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 ^A/'-'^Ah.^-ih^ /y ^- ^■ 
 
 yu^.^^^.^ /^:r7vA 
 
 THE 
 
 ^l-<. 
 
 EXPECTATIONS ^ 
 
 FORMED BY THE 
 
 ASSYRIANS, 
 
 THAT A 
 
 GREAT DELIVERER 
 
 WOULD APPEAR. 
 
 ABOUT THE TIME OF OUR LORD's ADVENT, 
 
 DEMONSTRATED. 
 
 Hixp»iiA«T»crji*i»'»)v. Euseb. Demonst. Evangel. VIII. i. 
 
 1826. 
 LONDON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY MR, BAGSTER, 15, PATERNOSTER HOW J 
 AND MESSRS. T. AND W. BOONE, 480, STRAND. 
 
 SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAI. BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 ^ OF THE '^ ^. 
 
 UfilVERSITY )) 
 
M^A/C 
 
 prittlbwell; at the private press of the rev. f. nolak, 
 by a. owen and r. knill. 
 
TO THE MOST REVEREND 
 
 CHARLES, 
 
 BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE, 
 
 LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 
 
 PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND AND METROPOLITAN, 
 &C. &C. &C. 
 
 THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED : 
 
 UNDER A GRATEFUL SENSE 
 
 OF THE ASSISTANCE AND COUNTENANCE 
 
 WITH WHICH 
 
 HE HAS GRACIOUSLY ENCOURAGED 
 
 THE RESEARCHES 
 
 OF HIS grace's 
 
 MOST OBLIGEDr 
 
 OBEDlENTy 
 
 HUMBLE SERTAKT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR, 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Though the volume, which is now submitted to the 
 public contains a subject, independent and perfect in 
 itself; tiie ultimate object of the author requires it to be 
 stated, that in it the foundation is laid of a work, of 
 considerable extent. Should the final purpose be ac- 
 complished, which the present volume contributes but 
 partially to establish, and the plan of the author receive 
 a perfect development ; he is sanguine enough to 
 hope, that his work will not be found undeserving of 
 the title under which he purposes the detached parts 
 of it should be combined : — " The divine Vocation 
 OP Abraham demonstrated, from the Expectation^ 
 formed by all nations, that a Great Deliverer 
 would appear about the time of our Lord's advent" 
 
 As an explanation of the views and objects of the 
 author, the sources of his information, and the modes 
 of his investigation, cannot be effected without entering 
 fully into details ; he is obliged to defer the underta- 
 king to the appearance of a Preliminary Dissertation, 
 by which he purposes his work shall be preceded. Of 
 the feasibility of his plan a perfect estimate may be 
 formed, from the experiment which is made in the vo- 
 lume, now submitted to the public ; the remote antiqui- 
 ty of the period to which his researches were confined, 
 and the paucity of the materials, which are supplied by 
 history or tradition, having thrown obstacles in the 
 way of inquiry, which must proportionably disappear. 
 
 ,84730 
 
IK 
 
 / 
 
 as the subject is deduced from times, more recent and 
 more perfectly known. 
 
 It is necessary to add, that the subject of the 
 Divine Vocation of Abraham, has been treated 
 in a general and succinct form, in a Course of Lec- 
 tures, delivered by the author on the foundation of 
 the Honble. Rob. Boyle. In one of those discourses, 
 the argument, deduced from prophecy, in the volume 
 now submitted to the public, was originally produced. 
 Since that time, the author having noted down, in the 
 course of his reading, which has been various and ex- 
 tensive, whatever appeared to bear upon his subject ; 
 the leisure and retirement which he has long enjoyed, 
 have enabled him to work it up in its present form, in 
 which the formality of the discourse is abandoned for a 
 more free mode of discussion. 
 
 Xr2oTri82e. FRED. NOLAN. 
 
THE 
 
 ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 GREAT DELIVERER. 
 
THE 
 
 EXPECTATIONS 
 
 OF A 
 
 GREAT DELIVERER, 
 
 FORMED BY THE 
 
 ASSYRIANS. 
 
 In so imperfect a state have the records of the 
 four Great Empires, which successively attained 
 the dominion of the civilized world, descended to 
 our times ; that it can be no matter of surprise, 
 the history of the Assyrians should be irrecover- 
 ably involved in such obscurity, as to render it diffi- 
 cult to ascertain even the extent of their empire. 
 If indeed the magnitude of their dominions may be 
 estimated, by the wide diftusion of their name ; 
 their territory must have been nearly commensu- 
 rate with the whole of civilized Asia. The inha- 
 bitants of that vast tract of country, which extends 
 from the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean sea 
 to the remotest boundaries of Persia, were known, 
 atleast to the Europeans, under the name of As- 
 syrians/ Nor does it consist with reason or in- 
 quiry, however supported by great authority ,'^ to 
 suppose, that the name taken in the utmost latitude 
 
 ^ The learned Selden admits, that " whatever of the Asiatic 
 regions exists, from the Sidonian sea to the seat of empire, was 
 called, by the Europeans, Assyria, and the inhabitants, 
 Assyrians." De Dis Syr. Prolegom. cap. i. p. 4. 
 
 2 Seld. ibid. p. 4. 
 
 B 
 
 84730 
 
Z THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 of its application, was vaguely and indefinitely 
 applied ; in that ignorance of the eastern regions 
 and their inhabitants, which is generally imputed 
 to the western nations. However it may be doubt- 
 ed, that the proper Assyrians had spread themselves 
 through a tract so extended and populous ; autho- 
 rity, which is second only to direct historical tes- 
 timony, as founded on records once open to re- 
 search, may be cited to prove, that the Assyrian 
 Empire ought not to be contracted within much 
 narrower limits.^ The extent of the dominions of 
 this antient monarchy being once admitted, every 
 objection to the latitude ascribed to their name 
 directly vanishes. The nations which once sub- 
 mitted to the arms, or acknowledged the authority 
 of the Assyrians, as forming a part of their domi- 
 nions, were legitimately included, under one com- 
 mon appellation, with the dominant power. 
 
 In undertaking to inquire into the opinions of 
 the native Assyrians, on a point of religious belief, 
 I would be understood to take the name in the 
 utmost latitude of its meaning. It is not requi- 
 site to the purposes of this inquiry, to prove this 
 people derived from a common original. Though 
 no reasonable doubt can be entertained of their 
 
 3 In the wreck of Asiatic and Assyrian history, compiled by 
 the Greeks, from the indift'erent materials with which they were 
 supplied by the Orientalists, it is not easy to furnish positive 
 testimony, as to the extent of the Assyrian Empire. A writer, 
 who had access to sources which can be no longer explored, 
 while he expressly refers to the Barbarian histories, ascribes 
 their dominion an extent, reaching eastward, from the Ionian 
 and il^gean seas, and southward, from the Propontis and Cas- 
 pian seas, to the Indian Ocean; assigning them an empire which 
 reached from Tyre to the Tigris ; from the mountains of Judea, 
 to those of Media and Persia. S. Hieron. in Abd. cap. i. et in 
 Mich. cap. vii. Tom. V. p. 130. d. 168. b. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 6 
 
 descent from the same progenitor ;* it is only ne- 
 cessary to my purpose to shew, that they possessed 
 a common language and religion : and as far as the 
 establishment of this point involves a proof of their 
 lineage, it very fully attests their descent from the 
 same ancestors. The dialects which are still par- 
 tially spoken through the vast tract of country that 
 constituted the Assyrian empire, and of the anti- 
 quity of which monuments still exist in works of 
 unimpeachable authenticity, differ from each other 
 but in those accidental peculiarities which distin- 
 guish the derivatives of every parent language. 
 The uniformity which is acknowledged to have ex- 
 isted in their language,^ is admitted to have pre- 
 
 * By the learned writer, quoted in the last note, who was yy 
 equally versed in European and Asiatic, in sacred and profane // 
 literature, the descent of those nations who inhabited the tract 
 between the Mediterranean Sea, and the remote borders of 
 Persia, is traced from the patriarch Shem : Vid. infr. p. 9. 
 n.i7. On this subject, may be consulted, after Josephus and 
 Epiphanius,who were not unskilled in the language and learning 
 
 of both continents, the learned Bochart, in his •* Geographia 
 Sacra.'' Even from those writers who profess to draw their 
 inferences, not from historical records, but from physical and 
 philological principles, the deductions derived from the sacred 
 annals receive the fullest confirmation. The reader will see , • 
 their arguments succinctly stated by Fessler, Introd. in Ling. 
 Orient. Sect. viii. 
 
 * Selden admits, that " the inhabitants of the entire tract, to -^-- 
 which the name of Assyria, or Syria, in its greatest latitude, 
 
 was applied, namely, the Babylonians^ Assyrians, Chaldeans, 
 Arameans, or those who had settlements in Mesopotamia , as 
 well as the PfuBnicians, Palestinians, Canaanites, and even, in 
 the conterminous countries, the Arabians and Persians, spoke 
 one language," which he rather gratuitously asserts to have been 
 the Hebrew : De Dis Syr. ibid. cap. ii. p. 10. The genealogy 
 of the different dialects spoken in those countries is accurately 
 given in Fessler, ubi supr. p. 16. and deduced from the 
 Assyrian. With respect to the Persian, it must be observed, 
 that the preceding observations are properly applicable to the 
 Pehlvi, or Pablavi, which bears the most striking affinity to the 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIOXS 
 
 vailed in their religion.^ After the Assyrian do- 
 minions had attained their fullest extent, and the 
 monarchy had arrived at maturity, the natives ac- 
 knowledged one object of religious worship, whom 
 they termed Bel or Baal 'J under which title it is 
 not to be supposed, they meant the Supreme 
 Being,^ but one of their deified ancestors/-^ 
 
 As a subject intimately connected with the ob- 
 ject of our inquiry, and which conveys some proof 
 of the fidelity with which this people retained their 
 paternal traditions, the accounts which they have 
 transmitted of the Deluge particularly commend 
 themselves to our notice. In the few fragments of 
 the history of the nations bearing the Assyrian 
 name, which have descended to our times,^^ none 
 
 Chaldee, and other dialects of the Semitic ; as the reader may 
 be convinced, who inspects the vocabulary published by M. 
 Anquetil du Perron, in his translation of the Zendavesta 
 Tom. II. 
 
 6 Stanley, noticing the vicinity and direct communication 
 between the nations bordering on Arabia, observes that *' this 
 vicinity created so close an intercourse between the neighbouring 
 • nations, that the Chaldee discipline, thus propagated through 
 Mesopotamia, Assyria and Syria, thence passed io the Persians y 
 and so^rreached the Arabians." Hist. Philos. Orient. Lib. III. 
 Procem. p. 301. ed. Cleric. He remar!:s, in continuation, that 
 the vicinity not merely of situation, but affinity in religion and 
 opinions was so close' that it imposed upon Pliny, who con- 
 founds those different nations with one another. 
 ,,£0. "^ Vid. Seld. ubi supr. Syntag. II. cap. i. Voss. de Tdolatr. 
 
 Lib. I. cap. xxiv.' 
 
 ^ Seld. ubi supr. p. 229. 9 Voss. ubi supr. p. 9.3. 
 
 ^-^-^^ 10 Abydenus, Berosus, Nicholas Damascenus, Hieronymus 
 
 { ^gyptius, Alexander Polyhistor, &c. have given particular 
 
 accounts of the deluge, which have been preserved by Josephus, 
 
 \ Eusebius, Cyril of Alexandria, and may be seen collected in 
 
 \/CfL, / Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. Lib. I. cap iii. The testimony of these 
 
 \ -writers is rendered additionally important, from the considera- 
 
 (tion of their having jSeen born or naturalized in the countries of 
 
 /which they compiled particular histories. The history of As- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 5 
 
 equal, in importance and inj^.erest, the accounts 
 which have been transmitted of that great convul- 
 sion of nature, the survivors of w^hich settled on 
 the borders of the country, which became the seat 
 of the Assyrian dominion. The records of the 1 
 Hebrews, who, as Chaldees by descent, were a | 
 branch of the Assyrian stock, contain the most | 
 consistent and circumstantial description of that ' 
 great catastrophe. Differences are indeed observed 
 to exist between their accounts and the details of the 
 native Assyrians ;^^ but as they are of a trivial na- 
 ture, they detract nothing from the weight of their 
 j/conspiring testimony, while they tend to prove, 
 //that it has not been copied from a common original. 
 Thus, while the Assyrians differ from the Hebrews, 
 in the name" of the personage who escaped the fury 
 of the element in which the world perished ; they 
 perfectly coincide with them, in detailing the mode 
 and circumstances of his preservation. They mu- 
 tually represent him as having been enclosed in 
 an Ark, which settled on a mountain near the con- 
 fines of the Assyrian Empire. The coincidence in 
 
 si/ria was written by Abydenus, whose country is not known ; 
 that of Chaldca by Berosus, a Babylonian, and priest of Bel 
 or Baal. Nicholas Damascenus treated of the aflairsof Syria, . 
 and was a native of its capital, Damascus; and Hieronymus 
 ^^ptius compiled the history of Phaniicia, of which province , 
 and Syria he was governor, under Antiochus Soter. Besides • 
 the accounts of the deluge preserved by. these historians, by 
 Mnaseas and Alexander Polyhistor, who in his general history \ 
 treated particularly of Syria ; Lucian of Samosata has given / 
 a circumstantial account of that great catastrophe, in his tract 
 **on the Syrian Goddess," at the commencement of which he 
 styles himself an Assyrian. In a word, Josephus has sum- ^ 
 marily observed, that "of the deluge and ark, all who have '' 
 written Barbaric histories have made mention ;" Antiq. Jud. 
 Lib. I. cap. iv. 
 
 11 Vid. Joseph, ubi supr. et Beros et Abyden. fragment. V 
 apud Euseb. Pra^p. Ev. Lib. IX. cap. xi. xii. 
 
6 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 their respective narratives extends even to minute 
 circumstances ; as they respectively relate, that 
 birds w^ere liberated from the drifted vessel, for the 
 purpose of ascertaining how^ far the flood had 
 abated. 
 
 In one respect the ethnic accounts are possessed 
 of an interest, of which the sacred narrative is des- 
 titute. They enable us to ascertain the place where 
 \ the Ark rested, when the deluge had decreased ; and 
 / assure us, that some remains of it were preserved, 
 t to a late period, on one of the mountains of Armenia, 
 1 where, they agree in stating, it finally settled. 
 j The Chaldee historian, Berosus, to whose authority 
 j implicit credit seems due, on a subject relating to 
 Chaldee traditions, • specifies the Cordyaean moun- 
 tains ; which range to the north east ^Mesopotamia, 
 and consequently agi'ee in situation with the Ararat 
 ; of Scripture, which is placed to the east of Shinar. 
 I And in this statement he is fully borne out by the 
 I Chaldee paraphrast of the Hebrew accounts, who 
 renders Ararat by the term Cardu, which ap- 
 i proaches as nearly as the idiom of the Chaldee will 
 \ admit to the term used in the Greek text, by 
 Berosus. As, in his account, the historian de- 
 I scends to particulars which prove, that in his times 
 j all curiosity, respecting the place where the remains 
 ^ of the Ark existed, was not wholly extinct : when 
 we consider the opportunities which he possessed, 
 of obtaining the best information on the subject, it 
 seems to render his testimony definitive, in decid- 
 \ ing the question. He mentions it, as the current 
 belief, that ^-" a part of the Ark still remained on the 
 Cordyaean mountains, from which the bitumen was 
 ; brought away, and worn as an amulet. " 
 
 j *2 Beros. apud Joseph, et Euseb. ubisupr. n.^^ Aiysrxi ^l t^ tS 
 
OF A 
 
 When the source from which this testimony is 
 derived is duly estimated, little attention will be 
 due to the conjectures of some modern inquirers 
 into the subject, who, misled by vague etymologi- 
 cal similarities, follow a comparatively late writer/"* 
 
 13 This opinion, which was first advanced by St. Jerome, 
 seems to have obtained credit from the equivocal meaning of 
 the term Armenia ; where it is universally agreed the ark rested 
 after the deluge. It is conceived likewise to derive support 
 from a silly etymological affinity between the term Araienra 
 and Uar Minni which we are told means mount Minni, an 
 opinion which is grafted on the account of Nicholas Damas- 
 cenus, ap. Joseph, et Euseb. ubi supr. 'Eni' virtp rrj* MivvuSoc, 
 
 {jLeyoc ocoq xctra. rrjv 'A^^Tjylav, Ba^K y^tyo^JUvov^ ei? b 9roXA«? a-vix(pvy6»lai 
 
 EWi t5 xaTax^ycr/x5, ?\6yo<; ix^i 'trifiQu^viyai. In these words, some 
 learned inquirers have discovered '* the high mountain Baris, 
 in the province of Minyas, in Armenia," See Ant. Univ. His- 
 tory. 13. I. ch. i. Vol. I. p. 32*2. But as the word Baris is in- 
 terpreted by the antients — an ark, and as, according to the re- 
 presentation of the Syriac historian, "accounts have represented 
 some as having been saved in the deluge, by entering into it,** 
 and not by flying to a mountain ; it seems to have been the 
 author's intention to express a very different meaning from that 
 ascribed to him, in this passage; which was extracted by 
 persons, who were most probably unacquainted with the mean- 
 ing of the oriental term, and accordingly mistook it for the name 
 of a mountain. In a sentence which is proved, by its false or 
 imperfect sense, to be garbled and disjointed, 1 am inclinetl to 
 believe, that TrXoTovy which Berosus applies to the ark, has slipped 
 out of the text, or that it has been supplanted by iroXXt??, which 
 manifestly introduces a wrong sense into the passage. It is at 
 least obvious, that, in the preceding attempt to supersede the 
 Chaldee traditions, by etymology and conjecture, the term 
 Armenia is taken in a merely modern sense ; that it was to Syria 
 and Mesopotamia, which is overlooked by the Gordyaian 
 mountains, the Orientalists gave the name of Aram ; and that 
 the Greeks, through whose corrupted orthography we receive 
 the term Armenia, have acknowledged the word to be synony- 
 mous with Syria. Vid. Seld. ubi supr. Prolegom. p. 2. In 
 support of the latter assertion, we may quote the authority of 
 Strabo, who observes in his first book, t«5 ya^ i(p' vf/,uv Sy^a? 
 
 xct^^Sfievsq vir avruy tw> "Lvpav 'Ap/xevla? x^ ' Afctixatlaq x.a\eTa-^ui. 
 
 When the word is taken in this sense, it at once identifies the 
 
8 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 in identifying the Ararat of Scripture witlia moun- 
 tain of modern Armenia, nearly three liundred miles 
 to the north of the site ascribed to it in the Chaldee 
 traditions. As a counterpoise to the authority of 
 this writer, I shall set off the testimony of one of his 
 contemporaries, whose means of information were 
 perhaps equal, if not superior, as he was born of 
 Jewish parents, and possessed some knowledge of 
 at least one of the oriental dialects, and as he visited 
 the East, through motives of pious curiosity. '* Af- 
 ter the deluge, " he declares, *' Noah's Ark, having 
 settled in the mountains of Ararat, between the 
 Armenians and Cordyaeans, rested on a mountain 
 called Lubar.".^^. . . . '* Even to our own times, " he 
 elsewhere observes, *' the remains of the Ark are 
 shown, in the country of the Cordyaeans " ^^ 
 
 In these mountains, which were generally known 
 to the Greeks under the name of the Gordyaeans, 
 and which range through Curdistan, on the north- 
 eastern side of the Tigris, the nursery must be 
 sought of that race, from which the Asiatic conti- 
 nent received its population. The elevated site of 
 this region, which appears from the course of the 
 great rivers that flow from it, must have facilitated 
 the recovery of the soil from the effects of the De- 
 luge ; the waters of which freely discharged them- 
 selves through the channels of those great rivers, 
 leaving the adjacent plains of Mesopotamia in a 
 fitter state to receive the new settlers. One branch 
 of this race, inheriting the name of Assyrians, from 
 their progenitor Assur, passed from those plains, 
 
 Armenia of Nicholas Damascenus and the Oriental historians,, 
 who have mentioned the deluge ; and proves it to have Iain 
 nearer to Mesopotamia, than the modern province termed Ar- 
 menia. 
 
 1* Epiphan. adv. Haer. Lib. I. cap. i. p. 5. 
 
 ^5 Id. ibid. Haer. xviii. p. 39. c. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 9 
 
 to the banks of the Tigris, within a short period 
 after the deluge:'^ and, as appears, from the 
 joint testimony of Jewish and Ethnic historians, 
 there laid the foundation of Ninus or Nineveh, 
 which became the metropolis of an empire,'' that 
 ultimately extended itself from the mountains of 
 Curdistan, to the shores of the Mediterranean. 
 
 16 The accounts of Justin, following TroejusPompeius, of Di- 
 otlorus Siculus, following Ctesias, of Callisthenes, professedly 
 copying the Babylonian archives, of Velleius Paterculus Sec. 
 when comparatively viewed, ascribe the Assyrian Empire a 
 yb?/7/(/rt^/o;^ about sixty years subsequent to the deluge. Vid. / 
 J lei vie. Theat. Hist, et Chron. p. 5. This statement, as its ' 
 author observes, ibid. " perfectly agrees with Scripture, and the 
 Babylonian aira:" for, as appears from a computation founded 
 on the age of the Patriarchs, '* at the same time happened the j 
 birth of Peleg, the dispersion of mankind, the confusion of 
 tongues, and the building of the tower of Babel." Nor is this 
 statement at all at variance with the testimony of Herodotus, 
 (Lib. I. cap. xcv. xcvi.) by which Abp. Usher and his followers 
 seem to have been misled, (Annal.p. 43.) in placing the begin- 
 ning of the Assyrian Kmpire, nearly one thousand years later. 
 If we distinguish between the foundation of this empire, and 
 the establishment of its rulers in the government of ITpper Asia, 
 of which alone the Greek historian speaks, in ascribing 520 
 years to their dominion, the apparent contradiction, by which 
 the chronologists have been misled, directly vanishes. 
 
 ^f The substance of the Hebrew accounts of the foundation 
 of the Assyrian empire, and of the first inhabitants of the coun- 
 tries which constituted the Assyrian dominions, is given by St. 
 .Terome : Quaist. in Gen. Tom. J [1. p. 455. b. '* IVom this 
 land," he declares, speaking of Shin er, ** commenced the em- 
 pire of the Assyrians, who after the name of Nijnus, the son of 
 Belus, founded the great city of Ninus, which theTlebrews call 
 
 Nineveh The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Ar- 
 
 phaxad, Lud and Aram. These occupy that part of Asia, 
 which extends from the river Euphrates to the Indian Ocean. 
 Erom Elam descended the Elamites, the first inhabitants of 
 Persia. Of Asshur it has been already said, that he founded 
 the city of Ninus. Erom Arphaxad descended the Chaldeans ; 
 from Lud the Lydians, and from Aram the Syrians, whose j 
 capital was Damascus." 
 
 C 
 
10 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 To the inhabitants of this tract the tradition of 
 the deluge was a subject not merely interesting on 
 account of its nature and magnitude, or the many 
 local associations with which it was connected. 
 It was regarded by them not merely as a consum- 
 mation from which their ancestors had been pre- 
 served, but as the earnest of a judgment which 
 was reserved for their posterity. A tradition was 
 preserved among them, which prevailed universally 
 through the East, and was thence as widely dis- 
 seminated in the West, that the earth, which had 
 been given up to the violence of one element, 
 would be resigned to the fury of another ; and as it 
 had been overwhelmed by a Deluge, it would be 
 wasted by a Conflagration.^^ It was, however, 
 believed, that the force of neither element would 
 effect the total destruction of the universe, but 
 would operate, as a purification, upon the race of 
 men, and the frame of nature. ^^ On this tradi- 
 
 18 The learned author of " the Sacred Theory of the Earth,'' 
 Book III. ch. ii. having shown, that the belief of a general 
 Deluge and Conflagration prevailed among the Greeks, Egyp- 
 tians, Persians, Phoenicians, Arabians and Indians, observes 
 in continuation : ** And not only the Eastern Barbarians, hut 
 the Northern and Western also had the doctrine of a Conflagra- 
 tion amongst them. The Scythians, in their dispute with the 
 Egyptians about antiquity, argue upon both suppositions of 
 yire and water destroying the last world and bey inning this. 
 And in the West, the Celts, the most antient people there, had 
 the same tradition ; for the Druids, who were their priests and 
 philosophers, derived it not from the Greeks, but of the old race 
 of wise men, that had their learning traditionally, and as it 
 were, hereditary from the first ages. These, as Strabo tells us, 
 gave the world a kind of immortality by repeated renovations ; 
 and the principle that destroyed it was always fire and water. 
 
 ^9 Id. ibid. ch. iii. p. 19. " The philosophers have always 
 spoken of fire and water, those two unruly elements as the only 
 
 causes that can destroy the world, and work our ruin But 
 
 as they make those two the destroying elements, so they also 
 make them the purifying elements. And accordingly in their 
 
OF A GREAT DE;LIVERER. 11 
 
 tionary belief, the universal prevalence of which, 
 among the most ancient nations, has been conceived 
 to prove it coeval with the Deliige,^^ was founded 
 the expectation of a Great Deliverer, at whose ap-. 
 pearance the earth would be restored to that 
 paradisaical beauty and happiness, in which it had 
 first proceeded from the hand of its Creator. 
 
 How this belief has originated, of which it has 
 been observed, as far as it involves the tenet of a De- 
 luge and Conflagration,"' **that having run through 
 all ages and nations, it is by the joint consent of 
 the prophets and apostles adopted into the Chris- 
 tian faith," will be matter of sei)arate consider- 
 ation. Our present concern is with the traditions of 
 the expected Deliverer, which, as impressed by 
 no such powerful associations as attended the re- 
 membrance of the Deluge, were more liable to be 
 weakened by time, or superseded by fiction. In 
 order to separate this tenet, from amid the mass of 
 error with which it is blended, it will be expedient 
 to prosecute our views, a little further, into the 
 Oriental superstitions ; directing our attention, in 
 the first place, to that part of the Assyrian realms, 
 which was the nursery of the Assyrian nation. 
 
 In those mountains, which have been mentioned 
 as offering the first landing-place to the small 
 remnant of mankind, which escaped from the deluge, 
 
 lustrations, or their rites and ceremonies for purging sin, fire 
 and water were chiefly made use of both amongst the Ro- 
 mans, Greeks, and Barbarians. And when these elements 
 over-run the world, it is not, they say, for a final destruction of 
 it, but to purge mankind and nature from their impurities." 
 
 20 Burnet, loc. cit. p. 29. ** We have pursued the doctrine 
 high enough, without the help of antediluvain antiquities, 
 namely to the earliest people, and the first appearances of wis- 
 dom after the flood. So that I think we may justly look upon 
 it as the doctrine of Noah, and of his immediate posterity." 
 
 21 Id. ibid. p. 35, 
 
 C 2 
 
12 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 a sect has existed to a very late period, generally 
 known under the name of Sabaists, to the oriental- 
 ists,"" who account their religion the most ancient 
 in the world. "^ Of this sect, the writer who has 
 investigated their history with most care observes, 
 ^*"that most Sabaists trace their religion to the 
 antediluvian patriarch Seth, whom they call Sheit 
 magnifying ' the book of Seth' the prophet of God." 
 ^^*'These" he elsewhere remarks, **are some of the 
 inhabitants of Mount Libanus and Curdistan, which 
 seek a high original for their vile religion; some 
 tracing it to Noah, some to Enoch, and some to the 
 patriarch Seth. This wretched religion," he pro- 
 ceeds ** which, as contained in 'the Book of Seth,' 
 we therefore call the Sethi te, is cultivated at the 
 present day in Libanus and Curdistan, by various 
 tribes of Curds, as the Druses, the Assassins, the 
 Kalbians, or Canicularians, (for a dog is called 
 
 *2 The Sabaists are described, after Maimonides Mor. Ne- 
 voch. P. III. cap. xxix. xxx. by Hyde, Hist. Relig. Vet. Pers. 
 cap. iii. et Append, p. 491. al. 515. Spenc. de Leg. Hebrae. Lib. 
 II. cap i. seq. Stanl.Philosoph. Orien. Lib. III. Pocock,not. 
 in Spec. Hist. Arab. Hotting. Hist. Orient. Lib. I. cap. viii. 
 
 2» Ibn Hazm, apud Hyde, Hist. p. 128. 
 
 2^ Hyd. Hist, loc cit. p. 127. " Plurimi antem Sabaitae 
 Religionem suam aliquanto altius petunt a Patriarcha antedilu- 
 
 viano Seth, quern vacant *-IlA>k^ Sheit, magnifacientes rlv 
 
 ^J ^j cJJUx^ C-^:^ Sohvph Sheit Nebiullah, (sic enim 
 sonant) * Librum Sheit Prophetze Dei." 
 
 2^ Id. Append, loc. cit. '* Isti sunt ex hodiernis Montis Libani 
 et Curdistanice incolis, qui pessimee suae religionis orignem, 
 alte petunt; aliqui a Noach, alii ah antediluviano Patriarcha 
 Enoch, et quoque a Seth. Miseram istam religionem contentam 
 
 in libro dicto dl^A/i c^^ Sohvph Sheit (quam ergo Se- 
 thicam vocamus) hodie colunt in Libano et Curdistan varies 
 Curdoruni Gentes, uti dicti Durzii, et ^^j^^^^a. Homicidii, et 
 f «- >>K Kalbii seu Calbii, i. e. Canicuarii (iiam Kalb seu Calb 
 cs't Canis) ab aliis sic dicti, quia Nigrum Canem colunt quod 
 idem in Curdistan seu Gordyoicp. Montibus faciunt illi Curdi 
 
 qui vocantur tf «>y^, Yezidi seu i^ezidaei,*' 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 13 
 
 Kalb or Calb) : so named by others, because they 
 worship the Black Dog: as those Curds do, in 
 Curdistan or the Gordysean Mountains, who are 
 termed Yezids, or Yezideans. " 
 
 Of tliese names, which have been chiefly applied, 
 in derision, by the Mohammedans, it is of little im- 
 portance to ascertain the original.'^ To the name of 
 Sheit, or Sethite, they seem to be exclusively at- 
 tached; as derived from the prophet whom they hold 
 to be the founder of their religion. But they do not 
 wholly reject the title of Yezid ; under which name, 
 they acknowledge the divine author of Christianity,^ 
 for whom they retain a veneration, since the efforts 
 of the Capuchins to convert them.*^ The name of 
 Sabian they profess to derive from Sabi the son of 
 Idris f^ the latter being the name under which 
 Enoch is known in the East ; a person whom the 
 Sabians are ambitious of including among the 
 
 *^ On this subject, it may be however observed, that the 
 name Druses, the use of which seems confined to the Europeans, 
 is applied to certain tribes of this sect settled in Mount Libanus. 
 Dr. Hyde observes of them, ** these Duruses were formerly in 
 Mount Libanus, before the times of Herodotus, by whom they are 
 called Ar)pa<7iarot, and were enrolled by the antient Persian 
 Kings in their armies." After bearing testimony to their bra- 
 very, he declares that they are still prized as soldiers, and pre- 
 ferred by the Turks to be Janisaries. It appears from what 
 he subsequently states, that the Franks under Godfrey of 
 Bouillon maintained a friendly intercourse with them, and em- 
 ployed their services against the Saracens. And from thence 
 originated an opinion that they were originally Christians, who 
 came to Palestine under a leader named De Dreux, from 
 whom they acquired the name of Druses. The name Kalbii, 
 I am inclined to believe, for reasons which will appear in the 
 sequel, has originated from the veneration paid by them to the 
 star Sirius, which was called by the Egyptians Seth, or Sothis, 
 
 but is termed by the Arabs r^^^^ '-r-^ Kalb acbcr : Canis Ma- 
 jor, the Great Dog. vid. Hyd. Comment, in Ulug Beigh. p. 50. 
 
 27 Hyd. loc. cit. p. 520. 28 id. ibid. p. 522. 
 
 29 Ibn Shahna ap. Hyde Hist. p. 128. 
 
14 THE ASSYlllAN EXPECTATIONS. 
 
 early professors, or original founders, of their reli- 
 gion. 
 
 In the peculiar creed of this extraordinary sect, 
 one tenet is remarkable, as exacting a veneration 
 for their founder, whom they do not merely regard 
 with the reverence due to a prophet.^'^ The volume 
 which they religiously follow as their sacred code^ 
 they not only ascribe to him, as its author,'^^ but, 
 in some inner recess of their houses, they retain 
 his image, for the purposes of religious worship ; 
 which none of their domestics can reveal to a 
 stranger, without endangering his life, as the be- 
 trayer of a mystery not to be divulged.^- This 
 dread of a disclosure may be partly resolved into an 
 apprehension of Mohammedan persecution; the 
 professsors of Islamism being bound by their faith 
 to extirpate idolatry : but as it is equally expressed 
 towards strangers, from whose intolerance nothing 
 is to be feared, it rather resolves itself into a super- 
 stitious dread of profaning a mystery, by making it 
 public. Another tenet of this sect, which is equally 
 remarkable, respects the light in which they view 
 the Supreme Being, who is not regarded in their 
 religion as an object of adoration: they indeed 
 
 '<* Hyde, ibid. p. 127. " Et quidam Sabaitae, seu Sabii, in 
 Monte Libano et alibi, dictum Prophetam suum ita venerantur, 
 etiam hodie, ut per ewm jurare plus sit quam per Deum jurasse : 
 nam (quod ab incolis didici,) si aliquis ex istis juraverit tibi 
 Wallah, per Deum, vix potes ei credere, at si Washeit, per Seth, 
 turn tuto potes ei credere." Vide infra, n. ^^. 
 
 31 Vide supra p. 12. n. ^^ 
 
 3* Hyde, Append, uti supra. " Isti populi in intimo domus, 
 sive penu, tanquam in Larario, habeiit quisque suum Penatem, 
 Laremve, (quern colunt,) qui videtur PatriarchoB Seth imago, 
 seu statua; quia is fuit primus eorum in religione antistes, cujus. 
 nomine possident supra memoratum librum : quem una cum 
 Lare adeo clam habent inter solos suos, ut quicumque eorum 
 peregrin© monstravorit mox a suis trucidetur," &c. 
 
OF A GREAT DEtlVERER. 15 
 
 recognize him as the Most High, but acknowledge 
 his supremacy by no act of religious wroship. ^* 
 But of the tenets of this extraordinary sect, perhaps 
 the most remarkable are those which regulate their 
 belief towards the Author of evil ; and which have 
 obtained them the appellation of Satanites, both 
 among Mohammedans and Christians. They term 
 him master and teacher, and regard him with more 
 than superstitious dread ; with a religious awe, 
 approaching to veneration.^* They feel a repug- 
 nance at pronouncing his name ; and by no threat 
 or violence can they be prevailed upon, to utter a 
 curse against him. The practise of venting im- 
 precations against any of the creatures of God is 
 indeed regarded by them with peculiar abhorrence.^ 
 As another peculiarity of their creed it may be ob- 
 served, that they do not reject the doctrine of 
 transmigration ; as a necessary consequence of 
 which, they disbelieve in a resurrection;^^ the soul 
 which has deserted one body being conceived by 
 
 33 Id. ibid. " Putant Deum esse ^, nonquidem^/i, sed 
 Ally seu Excelsum, cujus existentiam agnoscunt, sed eum non 
 adoi'ant" &c. 
 
 3* Id ibid. " Quidvis nigrum multum sestimantur, propter 
 colorem (ut creditur) Diaboli, qucm venerantur, et qui ab istis 
 
 vacatur «Xx<m\ Ustdd, i. e. Magister. . . . At omneshujusgentis 
 
 homines a Mohamedanis et Christianis vocantur ^ ^ Uax^ 
 S/teitani i. e. Sataniciy Diabolici, quia profitentur SatUnam esse 
 
 suum fXj Pyr, seu ^^ Sheich, i. e. Doctorcm suum" &c. 
 
 35 Id*, ibid. Nolunt' quidem libentcr nominare Diabolum ; 
 qui ergo potius per periphrasin vocatur * Pavo Angelus' : vel 
 * Is quem nostis;' vel, *N6stis quis sit;' vel, * Ille cui stulti et 
 ignorantes maledicant." Id. ibid. ** Nulla vi adacti wa/ec?2ca?if 
 Diabolo : adeo ut aliqui ex iis excoriationem paasi sunt potiua 
 quam tale quid facerent. Nam (inquiunt) non possumus, 
 salva conscienti^, maledicere alicui creatura;, quae est Dei 
 Creatoris" &c. 
 
 36 Vid. eund. ibid. p. 521. Ibid. p. 511. Hi negant re- 
 surrectionem &c. 
 
16 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 them to seek a habitation in another, and not to 
 await the resuscitation of that which it has deserted. 
 To these tenets they add some nocturnal mysteries, 
 which are celebrated at the opening of the new 
 year. But these orgies are of a nature so shame- 
 lessly abandoned, that I shall be excused, for 
 abstaining from drawing aside the veil by which 
 they are concealed, from one part of my readers ; 
 while they remain committed to a language, which 
 it less revolts against feeling, to transcribe than to 
 interpret.^'^ 
 
 In every lineament of this description we at once 
 recognise the features of a sect, which is known 
 throughout the East, under the title of Sabians, and 
 is minutely described by the Persian and Arabic 
 writers, who antedate its antiquity to the times of 
 Abraham/^ Equally distinguished by their vene- 
 ration of the patriarch Seth, they proiess to take a 
 book, which they assert to be his composition, as 
 
 ^^ Id. ibid. p. 517. *' Istae omnes Libani et Gordycecc Gentes 
 habent annuatim Bacchanalium suorum festum nocturnum in 
 Calendis Januarii, de quo ritu me certiorem fecit amicus noster, 
 cui nomen Andreas Pharah, natione Syrus Ladikiensis, cujus 
 socius aliquis ei narravit, se aliquando dictis Bacchanalibus 
 clam interfuisse, (quod lepidum) quando post vespertinam 
 commessationem et compotationem virorum et foeminarum, lu- 
 minibus omnibus extinctis, in illicitam venerem promiscue rue- 
 bant omnes. Dictus socius antea conspecta virgine, quae juxta 
 vetulam considebat, animum ei intendebat. Quando itaque 
 extinguerentur lucernae, ille in tenebris nescius in utram harum 
 inciderat, palpitando, malo fato, incidit in vetulam : et ut cer- 
 tior fieret, digito explorabat illius os, an esset edentula. Quo 
 facto, vetula ilia statim exclamabat, Garib, Garib, i. e. Pere- 
 grinus, Peregrinus, Peregrinus ! Ille autem mox evasit pro vita 
 sua. Haec itaque illorum solemnia sacra sunt prophana tene- 
 brarum opera." 
 
 ^ See the testimony of those writers, collected in the valu- 
 able work of Dr. Hyde, cap. v. particularly the extracts from 
 the ** Pharangh Gihanghiri," ib. p. 124. and Ibn Shahna, ib. 
 p. 128, compare also Abulfeda, cited by Pococke, loc. cit. p. 145. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 17 
 
 the sacred code of their religion. In one respect 
 only do the ancient Sabaists appear to have been 
 distinguished from the modern Sheits ; they pos- 
 sessed a knowledge of astrology, professedly adopt- 
 ed from the Chaldeans/^ though derived by some 
 of them from their prophet ; which the ignorance 
 attendant on extreme poverty has wholly extin- 
 guished in the mountains of Curdistan, if it ever 
 found its way among the wretched inhabitants. 
 The strong cast which the ancient Sabaism took 
 from astrology constituted its most prominent cha- 
 racter. From hence it derived most of its rites 
 and festivals, and many magical practices, which 
 have become wholly extinct; if they ever reach- 
 ed the modern Sethites. It was obviously from 
 hence also, that they assigned the stars that in- 
 fluence over sublunary affairs, which first super- 
 seded the providence of the Deity, and was then 
 believed inconsistent with his nature, as too exalt- 
 ed to descend to the concerns of this lower world. 
 And a direct consequence of this tenet was, that 
 they ceased to offer him religious worship ; trans- 
 ferring their adoration to those luminous bodies, by 
 which they believed the course of earthly affairs 
 to be governed, and whom they constituted medi- 
 ators between themselves and the Creator.*^ 
 
 These accounts, by native Persian and Arabian 
 writers, are not the only sources from whence infor- 
 mation may be obtained, respecting this ancient 
 superstition. In carrying up our researches high- 
 er, it appears, that they were not unknown to the 
 primitive ages of Christianity. The learned writer 
 who has been quoted, as fixing the resting place of 
 
 39 Phar^ngh Gihan. ibid. Abul-Pharaj. Hist. Dynast. D. 
 ix. p. 281. 
 
 ^ Phar^ngh Gihan. ibid. Sharastani a p. Pococke, loc. cit. p. 
 144. 
 
 D 
 
18 The ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 the Ark, in the mountains of Curdistan, in his ela-^ 
 borate work on the ancient heresies, includes under 
 that title, not merely the apostates from revela- 
 tion, but the votarists of superstition. In his ac- 
 count of some sects, that were not wholly extinct 
 in his own age, he describes three in connexion,'^* 
 who differed from the Sheits or Sabaists, in little 
 more than that they incorporated in their heredita- 
 ry superstitions some of the peculiar tenets of the 
 Christians. To one of these sects he gives the title 
 of Sethians,"^" by which name, it has been already 
 observed, the ancient Sabaists were ambitious of 
 being distinguished. With them he couples a sect, 
 which assumed to themselves the name of Cain- 
 ites;^^ by which title it will be soon rendered appa- 
 rent, every branch of these superstitions, which pro- 
 ceeded from the same root, was properly desig- 
 nated. To the account of both sects, he prefixes a 
 description of a third, termed Ophites,*^ or Serpen- 
 tarians, from the veneration in which they held the 
 serpent ; in whose form, the tempter had seduced 
 the first pair, under a promise that they should be- 
 come enlightened and immortal. 
 
 Though the accounts transmitted to us, by the 
 writer who has described these sects, are succinct 
 and cursory, and have been drawn up with no view 
 to the similarity subsisting between them and the 
 Sabaists ; they exhibit a coincidence between the 
 ancient and modern sects, not merely in accidental 
 points, but in fundamental principles, which evin- 
 ces some relationship, or descent from a common 
 original. In the color of their opinions about Sa-^ 
 tan and Seth, (not to speak of the Supreme God, 
 on this occasion,) scarcely a shade of difference is 
 
 *i Epiphan. ubi supr. Tom. I. p. 267. d. seq. 
 
 42 Id. ibid. Haer. xxxix. p. 284. 
 
 43 Id. ibid, xxxviii. p. 276. ** Id, ibid, xxxvii. p. 267. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 19 
 
 discernible between them. And unless it be 
 granted that the ancient Sethites were more solici- 
 tous about appearances, than their companions in 
 error/^ there is but too much cause to impute to 
 them, in common with the Sheits, an indulgence in 
 those abominable mysteries,*^ which have fixed on 
 this sect the brand of infamy. 
 
 The accounts of those ancient sects, however cu- 
 rious in themselves, are principally valuable, for the 
 light which they reflect on the opinions and prac- 
 tices of the modern heretics. By what gradati- 
 ons of error the Supreme Being came to be super- 
 seded, in the religious system of these apostates 
 from his worship, even by the most degraded and 
 depraved of his creatures, has been already stated ; 
 and is indeed sufficiently obvious, in every shape 
 in which they braved appearance, or eluded detec- 
 tion. But of the paradox, how Seth and Satan 
 became elevated to the rank, which they acquired 
 in their theology, we might have in vain sought 
 the solution, had it not presented itself, in the dis- 
 closure of their private opinions. In the delusive 
 hopes, under which the original pair had been se- 
 duced, a promise had been conveyed, that **they 
 should be as Gods, knowing good and evil." This 
 promise these heretics appear to have regarded, as 
 in some measure fulfilled in their descendants.^^ 
 The Sethites, still paying an outward homage to 
 righteousness, imputed every virtue in its pleni- 
 tude to Seth,*^ whom they chose as their patron. 
 But the Cainites discovering a fuller measure of 
 the virtues of the seducer, in Cain,*^ deemed him 
 
 45 Conf. ibid, xxxix. p. 284. c. xxxvii. p. 276. b. 
 ^ Conf. ib. xxxvii. p. 268. a. xxxviii. p. 277. b. xxv. p. 77. 
 c. xxvi. p. 86. a. b. 
 
 *7 Id. loc. cit. p. 268. b. « Id. ibid. p. 284. b. 
 
 *9 Id. ibid. p. 276. b. 
 
 D 2 
 
20 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 worthy of greater honor, in proportion to his high- 
 er endowments. While the Ophites, carrying these 
 principles to their necessary extent, considered the 
 author of the endowment, as entitled to the largest 
 share of their veneration /° They accordingly re- 
 vered the tempter, as having imparted knowledge 
 to mankind f^ and particularly as having revealed 
 to the man and woman, the whole knowledge of 
 the higher Mysteries/^ 
 
 ^ When the preceding accounts are considered in 
 /connexion with the facts recorded in the only early 
 / history of mankind which carries with it the air of 
 veracity ; the conviction seems irresistible, that 
 the converts of these opinions, having debased re- 
 ligion into practical impurity, sought some pallia- 
 tive or justification, in the example of their first 
 progenitors. Their common parent had yielded to 
 the allurements of the woman, who had fallen by 
 che seduction of the serpent. Inheriting the frailty 
 of their nature, if not influenced by their example, 
 the sons of Seth were captivated by the beavity, and 
 corrupted by the allurements, of the daughters of 
 Cain.^^ In claiming an alliance to their ancestors 
 
 ^ Id. ibid. p. 270. b. ^^ Id. ibid. p. 274. d. 
 
 ^^ Id. ibid. p. 272. a. "'E.'nrna-i l\ o o(pK x^ yvuQkv rivtyttiv, tdtdals 
 re rov av^^wjrov x^ ti5V yvvuTy.a, ruv avco Mvi-r,pia}v to -nrav t>3? yvuasuq, 
 
 ^3 The learned and indefatigable Brucker, remarking on the 
 similarity of pursuits, subsisting between the families of Seth 
 and Cain, and their posterity, observes, Hist. Philos. Lib. I. 
 cap. i. § vii. that '* the history of the world, by the sacred histo- 
 rian, attests that the descendants of Seth, were prone to press 
 in the footsteps of the Cainites, in relaxing the reins to desire, 
 and in abusing their talents to bad arts : but on what account 
 tijey resigned themselves to the dominion of pleasure and 
 cruelty cannot be easily said." Of this difficulty, it would 
 liowever appear, that we are furnished with a solution, from the 
 same authority; Gen. vi. 2. 4. "The sons of God saw the 
 daughters of men, that they were fairy and they took them wives 
 of ail which they desired, , . ,and the sons of God came in unto 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 21 
 
 of either sex, the qualities inherited in the mater- 
 nal line entitled them to the appellation of Cain- 
 ites, and some of them felt no scruples in avowing 
 such to be their descent, and even gloried in the 
 title. But the virtues possessed in the paternal 
 line conferred a splendor on the name of Sethite, 
 w^hich rendered it the favorite title, and that which 
 was most generally affected, even among those by 
 whose practices it was dishonored. The name of 
 Ophite, or Serpentarian, seems to have possessed 
 so few attractions, as to render it difficult to con- 
 ceive, how it could have found partizans, even a- 
 mong the depraved votarists of a religion, in which 
 the author of evil was regarded with veneration. 
 But to those who divest themselves of preposses- 
 sions, this paradox may find a solution. In the 
 superstitions of the East, the serpent soon attained 
 to divine honors ;^ having been considered the 
 common benefactor of mankind, as the imparter 
 of knowledge, and the revealer of mysteries.*^ 
 The orgies in which those superstitions not only 
 indulged their votarists, but which they inculcated 
 as a part of their worship, as they were accommo- 
 dated to the passions and propensities of mankind, 
 naturally gained among the multitude many pros- 
 
 the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the 
 same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." 
 
 ** From the fragments of the Phoenician historian, Sanchoni- 
 atho, we learn, that the mystagogue "Taut ascribed divinity 
 to the Serpent, in which he was followed by the Phoenicians 
 and Egyptians.",. . .and that ** by the former, he was termed 
 Agathodaimon," the Good Demon or Spirit, ** and by the lat- 
 ter, Cneph." Vid. Euseb. ubi supr. p. 40. d. 41. c. The Phoe- 
 nicians it should be remembered were a part of the Asiatic 
 population included under the name of Assyrians, or Syrians. 
 
 ^^ The Ophites assigned this reason, for their worship of the 
 serpent; apud Epiphan. ibid. p. 271, d. ^ta roc.v%» 81 oclriuv (pocai 
 Tov "o^tr So^oi^ofAiv f 0T» ©so? atTto? T>}? yvwaeui ytyirnixk ra 7r^^0e». 
 
 7 
 
/ 
 
 22 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 elytes. In a system, so sadly perverted, that the 
 grossest sensualism had superseded the pure spi- 
 ritualism of religion, and in which to be depraved 
 was accounted to be religious, the boundaries of 
 virtue and vice were so confounded, that the au- 
 thor of evil easily obtained an ascendency, and 
 was atlength established in a supremacy. 
 
 It may be considered an anticipation of the con- 
 clusion, which these inquiries tend to establish, if 
 they are here suspended to observe, that even at a 
 period so remote from the source, as that to which 
 they are as yet conducted, time had not wholly ob- 
 literated the remembrance of the tradition which 
 it is the object of these researches to recover. As 
 far as the opinions of the Assyrians may be col- 
 lected from the notions of the Sethi tes, who claim- 
 ed an antiquity for their religion, not merely prior 
 to the foundation of the earliest ^stern empire, 
 but antecedent to the Deluge; they supply us 
 with evidence, that, even from the first, the expec- 
 tation of a Great Deliverer had prevailed among 
 this antient people. While the Sethi tes acknow- 
 ledged the fulfilment of that expectation, in the 
 coming of our Saviour ; they maintained, that his 
 advent was but the reappearance of their prophet 
 Seth, from whom he was descended, not in the 
 course of natural generation, but in a miraculous 
 and celestial manner .^^ The mysterious obscurity 
 Vith which they have expressed themselves, on 
 this subject, renders it difficult to ascertain, how 
 they supported this notion of personal indentity 
 between our Lord and the patriarch. But as the 
 
 ^ Epiphan. ibid. p. 280. a. 'Atto ^\ t» Sr)-& xala a-mpfAoty t^ 
 xoclu otatao^'KV yiva^f o 'X.^i^o^ tjaSev a.vro<; 'irjcrS?, e^i koltu yevn, a>J^oc- 
 ■Say/xarw? tv ru xoa-i^u vttpvvuqf o? Irn' ocvroq o JlriB, o rolt x^X§»ro? ^ivft 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 23 
 
 doctrine of transmigration was common to the 
 Sethites with other Orientalists, and has been fre- 
 quently employed in the East, to identify two per- 
 sonages who appeared at different periods ;^^ it 
 seems not unreasonable to conclude, that they be- 
 lieved that soul had taken up its abode in our Lord, 
 which had once animated the antediluvian patri- 
 arch. 
 
 These are obscurities, however, which are found 
 to clear up, in proportion as our inquiries are car- 
 ried back to an earlier period. And in the ages 
 intervening between the times to which this in- 
 vestigation has been hitherto conducted, and 
 that in which the Assyrians existed as a nation, 
 two epochs demand more particular attention ; as 
 constituting the most remarkable eras in the his- 
 tory of revelation. The great antiquity and wide 
 diffusion of the Sabian superstition being admit- 
 ted, it would create a strong presumption against 
 the mode in which this investigation is prosecuted, 
 and the conclusion which it tends to establish, if, 
 at the remarkable epochs, distinguished by the 
 promulgation of the Christian and Jewish religion, 
 this superstition were left wholly unnoticed by 
 the sacred writers. In the course of inquiry, how- 
 ever, it will appear, that there is no ground for 
 maintaining such an objection. In one of the ear- 
 liest books of the Old Testament, the practices 
 and opinions of the Sabaists are very plainly des- 
 cribed; and I am wholly deceived, or they are 
 mentioned in it, under the name of Sethites. And 
 two of the inspired authors of the New Testament 
 
 ^f This principle, which has been successfully employed to 
 account for the different Hermes, Zoroasters, &c. who have 
 been supposed to exist at different periods, has been happily il- 
 lustrated and applied, by M. de Guignes, Acad, des Inscript. 
 Tom. XXVI. p. 779. 
 
24 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIOXS 
 
 have so plainly indentifiecl a heresy, that existed 
 in their own times, with the adherents of that su- 
 perstition, that they enable us to ascribe it an ori- 
 gin, which is antecedent even to the Deluge. 
 
 In the last of the Epistles inserted in the Canoni- 
 cal Scriptures, some facts of patriarchal history are 
 recorded,^" which have been conceived, by some 
 of the commentators who have expounded them, 
 to be derived from tradition, but supposed by 
 others to be received by inspiration. The sa- 
 cred writer, in declaiming against a heresy, which, 
 even at that early period, infected the christian 
 church, obviously resumes the subject of one of 
 his inspired predecessors f^ frequently adopting 
 his language,^ and in appearance referring to his 
 authority.^^ The heretics, against which both these 
 inspired writers direct the force of their eloquence, 
 an early annalist, who has recounted some inci- 
 dents of antedeluvian history, principally extract- 
 ed from apocryphal writings, has identified with 
 the Cainites.^^ And the notion of their identity is 
 fully borne out, by the object and tenor of the 
 arguments employed by the apostles against them ; 
 which acquire greater clearness and strength, when 
 understood in reference to certain opinions^^ ascri- 
 
 58 Jude 9, 14. 
 
 59 Vid. Clar. et Zeger. ad 2 Pet. ii. 11. The latter of these 
 commentators describes OEcuraenius, as having been of the same 
 opinion. See also Syncel. Chronograph, p. 13. d. ed. Goar. 
 
 60 Vid. Wolf. Cur. Philolog. in Jud. 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, &c. 
 
 61 Jude, ibid. 17. ^2 Qlycas, Annal. p. 120. ed. Par. 1660. 
 ^3 The Cainites boasted their affinity not merely to Cain^ but 
 
 to Core and the <Sbcfow27es, and justified their nefarious practices 
 by the example of the fallen Angels: vid. Epiphan. ubi supr. p. 
 276. b. 277. a. Such are the indentical instances from which 
 the apostles deduce their examples of the divine vengeance, in 
 their declamations against the heretics ; see Jude, 6,7,11. 2 
 Pet. ii. 4, 6. As a reference to the opinions of the heretics 
 thus naturally accounts for the very peculiar mode of illustratioa 
 
UNlVEKSi'i 
 OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 25 
 
 bed to this sect as well as practices imputed to 
 them, in which they bore but too faithful a re- 
 semblance both to the ancient Gnostics and mo- 
 dern Sheits.^* The application of the same prin- 
 ciple to some passages in the apostolical epistles, 
 furnishes a satisfactory solution of some difficulties 
 in them/^ on account of which they were for a long 
 
 adopted by the sacred writers; it enables us to perceive the 
 force of the arguments which they have employed against those 
 offenders. "If God," reasons St. Peter, "spared not the 
 angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell". . . ."and turn- 
 ing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned 
 them with an overthrow, "shall he not "reserve the unjust unto 
 the day of judgment, to be punished." 2 Pet. ib. 
 
 ^* Comp. Epiphan. ibid. p. 277 a. 272. a. 77. c. seq. 2 Pet. 
 ibid. 10, 13, 14. Jude, 4, 7, 12, 19. Conf. supra, p. 16. n. ^7. 
 
 ^^ After all the learned pains employed by the commentators 
 upon Jude, (J. 2 Pet. ii. 4. it is impossible to deny, that the 
 most obvious and natural sense is that ascribed to these pas- 
 sages, by Cappel and Jurieu, who interpret them by Gen. vi. 
 2. understood of the angels^ instead of the sons of Set h: Vid. 
 Wolf. Cur. in loc. If the Apostles are supposed to reason 
 merely on the concessions of the heretics, as deduced from their 
 apocryphal works : their reasoning loses nothing of its force, 
 while the apparent objection to those passages is removed. In 
 favor of this view of their reasoning, it is to be observed, that the 
 Cainites held similar notions respecting the angels ; whose as- 
 sistance they invoked, and whose example they pleaded, in jus- 
 tification of those enormities against which the inspired writers 
 inveigh : vid. Epiphan. loc. cit. p. 277. a. d. And in those 
 opinions, if not in those practices, they were followed by the 
 Sethites : Id. ibid. p. 284. c. As these heretics possessed many 
 apocryphal works, relating to this early period of antediluvian 
 history, (vid. Epiphan. ib. p. 280. c. 287. b.) a similarity in the 
 phraseology of the sacred writers which may be traced to the 
 apocryphal * book of Enoch,' justifies a supposition, that those 
 writers have merely quoted this work, in opposing a heresy, by 
 which it was assigned the authority of scripture. St. Peter 
 speaks of the angels, as " delivered into chains of darkness^ to 
 be reserved unto judgment :" Ib. 4. St. Jude of their being " reser- 
 ved in everlasting diains under darknesswnto the judgment of the 
 great day :" ib. 6. The book of Enoch, declares, that " the 
 
 E 
 
26 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIOI^rS 
 
 time numbered among the disputed books of the 
 sacred Canon. 
 
 It would be foreign from my purpose to pursue 
 the parallel, minutely or extensively, between the 
 apostates described by the apostles, and the here- 
 tics subsequently known, under the title of Cain- 
 ites and Sethians. The perfect identity between 
 the sectaries existing in the apostolical age, and 
 the first apostates from the true religion, is appa- 
 rently admitted by St. Jude, in referring to a pro- 
 phecy which he ascribes to Enoch, whom the 
 Sethites numbered among the founders of their re- 
 Kgion. The apostle, having described, with the 
 ijtmost strength of imagery and vigor of language, 
 those miscreants, whose excesses, even in the age in 
 which he wrote brought obloquy upon the church ; 
 and, having previously reproached them, with 
 having '* gone in theivay of Cain, " denounces them 
 in a prediction of the patriarch, which he prefaces 
 with the following words ; *' and Enoch also, the 
 seventh from Adam, prophesied to these, saying,^ 
 
 fpur archangels having made their report to God " of the excess- 
 es coramitted by the watching angels, in their intercourse with 
 the daughters of men, •* at his command they bound the princes 
 of those transgressors, anpd threw them into an abyss, there to be 
 kept to the cUi^ of judgment ." . ,*' Raphael having been ordered 
 to bind Azael, hand and foot, and to throw him into darkness. , 
 being destined to the punishment of lire, on the day of judgment.'* 
 ap. Syncel. ubi supra p. 13. 
 
 ^ The words of Jude, without any variation of the manu- 
 scripts or versions, are as follows ; '?r^ot(py}r£va-E ^i xj tuIok; £^^o[A,oi 
 otaeo A^a/x 'E»w%, Kiyuvy jc^s. The difficulty in these words is eva- 
 ded in the Latin, English, French and Spanish versions, in the 
 same manner; by rendering ryroK, by of: but in the Italian and 
 German, by rendering it, by such. It is however in vain to 
 dispute, that the proper rendering of the phrase is that which is 
 expressed in the Syriac, .\ ffl\ . . . ..^i /[. and supported 
 by Valla ** prophesied to these." To "prophecy of is ex- 
 pressed in Greek, by TrpoCpy^levu with the preposition w?§«, but to 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 27 
 
 behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his 
 saints, to execute judgment," &c. Of these words 
 it is to be observed, that the sacred writer, in 
 thus ascribing a prophecy to Enoch, accommo- 
 dates himself to the modes of thinking prevalent 
 among the Sabaists, who professed that they re- 
 tained the patriarchs' predictions in their apocry- 
 phal books. And, in representing the antedi- 
 luvian prophet, as addressing himself to his con- 
 temporaries, he implicitly admits the high antiqui- 
 ty which that sect ascribed to their religion, in 
 assigning it an origin previous to the deluge. 
 
 In the correspondent epistle, in which these he- 
 retics are mentioned, no express notice is indeed 
 bestowed on any prophecy, professed to be derived 
 fi'om the patriarchs. It appears, however, not 
 merely from the tacit allusions but the express 
 declarations of the author, that the subject eng-a- 
 ged some share of his attention.- After apprising 
 his readers, that " there were false prophets among 
 the people,"^^ he directly adduces an illustration, 
 from the fallen angels,^*^ between which and a pas- 
 sage in the apocryphal prophecy of Enoch a simi- 
 larity has been traced that extends even to the lan- 
 
 "^ prophecy to " by the same verb with the dative ; conf. Matt. 
 XV. 7. xxvi. 68. The same distinction is observed in the Syriac 
 which in the former case uses Xi,, but in the latter ^ ; as also 
 in the Latin, which employs </<?, in the one case, but the dative 
 in the other. Such being the obvious construction of the pas- 
 sage before us, and a natural meaning, in such a construction, 
 being assignable to it, to force the sense of the genitive on a 
 dative, or to take a demonstrative pronoun in the sense of an 
 indeterminate pronoun, is to offer an unwarrantable violence to 
 the sacred text. Yet even this is justifiable, when compared 
 with the course adopted by Grotius, towards this passage, who, 
 from the single term tstok, extracts the sense, ** id quod illisest 
 eveaturum." 
 
 ^ 2 Pet. ii. 1. '^ 68 Ibid. 4. 
 
 E 2 
 
^28 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 guage and imagery/'^ If this similarity be suppo- 
 sed to furnish too slender grounds for concluding 
 that St. Peter has drawn from the same sources as 
 St. Jude, who expressly quotes a prophecy of the 
 patriarch ; they may be possibly discovered in a 
 previous declaration of the former apostle. In in- 
 sisting on the evidence of prophecy, he assigns it 
 a comparative force, which must be understood in 
 reference to some traditionary predictions ; or we 
 must suppose him to maintain, that *' the word of 
 prophecy was more sure " than ** the voice which 
 he heard," with the other apostles, when he was 
 an eye-witness of the transfiguration."^^ 
 
 ' ^9 Syncellus, having given an extract from the apocryphal 
 " book of Enoch," part of which has been already quoted supr. 
 p. 25. n.65 directly subjoins; Chronograph. p. 13. "these things 
 JEnoch witnesses ; but the chief apostle, Peter, in his second 
 epistle, declares of them" &c. after which words he quotes 
 2 Pet. ibid. 4. I have endeavored to shew, from the similarity 
 in St. Peter and St. Jude's language and imagery, that they 
 not only drew from the same source, but from the book of 
 Enoch, uti supra n.^^. It must be however observed, that the 
 remains of the book ascribed to Enoch have descended to us, in 
 a state wholly corrupted and interpolated. They have been 
 collected by Fabricius, Cod. Pseudepigr. Vet. Test. p. 160 seq, 
 70 See 2 Pet. i. 19. The objection of Wolfius, Cur. Philol. 
 in loc. to the interpretation of this difficult text given by Mau- 
 duit, who understands the ''more sure word of prophecy," in 
 reference to the ** cunningly devised fables," mentioned vs. 16. 
 is plausible; — that ** it is not credible, the apostle would have 
 compared the prophetical oracles with those specious trifles." 
 But it loses its force, when in those /xySot creo-oCpKrfjLBvoi are inclu- 
 ded certain predictions received traditionally from the patriarchs, 
 though "sophisticated" and blended with "fables," Of the 
 existence of such, in the apostolical age, there is unquestion- 
 able evidence, independent of the quotation from Enoch's pro- 
 phecy in St. Jude, and the passages cited from the epistles of 
 both the apostles, supra p. 25. n. ^^. Such prophecies, if tra- 
 ditionally received, were subjects of legitimate comparison with 
 the sacred oracles. The channel through which they were res- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 29 
 
 But however it may be doubted, that St. Peter 
 has drawn from the same sources as St. Jude, or 
 that either apostle has alluded to any apocryphal 
 writings : it is not to be disputed, that by the one, 
 an express reference is made to an antediluvian 
 prophecy, and by the other, the subject ascribed 
 to such prophecies is fully and explicitly mention- 
 ed. The prediction of Enoch, in St. Jude, speaks 
 of " the coming of the Lord to judgment, " at the 
 end of the world ; but in St. Peter, ** the promise 
 of his coming " is connected with the subject of the 
 Deluge and Conflagration. ''^** There shall come 
 scoffers " observes the apostle, ** walking after 
 their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise 
 of his coming ? . . . . For this they willingly are ig- 
 norant of, that by the word of God the heavens 
 were of old, and the earth standing out of the wa- 
 
 pectively derived rendered " the prophecy of the Scripture more 
 surCy'' as not liable to be perverted, like the traditional prophecy, 
 with the "private interpretations " of those by whom it was o- 
 rally transmitted. Such is the scope and object of St. Peter's 
 reasoning ; and when his words are understood in reference to 
 such a comparison, the difficulties with which they are embar- 
 rassed wholly vanish. That the apostle had such a comparison 
 in view is I think deducible from the exclusive force of the first 
 person in the subjoined passage, which is rendered more striking 
 by a transition to the second, " we have also a more sure word 
 of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well, that ye attend :" for had 
 he not spoken in a relative, but an absolute sense, the natural 
 structure of the sentence would have required him to have writ- 
 ten, "ye have also a more sure word of prophecy " &c. The 
 same conclusion is deducible from the explanatory phrase "of 
 the Scripture," added in the context, which states the causes 
 that rendered " the word of prophecy more sure," — " no pro- 
 phecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation ;" &c. 
 had not some other species of prophecy, as that of tradition, 
 been contemplated, this explanatory phrase would have been 
 suppressed, according to the common usage of scripture lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Ti 2Pet. iii.3, 7, 13. 
 
30 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ter, and in the water, whereby the world that then 
 was, being overflowed with water perished : but the 
 heavens and the earth which are now, by the same 
 word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the 
 day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . . 
 Nevertlieless " he concludes, *' we, according to his 
 promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness." 
 
 The apostle's object in pursuing this subject, 
 is obviously to restate the ancient doctrine of a 
 Deluge and Conflagration, in opposition to the ob- 
 jections of those *' scoffers " by whom it was deri- 
 ded ; and to add the apostolical sanction to the pro- 
 phetical authority, by which that doctrine was 
 i supported.^- How far the subject is connected 
 with antediluvian times or persons is a question 
 which admits of elucidation from documents of a 
 different description, which however they may fall 
 short of the apostolical writings, in authority, are 
 little inferior to them, in point of antiquity. 
 
 The Jewish historian, Josephus, who wrote 
 within a short period of St. Peter and St. Jude, 
 has in many instances supplied the scantiness of 
 the scripture narrative, from his paternal traditi- 
 ons. He not only ascribes a belief in the doctrine 
 of a Deluge and Conflagration to the antediluvian 
 patriarchs ; but represents the posterity of Seth, 
 as principally instrumental in transmitting the 
 knowledge of it to their posterity. In mentioning 
 the descendants of the patriarch, he declares, that 
 ■^^^ having received a prophecy from Adam, that 
 there would be a destruction of the universe, both 
 
 f* See 2 Pet. iii. 1, 2. As the best commentary on this 
 dbctrine, the reader may be referred to " the Sacred Theory of 
 the Earth," Book III. chap. iii. p. 30. seq. 
 
 7' Joseph. Antiq. Jud. Lib. I. cap. ii. § 3. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 31 
 
 by the rage of fire, and by the violence and multi- 
 tude of waters, they made two pillars, one of brick 
 and the other of stone, and engraved, on them, 
 their inventions ; that if the pillar of brick happen- 
 ed to be destroyed by the flood, that of stone 
 might remain to instruct mankind in what they 
 had written. This pillar," the historian observes, 
 "remains until now in the land Sirias. " 
 
 Much learned trifling has been employed, in 
 ascertaining the country in which these monu- 
 ments of antediluvian science were erected, the 
 very name of which is matter of uncertainty and 
 conjecture."^* By some the ruins of Seth's pillar 
 have been accordingly discovered in Mount Seir ; 
 by others in Seirath near Gilgal, in the tribe of E- 
 phraim ; and by others in the iron mountain which 
 extended to the land of Moab. Some have ascri- 
 bed them a site in Syria, and some in Persia, while 
 others have removed them to Abyssinia, and some 
 even to India or China"* In this uncertainty of 
 opinion a specious claim might be preferred for the 
 mountains inhabited by the Sabaists or Sheits : 
 there can be, however, little reason to doubt, that 
 the Sirias of Josephus must be sought in Egypt.^^ 
 
 7* The terms y^i* 2»^iaJa, which occur in Josephus have been 
 variously distorted, into ri^t^o* opo?, Sr^i^o? o^og, 'Lv^ictq yv, 'Upiuf 
 yvv <fec. to justify the placing of the pillar of Seth according to 
 the caprice or wishes of the different transcribers of the Jewish 
 historian : vid. R eland. Palest. Lib. I. cap. liii. p, 343. 
 
 '^ Vid. Reland. Palest, ubi supra. Huet. Dem. Evan. Prop. 
 IV. c. ii. n. 14. Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. B. I. ch. ii. § 12. Ant. 
 Univ. Hist. B. J. ch. i. p. 244. Bnicker, Hist. Phil. Lib. I. 
 cap. ii. § 6. Weidler Hist. Astronom. cap. ii. § 4. 
 
 76 Weidl. ubi. supr. p. 17. ** Nee terra Siriadica alibi quam 
 circa iEgyptum quserenda est. Seres ^thiopica gens, Seres 
 oppidum in vicinia ^gypti, et Ser fluvius insulam in mari rubro 
 efficit. Nilus ab ^thiopibus Siris appellatur " &c. conf. Brucker. 
 loc. cit, p. 59. n. Jablonsk. Annot, in Eratosth. latere, ap. 
 
32 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 And an earlier account, which a historian of that 
 country has given of the pillars of Thoth, forms 
 conclusive evidence against the historian of the 
 Jews ;^^ that he has adopted the embellishing cir- 
 cumstances, respecting the pillar of Seth, which 
 he has grafted on his paternal traditions of Adam's 
 prophecy, from that writer whom he has frequently 
 quoted. It should be, however, stated in his de- 
 fence, that he was naturally led into this error by 
 the identity of the personages whom he apparently 
 confounds ; the Egyptian mystagogue being a fic- 
 titious character, confessedly derived, through va- 
 rious transmigrations in persons of the same name, 
 from some antediluvian prophet, who, there is no 
 reason to doubt, must be the patriarch Seth, or one 
 of his immediate descendants. 
 
 But however these objections may affect the in- 
 cidental circumstances added by the Jewish histo- 
 rian to his account, they detract nothing from the 
 main subject of the tradition which he has recorded, 
 and which is corroborated by many collateral cir- 
 cumstances. That the spirit of prophecy rested on 
 the posterity of Seth,^^ is not merely a supposition 
 resting on probability, but a fact supported by in- 
 
 Vignol. Chronol. Tom. II. p. 764. 
 
 77^ Conf. Syncel. uti supr. p. 40. Joseph, contr. Appion. LiK 
 I. p. 1336. 
 
 78 Brucker, referring to Gen. iv. 26. and Heidegger, Hist. 
 Patriarch. P. I. Exerc. vi. § 10. seq. observes, Hist. Phil. Lib. 
 I. cap. ii. § viii. " Sethi vero posteros, qui parentem habuere di- 
 vina revelatione gaudentem, propheticam magis quam philoso- 
 pkicam scholam habuisse, inque ea, quae de Dei vero cuitu et 
 speranda amissoe felicitatis per SEMEN mulieris restitutione 
 pia parentum traditione et divina revelatione acceperant, ex sa- 
 cris literis constat .... Habuisse quoque inter se prophetas pecu- 
 liari cum Deo consuetudine et revelatione gaudentes, Enochi 
 exemplum probat, quern ex ista revelationis luce fuisse vati- 
 cinatum D. Judas asserit." 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. . 33 
 
 spired authority of one of the apostolical writers. 
 
 Enoch, who enjoyed the prophetical vision, was 
 his lineal descendant ; the prophecy, which we 
 have the authority of an apostle for ascribing to 
 him, relates to that great consummation, which 
 Josephus represents to be the subject of Adam's 
 prediction ; and the apocryphal book, which was 
 inscribed with his name, mentions the fate which 
 awaited the earth, from the destroying elements, 
 fire and water. After relating the defection of \ 
 the watchers, it expressly states, that the earth j 
 was to perish by a deluge ;"'•* and in mentioning I 
 the curse pronounced against Mount liermon, 
 which was the scene of their excesses, it is inci- 
 dentally added, that it was to perish by fire.^° A 
 foresight of these great events has been ascribed to 
 the patriarch, from whom the Sethites took their 
 name, by some Hellenic writers, who had access 
 to apocryphal works, no longer extant. By one 
 of these writers, who has quoted from ** the lesser 
 Genesis, " and " book of Enoch, " it is declared, 
 thaf ^** when Adam had reached his two hundred 
 and seventieth year, Seth was rapt from the earth 
 by the angels, and initiated by them, in the fall of 
 his future posterity, the watchers ; and in the des- 
 truction of the earth by a deluge, and the advent 
 of a Saviour. Having been abstracted and invisi- 
 ble forty days, he returned and revealed these 
 things to his parents, having then attained his forti- 
 eth year. " 
 
 Nor are we to regard these traditions as confi- 
 ned to a peculiar branch of the Assyrian race, who 
 were favored with a more plenary revelation of the 
 truth, and to whose exclusive keeping the inspi- 
 
 79 Vid. Syncel. uti supra p. 25 b. so j^ jbij. p. 26 c. 
 81 Syncel. ibid. p. 10. a.conf. Cedren. Hist.Compend. p. 8. d. 
 9. b. ed. Xyland. 
 
34 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ed oracles were committed, as a sacred deposit. 
 I It appears, on the authority of a native Chaldee 
 historian, that the belief in a Deluge and Confla- 
 gration was prevalent among his compatriots, and 
 \ that they professed it was derived to them from 
 Belus, whom they numbered among the founders 
 of their nation .^^ Of this tradition it is observa- 
 ble, that it has suffered no less in its transmission 
 through Chaldee than Jewish channels ; Berosus, 
 in framing his comment on the text of Belus, 
 having borrowed some embellishments from his 
 national science, in assigning it an alliance to the 
 Chaldaic astrology. 
 
 If, with the aid of these illustrations, the preced- 
 ing observations, on the testimony of St. Peter 
 and St. Jude, be allowed their full effect, they 
 seem to identify a heresy of the apostolical age 
 with the primitive apostates who preceded the 
 deluge. And however it may be disputed, that 
 they have succeeded in substantiating this point, 
 it will be atleast admitted, that they have ade- 
 quately proved all that they are adduced to esta- 
 blish, That no argument can be deduced, from the 
 silence of the inspired writers, against the exis- 
 tence of such a sect as the Cainites or Sabaists, in 
 the age in which the Gospel was promulgated. 
 
 62 Senec. Nat. Quaest Lib. III. cap. xxix. ** Berosus, qui 
 Belvm interpretaius est, ait, cursu siderum ista fieri ; et adeo 
 quidem id affirmat, ut Conjtagrationi et Diluvio tempus assig- 
 net : arsura enim terrena contetidit, quando omnia sidera, quae 
 nunc diversos agunt cursus, in cancrum convenerint. . . .iwM»- 
 dationemfuturam, cumeadem siderum turba in capricornum con- 
 venerit, " &c. This knowledge descended to Seneca, as a 
 Stoic, from Zeno the founder of this sect: who acquired it in 
 Citium, whither it was brought from Chaldea, by the Phoe- 
 nicians,see *' Burnet's Theory/' Book III ch. iii. p. 27. We 
 |\ here observe that it is traced by Berosus the Chaldean histor- 
 I :ian, to Belus, one of the founders of the Assyrian nation: vid» 
 ^ supra p. 9. n. ^7 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 35 
 
 Even further than this does the testimony of the 
 apostles extend, as supplying a link in the chain of 
 evidence, by which these inquiries may be at once 
 connected with the period to which they are ulti- 
 mately directed. In proscribing the heretics of 
 the apostolical age, St. Jude condemns them, as 
 ** running into the error of Balaam,'''^^ and St Pe- 
 ter, as following the way of Balaam, the son of 
 Bosor."^ The evangelist, St. John, entering more 
 into details, characterises them, by the offen- 
 sive qualities which have rendered this sect infa- 
 mous from the first: he upbraids them with** hold- 
 ing the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to 
 cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, 
 to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit for- 
 nication.""^ In being led to this period, we are at 
 once conducted to the object of these inquiries ; 
 as intended to ascertain the expectations formed 
 by the Orientalists, of a Great Deliverer. This ob- , 
 ject may be effectually attained, from the opinions 
 of Balaam ; as declaring the sentiments of a native // 
 Assyrian, at a time when that empire, which took 
 the lead in the policy of the East, had been some 
 centuries established in its dominion.^ 
 
 The fortieth year had nearly expired, after the 
 Israelites had taken their departure from Egypt, 
 and they had reached their last encampment in the 
 plains of Moab, when Balak invited Balaam from 
 Syria, by a special deputation of his nobles, to op- 
 pose the new invaders with his enchantments. Of 
 the occupation or country of the seer, whose assis- 
 tance the king of Moab required, there can be little 
 room for dispute ; whatever difficulties have been 
 
 85 Jude, 11. 84 2 Pet. ii. 15. 85 Rev. ii. 14. 
 
 86 The prophecy of Balaam was delivered in the year 40 of , 
 the Exod, which coincides with the year 774 of the Babylonian 
 era, and was about 835 years after the deluge ; vid, supra p. 9. 
 n.i6. 
 
 F 2 
 
36 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 raised on the subject, by those who have investi- 
 gated his history, or expounded his prediction. 
 
