, or o)v fiakog) 01 (i. e. del), * See my Grammatica ^gyptiaca, p. 7; Alphabet No. 9. 202. 574. f Grundsiitze der Mythologie und der Hieroglyphensysteme, p. 268. THE ABRAXAS OF THE CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS. 205 "Tliou art the guide that came from the siin, the God of glory, lion-shaped, illustrious to all eternity."*' The Jews had a temple at Leontopolis in Egypt, which was constructed after the model of Solomon's temple at Jerusalem and destroyed in the same year with that of Herod, in A.D. 71. Now, as our Abraxas alludes to the resurrection of Christ and the temple in question as still existing, it must be referred to the time between the resurrection of Christ 38 A. C. and the destruction of Herod's temple, 71 years A. C. * We regret that we are not enabled to produce a very perfect re- presentation of the inscription, on account of our not having the Old Coptic Capital characters. — The Printer. APPENDIX. The most important Events of Biblical, Egyptian, Assyrian, Median, PeV' sian, Greek and Roman history down to 130 A. D., chronologically arranged on the basis of new historical and mathematical discoveries. Petavius' Chronological Tables of ancifnt history, Paris, 1627, which have been repeated, unexamined, in good faith, in Clinton's Fasti Hel- lenici and Romani, Fischer's Griechisehe und Romische Zeittafeln, and in a thousand modern works on history, contain not a single correct date prior to the year 80 A. C., as the new historical and mathemati- cal discoveries mentioned above demonstrate. There being no correct history without correct chronology, I have not shunned. the trouble of preparing new Chronological Tables of the entire ancient history down to 400 A. C, together with a commentary on them, of which the fol- lowing is a short abstract. The following are the principal mistakes made by Petavius in his chronology. 1. As regards Biblical History, he has adopted as the basis, not the chronology of the Septuagint, but that of the Hebrew text, shortened by Akiba. For from Adam to Christ not 4000 years, but exactly 5870 must be reckoned ; from the Creation to the Deluge not 1500, but 2424 years ; from thence to the departure of Abraham from Chaldea not 367, but 1150 years ; from the Exodus from Egypt to the building of the Temple not 480, but 880 years. There are no interregna in the history of the kings of Israel, but several kings of Juda, sons with fathers, reigned during certain years synchronously. The Babylonian captivity lasted not 64, but 70 entire years. Herod did not die four years before the birth of Christ, but three months after. Christ did not die in the 29th, but, as Daniel had foretold, in the 33d year of the Dionysian Era. Jerusalem was destroyed not in 70, but in 71 A. C. The Hebrews did not reckon by lunar months, but by fixed solar months ; hence Petavius has fixed all the dates of the Old and K^ew Testament on the wrong days. 2. Egyptian history was, previous to the discovery of the numerous astronomical monuments before mentioned, a complete chaos, whence Petavius, Lepsius, Bunsen, Boeckh, Lesieur, and others, in determining its epochs, differ from each other by hundreds and thousands of years. The kings of Persia and the Lagidse were ante-dated by Petavius by 206 APPENDIX. 207 two years. Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt, did not die in 30, Lut 28 B. C. (historically). The kings from Menes to the XVIIIth Dy- nasty did not reign siiccessively, but for the most part contemporane- ously. 3. In regard to the Assyrian, Median, and Persian history, Petavius has taken the eclipses of the moon, erroneously calculated, for old Babylonian observations ; whence he has post-dated Nabonassar by one year, and ante-dated the following kings by two years, and Cyrus even by four years. 4. The entire history of Greece has been ante-dated by Petavius by two years, the same error having been committed by him in regard to the Olympiads. Besides all this, he has introduced the Archon Pisan- der in 412 B. C. contrary to the Parian Marble, whereas he should be placed before Pythador I. in 432 B. C. (historically). That a whole year was missing between Thucydides and Xenophon's Hellenica had not been noticed by Petavius ; and the Peloponnesian war has been shortened by one year. From the battle of Marathon to the Pelopon- nesian war Petavius has counted one year too many, and thus ante- dated all the events of the Persian war by one year. The death of Alex- ander must not be placed in 324, but 321 B. C. (histor.). Moreover, Petavius fixed all the dates of Grecian history by lunar, instead of solar months, hence erroneously, without exception. 5. As regards Roman history Petavius has ante-dated the foundation of Rome by one year, and shortened the period of the kings by one year. He has ante-dated all the Consuls from Brutus to 331 (historic.) by two yeai*s, and introduced a pair of Consuls in this year, contrary to Livy and all other historians. The following Consuls down to Julius Csesar are ante-dated by one year. The reign of Caesar has been shortened by Petavius by one year, he was assassinated, not in 44, but 42 B. C. (histor.), on the 16th of March ; Augustus did not die in 14, but 16 A. C. For the years 47 and 79 A. C. Petavius has introduced two pairs of Consuls, who were Extraordinarii or suffecti, with two whole years, hence the Consuls between the death of Csesar and 47 A. C. must be placed later by two years, the succeeding Consuls to 80 A. C. by one year. A summary of all these corrections of ancient history will be found in the following Chronological Tables. In general all the synchronous events of ancient history were quite different from what Petavius has taught, and he does not even make the Olympian games correspond with the years of Rome, or the Archons with the Consuls, as the An- cients relate. The astronomical observations of the Ancients, on which these cor- rections are based, especially all the solar and lunar eclipses, which at 208 APPENDIX. the same time serve for correcting our astronomical Tables, liave Leen given complete. The years marked in the following Tables begin with the 1st of Jan- uary, old style ; but the years themselves have in every case, been reckoned not historically, but astronomically. For astronomers have, ever since Dionysius Exiguus 625 A. C, always called the year which immediately preceded the Dionysian Era, the first year B. C, while historians, some centuries ago (we do not exactly know when), com- menced calling the same year the second year B.C., and consequently in every case counting one year more, and shortening the Dionysian Era by one year. This double chronology, the astronomical and his- torical, adopted in innumerable books, has been the cause of great con- fusion in ancient history, and still leads to daily mistakes. The most recent instance of that sort is exposed in the Evangelical Eeview, Get- tysburg, July, 1857, Vol. ix. ISo. 33, p. 58. The years A. C. are reck- oned alike both by astronomers and historians ; but whenever we find a date B.C. in historical works we cannot tell with certainty whether the year is meant historically or astronomically, Tinless it be marked hist, or astr. This is the origin of the many mistakes and contradictions in an- cient history. In addition to this, the historical chronology is evidently wrong, and in direct contradiction with the author of the Christian Era. For Dionysius Exiguus never called the year following the birth of Christ the year one B. C, but he called it the first year post Chris- tum natum, and designated it by (nought), as is still customary with astronomers, which is proved by Dionysius' calculation of all the Easter full moons from the birth of Christ to 625 A. C. this being still extant, and beginning with the year nought. Conf. Ideler's Chronology, XL, 372, 292. Moreover, the Komans, since Dionysius, have regularly observed the commencements of the whole centuries, the halves and quarters of the Christian Era, which secular years commenced on the 1st January of the years 700, 800, 900, 1000, 1800, 1850 A. C, not 701, 801, &e., hence Christians in former times must have unanimously commenced the Christian Era with the year 0, according to Diony- sius, as astronomers continue to do. It was impossible for Dionysius to proceed otherwise, for the Eras of the Ancients, the years of Rome, the Olympiads, &c., which Dionysius copied, begin with 0, and write year 1 after the completion of the first 365 days. On all sun-dials, mile-stones, ells, &c., 1 was placed at the end of the first hour, mile, &c. Moreover, the years B. C. and A. C, astronomically counted, are easily added and substracted, while in counting historically, a year must always be subtracted, which many ignore. Thus, reckoning astronomically the period from the 1st of January 10 B. C. to the 1st APPENDIX. 