have been taken of the fact by Herodotus, and that no tradition of it should have been handed down to Josephus, or by any other writer. It seems necessary therefore, in order to the vindication of the prophecy, to admit in this case, what we have found occasion and authority for doing in so many others, namely, a different computation of the years,in fact, one similar to that by which the 100-years Captivity of the Jews according to one statement is reduced to the 20 years of another. And in this instance of the Jewish Captivity may be found, not only a precedent, but almost an authority for such a reduction. If, as we have supposed, a certain parallelism was intended between the circumstances of the Jewish and the Egyptian Captivities, it may assuredly be looked for in their respective durations. And if the former has been reduced from 100 or 120 years to 20, it will not be extravagant to suppose that the other may with equal propriety be reduced in the same proportion. Thus much is certain, that, if our interpretation of Ezekiel xxix. 21, which would make the Egyptian desolation to have terminated some time before the Jewish restoration, be accepted, the 40 years must be considerably curtailed. For if the duration of the Captivity be taken at 50 years,-seeing that the desolation of Egypt predicted in Ezekiel xxix. 17 could not have commenced much sooner than 20 years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and must have ended long before the return of the Jews,—not more than 25 years would be allowed for its continuance. And it should be especially observed that, as this prediction was delivered only 8 years before Nebuchadnezzar's death, the period of its accomplishment might fall to the fullest extent within the operation of the curtailment effected by comparison of the numbers of Berosus with those of Josephus. The former may be said to cut off from the latter, in the reigns of Evil-Merodach and Neriglissar, 52 years, (being a number=the duration of the Captivity according to one computation). On the whole, there seems to be grounds for thinking that the 40 years may have represented a very small number indeed of Julian years. And possibly this view may obtain some confirmation from the precedent of Israel's sojourning in the wilderness; nay, perhaps the duration of this may have given rise to the assignation of that of Egypt. The argument may have been, "Since the bondage to the Egyptians had been the cause of Israel's wanderings for 40 years, now the Egyptians themselves, their land being converted into a desert, should serve 40 years as slaves in a land not theirs." It might be shewn,

- we had written much that would shew conclusively, but want of space has compelled us to exscind it, that the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness must be taken to represent a comparatively small number of common years. And if so, to preserve the parallelism, the same view must be taken in the case before us.

473. If, then, the 40 years of Egypt's predicted desolation may be reduced to a very small number of modern years; and if, at the same time, large allowance be made for the difference between Western and Eastern (and especially prophetic) modes of expression and description, the weight of the objection will be taken away. For it is very credible that an invasion, which at the time spread death, destruction, and desolation, yea, comparative depopulation from one end of the country to the other, yet whose effects were not of many years' continuance, may have vanished from the traditions in course of time. In such a case, and after so long an interval, it were surely unsafe and unwarrantable to infer from the silence of historians that the event predicted never came to pass. If it be shewn that, when the prophecy is rightly understood, its accomplishment may by possibility have occurred, this is all that is necessary to exonerate it from the charge of being a false prophecy; though, it must be admitted, this is not sufficient to maintain its evidential character. It will be a great point gained, however, when a prediction cannot be preserved as a proof, to rescue it from being adducible as a disproof.

[3]. MISCELLANEOUS PERIODIC COMBINATIONS.

474. We will now direct our view upwards from the Return, and notice any periods for which a place may not heretofore have been found. (1). We may reckon from the building of the Temple to the Schism 37 years, thence to Captivity of Israel 240, thence to Return 183 (130+53)= 460 years, or 1000 Sac. Cycles. (2). Prefix from building of Tyre to building Temple 240 years, and it will make 700 years (70 x 10) from building of Tyre to Return, or, (taking Josephus's reckoning of 100 years to the Captivity) 7 centuries. (3). There may be computed 610 years from the Exode to the 1st building of Temple: thus, Moses 40, Joshua 25, Judges to Jephthah 365 (=430), Ibzan to Abdon 25, Philistine supremacy 40, Eli to David 72, David 40, Solomon's first 3 years (=180=560)=610. 610+460 gives 1070 years (=214 x 5) from the Exode to the Return.

=

(4). But, adding Josephus's extra 50 years for the Captivity, 1120 (28 x 40). (5). Further, reckoning 112 years instead of 72 for the interval between the Philistine supremacy and David (20 years more being allowed either for Samson's or Samuel's time, and 40 instead of 20 to Saul), the sum will be 1160 years (=232 x 5). (6). Josephus assigns 80 years instead of 40 to Solomon. This would raise the sum to 1200 or 2 "great years." (7). In the above 610 years, 10 years of anarchy (254) are not included. 610+10+460 = 1080 (=216 x 5). (8). We have found from the Creation to the Exode 4320 years (¶ 240). Hence from the Creation to the Return may have been reckoned 5400 years (=216 × 25). (9). From the building of Temple to the Return (Solomon 37, the Kings 393, the Captivity 70=) 500 years. (10). From Jadon's prophecy to the Passover in the 18th of Josiah 361 years. (Ant. X. iv. 4). Hence to the 13th of Josiah 356 years. Eusebius reckoned a septuagintal periodof Captivity from the 13th of Josiah to the 1st of Cyrus B.C. 560; 356+72-428: or, reducing this 72 to 52 in like manner as the other captivity-period was reduced, 408. Four years to Cyrus's victory in B.C. 556 would make 432 or 412. There were 20 years to his accession B.c. 536, and thence to the profanation by A. Epiphanes (Ant. XII. vii. 6) 408. So that the numbers may be reckoned to run thus :

