chro·nol·o·gy /-ʤi/
 年代學;年代記


 Chro·nol·o·gy n.; pl. Chronologies   The science which treats of measuring time by regular divisions or periods, and which assigns to events or transactions their proper dates.
    If history without chronology is dark and confused, chronology without history is dry and insipid.   --A. Holmes.

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 chronology
      n 1: arrangement of events in time
      2: a record of events in the order of their occurrence
      3: the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past
         events


 Chronology
    is the arrangement of facts and events in the order of time. The
    writers of the Bible themselves do not adopt any standard era
    according to which they date events. Sometimes the years are
    reckoned, e.g., from the time of the Exodus (Num. 1:1; 33:38; 1
    Kings 6:1), and sometimes from the accession of kings (1 Kings
    15:1, 9, 25, 33, etc.), and sometimes again from the return from
    Exile (Ezra 3:8).

      Hence in constructing a system of Biblecal chronology, the
    plan has been adopted of reckoning the years from the ages of
    the patriarchs before the birth of their first-born sons for the
    period from the Creation to Abraham. After this period other
    data are to be taken into account in determining the relative
    sequence of events.

      As to the patriarchal period, there are three principal
    systems of chronology: (1) that of the Hebrew text, (2) that of
    the Septuagint version, and (3) that of the Samaritan
    Pentateuch, as seen in the scheme on the opposite page.

      The Samaritan and the Septuagint have considerably modified
    the Hebrew chronology. This modification some regard as having
    been wilfully made, and to be rejected. The same system of
    variations is observed in the chronology of the period between
    the Flood and Abraham. Thus:

       |                          Hebrew Septuigant  Samaritan

       | From the birth of

       |   Arphaxad, 2 years

       |   after the Flood, to

       |   the birth of Terah.     220      1000        870

       | From the birth of

       |   Terah to the birth

       |   of Abraham.             130        70         72

      The Septuagint fixes on seventy years as the age of Terah at
    the birth of Abraham, from Gen. 11:26; but a comparison of Gen.
    11:32 and Acts 7:4 with Gen. 12:4 shows that when Terah died, at
    the age of two hundred and five years, Abraham was seventy-five
    years, and hence Terah must have been one hundred and thirty
    years when Abraham was born. Thus, including the two years from
    the Flood to the birth of Arphaxad, the period from the Flood to
    the birth of Abraham was three hundred and fifty-two years.

      The next period is from the birth of Abraham to the Exodus.
    This, according to the Hebrew, extends to five hundred and five
    years. The difficulty here is as to the four hundred and thirty
    years mentioned Ex. 12:40, 41; Gal. 3:17. These years are
    regarded by some as dating from the covenant with Abraham (Gen.
    15), which was entered into soon after his sojourn in Egypt;
    others, with more probability, reckon these years from Jacob's
    going down into Egypt. (See EXODUS.)

      In modern times the systems of Biblical chronology that have
    been adopted are chiefly those of Ussher and Hales. The former
    follows the Hebrew, and the latter the Septuagint mainly.
    Archbishop Ussher's (died 1656) system is called the short
    chronology. It is that given on the margin of the Authorized
    Version, but is really of no authority, and is quite uncertain.

       |                         Ussher   Hales

       |                          B.C.     B.C.

       | Creation                 4004     5411

       | Flood                    2348     3155

       | Abram leaves Haran       1921     2078

       | Exodus                   1491     1648

       | Destruction of the

       |   Temple                  588      586

      To show at a glance the different ideas of the date of the
    creation, it may be interesting to note the following: From
    Creation to 1894.

      According to Ussher, 5,898; Hales, 7,305; Zunz (Hebrew
    reckoning), 5,882; Septuagint (Perowne), 7,305; Rabbinical,
    5,654; Panodorus, 7,387; Anianus, 7,395; Constantinopolitan,
    7,403; Eusebius, 7,093; Scaliger, 5,844; Dionysius (from whom we
    take our Christian era), 7,388; Maximus, 7,395; Syncellus and
    Theophanes, 7,395; Julius Africanus, 7,395; Jackson, 7,320.