209 of January 10 A. C, comprises 20 years, while reckoning historically it comprises 19 years only. In order to find the year 100 before the death of Augustus (16 A. C.) historians have to deduct 16 from 100 and add 1 year. Therefore it is very desirable that this absurd, con- fused, and evidently wrong, so-called historical chronology should be abandoned. To this it will be objected that this mode of reckoning has been adopted by many, and is found in many books. But the Chronology of Petavius in use to the present time will undoubtedly, because it is wrong, have to be changed sooner or later in all Chronological Tables and historical works, and for the universal introduction of astronomi- cal reckoning that epoch will no doubt be the most proper, when the whole Chronology of Petavius has commenced to make room for one that is better and demonstrated to be correct. "Whoever can unhesi- tatingly retain a reckoning so confused and incorrect as that which is termed the historical, may do so. For my part I could not make up my mind to this in these new Chronological Tables. B.C. A.M. 5870 May 10th, Julian style, on the day of the vernal equinox Sunday ; Planetary Configuration in the beginning of the first week after the Creation preserved in the Hypsomata planetarum of all ancient nations and in the Chronique d' Abou Djafar Moham. Tabari, c. 2, where it is said, " Know what the astronomers Aristotle, Hipparchus, and all the great masters in astronomy before us state, how much time will elapse from Adam (peace be with him) till the day of Judgment. The said masters relate that, when God, the Almighty and Incomparable, created the Moon, Sun and Stars, each of these heavenly bodies stood fixed in its place till the commandment of God went forth. At this time Saturn stood 21° east in Libra, Jupiter 15° in Cancer, Mars 28° in Capricorn, the Sun 0° in Aries, Venus 27° in Pisces, Mercury 27° in Pisces, the Moon 3° in Taurus. — This was the beginning of the world and since that day these heavenly bodies have never stood thus again;'''' i.e., on the 10th of May, Julian style, 5870 B. C, two days after the creation of Adam. Conf. Seyfiarth, Chronologia Sacra, Leipsic, 1846, P. 176. Sirius rises together with the Sun. Porphyr, Antr. Nymph, p. 264, Cant. ; Biblioth. Magn. Patr., Par., Vol. XII., p. 647, Macrob. Somn. Scrip, c. 21. The first Canicular Period of Theon begins. Comp. year 26 A. C. Helios governs 30,000 abot (lunar months), i. e., 2424 solar years to the deluge. Vetus Chron., Manetho accord- ing to the Turin papyrus. 210 APPENDIX. B. C. A. M. 6869 January 1st. Beginning of the first Julian year after the 1 Creation. Beginning of the 1st Era of the world of 2146 solar years, during which the point of the vernal equinox passes through the sign of Gemini, and Ophion reigns. The 1st Yuga under Brahma. Beginning of the 1st world-period of 1000 years, i. e., "the golden," during which Uranus reigns. The 1st Ava- tara begins. Hesiod. Georg. v. 154 ; Procul. inPlaton. Tim. I. 45 ; Juvenal. Sat. XIII. 28. 5640 Seth born 230 years after Adam, lives 912 years, (Gen. v. 3), 230 the author of Astronomy, Chronology and Chirography. Joseph. Ant. I. 5435 Enos, born 205 after Seth, lives 905 years.— Gen. 5, 6. 435 5245 Cainan I., born 109 years after Enos, lives 910 years. — Gen. 5, 9. 5075 Mahalaleel, born 170 after Cainan, lives 805 years. — Gen. 705 5,12. 4940 Adam dies, 930 old.— Gen. 5, 5. 930 4910 Jared born 165 years after Mahalaleel, lives 962 years. — 960 Gen. 5, 15. 4870 Beginning of the 2d world-period (or age of the world) of 1000 1000 years, the *' silver" age, during which Saturn reigns. Orphici ; Hesiod. Georg. 154. 4778 Enochbornl62yearsafter Jared, lives 365 years. --Gen. 5, 18. 1122 4728 Seth dies 912 years old.— Gen. 5, 8. 1142 4583 Methuselah born 165 years after Enoch, lives 969 years — 1287 Gen. 5, 21. 4530 Enos dies 905 years old.— Gen. 5, 11. 1340 4383 Enoch received into heaven in the 365th year of his life. — 1487 Gen. 5, 24. 4335 Cainan I. dies 910 years old.— Gen. 5, 14. 1535 4234 Lamech born 187 (Ms. 167) and 162 years after Methuselah, 1636 lives 753 years. — Gen. 5, 25. 4180 Methuselah dies 895 years old.— Gen. 5, 17. 1690 4046 Noah born 188 years after Lamech, lives 950 years. — Gen. 1824 9 29. 3948 Jai-ed dies, 962 years old.— Gen. 5, 20. 1922 3870 Beginning of the 3d world-period (or age of the world), 2000 of 1000 years, i. e., the brazen, during which Jupiter reigns. Orphici, Hesiod. Georg. 3724 Beginning of the 2d Era of the "World, i. e., the silver one, 214G of 2146 years. The vernal equinoctial point moves from Gemini into Taurus, while Saturn reigns. Orphici. Pla- netary configuration in the beginning of this Era observed. Zendavesta II. 353 (Anq. d. P.), III. 63 (Kleuk). Comp. Sevffarth, Chronol. S., P. 189. 3614 Methuselah dies, 9C9 years old.— Gen. 5, 27. 2256 3566 First announcement of the Deluge, 120 years before it oc- 2304 curred. — Gen. 0, 3. APPENDIX. 211 'B. C. A. M. 8546 Japhet born, 500 years after Noah.— Gen. 5, 32. 2324 3543 Shem born, 100 years before Arphaxad.— Gen. 11, 10. 2327 3540 Ham born after Shem.— Gen. 5, 32. 2330 3481 Lamech dies, 753 years old.— Gen. 5, 31. 2389 3447 Novemb. 8th, Juhan style, (on the 17th day of the 2d 2423 month). The Deluge commences in the 600th year of Noah. Gen. 7, 11, 6. — Typhon (the sea) kills his brother Osiris ^the continent), and encloses his remains in a chest My- thologi -^gypt. Xisuthrus saves himself, his family, the alphabet, &c., in a ship ; Berosus in Josephus. — Demarus (the earth) is overpowered by Pontus (the sea) in the 32d year (of the gods) i. e., 2423 B. C. Sanchunjathon ed. Orell. p. 33. 34. — Ophion is cast by Satan into the sea. Apollon. L 502 ; Tzetzes ad Lycophr. 1192. — Prometheus is chained to the Caucasus. Hesiod. Theog. 507; Apollod. I. 2; Ovid. Met. I. — Deucalion (Ogyges, Cadmus) spared at the deluge, invents the new alphabet. Mythol. Lat. — Varro tria discrimina temporum esse tradit : primum ab hominum initio ad cataclysmum priorem ; secundum a cataclysmo ad Olympiadem. Censorin. Fid. n. 21, and so on. 3446 Sept. 7th : Configuration of the Seven Planets, at the end 2424 of the deluge preserved in the Noachian alphabet. See Seyffarth, Unser Alphabet ein Abbild des Thierkreises : Leips. 1834 ; Unumstoesslicher Beweis, cet. Leips. 1839 ; Alphabeta Genuina, cet. Lips. 1840. — Horus Stoliarcha (the sea-captain) avenges the death of Osiris, Mythogr. ^g. — Taant invents the Alphabet imitating the heavens : Sanchunjath, cfcc. B. C. A. M. 3445 Jan. 1st : Beginning of the post-diluvian Era. — The supe- 2425 rior gods of the Egyptians reign 3984 and 117 abot (i. e., 666 solar years) till Menes. Yetus Chron., Manetho, Hero- dot. — Noah goes forth from the Ark. — Gen. 8, 13 seq. 3442 Arphaxad born, 100 years after Shem, two full years after 2428 the end of the Deluge. — -Gen. 11, 10 ; Luke 3, 36. 3407 Cainan II. born 135 years after Arphaxad. — Gen. 11, 12 ; 2563 according to the LXX. ; Josephus and Luke 3, 36. 3177 Salah born 130 years after Cainan II. — Gen. 11, 13 ; accord- 2693 ing to the LXX., Josephus and Luke 3, 36. 3096 Noah dies, 950 vears old.— Gen. 9, 29. 2774 3047 Heber born, 130 years after Salah.— Gen. 11, 14 ; Luke 3, 2323 35. 2942 Shem dies 500 years after Arphaxad's birth.— Gen. 11, 10. 2928 2913 Phaleg born, 134 years after Heber.— Gen. 11, 16. 2957 2907 Arphaxad dies, 400 years after Cainan II's. birth.— Gen. 2963 11, 12. 2870 The 4th Period of the world of 1000 years begins, (the 3000 iron). Hesiod. Georg. v. 154 ; Virgil. 2847 Cainan dies 330 years after tlie birth of Salah.— Gen. 11, 13. 3023 212 APPENDIX. B. C. A. M. Nimrod at this time (600 years after the Deluge) lays the foundation of the empire of Sinear on the Euphrates and Tigris (Babj-lonia, Erech, Arcad, Chalne), builds Nineveh and the Babylonian tower. — Gen. 10, 11. 12. 2817 Salah dies 230 years after the birth of Heber.— Gen. 11, 14. 3053 2783 Rhegu born 130 years after Phaleg.— Gen. 11, 18. 3087 Dispersion of the nations from Babel ; origin of dialects and languages in the time of Phaleg. — Gen. 11, 9. Menes (Mizraim) moves from Babel to Egypt. 2781 July 20th, (old style) : Sirius rises heliacall}- in Egypt, be- 3089 gipning of the first Canicular Period of 1460 years. 2780 July 16th, (Summer Solstice) : Planetary Configuration at 3090 the foundation of the empire of Egypt, represented on the temple at Karnak, on many other monuments, in Manetho, Vetus Chronicon. Herodot., Syncell. Seyftarth, Berich- tiguugen der alten Geschichte, Leips. 1855, Tab. I. — Begin- ning of Egyptian history and the Manetbonian Dynasties. Simultaneous reign of the first 12 Dynasties of Manetho. 2747 Ninus King of Sinear builds Nineveh. Diod. II. 1. 3123 2719 Athothis (Thoth) the 2d King in upper Egypt, inventor 3151 of the hieroglyphics (Man. Eratosth., Table of Abydos), author of the sacred writings of the ancient Egyptians. 2651 Serug born 132 years after Rhegu.— Gen. 11, 20. 3219 2643 Heber dies 132 years after Phaleg's birth ; 238 years after 3227 the dispersion. — Gen. 11, 16. 2554 Sesostris, the Great, (Sirius in Eratosthenes) the 3d King 3316 in the XII. Dyn. of Manetho, reigns in Upper Egypt under whom the Phoenix-Periods of 652 years began. Maneth., Eratosth. Tab. of Abydos. April 6th : Mercury (Phoenix) crosses the solar disk un- der Sesostris. Tacit. An. VI. 28. 2521 Nahor born 130 years after Serug.— Gen. 11, 22 ; Luke 3349 3, 34. 2474 Phaleg dies 209 years after Rhegu's birth.- Gen. 11, 18. 3396 2444 Rhegu dies 207 years after Serug's birth.— Gen. 11, 20. 342G 2442 Sarali born 79 years after Nahor's birth.— Gen. 11, 24. 3428 2372 Abraham born 70 years after Terah"s birth.— Gen. 11, 26. 3490 2321 Serug dies 200 years after Xahor's birth.— Gen. 11, 22. 3549 2161 ^giolus, the 1st King of Sicyon. Euseb. Chron., Sync. 3709 2317 Nahor dies 125 years after Terah"s birth.— Gen. 11, 24. 3553 2297 Abraham 75 years old goes from Mesopotamia to Canaan 3573 and Egvpt, 215 j-ears before Israel. — Gen. 12, 4. 40. Jose- phus Ant. II. 15 ; B. 7. V. 9. 2296 The first Dynasty of the Shepherd Kings (Hyksos, Dyn. 3574 XV.) reign in Goshen contemporaneously with Egyptian Kings. Manetho according to Julius African. 2286 Ishmael born of Hagar in the 86th year of Abraham. — 3584 Gen. 16, 3. 16 ; Joseph. Ant. I. 10, 5. 2273 Sodom and Gomorrha burnt, origin of the Dead Sea. — Gen. 3597 14, 3 ; 13, 10. APPENDIX. 21 o B. C. A. M. 2272 Isaac born 100 years after Abraham. — Gen. 21, 5 ; 17, 1. 3598 2237 Terah dies in Charan 205 years old.