 Balaam is termed by his contemporary Moses, 
 ^* the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia ; " or, 
 " Syria between the two rivers f^"^ in which desig- 
 nation he is at once identified as a native Assy- 
 rian.^ Had we been at any loss to ascertain the 
 country of the seer of Pethor, thus clearly defined 
 by its natural boundaries ; some light might be 
 attained in discovering its site, from his own repre- 
 sentation in declaring, that " the king of Moab, 
 brought him from Syria, out of the mountains of the 
 east."^ The plains of Mesopotamia are overlooked 
 
 *'' According to the original Hebrew, Deut. xxiii. 4. or^l 
 CD»inj D*i« TiDBD, mrn p which literally signifies, "Balaam, 
 son of Beor, of Syria of the two rivers :" in which words the 
 country of Balaam is so clearly defined, as not to be mistaken. 
 The authors of the Chaldee Paraphrase and Jerusalem Targum, 
 accordingly identify the principal of the rivers, within which it 
 was enclosed, in rendering onnJ Dli^, by nna hv^ W\\K, " Syria 
 which is on the Euphrates." The Septuagint, in employing 
 the language of the Greeks, have accommodated themselves to 
 their geographical distinctions, in which Syria was not conceiv- 
 ed to extend beyond the western bank of the Euphrates. They 
 have accordingly rendered the passage, BaXaa/x vlov Batw^ Ix. t^? 
 MEcro9ro/a/xia?, Balaam son of Beor from Mesopotamia; in which 
 they are followed by the Italian, French, English and German 
 versions. The Vulgate of Jerome, adhering more closely to the 
 original, renders the passage, with an inversion, " Balaam filium 
 Beor de Mesopotamia Syrice ;" which is literally transplanted 
 into the Spanish of P. Scio ; " Balaam, hijo de Beor, de la Me- 
 sopotamia de Siria." The passage, with a slight alteration, would 
 be, I conceive, properly rendered, " Balaam son of Beor of 
 the Mesopotamian Syria." 
 
 88 Selden, admitting that the terms Syria and Syrian were 
 but European corruptions of the Oriental Assyria and Assyrian, 
 confirms his assertion by the authority of Herodotus ; vtto f^l» 
 
 'i.JO'^vuv iKOihioilo Yv^ioiy v'TTo ^g ^cc^^a^uv 'A(rervfioi U>^r)Bi^cra,v '. andof 
 
 Justin, ** Imperium Assyrii, qui postea Syri dicti sunt ymiWeixe- 
 centis annis tenuere :" De Dis Syris, Proleg. cap. i. p. 4. 
 
 89 Num. xxiii. 7. anp n*)n».. . .D*i« XQ ; in rendering these 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 37 
 
 by the Cordysean mountains ; and both the eleva- 
 ted and plain country^^ were inhabited by Sabians, 
 whose tenets Balaam was instrumental in propa- 
 gating among, the Israelites. His country should 
 be, however, rather sought near the upper Chaldea, 
 which was also mountainous, and was situated to 
 the north of Mesopotamia,^^ which is equally re- 
 presented, by the oriental traditions, as infested 
 by the Sabian superstitions. In the vicinity of this 
 region, the Greek and Latin writers place some 
 schools of Chaldee diviners,^ to one of which they 
 
 words, the versions, after the example of Jerome's Vulgate, ad- 
 here more closely to the original. The Septuagint, following 
 the Greek geographical distinctions, translates it, U Msa-oTrolaiJiicc^ 
 , , . .i^ opsuv a.'v: uvocroXuiv ; but the Latin Vulgate, retaining the 
 original term, renders it: " de Aram. . . ,de montibus orientis:" 
 and the same terra is preserved in the French, Spanish and En- 
 glish. But the Italian, with greater propriety ; ** di Siria, dalle 
 montagne d'oriente :" as well as the German ; " aus Syrien, . . . 
 von dem Gebirge gegen dem Aufgang:" vid. supr. p. 7. n." 
 
 90 Stanley, Hist. Philosph. Orient. Lib. III. cap. ii. after 
 referring to the authority of the Rabbinical and Arabic writers, 
 adds, that according to them, " the religion of the Sabians was 
 the same as that of the inhabitants of Charan and Mesopota- 
 mia," at the time of Abraham. 
 
 91 Cleric. Ind. Phil, in Stanl. Phil. Or. V. Chaldaja. " Chal- 
 daia duplex fuit, una Armenian vicina ac montosa, ad septentri- 
 &nem Mesopotamicp, de qua Xenoph. Cyr. Lib. III. p. 70. ed. 
 Wechel. etStrab. Lib. XII. p. 378. ed. Genev. In hac fuit 
 Ur, Abrahami patria; ut ostendit Sam. Bochartus Geogr. Sacr. 
 Lib. III. cap. vi. et alibi in suo Phaleg.'* 
 
 9^ Bruck. Hist. Phil. Lib. II. cap. ii. § 8. p. 114. "Nar- 
 rant porro Plinius (Hist. Nat. Lib. VI. cap. xxvi.) et Strabo 
 (Lib. XVI. p. 509.) in diversis Assy*"" regni regionifnisetprx- 
 cipuis uvbihus, peculiar esfuissescholas[Cha\dd^OTum] ; Hippare- 
 nif urbe Mesopotamia, unde Hipparenorum secta; Babylone 
 unde Babylonii ; Orchoes Chaldaeorum oppido, unde Orcheni" 
 &c. Conf. Stanl. ubi supra. Lib. I. sect. i. cap. ix. The term 
 Orcheni is derived by Salmasius, (Praef. libr. de ann. climact.) 
 from the Chaldee «»jnD nii^, * priests of fire :' the liriD, Pethor, 
 from whence Balaam was designated, and which Jerome trans- 
 
38 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ascribe a name, which may be derived from the Pe- 
 thor, whence Balaam was designated, with less 
 violence to orthography than has been offered to 
 many oriental terms, avowedly transmitted to us 
 by these writers. 
 
 In determining the profession of Balaam, there 
 
 I exists as little room for doubt, as in ascertaining 
 
 I his country. He is designated in scripture, as 
 
 '* Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer," or divi- 
 
 ner.^^ The Chaldean sages have been divided, by 
 
 the writer who has most accurately described them 
 
 into four kinds ; of whom the second addicted 
 
 themselves to the arts of divination:^* recourse 
 
 Vj being had to astrology and augury, to obtain an in- 
 
 il sight into futurity .^^ From an acquired proficien- 
 
 lates ariolusy N*um. xxii. 5. seems to suggest a better deriva- 
 tion, in the participle innsn, from nna, to interpret, for the Hip- 
 pareni of Pliny. In support of this conjecture it is to be ob- 
 served, that pnna, signifies interpretation, from the same verb : 
 and that some of the Chaldean astrologers were professed inter- 
 preters; vid. Stanl. ubi supra cap. x. To account for the omis- 
 sion of n in the Hippareni of Pliny, it may be observed, that 
 the Latin has no mode of expressing this character ; and that it 
 is constantly commuted with n, in the dialects of the Semitic : 
 as in the constructive case of feminine nouns, and in forming 
 the feminine plural. 
 
 9' According to the original Josh. xiii. 22. Tjjri ]2 arVl, 
 DDIpn, in rendering which words little difference is discoverable 
 in the versions : tiDDlpn being translated, in the Greek, /xavlt* ; in 
 the Latin, anoZttm ; in the Italian, indovino; in the French, de- 
 vin; in the Spanish, adivino; in the German, Weissager; and 
 in the English, soothsayer. The Hebrew term is taken in an 
 evil sense, Deut. xviii. 14. and generally throughout scripture ; 
 and in such a sense the cognate term DDp is used by Balaam 
 himself. Num. xxiii. 23. " neither is there any divination a- 
 gainst Israel ;" in which version, the proper force is assigned 
 the term, which is rendered in the Septuagint, /xa>T£»a, and in the 
 Latin Vulgate, divinatio. 
 
 9* Stanl. uti supra Lib. I. sect. ii. ad init. 
 
 9* Id. ibid. cap. xxvii. " Secunda pars Chaldaicae doctrinae 
 sita erat in divinandi artibtis, quarum praecipua fuit Astrologia, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 39 
 
 cy in these arts, we have authority from scripture 
 to suppose,^ that Balaam obtained the repute, and 
 acquired the appellation, of a diviner. 
 
 Nor can his claims to a higher or prophetical 
 character, previously to his entering on his mission 
 to Moab, be supported on the same authority, al- 
 though he has been termed "a prophet" by the a- 
 postle.^ In reconciling this title with his desig- 
 nation, as "a diviner, " it is unnecessary to suppose, 
 that it has been catachretically applied, as by an- 
 other apostle,*"^ from being commonly conferred on 
 the Chaldean seers, by the orientalists. With that 
 
 Haec quae ab iis primum inventa traditur, praecipua eorum in se 
 traxit studia" &c. Id, ibid. cap. xxiii. ♦' Praeter astrologiam, 
 alias invenere et usurpavere Chaldaei divinandi artes, inter quas 
 Diodorus memorat, * divinationem per aves, somniorum pro- 
 digiorumque interpretationes et quae pertinent ad Aruspicinam,* 
 Maimonides quoque auctor est apud Chaldaeos, ab antiquissimis 
 iisque iemporibus, varia fuisse Uariolorum genera" &c. 
 
 ^ Num. xxiv. 1. " And when Balaam saw that it pleased 
 the Lord .... he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchant- 
 ments." The Septuagint and Vulgate conspire in rendering 
 D'tt^nJ, by augury, which is here translated enchantments; the 
 latter part of the passage is rendered in the LXX, «x imo^tv^n 
 
 xatla. TO tluBoq etvru t\<; <rvvoiv]n<ri» Tor? oluvoT^, and in the Vulgate, 
 
 "nequaquam abiit, ut ante perrexerat, ut augurium quaereret." 
 The Italian adopting auguri, and the Spanish agiiero, accord 
 with the Latin ; the French using enchantemenSf and the German 
 Zauberem correspond with the English. 
 
 9T 2 Pet. ii. 16. 
 
 ^ St Paul, in quoting a passage from Epimenides, Tit. i. 12. 
 thus speaks of the Cretan seer ; ** one of themselves, even a pro- 
 phet of-their own, said :" &c. in which passage the apostle ac- 
 commodates himself to the heathen modes of expression ; Aristotle 
 and Cicero having attested the prophetical spirit of Epimenides, 
 and Plutarch having preserved one of his prophecies. The same 
 title was bestowed on the Chaldee diviners ; Salmas. Plin. Ex- 
 erc. in Solin. p. 647. b. ** Sacerdos [Berosus] fuit Beli, xj w^o- 
 (pi^lr)';, certe et ar^oXoyo?, ut fere omnes fuere tam iEgyptii quam 
 Babylonii, prophetce ac sacerdotes. Immo et quales iEgyptiis 
 prophetce, tales AssyriisChaldm, qui et Astrologi. *' 
 
40 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 sacred character the Mesopotamian diviner be- 
 ^/ came invested, from the time that he uttered the 
 ' remarkable prophecy, which he delivered to Ba- 
 lak. On that occasion, the scripture accordingly 
 describes the influence by v^hich he was moved, 
 in terms that are only applicable to those, who 
 were divinely inspired, and who possessed the pro- 
 phetical vision .^^ That he was then visited by an 
 afflation of the divinity, to which he had been pre- 
 viously a stranger, seems to be implied in the in- 
 fluence which it possessed, in inducing him to re- 
 nounce his delusive art : *' he went not, as at other 
 times, to seek for enchantments, " or augury .^^ 
 The wisdom of selecting a seer, from the coun- 
 try of diviners, to fill the high office on which Ba- 
 laam was deputed, is sufficiently apparent, without 
 any labored illustration : his mission derived advan- 
 tages from his fame as a soothsayer, which it could 
 scarcely have acquired from his character as a pro- 
 phet. Had it secured no other object, than to give 
 the Israelites the assurance of a diviner, and one 
 the most highly reputed in his art, '' that there was 
 no enchantment against Jacob, neither any divina- 
 tion against Israel, " in attaining this end, its wis- 
 dom had been obvious. On the nations existing 
 out of the Jewish pale to whom the prediction of 
 Balaam was addressed, and for whom it was prin- 
 cipally intended, its operation was of more obvious 
 importance. From them, a more ready assent was 
 , obtained to the truths, which Balaam was instru- 
 mental in revealing, in consequence of their being 
 
 ^ Num. xxii. 4. ** And the spirit of God came upon him." 
 On the authority of this passage, the Jewish and Christian com- 
 mentators assert the inspiration of Balaam. Vid. Targ. Jonath. 
 I et Hieros. in loc. Drus. ibid. Bp. Newton on, the Proph. 
 Works, Vol. I. p. 90. 
 100 Vid. supra n.^^ 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 41 
 
 delivered by one of their compatriots, whose fame 
 must have been generally diffused, as it extended 
 from Mesopotamia to Moab. In the temporary 
 conversion of so reputed a seer, and the public re- 
 nunciation of his errors, before the assembled no- 
 bles of Midian and Moab, a salutary lesson was 
 inculcated before those nations, upon whose super- 
 stition the delusive art which he practised had ex- 
 ercised a tyrannous and degrading influence. 
 
 But the wisdom evinced in the selection of a Me- 
 sopotamian diviner, to be the prophet of those truths 
 which Balaam was chosen to deliver, must be prin- 
 cipally sought in the substance and tenor of his 
 predictions, and their adaptation to the purposes of 
 those nations, to whom they were immediately di- 
 rected. That these points may receive the fullest 
 elucidation, preparatory to the deduction of those 
 important consequences, which it is the object of 
 these inquiries to elicit, I shall give the text of the 
 prophecy in the form which I conceive approaches 
 nearest to that in which it was written. In the 
 different versions of it which have been transmitted 
 to us, by the Jews and Samaritans, some trifling 
 variations are discernible; as contributing to the 
 establishment of the genuine text, on which alone 
 our inferences should be founded, I shall' trans- 
 cribe it in the character in which it was originally 
 composed, being that in which it is preserved by 
 the Samaritans. 
 
 101 The printed Hebrew text reads iri ; but (1) as it marks 
 the omission of the ^, by pointing r with cholem ; (2) as it also 
 retains that letter, in citing the same name, quoted on other oc- 
 casions : and (3) as in the collations of Hebrew mss. published 
 by Kennicot, codd, 1, 5, 6, and above 30 others agree with the 
 
 G 
 
43 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATION* 
 
 :^/Trv^ ^A^ ^s*!^ ^/ftii: 
 
 ZiV^^/TTiii ^a^ »is?i: 
 sA^!a '"'^/TTAiVa -m'^^x 
 '''a^ ffr:^a Z3 '"^^r'^r^ 
 
 Samaritan mss. in reading liri^ no doubt can be entertained 
 that the Hebrew printed text is in this place corrupted. 
 
 ^02 Several of the Hebrew mss. in Kennicot's collations, as 
 cod. 9, 69, al. 8. read ynvi. 
 
 103 The printed Samaritan textreads/rri^^/TT ^^*^* /Tr^ia[!a 
 but (1) as, in Kennicot's collation of Samaritan mss. ^^"^^ 
 is found in cod. 61, 63, 183, 221, al. 4: (2) as ntno uniformly 
 occurs in the Hebrew copies ; and (3) as the matres Icctionis 
 in, 1, ♦, are constantly confounded by the Oriental scribes, the 
 printed Samaritan text, in this place, is obviously corrupted. 
 
 10* The printed Samaritan copies read fnA2, but (1) as 
 I7t AiV3 occurs in the Samaritan, cod. 61, 64 : (2) as A might 
 have been absorbed in A following ; and (3) as the Hebrew co- 
 pies are constant in reading 'ni^Q, no doubt can be entertained 
 that it is the genuine reading. 
 
 105 Of the Hebrew mss. cod. 9. reads nii^ Jtt^, and cod. 69. 
 nti^tt^: but independant of the want of sense, in these readings^ 
 which are opposed to the common consent of the Hebrew and 
 Samaritan copies, they have obviously arisen in the diflSculty of 
 the passage. 
 
 106 The Samaritan copies, printed and manuscript, in place of 
 '^P'\l?, read'YTP^V: which reading is supposed to be confirmed 
 by Jer. xlviii. 45. ]M^\i^ 'Jl '^P'^?^ > '" which there is an obvious 
 allusion to the passage before us. In favor of this reading of 
 die Samaritan copies, it must be acknowledged, (1) that it was 
 not likely to be adopted from the prophet, as the Samaritans re- 
 ceive none of the prophetical scriptures contained in the Hebrew 
 Canon : (2) that the similarity of ^ and '\ in the SamaiitaB 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 43 
 
 text, or 1 and *i in the Hebrew, might have occasioned the vari- 
 ation; and that the transition to 'S or *!, is more easily ac- 
 counted for, than to ^, or i : as the small stroke by which these 
 letters are distinguished might have been ohlitcrcctcd by time, or 
 omitted by negligence, in the former case, while it is not easy to 
 explain how they could have been added in the latter. But as 
 the phrase 'i[>'^\>, . . .ynD* occurs in Ps. Ixviii. 22. and seems to 
 have been colloquial, and, as such, was likely to be adopted by 
 Jeremiah and the transcribers of the Pentateuch ; and as the 
 antithetical nature of the Hebrew versification, which is in this 
 case supported by the stichometry, seems to require the verb, 
 Iplpl, analogous to -[nn. . . .api. . . •I'nD'i, in the three preced- 
 ing, and n'ni, in the two following verses, I am inclined to be- 
 lieve it the preferable reading. It is however of little importance 
 to which reading the preference is given ; as the efl'ect produced 
 by either on the sentence is immaterial. 
 
 *<*'' The printed Samaritan reads ^^'T'\frr ; but as the He- 
 brew uniformly reads nit^T ; in which it is supported by the Sa- 
 maritan mss. cod. 61, 63, 183, 334, al, 4, the preference is due 
 to this reading. 
 
 ^^ The Samaritan copies, as well printed as manuscript, for 
 *\nrv^, Seir, read, t^V, Esau, a palpable gloss, derived 
 from Gen. xxxvi. 8. It is notwithstanding adopted by the Sep- 
 tuagint. 
 
 109 The reading, SfTTV^ ^frr^^, n'^D nnu^, which is sup- 
 ported by the uniform consent of the Hebrew and Samaritan co- 
 pies, as well printed as manuscript, and corroborated by the an- 
 cient versions, has given offence to the critics, who have propo- 
 sed several conjectures for its amendment. The Chaldee para- 
 phrast, who read Tro, seems to have believed the sense incom- 
 plete, and has accordingly, paraphrased the passage, nnpD 
 l^'ODr * from the city of the people.' For nntt?, Calmet propo- 
 ses reading n'ru^, and interprets the passage, 'the residue of 
 Seir.' But Houbigant, with less violence to the text, proposes 
 substituting the same word for n*ra; a conjecture which derives 
 some countenance from the facility with which, in the primitive 
 character, ^WV^ might have been substituted for *\nrv*>* : he 
 
 g2 
 
44 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ^^A^mx xi^^ N^m'K vz^v AA. A'\mx 
 iii^s vZ-^a iam^*? ii^^^^a i^Anr^ 
 
 interprets the passage * the remains of Seir.' Some phrases in 
 Isaiah and Jeremiah, relative to the destruction of the cities of 
 Moab, to which the inhabitants naturally fled for safety, render 
 these conjectures more than questionable : see Is. xvi. 7, 8. Jer. 
 xlviii. 7, 8, &c. 
 
 ^^° The Samaritan copros, adopting a different division of the 
 terms, read "JS A-fTT '^V'l with little influence on the sense ; 
 and as ny as well as nr occurs in the sacred text, with no im- 
 provement in the orthography. They are followed by Houbi- 
 gant, who renders the passage, " posteritas ejus ad perniciem re- 
 servatur." 
 
 ^11 Of the Hebrew mss. cod. 1, 5, 14, al. 4, read »Jpn, instead 
 of the printed ^l^pn^ which generally occurs in the Hebrew and 
 uniformly in the Samaritan copies. Of the mss. of the Septuagint 
 which reads KivacTov in the printed text, the collation of Holmes 
 exhibits the following varieties ; KuvocTov, cod. 2. ed. Com- 
 plut; KcuvaTov, cod. 16, 62, al. 4. KivuTov, cod. 15, 18, al. 11. 
 vers. Georg. Arm. 1. aliique, Arm. ed. Kotinov in textu, et 
 Kevsov margo cod. x. KiwxTov, Lips. 
 
 f "2 The Samaritan copies read, iJ^^^A y^^/i^^ ^V, * % 
 j inhabitant shall depart from Assur ;' but as this reading bears in- 
 ternal marks of being accommodated to the national prejudices 
 of the Samaritans, whose migration frorn Assyria it is intended 
 .to commemorate, and as it is opposed to the external testimony 
 ] of all the Hebrew copies, corroborated by all the ancient ver- 
 ions, there can be no doubt, that it is erroneous. For ?ii5 ?V, 
 (na nr,) Houbigant proposes substituting hd^];, rendering the 
 passage * astutia Assur.' In favor of this correction, he appeals 
 to the Septuagint ; which reads voQc-iu Trctvufyiocq, in a very diffe- 
 rent sense and construction : and he at the same time objects, 
 that HD IP signifies usque quo, and that by the common construc- 
 tion *nii^«, a masculine noun, is made to govern su^n, a verb in 
 the feminine. But to these objections it may be replied, (1) that 
 there is an in consequence introduced by the correction into the 
 sentence ; (2) that the change must be greater than is proposed. 
 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 45 
 
 113 
 
 in this conjectual emendation, as riDl]?, in the constructive ease, 
 must be used for hd ij) ; an alteration not likely to occur in the 
 primitive character; in which AiiS'W could have been hardly 
 substituted for ^^ ^V ; (3) that no ^y properly signifies usque 
 quo only in interrogative sentences ; and if the sense requires an 
 emendation, we may then adopt, with less violence to the text, 
 ^iJ 'YV, until that; for which ^iiS '^V might have been easily 
 mistaken; (4) that "niy«, as taken for the name of the country, 
 is used in the feminine, like l«ia, Jer.^lviii. 9 : both nouns being 
 probably used by an ellipsis of y^^t after the analogy of vi« 
 IKID Jer. ibid. 9. In this view, the*feeptuagint found no diffi- 
 culty, in making Titri* govern lu^n. 
 
 "* In this place, the Septuagint inserts xj l^u» rov^ny; which 
 is not only wanting in the original, and the ancient versions, but 
 is rejected from the following copies of the LXX ; Cod. VII,XI, 
 16, 30, al. 9. Compl. On this point however, I lay no stress, 
 as the Greek text in these mss. probably follows the Hexapla,^ 
 which was corrected after the Hebrew. The passage, however,*" 
 bears internal marks of being an interpolation, fabricated, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the translators, after the analogy of 
 the preceding passages, vs. 20. jc) l^uv rov 'A/^^aX^x : vs. 21. t^ »^«»- 
 rov KivaTov. But as these passages are adapted to the subject,' 
 and acknowledged by the context, they form no precedent to 
 justify the interpolation, which is wholly unconnected with 
 either. On the subject of similarity it may be observed, that 
 the fate of Amalek and the Kenite was of very secondary im- 
 portance, in respect to the general object which the prophet had 
 in view. They are accordingly introduced episodically, and 
 mentioned only as presenting themselves to his observation 
 while he spoke. Conformably to this distinction, the main sub- 
 ject of his prediction is prefaced generally with the words, '* and 
 he took up his parable and said ;" the incidental subject of A- 
 malek and the Kenites' fate, with the words, "and he looked 
 upon Amalek and said " ScC. As all that follows the passage 
 interpolated in the Septuagint relates to the general subject of 
 the prediction, it is most improperly preceded by such a pre- 
 face. 
 
 ^^* For D»yi, and Ships, which occurs in the Hebrew, the 
 Samaritan copies read, in the 3d. pers. sing. fut. Hiphil,of «y», 
 
4A THE ASSYRIAN EXPFXTATIOXS 
 
 ^YSiV rrr^v A^t? ^ix 
 
 As introductory to the perfect understanding of 
 this extraordinary prediction, it is necessary to 
 premise, that it was delivered from the top of Pe- 
 er ;"° from whence the Israelites were beheld en- 
 camped in the plains of Moab, and an extensive 
 prospect was commanded of the adjacent country. 
 When, from this station, Balak heard, for the third 
 time, a benediction pronounced on his enemies, 
 by the prophet whom he had hired to curse them, 
 
 ^Ant'RlXntf will cause them to go, will lead them. This read- 
 ing, it must be allowed, derives some countenance from the Sep- 
 tuagint, who, omitting all mention of "ships," render the pas- 
 sage, i^i\tva-nui Ik xstgwv Kiriocicov I Consequently taking the Greek 
 verb, after their manner, with the force of the Hebrew Hiphil, 
 in consequence of its being in the Middle. To this various read- 
 ing it may be objected, (1) that the unfrequency of the word 
 *y, pi. CD>v and c=3»»y, which is rendered by Aquila T§tj;^*3?, and 
 by the LXX. vXoTov, (Is. xxxiii. 21. Ezek. xxx. 9.), and the 
 difficulty of deriving it, as coming from nvJ, a verb in ''|s, 
 might have occasioned the change : (2) that, while the Hebrew 
 copies are uniform in reading tD>vi, the Samaritan, by contra- 
 dicting each other, invalidate their common testimony, some a- 
 dopting the participle CI3«»V1D, and some the obviously false 
 reading o>«yi» ; (3) that the Hebrew reading is fully confirmed 
 hy Dan. xi. 30. tia'na C3>y, ships of Chittim, respecting which, 
 sphere is no variation in the manuscripts or versions. 
 
 "* For the indefinites, ^t^V, the Samaritan copies, prefixing Ht 
 in both places, use with the same sense, two futures, before the first 
 of which they omit the conjunction. As in these readings there 
 is not only an accommodation to the Samaritan dialect, but a 
 Tiolation of the genius of the Hebrew, which takes, after 1 con- 
 versive, the indef. with the sense of the future, there can be lit- 
 tle doubt, that they are spurious. It seems almost superfluous 
 further to observe, on the present occasion, that in the place 
 of liu^«, in the Hebrew copies, *n»«, is substituted, lm<>, cod. 
 1, 184. et 2d6 cod. 129 : and for nnr, in the same text, is sub- 
 stituted ll« in cod. 84. and n3« in cod. 128. which are very 
 vnekilful attempts to avoid the supposed difficulty of the passage. 
 
 ^? Num. xxiii, 28, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 47 
 
 the sacred narrative proceeds — "^'' And Balak's an- 
 ger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his 
 hands together : and Balak said unto Balaam I call- 
 ed thee to curse mine enemies, and behold thou 
 hast altogether blessed them, these three times. 
 Therefore now flee thou to thy place ; I thought 
 to promote thee unto great honor : but lo, the Lord 
 hath kept thee back from honor. " The prophet, 
 after pleading his submissiveness to the divine 
 will, in justification of his steady, uncorrupted in- 
 tegrity, replies in the following terms. **And 
 now, behold, I go unto my people : come therefore 
 and I will advertise thee what this people shall do 
 to thy people in the latter days. 
 
 ^^^And he uttered his mystic speech, and said'*—* 
 
 " The saw"9 of Balaam, the son of Beor, 
 
 And tlie saw of the man whose eye is closed ;^^ 
 
 "T Num. xxiv. 10. 
 
 ^i8 From this place, a new translation is given by the author. 
 
 ^19 Tlie original, as pointed by tlie Masorets, is thus literally 
 rendered; D^73, DK^ the saying, or* saw of Bileam;'D^*Jl being 
 the constructive case of the part. Paul of the verb DX)I, he said. 
 
 The Latin, '</?xi7 Balaam,^ the Spanish, * dixo Balaam,' and 
 English, * Balaam hath said,' are irreconcilable with sense : the 
 Greek, (p^r\ BaAaa/x; the Italian * dice Balaam;' the French, 
 * Balaam dit,' and the German, * es saget Bileam,' have avoided 
 this error, but do not express the original. The Oriental ver- 
 sions dispose of the difficulty in a different manner. The Chal- 
 dee adopting the paraphrastic present, with an ellipsis of the aux- 
 iliary verb, reads Dj)^2 "Ipi* * Balaam (is) saying;' the Syri- 
 
 ac, adopting the imperative, reads v^v \^ pc|, * say Balaam;' 
 
 as also the Arabic, ^^^ W. 3^*> *say, O^Balaam.' 
 
 ^20 The verb onu^, which occurs in the original, signifies he 
 closed: the passage is accordingly rendered in the Vulgate, *cu- 
 jus obturaius est oculus ;' by Arias Montanus, after Pagnini, * vir 
 occlusus oculo ;' by Houbigant, * qui claitsos habet oculos,' by Di- 
 odati, * c'ha I'occhio chinso,' and by Scio, * cuyo ojo esi^cerrado* 
 One Hebrew ms. cod. 199. adopting dhd, puts the sense out of 
 
48 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 The saw of him who heard the word of God, 
 And knew^^i the knowledge of the Highest ; 
 Who beheld the vision of the Almighty, 
 Falling [en-tranced], and being illumined^^^ in sight. 
 I shall see^^^ Him, but not now ; 
 
 dispute, as this verb is assigned no other meaning : vid. Buxtorfl 
 Lex. c. 1559. The Samaritan, EngHsh, French and German, 
 which take the word in the sense of open, are positively wrong ; 
 the Septuagint, to dispose of their doubts, which sufficiently in- 
 cdiate the true sense of the passage, adopt a bold paraphrase, 
 which, if it does not suit the text, is atleast accommodated to the 
 context; o Ji>.r>^ivZi o^uv. The same observation may be extend- 
 ed to the Chaldee, nn TSU/i, which expresses the same sense : 
 
 to which the Arabic nearly conforms, ^^aJ^ *Xj«X:tf^ }^j^^ * the 
 man of clear vision :' and from which the Syriac does not very far 
 recede r ni.v |.\ . » 'whose eye is illumined.' The importance 
 of this rendering for which Bp. Newton contends, ubi supr. p. 
 76. will be manifested in the sequel. 
 
 ^21 If the reading irnv be adopted, the sense will be, " and 
 made known." 
 
 ^*2 The participle Paul »iVj, from nVj, properly means unco- 
 vered, revealed: and in this sense it seems necessary to under- 
 stand it, in order to avoid a contradiction with verse 15. * whose 
 eye is closed.^ The proper force of the term is accordingly ex- 
 pressed in the Samaritan, iafTT^A^*^ fTTZIiiS/ illumined in eyes;' 
 m the Septuagint, a,7roy.iita,Xv{ji,^ji.ivoi ol oip^a.'KiJLoi ctiirti ; and by A- 
 rias Montanus, * discoopertus oculis : the sense of the phrase 
 being accurately expressed in the Chaldee paraphrase n'^ ''?JnD, 
 'it having been revealed to him.'' The Vulgate of Jerome, 
 which is followed by Diodati and Scio, contains a contradic- 
 tion; in the Syriac, . ,m r,y ,\ _AA-Aa * having his eyes open, 
 and the Arabic which uses the singular, with the same sense, 
 
 ^ . y xJ! ^y^J^-< y^^ and in the French, English and German, 
 this error is indeed avoided, but both the opposed terms are mis- 
 translated in these versions. 
 
 1*' The rendering of the Septuagint seems to affect the au- 
 thority of this important text ; as it recedes so far from the ori- 
 ginal, as to justify a suspicion, that it may have arisen in a diffe- 
 rent reading from that contained in the existing editions : ij«n« 
 mp «*?"! iJnitt^^ r\r\V «Vl. This passage is thus rendered by 
 these translators, ^s\^q) avru, x^ e^) vvv, fji-ana^O^u x^ ax £y7'^«»> * I 
 shall skew to him, but not now, I felicitate him and he does not 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER* 49 
 
 I shall behold him, but not near : 
 A star shall proceed^^* out of Jacob, 
 
 approach/ But the integrity of the text is wholly unaffected by 
 this translation ; as the sense here ascribed to it has been obvious- 
 ly extracted from the present reading. If n«n« be taken as the 
 future of Hiphil n«*irr, to cause to see, to shew, instead of as the 
 future of Kal, n^l, to see, and "nu^« as the future of ")ir«, to bless, 
 instead of that of Tiu;, to see, it will produce the sense ascribed to 
 the text by the Greek translators. The natural force of the pas- 
 sage may be, however, supported by the highest authority. A- 
 quila, a Jew, eminently skilled in the Hebrew, renders it, in the 
 received sense, o-^oiJLUi ccvrlv i^ e vvv, iF^oa-x.oiru airot aXA' «« iyyv<; ; 
 Symmachus, who bore the same character, renders the latter part 
 of it, opw ctvrov uxx in iyyvq ; St. Jerome also, in the same sense, 
 * videho eum, sed non modo, intuebor ilium, sed non prope ;' Pa- 
 gnini, likewise, following the pointed text/videfH) eum et non nunc» 
 intnebor eum et non prope ;' and Houbigant the unpointed,* vide- 
 bo eum sed non modo, ego eum contemplabor, sed remotum.* 
 And the same sense is adopted, with one consent, by the authors 
 of the Italian, Spanish, French, English and German versions. 
 Of the Oriental versions, it must be allowed, that the Samaritan, 
 only expresses the force of the tense, X^H ft-l^X ^li/IT'^^iV 
 S/7r^V iVZ? K":^"^^^!^, 'I shall sce\i\mh\xinoix^oyf, I shall ce- 
 lebrate him, but not near ;' of course making *i"iu;«, the future of 
 'iitt^ : the Chaldee adopts the indefinite, n'n'no \V'2 v>h^ n'ri'in 
 nnp ♦mn»« v>h^, \ have seen him, but not now, I fieAcW him but he 
 is not near;' and the Syriac, )Jo oiZ;>wO o^ _^ |Jo a\L,\^ 
 *^^ \o jooi, I have sce7ihim,butnotforalong while, I have be- 
 held him, and he is not nigh :' but the Arabic wholly departing 
 
 from the sense, reads, Aa^!^ QJ^^ ^^y^y^ y^ iy*^3 ^r*^ ^/' 
 <-r-V;^* j^ y^^ ' I see the affair, and it is not existing now, I 
 behold it, 'and it is not near.' But the sense in these versions 
 has every appearance of being accommodated to the prejudices 
 of the translators. 
 
 *** Although "^m is written without "i conversive, yet in conse- 
 quence of being coupled by that conjunction with a number of 
 verbs to which it gives a future sense, it is properly taken in the 
 future. In this sense, it is accordingly rendered almost with one 
 consent in the versions. The original Hebrew, ipr'D IDID "|"n, is 
 thus paraphrased in the Chaldee of Onkelos, i\>v''r:i «d'?d Dip' id 
 ' when a king sliall arise from Jacob ;' but rendered in the Syriac, 
 .aaonv - ,^ j«^-->n-> t^MU^j; * there shall arise a star out of Jacob / 
 
 H 
 
50 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 A sceptre shall rise out of Israel, 
 
 And shall break the Termini ^^^ of Moab, 
 
 *nd in the Arabic L«jyuo ^S ^^ i^^^^Jiyi/u ^^1, ' for a star 
 shall proceed out of Jacob ;' or if the pointed text be followed^ 
 
 'sfiall be senty as cJiXIaj is pointed in the future passive. The 
 Samaritan, is however, dissentient, in which the phrase is ren- 
 dered, aPVnriiJ ai5*tiJ V*\?A-, * he cawsed a star to proceed from 
 Jacob :' V*^'?/^ being used in the indefinite Aphel of V*\A^. 
 Tn the Western versions, the future is generally adopted. The 
 Greek reads, in the common sense, uvaliXtT as-^ov l^ 'la,>iu>^; as 
 also the Latin, * orietur stellaex Jacob.' The Italian likewise 
 coincides, * una stella procederd da Jacob :' and the Spanish, 
 * de Jacob naccrd una estrella ;' as also the German, * es wird 
 ein stern aus Jacob avfgchen ;' and the English, * there shall 
 come a star out of Jacob:' the French is indeed dissentient, * une 
 etoilc estproctdee de Jacob,' but its voice will not avail much, 
 against such a host of suffrages* 
 
 ^25 The commentators, who render n«lD »n«3 ynm, " and 
 will smite the princes of Moab," are reduced to sad straining, 
 to extract the sense of princes from CD»n«Q, which signifies cor- 
 ners. This sense is adopted not only in the Chaldee, ^iDp't 
 SNID 'linn, * and will slay the princes of Moab ;' but in the 
 Greek, i^ ^^acva-st 7a$ a^x^jya? Muoc^j * and will wound the rulers 
 of Moab;' and in the Latin, 'et percutiet duces Moab.' The 
 Syriac offers a different sense, .^ijoicj | ;^» , V ^ojo/ and will 
 destroy the ^lawfs of Moab;' and the Samaritan, following a 
 different reading, ^/f ^!iS -mA!^ -mV^^iS, * will transfix the fool- 
 ish ones of Moab :' but the Arabic renders it, with more accura- 
 cy,*-^ L< djl^ ^yx3, * will debilitate the regions of Moab,' 
 or, as the passage is rendered by Symraachus, 9ra»cr£» >cxi[jt,oira, 
 Muu^, ' will smite the regions of Moab." The first of these 
 translations, which appears to have, arisen from confounding 
 n«iD »n«D with ikid nns, Esdr. ii. 6. viiiv 4. Neh. iii. 11. is^ 
 wholly untenable. It is notwithstanding adopted, after the ex- 
 ample and authority of the Septuagint and Vulgate, in almost 
 all the modern versions; in the Italian, *trasfiggerk i principi 
 di Moab;' in the Spanish, * herira a los caudillos (will smite the 
 chiefs) de Moab ;' in the French, * transpercera les chefs de 
 Moab;' in the German, *wird zerschmettern die Fiirsten di^t 
 Moabiter.' To all these the literal rendering of the English is 
 to be preferred, ' shall smite the corners of Moab ;' which receives 
 illustration and support from 2 Chron. xxviii. 2. 24. Pagnini, 
 
' OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 51 
 
 And destroyi26 ^U the Sethites.^^T 
 
 however, appears to me to have expressed more accurately than 
 any of the translators, the meaning of this curious passage ; * et 
 transfiget tcrminos Moab;' which Arias Montanus rejects for 
 the more literal version, * et transfiget angulos Moab,* of which 
 I cannot discover the sense. 
 
 126 If the reading of the Samaritan '^r^JP*? be adopted, the 
 rendering should then be, * will smite the Termini of Moab, anrf 
 the crown of the sons of Seth.' But against this reading it re- 
 mains further to be stated, tliat it is obvious it was not found in 
 the copies, from which the principal versions have been made. 
 The Greek, x^' 'K^ovofjuvan, the Latin, * vastabitque,' with the same 
 sense, have ob\Tiously proceeded from Pihel "ip"»p"i of the verb 
 lip: and they sufficiently establish the antiquity of this reading 
 in the Hebrew. The same observation may be extended, with 
 some grains of allowance, to the Chaldee toi'ptl^n, and will sub- 
 due j' to the Syriac, ^ ^v^m . * and will subjugate ;' and to the 
 
 Arabic, J\J\j^, *and will shake,' which have obviously not de- 
 scended from npipi. The version of Symmachus, l|£^8^»^o-£<, * will 
 investigate,' seems derived from *ipni ; as its author possibly 
 supposed the Hebrew ought to read : forthfis he has rendered the 
 same verb, in Ps. xxxiii. 22. Prov. xxv. 27. vid. Montfauc. 
 Hexapl. in loc. The copy from which he translated must have 
 consequently conformed rather to the reading of the Hebrew 
 than the Samaritan recension. 
 
 1^ As V«nir» 'Ji means Israelites, nty »J1 means Sethites, 
 The term D^ in the passage before us. Num. xxiv. 17. is writ- 
 ten, in the pointed Hebrew, as the patriarch's name, Gen. v. 4: 
 both are translated accordingly ; being rendered in the Sep- 
 tuagint, XijS, and in the Vulgate, Seth. The authors of th^ 
 Chaldee Paraphrase and Jerusalem Targum prove, by their ver- 
 sion, that they understood it of the patriarch ; the one interpret- 
 ing nu^ »jn, as * all the sons of men ;' the other, as * all the Ori^ 
 entalists/ who were properly descendants of Seth. The word 
 is accordingly adopted with this orthography, not only by Hou- 
 bigant following the unpointed Hebrew, and by Pagnini fol- 
 lowing the pointed, but in the Syriac, which reads Aa*, and in 
 
 the Arabic, which reads ii.■^^MM ; and by the authors of the 
 
 French, Spanish and German versions. The Italian, indeed, ren- 
 ders it, not as a proper, but a common name, * i figliuoli di fon- 
 danumto ;' and the English, altering its orthography without any 
 authority, renders it, * all the sons of Sheth' 
 
 II 2 
 
52 THIE. ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 And Idumea shall be a possession. 
 
 And Seir shall be a possession of his foes : 
 
 And Israel shall do [deeds of] might :^"** 
 
 He [that] shall rule^^^ [shall be] from Jacob, 
 
 And shall destroy him that survives of the city."i^o 
 
 '^^^ The versions in rendering this passage, are opposed with 
 one consent, to the Chaldee in which it is rendered ; n*? v ^«"iu^n 
 I'DDJl, 'and Israel shall prosper in goods;' in the Syriac, it is 
 translated ,)La/ [m^ \\.|jm.jr^j *and Israel shall acquire might;' 
 
 in the Arabic, liXjJ <^l*2>i; ^}/^^3 * and Israel shall encrease in 
 might;' in the Samaritan ZUr*^ "^SV ZA-^^/TT^, * and Is- 
 rael shall do [deeds of] might :' in the Septuagint, x,' *Ic7■pa»^^ iTroU 
 95^«v l» »<r%y<, * and Israel did in might:' in the Latin, * Israel 
 vero fortiter aget :' in the Italian, * ed Israel fark prodezze ;' in 
 the Spanish, * mas Israel procedera esforzdamenie ;' in the 
 French, * et Israel agira vaillamment :' in the German, * Israel 
 aber wird Sieg haben ;' (have victory) ; and in the English, 
 
 * and Israel shall do valiantly.' 
 
 ^«9 The Septuagint renders this passage, xj l^tyi^^Qtrat l^ 
 'lotKu^y * and he shall arise from out of Jacob ;' deriving the He- 
 brew Tin, from the verb nn% to descend, instead of mi to rule. 
 And in this rendering, they are generally countenanced by the 
 Oriental versions, which adopt the verb nnJ, Aao, of which Bux- 
 torf declares. Lex. Chald. c. 1330. "pro Hebraeo ni* usurpa- 
 tum." Thus the Chaldee ipp» rrmn nn mnn, * and one shall 
 descend from the house of Jacob ;' the Syriac .^nov . vp Zqa^jo 
 
 • and he shall descend from Jacob ;' and the Samaritan, AV^tttX 
 ^V^nt^, with the same sense. The Arabic, however, coin- 
 cides with the Western versions, rendering the passage, if «xJ^|^ 
 
 v._.>^3uu i\ ^^ Jy^"^ *and he who shall rule from Jacob 
 shall ' &c. Thus also tfie Vulgate, * de Jacob erit qui doininetur ; 
 the Italian, * ed uno disceso di Jacob signoreggerd ;' the Spanish, 
 de Jacob saldra el que dominei' the French, *et celui qui dom- 
 inera viendra de Jacob ;* the German, * aus Jacob wird der 
 Herrscker kommen ;' and the English, * out of Jacob shall come 
 he that shall have dominion ;' in which, by a singular coincidence, 
 these versions, by means of the auxiliary verb which they em- 
 ploy, express both the roots from which the Hebrew verb is de- 
 duced. 
 
 130 This passage is rendered, in the same sense, by the Sep- 
 tuagint K^ u'moXiT a-u^ofAivov U woAefo? ; and by St. Jerome, ' et per- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 53 
 
 And he beheld the Amalekite, and uttered his mys- 
 tic speech, and said ; 
 
 « The Amalekite is the head of the nations. 
 But his end^^^ is [appointed] for destruction." 
 
 And he beheld the Cainite"' and uttered his mys- 
 
 det reliquias civitatis : by the Chaldee, «'n»r nnp» S»rtt^D navi, 
 * and will destroy him that escapes of the city of the people ;' by 
 the Syriac, jA-^ -io cOioZUicj \j^\i j^qjo, ' and will destroy 
 him that escapes from the city ;' and by the Arabic,«Xj|AJ^ *N-J^ 
 
 ^ ^ jj1\ (jj^f * will destroy the fugitive from the cities/ which 
 sufficiently authenticates the received reading, by establishing 
 its antiquity and general reception. 
 
 **i The Septuagint renders this passage, xj to crwe^/xa avruv 
 (avrS) uTToMTrcttf * and his seed shall be destroyed ;' taking nnn« 
 in a sense which it is frequently assigned. But independant of 
 the antithesis between that word and n'tt^Hl, which is lost in this 
 version ; the common rendering accords better with Exod. xvii. 
 14. and is generally followed in the versions. The Latin expres- 
 ses * cujus extrema;' the Chaldee n'DiDi, * and his end;* the Sy- 
 riac, oiZ.;^wo, the Arabic, L^r^^^, and the Samaritan /S-^VVK, 
 the same sense : of the modern versions, the Italian * e'lsuonwwi- 
 nente;^ the Spanish, * cuyas postremerias ; and the English, * his 
 lattei' end: but, with an adverbal force, the French, * mais d la 
 Jin ;' and the German, * aber zuletzt.* 
 
 1*2 This name is variously rendered in the different versions. 
 In the primitive character, '^tttVy and in the unpointed Hebrew 
 Vp, it differs not from the name of the first son of Adam. Ac- 
 cording to the Masoretical pointing, these names differ merely as 
 y^p from \^\) ; both of which are rendered Cain, by Pagnini and 
 
 Arias Montanus, who scrupulously follow, in the rendering of 
 
 S roper names, the orthography of the Masorets. By the Chal- 
 ee paraphrast, the Hebrew phrase, ♦J^p n« «in, * and he be- 
 held the Cainite,' is rendered nwD^it^ n* «Tni, * and he beheld the 
 Salanicean/ which is transferred to the Jerusalem Targum, «om 
 k^»DVtr^ n*. Those who render the phrase * and he beheld the 
 Kenite,* are of course deserted by the authority of these antient 
 versions ; the authors of which have obviously adopted this term 
 from rVo in the context, ^jp rVon O'tt^l, * and put thy nest in a 
 rock,' where there is a palpable play upon the name. The Sep- 
 tuagint, employing the term, KuaXoVf or Kimhv , and the Vulgate 
 
54 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 tic speech, and said ; 
 
 *' Secure is thy habitation. 
 
 And put thou thy nest in a rock ; 
 
 133 Yet the Cainiteis [reserved] for destruction; 
 
 tile term CincBus, as well in the passage before us, Num. xxiv. 
 21. as in Jud. i. IG. 1 Sam. xv. 6. support the opinion of those 
 only who understand it as meant of the Kenites. But to pre- 
 serve their consistency, in including this people in the unpropi- 
 tious denunciations of Balaam, which cannot be easily reconci- 
 led with the last cited passages of scripture, they are compelled 
 to misrepresent the original : the Septuagint omitting to render 
 the name |»p in the context .* vid. infr. n.^^s As the modern ver- 
 sions have been obviously accommodated to the antient, their 
 testimony necessarily resolves into that of the Greek and Latin : 
 yet * Cain' occurs in the French and Italian, and * Kain ' in the 
 German, vid. infr. n.^^a 
 
 1*' The original of these verses is rendered in the Septuagint, 
 
 *and if Beor shall have a nest of craft, the Assyrian shall take 
 thee captive ;* from whence it would appear, that instead of n^n* 
 na ijf ]'>p nra^ they read, nn^r tp "jiri'? rr»n». As this reading is 
 unsupported by any version or ms. it is unnecessary to bestow 
 upon it any further notice. The Vulgate, deviating from the 
 Greek, renders the same passage, * et fueris electus de stripe Cin, 
 quamdiu poteris permanere ? Assur enim capiet te ;' which indi- 
 cates that the translator found in his copy, or believed he ought 
 to find, ''i3i iitt^« HD IV rp niniD n^n' a« o, * if he shall be 
 elect of Cin, how long? for the Assyrian' &c. As this read- 
 ing is equally unsupported, with that apparently followed in the 
 Greek, it is alike unentitled to notice. As both versions furnish 
 an indirect evidence, that the Kenite cannot be meant, while 
 the reading ijjih, for destruction, is retained ; this phrase is used 
 with such a sense in scripture, (see Is. v. 5. vi. 13.) and is as- 
 signed the same force, in the versions of the passage before us; 
 in the Chaldee, n«Df?tt^ n«y>tt^V m* D«, * if the Salma^an be (re- 
 served) for perdition ; ' in the Syriac, following the sound rather 
 than the sense, .o | '^vo^\ joou J? * if Cain be (reserved) for 
 i^e gleaning ;' in the Samaritan, ^^p/rrZ ntKttt iiSA^ /f-Z^ 
 t^nrP, * though Cain be (reserved) for consuming :' as it likewise 
 is assigned in the principal modern versions; in the Italian, * ma 
 pur Cain sard disertato ;' in the French, *toutefois, Cain sera 
 ravage ;' in the German, * aber o Kain, du wirst verbrannt 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 55 
 
 Until the Assyrian shall take thee captive. ''^^* 
 
 And he uttered his mystic speech, and said ; 
 
 " Alas ! who shall live when God [appointeth] this ? 
 For [there shall be] ships^^^ from the side^^o ^f Citium, 
 
 werden ;' Q,nd in the English, 'nevertheless the Kenite shall be 
 tvastedJ The Arabic, though parai)hrastic, appears to have o- 
 
 riginated in the same reading, ^^jAaaaJG^ ^^iiJ ^-H^^ 6->; ^^^^ 
 
 ^Ss^y ' and when the time shall be for expelling the Kenites 
 from you.' 
 
 ^3* In the Samaritan this passage is rendered, *\'t^iV^i5 *^V^ 
 i5A*?^^V, * thy return from Assur is a witness :' and in the 
 Arabic, with a direct application to the Kenites, *^ C— 5***^ 
 ^i^xLa^\ * the Musoleans (or Assyrians) shall take from them 
 captives.' But in this rendering they are opposed to the com- 
 mon consent of the versions; to the Greek and Latin, uti supr, 
 n.i33. to the Chaldee, iJitt^' n«n"in« hd ip, * whilever the As- 
 syrian shall make thee captive;' to the Syriac, JoZjl }20|A. 
 ^QiHAj, until Assur shall lead thee captive;' to the Italian, 
 
 * intino attanto ch' Assur ti meni in cattivitk ;' to the Spanish, 
 
 * pues Assur te apreserd ;' to the French, 'jusqu' ^ ce qu' As- 
 sur te mene en captivite ;' to the German * wenn Assur dick ge- 
 fangcn wegfiihren wird;' and to the English, * until Assur shall 
 carry thee away captive.' 
 
 ^3* The modern versions, are corroborated by the Chaldee 
 and the Latin, in rendering this passage; the former renders it, 
 jmtDV \TVi^, * and ships shall come ;' the latter, * venient in tri^ 
 eribus:^ so also the Italian, * poi appresso (veranno) navi;* the 
 Spanish, * vendr^n engaleras;* the French, * et des vaisseavx yi" 
 endront;' the German, * und Schiffe,^ and the English, *and 
 Shijis shall come.' But the Greek renders it, i^eXsverercti, * he 
 shall come forth ;' the Syriac, no^i | ^n . \ o. * and legions shall 
 
 come from ;' the Samaritan, ^A-nT-ZntHT, ♦ he shall lead them;' 
 
 and the Arabic, (jj^j\i>^\y' and those who shall betake them/ 
 ^^^ Thus I conceive the passage is most justly rendered ; the 
 idiom formed in Hebrew by the term T, hand, being in many 
 cases analogous to that formed in English by the term side. 
 Thus 1 Sam. iv. 13. i*n i», the hand of the way, is justly ren- 
 dered, in the English version, * the way-swZe;' and Ibid. 18. n» 
 iru^n, thi hand of the gate, as justly, ' the side of the gate :' ex- 
 amples of the same idiom may be found in Deut. ii, 37. Prov* 
 
56 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 And shall vex the Assyrian, and vex the Hebrew ;^3^ 
 And he also [is reserved ] for destruction. 
 
 Even v^hile this prophecy is regarded through 
 the medium of a servile translation, divested of its 
 idioms, and separated from those local and heredi- 
 tary associations, which rendered its subject fami- 
 
 viii. 3. Dan. x. 4. Of the ancient versions, this term is trans- 
 ferred into the text of the Samaritan ; and wholly omitted in the 
 Chaldee ; in the Syriac it is translated {..A^j \Ly] _iD, * from 
 
 the land of Chittim,' and in the Arabic, cr'rfi **^/^ (J^ * from 
 the port of Cyprus ;' to which the Italian nearly conforms, * dalla 
 costft di Chittim,' and the English, « from the coast of Chittim.* 
 The Chaldee ♦«n3D, ^from the Cithians,' and the German, * aus 
 Chitim,' though less explicit, express too much ; the French, 
 
 • du quartier de Kittim ' appears to me to have most faithfully 
 rendered the passage. 
 
 137 In the Chaldee paraphrase, this passage is rendered with 
 a manifest accommodation to the national prejudices of the He- 
 brews; ma nay^ tnnrnu^n mn«V pjrn, *and will afflict Assy- 
 ria, and subjugate beyond the river Euphrates ;' which rendering 
 is transplanted into the Targum of Jonathan. As, from the 
 apposition of Eber and Assur, in the Hebrew, both terms must 
 be taken with the same sense ; in this translation the original is 
 grossly misrepresented. It is accordingly rejected by the com- 
 mon suffrage of the versions, ancient and modern. In the Sep- 
 tuagint the passage is accordingly rendered, xj Kunucmcriv 'Aaah^, 
 i^ Ka.x.ua-H<Tiv 'E/S^aitf? ; in the Vulgate, * superabunt Assyrios, vas- 
 tabuntque Helnrceos ;" in the Syriac o,.::iikAJO >oZ|] n ^ o v ^ i rs 
 j - ' ^ V V r * and shall subdue Assur, and subdue the Hebrews; ' in 
 the Samaritan, SSV ^li^aZfTf^ ^-^^iV ^"y^eilm," shall afflict 
 Asshur, and shall afflict Eber ;' and also in the Arabic, v.-»j«Xxj 
 
 t^yjjXf^S^ o^-t^^^ *will afflict the Assyrians and the He- 
 breivs ;' by Paghini and Arias Montanus, * et affligent Assur, et 
 affligent Heber ;^ by Houbigant, * oppriment Assur, oppriment 
 HebrceumJ. It is likewise taken in the same sense by the com- 
 mon suffrage of the modern versions : in the Italian, * ed afflig- 
 geranno Assur, ed oppresseranno Eber;' in the Spanish, * vencer- 
 Sn i. los Assirios, y destruiran a los Hebreos ;' in the French, 
 
 * et ils affligeront Assur et Heber ;' in the German, * werden 
 verderben den Assur und Eber ;' and in the English, * and shall 
 afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber,^ 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 
 
 i^ 
 
 liar to the persons, who were immediately address- 
 ed by its author, it marks out the extraordinary 
 personage to whom the prediction applies, in a 
 manner too explicit to be long mistaken. So ob- 
 vious is it in its application, that the earlier Jews, 
 whose sentence is valuable in proportion to its an- 
 tiquity, exclusively recognised the expected Mes- 
 siah, in the prophetical declaration ; 
 
 I shall see him, but not now, 
 
 I shall behold him, but not near:^^^ 
 
 Many of their later commentators have indeed 
 discovered in it a different force, and have assign- 
 ed it a different application, in which they have 
 succeeded in gaining over some followers, where 
 it seems strange they should have made any pro- 
 selytes. ^^^ It would be, however, attended with 
 little difficulty to prove, from a view of the entire 
 scheme of Prophecy, and the history of the nations 
 whose fortunes it predicts, that it was wholly per- 
 verted from its object, in receiving any application 
 to David ; in whom it is supposed the prediction 
 was primarily, and of course, properly accom- 
 
 i» In the Targum of Jerusalem the above-cited passage is 
 paraphrased in the following words; **A Prince shall arise 
 from the house of Jacob, and a Redeemer and ruler from the 
 house of Israel, and shall slay the mighty ones of Moab, and 
 annihilate and destroy all the sons of the East." In the Targum 
 of Jonathan it is paraphrased as follows ; •* When a brave 
 Prince shall reign of the house of Jacob, and shall be anointed 
 Messiah, and a mighty sceptre from Israel, and slay the rulers 
 of Moab, and annihilate all the sons of Seth " &c. In the an- 
 tient Targum of Onkelos it is interpreted in the same sense. 
 
 *^9 R. Salom. Jarchi in loc. understands the passage of Da- 
 vid ; in this view of the prophecy it is less wonderful to find the 
 Apostate Julian concur, Oper. Tom. I. p. 262. a. than the 
 Rt. Rev. author of the Dissert, on Prophecy, who contends for 
 the primary application of the prophecy to the same monarch : 
 Newt. Works, Vol. I. p. 80. ' 
 
 I 
 
58 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 plished. A small share of attention, directed to 
 the original cause which occasioned the predic- 
 tion, to the ultimate object at which it aims, and 
 to the circumstances under which it was deliver- 
 ed, will enable us to form a just estimate of the 
 subject. 
 
 As the original cause which occasioned the de- 
 livery of Balaam's prophecy was the recent in- 
 road of the Israelites, on the borders of Moab; 
 the ultimate object of his prediction is their capti- 
 vity and removal from that territory by a more 
 powerful people ; for whom a like fate was reser- 
 ved to that which they had inflicted. In making 
 this disclosure, the prophet met the views, and 
 replied to the requisition of the king of Moab, 
 whose apprehensions at the advancement of so 
 formidable an enemy on the borders of his territo- 
 ry, had first led him to engage the enchanter of 
 Pethor, to employ his art, in the destruction of 
 the invaders. But with the fate of Israel, the for- 
 tunes of Moab were inseparably connected. The 
 Assyrians having been made the instruments of 
 the judgments which were reserved for the Is- 
 raelites ; the direct road to the invasion of their 
 territory lay through the dominions of Moab. And 
 at the period when this prediction received a 
 signal accomplishment, in the captivity and de- 
 portation of ten tribes, and the utter subversion of 
 the throne of Israel ; the Assyrians commenced 
 their operations against that kingdom, with the 
 subjugation of the Moabites, having wasted their 
 territories, and dismantled their cities. "° As this 
 
 ^*^ The circumstances which attended the final dissolution 
 of the kingdom of Israel, are thus succinctly stated by Abp. 
 IJssher; Annal. p. 55. ad A. M. 3*280. " Shalmaneser hav- 
 ing discovered the conspiracy of Hosea, Jirst occupied the ter- 
 ritory of the Moabites (that he might leave nothing in his rear. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVFRER. 69 
 
 was an event of paramount interest to that nation^ 
 whom Balaam immediately addressed ; it is ac- 
 cordingly selected by him, as the principal subject 
 which he had to reveal, in giving them an insight 
 into futurity. " Come," he declares to the king 
 of Moab, ** and I will advertise thee, what this 
 people shall occasion to thy people, in the latter 
 days." 
 
 Not less intimately connected with the object 
 which the prophet had in view was the advent of 
 that expected Personage, to whose coming he 
 first directs the attention of his hearers, on promis- 
 ing to disclose the disastrous consequences, with 
 w^hich the establishment of the new settlers in 
 their borders v^ould be finally attended. In the 
 common calamity in vv^hich Moab would be invol- 
 ved vv^ith Israel, the evils inflicted by Assyria o- 
 perated as a scourge, to reclaim and to chastise 
 them in their common apostacy ; redemption and 
 protection having been oft'ered, through that 
 Great Deliverer, w^hose kingdom would finally tri- 
 umph over the people who should subjugate Israel 
 
 which would be detrimental to his forces,) having cut off their 
 two chief cities, At and Kir-hareseth ; according to the pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah, delivered the third year before the event. He 
 then invaded the entire kingdom of Israel: and going up against 
 Samaria, in the fourth year of Hezekiah and the seventh of 
 Hosea, then commencing; besieged it for three years. At the 
 end of the third year of the siege, Shalmaneser took Samaria, 
 and carried away the Israelites, and placed them in Halach, 
 and Habor, and Nehar -gozen, (where Tiglathpileser had trans- 
 planted the two tribes and a half which inhabited Perea be- 
 yond Jordan), and in the cities of the Medes. For the anarchy 
 which prevailed among the Medes, before the royal authoiity 
 was committed to Dejoces afforded the Assyrians the oppor- 
 tunity of occupying their cities. . . . And thus ended the kingdom 
 of Israel, after it had remained 254 years separated from the 
 kingdom of Judah.'' 
 
 I 2 
 
60 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 and Moab."^ As the advent of this expected per- 
 sonage would be not less signally marked by the 
 destruction of his enemies, than by the deliverance 
 of his adherents ; the former having been the rela-. 
 tion in which the Moabites had placed themselves, 
 by their depraved habits and idolatrous worship, 
 they had rendered themselves obnoxious to his 
 vengeance. Such was the light in which they 
 were prepared by the prophet to expect his arri- 
 val : his power would be displayed in the subver- 
 sion of the idols, and the destruction of the idola- 
 ters, — he would *' break the Termini of Moab, and 
 destroy all the Sethites." 
 
 With the leading object which Balaam had in 
 view, he interweaves the fate of the different peo- 
 ple whom he beheld from the elevated situation to 
 which Balak had conducted him, to survey the 
 encampment of Israel. The fortunes of these na- 
 tions had an obvious connexion with the fate of 
 this people, with whom they were connected not 
 merely by the geographical position of their terri- 
 tpries, and the participation in the same rites and 
 worship, but by the ties of consanguinity. Moab 
 traced its original to Lot; Edom and Amalek, as 
 the descendants of Esau, were also collaterally de- 
 Wcended from the same stock with the children of 
 Israel. As tliese nations were viewed from the 
 
 1*1 The defection of the Israelites to the worship of Baal, 
 and their disregard of the prophets who were sent to reclaim, 
 -thern from their idolatry are stated to have been the causes pf 
 tlleit deportation and captivity : 2 Kings, xvii. 6 — -18. Thft^ 
 prophets, [saiah and Jeieraiah, who uttered particular predicr 
 tions against the Moabites, upbraid this people .with their de-r, 
 votion to the same idolatrous worship : Is. xvi. 12, Jer. xlviii, 
 I 35. By Isaiah, whose prophecy was delivered three years, 
 before the territory of Moab was laid waste by the Assyrians, 
 she was "exhorted to yield obedience to Christ's^l4ogdom;f » 
 vid. Is. xvi. 3 — 5. 
 
or A GREAT PELIVEBER. 6^ 
 
 heights of Nebo, the Israelites were beheld en-, 
 camped in the plains of Moab ; beyond their bor- 
 ders, the Moabites extended themselves al,ong the 
 banks of Arnon ; still further south, the Edomites 
 extended themselves along the skirts of Palestine ; 
 and beyond their territories the Amalekites, reach- 
 ing northward to the sea, occupied the interme- 
 diate country between Edom and Egypt. By 
 these nations, the entire tract through which the 
 route of the Israelites lay, in seeking their desti- 
 nation in Canaan, was consequently occupied: 
 and they had severally become implicated with 
 the emigrant nation, in denying them a passage 
 through their territories ; the Amalekites having 
 opposed their progress by force of arms/*^ The 
 prophet, who beheld them from the elevated posi- 
 tion where he was placed, was thus afforded an 
 opportunity to connect their destiny with the for- 
 tunes of Israel, which he was employed in disclo- 
 sing. Suitably to the disposition which they had 
 displayed towards this people, such should be 
 their retribution. While ** a ruler of the house of 
 Jacob should have the dominion, Moab should be 
 afflicted in its remotest boundaries, Edom should 
 be the possession of its enemies, and Amalek be 
 reserved for utter destruction." 
 
 Nor does the prophet leave it matter of conjecture 
 that the period was distant, at which the predic- 
 tion would receive its signal accomplishment. In 
 avowing the object with which he addressed the 
 king of Moab, he declares, that the consequences 
 of which he advertised him would occur ** in the 
 latter days." When understood even in the 
 laxest sense, these words must have marked the 
 
 1*2 Comp. Exod. xvii 8^ 14. Nom. xx. 14. 18. xxi.. 11. !». 
 Deut. ii. 4.8.9. 
 
 J 
 
62 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 decline of one or both of the nations, whose future 
 destinies the prophet professes to reveal. With 
 this specific signification they had been long used ; 
 the Jews having employed the phrase to designate 
 the close of an old and waning dispensation, which 
 would be superseded by a new order and econo- 
 my, under the Messiah. ^*^ And the most profound- 
 ly learned of the early christian commentators 
 have so understood them, and have deduced from 
 them, in such a sense, the true application of the 
 prophecy to Christ, and that the period of its ac- 
 complishment would be distant.^** 
 
 143 By it tijg latter days" the Jews generally understood 
 the times of the revelation of the Messiah : Targ. Jonath. in 
 Gen. XXXV. 21. n»dv ^^^D2. wn'iTD «dVd »Vjn«, ' in the end of 
 days the Messiah, the Prince, will be revealed :' conf. R. 
 Mos. Bar Nachman in Gen. xlix. 1. Dav. Kimch. in Is. ii. 
 1. Aberbanel in Pirke Avoth cap. iv. By the intervention 
 of the Septuagint, we are enabled to trace the phrase, in the 
 same sense, to the New Testament. The Hebrew nnn«n 
 D'DM, occurring in the passage before us, which is rendered 
 in Chaldee «'dv piidi, is translated by the LXX. Gen. xlix. 
 1. Icet' ta-^a.Tur rut r;/xs^a;», and ^ um. xxiv. l4. tv io-^ath ru» 
 y)fjLe^u». St. Peter adopts the former terms, in speaking of the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost, at the commencement of the New 
 Dispensation, Acts ii. 17. and applies the latter to its close, 
 in mentioning the scoffers who derided the notion of our Lord's 
 second coming ; 2 Pet. iii. 3. They are accordingly adopted, 
 in the Jewish sense, by the generality of commentators among 
 the Christians; vid. Hammond on Matt. xxiv. 3. Wolf. Cur. 
 Philol. Vol. T. p. 3:i8. b. Schleusn. Lex. Nov. Test. voc. 
 ali». § 10. Buxtorf. Lex Rabbin, voc aVir. col. 1620. 
 
 ^** Origen, who possessed a knowledge of the original, which 
 was not attainable bv a reader merely of the Septuagint, con- 
 sequently unde stands the passage, ' I shall see him,' as meant 
 of Christ, and the phrase * the latter days,' as meant of the 
 time of his manifestation : Horn, xviii. in Num. Tom. II. p. 
 341. f. ** In aliis quidem exemplaribus legimus, * videbo eum 
 sed non modo.' Quod si recipiaiur, facilius intelligi putabi- 
 tur, ut Christum f de quo in consequentibus dicit, * orietur stella 
 ex Jacob, et exsurget homo de Israel,* rtciew^^Mm, dicat esge, sed 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 63 
 
 There is consequently no just ground for main- 
 taining a second opinion,^^ as to the person intend- 
 ed by the prophet, in tlie splendid passage in which 
 he opens his prediction ; 
 
 I shall see him, but not now, 
 I shall behold hhn, but not near : 
 
 Even the indefinite nature of the language 
 which he employs sufficiently discloses his pur- 
 pose : the personage to whom he alludes being so 
 obvious as to require no specific designation." 
 
 116 
 
 non modo : hoc est, non eo tempore quo ista loquebantur. In 
 novissimis enim diebus^ • ubi venit plenitudo temporis, mint 
 Demjilium suum.'' After explaining the text, as rendered ia 
 the vulgar translation, he adds. Ibid. p. 342. b. ** Sed hoctem- 
 pus, in quo haec futura sunt, non appropinquat : longe enim est, 
 et in ipso sceculijine sperandum.'' 
 
 ^** Bp. Newton assigns the following as his reason for ap- 
 plying the prophecy, in its primary sense, to David ; uti supr. 
 p. 82. — •' for this reason particularly, because Balaam is here 
 advertising Balak, * What this people should do to his people 
 in the latter days,' that is what the Israelites should do to the 
 Moabites hereafter.'* In both of which positions, the learned 
 writer's commentary is unfortunately deserted by the authority 
 of his original. The term which he here renders * should do,* 
 is in the original H^!^; and as thus pointed by the Masorets 
 
 in the fut. Hiphil, has consequently the sense * will cause to be 
 done :' the verb in Kal signifying to do, but in Hiphil to cause 
 others to do. That the accompanying D»D'n nnnwn, has a very 
 different force from what it receives in the ' hereafter ' of the 
 learned commentator, has been I trust sufficiently established ; 
 supr. p. 62. n.i*^ 
 
 **^ Willemer Desert, de Stel. ex Jacob, oriund. § 10. " Ob- 
 jectum visionis signiticatur inseparabili pronomine m, ilium, 
 nempe Reg em Messiam, suo regnique splendoie illustrem, 
 ut cum Stella lucidissima multis modis conferri mereatur. Si- 
 militer ad personam pronomen istud referunt Chaldaii, Syrus, 
 Samaritanus, Vulgatus, Estius, Tirinus, Castalio, ipseque Lu- 
 therus, dum convertit eum, Jhn. Ubi ex vero observavit Ca- 
 jetanus vocem eum kxt i^oxn* respicere Christum, tanquam 
 personam nulli comparandam, et de qua dicatur, omnium max- 
 ime dignam." 
 
§4 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 Nor let it be supposed, that as thus pointed out by 
 merely negative marks, the character to which the 
 prophet alludes is vague and uncertain. The 
 terms which he employs to announce his coming 
 are nearly identical with those by which the Mes- 
 siah was designated, at a time when the expecta- 
 tion of his advent was realised."^ And in describing 
 the character by which that event would be distin- 
 guished, he selects those images, which identify, 
 beyond all doubt, the real object of the prediction : 
 
 A star shall proceed out of Jacob, 
 A sceptre shall rise out of Israel : 
 
 On the signification of these words, two hypo- 
 theses are maintained ; which, though they lead 
 to their end by different ways, terminate in esta- 
 blishing the same conclusion. At an early peribd 
 of the church, this prediction was understood in 
 the letter ; and was supposed to foretell the appear- 
 ance of the star by which Magians were conduct- 
 ed to Judea, at the time of the nativity/*^ And in 
 
 **'' The Messiah was generally designated in the times 
 of our Lord merely by the terms, 5 I|j;^o^ej'o?, * he who is to 
 come/ or, as expressed in the vernacular Syriac, jZ.|j ooi: 
 yid. Matt. xi. 3. Luc. vii. 19. John vi. 14. Heb. x. 37. 
 The grammatical refinerrient of Houbigant, who refers the pro- 
 noun him to '* God," and ** the Highest," which precede in the 
 context, and thus converts the text into a testimony in favor of 
 the divinity of the Messiah, is therefore without apparent ne- 
 cessity. He observes Bibl. Sacr. not. in Num. xxiv. 17. ** Af- 
 iixum IJ, eum, pertinet ad ^«, Deum, et ad \vhv, Altissimuniy 
 ^uae nomina mox antecesserunt. Ex quo sequitur, aut Ba- 
 laani, nihil sententiae, quanquam Deo afflante, extulisse, aut 
 vaticinatum fuisse venturum esse in terras Deum Altissimura." 
 
 148 Origen, whose opinions regulated the prevailing mode in 
 theology, for a long period, understood the passage in this sense, 
 Hom. in Num. uti supr. p. 342. b. •« Post haec, * Orietur' in- 
 quit,* Stella ex Jacob, et exsurget homo ex Israel.' De his et in 
 superioribus diximus, quia evidenter de stella quae Magis, in 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. • G5 
 
 favor of this interpretation a still more ancient 
 prescription may be pleaded, as in such a sense, 
 the prediction appears to have been miderstood by 
 those Eastern sages. 
 
 But from the precision of modern criticism, the 
 prediction has received a different exposition ; ac- 
 cording to its decision, nothing more was intended 
 by the prophet than a mysterious ^netaphor, or 
 hieroglyphic expressive of the character of the ex- 
 pected personage/*'^ In favor of this explanation 
 it has been urged, that as the star is said to " pro- 
 ceed out of Jacob," the description is wholly in- 
 applicable to any natural phenomenon by which 
 the Magians could be directed.^^ It may be also 
 acknowledged, in its support, that such figures 
 are perfectly consistent with the prophetical 
 style ;^^^ and that an earlier prophecy of the patri- 
 arch Jacob is nearly constructed of similar meta- 
 phors/^' Of the two images which Balaam em- 
 ploys, it must be admitted, that both should be na- 
 turally understood in the same sense ; and as it is 
 not to be conceived, that a real ** sceptre should rise 
 out of Israel," neither can it be imagined, that a 
 real " star should proceed out of Jacob." 
 
 As the language of the prophet must be conse- 
 quently understood in a figurative sense ; theima- 
 
 oriente apparuit, prophetetur : qua duce venerunt ad Judaeam, 
 requirentes eum qui natus est rex Israel, etrepertum oblatis mu- 
 neribus adoravcrunt." 
 
 1*0 In this sense the passage is understood by Bp. Newton, 
 ubisupr. p. 77. who, in this view of it expressly follows Bp. 
 Warburton, ibid. p. 81. 
 
 1^^ Houbigant, ubi supr. 
 
 1*1 Vid. Walt. Appar. in Bibl. Polyglot. Tom. I. p. 47. Non- 
 nunquam hieroglypliicis [Scripturae] utuntur, et symbolis, et 
 a^nigmatibus, &c. 
 
 i5« Gen. xlix. 3. seq. 
 
66 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ges which he has chosen, not only possess a natu- 
 ral sense/^^ but a sense which is most appropriate 
 to the subject. The characters by which the ad- 
 vent of the Messiah was to be distinguished, are 
 described by our Lord, in reply to the interroga- 
 tives of his disciples, as to " the signs of his com- 
 ing :" he informs them that " they should see the 
 Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with 
 power and great gloryJ"^^ Of the emblems by 
 which these attributes might be represented, the 
 imagination can scarcely conceive two more ap- 
 propriate or happy, than the sceptre and star, which 
 were selected by the prophet. On this account, 
 it appears, that the true Messiah is described un- 
 der the image of '*the morning- star ;"^^'^ and the 
 glories which would attend his appearance are re- 
 presented as " the day-spring from on high, which 
 visited his people. "^^^ 
 
 Another and not less apposite characteristic of 
 the divine personage to whom the prophecy ap- 
 plies is contained in the judgments, which at his 
 advent would be visited on his enemies. Such is 
 
 1*' The exposition of Origen merits transcription, as less ex- 
 travagant than most of the comments of that fanciful expositor, 
 Hom. in Num. uti supr. p. 342. e. " Et ideo deitatis ejus in- 
 dicium illam stellam fuisse opinor. TJnde et ordo prophetiae 
 haec eadem consequenter ostendit, cum de deitate quidem ejus 
 dicit, * Orietur stella ex Jacob ;' de humana vero natura, ' £t 
 exsurget homo ex Israel ;' ut in utroque et secundum deitatem, 
 et secundum humanitatem, Christus prophetatus evidenter ap- 
 pareat." It may be observed, that in understanding the symbol 
 in this sense, Origen, as an Alexandrine, interprets it as an E- 
 gyptian heroglyphic ; for we learn from Horns Apollo, uryi^ 
 ira^' ' Alyvrnlio^q 'ypa,(i>6[ji.tvQq Qeov ariyuoLUn. The Subsequent part of 
 his exposition is founded on the mistranslation of the Septua- 
 
 gint, a.va,r^Qira,i ocv^fWKoq l| 'la^avi'K. 
 
 154 Matt. xxiv. 30. i55 2 Pet. i. 19. Rev. ii. 28. 
 
 156 Luke i. 78. conf. Matt. iv. 16. et Wetsten. not. in loc. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER* 67 
 
 the light in which that event is described, in the 
 entire prophetical scheme : from the prediction 
 littered hy Enoch before the deluge/^' to the pro- 
 phecy delivered by our Lord, on the downfall of 
 Jerusalem, such are the terrors in which it is ar- 
 rayed, by the prophets. In the figurative lan- 
 guage in which their denunciations are delivered, 
 the enemies of the Messiah's kingdom are charac- 
 terised, under the names of the earliest adversaries 
 of Israel/^ Balaam's speaking in the same spirit, 
 adopts the same language. In describing the 
 visitations which would accompany the manifesta- 
 tion of the Divine Personage, he marks out, as 
 the objects of his wrath, those nations which had 
 exhibited, from the first, a hostile disposition to- 
 wards the Israelites : and thus specifies Moab, E- 
 dom and Amalek, as devoted to judgment. The 
 consanguinity between the Israelites and the de- 
 scendants of Lot and Esau, served as a tempo- 
 rary protection to their territory ;^^ but there was 
 a time appointed in the counsels of the Highest, 
 when judgment would fall upon those idolatrous 
 nations ; when the image would be broken, and its 
 worshipper destroyed ; ** Edom would then be sub- 
 jected, even in the fastnesses of Seir ; Moab would 
 be led captive by Assyria : and Amalek be wasted 
 by a protracted and exterminating warfare. "^*^ 
 
 This denunciation of particular judgments re- 
 served for the immediate enemies of Israel, the 
 prophet follows up, with a statement of the retri- 
 
 ^'^ Vid. sup. p. 27. 
 
 ^^8 Walt. Apparat. ubi supr. § xxv. p. 46. " Synecdochice 
 per Philistines, Arabes, ^gyptios, Moaby Ammotiy Idumceos, 
 et alias gentes barbaras, Judaeis vicinas et notas, significant pro- 
 phetee omnes gentes impias, subigendas a Christo, totumque 
 mundum ad eum convertendum : ita S. Hier. in cap. Ix. Isaiae. 
 
 1*9 Deut. ii. 4. 5. 9. i<5o gee Exod. xvii, 14. 16. 
 
 o 
 
 K 
 
 ^ 
 
68 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 bution prepared for her more powerful and suc- 
 cessful adversaries. After adverting to the capti- 
 vity and deportation by the Assyrians, this being 
 the main object of his prediction, the principal e- 
 vent of which he undertakes to advertise the king 
 of Moab, he closes his prophecy in the following 
 terms : 
 
 Alas ! who shall live, when God appointeth this ? 
 For there shall be ships from the side of Chittim, 
 And shall vex the Assyrian, and vex the Hebrew, 
 And he also is reserved for destruction. 
 
