Palæographia sacra. Or discourses on sacred subjects / By William Stukeley.

  • Stukeley, William, 1687-1765.
Date:
1763
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Palæographia sacra. Or discourses on sacred subjects / By William Stukeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    C 12+ ] years from his entrance into the land of Canaan, he dyed in a good old age, an old man, and full of yea?~Sf and his fons Ifaac and Ifhmael buryed him with Sarah his wife. The fons of Keturah are not fo much as mention’d, aflifting at the great funeral, they were gone off long ago, into their deftined inheritance, in Arabia ; they were marryed ; had familys of their own : fome of their fons and grandfons, juft mentioned by Mofes. Now ’tis evident, if we confider the matter atten¬ tively, that this whole affair of his marrying Keturah, his children and grandchildren by her, is recited only as a kind of fupplement, an appendix to the hiftory of this great progenitor of the people of the Jews, it be¬ gins, 'Then again Abraham took a wife « tis not intended to be inferred in order of time, ’tis recom¬ mencing a new period ; though not to be omitted, not neceffary to be inferted, in the order of time. The Rabbins and the Chriftian commentators muft greatly err, to think, this was, after Abraham was old and well Jlricken in years, as mention’d in the begin¬ ning of the preceding chapter ; after Queen Sarah, as Jofephus calls her, was dead : when he was providing a wife for his fon Ifaac, the great heir of the family, and of the promife, that is, of Mejfiah. They muft needs err againft nature, and all degrees of probability; to think Abraham marryed in a de- crepid old age, after Ifaac marryed, after Sarah was dead ; that he had fo many children then, ’tis a falfe tendernefs to his character, to reckon it blameable, for him to take a wife, or rather a concubine, while Sarah lived.