— Gen. 11, 32. 3633 2232 Isaac 40 years old marries Rebecca.— Gen. 25, 20. 3638 2212 Israel born 60 years after Isaac's birth ; at the same time 3658 with him Esau. — Gen. 25, 26. 2197 Abraham dies 175 years old. — Gen. 25, 9. 8673 2164 Isaac dies 108 years old.— Gen. 35, 28. 3706 2121 Joseph born 30 years before his elevation. — Gen. 41, 46. 3709 2104 Joseph 17 years old is sold into Egypt. — Gen. 37, 2. 3766 2091 Joseph 30 years old is made Pharoah's counsellor. — Gen. 3779 41, 45. 50. 2082 Israel, 700 years after the beginning of the canicular peribd 3788 (2782 B. C.) settled in the land of Goshen. Maneth. The 2d Dynasty of Shepherd Kings (Hyksos, Dyn. XYII.) reigns contemporaneously with Egyptian Kings 215 years. Joseph. Ant. II. 15 ; Clemens Alex. Strom. I. 145. 2065 Jacob dies 147 years old, 17 years after settling in Egypt. 3805 Gen. 47, 28. 2011 Joseph dies 110 years old, 65 years before the birth of Mo- 3859 ses. — Gen. 50, 22. 1954 Jerusalem founded by Melchisedek, 1368 years before its 3916 destruction by K^ebuchadnezzar (586 B. C.). Joseph. B. 7. VI. 10, 1. 1951 Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces three years 3919 before the birth of Moses. Joseph. Ant. II. 9, 2. 7 ; Abar- banel, Comm. in Dan. Amst. 1547, p. 83 ; P. Elieser, Lugd. B. 1644, c. 48, p. 130 ; Ideler, Chronol. II. 400. 1950 Aaron born three years before Moses. — Ex. 7, 7. 3920 1947 August 3d, (1st day of the 11th month) : three years after 3923 the great conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces (See 1951 B. C.) Moses is born three years before the Exody from Egypt.- Ex. 7, 7. 1928 Aseth, last King of the XYHth Dyn. of Manetho, 32d King 3942 from Menes dies. He is followed by Misphrathuthmos. and the Kings of the XYIIIth Dyn. Vetus Chron. in Syncell. ; Joseph, c. Ap. ; Manetho. 1911 Joshua, great grandson of Joseph, born forty-five years 3959 before the Exody.— Jos. 24, 29. . 1906 Moses forty years old, flies in Midian to Jethro in the reign 3964 of Misphrathuthmoses. — Ex. 2, 21. 1903 Amos I., King of the XYIIIth Dyn. of Egypt, succeeds 3969 Misphrathuthmoses, under whom the Phoenix period of 652 years is renewed. Conf. 2554 B. C. April 7th : Mercury (Phoenix) passes over the solar disk. Tacit. An. YI. 28. 1878 Chebron, co-regent with his father Amos I., governs thir- 3992 teen j-ears. Joseph, c. A., Manetho. 1870 The 5th Period of 1000 years commences. Hesiod.Georg. 4000 154. 1867 Moses is called to deliver his people. — Ex. 3, 2 seq. 4003 214 APPENDIX. B. C. A. M. Moses and Aaron appear before Pharoali Amos I. (Thutbmoses). — Ex. 7, 11. 1866 April 4th : (14tli Nisan, 19 Pharmnthi) : Institution of the 4004 Passover of the Hebrews, three days before the vernal equi- nox. — Ex. 12, 6. April 5th, Sunday, (15th Msan) : Exody of the Hebrews from Egypt under Amos I. and Chebron. — Num. 33, 3 ; Exod. 12, 40 ; 13, 18. Chebron perishes in the Red Sea. — Exod. 14, 28. April 7th, vernal equinox : beginning of the civil year of the Hebrews.— Ex. 12, 2. April 12th : the Israelites at Marah. — Ex. 15, 23 ; Numb. 33, 8. May 20th, (15th day of the 2d month) : The Israelites in the desert of Sin. — Ex. 16, 1. July 8th, (1st day of the 3d month) : Legislation on Si- nai. — Ex. 19, 1. Oct. 10th, (1st day of the 1st month) : autumnal equi- nox ; consecration of the tabernacle. — Ex. 40, 1. 1831 August 14th : Planetary configuration at the birth of Amos 4039 II. on the Paris Monolith. Seyffarth, Astron. jEg. 270. 1827 The 40th year after the Exodus from Egypt.— Num. 33, 37. 4043 January 31st, (1st day of the 5th month) : Aaron dies 123 years old.— Num. 32, 33. August 3d, (1st day of the 11th month) : Moses dies on the anniversary of his birth, 120 years old in mount Nebo. Deuter. 31, 2 ; 34, 5. 1826 Octob. 9th, (10th day of the 1st month) : autumnal equi- 4044 nox ; Joshua eighty-five years old, passes over Jordan into Canaan. — Josh. 4, 19. 1820 Sept. : The first Sabbath-year ends.— Josh. 11, 23. 4050 1801 Joshua dies 110 years old, 25 years after Moses. — Josh. 24, 4069 29. Joseph. Ant. XXIV., 29. 1778 The 1st Servitude of the Israelites.— Jud. 3, 8. 4092 1770 Othniel, Judge of the Israelites during 40 years. — Jud. 3, 8. 4100 1730 The 2d Servitude of the Israelites.— Jud. "3, 14. 4140 January 4th : Planetary configuration on the Osimanthy- eum at Karnak, and the Sarcophagus of Osimanthya in Saone's Museum at London, Seyff., Berichtigungen d. a. G. Tab. I. Birth of Osimanthya, father of Ramses the Great, last King but one of the XVlII. D}^. 1715 Sparta founded by Spartus, according to Euseb. 4155 1712 Ehud, Judge of the Hebrews for eighty years. — Jud. 3, 30. 4158 The Moabites are conquered 300 years before Judge Jeph- tha.— Jud. 11, 26. 1693 Planetary configuration on the Sarcophagus of Ramses the 4177 Great in Paris. Sej-ff., Astron. JEg. Ramses Mciamuu, son of Osimanthya, 15th King of the XVIIIth Dvn., boru. Manetho. APPENDIX. 215 B. C. A. M. 1632 Third Servitude of the Hebrews.— Jud. 3, 31. 4238 1631 Samgar, Judge of the Hebrews. — Jud. 3, 31. 4239 Planetary configuration on the Sarcophagus of Sethos in the Brit. Mus. 1605 Sethos, first King of the XIX. Dyn. of Eg. Man. 4265 1585 Fourth Servitude of the Hebrews.— Judg. 4, 1. 3. 4286 1578 Planetary configuration in the beginning of the 3d Era of 4292 the world (Yuga), comprising 2146 yeai's, during which Jupiter (Eama) reigned. — The equinoctial point moves from Taurus into Aries. Comp. 5870 and 3724 B. C. SeyfF. Chronol. S. Cecrops, 1st King of Athens, founds the castle of Cecro- pia. Parian Marb. 1572 February 1st : Planetary configuration at the birth of 4298 Raphaces (Ramses III.), 2d King of the XIX. Dyn. Seyfi'. Berichtig. d. a. G. P. 137. 1565 Deborah judge of the Hebrews. — Jud. 5, 31. 4305 1525 Fifth Servitude of the Hebrews.— Jud. 6, 1. 4345 1524 April 5th : Planetary configuration on the Sarcophagus of 4346 Raphaces, governor. See year 1572 B. C. Seyff. Be- richtig. Tab. I. 1518 Gideon, Judge of the Hebrews.— Jud. 8, 28. 4352 1507 DanjBus and the Danaidse come from Egypt to Greece, 4363 and found the temple of Minerva, in the 3d year of Erich- thonius. Par. Marb. Ep. 9th. 1478 Sixth Servitude of the Hebrews.— Jud. 8, 33. 4392 1477 Abimelech, Judge of the Hebrews at this time. — Jud. 9, 22. 4393 1474 Thola judges the Hebrews about this time. — Jud. 10, 2. 4396 1451 Jair judges the Hebrews about this time. — Jud. 10, 3. , 4419 1429 Seventh Servitude of the Hebrews.— Judges 10, 8. 4441 1428 Minos I. King of Crete. Par. Marb. Ep. 11. 4442 1412 Jephthah judges the Hebrews.— Jud. 12, 6. Note. From 4458 Judge Ehud to Jephthah are 300 years. — Jud. 11, 26. 1406 Ibzar, Judge of the Hebrews.— Jud. 12, 8. 4464 1399 Elon, Judge of the Hebrews.— Jud. 12, 10. 4471 1395 Orpheus flourishes in Greece in the 25th year of the reign 4475 of King Erechtheus. Par. Marb. Ep. 14. 1389 Abdon, Judge of the Hebrews.— Jud. 12, 14. 4481 1381 Eighth Servitude of the Hebrews.— Jud. 13, 1. 4489 1341 Samson, Judge of the Hebrews.— Jud. 15, 20. 4529 1326 Jamis, King of Italy about this time. Dion. Hal. 4544 1324 Ilium founded according to Clemens Al. 4546 1322 July 15th : Commencement of the Apis-periods of twenty- 4549 five vague years each. — Plut. De Is. 56. July 20th : Sirius rises heliacally ; beginning of the 2d Canicular Period of 1460 years. Menephres, King of the XXth Dyn., reigns in Egypt. — Manetho. Interregnum in the Period of the Judges of nearly 172 years. — Jud. 17, 6 ; 19, 1. 216 APPENDIX. B. C. A. M. 1260 Troy conquered according to Herodotus II., 145 ; I. 7. 4610 II. 13. 1255 Theseus, lOth King of Athens. — Isthmia instituted. Par. 4615 Marb. Ep. 20. 1251 Cheops (Chemmis), King of the XXth Dyn., who built 4619 the largest Pyramid at Ghizeh, lived about this year, after the downfall of Troy. Herod II. 1213 Chephren (Chephris), King of the XXth Dj^n., who built 4657 the second large Pyramid near Ghizeh, according to Herod. II., lived about this year. 1177 Micerinus, King of the XXth Dyn., who bmlt the 3d Pyra- 4693 mid at Ghizeh, according to Herod II. 1156 Homer about this time, according to Philostr. Heroic, p. 4714 194. Bois. 1149 Eli, Judge of the Hebrews.— 1 Sam. 4, 18. 15. 4721 1109 Samuel enters his prophetic mission. — 1 Sam. 4, 1. 4761 1089 Samuel is made Judge of the Hebrews. — Joseph. Ant. YI. 4781 13,5. 1077 The XXIst Dyn. of Manetho reigns 130 years. Man. 4793 1076 Aristodemus, the 1st King of Sparta about this time. 4794 Euseb. Chron. 1070 Saul anointed King by Samuel. — 1 Sam. 10, 1. Assumes 4800 the reign the following year. Samuel retires. — 1 Sam. 12, 2. 1068 Medon, after Codrus' death, first Archon for life of the 4802 Athenians ; according to Euseb. 1029 David, after Saul's death, reigns in Hebron.— 2 Sam. 2, 11. 4841 1001 Amenophthis, 4th King of the XXIst Dyn., reigns about 4869 this time. 989 Solomon, after David's death. King in Jerusalem. — 2 Kings 4881 11, 43 ; 1 Kings 2, 12. 986 March 22d, {vernal equinox), 2d day of the month of Siv : 4884 foundation of Solomon's Temple 880 years after the Exodus of Egypt.— 1 Kings 6, 1 ; 2 Chron. 3, 2. 979 Sept. 23d (autumnal equinox), 16th day of the month of 4891 Bui ; dedication of Solomon's Temple. — 1 Kings 6, 38. 949 Rehoboam, after Solomon's death. King of the Hebrews. — 4921 2 Chron. 12, 13. Jeroboam I., King of Israel, independent of Rehoboam. 1 Kings 12, 2. 947 The XXII. Dyn. of Manetho begins to reign, according to 4923 Julius African. 945 Shishak conquers Jerusalem in the 5th year of Rehoboam. 4925 —1 Kings 14, 25. 931 Abijam, 2d King of Judah.— 1 Kings 15, 1 ; 2 Chron. 4939 13, 1. 928 Asa, 3d King of Judah in 20th year of Jeroboam. — 1 Kings 4942 15, 8. Nadab, 2d King of Israel. — 1 Kings 15, 25. 926 Baasha, 3d King of Israel.