 It has been clearly established,^^^ on the autho- 
 rity of sacred and profane writers, that the nations 
 of Palestine understood by the Chittim, the Ma- 
 cedonians and Romans : in whose invasion and 
 conquest of the great empire, which passed suc- 
 cessively under the dominion of the Assyrians and 
 Persians, this prediction received an extraordinary 
 accomplishment. But, as on the sense in which 
 the concluding denunciation of the prophet is un- 
 derstood, in a great measure depends, not only the 
 ascertainment of the accuracy with which it has 
 
 161 The authorities on this subject are collected by the learn- 
 ed Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. Lib. III. cap. v. col. 157. seq. who 
 proves, by numerous quotations from sacred and profane wri- 
 ters, that under the term Chittim the Macedonians and Romans 
 were meant : though he inclines to think the latter people were 
 rather intended in the passage before us. Bp. Newton how- 
 ever reconciles the contradiction, by adopting both opinions ; 
 understanding the prediction as referring to the eastern con- 
 quests of both Greeks and liomans; Dissert, ubi supr. p. 86. 
 As the opinions of the ancients on this subject are briefly stated 
 by St. Jerome, they may be here laid before the reader ; Com. 
 in Is. xxiii. Tom. IV. p. 60. c. *' Cethim Cyprum quidam in- 
 terpretantur : usque hodie enim est apud eos urbs Citium ; de 
 qua et Zeno Stoicae sectae haresiarchesfuit: quanquam plerique 
 nostrorunif et maxime Mackabceorum principum, Cethim Italice 
 Macedoniceque insidas arbitrentur,'^ 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 69 
 
 been fulfilled, but of the main object at which it 
 aims, the subject merits still further consideration. 
 While it is not to be denied, that the language of 
 the prophet conveys the plain and natural sense, 
 *' the Hebrew., .dilso is reserved for destruction:" 
 it cannot be disputed that, by the obvious and li- 
 teral sense^^" of this passage, every forced and ar- 
 tificial construction of it^^^ must be superseded. 
 At the period in which Balaam delivered his pro- 
 phecy, the Romans, whose existence as a nation 
 had not commenced, could be only known under 
 the name of the Chittim :^^ this extraordinary pro- 
 
 ^^^ By Bp. Newton, the pronoun 'he,' in the concluding 
 line of the prediction, is referred to * Chittim,' Dissert, ubi supr. 
 p. 89. But independant of the remoteness of the substantive, its 
 employment in the constructive case unfits it for qualifying the 
 pronoun ; its dependence in that case, upon the noun T, proves 
 it rather the name of a place than a person. By Origen the 
 pronoun is w^ith greater justice referred to * the Assyrian,' 
 which intervenes between it and * the Hebrew :' Homil. ubi supra 
 p. 346. e. But even this construction, as forced, must give 
 place to the more natural and literal in which it is referred to 
 * the Hebrew,' as the noun immediately preceding; with a view 
 of the passage is adopted and defended by Houbigant; Bibl. 
 Sacr. not. in loc. 
 
 163 In this sentence I would be understood to proscribe the 
 sense ascribed to the passage, by the learned Dr. Hyde, who 
 following the later Targums, understands the term nnjr, as 
 meaning, ultrafiuvialem ; and consequently excludes the name 
 of * Hebrew ' altogether, from the denunciation of Balaam : 
 De Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 52. I have already stated some objec- 
 tions to this view of the passage, and cited a variety of authori- 
 ties in favor of the received translation : supr. p. 56. n. ^^'^. On 
 the present occasion, it is merely necessary to oppose to the au- 
 thority of Dr. Hyde, the opinion of an oriental scholar no less 
 reputed. Bochart. ubi supr. Lib. II. cap. xiv. p. 105. " Ta- 
 men in scriptura certum est, Transeuphratenses non dici onijiy 
 
 sed inj ni^D »u^J« : vid. 2 Sam. x. 16. £sd. iv. 10. 11 De- 
 
 nique £6r<Eorwwt ^rews etiam vocatur Eber, Num. xxiv, 24. et 
 Jilii Eber, Gen. x. 21." 
 
 16* By the Jewish historian, who was contemporary with 
 
70 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 phecy must be consequently understood as pre- 
 dicting the destruction of the Hebrew Republic 
 by the last and most powerful of the invaders of 
 Asia. And regarded in this light, it becomes a 
 subject of further interest, from the striking coin- 
 cidence which it again exhibits to the prophecy 
 delivered by our Lord, on that event, when interro- 
 gated by his disciples, on " the signs of his coming, 
 and of the end of the ageT^^^ In reply to their re- 
 Balaam, Chittim is mentioned among ** the sons of Javan, , . . 
 by whom the isles of the Gentiles, were divided in their lands." 
 Gen. X. 4. 5. Fiom hence the Greeks, whom Homer, Iliad 
 N. 685. terms 'laoveq, or 'laFovs?, derived their origin and their 
 name ; Hier. ubi supr. p. 226. c. " Grceei autem qui sermone 
 Hebraico appellantur Javan, lonas significant : unde et Grajci 
 Tones et mare Ionium." The Latins, who constituted the next 
 great branch of * the Gentiles,' mentioned by Moses, as Eolians 
 by descent, were derived from the same original : vid. Salmas. 
 in Solin. Tom. I. p. 650. d. As neither people existed as a na- 
 tion, at the times of the Exod, they were necessarily termed by 
 Balaam after their aboriginal instead of their national appella- 
 tion ; the name Chittim or Citium, being chosen by him, in con- 
 sequence of its being expressly applied to the Macedonians and 
 Latins, as may be seen in Bochart : ubi supr. p. 157. On the 
 subject of the Persian name and nation the prophet is equally 
 silent, for the same reason; this people being included by him 
 under the term Assyrian, of whose empire they and the Medes, 
 who succeeded to the dominion of Asia, formed merely a part ; 
 vid. Herod. Lib. I. cap. xcv. xcvi. In the prophecy of Balaam, 
 ** the Assyrian and the Hebrew " are particularized, as they 
 were respectively the remote cause and the immediate instru- 
 ments of the calamities which the prophet advertises Balak 
 would fall upon his people, in the latter days. 
 
 165 Matt. xxiv. 3. ri ro o-viixeTov r*}? aviq wa^ao-ia?, t^ rij? cryvIsAeUf 
 t3 uluvoq, which is properly rendered in the Latin Vulgate, 
 * quid signum adventus tui, et consummationis sceculi;^ and in 
 the Syriac, |v->Vv; oi^nA-Q^io yA^Z-fioj ]Z.j wCti fiio. By the 
 intervention of >^\\ . in the latter version, we at once identify 
 the phrase in the Hebrew ; in which the terms tzj^ir ntrr Dh)]f 
 V^in, are opposed in the sense of — * this age, and the age which 
 is to come :" from whence they have been adopted, not only in 
 the Syriac, j^j J |v^ \ v . . .| i^ J^.^, but in the Greek, o »iuv 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 71 
 
 quisition, he apprises them of the destruction of 
 the Temple, and of the do\vnfall of Jerusalem ; in 
 the ruins of which the Hebrew Polity was irreco- 
 verably buried with the Jewish Religion. 
 
 After the details into which I have thus minute- 
 ly entered, in exposition of this extraordinary pro- 
 phecy, a further appeal to the Jews, on its object 
 and purport, may be considered superfluous. But 
 the Chaldee paraphrase, as containing the popular 
 version of the Jewish Law, and as completed at // 
 least forty years before the Christian era, delivers 
 a sentence which is at once so impartial and deci- 
 sive, that it appears to merit transcription. The 
 version which it gives of Balaam's prophecy exhi- 
 bits a closeness and fidelity to the original ; but 
 when the prophet expresses his confidence of be- 
 holding some distinguished Personage, though at 
 a distant period, the translator, deserting the in- 
 definite and figurative language of his original, ap- 
 plies the passage, in the most explicit terms, to 
 the Messiah. 
 
 I shall see him, but not now, 
 
 «To?, . . .0 aluv Igp^o/iAiKOf, vid. Luke xvi. 8. xviii. 30. &c. On the 
 Greek phrase Schleusner observes. Lex. Nov. Test. voc. aluv 
 § 10. " aluvtq HUT t^ox*)v tempus Vet. Test, seu ceconomicB Mosai- 
 CCB notat. 1 Cor. X. 11. 1^ «? ra, rihrt ruv aluvuv xaI^»T»j<re, * qui 
 vivimus tempore Nov, Test.' quo plane abrogata est ceconomia 
 Mosaica: et Heb. ix. 26. iiri rri av»rtXila, ru* alJ>»av, sensu eo- 
 dem." On the Hebrew phrase, Buxtorf observes, Lex. Chald. 
 voc. oVir. " Quidam per «sn oVir intelligunt n^tt^nn nio», dies 
 Messice, quibus scil. venturus MessiaSy quem Judsei adhuc ex- 
 pectant, quod in hoc mundo temporaliter regnaturus sit." In 
 this view * the end of the age/ used by our Lord, is perfectly- 
 analogous to * the latter days/ employed by Balaam ; both ex- r 
 pressing the abrogation of the Mosaic economy as preparatory / : 
 to the introduction of the Christian dispensation ; — the abolition ( ; 
 of the Hebrew republic, previous to the establishment of Christ's 
 kingdom. 
 
72 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 I shall behold him, but not near : 
 When a King shall come out of Jacob, 
 And the Messiah be anointed out of Israel ; 
 And shall slay the princes of Moab, 
 And rule over the sons of men ; 
 Idumea shall be a possession. 
 And Seir shall be the inheritance of his foes, 
 But Israel shall prosper in substance. ^^'^ 
 
 Thus far it may be assumed as proved, that, in 
 the same year in which Moses closed his legation, 
 an Assyrian prophet, expressing the most confi- 
 dent expectation, that a Messiah would arise in Is- 
 rael of the lineage of Jacob, taught the surround- 
 ing nations, that the polity which the Jewish law- 
 giver established was of a declining and temporary 
 nature. While he expresses the fullest assurance, 
 that he would behold, at a future though distant pe- 
 riod, this divine Personage ; he intimates, in the 
 plainest terms, the great national revolutions that 
 would precede the introduction of his authority : 
 which, at once inculcated the necessity of turning, 
 for safety, to the expected Deliverer, and deter- 
 mined the period at which he would appear. 
 
 With what consumate wisdom a prophet, who 
 was a pagan and diviner, was chosen to be the or- 
 gan through which these truths were published, is 
 so happily illustrated by an ancient writer, that 
 I shall need no apology for transcribing him in 
 full. ^^" Balaam, as we have observed above, was 
 a diviner, having sometimes a prescience of future 
 events, through the intervention of demons, and 
 magic arts. He is required by Balak, king of 
 Moab to curse the people of Israel : the ambassa- 
 
 ^66 Targ. Onkel. in Num. xxiv. 17. seq. 
 
 167 Origen, Horn. xiv. in Num. § 3. p. 324. c. *' Balaam hie, 
 ut superius diximus, divinus erat, daemonum scilicet ministerio, 
 et arte magica nonnunquam futura praenoscens. Rogatur k 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 73 
 
 dors arrive with the rewards of divination : the na- 
 tions stand astonished and anxious, what Balaam 
 will answer, of whom they are persuaded, that he 
 was worthy to be admitted to a conference with 
 the divinity. Behold now, how the wisdom of 
 God made this organ, who was chosen for reproach, 
 profit not only one nation, but almost the whole 
 world. . . For it was effected by the great and won- 
 derful dispensation of God, as the words of the 
 Prophets, which were inclosed within the Jewish 
 veil, could not reach the Gentiles ; that through 
 Balaam, in whom the nations universally reposed 
 faith, the secret mysteries of Christ should be 
 made known; and that he should impart the ines- 
 timable treasure to the Gentiles," &c. 
 
 Still farther than this are we justified in pursuing 
 our deductions, in illustration of this interesting 
 subject. As the explicitness of Balaam's predic- 
 tion must be imputed to the prophetic spirit by 
 which he spoke ; it may be supposed, that previ- 
 ously to the delivery of this prophecy, the nations 
 for whom it was intended had no knowledge of the 
 Divine Person, to whose manifestation they were 
 then taught to look forward. Should it be there- 
 fore urged, that those opinions, to which I would 
 ascribe the remotest antiquity, were of a recent o- 
 
 Balach recfe ad maledicendum popula Israel, legati veniunt, 
 divinacula in manibus ferunt, stant attonitae gentes, et anxiae, 
 exspectantes quid respondeat Balaam, de quo persuasum habe- 
 bant quod dignus divinis colloquiis haberetur. Vide nunc quo- 
 modo sapientia Dei vas istud ad conturaeliam praeparatum pro- 
 ficere fecit ad utilitatem non solum gentis unius, sed pene totius 
 mundi:. . .Agebatur enim mira et magna dispensatione, ut quo- 
 niam Prophetaium verba, quae intra aulam continebantur Isra- 
 eliticam,adgentes pervenirenonpoterant, per Balaam cui fides 
 ab universis gentibus habebatur, innotescerent etiam nationibus 
 secreta de Christo mysteria, et thesaurum magnum proferret ad 
 gentes,'' &c. 
 
 L 
 
74 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 rigin among the Assyrians ; the objection may find 
 a direct answer, in the manner in which that Di- 
 vine Personage is introduced in the prediction : 
 the opening of which, would have been less abrupt, 
 had not the subject been familiar. But positive 
 proof may be adduced, from the popular supersti- 
 tions of the period when the prediction was utter- 
 ed, that the expectation of such a Personage pre- 
 vailed among the people, for whose use and in- 
 struction it was intended. To such superstitions 
 it indeed appears very expressly to allude; and a- 
 gainst some pernicious errors which they tended 
 to inculcate on the popular mind, it appears, in 
 some of its leading topics, to have been immedi- 
 ately directed. 
 
 Brief as are the notices whiph it consisted with 
 the purpose of the sacred historian to give of the sur 
 perstitions of tlie nations bordering on Judea; they 
 are sufficiently explicit to enable us to form an ac- 
 curate idea of their rites and worship. As condu- 
 cive to the main object of this inquiry, it remains 
 tp be observed, that in those superstitions every 
 trait may be discovered which characterises the 
 opinions and practices of the Sabaists ; a sect, 
 which was formerly noticed, as existing to thi^ 
 \ day, in the mountains bordering on Mesopotamia, 
 and which claims a descent, not merely prior to Mo- 
 ses or Balaam, but antecedent even to the deluge. 
 
 At the period in which Balaam delivered his 
 last prediction, the Israelites yielded to the seducr 
 tive influence of the popular superstitions ; having 
 been led to join in the impure and idolatrous rites 
 of Baal, through the corrupt suggestions of the 
 prophet. ^^ The account given by the sacred histo- 
 
 ^^3 Orig. uti supr. Horn. xx. p. 347. a. *' Balaam poateaquam 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 75 
 
 rian of their defection is expressed by him in the 
 following terms: ^^^" And Israel abode in Shittim, 
 and the people began to commit fornication with 
 the daughters of Moab. And they called the peo- 
 ple unto the sacrifices of their gods, and the people 
 did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Is- 
 rael joned himself unto Baal-peor." 
 
 When this brief account is confronted with a des- 
 cription of the Sabian superstitions, as sketched 
 by a writer, who has traced it without any view to 
 the similarity which it is my purpose to establish, 
 the conviction of their perfect identity appears to be 
 almost irresistible. After describing the general 
 character of these superstitions, he observers, in re- 
 ference to their rites and ceremonies ; ^'°** Of these, 
 others were more gross and open, the scope and in- 
 tention of which will be apparent to everyone, with- 
 out the aid of an interpreter. To this class must be 
 referred those rites, which were woven, as it were, 
 of a coarser web ; incurvations in temples^ consecra- 
 ted to their gods ; the prostitution of women in ho- 
 nor of the Syrian goddess ; the performance of rites 
 
 Deivirtute constrictus, non est permissus maledicere Israel, vo- 
 lens tamen placere regi Balach, ait ad eum sicut scriptum est : 
 * Veni, consilium do tibi.' Et quid consilii dederit ibi non ap- 
 paruit, in posterioribus tamen ipsius libri Numerorum scriptum 
 refertur. Sed plenius in Revelatione Joannis, ubi ita contine^ 
 tur : * Habes,' inquit, * ibi quosdam, qui tenent doctrinam Ba- 
 laam, qui docuit Balach, ut mitteret scandalum in conspectu 
 iiliorum Israel, ut manducarent idolis imraolata, et fornicaren- 
 tur.' Ex hoc ergo apparet quod nequitia usus sit Balaam, et 
 consilium dederit regi, &c. 
 
 ^^ Num. XXV. 1, seq. 
 
 ^70 Spenc. de Leg. Heb. Lib. II. cap. i. sect. 4k " Ex iis [ri- 
 tibus Zaboeorum] alii magis crassi fuerunt et aperti; quorum 
 nempe scopus et intentio, sine interprete aliquo, cuivis innotue- 
 runt. In hunc censum referendi sunt ritus e filo quasi crassiore 
 contexti, quales sunt Incurvatio in iemplis idolo consecratis, 
 Fceminarum in Veneris honorem publicatio, Sacrorum peractio 
 
 L 2 
 
76 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 in a state of exposure which modesty prohibited ; 
 swearnig by Baal and participating in idol sacrifi- 
 ces ; the erection and dedication of statues, for re- 
 ! ligious worship, and reverence paid to the images ; 
 the immolation of children to Moloch, and rites per- 
 formed to the idol, besides offi^ ceremonies in 
 which the Sabians plainly and openly avowed 
 themselves devoted to the worship of demons." 
 
 In this infamous catalogue, the impure and im- 
 pious rites, into which the Israelites were drawn by 
 the depraved counsel of Balaam, possess a promi- 
 nent place : when, indeed, the human sacrifices of- 
 fered to Moloch are excepted, to every part of the 
 description the plainest allusions may be traced, 
 in the history of that disgraceful occurrence. As 
 far as a subject of its nature admits of investiga- 
 tion, it seems necessary to enter into the inquiry; 
 not merely as conducting to the point, to which 
 these inquiries ultimately tend, but as contributing 
 to account for the defection of the Israelites, to a 
 superstition so depraved and degrading. 
 
 Baal-peor, the divinity in whose worship the Is- 
 raelites joined, through the allurements of the Mi- 
 dianite women, is generally identified with the 
 Priapus of the western nations. To .this off^ensive 
 deity rites and ministers were assigned suitable to 
 the gross form and character in which he was re- 
 presented. The superintendance of his worship 
 was chiefly committed to priestesses, who were 
 as disgracefully distinguished, by their disso- 
 lute morals, as the obscene idol, to which they 
 
 partibus nudalis quas honestas tegi jubet, Juramentum per 
 Baal, idolothytarum participatio, 8tatuae alicujus ad cultum 
 erectio et dedicatio, honor religiosus imagini praestitus, Infantum 
 Molocho immolatio, sacrum coram idolo factum, et consimiles 
 alii, quorum usu Zabii se demonis cultui devotos esse palam et 
 aperte profitebantur." 
 

 OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 77 
 
 were consecrated, by his offensive appearance.^'^^ 
 Of the rites in which they ministered, the apostle 
 observes, with a sentence of peculiar reprobation, 
 that they " taught to eat things sacrificed to idols, 
 and to commit fornication:" these rites being not 
 merely accounted religious observances, but the 
 initiatory ceremonies by which they were at first 
 admitted into this vile superstition, and subse- 
 quently maintained communion with its abandon- 
 ed votarists."^ 
 
 The nature of the rite, by which the proselyte 
 was principally admitted into this idolatrous com- 
 munion, precludes our entering at any length into 
 the offensive subject. It will be sufficient to ob- 
 serve, on its antiquity, that the infamous function 
 
 171 Seld. de Dis. Syr. Synt. T. cap. v. p. 159. '♦ D. Hierony- 
 mus ad Oseaj cap. ix. ' Ipsi autem educti,' (ait Patrum ille doc- 
 tissimus) * de TEgypto fornicati sunt cum 31adianitis et ingressi 
 sunt ad Beelphegor, idolum Moabitarum quern nos Priapum 
 possumus appellare.'.. .Idem Pater magnus ad Oseae cap. iv. 
 postquam de sacris Deum Matris est loquutus, * Istiusraodi,' in- 
 quit, idololatria erat in Israel, colentibusmaxirae foeminis Beel- 
 phegor ob obscoeni magnitudinem.'.. .Is item Lib. I. contr. Hjb- 
 reses Joviani cap. xii. ' Phegor in lingua Ebriea Priapus appel- 
 latur.' Foeminas vero qute sacris ejus pra^erantmu^ip, Kedesh- 
 otk, prophetarum lingua dictas vult ad Osea?cap. iv. com. 13. 
 * Sciendum,' inquit, ' quod in pra^senti, mit^ip, meretrices, tE^eTf, 
 id est, sacerdotes Priapo mancipatas vocet.' Sic sane D'lr^Tp, 
 Kedeshim, dicti Astartae sacerdotes, de queis infra." Conf. 
 Synt. II. cap. ii. p. 237. 
 
 172 Spenc. ubi supr. Lib. II. cap. iii. Sect. 4. p. 498. " Esiis 
 idolothyti sanguinis aut suffocati, et fornicatio non tantum ritus 
 ethnici fuerunt et idololatrici, sed ritus ipsi quibns homines olim 
 Ethnicismo initiabantur , et in daemonum aut idoloiatrarum soci- 
 etatem adraittebantur. Homines idolothyti comestione Genti- 
 um sacris initiatos fuisse, vel ilia Psalmistae non obscure docent, 
 [Ps. cvi. 28.] ' Initiati sunt Beelphegor, etcomederuntsacrificia 
 mortuorum.'.. .Ideo vero participes idolothyti Daemonis aut I- 
 doli sacris addicti vel initiati censebantur, quod, eo ritu, * mensae 
 Daemonis' assidere, cum illo fcBderaliter epulari, eique familia- 
 ritate quadam conjungi et quasi commisceri, viderentur." 
 
78 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 with which the ministers in this religion were 
 vested, renduced the name of priestess to a level 
 with the lowest term of infamy ; and as such it was 
 the subject of a specific denunciation in the Law 
 of Moses ;^^^ as thus denounced by the Jewish law- 
 giver, it must have existed previously to the times 
 of his contemporary, the Assyrian prophet. 
 
 The idol-sacrifices, by which communion was 
 maintained with this superstition, merit more par- 
 ticular attention ; as they afford us some light in 
 ascertaining its origin. ^^*" Blood was a principal 
 1 . ingredient in these execrable festivals ; they con- 
 • ' sidered it the food of demons, and the most ac- 
 ceptable offering that could be made to the infer- 
 nal deities. Nor did they hold anything to be more 
 efficacious in obtaining an intimacy with those di- 
 vinities, and in acquiring the power of divination, 
 than their eating flesh saturated in blood, and ce- 
 lebrating their magical feasts, on the blood of an 
 animal immolated to the demons. It was thus 
 customary with this sect, after sacrificing an ani- 
 
 ^73 Id. ibid. p. 499. " Fornication em etiam initiationis idolo- 
 latricae ritum fuisse, testimonio sit locus ille Deuteronomii xxiii, 
 17. * Non erit nmip, nieretrix, e filiabus Israel, neque erit \l^lpf 
 scortum masculura, e filiis Israel : sic enim interpretes Graeci lo- 
 cum interpretantur, «>t t^on teXeo-^o^o? utto ^vyari^uv 'la-fa.r)Xy x^ tiK 
 
 sroci rsXio-xQixivoq cctto twv viaiv icr^aijA, * uon erit initiatrix inter filias 
 Israel, nee initiatus inter filios Israel.' Sic verba Graeca trans- 
 fer©, Theodoretum secutus, qui re?.fer(p6fov interpretatur t»?v /M,fra- 
 yuyaa-eiv iniatriceniy riXKruof^evov vero initiatnm. Aliis etiam in 
 locis, LXX, mi\> et n\tfip initiandi sensu reddiderunt." 
 
 '7* Id. ibid. cap. xi. p. 327. " Veteres illi idololatrae prajcipu- 
 am sanguinis in ceremoniis suis rationem habuere, eum Dsemo- 
 num cibum, et donum Diis inferis gratissimum, existimantes ; 
 nee quicquam ad obtinendam Deorum societatem et divinandi 
 potentiam efficacius habuerunt, quam si sanguinem aut carnes 
 sanguine fluentes ederent, vel apud aut supra sanguinem bestiae 
 daemonibus immolatae convivia magica celebrarent. Hinc sec- 
 tae illi solenue erat, mactato daemonibus animali, sanguinis par- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 79 
 
 mal to the demons, to partake of part of the blood, 
 or to pour it in the dust, or into a trench, and to as- 
 semble round it, for the purpose of feasting ; that 
 when the demon, as it was believed, and them- 
 selves partook of the blood and flesh of the immo- 
 lated animal, the closest intimacy with them, and 
 a power of divination would be acquired." It 
 appears from the author, who has principally fur- 
 nished this account, that these sacrifices were con- 
 sidered federal rites ; that those who thus partici- 
 pated, at the same board, with the demons, contrac- 
 ted an alliance and fraternity with those spirits, 
 wlio would appear to them in dreams, and impart 
 to them a knowlege of future events. ^'^ 
 
 Among the illusive arts, which tended to per- 
 petuate the influence of this superstition over 
 the popular credulity, divination by the serpent 
 was held particularly in repute. ^^^ To this reptile 
 
 tem comedere, vel sanguinem in pulverem au fossam effundere, 
 et ad eum, convivandi causa, frequentes con venire ; ut cum dae- 
 mones aniraalis mactati sanguine (uti creditum est) et ipsi came 
 vescerentur, eorum usum familiarem, et inde divinandi faculta* 
 tem, sibi conciliarent." 
 
 ^75 Mairaon. Mor. Nevoch. P. I. cap. xlvi. 
 
 "6 Spencer observes, on the divination employed by the Saba- 
 ists, while commenting on Lev. xix. 26. ubi supr. sect. xi. p. 
 336. ** u;nJ, strictius accepta o(piO[ji.a,vliia.v, divinationem a serpente 
 petitam indicat. Nam dubitare nequeo, vocem illam ii^nj, a 
 serpens, deductam, cujus, in auguriis, incantationibus, aliisque 
 veterum sacris, magnum usum fuisse, multis testimoniis et indi- 
 ciis, eruditionem non vulgarem olentibus, apertum fecerunt, 
 Heinsius, Bochartus, D. Vossius, Seldenus aliique. Vox ea, 
 latius accepta, divinationem ab avibus haustam notat. . , Hunc. 
 sensum voci tribuunt interpretes plerique veteres, LXX, Vul- 
 gatus, Arabs, Syrus, Jonathan, Interpres Hierosolymitanus, et 
 R. Selomo. . . Hie autem interpretes illi duces equidem peritos 
 et oculatos, sed (quod mirum) errante vestigio, sequebantur. 
 Nam liXX. vocem ^mnl per oluviXa^t, apte quidem et erudite, 
 reddidere ; cum antiqui verbo owynfeo-Sa*, ad divinantiones, non 
 tantum ex avibis, sed et serpentibus captatas, exprimendas ute- 
 
80 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 a peculiar virtue was ascribed in incantations and 
 augury; as he was considered the author of all 
 knowledge, and particularly the revealer of the 
 higher mysteries in this depraved superstition/^'' 
 As an accompaniment of divination and, as such, 
 connected with it, in the prohibitions of the Jew- 
 ish Law, '*the prognostication of times" may be 
 mentioned:"^ a knowledge of futurity having been 
 regarded as attainable by astrology, which was e- 
 qually cultivated with divination, by the seers of 
 Chaldea/7^ 
 
 That these rites were more ancient than the 
 times of Balaam might be collected from the tes- 
 timony of his contemporary Moses, by whom 
 they have been proscribed, in an express interdic- 
 tion/^ On the subject of this inquiry they have a 
 more intimate bearing ; as the plainest allusions to 
 them may be traced, in the history of the Assyrian 
 prophet. In recording the defection of the Israel- 
 ites to the worship of Baal-peor, the sacred histo- 
 rian expressly mentions the impure rite by which 
 proselytes were admitted into that superstition, 
 and the idol-sacrifices by which they maintained 
 communion with its members /^^ and the language, 
 
 fentur. Assertionis raeae fides iiititur Hesychii verbis ; Oluvog, 
 
 0^*;* tTTmy-aJq yccp 'Kiyiron lit; raq fAccvnlaq rag oipsK; ix,^iv, aq )^ olumi; 
 
 tKiyov.^' Conf. D. Vos. in Maimon. de Idol. cap. vi. 
 
 ^77 Vid. supr. p. 20. n.52 
 
 ^^s After treating of divination by serpents, used by the Sa- 
 baists Dr. Spencer proceeds, while commenting on Lev. xix. 
 25. Ibid. p. 387." Ad praeceptum proximumujirn «*?, calamus- 
 jam promovendus est. De vocis hujus origine sensuque docti di- 
 versa sentiunt.. . Notae clarioris authores, Maimonides, R. Kim- 
 chi, Fullerus, Joannes Cochus, Vossius, alii sentiunt, hoc ver- 
 bum a njij; derivatum, quod tempus decretum et statutum sonat, 
 adeoque Deum, hac in lege, temporum elect ionem aut observatio- 
 nem,juxta prcecepta prcesertim astrologorum institutam, vetuisse.'^ 
 
 179 Vid. supr. p. 38. n.95 iso l^v. xix. 26—29. 
 
 ^«^ Vid. supr. p. 75. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 81 
 
 in which he describes their admission into that su- 
 perstition, implies that it was an initiation in its 
 mysteries.^^ The divination to which he represents 
 Balaam as addicted, was that in which the serpent 
 was employed,^^ in the calculation of future e- 
 vents. And the profession made by the prophet 
 to the king of Moab, to advertise him of what 
 should occur to his people** in the latter days, "very 
 
 182 Num. XXV. 3. mj^Q hvi^ V«ntt^» navn, which is rendered 
 in the English version, ' and Israel joined himself to Baal-peor/ 
 is more accurately expressed, in the LXX, m^ IteAjVSij 'la-favi^rui 
 B£tX(piyuf, and in the Latin Vulgate, * initiatusque est Israel 
 Beelphegor,' and Israel was initiated in Baal-peor.' In the 
 same sense the passage appears to have been understood by the 
 other Greek translators, v/ith the exception of Theodotion, who 
 expresses tdy'I by >^ li^ivyla-S^ra-a.^ : the participle dhdyJ, in the 
 context, which the LXX render riliXia-fj-iyov, is accordingly ren- 
 dered by Aquila, /^^^>3Sl^raf. In this sense Origen also under- 
 stood the passage : Horn, uti supr. p. 349. f." Beelphegor idoli 
 nomen est, quod apud Madionitas pr^cipue a mulieribus cole- 
 batur. In hujus ergo idoli mysteriis consecratus est Israel.'' If 
 it be thought, that this sense is derived from the Greek transla- 
 tion ; on the Hebrew verb Beyer observes, Addit. in Seld. de 
 Dis Syr. p. 236. •* Accedit quod Scriptura, hunc cultum abo- 
 minans, utatur voce myj, copulam conjugaletn significante.'* 
 Ibid. p. 237. ** Sic copulato Israele cvm idolo Peoris accensam 
 esse iram Jehovse in Israelem ; adhasisse enim dicit Ps. cvi. 2. 
 28. i. e., ,copulatos, sociatos, adjunctos, et veluti matrimonio 
 conjugatos fuisse Peor, scil. per commessationes et meretrices, vel 
 filias Moabitarum prius ab idolo deinde ab ipsis subactas " &c. 
 Conf. Voss. de Idololatr. Lib. II. cap. vii. p. 174. 
 
 ^83 The sacred historian, in mentioning Balaam's temporary 
 renunciation of his art, particularises this species of augury : 
 Num. xxiv. 1. D'lz^nj n«'ip'? orsi ditdd i^hn «*?, ** He went not 
 as at other times to seek for serpent -divination :" so the term 
 D'tt^nJ, which is used here, is properly explained, supr. p. 79. 
 n.^76^ J) Vossius, whom Spencer follows in explaining the term, 
 while he assigns it a more extended sense, admits this to have 
 been its original signification, uti supr. p. 39. ** A )i}ni, serpens, 
 deductam vocem, non ambigo ; nam ejus in auguriis et incanta- 
 tionibus, aliisque sacris, magnus erat usus : und^ Hesychius, 
 
 ctw^o?, o^Kj" &C. 
 
8*2 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 fully implies, that the prognostication of times, 
 which the Jewish lawgiver combines with divina- 
 tion by serpents, formed a part of the art which 
 the seer of Pethor exercised. 
 
 When viewed through the medium of these su- 
 perstitions, the prophecy of Balaam presents a new 
 and interesting aspect. It is not merely valuable, 
 as disclosing the highest tenet of Revelation, in the 
 promise of an expected Redeemer ; but is im- 
 portant, as preserving the remains of some ancient 
 traditions, which refer their origin to a period an- 
 tecedent to the deluge. 
 
 The king of Moab, in suborning an Assyrian di- 
 viner to oppose the Israelites, is represented as 
 choosing three stations, from whence he was to 
 utter his malediction against the new invaders. 
 He first led Balaam to some sacred mounds, 
 which were consecrated to the worship of Baal :^^* 
 
 18* Num. xxii. 41. Vri mni inVrn, *and he made him as- 
 cend the high -places of Baal.' So the passaaje is rendered in the 
 Latin Vulgate ; * duxit eum ad excelsa Baal,' in the Sama- 
 ritan, Zva AT/f^^S ^V^A-?, and in the Chaldee, with a 
 slight variation, n'nVm riDnb n'pD«i, * and he led him to the 
 high places of his god :' in the Syriac the original term is retain- 
 ed, Jll^o / nv^oV oLQiojo, and he made him ascend Bemoth 
 Baal :' in the Greek the sense is somewhat ambiguous, uvt^l^cKrev 
 avrov iv) rv}v r^i^riv tS BaaX, * he made him ascend to the pillar, 
 or mound of Baal ;' but in the Arabic very loosely expressed, 
 
 xJ^jt* «Aj (jax» J^ »*>jU£»li,*andheledhimuptosome ^em- 
 ples of his god.' In the modern versions the passage is accurate- 
 ly rendered ; in the English, ' and brought him into the high pla- 
 ces of Baal ;' in the Italian, * e lo mend sopra gli alii luoghi di 
 Baal;' in the French, * et le fit monter aux hauts lieux de 
 Bahal ;' in the Spanish, * le llevo a los altos de Bahal ; and in 
 the German, * und fiihrete ihn hin auf Hohe (the heights) 
 Baals.' The original niDl, from whence the Greeks derived 
 the term, /Sw/ao?, which the Syrians converted into )mV^ ^. 
 properly means a sacred or sacrificial mound; the term is thus 
 properly explained by the ablest writers on Hebrew antiqui- 
 ties; Spenc. uti supr. Lib. II. cap. vii. sect. 1. '* Gentium an- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 83 
 
 as they afforded but a partial view of the Israel- 
 ites, he seems to have believed the prophet would 
 be emboldened to devote that people to destruction 
 by a sense of their being few and inconsiderable. 
 He next led him to the summit of one of the highest 
 hills ;^^ from whence the view of their numbers 
 
 tiquiorum usu receptum erat, altaribus uti sublimibns, ad res 
 divinas e6 majore cum solennitate peragendas. Ita morem ha- 
 buisse, e multis Scripturae locis clare peicipiamus: nam populus 
 in Excelsis sacrificare et incensum offere dicitur : quae excelsa 
 vocantur, Exod. xxxiv. 13. loco parallelo, Num. xxxiii. 52. 
 altaria appellantur : et Deus multis in locis eonim excelsa tol- 
 lere, peidere, destruere et devastare, comminatur. Lev. xxvi. 30. 
 Eztc. vi. 3. Hos. X. 8. Amos. vii. 9. qnce sane loca intelligi ne- 
 queunt de montibus et collibus (nunquam loco movendis aut dis- 
 sipandis) sed altaribus, quae sublimi vertice coelum minitari vi- 
 debantur. Atque inde«venit, quod Altare, non apud Latinos 
 tantum sed et Hebra}os, nomen ab altitndine sortiatur. Nam 
 HDl a/<i>M</o ad altare notandum usurpatur, Jer. xlviii. 35... 
 Ezec. xvi. 16. ..Hinc etLXX. vocem niDl, nunc ^w/xo*, nunc 
 v-^Yi-KXf interpretari solent." 
 
 ^^ Num. xxiii. 14. njDDH m«n *?« d'dy r\im, * to the field of 
 the watchers, to the top of the peak/ or literally, *the peak's 
 head.' In this sense the passage is rendered in the Chaldee, 
 «no"i rtfnh «mDD hpnh, ' to the tield of observation, to the top of 
 the hill ;' in the Syriac, jAicJ - ^ -; V \ooy Wn--"^- * to the field 
 of the watchers, to the top of the hill ;' and in the Samaritan, 
 ^AmU'^ ^rrrsZ ^fTr;3'm I'^'^l, * to the field of the watch- 
 ers, to the peak of observation.' Nor does the Greek recede 
 very far from this sense ; tl<; uy^n o-KoTnav sTrt ko^v^i^v ^BXa^evixem, 
 * to the field of observation, on the summit of a levelled place.' 
 but the Arabic, with its accustomed inaccuracy, renders the 
 
 passage, XxXi!i (j*«V, ^\.s. 'isj^S 'ix^Wf « to an high place, 
 on the top of a citadel? The Latin Vulgate, * in locum subli- 
 mem, super verticem montis Phasga ;' which is transplanted 
 into the Spanish ; * a un lugar alto, sobre la cima del monte 
 Phisga,' * to a high place, on the top of mount Pisgah:' to 
 which the German nearly conforms, * an einen freyen Platz, 
 auf der Hohe Pisga,' to an open place, on the top of Pisga.' 
 In the other modern versions the same principle is extended, 
 and two proper names adopted ; viz. in the English, * to the 
 field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah;' in the French, * au terri- 
 toire de Tsophim, vers le sommet de Pisgaf and in the Italian, 
 
 M 2 
 
84 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 was eq ually limited, while the appearance of their 
 strength was diminished, in proportion to the dis- 
 tance at which they were beheld. Finding him- 
 self disappointed in both these expedients, as the 
 prophet only continued to utter prognostications of 
 their future greatness ; he thence led him to the top 
 of Peor/^^ from whence the prophet, seized with 
 inspiration, at the sight of the Israelites in their 
 encampments, uttered the splendid prediction, in 
 delivering which he closed his prophetical lega- 
 tion. ''And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and saw 
 Israel abiding in his tents, according to their 
 
 * al campo di So/im, nella cima di Pisga.^ There can be how- 
 ever little doubt, that both terms, as significant, and rendered 
 as such in the ancient versions, should be taken as common, not 
 proper names; nJDD, from jds, to lift tip, signifying a summit, 
 and as such, rendered in the Chaldee «nD*i, and in the Syriac 
 (Z\ic> ; and d'sy, 1 Sam. xiv. 16, from nay, aKO'irevsiv, to spy, sig- 
 nifying spies, watchmen ; and as such rendered in the Syriac 
 {do» and in the Samaritan ia/Tra«m. From Deut. xxiv. 1. it ap- 
 pears that the proper name of the mountain was Nebo, of which 
 Pisgah was the peak. 
 
 186 ]Vum. ibid. 28. nirsn tt^«l Dr^l n« pVi npn *and Balak 
 took Balaam to the top of Fear;' so the passage is almost with 
 one consent rendered in the versions, in the Greek, j^ 9ra^6Aa/3g 
 BocXua rov Bu^ocuf/, Birl y.o^v(pr^v rii (^oyup : in the Latin, *cumque 
 duxisset eum super verticem montis Phogor :' in the Syriac, 
 5Q1.2) .a.»; \ ValAiiA -^^'^ V^?o> ^" *^® Samaritan, S-^!^*? 
 ^'\-K\72 ^/rr^ ^VZa Am VZ^.' The name of Peor is indeed 
 suppressed in the Chaldee, «nm mn or^n n* pVn nmi, * and 
 Balak led Balaam to the top of the hill ;' and in the Arabic, 
 
 '^■i^j^^ U^b d^ 2J*>^li, * and he led him to the top of the hill.' 
 Thename is, however, retained in the modern versions, which 
 coincide in the translation of this passage ; the Italian rendering 
 it, ' Balac adunque men6 Balaam in cima di Peor;' the French, 
 
 * Balak done conduisit Balaam sur le sommet de Pehor f the 
 Spanish, * y habiendole Ilevado sobre la cima del monte F/«a- 
 ^r;'the German, * und er fiihrete ihn auf die Hohedes Berges 
 Peor:' and the English, * and Balak brought Balaam unto the 
 top of Peor,' 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 85 
 
 tribes ; and the spirit of God came upon him. And 
 he took tip his parable," &c. 
 
 From the stations chosen by Balak, for the pro- 
 phet to curse the Israelites, and the solemn rite 
 in which the ceremony commenced, it may be in- 
 ferred, that the king intended the enchanter should 
 derive encouragement, from the sense of his acting 
 under the protection of the divinity, whom they 
 mutually sought to propitiate by a religious rite. 
 The spot selected for offering the first sacrifice 
 and delivering the first prediction was on **the 
 high places of Baal." The mountains,^^ on which 
 
 187 Xhe mountainous tract, which extended from east to 
 \|west through the plains of Moab, and lay on the opposite side of 
 Jordan to Jericho, was called (Deut. xxii. 49.) onnrn nn, * the 
 mountain of/>a.sses;' as the term is properly rendered by Sym- 
 machus, to o^q(; Skx^cco-bu'v, and paraphrased in the Latin Vulgate^ 
 * mons iste Abarim, id est transituum ;' which receives some con- 
 firmation from the Chaldee '«-inj;n i^mto, * the mountain of the 
 emi^r«/i^s,'and the Syriac [ . • ^ \ . Jjoi jjoli with the same sense: 
 to which we may also add the Samaritan 3f/Tr/f 'S^V *\?^. The 
 Hebrew term is indeed preserved in the Greek, to opoq to A^a^ijjt., 
 
 and its follower, the Arabic, ^. ^ y>xx3^ ^'^' Of this tract, Ne- 
 ba and Peor are the only mountains distinguished by proper 
 names ; their names are accordingly preserved untranslated in the 
 ancient versions ; in Deut. xxxiv. 1. nJ "in is accordingly ren- 
 dered in the Chaldee, injn «-nD ; in the Syriac, qcuj jjo^ ; in 
 the Samaritan, /i-^'^ ^"K^ ; in the Arabic, ^xj }>>-=>' in the 
 Greek ro o^oq NaSat); in the Latin,* mons Nebo :' the same remark 
 extends to the modem versions. Of Peor I have already spo- 
 ken and made the same observation ; supr. n.^^e ; the Chaldee 
 indeed reads «n?D*i wn, but there is reason to believe that this 
 name was laterly substituted for mira ttr^l. Eusebius observea 
 Onomast. Urb. et Loc. sub. voc B*;%a|oc^.&a, that ' the city 
 Bethramphtha of the Syrians is called Livias,' and again, sub. 
 TOc.Ei^^(poyu^, that * Beth-peor, opposite Jericho, is six miles from 
 Bethramphtha.' We atonce identify the Chaldee, t^nm n»a, 
 or Syriac JAic> AaO, in the Bethramtha of Eusebius ; the vici- 
 nity of this city to Beth-peor, and its celebrity in the time of 
 Herod, who termed it Livias, in compliment to Augustus, will 
 
86 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 the ceremony was repeated, and the subsequent 
 prophecies uttered, we shall soon have occasion 
 to shew, possessed the same names as the princi- 
 pal idols of Moab. On each occasion, the king 
 and prophet are represented as entering on their 
 work, with an act of religious worship : *' And Ba- 
 laam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, 
 and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. 
 And Balak did as Balaam had spoken : and Balak 
 and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a 
 ram." That this ceremony was performed, in no 
 purer spirit, and after no form more sacred, than 
 that prescribed by the popular superstitions, there 
 can be little reason to doubt :^^ as the place on 
 which the first sacrifice was offered determines the 
 idolatrous character of the rite, almost beyond 
 Controversion. Nor can any objection arrise to 
 this supposition, from the consideration of the re- 
 sult which followed, on the performance of the 
 rite; that "Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord 
 to bless Israel, and he went not as at other times 
 to seek for enchantments." If the sacrifice was of- 
 
 suiEciently account for the substiution of the new name for the 
 ancient, which occurs Deut. iii. 29. where the Hebrew and 
 Chaldee have li^Q D'l, and the Syriac x n\o^ Ai*^- I formerly 
 observed of nJDS, that it is not a proper but a common name, 
 analogous to peakor vertex : and that it was a part of Mt. Nebo. 
 188 Origen uti supr. Horn. xvi. p. 329. c. *' At ille,' hoc est 
 Balach, * stabat juxtaholocaustomata, etomne principes Moab 
 cum illo. Et dixit ei Balach : * Quid loquutus est Dominus? ' 
 Res quidem prophanis sacrificiis gerebatur, et divinatio magica 
 arte requirebatur : volens tamen Deus ibi abundare^ratiam, ubi 
 superabundavit peccatum, adesse dignatur, nee refugit ab iis, 
 quae non secundum Israeliticam disciplinam,sedsecM»rfwm Gen- 
 tilium gerebantur errorem. Adest autem non sacrificiis, sed in 
 occursum venienti, et ibi dat verbum suum, atque ibi mysteria 
 futura praenunciat ubi maxime fides et admiratio Gentilium 
 pendet, ut qui nostris nolunt credere prophetis, credant divinis 
 et vatibus suis." Conf. Hom. xvii. p. 335. b. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 87 
 
 fered, with the view of obtaining an omen, to en- 
 courage the seer in his intention ; on the sign's be- 
 ing witheld, he would thence naturally infer, that 
 heaven was unpropitious to his design, and ac- 
 quire sufficient reason to abandon all further search 
 after omens. ^^ 
 
 Nor is it to be inferred that the mountains, on 
 which Balak and Balaam performed these cere- 
 monies of religion, were merely frequented occa- 
 sionally, in celebrating the worship of the divinity 
 which received the devotion of the Assyrian na- 
 tion. Mount Peor, which witnessed the last and 
 noblest prediction of Balaam, was not only dedi- 
 cated to the idol, into whose worship the Israelites 
 were seduced by the prophet's counsel, but con- 
 ferred on that god his title of Baal-peor, and ap- 
 pears to have had a temple consecrated to his wor- 
 ship. ^^ Mount Nebo, to the summits of which Ba- 
 
 189 Orig. ibid. Horn. xvii. p. 335. b. " Requiratur fortasse 
 unde vidit Balaam, quia bonum est in conspectu Domini bene- 
 dicere Israel, et putabitur ex sacrificiis intellexisse quae immol- 
 averat. Ubi enim vidit nullum adesse cUBmonium, nullam con- 
 trariam potestatem victimis suis adsistere audentem, exclusos 
 esse omnes malitix ministros, quibus uti ad maledicendum sole- 
 bat, potuit ex his intellexisse, quia bonum esset in conspectu 
 Domini benedicere Israel." Without recurring to such a ma- 
 chine, the knot may be untied by the assistance of a learned 
 person, who supposes that Balaam was accustomed to see o- 
 mens, instead of demons ; and who, on the same principle, 
 solves the difficulty of two other remarkable texts : Voss. in 
 Maimon. uti supr. p. 73. ** Ita ir^nj Bilhami fuerit proprie au- 
 gurium. £t cum idem ait, V«ltt^'i DDp «Vi nppa tt^nJ «^,*non 
 est augurium, vel omeriy contra Jacobum, nee divinatio contra 
 Israelem.' Atque inde verba, * Fortasse obviam fiet Deus mihi, 
 et quamcumque rem ostenderet mihi, indicabo tibi :' i. e. videbo 
 quale mihi signum Deus offerat, et tibi renuntiabo." 
 
 ^9" Seld. uti supr. Synt. I. cap. v. p. 162. ** Mans enim Mo- 
 abitarum regione Peor dictus erat, ubi, ni fallor, Baal hie et de- 
 lubro et sacris Iwnorabatur. Moses Num. cap. xxxiii. * et as- 
 sumpsit Balac Bileam in summitatem Peor^ sive Phegor, qui res- 
 
88 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 lak conducted Balaam, from "the high places of 
 Baal," was equally dedicated to the deities of Mo- 
 ab. On this mountain a temple was erected to the 
 idol Chemosh,^^^ who is conceived identical with 
 Baal-Peor : but it seems to have been particularly 
 consecrated to an idol from whom it derived its 
 name, the god Nebo,^^^ to whom the Moabites paid 
 rehgious honors. 
 
 To form a just estimate, hov/ far the considera- 
 tion of those deities, and their rites entered into 
 Balaam's views, when delivering his predictions 
 in the scene of their worship, it is necessary to ex- 
 amine a little further the titles which were ascri- 
 bed to them, and the emblems by which they were 
 distinguished. Of those deities, the principal was 
 
 picit faciem deserti Jesimon.' Montium summitates ante alia 
 loca divinis rebus olim destinatas, non est cur adjungerem. ., 
 Hinc etiam dictum Beelphegor vult Theodoretus ad Psalm, cv. 
 
 alii, et Suidas, Bis?UI)£yJ)p* BseA, o K^ovo?* <i>E'yup ^l o roiroqlv CO gTijtAolo, 
 
 l| Jv BEeA(p£7i^p;.. .IT ti enim Jupiter Olympius, Mercurius Cy- 
 lenius. . .a montibus appellati : ita Baal seu Belus noster, quem 
 Jovena aut Belum Phegorium licet vocare. In Deut. xxxiv. 
 xnentio est Domus Phegor, seu Beth-Peor in terra Moab, juxta 
 quam vallis ilia in qua sepultus Moses. Certe Beth-Peor 
 pro monte ubi templum numinis, quod Beth Ebraice dicitur, ibi 
 sumitur : ut BY)BSa.yuv pro templo Dagonis" &c. 
 
 ^91 Id. ibid. p. 165. Chemos vocant Xa/xw? LXX. intepretes; 
 et vocamine tantummodo a Phegorio Deo hunc distare sentit D. 
 Hieronymus. Ad Esiam Lib. V. * In Nabo [hujus mentio 
 Esai. XV. et Jer. xviii.] erat CAamos idolum consecratum, quod 
 alio nomine appellatur Beelphegor." 
 
 ^92 Id. ibid. Synt. II. cap. xii. p. 340. " Numen erat etiam 
 Nebo seu Nabo. Esai. cap. xlvi. * Cecidit Bel, succubuit Nebo.* 
 Nebo autem in Deut. xxii. com. 40. montis Abarim cacumen. . . 
 An a monte cognomine dictus Nebo ? Ad designatum Esaiae 
 locum, D. Hieronymus: * Nabo et ipsum Idolum est, quod in- 
 terpretatur prophetia et divinatio. . . .LXX. autem Seniores in 
 Esaiae loco jam dicto : ocmo^.tlrui ya^ )cj NsjSiJv, § o jSw/^o? vijluv, id 
 est, * vastatur Nebon ubi altare vestrum.' An Ab^uv legendum 
 ibi ? videtur sane. Nam Nebo, in eodem comate iis est N«iStf tj5j 
 
OJb A GREAT DELIVERER. 89 
 
 obviously Baal-peor, w^ho has been already men- 
 tioned, as identical v^ith the Priapus of the wes- 
 tern nations. Nor can any reasonable objection 
 be urged against this conclusion, which is support- 
 ed by the highest authority. ^^^^ Were we destitute 
 of historical evidence, that this obscene god, who 
 was paid religious honors at Lampsacus, was im- 
 ported from the East into Greece, his pedigree 
 might be deduced from his name, which sutticient- 
 ly reveals his descent from the idol worshipped in 
 Moab.^9* 
 
 If conducted by this clue, we now take the des- 
 cription of the oriental deity, from his western re- 
 presentative, it appears that his image was form- 
 ed, with a sceptre in his right hand, and with some 
 emblems, characteristic of his depraved rites, of 
 too gross a nature to admit of description.*^^ And 
 as an identity is admitted, not only between Peor 
 and Chemosh,^^ but as Nebo is also allowed to 
 
 *9' In this opinion, the critics and commentators seem with 
 one voice to concur; Orig. in IVum. Horn. xx. p. 349. Hier. 
 uti supr. p. 77. n. ^^i. August.de Civ. Dei Lib. VI. cap. ix. 
 Lib. VII. cap. iii. Seld uti supr. p. 77. n. "i. Beyer Addit. 
 in Seld. p 241. Voss. de Idololatr. Lib. II, cap. vii. Spencer 
 de Leg. Hebrae Lib. II. cap. vii. p. -297. Fuller's Pisgah 
 Sight. B. II. § 19. Cumberl. on Sachoniath. p. 67. Bryant 
 Obs. on dif. pas. of Script, p. 24. n. Patrick on >ium. xxv. 1. 
 Newton Dissert, on Proph. &c. 
 
 ^9* Voss. de Idolol. Lib. II. cap. vii. p. 174. " Hunc vero 
 [Priapum] esse Baal-phegor etiam etymon ostendit, si tidere 
 nostr-cc licet conjecturae ; nempe ut posterior pars in Priapo sit 
 nw, ab, hoc est pater ; prior autemsit")jrB, Pf?or, sivePhegor :. . 
 Hoc etymon si placet, Priapus significat Phegor-pater ; ut Ju- 
 piter est Jovis pater; Mars piter est Mars pater," &c. Vid. infr. 
 n. 198. 
 
 195 Suid. Lex. VOC. ripiaTro;* TO a,yotX[jLU ra UfiaTra, . . .uv^^airo- 
 TO al^o7ov atT« itriiocfjLSiov. 
 
 i9fi Vid. supr. p. 88. n.»9i. Conf. Voss. de Idol. Lib. II. 
 cap. viii. p. 176. 
 
90 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 have partaken of the common resemblance m 
 which they agreed ;^^ we cannot greatly err, in 
 supposing, that these idols, if not of the same kind, 
 were atleast distinguished by the same emblems. 
 
 Nor is this conclusion materially affected by the 
 supposition, that Nebo or Peor rather agreed, 
 with the Mercury^^® than Priapus of the West ; as 
 the resemblance which has been traced between 
 the oriental originals was observed to extend also 
 to their western descendants. Mercury and Priapus 
 were alike represented in the form of a Terminus ; 
 and in the disgraceful emblems by which they 
 were distinguished, no difference is discoverable. 
 The sceptre in the hand of the one corresponds 
 with the rod in the hand of the other ; the serpents 
 with which it was intwined marking its connex- 
 ion with the ophite worship, which occupied a dis- 
 tinguished rank in the Sabian superstitions. 
 
 On a subject, rendered obscure from its antiqui- 
 ty, considerable light is shed, by an account of 
 some superstitions, which appear to have prevail- 
 ed to a very late period, if they are not preserved 
 to the present day, in the country originally pos- 
 
 *W Voss. ibid. p. 177. " Qiiare ex Hieronymi mente Neho, 
 quando pro numine sumitur, idem sit ac Chemoset BeelphegoVy'* 
 Seld. uti supr. Synt. II. cap. xii. p. 341. ** Certe haui alium 
 Nehn a Chamns et Belo Phegorio ]UYe forsan putes." 
 
 198 Ant. Univ. Hist. Vol. TI. p. 102. *' Nebo is thought by 
 some to have been another deitv of the Moabites. It was., 
 mssibly/Ae same as Mercvry.'' Hyde not. in Peritsol. S\nt. 
 Dissert. Tom. I. p. 53. ♦' Herodotus p. 123. monet Mercvrii 
 etiam statnam porrecto veretro fieri ; ita ut tam ad Mercurivm 
 quam ad Bacchum referatur nomen "lire hjf:i [Baal peor], do- 
 minus turpitiidinis, et mrs n»n [Beth Peor], locus tuipitudmis 
 ubi colebatur." Heiod. in Enterp. p. 123. rt h 'e^ulsu uyuy fAotla. 
 
 o^<^u c^nt roc ai^oTot 'COJilj-ls?,, . a9ro Ut'^ctryu:*^ ttputoi fjtv 'EX^rtuv 
 
 ecccavTuv 'A^rvatot t afa>a/3ji''6', )ce. These statucs are desciibed 
 in similar terms by Plutarch, and Phurnutus, whose opinions 
 are cited by Vossius, uti supr. cap. xxxii, p. 2l>9. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 91 
 
 sessed by the Moabites. We are assured, on au- 
 thority which receives confirmation from the high- 
 est and most ancient sources/^^ that the inhabi- 
 tants of this reo:ion reverenced two idols. To one 
 of these, which resembled the Saturn of the west- 
 ern nations, they erected a black image formed of 
 stone ; and to the other, which they identified with 
 Mercury, they erected a white image of the same 
 material. Twice in the year the worshippers of 
 these idols paid them religious homage. The fes- 
 tival in honor of Nebo or Mercury, as held when 
 the sun entered ariea, happened at the vernal equi- 
 nox ; while that in honor of Peor or Saturn, as ob- 
 served when the sun entered libra y occurred at the 
 
 *99 Petrus Alphonsus, quoted by Bernhard Breidenbach, ap. 
 Beyer Addit. in Seld. p. 322. aliosque : " Duo Hlii Loth, Am- 
 nion scilicet et Moab. . . .duo colebant idola, unum ex albo tac-^ 
 turn lapide quod Mercvrium, alteium ex nigro, quod Camus 
 a| pellabant: et istud quidem, ex nigro lapide, in honorem 
 Satuni, alteium ex albo in Martis [I. Mercurii] honorem ve- 
 neiabantur. Et bis in anno ad ha:c idola adoranda eorum as- 
 cendebant cultores. Ad IMaitem [I. Meicuriuni] quando sol 
 intiat aiietis giadum,. , .in cujus disce>sione, ut mos erat, la- 
 •pidcs javuhuittur. Ad Saturnum vero quando sol piimura gra- 
 dum librae ingiediebatur. .sicque nudi ac tonsis capiibus thuiifi- 
 cabdut." There can be no doubt that Mars has been substituted, 
 in this extract, for Mercury ; the niDJiD, or'E^fj.a7(n Xo^ot, erect- 
 ed in whose honor, bv casting stones m a heap, were so ancient 
 as to be mentioned by Solomon, Pro v. xxvi. 8. and Homer* 
 Odyss. n. 471. This custom which is mentioned in the piece- 
 ding extract, is desciibed by Phurnutus, ubi supr. Tr^oc-b-^rSuai ^l 
 Ttff AtStf? TOK 'Ef/xaK* ixotroq riiiy -rapji'Tft;* £»a rtxx. avroTq Tir^ori^iUt 
 t^i ', and by Maimonides, de Idolatr, cap. iii. § 1. as the authoiity 
 of this wi iter conrtrms the piecedmg extiact fiom Petius Al- 
 phonsus, I shall quote him moie fully; irEJ'tt^ "in-inptt^ lire — 
 
 D'J2«, — * I^eor whom they worsh pped by uncovering themselces 
 befoiehm; and Mercury, whom they worshipped by casting 
 stones at him, or scatteiing stones befoie him.' Conf. Buxt. Lex. 
 V. -nj^D, col. 1780. V. D»VipiD, col. 1263. Voss. de Idol. Lib. 
 Lib 11. cap.xxxii. Seld. uti infr. p. 96. n.«<». 
 
 y 2 
 
92 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 autumnal. And in the offices performed on these 
 occasions, the most ancient customs were preser- 
 ved ; the worshippers of Mercury raising a sacred 
 mound in his honor, while those of Saturn apj)ear- 
 ed in a state of nakedness before him. While this 
 account receives some confirmation from the state- 
 ment of the most learned Hebrew writers, it bears 
 internal evidence of its traditional accuracy. In 
 the term Camus, which it bestows on one of the 
 gods of the Moabites ; it preserves one of the most 
 ancient titles by which the divinities of that people 
 were distinguished ; and in identifying the other 
 with Saturn, it coincides in the views which it 
 gives of their superstition with the most credible 
 accounts that have been transmitted to us from an- 
 tiquity, in which that god is represented as identical 
 with Bel or Baal.^"^ As to the causes which led to 
 those deities being considered the same, they may 
 be collected from Sanchoniatho, from whom we 
 learn, that Cronus, who was Bel, was consecrated 
 in the planet Saturn.^^^ 
 
 «"o Serv. in iEneid. T. 729. " ^6/?/s— lingua Punica Bal 
 dicitur, a| ud Assyrios Bel d\c\tur, quadam saciorum latione, 
 et Satumus" ike. Theophil. Antioch. Lib. III. p. 1L9. a. iv^o^ 
 
 fjLtii a-e^ovrai rov K^ovov^ t^ rhrov avrov lvo^a,tHCi B>?X x^ BaA, /xa?ira 
 ol oly.ovnTBq TO. uvoc ly.cc nhiixarae. , , , t'TTupcc at Pufj(.oiioK;Tocrovr]/oc onofjLci- 
 
 (iTui, Hier. Com. in Is. xlvi. 1. *' Quern Graici Belum, L&tini 
 Snfvrnum vocant." 
 
 201 8anchon ap. Euseb. Pruep. Ev. Lib. l. cap. x. p. 40. 
 
 K^ovo; TOivtv, ov ol <io.y^y.l<; '~IX •jrf^oaayopiiaai, . . , fjura, rr,v rov ^>ti TtA- 
 tvTVtV^ il(; rov Toy Kfova uri^a. xaSt^wSw? >c]g. For 'lcr^a»)>, which 
 occurs in the text of Busebius, loc. cit. and Lib IV. cap. xvi. 
 p. 156. d. I have substituted'!?, on the authority of the context, 
 which reads, ibid. p. 38. a. o'l>o. rohr er**- o K^oyoq. The substi- 
 tution has been obviously made in the text, in consequence of 
 *IA being the common abseviation of 'ir^aijX in the ms. copies of 
 the New Testament. After having thus accounted for the cor- 
 ruption of the text and justified its emendation ; if it be thought 
 to require further authority, it may be found in the following tes- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER 
 
 From this desultory account of the idols of the 
 Moabites, a sufficiently accurate notion may be 
 formed of the superstitions of that people, when 
 Balaam proceeded at the requisition of balak, to 
 devote the Israelites to destruction. When we 
 behold the prophet, led to the hills which were con- 
 secrated to the Moabite gods, and delivering him- 
 self amid the altars which smoked with their cfier- 
 ings ; it woidd appear extraordinary, while he de- 
 nounced judgment against' Moab, if no sentence 
 \vas passed on her idolatrous worship. The neces- 
 sity of avoiding this difficulty determines the aem^e 
 of the passage in which he delivers himseli, after 
 declaring his confident Lope that he would, one 
 day, behold the Redeemer : 
 
 A star shall proceed out of Jacob, 
 A sceptre shall rise out ol" Israel, 
 And shall break the Termini of Moab : 
 
 The images thus chosen by Balaam possessed 
 a sufficient recommendation to the prophet, in the 
 appositeness with which they expressed " the 
 power and glory" of Him whose advent he predict- 
 ed. But those attributes might have been ex- 
 pressed without a figure, or represented by other 
 images, which were no less descriptive or forci- 
 ^jg 202 TJiose which the prophet selected are not 
 
 timony of an oriental b'shop, who has been just quoted; The- 
 ophii. uti supr. p. 139. b. o K^j»o? ^ o B»jX.. . .octto 'EI^itow (potah 
 
 *** Thus the Messiah is termed by the prophet Malachi, iv. 
 2. npny trnir, * the Sun of righteousness;' and our Lord teimed 
 the sons of Zebedee, Marc. iii. 17. tt^jn »Jl, or as it is rendered 
 in the Syriac, )>o\ ; caXTD, ' the sons of Thunder.^ The appear- 
 ance of our Lord is likened to that of the svn. Rev. i. 16. and 
 his coming compared to the descent of lightningy Matt. xxiv. 
 27. Luc. xvii. 24. By those images Balaam might have des- 
 
94 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 merely adapted to his subject, but were suggested 
 by the objects which presented themselves to his 
 observation. Baal, it has been already observed, 
 was consecrated in the star Saturn ; and he was 
 represented by an image bearing a sceptre in its 
 hand.^°^ The idol had appropriated the honors and 
 engrossed the worship of the Divine Personage, 
 whose advent the prophet taught the Moabites to 
 expect at a future period. In the science cultiva- 
 ted in Chaldea from the remotest antiquity, it was 
 besides inculcated, that there would be a restitu- 
 tion of all things, after a revolution of years ; and 
 the commencement of the new epoch was calcu- 
 lated by the rising of particular stars.^'^* To the er- 
 
 cribed his advent, had he not had a particular object in view, 
 in characterising his appearance, by the rising star, and uplifted 
 sceptre. 
 
 «o» Vid. supr. p. 89. n. »95. p. 92. n. 201. 
 
 2°* I have all eady observed on the authority of Berosus, as 
 preserved by Seneca, that the Chaldeans expected a gieat resti- 
 tution at the end of their Annus Maxinius ; vid. supr. i-. 34. n.^*. 
 p. 10. n. *9. Censoiinus speaking of their Gieat Year, ob- 
 serves, De Die Natal, cap. xviii. " Huic Anno [ex annis ver- 
 tentihus duodecim] Lhaldaico nomen est, quern Genethliaci noit 
 ad soils luncBffVe cuisus, sed observationes alias habent accomnio- 
 datum : quod in eo dicunt tempestates, frugumque | roventus, 
 sterilitates, item moibosque ciicumire." V^ ith the Great Year 
 of the Egvpians. who borrowed their astronomical knowledge 
 from the Chaldeans, the same writer was better acquainted; he 
 speaks of its beginning asdetermmed, not only by the rising of 
 a star, but of a star which was termed Thoth and Selh ; Censo- 
 rin. ib d. p. 107. " Ad ^gyptiorum veio Annvm ^iagnvm luna 
 non pertinet, quem Grace y.v\nK.(,v, Latine cannirulareni voca 
 mus, piopterea (^vod iniiiuin illius svmitur, cum primo die ejus 
 mensis quem vocant Agyptii Thot, (anicula sidhs exoritvr.'' 
 It s against those '* obseivations of times," mentioned by Cen- 
 soiinus, and by which the Cha'daic Genethliaci vere directed 
 in i-rognosticating the occurrence of future events, that the 
 Levitical law was directed, vid. supr. p. 80. n. '78. and the 
 allusion to them by Moses is a sufficient testimony, that they 
 were more ancient than the times of Balaam. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 95 
 
 rors which prevailed on these subjects the prophe- 
 cy of Balaam is directly opposed. In declaring, 
 that in ** the latter days," at the end or *' consum- 
 mation of the age,"-*^^ when the Messiah would ap- 
 pear, 
 
 A atar should proceed out of Jacob, 
 A sceptre should rise out oj Israel: 
 
 He directs their attention, from the appearance 
 of a natural phenomenon to the advent of a Divine 
 Person, who would be of the house of Israel and 
 linea;j:e of Jacob. And he annihilates the ofrounds 
 of that confidence which they reposed in the dei- 
 ties distinguished by those symbols, by declaring, 
 that, on the appearance of this Personage, their 
 images would be broken and their worshippers 
 destroyed. 
 
 And shall break the Termini^*^^ of Moab^ 
 
 «w Vii. supr. p. f>>. n.»*3 p. 70. n.i^s 
 
 "^ The various significations assigned to the term ♦nt^Q, in the 
 principal ve sion^ of Balaam's prophecy, have been already sta- 
 ted, supr. p. 50. n. '2''. And however remote the sense of ' princes,' 
 and • rulers,' which it is generally asciibed in the ancient trans- 
 lations, may be considered from that of * Termini,' as 1 con- 
 ceive it should be rendered, an analogy may be traced bet^veen 
 those different signiHcations, which will at least justify the li- 
 berty I have taken, in departing from their authority. The 
 word mnjio, Prov. xxvi. 8. which 1 have already explained, 
 supr. p. nn. n. ^99. is obviously a cognate term of noJl, Ps. 
 Ixviii. 28. Both are derived from D3"), lapidare, lapidibut 
 obrnere; the former differing from the latter but in hiving the 
 particle o prefixed to it, which is exclusively applicable to it, 
 as a preposition of place, contracted from the particle, »o. 
 But by Pagnini, Thesaur. Ling Sanct. sub. voc. djt col. 2p24. 
 the one term is explained, '* Psal. Ixviii. 28. /)rirtcf/)e« Jehudah, 
 DnoJiT, duces eorum : ut LXX. seu, ducatns, principatus:" 
 and the other, " Hinc est et hdJID, congregatio lapidum ^secnn- 
 dum Rab. David, in libro Radicum. . . .nojnai. . R. David, i» 
 acervu Inmdnm, . . . Hieronymus, in acervum Mercurii." Vid. 
 infr. a. ^^^, et n. ^u. The grounds of this ai&nity appear to me 
 
// 
 
 9^ THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 And destroy all the sons of Seth. 
 
 It is a singular fact, and such as throws consid- 
 erable light upon this difficult passage, that the 
 idols which have been described as worshipped by 
 the Assyrians, and as transported into the West 
 by the Palasgic and Phenician colonists, were 
 made in the form of a Terminus. In the early age 
 of Grecian art, Priapus and Mercury, who were 
 the immediate descendants of Peor, Chemos and 
 Nebo, were uniformly represented by a member- 
 less trunk, to which a bust merely was added in 
 the more refined period of sculpture. We are 
 therefore not likely to err in taking our notions of 
 the oriental model from the western copy. We 
 have the authority of the most ancient historian of 
 the West, that those deities were directly import- 
 ed from the East f^"^ and in the retention of the o- 
 riental names,^^ and preservation of the rude form 
 
 to lie in the circumstance of prmces having assumed the titles 
 of those gods to whom those sacred mounds and termini were 
 erected. Such was the god Nebo, whom we have seen identifi- 
 ed with Mercury : and of whose title Selden declares, De Dis. 
 Syr. Svnt. H. cap. xii. *' Vestigia hujus nominis habes in 
 Nabuchadnezar, N^abuzaradan, Babvloniorum Nabonito, Na- 
 bonassaro. . . . Nabonabo et hujusmodi aliis. Supra enira ad- 
 monuimus Deorum nomina Principum nominibiis, uti bona omi- 
 na, scepissime adject a." 
 
 2"7 Herodotus uti supr. p. 90. n. ^^. admits that those idols 
 
 I were first brought into Greece by the Pelasgians. This people, 
 
 I it is generally admitted, came originally out of the East; from 
 
 f whence they brought the use of letters into the West; they 
 
 spoke a language which was radically the same as the Chaldee : 
 
 see Bryant's Mythol. Vol. HI. p. 397. 405. 4to. 
 
 2o» The term Priapus has been traced to the oriental i« mrsj, 
 supr. p. 89. n. i9*. and the name Mercury had a like original ; 
 Seld.de Dis. Syr. Synt. H. cap. xv. •' [n Proverbiis Solo- 
 moniscap. xxvi. com. 8.. .* Sicutqui mittit lapidem in acerimm 
 Mervurii,' *!vrc. . . Ebi aica Veritas habet n?ojlD3, id est, *'m 
 Mtrgamali,' ex qua voce Mercurium formarunt, uti vides, prisci.'* 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 97 
 
 which their statues ever possessed, we have no in- 
 conclusive proof, that the only change which they 
 underwent, was that of place, in their migration 
 from Asia to Europe. 
 
 Should there be any one of opinion, that a pre- 
 ference is still due to the literal force of the pass- 
 age, "shall smite the corntm of Moab;" in which 
 version it must be admitted, he will stand opposed, 
 with scarcely any exception, to the authority of 
 the translators ancient and modern ; even in this 
 view of it, the allusion of the prophet to the popu- 
 lar superstitions may be supported. It appears 
 that such sites were not only chosen for the erec- 
 tion of idols, but that they were appropriated to 
 the images of Baal. Of Ahaz, who was irreclaim- 
 ably addicted to this superstition, it is recorded, 
 thal'^'^^ ** he walked in the %vaij.s of the hinosof Israel, 
 and made also molten images for Baa Inn' that 
 ** he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, 
 and made him altars in tvery corner of Jerusalem. 
 And in every several city of Judah he made high 
 places to burn incense unto other gods." 
 
 In a word, these idolatrous objects had so obvious 
 a connexion, with the scene in which Balaam's pre- 
 dictions were delivered, that the difficulty really 
 lies in conceiving, how they could have been dis- 
 
 Conf. infr. n. ^n. The name Hermes may be traced to the 
 same root: in continuation Selden observes; ** Mer<uriiis e- 
 nim, id est J^er;/<cs, viarum piitses erat." And shortly after; 
 ** Margemuh autem a dji, raijaniy id est luj.iuibus oltrint, deduci 
 volunt, qui ibi Merkoiis intelligunt, et * lapidum javhtm ' inter- 
 pretantur. Et Rabbi Nathan loco jam citato nmnr (inquit) 
 D'J1« DDUn, 'cultus ejus est lapidum jactus,' seu Rayeihath, 
 cui Margemah cognatum esse volunt " From the oriental root, by 
 taking an oiiental prefix, Hermes, as well as JVIeicury may be 
 consequently deduced; the one assuming d and the other n 
 before hdjt, from oyi. 
 
 m 2 Chron. xxvliii. 2. 24. 25. 
 
98 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 regarded by the prophet, in his denunciations of 
 Moab. The whole of the mountainous tract, to the 
 summits of which he had been conducted, to pro- 
 nounce his maledictions, was termed Abarim, from 
 thepasA'ts with which it was intersected, or tht pass- 
 ers by whom it was frequented. ^^° That such per- 
 sons should erect mounds in such places, to Mer- 
 cury, or Nebo, who gave a name to the principal 
 mountain, was not merely an observance recom- 
 mended by custom, but a rite enjoined by religi- 
 on.'" 
 
 If it be therefore allowed, that Balaam atall al- 
 ludes to the Moabite idols, it will be readily ad- 
 mitted, that he refers to their worshippers, when 
 he declares, in the context, 
 
 He shall destroy all the sons ofSefh : — 
 Yet is the Cainite reserved for destruction. 
 Until the Assyrian shall take Moab captive. 
 
 In favor of the conclusion, that under the terms 
 here used by the prophet, some sects of the Sabi- 
 an superstition must be intended, no inconsider- 
 able presumption is conveyed in the fact, that nei- 
 ther term can be taken in the sense it is usually 
 I assigned, and understood literally of the lineal des- 
 \i cendantsof Seth, and the Kenites to whom Moses 
 I was allied by marriage. In the Patriarch, from 
 whom the Sethite heretics derived their name, 
 commenced the line in which the expected Deli- 
 verer was descended, and the Kenites existed on 
 
 2J0 Vid. supr. p. 85. n."7 
 
 2»^ Seld. ubi supr. p. 251. " Quid autem * acervus Mercurii* 
 denotet breviter ennarrandum. A sacro enim ritu erat id ad 
 quod interpres [loc. cit. Prov. xxvi. 8.] digitum intendit, et ab 
 Orientali culiu. Erant apud priscos 'E^/^arot ^o^ot, sive lapidum 
 acervi Mercuriales, seu 'Y.^fj.caoc, viis pnblicis et compitis ad iti- 
 nera demonstranda congesti, quos transeuntes viatores crebro la- 
 pidum jactu ill Mercurii honorem augebant" 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 99 
 
 such amicable terms with the Israelites, that they 
 were separated from the Amalekites, when those 
 judgments were carried into effect/^'^ to which the 
 prophet alludes in his context ; 
 
 The Amalekite is the head of the nations. 
 But his end is appointed for destruction : 
 
 As in this view of the subject, the prophet must 
 have proscribed the Redeemer himself, among the 
 lineal descendants of Seth ; and have devoted a 
 nation ** to destruction," which were in amity with 
 Israel ; recourse must necessarily be had to a dif- 
 ferent principle of exposition, to arrive at the sig- 
 nification of the prediction. And as we are redu- 
 ced to the alternative, of believing, that the terms 
 used by the prophet were either paternal names, 
 or assumed titles ; there seems little reason to he- 
 sitate in adopting the latter, as the only probable 
 conclusion. When indeed we consider the extra- 
 ordinary permanence of the sect by which the 
 name of Sethite has been assumed ;*^^ the claims 
 which they lay to an original, antecedent even to 
 the deluge,^^* and the chain of evidence by which 
 they are supported in their pretensions ;^^^ the au- 
 thority on which they are referred to the times of 
 Balaam,^^^and the extraordinary coincidence which 
 exists between the superstitions which they still 
 retain, and those which prevailed in the age of the 
 Mesopotamian prophet :^*^ it is only reasonable to 
 conclude, that the title assumed by that ancient 
 sect has not been less permanent, than their rites 
 and opinions ; and of consequence, that it is a- 
 gainst the Stthites, whose superstition exists to the 
 
 212 Corap. Judges, i. 16. with 1 Sam. xv. 6. and Exod. xvii. 
 14. wi h 1 Sam. ib. 7. 
 
 213 Vid. supr. p. 12. 2i4 jbid. 215 Supy. p. 24. seq. 
 216 Supr. p, 35. 2ir gupr. p. 74. seq. 
 
 O 2 
 
iOO THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 present day, that the denunciation of the prophet 
 is directed. 
 
 This conclusion receives even additional con- 
 firmation in the solution of the only difficulty 
 which remains, and which it is of the last impor- 
 tance to the main object of these researches, to re- 
 solve : — from whence had those deities their ori- 
 gin, to whose altars the king of Moab resorted, for 
 support, against the armies of Israel, and into 
 whose worship the Israelites were seduced, by the 
 suggestions of the prophet whom he employed as 
 his counseler ? 
 
