Chronological age of the World.--exact agreement of the Egyptian and Biblical Chronology.
In the Old Chronicle of
Egypt there is a period of four hundred and forty-three years of a cynic cycle, containing fifteen generations, which precedes the record of the historic kings of
Egypt.
A new calendar was then adapted, B. C. 1986, as is shown by the following calculations; and a gothic cycle then began, which ended in the year B. C. 525, when
Cambyses, the Persian, conquered
Egypt, fourteen hundred and sixty-one
Egyptian years later than B. C. 1986.
The Statement that a gothic cycle ended in the year B. C. 525 has been doubted, because it has been assumed that a gothic cycle could only begin when First Tooth, the new-year's day of the Egyptians, coincided with the heliacal rising of the star
Sirius, and therefore the gothic cycle of the Old Chronicle must have commenced on the 20th of July, B. C. 1322; but
Mr. Osburn, in his Monumental History of
Egypt, has shown that, at the beginning of the
Egyptian calendar, First Thoth was the day of the full moon after the star
Sirius appeared in the evening, after the setting of the sun; and by calculation, it is certain that such a coincidence happened in the month of December, B. C. 1986.
By using the luna solar cycle of seven hundred years, composed by multiplying the solar cycle of twenty-eight years by the lunar cycle of twenty-five years, the period of four hundred and forty-three years is thus explained:
| from the sum of three luna solar cycles of seven hundred years | 2,100 years. |
| Deduct the years of the world from the creation of Adam to the end of the Deluge | 1,657 years. |
| the remainder is the period found in the Old Chronicle | 443 years. |
these dates and periods produce a remarkable agreement with the
Bible Chronology, as contained in
Brown's Ordo Saclorum, which dates the creation of
Adam B. C. 4102, and the beginning of the Deluge B. C. 2446.
| Cambyses conquered Egypt, | B. C. 525 |
| add a gothic cycle | 1,461 years. |
| the beginning of the calendar, | B. C. 1,968 |
| add a part of a cynic cycle | 443 years. |
Mizraim, father of the Egyptians, B. C. 2,429 years, or sixteen years after the deluge had ended.
the year of the world, at the end of three lunisolar cycles of seven hundred years each, is equal to B. C. 2,002, sixteen years prior to B. C. 1986; but Ptolemy, of
Mendes, having expressly stated that the Old Chronicle began with the seventeenth year of
Adam, the difference is at once accounted for.
but the Old Chronicle is composed of twenty-five cycles of fourteen hundred and sixty-one years each, equal to thirty-six thousand, five hundred and twenty-five years, of which twenty-one cycles are given to the gods and four cycles to the human race, down to Cambyses.
Various attempts have been made to reconcile these enormous periods with the truth, principally by considering the years to be lunar instead of solar, but without any accurate result.
the following solution brings the Old Chronicle and the
Hebrew Bible into exact agreement:
‘
when the Egyptians adopted the calendar, and gave names to the months corresponding to the seasons, they commenced the fourth cycle of seven hundred years, which cycle was, in later times, extended to one thousand four hundred and sixty-one years, and was called a gothic cycle.
Hence, when the Old Chronicle was written, it was known that the history of the world was contained in four cycles; but, being desirous of making
Egypt the oldest country of the world, the four cycles were each made to consist of one thousand, four hundred and sixty-one years. To bring it back to the truth, it is only necessary to reject the twenty-one cycles belonging to the gods, and give the remaining four cycles their proper value, thus:
’
| Years. |
| 3 luna solar cycles of seven hundred years each | 2,100 |
| 1 gothic cycle | 1,461 |
| 4 cycles | 3,561 |
| Add the period before the seventeenth year of Adam | 16 |
| Making the year of the world | 3,577 |
The first year of
Adam, being B. C. 4,102, A. M. 3,577, is equal to B. C. 525, the era of
Cambyses.
This exact agreement of dates is worthy of examination by those persons who are interested in the subject.