— 1 Kings 15, 33. 4944 923 Lycurgus, according to Clemens Al. Strom. I. 309. Syll. 4947 APPENDIX. 217 B. C. A. M. 902 Elah and Zimri, 4th and 5th Kings of Israel.— 1 Kings 16, 4968 22. 901 Tibni and Omri, 6th King of Israel.— 1 Kings 16, 22. 4969 891 Ahab, 7th King of Israel.— 2 Chron. 16, 13.— The Prophet 4979 Elijah about this time. — 1 Kings 17, 1. 5. 9 ; 18, 40. 888 Jehoshaphat, co-regent of his father Asa of Juda. — 1 Kings 4982 15, 23 ; 2 Chron. 14, 2. 887 Carthage founded by Dido, 134 years sooner than Rome. 4983 Joseph. Ant. 870 The 6th Period of 1000 years (the leaden or clay), begins : 5000 Juvenal. Sat. XIII. 28 ; Hesiod. Georg. 154 ; Virg. Eel. IV. 867 Ahaziah, 8th King of Israel.— 1 Kings 22, 51 ; 2 Kings 1, 1. 5003 866 Jehoram, 9th King of Israel.— 2 Kings 3, 1. 5004 862 Jehoram, 6th King of Judah.— 2 Kings 8, 16 ; 2 Chron. 5008 21,5. 855 Ahazia, 7th King of Judah.— 2 Kings 8, 25 ; 2 Chron. 22, 2. 5015 854 Athalja, 8th sovereign of Judah ; Jehu, 10th King of Israel. 5016 —2 Kings 10, 36. 852 Aventinus, 12th King of the Latins. Dion. Hal. 5018 848 Jehoash, 9th King of Judah.— 2 Kings 12, 1. 5022 826 Jehoahaz, 11th King of Israel.- 2 Kings 13, 1. 5044 823 Petubastis, 1st King of the XXIII. Dyn., according to Man. 5047 812 Joash, 12th King of Israel.— 2 Chron. 24, 1 ; 2 Kings 13, 10. 5058 811 Caranus, 1st King of the Macedonians. Euseb. 5059 808 Amaziah, 10th King of Judah.— 2 Kings 14, 1. 5062 806 The Prophet Jonah in Nineveh.— Jon. 1, 1. 5064 803 Jeroboam II., 13th King of Israel, co-regent of his father 5067 Joash.— 2 Kings 14, 21. 799 Uzzia, 11th King of Judah, co-regent of his father Ama- 5071 ziah.— 2 Chron. 25, 1. 797 Capua and N"ola founded. Vellej. I. 7. 5073 783 The XXIV. Dyn. of Manetho reigns 44 years. After Euseb. 5087 Isaiah and Obadiah about this time. — Is. 1, 1. Alcamenes, King of Sparta in the 7th year of his reign, ■when the Olympic games were introduced. Euseb. Chr. I. 166. March 29th (vernal equinox) : Planetary configuration three months before the first Olympic games. Pind. Olymp. V. 10, with the Schol. ; Pausan. V. 14. See Seyff. Berichtigungen p. 230. B. C. Olymp. A. M. 777. 0, 1. June 2d (Ist Hekatombseon) : The first Olym- 5093 pic games were celebrated four years later. Note. — After the completion of the first four Olympian years they wrote, Olymp. 1, 1 ; according to ancient usage, i. e., in the first year after the completion of the first Olym- piad ; consequently in the 773d year B. C. 776 Telestes, last King of the Corinthians dies ; 5094 10 218 APPENDIX. B. C. Olymp. A. M. introduction of annual Prytani. Euseb. Chron. II. 318. ... 0, 2. June 2d (1st Hekatombseon) : beginning of the second Olympian year. 775 ... iEschylus, the 12th Archon for life, in the 2d 5095 year of his reign the Olympian games were celebrated for the first time. Euseb. Chron. II. 318 ; Par. Marb. ... 0, 3. June 2d, (Ist Hecatombseon) : Beginning of the 3d Olympian year, erroneously the first with some authors. 773 . . . The second year of ^schylus, the Archon for 6097 life. 1, 1. June 2d, (1st Hecatombseon) : The first Olym- plan games were celebrated from the 11th to the 16th day of the lunar month Hecatombseon always previous to the Summer solstice. Choroebus Ist Olympian victor. 771. 1. 3. November 19th, 0^ 45' : Solar eclipse in Eome 5099 ("^7° east,) nine months before the birth of Eomulus. Plut. Rom. c. 12 ; Dion. Hall. II. 56. 762. . . . Zachariah and Shallum, 14th and 15th Kings 5108 of Israel.— 2 Kings 15, 8. 15. 760. 4, 2. Menahem, 16th King of Israel.— 2 Kings 15, 6110 17. 755. 5, 3. Bocharis, 1st King of the XXIV. Dyn. of Ma- 5115 netho. . 754. 5, 4. Institution of the Ephori in Sparta. Euseb. . 6116 Chr. 753. 6, 1. Romulus seventeen years old in August, founds 5117 Rome on the day of the vernal equinox of the following year, according to Varro, one yeai later according to Cato. B.C. 01. U. C. A.M. 752, 6, 1. Beginning of the year, in which Rome was 5118 founded, according to Varro. ... ... Vernal Equinox (Parilia), according to the Roman Calendar XI. Kal. May, (April 21st) : Rome founded. Varro. May 25th, le*" P. T. : Eclipse of the Sun at Teos (.$12° east), during the building of Rome. Plut. Rom. c. 12 ; Cic. De Div. II. 47. ... ... May 25th : Planetary configuration during the building of Rome, according to the calcu- lation of Tarutius in Solin. Polyh. I. 18. .... 6, 2. Commences on the 2d of June, (1st Hecatom- ' bseon). 751. . . . January 1st : Beginning of the 1st year after 1. 6119 APPENDIX. 219 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. the foundation of Rome, according to Yarro, whence Vellejus I. 8. correctly reckoned, 783 years from the foundation of Rome to the Consuls 32 A. C. 750. 6, 3. Pekahiah, 17th King of Israel.— 2 Kings 15 : 2. 5120 23. 749. 6, 4. Sabakon, 1st King of the XXV. Dyn. of Ma- 3. 5121 netho. 748. 7, 1. Pekkah, 18th King of Israelites.— 2 Kings 15, 4. 5122 27. 747. 7,2. Prophet Isaiah; Is. 1, 1. Jotham, 12th King 5. 5123 of Judah.— 2 Chron. 27, 1. 741. 9, 4. Ahaz, 13th King of Judah, co-regent of his 11. 5129 father Jotham. — 2 Kings 16, 1. 728. 12, 1. Hosea, 19th and last King of Israel.— 2 Kings 24. 5142 17,1. 725. 12, 4. Hezekiah, 14th King of Judah, co-regent of 27. 5145 his father Ahaz.— 2 Kings 18, 1 ; 17, 23. 721. 14, 1. Septemb. 23d, I*' 30' P. T. : Lunar eclipse in 31. 5149 Babel ( r^ cor. 1° east) in the year of Mardo- kempad. Ptol. Aim. IV. 244. 720. 14, 2. Skalraanaser destroys the kingdom of Israel. 32. 5150 — 2 Kings 17, 5. ... ... March 19th : Lunar eclipse in Babel (Ptolom Aim.) in the 2d jenr of Mardokempad. 715. 15, 3. June 5th, 20'' 15' : Solar eclipse in Rome (^ 37. 5155 4° west) ; Romulus dies. Cic. R. P. 1. 16 ; Plut. Rom. c. 27. 713. 15, 4. jS'uma Pompilius, King of the Romans. Liv. 89. 5157 I. 21. 696. 20, 2. Hezekiah dies ; Manasseh, 15th King of Ju- 56. 5174 dah.— 2 Kings 21, 1. 695. 20, 3. The XXVI. Dyn. of Manetho reigns.— Man. 57. 5175 680. 24, 2. Creon, the first annual Archon. Paus. IV. 72. 5190 15, 1 ; Par. Marb. Ep. 32. 670. 26, 4. Tullus Hostilius, 3d King of Rome. Liv. I. 31. 82. 5200 641. 34, 1. Amon, 16th King of Judah.— 2 Chron. 33, 21. 111. 5229 638. 34, 4. Josiah, 17th King of Judah.— 2 Chron. 34, 1. 113. 5231 ... ... Ancus Martius, 4th King of the Romans. Liv I. 35. 624. 38, 2. Nabopolasser, father of Nebuchadnezzar, King 128. 5246 of Babylon. Ptol. Can. 621. 38,4. May 3d, 2^ (P. M.) P. T. : Lunar eclipse in 131. 5249 Babylon. Ptol. Aim. May 18th, 8^ 15' (A. M.) P. T. : Total eclipse near the river of Halys one year before the birth of Mandane, mother of Cyrus. Her. I. 74. 103. 620. 39, 1. April 1st. Lunar eclipse in Babel. Ptol. Akn. 132.5250 V. 14, p. 340. 220 APPENDIX. B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. 614. 40, 3. Tarquinius Prisons, 5tli King of the Romans. 138. 5256 Liv. I. 40. ... ... Nebuchadnezzar co-regent of Nabopolassar for ten years. 607. 42, 2. Josiah, vanqnished by Necho, dies. — 2 Chron. 145. 5263 35, 23. . . ; ... Jehoahaz, 19th King of Judah for three months.— 2 Chron. 36, 1. 3. ... 42, 3. Jehoiakim, 20th King of Judah.-2 Kings 23, 34. 604. 43, 1. Nebuchadnezzar defeats the Jews and Necho 148.. 5266 11. near Circisium. — Jer. 25, 1 ; 46, 2. ... ... Hophra, King of Egypt. Man. ... ... Beginning of the Babylonian Captivity of sev- enty years. — Jer. 25, 1 ; 36, 5 ; Dan. 1, 1. 596. 45, 1. Jehoikim dies ; Jehoiachin, 21st King of Ju- 166. 5274 dah, who three months after is succeeded by Zedekiah, last King of Judah. — 2 Kings 24, 18. ... . . • Second deportation of the Jews to Babylon —2 Chron. 36, 10. 45, 2. Cyrus born, ascends the throne of Persia forty years later. Cic. De Div. I. 23 ; Dan. 6, 1, 587. 47, 2. Institution of the Pythian games and the Py- 165. 5283 thiads, which like the Olympiads began with 0. Par. Marb. Ep. 37 ; Pausan. X. 7, 3. ... 47, 3. Octob. 8th, (10th day of the 2d month), com- mences besieging Jerusalem. — 2 Kings 25, 1. 585. 47, 4. The 10th year of Zedekiah, the 18th of Nebu- 167. 5285 chadnezzar. — Jer. 32, 1. 48, 1. Olympian games celebrated. Archon Philip- . . ... pus. Clem. Al. Strom. I. 331. 684. ... The 11th year of Zedekiah, the 19th year of 168. 5286 Nebuchadnezzar. 48, 2. August 9th (9th Ab.), Saturday : Destruction of Jerusalem 365 years after Solomon's death. —2 Kings 25, 8 ; Jer. 39, 2 ; 52, 5 ; Seder 01am p. 91, seq. 681. 48, 4. March 27th, H'^ 15', total solar eclipse at Mi- 171. 5289 letus, predicted by Thales. Plin. H. K. II. 12, 9. 579. 49, 2. Cyrus sixteen years old leads an army against 173. 5291 the Assyrians. Cyrop. I. 4, 16. ... 49, 3. Nebuchadnezzar defeats Hophra, conquers Egypt and brings hieroglyphic inscriptions to Nineveh (Nimrud). Joseph. Ant. X. 9, 7 ; C. An. I. 19 ; Layard Nin. II. Tab. 22. 576. 50, 1. Servius Tullus, 6th King of the Romans, (Liv. 176. 5294 1. 44), who governs forty-four years. Dion. Hal. I. 75. 670. 51, 3. The 34th year of the Babylonian Captivity. 182. 5300 See 604 B. C— Ezek. 1, 1. APPENDIX. 221 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. 51, 4. Autumnal Equinox : Institution of theNemean games. Euseb. Arm. II. 338 ; Hieron. ad Olymp. 58, 1. 560. 64, 1. Nebuchadnezzar dies ; he is succeeded by 192. 5310 Evil Merodach (Illyarudam). Ptol. Can. ; 2 Kings 25, 27. 557. 54, 4. Cyaxares II. King of Media after Alyattes. 195. 5313 Cyrop. I. 5, 4. 556. 55, 1. Cyrus, King of Persia. Diod. II. 32; Euseb. 196. 5314 P. Ev. X. 10. p. 488 ad 01. 55, 1. 552. 56, 1. Belshazzar (Nabonnad), King of Babylonia. 200. 5318 — Dan. 5, 1 ; Ptol. Can. 543, 58, 2. Cyrus conquers Sardes ; CrcBsus captured. 209. 5327 Par. Marb. Ep. 42. 534. 60, 3. Cyrus conquers Babylon ; Nabonnad slain. 218. 5336 Cyrop. VII. 4, 16. 633. 