 A solid foundation is laidf or our deductions, on 
 this subject, by an inspired writer, whose testimo- 
 ny has created no slight embarrassment to the 
 constructors of mythological hypotheses, on physi- 
 cal and allegorical principles. In mentioning the 
 initiation of the Israelites in the mysteries of Baal- 
 peor, he describes the sacrifices of which they 
 participated as ** the offerings of the dead''^^^ As 
 
 2^8 Ps. cvi. 28. D'nD »nit i^3«'i mra VraV nnyn, * and they 
 were initiated in (the rites of) Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices 
 of the dead.* Thus the passage is rendeied in the ancient ver- 
 sions, with the exception of the Arabic, to which a preference 
 is given by D. Vossius, who has collected them in the following 
 passage, in which he supersedes the opinion passed by Selden 
 on this text ; Not. in iVIaimon. de Idolol. cap. iii. § 2. *' Verum 
 magis milii placet sententia Nicholai Lyrani, sic interpretantis, 
 * Comederunt de carnibus animalium idoiis immolatoruin ;' ut 
 D»nD»nnT non sint carnes quai promortuisofferuntur, sed carnes 
 imtnolatce, sive AluXo^vra,: quod certe mi/ii valde placet, cum et 
 
 Arabs eodem modo transtulerit, Xa^ \j>\s£s^, sacri/iciamortuu;^ 
 Syrus, JAa^cj JAoj, * sacriHcia /wor^tfonuw,' ut Hebrseus: etiam 
 Graeci ^va'^uc^ nx^^^v, et Chaldicus habet, K'n'D ddd'J, ' oblation- 
 em martuorum.'* In this partiality, I trust, this admirer of the 
 Arabic is not likely to have a rival. Of the modern versions, 
 the following coincide with the principal ancient; to which the 
 Latin Vulgate remains to be added, which reads, * sacrificia 
 mortvorum.* The Italian accordingly reads, * dei sacrifici de' 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 101 
 
 the psalmist obviously follows the account of Mo- 
 ses and adopts his language, a collation of their 
 testimony enables us at once to decide, that it was 
 to their departed ancestors that those religious ho- 
 nors were paid by the Moabites. As the histori- 
 an represents those offerings as " the sacrifices of 
 the gods y" which the prophet describes as *' the sa- 
 crifices of the dead ;' the most obvious and natural 
 mode of reconciling their testimony lies in the in- 
 ference, that they cle'iJied^vA worshipped the dead^^^ 
 If we now consider, from what progenitors, the 
 Moabites were derived ; that, as the descendants of 
 Lot, they deduced their origin from the same 
 source as the Hebrews ; and that the history of this 
 people preserves an authentic account of their 
 common ancestors, it affords an adequate test by 
 which the truth of our inquiries may be proved. 
 I shall confine my attention to a simple explana- 
 tion of the titles which they have ascribed to their 
 
 mnrti ;' the Spanish, * los sacrificios de los muertoSy' and the En- 
 glish, * the sacriHces of the dead.' The French indeed para- 
 phrases the passage, ' des sacririces des (doles mortes ; and the 
 German, in the same sense, ' von den Opfern der todten Gdtz*"R : 
 of which sen«e. an equally labored and inefficient defence, may 
 be found in the elder Vossius, De Idol, Lib. II. cap. vii. p. 172. 
 of which more by and by. In balancing the foregoing suffrages, 
 it appears, that the Chaldee, Svriac, Greek, Latin, English, 
 Italian and Spanish, in which the most important suffrages are 
 included, assign that sense to the passage, which I venture to 
 adopt. 
 
 ^^9 It has been justly observed by Vossius, on the passage, 
 quoted in the last note, though he had not skill to make use of 
 the remark, De Idol, ubi supr. p. 172. — ** quod locus ille Psalmi 
 [cvi. 28.] expressus sit ex Nuraer. xxv. 2 : ubi sirapliciter legas ; 
 * Nam invitaveruntpopulum ad sacriticia deorum suorum.' Quod 
 illic * sacrificia deorum,' illud hie. ' sacriticia mortuonim.' Erom 
 this analogy a man of plain understanding would be merely led 
 to conclude, that this people deijied and woishipped the dead. 
 But by the help of a little critical wire-drawing, this writer easily 
 proves that they worshipped idols, or the sun and the s^ars. 
 
102 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 deities, and in the language which they spoke ; and 
 to a brief recapitulation of the incidents which 
 compose the mythological history of those divini - 
 ties : on confronting the sacred with the fabulous 
 account, the inference may be then left in the 
 hands of the reader. 
 
 The highest title which was bestowed on those 
 deities, and which constitutes the first part in the 
 composition of Baal-peor, was the common appel- 
 lation of the Assyrian gods. In decyphering this 
 title, there is little difficulty to encounter : as it is 
 not merely a significant term, but expressive of 
 the same sense in the different dialects of the As- 
 syrian, it may be therefore considered a proper 
 term of that lano^uaoe. In whichever of the dia- 
 lects of the Semitic we attempt to trace its origin, 
 it proves to be simply an epithet expressive of do- 
 minion, and analogous to Lord.^'^ And it carries 
 
 820 Pagnin. Thes. Ling. Sanct. rad. Vi^n : " qulcunque est 
 dominvs et patronns aticvjtis rei appellatur ^1^3, iJominvSy" &c. 
 He derives it from a root which he thus explains; lb. *• Vra, in 
 conjijgalione Kal, est Do in inari, doiiiinivm habere.^' And the 
 verb must have had this sense in the Assyrian, as retained in its 
 dialects, if Hottmger's opinion be just, who thus explains it, 
 Lex. Harm, sub voc. p 38. ** Vrn dominatvs fvit, Heb. Chald. 
 Syr. Arab, sic AX)n\o\i. dives j nit. '^ Though the idolatrous 
 sense asctibed to the term hvi, brought it into disuse, (vid. 
 Hos. ii. 16.) and it is generally superseded in the Syriac by 
 ^^^ and J^\#, and in the Chaldee bv no, «iO'Vir^ ; yet in these 
 edily dialects of the Assyrian, as well as in the Hebrew, it re- 
 tained its original sense of Lord: vid. Castel. Lex. Syr. ed. 
 Michael, p. 111. Buxt. Lex. Chald. col. 333. 'J'he notion, 
 that this term is a proper name derived from a monarch of the 
 Babylonians, and applied, as the term Caesar, to future mo- 
 narchs, is wholly untenable; vid. Biucker. Hist. Phil. Lib. IF. 
 cap. ii. § 2. p. 1*23. The existence of the verb hvi is a suffici- 
 ent refutation of this conjecture; and the cognate toW, by 
 which we have seen it is superseded in the Chaldee and Syriac, 
 in giving rise to the title Sultan, in Chaldee \:Dhm, in Syriac , 
 
 J^aX», in Arabic? (^. ^\la^^f is a sufficient proof, that the titles 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 103 
 
 with it this evidence of its descent and meaning, 
 that the sense which it acquired in those dialects 
 corresponds with the rise and progress of civil au- 
 thority among the people by whom they were ver- 
 nacularly spoken. As dominion, in the primitive 
 ages originated in the paternal and patriarchal au- 
 thority, out of which the monarchal and despotic 
 arose ; the term ^^2 Ba(d^\\\Q\i expresses the idea, 
 so far avouches its original, as it properly signifies 
 the ruler of a family ; in which sense, it is of impor- 
 tance to observe, that it is almost exclusively used 
 in that dialect of the Assyrian in which it is most 
 natural to conceive that early language is chief- 
 Jy preserved. '^^ 
 
 From the general term Baal, which was the 
 common title of the Assyrian deities, we must 
 therefore turn to the adjunct Peor, with which it 
 is compounded, for an epithet expressiveof the at- 
 tributes of the divinity to which it is applied. This 
 title, of which it is equally remarkable, that it pre- 
 vades the dialects of the Assyrian, and may be 
 consequently regarded as a proper term of that 
 
 of oriental monarchs have orip^inated in significant terms. The 
 supposition that the name of Baal was originally the title of 
 Me A I. MIGHTY, as the learned Selden supposed, is peifectly 
 reconcilable with the p eceding observations : but it is exposed 
 to great difficulties, which I cannot admit him, with all ray ad- 
 miration of his inexhaustible erudition, to have wholly removed ; 
 vid. De Dis. Syr. Synt. II. cap. i p. 195. 
 
 ^-* In corroboration of the above assertion, I shall extract 
 from the most reputed Lexicons of the Hebrew, Chaldee and 
 Syriac, the significations annexed to the teim Vrn, regarded 
 both as a verb and noun; hvi, Heb. "possidere ut dominus, 
 maritum esse — patronus, maritus." Pagnin. ed. Mercer, col. 
 291. hvi^ CAa/rf. " synechdochice signiticat dominium maritale, 
 i. e. maritus fieri — maritus, herus." Buxtorf. col. 331. VV \ Q j 
 Syr. ** nupsit — dominus, maritus." Castel. ed. Michael, p. Ill, 
 In the Syriac it is nearly confined to the latter sense ; while iu 
 the Hebrew, and Chaldee it obtains a more extended and high- 
 er signification, expressing also to rw/eand Lord: vid. supr. n.^^ 
 
 / 
 
104 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 lan<^*iiage, possesses in those dialects the significa- 
 tion of naked, uncooered.^'^' And with a title having 
 this sense, the description given of the deity to 
 which it is applied, but too accurately accords. 
 In the representation of Priapus, with whom Baal- 
 peor is identihed, nothing was so remarkable as 
 the offensive nakedness of his form. The circum- 
 stances of his history, as stated by the best inform- 
 ed of the ancients-^^ are few but characteristic. 
 
 *^* Mercer, in his additions to Pagnini, has thus explained the 
 term, which he derives from the verb npD, aperire.Scc. Thes. 
 
 Ling. Sanct. col. •2209. " Hinc mrs et myD bvi idolum 
 
 apud Moabitas, ab apertione et nuditatey quod Deus esset tur- 
 pitudinis et hbidinis, quae in hac lingua nuditatis nomine signifi- 
 
 \ catqr. Priapum voce nonnihil detorta nostri appellarunt. 
 
 \ Cujus cultus in comessationibus et orani lascivia eftVeni libine 
 versabanlur. Num. xxv. Jehos. xxii. unde et Monti in Moab- 
 itlde nomen fuit Pehor, ubi et templum dei fuit et cultus," cS^c. 
 This title, as significant, and derived from a root which generally 
 prevails in the Semitic dialects, could not have been unknown 
 to the primitive Assyrian; besides the Heb. nj;£3, * aperuit,^ 
 Pagnin ibid, the Chaldee possesses ' np a, aperire,. .re/e^ere, 
 nudare.' Buxt. Lex. c. 1780. the Syriac,* 'Vov . apervit disten- 
 
 dit, unde j-^i.^^ amictus^ Cast. Lex. p. 719. the Arabic Jw» 
 aperuit, apertio &c. The silly and disgusting tritiing of the 
 Rabbinical doctors, in the etymology of this title of the Moabite 
 idol may be seen in Selden, who passes on it the sentence which 
 it deserves; De Dis. Syr. Synt. L cap. v. p. 158. 162. in which 
 he has been honored with the concurrence of the Vossiuses, son 
 and sire. 
 
 223 Voss. de Idol. Lib. IL cap. \ii,p. 172, — *' Isidorus Orig. 
 Lib. V^lll. cap. xi. ..sic scribit : *' Beelphegor interpretatus 
 simulachrum ignominiae : idolum enim fuit Moab^ cognu/tiento 
 Baal, super montem Phegor, quern Latini Priapum vocant, 
 deum hortorum. Fuit enim de Lampsaco civitate Hellesponti, 
 de qua pulsus est : et propter virilis membri magnitudinem in 
 numerum deorum suorum eum Graeci transtulerunt, et in nomi- 
 ne " [/. numine] '* sacraoerunt hortorum: unde et dicitur prceesse 
 kortis, propter eorum fcecunditatem." Ac prteivit ea parte Ser- 
 vius in Georg. IV. 
 
 Et custos furum, atque avium cum f alee saligna, 
 
 EUespontiaci servet tutela Priapi. 
 
{ ymVEHSJTY , 
 
 f)F A (iRKAr DKLIVKKKR. '105 
 
 Gardens were supposed to be under his protection ; 
 the obscenity of his appearance, it was believed, 
 had occasioned his expulsion from his native soil ; 
 after which lie was deified, and became the god of 
 the cultivated grounds, which he protected. In 
 the different representations of his figure, we find 
 his sceptre exchanged for a sickle ;'*^* but of this 
 substitution his history afiords a sufficient solu- 
 tion, which represents him as reduced from the 
 rank of a monarch to the humble state of a hus- 
 bandman. 
 
 This short sketch of the most ancient of the 
 gods of the IMoabites I now submit, to be compa- 
 red with an account of the earliest of the ancestors 
 of that people ; which was drawn up by a contem- 
 porary of Balaam, but a short time previous to the 
 seduction of the Israelites to the worship of that 
 deity, through the suggestions of the prophet. Af- 
 ter representing Ihe creation of Adam, and record- 
 ing the blessing pronounced on him and his part- 
 ner,--^ ** to be fruitful and multiply, to replenish the 
 earth, and to subdue it, and have domimon over it ;'* 
 the sacred historian proceeds ; *-*'** and the Lord God 
 planted a garde?! eastward in Eden.' .. and he 
 ** took the man and put him into the garden, to dress 
 it, and to keep it. . . And they were both of them na- 
 ked, the man and his wife and were not ashamed.' 
 The detail of the fall by the temptation of the 
 
 *' Hie " inquit, " Priapus fuil de Lampsaco, civitate Helles- 
 ponti : de qua pulsus propter virdis membri vw(fmtudinem, post 
 in numervm deonim receptvs, meruit numen esse hortorum. 
 Yet after the detail of theae testimonies, the learned eiter grave- 
 ly assures us; I'jid. " Priapvm vero ipiayS-; esse Solcm, rauttis 
 adstruitur argumeatis.*' 
 
 2«4 Comp. Suidas, supr. p. 80. n. '^. Virgil, supr. p. 104. 
 n. 223. 
 
 225 Cie;i. i. -28. ^co ^d. ii. 8. 15. 25. 
 
106 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 Serpent succeeds, with the curse of sorrow in 
 bearing children, and in laboring the ground, res- 
 pectively pronounced against the transgressors ; 
 and the narrative thus closes, with the account of 
 their expulsion from paradise ; -^^" therefore the 
 Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, 
 to till the ground, from whence he was taken." It 
 must be superfluous, to pursue the description fur- 
 ther, or draw a formal parallel, where the coinci- 
 dence is rendered obvious by the resemblance of 
 the objects compared. I trust also I shall need 
 no forgiveness, for declining to violate the modesty 
 of the leafy girdle, which even a pagan hand has 
 spread over the offensive part of the picture ; — 
 
 Hie deus e pa trio preenobilis Hellesponto, 
 
 Venit ad usque Italos, sacris cum turpibus, hortos, 
 
 Turpiter adfixo pudeat quern visere ramo. 
 
 Prudent, contr. Sym. Lib. II. p. 263. 
 
 From this representation, I willingly turn to 
 the consideration of the other fabulous descendant 
 of the Assyrian deity, who passed to a still more 
 westerly region, in which he was known under the 
 title of Saturn.^^ But on this subject it will not be 
 necessary to dwell ; as the likeness which the copy 
 bears to the great original, which has given rise to 
 various imitations, is so striking that it has been 
 frequently noticed. As the oriental superstitions 
 have been, in this instance, adopted by a grave 
 and virtuous people, they have lost much of their 
 eastern licentiousness. Sufficient evidence of their 
 original has been however retained. The name of 
 Saturn as well as Priapus is oriental and signifi- 
 cant ; but unlike the title of this offensive deity, 
 it was adopted, not from his exposure but his con- 
 cealment; one name being deducible from an epi- 
 
 227 Gen. iii. 23. 2«8 Vid. supr. p. 92. n. 200 
 
OF A GllLAT DLLIVLRLK. 107 
 
 tliet signifying naked, or uncovered^ the other 
 irom one signifying kid or conccakd'f But how- 
 ever striking the contrast between these epithets, 
 it is not less obvious, that tliey have been taken 
 from the same, original. A single authority from 
 the sacred volume will justify the assertion ;-^^*'and 
 the eyes of them both were opened, and they 
 
 knew that, they were naked: and Adam and 
 
 his wife hid themselves from the presence of the 
 Lord God, among the trees of the garden." As 
 my present purpose engages me in the considera- 
 tion of the oriental superstitions ; I shall leave in 
 other hands, the application of this remark, ancl 
 the production of those striking coincidences, 
 which prove, that the eastern traditions contribu- 
 ted, in no small degree, to the composition, of the 
 western fable. "'^ 
 
 — y Even from Vossius, Avhose system led him to identify all 
 the gentile divinities \\\\h the Sun, the force of truth exacted a 
 different sentence respecting Saturn, whom he acknowledges to 
 have been the same as Bel or Baai. -After quoting some pas- 
 sages of the poets, descriptive of the Golden Age, he observes, 
 De Idol Lib. I. cap. xviii. ]>. 72. '* Quom belle ea convenrurit 
 Iwminis statni in paraaiso. Vt mihi quidem dubium sit milium, 
 quin ex ttaditione aliqua ha^c hauserint poeta\ Nempe prima 
 hommum aitas in poetis est eadera, ac pnma in Scripturis: eo- 
 que Satumus est idem ac Adam. Saturnum enim non aliud 
 quam hominem fuisse; ne gentium quidem histoiici negaro aiisi 
 unquam fuerunt. Advocate eos omnes longum foret.'* 'After 
 referring to seveial authorities and quoting Tertullian at large, 
 he subjoins ; '* Si omnes f/entium JDii fvere homiiifs; nee ante 
 Saturnum ullus gentium deus fuit: (jnis Satiirmis nisi Adamns? 
 Quid mirum sit si tarn muita, qua?conveniet)'ant Adamo, gentiles 
 tribueiint Saturno. Quod nomen tum meruit A daraus cum />«- 
 dort' nvditatis se ahsconderet a {dc\e; \yo\nm\. Nam inD satar 
 Hebraeis lateie ; ut Satuimus idem sit ac Latins ' dc. 
 
 230 (ien. iii. 7. 
 
 ♦31 Vossius, though he again relapses into the old dream of a 
 solar hypothesis, thus sums up the affinities on which his conclu- 
 sion is founded, that Adam and Saturn are identical ; De Phvs. 
 
108 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 After Baal, Nebo demands our consideration ; 
 as these were not only the divinities to whom the 
 \ mountains were consecrated, whither Balaam was 
 M conducted by Balak, but the great national gods of 
 the Assyrians. In the interpretation of the title 
 of this idol we are not left to uncertain conjecture ; 
 as it has been explained by a learned ancient, who 
 has contributed not a little to the illustration of 
 the oriental superstitions, by establishing their con- 
 nexion with the western mythology. He assigns 
 it the signification of prophecy, divination /^^ and the 
 etymology is the more valuable, as this sense is 
 common to the term, in those dialects of the As- 
 syrian, in which the signification of the cognate ti- 
 tle has been traced. A'closer attention, however, 
 to the orthography of the term, and the grammati- 
 cal structure of those dialects, justifies the asser- 
 tion, that it bore a participial force, and properly 
 signified, foretold, prophesied. ^^^ 
 
 Christ, cap. ix. p. 173. — " initium nobis faciendum sit ab A- 
 damo, qui in Saturno cultus. . .Saturnum esse eundera ac Adam- 
 us, quod is dicatur Coeli et Telluris iilius ; quod tradatur toti 
 imperasse oibi ; quod aurea sub eo aetas fuisse credatur ; quod 
 regno sit expulsus; quod reperta ab eo agricultura. Quae omnia 
 nulli aique conveniunt ac Adamo, a Deo e terra forraato, do- 
 mino totius or bis constituto, ante peccatum felicissimo, post pec- 
 catum ejecto e paradiso, et primo agricola." 
 
 -32 Hieron. in Es. xlvi. 1. *• Nabo autem et ipsum idolum 
 est quod interpretatur prop^efia et dimna^io, quara post evan- 
 gelii veritatem in toto orbe conticuisse signiHcat." Thus we find, 
 in the various dialects of the Assyrian, the root from which 
 the title is derived, in the Heb. «aj, Chald. 'Uni^, Syr. .-^i/j. 
 
 Arab. 1x5, and Ethiop. 'Un, rendered prophetavit ; from whence 
 the noun is derived, Heb. and Chald. n*ij, Syr. |-o-> . Arab. 
 
 and Ethiop. ^ ^ x5, propheta. 
 
 233 The name iiJ Nebo, or as it is more properly written 
 Nabo, assumes the epenthetical vau in its second syllable ; as 
 appears from a collation of its orthography in the oriental lan- 
 guages and the western translations, vid. supr. p. 85. n ^^'^. 
 The verb «ai or »1J from which it is confessedly derived, and 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. lOiJ 
 
 If guided by this clue, and following up our first 
 principle, that the original of the gods of the Mo- 
 abites must be sought in the paternal history of 
 that people ; we now open the volume in which 
 alone their history is contained, it presents us but 
 with one person to whom the preceding epithet is 
 strictly applicable. And in the account of this 
 personage, the Moabites were so far interested, as 
 it occurs in a prophecy ascribed to one who was 
 a near relation of their progenitor Moab. The pa- 
 triarch Jacob, finding his end draw near, ** gather- 
 ed his sons together, to tell them what should be- 
 fall them in the latter days."^** In the prophecy 
 which he delivered, a prediction is included, in 
 which not only the people of Moab were concern- 
 ed, but ** all the nations of the earth " were inter- 
 ested ; the patriarch declares — 
 
 " The sceptre shall not depart from Jiidah, 
 Nor a ruler^^s from between his legs, 
 Until Shiloh236 [the Pacificator] be come ; 
 
 which differ only in the common and accidental change of verbs 
 in Lamed-aleph, naturally assumes the epenthetical l, in the 
 past paiticiple, of which it is the characteristic. From Paul 
 «nJ, prophesied, has been formed nJ, Na^aD, Nabo ; by reject- 
 ing the variable termination, after the analogy of itt^r, 'Hray, 
 Esau, from the past participle, nirjr, of the verb ntt^jr. Thus 
 Pasor derives the latter name ; Etyma. Nom. Nov.'Test. sub 
 voc. ** Ho-atJ, Esau, nomen viri. .origine Hebraeum itt^jr. , . .itt^J^ 
 vero dicitur q. A.factus, perfectus. .a radice ntt^P, perfecit." . 
 *3* Gen. xlix. 1. comp. p. 62. n.**^ supr. 
 
 235 Gen. ib. 10. v^j*i flD ppnn, thus the passage is rendered 
 in the Samaritan, TOT^^^ l^Oraiii *Yl!^a? ; * a ruler from his 
 standards;' but in the Greek, xj ^ya/x6»o? Ik ruv f^ti^uv aCrS, * and 
 a ruler from his thighs;' in the Latin, * et dux de femore ejus, a 
 ruler from his thigh ;' and in the Spanish, * y de su muslo el cau- 
 dillo,' veith the same sense : conf. infr. p. 113. n.^**. 
 
 236 ^^,^ j^2» o iv ; the original term is retained in the English, 
 * until Shilo be come ;' and in the French, * jusqu' ^ ce que le 
 Scilo vienne :' but paraphrastically explained in the Greek, 'iuq 
 
110 THE ASSYRIAN EXPJlc 1 a 1 luX 3 
 
 And to him [shall be] the expectation-^T of the nations. 
 
 ia.f t>.Bx ru ociroiLi^txivoL airZ., * until what is reserved for hiw shall 
 come f which is followed by Symmachus, by the Syriac, (^^ 
 
 woi oul->» ^ jZjjj, »nd Arabic, -jJ ^i> C-_5«^^ ^5^ (^>^ J^ 
 This sense has obviously arisen from resolving the name nV»W> 
 into m — h — «in. what (is) to him ; which however suitable to the 
 id 'om of the modern dialects, but ill accoids with the genius of 
 the Hebrew. It is accordingly rejected from all the modern 
 versions but the Italian, * colui al quale quello appartiene.' vid. 
 infr p. 111. n. «4o. 
 
 *^ D»Dy nnp» 1^1, three senses are ascribed to this passage, 
 according: to the diffeient origin which is assigned to the term 
 nnp*. Those who trace this term to the root mp, to expect, 
 render it, * and to him shall be the expectation of the nations;' 
 such is the force which it is assigned in the Syriac, ^ nom -. ci\o 
 }V)Vi\j * and him shall the nations expect ;' in the Greek, >^ cciroq 
 TTforSoxla. iBfuVf * and he shall be the desire of the Gentiles f the 
 Latin, * etipse erit expectatio gentium,' and he shall be the ex- 
 pectation of the nations:' and the Spanish, * y el sera la expec- 
 iacion de las gentes/ Those who take the same root in the 
 sense, to collects render it congregation, gathering together: such 
 is the force which it is ascribed by Aquila, tcj avrZ avT'f)\^a >ahv, 
 * and to him shall be the assembly of the people;' in the Samari- 
 tan, !inr^V :^t*Yl[!^Anr ^^^rrrZ^, and to him the nations sA«// 
 
 he congregated;^ in the Arabic, t-^^ytiJ^ ^f^ Ax! \^, with the 
 same sense : in the English, * unto him shall the gnthei'ing of 
 the people be ;' and in the French, * et c'est a lui qu'appartient 
 Tassemblee des peuples.' Those who seek its origin in the Ara- 
 bic a5L> to hear, obey, give it the force of obedience ; such is the 
 sense assigned to it in the Chaldee, «»DD]r TiPJonu^* r^'>h^, ' and to 
 bim the nations shall be obedient:^ and the Italic, ' ed inverso lui 
 sar^ r ubhedienza de' popoli.' But as the root r^p'^ is not com- 
 mon to the other dialects of the Semitic ; and as they express, in 
 common, the sense which it conveys by the verb J^DU^, which is 
 adopted by the Chaldee translator in rendering the passage 
 before us; it cannot be safely taken to explain the disputed 
 term. Of the different senses ascribed to the root nip, from 
 which it must be of consequence derived ; aS that which means 
 expectation is the natural force, and common to the Syriac, 
 ^QO ; and as that which means congregation li but a figurative 
 signification, adopted from the meeting of waters, and confirmed 
 to the conjugation Niphal ; and as the Syriac, Greek and Latin 
 translators derive the disputed term from the root in the forraei 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. HI 
 
 Hermes has been already mentioned, as the my- 
 thological personage with whom Nebo was identi- 
 fied f^ and in his fabulous history we clearly dis- 
 cover all the circumstances of this prophecy uni- 
 ted. The figures, in which the prophet describes 
 t^e progenitor of the expected personage, are 
 transferred, as emblems, to his fabulous descend- 
 ant ; the grossest sense being ascribed to the pro- 
 phecy of which it was susceptible.^^^ The term 
 t^'^^y Shiloh, when traced to different roots, is sus- 
 ceptible of the different signification of messenger 
 and pacificator f^ we find both characters accor- 
 
 sense ; I have little hesitation in concluding, that in this sense, 
 it affords the true interpretation of the term, nnp'. 
 
 238 Yij supr. p. 90. n. ^9". It is further deserving of re- 
 iDBrk, that the proper name of Hermes, or Mercury, in Syriac, 
 is Nebo. Castel. Lex. sub voc. p. 532. " Q-iu» 2. Nomen Idoli. 
 ..3. Mercvrius: hinc j_i '^o.!^, q. d. Hermes locutus est. 
 
 Abulpharag. Hist. Dyn. 73. n«^i » j^jo ., imago Mercurii. . Bar 
 Bahlul. Conf. Ferar. Nomencl. Syr. c4)l. 370. 
 
 239 Vid. supr. p. 90. n. ^97. conf. p. 89. n. ^. Petavius ob- 
 *?erves on the text before us : Kat. Tem. P. III. Lib. II [. xvi. 
 p. 207. *' Paululum obscura sunt ilia: * etdux de femorc ejus,' 
 vel, ut Hebraice concipiuntur, * et legislator de inter pedes ejus,' 
 quibus honeste putant adumbrari ra, ytvyTHma. fxo^Kx." He adds, 
 however, the true interpretation. Ibid. p. 208. 
 
 **^ The word nV'ar (written with n), is naturally derived from 
 
 Heb. nbuf, Chald. «W, Syr. )L», Arab. ^Uy, tranquillus est : 
 from whence we have the Syriac, |..\^ - the Chaldee, «n^tt^ pa- 
 cificus: and according to this derivation, the passage before us is 
 rendered in the Samaritan, ^Z^ mAmm /fZ^ 'TV, ' untilMc 
 pacific (one) shall come.' But when written with n, as it seems 
 to have been read by St. Jerome, it is naturally derived from 
 
 Heb. and Chald. nVu^, Syr. ,.A* - Arab, ^ww misit. From 
 hence we have the Syriac, |^^-\^ . Chaldee n'Vtt^, nuntius, 
 legatus : and according to this derivation, the passage is render- 
 ed in the Latin Vulgate, * donee veniat qui mittendus estj until 
 he who is to be sent shall come.' As there is a class of verbs in 
 Lamed-aleph having the last radical guttural ; vid. Michael. 
 Gram. Syr. § I. p. 113. § Ivi. p. 134. it is possible that those 
 
112 THE A^iSTRIAV EXPECTATIONS 
 
 dingly united in the mythological personage,-*^ 
 Avho was imagined after the divine model conceiv- 
 ed by the prophet. And however inobvious and 
 imnatural the connexion of either character may 
 be deemed with that of thief and despoiler ; these 
 qualities were equally ascribed to the fabulous 
 character,"^*' and may be naturally and obviously 
 deduced from the root to which the prophetical 
 name may be referred, particularly in the Syriac.^** 
 
 verbs may have been originally the same. The gradations iQ 
 their signification may be traced by the following analogy ; that 
 a person who is quiet, is one who is disposed to srjid rather 
 than to go ; and that to send for is equivalent ^o take away. If 
 this analogy may be admitted, the original verb must have been 
 nh\i>, from whence comes n^::^ ; and its primary sen.ve tranquiUm 
 fuit, from whence misH, dciraxit, spoliavit. vid. infr. n.^*^. 
 
 241 jVatal. Comit. Mythol. Lib. V. cap. v. p. 451. " Hunc 
 [Mercurium] Deorum imntiiim putarunt, &c. Id. lb. p. 441, 
 " Jovis mandataper diem circumferebatf et hue illuc cursitabat. , 
 ita ut nullo tempore posset quiescere : quidam injunxerunt illi 
 etiam bellicas caduccatorum legatioiies, cum fecderum et inducia' 
 rum inventorem fuisse inquiant." Id. ibid. p. 444. ..*• Apollo 
 postea viryam, . Mercuriodonavit, illam vim hahentem, ut facile 
 pax inter quosvis, ea virga inter posita, eonciliaretur. Ejus cum 
 velletfacere experimentum Mercuiius, inter rfwos ow^mcs acerrime 
 inter se dimicantes conjecit, qui repente facti sunt araici, unde vir- 
 ga Mercurii fuit postea geminisanguibus circumvolutis insignita." 
 
 -^^ Lactant. Div. lustit. Lib. I. cap. x. " Fur ac nebula 
 Mercurius, quid ad faraam sui reliquit, nisi memoriam fraudum 
 suarum.'' Nat. Com. ut supr. p. 447. '* Huic, [Mercurio] statua; 
 pro foribus domorum ab antiquis erigebantur, quia fur credeba- 
 ur cceteros fures arcerc, ut ait Aristophanes.*' 
 
 -*^ The verb, nVur, misit, in addition to the sense which it 
 possesses in Hebrew, in common with the other dialects ; is as- 
 signed the annexed sig;niiication , peculiar to the following dialects 
 by Hottinger, Lex. Harm. p. 510. ** Chald. rhm : Syr. [ ..A^ ] ; 
 
 Sam. yVti^, [^2<^J ; eridt, spoliamt. Arab, l^hoy [J^] id." 
 Buxtorf, speaking of the Chaldee, observes of the latter sense. 
 Lex. Chald. col. 2411. *' Haec significatio ex priore [misit] 
 nata est, nam extravtio vestiraenti est ejus a corpore dimissio. " 
 But in CasteTs Lexicon the Sijriac verb is, on the contrary, 
 explained; Lex. Syr. p. 014. -.'..V^ . (1) detraxit , spoliavii . . . 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 113 
 
 Nor is it less deserving of remark, that pp^^, the 
 accompanying term of the prophecy, which I have 
 rendered ** ruler," signifies 6'crihe ami legislator r^^ 
 and tliat, in these characters, the description is 
 completed,-*^ which antiquity has transmitted of 
 the fictitious personage, whose origin it is my ob- 
 ject to investigate. 
 
 From the preceding observations, I conceive, it 
 may be safely conchided, that, of the two gods of 
 the Moabites, from whom the heights of Abarim 
 obtained the names of Peor and Nebo, one deffveS"' 
 his imaginary existence from a tradition, and the 
 other from a prophecy, which was preserved a- 
 mong ihat people. On the part of the Moabites, 
 this conclusion may be easily admitted : the ties 
 
 (2) misif, emisit :" and jL» is explained in nearly the same terras. 
 "** The gradations of sense, in the root from which the He- 
 brew term is derived, are accurately traced by Mercer, in Pag- 
 nin.Thesaur. col. 783. *' ppn, Inscnipere, vel sca//)cre. .inde et 
 pro describere seu pcrscribere. .deceniere et statvere sumitur." 
 And it is assigned the same significations in the Chaldee : vid. 
 Buxt. Lex. col. 817. From each of these senses its derivative 
 ppno acquires its various signiticati. ns of scriba, Ps. cviii. 9. 
 vid. Pagnin. Lex. c. 783. ler/isiatory Is. xxxiii. 22. Num. xxi. 
 18. Ibid, dux, princeps, Jud. v. 14. Prov. viii. 15. Ibid". In 
 the first sense the passage before us is rendered in the Chaldee, 
 ♦mjn 'JID KIDDI, ' or a scribe from his sons' sons ;' and apparent- 
 ly in the Syriac, ^mn V. . ; AaO —Id liD^-Ctico, * and an exposit- 
 or from between his legs.' In the secoiid sense it is rendered 
 
 in the Arabic, x^^ Cassx ^^ ^.\\^, 'and a lawgiver from 
 under his rule;' in the Italian, • ne 7 leggislatore d'infra i piedi 
 d'esso ;' in the French, ' ni Itgislateur d'entre ses pieds ;' and in 
 the English, * nor a lawgiver from between his feet.' The last 
 and highest sense of ruler, I have already shewn, is adopted in 
 the remaining versions; vid. supr. p. 109. n.^^s, 
 
 2*5 Lactant. Div. Instit. Lib. I. cap. vi. Apud Ciceronem, C. 
 Cotta pontifex disputans contra Stoicos de religionibus. .quin- 
 que fuisse 3/ercwWos ait; et enumeratis per oidinem quatuor, 
 quintum ..in ^gyptum profugisse, atque ^gyptiis leges ac 
 litteras tradidisse.'' Conf. Cicer. de Nat. Deor. Lib. III. cap. 
 Ivi. Sanchon. ap. Euseb. Praep. Ev. Lib. I. cap. ix. p. 36. 40. 
 
114 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 of consanguinity by which that people were con- 
 nected with the Hebrews, at the period when this 
 i prophecy was delivered, must have led to a per- 
 jfect intercommunity of opinions and customs. I- 
 I saac and Lot were cousins, and in the next degree 
 I to them stood Jacob and Moab. As their imme- 
 diate posterity were neither numerous, nor wide- 
 ly dispersed ; whatever occurred in one branch of 
 a race so connected, must have passed, by direct 
 communication, to the other. They consequently 
 who admit the transmission of a prophecy, or tra- 
 dition, among the posterity of Jacob, cannot con- 
 sistently dispute its preservation, among the des- 
 cendants of Moab. 
 
 It may be, however, believed, that the difficulty 
 on the part of the Assyrians will not admit of so 
 easy a solution. But a short inquiry will en- 
 able us to perceive, that whatever difference is con- 
 ceived to exist between the two cases is really 
 groundless and imaginary. The objection must 
 proceed upon the supposition, that the Hebrews 
 formed a distinct race from the Assyrians, when 
 Jacob delivered his prophecy on the coming of 
 Shiloh. But such a supposition, as grounded on 
 preconceived and erroneous notions, scarcely de- 
 serves a refutation. Until long subsequently to 
 that time, the line of separation had not been 
 drawn, by the institution of a religious polity 
 among the Jews, which rendered that people ob- 
 noxious to the Gentiles y'^ and so remote is it 
 from fact, that the Hebrews and Assyrians were a 
 distinct race, that they were equally native Meso- 
 potamians.^'*'^ 
 
 24C' As a circumstance, not yet occurring, but future, it was 
 ; foretold of the Jews, by Balaam, in the last year of the Exod, 
 that " the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be numbered 
 with the nations." Num xxiii. 9. 
 
 247 Vid. infr. n.248 : comp. Acts. vii. 2. 3. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 115 
 
 Abraham, the founder of the race, declared that 
 his native land was Mesopotamia.^*^ To that pro- 
 vince of Assyria, he sent ^^^" unto his country and 
 to his kindred, to take a wife unto Isaac :". .'*and 
 Isaac, when he was forty years old, took the daugh- 
 ter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, and sister 
 to Laban the Si/rian.''^^ Retaining the hereditary 
 attachment of his forefathers, ^^^*' Isaac sent away 
 Jacob, and he went to Padan-aram unto Laban, 
 
 ^*^ From a collation of Gen. xxiv. 4. 10. it appears that the 
 native country of Abraham was onnJ Dn«, * Mesopotaniian. 
 Syria,' Gen. xxiv. 10. for those terras are assigned, by the trans* 
 lators, the same force, as in determining the country of Balaam : 
 vid. supr. p. 36. n. ^7. In addition to what has been there 
 observed, it is necessary only to add, that the Syriac version in 
 employing .Jou >o>j, * Syria of the rivers;' and the Samaritan, 
 iSfTr^^^ iiS^Ai, with the same sense; conspire with the Chal- 
 dee, Greek and Latin. In this sentence the modern versions 
 may be included, as the Spanish, the Italian and English adopt 
 * Mesopotamia,' the French, * Mesopotamie,' and the German, 
 'Mesopotamien.' 
 
 249 Gen xxiv. 4. It seems to have been collected from a 
 collation of this text, with Gen. ib. 10. lately cited, that D"i« pa, 
 Padan-aram; is synonymous with onnJ Diw, Aram Nalia- 
 raim, . or Mesopotamia ; so those terms are rendered in the 
 Greek, Mjo-oTrola^'ia; the Latin, * Mesopotamia;' with which the 
 Spanish and German agree. The original terms are however 
 retained in the Chdldee, Syriac, Samaritan, and Arabic, with 
 which the Italian, French and English coincide. From a col- 
 lation of the same texts, I am inclined rather to conclude, that 
 D"J« pQ. * Padan of Syria' was onni Dn«. .(linj) Vj7, * the city 
 (of Nahor,) of Mesopotamian Syria,' lb. xxiv. 10. In Syriac, 
 
 ta, and in Chaldee, pD signities a pair or yoke ; which would 
 
 not have been an unsuitable name to a city composed of sepa- 
 rate collections of houses, connected by a street, bridge, or 
 causeway. 
 
 250 Gen. xxviii. 5. the terms ♦Dli^rr Vt^ini. .♦o'l^n pV, are 
 rendered, here and Gen. xxv. 20. in the Greek, BaSa^x ra 'Ev^a 
 ..Aa(3av t5 St^ptf, and in the Latin, * Bathuelis j%ri.. Laban 
 Syrif' with which the versions, ancient and modern, coincide. 
 
 251 Gen. xxv. 5. 
 
 Q 2 
 
116 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 the son of Bethuel the Sj/rian.'' Such are the terms 
 in which the first founders of this people are gene- 
 rally recognised in their national history. Kven 
 by the ordinances of their religious code, itwas re- 
 quired of every Israelite, in ottering his first fruits, 
 that he should make a like avowal of his original. 
 The form prescribed for him to use, on this occa- 
 sion, was expressed in the following terms; ^^^'* a 
 Syrian ready to perish teas my father, and he went 
 
 252 Deut. xxvi. 5. "^y\ nnnYD n"in »n« nii^ 'Dii^ : It must be 
 however acknowladged, that the suffrage of the versions, in which 
 T3« is rendered as a verb, is opposed to the signification ascrib- 
 ed to this passage in the English translation. It is accordingly 
 rendered in the Greek, "Zv^^ixv a.irO^ot.'Kiv o Tral'^ ^^, x^' Kuri^r) tlq 
 "AlyvTrlov, * my father rejected Syria, and descended into Egypt;' 
 but some of the Hexaplar translatois displeased with this sense 
 substituted, llv^iav ccTrsXiTriv, * left Syria,' which is contrary to 
 fact. The Latin, rendering mt^ in the Indefinite Kal, has ' Syius 
 persequebatur patrem meum,' persecuted my father;' this s'gniH- 
 cation, however, requiied some qualification ; the Chaldee accor- 
 dingly supplies it, fc^n« n* ^nn^'? Ni?n rii^Dl^ pV, ' Laban the 
 Syrian sought to destroy my father ;' which is equally opposed 
 to fact, with the Greek version ; yet it is servilely adopted in the 
 
 Arabic, 3-1 *\'f-i *^'^ (s^j^^^ oW^ (j y^* truly Laban the Syri- 
 an would have' destroyed my father.' The Samaritan possesses 
 
 every ambiguity which may be imputed to the original, HI^^A 
 ftt^A 'YSA, * a Syrian perishing (was) my father," or * perse- 
 cuted my father ;' and the Sy riac, .;^ J!i Aaajo cA:iij ;.02Z,j >c>|J 
 * ray father urns led into Syria, and descended into Egypt ;' 
 where to preserve the natural order of the phrase, the sense of 
 the verb is altered. Of the modern versions, the Spanish, as u- 
 sual, conforms to the Latin, * el Siro perseguia a mi padre ;' with 
 "which the German nearly conspires,' die Syrer wollten meinen 
 Vater umbringen, the Syrians would kill my father.' The Ital- 
 ian indeed renders the phrase, * il padre mio (era) un misero 
 Siro ;' and the French, ' mon pere etoit un pauvre Syrien ;' both 
 of which correspond with the English. And it would be evi- 
 dent, that in these versions, the proper sense of the passage was 
 conveyed, as they follow the natural order of this text, which, if 
 ni« were taken as a verb, would require the phrase to be invert- 
 ed ; were it not obvious, from the vague and loose manner, in 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 117 
 
 down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, 
 and became there a nation great, mighty and pop- 
 ulous." In a word, the national appellation of 
 Hebrew, which began to supersede the paternal 
 name of Syrian, as early as the times of Abra- 
 ham,"^^^ is an implicit admission of the foreign ex- 
 traction of this people ; nor did the patriarchal 
 founders of their race express themselves in very 
 different language, but confessed that they were 
 mere *' strangers and settlers,"^^^in Canaan. What- 
 ever, therefore, might have been the national or he- 
 reditary antipathies of the Assyrians, or their re- 
 pugnance to adopt any rite or prophecy from the 
 Jews ; it is obvious, that, in the age of the patriarchs, 
 no greater prejudice could have operated against 
 the reception of the prediction of Jacob, than of Ba- 
 laam, by that people. Nor can any objection be fra- 
 
 which it is rendered in the preceding vers ons, with the palpable 
 view of disposing of the dirficulty of applying the name of Sy- 
 rian to the Hebrews. In the former sense, it is accordingly 
 pointed by the Masorets , who employ "TH^ Benoni, notlll^^ 
 
 indef. Piel. 
 
 -5'* Gen. xiv. 13. '"inrn Dnn^V, in the translation of these 
 words, which are rendered in the English version, " to Abiam 
 the Hebrew r the Greek and German, depart from the other 
 versions ; the one tendering them, 'A/3^a/>t ru Tn^arr,, ' to Abram 
 the emicfraiit :' which is followed by Aquila ; and the other, * A- 
 bram dem Ansliinder, * Abram t lie foreigner :' to which may be 
 probably added, the Chaldee n«nnr Dini^^, and the Syiiac, 
 }^;.i^^ >o;.olJ» with the same sense as the Greek. The different 
 authorities, on the derivation of the word nnr, Hebrew, aie ci- 
 ted by Walton. Prolegom. Bibl. Polygl. ill. § 1. p. 15. who 
 gives his suffrage in favor of those who considered it a common 
 name, with the sense oi'iraiisitor, transjluvialis ; and not a patro- 
 nymic, derived from Heber. 
 
 254 Gen. xxiii. 5. dddj; OJj^ nu^im "IJ, * T am a stranger and a 
 settler with you ,' thus the passage is rended in the versions, an- 
 tient and modern, without any important variation. The same 
 language nearly is applied by Isaac to Jacob ; lb. xxviii. 4. 
 comp. Heb. xi. 13. 
 
118 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 med to meet the one case, that will not apply a- 
 gainst the other ; and equally decide against the 
 reception, among the Jews themselves, of a pro- 
 phecy of Isaiah or Daniel. 
 
 The possibility being admitted, that a prophecy 
 of Jacob might have made its way among his com- 
 patriots, the Assyrians ; it may be atonce raised to 
 a moral certainty, without adducing further proof 
 but that which presents itself in the document be- 
 fore us. Balaam, it has been observed, was of 
 that nation f^^ his prophecy, however, bears inter- 
 nal evidence, that its author was well acquainted 
 with Jacob's prediction. He not only introduces 
 the patriarch expressly by name,^^^ but he imi- 
 tates his prophecy,^^Vin its scope, language and 
 images. As Jacob professes to inform his sons,of 
 what ^^^** shall befall them in the lad days ;" Ba- 
 laam undertakes ^^^" to advertise Balak what this 
 people should do to his people, in the latter days'' 
 As the one declares that^^° ''the sceptre should not 
 depart from Judah ;" the other declares, that^^^ '* a 
 sceptre should rise out of Israel." In the predic- 
 tion of each of them, Judah is not only compa- 
 red to a lion ; but their respective descriptions ex- 
 hibit a circumstantial coincidence, in the imagery 
 and diction, which places the imitation of the pro- 
 
 2'''5 Vid. supr. p. 36. 256 Vid. infr. p. 119. 
 
 ^^T' The similarity between Jacob and Balaam's prophecy is 
 so obvious, that it has not escaped observation. Eusebius af- 
 ter tracing the resemblance, between them, closes the compari- 
 son, with the following observation : Dem. Evan. Lib. TX. cap. 
 
 lil. p. 425. d. wafla av roc £K t*)*' t5 Iuku^ irpoppncriv n^iupYifjiitct 
 
 * every thing which has been observed of Jacob's prediction would 
 agree with that of Balaam, on account of the similarity of their 
 sayings.' 
 
 2^« Gen. xlix. 1. 259 Num. xxiv. 14. 
 
 «^ Gen. ibid. 10. 261 Num. ibid. 17. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 119 
 
 phet beyond controversion. In the patriarch's 
 description,"^^ '* Judah is a lion's whelp. . .he stoop- 
 ed down, he couched as a lion and as an old lion, 
 who shall rouse him up ;" in the prophet's,^^^ '* he 
 couched, he lay down, as a lion, and as a great li- 
 on, who shall rouse him up ?" In fine, the bold fi- 
 gure, in which Balaam opens his prediction, does 
 not merely intimate, that he was acquainted with 
 the prediction of Jacob ; but presupposes, that his 
 auditors were familiar with the subject. In men- 
 tioning Jacob's name, and particularising ** the 
 latter days," and *' the sceptre of Judah;" the pro- 
 phecy of the patriarch was brought as unequivo- 
 cally before his hearers, as if it had been expressly 
 quoted. Nor could it admit of any doubt, who the 
 Personage was to whom the prophet alluded, in 
 declaring, 
 
 I shall see Himy but not now, 
 I shall behold him, but not near: 
 A star shall proceed out of Jacob, 
 A sceptre shall rise out of Israel, 
 
 That it could be Him only, of whom Jacob him- 
 self had declared. 
 
 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
 Nor a ruler from between his feet. 
 Until the Pacificator shall come. 
 
 Nor let me be told, that this knowledge was con- 
 fined to the seer of Mesopotamia ; and merely deli- 
 vered in the prophetic spirit by which he was mo- 
 ved, in predicting the great revolutions which 
 
 26« Gen. ibid. 9. 
 
 263 Num. ibid. 9. It may be further observed, that the 
 words which directly follow, * Blessed is he that blesseth thee, 
 and cursed is he that curseth thee " are literally adopted from 
 the benediction of Jacob, pronounced upon him, by his father 
 Isaac; Gen. xxvi. 29. 
 
120 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 should precede the advent of the expected Person- 
 age. The popular superstitions of Balaam's age, 
 bear internal evidence of their traditional descent, 
 by v^hich the fabulous accounts of the person, 
 conceived after the description of those prophe- 
 cies, may be identified with the history of Jacob. 
 The terminal monuments erected to Mercury or 
 Nebo, the names by which they were known to 
 the ethnics, the rites by which that divinity was 
 reverenced, bear a clear and consistent testimony 
 to their original. 
 
 Nebo, or his substitute Mercury, was represent- 
 ed by a plain pillar, consecrated by an unction 
 and sacrifice ;^^* he was worshipped by erecting a 
 sacred mound of stones, in his honor ;'^^ and the 
 common appellation, by which these monuments 
 were known, was Bethulia.'^^^ Beyond the follow- 
 ing brief extracts from the patriarchal history, I 
 cannot think, it will be necessary to look for the o- 
 rigin of the Assyrian superstition. After descri- 
 bing the vision seen by the patriarch at Luz, the sa- 
 cred historian proceeds ;^^'^ ** And Jacob rose up 
 
 26* Vid. supr. p. 96. The ceremony of erecting and dedica- 
 ting these monuments is described, in the following terras, by 
 Siculus Flaccus;"Cum Terminos disponerent, ipsos quidem 
 lapides in solidam terram collocabant, proxime ea loca, quibus 
 fossis factis defixuri eos erant, et unguento velarainibusque, et 
 coronis eos coronabant. In fossis autem quibus posituri eos e- 
 rant, sacrificio facto, hostiaque immaculafa C(esa, facibus ardenti- 
 bus, in fossa cooperti sanguine instillabant eoqiie fruges et thura 
 jactabant; favos quoque et vinum, aliaque quibus consuetudo 
 erat Ter minis sacrum fieri in fossa adjiciebant, consumtisque 
 omnibus dapibus igne, super calentes reliquias lapides colloca- 
 bant atque ita diligenti cura confirmabant :" conf. supr. p. 78. 
 
 265 Vid. supr. p. 91. n. i99. p. 95. n. 206. ^c. 
 
 266 Yjj Sanchoniath. ap. Euseb. Praep. Ev. Lib. T. cap. ix. 
 p. 37. d. Damas. in Isidor. vit. ap. Phot. Cod. cclxii. Scalig. 
 Animadv. in Euseb. n. mmcl. 
 
 267 Gen. xxviii. 18. 19. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 121 
 
 early in the morning, and took the stone that he 
 had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, 
 and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the 
 name of that place BethelJ'"^ '* And on a subse- 
 quent occasion it is recorded ; that '^^'' Jacob took a 
 stone and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said un- 
 to his brethren gather stones ; and they took stones, 
 and made a heap, and they did eat there upon the 
 heap." The ceremony is then represented as 
 closing with the most solemn religious rite ;^^°**then 
 Jacob offered sacrifice in the mount, and called 
 his brethren to eat bread : and they did eat bread, 
 and tarried all night in the mount. 
 
 Though it may be deemed superfluous to oflfer 
 further proof of the origin of the title Nebo, or of 
 the rites by which that deity was honored ; one or 
 
 2^ The learned inquirer into the remains of the Assyrian re- 
 ligion held the following opinion, which is also imputed to the 
 great Scaliger ; Seld. de Dis Syr. Synt. 1. cap. v. *• Bethel au- 
 tem quod domvs dei sonat, Bonhr.'K Graecis interpretibus dicitur, 
 et locus erat ubi lapidem unxit Jacob, ut legitur Gen. xxviii. 
 com. 18. a quo nomine et ritu, BaiTy?.o» et BaiTtJXia apiidprofanos 
 acriptores mannrunt.'* The following testimony, on this subject, 
 is so full and apposite, that it merits transcription : Cuper. not. 
 in Lact. de Mort. Persec. cap. x. '* Lapides igitur, vel saxa a 
 Gentibus honore divino cullos, id est vnctos, coronatos, et ado- 
 ratos fuisse, ex Arnobii Lib. II, constat. * Picturatas vetcr- 
 nosis in arboiibus taenias si quando conspexerara, Ivbricatum 
 lapidem, et ex olivi nnguine sordidatvm., tanquam inesset via 
 pra^sens, adulabar, affabar, et beneficia poscebam nihil sentiente 
 de trunco ;' ubi videri possunt interpretes. Lucianus in Pseu- 
 domante notat Rutilianum, si quando xi^ov aXriXifji,[ji.evot v i^i(pay~ 
 uuLivov conspexisset, continuo in genua cecidisse, adorasse, et 
 prospera ab illo postulasse Et piito, vere notare eruditione 
 praestantes viros, superstitiosos homines imitatos esse Jacobitm la- 
 pidem ungncnto perfundentem in Bethel, Gen. xxviii. qui tamen, 
 teste Augustino, more idololatriaB lapidem non perfudit oleo, 
 velut faciens ilium Deum, neque adoravit ilium lapidem, nequQ 
 illi sacrificavit." 
 
 26y Gen. xxxi. 45, 46. ^"^^ Gen. ibid. 54. 
 
iii THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 two considerations seem so clearly to establish 
 the connexion existing between his character and 
 the prophecy of Jacob, as well as between the pil* 
 lars consecrated to his worship, and the anointed 
 stone raised by the patriarch as the memorial of 
 his vision, that they merit specific notice. 
 
 If the coincidence be deemed accidental, it 
 must be admitted to be extraordinary, which sub- 
 sists between the name ascribed by the Assyrians 
 to this deity, and that assigned, by the most learn- 
 ed expositor of prophecy among the ancients, to 
 the Divine Personage to whom Jacob alludes in 
 his prediction. Eusebius, however, conspires with 
 the Assyrians, not merely in rejecting the term 
 Shiloh, and every title into which that term can 
 be explained ; but in adopting a name, which is sy* 
 nonymous with Nebo; as literally signifying '*the 
 prophesied," or " the foretold. "^^^ Nor is it wholly 
 undeserving of remark, that in forming the title of 
 their deity, the Assyrians should have followed the 
 analogy, which is observed in the name of the bro- 
 ther of the prophet : Nabau being a term perfect- 
 ly similar in its construction to Esau.^^'^ If the 
 prophecy of the patriarch be considered the source 
 from whence they mutually drew ; it directly ac- 
 counts for similarities,^^^ which, on any other sup- 
 position, seem wholly inexplicable. 
 
 «7i Euseb. Dem. Evan. Lib. III. cap. i. p. 370. " But what 
 is also said after this, * A prince shall not fail from Judah, nor 
 a ruler from between his feet, until he for whom it is reserved 
 shall come, and to him shall be the expectation of the nations,' 
 seems to me to allude to the times of the appearance of the 
 
 vufii(riu<;). Conf. supr. p. 108. n. ^82. 
 
 272 Vid. supr. p. 85. n. i87. conf. p. 108. n. 233. 
 
 273 Of the Babylonian monarchs, who adopted titles from the 
 national ^ods, Syncellus, who derived his information from the 
 original works of Berosus, declares of the prince who was prin- 
 
OF A GREAT P£LIVERER. 124 
 
 Another circumstance is not less deserving of 
 remark, as illustrating the source from whence the 
 pagan custom of anointing and dedicating pillars 
 originated. In the prohibition given in the Mosaic 
 Law, against the erection of groves and pillars in 
 the vicinity of an altar dedicated to the Lord ;^* 
 the term under which the latter are proscribed^^'^ is 
 identical with that applied by Jacob to the monu- 
 ment, which was erected at Bethel ; where the pa- 
 triarch by the divine appointment subsequently 
 raised an altar.'^^ As God himself mentioned this 
 
 cipally instrumental in overthrowing the kingdom of Israel, 
 Chronogr. p. 208. C. Na/Jova^a^o?, o ti, 'Zx'KiJLOtvxaap iv tjj ypa^n 
 >^iy6fji.svo;. If the preceding deductions be admitted, they afford 
 a solution of the difficulty which has been found, in indentify- 
 ingthe same prince under such different titles : Salmanaser havr 
 ing the same reference to the projjhetical name of the Assy- 
 rian god, which Nabonassar bears to the mythological. I; this 
 solution be objected to as strained, it should be remembered, in 
 its defence, that by the signification of the term Nabo we are 
 directed to prophecy for explanation ; and that Salmanaser is 
 confessedly compounded with a word which signifies pacific. 
 On the signification of this name, Des-Vignolles has observed ; 
 Chronol. Tom. II. p. 300. •♦ Les etymologistes pourront remar- 
 Cjuer, sur ce sujet, que les trois premieres letties du nom de 
 "iDWJD'piy, Salmanasar^ que les Juifs appellent radicales sont lea 
 memes, que celles de Salomon, a qui ce nom fut donne, parce 
 qu'il devoit etre vn homme paisible.^^ 
 «7* Deut. xvi. 21. 22. 
 
 275 Deuf. ib. 22. nSYD l'? D'pn «^i, * and thou shalt not raise 
 a pillar:' Gen. xxviii. 17. nn« Dtt^n...ti«n n« Cnpr*) npn 
 navD,* and (Jacob) took the stone, and set it for a pillar' The 
 term niYD, which the LXX properly render, in both places, 
 r^x>9, has obviously a reference to a remarkable circumstance; 
 in the patriarch's vision, which is expressed by the veib lyj, 
 from whence the original niya is derived ; Gen. ibid. 12, 13. 
 vhv ayj mn* njm...nyn« nya dVd n:m.. .* and, behold a lad- 
 der stood upon the earth. . . and, behold, Jehovah stood above it.* 
 From whence it would appear, that the name of those monu- 
 ments originated with Jacob, and was applied by him, in con- 
 sequence of his vision at Bethel. 
 
 276 Gen. XXXV. 1, 
 
 R 2 
 
1/ 
 
 124 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIOKS 
 
 monument with commendation, in terming himself 
 the God of Bethel ;'^^' it seems not easy to account 
 for the change which occurred, between the vision 
 of Jacob and the legation of Moses, on any grounds, 
 but that those monuments, in the intermediate pe- 
 riod, were perverted to idolatrous purposes. This 
 supposition will receive direct confirmation, from 
 the remains of the history of the Phenicians, in pro- 
 secuting our inquiries into the superstitions of that 
 • people ; and the plainest allusions will be traced 
 between the mysteries of Mithras and the vision of 
 Jacob, in pursuing the same subject, with refe- 
 rence to the Persians. 
 
 From the various circumstances brought to 
 light in the preceding induction, we seem justified 
 in deducing some important conclusions. Of the 
 gods who were common to the Moabites and Assy- 
 rians, the principaF^ were Bel and Nebo; in whose 
 
 ^-if lb. xxxi. 13. 
 
 «78 Bel and Nabo are specified as the principal gods of Ba- 
 bylon by Isaiah, xivi. 1. The term Aay^^v which occurs in the 
 Greek version of the prophet is obviously a corruption of Na/So^^v ; 
 we consequently find the latter reading not only confirmed by 
 the common consent of the versions, but by Aquila, who read 
 Nai?w, and Symmachus, who read, Ne^k? : vid. Montf. Hexapl. 
 in loc. The honor in which those deities were held may be col- 
 lected from the names of their monarchs, which were chiefly 
 composed of the titles of their gods. On this subject it is ob- 
 served by Beyer, Addit. in Seld. de Dis Syr. p. 319. "All 
 the names of the Assyrians and Chaldees, are composed of 
 simple names, which are almost all the names of the Babyloni- 
 an gods, as Bel, Nebo, Mero....They are therefore either 
 composed of two terms ; as, *iy«J nJ, Nabo-nassai\ a Chaldee 
 title composed of the simple names Nabo and Netzar, and 
 ly«^ IIJ, Nabulassar, in Josephus ; the same name, which 
 composed of three, is termed JSabo-'pul-letzar, l>iuQo7roXXa.<Ta^o(;, 
 in Ptolemy and Eusebius. Or they are composed of three, 
 as Nobopollasar , which has been just mentioned, and na ^1l 
 *5y«J, Nebuchodonosor, 'i^a,^iixP^yoco^o^y'^'iVK'^'^'2^11, in Jeremiah, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 125 
 
 honor, festivals were held, to a late period, at the 
 commencement of spring and autumn.^^ To Baal 
 they ascribed a prophecy which predicted the 
 successive destruction of the world by fire and 
 water ;^ and their notions of Nebo were founded on 
 a prediction, which held out the expectation of a 
 great deliverance to the nations. '^^^ In determining 
 the period of those festivals of their gods, and in 
 anticipating the great catastrophe of nature, their 
 opinions acquired a peculiar cast from their astro- 
 nomical knowledge, which was obviously of a lat- 
 ter origin. In fixing the anniversaries of their reli- 
 gion to the period of the sun's entrance into aries 
 and libra ; and determining the time of the world's 
 destruction by his entrance into canctr and caprn- 
 com ; they superinduced the refinements of compa- 
 ratively modern science on their ancient traditions. 
 Without embarrassing the subject with the difl[i- 
 culties of the question, when the zodiac was dis- 
 
 Na^»;>(jo JcoVo^o?, in Magasthenes, and his follower Strabo, com- 
 posed 01 nj, *ii, nyNJ. But they are rarely composed of four, 
 as, TD p "|T TiD, Merodachenpad, in Ptolemy Map(S'oxi/A'nra^o?, 
 from Mero, Dach, Chen, Pad. It appears likewise, that the 
 letters in these names, are changed with one another ; Letzar, 
 Refzar, Netzar ; so Nabu and Labu ; so that the one who is 
 called Labitnitus in Herodotus, becomes Nabunidus in Berosus. 
 All these simple terms are the proper names of the gods.'' The 
 permutation of letters, in the orthography of these names, has 
 partly proceeded from the disposition of the ancients to pervert 
 foreign titles into ludicrous or contemptuous senses; and partly 
 from the affectation or inadvertence of the Greeks, and their 
 followers, by whom all exotic names were notoriously corrup- 
 ted. The elementary terms used in the composition of those 
 names were the terms 'pri, 11 J, Bel, Nebo, and the titles nn, 
 pii^, Chad, Aden, signifying only Lord, which were variously 
 compounded with 1D«, signifying bound, and expressing the de- 
 votion and subserviency of the proselyte, who adopted the title. 
 
 279 Vid. supr. p. 91. n. i99. 28o Vid. ibid. p. 84. n. 82. 
 
 281 Vid. ibid. p. 108. seq. 
 
1*20 rni. ASNViiiAN isnph: i a riON& 
 
 trihuted into twelve portions ; it ia on all sides a- 
 gfreedi t\mi fiifra y/m udnnttod into tl)e number of 
 tUo sii»:ns. tit a \i\\c \)c\'hh\ ; and that tin* position 
 ot the folurrs, whuli dt tcrmmc tlu* srasons of tliu 
 
 ]reMr» was fixed in t)u i uduud .signs, but 74fi 
 years lu'lon^ tlu' vulvar ("hristian ora. "'"'■' On sepa* 
 I. Kill;; ilu' adscititiouN fircuinstauros, which were 
 I thus uu'orjxuau (1 on the tmditiunttry prophacy 
 I ot' Haal or Hi his, ivsportiui; th(Mhvstru('tu>u ot' tlie 
 worUI, and \>hi{*h woiv c»nph)vril hv his roMowors 
 in flxinu tlu nnu of tlio ti ^m aU n whirli he was 
 worshipped ; wo nu\y i>i' i nahli'd to arivo at a just 
 estiinato oC \\\c snbjoci 
 
 or thr piM^oiia-Ms \\\\^^ were u'\ erenocd under 
 the tith* \\c\ or Haal. two wiii' aokm^whulged by 
 th(* l^ahyh»nians. 'V\\c\ scc\\\ to havo roro^nised 
 \\\ the iiisi. the leuinuMi jm O'liiutor ot' nuvnkind J 
 iVoiu whom a si^-ond was tUseeniiod. whom they 
 c*onsidiM'ed the* lathiMot .Nuuis. \\\c tonmhM* ot tl\eir 
 iMnpin riu' uleiidly o( the juisona^e. Ironi 
 
 t iho t'oluKs uuN tixint in 
 
 1 \ luiuilii iisliiiumyot lti|>i»an'lnis ami (lh> rtiu'ioiiM, 
 
 I « 11 il'.Mif (In lirMf. your ot (lit .ri:t «>!' \ul>oiuissiu\ 7-15 
 
 ^•ii't'ii.u (lu 1 III I dan ivni. Viil INin rraiiolojet. Lib. 
 U. |K 7i». tlu junoil \\\u\\ \\\v \s\i\Aiivry ««»» initiattui in iho 
 inyntomN ot /^d/}/. anil M tun Hulaani dtlixKiI tiis inoptuvy 
 iVom M*'iiMt A ' . Miliii;: to tlio oonunon nnnpntatiDns. wftji 
 
 7tl \..n-. |.U^ 
 
 *«*^ Alt xamti I I'l l\ 111 t I. \>l»o liail uriUou " on i\\v ChixUU^ 
 «in(i(|Mi(i('«i." <|u<>(iiii; rii|-.'l, inn«*. ot>siMVi h : ap. I'.nsil*. Pm^p, 
 
 J'^Vaii! I '' I \ \Mi j> 1 1!' . ' , ytfiw-^ 
 
 hyloiiians ^a> . tli.it l>( Ins ^^.i*. (u>i l»i»in who was Clowns', and 
 fn)nt lun» Iw lii> ami i'ain.ui \> . u< tlt'soondi (i. l>ui (Ills CannAii 
 WrtN llic* I'aduM o( \\\c l*h< nil I nis ■ \> i(li iImh Ntali niont llio it^- 
 inains o( l*lu>nui;»u Ims(i>i\ ;>|;hc> in lioknuwloiljinij; l>u> Cion* 
 
 ums m,i s.iiu iu>n. .ip t'us.h. ii>. I. X. a7. d. y\\\o itu> first 
 
 lt< his \\;»s. huN \ui\\ ulua*l> nIu>\v«: supr. p. !Vi . n. *^**\ ()n 
 lilt s,,.-n.l Ht>|n?». i\\v follt^winj; t>riof frstimonv nmy tw» 9W<>ttnt . 
 
OF A GREAT D£LIVER£R, 127 
 
 whom they supposed the prophecy derived, with 
 the first belus, is not merely apparent in his re- 
 mote antiquity, which proves him to have been 
 the same as our common parent. It is rendered 
 still more apparent by a tradition, derived from a 
 higher and purer source, which positively ascribes 
 a prophecy on the same subject, to our great pro- 
 genitor.^ 
 
 When the tradition preserved by the Chaldee* 
 on the destruction of the earth, is divested of it9 
 astronomical peculiarities, and taken in conjunc- 
 tion with that perpetuated among the Hebrews ; 
 they form a conspiring testimony, to the existence 
 of a prophecy, in the earliest part of the history of 
 mankind, which foretold the destruction of the 
 world by a deluge and conflagration. In determi- 
 ning the period of the festivals, held in honor of 
 their great national gods, at spring and autumn, a 
 reference seems to have been likewise made to the 
 primitive history of our species. With the circum- 
 stances of the fall of man, which formed the most 
 striking incident in that portion of the human an- 
 nals, the vicissitude of the seasons had a necessary 
 connexion. The curse of barrenness to which the 
 earth then became periodically subject, at the close 
 of the year, was the fatal consequence of the origi- 
 nal transgression.^ And by such considerations, 
 the festival, in which the remembrance of that e* 
 vent was preserved, was naturally determined. 
 To commemorate at a period of the year when na- 
 ture languishes and decays, the change, which then 
 
 Hier. in Oseam, cap. ii. Tom. V. p. 41. Primum omni Asiae 
 regnasse Xiaum, BeliJUium^ omnes etGraecae et Barbarae nar- 
 rant historian, qui apud Assyrioa Ninum sui nominis condidit 
 civitatem." 
 
 *^ Vid. Joseph, uti supr. p. 30. n. ^^. coof. p. 34. n, •*. 
 
 585 Gen. ui. 17, 18. 
 
128 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 took place, from perennial fertility to periodical 
 barrenness, was obvious and natural. The dreary 
 and sterile season was accordingly chosen for the 
 festival instituted in honor of Baal, who was con- 
 fessedly the most ancient of the national deities. 
 As these considerations derive illustration from the 
 Saturnalia, which were fixed to the same period of 
 the year, and which, from the identity of Saturn and 
 Baal,^^ had a necessary connexion with the orien- 
 tal festival ; they at once solve a difficulty in the in- 
 stitution of those rites, of which antiquity has avow- 
 ed itself unequal to the solution. For while it was 
 acknowledged, that the freedom from restraint and 
 unrestricted indulgence, which distinguished that 
 festival, was commemorative of the equality and 
 profuseness which prevailed in the first and gold- 
 en age ;^^ no adequate reason was found to explain 
 why the period of celebrating the anniversary had 
 been fixed in winter :^ of which difficulty, we have 
 just seen, the history of the fall affords a simple 
 and satisfactory solution, in the curse pronounced 
 on the earth, which occasioned the inclemency of 
 the seasons. 
 
 286 Vid. supr. p. 92. n. 200. 
 
 287 A native Assyrian, in describing the origin of the Satur- 
 nalia, introduces Saturn, expressing himself in the following; 
 terms; Lucian. Saturnal. Tom. II. p. 813. ed. Bened. ** I 
 have deemed it fit, to choose these few days, to resume the go- 
 vernment, that I may remind mankind, what was the mode of 
 
 iife under me, (w? yTro/xv^^at^i t»? avv^pw9r»? o\o(; ^v iTr' 6^y ^»o?), 
 
 when all things sprang up unsown and unlabored ; when there 
 were no sheaves, but bread ready and meat prepared ; when wine 
 flowed in rivers, and there were fountains of milk and honey : 
 for all were good and golden, (uyocBol ya.^ lio-av kJ x^^C°^ ocTruvltq). 
 Such is the cause of this my short-lived government ; and on 
 this account, there is every where noise and music and play, 
 and equal honor among all, as well free as servants.'* 
 
 288 This difficulty is stated in Lucian, ibid. p. 815. but it is 
 wholly evaded; Saturn, to whom it is proposed, declaring that 
 he has no time to waste in such discussions. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 
 
 129 
 
 On the same principle, the time appointed for 
 the festival of Nebo admits of an easy explanation. 
 The promise of a blessing having been given, by 
 which the effects of the curse, incurred at the fall, 
 would be remedied ; the time appointed to pre- 
 serve the remembrance of the expected benefit 
 was naturally fixed to the spring ; as from this sea- 
 son the year had declined into the dreariness of 
 winter at the time of the fall, and in it the recove- 
 ry would again take place, when spring would 
 once more be rendered perennial. As the time of 
 the vernal equinox has been mentioned, as that ap- 
 pointed for the anniversary instituted in honor of 
 Hermes f^^ a period nearly coincident with it is 
 marked, as the festival of *he same god, in the 
 calendar of the Sabians. On the twenty eighth 
 day of their month, which corresponds with March, 
 they offered a bull and seven lambs ;-^ and of this 
 sacrifice, it is remarkable, that it corresponds with 
 that offered, at the consecration of the idolatrous 
 priests, in the earliest period of the apostacy of 
 the kings of Israel. *^^ 
 
 The remains of the ceremonies, performed on 
 
 «89 Vid. supr. p. 91. n. i99. 
 
 290 Stanl. Hist. Philos. Or. Lib. III. cap. iv. " Vigesimo 
 octavo die [mensis Nisan, Sabaei] ibant ad templum, quod eis 
 erat in civitate Saba, ad certain portam Charanis, Assarab 
 die tarn, et Hermce Deo suo ingentem taururriy ut et septenos ag^ 
 nos septem Diis. . . .mactabant. Festum celebrabant couviviis, 
 sed nullum pecudum partem eo die adolebant." Allowance 
 being made for the commencement of the year, according tq 
 the Jewish and Julian method of computing time ; Nisan, which 
 is the first month of the year, corresponds with Maf2ff. Accor- 
 ding to the Gregorian from of year, which we now use the ver- 
 nal equinox occurs on the 21st of this month; to which day it 
 likewise adhered, in the Julian year, for 131 years, from the 
 time of the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. 
 
 291 2 Chron. xiii. 9. 
 
130 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 these festivals, bore evidence of their original. 
 They appeared naked before the statue of Baal, 
 and gathered stones in a heap, before the image 
 of Nebo.^'-*' On the origin of either custom, I con- 
 ceive it must be superfluous to enlarge, after the 
 very full explanation into which I formerly enter- 
 ed on the subject."^^ Nor can it be deemed neces- 
 sary to engage in a formal refutation of the unsa- 
 tisfactory conjee tures,^^^ which have been advan- 
 ced to account for either custom. The cause 
 which has been assigned from the patriarchal his- 
 tory for the erection of those mounds, that they 
 were intended to mark the scene, and preserve the 
 remembrance, of remarkable occurrences ; is so 
 simple and adequate, as to preclude the necessity 
 of tracing it to more artificial causes. Of the ex- 
 extraordinary rite by which it was believed that 
 Baal was honored, the native writer, to whom I 
 formerly referred, has in effect admitted the ori- 
 
 292 Vid. supr. p. 91. n,^99 m Vid. supr. p. 105. 120- 
 
 29* Phurnutus, and Eustathius on Homer, as quoted, supr. 
 p. 91. n.i99 assign various reasons for the custom of collecting 
 stones in honor of Mercury. They generally trace it to the cause 
 assigned by the commentator on the Odyssey : ' E^/ia^? yap (paa-h 
 w^wTo?, olcc KT.^v^ )Cj Six)clo^o<;, x)l,* Hermes, they say, as a herald and 
 messenger, cleared the high -ways, if he found stones any where, 
 casting them out of it ; from whence, they who followed his ex- 
 ample, and cleared the roads, as if for Hermes the messenger, 
 called those heaps, raised in honor of him, Hermean mounds, or 
 Hermaea." By the same writer it is likewise supposed, that 
 those monuments served, like sign-posts, to mark particular 
 roads, or like mile-stones, to measure distances; while Phurnu- 
 tus observes, that the custom was observed on the public ground 
 of utility, and to express respect to Mercury, particularly by 
 rendering the site of his statues more evident to travellers. 
 Whatever may be thought of the religious cause, in which the 
 ancient custom is here supposed to have originated ; it may be 
 readily gi anted, that the public grounds, on which it was long 
 practised, carry with them some show of probability. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 131 
 
 gin. In referring it to the golden age, in his des- 
 cription of the Saturnalia, he gives it a connex- 
 ion w^ith the state of innocence,*^^ ** when they ivere 
 naked a,nd were not ashamed ;" which so adequate- 
 ly solves the difficulties of the case, that it leaves 
 us nothing further to inquire on the subject. 
 
 Besides the two great festivals, occurring at the 
 most remarkable times of the year : it appears that 
 the votarists of those gods possessed not only a 
 knowledge of the division of the month into 
 weeks, but that they distinguished that particular 
 day above the rest, which corresponded with the 
 Sabbath. As the sanctification of this day was as 
 early as the state of innocence,^^^ the remembrance 
 
 295 Lucian in his account of the customs observed in keeping 
 the Saturnalia, mentions in the number, uti supr. p. 808. yvixto* 
 u^Biv, and p, 810. yvi^iov o^^^^^yia-oca-^ai. Comp. Gen. ii. 25. 
 
 ^96 Dr. Burnet, Epist. II. de Archaeol. Philos. has labored, 
 at great length, to prove, that ihe Sabbath vt^as not observed, 
 previously to its injunction, on the delivery of the Law, by Mo- 
 ses. His arguments, however, go merely to prove, that the 
 strict observance of the day, by a total cessation from labor, 
 was then first enjoined on the Israelites. As the sanctification 
 of the Sabbath, as a day of rest, was expressly declared at the 
 time of the Creation, Gen. ii. 1, 2, 3 : nothing can be more ex- 
 press than the testimony of Scripture, that it was observed, as 
 a day of rest, previously to its strict injunction by Moses. The 
 Law, including the fourth commandment, was not delivered be- 
 fore the 3rd day of the third month, from the departure from 
 Egypt; comp. Exod. xix. 1. IC. xx. i. 8. nothing, however, is 
 more plain, than that the Israelites gathered manna, from 
 the 15th day of the second month, refraining every seventh day, 
 because it was the Sabbath; comp. ibid. xvi. 1. 8. 13. 22. So 
 convinced, indeed, was the great Scaliger, that the order of the 
 days of the week was observed, at this early period ; that on the 
 last cited texts, he founds his demonstration, that the year 
 of the Exod began upon Thursday ; vid. Seal. Emend. Temp. 
 Lib. V. p. 374. Can. Isag. p. 281. f. Clemens Alexandrians, 
 Stromat. V. p. 600. has shown that the seventh day was account- 
 ed sacred by the Greeks, and some other nations; and Hesiod, 
 
 s 2 
 
132 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 of which was preserved in the history and worship 
 of Baal; very slender presumptions w-ou Id justify 
 us in concluding, that the knowledge of it was not 
 lost among those people, who observed an anniver- 
 sary in honor of that deity. How it could have 
 been lost seems perfectly inexplicable, while the 
 remembrance of that day is admitted to have 
 been preserved among the Sabians, who received 
 their theological system traditionally from the As- 
 syrians.^^'^ It is, however, manifest, that the wor- 
 ship of that people contained a weekly, not less 
 than a monthly service ; and that they divided 
 their week into days in every respect similar to 
 those, which the Saxons have transmitted to us 
 from the Romans.^^^ Beyond the identity of our 
 Saturday with the Jewish Sabbath, it seems 
 needless to seek for a proof, that this day was i- 
 dentical with that termed by the Romans from 
 Saturn,'^^ and by the Chaldees from his prototype 
 
 delivering himself to the same purpose, uses the remarkable 
 phrase, uti. infr. p. 135. n. H/3^op/7 ȣ^ov riy.a.^. 
 297^ Vid. Stanl. Hist, uti sapr. cap. iv. adinit. 
 
