Note 20 — Chapter III · DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HEBREW AND SEPTUAGINT CHRONOLOGIES.

The pretensions of any nation to a remote antiquity could only arise from ignorance of the sacred records, and of the true traditions of its ancestors, or from a bold disbelief of both. The Jews cannot be charged with either of these, their character being remarkably the reverse until Christ came. Hence we cannot suppose that the Seventy Interpreters would wilfully shut their eyes to the glaring facts, that the true age of the world was well known to their countrymen, that many of them were then living in the hope of the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and that they were then accustomed “to calculate the times.” Any attempt on their part, therefore, to increase that age by 1500 years, would have been looked upon with abhorrence; nor could they hope to escape detection and severe reprobation; unless, indeed, we can suppose that they had assembled all the Jews “from every nation under heaven,” and made them privy to the transaction! Before the advent, therefore, such an alteration in the sacred text was impossible; but after that event it was not only possible, but actually took place, not in the Greek but in the Hebrew, the former being read all over the world, but the latter being confined to the Jewish synagogue.