§ 8. Epochs in the Chronology of Sacred History.

1. Sacred History commences with the creation of the world, that is, of the earth and man, its inhabitant, and terminates with the establishment of man in his most perfect state and abode, through the resurrection and the judgment. It comprehends a double development: the original, commenced at the creation, and disturbed by the Fall-and that development which was renewed through the counsel of redemption, and which, sustained by an abiding divine revelation, is in the course of being consummated. The latter is contemplated by that salvation in Christ for which the way was opened, or preparation was made, in the old covenant, and which was accomplished and is appropriated in the new covenant.

OBS.-That development which still belongs to futurity, and is not yet manifested, is to be supplied from Prophecy, which contains its most important points.

2. The Chronology of the Scriptures, particularly of the Old Testament, presents so many difficulties, that a calculation of dates, perfectly correct and entitled to general adoption, can. scarcely be expected. Nevertheless, the variations in the dates presented by the several chronological systems which have been proposed, are not, in general, of a serious character. The Scriptures furnish the following definite chronological points:-1. The Deluge, 1656 years after the creation of Adam. 2. Birth of Abraham, 2008. 3. Jacob emigrated to Egypt, 2298. 4.. Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, after sojourning there 430 years, 2728, (Exod. 12:40). 5. Building of the temple, 480 years after the Exodus (1 Kings, 6:1), in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, 3208. 6. Death of Solomon, 36 years afterwards, 3244. 7. From Solomon's death to the fourth year of Jehoiakim, in which the 70 years of the Babylonian Captivity begin (by simply adding 375, that is, the number of years during which the kings of Judah reigned), 3619. 8. The end of the Captivity, in the first year of the reign of Cyrus, 3689. 9. Death of Cyrus (seven years after the return of the captives), occurring 3696 years after the creation of Adam, that is, 529 years before the Christian Era. According to this view, 4225

years intervene between the creation of Adam and the Christian Era; but as the Scriptures mention whole numbers only, and not parts of years, it is possible that errors, amounting to several decades of years, may occur in the above. According to the Septuagint (§ 113. 2. Obs.) which, in the earlier portions, usually furnishes higher numbers than the Hebrew text, the Creation occurred about 1500 years earlier than the date indicated by the latter.

DIVISION A.

THE CREATION AND THE FALL OF MAN.

§ 9. The Creation.*

GEN. CHAP. I. (Ps. 104.)-"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The earth and the works of God in it, were finished in six days by the almighty word of God. On the first day, the light, on which all terrestrial life depends, was called forth and divided from the darkness; on the second, the waters which were above, or the clouds (compare Gen. 8:2; Ps. 104:3; 148:4; Job 26 : 8), were divided by the firmament from the waters which were below. The waters and the land were separated, and the latter was furnished with plants of all kinds, on the third day. On the fourth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, took their places in the firmament of the heaven as lights, or bearers of the light previously created, and were appointed to "be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." Every living creature that moveth in the waters, and every fowl that flieth above the earth, were created on the fifth day; on the sixth, the beast of the earth, cattle, and every creeping thing, and, lastly, the first human pair, were created. "And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good." On the seventh day he rested from all his

*Fuller details, respecting the primeval history of man, &c., than those which could be here introduced, may be found in the [author's] two works The Bible and Astronomy, &c., 3d edit., Berlin, 1852, andContributions to the Defence and Establishment of the Unity of the Pentateuch, &c., Königsberg, 1843, as well as in his treatise in the Evang. Kirchenzeit. of 1846, Nos. 36-39, 69-71, entitled "Zur Geschichte der Urwelt."

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work which he had made, and sanctified it as a day of rest for

OBSERVATION 1.—The pagan nations of antiquity considered God and the world to be one and the same, and, accordingly, had no knowledge either of an existence of God independently of the world, or of a creation of the world from nothing; we find that, on the contrary, that nation which was appointed to be the vehicle of Sacred History until the fulness of the time was come, from the beginning possessed a clear and accurate knowledge of the truth that the world is not eternal, but originated in time and with time, and that God, who is himself infinitely exalted above the world, and who existed eternally before the world, created it from nothing, by the power of his will, which was expressed in his word: "God said, Let there be

and it was so." But, on the other hand, the knowledge of the triune being of God, and of his relation to the Creation, is first of all acquired with distinctness through the New Testament, after the Son took on him the nature of man in Christ, and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all flesh. We learn from it that the world was created of the Father, by the Son, unto (ɛis autóv, “in him") the Spirit: "To us there is but one God, the Father, of (§) whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom (di où) are all things, and we by him." 1 Cor. 8: 6.-"Of him (§ avrov), and through him (di avrov), and to him (ɛi5 avτóv) are all things." Rom. 11: 36.—“In the beginning was the Word (8 xóy05), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1: 1, 3. Compare Col. 1: 15, 16; Heb. 1: 2, 3. It is true, that the Old Testament, even in its earliest periods, contains intimations of a creative Word of God (in the history of the creation), as well as of visible manifestations of God (in the history of the patriarchs-(see ? 26. 2. Obs). It refers, likewise, to a lifegiving Spirit of God, for, in the history of the creation, the Spirit of God is moving, as if incubating, or animating and calling forth life in the new, inanimate, unarranged creation; at a later period, references to an enlightening Spirit also occur. But the personal self-subsistence, and the distinction between these forms of life in

*For fuller details belonging to the history of this primitive period, see the [author's] two works: Bibel und Astronomie, &c., 3d ed., Berlin, 1852, and Beiträge zur Vertheidigung u. B. der Einheit des Pentateuchs, &c., Königsb. 1843, and also [his] Treatise: Zur Geschichte der Urwelt, published in the Ev. Kirchenz. 1846, Nos. 36-39, and Nos. 69-71.

the divine being, had not yet been perceived; they acquired, however, increased distinctness (see ? 46. Obs. 2.) in the same degree in which the development of the Old Testament approached its term, namely, the incarnation of the Son, and the out-pouring of the Spirit, and this advance appears especially in the predictions of the prophets respecting both events.

OBS. 2. In the progress of Sacred History, we meet with other creatures, which possess a spiritual nature, or are free, and endowed with self-consciousness. They are called Angels (ayyɛ201), and appear as messengers and ministers of God, in ethereal forms, resembling the light (Matt. 28: 3. Ps. 104: 4). Sexuality and the propagation of their kind, do not occur in their case (Matt. 22: 30). The Scriptures afford no information respecting the precise period of their creation. But as they are, according to Job, 38: 7, declared by the Lord to have been the admiring witnesses of the works which were made during the six days of creation, their own origin necessarily preceded that of the earth and man; and, as they are placed, in the same passage, in connection with the morning stars, their abode may, possibly, be understood to be in the higher celestial regions. From this view the inference may be deduced that the stars were made before the earth was, but that the character and relation which they sustain in reference to the earth, were assigned to them on the fourth day of the creation.

§ 10. Position and Destination of Man.

1. Gen. 2: 4–7. - "Let us make man," said God, "in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over every living thing-and over all the earth.-So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Gen. 1 : 26-28. "And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2 : 7); that is, an animated soul, filled with the Spirit of God. The origin of man is, therefore, two-fold in one aspect, he belongs, in regard to his body and soul, to nature (animal nature), of which he constitutes the head; in the other, he is elevated above nature, in as far as a godlike spirit, the breath of God, dwells in him, and he is the 'offspring" of God (Acts 17: 28, 29). In consequence of this two-fold character, he constitutes the connecting link between