92 



THE REV. A. H. FINN ON 



I have great pleasure in expressing my thanks for the suggestive 

 and stimulating paper which has just been read. 



Mr. T. B. Bishop said : — I think that Mr. Finn's paper is one 

 of the most helpful we have ever had before us, and I hope that 

 it may be possible to add it to the series of " Tracts for New Times " 

 just published by the Victoria Institute, and to include some part 

 of the postscript we have just heard. 



There is only one point on which I should like to remark. On 

 page 74 Mr. Finn mentions the period of 2000 years between 

 Adam and Abraham. This is of course according to Archbishop 

 Usher's chronology, but there are cogent reasons for concluding 

 that the period was far longer. 



Archbishop Usher's chronology was, of course, founded on the 

 lists of patriarchs given in Gen. v and Gen. xi. 



These genealogies have come down to us in different forms : — 

 First, in the Hebrew Bible, then in the Septuagint version, then 

 in the Alexandrian version of the Septuagint, and then in the 

 Samaritan Pentateuch. The number of the years of life of the 

 patriarchs differ widely in these various versions, and not only so, 

 but there is very clear evidence that the alterations have been 

 made intentionally. 



It is clearly impossible to form a chronology from the time of 

 Adam to that of Abraham on such data. Other facts show that 

 we cannot take the figures as any guide to the period of time that 

 elapsed between the Flood and the call of Abraham to Palestine. 

 If we accept them according to the Hebrew Bible, Shem must have 

 lived on far into the life of Abraham, which, of course, is utterly 

 inconsistent with the history. 



Then, if we turn to the genealogy of our Lord in Luke iii, we find 

 that a second patriarch by the name of Cainan is introduced, 

 between Arphaxad and Sala, whom we do not find in Genesis. This 

 raises the question whether many other names may have been 

 omitted. 



And if we examine other genealogies of the Old Testament, we 

 find without doubt that there are frequent omissions. The 

 genealogy of our Lord in Matt, i, omits the names of four kings 

 of Judah. In the genealogy of Ezra, given in Ezra vii, 1-5, several 

 names are omitted, as will be seen from 1 Chron. vi, 3-14. An 

 article on " Primitive Chronology," by Professor W. H. Green, 



