New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-12-04
LECTURES
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
A >LECTURE.
BY PROF. o. F. mitchell OF CINCINNATI
(Repored for Tie Thbunel

Notwithstanding the desperate condition OF the
& u,eafher. there was a very good audience on Fri
3av night at Hope Chapel, to hear the last OF Prot
Fl Nitcbel,s lectures upon Astronomy as developed
he the Jewish Scriptures. Prot NJ remarked
q IN substance that because OF the weather he
s scarcely expected any one to come TO hear MN,
B and he'd counted on hoday, but he would goior.
yard since go many had bravcd the storm The
toDics previously discussed had been done in
different manner from his usual course he had
called attention to the modern scientific discove.
4 ries and compared them with the p bic, as far as
the Fourth Day OF the Creatioll when the Sun
and Moon were developed. Further work he had
left for the Geoogists-au one q, great emlnence
would soon explain the geological part OF the
question to the people OF this City But ne woald
Z take up the question OF the Period Of the Crea-
tion of Man Can we fix that period by any sci
ontific or traditional authority? He feared he
q could not do the subject much Justice; but he
@ would try The Hindoos tell rs that three ages
q Of the Earth have passed-thc first, 1920 900
years and two others OF Il like length have gone
bv. and we are living in the Fourth Age. The
Egyptians and the Babyonians claim about
$4,000 years Of Antiquity Tor their early His
tory But ie there any truth IN this How
! did these nations measure time How many
nersops even in this intelligent audience,
tell exactly what year s.l Oar day, even
30 simple is not understood correctly AS we
y employ 1t, 1t Is perfectly imaginary period
it has no absolute existence, scientifically consld
cred Now there is great diversity among the
ancients in regard to the year The Hmdoos have
I year like ours, year OF month. year OF
Z day, and even shorter year OF only halt day.
4 80 with other old nations and it is only lately
/ that Astronomy discovered this. He would pro
u ,lr nj. for
I 20 back ? Can we go beyond the Flood Is
there ANYTHING known of realf fact before that era
4 He said that when we attempt to work our way
back we rely less upon the recorded places OF the
! planets than upon those OF the liked stars. But
the place of the Vernal Equinox formed most
/ sublime time piece If the star Adebaran now
occupies the point of the Nernal Equinox the as
+ tropomer of hundred thOusa years hence needs
no other record to discover our era and our year
J 1880 OF the Zodiac, we know not when 1t was
1 established The Greeks state that the Nernal
Equinox once occupied certain position blsectln3
Or crossing certain Zodiacal signs The statement
OF Eudoxus referred TO period OF l,e0O years be
ore he wrote, or l. 200 years beone Christ we
Y do know that the division OF the Zodiac was made
al least 5000 wears ago but this only throws us
] halfway back to the probable beginning of she
Zodiacal division. This, however, indicates be
ginning about 400 years before Christ. The
Egyptians lsee Ptolemy) made several obser-
vatons of the heliacal rising oil the star SIRIUS
Ptolen1v noted rising on one occasion
four daye after the Equinox. Tins IS am
/ ple data we know where the Equinox then
was in reference to Sirius we know that this
observation was made $3.50 years before Christ
Diodorus says that ne read, on column IN ara,
bia. am Isis queen nc. ! rise with Sirius
qhis carries us back 1900 years before Christ
yhis Sirius was found to change it's day OF rising
once in four years; and then the Egyptians first
/ invented the Sothc period of l46O years by null
tiplying 365 by 1. At the year 1873 alter Christ
~, 1nCfh Ia
was this the first Sothic period Manetho
rays the Shepherd Kings were driven out OF
Egypt 500 wears before Christ. 1t appears that
275a years before the Christian era, the Egyptians
were using this period The Persians say that there
was time when four bright stars marked the sol
stices and the eouinoxes. We find these to be AL
debaran Antares, Regulus and Fomalhaut w go
back and find this Persian period 80 be 5000 years
before Christ The Speaker referred to the Baoy-
lonian observations as tar as 2"54 before Nnrlst.
We find, then, in all cases, that wheh we nave
reached about 5000 years back from our DAY,
we come to our limit-~we go no further he
Chinese record an eclipse which took place some
1900 years before Christ. They record ooi(un nc
zion Of stars 24i9 years before Christ. Proi' NJ
referred to the vast periods claimed oy some ma
tions. and first noticed the period before the De-
luge 2.oi0 years according TO the SeptaaSlnt. Be
rosus the Chadeau, stated that certain nunoer
of zarocs had elapsed previous to the Deluge 1t
is almost certain that the ZarQs was the pc
ROO rom one eclipse '" @no'e % ~" bonna,ea in
ep from lnt iiln9 wte, al ro,pss in fPe same
certain position 70 s occurrence th ~ .,,o
pos,on rpo os ~ oor 'H tH. no;t Probs
bly, this period OF regular ec!ipses was s! years
anrans TO Berosus or 992o veays from the Crea
tion 1 70 the Flood. He referred to the Egyptian
period Of the reign of the Gods for $4,000 years,
and presumed that these were lunar months or
. 915 rysers--inst the period up to the Deluge.-
lNls .I>ar Np YsN4Tc rnyNrN -
1he Il, gds lars tn, Flood The Hndoo
49,; W 7S0 ana years was nrobably the wear of
haifo'dsy ny AK Years 0Dsius saws the pc.
rod fr1n Treat;on to Flood was , 256 years-and
49, :. ~, t1ohre,, o,connt These nerods are
remarkably coipcident This argument is mainly