 298 Stanl. ubi supr. cap. iv. p. 311. ** Duplici ritu Deos [Sa- 
 baei] colebant quotidiano et menstruo. Quotidianum ita describit 
 Ali Sahai, * Primum diem consecrant Soli, secundum Lunae, 
 tertium Marti, quartum Mercurio, quintum Jovi, sextum Bel- 
 thaj Veneri, septimum Saturno.' Of Belthis, Le Clerc justly 
 observes that it was the name of an Assyrian goddess, and the 
 feminine of Bel, or Baal : Ind. in Stanl. sub. voc. ** Belthis, 
 Dea Assyria. . Hebraice nhxr^i, Baalath, domina ; aut cum Jod, 
 'n^pn, Baalthi, domina mea." Analogous to which we find >^rn, 
 Hos. ii. 16. and »jn«, in almost every page of the Old Testament. 
 
 299 The following authority may be quoted, on the identity of 
 the Sabbath with Saturday, even at the period of its institution 
 on Sinai: Spenc. de Leg. Hebr. Lib. II. iv. 9. *' For it was 
 provided by the Law, not only that a Sabbath, but nitt^n the 
 Sabbath, namely the day already denominated from Saturn, 
 (diem nempe jam a Saturno denominatum) should be solemnly 
 kept. The LXX interpreters render n2u;n DV nw, in a para- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 133 
 
 Baal. And it follows from the rank wliich this 
 deity held among the Assyrian gods, that the day 
 which was dedicated to his worship was peculiar- 
 ly reverenced by his votarists. Nor should it be 
 forgotten, in this deduction, that a week was allot- 
 ted to the celebration of the Saturnalia, and that 
 the festival was kept, by a general cessation from 
 labor, and indulgence in revelry and excess; ^^ in 
 which there is but too much reason to believe, 
 that not merely the Jubilee, kept after a week of 
 
 phrase, rr,v viixifacv rh* s$^ofj.nv, * the seventh day/ To the 
 same purpose is the explanation in Suidas, Yoc^^cclov t^^o^n ^{/.e^x 
 BTvyxocve t5 KfxAixS ^iocrr, lectio;, * the Sabbath was the seventh day 
 in the hebdomidal cycle.' It was not lawful for the Jewish 
 Church to exercise that authority over the Sabbath, that they 
 might transfer it to any other dmj^ and celebrate the first in 
 place of the seventh. For they were bound by the express terms 
 of the Law, to the seventh day ; * Remember the Sabbath-day. , 
 six days shalt thou labor, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the 
 Lord thy God.' For it is immediately added, * the Lord rest- 
 ed the seventh day, aud blessed the Sabbath day, and hallow- 
 ed it.' From whence it appears that God used * the seventh 
 day ' and the * sabbath-day ' as synonymous terms." From these 
 words I would, however, deduce a different conclusion. For 
 it should be observed, as a corrective to the peculiar views of 
 this writer, that the terms, nnu/n DV, which he renders * the 
 sabbath-day,' literally mean ' the day of the rest ;' i. e. of God ; as 
 they are generally rendered, Exod xxxi. 15. That day, not 
 " the day denominated from Saturn," is alluded to in the 
 commandment, as the context, which the commentator quotes, 
 puts out of dispute ; * Remember the day of the rest, to keep it 
 holy.. For the Lord., rested the seventh day; ivherefore the 
 Lord blessed the day of rest and hallowed it ' It may be also 
 observed, that the terms, * the seventh day,' are wholly unin- 
 telligible, unless on the supposition, that the order of days in 
 the week was observed, when the commandment was given. 
 3^° Lucian, Uti supr. p. 808. d. h ct'jrcc7<; ^l ruTq [^iu,s^xiq] I'mrky 
 
 /Soav f^ "arai^Etv, x^s * but in these seven days, it is permitted me to 
 perform nothing important or public, but to drink aud revel, to 
 shout and play ' &c, 
 
134 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 sabbatical years, but every other sabbatism of the 
 Jews, in some measure participated. ^°^ 'i 
 
 If I have thus far succeeded in carrying the 
 reader along with me, it will be admitted, that in 
 the rites of Bel and Nebo, the Assyrians not only 
 preserved a knowledge of the fall and recovery, 
 but that the anniversaries, observed in honor of 
 those great national gods, were intended to com- 
 memorate those cardinal events in the great scheme 
 of man's redemption. Nor can the claims of 
 that people to some knowledge and observance 
 of the sabbath be reasonably disputed, when it is 
 considered, that the sanctification of that day was 
 as early as the creation, and a knowledge of the 
 division of the week into days was nearly com- 
 mensurate with the civilization of mankind : that 
 the Sabaists, who derived their knowledge only 
 through the Assyrians, gave the very names to the 
 days, which the hereditar}^ tyranny of custom has 
 still imposed on ourselves. ^°^ 
 
 301 Schleusn. Lex. N. T. voc. aa {^^ocIkt 1^1,6 <;. " Jam quia Ju- 
 daei " &c. ** Now because the Jews on the sabbath, ceased from 
 all labor and work, and entirely resigned themselves to mirth 
 and leisure: hence a-a,^^cc\icr^oq means rest, leisure and a cessa- 
 tion from labor, and metaphorically, happiness of every kind, as 
 « / » 
 
 302 Pe^ readers require to be informed, that the names by 
 which the days of the week are termed, not only by ourselves, 
 but by the European and Asiatic nations, are those which they 
 possessed among the Romans. But it is not known, that Wed- 
 nesday, the dies Mercurii of the Romans, and Saturday, the 
 dies Saturni, of the same people, still retain their oriental 
 names, and in conformity with the religious systemof the Assyri- 
 ans, obtained some degree of reverence above the other days of 
 the week'.^ The Woden of the Saxons, from whom Wednesday 
 takes its naine, was unquestionably the Oden of the Northern na- 
 tions, a god of whom these nations confessedly derived their know- 
 ledge from th^^ast, and the name of whom has been identified 
 with the orieiftal pi«, Adon, which was incorporated in the titles 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER 135 
 
 That suitably to these festivals, this ancient 
 people possessed a religious service, which pre- 
 served a general conformity to the patriarchal 
 worship might be inferred from their observance 
 of sacrifice ; in which is implied not only the exis- 
 tence of a priesthood, but the observation of cere- 
 monies suitable to the rite which they administer- 
 ed. The sacrifices offered '* on the high places of 
 Baal," when Balaam delivered his first prophecy 
 to Balak, are expressly said to have been offered 
 by the king and prophet ;^^^ and there is evidence 
 much stronger than mere presumption, that, even 
 
 of the eastern monarchs. The Saturn of the Romans, from whom 
 the name of Saturday is derived has been already traced to an 
 oriental original, supr. p. 107. n. 229. The testimony in favor 
 of the reverence paid to the fourth and seventh days, is that of 
 one of the oldest pagan writers ; the words of Hesiod are 
 
 Al yap h^i^on tici A»o? voc^a ju,*)1»oe»'7o?, 
 
 Tlfulov ivviy Ttl^a? T« i^ B^^ofxviy tt^ov »5/xa^. Op. et Dier. 769. 
 
 In which remarkable distich, it is observable, the distribution 
 of the days' into months, and the reverence ascribed particularly 
 to the fourth and seventh, is traced by this early writer to the 
 authority of Jove himself, of whom Selden observes, De Dis 
 Syr. II. i. p. 202. ** Jovis enim ex Tetragrammati Europae- 
 orum pronunciatione corrupta fiebat ; nee Jupiter aliud sane 
 quam Jovispiter, id est 'la^ 9ra%p, seu *la» -Troilyi^, Jehovah 
 PATER." On this subject, however, a more convenient oppor- 
 tunity will occur hereafter to express myself at large. I have 
 at present touched upon it, merely on account of the light 
 which it throws on the Assyrian theology ; in asserting a prece- 
 dency to Saturn and Mercury, among the deities, and in refer- 
 ring the division of the week, and the sanctification of the seventh 
 day, to its true source, as ascribing it to Him whom the Hea- 
 thens accounted the Supreme God. 
 
 303 Num. xxvi. 2. " And Balak and Balaam offered, on e- 
 very altar, a bullock and a ram." On collating this passage 
 with Num. xxii. 41. it will appear, that this sacrifice was offer- 
 ed on ** the high places of Baal." The sabbatical character of 
 the rite, as offered on seven altars, is particularly worthy of no- 
 tice. 
 
136 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 from this early period, the sacerdotal character 
 was combined with the regal and prophetical. ^°* 
 Positive evidence has been already adduced to 
 prove not only the consecration of priests to Baal, 
 but by a sacrifice of the same kind as the Sabians 
 offered to Hermes. ^"^^ Had there been, in fact, no 
 other evidence of the general prevalence of the pa- 
 triarchal religion ; the high places consecrated to 
 the one divinity, and the pillars dedicated to the 
 other,^^^ would form lasting memorials, that their 
 worship, however lamentably perverted, was diffu- 
 sed as widely as the idolatry of the East. For at 
 whatever period the profane and abandoned service 
 was established, which finally superseded the pure 
 patriarchal worship, through that tract of country ; 
 no doubt can be reasonably entertained that it was 
 derived from a divine original. ^^'^ Any other suppo- 
 sition being admitted, it becomes wholly inex- 
 plicable, how the inhabitants of those regions 
 
 '°* As eady as the times of Abraham, we find these charac- 
 ters united ; Melchizedek is represented as being not only 
 ** king of Salem," but ** priest of the most high God :" Gen. 
 xiv. 18. Of the Assyrian hierarchy all knowledge has perish- 
 ed in the wreck of ancient history. But as far as the know- 
 ledge of the sacred order may be recovered from the accounts 
 transmitted to us of the Persian priesthood, the union of the sa- 
 cred function with the prophetical and regal character may be 
 satisfactorily established. It is stated by Apuleius, Apol. I. 
 p. 32. " Magian, in the Persian language is the same as priest 
 in ours;" and it is observed by Cicero, De Div. I. xli. that " no 
 one could be king of the Persians who was not informed in the 
 knowledge and discipline of the Magians." 
 
 305 Vid. supr. p. 129. et not. 
 
 306 Vid. supr. p. 82. n. i84. p. 91. „. i99 &c. 
 
 307 Vid. supr. p. 120. et seq. The testimony of a learned 
 Platonist on this subject was therefore, not very remote from 
 the truth, as stated by Stanley, Hist. Or. Phil. uti. supr. p. 
 321. " Cum Proclus '*in Timaeum" adserat, Asssyriam Theo- 
 logiam a Deo revelatam fuisse," — * that the Assyrian Theology 
 was revealed by God,* 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 137 
 
 should have retained their superstitions, with such 
 stubborn pertinacity, and have succeeded in se- 
 ducing proselytes to their errors, from among the 
 chosen people of God. 
 
 In proportion as this subject is more closely ex- ^ < 
 amined, we shall find reason to rise in our opini- / / 
 ons of the religious system, embraced by the na- 
 tions which composed the Assyrian empire. Al- 
 though it cannot be admitted, that the Deity was 
 originally acknowledged by them, under the term 
 Baal ;'"^ it may be readily conceded to high au- 
 thority, that the Supreme Being was subsequent- 
 ly recognised, under that title, through the vast 
 continent of Asia.'^'"^ Independent of the argu- 
 ments on which this conclusion rests,^^^ it remains 
 to be observed, that in the best authenticated sys- 
 tems of the Assyrian cosmogony, the Creator is 
 introduced under the term Bel f^^ where it is 
 wholly inconceivable, that ?ny human being, re- 
 cognised under that title, can be intended. The 
 same inference may be deduced from the recipro- 
 cal manner, in which the titles applied to the 
 Divinity are respectively adopted by the As- 
 
 S08 Seia. de Dis Syr. Synt. II. cap. i. p. 195. 
 
 309 Id. Ibid . 
 
 310 Stanl. Philos. Orient. I. ii. xxxii. p. 260. " Summo Nu- 
 meni nomeii et imaginem Belt tribiiehant [ChdiX^^cA], ut liquet 
 ex prohibitione Dei quae exstat Hos. ii. 16. * Nou vocabis me 
 amplius Bahali.' Belus euim Chaldjeoruni idem est ac Bahal 
 Phoenicum, qua voce Hebraei c/o/wmwm significant. To account 
 for the application of the term Baal to the Supreme Being, 
 we need not pass the reason assigned by Le Clerc, Index, in 
 Stani. voc. Belus. — " quod [nomen], cum Dominum significa- 
 ret, potuit tiibui nuaiinibus, et praisertim summo." This I be- 
 lieve to be the case in almost all languages, as is obvious in the 
 English word Lord ; which, though it is applied to the Almigh- 
 ty, is used as a title of nobility, and even as a proper name. 
 
 311 Beros. citante Alex. Polyhist. ap. Syncel. Chronogr* 
 p. 29. ct Euseb. Chron. Gra^c. Scaligeri, p. 29, 
 
 1' 
 
138 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 Syrians and Hebrews f" which could have scarce- 
 ly occurred, had not the same Divine Being been 
 recognised, under the proper titles which each na- 
 tion adopted. By the ethnics themselves, who 
 cite the highest authority acknowledged by their 
 religion, in appealing to the oracles, a purer wor- 
 ship is ascribed to the Assyrians, in common with 
 the Hebrews, whom they represented as adoring 
 a God, supreme and unbegotten.-^^ They afford e- 
 ven ground for concluding, that they not only re- 
 garded both people, as having the same object of 
 religious worship; but have identified him with 
 the Supreme God, by the incommunicable name 
 
 '12 Selden m reference to the Assyrian gods, observes, de 
 Dls Syr. Synt. II. cap. i. — " vocibus ejusdem fere sinificatio- 
 nis, et ab Ebraiis, Arabibus et Greecis, id quod proprium Dei 
 Opt. Max. nonien habetur antiquitus data opera explicatum 
 saipissirae legamus. Tetragrammatum enim nomen mn» red- 
 ditur a LXX. 'A^wva*, aut Ky^jo?, hoc est dominus : et substitu- 
 
 unt Arabesu-->J^ alrab, quod idem sonat. Et quam conve- 
 
 nire potuerit t3 Baal nomen Deo vero cap. ii. Hosece 
 satis monstrat coram. 16. * Et erit in die ilia dicit Domi- 
 nus, vocabis [me] Ishi,' id est maritus meus, * et non voca- 
 bis me ultra Baali/ id est >'?ri, nimirum Baal meus, &c. 
 The learned author might have literally interpreted, * Dominus 
 meus;' in the original sense of the term ^r:i : vid. supr. p. 102. 
 n.«*" He subsequently observes on the adoption of the term 
 nin' by the Heathen ; ibid. p. 208. ^'Nonneenim Aramceis ido- 
 lolatris non solum cognitum verum etiam et prolatum legimus ? 
 Ilabsake apud Jesaiam cap. xxxvi. com. 15. ' Neque confidere 
 vos faciat Hizkijau in mn>, dicens, eruendo eruet nos nin», ' 
 sa;piusque repetit." 
 
 3»3 Porphyry in his work on " the Philosophy of the Ora- 
 cles," cited by Euseb. Praep. Ev. IX. x. p. 413. b. quotes the 
 following distich of Apollo ; which is also cited by Justin Mar- 
 tyr ; Cohort, ad Gra?c. p. 12. b. 
 
 A^ToyEvyilov avooilcc. cre/Sa^o/nEvot &eov ayvuq. 
 
 In the context of Porphyry's observation, we find (i>om^i te f^ 
 Xax^aioK, 'AcrQvfioi y»^ »Tot ; thus identifying the Chaldeans as 
 Assyrians. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 139 
 
 Jehovah. ^^* Nor will this deduction appear impro- 
 bable or forced, when it is remembered, that those 
 nations respectively referred their origin to the 
 patriarch Shem ; in whose line, the knowledge of 
 the true God was preserved, however his worship 
 became depraved and perverted. 
 
 Admitting what cannot be reasonably denied, 
 that any traditionary knowledge derived from pro- 
 phetical sources, was preserved among the Assy- 
 rians ; it may seem superfluous to insist further 
 on a point, which is yielded in this concession. 
 That they attained some light, in this respect, 
 may be collected from the prophecy which they 
 ascribed to their great progenitor, which declared 
 that the world would be successively destroyed 
 by a deluge and conflagration. But it may be in- 
 ferred from records of the highest authority, that 
 they possessed information derived from other 
 sources than tradition, and that much of this 
 knowledge was derived from the predictions of 
 Balaam. Express intimation had been given, by 
 the Mesopotamian diviner, of the great national 
 revolutions which should precede the establish- 
 ment of an universal empire under an expected 
 Deliverer. ^^^ In his prediction, the part was not 
 
 314 Selden closes his induction of authorities, on the identity 
 of the terms Jehovah and Jove, with the following oracle of 
 the Clarian Apollo; Dis Syr. uti supr. p. 202. "Nee Jupi- 
 ter aliud sane est quam Jovispiter, id est 'ixu Traclr.^, seu locov 
 <7roc%^, Jehovah pater. Notum illud Apollinis Clarii oraculum, 
 
 ^px^Bo rov Tccivruv vTTocrov 0£o» ei^usv lao;, 
 
 Cornelius Labeo habet apud Macrobium Sat. I. cap. xviii." 
 Had the nature of the digamma been investigated, when this 
 observation was made by its learned author, the identity would 
 have been rendered more striking, by writing the last title in 
 the improved orthography, 'laFw. 
 
 315 Lactantius details, at considerable length, the opinions 
 held by the Christians ond Heathens, of his own age, respect- 
 
 T 2 
 
 // 
 
140 THE ASSVniAX EXPECTATIONS 
 
 less plainly indicated which the Assyrians would 
 perform in effecting those grand revolutions : and 
 it specified the reverses to which their empire 
 would be subjected by the invasions of the wes- 
 tern nations. In such intimations, it may with 
 the highest probability be inferred, that expecta- 
 tion originated, which we have unquestionable 
 authority for believing universally prevalent 
 throughout the East; that out of Judea should 
 come those who would attain universal domini- 
 on.^^^ As the announcement of the expected per- 
 son's appearance, was coupled with the prediction 
 of those great national revolutions, which would 
 make way for his empire ; it was not unnaturally, 
 though most erroneously conceived, that he would 
 
 ing the revolutions of empires, and the decline of secular power 
 which should precede the advent of the Messiah, and the es- 
 tablishraent of his kingdom; Divin. Instit. Lib. VII. cap. xv. 
 sen. His fifteenth chapter which is preceded by the title, 
 ** De mundi vastatione, et mutatione imperiorum/' contains the 
 following passage, which forms no inapposite commentary on 
 the close of Balaam's prophecy ; '* Nam et iEgyptios, et Per- 
 sas, et Graecos, et Assyrios proditum est regimen habuisse ter- 
 rarum ; quibus omnibus destructis, ad Romanos quoque rerum 
 summa pervenit. Qui quanto caeteris omnibus regnis magnitu- 
 dine antestant, tanto majore decident lapsu, quia plus habent 
 ponderis ad ruinam, quae sunt caeteris altiora.'^ He proceeds 
 to state, that this consummation was announced by the pro- 
 phets ; and in his eighteenth chapter adduces the testimony of 
 the ethnic prophets, on this subject ; quoting Hystaspis, Her- 
 mes and the Sibyl, which disclose the views entertained on these 
 subjects, by the Persians, Egyptians and Romans. 
 
 316 Suetonius Vit. Vespasian, cap. iv. " Precrebuerat Onen- 
 te toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Ju^ 
 d<Ba profecti rerum potirentur." Tacitus Hist. Lib. V. " Plu- 
 ribus peisuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum Uteris contineri, fore 
 ut claresceret Oriens, profectique Judcea rerum potirentur." A 
 more convenient opportunity will occur, for entering into the 
 subject of these extraordinary testimonies, when the expecta- 
 tions of a Deliverer held by the Romans are investigated. • 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 141 
 
 appear as a great military conqueror. For this 
 supposition receives no countenance in the pre- 
 diction of Balaam, which represents the advent of 
 the divine person, as distant, and postponed to 
 those great revolutions ; and is directly opposed 
 to the prophecy of Jacob, which designated him 
 by a title which signified pacific. 
 
 If it be allowed, that those notions had any in- 
 fluence on the religious belief of the Assyrians, 
 they will satisfactorily account for some innova- 
 tions which appear to have arisen in the national 
 religion of that people. And should it even be sup- 
 posed that these changes proceeded from the op- 
 eration of different causes ; they will still serve to 
 illustrate and confirm the deductions which have 
 been previously made, on the subject of their po- 
 pular superstitions. 
 
 At the remarkable period, when the divine de- 
 nunciations against the kingdoms of Israel and 
 Assyria were carried into effect, the prophets, 
 who gave intimation of their approach, in passing 
 sentence on the gentile superstitions, have speci- 
 fied the ^principal objects of their worship. By 
 Isaiah, whose warning voice was chiefly raised to 
 prepare the Israelites for the judgments which a- 
 waited their apostacy, the great gods of Assyria 
 are marked out for destruction :^^^ *' Bel bow- 
 eth down, Nebo, stoopeth : their idols were upon 
 the beasts, and upon the cattle. . .they stoop, they 
 bow down together, they could not deliver the 
 burden, but themselves are gone into captivity." 
 By Jeremiah who was deputed to menace the 
 house of Judah with a repetition of the judgments, 
 which had been visited on their captive brethren of 
 Israel, the same subject is thus renewed ;^^^ '' How 
 
 317 Is. xlvi. 1, 2. 318 Jer. li. 41. 44. 47. 
 
142 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 is Sheskach taken, and how is the praise of the whole 
 earth surprised. . . I will punish Bel in Babylon, . . 
 the nations shall not flow together any more unto 
 him ; yea the wall of Babylon shall fall There- 
 fore behold the days come, that I will do judg- 
 ment upon the graven images of Babylon." 
 
 In proceeding to identify, in the two gods who 
 are the objects of both prophets' denunciations, 
 the great national divinities of the Assyrians ; it 
 is merely necessary to state, that Hermes or Mer- 
 cury was reverenced by the Babylonians under a 
 name which immaterially differs from Sesach,^^^ 
 used by Jeremiah. When it is remembered, that 
 the Assyrian Nebo whom Isaiah notices, has been 
 proved identical with the same god f'"^ we possess, 
 in the affinity of those names, and the identity of 
 the subject which engages both prophets, suffi- 
 cient authority for concluding, that the same god 
 is intended by them, under different titles. Nor 
 is it undeserving of remark, that the difference in 
 the designation of those gods by the inspired 
 writers, corresponds with the diversity of their 
 subject ;^"Hhe one prophet adopting the common 
 
 319 Selden in the doubts which he expresses on the Babylo- 
 nian divinity Sesach, and his festival, admits the identity of 
 Seches with Hermes, or Mercury : de Dis Syr. ubi supr. p. 347. 
 " Utrum cum diebus Saceis quid fuerit ru S£%£?, nempe Bahy- 
 hniorum Mercurio, commune, statuere nequeo. Certe vocabu- 
 lorum soni satis adfines sunt. Et liberum esto cuique suum heic 
 judicium. Hesychius : ll^xh t5 'Ep/x5 ar^/f , ^a^vX^vioi,'' Vossius 
 observes on this subject, De Idol. Lib. IT. cap. xxiii. " Itidem 
 quaeri possit, quod numen sit Sesach ? Sane valde ei affine Se- 
 ches, de quo Hesychius, . . . Atque in Sesach et Seches easdem 
 habes radicales, sed posteriores, ut saepe lit, trajectas." 
 
 320 Vid. supr. p. J 11. n.238. 
 
 '21 Jerome, Com. in Jer. xxv. 26. Tom. III. p. 286. a. en- 
 ters into a long Rabbinical illustration, founded on the permu- 
 tation of letters, to account for the designation of Babylon, under 
 
GI* A GREAT DELIVERER. 143 
 
 name, while expressing himself on the general 
 subject of the Assyrian superstitions ; the other 
 selecting the local appellation, while delivering 
 himself on the particular subject of the Babylo- 
 nian. The antecedent conclusion, however, de- 
 rives additional support, from a festival which 
 was observed by the Babylonians, and appears 
 from its name, to have been instituted in honor of 
 their god Sesach or Hermes. 
 
 The anniversary of this festival, which the 
 Greeks termed the Sakean days : or (if we may 
 be allowed to substitute the pure oriental for the 
 corrupt western orthography,) which were proba- 
 bly termed the Sesachean days ;^^^ was celebrated 
 for five days, commencing from the 16th day of 
 the month Lous On this occasion, the lord and 
 his slaves changed their respective stations ; the 
 servant assuming the place and authority of his 
 master. One, selected from their number, was 
 
 the terra Sesach. The refutation of his labored hypothesis may 
 be found in Vossius, uti supr. p. 211. who solves the imaginary 
 diflficulty created by the learned father, thus simply and satis- 
 factorily : *' Quanto igitur verisimilius, quod dicebamus, fji,eroc. 
 iJLsluwf^iacv Deum tntelarem sumi pro urbe, quam tutaretur, Ut 
 si Bel dicatur cecidisse pro civitate Belt." 
 
 3*2 The learned writer to whom we are indebted for the re- 
 covery of the remains of the Assyrian superstition gives the 
 following account of this festival, which he deduces from the 
 Babylonian god Sesach : Seld. de Dis Syr. ubi supr. " Sesach 
 numeu est apud Jeremiam c. xxv. com. 26. et li. com. 41. 
 Ah eOf sic volunt viri doctissimi, Sacea, Festum Bahyloniorum, 
 dicta, seu riiJie^atq Xooceok;, uti apud Romanos Saturnalia a Satur- 
 no. Atque ut Saturjialibus, servis epulantibus famulabantnr 
 domini, ita et in diebus Saceis; qui quinque erant continui quo- 
 rum primus erat xvi. mensis Loi. . . . De festo autem et mensis, 
 quo celebrabatur, die , testimonium Berosi Chaldaei ab injuria 
 temporis servavit Athenaeus Dipnosoph. XIV." He subjoins 
 the testimony of the Chaldaean historian, as preserved by this 
 writer, tha substance of which is given in the preceding obser- 
 vations. 
 
144 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 arrayed in a royal garb, and constituted ruler of 
 the festivity, and in consequence of his prece- 
 dence, was termed the Sagan''^ or Prefect. 
 
 The striking resemblance of this festival of the 
 Babylonians to the Saturnalia of the Romans, had 
 it not been observed by the ancient writer who 
 has preserved the account of it, would be directly 
 apparent on comparing them together. After 
 what has been already observed on the Roman 
 festival, and its connexion with the worship of 
 Bel and Nebo,^-* little remains to be added in il- 
 lustration of the Sesachean days, observed by the 
 Babylonians. As the first or golden age, which 
 this festival was intended to commemorate, w^as re- 
 garded by the Chaldeans, not merely as a succes- 
 sion of events which was already past, but as a 
 state of things which would be restored after a 
 lapse of ages,^'^^ it was considered not merely in re- 
 ference to the fall but to the recovery. The ex- 
 pectation of this great restitution having been as- 
 sociated with the rise of a great conqueror ; as the 
 first prince who aimed at the subjugation of the 
 eastern empire, was termed Sesach;'"^ nothing 
 is more probable than that it was from him the 
 Babylonian festival derived its name, or received 
 
 323 Of this term the subjoined derivation is given by Selden 
 and approved by Vossius; de Dis Syr. uti supr. " Servi autem 
 nomeu qui festo praefuit, et Zogana heic dicitur, Chaldaicam 
 petit originem. Nam pD, Segan, prcofectus est, in ea dialec- 
 to." 
 
 32* Vid supr. p. 128. seq. 325 Vid. supr. p. 94. n.204. 
 
 326 The identity of Sesach with the Egyptian Sesostris, is 
 apparently asserted by Josephus, Antiq. Lib. VIII. iv. p. 
 279. e. following Herodotus, Lib. II. cvi. and expressly main- 
 tained by Marsham, Can. Chron. p. 22. 358. and Pezron, An- 
 tiq. des tems. p. 99. I profess myself not wholly convinced 
 by the objections to their hypothesis, urged by l^erizonius and 
 other French writers. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 145 
 
 its institution. Of the prepossessions of the vulgar, 
 whom hereditary prejudice, or superstitious cre- 
 dulity might have led to expect such a deliverer, 
 an ambitious and politic conqueror may be natu- 
 rally supposed to have taken advantage. In Se- 
 sac, a person presented himself, who was answer- 
 able to the character, which they were disposed 
 to identify in the prophecy of Balaam. He was 
 a great conqueror, the invader of Judea, and the 
 avenger of its idolatry •J"'^ he would be thus readi- 
 ly received, as the personage who was foretold by 
 the prophet. As the great end of the appearance 
 of this personage was the restitution of the golden 
 age ; or, as it was expected, that at that period he 
 would make his appearance ; there could be no 
 mode of realising these prospects different from 
 that of introducing some rites or customs, similar 
 to those which were observed in the Sesachean 
 days, or Roman Saturnalia. Nor is the confirma- 
 tion slight, which this hypothesis, offered to account 
 the origin of the Babylonian festival, receives 
 from the testimony of the Jewish historian, that 
 pillars, similar to those raised in honor of Hermes, 
 were erected by Sesac, as the bounds of his Asia- 
 tic conquests,^'^ and that Sesostris with whom he 
 is identified, was made the pupil of the same 
 
 *2T 1 King xiv. 25. seq. 2 Chron. xii. 2. seq. 
 
 328 Vid. Joseph, uti supr. n. 23o, ;N^or is this conclusion in- 
 validated by the testimony of Herodotus, as cited by the Jew- 
 ish historian, who declares that he saw in Palestine, pillars with 
 emblems of a contrary character to those generally affixed to 
 the Hermean statues. These monuments were raised in deri- 
 sion of a weak and pusilanimous population ; nor can any rea- 
 son be assigned for their erection more obvious, than that they 
 were intended to reproach that people with worshipping a di- 
 vinity of different sex from him who was generally reverenced 
 l>y the eastern nations. 
 
 V 
 
146 THE ASSYRIAN EXPEexATlONS 
 
 god ;'^ in such a prince, we might naturally ex- 
 pect to find the founder of the festival of Seches. 
 
 But, in Salmanasar, who filled the Assyrian 
 throne, in the most eventful period of Jewish his- 
 tory, most of the circumstances which had been 
 predicted by Balaam, and erroneously associated 
 with the character of Sesac, were really united. 
 This monarch, as I have already intimated, provo- 
 ked by the revolt of Hosea, who sought an alliance 
 with the king of Egypt, came up against Samaria ; 
 and having besieged it three years, he took it in 
 the fourth year of Hezekiah, and led away the re- 
 mainder of the tribes of Israel, in captivity to Me- 
 dia ; whither the two tribes and a half, which were 
 Settled beyond Jordan, had been carried, eleven 
 years previously by Tiglath Belasar.^^^ As that 
 prince had carried the denunciations of Balaam 
 against Moab, and the idolaters of Palestine,^^^ 
 into effect ; and as the extirpation of their images 
 was the great boast of the Assyrian monarchs,^^^ 
 he was not unnaturally conceived, to be the per- 
 sonage marked out in the prediction of the Meso- 
 potamian prophet. 
 
 In the history of this prince, it might be reason- 
 ably presumed, some of the circumstances would 
 be discoverable, which the Asiatics were accus- 
 tomed to associate, with the appearance of that 
 expected personage, to whom their views had 
 been immemorially directed. And this supposi- 
 tion is singularly verified by fact. Besides the 
 anniversaries, which were held at the time of the 
 equinoxes, or at the commencement and close of 
 
 329 iElian. Var. Hist. XII. iv. 
 
 "0 2 King. xvii. 3 seq. 33i yid. supr. p. 58. seq. p. 95. seq, 
 
 »52 2 King. xix. 12, 13. 2 Chron xxxii. 13, 14. 19. 
 
 3" 2 King. xix. 17. 18, comp. Is. x, 10, 11, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 147 
 
 the natural year ; they had a period consisting of 
 many centuries, to which they gave the name of 
 the Great Year, and at the end of v^hich they ex- 
 pected a great restitution.^^* The commencement 
 of one such period they have fixed in the reign of 
 Salmanasar, or made it coincident with the acces- 
 sion of this prince, who had effected those great 
 political changes in the western region of Asia, by 
 which it was believed, the expected restitution 
 would be preceded. In this period the celebrated 
 epoch is placed, which is so much used by the 
 ancient astronomers, and termed from its suppo- 
 sed founder the era of Nabonasar,^^^ v/ho has been 
 already mentioned, as identical with the Salmana- 
 sar of Scripture. 
 
 The first circumstance, deserving of remark, in 
 this celebrated era, is that of its constituting the 
 
 33* Viil. supr. p. 94. n.""*. On the the subject of this period. 
 Dr. Burnet thus expresses himself : Sacr. Theor. B. III. ch. 
 iii. Vol. II. p. 42. •* But the dilliculty is to find out the true 
 notion of this Great Year, what is to be understood by it, and 
 then of what length it is. They all agree that it is a time ojf 
 some great instauration of all things, or a Restitution of the 
 heavens and the earth to their former state; that is, to the state 
 and posture they had at the beginning of tl^e world, suc^ 
 therefore as will reduce the Golden Age, and that happy state 
 of nature, wherein things were at first. ^^ 
 
 335 After having described the Egyptian Great Year, uti 
 infr. n.336^ Petavius gives the following succinct account of 
 the era of Nabonasar: Ration. Temp. P. II. Lib. I. cap. 
 xii. p. 31. ** ^gyptiacus et vagus iste" &c. "This Egyptian 
 and ambulatory year may have several epochs ; of which the 
 most calebrated, and that used by the ancient astronomers, was 
 the era of Nabonasar, which the Egyptians received from the 
 Babylonians. For Nabonassar was King of the Chaldeans 
 from whose accession the Babylonians instituted a new era.. 
 Jtlence the era of Nabonasar had its origin ; the beginning of 
 which falls, in the year 3967 of the Julian Period, on Wednes- 
 day, February 26, (Per. Jul. 3967. Februarii 26. feria 4.) 
 before Christ 747." 
 
14B THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 epoch of a Great Year, as calculated by the Egyp- 
 tians/^^ It is a singular fact, that for such a pe- 
 riod, consisting of 1460 years, the old Assyrian 
 monarchy had lasted, from the time of its foun- 
 dation by Belus ; and that according to the calcu- 
 lations of some chronologists, this empire ter- 
 minated as the era of Nabonasar commenced: 
 it is atleast generally allowed, that this era was 
 introduced, as the epoch of the restitution of the 
 Assyrian monarchy."^ The period of a Great 
 
 336 The Great Year of the Egyptians is thus described by 
 Petavius, uti supr. p. 37. ** Horum annorum ea conditio est" 
 &c. "The circumstance of these [P^gyptian] years is, that at 
 the close of every fourth year, the beginning of the year falls 
 back and anticipates one day : and atlength after 1460 Julian 
 years, or 1461 Egyptian, the new-year's day returns to the 
 same day of the year, from whence it set out." In fact, as the 
 year exceeds 365 days, by nearly a quarter of a day ; the 
 Egyptians having neglected to intercalate, lost a day every 4th 
 year, and a whole year in 1460 years, or four times 365 years. 
 Of course the first day of their year fell back 1 day in four 
 years; and 365 days, or a year, in 1460 years : when, having 
 regained its original place, one Great Year terminated, and an- 
 other commenced. 
 
 337 After a laborious investigation of the opinions of the an- 
 cients on the duration of the Assyrian Empire, M. des Vign- 
 olles comes to the conclusion, Chronol. Tom. IT. p. 210. 
 ** Depuis Belus premier roi des Assyriens, cette monarchie du- 
 ra, 1459. ans, suivant n6tre catalogue." For the establishment 
 of the era of Nabonassar, he assigns the following reason. Ibid, 
 p. 372. '* Tenons nous y done. * Sic enim,' comme M. Peri- 
 zonius le souhaitoit, * aliam habebimus rationem Epochae novae 
 
 " ab illius regno potissimum derivandaj.' C'etoit une nouvelle 
 monarchie : et pour mieux dire, le renouvellement (Tune ancien- 
 ne monarchie, ^teinte depuis un tems immemorial ; si on remon- 
 te jusqu' a la coquete de Ninus: ou interrompue durant 150 
 ans ; si on la regarde comme la m^me, que celle des anciens 
 Assyriens. Voila une raison historique de V Ere de Nabonassar,'' 
 Though the interruption in the duration of this empire, is thus 
 immaterial to my argument ; it is curious to observe, that Abp. 
 ITssher makes the termination of the Assyrian empire, corres- 
 pond with the beginning of the era of Nabonasar : VignoUes, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 149 
 
 Year, for which this empire lasted, and in which 
 the notion of a restitution was implied, we thus 
 find commencing under a monarch named Bel, 
 and restored under one who was termed from 
 Nebo : these being the titles of those deified per- 
 sonages, under whom it was believed the fall 
 had taken place, and the recovery would be ef- 
 fected. ^^ This circumstance, though curious in it- 
 self, would probably not merit remark, did it not 
 appear, that in the change introduced by the es- 
 tablishment of this era, the new year's day, which 
 gave its proper character to the whole period, 
 was shifted from Saturday, to Wednesday ; the E- 
 gyptian Great Year having commenced on the for- 
 mer day,^^ and the era of Nabonasar on the lat- 
 
 ibid. p. 173. " Usserius met le commencement de Ninus, et de 
 r Empire des Assyriens, k Tan P. J. 3447. A quoi ajotatant 
 les 520 ans, dont parle Herodote, on aura pour la Jin de Vem~ 
 pire des Assyriens, Van P.J. 3967. qui fut Van premier de VEre 
 de Nabonassar, ctduroyaume desBabyloniens.Y'id.su^r. p. 9.n.i^. 
 
 338 The great Restitution held by the Orientalists was sup- 
 posed to bring a return of the Saturnian or golden age ; vid. 
 supr. p. 10. n.^9and p. 147. n.33*. As the identity of Bel and 
 Saturn has been admitted, supr. p. 92. n.^oo; according to 
 the notions of the Orientalists, the person who would be resto- 
 red, at the time of the Grand Restitution, would be Belus, the 
 founder of the Assyrian empire. 
 
 329 The character of the Great Canicular year of the Egyp- 
 tians is thus stated by the learned chronologist, who has been 
 lately quoted on the era of Nabonasar; VignoUes, ibid. p. 
 693. " Le Grand Cycle Caniculaire commenya, comme je I'ai 
 dit, le 20 de Juillet, l' An 3389 de la Periode Julienne. Cette 
 annee fut la premiere du Cycle Solaire; dont 121 etoient deja 
 ecoulez ; et eut par consequent, pour lettres dominicales G. F. 
 dont la derniere servit, depuis le commencement de Mars. Or 
 le 20 de Juillet a la lettre E, pour caractere invariable. II 
 s'ensuit de 1^, que le 20 du Juillet, de cette annee, fut le der- 
 nier jour de notre Semaine, que nous appellons Samedi. Ce 
 fut done par un Samedi, que commenga la nouvelle forme d'an- 
 nte des Egyptiens ; et une nouvelle periode, trois fois plus lon- 
 gue, que les precedantes, puisqu' elle ne devoit finir qu'au bout 
 
150 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ter.^ Of the days of the week, as Saturday was 
 sacred to Bel, and Wednesday to Nebo;^" the 
 Great Year, by this innovation, passed from un- 
 der the tutelage of the one divinity to that of the 
 other ; having undergone a change similar to that 
 which it has experienced under the Christians and 
 Mohammedans, who have respectively substitu- 
 ted, for the Sabbath of the Jews, a day of religi- 
 ous rest, in Sunday and Friday. 
 
 If the observations formerly made an the origin 
 of the Assyrian gods, be admitted to be well 
 founded, that they derived their imaginary exis- 
 tence from tradition and prophecy ; they will ade- 
 quately account for the change thus introduced in 
 the Great Year, by the establishment of a new 
 epoch. In a word, as the period of which such 
 years were composed was conceived to bring a- 
 bout a great conversion ; the year, which original- 
 ly commenced with the day of Saturn or Bel, un- 
 der whom the fall had occurred, was naturally 
 replaced by a new-year, which commenced with 
 the day of Hermes or Nebo, under whom the re- 
 de 1461 ans. Ainsi le Grand Cycle Caniculaire a pour carac- 
 ttre le Samedi^ 
 
 340 I have already stated, on the authority of Petavius, that 
 the characteristic of the era of Nabonasar was Wednesday. I 
 shall here add the proof of it, constructed similarly to that 
 given by des Vignolles, in the preceding note, on the great 
 Canicular year of the Egyptians. It is uniformly allowed by 
 chronologists that the era of Nabonasar commenced, as I have 
 stated from Petavius, on February 26th in the year 3967 of the 
 Julian Period. This year was the 19th of the Solar Cycle, of 
 which 141 had expired, and consequently had E for its domi- 
 nical letter. But February 26 has A for its invariable charac- 
 teristic ; which being the third from E, the Sunday letter in 
 this year, was necessarily Wednesday. It was with VYenesday 
 of course, that the era of Nabonasar commenced, which thus has 
 Wednesday for its characteristic, or new-year's day. 
 
 Vid. supr. p. 132. n. 298. p. 3^34, n. 302. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 151 
 
 covery was expected : for thus it was supposed that 
 great restitution, which was implied in the nature 
 of such a year, would be finally effected. 
 
 Whether the establishment of this new era, cor- 
 respondent to which we shall behold similar chan- 
 ges introduced in the calendar of the Persians and 
 Romans, is to be imputed to Nabonasar, or to 
 one of his successors ; the epoch from which it is 
 calculated is dated from the time of his accession, 
 and precedes, but by a few years, the period of 
 the captivity and dispersion of the Israelites, by 
 Salmanasar king of Assyria. Assuming that the 
 same prince is intended under these different ti- 
 tles ;^^ as this prince had been the great instru- 
 
 '*2 The objections which appear to lie against considering 
 Nabonasar and Salmanasar the sapie king, in consequence of 
 a difference in these names, have been already considered ; supr. 
 p. 122 n.'^^. The supposed dissimilarity between them, (which 
 is opposed to the express testimony of the lK>'.A»3o-tar»''-rj rot^Etwo-t? 
 given by Syncellus,) seems to rest on a very insecure founda- 
 tion ; as bottomed on the Canon of Ptolemy, which was first 
 published by Scaliger. From this document, a succession of 
 Babylonian kings, at the head of whom stands Nabonasar. has 
 been extracted, and opposed to the succession of Assyrian 
 kings, mentioned in Scripture, among whom occurs Salmanasar. 
 This distinction, however, unfortunately derives no countenance 
 from the document on which it is founded ; as in it, the succes- 
 o( Babylonian kings, different from the kings of Assyria, are 
 expressly termed, BacrtAswv Aa-a-v^iuv kJ m^^uv ; vid. Seal. Euseb. 
 Chron. Graec. p. 38. Can. Isagog. p. 285. Petav. Rat. Temp. 
 II. p. 283. seq. The chronologists who maintain this diffe- 
 rence between the succession of Assyrian and Babylonian 
 kings, and place Salmanasar among the former, and Nabonas- 
 ar among the latter, are notwithstanding obliged to admit, that 
 Nabonasar was governor of Babylon, and that Asaradon was 
 king of Assyria, before they respectively became king of Baby- 
 Ion. As those kingdoms thus interchanged their rulers, it is 
 obvious, that the different accounts which make the formerking 
 of Babylon, under the name of Nabonasar, and king of Assy- 
 ria, under the name of Salmanasar, may be both true ; as hav- 
 ing risen from the government to the throne of Babylon, he 
 
152 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ment, by which the prophecies uttered against the 
 captive nation had been carried into effect, and 
 particularly, as he had succeeded in subverting 
 their idolatrous worship, he might, by no unnatural 
 mistake, be supposed the person intended in those 
 predictions. This supposition, which derives no 
 inconsiderable support from the names which he 
 assumed, on which I formerly hazarded a conjec- 
 ture ;^*^ receives still stronger confirmation, from 
 the remains of his history which have escaped the 
 ravages of time ; in which a character is ascribed 
 to him conformable to the title pacific, which has 
 been mentioned, as implied in the name Salmana- 
 sar. In a passage, purporting to be extracted 
 from the annals of Tyre, and in which he was ex- 
 might have thence ascended the throne of Assyria. And 
 this view of the subject receives authority from Scripture, which 
 while it makes Salmanasar *' king of Assyria," 2 King. xvii. 3. 
 assigns him that authority over Babylon, Ibid 24, 30. in trans- 
 porting its inhabitants to the countries which he had depopula- 
 ted by his conquests, which is irreconcilable with the supposi- 
 tion, that the latter kingdom was governed at the time by an 
 independant sovereign. Taking a view thus comprehensive 
 of the subject, the apparently contradictory accounts of this 
 prince are easily reconciled. As it appears, from the Eccles- 
 iastical Catologue of Syncellus, that one prince was designated 
 by both names, who reigned twenty-five years ; and from the 
 Canon of Ptolemy, that the first fourteen years of his govern- 
 ment were spent at Babylon, while Tiglath Belasar filled the 
 Assyrian throne : to which he succeeded after that time, having 
 deputed Nadius to the government of Babylon, over which he 
 still retained a controul. 
 
 3« Vid. supr. p. 122. n. ^73 it is remarkable, that corres- 
 pondent to the origination which has been ascribed to the 
 names Salmanasar and Nabonasar, both of which have a rela- 
 tion to prophecy ; the former, which is deducible from a. sacred 
 term, is that exclusively used by the inspired writers ; and that 
 the latter, which is derived from an idolatrous title, is that gene- 
 rally adopted by the profane. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 153 
 
 pressly introduced by name, it is recorded/** that 
 '* having employed his forces in reducing the Ci- 
 tians, against whom in consequence of their re- 
 volt, the Tyrians employed a naval armament ; and 
 having rendered himself master of Phenicia, and 
 made peace with all, he returned into his own 
 country." The dissemination of those prophe- 
 cies, which appear to have extended their influ- 
 ence as far as Rome, being admitted ; it can be 
 little wonderful to find the natives of a spot so in- 
 considerable as Citium, inspired with confidence, 
 not merely to resist the authority of Tyre, but the 
 power of Assyria. For in those predictions it 
 was declared^ though with a different sense, and in 
 allusion to a different period, that '* ships would 
 come from the side of Citium, and would afflict 
 the Assyrians and afflict the Hebrews, who were 
 reserved for destruction." 
 
 In the institution of the era termed from Nabo- 
 nasar, I conceive, there is an indirect proof ^*^ of 
 
 ^^* Menand. ap. Joseph. Antiq. xiv. p. 325. 
 
 '*^ To the observations oftered on the Babylonian era term- 
 ed from Nabonasar, much might he added ; the following par- 
 ticulars, if considered unfounded, will atleast be admitted to be 
 curious. From what has been already intimated, supr. p. 126. 
 n.2S2. it appears, that at the epoch, in which this era commen- 
 ced, the vernal equinoctial point was identified with a parti- 
 ticular part of the heavens, from whence the motions of the 
 heavenly bodies in longitude have been calculated, from that 
 time to the present day. Thus J. Cappel, whose testimony 
 bears immediately on our subject, in enumerating from Adam 
 to Christ 4000 years, describes the equinox, which occurred at 
 the time of the Creation ; observing ♦* 4000mo ante Christi sc- 
 ram anno, solem Aprilis 21rao, feria 4ta fuisse 271 Arittis Imo, 
 circa meridianum Babylonis." Where the equinoctial point, 
 conformably to the preceding observation, is identified with 
 ** the first degree of Aries, '^ though situated at the time, in the 
 sign Taurus. The observation of Cappel will be subject of fu- 
 ture consideration ; the reader cannot fail to be struck with the 
 occurrence of the equinox on Wednesday y at the beginning of 
 
 X 
 
154 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIOKS 
 
 the expectations formed by the Assyrians of a 
 great restitution, and of the connexion of those 
 notions with the prophecy of Balaam, which ea:- 
 pressli/ referred to the period at which the era 
 was estabhshed, if not to the conquests of the 
 prince from whom it was termed. In this single 
 consideration, the communication of his predic- 
 tions to the Assyrians, who subdued, and led cap- 
 tive, the nation by whom they were unquestion- 
 ably preserved, is sufficiently accounted for ; with- 
 out having recourse to the conjecture, that his 
 prophecies were preserved in the archives of some 
 college of Chaldeans or Magians."'^" Even in the 
 enhghtened and sceptical age in which we live, 
 
 the Great Sabbatical Year, by which the Millenium has been 
 calculated by the primitive christians, vid. Burnet, uti supr. 
 B. IV. ch. Ti. p. 246. On the antecedent subject, it remains 
 to be observed, that by identifying the equinoctial point w^ith a 
 particuhir degree of the Zodiac; a place of appulse was deter- 
 mined, by which the great period, in which the precession was 
 performed, might be calculated. And by identifying it with 
 that particular degree, which it reached at the vernal season ; it 
 Was contrived, that in this season, that period which they term- 
 ed the Great Year should begin and end. Such objects perfect- 
 ly corresponded with the views entertained of the Great Year. 
 The opinions held by the ancients, respecting this period 
 of the equinoctial precession, are thus stated by Dr. Burnet, 
 uti supr. p. 41. '• When they [the fixed stars] have finished the 
 circle of this retrogradation and come uj) again to the same place 
 irom whence they started at the beginning of the world, then 
 the course of nature will be at an end; and either the heavens 
 will cease from all motion, or a new set of motions will be set 
 afoot, and the world begin again." He subsequently observes, 
 in reference to the Great Year; ibid. p. 43. that " at the begin- 
 ning of the world there was an equinox throughout all the earth" 
 and in consequence of the posture of the earth, " a perpetual 
 spring." To this description the preceding observations, may 
 be easily applied. 
 
 3*6 Such was the opinion of Origen ; Horn. xiii. in Num. 
 contr. Cels. Lib. I. cap. Ix. in which the generality of the 
 christian fathers concur. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 155 
 
 were a prediction, describing our successes in the 
 East, discovered in the sacred books of any of the 
 oriental nations, who have submitted to our arms : 
 it could not fail to excite our interest and atten- 
 tion. But the Assyrians, who found such a pro- 
 phecy among the Israelites whom they sui)dued, 
 were neither enlightened nor incredulous, but 
 superstitious and barbarous ; and in this prophe- 
 cy, preserved in the sacred books of their captives, 
 they discovered the production of a native prophet : 
 how it could have been disregarded by his compa- 
 triots, I confess myself unable to conceive. 
 
 But without reasoning merely from moral proba- 
 bilities, there arises very strong presumptive proofs, 
 not merely in the conduct of Salmanasar, daring 
 his expedition agahist Israel, but in the form of 
 year which was adopted in the era dated from his 
 accession, that evinces the light in which the pro- 
 phet's predictions were regarded, and that mo- 
 narch's character was viewed. 
 
 Though the provocation which Salmanasar re- 
 ceived from the king of Judah who revolted a- 
 gainst him, was greater than that which excited 
 the enmity of his son Senacherib, or drew down 
 the vengeance of Nebuchadnezzar ;^*^ he left the 
 Jewish territory unmolested, while he subverteti 
 the throne of Israel, and led its tribes into capti- 
 vity.^*^ When we remember that Assyria was 
 then in the plenitude of its power, and consider 
 the proud confidence in his superiority, with 
 which the son of Salmanasar defied the same 
 king of Judah,^ who had revolted with impunity 
 
 3*7 2 King, xviii. 7. 13. xxiv. 1. 
 
 3*8 Ibid. xvii. 4, 5, 6. xviii. 9. Jl. 
 
 3*9 Ibid. xxii. 10. seq. Is. xxxvi. 4. seq. 
 
 X 2 
 
156 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 against his father : to whatever causes the forbear- 
 ance of the elder monarch may be attributed, such 
 as are adequate to account for his conduct, are 
 deducible from the prediction of Balaam. The 
 prophet had asserted the permanent sway of *' the 
 sceptre which should rise out of Jacob," in an ex- 
 press reference to the patriarch's words, who had 
 declared, ** that the sceptre should not depart from 
 Judah, until Shiloh should come." Without sup- 
 posing that Salmanasar, was influenced by the 
 authority of the prophet,'^^^ if we believe that he as- 
 pired to be thought the personage, whose appear- 
 ance was foretold ; the effect on his conduct would 
 be unavoidable : he would respect the throne of 
 Judah, as inviolable, while he subverted that of 
 Israel, which at the time, was implicated in a con- 
 spiracy, with the Syrians, against the royal tribe 
 and its king.^^^ So far, atleast, by his forbear- 
 ance, he would evince his respect to the authority, 
 of prophecy ; and thus strengthen his claims 
 to a character, in which every eastern conqueror, 
 from Sesac to Vespasian, seems to have been am- 
 bitious of appearing ; and by which there is ap- 
 parently sufficient justification, in the name and 
 history of Salmanasar, for believing this monarch 
 influenced. ^^^ 
 
 350 The notice, which even the Hebrew prophets excited a- 
 mong the ethnics may be collected from the attention bestowed 
 on Jeremiah by the Babylonians, which is asserted not merely 
 by the sacred writers, but admitted by profane : vid. Jer. 
 xxxix. 11. seq. Alex. Polyhist. ap. Eus. Praep. Ev. Lib. I. 
 cap. ix. If the Assyrians received the prophecy of Balaam, 
 us preserved by the Hebrews : it is diflScult to conceive how 
 they could have rejected that of Jacob, as he was by descent 
 a Mesopotamian, and was quoted by Balaam. 
 
 •''51 2 King. xvi. 5. Is. vii. 1, 2. 
 
 352 Vid. supr. p. 122. n.^ra. p. 153, xhe term Nabo with 
 which Nabonasar is compounded, sufficiently marks the devo- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 157 
 
 But there is something in the particular form of 
 year, from which the epoch of this monarch's ac- 
 cession is calculated, which appears equally un- 
 accountable, unless we have recourse to the same 
 principles, for the solution. The Chaldeans not 
 less than the Egyptians, possessed a cycle, which 
 embraced 1440 years,^^^ while the Egyptian ex tend- 
 
 tion of the monarch to the god of his forefathers. It was agree- 
 able to the spirit of the oriental superstitions, in which the doc- 
 trine of transmigration was held, to suppose that the souls of 
 former heroes reanimated living persons. Though the Assyrians 
 ranked Belus among their departed monarchs, and consider- 
 ed Nebo as an expected personage, it was perfectly consistent 
 with their doctrine to believe, that Belus would reappear, upon 
 earth, in the character of Nebo, and even of Sesac and Salma- 
 nasar. Under the influence of such opinions, the Pharisees 
 conceived that it was Elias who reappeared in the person of 
 John the Baptist: John i. 21. and the Sethites conceived the 
 antediluvian prophet had appeared in the person of our Lord: 
 vid. supr. p. 22. n.^^. Independent of his title, derived from 
 Nabo, it appears that the prince from whom the Babylonian 
 era takes its name, was so far ambitious of placing himself at 
 the head of a new order of things, that he engaged in a vain 
 attempt to destroy all the annals of his predecessors : vid. Syn- 
 cel.utisupr. p. 122. n. 273. Under the deliverer who would 
 come at the beginning of the new age, a new order of things 
 was expected; vid. infr. p. 159. n. ^^^. 
 
 353 Xhe Great Year of the Chaldees and Persians, which 
 was also used by the Hebrews, is thus described by Petavius : 
 Doctr. Temp. III. xix. p. 297. *' Annus Hebraeorum ante Ex- 
 odum " &c. " The year of the Hebrews, before the Exod, was 
 not lunar but equable, and of the same kind as among the Chal- 
 dees and Parsians; that is consisting of 12 months of thirty 
 days, with 5 supernumerary days. Thus after 4 years, the be- 
 ginning of the year fell back, until after 120 years, when it re- 
 trograded 30 days, by intercalating 1 month, they reinstated it 
 in its ancient place. This space they called Cheled.'' I shall' 
 complete from Scaliger, who has furnished this statement, on 
 the authority of a Patriarch of Antioch, the description of this 
 period : Canon. Isagog. Lib. III. p. 252. " Si cxx anni civi- 
 les " &c. " If 120 civil years are one month, 12 of such months, 
 which constitute 1440 years, will be an Annus Maximus, that 
 
158 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ed to 1460. And though I am willing to admit, that 
 from a people who, like the Chaldeans, were occu- 
 pied in laying the foundation of their empire a- 
 new, some degree of preference was due to the 
 longer year, particularly as their ancient monar- 
 chy had lasted for that period; I can scarcely 
 think this accidental circumstance sufficient to 
 account for the sacrifice which must have been 
 made of national and hereditary prejudice, by a 
 people jealous of their scientific pre-eminence, in 
 rejecting that form of year, which was of native 
 invention, for one which was of foreign extraction. 
 Powerful however, as their hereditary prejudice 
 was, it would easily yield to superstitious credu- 
 lity. In proclaiming the appearance of that 
 Great Deliverer, whose power would revolution- 
 ise the East, the Assyrian prophet had associated 
 with the description of his advent, the appearance 
 of a star, and had joined in the declaration the 
 name of the patriarch Seth. I have already had 
 occasion to observe, the Great Year of the Egyp- 
 tians differed from that of the Chaldees, and eve- 
 ry eastern nation, in having its beginning deter- 
 mined by the rising of a star,^^^ to which that peo- 
 ple gave the name of Sothis and Seth.^'^^ As in 
 the idea of such a year, the notion was implied, 
 
 is an "Eto? ©£«. In Virgil, as I have observed, it rs termed 
 * magnus saeclorum ordo." This form of Great Year differed 
 of course essentially from the Egyptian, in which every spe- 
 cies of intercalation was neglected. 
 
 35* Vid. Censorin. uti supr. p. 94. n.-^^. Porphyry observes, 
 in reference to the Great Year of the Egyptians; De Antr. 
 
 Nymph. NiifA.r,viat avToTq {ro7i; AlyvTrlioK;^ h Tui^iuq uvocroT^riy 
 
 ytvea-tuq x.oclup'xHaa, T?$ lU tov y.oa-fjiov, * the rising of Sothis is their 
 new-year's day, ruling the nativity of the world.' 
 
 355 Vid. Hyd. Comment, in Ulug Beigh. p. 50. who men- 
 tions Zu^U, sijS, StwT, Io^£xa, as the Egyptian names of Siriaff. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 15^ 
 
 that after having performed its stated revolution, 
 it would again open with the revelation from 
 heaven of tlie Divine Person, on whose advent 
 the expectations of the East had been immemori- 
 ally fixed :^^^ — what supposition could be more 
 natural, than that Balaam intended to mark, by 
 the revolution of that period, the immediate time 
 of his advent? Such, as we have authority, for 
 concluding in the particular case of the Magians, 
 was the impression which his prophecy made, up- 
 on some nations, which if not incorporated with 
 the Assyrian empire, lay atleast conterminous to the 
 borders of Assyria. The fact being admitted 
 that such was the impression made upon the, 
 Persians ; the presumption cannot be deemed light, 
 that it exerted equal power over the Babylonians ; 
 which will sufficiently account for their adopting 
 the Egyptian form of year, in forming the Babylo- 
 nian era. 
 
 If the institution of this era, was intended to fix 
 an epoch, and devise a method, for determining 
 the period of the Great Restitution ; it can be no 
 matter of surprise, that the result should have 
 
 3^6 Xhe patriarch of Antioch, quoted supr. p. 157. n. 35». ob- 
 serves, in reference to the great epoch of the Persians, after 
 describing their years ; — *' Quorum annorum, &c. * Of which 
 years, the beginning commences from Gemshid. For it was 
 their custom to innovate as often as any Great King arose among 
 them, as was the custom of the Romans.' The language of 
 Virgil, in the Eclogue, referred to in the note just cited, furnishes 
 the best comment on this subject; the flattery of that sacred 
 pastoral being prepared for the intended nephew of Augustus, 
 — an expected son of Octavia ; by whose marriage with Antho- 
 ny, the peace of the world, as the Romans termed their empire, 
 was set on the most permanent basis. The rulers of the West, 
 not less than the East, found among their followers, flatterers 
 who hailed them as the restorers of that golden and peaceful 
 age, the return of which was generally expected, throughout 
 Asia. vid. supr. p. 140. n.^i^. 
 
IGO THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 proved illusory and abortive. Whatever adepts 
 its contrivers may be deemed in science ; it is ob- 
 vious, that in prophecy, they were but indifferent 
 proficients. The era which they instituted, has 
 consequently served the purposes of the ancient as- 
 tronomers in registering their ecclipses ; and in 
 verifying and ascertaining dates, has been occa- 
 sionally of use to modern chronologists. But the 
 empire of which it professed to measure the dura- 
 tion, by an era extending to fourteen hundred and 
 sixty years, scarcely outlasted the thirty third year 
 from the time of its institution :^^^ nor were they 
 less greviously deceived in the character of the 
 divine person for whose advent they looked, 
 than in the period of his appearance. Instead of 
 
 357 With the destruction of Senacherib's army in the year 
 33 of the era of Nabonasar, the;; glory of the Assyrian nation 
 seems to have set; for i\saraddon, son and successor of that 
 prince, is chiefly known as king of the Babylonians : which peo- 
 ple, after that event, took the lead in the politics of Asia. 
 Helvicus observes, on the last named prince : Tab. Chron. p. 
 64. E. '* Plures in hac dynastia Assyriorum Reges non inve- 
 nio. Nee dubiura quin progressu temporis, haec dynastia ab 
 altera Babyloniorum absorpta fuerit. Unde quidam hie refe- 
 runt Ezech. xxxi. 11." The destruction of Senacherib's army, 
 is attested by profane writeis, as well as sacred: vid. 2 King, 
 xix. 35. Beros. ap. Joseph. Antiq. Lib. X. ii. Herodot. Lib. 
 II. cxx. The Chaldee historian's account corresponds, in an 
 extraordinary degree, with Scripture ; the Greek's, as derived 
 from an Egyptian source, is mixed up according to the fabulous 
 taste of that people. Herodotus, however, though he appa- 
 rently confounds the facts of Senacherib's history, with the fai- 
 eroglyphical representation of it; bears implicit testimony to 
 that prince's impiety, which was sufficiently attested in the in- 
 scription, engraved on his statue, ilg liji.i rt? h^iuv Bva-s^'ng Uco, 
 His character was strikingly contrasted with that of his father; 
 the one having spared Jerusalem, while he subdued the western 
 part of his empire ; the other, in an attempt on the Holy City, 
 having lost his army, aiid eventually his kingdom, with hisi 
 life. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 161 
 
 dating the epoch of the Great Restitution, from 
 the accession of their monarch, had they taken up 
 the calculation from the time of the subjugation 
 of Israel, the result to which they might have 
 been led would have been more certain. For 
 the period nearly of a Great Year intervened be- 
 tween the delivery of Balaam's prophecy and the 
 appearance of the Great Deliverer, whose advent 
 it predicted. And as the captivity of the Israel- 
 ites under Salmanasar occurred when one half of 
 that period had elapsed ; the division of the Great 
 Year by this remarkable occurrence, suggested a 
 measure of time, by which the calculation of the 
 entire period was greatly facilitated :^^ and from 
 which it is possible the Magians might have de- 
 rived assistance, in calculating the period of the 
 nativity. 
 
 The observations which have been recently 
 made, on the period of JVabonasar's accession, as 
 chosen by the Chaldeans for the epoch of a Great 
 Year, might be extended with very inconsiderable 
 modifications to the case of Sesac, from whose 
 reign, a like period was apparently dated by the 
 Egyptians. The discussion of this subject must 
 be, however, reserved for a more suitable oppor- 
 
 '^ In investigating the expectations of a Great Deliverer, 
 formed by the Persians, it will be shewn, that the period of 
 1440 years, of which I have already spoken supr. p. 157. n.^^^. 
 as constituting the Chaldee and Persian Great Year, occurred 
 between the tirst Sabbatical Year, observed by the Israelites, 
 on their settlement under Joshua, in the land of promise, and 
 the nativity of our Lord, A. M. 4000. the first year of the 
 fifth millenium from the Creation. From what has been al- 
 ready stated from Abp. Ussher's chronology, supr. p. 58. n.^^^^ 
 according to whose calculations, the present statement is made; 
 the captivity and deportation of the Israelites from the promi- 
 sed land occurred in the middle of that period, A. M. 3280. in 
 the 720th year before the nativity. 
 
162 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 tunity, when the expectations which this people 
 formed of a Great Deliverer will receive a parti- 
 cular investigation. It will be then rendered ap- 
 parent, that while the period of the Great Resti- 
 tution was represented by the Egyptians under 
 the symbol of a phenix ; an opinion was propaga- 
 ted by that people, and acquired not a little cre- 
 dit in the heathen world, that such a bird had 
 appeared, for the first time, in the reign of Sesos- 
 tris ; and had been seen, for the last, in the reign 
 of Tiberius/^^ What adds greater interest, if not 
 importance, to this account, for which we are 
 indebted to a historian, who yields in reputation 
 for gravity and attachment to truth, to none of the 
 ancients, is the identity nearly of the year which 
 he assigns to the appearance of the phenix, with 
 that which succeeded our Lord's resurrection ; 
 of which change from death to life, it is deserving 
 of remark, the primitive christians considered 
 that fabulous bird emblematical.^^ 
 
 In conformity to the testimony of the historian, 
 who has been just cited, and who declares that 
 the expectation of a Deliverer, prevailed immem- 
 
 '^9 The words of Tacitus, on whose authority this statement 
 is made, are as follows: Annal. VI. xxviii. *' Paulo Fabio et 
 L. Vitellio Coss. post longum saeculorum ambitum, avis Phoe- 
 nix in iEgyptum venit, prsebuitque materiam doctissimis Grae- 
 corum, multa super eo miraculo disserendi ;" he adds, ** Priores- 
 que alites Sesostride primum, post Amaside dominantibus. . . . 
 visae sunt." With Sesostris, Sesac has been already identified : 
 the consulate of Paulus Fabius and L. Vitellius, occurred in the 
 twenty first year of the reign of Tiberius ; the year following 
 that in which the crucijixion and resurrection of our Lord took 
 place, according to the calculation of Scaliger. 
 
 360 Such was the opinion of the Apostolical Father, St. 
 Clement, 1 Ep. ad Cor. cap. xxv. who terms it to va^a^o^ov 
 (rr,[A.uov, and deduces from the notions held respecting it, an ar- 
 gument in favor of the resurrection. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 163 
 
 orially in the East f^^ it may be now summarily 
 concluded that the Assyrians participated in the 
 common expectation entertained by the Asiatics. 
 And the knowledge which they attained of this 
 personage reveals the source from which it des- 
 cended ; the character of the superstition to which 
 they were addicted, the titles and worship which 
 they ascribed to their national divinities, declaring 
 their idolatry to have been derived from the pa- 
 triarchal religion/^^'" But from the opinions which 
 they entertained of the Divine Personage, to whose 
 advent they looked forward, it would be my ob- 
 ject particularly to prove, that he was expected 
 to appear in the character of a Deliverer ; and 
 that in the great national revolutions which it 
 was believed would precede his coming, and in the 
 great convulsion of nature, in which the world 
 would be destroyed to be again renovated, on him 
 alone they rested their hope of security. 
 
 As this was information which was alone at- 
 tainable through prophecy : through this medium 
 it passed to the heathens, as plainly appears upon 
 their own confession. From a prediction of one 
 of the patriarchs, the origin of a principal divinity 
 of the Assyrians has been deduced ;^^^ and in that 
 prediction, it was declared, that the Personage 
 whose honors the national deity had usurped, 
 ** would be the expectation of the nations." Of 
 the judgments, from which they hoped to obtain 
 deliverance, through the promised Personage, 
 their information was derived from sources which 
 laid equal claim to inspired authority. Their 
 knowledge that the world would be destroyed by 
 
 361 Vid. supr. p. 140. n.3i6. 
 
 362 Conf. supr. p. 105. seq. p. 120. seq. 
 
 363 Vid. supr. p. 100. 
 
 Y 2 
 
164 THE ASSYillAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 fire, as it had once perished by water, they con- 
 fessedly derived from a prediction ascribed to 
 their great progenitor Belus ;^^* whom circum- 
 stances contribute to identify with Adam, to whom 
 a like prophecy has been assigned by the He- 
 brews.^^^ While possessed of greater opportunities 
 of knowledge than the Sethites, as standing 
 nearer the source of information ; if we suppose 
 them equally informed, we cannot conceive them 
 ignorant of the prediction of Enoch, which not 
 only foretold the advent of the Lord, but his 
 coming to judgment.^^^ And in the prophecy of 
 Balaam, suificient intimations were given of those 
 great national revolutions, which would precede 
 the appearance of the expected Deliverer,^^^ to 
 account for the peculiar notions whcih they form- 
 ed of the decline and mutation of empires. 
 
 But the most secure as well as satisfactory mode 
 of inquiry appears to lie in an investigation of 
 the terms in which they have expressed them- 
 selves upon these subjects. In prosecuting this 
 object, the testimony of a different order of docu- 
 ments may be taken into the calculation; which, 
 though clearly not entitled to the implicit respect, 
 which they once commanded, retain those un- 
 
 364 Vid. supr. p. 34. n.82. 
 
 '65 Conf. ibid. p. 30. With this statement not only the 
 account of Berosus agrees, but of Abydenus the Assyrian 
 historian ; in his account of the Deluge, he declares that Cro- 
 nus, who was identical with Bel and Adam ; vid. supr. p. 92. 
 n. 200, p, ^02. n.229. forewarned Sisithrus, as he terms Noah, 
 of the coming of the flood of waters; Ap. Euseb. Prsep. Ev. 
 
 IX. Xll. xj Seio-tSgo? a ^h Kpovo? 'mfoa-viixuUn fxev 'iasa-^ui 7r>^r)Qoq 
 
 ojxBfuv x^E. It is observable that he acknowledges another 
 Cronus subsequent to the deluge, whom he places after the 
 destruction of the tower of Babel, near the time that Nineveh 
 was founded by Ninus, the son of Belus ; Euseb. ibid. xiv. 
 366 Ibid. p. 29. 367 Vid. supr. p. 68. p. 139. n.3i5. 
 
368 
 
 OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 165 
 
 questionable marks of an oriental descent, which 
 claims for them a high degree of attention. 
 
 The traditionary remains of several prophecies, 
 which were long current in the East, were pre- 
 served in some metrical compositions which pas- 
 sed under the name of the Sibyls : a term, which, 
 however disputable in its derivation, was confes 
 sedly used with the signification of prophetess 
 On the origin and authority of these compositions, 
 a more convenient opportunity will occur to ex- 
 press myself at large ; when I have occasion to 
 discuss the subject of the sacred books, which 
 were preserved, with a religious veneration by 
 the Romans. To justify an appeal to their au- 
 thority, on the present occasion, it will not be 
 requisite to offer much more than a single obser- 
 vation. As the name Sibyl, according to the 
 highest authority, is a term of Chaldaic origin f^ 
 and the most celebrated prophetess of the order is 
 expressly referred to Babylonia ;^^^ and, as much 
 
 *^s Lactant. Div. Instit. Lib. I. vi. " M. Varro, quo nemo 
 unquam doctior, ne apud Graecos quidem, nedum apud Latinos, 
 in libris reruni divinarum, quos ad C. Caesarem, Pontificem 
 Maximum scripsit. . . . Sibyllinos libros ait uon fuisse unius 
 Sibyllas, sed appellari uno nomine Sibyllinos, gwoc? omnesfosmi- 
 ncB vates Sibyllce sunt a veteribus nuncupatae." 
 
 369 Such is the origination ascribed to the term Sibyl by a 
 learned orientalist, Hyd. de Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. xxxii. p. 
 391. " A Phoenicibus itaque et ChaldcRis, in zoadiacalium ani- 
 malium seriem inserta est Virginis spicilegae spica erecta, eis 
 dicta nh^im, seu «Vintt^, lEl^vX^u; melius rescribendum StjSiSuXa: 
 sub quo tamen nomine (ut dictum) totum Virginis signum 
 intelligi solebant, . , .In posterum ergo non Sibylla Cumana, 
 nee Erythraea &:c. nostrae aures perstrepant, sed Sibylla caeles- 
 tis, eaque unica et sola audiatur et consulatur. Hinc inquam 
 SibyllincB fabulce origo." 
 
 870 xhe concurrent testimony of Greek and Latin writers, 
 as well Christian as Pagan, attests the oriental origin of the 
 principal Sibyl, whom they refer to Babylon ; Lactant. uti 
 supr. p. 15. <*Etsunt singularum singuli libri; qui quia Si- 
 
166 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 of the \'^rses which are extant under th^ir name, 
 possess unquestionable marks of an oriental ori- 
 ginal, they may be legitimately ranked as Chal- 
 dean traditions. In the primitive age of the 
 Christian Church,'^' when their reputation was at 
 the highest, they obviously existed in a purer 
 state than they have descended to our times. 
 As we learn from the references and citations of 
 the writers of that period, they contained, as then 
 circulated, the plainest allusions to those sub- 
 
 byllae nomine inscribuntur, unius esse creduntur ; suntque 
 confusi, nee discerni, ac suum cuique assignari potest, nisi 
 Erythraeaj, quae et nomen suum verum carmini inseruit, et 
 Erythrjeam se nominatum iri prailocuta est, cum esset orta Ba- 
 bylonice." Id. De Ira. Dei cap. xxii. " Sibyllas multas fuisse 
 plurimi et maximi auctores tradiderunt; GrvKCorura, Aristo 
 Chius et Apollodorus Erythrteus; nostrorum, Varro et Fenes- 
 tella. Hi omnes prcscipuam et nobilem prceter cceteras Ery- 
 thraam fuisse commemoranty To the same purpose, Pausanias 
 ** in Phocicis," and Justin Martyr "in Para^nesi ad Gentes," 
 deliver themselves ; the former observing, B-n^ua-crn l\ ilmi 'ajccl^oq 
 
 . . .(pocai Sa/3^r3V* ol ^l uvrr}v Bcx.^vXuviav, ste^oi ^s Siby^Aav y.cc?\iia-i» 
 AlyvTrlictv,. and the latter, Tccvlhv ^£ Ik ytXv t^? BatyA&iyoj a^ixcVc^ai 
 ^a,a-U' Bvifua-a-a Bvyotli^oc aerccv. 
 
 371 The Sibylline verses became the subject ot great interest 
 and curiosity, from the 12nd year before the Christian era, 
 when a search was made for them, throughout Greece; after 
 the original works, which had been deposited in the Capitol, in 
 the times of the Roman monarchy, were consumed with that 
 building. At that period they had been translated and cir- 
 culated in Greek ; which was then becoming the language not 
 only of literature and commerce, but of general intercourse. 
 Of the Sibylline remains which have been quoted by the Chris- 
 tian Fathers, a solid and triumphant defence has been given, 
 by the learned Bp. Beverege, Vindic. Can. Apost. capi xiv. 
 He fully vindicates them from the objections of MM. Blondel 
 and Daille, who formed an absurd opinion, that they were the 
 forgeries of the primitive christians; an opinion peiiectly wor- 
 thy, if not of the exquisite taste, of the solid judgment, of 
 the insane Jesuit, Hardouin ; who discovered, not merely in 
 the " Pollio," but the ** Eneid" of Virgil, the production of 
 some illiterate monks of the barbarous ages. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER* 167 
 
 jects, which have been considered, as transmitted 
 among the Assyrians, and incorporated in their 
 national superstitions. In them it accordingly 
 appears, that explicit mention was made of a 
 Deluge and Conttagration,^^^ of the Revolutions 
 which should precede the appearance of the ex- 
 pected Deliverer,^^^ of the Resurrection and Judg- 
 ment,^^^ and of the final Restitution which would 
 be established by his appearance. ^^^ 
 
 In this diversity of subjects, each of which would 
 afford ample matter for discussion,^^^ my imme- 
 diate purpose confines my attention to the expec- 
 tations formed by the Orientalists of a Great De- 
 liverer. The justest conception which can be 
 acquired on this subject, from the remains of the 
 prophecies ascribed to the Sibyls, seems to be 
 attainable from the impression which they made 
 upon an ancient writer, by whom the originals 
 were viewed and extracted, in a state of compara- 
 tive purity. In laying the extracts which he has 
 made from them, before the reader, it seems ne- 
 cessary to premise, that the comment with which 
 they are attended has imbibed some tincture of 
 the author's religious views, who regarded the 
 text on which he remarks, with the prepossessions 
 natural to a christian. 
 
 While occupied expressly on the subject of the 
 testimony, borne by the ethnic prophets, on the 
 
 372 Lactant. de Ira. Dei cap. xxiii, 
 
 373 Id. Div. Instit. Lib. VII. xv. 
 
 374 Id. ibid. XX. xxiii. 375 Id. ibid. xxiv. 
 
 376 These subjects, in which the Persians, as will be made 
 evident in due time, held the opinions here ascribed to the 
 Assyrians, have been discussed with great force of genius and 
 variety of learned illustration, by the ingenious author of *' the 
 Sacred Theory of the Earth," whose testimony has been al- 
 ready adduced, on the universal prevalence of the doctrine of 
 a Deluge and Conflagration ; supr. p. 10, 
 
168 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 great consummation which would be effected 
 ** in the last age ;" the writer before us expresses 
 himself, in the following terms, after having stated 
 the expectations of a Deliverer, which were pro- 
 pagated among the Persians and the Egyptians. 
 ^^^'' The Sibyls also shew, that it would not be 
 otherwise, but that the Son of God would be 
 sent from the supreme Father, to deliver the just 
 out of the hands of the impious, and to destroy the 
 wicked with the cruel tyrants. For one of them 
 declares," 
 
 '' While saints her bulwarks from the foe defend, 
 Heav'n shall unfold, and Sion's king descend : 
 Whose vengeance ev'n on kings and heroes hurl'd. 
 Shall cite to judgment an assembled world." 
 
 " Likewise another Sibyl ;" 
 
 " God from the solar orb a king shall send. 
 And bid the wasted world her warfare end." 
 '* And again another ;" 
 
 "the captive he shall free. 
 
