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fix hundredth and firft Year. Now, fuppofing he waited for the Return of the Dove feven Days, then that will make ten Months and thirteen Days, and bring us to the first of the thirteenth Month, or more properly, to the firft of the first Month of the enfuing Year of Noah's Life.

The vulgar Latin Edition of the Bible feems to favour this Hypothefis; for we read there, chap. viii. ver. 8. Emifit quoque Columbam poft eum, ut videret fi jam cessassent aqua super faciem terra. If the Waters were yet abated; which Expreffion yet is not in our English Verfion. Now

from thence we may very well fuppofe Noah had waited fome confiderable time; the Word jam, yet, carrying with it the Idea of a long and tedious Expectation; and such a one we may the more reasonably suppose Noah to have been in, if we confider that the Raven he had fent out before, Egrediebatur, & non revertebatur donec Siccarentur aqua fuper terram. Went forth and returned not till the Waters were dried from off the Earth. Or as our Version has it, Went to and fro till the Waters were dried from the Earth. And indeed it is very natural to think, that Noab having fent out the Raven to fee if the Waters were dried away, fhould wait fome time before he fent out a fecond Meffenger, especially fo tender a Bird as the Dove. There would thereB 2

fore

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fore be, I conceive, no Abfurdity in placing here the Month that remained to be accounted for.

There is, indeed, one Objection that seems to make strongly against it. And that is what we read in the tenth Verfe, namely, that he ftaid yet other feven Days; which Phrafe implies his having already waited feven, and thereby feems to fix the Interval of time between the fending out the Raven, and the fending out the Dove, to feven Days. But we find that in feveral authentick Greek Copies the Word Other, répas, is wanting. So that according to those Copies, what I have here propofed may very well be admitted; this Objection being thereby taken

*

away.

ར་ ་

Fixing then here the Month unaccounted for, we fhall find the Particulars of the Flood to agree exactly with the general Ac-. count given us of it. For according to the foregoing Scheme, we have found that from the beginning of the Flood to Noah's removing the Covering of the Ark, there were ten Months and thirteen Days. In chap. viii. ver. 13. we are told, that, in the fix bundredth and firft Year, in the firft Month, the first Day of the Month, the Waters were dried up from off the Earth; which makes eleven Months and thirteen Days:

and

*Ed. Ox, & Compl.

and ver. 14. that, in the fecond Month, on the twenty Seventh Day of the Month, was the Earth dried. Which being added to eleven Months and thirteen Days, makes juft twelve Months and ten Days. Whence it will follow, that a Year was equal to twelve Months of thirty Days each, or to three hundred and fixty Days in all.

Thus have I endeavour'd to prove the Antediluvian Years to have been of the Length and Duration I just now mentioned, from the Account of the Flood as we have it in our English Verfion; but it will appear ftill far more evident to us that they were fo, if we examine the Account of the Flood as it is delivered in the most authentick Copies of the Septuagint Verfion. For we shall there find feveral Errors, that occur in our Latin, English, and French Bibles, rectified, and the Account will be made plain and eafy to us..

And firft; according to the Latin, English, and French Verfions, the Flood is made to have lafted a Year and ten Days; namely, from the Seventeenth of the fecond Month of one Year, to the twenty feventh of the fecond Month of the enfuing Year. But according to the Septuagint Verfion, it lafted only just a Tear. For the beginning of the Flood, which in the Latin, English, and French Verfions, is faid to be on the seventeenth of the Second Month, is there faid to

be

be on the twenty Seventh Day of the second Month. το δευτέρα μίωός, ἑβδόμη καὶ ἐικάδι Tulos. And therein all the moft authentick Copies agree. But leaft it should be faid, that then, the Proof I have brought of the Months confifting of thirty Days each, by reafon of the five Months, from the feventeenth of the fecond Month, to the feventeenth of the Seventh Month, being made equal to an hundred and fifty Days, would thereby be deftroyed; I muft not forget to obferve, that in the Septuagint Verfion, the Ark is faid to have refted on the twenty feventh of the feventh Month, on the Mounfains of Arrarat. Καί ἐκάθισεν ἡ κιβωτὸς ἐν μωωὶ τῷ ἑβδόμῳ, ἑβδόμῃ καὶ εικάδι το μωὺς ἐπὶ τὰ ἔφη τὰ ̓Αραράτ. τα So that the five Months are still made equal to an hundred and fifty Days, and the Proof remains in force.

This leads me to take notice, by the way, of an Error in the Vulgar Latin Edition of the Bible, that renders that Version still more faulty than either the English or the French ones. It places indeed the beginning of the Flood on the Seventeenth of the second Month, as ours and the French one does, but then it makes the refting of the Ark to have been on the twenty seventh of the feventh Month, and thereby makes an hundred and fifty Days equal to five Months and ten Days, or each Month to confift on

san

ly

ly of twenty eight Days; whereas 'tis manifeft they confifted of thirty.

Another Error that occurs in all the English, French, and Latin Verfions, is in the eighth Chapter of Genefis, at the fifth Verfe, where we read thus; In the tenth Month, on the first Day of the Month, were the Tops of the Mountains feen. Now I think there is little Reason to doubt, but we ought to read the eleventh Month. The Vatican, and Complutenfis Editions indeed have it the tenth Month. But the Alexandrian MSS. and the Editio Aldina, both have it the eleventh Month. ἐν ἢ τῷ ἑνδεκάτη. Which Reading I am perfuaded any one will be induced to prefer, who does but confider how agreeable it is to Reason, and how perfectly it reconciles the Account of the Flood to it's felf, and clears up all thofe Difficulties we have hitherto met with, in endeavouring to adjust it. And certainly the Authority of thofe Copies, efpecially of the Alexandrian MSS. which the learned Dr. Prideaux, in his Account of the Septuagint, justly esteems to have the Preference of all the Copies of that Verfion, is a fufficient Warrant for our fo doing.

I fhall fay nothing more to recommend the Corrections I have made of our Verfion, from the different Readings in the Septuagint, I have mention'd; but proceed to confider, as briefly as poffible, the Account of

the

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