220 



chronologists — with Africanus before him, and intending par- 

 ticularly to support his principles and hypothesis, he does not 

 even allude to the supposed interpolation of text ; nay, he is 

 even, it should seem, speaking the very language by which 

 Africanus excused his neglect of the literal precision of the 

 text,* The whole of the passage in which Syncellus records 

 the reasoning of Eusebius and his own computation, is wor- 

 thy of perusal, and I think will satisfy any reader, that the 

 reasonino' of the learned author, on the silence of the earlier 

 chronologists, is fallacious and unfounded. I shall only quote 

 apart of it ; — " If," says Syncellus, "to the 450 years of 

 Paul, you add the 40 in the wilderness, 27 of Joshua, 18 of 

 the Elders, twenty Heli, 20 Samuel, 40 Saul, 40 of David, 

 and the four of Solomon, we will have 659 years from the 

 exod to the foundation of the temple, according to Eusebius 

 600, to Africanus 740. But, says Eusebius, none of these 

 numbers will accord with the generations, nine from Abra- 

 ham to Moses in 470 years, and 5 from Naasson to David 

 in above 600 ? and besides, 6 priests from Eleazar to Samuel, 

 thus Aaron, Eleazar, Phinehas, then Abiud, Mochtei, Ozi, 



Heli 



* Syncellus before had remarked, that Jephthah reckoned only 300 years to his time, 

 " excluding," says he, " the servitude which is to be observed, and the error of 

 husebius, who reckons the years of the judges and servitudes together, (connuserantio 

 Kusebii Gr. o-u»x»i5f»K») to be avoided.'' This is another proof of the reason alledged, 

 why the earlier chronologists appear to neglect the text. 1. Kings, (j. 1. Syn, ut supi- 

 p. 104-. 