 The yoke unbind, the impious law restrain. 
 
 The burden ease, and break th' oppressor's chain." 
 
 •"^ Lactant. ibid. cap. xviii. " Sibyllas quoque non aliter 
 fore ostendunt, quam ut Dei fiiius k summo patre mittatur ; qui 
 etjustos liberet de manibus impiorum ; et injustos cum tyiannis 
 saevientibus deleal ; h quibus una sic tradidit ; 
 
 Ka* xEv TK 6Eo0ev Qcca-iMvq '7ri^(p^c)q I'm i^i'uv 
 
 Et9* iiTuq K^inTrott I'm u(pQtTii av^^uTroho-t, 
 Item alia Sibylla ; 
 
 Ka* TOT octt' vieXin TTifjL-^eie Qeoq j3«c7•»^^'a, 
 'O? TTua-av yuTotv <mxvcn TroAe/^oio kockoTo. 
 
 Et rursus alia : 
 \ 
 
 Zwyo» Sva^d^ctxlov for ccvx^vi Ksif^Bvov d^tT, 
 
OP THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 •PA! i s !,~\i^H\^.^. 
 
 OF A GREAT DELIVEIIER' 169 
 
 *' The terraqueous globe being thus oppressed, 
 when human force shall prove ineffectual to sub- 
 due the tyranny of immense power, as the world, 
 seized upon by lawless bands, shall succumb ; so 
 great will be the calamity, that it will need the 
 divine assistance. God therefore moved with the 
 ambiguous danger and complaints of the just, will 
 immediatdi/ send the Deliverer. Then in the dreary 
 darkness of midnight, the heavens shall unfold, 
 that the light of the descending God may appear, 
 like lightning, to the whole world : which the Si- 
 byl has described in these words." 
 
 " But as he comes, his pathway midnight shrouds, 
 Willie lire, at awful pauses, rends the clouds." 
 
 ** This is the night which is celebrated in vigils, 
 by us, on account of the advent of our King and 
 God ; the occasion of which is twofold, because, 
 in it he returned to life, after he suffered, and will 
 hereafter receive in it the dominion of the earth. 
 Such is the Deliverer, the judge and avenger, the 
 king and God, whom we call Christ." 
 
 Oppresso igitur orbe terrte, cum ad destruendam immensarum 
 virium tyrannjdem huniame opes defecerint ; siquidem capto 
 inundo cum magnis latronura exercitibus incubabit ; divino 
 auxilio tanta ilia calamitas indigebit. Commotus igitur Deiis 
 et periculo ancipiti, et miseranda comploratione justorum, mit- 
 tet protinus Liberatorcm. Tunc aperietur coelum medium in- 
 tempesta, et tenebrosa nocte ; ut in orbe toto lumen descenden- 
 tis Dei tanquam fulgur appareat ; quod Sibylla his veisibus 
 locuta est : 
 
 •O-TTTTOT UV iMn 
 
 Haec est nox, quae nobis propter adventum regis, ac Dei nostri 
 pervigilio celebratur : euj us noctis duplex ratio est, quod in ea 
 et vitam turn recepit, cum passus est; et postea orbis t^rrae 
 rpgnum recepturus est. Hie est enim Liberator et judex, et 
 ultor, ct rex, et Deus, quern nos Christum vocamus." 
 
 Z 
 
170 THE ASSYRIAX EXPECTATIONS 
 
 In the whole of the quotations here extracted 
 by an early christian writer, with a view to the il- 
 lustration of the subject which engages our atten- 
 tion : there is but one passage which may not be 
 fairly deduced from the induction of inspired au- 
 thorities, to which 1 have traced the prophetical 
 knowledge of the Orientalists, from the times of 
 Adam to those of Balaam. With scarcely ano- 
 ther exception, the whole of them may be applied, 
 in illustration of the previous inductions, on the 
 character of Sesac and Salmanasar. In these 
 curious extracts, the expected Deliverer is repre- 
 sented, as appearing in the character of a great 
 military conqueror, yet affecting those measures 
 which were mild and pacific. It is unnecessary 
 to insist at large how far the observations hazard- 
 ed on the title of the Assyrian monarch and the 
 conduct which he pursued, towards the nations of 
 Judea and Palestine, derive confirmation from the 
 views which are thus given by the Sibyl. But 
 on the peculiar rites wliich the Egyptian con- 
 queror established at Babylon, in instituting the 
 Sesachean days, an extraordinary light is shed 
 by them : as in that festival, the slaves were 
 freed, for the short period of five days while it 
 lasted, from the restraints and degradation of ser- 
 vitude, and elevated to an equal rank with their 
 lords, 
 
 An exception from these remarks must be 
 made in favor of the second passage cited from 
 Lactantius ; which is indeed the most remarkable 
 of his citations from the Sibylline books, and 
 which, as preserved by him in Greek, may be li- 
 terally rendered as follows ; 
 
 " Then God, from out the sun, a king shall send. 
 And cause dire war in all the world to end/' 
 
The doctrine expressed in this distich might be 
 traced through Virgil to the Erythraean Sibyl, of 
 whom it has been already stated, that she was 
 remotely descended from Chaldea. But, without 
 anticipating a subject, which I shall hereafter find 
 a more suitable opportunity to discuss at large ; 
 we may carry up our inquiries directly to the 
 source, and trace to the Assyrians themselves the 
 doctrine, which was very generally received 
 throughout the East, and was not without its par- 
 tisans, even among Jews and Christians. 
 
 In a passage, which possesses traditionary 
 authority, to which but a small portion of the 
 oriental knowledge that has been transmitted 
 by antiquity can lay claim, we are informed, ^'^ 
 that *' the Assyrians had not .only made observa- 
 tions for 27000 years, but had noted down the 
 entire conversions and Restitutions of the seven 
 planetary rulers of the world." The terms used 
 in this curious fragment are adopted from the 
 doctrine maintained respecting the Great Year, 
 of which it contains a just description.^'^ In con- 
 
 X7Q Proclus in Timjcum, p. 31. ed Basil. 'Aa-a-v^ioi ^/ (prjcnv 
 
 379 The force of these terms and the substance of this doc- 
 trine may be collected from the following passages of two wri- 
 ters who profess an intimate acquaintance with the Chaldee 
 Astrology; Cicer. de Nat. Deor. II. li. '* Quarum [steilarum] 
 ex disparibus raotionibus Magnum Annum, raathematici nomi- 
 naverunt; qui turn efficitur cum soils et lunce ef quinqne crran- 
 Hum ad eandem inter se cornpositionem, confectis omnium 
 spatiis, est facta conversion' Conf. et Beros. ap. Senec. supr. 
 p. 34. n.82. J. Firmic. Mathem. Lib. III. i. — " trecentorum mil- 
 Hum, annorum Major 'A-nrox.alaracrK, hoc est Redintigratio, per 
 tarnvfuxTiv, aut per y.aray.A'jc-.wci', spatio perficiatur. His autem 
 duobiis generibus, ' ATcoy.c^aTOi^ic fieri consmcit ; naraque Emisti- 
 onem Diluvium, hoc est, ly.Tri'pi^a-iv y.y,ra-<>-v<Ti^o^ sepiitiir, nulla 
 «iiim re alia exustic res noterant renasvl, &i'c.'* T hi* writer pro- 
 
 '/ 2 
 
172 THE ASSVRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 formity to the opinions, which were formerly 
 ascribed to a learned Chaldean f'^^ the Great Res- 
 titution of nature is accordingly described in it, as 
 depending on the conversions of the planets. 
 
 As conducive, however, to the perfect understand- 
 ing of this curious fragment, it remains to be obser- 
 ved, that a much more pure and ancient doctrine, 
 respecting the Great Restitution, was inculcated 
 by the elder Sibyls, who limited the period of the 
 great Conversion to four ages, and taught, that by 
 it, the Regeneration of the world would be ef- 
 fected.^^ We consequently find, that the astrolo- 
 gical embellishments which the early doctrine re- 
 ceived from the ingenuity of later improvers were 
 proscribed, by the writers who have transmitted 
 an account of them, as the pure figments of the 
 speculative, or the scientific. ^^" Some of those 
 
 fesses to give, in his work, the astrology of the Egyptians and 
 Babylonians, which Trisraegistus and Anubius taught and 
 transmitted to Esculapius, and which was explained by Petos- 
 iris and Necepsos. Conf. ib. Lib. II. Praef. p. 15. 
 
 380 Vid. siipr. p. 34. n. 8«. 
 
 381 Schol. Probi Grammat. in Virg. Eclog. iv. '* Cumaji] 
 Vel a Sibylla, quae Cumana fuit, et post quatuor secula Ua- 
 y^iyyivialotv futuram cecinit"&c. Schol. Pompon. Sabin. ibid. 
 *' Ergo nunc Virgiiius vel de Cumaea Sibylla, qua? post quatuor 
 secula^ futuram dixit Novam Generationem ; vel intelligit, quod 
 melius est, de Hesiodo poeta, cujus pater fuit Dius, natione Cu- 
 maeus. Hesiodus autem libris suis quatuor seculorum facitmen- 
 tionem. Plato dixit, ut meminit M. TuUius in Hortensio,^?ii^o 
 Magna Anno, qui est nostrorum xii millium, rursus redire, et crea- 
 ri omnia a principio, quemadmodum fuerunt . Primum seculum 
 fuit aureuniy in quo mortales habitabant mixti coelestibus, et 
 omnia libera fuerunt, sine insidiis, sine latrociniis, sine invidia, 
 sine homicidiis. Hoc seculum, tanquam finito Magno Anno, 
 scilicet aureum, Virgiiius in tarn felicissimo consulatu Asinii 
 Pollionis praedicat redire." 
 
 382 In conformity to the declaration of Cicero, supr. p. 170. 
 n. 379. Firmicus shows that the astronomical refinements of 
 the doctrine were pure figments intended for the benefit of 
 
OF A OREAT DELIVERER. 173 
 
 novelties indeed exhibit, in their meaness and 
 puerility, the marks of a recent and spurious ori- 
 gin : such was the device, w^hich from the term 
 golden, applied to the first happy age, assigned 
 correspondent epithets to the succeeding ages of 
 silver, brass and iron : and thence proceeded to 
 supply v^ith appropriate metals the different pla- 
 nets, which presided over the long succession of 
 ages,^^ according to the primitive Assyrian tradi- 
 tion. 
 
 the astrologers. In continuation of the passage quoted, supr. 
 p. 170. n. 379. he observes, — '* nee ulla re alia ad pristinam 
 faciem forraamque [exustae res poterant] revocari, nisi admix- 
 tiones atque concretus pulvis favillarum omnium genitalium 
 seminum collectam conciperet foecunditatem ; sed ut esset quod 
 mathematici in genituris hominum sequerentur exemplum, ideo 
 hanc, quasi genituram mundi, divini viriprudenti ratione Jinx- 
 erunt." Seneca, as quoted, supr. p. 34. n. ^^. seems, in like 
 manner, to give the credit of divisin<y the astrological part of 
 the doctrine of a Conflagration and Deluge, to Berosus. 
 
 ^^' It is obvious that Servius, when dictating the following 
 comment, on *the PoUio,' had Ovid in view, while he remark- 
 ed upon Virgil, Schol. in Eel. iv. ** Sibylla, quae Cumanafuit, 
 etsecula permetalla divisit ; dixit etiam, quis quoquoseculo im- 
 peraret, et Solem ultimum, id est decimum, voluit." Yet this may 
 be tolerated, when compared with the puerilities introduced 
 into the primitive doctrine by later triflers. However peremp- 
 tory the decision of I. Vossius, who presents us with the follow- 
 ing specimen of those innovations ; such, I doubt not, will be 
 the convictions of every reflecting reader; De Sibyl. Orac. cap. 
 V. ** In versibus, itaque, quae," &c. '* In the verses, therefore 
 which were formerly ascribed to the Cumean Sibyl, the whole 
 age of the world was not distinguished, as in Hesiod and Ovid, 
 into four hnt into ten parts, which were equally called ages. 
 But as it was commonly received, that there were seven pla- 
 nets ; attributing to each its proper metal, they feigned also, 
 that there were seven metals." He thus proceeds to the appli- 
 cation of the principle : ** the first age of the world, according 
 to the Sibyl, called golden (prima itaque mundi aetas, apud Si- 
 hy\\a.m dicta aurea), was attributed to the sun; the second, 
 called silver, to the moon. The third, denominated from am- 
 ber, so far considered a metal, was sacred to Jupiter, and so 
 
174 i-irz. AodTTtaA.N EXPECTATlor.-ii 
 
 If rejecting those novelties of modern triflers, 
 we follow the old Cumean Sibyl's authority, in 
 explanation of the ancient Assyrian doctrine, 
 which represented the seven planets as presiding 
 over the periodical Restitutions of the world ; they 
 afford each other a reciprocal and extraordinary 
 confirmation. If the whole period assigned to 
 their collective reigns is distributed, according 
 to their number, into seven portions ;^^ it ascribes 
 an age amounting nearly to 4000 years to the 
 
 of the others ; so that iron was assigned to Mars, brass to Venus, 
 tin to Mercury, and lead to Saturn." He concludes on the 
 ninth age; *' this period being accomplished, atlength the gol- 
 den age arrives, and then reigns Sol or Apollo." In this very 
 solemn deduction, it will be observed, that the authority of the 
 Sibyl is cited for the single epithet * golden ;' and that the 
 division of ten is expressly opposed to the testimony of Hesiod ; 
 whose authority on these subjects, I have already shewn, there 
 are good reasons for not rating too lightly : vid. supr. p. 134. 
 
 n. 
 
 302 
 
 3^* The product of 4000 years, multiplied by 7, the number 
 of the planets, amounts to 28000 ; whereas the great period of 
 the planetary restitutions, ascribed by Hipparchus to the As- 
 syrians amounts to 27000. But it must be observed, that the 
 period is implicitly offered by Hipparchus as unexpired ; he 
 neither represents it as being a perfect cycle, nor could the As- 
 syrians pretend, that in bringing down their calculations to the 
 age in which he wrote, they had reached the great planeta- 
 ry restitution. The account being palpably a gross exaggera- 
 tion, intended to magnify the great antiquity of their science; 
 it is probable, that they assumed the greatest possible la- 
 titude, and thus representing themselves, as in the last millenni- 
 um, gave the sum 27000, as the period of their calculations 
 expressed in round numbers. Living in the Wth century, we 
 might in like manner say, that 1800 years had expired from 
 the epoch of the nativity. But if the calculation is even 
 made by the number which he has expressed ; the period of 
 27000 years, divided into 4 portions, will ascribe a length suf- 
 ficiently near 4 millennaries to each of the planetary reigns, of 
 which one must have been necessarily unexpired, to justify the 
 allegation of the testimony of the Greek astronomer, on the 
 4>re8eiit subject. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 175 
 
 reign of each ; and thus admirably accords with 
 the doctrine of the Sibylline oracles. Or if insti- 
 tuting the calculation from the statement of the 
 latter, we assign the period of four ages, of 1000 
 years each, respectively to the reigns of the pla- 
 netary rulers of the world ; the sum of their joint 
 reigns will amount to 28000 years, and thus ac- 
 cord with the great period of the mundane restitu- 
 tions, asserted by the Assyrians. Whatever may 
 be thought of this coincidence, it must be atleast 
 allowed, that whatever was the term ascribed to 
 these mundane conversions ; it was on all sides 
 acknowledged, that the world would experience 
 a great Restitution ; that the period of this con- 
 summation was to be measured by ages of a 
 thousand years, the calculation of which depend- 
 ed in some manner on the planets ; and that in the 
 oldest and highest authorities, the fourth age, or 
 millennium, was considered as the period of the 
 great change, which was termed a Regeneration. 
 When it is considered, that the best digested sys- 
 tems of chronology, founded upon a review of the 
 succession of events from the time of the creation, 
 have fixed the epoch of our Lord's nativity to the 
 beginning of the year 4000 of the world :^^^ will the 
 assertion be thought too bold, without further ap- 
 peal to historical fact,^^ that the ethnics, who form- 
 
 385 In this year the epoch of the nativity has been fixed by 
 Ussher, Cappel, Simson &c. after the elaborate and successful 
 demonstration of its truth, by the sagacious Kepler, in his con- 
 troversy with the disciples of Scaliger. And in his decisions, 
 the Jesuit Petavius virtually admits himself to have been pre- 
 vented from acquiescing, solely by his respect to the authority 
 of his Mother Church ; which had adopted, in its infallibility, 
 the vulgar era, which, according to his own admission, advances 
 by atleast three years, the time of the nativity. 
 
 386 It is asserted by the patient and laborious Lardner, Col- 
 
176 THE ASSYKIAX EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ed such notions, on the nature and period of the 
 Great Restitution, had not only formed the expec- 
 tation of a Deliverer, but had attained some know- 
 ledge of the true time of his advent ? 
 
 By what process this knowledge was acquired, 
 is a subject the perfect developement of which, 
 must be reserved for a future opportunity. On 
 the different conjectures which have been formed 
 on this subject, it will be sufficient at present 
 merely to observe, that a solution of the difficulty 
 has been deduced from a traditional prediction, 
 by the Jews, and is supposed to have emanated 
 from the prophetical school of Elijah.'*^ But 
 this conjecture seems exposed to the strong ne- 
 gative objection, that such a prophecy was un- 
 known to the primitive christians ; a solution 
 
 lect of Test, on Christian, p. 69. that " the expectation of the 
 coming of the Messiah, about the time of the appearance of 
 Jesus, was universal, and had been so for some while :" he adds, 
 ibid, n.* ** Proofs of this together with divers remarks may bo 
 seen in Credib. P. I. B. I. ch. v. p. 289. &c." 
 
 ^^f Of this prophecy the following account is given by Dr. 
 Burnet, Sacr. Theor. B. Til. ch. v. "The Jews have a re- 
 markable prophecy, which expresseth both the whole and the 
 parts of the World's duration. The world, they say, will stand 
 6000 years: 2000 before the Law, 2000 under the Law, and 
 2000 under the Messiah. This prophecy they derive from 
 Elias: but there were two of the name ; Elias theThisbite, and 
 Elias the Rabbin or Cabbalist: and it is supposed to belong 
 immediately to the last." This objection he does not directly 
 controvert, but endeavors to invalidate if, by the counter-sup- 
 position, that " this prophecy might come originally from the 
 former Elias, and was preserved in the school of Elias, the 
 Rabbin ;" assigning as a reason, that ** he cannot easily ima- 
 gine, that a Doctor that lived two hundred years, or there- 
 abouts before Christ, when prophecy had ceased for ages among 
 the Jews, should take upon him to dictate a prophecy, unless 
 he had been supported by some antecedent cabbalistical 
 tradition." 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 177 
 
 which is adequate to meet all the difficulties of 
 the case, while it is supported by their positive 
 assertions, seems deducible from the nature of 
 the sabbatical system,^^ of which the preceding 
 prophecy appears to be nothing more than a de- 
 duction, made by some sagacious Rabbin, and 
 applied to the principal incidents of the scripture 
 chronology. 
 
 My immediate concern is with the systems 
 devised by the Assyrians, for estimating the age 
 and duration of the world ; and in order to render 
 any probable or consistent account of them, it is 
 necessary they should be perfectly comprehend- 
 
 *^ On the subject of the tradition, which divided the age 
 of the world by millenniums, it has been generally, and I may 
 be allowed to add, superficially observed, by the learned writer 
 quoted in the last note : Sacr. Theor. B. IV. iii. " Neither 
 can I l>elieve, that those constitutions of Moses, that proceed 
 80 much upon a septenary ^ or the number seven, and have no 
 ground or leason in the nature of the thing, for that particular 
 number : I cannot easily believe, I say, that they are either 
 accidental or humorsome, without design or signification ; but 
 that they are typical, or representative of some septenary siaie, 
 that does most eminently deserve and bear that character. 
 Moses in the history of the Creation makes six days work and 
 then a sabbath ; then after six years, he makes a sabbath-year ; 
 and after a sabbath of years, a year of Jubilee; Levit. xxv. 
 All these lessser revolutions seem to me to point to the Grand 
 Revolution, the Great Sabbath, or Jubilee, after six millenna- 
 ries; which as it answers the type in point of time, so likewise 
 in the nature and contents of it, being a state of rest from all 
 labor, and tronble and servitude, a state of joy and triumph, 
 and a state of Renovation, when things are to return to their 
 first condition, and pristine order." I shall only observe, on 
 this subject, that in such a manner, precisely might the Rabbin 
 £lias have reasoned. In such a manner, in fact, the primitive 
 Christians, have expressly reasoned ; among whom were many 
 proselytes, who could not have been ignorant of a prophecy of 
 Elias, had any such been asciibed to him by the Jews ; par- 
 ticularly as it was belieted, that he would return, at the end 
 of the world. 
 
 A a 
 
178 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ed. I have already particularly insisted on the 
 circumstance of their being made dependent in 
 some measure on the periods of the planets : the 
 concurrent testimony of those writers, who have 
 decribed the Great Year, having represented the 
 period of its conversion, as depending upon grand 
 planetary conjunctions, happening in the same 
 point of the heavens, where they had previously 
 occurred. ^^ As the principles by which the an- 
 cients calculated the periods of these restitutions, 
 have been investigated, by an astronomer of the 
 most unbaffled sagacity, who was not only quali- 
 fied for the undertaking, by his pre-eminent skill 
 in the practical, but by his singular attachment 
 to the judicial part of the science ; the difficulties 
 which embarrass this part of the subject, may 
 be soon made to disappear. He assigns the 
 period of 800 years to those grand conjunctions, 
 occurring in nearly the same degree of the zo- 
 diac ; and having distributed the whole period of 
 4000 years, intervening between the Creation and 
 'the Nativity, into live portions of 800 years each : 
 he not only represents both extremes of the four 
 millenniums, as distinguished by great planetary 
 conjunctions, but assigns one to the epoch of the 
 
 389 To the opinions of the Chaldeans, according to Bcrosus, 
 and of the llomans, according to Cicero, as noticed supr. p. 
 34. n. 82. p. 171. n. 379. those of the Greeks, according to 
 Aristotle, may be added, on the testimony of Censorinus ; De 
 Die Nat. cap. xviii. " Et praeterea Annus, quern Aristoteles 
 Maximum, potius quam Magnum appellat, quem soils, lunce 
 vagarumque quinque stcllarum orbes conficiunt, cum ad idem 
 signuniy ubi quondam semel fuerunt, una referuntur ; cujus 
 Anni hyems summa est y.uraK>^vc-[ji,oq, quam nostri Diluvionem, 
 »stas autem iy.'Kv^uaiq, quod est mundi incendium. Nam his 
 alternis temporibus, mundus tum exignescere, turn exaquescere 
 videtur." Conf. Aristot, de Meteor, Lib. I. xiv. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 179 
 
 Deluge.^^^ It is of little importance to the validity 
 of the conclusion which it is my object to esta- 
 blish, whether his calculations will bear the nicer 
 tests of the art, as applied by its present profes- 
 sors : though it may be observed in their favor, 
 that at the close of the eighth cycle from the Cre- 
 ation, he observed one such conjunction, of which 
 he has given a minute description ; and was at 
 considerable pains to verify that, which he assert- 
 ed to have taken place, at the Nativity of 
 our Lord. It is sufficient to my purpose, that he 
 has pointed out the course, which was pursued 
 by the ancient astrologers, and has determined the 
 positive results to which they were conducted by 
 their calculations ; while he possessed not the 
 most distant anticipation of the consequences to 
 which they are now pursued. He has thus fur- 
 nished a clue, by which we may be guided to 
 a tolerably just notion of the views by which they 
 were directed, in attributing to the influence of 
 
 • 
 
 390 Vid. Kepler de Stel. Nov. etTrigon. Ign. ed Prag. 1606. 
 The following is the result to which the sagacious author is led : 
 lb. cap. vii. " Itaque quatuor triplicitates, quibus omnis con- 
 tinetur zodiacus, in ducentos annos ductae, periodum creant 
 annorum octingentorum , paulo minus : quo tempoiis spatio, 
 totus zodiacus quadraginta congressibus, in totidem partes paene 
 a^quales, dividitur; eoque tempore exacto, redditur ad initium'* 
 Havin"- drawn an illustration, from the grand conjunction, 
 which he beheld, at Christmas, in the year 1604, he observes ; 
 Ibid. " Ex hoc igitur loco,, coraparatione facta cum estate Mu?idi, 
 patet successio trigonorum, et repetitio ignei. Cum enim a con- 
 ditu rerum numerentur anniplus minus 5600 : hi divisi per 800, 
 septem constituunt Magnas Periodos, reditusque ignei trigoni. 
 Memorabile vero est, in ipsos fere periodorum articulos incidere 
 prcecipuas epochas." He adds a small table, in which the 
 first, third and sixth epochs, are noted as folllows; "Ante 
 Christ. 4000. Adam, Creatio Mundi:\ . . ."A.C. 2400. A. M. 
 1600. Noah, DiluviumJ\,,," A.M. 4000. Christus Domi- 
 iius, Reformatio Orbis," 
 
 A a 2 
 
180 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 grand conjunctions of the planets, the deluges and 
 conflagrations, by which they declared the world 
 would be destroyed, to be again renewed. 
 
 In a country like Chaldea, which possessed a 
 climate not subject to sudden variations, the 
 regularity of the effects produced by the vicissi- 
 tude of the year, was not unnaturally, attributed 
 to the influences of the planets ; by which its pe- 
 riods were measured, and on which its regularity 
 was supposed in a great measure to depend. As 
 the investigation of physical causes was wholly 
 neglected, and a superstitious devotion directed 
 to the heavenly bodies ; they were regarded as the 
 divine authors of the effects wrought, not merely 
 on the earth and atmosphere, but on the human 
 constitution: the vicissitude of the seasons and 
 the fecundity of nature having been attributed, 
 to their influence, with no less certainty, than 
 the epidemic diseases, to which the inhabitants 
 were periodically exposed. ^^^ To these causes/ 
 aided by the natural advantages of a country, cal- 
 culated for astronomical observations, in having a 
 serene sky, and open horizon ; and improved on by 
 that avidity with which the human mind is im- 
 pelled, to inquire into the future, and to derive 
 prognostications of distant events, from vulgar 
 signs and superstitious associations ; judicial as- 
 trology is indebted for an original, which may be 
 traced to the remotest antiquity ."^^ 
 
 '91 See Censorinus, uti supr. p. 94. n. 204. ^ho implicitly 
 acknowledges, that the period of 12 years, to which the Chal- 
 deans gave the name of their Great Year, owed its institution 
 to such causes. 
 
 39« To such causes, Cicero, who describes the Great Year 
 of the astrologers, uti supr. p. 171. n. 379. virtually attributes 
 the cultivation of astronomy by the Assyrians ; De Div. I. i. 
 **Gentem quidemnuilara video" &c. '*! see no nation, nei- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 181 
 
 From these principles, it may be easily conclu- 
 ded, how the Grand Conjunctions of the planets, 
 (the knowledge of which, if not transmitted by 
 tradition, might be discovered by calculation,) 
 from being associated with the epochs of the Cre- 
 ation and Deluge, were ultimately regarded as 
 the causes of the periodical changes to which the 
 frame of nature was subject. For the influence 
 of one of the planetary bodies upon the objects of 
 the creation being acknowledged; this influence 
 was necessarily conceived to be infinitely encrea- 
 sed, when they acted in concert, from being con- 
 gregated in a particular point of the heavens/^^^ 
 
 ther so cultivated and learned, nor so fierce and barbarous, 
 which does not conceive that future things are frognosticatedf 
 and their signs may he understood and predicted. In the be- 
 ginning, the Assyrians, that I may deduce my authorities from 
 the remotest antiquity, on account of the openess and extent of 
 tlie regions which they inhabited, as the heavens were open and 
 unobstructed on all sides, observed the motions and revolutions 
 of the stars : having taken notices of which, they transmitted 
 accounts of what was prognosticated by them to every one. 
 In which nation, the Chaldees, who derived their name not 
 from their art but their country, by the continuarobservation of 
 the stars, are conceived to have carried their science to such a 
 height, that every event which could happen to any one, and 
 the fate to which he was born, might be predicted." 
 
 *93 Such are the terms in which Kepler describes the influ- 
 ence attributed to those conjunctions, which occurred in points 
 of the Zodiac distant a trine, or 120° ; where they periodically 
 happen : De Stel. Nov. cap. vi. *' Saturnus enim et Jupiter, 
 altissimi planetae, hinos proximos congressus mutuos sic ordinant, 
 ut tertia fere Zodiaci parte distent. Qua ratione efficitur ut 
 quolibet sa^culo, tria Zodiaci signa, ab authoribus sub unum 
 Trigonum redacta, ex Conjunctionibus Superiorum pnecepuam 
 vim obtineant, in commovenda (non dico in cogenda) natura re- 
 rum sublunarium." Of these trines the following account is 
 given by Stanley, from Ptolemy ; De Orient. Phil. Lib. I, 
 sect. II. cap. xix. " Trigona sunt quatuor, primum est Arietis, 
 Leonis et Sagittarii ; secundum Tauri, Virginis et Capricorni : 
 tertium Geminorum, Libra; et Aquarii : quartura Cancri, Scor- 
 
182 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 And as this influence was rendered more intense, 
 at particular conjunctures of season, and operated 
 in the crisis of nature ; the effect produced upon 
 the earth would be a conflagration or deluge, as 
 the conversion took place in summer or winter /^^* 
 In the Chaldean science, however, the planets 
 were supposed to exercise a different influence 
 over the world, besides that exerted in its des- 
 truction and renovation. The term of its exis- 
 tence, which was extended to immense periods, 
 was divided into lesser intervals, over each of 
 which, the different planets were supposed to 
 exercise, in their order, a paramount influence. 
 The precedence in this succession, belonging to 
 the sun, the second place was assigned to the 
 moon; the five remaining planets having been 
 supposed to reign, in the order, in which we find 
 their names applied to the days of the week ; un- 
 til the circle returning into itself, the succession 
 again commenced, with the reign of the sun.^^^ 
 As the greater cycles were constructed after the 
 model of the less, by taking years, centuries or 
 millenniums, for days ;^^^ a substitution which 
 
 pii et Piscium. A Chaldaeis autem divisum fuisse Zodiacum 
 in haec Trigona, ex ratione colligendi terrainos planetarum, a 
 Ptolemaeo descripta, satis liquet." 
 
 394 Vid. Beros. ap. Sen^c. uti supr. p. 34. n.82. Aristot. ap. 
 Censorin. ibid. p. 178. n.389. 
 
 395 Vid. supr. p. 173. n. 383. comp. p, 170. 
 
 396 Scaliger has observed, on this subject, with his usual pene- 
 tration, Canon. Isagog. III. 243. " Quemadmodum Quadrien- 
 nium -SEgyptiacum est dierum 14G0, ita Magna Periodus est 
 annorum Julianorum 1460. Rursus, quemadmodum Lustrum 
 Julianum est c?ierM//i 1461, ita Maxima Periodus Canicularis 
 est annorum -Slgypticorum 1461. Quadrienniura autem voca- 
 bant £To? riX^uxov fjny.fov." &C. Manetho, as quoted in an old chro- 
 nologist, cited by Salmasius, Plin. Exerc. I. 551. mentions an 
 Annus Maximus, to which he ascribes 36525 years which has 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERljlR. 183 
 
 was facilitated, and possibly suggested, by the 
 equivocal sense of the word day, in the oriental 
 languages ;^^^ it is thus easily conceived how those 
 
 been absurdly taken for the period of the equinoctial preces- 
 sion ; it contains precisely as many years as there are days in a 
 century, according to the Julian computation. A learned chro- 
 nologist, whom I have had frequent occasion to quote, follow- 
 ing up a suggestion of two monks, who are cited in Syncellus, 
 reduces to moderate lengths the great periods, which are men- 
 tioned by the ancients, by substituting days for years. Vign. 
 Dissert, de 1' An. Anc. In the coincidences which he has 
 elicited there is nothing striking; but for the semblance of 
 probability which he has given to his deductions, the artifice of 
 the above mentioned substitution will sufficiently account. 
 
 397 The Hebrew term or signifying a day, is so frequently 
 used with the signification of a year, that it may appear super-' 
 fluous, to support it by any authority, or exemplification. But 
 as this idiom may appear unaccountable to those who are un- 
 acquainted with that language ; it may not be inexpedient to 
 bestow some attention on the subject. The term is explained 
 by Pagnini, Thes. Ling. Sanct. col. 924. " DV, est dies tam ar- 
 tificialis, quam naturalis viginti quatuor horarum. Interdum 
 enim significat tempus quo sol est super terram." lb. col. 926. 
 ** Et plurale significat dies, et annos ;" To which Mercer adds, 
 ** Annum integrum, vel etiam annos; proprie annum singulari- 
 ter, tot scilicet dies quot annum efficiunt." One of the most 
 striking examples by which this sense is illustrated, occurs in 
 Exod. xiii. 10. where, Moses speaking of the Passover, which 
 was an annual festival, declares, that it was to be kept, D'd'd 
 HD'D' : * from days to days.' The literal sense occurs in the 
 Greek, ci(p' ^/xe^w» tU v[Ji>epoc.iy in the Latin * a diebus in dies;' to 
 which the Samaritan may be added, K'ii'Kml ^rTr^trTTiiJ, 
 with the same sense. The Chaldee indeed paraphrases, |dTD 
 iDtf? * from time to time,' or rather * from term to term;' to 
 which the Syriac conforms, ,v V ^ ^o ; which will how- 
 ever bear the sense from * year to year ;' which is given in the 
 
 Arabic, ^^ J^ iy^ (j-«. Of the modern versions, the 
 English has * from year to year;' the German, with the same 
 sense, *jahrlich;' as also the Italian, ' d'anno in anno;' and 
 the French, * tons les ans;' but the Spanish, conforming to the 
 Hebrew and Latin, * de dias in dias.' Though the term DV, 
 
 is preserved in the Syriac [ico. , Chaldee «dv, Arabic ^b^ pi. 
 
184 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 almost interminable periods, which were ascribed 
 to the planetary conversions of the universe, were 
 imagined : an instance of which has been noticed 
 in the term of 27000 years, during which the As- 
 syrians pretended they had observed their restitu- 
 tions. 
 
 Were the order which has been followed in na- 
 ming the days of the week, that which the planets 
 possess in any known or conceivable system of 
 the universe ; it would be nugatary to look beyond 
 the consideration of that order, for the elementary 
 principles, in which these complicated systems 
 have originated. It would be then vain to dis- 
 pute, that according to that order, the days of the 
 week had been respectively assigned the names 
 of the planets, and had been placed under their 
 influence ; and that, by a simple and obvious ana- 
 logy, the greater cycles were deduced from the 
 less, the week being the model, according to 
 which the whole system was framed. It is, how- 
 ever, as indisputable, that the days have been as- 
 signed their planetary names, according to an ar- 
 tificial principle, that shall be soon unfolded, which 
 directly betrays itself to be of a comparatively 
 modern date : as it is demonstrable, that after the 
 form of the week, the whole scheme has been 
 constructed ; having obviously originated in the 
 Sabbatical system, which, I have already offered 
 some reasons to prove, was not wholly unknown to 
 the Assyrians.^^ 
 
 For the exhibition of this system in its most 
 
 f>?' Samaritan iiS'^mf: it seems limited in these languaiges, to 
 the sense of day ; in the Syriac, howerer, with which we are 
 pnrincipally concerned, ^x is used in a manner, ftearly as inde- 
 finite, as DV, in the Hebrew. 
 39* Vid. supr. p, lai, seq. 
 
OF A g:r:eat deliverer. 185 
 
 jx^rfect state, we must direct our attention to the 
 Mosaical dispensation ; which had the entire 
 course of its festivals ordered according to the 
 sabbatical system. But the origin and character 
 of the Assyrian superstitions, and the great end 
 to which my inquiries are directed, require that 
 its descent should be traced to a higher source, 
 and immediately deduced from the patriarchal 
 religion. And this object may be atonce accom- 
 plished, by directing our attention to that point, 
 where the connexion between the true and the 
 corrupted religion, has been proved to exist : the 
 history of the patriarch who declared, in the pro- 
 phetic spirit with which he addressed his son Jo- 
 seph ; '^•^ " the blessings of thy father have prevail- 
 ed, above the blessings of my progenitors, unto 
 the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills." In 
 fact, the double servitude which Jacob performed 
 under Laban, had all the characters of the sabba- 
 tical year. It was a term of seven years labor, 
 succeeded by a recovery of freedom, and a resto- 
 ration to a state of rest and rejoicing.'*^ Its des- 
 cent, as conceived after the form of the week, is 
 implicitly admitted in the language in which the 
 patriarch is addressed by Laban. When the first 
 period of his servitude had expired, and was re- 
 compensed with the hand of Leah ; on his claim- 
 ing the hand of Rachael also, the term of service 
 by which it was to be earned, is denominated 
 '* a week," and defined as " seven years," in 
 the stipulated terms of her father ;'*'' '* fulfil her 
 
 599 Gen. !xlix. 26. 
 
 400 See Gen. xxix. 18. 21. 27, 28. Lev. xxv. 2, 3, 4. Deut. 
 ^^. 1, 2. comp. -supr. p. 177. n.^ss. 
 
 ***^i Gen. xxix. 27. In this sense the passage is rendered with 
 scarcely any variation in the versions. Of the phrase. . .«*?D 
 
 B b 
 
18G THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 weeky and we will give thee this also, for the ser- 
 vice which thou wilt serve with me, yet stvm other 
 years.'' 
 
 In fine, the first measure of time, instituted in 
 the state of innocence, when applied to the year, 
 naturally led to the sabbatical cycle ; and intro- 
 duced a progressive principle, which as naturally 
 led to the greater cycles. For, as the year, when 
 divided into weeks, leaves a supernumerary day, 
 above the fifty two weeks, which compose it ; 
 this day, being included in the old year, cau- 
 ses the beginning of the new to fall upon the 
 •following day ; and the same process taking 
 place in each successive year, the beginning of 
 the year progressively advances through the days 
 of the week : until after seven years, when it has 
 circulated through the seven days, the first day of 
 the week and year again coincide, as at the be- 
 ginning of the cycle. 
 
 nnn« d»ju^ rstt^ nir nm^lti^.. which is alone of importance, 
 the following are the principal renderings. The Chaldee, 
 p:nnM \'>w vi^ mr....«i KJl)^*)2ti/ D»Vit?t^, * complete the 
 week of this. . .yet seven other years :' the Samaritan, /TTA^Z^ 
 
 :i/7r:^'\iV iiSm:^^ Va^ ^^XV ^^^ V^^^, with the 
 
 same sense ; as also the Arabic, .i<X^ Fy^^ J^'~>1 (jT^^ 
 fsL\ f^^^jju^M x^, . .The Syriac, with a slight variation, reads, 
 
 ^^] ,J*J-» "^i^L* *ooZ. |»oi> |Z.oAa^ y}\; " complete 
 
 the feast of this, &c." which is explained in the context: ibid. 
 22. |. A^v> j'-NV rs. ' and he made a feast ;' which words are ap- 
 plied to the marriage feast of Leah. Conformably to the 
 Oriental versions, the Greek reads, avvHy^zaov av ra, 'i^^oyLo, ravrviq 
 , . . .in t-Trla, irn tn^a. ; and the Latin, though more paraphras- 
 tic, * imple hebdomadani dierum hujus copulae. . . .septem annis 
 aliis.* The modern versions agree in expressing the same sense, 
 the Italian rendering the passage, * foruisci pure la settimana 
 di questa. . . .altri sett' anni; the French, ' ach^ve la semaine 
 de celle-ci...sept autres annees;' the German, * halte mit die- 
 
 ser die Woche aus noch andere sieben Yahre :' but the 
 
 Spanish, adhering to the Latin, * cumple la semana de dias 
 de este .... otros siete aiios.' 
 
Of A GREAT DELIVERtU. 187 
 
 Though the sabbatism was thus far completed, 
 at the close of seven years ; yet the progressive 
 principle introduced into the year did not thus 
 come to an end ; but led to circles of revolving^ 
 periods, which were almost interminable. From 
 the neglect of the intercalation, a period of 1460' 
 years was found necessary, to make the beginning 
 of the artificial or civil year coincide with that of 
 the natural or tropical.*''^ Yet even then the cy- 
 cle was incomplete,*"' nor would seven times that 
 period, though amounting to 10220 years'^'^* pro- 
 
 *02 This period constitutes the Egyptian Great Year, which 
 has been described, supr. p. 148. n.^^S. p. i02. n.^os. It arises 
 on multiplying 365, the number of days in the year, by 4, the 
 number of the intercalated year ; in it,^of course the sabbatical 
 system was wholly neglected. It was accordingly termed, 
 from the sun, whose course it measured, the Solar Year; or 
 from the star, by which its beginning was calculated, the Ca- 
 nicular Year. Vid. ibid. p. 94. n. ^o*. p. 1.58. n. 35*. 
 
 4«53 On the subject of the Egyptian Great Year, M. la 
 Lande observes, Astronom. Tom. t. p. 204. § 1605. *' Les an- 
 ciens etoient en erreur dans ce calcul de plus de 36 ans, parce- 
 qu' ils ne connoissent point Tannic syderale ou astrale, qui devoit 
 regler le Cycle Sothiaque; ils croyoient que 1460 annees solai- 
 res etoient egales a 1461 annees vagues ou civiles : raaiscomme 
 Tannic tropique est moindre que les anciens le croyent, el^ 
 I'annee syderale plus grande, la periode n'ttoit point telle qii on 
 le croyoit ; Vannte civile ne concouroit, au bout de 1460 ans, ni 
 avec Vannte tropique, ni avec Vannte syderale." Which sad 
 concession leads to some curious consequences, of which more 
 anon. After shewing the relative proportions which the civil, 
 tropical and sidereal year bear to each other, he concludes ; Ibid. 
 ** Ainsi la periode de 1460 ans, ne ramenoit point au meme jour 
 les levers des etoiles, qui n^exigeoient que 14*25, ni les saisons, 
 qui en exigeoient 1508." Whatever may be thought of this 
 slight error of merely 83 years in these learned observers' cal- 
 culations; it will be atleast admitted, that it would have made 
 a moderate chasm in their lives. 
 
 *^* This period is given, as arising from the multiplication 
 either of 1460, by 7; or of 365, 4, and 7, into each other'; in 
 Older to form a product, which, when divided, by any of the 
 
 B b 2 
 
188 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 duce a year but the first, in which the begin- 
 ning of the week, and of the civil and tropical year 
 would be coincident, so as to produce a perfect 
 cycle. 
 
 It may be thus collected, how the ancients 
 were led to the conception of those immense 
 periods, which they accounted great years, and 
 to which they ascribed various terms of dura- 
 tion.*^^ I am aware, however, it may be objected, 
 that the septenary principle is not more applica- 
 ble to the sabbatical system, as held by the Pa- 
 triarchs, than to the planetary, as maintained by 
 the Assyrians. This point may be readily con- 
 ceded. The question is thus brought fairly to an 
 issue :*°^ and I apprehend, it will not require 
 
 latter numbers, will leave no remainder, as in the Julian period 
 of 7980 years. 
 
 *"5 Censorinus closes his description of the Great Year, with 
 an account of several periods of this kind, all of which he makes 
 dependant on the terms of the planets; De Die Nat. xviii. p. 
 107. ** Hunc [Annum Maximum] Aristarchus putavit esse 
 annorum vertentium dui^m [f. decem] millium cccclxxxiv." 
 &c. After adding the various periods assigned by Orpheus, 
 Linus, Aretes Dyrrachinus, Heraclitus, Dion, Cassandrus, he 
 concludes, ** Alii vero infinitum esse, nee unquam in se reverti 
 existim^runt." Plutarch, or the author De Placitis, after 
 mentioning the lunar cycle of 18 and 19 years, gives the cal- 
 culations of Heraclitus and Diogenes: Flut. II. p. 892. ed. 
 
 Ayland. H^axAetJo? Ik i^v^luv hy.TuyAa-^i>.\uv rj^iotxuv. Aioysvrig, Ik 
 vrevli x^ i^riKOVTO. rpuxKoaiuv hiuvruv^ Toa-tirav ocruv o kutoc ^H^a.y.XeiTo» 
 
 hiuvToq' a,K>^oi ^s ^t' ETrlay.Krx^^'iuv -v]/©^'. Where it is observable, Di- 
 ogenes assigns the Annus Maximus as many years as there were 
 days in the solar year ; as it is remarkable, the period 10000 pre- 
 dominates in the various lengths assigned to it in Censorinus. 
 
 406 Without bringing the question to this issue, it was atonce 
 decided by Dr. Spencer, that the priority was due to the pa- 
 gan division of the week : and that the Sabbath itself, previous- 
 ly to its dedication to God, was consecrated to Saturn : vid. 
 supr. p. 132. n. *99. In a subsequent part of his work he de- 
 livers his sentence on this point more decidedly: De Leg. 
 Ilebr. Lib. I. iy. § 11. «' Gentes autem dies hosce feriatos in 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 189 
 
 much time to decide, whether, adopting the as- 
 trological views of the Chaldees, we are to trace 
 the septenary division of the week, to natural 
 causes ; or receiving the historical accounts of the 
 Hebrews, must refer it to preternatural. 
 
 It has been already intimated, that the names 
 of the planets, as given to the days of the week, 
 have been applied upon an artificial principle. If 
 they be viewed in the regular order, which they 
 are assigned, in the ancient system ascribed to the 
 Egyptians, and generally known as the Ptolemaic ; 
 or in that which they are assigned, by the Chal- 
 deans themselves, in disposing them in their ex- 
 altations in the different signs i'^^ it will be evi- 
 dent, that they have been applied in a progression 
 by fourths. This indeed is expressly asserted by 
 the ancients : who have both stated the difficulty 
 of accounting for the interruption of their order 
 and given its solution. An hour, as they state, ha- 
 
 honorem Deorum, priusquam Deus diem sahhaticum institidssef , 
 observasse censeantur. Rationes meas statim in medium afFe- 
 ram, ne sententiam illam temeritate credula, (forsan et profana) 
 tueri videar." Having exhibited his success, in evading this 
 charge, by two quotations from Pythagoras and Apollo, re- 
 ported at second hand, on the faith of lamblichus and Porphy- 
 ry, he concludes after his vray ; '* A ratione itaque minime 
 dissentit, Deum etiam diem aliquem sibi consecrari voluisse, 
 qiiod haic institutio moribus olim receptis conveniret, et nihil 
 in se haberet, quod nimia sua insolentia rudem populum irritare 
 posset. Quin etpar erat, ut Deus" &c. The gross presump- 
 tion of which decision would merit rebuke, did not its extreme 
 folly deserve our pity. 
 
 407 Vid. Hyd. de Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. v. p. 126, This 
 order differs from the New or Copernican System, but in put- 
 ting the sun in place of the earth, which, in the Egyptian, was 
 considered the centre, and at rest ; from it, the order of course 
 was taken, which accordingly commenced with the Moon, and 
 was followed by Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and 
 Saturn. 
 
190 THE ASSYRIAN' EXPECTATIONS 
 
 having been assigned to the reign of each planet, 
 and the name of that one given to the whole day, 
 which governed the first hour ; their names were 
 thus assigned, in the ixgular order, to the hours, and 
 so fell, as regularly, upon the days of the week, at 
 intervals distant a fourth. ^^ As there is no division 
 of the day into hours, but that in which it is distri- 
 buted into twenty four, in which this account can 
 be verified ; such must have been the division of 
 the days, when they were assigned their planetary 
 names. 
 
 Now as it admits of little controversy, that 
 the distribution of the days into twenty four 
 hours, was of a late introduction; such conse- 
 quently must have been the designation of them, 
 by the names of the plane ts.*°^ The earliest of 
 
 408 Dion Cassius, as quoted by Selden de Jur. Nat. p. 430. 
 assigns two reasons, for the disposition of the planets by fourths. 
 On the first, as deduced from the music of the spheres, I must 
 be pardoned for declining to offer any observation ; as I can- 
 didly own, I have never heard it. I shall give the second, 
 with the comment of a learned chronologist, as he admits, 
 it would give the best and most natural solution of the difficul- 
 ty, if one objection were removed, of which we shall soon per- 
 ceive the value ; Vignolles Chron. II. p. 689. '* La seconde 
 raison est prise " &c. '* the second reason is taken from astrolo- 
 gy, which was not less cultivated" than music " by the Egyp- 
 tians. It made each of the planets rule an hour ; and the one to 
 whose lot the first hour of the day fell, gave its name to the 
 day. Take the trouble to count : Saturn having the first hour 
 of Saturday, the 25th, which will be the first of the day follow- 
 ing, falls to Sunday, for the Sun : and so of the others. If one 
 was assured that the Egyptians divided the day into 24 hours, 
 this second reason would be preferable to the first." He how- 
 ever rejects it equally with the first ; for reasons which are 
 specified in the next note. 
 
 *^ The learned chronologist, quoted in the last note, having 
 a nostrum of his own to propose, finds, in the same objection, a 
 reason, not for rejecting the antiquity of the planetary names, 
 but the express testimony of the ancient writer, who has given 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER, 191 
 
 the Greeks who have transmitted accounts of the 
 Babylonian and Egyptian astrology, prove that 
 they w^ere unacquainted with any other division 
 of the day, but that which they learned from the 
 Babylonians, by whom, they expressly state, it was 
 distributed into twelve hours ^^'^ Nor is this tes- 
 
 so just an account of their origin. " Mais c'est," — he proceeds, 
 in allusion to the division of the day into 24 hours^ ** but this is 
 what we have no proof of." I am curious to be informed, 
 where he had his proof of the greater antiquity of the planetary 
 names of the days. The earliest writer, that he quotes, as allu- 
 ding to them, is Plutarch. If we may believe lamblichus, 
 they were known to Pythagoras ; but Hesiod it appears was 
 equally ignorant of the planetary names of the days, as Hero- 
 dotus was of their partition into 24 hours, vid. supr. p. 134. n.^ss. 
 "^^^ This testimony of the Chaldeans, Egyptians and Greeks 
 on the division of the day into twelve hours, is thus stated, by 
 the learned chronologist, quoted in the last note ; Vignolles ib. 
 ** Cette division n'etoit pas mtme connu'e parmi les Grecs du 
 terns d' Herodote. Suivantcet historien, [II. cix] * les Grecs 
 avoient appris des Babyloniens les douse parties du jour ; c'est 
 h dire les douse hemes; comme M. Bochart Ta explique." 
 Having shewn the probability of this explanation, and exem- 
 plified it in the practise of the Chinese and Japanase, he adds 
 this further testimony ; " Diodore dit [III. xvi. p. 106] dans 
 r historic des Egyptiens, que ' la Mer Rouge a son flux et son 
 reflux, le plus souvent a 3 heures, et a 9 heures, ce qu'on ne 
 sauroit expliquer, qu'en supposant la division du jour en douse 
 heures." The meaning of the term hour, as thus explained by 
 a natural phenomenon, is here fixed beyond controversion. It 
 may not be inexpedient to put the same term, as applied to the' 
 Babylonians, equally out of dispute. It is evident from the 
 manner in which the clepsydra was invented by this people, 
 that the entire period of the diurnal revolution was divided into 
 twelve parts. The invention, as described by Sextus Empiricus 
 Lib. "V. p. 113. represents them, as measuring the period of a 
 star, from rising to rising, by letting water trill from a small 
 perforation in a vessel ; and as then dividing it into twelve 
 portions, by letting which run a second time, the whole circle 
 of circumvolution, was divided into tivelve parts. Conforma- 
 bly to this is the statement of Ephrem, the Syrian, as quoted 
 by Michaelis, from Kirsch, Lex. Syr. p. 372. voc. >oa.. oiVi^o ,j 
 iocn ^A»i ^ -^^ I^joXJAJi U^rO ]^Q^i ouW »oj, ' dies et 
 
192 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 timony, which acquaints us with th^ state of 
 Chaldean science, as low atleast as four hundred 
 and forty years before the christian era, less 
 consistent than it is explicit. While the most an- 
 cient of those writers expressly allude to the dis- 
 tribution of the days into weeks ; they are not on- 
 ly silent on the subject of their planetary names, 
 but term them in the manner, in which they are 
 mentioned in the patriarchal history, and were 
 long subsequently termed by the Hebrews .^^* 
 Nor can the silence either of the western or east- 
 ern nations, respecting those names, be imputed 
 to inadvertence, as they have evinced great curi- 
 osity on the subject of the oriental science, 
 have accurately described it according to the 
 state it had attained in their age, and have res- 
 pectively noticed the planetary names of the 
 days.'^' - 
 
 nox primi diei, xii koras duravit.' From the account, which a 
 writer, who was of Jewish descent gives of two ancient cycles 
 used by the Hebrews in ascertaining the time of the passover, 
 it incontestably appears, that the entire period of night and day 
 was divided by them also into twelve hours. Vid. Epiphan. II. 
 p. 825. c. 
 
 *^^ Vid. Hesiod. uti supr. p. 134. n. ^02, Herod, uti supr. 
 n. *^^. Herodotus, according to the common suffrage of chro- 
 nologists, flourished Olymp. Ixxxiv. in the reign of Artaxerxes 
 the son of Xerxes, B. C. 443. Hesiod's age cannot be ascer- 
 tained with equal certainty ; Eusebius, after Porphyry, refers 
 him to the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, B. C. 800. nor can 
 he be brought lower. Jacobus marriage into the family of La- 
 ban is placed about the year B. C. 1758. 
 
 *i2 I)r. Spencer, in justification of his strahge hypothesis on 
 the planetary names of the days, produces the testimony of 
 Pythagoras in a prayer preserved by his biographer lambUchus; 
 Vit. cap. xxviii. 'A^^oJiV*? t« ^vaiu^nv rv eyHvt; in which the de- 
 nomination of the sixth day from Venus is sufliciently admitted ; 
 Spenc. de Leg. Heb. T. iv. § 11. Selden, in a work to which 
 Spencer refers in his context, to shew that the Saracens trans- 
 mitted their veneration for the same day to the Mohammedans , 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 193 
 
 With the modern adoption of the division of the 
 days into twenty four hours, the notion of the 
 early application of their planetary names must be 
 abandoned ; and with those names, the entire plane- 
 tary hypothesis, by which the Assyrians pretended 
 to measure the duration of the world, must be 
 resigned ; as a mere astrological figment, of a com- 
 paratively modern date.'*^^ As in this hypothesis, 
 however, the division of the days into weeks is 
 necessarily implied ; whatever weight it posses- 
 ses, hence naturally falls, on the side of the sabba- 
 tical system. For thus evincing the existence of 
 a septenary principle, in dividing the days of the 
 year, previously to the application of their plane- 
 tary denominations : it adds the most striking con- 
 firmation, to the testimony of the sacred writings, 
 from which, so forcible an example of that system 
 has been adduced, from the history of Jacob and 
 Laban. Without claiming, however, the benefit 
 of an appeal to inspired authority ; the evidence 
 of one of the oldest heathen writers is adequate 
 to prove its antiquity. Nothing, indeed, can be 
 more explicit than the testimony of Hesiod, that 
 the institution of the days was preternatural.^^* 
 
 has likewise quoted the testimony of the Rabbin Eliezer, on 
 the subject of the order of days, as termed from the planets : 
 Seld. de Jur. Nat. III. p. 423. Pythagoras visited Italy in 
 the reign of Servius TuUius, about the time the Sibylline books 
 were brought to Rome, by their supposed author ; he flourish- 
 ed, Olymp. xlvi. B. C. 490. From which date, I am disposed 
 to believe, his Egyptian biographer, who flourished A. D. 322. 
 has, in compliment to his national science, gratuitously bestow- 
 ed the knowledge of it upon his hero. 
 4" Vid. supr. p. 172. n.^ss. 
 
 *** 'A» ya.0 YiiApon tla-i Ato? 'Cra^a /xsltoEVTo?* 
 
 Conf. supr. p. 135, n.^o". 
 
 C C 
 
194 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 " Devis'd by Jove, the days his pow'r display ; 
 The thirtieth, fourth and seventh, a sacred day, 
 
 "V^orks and Days, v. 769. 
 
 Independent of the venerable antiquity, from 
 which this testimony proceeds, it comes recom- 
 mended by the internal evidence of circumstantial 
 accuracy. Not to dwell on the original which it 
 ascribes to the division of the days, in tracing it 
 to Jove, and in distinguishing '' the seventh," as 
 *' the sacred day;" the preference shewn in it to 
 ** the fourth," is indicative of the pure and original 
 source, from whence the author received his infor- 
 mation. The preference by which this day and 
 the seventh are distinguished, is inexplicable, on 
 the principles of the planetary hypothesis ; for 
 Mercury and Saturn, to whom they are dedicated, 
 were not distinguished above the other lumi- 
 naries, among whom the sun and moon had en- 
 grossed a supremacy .'^^^ But whether the Greek 
 poet is supposed to have drawn from sacred or 
 profane sources ; the grounds of his preference 
 for those days are equally manifest. For, the As- 
 syrians had distinguished Bel, and Nebo, to 
 whom they are consecrated, above all their na- 
 tional divinities ; and the Hebrews had not only set 
 
 **^ Stanl. Or. Philos. I. ii. xviii. *' Praeter pa quae ex Di- 
 odoro protuliraus. ..c?e opinione Ckaldceorum, circa planetas, 
 Sextus Empiricus testatur, eos credidisse, ' ruv iTrra, yjyiic-^ut ro» 
 "hajoi' >^ TYiv no.rjvr^v, * scptem planetarum prcBcipuos esse Solem et 
 Xttwaw/ minorem autem his vim habere. ..quinque reliquos. 
 Ex quinque ahis, cum Sole consentire, eidemque opera ferre 
 Saturnum, Jovem et Mercuriiim, quos vocant -hfxe^ivii^, diurnos; 
 propterea quod Sol, cui ferunt auxilium, iis dominetur, quce 
 fjignuntur interdiu. Ex stellis autem, alias esse beneficas, ahas 
 maleficas. . .malejicas autem Martiset Saturni, communem Mer- 
 cnrii; quoniam cum beneficis sit benefica, cum malejicis malc- 
 Jka:' Coul'. Scxt. Empir. adv. Malhem. p. 111. seq. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 195 
 
 apart *' the seventh day," as peculiarly *' sacred," 
 but had distinguished " the fourth," as contesting 
 with the first, the right of precedence. *^^ And 
 this consideration, among others, induces me to 
 conclude, that the planets were rather indebted 
 to the days for their names, than the days to the 
 planets. *^^ 
 
 The early doctrine of the Assyrians, as far as it 
 is founded on the successive reigns of the planets, 
 whatever be the sense in which they are supposed 
 to rule, must be therefore abandoned, as the mere 
 figment of the later astrologers. Nor are the 
 marks of a modern hand less evident in the scien- 
 tific embellishments which have been superindu- 
 ced on the early tradition of a conflagration and de- 
 luge : ii> which, some interpreters have sought to 
 account for the great conversion, on physical prin- 
 ciples. The precision with which they have af- 
 
 416 Vignolles, in reference to the denomination of the fourth 
 day, from Mercury, observes; Chron. Liv. IV. iv. § 10. p. 714. 
 ** Moise nous a appris," &c. ** Moses has taught us, that on 
 the fourth day of the week, which was tlie first Wednesday ^ (le 
 premier Mecredi, the first day of Mercury) God made the sun, 
 tfic moon and the stars, to rule over the seasons, the days ancl 
 the years. Might not the tradition of this event, have been 
 preserved among the Egyptians, in whose sciences Moses was 
 learned ? It is atleast preserved among some ancient Jews. 
 * For,' says, Selden * there are some among them, who seeking 
 the order of the days, from the beginning of all things, assign 
 the first day to 3IercuryJ He cites on this subject, the Rab- 
 bin Eliezer, who arranges the days of the week, in two man- 
 ners. , , .of which, one commences loith Wednesday, and the o- 
 ther with Sunday." Conf. Seld. de Jur. Nat. III. xxiii. p. 423. 
 
 ^i'' Such virtually appears to have been the opinion of the 
 learned chronologist quoted in the last note ; who remarks of 
 the Egyptian Hermes ; Chron. ibid. ' Ce fnt peut-etre, on par 
 son ordre, on en son honneur, qu'on donna son nom au Mois, 
 qui devoit commen^er Tannee : et au jour de la planete, qui 
 commence I'ancien cycle." He might have added, gave his 
 name to the planet itself: vid. supr, p. 02. n. "^i. 
 
 C C 2 
 
196 THt ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 fected to determine the period of the change, 
 from the occurrence of a grand conjunction, at 
 the time of the solstices, in Cancer and Capri- 
 corn,*'^ directly betrays the conceit to be of a 
 comparatively recent'date. The rudest calculation, 
 founded on the rate of the equinoctial precession, 
 is sufficient to expose the absurdity of referring 
 the doctrine, with any such modification, to Be- 
 lus ; as leading to an anachronism of nearly one 
 thousand years.*^^ And on comparing the age 
 of the sophisticator, by whom it has been thus 
 embellished, with the place of the solstices, at 
 
 *^8 Vid. supr. p. 34. n. ^2, Berosus, having mentioned the 
 grand conjunction of the Stars in Cancer and Capricorn, as the 
 causes of the deluge and conflagration ; further adds, on the au- 
 thority of Seneca ; ** lllic solstitium, hie bruma conjicitur. 
 Magna; potentiae signa, quando in ipsa mutatiane anni momen- 
 ta sunt." Conf. supr. p. 178. n. 389. 
 
 *^3 It clearly appears, that the Chaldees divided the Zodiac 
 into twelve equal signs, which they calculated from the star 
 marked Aries y ; without regarding the form or extent of the 
 constellations. Conf. Stanl. et Petav. uti infr. And it is e- 
 qually evident, from the doctrine which they held on the ex- 
 altation of the planets, that the great epoch of their astrology 
 coincided with the time when the equinox occurred in the 8th 
 degree of the sign. Vid. Stanl. Or. Phil. I. ii. xix. This 
 epoch, however, is found, from the rate of the equinoctial pre- 
 cession, to be coincident with that of Nabonasar, B. C. 747. 
 Vid. Petav. Uranolog. Var. Dis. II. iv. p. 78. As it appears 
 however, that they placed the exaltation of the sun in the 15° 
 of Aries; and as the occurrence of the equinox, in this point, 
 coincides with a remarkable epoch, B. C. 1263; Vid. Stanl. 
 et Petav. ibid, it may be conceived, that Berosus is entitled to 
 the benefit of any advantage accruing from the latter date : as 
 the solstitial, point at^that time, had entered the sign Cancer, 
 From what has been observed, on the foundation of the Assy- 
 rian empire under Belus, supr. p. 149. n.337. atleast 1460 years 
 before the era of Nabonasar B. C. 747. it is manifest that mo- 
 narch cannot be brought lower than B. C.2207. nearly 1000 
 V^ars before the sohtite had taken place in the 15^ of Cancer, and 
 long before the summer had occurred, with the sun in that sign. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVEllER. 197 
 
 the time when he wrote ; his comment on Belus 
 bears internal marks of being deduced from the 
 state of science at the time of its author.*"^ 
 
 The false light with which this subject has been 
 invested, having dispersed, we are now enabled 
 to behold it, in its native colors. Those astrolo- 
 gical refinements, with which the Assyrians en- 
 cumbered the primitive doctrine of the mundane res- 
 titution, must be consequently abandoned ; as the 
 essays of a spurious science, to explain the cau- 
 ses, and determine the period, of the great conver- 
 sion of nature, by tracing it to natural principles. 
 The early tradition, on this subject, thus divested 
 of later corruptions, atonce resolves itself into 
 the doctrine, which we discover, pure and unmix- 
 ed, in the works of Hesiod and the elder Sibyls.'*'^^ 
 As the seven planetary reigns prove to be nothing 
 more, than the expansion of the first principle of 
 an astrological theory, which, from assigning the 
 planets the government of hours, proceeded from 
 hours to days, from days to years, and from years 
 to interminable ages :'*'-- they thus necessarily re- 
 
 *'^ Berosus, as appears from the statement of Abydeuus, 
 flourished in the reign of Alexander the Great, B. C. 325 : 
 about 421 years after the era of Nabonasar ; and 205 before 
 the solstitial point had receded from Cancer, into the antece- 
 dent sign ; if Riccioli has accurately defined their respective 
 limits ; vid. Almag. Lib. VI. iii. 402. 
 
 421 Vid. supr. p. 172. n.^ss. 
 
 422 With the aid of the observations, already made, supr. p. 
 172. n. 383. p, 190. n. 408. the following exposition, extracted 
 from an ancient astrologer, and describing the domination of 
 " the planetary rulers," will be easily understood. Salmas. de 
 Ann.Climact. p. 286. " Idem Valens eodem capite Planetam 
 qui fuerit dominus anni ortus CanicnlcB, y.a$o^^Kov a7ini ill'ms sta- 
 tuit oUohcT-'moTriv dicit quia annus jEgyptiis ab ortu Canicula? 
 incipiebat. Ideo totius primi anni x^ovok^xto^Iocv ilia stella tene- 
 bat, et quidem y.aSo^tjc»jv, quce initium anni accipiebat, et domina 
 erit sideris a quo annus exordium sumeret. Idem alio loco, 
 
108 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 duce themselves into the more ancient and gene- 
 ral doctrine of a planetary reign for four ages,*^^ 
 which, if it did not owe its origin, was indebted 
 for its preservation, to a knowledge of the periods 
 of the Grand Conjunctions.^'* Nor is the deduc- 
 tion from the same principles difficult, which will 
 adequately explain, when those reigns are re- 
 duced to one, or conceived to be restored after 
 a succession of revolutions, how the Sun, from 
 having obtained dominion over the first day of the 
 week, was considered the supreme ruler, at the 
 Great Restitution of the world.^"^ The Sibylline 
 
 lC«^o^^xw? tJK T» treq kvpiov »t^ y-oaynKuiv Kivviaiuv ol inuKuioi ly. t?? 
 yti(A.y)yiai ra -^wQ KOirB>^ci(3ovlo, h^ev yap rh" a.^X'^v ra tVa? l7roiri(Tcx.v%f 
 (pva-ncvrs^ov ^e icsjo Kvvoq I'miroXy^g. Solus igitlir crat y.x^oXiKO<; 
 
 anni Dominus a quo annus incipiehat, caeteri plaiietae quibus 
 menses aut dies dividebantur y.t;;tAiy.oi tomuv xuptot vocabantur. 
 Idem de Domino ortus Caniculce Planeta, aro? y.o^o\ixo'; ra ha^ 
 ^Bavrolnq K^i^viQBTuif xfxAixoi ^8 04 Tujv ro'STuv Kvpioi, Hoc idem et 
 in majoribus r^v no^oAty.wj' ^ovuv divisionibus observabanty ut qui 
 primum initium annorum, in temporis dominio, acceperat, dice- 
 retur «!^eT»?, et ;(;^oi'ox^a1wp xa,^o>,iyioq, cseteri qui divisiones ejus- 
 dem temporis ab eo accipiebant y.vKXtKo] vocarentur. Adjieit 
 ibidem in omni genesi et antigenesi xaSoAtxov esse rov rov Ira? 
 Kvjiiov, TivaXiy.ov vcro qui pleniluniorum et synodorum est domi- 
 nus." 
 
 423 Vid. supr. p. 172. n.38i. 424 Vid.ibid. p. 81. et ante. 
 
 *25 Of the astrological dogmas on this subject, the following 
 account is given by the writer, already quoted : Salmas. ibid. p. 
 285. *• Sol et Luna quodammodo sunt }ia^oXi)to) ;j(^po>'ox^a']o^s? vel 
 u(piron respectu eorum quibus tempora dividunt. Et ipse Valens 
 ita plane sensit, in tractatu ?r?g« iviocv%v xp'^H-^'^^nfcov, ubi dicit, 
 
 xoe.^oX^Kuq ^iv a I'm) 'jra.aviq yeveVeo;? ^srjast ecKo vXia t^ o-eA^i/jj? jcJ 
 
 u^oa-y.o'TCH ^iiy.^xXKnv rsq Iviavre^. Quod est intelligendum de 
 a(p£V£ I Enayl^y, ut ipse titul us capitis indicat. Et preeterea alio 
 loco scripsit, ra? a,ipea-ei<; rajv iviccvluv a Sole, Lima et Horoscopo 
 esse maxiraie efficientiae. Any.l3a.\Xuv autem Ivtavra? idem est, 
 ut antea docuimus, quod exordium anno}'um sumere, et ^(pia-nq 
 inctvnruv 'sjoizXa^cx.i, Pro eo etiam dicebant et xpo""? wouur^at, 
 ut Yalens, et IhuvTh', -nronTs-^cct, tit Ptolemceus ; ^»a hT u(p' hk 
 
UNIVEKSITY J 
 OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 199 
 
 oracles, indeed, to which a higher and purer ori- 
 
 a^ET(x» 70V IviuvTov <S7otE»'crSa(. !Etiaill Si^ovcti hiavrov, hoc dic6- 
 bant, a-nro rix'm ^i^6[ji.evoq Ivtayro?, id est a.(piQ,<; hixvlov quae initium 
 a Sole accipit. Nam oc(piQiq pro spatio temporis qiiocunque usur- 
 patur, ut supra docuimus." In reply to a pernicious error of 
 Scaliger, Salmasius thus explains the term a,<phri<; : Ibid. p. 383, 
 
 ** Sed Arabes Astrologi Graecorum acpsTtji', non verterunt ^)^t 
 vel ^^> sed ^^^^- Nee nomen id est Arabicum, ut jam 
 notavimus, sed Persicum, vel etiam Indicum, ut alii etiam no- 
 tarunt, AXxi> etiam vocari, ex Lexico Persico Turcico, et U?^i 
 ^ 5 "*>^> id est Dominum domus, exponi mihi significavit claris- 
 simus et celeberrimus vir, Jacobus Golius. Inde et ab Arabi- 
 bus passim hoc nomen esse usitatum g-i^ifc pro V— JuxJ! cj^, 
 id est DominoediSy ut dixerunt Latini veteres, Familiare quippe 
 est A rabibus » Persicum in ^ mutare. Sed et ipsi Persce ut 
 multas Arabicas voces usurparunt, non dubitarunt ita scribere. 
 Ergo Hyleg est ^^^ : id est Dowiiwm*. Quod nullam habetde 
 notione nominis aiiinitatem cum Graeco a.(pirri<;y sed habet cum 
 voce I'ojix.^oe.rnru^. Sic enim absolute rlv a^srvv x^^^°^?"''''°f°^ 
 Graeci appellarunt, ut videantur ex Arabico vel Persico ita ver- 
 tisse, et preecipue r^cewiiores. , . .Quod a.d Alchocoden attinet, 
 quid hoc nomen significet, cum et vitiose etiam scribatur, valide 
 nesciunt nostri astrologi, ideo et disputant quid sit, nee sese 
 
 extrieant. Persicum et hoc est vocabulum ^«X2i «>^s Cad- 
 choda : quod etiam Dominus domus significat. ^»Xii enim do- 
 minus; unde et Deum ^*Xii. vocarunt, quasi Dominum omnium ; 
 
 «X^3 autem domus est Persice, ut me idem docuit vir doctissi- 
 mus Golius. Quod ad nominis proprietatem attinet, idem sig- 
 nificat Cadchoda et Hyleg, cum utraque vox dominum domus 
 designet, hoe est oUoha-'zjornv. Sed major dominus Cadchoda 
 quam Hyleg. Nam et eum cui praefectura pagi totius est de- 
 
 mandata hodieque Persae vocant ^«Xsl «\^), cum unius domus . 
 
 dominum ^^^^ significat. Ita major Cadchoda, quam Hyleg, 
 
 oly.ohaTroTriq rrjq ytviaiox;, quam iVix^ocTriTup, vel ^povo>ipocTu^. Tale 
 
 inter hos discrimen est, teste Porphyrio, quale est inter vxixX-n^ov 
 et n'j^i^virriv. Geniturae Dominus hoc est Cadchoda totius geni- 
 turiB possidet sumraam, et univeisam ypatii ejus substantiam. 
 
200 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 gin must be ascribed, and in which it was main- 
 tained/'^ 
 
 That God from out the sun a king would send. 
 And cause dire war in all the world to end : 
 
 exhibit the doctrine, with the modification, which 
 it received, from a branchof the Assyrian popula- 
 tion, who possessed the advantages of a later and 
 fuller revelation, than that by which the patriarch- 
 al age was enlightened.*^^ My immediate concern, 
 however, is with the peculiar views of the native 
 Assyrians. The notions which they formed of the 
 author of the mundane restitution, differed but ac- 
 cidentally from those which were inculcated by 
 
 At Chronocrator, sive s'sriKpar-^lu^, particulam tempoiis vitae et 
 laciniam gubernat, et res quisque certas casusque speciales; ut 
 alius nuptias curat, alius parentes, alius facultates, alius actioues 
 et sic de aliis.' 
 
 426 Vid. supr. p. 170. conf. p. 168. 
 
 *2T I. Vossius, remarking on ** the Pollio" of Virgil, ex- 
 presses himself with no less justness, than appositeness to the 
 present occasion ; De Sibyl. Orac. cap. v. ** Jam nova progenies 
 ccelo dimittitur alto.' Ita haec sunt interpretata, ac si e throno 
 Dei, id est ex sole proditurus esset Christus. Haic nernpe vetus 
 Judaeorum opinio profluxit ex eo quod in Psalmis legitur; 
 * In sole posuit tabemaculum suum.'' After quoting the Si- 
 bylline verses now before us, he adds, " Sic quoque complu- 
 res olim sensisse Gnosticos, colligo ex Theodoti excerptis, apud 
 
 Clem. Alexandr. 'Ev ru 'HXiu b^stq to a-y.yivuiAa avTH' aviot /^sv iiv 
 ^uci TO aufjiot ra Kv^ia Iv ru HXiu uvrov uTroriBeQ^on, u<; E^i/,oyBvv}f. 
 trufjioc OS ^iyuQiVf oi f^lv to a-K-nvoq uvrSj ol ^l t^v ruv 'wi^uv EkkXyio-iocv. 
 Nec dubitandum quin Hermogenes et Gnostici opinionem istam, 
 de statione Christi et Christianorum in sole, e Sibylinis oraculis 
 ad suam transtulerint sectam. Non solos autem Gnosticos, sed 
 et complures etiam Judaios, et praccipue Essenos, eorumque 
 progeniem Sampsceos, Solent, tanquam Dei stationem, coluisse, 
 satis docet mos JEssenorum, antiquius scrobem eftbdientium, et 
 eundum postea replentium, si quando alvura essent egesturi, ne 
 lucem et radios Dei e sole progredientes inquinarent, uq /xJ? rcc<; 
 uvya,(; v^pt'^onv rov Qtov. Nugas agunt qui verba Josephi, vel 
 corrigere, vel aliter interpretari conantur." 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 201 
 
 the Sibylline oracles ; both referring it to the god, 
 or genius, whom they considered regent of the 
 sun ; and conceiving that with his restauration the 
 age would be once more renewed which they 
 termed golden and Saturnian. In the corruptions 
 introduced into the hereditary faith of the Assy- 
 rians, through the innovations of native science, or 
 the fictions of foreign mythology, it is impossible 
 to trace, even to a probable original, many of their 
 superstitious errors/"^ It is, however, sufficient 
 to be assured, that, for some mysterious reason, 
 which they were unwilling or unable to unfold, 
 Belus was considered identical with the great 
 planetary Ruler, *-^ who presided at the regenera- 
 tor The high authority, however, from whence the followirtg 
 observation is derived, on the confusion of Behis or Baal with 
 Sol or Apollo, renders it deserving of attention : Seld. de Dis. 
 Syr. II. c. 219. ** Atque cum !i^aturnus, Jupiter, CceIus, 
 Uranus, ita fabulis sint confusi, ut nee ipse Pkcebns eos, aut 
 ab Us ipsum se queat satis distinguere, numerosaque ilia Divflm 
 turba ad Apollinis sive SoHs numen a mythologis reducatur : haut 
 amplius sane adeo heesitandum est, quin ex una Bclo, Baale, 
 seu Jove, (sub quibus vocibus a veri Dei cultu dejicientes Salem 
 imprimis adorabant), ad morem priscorum ridiculum invocato, 
 innumeri tituli jucrint proparjati. Coacervatis cnim elogiis, 
 titulisque congestis capi Numen putabant, maximoque affici 
 inde honore : ita ut tandem quae diversa solummodo nomina 
 superstition is primoidio fuerant, grassante errore, diversa numi- 
 na haberentur, qua de re nos plura in Prolegomenis." Conf. 
 Cleric, ind. in Stanl. Or. Phil. voc. ' Belus,' et * Sol.' 
 
 **« Servius in ^neid. I. 729. *' Assyrios constat Saturnum 
 (quern enndem et Soiem dicunt). , .coluisse. Unde et lingua 
 Punica Bal Deus dicitur. Apud Assyrios autem Bel dicitnr, 
 quadam sacrorum ratione, et SaturvMs et Sol." It appears from 
 the following testimony that Servius was well acquainted with 
 the nature of the Great Year: Id. ibid. 1. 273. " Tria sunt 
 genera annorum ,* aut eiiim Lunaris annus est, 30 dierum ; aut 
 Solstitialis 12mensium; aut secundum Tullium, Magnus, qui 
 tenet duodecim millia Liv. annos, ut in Hortensio : * Horum 
 annorum, quos in Fastis habemus, Magnus duodecim millia 
 quingentos quinquaginta quatuor amplectitur." Conf. in iEn. 
 111.284. 
 
 D d 
 
202 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 tion of the world. With this clue, the intricacies 
 of the labyrinth may be easily explored. 
 