408
20

4

20

408

}

432

432

(11). Here we may note that from the call to the first building were (Ant. VIII. iii. 1) 1020 years (=408 x 21). Thence to the Captivity (37+371)408=1428=428 from Call to Exode +1000 from Exode to 1st destruction. (12). Hence from Exode to 1st destruction 1000 (592+428)+ Captivity 20+ to the Antiochian profanation 408-1428 from Exode to Profanation. (13). Capture of Jebus to Schism 73(1460) + Kings 395 = 468. Let what has been shewn respecting the computation of the kingdom of Judah at 393, and the excision of 60 years from this number be called to mind. Eliminate the 60 years in this instance, and there will be 408 years from the capture of Jebus to first destruction. We seem to have here another ground for supposing the 60 to be a moveable quantity, as well as a reason why the text-years have been made to amount (in round numbers) to 395 years. It may be observed, by the way, that from Melchizedec to the 1st destruction were (Wars VI. x. 1) *1468 years, and from

*Hence, from the call to 1st destruction, 1480 (=370 × 4).

the 1st to the 2nd destruction 708. Perhaps the 60 years in the Kings, included in 1468, may have been so placed as to be transferable, and make 1408 and 768 (=384 x 2=3x2 eight times). There can at any rate be no doubt that this number has been formed thus; Melchizedec to Exode 408, + Exode to 1st building 592 (=1000), + to 1st destruction, 408 (=1408),+ intercalation 60=1468. And it may be that a second 60 has been intercalated into the 708 years. Something may be said in favour of this hypothesis. The above 1408 years, accurately 14081, (being the sum of the particulars, and a received duration of the interval between Melchizedec and the 1st destruction) being deducted from the 2177 years of the same passage, there will remain 7681 years between the two destructions. And if this hypothesis be adopted, the time after Melchizedec will be found equal to one computation of that previous to the Deluge, that is, if the Various Reading in the LXX. be reduced in the same manner as the Received Reading has been. For 2242-6 =2236, and 1468+768=2236. Moreover, some very remarkable "Complete Systems" may be formed on the basis of these numbers, as will be shewn in the proper place. We may add that one (See ¶ 287), if not more examples of the number 768 may be adduced. (14). 3900 years may be reckoned from the Creation to the 1st destruction. This may have been a larger model of Ezekiel's 390 days. In like manner, as 428 years have been shewn from the 1st destruction to the Antiochian profanation, 430 years may be computed to the liberation by the Maccabees, and be regarded as an accomplishment in an extended sense of Ezekiel's 430 days. (15). In another place it has been shewn that one mystical date of the Exode was B. c. 1586. Now the 2nd Temple was finished on the 3rd day of the 12th month in the 6th of Darius (Ezra vi. 15), which, on Clinton's computation, would be = B.c. 526 (419). There intervened therefore between the Exode and the completion of this Temple 1060 years, (=424 x 2). Also, as Moses died on the 1st day of the 12th month in the 40th year after the Exode, there were between Moses's death and the finishing of the Temple 1020 years (=408 x 2) within 2 days.

be=B.C.

[4]. CYCLICAL NUMBERS NOT CHRONOMETRICAL. 475. From the peculiar character of this period it contains few numbers besides those which relate to time; indeed scarcely any excepting such as state the number of captives

66

that returned. With regard to these there are one or two passages worth quoting. (1). "The number of those that came out of captivity to Jerusalem (in the 1st of Cyrus) were 42,462," (Ant. XI. i. 3). This is a singular number, and evidently made up of 42,000, 420, and 42. (2). The same section contains the edict of Cyrus, in which is given an inventory of the gold and silver vessels "pillaged by Nebuchadnezzar out of the Temple," which Cyrus says he has given to Zorobabel. The items are curious: they give a total of 5400 (!) vessels (40 × 135). No epilogue is given; but in Ezra, where the total is stated to be 5400, the items actually amount only to 2499, and only 3 of the items correspond with those in Josephus. (3). In the 1st of Darius H., after 7 days' feasting, Zorobabel led to Jerusalem "a certain and determinate number out of every family.... and the sum of those that went up, above the age of 12 years, of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, was 4,628,000" (!!!) The beasts were 5960. By this means a certain part of the entire people of the Jews that were in Babylon, came and dwelt in Jerusalem; but the rest of the multitude returned every one to their own countries." (Ant. XI. iii. 10). The first of these numbers seem to be made up of 4,600,00 and 28,000, that is, it is a combination of the Sacerdotal Cycle with the sacred numbers 70 and 40; or it may be compounded of 4,200,000 and 428,000. The other is 5600+360. The particulars of the last agree with the asserted total; but those of the first amount to 42,633, exclusive of 7337 servants and 245 singing men and women. So that the sum is only 50,215. Josephus does not give the numbers of those who came up with Ezra or with Nehemiah in Xerxes's reign. He says only in reference to the former that "the entire body of the people of Israel remained in Media; wherefore there are but 2 tribes in Asia and Europe, while the 10 tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated for numbers!" With regard to the latter he merely states that, "Nehemiah took with him many of his countrymen." Turning to the Canonical books, we find both Ezra and Nehemiah stating the total number of those who came up in the 1st of Cyrus to have been 42,360. Yet the sum of particulars in Ezra is 29,818, and in Nehemiah 31,089. Both the epilogues and sums are exclusive of 7337 servants and 200 singers (Ezra), or 245 according to Nehemiah. 1 Esdras v. 40 asserts a total of "40,000, besides servants 2360: their servants were 7347 and singers 245": while the items amount only