55 
" were done upon the 1 1th day of the month Atayr, when the 
sun was in Scorpio, in the 28th year of the reign of Osiris. 5 ’ 
We recollect that it was “ in the 600th year of Noah’s life, in 
the second month, and the 1 7th day of the month, the same 
day, 55 according to the book of Genesis, that the Flood com- 
menced. And the fact that two such different authorities as 
Moses and Plutarch make mention of a great Flood beginning 
on the 17th day of the month, seems to show that they are 
speaking of the same event. 
32. Accepting the date of the Flood as B.C. 2440, according 
to the Hebrew chronology, let us consider how far this agrees 
with that which is deducible from the Egyptian monuments 
and the papyri, which throw considerable light on that early 
portion of the world’s history. The colonization of Egypt 
could not have taken place until after the destruction of the 
Tower of Babel and the scattering of the families and descend- 
ants of Noah over the face of the earth, which Scripture places 
just one century after the time of the Flood; in other words, as 
having taken place circa B.C. 2340. Now, there is an incidental 
confirmation of this date, which it may be well to notice. 
M. Oppert, it is well known, has discovered among the cunei- 
form insci’iptions a record of the building of the Tower of Babel 
and the confusion of tongues, in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, 
who speaks of the magnificent monuments which he had erected 
at Babylon, and amongst them one called “the Temple of the 
Seven Lights of the Earth, the most ancient monument of 
Borzippa, which a former king originally built 42 ages or gene- 
rations ago , but did not finish it, since which time people have 
abandoned it, without order expressing their words.” * If we 
may reckon three ages or generations in round terms to a 
century, and compute from the era of Nabonassar B.C. 747, 
which was to the Babylonians what the Christian era is to our- 
selves, we obtain B.C. 2343 as the approximate date for the 
appears to give an intimation of the Noachian Flood having been known 
to the Egyptians. Atayr, or Athyr, or Athdr, as it is variously spelt, was 
the third month with the Egyptians, who counted Thoth as the first 
month, and was supposed to answer to parts of January and February; 
but inasmuch as the first month was not fixed as ours, but varied according 
to the heliacal rising of Sothis, we are unable to conclude anything positive 
from Plutarch’s mention of the name. Berosus, the Chaldean historian, 
mentions that “the Deity Chronos appeared to Xisuthrus (the Babylonian 
Noah) in a vision, and warned him that upon the 15 th day of the month 
Dcesius there would be a flood by which mankind would be destroyed.” 
— Eusebius, Chron., v. 8. 
* Expedition en Mesopotamie, i. 208. 
