DEL 
world, at'that time, by see 4 every thing (Noah and oe 
: fam] ly, and what was fhut up with him in the ark, only ex 
: cepted) from the face of the eart 
‘ 8 flood makes one of the moft Tape ala in 
‘ chronology. Its an tlan given by en. ch. vi. a 
-wit. Its time is fixed by the beft Tenses to ‘ie year 
- from the creation 1656, Yeas to the year before Chrilt 
On the 10th day of the fecoud “month which was 
on Sunday ates the goth, God commanded Noah to 
his family, rie ; 
3 
fs 
December 7th, egan to rain, and rain o days, and 
the deluge ie rgodays. On Wena May 6th, 
2348, the ark reited on mount Ararat. The tops eo 
‘the mountains became vifible on Sunday July the zoth, and 
18th, Noah came forth out of the 
him ; he built an altar and facri- 
. ficed to God for his deliverance. ‘(Blair s Chronology.) From 
this flood, the ftate of the world is divided into diluvian, or 
_poftdiluvian, and eae ys 
ven by Mo sfes of this cataftrophe, is con- 
‘firmed by the concurrent aan of feveral of the mo 
encient writers and in the world ; and asthe pcefflibi- 
lity of it cannot be ed, we need not recur to the hee 
thefis of an ingenious biblical critic (fee Geddes’sCrit. 
tries and different ages, yet the 
eftablifhed on the a ae of truth ; 
_a long time univerfally commemorate d, 
_to have been a perfon of extenfive ee and well ac- 
quainted with the hiftories of nations, fays, t that this great 
-eccurrence was to be met with in the writings of all perfons 
rhe treated sie firft i acaee entions Berofus of Chal- 
» Hieronymus of Egy ote the an 
Piquities of Phoenicia a3 ae Mnafeas, en Melon, aad 
rded; 
From 
B by birth, who lived in the time of 
_ Alexander the Great, we learn, that Chronus or Saturn ap- 
peared to Xifuthrus, the tenth or laft of the Chaldzan kings, 
in a dream, and warned him, that on the 15th of the month 
Defius, mankind would be deftroyed by a flood; he yaks 
fore commanded him to write down th 
event was 5 for 
whither he was failing, he fhould anfwer, ¢ ds, to 
pray for happinefs to mankind.”? Xifuthrus accordingly 
built a veffel, whofe length was five furlongs, and breadth 
two furlongs. He put on board all that he was directed to 
provide, = went intoit with his wife, children, and friends. 
The flood being come, and foon ceafing, Kifuthrus let out 
certain birds, which, finding no food nor place to reft upon, 
returned again tot the fhip. “After fome days he fent forth 
the birds again, aa | came back to the ip, having their 
aie — i. were fent away the 
circumftance from 
which Xifathrus aie toad dae Ge earth had appeared 
_again. He now made an opening between the planks of the 
hip, ‘and feeing that it refted on a 
-out,with his wife, his daughter, and his pilot 
‘fhipped the earth, and raifed an altar, and fanrifice 
gods he, and.thofe who went out with him, difappeared. 
UGE. 
They who wete left behind in the fhip, finding X:futhrug, 
and the perfons that accompanied him did not return, went 
out to feek for him, calling him aloud by his ; 
Xifuthrus was no more feen by them; only a voice, iffuin 
from the clouds, enjoined ee to be religious declaring 
that Xifuthrus, on account of his piety, was gone to dwell 
with the gods; and that his wife, and daughter, and pilot, 
were partakers of the fame honour. It alfo directed them 
to return to Babylon, and taking the writings from Sippara, 
to communicate them to mankind; and finally told them, 
that the place where they were was the country of Armenia. 
Thus informed, they offered facrifices to the gods, and ime 
mediately repaired to Babylon, dug up the writings at Sip« 
para, built many cities, raifed temples, and rebuilt Babylon. 
Abydenus alfo gives a fimilar relation. It is faid that 
Xuuthrus or Sifithrus, Ozyges, and Deucalion, are all 
names eons the fame thing in other 
does in the satis ,in which Mofes wrote. (Vide 
olyhiftor «x Berofo, aped Syncell. p. 30, _ . et apud 
Cyril. one alen : p. 8. Abydenus ex eodem, apud 
ii Lp. 38, 39, et apad Eufcb. de Prap. Evang. 1. ix. 
2.) The Tadians avd Perfians had alfot bape concern~ 
fe the ape vge. iter tells us, 
that fome 
at it reached no farther than a cliff 
rak, bordering on Curdifan. 
orice among them acknowledge this general detrution 
by water, fent ‘by God to punifh the crimes of mankind : on 
of whom. named Malcus, was a montter of wickednefs and im~ 
piety. One ocd circumftance mentioned by them is, that 
the firft waters of the deluge gefhed out of the oven of accr- 
tain old woman, named Zala Cufa: and Mahomet has bor- 
rowed this circumftance, and inferted it in his Koran; the 
commentators on which fay, that it was the fign by which 
t of the religion of the oe See “Gs 
8.) mentions i 
Noachic dove, and its being fent out a ae rk ; and 
goin o Deucalion a fign of fine weather, as ite 
eturn ted the rin Melo. or Melon, who ea 
r eno 
leon againft the Jews, (fee Eufeb. Prep. Evang, 1. i 
takes notice, pee other things, of the perfon who 
farvived “the deluge, retreating with his fons, after the 
lamity from Armenia; and he fuppofes that they came ‘ : 
the mountainous parts of Syria, initead of the plains of Shi- 
nar. ‘This writer feems to reprefent the deluge as topical, 
and not to have reached Armenia. 
is rere 
NS, as we | 
culns (ib. i. ) that the univerfal deluge was that of D 
ion. But the moft particular hiftory cf the deluge, and the 
neareft of any to the account given by Mofes, is to be found 
in Lucian. (De Dea- epee vol. ii. p. 88 
of Samofata, a city of Com 
arly preferved, and where a referenee to that hiftory is con- 
tinually to be obferved ig.the rites and worfhip of the. cour- 
