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| Jewish Chronology Continued.
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Chapter
XXVII.—Jewish Chronology Continued.
But since it does not seem irrational to prove
that these nations that had their attention engrossed with the
speculations of philosophy are of more modern date than those that
had habitually worshipped the true God,1070
| 1070
[See note 4, p. 148, supra.] | it is reasonable that we should state both
whence the family of these latter originated; and that when they
took up their abode in these countries, they did not receive a name
from the actual localities, but claimed for themselves names
from those who were primarily born, and had inhabited these. Noah
had three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. From these
the entire family of man was multiplied, and every quarter of the
earth owes its inhabitants in the first instance to
these. For the word of God to them prevailed, when the
Lord said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth.” So great efficacy had that one word
that from the three sons of Noah are begotten in
the family 72 children,—(viz.,) from Shem, 25; from
Japheth, 15; and from Ham, 32. Unto Ham, however, these 32
children are born in accordance with previous declarations.
And among Ham’s children are: Canaan,1071
| 1071
[The only son of Ham who did not go to Africa, vol.
iii. p. 3.] | from whom came the
Canaanites; Mizraim, from whom the Egyptians; Cush, from whom the
Ethiopians; and Phut, from whom the Libyans. These,
according to the language prevalent among them, are up to the
present day styled by the appellation of their ancestors; nay, even in
the Greek tongue they are called by the names by which
they have been now
denominated. But even supposing that neither these localities had
been previously inhabited, nor that it could be proved that a race of
men from the beginning existed there, nevertheless these sons of Noah,
a worshipper of God, are quite sufficient to prove the point at
issue. For it is evident that Noah himself must have been a
disciple of devout people, for which reason he escaped the tremendous,
though transient, threat of water.
How, then, should not the worshippers of the
true God be of greater antiquity than all Chaldeans, Egyptians,
and Greeks, for we must bear in mind that the father of these
Gentiles was born from this Japheth,1072
| 1072
[The fable of Iapetus cannot be explained away as a corroboration
of the biblical narrative. Hor., Od., i. 3,
27.] | and received the name Javan, and became
the progenitor of Greeks and Ionians? Now, if the nations that
devoted themselves to questions concerning philosophy are shown to
belong to a period altogether more recent than the race of the
worshippers of God as well as the time of the deluge, how would
not the nations of the barbarians, and as many tribes as in the
world are known and unknown, appear to belong to a more modern epoch
than these? Therefore ye Greeks, Egyptians, Chaldeans, and the
entire race of men, become adepts in this doctrine, and learn from us,
who are the friends of God, what the nature of God is, and what His
well-arranged creation. And we have cultivated this
system, not expressing ourselves in mere pompous language, but
executing our treatises in terms that prove our knowledge of
truth and our practice of good sense, our object being the
demonstration of His Truth.1073
| 1073 [Here
the Edinburgh has “nature.” The context seems to
require the more comprehensive word “Truth.”] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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