Neque enim res humani, ita imperiis aut regionibus divisæ sunt, ut non habeant multa connexa; quare juvat certe, fata aliqui sæculo aut ætati destinata, veluti una Tabula contenti et descripta intueri.

BACON DE AUGMENTIS SCIENTIARUM, lib. ii. cap. viii.

Join BLAIR'S

CHRONOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL

TABLES,

FROM

THE CREATION TO THE PRESENT TIME:

WITH

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS FROM THE

MOST AUTHENTIC WRITERS;

INCLUDING

THE COMPUTATION OF ST. PAUL,

AS CONNECTING

THE PERIOD FROM THE EXODE TO THE TEMPLE.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

1844.

PREFACE.

DR. BLAIR'S Chronological Tables have long been the favourite Manual of Readers of History; and though for nearly a century their utility has been considerably obstructed by their ponderous form, they have survived the changes of literary fashion, and are still in the hands of every student.

The outline of the original Work is unique. But the Tables were restricted both as to matter and extent by the process of engraving, which the inefficient state of letterpress-printing then imposed upon the Author. Many valuable materials were left untouched, and much information suppressed which might otherwise have been made available, and which can now be included by the later improvements in typography. What Dr. Blair could have effected under more favourable circumstances will now be expected by the reader, and has been the study of the Editor to supply, with what ability is in his power, and with the aid of such writers of authority as have appeared since the time of the Author. But, however the Work may have been revised or extended, the merit of the superstructure is justly due to the name of Blair, and will long remain an enduring Monument to his Memory.

The present Volume has been re-constructed from the folio Edition by a literary friend, who is disinclined at a late period of life, to appear publicly as the Editor of a critical Work. The thorough revision of the Manuscript, and its transit through the press, having been intrusted to myself, will justify my signature to the Preface, and may be taken to express my perfect confidence of its general accuracy and character. It ought not, however, to be forgotten, that the labour of carrying out the Tables (a task far more complicated than might be inferred from their symmetrical appearance), is to be ascribed entirely to my friend, to whom properly belongs the credit of having revived and enlarged a very valuable Work.

HENRY ELLIS.

BRITISH MUSEUM,

April 8, 1844.

ON THE

PERIOD FROM THE EXODE TO THE TEMPLE

TABLE III.

BIBLICAL readers, who connect Chronology with their research, are aware that the 479 years, as stated in 1 Kings vi. 1, 'in the 480th year,' and known as the 'Period from the Exode to the Temple,' are too few to include the full number of Events in the interval between the Division of Lands and the election of Saul, as recorded in the Book of Judges, and 1 Samuel vii. 5.; and that 100 years above the number supplied by the text in 1 Kings have been expressly assigned to this interval by St. Paul, Acts xiii. 20.

The whole number assigned to this interval, or Inner Period, by St. Paul, is 450 years. The 479 years in 1 Kings vi., when the numbers which are common to both computations in Table III. are withdrawn-the years of the Exode and the Division, before the Inner Period, and those of Saul, David, and Solomon, after it-leave but 350 years.

(The 40 years of Saul not in the Old Testament are also separately stated by the Apostle, Acts xiii. 21; but as they are included in both computations in Table III. they do not enter into the present explanation.)

Archbishop Usher, who restricts his computation to the numbers in the Old Testament, comprises the Events between the Division of Lands, and the election of Saul, within the space of these 350 years. But the numbers in the Book of Judges, as far as they are declared— 390 years are explicit; and 20 years remain due to the time of the Ark at Kirjath-Jearim in the first Book of Samuel.

Usher rightly excludes the 40 years of Eli, 1 Sam. vii. The government of Eli as a Judge, he considers as merged within the function of the priesthood, the 20 years of the ascendant authority of Samson excepted. But the 100 years of St. Paul are passed, as having reference, in his opinion, to an earlier period, 'not,' as Bishop Gray observes, 'the best supported by authority.'

St. Paul delivers 450 years for the interval or 'Inner Period.'-The 390 years being applied to the Judges as above, and 20 to the time of the Ark, the 40 years remaining are assigned (28) and (12) to the two known chasms in Scripture Chronology. But this division of these 40 years must ever remain open to inquiry.

Usher very properly includes, as remarked above, the Secular duty of Eli, within the office of the Priesthood. 'When the Lord raised them up Judges, then the Lord was with the Judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the Judge.' Judges xi. 18. But the events of the latter days of Eli, and the catastrophe of his death, lead