Copy 1, Volume 2

Library of useful knowledge.

  • Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain)
Date:
1827-1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Library of useful knowledge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/496 (page 5)
    Chapter III. § 1. Noah's Descendants, Nineveh.— § 2. Abraham.—§ 3. Situation and Early History of Egypt.—§ 4. Abra¬ ham's Settlement in Canaan, Melchi- zedek, Lot.—§ 5. Ishmael, Arabia.— § 6. Joseph's Administration in Egypt. —$ 7. Settlement there and depar- ' ture of the Israelites.—§ 8. Jewish Law. § 1. The Ark, when the waters sub¬ sided, settled on Mount Ararat, which is supposed to have been a peak in the ridge of Taurus, or perhaps of Cauca¬ sus. Noah with his family descended into the plains, about a year after enter¬ ing the ark. He had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In the tenth chap¬ ter of Genesis, an account is given of the different regions peopled by their posterity; it is however very limited; and the traditions engrafted on it are, as might be expected, vague and unsatis¬ factory. The descendants of Japheth are said to have been the population of the “ Isles of the Gentiles,” which ex¬ pression is supposed to designate the countries separated from Asia and Afri¬ ca by the Mediterranean sea. Shem was considered as the ancestor of the people who dwelt about the Euphrates and Tigris, in the country to the east of those rivers, and in that to the west as far as the Mediterranean sea. His sons were Elam, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram, Asshur. Asshur is believed to have given name to the country of Asshur, or Assyria. Ham is supposed to have been the progenitor of the Africans and Arabians. His sons were Cush, Mizraim, Phut, Canaan. From Canaan sprung the in¬ habitants of the land of Canaan, af¬ terwards the country of the Jews. Nimrod, the son of Cush, was cele¬ brated as a hunter ; and (if we may so understand the text*) he penetrated into Asshur, then possessed by the de¬ scendants of Shem, and built Nineveh. Civilization has usually advanced in change in the physical constitution of the atmosphere. In confirmation of this, it is added that, according to the most obvious (though certainly not the necessary) interpretation of another passage in scripture, (Gen. ix. 13.) the rainbow had never been seen before the Flood. The vegetable and animal remains ot for¬ mer worlds appear to indicate a temperature higher than that of the present; and it has been also argued that considerable chemical changes have taken place in the fluid constituting the sea. See Phillips, Out¬ lines of Mineralogy and Geology, Lecture v. p. 116. (fourth edition 18^6,) and Lecture vi. p. IfcO.—Phil¬ ips and Conybeare, Geology of England and Wales, Book i. ch. 4. S 2. (c.) ' ’ f Gen. x. 11. the following orderhunting, pasture, agriculture, and commerce: this last consisting of an interchange, in the first place, merely of natural productions of countries, in the second, of their manufactures also. In the earliest stage, contests are frequent between the scanty tribes who require a great extent of country for the pursuits by which they subsist; and the text probably refers to some event of this nature. We may suppose the successful huntsman to have partially cleared the country which he had won, and to have esta¬ blished for his followers something like a fixed residence, or, at any rate, a central point of union. The city of Nineveh, afterwards so much cele¬ brated in history, is said to have owed its origin to this transaction, what¬ ever it was. It was situated on the Tigris, and the Greeks called it Ni- nus ; some authors deduce the name from a son of Nimrod; others place this Ninus much later. In fact, it is only by a very lax use of words, that we can attribute to these times the founda¬ tion of the powerful empire of which Nineveh was afterwards the capital. We may be nearly certain that this part of the history of these countries, if it were known, would offer to us little else than a series of contests carried on be¬ tween half-civilized tribes, producing no durable results ; and of this, the scan¬ tiness of the remaining traditions is, in itself, almost sufficient evidence. ^ § 2. The account given in the book of Genesis is almost confined to a parti¬ cular branch of the family of Arphaxad. Eber, from whom the Hebrews are be¬ lieved to have been named, was his grandson. The sixth in descent from Eber was Abraham, who dwelt in Ur of the Chaldees, a part of Mesopotamia. In consequence, as it appears, of the different superstitions which had arisen in that country, he was directed to quit it with his family. He did so, and settled for some time in Canaan. This event is known in chronology, as the Call of Abraham, and it is placed about the year 1921 before Christ*. Shortly after, a dearth having arisen in this country, he removed into Egypt,, at that time per¬ haps the most fertile and civilized country of the earth. * But Eusebius, who uses the Era of the Call of Abraham in his Chronicle, places its commencement at the 1st of October, 2016, b. c., so that the 1st of the ye,ar, -1’ D- is the commencement o f the 2017th year of this Era,