Mr Laurie on the different Chronohgij of the Deluge. 311 



Beattie should receive some mark of the Society's approba- 

 tion.* 



Your Committee beg to suggest that a small alteration should 

 be made in the form of the pieces on which the chains are wound 

 up, which they think should be so proportioned that, as the re- 

 sistance of the spring increases, the radius to which the chain 

 applies should decrease, and in this way make the resistance of 

 the door equal in every position, instead of, as at present, being 

 greatest when the door is wide open. 



John Robison, Convener. 



George Angus. 



On the different Chronology of the Deluge, according to the 

 Hebrew Text and the Septuagint Translation. In a letter 

 to Professor Jameson, by Mr James Laurie, Edinburgh. 



(To the Editor of the Edinburyh Philosophical Journal. J 



In your last Number, there is an article by Dr Von Schubert, 

 " On the period of the Deluges of Deucalion, Ogyges, and 

 Noah ;" wherein the author commits a very palpable error, which, 

 I think, ought to be pointed out. " The calculation of lime,'" 

 says the Doctor, " in the original passage of the Bible, fixes the 

 Deluge in the year 1656, and the Greek translation in the year 

 2242, after the creation. These two apparently widely different 

 statements agree more nearly than we should at first sight be- 

 lieve. The Septuagint employed a mode of calculating time 

 according to years of 272 days ; consequently, to years consist- 

 ing of ten months, 2242 years of ten months would correspond 

 nearly to 1656 solar years." 



Now, this statement of Dr Von Schubert proceeds evidently 

 upon the assumption, that the Bible annjunces in express terms 

 tlie period of the Deluge. Every reader of the Bible knows 

 that it docs no such thing ; the dates of the Creation and the 

 Flood being left to be ascertained by a calculation of patriarchal 

 generations, as in the following tables. The first column of 



• The Societ/'s Silver Sledal (value Five Sovereigns) was awarded 12th 

 August 1830. 



