THE LAPSE OF TIME. 99 



or the inspiration of the Hebrew lawgiver, but on the 

 arithmetical speculations of an Irish archbishop, who 

 lived in the seventeenth century. 



Before we can accept the Hebrew genealogies as com- 

 petent data for historical chronology, we must under- 

 stand the principles on which they were framed. In 

 ancient languages we have abundant evidence to show 

 that the ties of blood were not as sharply distinguished 

 as among ourselves. The same word sufficed to designate 

 son and grandson, and even the most remote descendant. 

 A man's heir was called his son ; an usurping successor 

 might receive the same title l ; and, beyond all this, it 

 has been shown to have been ' a common practice with 

 the Jews to distribute genealogies into divisions, each 

 containing some favourite or mystical number ; and 

 that, in order to do this, generations were either re- 

 peated or left out.' Some persons, perhaps, will say, 

 ' We don't believe it, or we don't believe it in regard to 

 any of the biblical genealogies.' And yet the very first 

 chapter of the New Testament is the most conclusive 

 and incontrovertible proof of the statement j for our 

 Lord's genealogy 2 is there expressly divided into three 

 periods of fourteen generations each, and the middle 

 period has been stripped of three generations in order 

 to bring it down to the pre-determined number. The 



1 As in the inscription ' Jehu, the son of Omri,' referred to by Lord 

 A. C. Hervey, in Smith's Diet, of the Bible, Art. 'Genealogy.' 



2 Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Art. 'Genealogy of Jesus Christ,' 

 Lord A. C. Hervey, referring to Dr. Mill. Compare also Hengstenberg, 

 Genuineness of the Pentateuch, vol. ii. p. 294, Translation, 1847. 



H 3 



