
£797] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
CHRONOLOGICAL REMARKS ON THE 
Time oF SOLOMON, Xci 
THE folar year of twelve months, and 
chree hundred and fixty-five days, was 
firft inftituted by Jemfhid, king of Per- 
fia, $88 years before the Chriftian era 
(fee vol. ii. p. 686) and was communicated 
to the Chaldeans and Egyptians by Nabo- 
naflar 747 years before (vol. 1. p. 378). 
The Jews, then, cannot have computed 
by this year more than 888 years, and pro- 
bably did not compute by it more than 
747 years before Chritt. | 
Now the eftablifhed chronology (ap- 
pendedas an Index to the Bible appointed 
to be read in churches) places the acceffion 
of Solomon rots years, and the death of 
Mofes 1451 years, before Chrift: fo thar, 
whether we place the compilation of the 
Pentateuch, with Dr. Geddes (Preface to 
his Bible, p. 18) under Solomon, or, with 
Mr. Herbert Marth (Authentic'ty of the 
Five Books of Mofes confidered) under 
Mofes himfelf, we are equally at a lofs to 
account for the accurate computation by 
twelve monchs fo familiarly ufed in it. 
The time of Sclomon muft be antedated, 
or the Pentateuch compofed after his time. 
But it cannot, in the maiv, have been 
drawn up later than Rehoboam, the im- 
mediate fucceffor of Solomon, fince it was 
a law common to the two nations of Jews 
who under him acquired a feparate exift- 
ence ; and it was improbably drawn up 
fo late as under his reign, fince an unpo- 
pular prince and a feafon of anarchy were 
unlikely to fuperinduce fo new a law upon 
wo hoftile nations. It feems to follow, 
that we greatly antedate the reign of So- 
lomon. - 
‘When did he really live? The fimpleft 
method of afcertainment is this—from 
the earlieft date of feripture-hiftory which 
can be fatisfaétorily eftablithed, to reckon 
backwards as carefully as may be, until 
his time. The return from the Babylo- 
hian captivity is, in my judgment. the 
earlic(t certain date : and even this thould 
be placed vaftly nearer to our own times 
than in the received fyftem. ‘ 
From Ezra (ch. vii. ver. 8) it appears, 
that an edict was iffued in the /evenzh 
year of Artaxerxes to patronize the re- 
building of Jerufalem. This proclama= 
tion permitted the colonifts to collect 
fubfcriptions among their countrymen 
throughout Perfia, and armed with the 
neceflary magifterial powers the conduc- 
tors of the undertaking. A fecond ediét 
Was obtained in the swentieth year of Ar- 
Montuiy Mag. No. XIIE. - 
Chronological Remarks the Time of Solomon, ce, a 
2 
taxerxes, by Nehemiah (ch. ii. ver. 1) for 
the purpotfe of fortifying Ezra’s fettle- 
ment : and from that time the new Jeru- 
{alem appears to have been reforted 'to by 
the more opulent Jews, and to have 
flourifhed exceedingly. ‘The national re- 
turn from the Babyloniancaptivity might, 
without impropriety, be dated from either 
of thefe periods—at the time when the 
poorer Jews firft began to re-conftruct 
habitations on the ruins of Jerufalem, 
under the conduct of Ezra—or at the 
time when, a {ufficient number of labour- 
ers having fettled there, the town was 
firft furrounded with a wall of defence, 
fitted for the refidence of the rich, graced 
with the inftitution of focial worfhips 
and incorporated by a charter of polices 
under the government of the difinterefted 
Nehemiah. 
This Artaxerxes (or Arthafhafta, or 
Ardefhir) is certainly the one furnamed — 
Dirazdeft, or the Long-handed, who 
reigned nearly forty-one years, from the 
283d to the 324th year of the era of Na- 
bonaffar. The edict of Ezra, therefore, 
was obtained 457 years, and the ediét of 
Nehemiah 444 years, before Chiift. This 
is confirmed by other teftimony : ‘¢ The 
‘¢ Eafterns affure us” (fays Sir Wilham 
Jones, in the Short Hiftory of Perfia, 
prefixed tothe life of Nader Shah, p. 52) 
“ that Ardefhir fent a prince, named Co- 
““ refh, defcended from Jchorafp, to 
** punifh Baltazar, fon of Bagtnaffar, 
whowas grown very infolent in his go- 
vernment of Babylon; that Corefh con- 
quered Baltazar, and was raifed by the. 
king to the fupreme command of that 
city, where he proteéted and encoura- 
ged the captive Jews.’’ This Coreth, 
mentioned by Efaiah, and elfewhere, has, 
ii the vulgar tranflation, been called 
Cyrus; and hence the notion that the. 
jews returned froth captivity under the 
great Cyrus, the Khofru of Oriental hif- 
tory, fo many years before they had been 
captived at all. 
Two faéts will fufiice to make it mani- 
feft, that the Jews dated their return 
from captivity by the éarlier of thefe 
epochas: by the fettlement of Ezra; not 
by that of Nehemiah. Firftly; to whom- 
ever we afcribe the compofition of the 
book of Daniel, and whatever relation 
to Jewith hiftory we afcribe to the prophet 
of the Chriftians, it is certain that about 
the time of the e:écution of Jefus, the 
Jews were in momentary expectation of 
the advent of their Meffiah; ard that 
they underftood this advent was to hap-, | 
pen within feyenty weeks of years (i. ¢ 
G 492 