60, 4. Cyrus becomes King of Babylonia after Cyax- 219, 5337 ares II. 's death, and governs seven years longer. Cyrop VIII. 7, 1. 61, 1. End of the Babylonian Captivity. — Is. 23, 15 ... ... Daniel prophesies the birth of Christ to hap- pen after 532 years ; his death after 565 years. —Dan. 9, 24. 532. 61, 1. Serubbabel leads the Jews back to Jerusalem. 220. 6338 — Esr. 2, 64. 61, 2. Sept. 30th, day of the Autumnal equinox Consecration of altar for burnt-offerings ; the twenty-four orders of priest began their week- ly Turns on the 25th of Septemb. ..." ... Tarquinius Superbus, last King of the Eomans Livy. I. 60. 526. 62, 3. Cyrus dies, Cambyses (Ahasverus) succeeds. 226. 5344 Cyrop. VIII. 7, 1. 521. 63, 4. Cambyses conquers Egypt. Diod. I. 68. 230. 5348 520. 64, 1. The 1st day of Thoth, i. e., the 1st of January. 231. 5349 Eenewal of an Apis-Period of twenty-five years. Her. III. 37. ... ... Cambyses returned from his expedition in . . ... Ethiopia on beginning of a new Apis-Period Her. III. 57 ; Conf 1321 B. C. ... 64, 2. June 22d, 14'* P. T. : Eclipse of the moon in Babylon, (^ 10°, cor. 15° west). Ptol. Aim. V. 14. 518. 64,3. April 19th, 20'^ : Eclipse of the sun in Athens, 234. 5352 C^ 13° east). Fast. Sic. p. 146. — Darius co-regent of Cambyses. 515. 65, 2. The 2d year of Darius Hj'staspes; the Prophets 237. 5355 Zacjiariah and liaggai. — Zaeh. 1, 1. ; Hag. 1, 1. 611. 66, 2. March 26th (Nisan 21st), vernal equinox : Con- 241. 5359 secration of Zerubbabel's temple. — Ezr. 6, 22. 222 APPENDIX. B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. 606. 47,4. Idus Sept., after the expulsion of the Roman 246. 5364 Kings, Tvhich occurred in February, the Con- suls : Luc. Jun. Brutus, and L. Tarq. Collati- nus are created. Liv. I. 60. II. 18. 499. 69, 2. May 4th, 10*^ 15' P. T. : Eclipse of the moon 253. 5371 in Babylon during the 20th year of Darius. Ptol. Al. IV. 9. 489. 72, 1. Sept. 25th, autumnal equinox : Planetary con- 263, 5381 figuration on the socle of the Olympian Jupi- ter with reference to the battle of Marathon in the following year. Pausan. V. 11, 3. See Seyff. Berichtigungen p. 233. ' Octob. 8th, 4*> 30' P. T. : eclipse of the moon in the 31st year of Darius Hyst. Ptol. Al. IV. 8. 488. 72, 2. June : Arch. Phoenippus. Par. Marb. Ep. 264. 5382 48 ; Plut. Aristid. c. 5. ... ... August 2d : Full-moon, four days before the battle of Marathon. Herod. V. 106. 120. ... ... August 6th, (the 6th day of Boedromion) ; battle of Marathon, ten years before the battle of Salamis. Thuc. VII. 1. ... ... Cal. Sept.: Coss. M. Minuc. Augurinus 11., A. Sempr. Atratinus II. Lir. II. 34, 36. 486. 72, 3. Xerxes, co-regent of Darius Hystaspes. Par. 266. 5383 Marb. Ep. 49 ; under the Arch. Aristides. 483. 73, 3. Darius dies ; Xerxes (Ahasverus, Artashastha 269. 5387 Esth. 1, 1 ; 7, 1.) King of Persia in the 5th year after the battle of Marathon. Her. VII. 4. 479. 74, 2. Esther married to Xerxes in the 7th year of 273. 6891 his reign. — Esth. 2, 16. ... ... March 26th : Planetary configuration on the Parthenon-Frieze in relation to the deliverance of Greece. ... April 3d, (the first day of Msan) : Ezra eon- ducts a colony to Jerusalem. — Ezr. 7, 7 ; Jo- seph. Ant. XI. 5, 1. 478. 74, 3. February 27th, 15*^ 30' : Total eclipse of the 274. 5392 sun at Sardes (Is 12° east). Her. VII. 37.— Arch. Themistocles. Schol. Thuc. I. 93. ... ... Xerxes builds the bridge of boats over the Hellespont, which is destroyed. Par. Marb. Ep. 61. 477. 75, 1. Arch. Xantippes. Par. Marb. Ep. 52. _ 275. 5393 ... ... Battle at Thermopylse during the Olympian games. Herod. VII. 206. — Battle at Artemis- cium. Herod. VIII. 15. Sept. 23d, (the 20th day of Boedromion) : Bat- tie at Salamis. Polyajn. III. 11 ; Herod. VIII. 113 ; Par. Marb. Ep. 51. APPENDIX. 223 B.C. 476. Oljrmp. 75 2. 465. 78, 464. 462. 78, 3. 457. 79,4. 453. 452. 81,1. 443. 83, 3. 441. 431. 83,4. 86,3. August 2d, 1^ 30' : Eclipse of the sun near Corinth, ( ^ 5° west). Her. IX. 10. August 4th, (4th Boedromion) ; Battles at Pla- tsese and Mycale. Plut. Arist. 19. Mardonius in Athens, even before the battle of Platffiae. Herod. IX. 3. Ezra conducts a colony into Judea. Joseph. Ant. XI. 5, 1. Arch. Lysistratus. Diod. XI. 66. Kal. August ; Coss. T. Quinct. Capitol. Barba- tus II. ; Q. Servil. Prise. Structus. Liv. II. 64. Decemb. 25th, 20*^ : Total eclipse of the sun in Greece, (S| 11° west), Pind. in Dionys. Hal. p. 167. (Halley's) Comet visible in the time of the said eclipse of the sun. Plin. H. IS". II. 59. Siege of Naxos. — Battle at Eurymedon. Thuc. I. 98. 100. Xerxes dies, succeeded by Artabanus and Ar- taxerxes Longimanus soon after. Ptol. Can. April 30th, l*^ 30' : Eclipse of the sun in Greece, {1y 1° east). Fast. Sic. ad Olymp. 78, 4. (Perhaps he means the eclipse of the sun 460 B. C, March 9th, 23'"). Arch. Philocles. Diod. XL 78 ; Plut. Mor. 835. Dec. 27th, B^ 45' : Total eclipse of the sun in Athens, ("^ 11° east). Euseb. ad 01. 49, 4. instead of 01. 80, 1. Kal. Aug. : Coss. M. Yaler. Maximus, Spur. Virgin. Tricost. Ccelimont. Liv. HI. 31. Ludi saeculares celebrated under the said Con- suls. Censor. De D. N. 17 ; Euseb. Chron. ad. 01. 81, 4. Arch. Lysimachides. Diod. XTT. 22 ; Aris- toph. Vesp. Schol. Pericles conquers Euboea again. Pausan. V. 23, 3. Id. Dec. Coss. Agrippe Fur. Medullus Fusus, T. Quinct. Capit. Barbatus. lY. Liv. III. 66. April (Xisan) : Nehemiah conducts a colony into Jerusalem during the 20th year of Ar- taxerxes. — Xeh. 2, 1. ^ Archon Anonymus, (?Pisander), whom the Parian Marble puts between 01. 84, 3 and 01 86, 4 ; but Diodor. refers to the year 412 B. C. Ambassady of Corcyra and Corinth in Athens Thuc. I. 31. Id. Dec. : Tribb. mil. M. Mart. Capitolin., Serg. Cornel. Cossus. cet. Liv. TV. 23. U. C. 276. A.M. 5394 287. 5405 288. 5406 291. 5409 295. 5413 299. 300. 5417 5418 309. 5427 311. 321. 5429 5439 224 APPENDIX. B.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. 430. 86, 3. Spring : Sea-figlit near Corcyra. Thue. I. 46. 322. 5440 ... 86, 4. Arch. Pythador I. Thiic. II. 2 ; Diod. XII. 36 ... ... Battle at Potidsea 6 months before the begin- ' ning of the Peloponnesian war, according to the reckoning of the Lacedaemonians and of Xenophon. Thuc. IP. 2. ... Sept. : Ephor ^nesias in Sparta. Thuc. II 2, 1 ; Xenoph. Hell. II. 3, 9. Id. Dec. : Tribb. mill. M. Fab. Fibulan., M Foslius Flaccinator, cet. Liv. IV. 25. 429. 86, 4. Jan. 26th, 22h : Eclipse of the sun in Athens, 323. 5441 (^ 5° west). Thuc. II. 28. ... ... May : Potidsea assailed by the Thebans. Thuc II. 2. Beginning of the Peloponnesian war on the Lacedemonian side. ... 87, 1. Archon Apseudes. Diod. Sic. XII. 36. Sept. : Ephor Brasidas. Xen. Hell. II. 3, 9 ... The Athenians make an alliance with Sitalces, King of Thracia. Thuc. II. 29. 428. 87, 1. February 22d, (21st Elaphebolion) : Begin- 424. 6442 ning of the Peloponnesian war on the Athe- nian side, lasting therefore only 27 years. Thuc. II. 2. ... ... May 13th, (11th Scirophorion), evening : the . true new moon visible. ... ... May 15th, (13th Scirophorion): the crescent is visible in Athens, with which Medon's lunar calendar began. Diod. XII. 36. June 28th, (21st Phamenoth), at 4 A. M. ; Me- ton and Euctemon observe the summer sol- stice. Ptol. Aim. III. 2. ... 87, 2. July 2d : Beginning of the semaster %c«/xo)v. Thuc. II. 33 seq. ... Archon Euthydemus. Diod. XII. 35 ; Athen. V. 217. Sept. : Ephor Isanor. Xenoph. HeU. II. 3, 19. ... ... Id. Dec. : Coss. Tit. Quinct. Pennus Cincinn., C. Jul. Mento. Liv. IV. 26. 427. 87, 2. January : Beginning of the 2d year of the 325. 5443 Peloponnesian war with the Athenians, the 3d with the Lacedaemonians. Thuc. II. 47. 426. 87, 3. May 21st, IQ^ P. T. : Eclipse of the sun, nearly 326. 5444 total in Athens, {Is 1° east). Cic. R. P. 1. 16 ; Plut. Per. c. 35. 422. 88, 3. January : The ^epos and the 7th year of the 330. 5448 Peloponnesian war begin. Thuc. IV. 1. 88, 4. July : The semester xtinwv begins. Thuc. IV. 50. ... ... Arch. Stratocles. Diod. XII. 60 ; Aristoph. TS"ub. Schol. 580. APPENDIX. 225 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. 422. 88, 4. August 5th, (Boedromion) : Cleon extraordi- 330. 5448 narily elected Strategus. Arist. Nub., 580 Schol. ... ... August 18th, 15^^ : Eclipse of the moon ( ^ 12° east), in the Boedromion during Cleon's election. Arist. Nub. 580. Schol. ... ... Artaxerxes Longimanus dies, followed by Xer- xes II. Thuc. IV. 50. 421. 88, 4. January : The 8th year and the 6ipos of the 331. 5449 Peloponnesian war begin. Thuc. IV. 52. January 28th, 4^ P. M. : Partial eclipse of the sun in Athens, {Is 25°, ccr. 20° east). Thuc. IV. 52. ... ... Darius ISTothus, after Sogdian's death. King of Persia. Diod. XII. 71. 89, 1. Arch. Isarchus. Diod. XII. 65 ; Argum Arist. Nub. 420. 89, 1. January : The 9th year of the Peloponnesian 332. 5450 war begins. Thuc. IV. 117. ... ... Cleon regularly elected Strategus. Thuc. IV 122. ... ... January 18th, (Anthesterion 16th), 2^ P. M. : Eclipse of the sun in Athens, C^ 17°, cor. 11° east). Arist. Nub. 580 ; Schol. in Scaliger's Synagogue. ... ... February 2d, 6^ : Total eclipse of the moon in Athens, {Is 2° east, cor. 3° west). Aristoph. Nub. 580. 410. 91, 3. January : The 19th year of the Peloponnesian 342. 5460 war begins. Thuc. VII. 19, 542. ... 91, 4. July 8th, 7'' 45' : Total eclipse in Sicily, {^ 7°, cor. 2° east). ... ... Destruction of the Attic army in Sicily on the 27th of Carneius. Thuc. VII. 50 ; Plut. Nic. 23. 408. 92, 2. June 1st : The true new moon rises, according 344. 5462 to which tlie lunar month Hecatombaeon be- gins on the 3d day of June, on which the 1st Prytany commences. Corp. Jusc. Vol. I. P. II. No. 107. 148. ... ... June 10th, (Metageitnion 9th). The 2d Pry- tany begins. Corp. Jusc. Vol. I. P. II. No. 107. 