Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-05-30
THE PATRIARCHS.
Their Ayes Not So Great as PopaLrrI,,
Befieced

NOA3Ofttyy tIIS disparity
OF their ages to those of later times dis
appears. A very light error in the trans
lat1on of the Hebrew numbers had led
to all this apparent disparity. The age
OF the antediluvians was not to exceed
10 years. Genesis vi. 3 "And the
Lord said, Ny Spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he is also flesh,
yet his days shall be hundred and
twenty years." This was the regular
good old age of men, with special varia-
tons, both before and for some time
after the days of Abraham.
In reading concrete numbers the He
brews gave the large number first, thus:
Ninety and seven for 81, forty and seven
for AZ. The reversal of this rule in the
translation of Genesis V. 3-5, as an illus
tration, will show the error in all SINH
lar cases. "Adam lived a hundred and
thirty years, and begat son." etc. This
is correct, according to the rule. Seth
was born when Adam was $50 years old,
and was his last child. But if the rule
were here reversed, as it is IN the au-
thorized version, in the fifth verse, it
would read thus: Adam lived thirty
hundred years and hegat son This
shocked the consciousness Of the Chris
tan translator, and he was driven to the
true rule of the Hebrew Uses in case of
concrete numerals.
In the fifth verse we have the force OF
the violated rule, thus: "And ali the
days that Adam lived were $50 years.
and he died y A. Y. The true reading
OF the 1ule would be, "and all the days
of Adam, which he lived, were hun
dred years, and thirty and nine years,
and he died, making the entire age Of
Adam 139 years, instead of $50 years.
1t will be seen on examination that
concrete mineral adjectives in Hebrew,
as III ether languages, agree in number
with their nouns. In the case cited in
the A. Y. the nine is made TO agree with
hundred in the singular and not with
years in the plural. The error is seen
at glance, for the difference between
"nine years" and "nine hundred years"
is too great to be overlooked in any care
full translation of a sacred book. The
translator assumed that nine here agreed
with hundred, when it had no such
agreement; hundred in the text is itself
q concrete mineral, and separately agrees
with years, meaning a hundred of years.
at the date of this writing "nine hun
dred," or any number of hundreds
above one, without repetition or circum-
locution. There were none Of the
masoretic points in use. In the case Ct
the age Of Terah, the father of Abraham,
the translatOrs have made the attempt
to make 200 out Of 100 in the word
mathin, 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 (Or 1000 would in the plaural,
mathim, make 200. This is contrary TO
all rule. The Hebrews could, by plural
ling 4 numeral less than ten, add ten
fold to the unit, thus hemosh, five
hemoshim, fifty. This rule, applied to
the case Of Terah. would make him ten
times 1O5, or 1850 years old. In the
case Of Terah the historic record con-
clusively cOntradcts the translation, and
hence demonstrates the rule that plural
izing 100 does not, in the Hebrew
tongue, make 200, while SIS to the nu-
meraIs between two and ten the rule
might apply thus Shelesh, three She
leshim, thirty, and in like manner to
ten. With these corrections, referring
to the ages of the patriarchs before the
Noachian deluge, the article of NJ. de
Solaville would show wonderful uni
formity in the age of man since the dawn
of history.
From Adam to the food the ages
would read as in the table below, sub
ject to few uncertainties in the num-
bers below 100; as the numerals were
sometimes pluralized for purposes of
agreement when they were not increased
tenfold. The cases are not always GER
tain the table to the food is substan-
tally true. The table is added giving
the age Of each at the time of his death:
1. Adam, 139 years, and not $50
years.
2. Seth, 121 years, and not 912 years.
3. Enos, ia years, and not 935 years.
4. Cain, 119 years, and not go years.
5. Mahalaleel, 100 years, and not 895
years.
G. Jared, III years, and not 962 years.
7. Enoch, 14years, and not 365 years.
6. Metbuselah, ia years, and not 969
years.
0. Lamech, 1T years, and not III
years.
10. Noah, l59 years, and not $50
years.