Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    716/800 (page 660)
    Bat these discrepancies are increased by the computations made, since 1623 a. d., upon MSS. of the Samaritan Pentateuch, which generally yield an interval between the Creation and the Deluge of years 1307. The basis of all these calculations lies in the hyperbolical lives of the ten antediluvian Patriarchs. It will be seen, through the skilful synopsis of a learned divine, how admir- ably the numerals of the Hebrew and Samaritan texts correspond, not merely with each other, but with those of the Septuagint version, and of Josephus: — “The following tabular schemes exhibit the variations; the numbers expressing the parent’s age at the son’s birth, except in the cases of Noah and Shem.(346) Ante-DiurviAN Patriarchs. Ilebr. Samr. LXX. Josep. Post - Pit.cviax Patriarchs. Hebr. Samr. LXX. Josep. 1. Adam 2. Seth 3. Enos 4. Cainan 6. Mahalaled 6. Jared 7. Enoch 8. Methuselah 9. Lantech 10. Noah (at the Flood) 130 105 90 70 65 162 65 187 182 600 130 105 90 70 65 62 65 67 53 600 230 205 190 170 105 162 165 187 188 600 230 205 190 170 165 162 (1)65* 187 182 coo 11. Shem (aged 100 at the Flood) 12. Arphaxad [Cainan spurious... 13. Sidah 14. Heber 15. Peleg 16. lieu 17. Serug 18. JVahor 19. Terah (Gen. xi. 32, xii. 4.) 2 35 80 34 30 32 30 29 130 2 135 130 134 130 132 130 79 130 2 135 130 130 134 130 132 130 79 130 12 135 130 134 130 130 132 120 130 * 165 is doubt-) less the correct i-Total reading. J 1656 1307 2262 2256 So to Abraham.... 352 1002 1002 1053 The above, like all other tables compiled by theological computators to illustrate so- called “ Biblical chronology,” assumes the numerals of current printed exemplars to be correct; but, if we set to work, archaeologically, to verify the original Hebrew, Greek, and Samaritan manuscripts, we find even this apparent uniformity to be a delusion — indeed, another orthodox figment. A few instances pleasingly exhibit this fact (347): — “ In one of the manuscripts collated by Dr. Kennicott, and which is marked in his Bible, codex clvii., this century [in the Hebrew generation of Jared] is omitted, and there is much probability that it was also omitted in the copies used by the eastern Jews. According to the testimony of Ismael Sciahinshia, an eastern writer, all these copies reckon only 1556 years from Adam to the flood, instead of 1656. . . . According to the numbers still existing in the vast majority of [Greek] manuscripts, Methuselah dies 14 years after the deluge, and had not the fifty-three, of the generation of Lamech, been changed to eighty-eight, he would have died 49 years after the deluge. . . . The deluge occurred, according to the Sep- tuagint, in the year of the world 2242, and by adding up the generations previous to his, we shall find that he was born in the year 1287. He lived 969 years, and therefore died in 2256. But this is 14 years after the deluge l . . . And had they [the theologers] not, by a previous system of changes, added a century [in Greek MSS.'] to all the generations, he would have died 249 years after it. . . . Origen appears to have been the first who gave notoriety to the contradiction ; and for a long time, the fact greatly disturbed theologians. The reader will be hardly surprised to learn that in a subsequent age some manuscripts were found with the error corrected. . . . Some [Greek MSS.] make the generation of Adam 330 years ; one makes it 240. Another gives 180 to Canaan, a third 170 to Jared, while others allow 177 or 180 to Methuselah. . . . One [Hebrew] manuscript, codex lvii. of Holmes, makes the age of Methuselah 947 : three or four other authorities make the gene- ration of Lamech 180 : the two corrections conjoined, bring the death of Methuselah to the year of the deluge. We also find three other authorities making the generation of Methuselah 180 years; this connected with the 188 of Lamech, places the death of Methuselah only one year after the deluge, even allowing him full age. Another manuscript makes his generation 177 years, three other authorities give the number 165, while one manuscript makes his total age 965. . . . Dr. Kennicott has given readings of 320 Hebrew manuscripts of the book of Genesis. 97 of these have been collated throughout, 223 in part only. . . . One manuscript (codex clvii.) omits the hundred years in his [Jared’s] generation; two others (codices ci. and clxxvi.) omit it in that of Methuselah; and one (codex xviii.) in that of Lamech. Codex clxxvi. makes the generation of Lamech 172 and his total age 772, and codex xviii. makes his total age 909. . . . We also find that, in three (346) Rev. E. B. Elliott, A.M.: Horw Apocalyptical; London, 1846; iv. p. 254, note. Compare “Tables of the discrepancies of the three Texts with regard to the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs” in Wallace : Dissertation on the True Aye of the World; London, 1844, pp. 14-16. (347) Burke: Ethnological Journal; 1848; pp. 27, 28, 82, 83, 84, 87, 7S-91.