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| That the Years in Those Ancient Times Were of the Same Length as Our Own.
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Chapter 14.—That the Years in
Those Ancient Times Were of the Same Length as Our Own.
Let us now see how it can be
plainly made out that in the enormously protracted lives of those
men the years were not so short that ten of their years were equal
to only one of ours, but were of as great length as our own, which
are measured by the course of the sun. It is proved by this, that
Scripture states that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year
of Noah’s life. But why in the same place is it also written,
“The waters of the flood were upon the earth in the six hundredth
year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the twenty-seventh day
of the month,”810
if that very
brief year (of which it took ten to make one of ours) consisted of
thirty-six days? For so scant a year, if the ancient usage
dignified it with the name of year, either has not months, or this
month must be three days, so that it may have twelve of them. How
then was it here said, “In the six hundredth year, the second
month, the twenty-seventh day of the month,” unless the months
then were of the same length as the months now? For how else
could it be said that the flood began on the twenty-seventh day of
the second month? Then afterwards, at the end of the flood, it is
thus written: “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
twenty-seventh day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And
the waters decreased continually until the eleventh month: on the
first day of the month were the tops of the mountains seen.”811
But if the
months were such as we have, then so were the years. And
certainly months of three days each could not have a twenty-seventh
day. Or if every measure of time was diminished in proportion,
and a thirtieth part of three days was then called a day, then that
great deluge, which is recorded to have lasted forty days and forty
nights, was really over in less than four of our days. Who can
away with such foolishness and absurdity? Far be this error from
us,—an error which seeks to build up our faith in the divine
Scriptures on false conjecture only to demolish our faith at
another point. It is plain that the day then was what it now is,
a space of four-and-twenty hours, determined by the lapse of day
and night; the month then equal to the month now, which is defined
by the rise and completion of one moon; the year then equal to the
year now, which is completed by twelve lunar months, with the
addition of five days and a fourth to adjust it with the course of
the sun. It was a year of this length which was reckoned the six
hundredth of Noah’s life, and in the second month, the
twenty-seventh day of the month, the flood began,—a flood which,
as is recorded, was caused by heavy rains continuing for forty
days, which days had not only two hours and a little more, but
four-and-twenty hours, completing a night and a day. And
consequently those antediluvians lived more than 900 years, which
were years as long as those which afterwards Abraham lived 175 of,
and after him his son Isaac 180, and his son Jacob nearly 150, and
some time after, Moses 120, and men now seventy or eighty, or not
much longer, of which years it is said, “their strength is labor
and sorrow.”812
But that discrepancy of numbers
which is found to exist between our own and the Hebrew text does
not touch the longevity of the ancients; and if there is any
diversity so great that both versions cannot be true, we must take
our ideas of the real facts from that text out of which our own
version has been translated. However, though any one who pleases
has it in his power to correct this version, yet it is not
unimportant to observe that no one has presumed to emend the
Septuagint from the Hebrew text in the many places where they seem
to disagree. For this difference has not been reckoned a
falsification; and for my own part I am persuaded it ought not to
be reckoned so. But where the difference is not a mere
copyist’s error, and where the sense is agreeable to truth and
illustrative of truth, we must believe that the divine Spirit
prompted them to give a varying version, not in their function of
translators, but in the liberty of prophesying. And therefore we
find that the apostles justly sanction the Septuagint, by quoting
it as well as the Hebrew when they adduce proofs from the
Scriptures. But as I have promised to treat this subject more
carefully, if God help me, in a more fitting place, I will now go
on with the matter in hand. For there can be no doubt that, the
lives of men being so long, the first-born of the first man could
have built a city,—a city, however, which was earthly, and not
that which is called the city of God, to describe which we have
taken in hand this great work. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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