148. ... ... Note. — The history of the second part (;;^£j/ia)i') of the 20th year of the Peloponnesian war was described in the first pages of Xenophon's Hellenica ; it has, however, perished together with the history of the following 6ipos. 407. 92, 2. January : The "Sipog of the 20th year of the 345. 5463 Peloponnesian war begins, which history was 10* 226 APPENDIX. B.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. lost with Xenophon's introduction to his Hel- lenica. 403. 93, 2. January : The 26th year of the Peloponnesian 449. 5467 war (the 27th in Sparta) begins. Xenoph. HeU. I. 6, 1. February 23d, 6^ 30' : Eclipse of the moon in Athens, {Is 9°, cor. 4° east). Xen. Hell. I. 6,1. 402. 93, 3. January : The 27th (28th) year of the war 350. 5468 begins. Xenoph, H. II. 1, 10. ... ... Battle at ^gos Potamus. Xenoph. Hell. 11. 1, 27 ; Diod. XIII. 104. 401. 93, 4. January 10th, 9^ A. M. : Eclipse of the sun 351. 5469 {Is 10°, cor. 5° east). Xen. Hell. II. 3, 4. ... ... March 19th, (Munychion 16th) : Destruction of the Pyrffius three weeks after the peace. Plut. Lys. 15. The end of the war, which, according to the Athenians and Thucydides, lasted twenty- seyen years. ... 94, 1. Arch. Euctides. Diod. XIY. 12; Athen XIII. 577. . .. ... Darius Nothus dies, followed by Artaxerxes ., ... Mnemon. Diod. XIII. 104. ... ... Lysander, after having subjugated the Athe- nian allies, returns to Sparta. Thuc. Y. 26. ... ... The Peloponnesian war ended, which, accord- . . ... ing to the Lacedsemoniana and Xenophon, lasted twenty-eight years and six months. 400. 94, 2. Arch. Micon. Par." Marb. Ep. 65. Diodor. 352. 5470 XIV. 17. ^ , ... ... July 1st, 17'' 45' : Total eclipse of the sun at Rome, (^1° east, cor. 4° west). Cic. R. P. I. 16 ad U. C. 350 (Dionys.) 396. 95, 2. Arch. Ithycles. Diod. Sic. L. XIV. c. 44. 356. 5474 ... ... Kal. Octob. : Tribb. mil. Cn. Genuc. Augu- rin., M. Pompon, cet. Liv. V. 13 ; Diod. XIV. 54. ... ... Dec. 26th, (winter solstice) : Planetary con- stellation (Lectisternium). Liv. V. 13. ad. the ■ said Tribb. mil. See Seyffarth, Berichtig. P. 228. 391. 96, 2. January : The first year of the Corinthian 361. 5479 war begins. Diod. XIV. 86. ... ... Agesilaus passes over the Hellespont. Plut Ages. 3, 1 ; Nepos, Ages. 3. 96, 3. June 16th, nearly total eclipse of the sun in Boeotia, C^ 16°, cor. 10° east). Xen. Hell. IV. 3, 10. 387. 97, 3. Arch. Pyrrhion (Pyrgion). Dion. Halic. I. 365. 5483 74. APPENDIX. 227 B.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. 387. 97, 3. Prid Id. Quinetil. : Battle near Allia ; the 365. 5483 Gauls go towards Rome. Liv. V. 54. 385. 98, 1. Nepherites, first King of Manetho's XXIX. 367. 5485 Dyn. reigns about this time. 381. 99, 1. Arch. Phanostratus. Diod. XV. 15. 371. 5489 Dec. 12th, 9^ 30' : Eclipse of the moon in Babylon. Ptol. Aim. IV. 10. 380. 99, 1. June 6th, 7*^ 45' : Eclipse of the moon in Baby- 3^2. 5490 ion. Ptol. Aim. IV. 10. 379. 99, 2. May 26th, 12 ^ : Eclipse of the moon in Baby- 373. 5491 Ion. Ptol. Aim. IV. 10. 361. 104, 1. Perdiccas, King of Macedonia. Diod. XVI. 2. 391. 6509 ... ... Battle near Olympia during the Olympian . . .^ . games. Xen. HeU. VII. 4, 29. 360. 104, 1. Pelopidas conducts his third expedition into 392. 5510 Thessalia. Diod. XV. 80. ... ... May 12th, 3*^ : Great eclipse of the sun in Bceotia (^ 1°, cor. 6° west), while Pelopidas dies. Plut. Pelop. 31. 356. 105, 1. Philip of Macedonia, now 23 years old, King 396. 6514 of Macedonia. Diod. XVI. 2 ; Laert. II. 56. ... - ... February 28th, 23'' : Total eclipse of the sun in Syracuse. Plut. Dion. c. 19. . . . 105, 2. August 9th, 6"^ 45' : Eclipse of the moon in Zacynthus. Plut. l^ik. 23. 354. 105, 3. Artaxerxes Mnemon dies, succeeded by Ochus. 398. 6516 Par. Marb. — The first year of the Bellum sociale. 353. 105, 4. May 25th, 9^ : Astronomical new moon two 399. 5517 days before the lunar month Hecatombseon. . . . 106, 1. June 6 — 11th, i. e., lunar Hecatombseon 11 — 16th : The Olympic games celebrated under the Archon Elpihes. Plut. Alex. 3. ... ... June 7th, i. e., the 6th day of the solar month Hecatombseon : Alexander M. born during the Olympian games under Arch. Elpines. Plut. Al. 3 ; Cic. Div. I. 23. 340. 109, 2. Arch. Pythodotus. Diod. XVI. 70 ; Laert 412. 5530 V. 10. ... . , , Sept. 25th, IS*" : Eclipse of the sun in Rome (75 11°, cor. 7° east). Liv. VII. 28; Jul. . Obs. c. 22. 335. 110, 3. Arch. Chserondas. Diod. XVI. 84 ; ^sch. 417. 6536 p. 57. ... July 8th, (Metageitnion 7th) : Battle at Chse- ronea. Diod. XVI. 84 ; Plut. Cam. 19. 333. Ill, 1. Arch. Pythodemus. Diod. XVI. 91 ; Arrian. 419. 6537 ... ... Kal. Jul. : Coss. L. Papir. Crassus, Q. Duilius Liv. VIII. 16; Polvb. II. 19, 228 APFENDIX. B.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. 333. Ill, 1. Darius Codomannus, successor of Arses, the 419. 5537 last King of Persia. Ptol. Can. ... ... Philip of Macedonia dies; Alexander Mag., now 20 years old, reigns. Plut. Al. 11 ; Ar- rian. 1, 1. 331. Ill, 2. April 8th, (Thargelion 6th) : Battle on the 421. 5539 Granicus. Plut. Cam. 19. 330. 111,4. Arch. ]Slcrocrates. Diod. XVII. 19; Arr. II. 11. 422. 5540 ... ... Kal. Jul. : Coss. A. Corn. Cossus Arvina II., Cn. Domit. Calvinus. Liv. VIII. 17 ; Diod. XVII. 62. Note. — Between these and the preceding Con- suls, Petavius, in spite of all ancient histori- ans, inserted a pair of Consuls, and thus he put all the preceding events of Roman history too high by one year. 'Sept. 20th, 7^ 80' (Boedromion 24th) : Eclipse of the moon in Rome, (^ 4°, cor. 0° east). Plin. H. ]!s". II. 70 (hora secunda noctis). ... ... Oct. (Msemacterion) : Battle near Issus. Ar- rian. II. 11, 14. , , , ... Dec. : Alexander M. besieges Tyre in the midst of the winter, and takes it after 7 months. Plut. Al. c. 24. ... ... Alexander M. allows the Samaritans to build the temple of Garizim. Joseph. Ant. XL 8, 4. 329. Ill, 4. March, (Munychion) : Alexander takes Gaza 423. 5541 during the Isthmia sestiva, whence he pro- ceeds to Egypt, and founds Alexandria. Curt. IV. 5, 11 ; Arrian. III. 1. 328. 112, 2. Archon Aristophanes. Arrian. III. 7, 1. 15. 424. 5542 ... ... Kal. Jul.: Coss. L. Papirius Crassus II., L Plautin. Venno. Liv. VIII. 19. August 30th, (Pyanepsion) 12^ P. T. : Eclipse of the moon in Arbela during sunrise ( ^ 12°, cor. 16° west), 11 days before the battle of Arbela. Cic. Div. I. 53 ; Arrian. III. 7, 6. ... ... Sept. 10th : Battle of Arbela, 11 days after an eclipse of the moon during sunrise. Arrian. III. 6, 7 ; Plut. Al. 81. 821. 114, 1. Arch. Hegesias. Arr. VII. 28, 1.— Alexander 431. 5549 M. proclaims amnesty during the Olympian games. Diod. XVIII. 8. 320. 114. 1. April 8th, (Thargelion 6th) : Alexander M. 432. 5550 dies according to ^lian. V. H. II. 25, and Ar- rian. VII. 28. ... ... June 29th» CDsesius 28th) : Alexander M. dies according to Joseph, c. Ap. I. 22 ; Euseb. D. E. I., and Diod. XVIII. 19, under the Archon Hegesias in 01. 114, 1. APPENDIX. 229 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. 320. 114, 1. July 2d : Arch. Kepliisodor. Diod. XVIII. 2 ; 432. 5550 Dionys. Am. 728. ... Renewal of an Apis-Period, while Ptolemaeus Lagi occupies Egypt. Diodor. I. 84. P. 25 B. 310. 116, 3. March 6th, (Nisan 1st) : Beginning of the Se- 442. 5560 lucidian Era in the 1st book of the Maccabees. ... ... Mattathias, the father of the Maccabees born, who lives 146 years. 1 Mace. 1, 70. ... 116, 4. Arch. Theophrastus. Diod. XIX. 73 ; Dio- nys. Din. 650. Sept. 29th, (Thishri 1st): Beginning of the Seleucidian Era in the 2d book of the Macca- bees, and of the Babylonian Era in the Alma- gest. Comp. Ideler, Chronol. I. 223. 306. 117, 3. Arch. Hieromneon. Diod. XX. 3 ; Dion. 446. 5563 Din. 650. ... ... June 13th, 22'* : Total eclipse of the sun be- tween Carthage and Syracuse, (^0° 43', cor. 4° 27' west), under the Arch. Hieromneon in the 7th year of Agathocles. Diod. XX. 5 ; Justin. H. XXII. 6. July 2d : Arch. Demetrius. Diod. XX. 27 ; . . ... Dion. Din. 650. 293. 120, 4. Coss. App. Claud. Casus II., L. Volumn. 459. 5577 Flamma Violens II. (since April of the pre- ceding year). Liv. X. 15. ... March 23d, 23'' : Eclipse of the sun in Rome (Is 12°, cor. 7° east). Liv. X. 23. 282. 123. 4. Ptolemseus Philadelphus reigns in Egypt. 470. 5588 Ptol. Can. 262. 128, 4. The first Punic war begins. Liv. XXX. 1. 490. 5608 243. 133, 2. Ptolemseus Evergeta I. reigns in Egypt. 509. 5727 Ptol. Can. 226. 137, 3. April 11th : Mercury (Phoenix) passes over 526. 5644 the disc of the sun. Tac. Ann. VI. 28. 219. 139, 3. Idus Mart. : Coss. P. Corn. Seipio Asina, M. 533. 5651 Minuc. Rufus. Eutrop. III. 7. ... ... Ptolemaeus Philadelphus reigns in Egypt Ptol. Canon. '217. 139, 4. Id. Mart. : Coss. M. Liv. Salinator, L. ^mil. 535. 5653 Paulus. Zon. VIII. 20. ... March 9th, 4'' P. T. : Eclipse of the moon in Mysia, C^ 3°, cor. 7° west). Polyb. V. 78. ... ... Antiochus M. conquers Palestine, Hannibal takes Saguntum. Polyb. V. 66 ; III. 17. 216. 140, 1. The 2d Punic war begins. Cossiad. ad. Coss. 536. 5654 217. ... ... February 11th, 2''. Eclipse of the sun in Rome, (15 6°, cor. 2" east). Liv. XXII. 1. ... ... July : Hannibal proceeds from Carthage-Nova 230 APPENDIX. B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. and passing over the Alps lie enters Italy after 7 months. Liv. XXI. 35, 38. 216. 140, 1. Dec. 24th, (Bruma) : Planetary configuration 536. 5654 (Lectisternium) observed and represented for the purpose of propitiating the gods. Liv. XXII. 10. 215. 140, 2. Id. Mart. Cosa. Cn. Serv. Giminus, C. Flami- 537. 5655 nius II. Liv. XXI. 15. . . . 140, 3. Battles on the Ticinus and the Trebia. Liv. XXI. 39. 52. 214. . . . Dictator Q. F. Maximus Verrucossus. Liv. 538. 