74 



The opinions, too, of almost all the Greek chroaologists, who 

 universally appear to neglect the authority of the Book of 

 Kings, and reckon considerably more than it admits, seem 

 also to afford a strong ground of ev idence that the passage is 

 corrupted, and that they read a diiferent interval in the copies 

 of their own times; for even Eusebius liimself, \vho in his 

 Chronicle, quotes, and follows the supputation of the livings, 

 6-1, yet, in many other places, and particularly in the preface 

 to his Ecclesiastical History, admits a different calculus, and 

 enlarges the controverted interval agreeably to the other 

 chronologists : besides, the Greek copies of the Septuagint 

 read 440, (except one exemplar mentioned by Usher) ; and 

 the venerable Bede acknowledges, that in some MSS. of his 

 time, he had found six hundred instead of four, or according 

 to Hardouin, five hundred instead of four. His words seem 

 to imply he had found 680: " Et ne quis dicat falsam nos sequi 

 regulam, 480 annorum, quasi 6'80, sint potius juxta qusedam 

 exemplaria computandi," &c. Omnes apud Vignoles, vol. 1. 

 185, &c. & auctores c6 citatos videsis. 



And Josephus, also, although he uniformly reckons the 

 years of the Judges, (except in the instances of Tholah and 

 Abdon, which appear to be faults of the copyist, and are in 

 themselves trifling,) conformably to the Hebrew, yet evi- 

 dently makes no account of the supputation, 1 Kings, 6-1 ; 

 for he says, Anfiq. 8-2. " Solomon began to build the temple 

 3102 years after the creation, 1440 after the deluge, 1020 



after 



o 