 In the history of him, whom the Assyrians ac- 
 knowledged as their great progenitor, and to 
 whom the name of Baal, in the original and pro- 
 per sense of the term, was pre-eminently applica- 
 ble, as he was the Father of the family "^-^ of all 
 mankind ; in the history of Adam, in fact, the 
 fiction finds a direct and adequate explanation. 
 For under our common parent, the Fall had taken 
 place ; and to him was given the intimation of a 
 Recovery. But as the nature of the restitution 
 was *' a mystery, which was hid from ages and 
 generations ;"the Assyrians, having engaged in the 
 vain attempt to ascertain it, and having been de- 
 termined, in their research after it, by the peculiar 
 tendency of their science, naturally fell into the 
 notion of an identical restitution ; in which the 
 same persons would be introduced into the scene, 
 and the same incidents be repeated, which had 
 occurred in the first age of the world. In the 
 very nature of the Great Year, by which they 
 professed to calculate the period of this change, 
 the notion of a restitution was implied ;*^^ on 
 
 429 Vid supr. p. 103. 
 
 480 Yijj gup^. p 247. n.33*. Such as we have seen, in the 
 case of the Chaldee term of 12 years, was the notion implied 
 in more limited periods, to which the name of a Great Year was 
 given ; vid. supr. p. 94. n.2o*. Even to the shortest term to 
 which the name was applied, the same observation is applica- 
 ble : Plin. Nat. Hist. II. xlvii. " Omnium quidem si libeat 
 observare, minimos ambitus, rcdire easdem vices, quadriennio 
 exacto, Eudoxus putat, non ventorum modo, verum et reliqua- 
 rum tempestatum, et est principium lustri ejus semper interca- 
 lari uno die, caniculae ortu." In honor of Eudoxus, it is to be 
 observed, that he was one of the earliest of the astronomers, 
 who conceived a just estimate of the Chaldean astrology ; 
 Cicer. de Div. II Ixxxviiii. " Ad Chaldceorum monstra venia- 
 mus : de quibus Eudoxus, Platonis auditor, in astrologia, judi- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 203 
 
 such a notion, as a first principle, the Chaldee 
 Astrology was founded ; which was cultivated as a 
 science, that professed to ascertain the course of 
 future events, from a knowledge of previous oc- 
 currences ; the whole tenor of which, as deter- 
 mined by the influence of the planets, might be 
 divined, from an observance of their revolutions 
 and periods. *^^ Such being the instrument which 
 this people applied to ascertain the nature and 
 determine the period of the Great Restitution ; it 
 can be little matter of surprise, that a contempla- 
 tion of the uniform motions and periods of those 
 luminaries, which they believed to be the causes 
 of the regular returns of the seasons, and constitu- 
 ted the rulers of human characters actions and 
 events,^^^ should have led them into the notion of 
 an identical restitution ; the period of which 
 
 cio doctissimorum hominum, facile princeps, sic opjtinatur, id 
 quod scriptum reliquit, * Chaldaeis, in praedictione. et in nota- 
 tione cujusque vitaj, ex natali die, minime esse credendum." 
 
 «i Vid. Cicer. uti sup. p. 180. n.392. Stanl. ubi supr. I. n. 
 xvii. " Astronomi [Chaldaici] actiones nostras et vitam pende- 
 re ex stellis, cum erraticis, turn iixis, humanumque genus miilti- 
 plici earum cursu regi putabant : * Chaldaei dicunt, ait idem 
 scriptor, [Sext. Empir. adv. Mathera. Lib. V". init.] septeni 
 Stellas (planetas) habere rationem causarum agentium in imum- 
 qtwdquc eorum, quae in vita accidunt ; adjuvare autem partes 
 zodiaci.' Existimabant eas esse causas boni et mali, prout hora 
 natali disposita? erant, atque ex contemplatione earum natures, 
 futura liominibus posse proBdici." 
 
 4'2 Cicer. uti supr. II. Ixxxix. "Cum autem in eam ipsam 
 partem orbis [errantia sidera] venerint, in qua sit ortus ejus qui 
 nascitur; aut in eam quai co ijunctum aliquid habeat, aut con- 
 sentiens ; ea triangula illi et quadrata nominant. . . Etenim cum 
 tempore anni, tempestatumque t xli conversioneSy commutationes- 
 que tantcejiant accessu stcllarum, et recessu, cumque ea vi solis 
 efliciantur quaj videraus; non verisimile solum, sed etiam verum 
 esse censent, perinde utcunque temperatus sit aer, ita pueros 
 orientes animari, atque formari, ex eoque ingenia, mores, ani- 
 rnum, corpus, actionem, vitcp, casus cujusque, eventusque Jingi." 
 
 Dd 2 
 
204 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 might be determined, as the motions on which it 
 depended were to be ascertained, by scientific 
 calculation. 
 
 In forming this arbitrary notion of the return of 
 the first happy age, under their great progenitor ; 
 though it appears, that they erred as grievously, 
 respecting the nature of the restitution, as the 
 character of the personage, under whom it would 
 be effected : it is not less certain, that they form- 
 ed the expectation of a Great Deliverer, and had 
 attained some knowledge of the time of his ad- 
 vent. Nor does it appear easy to assign any 
 plausible reason, for the bride that was prepared, 
 and the nuptial bed which was decked, at the top 
 of the great temple of Belus, in Babylon ;*^^ if, in 
 so extraordinary a custom, no allusion were pre- 
 served to the promise which was given of a Deli- 
 verer, through the seed of the woman. And the 
 confirmation appears not slight, which this con- 
 jecture derives, from the obvious allusion to the 
 account of Adam and the Serpent, retained in the 
 worship ascribed to Bel and the Dragon ;*^^ the 
 apocryphal account of which, however inadequate 
 it may be found to answer the demands of a high- 
 er theology, realises every expectation, that may 
 be formed of the oriental mythology. Among the 
 traditions preserved by this ancient people, it 
 must be superfluous further to insist on the know- 
 ledge, which they retained of the Conflagration 
 and Deluge, and that the periods in which nature 
 was subject to these great convulsions, was dis- 
 tinguished by Grand Conjunctions of the pla- 
 nets. 
 
 «3 Vid. Herodot. I. clxxxi. Conf. Stanl. Or. Phil. I, ii. 
 xxxii. Seld. de Dis Syr. II. i. p. 199. 
 *^* Vid. Seld. ubi supr. II. xvii. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 205 
 
 I shall now venture to conclude, that the Chal- 
 dean science, when viewed in a proper light, is so 
 far from creating any objection to the conclusion, 
 which it is my object to establish, that it may be 
 legitimately urged in its support. Nor is this in- 
 ference in the least affected, by the extravagant 
 antiquity which the Assyrians claimed for their 
 astrology, and pretended to support by early as- 
 tronomical observations. The result to which 
 every competent inquirer into the subject is now 
 led by investigation, puts a negative on these 
 pretences ; and leads to the conviction, that astro- 
 nomy was not cultivated, by the Chaldees, as a 
 science, until a comparatively modern period.*^^ 
 They were indeed early observers, but very recent 
 astronomers.*'^ Their science, to judge of it by 
 
 435 La Lande Astron. Liv. II. § 244. " Ptolemee dans son 
 Almageste, le plus ancien ouvrage que nous ayons, emploie 
 trois eclipses de la lune dont la premiere avoit ete observee k 
 Babylone, 720 ans avant notre ere. II paroit done, que c^est 
 vers cette date qu'il faut placer les plus anciennes observations 
 qu' eussent merite d'etre conservees ; tout ce que avoit precede 
 n'etoit qu'un commencement grossier de connoissances astronomi- 
 ques : il se reduisoit a I'observation du Zodiaque, des terns du 
 lever etdu coucher heliaque des constellations, et du retour des 
 places de la lune ; il n'y a point d' apparance que la periode 
 de 19 ans, 10 jours, qui ramene k-peu-pres les eclipses dans la 
 m^me ordre ait ete connue de ces premiers Caldeens, quoique 
 on I'ait appellee periode Caldaique." Comp. Vince's Compl. 
 Astron. Vol. II. § 1252. Flamsteed Hist. Coelest. Vol. III. 
 Proleg. p. 7. 
 
 436 La Lande ibid. § 245. *' Parmi les Caldeiens Jupiter, 
 Belus passoit pour avoir ete le principal inventeur de V astro- 
 nomie, en m^me temps qu'il avoit etfe le fondateur de Babylone, 
 (Plin. VI. xxvi.) L' epoque de Belus, est placee a Tan 1320 
 avant notre 6re. . . .Le temple de Jupiter Belus, que Semiramis 
 avoit fait b^tir k Babylone renfermoit une tour immense .... 
 Diodore de Sicile dit qu'on convient que ce temple etoit d'une 
 hauteur excessive, et que les Caldeens y avoient parfaitement 
 observe les levers et les couchers des astres. II est done vrai, 
 
20G THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 its internal evidence, can found no just preten- 
 sions to an antiquity, which long precedes the era 
 of Nabonasar : which there are strong conclusive 
 grounds, for supposing the proper epoch from 
 which their astrology should be dated."^ Pre- 
 viously to the observation of some eclipses at Ba- 
 bylon, of which the Greeks have transmitted an 
 account, there is no adequate authority for impu- 
 ting to them a knowledge of the very rudiments 
 of astronomy ; and by a singular coincidence 
 which confirms the preceding observation on the 
 true epoch of their science, these eclipses are 
 assigned a date, near the commencement of that ce- 
 lebrated era. *^^ Influenced by these considerations, 
 and certain coincidences of time and circumstance, 
 a great practical astronomer has not only dated 
 the commencement of the Chaldean astronomy 
 from the time of the captivity; but has ascribed 
 its origin to the knowledge which the Jewish cap- 
 
 que plus de 800 ans avant I'^re chretienne, les Babyloniens 
 examinoient attentivement les mouvemens celestes; voyons 
 maintenant k quoi ils etoient parvenus. J'ai dit que leur astro - 
 nomie se reduisoit presque i Tinvention du Zodiaque, et k la 
 division du ciel en constellations." &c. The epoch of Bel us, 
 however, is here brought much too low, for reasons already 
 specified ; vid. supr. p. 9, n. i6. p. 143. n. 337. 
 
 «T Vid. supr. p. 196. n.^iQ. conf. p. 153. n.345. p. 126. n.«82 
 ^38 The first eclipse noticed by Ptolemy, as observed by the 
 Chaldees, is referred to the 29th day of the month Thoth, An. 
 Nabonas. 26. in the first year of Merodac, king or viceroy of 
 Babylon ; which corresponds with March 19. An. Jul. Per. 
 3993. B. C. 721. vid. Ptol. Magn. Op. IV. vi. It is observed 
 by Flarasteed, that the observation of this eclipse occurred 
 the year after the deportation of the Israelites into capti- 
 vity; and that in the following year, two eclipses were ob- 
 served in the space of six months, at Babylon ; Hist. Coelest. 
 uti supr. p. 5. I have already noticed some remarkable cir- 
 cumstances, by which this epoch was distinguished ; vid. supr. 
 p. 161. n. 358. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 207 
 
 lives imparted to their Assyrian conquerors.*^^ 
 In justification of a conclusion, which militates 
 against early prescriptive opinion, he judiciously 
 observes, that the Israelites were necessarily led, 
 by the nature of their festivals, which depended 
 on the lunar conjunctions, to a closer attention to 
 the lunar motions, than the Chaldees, whose as- 
 trology was founded on the periods and appearan- 
 ces of the planets. 
 
 It is not to be dissembled, however, that an ex- 
 travagant antiquity has been ascribed to the As- 
 syrian astronomy, on the ground of positive ob- 
 servations ; of which, it has been asserted, that re- 
 cords were preserved from the remotest ages. 
 But when the inducements which existed to ex- 
 aggerate, on this subject, are taken into account, 
 with the facility with which calculations may be 
 proleptically made for any definite period ; they 
 will not be thought deserving of serious attention. 
 
 Of such a description is the period of 27000 
 years, mentioned by Hipparchus, as ascribed by 
 the Assyrians to the reigns of the seven planetary 
 rulers.***^ So slight is the foundation, however, 
 
 439 From a comparison of the dates of the earliest astronomi- 
 cal observations, ascribed to the Chaldees and Greeks, with 
 the period of the captivity, Flamsteed comes to the following 
 conclusion ; Hist. Ccel. uti supr. p. 5. " Atque hinc Assyrios, 
 Medos, Chaldieos, a captivis Israelitis, Astronomic elementa 
 primo didicisse credibile videtur." 
 
 440 Vid. Procl. in Tim. uti supr. p. 171. n. 3T8. It is of some 
 importance to observe, that from the transmission of the account 
 of this period, by Hipparchus, it must be inferred, that it 
 could have had no connexion with the precession of the equi- 
 noxes, and the great period of their revolution, which is now 
 termed the Platonic Year ; as the supposition, that Hippar- 
 chus could have derived the knowledge of either, from the As- 
 syrians or Chaldeans, is utterly irreconcilable with the fact of 
 his having claimed the merit of the discovery. To this merit, 
 
208 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 which the Chaldean astrology, finds in this pe- 
 riod, to sustain its antiquity, or prove it coeval 
 with the world, that it mght be cited in subver- 
 sion of the notion of its early origin. As it is an 
 express description of seven revolutions of the 
 Great Year, it supposes the world to have been so 
 often destroyed and renovated :*^^ so that its age 
 being calculated from the last restitution, it was 
 virtually ascribed a duration of merely three mil- 
 lenniums. 
 
 Of many of those periods, the accounts which 
 have been transmitted to us, vary so materially in 
 the number of the years assigned to their dura- 
 tion, as to deprive them of every claim to atten- 
 tion. In two periods mentioned by Pliny and Be- 
 rosus, as fixing the epoch of the Chaldean astro- 
 nomy, the question lies between hundreds of years 
 
 however, he expressly laid claim ; having professed to found 
 his discovery on his own observations, and those of his pre- 
 decessor Timocharis. A curiosity to ascertain, how far he 
 might have been anticipated, in his invention, by the Assyri- 
 ans, would naturally induce him to make inquiry, on the subject, 
 among the Chaldean astrologers ; and the result of his search, 
 is thus probably communicated in the account, which has been 
 transmitted by lamblichus ; which bears this internal evidence 
 of its truth, that it accords, in principle, with that which Seneca 
 has preserved, as derived from Berosus. The astronomers 
 of the middle ages rated the annual precession of the equinoxes 
 at something less than 54.'' 3iV '. and reduced the period of their 
 revolution to 23750 years : vid. Ricciol. Almag. Lib. VI. xvi. 
 It is now generally allowed that the annual precession amounts 
 to 50",25 the secular to 1«. 23'. 45". which rate assigns to 72 
 years, l^. though no more was assigned to 100 years, by Hip- 
 parchusand Ptolemy. On this subject Deiham has observed, 
 Astrotheol. B. IV. i. " Flamsteed agrees Biccioli's numbers 
 to come nearest the truth, viz. l^. 23". 20". in 100 years, or 50" 
 in a year. According to which rate, the motion called the Pla- 
 tonic Year is accomplished in 25920 years :" which merely 
 wants 80 years of 26000. 
 ^^ Vid. supr, p. 182. et n. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 209 
 
 and hundreds of thousands. ^^" The reading which 
 gives the lesser number has the authority of some 
 manuscripts in its favor ; and carries so far an evi- 
 dence of its truth, as it refers the earliest recorded 
 observations to the time, from which we have po- 
 sitive grounds for dating the origin of the science. 
 If the testimony of those early writers is thus un- 
 derstood, it directly decides against the preten- 
 sions of the Chaldeans. 
 
 We may even adopt the greatest latitude, and 
 admit the highest numbers, assigned those dates, 
 to be correct ; even on the internal evidence, they 
 may be proved the expression of factitious and ar- 
 bitrary periods, deduced from remarkable epochs, 
 upon a principle of systematic misrepresentation. 
 On reducing them to their first elements, by 
 reversing this principle, they resolve themselves 
 into three the most remarkable dates in the Assyri- 
 an annals. Of these periods, one of 720000 years, 
 which is mentioned by Epigenes, thus proves 
 nearly identical with the epoch of the foundation 
 of the Assyrian empire under Belus.**^ One of 
 
 **' The lesser number is, I find, adopted by Prof. Vince, 
 who gives the following account of both the periods noticed 
 above: Astron. uti supr. §1252. "Epigenes speaks of Ba- 
 bylonian observations for the space of 720 years, Berosus al- 
 lows them to have been made 480 years, before his time, which 
 carries them back to 746 A. C. and this is in some measure 
 confirmed by the oldest eclipses, which are recorded by Ptole- 
 my, one of which is mentioned to have happened 721 years A. 
 C. and two 720 A. C." As the numerals in which those dates 
 are expressed, are raised to thousands, by having a line drawn 
 over them ; and as this line was liable to be omitted by trans- 
 cribers, or obliterated by time ; it is probable that the highest 
 numbers express the true reading of the mss. particularly, as it 
 appears from Cicero, that the Chaldeans claimed an extrava- 
 gant antiquity for their astronomical observations. 
 
 *^3 Vid. Plin. Nat. Hist. VIT. Ivi. The period of 720000 
 
 K e 
 
210 TIIF. ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 480000, mentioned by Berosus and Critodemus, 
 and one of 473000, mentioned by Diodorus and 
 Cicero, corresponds with the time of the accession 
 of the second dynasty of the Assyrian monarchy, 
 under Belataras.*^* And one of 150000 years, as- 
 cribed by Alexander Polyhistor to Berosus, agrees 
 with the epoch of its restoration, under the dynas- 
 ty of Nabonasar.**^ As the principle of under- 
 
 days, reduced to astronomical years, of 360 days, amounts to 
 2000 years ; which sum being deducted from A. J. P. 4383. 
 the era of the taking of Babylon, by Alexander, leaves A. J. 
 P. 2383: which corresponds with the 26th year from the acces- 
 sion of Belus, A. J. P. 2357. B. C. 2357. corap. Helvic. 
 Tab. Chron. p. 5. f. Vignol. uti supr. II. p. 636. 
 
 *** Vid. Plin. Ibid. Diod. Sic. II. xxxi. Cic. de Divin. I. 
 XXX vi. The period of 480000 days, reduced as above, amounts 
 to 1333 astronomical years, and 4 months : which deducted 
 from A.J. P. 4392, when Berosus flourished, leaves A. J. P. 
 3059. B. C. 1655. corresponding with the time of Balataras' 
 accession, the founder of the second dynasty of Assyrian mo- 
 narchs : comp. Helvic. ibid. Vignol. ibid. p. 638. The period 
 of 473040 days reduced as before, amounts to 1314 astronomi- 
 cal years ; which deducted from A. J. P. 4383. leaves A. J. 
 P. 3069. corresponding with the 9th year from the accession 
 of Balatras, A. J. P. 3059. B. C. 1655. comp. Helvic. Tab. 
 Chron. p. 16. k. Vignol. ibid. p. 640. 
 
 *** Vid. Syncel. p. 28. Euseb. Scalig. p. 5. The period of 
 160000 days, reduced as before, amounts to 416 years, 8 
 months ; which, as Conringius first observed, corresponds pre- 
 cisely with the time intervening between the era of Nabona- 
 sar, and Alexander: vid. Advers. Chron. ix p. 166. The hint 
 has been improved upon by M. des VignoUes, who carries the 
 calculation to the utmost nicety ; shewing that conformably to 
 Berosus's statement, 150000 days had intervened, almost to a 
 day, between the epoch of Nabonasar, and the day of Alex- 
 ander's entering Asia, in July. An. Nab. 417. To 149760, 
 the sum of the days in 416 years, elapsed of this era, — he adds 
 40, the days unexpired of the current year of Nabonasar 417, 
 which began Nov. 14 : — and 192 the sum of the days from the 
 beginning of the year to July 11th, — which form a total of 
 150000 ; and he shews, from Arrian, that Alexander entered 
 Thapsacus, on the Euphrates, in the month Hecatombeon, 
 which began, the same year, July 9th. 
 
OF A GREAT UELlVEKEli. 211 
 
 standing days for years, by which these results are 
 brought out, is perfectly legitimate ; as founded on 
 the idiom of the oriental languages, in which the 
 terms year and day were confounded /^^ and on 
 the principles of the ancient astrology,- in which 
 the periods of great years were expressed by the 
 days of the lesser cycles :*^^ the coincidences 
 to which they lead are fully adequate to their es- 
 tablishment. That four or five different periods, 
 though expressed in round numbers, reported on 
 different authorities, and calculated at different 
 times, should, by mere accident, coincide so 
 nearly, with three the most remarkable epochs of 
 the Assyrian annals, is a supposition so repugnant 
 to all credibility, as to be inadmissible, even for a 
 moment. These periods being thus understood, 
 the earliest proves but coeval with the epoch of 
 the foundation of the Assyrian monarchy ; of 
 which I have already spoken, as corresponding, to 
 an extraordinary degree, with the date assigned 
 that monarchy, in the sacred chronology. *^^ 
 
 There are, however, other tests by which the 
 accuracy of these calculations may be proved, 
 and the age of the Chaldean astrology directly 
 established. Callisthenes, who attended Alexan- 
 der the Great, in his oriental expedition, having 
 taken the pains to inquire into the antiquity of 
 the science, sent his grand uncle Aristotle, an 
 account of observations which were made for 
 1903 years, by the Babylonians.'*^ When this 
 period is calculated backwards, from the time of 
 the entrance of Babylon, by the Macedonian con- 
 
 *^6 Vid. supr. p. 183. n. W. 
 
 **f Vid. ibid. p. 182. n.396. p. 188. n. ^^^. 
 
 **8 Vid. supr. p. 9. n. i^. cont'. infr. p. 215. n.^ss. 
 
 **9 Simplic, in Aristot. de Ccel. II. com. 46. 
 
 E e 2 
 
212 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 queror ; another extraordinary coincidence is the 
 result/^*' as we are again led to the epoch which has 
 been just mentioned, as confirmed by the chro- 
 nology of scripture. 
 
 With these views, in fact, the testimony of 
 Aristotle himself fully agrees. So far is the philo- 
 sopher from ascribing an antiquity to the Chal- 
 dean astrology, extending to several thousand 
 years; that he lowers the date of the Egyptian 
 observations to 2000 years, and places the epoch 
 of the Babylonian not much earlier .*^^ And in the 
 period of the Canicular Year, which both nations 
 employed, is implied a decisive proof, that their 
 observations are here ascribed the most indulgent 
 latitude. As the theory on which that period is 
 founded involves a practical error of more than 
 thirty six years ;*^^ had their observations con- 
 tinued from the beginning to the close of it ; 
 it is wholly inconceivable that this error should 
 have remained undetected. Conformably to the 
 principles of that theory, it was conceived, that the 
 dog-star by which the beginning of the Great Ca- 
 nicular Year was determined, would rise heliacal- 
 ly, upon the same day, after 1461 years had ex- 
 pired, from the commencement of the cycle.'^^^ 
 But from the excess of the sidereal above the 
 civil year, its rising must have anticipated their 
 
 *5o On deducting 1903. the period mentioned by Callis- 
 thenes from A. J. P. 4383. when Alexander took possession 
 of Babylon, there remains A. J. P. 2480. B. C. 2234. which 
 corresponds with the 18th year of the reign of Semiramis, from 
 whence Africanus dates the commencement of the Babylonian 
 era ; vid. Scalig. Can. Isag. p. 271. .Vignol. uti supr. p. 634. 
 
 4*1 Arist. de Coelo. II. xii. § 60. "Uanaa, ^' lyu AlyvrnVm aa-' 
 
 Bx^vKuviH^ Tt in la-Kiloaiv. 
 
 **2 Vid supr. p. 205. n. 435. 
 
 ♦^5 Vid. supr. p. 94, u. 204. p. 202. n.«2. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 213 
 
 calculations thirty six years ; and at the close of 
 the period they would have consequently found a 
 diiference of nine days, between the opening of 
 the new year, and the appearance of the star, by 
 which its beginning should be determined. '^^^ As 
 no greater skill was necessary to bring these prin- 
 to the test, than that they should be able to count 
 the years of their cycle, and at its expiration 
 observe, whether the star, which should determine 
 its beginning, appeared on the new-year's day, 
 before sunrise : it is impossible to account for the 
 error, in which they remained, on any other 
 ground, than that their observations had not em- 
 braced the commencement and the close of this 
 very limited period.*^^ 
 
 I have engaged in this brief review of the great 
 periods, for which it has been asserted, that astro- 
 nomy was cultivated by the Chaldees, not merely 
 
 *^* As the sidereal year consists of 365d. 6h. 9'. 11''4. and 
 the Egyptian civil year of 365 d. only, it required but 1424 
 sidereal years to make up 1425 Egyptian, containing respec- 
 tively about 520125 days. But 1460 Julian years, or 1461 
 Egyptian, were necessary, to allow the beginning of the year 
 to retrograde 365 days, in order to make up for the loss of a 
 day every fourth year, on account of the neglect of the inter- 
 calation. When 1425 of this period, of course, had expired, 
 the sidereal year was completed ; and at the end of 1461 years, 
 the sum of more than 6 hours, accumulating yearly, for 36 years, 
 amounted to 9 days ; by which the beginning of the great year, 
 and that of the sidereal year were of course separated. 
 
 455 Beyond the terms in which La Lande has expressed him- 
 self, on the subject of the Canicular Year, it seems almost use- 
 less to look for any proof, that the ancients could never have 
 observed the beginning and end of such a period. **The an- 
 cients," he observes, ** were in errm', in the calculation of it, 
 above thirty six years :,,, ,the period was not such as was be- 
 lieved; the civil year neither agreed, at the end of 1460 years, 
 with the tropical year, nor the sidereal :" vid. supr. p. 187. n.^o* 
 How, it may be then asked, is it possible, it could have fallen 
 under their observation ? 
 
214 THE AS.SYKIAX EXPECTATIONS 
 
 with the view of removing any objection, they 
 may create to the presumption, that the Assyrians, 
 who had formed the expectation of a Great Deliver- 
 er, were not unacquainted with the time of his 
 advent. From the positive results to which these 
 periods lead, when resolved into their first princi- 
 ples, in the application of which the Chaldeans 
 were versed, above all the ancients : I conceive 
 we may deduce a conjir^mation of the position. 
 From the facility which these periods afforded the 
 least practiced calculators, to compute the time 
 elapsed, from the old and new era of Babylon ; 
 which marked the epochs of the foundation and 
 restitution of the Assyrian monarchy, under Belus 
 and Nabonasar ; no difficulty could have opposed 
 the computation of the time of the Great Restitu- 
 tion, with which, it has been shewn, both epochs 
 were, in some measure connected. ^^^ The period 
 for which the Assyrian and Median empire had 
 Jasted, was too well known to be mistaken : the 
 origin of the Persian monarchy was not less cer- 
 tain, nor less easy to ascertain ;*^^ and the time of 
 its subversion being identified with that of Alex- 
 ander's entrance into Babylon, which was the 
 great epoch from which those calculations were 
 generally made; the utmost facility was conse- 
 quently afforded the computor, to connect the 
 earliest epoch of the Assyrian annals, with the 
 time when he flourished. So compact and con- 
 nected are the links, by which the chronological 
 chain is held together, that even at the present 
 
 *56 Vid. sup. p. 148. seq. 
 
 ^^"^ Petavius thus easily ascertains the time of the foundation 
 of the Assyrian monarchy, by a calculation built upon the dif- 
 ferent epochs of the Assyrian, Median, and Persian empire. 
 Rat. Temp. P. II. Lib. II. iii. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 215 
 
 day, chronologists find little difficulty in ascending 
 by its aid, and measuring the distance between 
 their own age, and the foundation of the first 
 monarchy, within a few years of the deluge.*^. 
 
 *^^ The proofs establishing the epoch of the Assyrian mo- 
 narchy, are compressed by Helvicus within a short compass, 
 to whom the reader may be referred ; vid. Theatr. Hist. Chron. 
 p. 5. f. Having premised that the calculation of this epoch 
 should be made a posteriori, from the fall of Sardanapalus, 
 last king of Assyria, and the rise of Arbaces, first king of the 
 Medes; and having stated, after Justin, following Trogus Pom- 
 peius, the time of the duration of the Assyrian monarchy, he 
 fixes the epoch of its foundation at the commencement of the 
 Babylonian era, A. J. P. 2482. B. C. 2232. and shews its 
 correspondence with scripture. He then produces the follow- 
 ing authorities, in confirmation of his computation ; from which 
 it may be collected, how easily the beginning of the Babylo- 
 nian era might be determined. Ibid. " Ad hoc Justini seu Tro- 
 gi testimonium confirmandum " &c. " It contributes greatly to 
 confirm this testimony of Justin, or Trogus, that the computa- 
 of Diodorus Siculus, adopted from Ctesias, agrees with it, in an 
 extraordinary degree ; who declares the Assyrian empire lasted 
 1360 years to the fall of Sardanapalus. Count backwards 
 1360 years, from the fall of Sardanapalus, and you will come 
 to the head of the Babylonian era, and at the same time, to the 
 beginning of the reign of Belus. But the Babylonian era was 
 unfolded by Callisthenes, who informed Aristotle, from the 
 Babylonian archives, that Babylon was taken by Alexander in 
 the year 1903 of the era of the Chaldees, as is stated in Sim- 
 pi icius. Which notation accurately accords with the computa- 
 tion of Diodorus. For from the fall of Sardanapalus, 543 
 years are numbered to the capture of Babylon, by Alexander : 
 to which, if you add the 1360 years, occurring between the 
 foundation of the empire and the fall of Sardanapalus, you will 
 come to the year 1903 of the era of Babylon. Besides this, 
 from Velleius Paterculus, the same number of years, as are 
 stated by Justin, is collected, though by a different hypothesis ; 
 namely 1300 from Ninus to the fall of Sardanapalus, and the 
 accession of Arbaces. Vid Seal. Can. p. 313. et Lips. Not. in 
 Velleium. So much for the foundation of the Assyrian em- 
 pire. The beginning of the monarchy, all historians, as well 
 ethnic as christian, refer to Ninus. Vid. Diodor. Justin. Dionys. 
 
216 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 Nor let it be objected, that insuperable obsta- 
 cles arise, to embarrass the computation of this 
 early period of the history of mankind, from the 
 obscurity in which the antediluvian ages are invol- 
 ved; or the uncertainty introduced into the an- 
 cient chronology, by the contradictory calcula- 
 tions of the Hebrews, Greeks and Samaritans. 
 It is not necessary, in meeting this objection, to 
 have recourse to the plea, that in proportion as 
 our inquiries are carried up, these difficulties, 
 which merely arise from the imperfect views, or 
 false representations of later ages, must disap- 
 pear : and that a period existed in the annals of 
 our race, in which the scattered traditions of man- 
 kind, however widely dispersed, made up one 
 uniform and consistent testimony. On limiting 
 our views even to the most obscure periods, and 
 remote nations, some proof of the existence of such 
 an age, may be deduced, from the uniformity 
 with which, even in them, the leading events in 
 the general history are attested. Nor are the 
 proofs of their veracity deducible merely from the 
 accuracy with which some remarkable dates are 
 fixed, or the fidelity with which the general tenor 
 of incidents is recorded : but from the clue which 
 is furnished, for unravelling the perplexities, and 
 clearing up the misrepresentations of later ages, 
 and reconciling their inconsistencies with the 
 common voice of antiquity. 
 
 Oros. Hieron. But most chronologers, investigate the com- 
 mencement of the Assyrian monarchy, not from the beginning 
 of Cyaxares' but the end of Astyages's reign, the last of the 
 kings of the Medes, to whom they attribute 35 years, after 
 Herodotus, connecting the beginning of his reign with the end 
 of that of Cyrus. By these means, they anticipate my com- 
 putation about five years; in the choice between which the 
 reader is left to his own discretion." 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 217 
 
 In confirmation of these principles, reference 
 might be mgde to the most prominent incidents of 
 the sacred annals which have received the fullest 
 attestation of their truth, from those ethnic writers, 
 who have compiled the history of the eastern 
 continent. Of the deluge and dispersion of man- 
 kind, of the call of Abraham, and the legation of 
 Moses, their accounts, are generally circumstan- 
 tial, and accurate ; allowance being made for 
 their peculiar views, and prejudices, as pagans.^^^ 
 As I am immediately engaged with the opinions 
 and tenets of the Assyrians, the first of those 
 events, especially that connected with the erec- 
 tion of the tower of Babel, claims particular at- 
 tention : as from this occurrence, that nation, 
 which took the lead in the polity of the east, da- 
 ted the epoch of its empire. 
 
 When this period is carefully determined, with 
 reference to the chronological series, which is de- 
 ducible from the Mosaic history ;*^'' I cannot 
 
 ♦59 The testimony of those writers has been collected by Jo- 
 sephus and Eusebius ; and may be seen in the Praeparatio 
 Evangelica of the latter writer; Lib. IX. xi. seq. 
 
 4^0 I have already had occasion to mention the era of Ba- 
 bylon ; and, wlien it is computed from the statement of the 
 highest aMthorities, its coincidence with Scripture: vid. supr. p. 
 215. n. *^^. A computation, made like that of Helvicus, ft 
 posteriori, is alone calculated to put us in possession of the 
 truth ; as the reigns of the Persians and Macedonians are accu- 
 rately known, whereas the accession of the elder monarchs, on 
 which Africanus and his followers build, is involved in uncer- 
 tainty and error. The foundation of the computation being- 
 once firmly laid ; the concurrent testimony of such authorities 
 as Callisthenes, Ctesias, Diodorus, Trogus, and Justin, must be 
 considered definitive, as to the duration of the monarchy. On 
 their authority, Helvicus appears to have most accurately fixed 
 it, A. J. P. 248-2 ;^which reduced to Abp. Ussher's calculation 
 of the time of the Creation and Nativity answers to A. M. 
 1772. C C. 2232. Or correcting Helvicus, who after Scali- 
 
 F f 
 
218 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 discover any difference between the sacred and 
 profane account which will justify a denial of 
 their perfect identity. The inspired historian, 
 mentioning in general terms, the dispersion, at 
 the building of the tower of Babel, fixes that 
 event *' in the days " of Peleg : whose birth is 
 placed by him, in the year of the world 1757, 
 just thirteen years before the era of Babylon.*^^ 
 ii' we suppose the Assyrians dated the origin of 
 their empire from the foundation of the tower, and 
 dispersion of mankind ; there is nothing in the 
 supposition which militates against the account of 
 Peleg's birth, who must have been consequently 
 thirteen years old, at the time the city of Babylon 
 was founded. 
 
 From the indefinite manner in which the date 
 of the deluge is fixed, by native Assyrian writers ; 
 a Chaldean measure of time being used in com- 
 puting it, on the length of which different opinions 
 are held ; advantage might be taken to assert its 
 identity with the epoch assigned to the flood, by 
 the scripture chronology. According to the 
 
 ger miscalculates the nativity two years; the epoch may be de- 
 termined, by the account of Callisthenes, uti supr. p. 212. n.*'^, 
 still more accurately A. J. P. 2480. A. M. 1770. B. C. 2234. 
 I shall here take occasion to observe, that Semiramis having 
 founded the great temple of Belvs at Babylon ; the misconcep- 
 tion thence probably originated, that the tower of Babel, of the 
 destruction of which, accounts are given by Abydenus, Alex- 
 ander Polyhistor, Eupoleraus, and Artapanus, was built in her 
 reign ; vid. supr. p. 205. n. ^36, p, 212. n. ^so. It should be, 
 however, observed, as Helvicus has intimated, that there were 
 two epochs of the Assyrian monarchy ; one dated from Ninus, 
 and marking the commencement of the historical period, the 
 other from Belus, about 100 years earlier, and marking that of 
 the fabulous. 
 
 ^^1 Helvicus, collecting the several ages ascribed to the pa- 
 triarchs, remarks. Tab. Chron. p. 4. H. ad A. M. 1757. " Pe- 
 leg nascitur anno Mvndi 1757. Eberi 34. Gen. xi. 16," 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 219 
 
 scheme followed in the Septuagint translation of 
 the scriptures, which differs ftom the Hebrew ori- 
 ginal, 586 years, this hypothesis might be easily 
 maintained, and justified by ancient authority. 
 But as there is no reason to doubt, that the chro- 
 nological scheme of this ancient version, which is 
 now very generally abandoned for that of the origi- 
 nal, is systematically corrupted : the affinity be- 
 tween it and the Chaldee, can have no other ef- 
 fect than to involve the latter in its discredit. The 
 subject, however, merits some closer attention ; 
 not merely on account of the extraordinary confir- 
 mation, which the Chaldee computation of time 
 receives from the Egyptian ;*^- but from the clue 
 which it affords for reconciling the Samaritan and 
 Greek schemes of chronology with the Hebrew. 
 
 When the dates ascribed by the Chaldees to 
 the events of the antediluvian history, are internal- 
 ly considered, little doubt can be entertained, that ' 
 the system of their chronology has been accom- 
 modated to the principles of a favorite science. 
 While they agree with the Hebrews, in supposing 
 ten princes reigned before the Deluge, which 
 have been identified with the ten patriarchs, men- 
 tioned by Moses ;*^^ they assign the space of 120 
 sari, to their collective reigns,*^* by which period, 
 
 462 Vid. Syncel. Chroncgr. p. 17. Referring to this chrono- 
 loger, it is accordingly observed by the authors of the Ant. Hist. 
 B. I. ch. i. Vol. I. p. 272. " The Egyptians, who would give 
 place to no one nation in point of antiquity, have also a series 
 of kings, who, as is pretended, reigned in Egypt before the 
 
 flood; and to be even with the Chaldees, began their account 
 the very same year that their's does, according to Berosus." 
 
 463 Vid. infr. p. 223. corap. 224. n.*". 
 
 46* The admirable Bp. Pearson, improving upon Scaliger, 
 while remarking on the exorbitant length of the reigns, ascribed 
 to the Egyptian kings, thus expresses himself: Exp. of Creed. 
 Vol. II. p. 68. " As Diodorus Siculus takes notice of the E- 
 
220 THK ASSYIUAN LXPECTA TIO^S 
 
 of course, the distance of time intervening be- 
 tween the deluge and the creation is determined. 
 Respecting the length of the Chaldean saros, 
 different opinions are maintained: according to 
 which, this interval is variously estimated ; some 
 computing it at 432000 years, some at 1200, and 
 some at 2220.*^^ These different conjectures, on 
 the nature and value of this ancient measure of 
 time are exposed to the direct objection, that they 
 were wfiolly unnoticed by a writer who has minute- 
 ly described the Chaldean astrology, has profes- 
 sedly undertaken to determine the different cycles 
 received among the ancients, and has expressly 
 ascribed one, consisting of 12 years, to the Chal- 
 dees."*^ That this period gives the true value to 
 the saros, employed by Berosus, in fixing the 
 date of the Deluge, a single consideration, out of 
 
 gyptianSy and Abydenus of the Chaldeans, whose ten first kings 
 Tcigned 120 Sari, li? mq irocvlccq tlvat ^ctaT^iXq ^Vxa uv 5 x^ovoq 
 rr)<; (BoicriXiiaq cvvvj^i c7a.^8q IkoIov e'/xoo"*.'* He subsequently adds 
 in explaining the Saros: " neither was this the account only of 
 Abydenus, but also of Berosus." 
 
 465 Three interpretations are given of the Saros ; Alexander 
 Polyhistor, and after him Eusebius, make it 36000 years ; of 
 course 1*20 Sari amount to 432000 years. Two monks, Ania- 
 nus and Panodorus, by substituting rf«2/*^o'^y®^^s» reduced this 
 account to 1183 years, 6 months, apd 25 days ; estimating the 
 Saros at 9 years, JO months, and a half. Thus far Scaliger ; 
 whose statement is repeated by Bp. Pearson : but M. des Vig- 
 nolles, adopting the ancient year of 360d. makes the Saros 10 
 years, or 120 months; the sum of 120 Sari, of course, 1200 
 years. Bp. Pearson offers a third interpretation of the Saros, 
 from Suidas, in which it is made 222 months : or 18 years 
 months : hence the sum of 120 Sari amounts to 2220 years. 
 But Halley made it appear, that the period of the lunar Saros, 
 which is mentioned by Pliny, was 223 months : and mss. have 
 been found to confirm his conjecture of this being the true rea- 
 ding in Pliny, as well as to confirm that of Pearson, who has 
 corrected the number in Suidas. 
 
 *^^ Vid. Censorin. de Die Natal, cap. xiii, conf. supr. p. 94. 
 
 n.204. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. " 221 
 
 many that might be advanced, seems very fully 
 to establish. When the length of the ten reigns 
 antecedent to the Deluge, is computed by this 
 period, they collectively form the sum of 1440 
 years, which has been already mentioned as the 
 Great Year of the Chaldees.^^'^ That this result 
 is not merely accidental, is an assumption, which 
 is borne out, not merely by the great improbability 
 implied in the supposition, that the product of 
 ten sums, casually taken, like the sums ascribed 
 to the reigns of those ten princes, should exactly 
 coincide with this remarkable cycle. Without in- 
 sisting on the force of the term, saros, the chance 
 of error to which the ancients were liable, in ex- 
 plaining the term, and to which we are exposed in 
 understanding their expositions :^^^ one considera- 
 
 *6T Vid. infr. p. 223. comp. supr. p. 157. n. 353. xhe cycle 
 however existed previously to the discovery of the method of 
 intercalating by months : and preceded the Egyptian cycle of 
 1460 years,. to which it gave rise, as Sir J. Marsham has shewn : 
 Can. Chron. p. 296. It originated in the old astronomical year 
 of 360 days, the beginning of which retrograded through the sea- 
 sons in 72 revolutions ; 20 of which formed an Annus Maximus 
 of 1440 years. The same period arises, on multiplying 120, the 
 number of sari ascribed to the antediluvian reigns ; by 12, the 
 number of years ascribed by Censorinus, to the Annus Magnus 
 of the Chaldeans. 
 
 *^8 The term saros has been deduced from the Syriac 'mv ^ 
 ten ; and has been accordingly understood as meaning a decad : 
 vid. Allin, Disc, or Anc. Year. p. 165. But I believe it may 
 be derived with greater probability from -^wn . to perfect, and 
 that it was rather analogous to a period, or cycle. This deri- 
 vation accords with the best authenticated description of the 
 Chaldee saros, which we have received ; in which it is repre- 
 sented as a binar cycle of 223 months, which is wholly uncon- 
 nected with a decad. vid. supr. p. 120. n.^^^. The period of 12 
 years, to which I would extend the term, consisted of a Great 
 Year, in which every month was equal to a year ; and was 
 supposed to bring round a perfect vicissitude of the seasons. 
 This period, as constituted of 12 ancient years, consisted of 4320 
 days; which might easily give rise to the extravagant period of 
 
222 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 tion seems to place the point beyond all reasona- 
 ble exception. The great conversions of nature, 
 between which we find the period of a Chaldee 
 Great Year thus placed, as interposed between the 
 Creation and Deluge, are precisely those chan- 
 ges which the Great Year was conceived to bring 
 round, by its re volution. ^^^ I cannot think, it will 
 be thought necessary, that more time should be 
 consumed in investigating the length of 120 
 sari ; or in proving, that the Chaldees computed 
 the period of 1440 years, between the Creation 
 and Deluge ; and that in the preference shewn by 
 them to this period, a blind submission was paid to 
 their science, to the demands of which, they sacri- 
 ficed the accuracy of their chronology. 
 
 From the principles thus unfolded, I will now 
 venture to assert, that a solution may be drawn, 
 not merely of the difficulties in which the Chaldee 
 computation of the earliest epochs is embarrassed ; 
 but a clue may be found, to unravel the intricacies 
 in which the Samaritan and Septuagint calcula- 
 tions are involved, and to account for their devia- 
 tions from the Hebrew. For this purpose, I 
 shall exhibit a comparative view of the periods 
 ascribed to the antediluvian patriarchs, or princes 
 
 432000 years, assigned by Abydenus to the antediluvian princes ; 
 as the letters by which numbers are distinguished in the Syrian, 
 and other oriental languages, are raised in value merely by 
 points and lines, placed over and under them ; and as the term 
 year and day were in those languages convertible. Thus the cha- 
 racter ,, which expresses 4, acquires from the annexed points the 
 
 following values ; i 40, , 4000, , 40000, , 40000000. Thus it is 
 
 •* — A 
 
 not impossible, that Abydenus, by whom the most extravagant 
 length is ascribed to the saros, might have been deceived or im- 
 posed upon ; and that, if divested of wilful or accidental error, 
 his statement would differ immaterially, from that which I have 
 hazarded, as to the true length of the saros. 
 
 *^ Vid. supr. p. 94. n. 204, p. 147. „. 33*. p, 171. n. 379 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 
 
 223 
 
 according to the sacred and profane chronology ;*^^ 
 annexing to the former the different dates at 
 which their sons were born, according to the He- 
 brew Samaritan and Septuagint computation ; and 
 to the latter, the number of years into which I 
 conceive the sari should be interpreted. 
 
 CHALDEE PRINCES. 
 
 PATRIARCHS. 
 
 Sari. 
 
 Alorus reigned . . 10 
 
 Alasparus 3 
 
 Amelon 13 
 
 Amenon 12 
 
 Meo^alaras 18 
 
 Daonus 10 
 
 Euedorachus ... 18 
 
 Amphis 10 . 
 
 Otiartes 8 
 
 Xisuthrus 18 
 
 Years. 
 
 or 120 
 .. 36 
 .. 156 
 .. 144 
 .. 216 
 .. 120 
 .. 216 
 .. 120 
 .. 96 
 .. 216 
 
 Deluge 120.. 1440 
 
 Dispersion 1770 
 
 Heb. 
 
 Adam 130. 
 
 Seth 105. 
 
 Enos 90. 
 
 Cainan.... 70. 
 Mahaleel.. 65. 
 
 Jared 162. 
 
 Enoch 65 . 
 
 Methuselahl87. 
 Lamech . . . 182 
 Noah 600. 
 
 Sam. Sept. 
 
 .130.. 230 
 .105.. 205 
 . 90.. 190 
 . 70.. 170 
 . 65.. 165 
 . 62.. 162 
 . 65.. 165 
 . 67.. 187 
 . 53.. 188 
 .600.. 600 
 
 Deluge . .1656. .1307. .2262 
 Dispers. ..1770. .1721. .2787 
 
 The epoch of the dispersion is here calculated 
 from the age of Peleg, by adding 13 years to the 
 time assigned to his birth, in the accounts of the 
 Hebrew, Samaritan and Septuagint. 
 
 As the particular object on which I am engaged 
 is very different from that of tracing the affinities 
 
 ♦TO The line of Chaldee princes is taken from the lists pre- 
 served, by Syncellus, Chron. p. 18. 38. 39. from Abydenus, 
 Apollodorus, and Africanus. The terms of their reigns are 
 generally given from Africanus, the list of Abydenus being 
 imperfect at the beginning, and that of Apollodorus at the la- 
 ter end. On the authority of the two last, 10 sari are ascribed 
 to the reign of Daonus ; such being the number necessary to 
 complete the sum of 120 sari, during which those princes reigned, 
 according to the uniform testimony of Berosus, Abydenus, and 
 Apollodorus. 
 
^24 TflE ASSVRTAX EXPECTATIOXS 
 
 between the Chaldee traditions and sacred bistou- 
 ry; I shall merely observe incidentally, that no 
 doubt can be entertained, that the persons, directly 
 opposed in these lists, and assigned a supremacy 
 over the antediluvian world, must be identical.^' ^ 
 My business is more immediately with the annex- 
 ed dates, as affording a test of the accuracy of the 
 Chaldees, in their chronological computations. 
 
 *7i The identity of the ten Chaldee princes, and Antedilu- 
 vian patriarchs, is not merely evident, from the general confor- 
 mity which we are assured existed between the early accounts 
 of the Hebrews and Chaldees, which is expressly attested by 
 Theophilus Antiochen : p. 139. d. and Origencontr, Cels. I.xiv. 
 Their identity is expressly asserted by Cyril Alexandr. contr. 
 Jul. I. viii. and Cosmas Indicopl. XII. i. iii. By this last 
 mentioned writer, it is declared ; Ibid. "Ev rccTq XaX^cc'iy.oTt; ypcifA- 
 fAxa-iv Byi^'Jjcm t^L ** In the Chaldee history of Berosusand others, 
 it is thus stated ; that ten kings reigned among them, 2242 my- 
 riads of years : and that under the tenth king, Xisuthrus, as he 
 is called, a great deluge occured, but that Xisuthrus, warned 
 by God, entered a vessel, with his wife and relations, and ani- 
 mals, and was saved upon the mountains of Armenia ; that 
 after the deluge he offered eucharistic sacrifices to the gods ; in 
 which account, the entire history of Moses is exhibited in a dif- 
 ferent form. For mankind having continued for ten genera- 
 tions in the former world, during 2242 years ; in the tenth 
 generation, the deluge happening under Noah, they were car- 
 ried hither by the arli. This Noah they call Xisuthrus." A 
 little lower down, he proceeds to identify each of the Chaldee 
 princes with one of the patriarchs. Of the first of the line, he 
 observes. Ibid, iii. um'mXoiQcivro x^ avro) Iiko, ^acriXB7g, -JTup' avro7'(; 
 ^cc,(TiXevQcx,vrcc,<;, , . »uv o 'za^ojroq" AKu^oq, rersr^v A^a-jx. And how- 
 ever the patriarch is disguised in this representation, it is not 
 impossible to recognise him, even under this title. This prince 
 is evidently identical with the "fipo?, who appears at the head of 
 the line af antediluvian monarchs, which are placed by the E- 
 gyptians, at the commencement of their annals. By this title, 
 he will be easily identified with the Baal of the Orientalists ; 
 Suid. Lex. VOC. n§*a7ro?' to ayaA/xa re n^taOTtf , t5 "l^py "Trocp' 'At- 
 yvTrlioi;, avfipw^roEt^E? 'motSQiv )^s. The remainder of the offensive 
 description, will be found supr. p. 89. n.^9*. and its interpreta- 
 tion ibid. p. 104. seq. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 225 
 
 In order to establish this test, it is necessary that 
 the authority of the Hebrew account should be 
 vindicated; as by a calculation founded exclu- 
 sively upon it, those four ages are found to inter- 
 vene, between the Creation of the world and that 
 restitution, which the Orientalists considered a 
 Regeneration.*'- And even at the first view, ap- 
 pearances seem to decide in favor of the Hebrew 
 chronology. The differences of the computations, 
 in the four schemes, when comparatively viewed, 
 may be most easily accounted for, on the assump- 
 tion of its accuracy. 
 
 The sum of the several years ascribed to the 
 Chaldee princes, not only constitutes a complete 
 cycle, as amounting to 1440 years; but as forming 
 the Chaldee Great Year, constitutes the most re- 
 markable period acknowledged by that people. 
 As it falls short of the correspondent period 
 1656, in the Hebrew, just 216 years; the date 
 which it marks, is consequently removed precisely 
 three revolutions of the ancient Cycle of 72 years ; 
 which was not less a remarkable period, as fur- 
 nishing the element, out of which the Great 
 Year was constructed.*^^ Here there are plain 
 indications, that artifice has been employed ; and 
 obviously not employed, on the side of the He- 
 brew. 
 
 From the manner in which the sacred history 
 recounts the patriarchs' ages, whatever be the 
 edition by which they are computed ; it is obvious, 
 that the differences between their computations, 
 are not to be accounted for, on the grounds of in- 
 advertence, or accidental alteration. As it divides 
 the period of their lives into two parts, and adds 
 the sum of each portion ; though it is very possi- 
 
 *72 Vid. supr. p, 172. n. 3bi. 473 Vid. supr. p. 221. n.^^^T. 
 
 G g 
 
226 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ble, that the three numbers expressing each of 
 these periods, might be changed by a handy 
 scribe ; the error must have united in its com- 
 position, something of a miracle, by which they 
 could be so transubstantiated, as to leave the com- 
 putation consistent, when this triple blunder was 
 commit ted. '^^* Whatever be the principle, which 
 
 474 F. Tournemine, having perceived the facility with which 
 the first figure might be inadvertently dropped, in three dates 
 of the Samaritan ; thence conceived his project for reducing it at 
 once to the Hebrew ; which would have rendered the case of 
 the Septuagint hopeless, as having two to one against it. And 
 without doubt, the knot might have been thus speedily cut, and 
 the contest, on the subject of their chronology, ended ; had not 
 the Samaritans, both in their text and version, perversely accom- 
 modated the remnant of Jared, Methuselah and Lamech's lives, 
 which alone differ from the Hebrew, to those dates expressing 
 their earlier years, which the reverend father had so easily re- 
 duced to accidental errors. Thus while the Hebrew ascribes 
 to the earlier days of Jared 162 years, and to the latter 800, 
 it rounds the whole into the sum of 962. And it deals in the 
 same manner by Methuselah, and Lamech ; noting the different 
 periods of the life of the former, under the numbers 187, 782, 
 and the sum 969 ; and of the latter, under 182, 595, and the 
 sum 777. But what is more unlucky, the Samaritan, unfortu- 
 nately, besides dropping a century, in numbering 62 5^ears, as 
 Jared's earlier days, adds 785 years, as the remainder of his 
 days, and sums up his years as 847 : and in like manner, expres- 
 ses the age of Methuselah under the numbers 67, and 653, ga- 
 thered in the sum 720 ; and that of Lamech under the numbers 
 53, 600, and collected also in the sum 653. Now, though it 
 maybe granted, that the suras, 162, 187, 182, which express, in 
 the Hebrew, the earlier days of the three patriarchs, might 
 respectively migrate into 62, 87, 82, or even into 65, 67, 53, 
 which give the present reading of the Samaritan copies : it is 
 drawing rather largely on our faith, to require us to admit, that 
 800, 782, 595, which express their latter days, could, by a 
 mere slip of the pen, respectively change into 785, 653, 600. 
 Whatever the testimony of St. Jerome may decide, as to cer- 
 tain copies which he inspected ; the consideration of the last 
 numbers will, I believe, fully prove, that the notion of an acci- 
 dental error, in transcription, is wholly inadequate to solve the 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 227 
 
 %vas followed, and as the alteration was systematic, 
 some principle must have existed ; to the deve- 
 lopement of that, by which the revisers of the 
 different editions were guided, the direct course 
 appears to lie, in an investigation of the internal 
 evidence. 
 
 In pursuing this course, if a glance is cast 
 along the two columns, expressing the patriarchs' 
 ages, in the Septuagint and the Samaritan; the 
 uniformity with which they depart from the He-' 
 brew is not less striking than that which has 
 been pointed out in the Chaldee : both deviating 
 from it in the ratio of a century ; which is added 
 to the dates of the Septuagint, and subducted 
 from those of the Samaritan. Yet though thus 
 differing from it, when they are estimated sepa- 
 rately ; when their testimony is taken conjointly,, 
 they afford it the fullest confirmation ; as there is 
 but one date of the Hebrew which is not confirm- 
 ed by the concurrent authority, either of the 
 Septuagint, or the Samaritan ; its first numbers 
 agreeing with the one, and its last with the other. 
 And this is an advantage, which, it may be ob- 
 served, is shared in common with it, neither by 
 the Septuagint, nor the Samaritan. 
 
 The whole of the presumptions, arising from 
 the internal evidence, consequently decide as 
 strongly, in favor of the Hebrew computation, as 
 against that of the Septuagint and Samaritan, 
 If, from the influence, which the Chaldee might 
 have hady upon the chronological schemes of the 
 
 difficulties of the question before us : and that the Rev^erend 
 Jesuit's principle goes but a short way towards reconciling 
 the Samaritan with the Hebrew chronology ; — to any mind 
 which is not constructed to admit a transmutation, as probable, 
 as that inculcated, by the infallibility of his Mother Church, 
 in the doctrine of transubstantiation. 
 
 Gg'2 
 
228 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 latter, a principle can be deduced, by which these 
 contrary elements may be reconciled ; there can 
 be little reason to doubt, that the difficulties in 
 which this intricate subject is involved, will find, 
 in it, the true solution. The persons by whom 
 the Samaritan copies were preserved, and the 
 Samaritan version was formed, as Babylonian 
 colonists by descent, naturally inherited the pre- 
 judices of Chaldees.^^^ Whatever controversy 
 
 *75 The account of the colonisation of Samaria, /ro/w Babylon 
 and Persia, is given, 2 King xvii. 24. seq. and particular men- 
 tion made of the superstitious attachment with which the new 
 settlers adhered to their paternal traditions. The sacred his- 
 torian observes of them, Ibid. 33, 34. 40, 41. " They feared 
 the Lord, and served their own gods after the manner of the na- 
 tions, whom they carried away from thence. Unto this day 
 they do after the former manner : they fear not the Lord nei- 
 ther, do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or 
 after the laio and commandment, which the Lord commanded 
 the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel .... Howbeit 
 they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. 
 So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven ima- 
 ges, both their children, and their children's children ; as did 
 their fathers, so do they." Particular accounts of the remains 
 of this extraordinary people, are given in a letter addressed by 
 them to Scaliger, and published in Antiq. Eccles. Orient. 
 Morin. p. 122. Lond. 1688. and in separate Dissertations, by 
 Reland. de Samarit. Lobstein. Comment, de Samar. Relig. 
 M. de Sacy M4m. sur les Samar. &c. This last writer, and 
 great ornament of the present age, p. 14, 15. gives the history 
 of the copy of their version of the Pentateuch from which our 
 printed text is descended. Scaliger having expressed a wish 
 for it, Pietro della Valle procured one, which he presented to 
 M. de Sancy, then French ambassador at the Porte, by whom 
 it was presented to the Rev. Fathers of the Congregation of 
 the Oratory, called Saint-Honore. And one of the members, 
 P. Morin, thence published it in the Polyglott of le Jaye. 
 That distinguished ornament and munificent patron of learning, 
 Abp.Ussher, to have some of whose blood circulating in my own 
 veins is no small boast, lays claim to the merit of having had 
 the first copies of the Samaritan edition of the Hebrew Text 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 229 
 
 lias been moved, respecting the origin of the 
 Septuagint version ; it admits of no dispute, that 
 it v^as intended for the use of Jewish proselytes, 
 and was composed with a view to its circulation 
 among the heathen.*'^ The person, who of all an- 
 tiquity, was best qualified, from his critical attain- 
 ments, to pronounce upon the merits of this work ; 
 has given the authors of it the credit, of having 
 accommodated their translation to the prejudices 
 of the ethnic reader ; and the Jews themselves have 
 pleaded guilty to this imputation .*^^ In the vin- 
 
 brought into Europe, of which he presented copies to Oxford, 
 Leyden, and Sir Rob. Cotton : see his Dissert, on the Septua- 
 gint. Ravis's Dedic. to his Disc, on the Orient. Tongues. Todd's 
 Life of Walt. Vol. I. p. 184. n. <>. 
 
 *76 The account of Aristeas, though generally received 
 among the Jews, and early Christians, and partially admitted 
 by Aristobulus, Philo Judaeus and Josephus, as well as Justin, 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, Irenaeus, Cyrillus Hieoros. Eusubius 
 and Epiphanius ; That the Greek version was made by seventy 
 Jews, for Ptolemy Philadelphus, at the suggestion of his libra- 
 rian, Demetrius Phalareus, is now given up, by the learned, 
 as a fable. The credit of the story of Aristeas, was attacked 
 by St. Jerome, with his accustomed zeal and spirit ; and the 
 merit of the version itself reduced to its proper level, in the 
 controversal writings of that learned father. The question is 
 diflfusively handled, by Abp. Ussher, Dr. Hody and others; the 
 substance of it may be seen in Dr. Holmes's Prolegomena to 
 the Septuagint, and Mt. Faucon's Praeliminaria to the Hexa- 
 pla. Judging from the internal evidence of the version, it was 
 obviously made by different hands, and most probably at diffe- 
 rent periods. 
 
 *77 St. Jerome, speaking of this version, observes, Praef. in 
 Pentateuch. " In quibus multa de veteri Testamento legimus, 
 qua^ in nostris codicibus non habentur. . . .Causas erroris non 
 estmeum exponere, Judcei prudenti factum dicunt esse consilio: 
 ne Ptolemaeus unius Dei cultor, etiam apud Hebraeos duplicem 
 divinitatem deprehenderet. Quod maxime idcirco faciebant 
 quia in Platonis dogma cadere videbatur. Denique ubicumque 
 sacratum aliquid Scriptura testatur de Patre et Filio et Spiritu 
 Saucto, aut aliter interpretati sunt, aut omnino tacuerunt, ut et 
 
230 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 dication, likewise, which they have oifered for 
 the unwarrantable licence that they have taken 
 with the inspired text, it is fully implied, that 
 as they had violated its integrity, on points of doc- 
 trine, when a particular object was in view ; they 
 would not much respect it, in matters of chrono- 
 logy, when a like end was to be answered. Such 
 causes having operated in prepossessing the Sa- 
 maritans in favor of their hereditary chronology ; 
 and inducing the Hellenists to conciliate the eth- 
 nic prejudices, on the side of their national histo- 
 ry : it may. be now left to the internal evidence to 
 decide, how far the sacred chronology may have 
 suffered in its integrity, from the predominant 
 influence of the Chaldee science. 
 
 The saros, by which the Chaldees computed 
 the period elapsed between the creation and de- 
 luge, has been already mentioned, as a term 
 equivocal in its sense, and capable of different 
 values. Of the different lengths assigned to this 
 ancient measure of time, two have been noticed 
 in which it has been converted into periods of 
 months and days : and according to the former, the 
 space of time, computed by the Chaldees, between 
 the creation and deluge, has been estimated at 2222 
 years, and according to the latter at 1200. 
 
 4T8 
 
 regi satisfacerent, et arcanum fidei non vulgarent. Et nescio 
 quis primus auctor Septuaginta cellulas Alexandriae mendacio 
 suo extruxerit, quibus divisi scriptitarunt : cum Aristeeas ejus- 
 dem Ptolemaei t/9rE^acr9rtr>!?, et raulto post tempore Joseplius, 
 nil tale retulerint, sed in una basilica congregates contulisse 
 scribant non prophetasse." 
 
 *7^8 Vid. supr. p. 220. n. '*^^. Bp. Pearson, in claiming a 
 third sense for the term saros, supplies a defect in the printed 
 copies of Suidas, by the following passage, from a ms. in the 
 
 Vatican ; ** ol ya^^K a-u^oi •rroiSatv Iviccvlsq ^(X)t0 , xara, Ty}V XtxK^ccluv 
 ■tl/r,^oVf i'^Trip crago? wroiaT /xvjva? Qi?.viVia-Kuv a-x^' , ol ytvowcci in hiocvrot 
 
 f^ /tA^jvE? a|." which he thus translates, *' Saros, according to the 
 
OP A GREAT DELIVERER. 231 
 
 When these numbers are compared with the 
 correspondent dates 2242 and 1307 ascribed to 
 the same interval, in the Septuagint and Sama- 
 ritan ; without making any allowance for the 
 possibility of an error in the numbers/^^ the coin- 
 cidence must be admitted to amount to a very 
 strong presumption, that the Septuagint and the 
 Samaritan, in their deviations from the Hebrew, 
 have suffered from the influence of the Chaldee. 
 
 The case of the Septuagint can merit little fur- 
 ther attention ; as we find the ancients, who had 
 no suspicion of an error in that version, so fully 
 impressed with the identity of the sums in the 
 Greek and Chaldee account, that they express 
 them by the same denomination.*^^ It is perfectly 
 
 Chaldee account, comprehends 222 months, which come to 18 
 years and months ; therefore 120 saroi make 2220 [2222] 
 years :' and therefore for ^o-ji/3', I read, leaving out the last /3, 
 /3<7x', that is, 2220." But this emendation will not cure the 
 passage, since it appears, the octodecennial cycle of the Chal- 
 dees fell short of the decemnovennial of Meton, but 12 luna- 
 tions, and of course, consisted of 223 months ; and as the con- 
 text is constant in retaining /3, the last unit, I cannot acquiesce 
 in the expediency of this correction. The ancient Fathers, who 
 knew less of the Chaldee lunar saros than ourselves, were not 
 infallible in their computations ; and are constant in adding the 
 2 years to the saros, which are cut off by this emendation. 
 
 *79 It must be however observed, that I have adopted 2242, 
 as the proper computation of the Septuagint ; this being the 
 number which is given by the ancient Fathers : thus Theophilus 
 Antiochenus, observes, uti supr. p. 138. utto yMaaq Koa-i/.ii 'iuq 
 xctlxy.Xva-[jLd, tytvo'flo irvt ^a-f^^l * from the creation of the world to 
 the deluge there were 2242 years/ And the same remark may 
 be made of the writers before us ; as of Suidas, voc. 'A^oif/,. and 
 Cosmas, uti supr. p. 224. n:*^!. The authors of the Ancient 
 History, Vol. I. p. 223. in their comparison of the Hebrew and 
 Septuagint chronology, follow Cappel, in admitting this to be 
 the scripture number. 
 
 4«o Thus Cosmas, who devotes a large portion of his work 
 to astronomical subjects, gives 2242 as the common expression 
 
232 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 insignificant, as to the result of these observations, 
 whether the Hellenic authors of the Septuagint, 
 and the Fathers of the Church were right in their 
 computations. It is sufficient for my purpose, 
 that those who possessed the greatest astronomi- 
 cal and chronological skill, were agreed upon 
 the identity of the numbers, which were employed 
 in the Greek and Chaldee ;*^^ and what is of the 
 last importance to the establishment of that 
 result, have so far admitted the influence of 
 the latter, as they have established their own 
 accuracy, by an appeal to its autliority. 
 
 The case of the Samaritans appears to me to be 
 not less clear and decisive. Finding the period 
 of 120 sari, ascribed to the ten reigns of the ante- 
 diluvian princes ; and deriving the Chaldee term 
 from ^^v, signifying ten, in their vernacular, or 
 from ;iax, with the same signification, in their pa- 
 ternal language ; they might deduce the product of 
 1200 by a simpler process, than it is effected in 
 
 of the Greek and Chaldee sum ; admitting the substitution of 
 years for days in the computations of the latter, while he raises 
 them to myriads ; Opin. de Mund. uti supr. p. 340. ra? ^sp^? 
 
 ^'y]<Toe,u]u(; t»^ »' QoceriXu<; bI'SjoV ci'?rBp o Mcdvcrvig ccnso K^sc^ 'iuq re kccIcc- 
 
 xXva-fMe Tov Nwfi ^a-fjiff btti »?^iS|w.*j(7£v : ' but changing days into 
 years, they said the ten kings lived 2242 myriads of years ; 
 as Moses numbered 2242 years from Adam to the deluge of 
 Noah.' 
 
 *8i This, it has been shewn was the case of Cosmas, whose as- 
 tronomical information, was atleast equal to any of the primi- 
 tive Fathers. And the same may be said of Theophilus, a con- 
 vert from Paganism, and bishop of Antioch, whose chronologi- 
 cal attainments, were not surpassed, by any of his contempora- 
 ries or predecessors. While he computes the interval between 
 the creation and deluge, at 2242 years, he asserts the perfect 
 coincidence of his calculations, and those of Berosus; Lib. III. 
 
 ad fin. OTi ^B -TTEp* aiv (pa.[jt,By ^povuv Qvpci^n x^ J^r}p(oQo<;, o larpc^a, X<»A- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 233 
 
 our arithmetic ; their notation merely requiring a 
 point over the character, while ours requires the 
 addition of a cypher.*^- We have now, there- 
 fore, only to compare this computation of the 
 length of the ten antediluvian princes' reigns, 
 with that ascribed to the ten patriarchs in their 
 scheme of chronology, to be convinced of their 
 extraordinary coincidence. If the period ascribed 
 to Noah, be calculated, strictly after the analogy 
 oi the ten Chaldee princes, or after that of the nine 
 preceding Patriarchs — from the time of his becoming 
 a father ; 100 years must be subducted, from the 
 period when he entered the Ark, and of course 
 from the epoch of the deluge. For, according to 
 the text and version of the Samaritans them- 
 selves \^^ ** Noah w^sjive hundred years old ; and 
 he begat Shem, Ham and Japhet : . . .And Noah 
 was si.v hundred years old, when the flood of 
 waters was upon the earth." On deducting this 
 
 '*82 Thus the numerals in the phrase, yz> _.^xq1.> expressing 
 120 decads, are raised to 1200, by merely putting a point over 
 
 the characters, ^a expressing 1200. These numbers it may be 
 be observed, facilitated the change which was thus made, from 
 the duodecimal computation of the Chaldees, who made the 
 saros 12 years, to the decimal, in which, as here, it is merely 
 
 made 10 years : .«-\. 12 being raised by points to ^^x*, 120 ; 
 which equally expresses ten times 12, or Uvelve times 10. 
 
 *S3 The age of Noah at the birth of Japhet, in perfect con- 
 formity with the Hebrew, Gen. v. 32. nim mi^D mnu fl, * a 
 son o^five hundred years ;' is expressed in the Hebraeo-Samari- 
 tan text, 5f!^wA AT/fiiJ ^"^"^ :^^, and Samaritan version, 
 ^A^ i^A^t^ "A^*^ ^9, with the same sense. His age, at 
 the beginning of the deluge, in like'manner, is given in the He- 
 brew, lb. vii. 6. 7\W mi^D \1>\D p, * a son o^ six hundred years i* 
 in the Hebreeo-Samaritan, ^"^i^ A-^/f^ ^^^ tiS ; and the Sa- 
 maritan version, ^A^ !^/!f-"?iiS AA '\B, with the same signifi- 
 cation. Nor is there any variation from these dates in the 
 other oriental versions. 
 
 H h 
 
234 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 sum, from the 1307 years, computed by their 
 chronology to the deluge; their remains 1207, 
 which ditfers but seven years, from the 1200, de- 
 duced by their interpretation, from the 120 sari 
 of the Chaldee computation. 
 
 Nor is this view of their mode of computing 
 merely hypothetical ; but founded, like the pre- 
 ceding, on the express authority of the ancients. 
 If the number 432000,"^ which they have assigned 
 to the length of 120 sari, be taken, as they pre- 
 scribe, in the sense of days instead of years,^"^ and 
 the term of the ancient year be adopted in the 
 computation ; 1200 years will prove the precise 
 sum ascribed by the Chaldees,^^ to their antedilu- 
 
 ^^^ T have already shewn, how it is possible, the number, 
 432000 days, (from which 1200 years have been deduced, a3 
 below, n. ^^^) might have originated in the 4320 days, which 
 constitute the pivpei' Chaldee saros of 12 years : vid. supr. p. 
 
 222. n. 468. Thus the characters, .A\ /. expressing 4320, by 
 a very slight variation of the points, become --^V /, 432000 : 
 
 vid. Michael. Gram. Syr. § iv. p. 12. So that .*-n\ / .v^ o.. by 
 simply varying the points, might be equally employed to ex- 
 press 4320 days, or 432000 years. By the latter expression, 
 Alexander Polyhistor might have been imposed upon ; from 
 whom the error is adopted by Eusebius. 
 
 485 I shall again refer, on this subject, to the learned Bp. of 
 Chester : following Scaliger, he observes, Exp. of Creed, uti 
 supr. p. G8. ** In the fragment of Abydenus, preserved by Eu- 
 sebius, Sa^o? ^B Iriv l^ciKoa-Kx. x^ TpKT;(;iAta £T>3 ; * evcry saros is 
 3600 years;' and consequently the 120 saroi, belonging to the 
 reign of the ten kings, 432'000 years. . .neither was this the in- 
 terpretation only of Eusebius, but also of Alexander Polyhis- 
 tor, who likewise expresseth, rov ^.^ovov t?? ^uQXeiaq avruv c-a^aq 
 
 This seemed so highly incredible, that two ancient monks, 
 Anianus and Pandorus, interpreted those Chaldean years to 
 be days, so that every saros should consist of 3600 days," &c. 
 
 486 I shall give the application of the preceding interpreta- 
 tion, in the words of M, de Vignolles, uti supr, p. 629. " A 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 235 
 
 vian princes' reigns ; as 1207 is that ascribed, by 
 the Samaritans, to the antediluvian patriarchs' 
 ages, at the birth of Japhet, the first son of Noah. 
 As far, therefore, as a coincidence between the 
 Chaldee and Samaritan rate of computing the age 
 of the ten personages, who preceded the deluge, 
 implies a proof of the one having had an influence 
 upon the other ; I cannot see on what reasonable 
 principle it is possible to dispute it. 
 
 It would be an abuse of time to employ any 
 further arguments in proving, that, in the terms 
 2242 and 1200 years, deduced from the 120 sari, 
 ^which the Chaldees assigned to the reigns of their 
 antediluvian princes, originated the periods of 
 2242 years computed by the Septuagint, from the 
 creation; and of 1207 years, ascribed by the 
 Samaritans to the patriarchal ages, by which 
 the course of time was calculated to the deluge. 
 And to the two leading dates, which were 
 thus fixed, it may be now summarily observed, 
 the entire chronological scheme of both systems 
 has been obviously accommodated. 
 
 The Septuagint having brought down the epoch 
 of the deluge nearly 1000 years ; as the interval 
 from the creation was divided, by the lives of the 
 patriarchs into ten parts; the period was thus 
 easily filled up, by a century added to each of 
 their ages. But the great age of Methuselah, 
 which terminated in the year of the flood, w^as of 
 an extent too unmanageable, to be thus moulded 
 at the will of the undertaker. By the period, for 
 
 360 jours, qui selon moi font uue aiinee juste, ajoutez simple - 
 ment un zero, vous aurez 3600 jours, qui valent un sare, 6gal 
 a 10 annees precisement. En fin si vous nuiltipliez cez deux 
 nombres par 120 sares; vous aurez pour le dernier nonibre 
 432'000 jowrs, dont on avoit voulu faire autant d'anuees ; quoi- 
 qite Us nef assent que 1200 annees justesJ^ 
 
 Hh 2 
 
236 THE ASSYRIAN EXPJECTATlONS 
 
 which it was prolonged, it was unluckily extended 
 fourteen years beyond the time of the deluge ;**'^ 
 in which the whole earth, except Noah and his 
 family, were, even on its own authority, stated to 
 have perished.*®^ And thus the contrivers of this 
 system were drawn into an error, which would 
 be sufficient to demolish the credit of their work, 
 were it exposed to no other objection. 
 
 The Samaritans, it would appear, went more 
 cautiously to work. With the life of Noah, as so 
 well known, it became wholly unsafe to tamper : 
 in the various innovations of the different chrono- 
 logical systems, it has accordingly escaped unal- 
 tered. But in following their Chaldee progeni- 
 tors, they fixed the birth of Japhet, Noah's first 
 son, 1207 years from the creation ; hence, as the 
 deluge occurred, 100 years after his nativity,'**-^ 
 1307 became its epoch, in the system of their 
 chronology. It was thus antedated above 300 
 years ; and we accordingly find this sum subduct- 
 ed from the lives of the three first patriarchs, 
 preceding the flood, which admitted of reduction : 
 
 ^7 Though some of the copies of the Septuagint have been 
 corrected from the Ilexaplar Hebrew ; there is not the least 
 j^round of doubt, that this blunder is coeval with the date of 
 the version. St. Jerome thus delivers himself, on the subject. 
 Quacst. in Genes, v. III. p. 453. " Tamosa quaistio, et dispu- 
 tatione omnium ccclesHiarum ventilata, quod, Juxta dili{j;entem 
 supputationern, f/uatuordecim annos post diluvium Mathusela 
 vixisse referatur. . . .Sexcentesimo autem anno vita; Noe dilu- 
 vium factum est, ac per hoc, habita supputatione per partes, 
 nongentesimo quinquagesimo quinto anno Mathusala, diluvium 
 fuisse convincifur. Cum autem supra nongentis sexagintanovem 
 annis vixisse sit dictus, nuUi dubium est t/uatuordecim eum nn- 
 nos vixisse post dilnviumy et quo modo verum est, quod octo 
 tantum animac in area salvaj factic sunt? Conf. Euseb. Chron. 
 iivoic. p. 4. 
 ^ Gen. vii. 4. 21, 22. *«*u Vid. 8upr. p. 233. n.*^^ 
 
UNIVL.ASITY 
 
 OF A GREAT DELIVEREK. 237 
 
 some other arrangements being made, apparently 
 \vith the ^iew ol^ making the life of Methuselah 
 terminate at the deluge. " 
 
 The chronological schemes of the Septua^nt 
 and Samaritan, must be, of course, abandoned, as 
 of no authority- : having palpably suffered from the 
 influence of the Chaldee science. iSor can any 
 use be made of either sj^tem, in calculating the 
 period computed by the Chaldees, between the 
 deluge and Babylonian era ; as the principles, on 
 which they have been altered, are arbitrary and 
 uncertain. The confirmation which they afford 
 the Hebrew, in respectively bearing testimony to 
 the accuracy of its dates, has been already no- 
 ticed ;^ and mention has been incidentally made 
 of the corroboration, which tlie latter system 
 equally receives from the Chaldee chronology, in 
 the determination of the epoch of the Assyrian 
 empire .^^^ Of this system, it is however observa- 
 ble, that though it derives no support from the 
 Egyptian computation, in the epoch which it as- 
 signs to the deluge ;^ it has fully established its 
 consistency, as a system, in referring that epoch 
 to an earlier period, than it is assigned in the 
 Hebrew. To the dates which are assii^ned to its 
 earliest monarchs, who reigned after the flood, it 
 has been objected, that tliey precede the period 
 when it really happened.**^ But this is only true, 
 
 *90 Vid. supr. p. 227. ^i Ibid. p. 218. 
 
 ♦92 Vid. supr. p. 219. n. *^, The coincidence stated by Be- 
 rosus, to have subsisted between the Chaldee and Esrvptian 
 computations of the period before the dehia^, is strictly conlineil 
 to the year at which they bearan their respective calculations. 
 Though it thus clearly appears, that tliey agreed in lixing: tlie 
 epoch of the creation ; notliiug is determined as to their coiuci- 
 dence respecting the date of the deluge. 
 
