49© TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



modern historians maintained it to be improbable in the extreme 

 that the Chinese recorded the names and years of their sovereigns 

 and dynasties as early as 3332, or, at least, 3598 n.c. This argu- 

 ment, however, falls short ; for the Egyptians have likewise re- 

 corded, from Menes (2780 B c) down to the Roman emperors, 

 the years of their kings and dynasties, and this chronology in 

 general has been confirmed by a great number of planetary 

 configurations. (See the author's " Astronomia yEgypt." and 

 " Berichtigungen," p. 137.) Similar historical traditions, more- 

 over, going back to the dispersion of the nations, to the deluge 

 (3446 B.C.) and even to the antediluvian patriarchs, are to be 

 found among other nations of antiquity, especially the Chaldeans, 

 Parsees, Indians, Phoenicians, etc. Hence it is not at all impro- 

 bable that the Chinese dynasties are in general as reliable as the 

 Egyptian. 



The second and more important objection is that the Chinese 

 dynasties do not agree with the chronology in the present Hebrew 

 text of the Old Testament. The question, however, is whether 

 the present Masoretic Hebrew Testament, or else the Hebrew 

 Bibles of the Israelites in Ethiopia, examined by Bishop Gobat in 

 Jerusalem, which reckon 6,000 and not 4,000 years from the crea- 

 tion to Christ, and if the texts of the Septuagint interpreters who 

 translated, about 280 b.c. the Hebrew Testaments obtained from 

 Jerusalem, which manuscripts likewise once reckoned 6,000 

 years from Adam to Christ, contain the true chronology. This 

 question has, from the Fathers of the Church down to this day, 

 been ventilated by numberless savans, and they all, with few 

 exceptions, arrived at the result that the Septuagint," apart from 

 some clerical errors, has preserved the true chronology. Apai^t 

 from Josephus, a faithful and orthodox Israelite, and all Fathers 

 of the Church, we mention the following vindicators of the Sep- 

 tuagint : — Julian of Toledo (a.d. 680), P. Burgensis, Pagninus, 

 Bredambachius, Porchetus, Hieronymus a S. Fide, Galatius, 

 F. de Escatante, Leo a Castro, Huntaeus, Alf. Samero, Gretserus, 

 Dieghus, Peyva ab Andrada, Bellarminus, Baronius, Fr. Vata- 

 blus, Joh. Lorinus, Gilb. Genebrardus, Joh. Isaac, Adam a Con- 

 zen, Sim. de Muis, Joh. d'Espeires, Huetius, Phil. Quadagnolus, 

 Calvinus, Drusius, Casaubonus, Junius, Am. Polanus, Mencerus, 

 Andr. Rivetus, Chamierus, Sixt. Amama, Buxtorf, Hottinger, 



