Connecticut western news., 1882-06-21
OLD INHABITANTS.
Investigations as to the Ages of the
 Patriarchs.
From Popular Science.l

From Popular Science.l
 On full examination of the question of pariarchal longevity, the disparity of their ages to those of latter times disap- pear. A very light error ln the transla- tion of the Hebrew numbers had led to all this apparent disparity. The age of the antedeluviaHs was not to exceed 12O years. Genesis vii, 3: "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh, yet his days shall be 12O." This was the regular good old age of men, with spe- cial variations, both before and for some time after the days of Abraham.
 Tn reading concrste numbers the He- brews gave the large pumbers first, thus: Ninety and seven for 97, forty and seven for 47. The reversal of this rule in the translation of Genesis v., 3, 5, as an illustration, will show the error in all similar cases. ''Adam lived hnn- dred and thirty years, and begat a son, y etc. This is correct according to the rule. Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, and was his last child. But if the rule were here reversed, as it is in the authorized version, in the fifth verse, it would read thus: Adam lived 5000 years and begat a son This shocked the consciousness of the Chris tian translator, and he was driven to the rule of the Hebrew uses in case of concrete numerals.
 In the fifth verse we have the force of the violated rule, thus: "And all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died ?" A. V. The true read ing of the rule would be, "and all the days of Adam, which he lived, were a hundred years, and thirty and nine years, and he died," making the entire age of Adam 139 years, instead of 930 years.
 It will be seen, on examination, that concrete numeral adjectives in Hebrew, as in other languages, agree in number with nouns. In the case cited in the A. V. the time is made to agree with hundreds in the singular and not with years in the plural. The error IS seen at glance, for the difference between thine years and nine hundred years" is too great to be overlooked in any care full translation of sacred book. The translator assumed that nine here agreed with the hundred, when it had no such agreement hundred in the text is itself concrete numeral, and separately agrees with years, meaning hundred of years at the date of this writing thine hundred" or any number of hun. dreds above one, without repetition or circumlocution.
 points in use. In the case of the age of Terah, the father of Abraham, the translators have made the attempt to make two hundred out of one hundred in the word mathim, used in the plural as it might be to agree with years, thus making Terah 205 instead of 1O5 years old at his death holding the theory that the word mae Cor 100O would in the plural, mathim, make twenty. This is contrary to all rule. The Hebrews could, by pluralizing a numeral less than ten, add tenfold to the unit, thus: hemosh, five, hemoshem, fifty.
 This rule applied in the case of Terah, would make him ten times 1O5 years old, or 1,05O years old. In the case of Teran the historic record conclusively contradicts the translation, and hence demonstrates the rule that pluralizing 100 does not, in the Hebrew tongue, make 200, while as to the numerals be- tween two and ten the rule might apply thus: Shelesh, three, sheleshim, thirty, and ln like manner to ten. With these corrections, referring to the ages of the patriarchs before the Noachian deluge, the article of M. de Solaville would show wonderful uniformity in the age of man since the dawn of history.
 From Adam to the flood the ages would read as ID the table below, sub ject to few uncertainties in the num- bers below 100, as the numerals are sometimes pluralized for the purposes of agreement, when they were not in- creased tenfold. The cases are not al- ways certain the table to the flood is substantially true. The table is added, giving the ages of each at the time of his death:
 l. Adam, 13O years, and not 93O years.
 7. Seth, 121 years, and not 912 years.
 3. Enos, 114 years, and not 935 years.
 4. Gain, 119 years, and not BIO years.
 5. Mahaialeel, 122 years, rot s35 years.
 6. Jared, IF years, and not 365 years ',
 2. Enoch, 114 years, and not 365 years.
 $. Methuselah, 124 years, not 969 years.
 9. Lamech. 117 years, not 777 years.
 10. Noah, 159 years, and not $50 years.
 Average, 120 plus years.