312 Mr Laurie 07i ike different Chronohg^ij of'tJie Deluge. 



each table shews the ages of the antediluvian patriarchs at the 

 births of their eldest sons, and the sum of this column gives the 

 year of the Flood. The second column shews the surplus of 

 their years ; and the third shews how old they were when they 

 died. In Noah's case, the number is the year of his age when 

 the Flood came. 



A single glance at these tables is enough to prove the Doctor's 

 hypothesis to be groundless ; for though the sums-total of gene- 

 rations may bear the ratios often and twelve respectively, yet the 

 separate sums cannot be brought under such a rule. For instance, 

 Adam's age, according to the Greek text, at the birth of Seth, 

 was 230 years, which, if «nly often months each, would make 

 191 solar years, instead of the 130 of the Hebrew Bible ; and so 

 Avith the others. The last and largest item of both tables finally 

 disposes of the Doctor's hypothesis ; for in both of them Noah's 

 a"-c at the coming of the Flood is the same. What, then, be- 

 comes of his ratio here ^ The agreement, besides, of the two 

 tables in the total age of each patriarch, slicws beyond dispute, 

 that the years employed in both texts were of the same precise 

 length, and that their different chronology of the Flood is occa- 

 sioned by their different statements of the ages of the patriarclis 

 at the births of their eldest sons. 



A like difference between the Hebrew and the Greek Bibles 

 extends through the generations of the postdiluvian patriarclis : 

 the calculation from the Septuagint making the date of the 

 Flood 3155, and from the Hebrew Bible only 2348, years be- 

 fore the Christian era. 



The real cause of these differences is unknown. The only 