6656 XXII. 8. Id. Mart. : Coss. L. ^mil. Pallus II., C. Ter. Varro. Liv. XXII. 34. . . . 140, 4. Summer solstice, IX. Kal. Jul. : Battle on the Trasimenian Lake, a short time before the JSTemean games. Liv. XXII. 34 ; Polyb. V. 101, 6. ... ... August 2d : Battle near Cannse. Macrob. Sat. 1, 6 ; Liv. XXIII. 30 ; XXII. 43 ; Polyb. III. 118, 10. 205. 142, 4. Id. Mart. : Coss. C. CI. iTero, M. Liv. Salina- 647. 56^5 tor. Liv. XXVII. 34. . . . 143, 1. Celebration of the Olympian games, to which these Consuls send an embassy. Liv. XXVII. 35 ; XXVIII. 7 ; Polyb. XL 5. 202. 143, 3. Id. Mart. : Coss. M. Cornel. Cethegus, P. 550. 5668 Sempronius. Liv. XXIX. 11. ... ... Ptolemseus Epiphanes reigns in Egypt. Ptol. Can. 201 143, 4. Id. Mart. : Coss. Cn. Servil, Csepio, C. Servil. 651. 6669 Liv. XXIX. 38. ... 144,1. Octob. 18th, 23i> : Total eclipse of the sun near Zama, (^2° 51', cor. 7° 6' west). Zo- nar. IX. 14. 199 1U,2,. March 3d, 22h : Partial eclipse of the sun 553. 6671 near Rome, (jy 13°, cor. 9' east). Liv. XXX. 38. " ... ... Battle near Zama on the same day. Zonar. IX. 14 ; Jul. Obseq. c. 45 ; Liv. XXX. 29. . . . 144, 3. The 2d Punic war finished. Liv. XXX. 43 ; XXXI. 1. 4. 198. ... Id. Mart. : Coss. P. Sulp. Galba Max. II., C. 554. 5672 Aurel. Cotta. Liv. XXX. 4. The Phillippian war begins. Liv. XXXI. 5. 22. . . . 144, 4. Sept. 1st, 4.^ P. T. : Eclipse of the moon in Alexandria (^ 11°, cor. 15° west), in the 54th year of the 2d Kallippian Period. Ptol. Aim. IV. 10. 197. 145, 1. July 23d, 11M5': Eclipse of the moon at 555. 5673 APPENDIX. 231 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. Alexandria in the 55th year of the 2d Kalip- pian Period, (^ll"", cor. 7° east). Ptol. Can. IV. 10. 196. 145, 1. January 16th, 5^ 30' : Eclipse of the moon at 556. 5674 Alexandria in the 55th year of the 2d Kalip- pian Period. Ptol. Aim. lY. 10. 187. 147, 2. Id. Mart. : Coss. Cn. Manl. Yulso, M. Fvdv. 565. 5683 ' Ifobilior. Liv. XXXYII. 47 ; XXXYIII. 4. . . . 147, 3. July 16th, 20'' : Eclipse of the son at Rome, (|5 4°, cor. 1° east). Liv. XXXYU. 4. * 186. . . . January 10th, 23'^ : Eclipse of the sun at 566. 6684 Rome, ( 9^ 3°, cor. 7° west). Liv. XXXYIII. 36. 178. 149, 4. Ptolemseus Philometor reigns at Egypt. Ptol. 574. 5692 "Can. 173. 150, 4. Antiochus Epiphanes, successor of Salencus 579. 6697 Philopeter, King of Syria, in ^r. Seleucid. 137. 1 Maccab. 1, 11. 171. 151, 3. Sept. 2d, lli^ 30' : Eclipse of the moon in Al- 581. 6699 exandria, in the 7th year of Ptol. Philometor. Ptol. Aim. YI. 5. 167. 152, 3. June 21st, 7^ 45' : Eclipse of the moon in 585. 5703 Macedonia, {Is 3° east, cor. 1° west). Cic. R. P. I. 15 ; Plut. ^n. 17 ; Yaler. Max. XL 1. 166. 152, 4. June 10th, 13^ 30' : Lunar ecUpse in Macedo- 586. 5704 nia, {Is 5°, cor. 8° west), on the 3d Roman Sept. (III. Non. Sept.), from the 2d to the 3d hour of the night, on the day before the battle at Pydna against Perseus. Liv. XLIY. 37 ; Eutrop. lY. 7. 163. 153, 2. Id. Mart. : Coss. T. Manl. Torquatus, Cn. Oc- 588. 5707 tavius. Jul. Obseq. 72. . . . 153, 3. Judas Maccabi defeats the army of Lysias. 1 Mace. 4, 35. ... ... Dec. 23d, (winter solstice), Kislev. 25th, ^r Sil. 148 ; Judas Maccabi purifies the Temple at Jerusalem. 1 Mace. 5, 22. 147 157, 2. Kal. Jan. : Coss. L. Marcius Censorinus, M. 605. 5723 Manlius. Liv. Ep. 49 ; Yellej. I. 13. . . ... The 3d Punic war begins. Lir. Ep. 49 ; Ap- plan. Pun. 97. 144. 158, 1. Kal. Jan. : Coss. Cn. Corn. Lentutus, L. Mum- 608. 5726 mius Achaicus. Liv. Ep. 52. ... Carthage destroyed. Appian. Pun. 127 ; Polvb. XXXIX. 1. 138. 159, 3. KaL Jan. : C. Lsetius Sapiens, Q. Servil. Cse- 614. 5732 pio. Liv. Ep. 54. ... ... June 1st, 10^ lo' : Lunar eclipse in Rhodus, (Is 2°, cor. 6° west), in the 37th rear of the 3d Kalippian Period. Ptol. Alm!^ YI. 5. 137. 160, 1. Antiochus Sidetes, King of Syria, .Er. Sel. 610. 5733 232 APPENDIX. B.C. qiymp. U. C. A.M. 174. 1 Mace. 14, 10. (According to Euseb. Chron. Sidetes reigned two years later. 124. 163, 1. ^r. Sileuc. 186 : The last coins of Antiochus 628. 5746 Sidetes are stamped. Eckhel D. IST. III. 236. ... ... May lOtli, (Sivan 6th) : Pentecost happened on a Sunday, wherefore" Hyrcan and Sidetes repose two days. Joseph. Ant. XIII. 8, 4. . . . 163, 2. Hyrcan destroys the temple of Garizim after Sidetes' death. Joseph. Ant. XIII. 9, 1. 114. 165, 4. Ptolem£eusSoterII.,KingofEgypt. Ptol. Can. 638. 5756 105. 168, 1. Alexander I. and Cleopatra govern in Egypt 647. 5765 during 18 years. Ptol. Can. ... ... Marius being sent against Jugurtha. Sallust Jug. 73. 82 ; Plut. Mar. 8. 102. 168, 4. Dec. 2d, 19^ : Total eclipse of the sun at Rome, (7jl5°, corr. 11° east), during the 3d hour of the day. Jul. Obseq. c. 103. 97. 170, 1. July 23, (IV. Kal. Jul.) : C, Jul. C»sar born. 655. 5773 Macrob. Sat. I. 12 ; Appian. B. C. II. 106. 86. 172, 3. Mithridates conquers Asia. Liv. Ep. 77. 666. 5784 -. . . ... The Marsian war ends. Liv. Ep. 76. 80. . . . 172, 4. The first civil war begins. Liv. Ep. 79. 78. 174, 3. Alexander II. King of Egypt. Ptol. Can. 674. 5792 76. 175, 1. Sulla dies, C. J. Caesar goes back to Eome. 676. 5794 Appian. B. C. I. 105 ; Suet. Cses. 3. 63. 178, 2. Auletes, l^eo-Dionysus, succeeds Alexander 689. 5807 II., King of Egypt. Cic. Legg. agrar. II. 17. ... 178,3. Catalinian conspiration. Sail. Catil. 18. ... ... Pompejus M. makes war against the Albani and Illyrians. Plut. Pomp. 34 ; Liv. Ep. 101 ; Dio. XXXVII. 1. 62. 178, 4. Octob. 27th, 7"^ : Total eclipse of the moon at 6^0. 5808 Rome, C^ 0°, cor. 3° west), ^ which happened during Cicero's Consulate, because the Roman lunar calendar then commenced three months before the solar calendar. Cic. Di consul, sua II. 17. ... ... Dec. 23d, (Bruma) : Planetary configuration represented on the Ara Albani, in the begin- ning of the year of Augustus' birth. Comp. Seyffarth, Berichtigungen, p. 239. 61. 179, 1. IX. Kal. Oct., i. e., the month August : The 691. 5809 emperor Augustus born. Suet. Octav. 5. ... ... Septemb. 11th, (Thishri 10th), Saturday : Pompejus takes the Temple of Jerusalem. Jo- seph. B. 7. V. 9, 4 ; Ant. XIV. 4, 3. 16, 4. ... ... Hyrcan reestablished. Aristabul brought to Rome. Joseph. Ant. XX. 10. 61 179, 1. Cicero detects the second Catilinian conspira- 671. 5809 tion. Cic. Cat. 1. c. 3 ; Sallust. Cat. 17. APPENDIX. 233 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. 60. 179, 1. March 27th, 3^ 45' : Solar eclipse at the time 692. 5810 of sunset at Rome, (^ 0", cor. 3° west), dur- ing which Possidonius discovered a Comet near the sun. Jul. Obseq. c. 123. In conse- quence of incorrect chronological tables, Jul. Obseq. puts the said eclipse two years later. 56. 180, 1. March, (V. Kal. April) : The Galilean wars 696. 5814 begin. Gees. B. G. I. 6. ... ... April : Cicero is exiled for one year. Cic Ad Fam. XIV. 4, 2. 49. 182, 1. Dec. 16th : The astronomicul new moon, two 703. 5821 days before the Roman Kalendse Januarii. 48. 182, 2. Dec. 5th : Astronomical new moon, therefore 704. 5822 the Kalendse Januarii began on the 8th day of Dec. 47. 182, 2. January 3d, 21i» : Total eclipse of the sun at 705. 6823 Rome, (y cor. 12° east). Lucan. Pharsal. I. 535 ; Diod. 41, 14 ; Petron. Sat. 122, 124. ... ... January 18th, 9'' • Total eclipse of the moon at Rome, (^ cor. 3° west). Lucan. Phars. I. 535. ... 182, 3. Ptolemseus Neo-Dionysus die&, succeeded by Cleopatra, who reigns alone. Caes. Bell. Civ. III. 108. ... " ... Nov. 24th : Astronomical new moon, two . . ... days before the Roman Kalendse Januarii. ... ... Csesar's quinquennial monarchy begins. Dio 42, 20 ; Cassiador adU. C. 706 (Cato) ; Euseb. Chron. Armen. II. 363. 46. 182, 3. January 1st, (Prid. Non. Febr.) : Cicero in 706. 5824 company with Pompejus. Cic. Ad. Att. XI. . . . 182, 4. June 28th, (Y. Id. Sept.) : Battle at Pharsalus Cses. B. C. 3, 85 ; Murator. Fast. 1. 1. ... ... August 18th, (Prid. hal. Oct.) : Pompejus dies in Egypt, the day before his 59th birth day. Cffis. B. C. 3, 104; Vcllej. 2, 53. ... ... Nov. 13th, 23^ : Astronomical new moon in Rome, two days before the Kalendse Januar. 45. . . . January 12th, 9*^ : Astronomical new moon in 707. 5825 Rome, two days before the Roman lunar month. ... ... January 15th : Kalendse Martii begin. 44. . . . January 1st, 12'' : Astronomical new moon at 708. 5826 Rome, therefore the Kal. Mart, began on the 4th of January. . . . 183, 2. Csesar is Cos. IV. designatus, and at the same time Dictat. III. design. Dio. 43, 14. 44. 183, 2. Oct. 24th: Kal. Jan., two days after the true 708. 5826 new moon, which took place on the 22d of 234 APPENDIX. B.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. Oct. at noon. Caesar enters his IV th' Consu- late and at the same time his Hid annual Dic- tatura. 44. 183,2. April 9th, (IV. Id. Quinctil.) : Caesar enters 708. 5826 the 55th year of his life. 45. 183, 2. July : It is resolved in the Comitia, to confer 709. 5827 upon Caesar a decennial Consulate, on this ac- count the Fasti Capitulini reckon Caesar's two last Consulates for one. Dio. 43, 46 ; Appi- an. B. C. 2, 106. ... ... Caesar's Edict concerning the introduction of the Julian solar year. Censor, c. 20 ; Plut. Cffis. 59. ,. ; ... Oct. 11th : Astronomical new moon two days before the Kalendae Januarii of the annus eon- fusionis. ... ... Kal. Jan. (Octob. 13th) : Caesar enters his 5th Consulate, and at the same time the 4th annual Dictatura. This is the first year of Caesar's decennial Consulate and of his Dictatura per- petua. — M. -^mil. Lepidus is Mag. Equit. Cic. Ad. Att. XIII. 47. 42. 183. 4. Dee. 28th, 11^ : The astronomical new moon 710. 5828 takes place at Rome, two days before the commencement of the first Julian year. 41. ... January 1st : The crescent is visible after sun- 711. 