If Chronology is “the soul of history,” it is equally so of prophecy. Without it, the Scriptures would lose much of their harmony and beauty. It is carefully interwoven into the sacred text, and gives the order and dependence of the several parts on each other. The Chronology of the Bible is as important in its place as any other subject of revelation. When disregarded, sad errors have been made in locating the historical and prophetical Scriptures.

The elements of Chronology, and the numerous scriptural synchronisms, have been given only in works too voluminous, diffusive, and expensive for ordinary use. To place before those not having access to the larger works, the simple evidences by which scriptural events are located, is the design of the following pages. An original feature of this analysis of Scripture Chronology is the presenting in full, and in chronological order the words of inspiration, which have a bearing on the time of the events and predictions therein recorded. The reader will thus be enabled to obtain a concise and clear, as well as a correct, understanding of the reasons which govern in the adoption of the several dates. The works of Prideaux, Hales, Usher, Clarke, Jackson, Blair, the Duke of Manchester, and others, have been freely consulted in this compilation. To Dr. Hales in particular the author is much indebted for many valuable suggestions. Excepting the periods of the patriarchal age, and a few unimportant variations from his scheme, the chronology of Dr. Hales is conformed to as the most satisfactory of any extant. In the chronology of the patriarchal age, Dr.

Hales follows the numbers of the Septuagint; for dissenting from which, the reasons are given in a chapter devoted to that subject.