27 20 28 The new son, who was given to Eve "instead of Abel, whom Cain slew," was hence named SETH (properly Sheth, i. e., appointed). The list of his race is headed with a remarkable phrase. Adam was made in the likeness of God; and he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image. Adam handed down to Seth and his descendants the promise of mercy, faith in which became the distinction of God's children. This seems to be the meaning of the statement that, in the days and in the family of Seth," men began to call upon the name of Jehovah.”29 For the "name" of any great personage is the symbol of allegiance to him-" jurare in nomen " -and so it is used repeatedly in the Old Testament of the name of God, and in the New continually of the name of Christ, "the name which is above every name," at which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess." From the very beginning, then, of the race whose history is traced in Scripture, God was never without the public recognition of His name and cause by true worshipers, and such we find first in the family of Seth, in contrast to that of Cain. § 8. Of ENOS (man or multitude), CAINAN (possession), MAHALALEEL (praise of God)," and JARED (or Jered, descent), no particulars are recorded." But "ENOCH, the seventh from Adam," stands conspicuous among the race of Seth. After the statement, emphatically repeated, that he "walked with God," we are told," he was not, for God took him.”3a The former phrase is also applied to Noah, among the antediluvian patriarchs, and is often used to describe a life of close communion with God, or, in one word, godliness. The apostle explains it, that "he pleased God," and traces Enoch's piety to his faith in God, as the only true God and the hearer of prayer, for "without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."** 33 But Enoch's life was not all spent in quiet meditation; he "walked with God" in the path of active duty and the courageous maintenance of the cause of God amid an ungodly race. This we learn from the Apostle Jude, who describes the antediluvian world as already infected with those vices which came to a head in the days of Noah, which are ever the curse of advanced civilization, and which will again mark the last age of the world. Against these sins Enoch prophesied, and warned their perpetrators of the coming of the Lord to execute judgment upon them. He stands conspicuous, therefore, as the FIRST OF THE PROPHETS.35 Enoch's faith was rewarded by a special favor in the mode of his departure from the world. "He walked with God" till "he was not, for God had taken him." The men to whom he prophesied missed him, perhaps at the very moment they were planning his death :-" he was not found, because God had translated him." The apostle who uses this phrase leaves no doubt as to its meaning: by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death."937 This distinction was shared by Elijah alone of all the human race; and we may probably infer that, as in his case, so in Enoch's, the miracle was a testimony to the divine mission of the prophet, as well as a reward of the piety of the man. 39 66 38 § 9. METHUSELAH (a man of arms), the son of Enoch, is noted as having reached the greatest age of any man. He was contemporary with Adam for 243 years, and with Noah for 600. It is interesting to observe that he died in the very year of the Deluge. Was he "a righteous man taken away from the coming evil," or, having lapsed into wickedness, did he perish with them that believed not? We are allowed to suppose the former, from the probability that he would have been saved in the ark, with the rest of Noah's family, had he 35 Jude 14, 15. Respecting the so- body and of a true human existence called "Book of Enoch,' see Notes and Illustrations (D). 36 Heb. xi. 5. in glory; and the voice of early ecclesiastical tradition is almost unanimous in regarding them as "the two witnesses" (Rev. xi. 3ff.) who should fall before "the beast," and afterward be raised to heaven before the great judgment. In this way was removed the difficulty which was supposed to attach to their translation: for thus it was made clear that they would at least discharge the common debt of a sinful humanity from which they are not exempted by their glorious removal from the earth. 38 Both the Latin and Greek fathers commonly coupled Enoch and 39 This is according to the common Elijah as historic witnesses of the chronology. The LXX. places his possibility of a resurrection of the death six years earlier. been still alive. His son LAMECH (properly Lemech)," the father of Noah, died five years before the deluge. 40 Derived from a word signifying a strong young man. Both his name and his father's seem to bear witness to the state of violence which preceded the flood, and they form a contrast with the rest breathed after in the name of Noah. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A.) SCRIPTURE CHRONOL- of Solomon's Temple, the interval is OGY. INDEPENDENTLY of scientific evidence, the following are our data for determining the chronological relations of primeval history to the Christian era. 1. From the Creation to the Deluge, the generations of the patriarchs form our only guide. These, however, are given differently in different copies of the Scriptures; the sum being, in the LXX. 606 years longer, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch 349 years shorter, than in the received Hebrew text. The ancient chronologers give further variations. positively stated in the received Hebrew text, as 480 years (1 K. vi. 1). But the reading is disputed; it is alleged to be inconsistent with the 450 years assigned by St. Paul to the Judges (Acts xiii. 20); and the longer period is made out by adding together the numbers given in the Book of Judges. Some chronologers, on the other hand, compute from the many genealogies which we have for this period. 4. From the building of the Temple to its Destruction and the Captivity of Zedekiah, we have the annals of the kings of Israel and Judah. Here the difficulties are so slight, that the principal chronologers only differ by 15 years in nearly 500. 