PRELIMINARY REMARKS. 199 



Dionysius supposed John's preaching to have commenced A. U. C. 

 783 ; and as Jesus, when baptized, in the following year, was about 

 thirty years of age, his birth was supposed to have taken place, 



A. U. C. 754, which is the common or vulgar Christian Era. But 

 this disagrees with the well ascertained fact that Herod, the infanticide, 

 died A. U. C. 750; and that our Saviour was born a year or two 

 before his death. Hence it is now generally agreed that the Nativity, 

 or birth of our Saviour, took place four years before the Christian 

 Era, or in the year 4 B. C. ; and that St. Luke reckoned the reign 

 of Tiberius as commencing A. U. C. 764, when he was admitted 

 to share the imperial dignity with Augustus. This reconciles the 

 difference, without doing violence to either Sacred history, or secular. 

 Dates reckoned backward from the Christian Era, are usually marked 



B. C. or before Christ ; but those reckoned forward, are usually dis- 

 tinguished by the prefix A. D., signifying jSnno Domini, or in the 

 year of our Lord. The initials A. C., sometimes used for after 

 Christ, are ambiguous ; as they may also stand for ante Christum, 

 that is before Christ. 



The Jews profess to reckon time from the creation of the world : 

 which they date 3760 B. C. But this date rests solely on the authority 

 of the Bible ; of which the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint ver- 

 sions materially differ on this point. Archbishop Usher, following 

 the Hebrew text, dates the Creation 4004 B. C., and the Deluge 

 2348 B. C.; which are the dates usually given. But Dr. Hales 

 believes that the Jews falsified their chronology, to prevent the 

 application of their traditions to our Saviour; and, on the authority 

 of Josephus, he dates the Creation 5411 B. C. ; and the Deluge 3155 

 B. C. : this latter date agreeing very nearly with that of the Kali- 

 Yug, (Cali-Yug), or last deluge of the Hindoos, which they date 

 3102 B. C. Miiller, following more closely the Septuagint, dates 

 the Creation 5722 B. C.; but we incline to the opinion that the truth 

 lies between the Chronology of Hales and that of Usher. 



It may be here remarked that the modern discoveries in Geology 

 by no means disprove either of these dates, as the period when man 

 was created ; though the earth itself is doubtless much older. Some 

 learned men believe that the six days of creation were so many long 

 periods of the earth's progressive changes, before the creation of 

 mankind : an opinion which we think highly probable. The ancient 

 oriental writers also used the word which we translate year, to signify 

 a day, or a lunar month, or a half year. Thus Epigenes states 

 that astronomical observations were made at Babylon, 720,000 years 

 before its conquest by Alexander ; but calling these so many days, 

 they make the time nearly as stated by Callisthenes, or about 1900 

 years. In like manner the Egyptian period of 30,000 years, called 

 the reign of the sun, may be reduced to the 82 years of Joseph's 

 administration, according to the Scripture. 



Time is naturally divided into days, months, and years ; but its 

 division into weeks, is arbitrary, and must be traced back to a divine 

 ordinance. Our names of the days are derived from the mythology 

 of our Saxon ancestors; Sunday, from the Sun; Monday, from the 

 Moon; Tuesday, from Tuisco, an ancient hero; Wednesday, from 