5829 set at Rome, therefore the first of January of the first Julian year began at midnight. Ma- crob. Sat. 1, 4 ; Caesar's coins with the cres- cent in respect to this day. Eckel, Dact. ITum. VI. 9. March 13th, l'' 45' P. T. : Total eclipse of the moon, (^ 7°, cor. 4° east), previous to Caesar's assassination, which was visible in the east of the Roman empire. Ovid. Met. XV. 789. ,. "... March 15th, one hour after midnight: Cal- .. ••• purnia is awaked by the full light of the moon in the night before Caesar's assassination. Plat. Cses. 63 ; Suet. Cas. 63 ; Dio. 44, 17 ; Jul. Obseq. 127. ... ... March 15th, at 11 A.M. : Caesar assassinated .. ••• in his 56th year. Cic. ad. Att. 15 ; 1. 11. 12. 20 ; Ovid. Fast. 3, 697. . , . ... May : Augustus celebrates ludi funerales for . . , , , Caesar, during which a Comet was visible at Rome like the one in China, (Mem. de mathe- mat.. Par. 1785. T. X. P. 42). Suet. Cses, 88; Sinec. Q. X. VII. 17. .. 184, 1. June 6— 11th, (Hccatorabaeon 11— 16th) : The Olympian games took place a short time APPENDIX. ■ ' 235 B. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. after Caesar's death. Cic. "Ad. Att. 15, 5. 24. 16, 7. 40. ... Kal. Jan. : Coss. C. Vibius Ponsa, A. Hirtius. 712. 6830 37. 184, 4. Herod M. obtains the rule over the kingdom of 715. 5833 Judsea, by the influence of Augustus, and reigns 37 years from that time. Joseph. Ant. XIV. 14, 4; XVII. 8, 1. 34. 185, 4. Sept. 11th, (Hyperbor. 10th), Saturday : Her- 718. 5836 od takes Jerusalem on the said Saturday, (Dio. XLIV. 22), his Coss. Joseph. Ant. XIV. 16, 4 ; Liv. Ep. 128. 28. 187, 2. August ^9th, (the 1st day of the Alexandrian 724. 5842 Thoth) : The ^ra Actiaca or Augusti begins in Egypt. Censor. 21. ... ... Sept. 2d : Battle at Actium. Dio. Coss. LI. 1 27. 187, 3. August 1st : Antonius dies, and Cleopatra 725. 5843 soon after. Plut. Ant. 86. , ... ... Egypt becomes a Eoman province. Tac. An II. 59. 24. 188 1. Octavian receives the ordinary title of Angus- 728. 5846 tus in January of this year. Censorin D. N. 21. ... ... The ^ra Augusti begins in Eome with An- . . ... gustus' 18th year of government since Cae- sar's death. Censorin. D. N. 21. 19. 189, 3. A Census finished. Dio. LIV. 1 ; Vellej. II. 733. 5851 95 ; Suet. Claud. 16. 17. 189, 3. March 24th, (vernal equinox) : Herod founds 735. 5853 the new temple at Jerusalem in his 18th year of government. Joseph. Ant. XV. 11, 5; B. J. I. 21. 9. 191, 4. A Comet (Halley's) visible in Rome, (Dio. 1. 1.) 743. 5861 and also in China. Comp. Hind, Notices of the astr. sol. Lond. 1850. P. 58. ... 192,1. Herod, in the 25th year of his government, takes part in the Olympian games. Jos. B. J. I. 21, 8 ; Ant. XVL 3, 3. 5, 1. 3. 8. 192, 2. Census ordained by Augustus, (Dio. LIV. 35), 744. 5862 ■which is finished in the year 5 B. C. Mon. Ancyr. II. 6. . . . 192, 2. Dec. 23d, (winter solstice) : Planetary con- figuration expressed on the Ara Capitolina, previous to the birth of Claudius. Se^^ff. Be- richtigungen. p. 224. 7. 192, 2. March 22d, (vernal eqiiinox) : Planetary con- 745. 5863 figuration on the Ara Borghese, previous to Claudius' birth-day. Seyff. Bericht. 246. 6. 193, 1. Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter and of the 747. 5865 other planets in the sign of Pisces, four years before Christ's birth. Abarbanel, Comm. ad Daniel : Ideler, Chron. II. 399. 236 APPENDIX. B.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. 2. 193, 4. Sept. 28th, Saturday : Zacharias with the 750. 5868 class of Abia begin the priestly service in the Temple of Jerusalem. Annunciation of John the Baptist's birth. Evang. Luke 1, 5. 1. 193, 4. March 23d, (vernal equinox), Sunday : Mary's 751. 5869 Annunciation. Luke 1, 26. . . . 194, 1. June 22d, (summer solstice), Sunday ; John the Baptist born. Luke 1, 5 seq. ... ... Dec. 22d, winter solstice, Wednesday : Christ born in Bethlehem, four years after the Con- junction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces, . (Abarban. Com. Dan.), his Conf. (Clemens Al. Strom. I. 339. 340 ; Irenaius, Apol. II. 53 ; Tertull. Adv. Jud. c. 8 ; Sulpic. S. H. 11. ' 39), in the 41st year of Augustus, (Cassiador, Tertull. Ad. Jud.), the 28th after Cleopatra's death, (Euseb. H. E. I. 5). A. C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. 0. 194, 1. January 1st: The Easter-canon of Dionysius 752. 6870 Exiguus begins with this year, (Ideler, Chron. 292. 357. 372), therefore the Dionysian Era, or Christian reckoning began with this very day. March 20th, (Nisan 15th) : The first Easter after the Christian Era. , , , ... March 22d, (Nisan 1st of the civil year) : The first year of Herod Antipas, Her. Archelaus, and Herod Phillippus ends. 1. 194, 2. Kal. Jan. : Coss. Imp. C. Cses. Augustus 753. 6871 XIII. , M. Plautius Silvanus. Dio. LV. Jud. ; Suet. Oct. 26. ... ... January 1st : The 2d year of the Dionysian Era begins, therefore the 19th Sseculum began on the 1st of January, not 1801, but 1800 A. C, and so on. 8. 196, 1. Herod Archelaus exiled. Dio. LV. 25. 27 ; 760. 6878 Joseph. Ant. XVII. 13, 2; XVIII. 2, 1. 4, 6 (in the 37th year after the battle of Actium). The Census of Quirinus ends. Joseph. Ant. XVIII. 2, 1. 13. 197, 2. March 23d, (vernal equinox) : Planetary con- 765. 6883 figuration at the Ara Capitolina at the com- mencement of Caligula's birth year. SeyfF. Bericht. p. 224. 16. 197,4. Tiberius, being co-regent of Augustus, causes. 767. 6885 a Census to be taken together with him. Dio. LVI. 28 ; Veil. II. 121. Suet. Tib. 21. , , . ... March 15th : The 57th year of Augustus' reign begins. . . . 198, 1. Sept..2d, %^ 15' A. M. P. T. : Total eclipse of APPENDIX. - 237 A. C. Olymp. U. C. A. M. the sun {Is 8°, cor 6'' east), in the year pre- ceding Augustus' death. Dio. LVI. 29 ; Euseb. Chron. ad 01. 198, 1 ; Hieron. p. 157 ; Euseb. Arm. p. 368. 16. 198, 2. August 19th : Emperor Augustus dies, 76 7G8. 5886 years old. Suet. Oct. 98. 100 ; Joseph. Ant. XVIII. 2, 2. 17, 198, 2. January : Drusas and Germanicus go feo Pan- 769. 5887 nonia and Germany for the purpose of sup- pressing the seditious legions. Tac. An. I. 50. ... ... January 30th, between 6 and 9 P. M. : Great eclipse of the moon near Laj'bach, (^, 8°, cor. 5° east), five months after Augustus died, end of the sedition of the Legions. Tac. An. I. 28 ; Dio. Coss. LVII. 4. P. 522. 19. 199, 1. Caiaphas, high priest elected in Jerusalem. 771. 5889 Joseph. Ant. XVIII. 2, 2. 29. 201, 2. The 15th year of Tiberius' reign began in 781. 5899 Palestine. . . . 201, 3. June 22d, summer solstice : John the Baptist thirty years old, and began his prophetic ministry. Luke 2, 1. ... ... 'Nov. 13th, in the 15th year of Tiberius : Christ, being almost 30 years old, is baptized by John, 40 days before he enters his priest- hood. Luke 3, 1 ; Zonar. X. 39. p. 544. ... ... Dec. 22d, (winter solstice) : Christ 30 years old, enters upon his priestly oflBce. 30. 201, 3. March 20th, (Xisan loth) : The first Easter 782. 5900 during Christ's prophetic office, in the 47th year after the beginning of the Herodian Tem- ple. John 2, 18. 13. 20. Comp. 17 B. C. 33. 202, 2. March 19th, (Nisan 14th), Thursday : Christ 785. 5903 dies for us upon the cross, (Matt. 27, 45 ; Mark 15, 33 ; Luke 23, 44 ; John 19, 30), his coss. (Epiphan. Hser. P. 446 ; Malala, Chron. 10. P. 309 ; Prosp. Chron. 379 ; Martyrol. Paul's f. 5 ; Chron. Pash. 217. 221 ; Euseb. H. E. I. 10 ; Euseb. Chron. A. 2048. • •. ... March 19th, l*" : Partial eclipse of the sun in -Ethiopia, {SI 8°, cor. 4° west), seen by Diony- sius Areapagita, but inyisible in Palestine. Seyff. Chronol. see p. 288. • .. ... March 22d, (Xisan 17th), Sunday: Christ's .. ... resurrection after three days and three nights, on the 26th day of Phamenath. Epiphan. Hser. p. 449. ... 202, 3. Sept. 11th, 22^30' P. T. : Total eclipse of the sun at Nica?a in Bithvnia, {Is 8°, cor. 5° east). Euseb. Chron. I. f 7 ; II. 202 ; Syncell. 238 ArPENDix. A.C. Olymp. U. C. A.M. p. 256 Yen. ; Fasti Sic. p. 222 ; Maxim. Schol. ad Dion. Ar. Ep. 7. 35. 203, 1. Herod Philippus dies. Joseph. Ant. XYIIL 787. 5905 4,6. 37. 203, 2. February 11th : Planetary configuration of 789. 5907 the Zodiac of Dendera at Paris, with respect to Nero's birth. ... ... April 12th : Mercury (Ph'cenix) passes over the disk of the sun. Tac. An. VI. 26 ; Plin. H. N. X. 2. ... ... April 13th: Planetary configuration of the Temple of Dendera in Egypt, previous to Ne- ro's birth. Seyff. Astron. ^g. p. 239. ... 203 3. Dec. loth: Nero born according to both Zo^ .. ... diacs of Dendera. Suet. Ner. 6 puts Nero's birth later, erroneously, by two years. 39. 203, 4. March 16th, (26h) : Tibefius dies. Suet. Tib. 791. "5909 73. Caligula's 1st year of government begins. Dio. 59, 6. 42. 204, 4. Herodes Antipas exiled in the 43d year of his 794. 5912 reign. Joseph. An. XVII. 8, 1 ; XVIII. 7, 1. 43. ... January 24th : Caligula dies. Suet. Cal. 56. 795. 5913 ... ... January 25th : The 1st year, and the Ist Tri- bunitia protestas of Claudius began ; he reigned but 12 years, 7 months, and 12 days, as his coins demonstrate. Eckhel, D. N. VI. 226. 250 ; Tac. An. XII. 69 ; Eutrop. VII. 13 ; Senec. De M. C. c. 1. Seyff. Bericht. p. 42. 47. 205, 4. January 25th : The 5th year of Claudius be- 799. 5917 gan together with his 5th Trib. pot. Comp. 43 A. C. .. . 206, 1. June 28th : Claudius' Decree in favor of the ., ••• Jews. Joseph. Ant. XX. 1, 2 : K.\av6ios K.aT- (rap Yspji^viKOS. Srinap^iKTii e^ovaias to nifinTov^ vnaTOi anoS^isiYixcvai to TCTapTov Xypa^r) npo TCa- (rapoiv KokavSojv 'lovXiov eni VTiOLTiav 'Pov^ .\ * „- J ^^ ^ * ■ * >-^A ,sf '' f» . ^% .A xP -V^ ^^^ ""^^ ^. :s^' .►. ^^: •^^ Oo^ \1 '^ r> ^o' ^ .-N 1 V ^ ^ /• * , tP •^oo^ ' ' ' ,#' '^^ V*' ' \^^ .A- i^' ^ -;^#^^^^ ^ ^ ''^ V N^^^ v^