B.C. 538. Edict of Cyrus permitting the Jews B.C. 536 



to return to Palestine. Many return 

 under the leadership of Zerubabel. 

 (Ezra I, II). 

 B.C. 525. Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. 



The writer of the article on Biblical Chronology in the 

 Encyc. Brit, considers that Usher's dates before 723 B.C. 

 are too high, and should be considerably reduced, but, see- 

 ing that the dates of the Biblical droughts all agree in the 

 most wonderful manner with the Nile's curve, it would 



appear to be very much open to question 



vhether 

 at all should be made. It is now quite 

 evident from the fact of the extreme accuracy with which 

 he determined the dates after 723 B.C. that Mr. Russell's 

 critics, and Professor Gurney in particular (who remarked 

 in 1896 that " the marginal dates in the Bible are foreign 

 to the text, and have no l scientific value,' and, in fact, 

 were merely guesses,") were speaking without a proper 

 knowledge of the subject. The latter gentleman even 

 went so far as to ridicule Mr. Russell's statement that 

 there was evidence of a B.C. drought having lasted sixty 

 years. He said— 



" It is impossible to deal seriously with the evidence which Mr. 

 Russell draws from Biblical meteorology. It seems to me that a 

 continuous sixty years drought would completely efface three 

 cycles, and part of a fourth." 



In view, however, of the evidence which I have brought 

 before you in this paper, you will, perhaps, now be able to 

 judge whether any reliance can be placed on Usher's dates, 

 and also whether the Nile's curve has demonstrated, that 

 it is possible for extremely long droughts to have occurred 

 in Egypt, extending even to the limit, which the Professor 

 referred to with so much incredulity. 



