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MRS. "WALTER MAUNDER, ON ASTRONOMICAL 



in the world-calendar as half-way through the fourth millennium 

 from the Creation, or perhaps at the beginning of the fifth 

 millennium, or in the third century of that millennium,* accord- 

 ing to the particular chronology that he adopted. Actually the 

 fall of Jerusalem was near the end of the seventh century 

 of the millennium of Zoroaster, the tenth of the Magian world- 

 calendar.f 



Here, the Magian tradition has prevailed over the Jewish, 

 but in Chapter vii, 28-30, the two traditions are blended. The 

 angel Uriel is represented as speaking to the prophet : 



"For my son Jesus shall be revealed with those that be with 

 him, and shall rejoice them that remain four hundred } T ears. 

 After these years shall my son Christ die, and all that have the 

 breath of life. And the world shall be turned into the old silence 

 seven days, like as in the first beginning : so that no man shall 

 remain." 



The " old silence " which here is to prevail for seven days 

 " like as in the first beginning," is adopted from the Magian 

 description of the first quarter of the 12,000 years : — 



"It says in revelation that three thousand years was the duration 

 of the spiritual state, where the creatures were unthinking, unmoving 

 and intangible." (S.B.E., Vol. V, Chapter xxxiv.) 



It is objected to the 28th verse of this passage that : 



" The word Jesus in u Esdras, vii, 28, is also absent from the 

 Oriental versions ; it is only found in the Latin and is no doubt 

 a late Christian gloss." 



* " Eav Chanan Ben Tachlepha reported to Bav J oseph : ' I met a 

 man who had a roll in his hand, written in the Assyrian characters, but 

 in the sacred tongue. I asked him, Where hast thou got it ? He replied, 

 I had enlisted in the armies of Persia, and I found it among the treasures 

 of Persia. In it was written : The world will come to an end in the 

 year 4291 from the creation of the world. Some of these years will be 

 noted for wars among the sea monsters, and others for the wars of Gog 

 and Magog, and the rest will be the days of the Messiah ; though the 

 Holy One, Blessed be He ! only renews the world after seven thousand 

 years.' " (Sanhedrin, fol. 97, col. 2.) 



t It is significant that the Ethiopic version of Pseudo-Ezra reads " For 

 the world is divided into ten parts, and is come unto the tenth, and half 

 the tenth remaineth." I think that this points to the Ethiopic version 

 having been made so late that the translator, not understanding the 

 Magian twelve-fold division of world-time, substituted the Ptolemaic 

 ten-sphere division of the heavens as being more correct. 