2. From the Deluge to the death of Joseph, and thence to the Exodus, the patriarchal years are again our chief 5. THE EPOCH OF THE DESTRUCguide; but other data are obtained TION OF THE TEMPLE is fixed by a from various statements respecting concurrence of proofs, from sacred the interval from the call of Abraham and profane history, with only a variato the giving of the law and the so- tion of one, or at the most two years, journing of the Israelites in Egypt between B.C. 588 and 586. Clinton's (Gen. xv. 13; Exod. xii. 41; Acts date is June, B.C. 587. vii. 6; Gal. iii. 17). The main point epoch we obtain for the building of in dispute here is whether 430 years Solomon's Temple the date of about was the whole period from the call of B.C. 1012.* Abraham to the Exodus, or only the time of the sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt. From this From this point the reckoning backward is of course affected by the * The highest computation, that of Hales 8. From the Exodus to the building makes the date B.C. 1027. differences already noticed. Out of these have arisen three leading systems of chronology. cal lists to compute intervals of time, except where we can prove each descent to be immediate. But even if we can do this, we have still to be sure that we can determine the average length of each generation. 1. The Rabbinical, a system handed down traditionally by the Jewish doctors, places the Creation 244 years later than our received chronology, 2. The Short or Received Chronolin B.C. 3750, and the Exodus in B.C. ogy is that which has been generally 1314. This leaves from the Exodus followed in the West since the time of to the building of the Temple an in- Jerome, and has been adopted in the terval of only 300 years, a term cal- margin of the authorized English verculated chiefly from the genealogies, sion, according to the system of its and only reconciled with the numbers ablest advocate, Archbishop Ussher. given in the Book of Judges by the Its leading data are, first, the adopmost arbitrary alterations. Geneal- tion of the numbers of the Hebrew ogies, however, are no safe basis for text for the patriarchal genealogies; chronology, especially when, as can secondly, the reckoning of the 430 be proved in many cases, links are years from the call of Abraham to the omitted in their statement. When Exodus; and, lastly, the adhering to we come to examine them closely, the 480 years for the period from the we find that many are broken with- Exodus to the building of the Temple. out being in consequence technically As we are only giving a general acdefective as Hebrew genealogies. A count of these different systems, and modern pedigree thus broken would not attempting their full discussion, be defective, but the principle of these genealogies must have been different. A notable instance is that of the genealogy of our Saviour given by St. Matthew. In this genealogy Joram is immediately followed by Ozias, as if his son- —Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah being omitted.* In Ezra's genealogy (Ezra vii. 1–5) there is a similar omission, which in so famous a line can scarcely be attributed to the carelessness of a copyist. There are also examples of a man being called the son of a remote ancestor in a statement of a genealogical form. We can not therefore already mentioned, we believe that venture to use the Hebrew genealogi we can not now explain how the last datum is reconciled with the 450 years assigned by St. Paul to the Judges, or with the numbers obtained from their annals. The great chronologer Petavius is in substantial agreement with Ussher; but, for reasons which can not now be stated, he places the Exodus and the call of Abraham each forty years earlier, the Deluge and the Creation each twenty years later, than Ussher. We have given Ussher's dates in the text of this work, as those most commonly received; but for the reasons the Jewish genealogies are no safe basis for chronology, and that it is there fore impossible to assign any real dates to the Creation and the patri archal history. Matt. i. 8. That this is not an accidental omission of a copyist is evident from the specification of the number of generations from Abraham to David, from David to the Babylonish Captivity, and thence to Christ, in each 3. The Long Chronology has been, case fourteen generations. Probably these missing names were purposely left out to in recent times, the most formidable make the number for the interval equal to that of the other intervals, such an omission being obvious, and not liable to cause error. 5; 1 Chr. xxvi. 24; 1 Kings xix. 16, com ↑ Gen. xxxix. 5, compared with xxvipared with 2 Kings ix. 2, 14. (B.) THE SONG OF LAMECH. The remarkable poem which Lamech uttered has not yet been explained quite satisfactorily. It is the only extant specimen of antediluvian poetry; it came down, perhaps as a popular song, to the generation for whom Moses wrote, and he inserts it in its proper place in his history. It may be rendered : on the whole, to be the best that has (C.) THE CAINITE RACE. The social condition of the Cainites Adah and Zillah! hear my voice, speech; For a man ha I slain for smiting me, whom a pastoral life was always held in high honor, from the simplicity and devotional habits which it engendered; the successes of the former are deJerome relates as a tradition of his picted as the reverse in all these repredecessors and of the Jews, that spects. Cain founded the first city; Cain was accidentally slain by La- Lamech instituted polygamy; Jabal mech in the seventh generation from introduced the nomadic life; Jubal Adam. Luther considers the occa- invented musical instruments; Tubalsion of the poem to be the deliberate Cain was the first smith; Lamech's murder of Cain by Lamech. Herder language takes the stately tone of regards it as Lamech's song of exulta- poetry; and even the names of the tion on the invention of the sword by women, Naamah (leasant), Zillah his son Tubal-Cain, in the possession (shadow), Adah (ornamental), seem to of which he foresaw a great advantage bespeak an advanced state of civilizato himself and his family over any tion. But along with this, there was enemies. This interpretation appears, violence and godlessness; Cain and |