A new analysis of chronology

ADVERTISEMENT.

Despite the additional expense incurred by expanding the work itself, and an unforeseen 30 percent increase in paper costs since the proposals were published, the author is determined not to raise the price for subscribers. This decision is due to the generous support and encouragement he has received from several magnanimous patrons of this difficult project. He gladly takes this public opportunity to express his deepest gratitude to them.

The general accuracy of this edition—a quality hardly to be expected given the complexity of the subject and the author’s distance from the printer—is primarily due to his scholarly and esteemed friend, the Reverend Lancelot Sharpe, who had the patience and kindness to revise the proof sheets.

PREFACE.

This work is the result of many years’ study of the history, antiquities, and prophecies regarding the principal nations recorded in the Bible: specifically, the Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews; the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians; the Medes and Persians; and the Grecians and Romans.

The project was originally suggested by the frequent interruptions and difficulties the author experienced in his historical research. These problems arose from the imperfections and disagreements among the chronological systems of the Jews, Scaliger, Petavius, Usher, Lloyd, Marsham, Newton, Jackson, and others. He found these systems utterly insufficient for aligning and harmonizing the leading dates of Sacred Biblical history and Profane secular history. All of these authors differed from one another to some degree in the principles they used and how they applied them. Sometimes they adjusted Sacred chronology to fit Profane chronology, and sometimes the reverse, without any established rule or standard.

Finding it impossible to extract a uniform scheme from these systems that could make Sacred history consistent with itself and with the broad range of connected Profane history, he attempted to trace the subject back to its original sources. He explored the most ancient records, chronicles, and surviving fragments, as well as the earliest historians and chronologists. These included the Masoretic and Samaritan Hebrew texts; the Vatican and Alexandrian Greek versions The Septuagint; and the works of Josephus, Theophilus, Eusebius, Syncellus, and Abulfaragi.