 *9' By Helvicus, whose vie>vs on the subject were more just 
 
238 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 when its epoch is computed, according to the He- 
 brew system : though the line of Assyrian princes 
 precedes the epoch of the deluge, by 11 years, 
 according to this scheme, it comes 207 years 
 lower than that assigned it in the Chaldee. The 
 Septuagint and the Samaritan schemes are equal- 
 ly unaffected by this objection ; both antedating 
 the deluge to the accession of Belus, the earliest 
 monarch. "^^ And I am wholly mistaken, or v/e 
 
 than those of his predecessors, this objection is thus stated : 
 Tab. Chron. uti supr. p. 5. g. *' Nos e multis duas potissimum 
 diversas supputationes proposuimus. Una est Africani, qui 
 omnes reges Assyriacos e veteribus autoribus recenset, quamvis 
 series ilia supra Diluvium excurrat. Eum Scaliger quoque se- 
 cutus est." It has been however objected to Scaliger, that he 
 aggravates the evil, by adding 25 years to the reigns of those 
 kings, above the period assigned to them, in his author : vid. 
 Vignol. uti supr. Lib. IV. ch. iv. § 3. p. 166. Following Afri- 
 canus, this last mentioned chronologist, ib. p. 163. places the 
 accession of Belus, A. J. P. 2355. correspondmg to A. M. 
 1645, which precedes the epoch of the deluge, A. M. 1656. 
 just 11 years. In the tables of Helvicus, his accession is 
 brought two years lower. 
 
 ^9* The earliest epoch of the Assyrian empire, like their first 
 monarch, is purely fabulous ; and, I am of opinion, like the date 
 of the deluge, was founded on the doctrine of the Great Year : 
 vid. supr. p. 148. The line is drawn between the fabulous and 
 the historical period by Castor, who is followed by Eusebius : 
 vid. Syncel. p. 206. He places Belus at the head of the cata- 
 logue of the Assyrian kings ; but declares his ignorance of the 
 length of his reign, and expressly commences his chronology 
 from Ninus. The manner in which the fabulous period has 
 been grafted on the historical, and the whole rounded into a 
 period of 1460 years, may be learned from the following speci- 
 men of the course pursued by Justin ; Vignol. uti supr. p. 194. 
 •* Justin finit son extrait par ces paroles; * Imperium Assyrii, 
 qui postea Syri dicti sunt, mille trecentis annis tenuere.' Con- 
 ringinus citant ce passage dit que Troge Pomijee s'accordoit 
 avec Ctesias ; ' mais que son abbreviateur, Justin, n'ccrivoit 
 que le nombre rond de 1300, en negligent les 60'. ... Or comme 
 Justin ne parle pas de Belus: et ne marque ni le tems oi^ Ninus 
 fut maitre de I' Orient, ni la duree de son r^gne ; si on Vy joint 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 239 
 
 thus arrive at the true cause, by which the con- 
 structers of those systems were influenced, in de- 
 ranging the entire system of the sacred chronolo- 
 gy : the epoch assigned the deluge, in the He- 
 brew scheme, having been irreconcilable with the 
 early reigns ascribed the first Assyrian monarchs, 
 it was deemed necessary to correct it by the 
 Chaldee account ; from which the epoch con- 
 ceived to be true, was accordingly adopted. 
 
 Though the entire scheme of the Septuagint and 
 Samaritan chronology must be consequently given 
 up, and the computation of the Chaldees resigned, 
 as far as respects the epoch of the deluge ; yet 
 even, in regard to this date, the credit of their 
 calculations is, in a great measure redeemed, by 
 one consideration. I have already observed, on 
 the testimony of Berosus, that they implicitly 
 agreed with the Egyptians, in fixing the epoch of 
 the creation ; it is now to be observed, that how- 
 ever they might have differed both from them 
 and the Hebrews, as to the year in which the 
 deluge occurred ; it appears, that they were no 
 strangers, as to the day, from whence the com- 
 mencement of it was to be computed. The 
 tradition which they preserved on this subject, 
 and which is recorded by Berosus and Abydenus, 
 the most highly reputed of the Assyrian and 
 Chaldee historians,^^ is the more valuable from a 
 
 avec celle de Belus, sonpere, on aura une duree de plus de 1460 
 ans." 
 
 495 ^V^histon, following Langius de Ann. Christ, p. 255. ob- 
 serves, Theor. of the Earth. B. III. ch. iv. § xlix. " This vast 
 fall of waters, or forty days rain, began on the sixth day of the 
 week, an Friday the 2Qth of November, being the seventeenth 
 day of the 2nd month from the autumnal equinox, . . . [Gen. vii. 
 11.] * In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second 
 month, the seventeenth day of the month, , . .the windows of hea- 
 
240 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 slight discrepancy which is discoverable between 
 it, and that transmitted by the Egyptians and He- 
 brews, between whose accounts there was a per- 
 fect conformity. For upon this difference, between 
 their testimony and that of those early nations, 
 they may be convicted, not merely of having an- 
 tedated the epoch of the deluge, but for the inter- 
 val precisely, that it was put back, according to 
 the computation of the Hebrew chronology. 
 
 The Babylonian era being fixed in the year of 
 the world 1770, and the deluge referred, to the 
 year 1440 ; these dates are separated by an inter- 
 val of 330 years. This period, however, v/as per- 
 formed by the ancient year, in four revolutions of 
 the cycle of 72 years, and 42 years, precisely. 
 Now as the beginning of the ancient year, from 
 the annual loss of five days, retrograded, in 42 
 
 ven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days 
 and forty nights.' Thus Abydenus and Berosus say it began 
 on the 15th day of DesiuSy the second month from the vernal 
 equinox ; which if the mistake, (arising, 'tis probable, from the 
 ignorance of the change in the beginning of the year, at the Ex- 
 odus'out of Egypt, or perhaps from the copiers alone, by putting 
 Desius instead of Dius^ which was the second month from the 
 autumnal equinox) be but corrected, it is within a day or two, 
 agreeable to the narration of Moses, and so exceedingly con- 
 firms the same. Thus also, what is still more remarkable, 
 Plutarch tells us, that Osiris, or Noah, Ment into the Ark, 
 exactly on the llth day of the month Athyr, in which the sun 
 passes through the sign Scorpius, on the very same llth day of 
 the second month from the autumnal equinox, which we here 
 assign, and which the sacred history asserts ; as we have already 
 seen." Ibid. B. IV. § Ixxvi. *' So wonderful is the method of 
 the Divine Wisdom, in its seasonable attestations afforded 
 to the Sacred Scriptures ! That not only the very day, as we 
 have seen, when the Flood began, assigned by Moses, may 
 still, after more than four thousand years, be proved, not only 
 from Plutarch's express testimony, but from astronomy itself, 
 to have been the true one ; which the learned are chiefly capabjQ 
 of judging of, and being primarily influenced by." 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 241 
 
 years, exactly 210 days, which form 7 months; 
 hence the days of the months of A. M. 1770, 
 must have fallen 7 months earlier in the year, than 
 the correspondent days of A. M. 1440. As in 
 the order of the Macedonic year, Dius precedes 
 Desius so many months ;^^^ the 15th day of the 
 former month, at the earlier epoch, fell precisely on 
 the same day of the year, as the 15th of the latter 
 month, at the later epoch. If therefore, Dius 15th 
 marked the proper day, according to the Mace- 
 donian calendar, on which the deluge commenced ; 
 Desius I5th must have equally marked the proper 
 day, according to the ancient form of moveable 
 year, which was in use, at the era of the deluge. 
 Between the Assyrian account of Berosus and 
 Abydenus, who have dated the deluge from this 
 day, and the Egyptian, preserved by Plutarch, 
 there is consequently no real difference, as to the 
 
 ^'^^ The names and length of the Macedonic months, which 
 the Greeks introduced into the East, and the number of days 
 ascribed to each, when reduced to Julian time, may be here sta- 
 ted from the Rodulphine Tables of Kepler : 1. Dius, 30 ; 2. Ap- 
 pellaeus, 30 ; 3. Audunzeus, 31 ; 4. Peritius, 30 ; 5. Dystrus, 30 ; 
 6. Xanthicus, 31 ; 7. Artemisius, 31 ; 8. DcEsius. 30 ; 9. Pane- 
 mus, 31 ; lO.^Loiis, 30; 11. Gorpia3us, 31; 12. Hyperberetaeus, 
 30. If to the 15 unexpired days of Dius, be — added 183d. the 
 sum of the days of the six following months, from Apellaius to 
 Artemisius inclusive — and 15 days of Dcesius : — the amount of 
 the whole will be 213 days. But on reducing each of those 
 months to 30 days, the length of the months in the year of 360 
 days ; the number of days between Dius 15th, and DcbsIus I5th, 
 atnounts^ precisely to 210; or 7 months of SO days. Da^sius be- 
 ing the second month, Artemesius is the first, and as it has 31 
 days, if the last is computed, Daesius 15th will be the 16th day 
 of the second month ; which, allowing for a difference of com- 
 puting from night and morning, may be identified with Moses's 
 " 17th day of the 2nd month." vid. infr. p. 242. n. W. d 
 the form of the year, see AUin, Diss, on Anc. Year. p. 144. 
 Vignol. Dissert, touch. I'An. Anc. p. 623. Whiston. Theor. 
 B. II. p. 202. Ussher. Diss, de An. Maccd. 
 
 I i 
 
242 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 day of the year; nor more than the accidental 
 difference, arising from the form of year, by which 
 they have respectively computed.*^ While the 
 transfer of the date in the Chaldee account, seven 
 months later in the year, conveys so far a proof, 
 that they antedated the deluge 330 years, to the 
 Babylonian epoch ; as the 1 5th day of the second 
 month from the autumnal equinox, at which the 
 year began, after four revolutions of the cycle of 
 72 years, retrograded, in that time, 210 days, 
 and so passed from the 15th of Dius to the 15th 
 ofDesius.*^ 
 
 *97 As Berosus and Abydenus flourished, after the era of 
 Nabonasar was adopted by the Chaldees ; they obviously, not 
 less than Phitarch, used the equated year of 365 days, which 
 was exclusively employed in that era : vid. supr. p. 197. n. *2o^ 
 Mr. Allin, referring to Syncellus, observes; uti supr. p. 144. 
 *' The additional five days, even among the Egyptians, one of 
 the most ancient and learned nations of the world, were not 
 add^d to the 360 days, or 12 months of 30 days apiece, of 
 which their year consisted, but were introduced about a thou- 
 sand years after the Deluge : so that till that time their ancient 
 year appears to have had no more than 360 days. This argu- 
 ment, from the later introduction of the five additional days, 
 receives some confirmation from the place they always posses- 
 sed in the year, after they were introduced in the Egyptian, 
 and thence in the Nabonasarean fornix Though the new form 
 of year was thus recently introduced ; the period of 1460 years, 
 which is its proper cycle, and from whence the Babylonian 
 epoch was dated, sufhciently proves, that latterly the Assyrians 
 employed this form of year, in computing from the early epoch 
 of their empire : vid. supr. p. 148. n. ^^6, et^sT. In determining 
 a date, like that of the deluge, previous to that epoch, the ambu- 
 latory year of 360 days was properly used by Berosus ; though 
 as writing in Greek, he naturally adopted the names given 
 to the months by the Macedonians, from whom the Orien- 
 talists received the calendar, with the knowledge of the lan- 
 guage in which he expressed himself. 
 
 ^^ This argument may be more familiarly illustrated. The 
 difference of the time interving between the epoch of the de- 
 luge 1440, and the Babylonian era, 1770, as fixed by the 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 243 
 
 But it is further deserving of remark, that while 
 they thus antedated the year of the deliige, they 
 still preserved the tradition of the day on which it 
 really commenced. For the fictitious epoch ha- 
 ving been put back, precisely three revolutions of 
 the cycle of 72 years, from the true date ; both 
 years had their days ordered precisely alike, as the 
 proper order is restored, at each revolution of 
 the cycle.*^ The caution with which all these 
 points were thus nicely adjusted, is therefore, a 
 sufficient evidence of the artifice, which was em- 
 ployed ; as so much care would have been wholly 
 superfluous had no change been attempted. For 
 the Chaldees, not less than the Egyptians, could 
 have determined the epoch of the deluge, by the 
 
 Chaldees, amounted to 330 years. This period when divided 
 by 72, the number of years in a cycle of the ancient year, con- 
 sisting of 360 days, leaves a remainder of 42 5'ears, above 288, 
 the sura of the years of 4 cycles. If this remainder is multipli- 
 ed by 5, the number of days which were lost every year, and 
 which, of course, the beginning of the year went back annually, 
 until the cycle was completed : the product 210 will express 
 the number of days which it retrograded in 42 years from its 
 commencement. And this product divided by 30, the number 
 of days in an ancient month, gives the quotient 7, expressing 
 the number of months, which the beginning of the year retro- 
 graded in 330 years, or 4 cycles and 42 years, of the civil year, 
 in use at the time of the deluge. 
 
 ■ *99 The Deluge, according to the Chaldee computation, was 
 antedated 216 years, to the epoch assigned it in the Hebrew 
 chronology ; which period is completed in three revolutions of 
 the cycle of 72 years ; vid. supr. p. 225. The epoch, A. M. 
 1656, to which it was thus referred in the Hebrew, was dis- 
 tant from the Babylonian epoch, A. M. 1770, just 114 years : 
 which was completed in one revolution of the cycle, and 42 
 years. As in 42 years, the beginning of the year retrograded 
 210 days, or 7 months ; such must have been the difference be- 
 tween the days of the months, in A. M. 1656, and A. M. 
 1770 : so that, if computed by the ancient form of year, Dcosius 
 i5th, in the one, must have expressed the same day of the year, 
 as Dius 15th in the other. 
 
 , I i 2 
 
244 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 proper day of the ordinary year; had not the 
 transfer of it, to an earlier period, required that 
 every circumstance should be accurately accom- 
 modated to an intentional alteration. For that 
 they put it back, unquestionably appears from 
 the line of their early monarchs, which ranged 
 some years above the true epoch. It is therefore 
 almost needless to enter a protest against the 
 supposition, which may possibly arise; that the 
 year which they accommodated with so accurate 
 a date, was that in which the deluge really hap- 
 pened. 
 
 However therefore it might have been requisite 
 to the purposes of the Chaldee science, that the 
 deluge should be placed at the distance of a Great 
 Year from the creation ; it is not the less apparent, 
 that they computed the interval right that mter- 
 vened between the earlier epoch and the Babylo- 
 nian era. In the relative knowledge which we 
 may possess of any period of time, our positive 
 ignorance of the date of any event, by no means 
 implies, that we are the less acquainted with the 
 interval, within which the series of occurrences is 
 included, of which it is an incident. To borrow 
 a familiar illustration from our own lives, there are 
 few persons who do not exactly know the period, 
 elapsed since the year of their birth ; and perhaps 
 as few, who without referring to collateral evi- 
 dence, could directly trace, even the important 
 incidents of any year, to the precise date, on 
 which they happened. But the Chaldees could 
 not have been ignorant of the true epoch of the 
 deluge. The remembrance of that great catastro- 
 phe was impressed by the most powerful associa- 
 tions, upon the memory of the primitive world : and 
 its derangement, in the Chaldee chronology, is ob- 
 viously not to be imputed to the effect of igno- 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVEliEil. 245 
 
 ranee, or inadvertence, but of principle and system. 
 Their ignorance, of the true year in which it 
 happened, if, in fact, it were reconcilable with their 
 knowledge of the day, on which it occurred, 
 would not be easily reconciled with the characters 
 impressed by them, on the fictitious epoch, to 
 which they transferred it; all of which were 
 peculiarly accommodated to the interval, to which 
 it appears it was removed, from the proper epoch. 
 
 Having thus far disengaged this intricate sub- 
 ject, from the embarrassment, in which it is invol- 
 ved ; and acquired a just notion of the leading e- 
 pochs of Chaldee chronology, as well as ascertain- 
 ed an accurate scale by which it may be measur- 
 ed ; we have now little difficulty to encounter, in 
 bringing it to bear upon the subject. 
 
 The object to which I am engaged, requires 
 it to be proved, that the Assyrians, who formed 
 the expectation of a Great Deliverer, had attained 
 the knowledge, that he would appear, at the time 
 distinguished by our Lord's advent. And so sim- 
 ple and efficacious is the measure of time, which 
 they have established, in the old and new era of 
 Babylon ; by which they computed the interval 
 elapsed, from the foundation of their empire under 
 Ninus, and its restitution under Nabonasar : that 
 no skill is required, in accomplishing that end, by 
 so simple and adequate an instrument. At the 
 equally remarkable epoch, distinguished by the 
 subversion of the Persian, and foundation of the 
 Macedonian empire, we find the chain united, by 
 which the time of the surrender of Babylon, after 
 the battle of Arbela, is connected, on the one 
 side, with the epoch of the foundation of the As- 
 syrian empire ; and on the other, with the period 
 of the capture of Alexandria, after the battle of 
 Actium. And by a very few links, this period 
 
 // 
 
246. THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 may be connected with the epoch, which it is the 
 object of these researches to investigate. 
 
 On the accuracy of the scale, which is thus sup- 
 phed, by the old and new era of Babylon, for meas- 
 uring this period, it will be sufficient to observe, that 
 every part of it is connected with the astronomi- 
 cal observations of the nation, which first devoted 
 itself to the cultivation of that science. The ac- 
 count of these observations, obtained at Babylon 
 by Callisthenes, is the great mean by which we 
 are enabled to ascertain the epoch of the early 
 era, and compute the time elapsed between the 
 rise of the Assyrian, and fall of the Persian em- 
 pire. The later era, termed from Nabonasar, by 
 which we are enabled to compute the distance 
 from that epoch, to the time of our Lord's advent, 
 from having been employed in registering the an- 
 cient eclipses, has its correctness determined by 
 those astronomical characters, which leave no 
 doubt of its accuracy. And this conclusion re- 
 ceives a practical proof, in the extraordinary cor- 
 rectness, with which we find several dates, some 
 of the remotest antiquity, fixed to the day; of 
 which so striking an example has been furnished, 
 in the epoch of the deluge, and of Alexander's 
 entrance into Babylon ;^^ two dates, the determi- 
 
 ^0 Vid. supr. p. 210. n. 445. p. 242. n. *»7. As these two 
 periods have been apparently computed, by the ancient year, 
 though the equable year was in use in the age of the computers, 
 and even appli(>d to those epochs, as I have already had occa- 
 sion to observe; it is highly probable, that this form of year was 
 commonly adopted by the' Chaldees, in calculating the ficti- 
 tious epochs, which they introduced into their chronolgy. In 
 the preference shewn by them to the ancient year, they were 
 probably decided, by the facilities which it afforded to long cal- 
 culations : and very convincing evidence is brought out, by Mr. 
 Allin's inquiry into the nature of the ancient year, that they 
 were guided by such a preference. Even of the equable year, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 247 
 
 nation of which, is of the last importance to the 
 final result of the computation which engages me. 
 Although the astonishment which may be ex- 
 cited, and possibly, the incredulity which may 
 be raised, at a degree of accuracy so extraordina- 
 ry, must subside, when the method, employed in 
 reducing those periods to days, is taken into ac- 
 count ; as a simple arithmetical process enabled 
 an indiflferent calculator, by the facilities which 
 were furnished, to an extraordinary degree, by 
 their numerical notation, to ascertain the precise 
 date of any incident. 
 
 Nor is the accuracy of the scale, by which we 
 are enabled to measure this immense period of 
 time, more astonishing, than the extraordinary 
 facility of its application. To compute the dis- 
 tance elapsed between the foundation of the As- 
 syrian empire, and the year in which the incarna- 
 tion of the expected Deliverer occurred, we re- 
 quire merely to know, in what year of the new 
 era, the city of Babylon, from which it derived its 
 name, surrendered to the arms of the Macedonian 
 conqueror. And this year we find marked, with 
 the utmost precision, in the Canon of that era, 
 
 and the people by whom it was discovered, it is observed, by 
 that learned writer ; ubi supr. p. 145. ** From an ancient tra- 
 dition in Plutarch. . .it appears, that the ancient Egyptian year 
 was no more than 360 days, and thsit -the 5 epagomenm were 
 not looked upon as proper parts, eitJier of the year or any of its 
 months ; but as days belonging to the nativities of five several 
 Egyptian deities, who, as this ancient piece of mythology sup- 
 poses, were to be born neither in arffy year, nor in any month.'' 
 Whether, as Mr. Whiston observes, Theor. p. 209. this ob- 
 servation is applicable to the prophetical calculations alsO,^ and 
 that " Daniel's prophetic Year consisted of 360 days," is a 
 point which will be no doubt decided, when public expectation 
 is gratified, with the appearance of the learned and acute Abp. 
 of Dublin's investigation of that delicate and difficult subject. 
 
248 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 which contains a catalogue of the monarchs, 
 through whom the imperial authority was trans- 
 mitted ; from the accession of Nabonasar, under 
 whom the Great Year of the Babylonians com- 
 menced, to the death of Antoninus, in whose reign 
 the Great Canicular Cycle of the Egyptians 
 ended. As the date of this era, to which the 
 Canon refers this remarkable event, coincides 
 with its 416th year f"^^ we are thus supplied with 
 the means of completing the calculation of the 
 four millenniums, which the constant tradition of 
 the east has computed, between the period of the 
 Creation of the world, and its Regeneration. The 
 different epochs recognised by the Assyrians, as 
 composing this period, may be now exhibited at 
 a view ; 
 
 From the Creation to the Deluge ^02 1440 
 
 From the Deluge to the Babylonian era ^^". . . . 830 
 
 From the era to the capture of Babylon ^^*, . . .1903 
 
 From the capture of Babylon to the 7 007 
 
 Great Restitution. 3 '^^ 
 
 From the Creation to the Regeneration^^^ . . . .4000 
 
 ^0^ In the Canon of the era of Nabonasar, of which I have 
 already spoken, supr. p. 151. n. ^*^. the end of Darius's reign 
 and the commencement of the sovereignty of Alexander over 
 the East, is thus noticed : under the title, Uefo-uv ^uo-iXbT?. Aa- 
 ps/tf, S. t;»r. 'AXElaj/^pa Msxa^ovo?, v). vy.^. " Persian Kings. Da- 
 rius, 4 [years]. 416th: Alexander the Macedonian, 8. 424th." 
 of which numbers, the first marks the length of the reign, the 
 second, the year of the era of Nabonasar, in which it ended. 
 Having'already determined the year of the Jalian|period, 3967, 
 in which the era of Nabonasar commenced, supr. p. 147. n.^^Sj 
 the epoch of Alexander's accession and entry into Babylon, is 
 atonce reduced to it, by adding 416, which gives A. J. P. 
 4383. Of this epoch use has been already made, in determi- 
 ning the epoch of the old Babylonian era, by the testimony of 
 Callisthenes ; supr. p. 212. n. *5o. 217. n. *^^. 
 
 ^2 Vid. supr. p. 222. 503 ibid. p. 242. 
 
 *'^* lb. p. 211, comp. p; 218. n.^eo. 505 ib. p. 172. n.^«». 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 249 
 
 The very touchstone of the probability of this 
 investigation consequently lies, in the accuracy of 
 the result ; whether, the Chaldees, by numbering 
 327 years, from that most remarkable epoch, the 
 year in which Alexander took possession of Baby- 
 lon, would be led, at the close of the fourth mil- 
 lennium, to the true year of the advent of our 
 Lord. , And this demonstrably appears to be the 
 case, from the computations of the ablest chrono- 
 logists; by whom the nativity is placed at this 
 identical epoch.^*^ Thus, consequently it appears, 
 
 ^^^ Having: already cited the authority of Petavius, on the 
 reduction of the first year of the era of Nabonasar, to the pro- 
 per year of the Julian period ; I shall again refer to his autho- 
 rity in determining the true year of the Nativity. In a pas- 
 sage, in which he not only declares his preference for a pecu- 
 liar year, but justifies it, by the application of an argument of 
 Scaliger's, which appears to me to amount to a demonstration 
 of its truth ; he thus expresses himself. De Doctr. Temp. Lib. 
 XII. vii. ** Sumatur ex diversis de vero Christi natali senten- 
 tiis, ea quam ccetcris anteponendam judicamus, ut anno Juliano 
 41, qui est per Jul. 4709 natns sit.'' After adding the demon- 
 stration, which I shall reserve to be produced at a more suitable 
 opportunity, he concludes, lb. " quo codem anno, natus est 
 Dominus Decembris 25." In the accuracy of which date, Abp. 
 IJssher acquiesces : Chron. Sacr. p. 9. who places the true 
 epoch in the 4th year before the vulgar era. As we do not 
 compute our years from the Nativity and Christmas day, but 
 seven days later, from the Circumcision and New-year's day ; 
 the true year of the Christian era, by this rule, is Jan. 1st. A. 
 J. P. 4710. 3 years 7 days preceding the vulgar era, which 
 all chronologists identify with A. J. P. 4714. The same date 
 may be established, on the same authority, by a computation 
 founded on the era of Nabonasar and vulgar Christian era. 
 The first year of the former, Petavius identifies, supr. p. 147. 
 n.335. with the vulgar year, B. C. 747. Of the year of Alex- 
 ander's accession to the empire of the east, he likewise ob- 
 serves ; Rat. Temp. I. Lib. III. xiv. " Quocirca annus.... 
 
 ante Christianam. ceram 331 cladem Persarum ad^ Arbela 
 
 turn Persici finem imperii, et Macedonici, sive Gra^ci in 
 
 oriente primordium attulit.' If, of those years, 331 be sub- 
 
 K. K 
 
250 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 that to determine the precise year, in which the 
 Expected Deliverer would make his appearance ; 
 they had merely to number, for 327 years, the 
 succession of years, from the date 1903, which 
 they gave up to Callisthenes, as the epoch of their 
 empire, until the sum amounted to the extraordi- 
 nary number 2230 : and when the grand period of 
 four millenniums was thus compleated, conclude 
 that the period of the Great Restitution had arrived. 
 Even beyond this ; in the extraordinary inter- 
 val of 2230 years, which, as it appears on the ir- 
 refragable grounds of scientific calculation, thus 
 precisely intervened, between the epochs which 
 they accommodated to the foundation of their 
 empire, and the time of the great consumma- 
 tion ; we have additional proof of the validity of 
 the.preceding deductions, and of the accuracy of 
 the computation, which comprises the whole of 
 their calculations within the limits of four millen- 
 niums. The interval of 2230 years, at which we 
 find the arbitrary epoch they assigned their em- 
 pire placed, from the true year of the Great Resti- 
 tution, is surely not to be considered merely acci- 
 dental. For this period contains the remarkable 
 sum of 120 sari, according to the lunar computa- 
 
 ducted from 747 ; the remainder 416, expresses the year of Na- 
 bonasar, in which Alexander succeeded to the sovereignty, as 
 stated in the Canon. If 4, the error in the vulgar Christian 
 era, be subducted from the same year 331 ; the remainder 327, 
 expresses the number of years, to the true era of Christ, which 
 were necessary to complete four milleniums of the Chaldee 
 computation of that epocA,r brought down to the same year 
 of Alexander's entrance into Babylon. The accuracy of the 
 date, assigned to this event, it may be necessary to observe, is 
 fully confirmed by Abp. Ussher, who fixes it, A. J. P. 4383. 
 Annal.p. 314. al. 176 ; to which, if the above remainder, 327, be 
 added ; it gives A. J. P. 4710 ; which constitutes, according to 
 his computation, the true epoch of the nativity. 
 
OF A «REAT DELIVERER. 251 
 
 tion ;^^^ the identical interval which they assigned 
 to their ten antediluvian kings, and computed be- 
 tween the creation and deluge, by which they 
 conceived the world was destroyed and regenera- 
 ted.^'^ If in consistency with the previous deduc*- 
 tions, we conceive them acquainted with the pe- 
 riod elapsed from the creation, and apprised of 
 the time, at which the great consummation would 
 be effected ; every difficulty in the subject admits 
 of a simple and adequate solution. They would 
 then find it merely necessary to deduct this pe- 
 riod of 2230 years, by which they believed a re- 
 volution in their monarchy would be effected, 
 from the 4000 years, in which the great mundane 
 
 ^^"^ Vid. supr. p. 2l9.n.*^*. I have already noticed the lunar 
 saros, mentioned by Pliny, Nat. Hist. II. xiii. whose text was 
 restored, previously to its establishment by the authority of 
 mss. and the earlier editions, by the conjecture of Dr. Halley, 
 who determined the length of this lunar cycle to be 223 months : 
 see Phil. Trans, for 1691. p. 537. To the reigns of their ear- 
 liest monarchs, the Chaldees ascribed 120 sari, which have been 
 computed by this period, though on a false estimation of its 
 length: vid. supr. p. 230. n. 788. fhe just number of months, 
 223, multiplied by 120, gives a product of 26760, which divided 
 by 12 gives a quotient of 2230 lunar years ; to find which pe- 
 riod, the sum of the fractional numbers 1903 and 327, that are 
 before us, cannot surely be deemed accidental. I shall here 
 take occasion to reply to a cavil of M. des Vignolles on the 
 passage of Suidas alledged supr. p. 230. n. ^78. by ^hich this 
 lunar cycle is identified as a Chaldee saros : Chronol. Lib. VI. 
 iii. p. 625. " J' ajoute que le mot de lunaires (a-tT^-ipixKwv) est 
 inutile, dans ce passage et insert mal-apropos, ou par Suidas 
 meme, ou par quelque autre.". .Not altogether ; as the author 
 is speaking of a Great Year, which Vad months adapted to its 
 length. Servius, observing upon Virgil, after distinguishing 
 the different kinds of year, remarks, in like manner, in ^^n.IIl. 
 284. — * magnum sol circumvolvitur annum.'. . ..Bene ergo nunc 
 * magnum '^addidit, ne lunarcm intelligeremus : bene ' solis' no- 
 men ne quia ' magnum ' dixerat, ilium planetarium acciperemus." 
 
 508 Vid. supr. p. ni. n.379. 
 
 Kk 2 
 
252 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 restitution would occur ; and the remainder 1770, 
 would form the epoch of an empire, which they 
 might not irrationally suppose, was constituted to 
 continue with the duration of the world .^^-^ On 
 this principle, every difficulty in this subject di- 
 rectly vanishes ; which, when regarded in any 
 other light, is wholly inexplicable. 
 
 Under this view, the Chaldee computation of 
 the period of the Great Restitution may be resta- 
 ted, in a form, still more adapted to their theo- 
 retical systems ; as calculated to illustrate the 
 principles by which they were guided, in vainly 
 endeavoring to raise their paternal traditions, of 
 the time of the Creation and Regeneration, to the 
 dignity of science, while they were really deba- 
 sing them to the level of their superstition and 
 ignorance. 
 
 YEARS, 
 
 From the Creation to the Deluge, 120 7 -.^j^ 
 
 solar sari ; 5 
 
 From the Deluge to the foundation of ^ oo^ 
 
 their Empire ; 5 
 
 From the foundation of their Empire, to 7 oo'^o 
 
 the Great Restitution, 120 lunar sari ; 3 ^ 
 
 From the Creation to the Regeneration 4000 
 
 In these arbitrary dates, formed by calculations 
 made from both extremes of the great period of 
 4000 years, the most remarkable circumstance is 
 the transition, which is observable, in the first and 
 last epoch, from the solar to the lunar mode of 
 computation. And this change is rendered more 
 
 f^ No doubt the divisers of the old and new epoch, building 
 on a different foundation, in the Egyptian GreatYear, vid. supr. 
 p, 160. p. 238. n.'^Q*. conceived themselves improving upon this 
 antequated doctrine, which they received from their ancestors, 
 and possibly which they despised, from finding it among the 
 Jews. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 253 
 
 remarkable, as it constitutes the essential differ- 
 ence between the different principles, on which 
 the Samaritan and Septuagint computation of the 
 earlier epoch has been accommodated to the Assy- 
 rian chronology. The use to which this observa- 
 tion may be turned, in fixing the date of a consid- 
 erable revolution which took place in the Chaldee 
 science, and which fully reconciles the paradox in 
 their computations, which brought out accurate 
 results, from the most erroneous calculations, it 
 is the business of another part of this work to 
 unfold. To account for the number 120, which 
 was made the term of both the great periods, into 
 which they thus distributed the four millenniums, 
 it is merely necessary to observe, that it seems to 
 have been deduced from the tripartite division of 
 the great circle, by which the planetary motions 
 were measured. At intervals consisting of so 
 many degrees, they found those points were dis- 
 tant, in which the planets were conjoin 'id, at the 
 great conversions of nature ; and which the sun 
 reached, in the interval between the conception 
 and birth of the human fetus. ^^° For these were 
 the analogies, from which they apparently derived 
 
 *io Vid. supr. p. 181. n.393. Censorin. de die Nat. cap. viii. 
 " Sol ergo cum in proximum signum ascendit locum ilium con- 
 ceptionis aut imbecillo videtconspectu, aut etiam non conspicit. 
 ^...Cum autem in quinto est, tribus interjacentibus mediis, 
 xxToc rpiyuvov adspicit. Nam tertiam signiferi partem visus ille 
 metitur, quae du£e visiones rslpciyuvoi, r^iyuvoi, perquam efficaces 
 incrcmentuni partus multum adminiculant , . . ,Ita. septimo zo- 
 dio, quod est contrarium, plenissimas potentissimusque conspec- 
 tus, quosdam jam matures infantes educit, qui septemmestres 
 adpellantur, quia septimo mense nascuntur. At si intra hoc 
 spatium maturescere uterus non potuerit, octavo mense non edi- 
 tur. . . .sed vel none mense vel decimo. Sol enim a nono zodio 
 particulam conceptionis rursus conspicit Kara, rpiyuvoi', et a deci- 
 mo Kara rd^ayuvov : qui conspectuSf ut supta jam dictum est, 
 perquam ejficaces sunt," 
 
254 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 a coloring of truth, for the vain art, by which they 
 pretended not only to calculate the fortunes of 
 men, but the destiny of the world ; from observing 
 the- planetary aspects, at the time of the nati- 
 vity, which they equally assigned them.^" 
 
 To pass from these unimportant, though not in- 
 curious observations, to the direct object of our re- 
 searches : we cannot fail, in viewing their systems, 
 to be struck with the tendency, which, in seeking to 
 combine the doctrine of the Great Year with the 
 decline and mutation of empires, they manifest to 
 the great period of four miilenniums.^^^ In pro- 
 
 511 Vid. supr. p. 172. n.382. 
 
 512 On the period of 720'000 years, ascribed, by Epigenes, 
 to the Babylonian observations; vid. supr. p. 209. n. **3, it ig 
 observed by Vignolles, Chron. VI. iii. § 4. — '* 720 mille jours 
 etant divisez par 360 donnent un quotient de 2000 ans justes, 
 sans aucune fraction. Ce dernier nombre surpasse de pres de 
 cent ans celui de Callisthene ; et il sera facile de les accoider, 
 en supposaut qu'Epigene a v^cft sous le III Ptolemee, surnom- 
 me Everg^te, ou le Bienfesant; c'est ^ dire environ cent ans 
 apres Alexandre le Grand." But on the supposition of his being 
 contemporary vrith Berosus, he continues, Ibid. — *' prenons 
 pour notre point fixe, commenous avons deja fait, le terns auquel 
 Alexandre le Grand se rendit maitre de Babylone, c'est ^ dire, 
 r an de la P. J. 4383. Si de cette annee nous retranchons les 
 2000 ans, que nous venons de trouver, nous arriverons, en re- 
 montant, au terns de Belus, premier roi des Assyriens." &c. On 
 the 480'000 years ascribed to their observations by Berosus and 
 and Critodemus, supr. p. 210. n.***. Vignolles observes ; after 
 reducing it to 1333 years, 4 months ; Ibid. § 5. " Ce nombrie 
 n'est pas rond, comme la plupart des pr6cedans, mais c^est jus- 
 tement le tiers de 4000, nombre qu'on pent appeller parfaitement 
 rond. . . .Enfin si nous prenons pour dernier terrae de ces 1333 
 ans et un tiers, I'an P. J. 4^92 qui suiyit celui de la mort d* 
 Alexandre, sous qui Berose fleurissoit ; et que nous en retran- 
 chions les 1333 aus ; nous trouverons I'an P. J. 3059, auquel 
 la couronne d' Assyrie passa des descendans de Semiramis, k une 
 secoude faniille." These observations fall casually from the au- 
 thor ; whose views tended in a totally diiFerent direction, from 
 that of the subject which they arc now adduced to illustrate : 
 comp. supr. p. 175. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 255 
 
 portion as the early traditions, on this subject, 
 which were transmitted from the highest and 
 purest source, were deserted, for the speculations 
 of a spurious science, the result proved illusory 
 and abortive. Such to an extraordinary degree, 
 proved the vain attempt, when the foundation of 
 the Assyrian empire was laid anew, to fix an epoch 
 for measuring its duration in the Great Year, 
 which was devised by the Egyptians.^" And 
 there is every reason to suspect, that in assigning 
 the early monarchy a duration, for the same peri- 
 od, the epoch was calculated backwards from the 
 time of its dissolution ;^^* as the period to which 
 the date of-the deluge had been put back, in com- 
 pliance with the principles of their science, had 
 created a void in their early history, which it be- 
 came necessary to fill up with fabulous reigns, 
 and fictitious monarchs. On casting a glance 
 from these remote periods, to the date of the esta- 
 blishment of the Macedonian monarchy ; the bro- 
 ken number by which the interval is computed, from 
 the foundation of the Assyrian, and the subversion 
 of the Persian empire, is strikingly contrasted, 
 with the round sum of four millenniums, in which 
 the various antecedent dates are gathered. 
 
 Though no instance appears, in which they at- 
 tained to a fortunate anticipation of the future; 
 notwithstanding the ingenuity which they em- 
 ployed, in bending and perverting every circum- 
 stance, to the purposes of a system ; the con- 
 nexion which they gave their visionary schemes, 
 with the great periods by which they professed to 
 compute the restitution, was attended with one 
 manifest advantage. They thus applied a gradua- 
 
 513 Vid. supr..p. 160. 
 
 51* Ibid. p. 238. n.*9*. conf. infr, p. 527. n.^^^. 
 
25G THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 ted scale to the fugitive course of time, by which 
 the degree of its advancement might be estimated, 
 and the period of the great consummation readily- 
 computed.^^^ It was besides wonderfully contri- 
 ved, that the imperfect form of year, of which 
 their great cycles were constituted, should be not 
 only equated, so as to fit it for becoming a just 
 measure of time, but by festivals, in which the fall 
 and the recovery were preserved in lasting re- 
 membrance. But the consideration of this sub- 
 ject must be reserved, until the proper opportu- 
 
 fii5 The facility, with which the periods of 120 solar and lunar 
 sari might be computed, according to which the great period of 
 four milleniums was distributed, is particularly deserving of no- 
 tice. The solar saros, as composed of 12 years of 12 months 
 each, consisted of 144 months; and the lunar saros was, by com- 
 putation, 223 months: by any species of decimal notation, these 
 sums might be raised by the simple process of numeration, to 
 the great periods 1440 years, and 2230 years. In the Syriac 
 mode of expressing numbers, it is effected simply by putting 
 a point over the character : in the European, by merely adding 
 a cypher. This consideration will satisfy the requisitions of 
 those who may think the Chaldee saros derived its name from 
 the numeral 'fY^v . rather than ♦ vm . I must however still de- 
 clare my sentence, in favor of the latter derivation, and the 
 duodecimal value, as conveying the true sense of the term, from 
 the prevalence of this number in all their periods. The solar 
 year consisted of 12 months ; the great solar year, of 12 years ; 
 the great lunar year, of 12 years, and its half; the great cycle 
 of 72 years, of six times 12 years, i. e. the great solar year. It 
 is even deserving of note, that the additimi of the Chaldee great 
 year, 12 years, which might be added in an intercalation, raises 
 the pioper period of 120 sari, or 2230 years used by the Chal- 
 dees, to the period of 2242 years, adopted by the Septuagint 
 in computing the sum of Kie lives of the ten patriarchs prece- 
 ding the deluge ; this sum, however it was obtained, being 
 without doubt considered necessary to equate the lunar com- 
 putation to the solar, vid. supr. p. 231. n.479. A like excess,^ 
 oi a sabbatical year, probably added with the same object, is 
 found appended to the Samaritan computation of the same pe- 
 riod, vid. supr. p. 234. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 257 
 
 nity arrives, for discussing the great periods em- 
 ployed by the Egyptians, in computing the inter- 
 val which engages our attention, to which they 
 ascribed the same date as the Chaldees/^^ In 
 confirmation of the assertion, which is now ha- 
 zarded on the anniversaries, employed by the 
 Babylonians in equating their time ; I have only 
 to refer to the Sachean days, of which I have spo- 
 ken, as introduced into the East by the Egyp- 
 tians,^^^ from whose institutions they bear internal 
 marks of having descended. As this festival, of 
 which I have had occasion to speak, as instituted 
 in commemoration of the fall and recovery,^^^ con- 
 sisted of five days, observed at the close of the 
 ancient year of 360 days ; it thus served the purpo- 
 ses of an intercalation, as keeping the beginning of 
 the civil year, near the time of the equinox, from 
 which there can be no doubt its commencement 
 was computed. Of this festival, it has been justly 
 observed, that it is referred in the Assyrian annals, 
 to the earliest date of the monarchy. In perfect 
 consistency with the principles on which its be- 
 ginning was carried back, to complete the period 
 of an Egyptian Great Year,^'^ they antedated the 
 festival which was necessary to its just computa- 
 tion ;^'" had not this precaution been taken, the 
 
 516 Vid. supr. p. 219. n.4<'2. 517 Vid. supr. p. 144. 
 
 518 Ibid. p. 145. ^^9 Vid. supr. p. 238. n. ^94>. 
 
 520 In this consideration, the objection of the learned Selden 
 to the institution of this festival by Sesach, wholly vanishes : 
 he observes; De Dis. Syr. II. xiii. p. 346. " Quae ad Sesach 
 non possunt refer d, quippe quod Gyro antiquius est n omen in 
 saciis litteris. Verum ex Assy riorum sen Babyloniorum an- 
 tiquissimis ritibus oviginem Saca^orum dierum et Cyro longe 
 vetustiorem petendam esse, ipsis Beroso et Ctesia auloribus, 
 mihi est persuasisiraum. Iiide colUcjo, quod non modo Bcrosus 
 libra primo, ubi scilicet de reconditissimis Babylmiiormn moni- 
 
 L 1 
 
258 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 adoption of the new epoch would have been use- 
 less or nugatory. As the Chaldees, in putting 
 back the epoch of their empire, carried it beyond 
 the deluge ;^^^ consequently, no doubt can be 
 raised, that the equable year was employed by 
 them in computing the whole of the time, from 
 that great catastrophe, to the end of the new era, 
 dated from the accession of Nabonasar. Respec- 
 ting the antecedent period, extending back to the 
 creation, no question can be reasonably moved ; 
 as it has been proved, to a demonstration, that 
 not only the solar and civil year then coincided, 
 but that they agreed with the lunar also f""^ so that 
 
 mentis egit, eos collocasset, sed etiam Ctesias diu antequam ad 
 Cyri imperium aut res Persicas devenerat, inter Babyloniacas 
 et Assyriacas enumerasset. Ex hujus enim quinto citatur quod 
 habet Athenaeus. Ceterum nihil de Cyro ille, nihil de Sacis, 
 de Persis nihil, in prioribus sex libris scripsit, sed tantummodo 
 ea quae Persicum imperium praecesserunt. ..Liquido mihi hinc 
 constare videtur, So^ta? r/Ae'^a? et T,a.Kaicc Cyro multis seculis, si 
 iides hisce scriptoribus vetustiora." It is indisputable, however, 
 that the reduction of the ancient oriental Saturnalia of seven 
 days vid. Lucian. supr. p. 133. n.^oo. to five, and the affixing 
 of them, as appendages, to the end of the year, originated with 
 the Egyptians, long subsequently to the foundation of the As- 
 syrian monarchy: vid. Allin, uti supr. p. 242. n.^9''^. Vignol. 
 de I'An. Anc. p. 667. The argument of Selden, of conse- 
 quence, striking wide of its aim, contains an extraordinary con- 
 firmation of the assumption, that this people not only put back 
 the epoch of their empire, but sought to accommodate the period 
 of its duration to the Great Year of the Egyptians : vid. supr. 
 p. 238. n. *94. For this period could be only calculated by 
 that form of year, which had those five days appended to it, that 
 were observed in the Sesachean festival : vid. infr. n. ^"^, 
 
 521 Vid. supr. p. 237. n.493. conf. supr. n.^iQ. 
 
 522 The following is the Ifypothesis laid down, and I think 
 demonstrated in Mr. Allin's very able discussion : Whiston. 
 Theor. B. II. p. 144. *• First, I shall endeavor to prove, that 
 the most ancient year, in civil use, almost throughout the 
 world, for several ages after the deluge, contained exactly 360 
 days, or 12 months of 30 days apiece. Secondly, that before 
 
OF A GIl^AT DELIVEUEll. 259 
 
 "but one form of year, and that perfect and equa- 
 ble, could have been employed in computing that 
 primeval period. 
 
 To persons occupied in casting nativities and 
 prognosticating future events, some expedient for 
 accommodating the time to the incident, if the 
 incident would not accommodate itself to the 
 tinie, was not only convenient but necessary. 
 With abundant facilities of this description, the 
 predictor appears to have been supplied in the 
 Chaldean methods of equating and computing. 
 By legitimate mutations of names and numbers, 
 any given period might be thus converted into 
 another ; and the accomplishment of a prediction, 
 as suited the interest or credit of the calculator, 
 be either hastened to an hour, or protracted for 
 ages. It was even possible to make any species 
 of year, the basis of the computation ; and by a 
 simple contrivance, then convert the lunar into the 
 solar, or the moveable into the equated .^"^ We are 
 
 the deluge, not only the civil year, but also the tropical solar 
 year, wherein the sun passes through the ecliptic to the same 
 point from whence it began ; and likewise the lunar year, con- 
 sisting of 12 synodical months, each from new-moon to new- 
 moon, or from full-moon, to full-moon, were severally just 360 
 days lony, and consequently that the lunar month was exactly 
 30 days." I must, however observe, that the antecedent ^ro^o- 
 sition can be only admitted with limitations; this learned wri- 
 ter, as well as M. des Vignolles, having produced abundant 
 evidence, that the ancient and the equable year were perfectly 
 compatible, in the use ; the former having been retained in 
 computing, when the latter was applied to civil purposes ; vid. 
 supr. p. 246. n. ^oo. In fact, the views of neither of these wri- 
 ters embraced the festivals, by which it is clear to me, the be- 
 ginning of the year was kept near the equinoxes ; though the 
 days thus added to it, were without civil effect ; vid. supr. p. 
 133. n.3oo. 
 
 *23 The Sosos and Neros, two Chaldee measures of time, ap. 
 Syncel. Chion. p. 17. were apparently contrived for the purpo- 
 
 L 1 2 
 
260 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 not therefore, to feel surprised, that a like ambi- 
 guity should have introduced itself into the cal- 
 culation which is before us ; and that the com- 
 plement of 2230 years, in the four millenniums, 
 should be expressed by a lunar cycle, while the 
 commencement of the period is computed by a so- 
 lar : nor are we, in consequence of this transition, 
 to conceive the validity of the consequences de- 
 duced from such principles uncertain and erro- 
 neous. If, in the broken number of 1903 years, 
 which the Chaldees gave up to Callisthenes, with 
 an implied remainder of 327 years, this ambiguity 
 did not disappear ; the sum of 4000 years, being 
 recognised as the period of the restitution, the po- 
 pular sense would determine the signification in 
 which it was to be received, against the capricious 
 and arbitrary sentence of the theorist and compu- 
 tor. 
 
 Such was the character of the Chaldean astrolo- 
 gy. And but one method seems to have remained^ 
 by which a system, that exercised so tyrannous and 
 debasing an influence over the human mind, could 
 be defeated; which aimed at subjecting the freedom 
 of man to a blind fatality, and submitting the 
 providence of God, to the laws which he proscri- 
 bed to matter and motion. And in that merciful 
 condescension, which left no means unapplied, 
 that were calculated to operate for the benefit of 
 
 ses of thus reducing the civil and equinoctial year, to the com- 
 puted and astronomical, or contrariwise. Thus we find the Sa- 
 ros, consisting of 4320 days, or 12 ancient years, atonce raised 
 by the Sosos, containing 6<S days or 2 months, to 12 equable 
 or Egyptian years, containing 4380 days. And in like man- 
 ner, the period of 10 Sari of the ancient year, consisting of 
 43200 days, was at once raised by the Neros, which contained 
 10 Sosi, or GOO days, to 10 Sari of the Egyptian year, consis- 
 ting of 43800 days ; which changes were probably effected, by 
 pointing the character. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 261 
 
 a race, which employed the freedom with which 
 they were endowed, but in frustrating or abusing 
 the divine dispensations, this expedient was wisely 
 and graciously adopted. The great agent, in this 
 degrading superstition having been the sun, by 
 whose influence the course of nature was govern- 
 ed, and by whose motions it was computed ;^~^ a 
 visible controul exercised over his functions, served 
 atonce to vindicate the superintending providence 
 of God, and to refute in principle, the derogatory 
 system opposed to his supremacy, and to baffle it 
 in the application. And this object was in an ex- 
 traordinary manner accomplished, by the great 
 public miracles, which distinguished the settlement 
 of the chosen people, in their promised inheritance, 
 and their removal from it, into captivity. At the 
 first of these remarkable periods,^'^^ "the sun" 
 was commanded to " stand still, and the moon in 
 the valley of Ajalon,. . .and the sun stood still, in 
 the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down, 
 about a whole day . . .for the Lord hearkened unto 
 the voice of a man." And at the last,^^^ ** Isaiah 
 the prophet cried unto the Lord ; and he brought 
 the shadow " of the sun, " ten degrees backward, 
 by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." 
 Nor does the time chosen for this display of om- 
 nipotent power, derive its character of fitness, 
 more from its connexion with the circumstances 
 of sacred than profane history. The miraculous 
 suspension of the celestial mechanism, undet 
 Joshua, was not more remarkable for its accom- 
 panying the establishment of the Hebrew Repub- 
 lic in Canaan, than the subversion of the Con- 
 federacy of idolatrous princes, to which that 
 
 5«* Vid. supr. p. 198. n. 425. et seq. 
 
 525 Josh, X. 12, 13, 14. f^ 2 King, xx. 11. Is. xxxviii. 8. 
 
262 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 country was subject.^^^ And the inversion of 
 the solar motions, under Hezekiah, is even less dis- 
 tinguished by its association with the deportation 
 and captivity of the Jews, than with the extinc- 
 tion of the splendor of the Assyrian nation, in the 
 destruction of her last vainglorious monarch/"'* 
 Nor is the time more striking, which demanded 
 this extraordinary display of divine pov/er, than 
 the particular occasions in which it was exerted. 
 It was a part of the vain science, which called 
 for a refutation, thus public and signal, not only 
 to predict the fate of empires, but to foretell the 
 destiny of monarchs. Such was its predominance, 
 that without consulting the seer who could read 
 in the stars the character of every event, whether 
 it would prove favorable or adverse, no public 
 measure was enterprised, nor private affair un- 
 dertaken. Not to insist further on the suitable- 
 ness of the occasion, for suspending the course, or 
 reversing the order of nature, when a great national 
 revolution was effected, in the states of Canaan, 
 and empire of Assyria ; every imagination must 
 be struck with the fitness and propriety of the 
 crisis chosen for recovering the Jewish monarch, 
 and prolonging his life, beyond the destiny, which 
 
 52r Vid. Josh. v. 1. ix. 1. x. 1. 
 
 *28 St. Jerome, following Eusebius, remarks upon this sub- 
 ject ; Comment in Is. xxxix. " Supra legimus quartodecimo 
 anno regis Ezechice ascendisse Sennacherib regem Assyriorum 
 super omnes civitates Judae munitas : et cepisse eas, et postea 
 obsedisse Lachis, transisse Lobnam, misisse Hierusalem partem 
 exercitus sui : ccesaque per angelum centum octogintaquinque 
 millia exercitus ejus, et i^sum fugisse Nineven interfectumque 
 ajiliis in fano Dei sui, et regnasse pro eo Asaraddon fiiium 
 ejus ; (sgrotasse Ezechiam, et recepisse prophetae nurtcio sospi- 
 tatem ; factum signum incredibile ut sol decern horarum spaciis 
 revertereter ad ortum suum, et pene duplex dies fieret." Conf, 
 Euseb. Com. in Hes. xxxix. p. 605. vid, supr. p. 160. n. ^^J^, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 2^^ 
 
 was supposed to be fixed at his nativity. On the 
 ethnics, it accordingly appears, that this miracle 
 was not without its effect; for^^^ **the princes of 
 Babylon sent unto him to inquire of the wonder 
 that was done in the land :" having no knowledge 
 of the cause, however accurate observers they had 
 been of the effects, which had been wrought in 
 their science. ^^" Nor is the observation either in- 
 curious in itself, or irrelevant from the subject of 
 this inquiry, that there is reason to believe, the 
 monarch, by whom this investigation was made, 
 into the cause of the sun's retrocession, was num- 
 bered among those personages, in whom the ex- 
 pectation of a promised Deliverer was thought to 
 be accomplished : as we find his name enrolled, 
 
 529 2 Chron. xxxii. 31. comp. Is. xxix. 1. 
 
 ^^0 St. Jerome, in continuation of the observation in the pre- 
 ceding note, adds ; Ibid. " Nunc legimus, quod in tempore illo, 
 hoc est eodem anno, quo haec gesta sunt omnia, miseret Mero- 
 dach Baladan, filius Baladan rex Babyloniae, libros et munera 
 ad Ezechiara, non Asaraddon, qui Sennacherib patri apud As- 
 sy rios in regnura successerat ; de cujus seu raorte sen vita scrip- 
 tura conticuit. Ex quo perspicuura est aliud fuisse tunc reg- 
 num Assyriorum, et aliud Babyloniorum. Denique Samariam, 
 id est, decern tribus cepere Assyrii, Judam autem et Jerusalem 
 postea legimus cepisse Chaldaeos, quorum rex Nebuchadonosor 
 fuit. Et quia apud eos astrorum observantia est, stellarumque 
 cursus longo usu et exercitatione cognitus, quod in Domini nati- 
 vitate monstratur, intellexerunt solem reversum, diei spacia du- 
 plicata, servire ei quem solum Deum putabant. Cumque causas 
 hujus jniraculi, r ationemque perquirerent ;fdima.^er omnes gentes 
 volitante, didicerunt propter cegratationem regis Judae, etiam 
 cursum signi clarissimi commutatum." To the same purpose, 
 Eusebius, citing the authority of a Jew. Ibid, (jl^ ya§ Aa^En/raro 
 [to ^TjjM.groJ'] roi>q Boc€vXuviii<;, ^tivaq ovlocq 'nrs^i rr)v ruv uf^uv ^sa/piuv, 
 3^ E-nrst^ri rov viXiov ^eo7ro7iiv]eq, avvsTSov uq I'uro ttpeirlovoq Tre^i'nve^Bv} slq, 
 ruTria-u Svvoi{ji,eu}q' Ttfra p^a^tv ^y-ov l^ijlricrcn to t8t» OsAoi/ts? ctiliov' bIt' 
 irreiSr) 'wo>iV'mpocy[jLovr)<Ta.vlsq zyvuv rov ruv E^^aiav Qsov {/.eyxv eivxi, tq» 
 x^ Ta 'oravioq koo-iah h[Ji>nifyov» . , ,roivTx {/.h o E^^uToq, 
 
2<54 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 by the infatuated spirit of the age in wliich he 
 lived, among the titles of the national deities/** 
 
 If I have not wholly failed, in the preceding 
 induction, it may be now summarily concluded, 
 that the Assyrians, who had derived from prophe- 
 tical sources, the expectation of a Great Deliver- 
 er, had attained a perfect knowledge, that the 
 time of his advent was fixed at the close of the 
 fourth millennium from the creation,^^ at which our 
 
 ^'1 As it is observable, that the prophecy of Balaam was 
 carried partially into effect, when Merodach was king or viceroy 
 of Babylon ; it is curious to remark, that the name of this 
 prince, as well as that of Sesac, is ascribed to one of the Ba- 
 bylonian idols, and equally joined with Bel, their chief national 
 god, by the prophet Jeremiah; ch. 1. v. 2. ** say Babylon is ta- 
 ken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces ;" comp. 
 Jer. li. 44. uti supr. p. 141. The reader, who reverts to the 
 custom of the Orientalists, noticed supr. p. 159. n.^*^. may de- 
 termine for himself, how far it is probable this coincidence of 
 circumstances may account for the introduction at this epoch 
 of a new god, among the Babylonian idols. It is atleast ob- 
 vious, that whatever circumstances conspired to advance Se- 
 sac among the national divinities might have contributed to 
 enroll Merodach in the number. In favor of the origin which 
 is here ascribed to the Babylonian deity, it remains to be obser- 
 ved, that he appears to have attained to divine honors between 
 the times of Isaiah and Jeremiah, as he is solely noticed by the 
 latter : and that the prince to whom his title has been traced, 
 came to the throne^ at that remarkable period. 
 
 ^^ Such precisely is the period, as computed by the series of 
 the Hebrew chronology, at which the Creation is placed from 
 the Nativity, by the highest chronological authorities : accor- 
 ding to Kepler, Ussher, Cappel, &c. the epoch of the world is 
 fixed, A. J. P/tIO. B. C. 4004; of course, allowing for the 
 error in the vulgar era, before the nativity 4000 years. A 
 brief view of the historical* computation may be seen in Whis- 
 ton, Theor. B. II. p. 142. Kepler, who was one of the earliest 
 and most successful vindicators of the true epoch declares. 
 Tab. Rud. cap, viii. p. 51. ** Ann. 4000 ante Christum .. wio- 
 €tus est tetatis mundance, apud plerosque chronographorum ho- 
 diernorum : assequiturque situm aliquem planetarum, in suis 
 eccentricis, consentaneum initio rerum, nulli aliiper, plurima 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 265 
 
 Lord made his appearance on earth. Much of 
 the information which they retained on the sub- 
 ject, was professedly derived from their great pro- 
 genitor, and coeval with the foundation of the 
 first eastern monarchy.*" But the ancient tradi- 
 
 saecula deiiiceps, comparanda.'* lo the table which he sub- 
 joins, of the main longitude of the planets, their apogee and 
 nodes, at this remarkable epoch, he identilies, ihe place of the 
 apogee with the vernal equinoctial point : a similar remark has 
 been made of M. la Place, by the learned and ingenious pre- 
 late, who now adorns the See of Dublin. A like argument, 
 has been also adduced, from the place of the perihelion, at the 
 time of the deluge, in favor of the epoch assigned that great 
 catastrophe of the old world, in the Hebrew chronology, by 
 Whiston, Ibid. B. II. hyp. xi. 3. p. 201. comp. p. 129. 
 
 ^^ It may not be inexpedient to explain here, that although it 
 is neceasary for the purposes of calculation, to assign a fixed 
 date to the Dispersion, the great crisis of which took place, 
 when the tower of Babel was destroyed, with the foundation 
 of which, I would identify that of the city of Babylon ; I am 
 decidedly of opinion, the event of dispersing the inhabitants of 
 Shinar was carried into effect not instantaneously or promis- 
 cuously, but in a gradual and orderly manner ; the daring and en- 
 terprising organisers of the apostacy were probably driven from 
 the scene of their impiety, but the patriarchal families retiring, 
 as they required space, to the countries which they were res- 
 pectively alotted, and which lay contiguous to the place of 
 their first settlement after the deluge. This view of the subject 
 I conceive to be not only that which consists best with the 
 reason of the case, but with the purport of the sacred narrative ; 
 Gen. X. 5 — 32. An absurd preconception of the necessity of 
 assembling a population fit for the occupation of the globe in 
 the plains of Shinar, has led some chronologists into calcula- 
 tions, no doubt, as amusing to themselves, as to some of their rea- 
 ders, of the probable increase of mankind in this period of pri- 
 meval fecundity. It may be well conceived, the dull progress of 
 the historian is little calculated to keep pace with the rapid 
 advances of the computer ; and thus, as the sacred chronology 
 affords no time for the production»of the ideal multitudes, 
 which he creates at pleasure, he votes the original text system- 
 atically corrupt, and superfeies or mends it from a bye edition 
 or a translation. It is in vain to inquire of such speculatists, 
 what may be the value of an instrument, of which it appears, 
 
 M m 
 
263 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 tions which they inherited, were originally ob- 
 scure, and impaired by oral transmission. It 
 was through Abraham, the promise was given,^^* 
 ** that in Isaac, his seed should be called ; that in 
 his seed all the nations of the earth should be bles- 
 sed :" and it seems difficult to conceive, in what 
 sense, the terms of it could be fulfilled to the con- 
 temporary nations, if they were wholly excluded 
 from the privileges to which the father of the 
 faithful was admitted. And from the whole of 
 the preceding observations, it appears that from 
 his immediate posterity, the oriental population, 
 chiefly derived the knowledge and expecta- 
 tion which they possessed of a Deliverer. In the 
 prophecy of Jacob, the advent of the Divine Per- 
 sonage was not only foretold : but it was de- 
 clared, that^^^ "• he would be the expectation of the 
 nations." The popular superstitions of the Assy- 
 rians bore but too faithful testimony, that from a 
 knowledge of this prediction, the great national 
 deity derived his imaginary existence, and his ti- 
 tle. ^^^ And as far as the views opened into futu- 
 rity, by Balaam's prophecy, embraced the same 
 subject, and proclaimed the advent of the expect- 
 ed Personage, it was merely a republication of 
 Jacob's prediction.^^^ Nor did the knowledge, to 
 which those nations were thus graciously admit- 
 ted, consist in vague intimations of some distant 
 good, under a future and common benefactor. If 
 W5e even suppose it confined to that solitary pre- 
 
 that all its dates are systematically corrupted. We may how- 
 ever, in respect for their own consistency, require of them to 
 gratify us with the solution of one difficulty, and inform us, 
 when they have thus assembled the population of the globe, by 
 what process of calculation, they are provided with room to 
 contain them, not to speak of the means of subsistence. 
 
 534 Gen. xxi. 12. xxii. 18. 533 Vid. supr. p. 110. 
 
 «6 Vid. supr. p. 108. 111. w Ibid. p. 118. 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVEREU* 267 
 
 diction ; the course was thus opened, and the v/ay 
 pointed out, which, if followed up, would eventu- 
 ally lead the inquirer to a higher measure of infor- 
 mation. As this prophecy of Jacob, in declaring 
 that ^^^ ** a lawgiver should not cease in Judah,^*^ 
 proclaimed the perpetuity of a line of expositors, 
 among the Hebrews ; it thus apprised the nations 
 who were desirous of being informed, whither 
 they were to apply for instruction. By the later 
 prediction of Balaam, they were not merely di- 
 rected to the proper object of divine worship, but 
 warned against a criminal devotion to the na- 
 tional superstitions, in hearing the judgments de- 
 nounced against the national idols.^^^ The patri- 
 arch, in declaring the perpetuity of the sceptre, 
 in the tribe of Judah, until the Great Deliverer 
 should come ;^^ and the prophet in denouncing the 
 instability of the monarchies, in which the sove- 
 reignty of the east would descend ;^" equally con- 
 tributed to direct the attention of the oriental popu- 
 lation, to the Divine Person, who was the proper 
 object of the general expectation. While the 
 knowledge of the Redeemer was thus conveyed 
 exclusively through prophecy ; the Assyrians were 
 admitted to the privileges of receiving it, at a pe- 
 riod not less early than it was imparted to the 
 Hebrews. The prophecy of Jacob was delivered 
 to his sons, when, confined to a few families, they 
 were aliens and vassals in Egypt ; when they had 
 grown into a nation, and left that country, to take 
 possession of Palestine, it. was republished in the 
 prediction of Balaam, in a form, adapted to the 
 views and prepossessions o^the nations. 
 
 Thus even through the darkness of age, and the 
 
 538 Ibid. p. 109. 113. ^^9 Vid. supr. p. 96. seq, 
 
 5*0 Ibid. p. 109. ^" Ibid. p. 68. seq. 
 
 M m 2 
 
268 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 clouds of superstition, some glimmerings of the 
 truth remained, and by occasional radiations, gave 
 evidence of its original. Thus amid the grossness 
 of their errors, the Assyrians bore witness, in the 
 Expectations which they formed of a Great Delive- 
 rer, of the DIVINE VOCATION OF ABRAHAM. Of 
 
 the pure worship which the patriarchal family were 
 instrumental in disseminating through the eastern 
 continent, the Bethulia, formed after the model of 
 the pillar raised and anointed by Jacob, were 
 signal and lasting monuments. But so ancient 
 and seductive was the prevailing superstition to 
 which it was opposed, and v/hich referred its ori- 
 gin to the antediluvian world/^" that there is every 
 
 5*2 Seld. de Dis. Syr. Proleg. p. 45. " Quin si Enochi A- 
 pocrypha in testium classem admitteremus, deemoniorum cultum 
 etiam longk ante diluvium non immerit6 assereremus. In apoc- 
 lyphis illis narratur, ly^rtyo^nq, id est, angelos seu damonia, lec- 
 tissimas foeminas sibi in uxoresjunxisse, atque ab eis quam plu- 
 lima humanum genus, conciliante muliercularum libidine, bene- 
 
 ficia accepisse, artes item didicisse Coramentum illud de 
 
 Angelis ex historia de filiis Dei in sexto Genesis capite raal^ 
 intellecta ortum est, et veteres aliquot magni nominis fefellit. 
 Sed melius et verisimilius est, quod alii de Setlii filiis afFerunt, 
 qui Caini posterorumque ejus filios hominum filios ibi vocari 
 tradunt. Quod de ea re habent Cedrenus et Chronici Alex- 
 drini autor, consulas, si placet, lector. Illis assentit pervestus, 
 . . codex Arabicus ms. in quo narratur Sethi familias posteros- 
 que moutis occupasse cacumen in quo Adam sepultus est ; 
 Caini, vallem in qua Abel ad eo occisus. Posteros item Sethi, 
 obeasdem, quae Cedreno ex AiTrroyevea-ei memorantur, rationes, 
 filios Dei dictos, et ob Abelem adeo Caino infensos ejusque ne- 
 potibus, ut solemni se juramento obstringerent per sauguinem 
 
 Abelis, -.A^jL^ ^«>o [ita enim se verba habent] in valem se 
 
 nequaquam seu tj^«>AJ^ VSr*^^ (j^ ^ monte sacro descensuros. 
 
 . .Ceterum et idolorum cultores ex Enochi scriptis, ita dictis, 
 tradit Tertullianus libro de Idololatria capite quarto, neque re- 
 centiora idololatriae initia facit. Enochus autem in terris desiit 
 esse circa 700 annos ante diluvium.. Etiam ipsa idolorum no- 
 mina, qu<je ante diluvium culta, eaque satis portentosa, habes 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 269 
 
 reason to believe, it was soon undistinguishably 
 involved in the mass of general and inveterate error. 
 In the age immediately preceding the birth 
 of the great patriarch, this superstition was re- 
 vived,^^ which unfortunately recommended itself 
 by stronger attractions, than those which arose 
 from the sense of its remote antiquity. In the 
 short period intervening between the descent of 
 Jacob into Egypt, and the emancipation of his 
 immediate posterity from their bondage, the mo- 
 numents which he had raised and dedicated to 
 religious purposes, were perverted to the grossest 
 idolatry. From having been long viewed with ve- 
 neration, they were atlength regarded with super- 
 stition, and finally became objects of religious 
 worship. Nor is it wonderful, when the peculiar 
 
 apud Alcorani autorem Azoara 81. . . Quid sibi porro velint 
 hzec, viderint qui operae pretium fore duxerint. Adde Flavii 
 Josephi libri primi caput iv. ubi alienum cultum homines in- 
 vasisse diu ante Noachum innuit, dum usque ad septem genera- 
 tiones eos Deum Opt. Max. ^sa-'morlviv ilvon ruv oKuv sensisse ; dein- 
 ceps vero Ik r^v 'stxt^J/uv l^nrij,ujv degener^sse scribit. 
 
 ^*3 Seld. uti supr. p. 47. ** Post diluvium autem (ut obvia 
 sunt apud Eusebium in Praeparatione Evangelica, Clementem, 
 Theodoretum, Epiphanium, sexcentos alios, testimonia) redin- 
 tcgrata est idololatria, Sheruchi et Tharce seculo. Addimus, 
 autem quod de ea re habet Said, quem diximus, Aben-Batrich. 
 * In immensum,' ait ille, * Seruchi aevo errarunt homines, et inva- 
 luit Idololatria, et immolabant filios sues et filias suas Deemo- 
 niis. Immisit Deus in illos ventum procellosum ; et fuit Typhon 
 
 [^li^] ventus. Etconfregit ventus idola omnia et diruit Tem- 
 pla Idolorum usquedum in tumulos pulveris redacta fuerint : et 
 tumuli illi etiamnum remanent. ' Cert6 subversam esse im- 
 manem illam substructionem, quam turrim vocant Babylonicam ; 
 procellarum vi, legitur apud Josephuiin lib. I. c. v. Eusebium de 
 Paeparatione Evangelica, 1. IX. c. iv. Cedrenura : etinSibylli- 
 norum oraculorum tertio...Atqui ab eodem sane seculo, quo 
 diruta turris ilia, et linguae confusae sunt, Phalegi scilicet aevo, 
 Graecorum numina petunt nonnulli." 
 
270 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS 
 
 character of the superstition is considered, of 
 which they now became a part, that the corrupted 
 religion, which arose from this mixture of false- 
 hpod and error, should have taken the form which 
 it assumed among the Moabites, in the age of 
 Balak and Balaam. The prophecy of Jacob ha- 
 ving been associated with the monuments which 
 were raised in the scene of his religious wor- 
 ship; in the misconception incident to tradition, 
 and the error propagated by superstition, those 
 confused notions arose with the process of time, 
 in which the description of the prophecy was 
 transferred in emblems to the idol.^^* In the an- 
 tediluvian superstition, for which the nations re- 
 tained a hereditary prejudice, a perfect remem- 
 brance was preserved of the fall, and some inti- 
 mation given of the recovery. However perverse 
 and fatal the error which ensued, it was not un-. 
 natural, that the new revelation should be interr 
 preted by the ancient tradition ; and the promise 
 
 5** Vid. supr. p. 111. The probability of the course which 
 is thus pointed out, derives not merely illustration by authority, 
 from the following remark of the learned person, from whose 
 treasures I have drawn so copiously, in unravelling the per- 
 plexities of this obscure and intricate subject. Seld. uti supr. 
 p. 33. " In Hasmonaeorum libro cap. iii. comm. 48. editioni- 
 bus, Romana, Drusiana, atque aliis ita legitur ; ku) i^fsjCluauv 
 TO (oi^hlov ra vo^/ta 'mepi uv i^i^ivvuv ra, I'Ovjj roc o[jt.oiu>y.oc,Tcx, ruv il^uXuv 
 uvruv. De Judaeis verba sunt, quicum Juda Machabaio, post 
 nefandam Antiochi Epiphanis in Sacra Hierosolymitana ra- 
 biem,adcultum veri Dei instaurandum in Mispach convenerant; 
 forte aut 7a Ct/3^ta ; aut in^t a potius legendum. Sed de ea re 
 non disputamus ; Gentes inquit scriptor ille, de libro legis scru- 
 tahantur effigies idolorum suorum, haut satis capio ; nisi tunc 
 temporis idola sua non sifie norma aliqua e sacris Uteris de- 
 prompta formari voluerint. Verum in Hispancia editione ali- 
 ter se verba ilia habent : Scilicet i^e^ivvuv ra, t^vrt a i'jriy^a,(pnv Itt 
 otvruv ra, Qfji.oiu;iJt,ara. &c. et in plerisque Codd, Vett. ita legi ad- 
 notatur in ora editionis Romanae, 
 
OF A GREAT DELIVERER. 271 
 
 of a restitution having been understood in the 
 most literal sense, that it should be expected the 
 common parent of mankind would be the res- 
 torer of the happiness which had been enjoyed 
 and forfeited in Eden. In the opposition which 
 the antediluvian history presented between the 
 state of innocence and of guilt, the propensities 
 entailed by the fall unfortunately decided the re- 
 vivers of the old superstition to make a bad 
 election between good and evil. The licentious 
 character which the superstition assumed, drew 
 every thing within the circle of its seducements ; 
 and as the patriarch's imagery had been pervert- 
 ed, the divine object of his prophecy was con- 
 founded with the first victim of sin, whom they 
 had degraded to the lev^el of their own vileness 
 and debasement.^*^ 
 
 Such was the depraved state to which this su- 
 perstition had sunk in the age of Moses and Ba- 
 laam ; and though grossly degenerated from its first 
 state, the marks of its patriarchal original were 
 even at this time not wholly obliterated. In the 
 summons which Balaam received from Balak, he is 
 required *'to curse Jacob, and defy Israel:" and 
 in the benediction which the seer of Pethor con- 
 sequently utters, the prophecy of the patriarch is 
 expressly quoted. Thus indeed was the occasion 
 presented to the Mesopotamian Diviner to pro- 
 ses Instances of such confusion in this vile superstition have 
 been already frequently pointed out; vid. supr. p. 90. 94. 
 Amid this confusion and error, some intimations were preser- 
 ved of the opposition which was marked between the state of 
 innocence and of sin, and still mor^ strongly in the fall and re- 
 covery. As the West had its Priapus and Saturn, the East 
 had its Peor and Chemosh ; this last title is thus derived by 
 Leusden, Philol. Hebr. Mixt. XIV. p. 311. *' Alii a u;dd a6- 
 scondidity unde tt^iDD, h. e. Saturnus, absconditus" conf. supr. 
 p. 137. ct n. 
 
272 THE ASSYRIAN EXPECTATIONS. 
 
 claim the advent of the Expected Deliverer, as the 
 imagery was suggested in which he delivers his 
 prediction ; the idols against which he denounces 
 judgment, having assumed the emblematical cha- 
 racters, and usurped the divine honors of the Per- 
 sonage whose advent was predicted by Jacob. 
 From the error and the depravity of this deba- 
 sing superstition, the Hebrew was by birthright 
 exempt : for to him " the oracles of God were 
 committed." And in them he learned, that *' Bel 
 should bow down, and Nebo be prostrated :" that 
 *' the nations should not flow any more unto him, 
 but the wall of Babylon should fall, and judgment 
 be done upon the graven images of Babylon." 
 He was there taught, that the affairs of this lower 
 world, were not bound up by a law of necessity, 
 and dependent on the celestial influences ; but 
 ruled by the superintending providence of God ; 
 for there he read, that *' the Lord hearkened to the 
 voice of a man, and the sun stood still, and the 
 moon in the valley of Ajalon ;" that *' the prophet 
 cried unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow 
 of the sun ten degrees backward.'' In refutation 
 of the ethnic doctrine, that by purgations of fire 
 and water, the world would be perpetually des- 
 troyed and renovated ; he was assured, that there 
 should not be *' any more a flood to destroy the 
 earth." Compared to these and the other glori- 
 ous privileges of the Hebrew, the light imparted 
 to the Gentiles was darkness; still it was sufii- 
 cient to vindicate the ways of God, and leave man 
 without excuse. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 An INQUIRY into the INTEGRITY of the 
 GREEK VULGATE, or Received Text of the New Tes- 
 tament ; in which the Greek Manuscripts are newly classed, 
 the integrity of the Received Text vindicated, and the Various 
 Readings traced to their origin. 8vo. 
 
 The OPERATIONS of the HOLY GHOST, illus- 
 trated and confirmed by Scriptural Auliiorities ; in a Series of 
 Sermons evincing the Wisdom and Consistency of the Econo- 
 my of Grace : with Notes and Illustrations, exhibiting the 
 Evidences of the Truth and Authority of the Doctrine, from 
 the Primitive Church and the Church of England. 8vo. 
 
 VINDICATION OF a REVIEW of the Bampton Lec- 
 tures for 1815, inserted in the British Critic, in a Letter ad- 
 dressed to the Rev. Reginald Heber, A. M. &c. 
 
 OBJECTIONS OF A CHURCHMAN to uniting 
 WITH THE BIBLE SOCIETY, including a Reply to the 
 Arguments in favor of that Association. 
 
 A KEY to M Volney's Ruins, or the Revolutions of Em- 
 pires ; by a Reformer. 
 
 REMARKS on a Passage in Eusebius's History, commu- 
 nicated by M. Calbo to the Rev. F. Nolan, with a POST- 
 SCRIPT, in Reply to the Rev. T. Falconer's Case of Euse- 
 bius examined. 
 
 REMARKS on a LETTER of Constantine the Great, to 
 Eusebius of Caesarea, on the Instauration of the Scriptures ; 
 and on the First IMPERIAL CONSTITUTION, in favor 
 of Christianity, issued from Milan ; with — 
 
 A PENNY POSTSCRIPT, exhibiting the competence 
 and honesty displayed by Dr. Falconer, in a recent Tract, 
 
entitled " The absurd Hypothesis, that Eusebius of Caesarea 
 Bisliop and Historian, was an Editor or Corrupter of the Ho- 
 ly Scripture exposed. 
 
 A HARMONICAL GRAMMAR of the Principle An- 
 cient and Modern Languages; viz. the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
 Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan, the French, Italian, Spanish, 
 Portuguese, German, and Modern Greek ; 2 vols. 8vo, 
 
 The EXPECTATIONS formed by the ASSYRIANS, 
 that a GREAT DELIVERER would appear, about the 
 time of our Lord's advent demonstrated. 8vo. 
 
 In the Press. 
 
 OCCASIONAL TRACTS, in vindication of the Truth, 
 Integrity, and Higher Doctrines of the Sacred Writings ; in re- 
 futation of the cavils of infidels and objectors. 3 vols. 8vo. 
 
 The EXPECTATIONS formed by the PERSIANS, 
 that a GREAT DELIVERER would appear, about the 
 time of our Lord's advent demonstrated. 
 
 The EXPECTATIONS formed by the ROMANS, on 
 
 the same subject, will follow in continuation ; and it is the au- 
 thor's intention to extend his inquiry to the GREEKS, EGYP- 
 TIANS, and other great Nations. 
 
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 works, in ten volumes ; the several parts of which will ap- 
 pear seriatim Separate titles will be however furnished to the 
 different volumes, for the convenience of those readers, wha 
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