II. The Patriarchs after the food wera at first, in all, but four persons, with each his wife. Noah became the second father of the human race. They were ex- ceedingly fruitful, as God had ordained they should
be. The tenth chapter of Genesis is a wonderful document, describing the vast emigrations of the fam- ilies of the sons of Noah. The numl>er of nations there enumerated is reckoned by the Hebrew exposi- tors as seventy ; from Japheth fourteen, from Ham thirty, and from Sheni twent^^-six. But they no longer lived to the age of tlieir antediluvian forefa- thers. Abraham was 90 at the birth of Ishmael, and about 100 at the birth of Isaac ; Isaac was GO at the birth of Esau and Jacob, and died at ISO ; Jacob died at 147, and Joseph at 110. It will be observed that as human life was shortened, children were usuallj' born at an earlier period in the life of their parents. A providential compensation was thus supplied, by which the human family was multiplied, and large portions of the earth occupied. The language of men was, however, no longer one. When an attempt was made to concentrate the race, instead of occupying the earth and replenishing it, the scheme was defeated by the miraculous confusion of tongues. From that time tlie patriarchal state was preserved, or revived in its purity, chiefly, if not wholly, in the family of Abraham, the friend of God. Nations grew up on the right hand and on the left. In Assyria there arose the kingdom of Nimrod. "Out of that land he went forth to Asshur and builded Nineveh." Without notice from the sacred historian the marvellous civilization of Egypt then spi'ang up, and the thirty pyramids themselves were probably already built when Abra- ham first arrived in that land. Idolatry, moreover, was fast taking the place of the primeval religion, and if the name of the true God was ever in danger of be- ing whoU}' forgotten in the world, it was probably then, when Abraham was called to go forth from Ur of the Chaldees. In the book of Joshua (xxiv, 2, 14) we read that the original fathers of the Jewish race, who dwelt beyond the Euphrates, served other gods. Such was probably the case with Terah, the father of Abraham. " If we are asked," says professor Max Miiller, "how this one Abraham passed through the denial of all other gods to the knowledge of the one God, we are content to answer that it was by a special divine revelation." " It is true." adds dean Stanley, "that Abraham hardly appears before us as ... a teacher of any new religion. As the Scripture repre- sents him, it is rather as if he were possessed of the truth himself than as if he had an}' call to proclaim it to others. His life is his creed; his migration is his mission. . . . His faith transpires not in anj' outward profession of faith, but precisely in that which far more nearly concerns him and every one of us — in his praj'- ers, in his actions, in the righteousness, the 'justice,' . . . the ' iiprirjhtness,^ the moral ' elevation'' of soul and spirit which sent him on his way straightforward, without turning to the right hand or to the left.' In- deed, Abraham must be regarded as the type, ' the hero,' as he has been called, of the patriarchal state. He was acquainted with civilization and organized government, but in his own person and family ad- hered to the simple habits of a nomad life. With him and his, the father of the famil}' was the patri- archal priest, the family itself the patriarchal Church."
POSTDILUVIAN PATRIAROUS.
HEBREW TEXT.
SAMARITAN TEXT.
SEPTUAGINT VERSION.
Years
before
birth of
Son.
Real of Life.
Extent
of
whole Life.
Years before birth of
Rest of Life.
Extent
of whole Life.
Years
before
birth of
Son.
Rest of Life.
Extent
of whole Life.
1. Shem
100 35
30 .S4 30 32 30 29 70
500 403
403 430 209 207 200 119 135
600 43S
433 464 239 239 230 143 205
100 135
l.^O 1.34 130 132 130 79 70
500 303
303 270 109 107 100 69 75
600 438
433 404 239 239 230 14S 145
100 1.S5 130 130 134 130 132 130 179 70
500 400 330 330 270 209 207 200 125 135
000 535 400 460 404 339 339 330 304 205
2. Arphaxad
4. Salah
5. Eber
6. Peleg
7. Reu
S. Seru"-
9. Nahor
10. Terah
i
PATRIARCH
V71
PATRIARCH
Dean Stanley has remarked how exactlj', when Abra- ham and Lot " went forth" to go into the land of Ca- naan, they resembled two Arabian chiefs at the pres- ent day on a journey or a pilgrimage. He notes how at this day, as so many centuries ago, "the chief wife, the princess of the tribe, is there in her own tent, to make the cakes, and prepai-e the usual meal of milk and butter ; the slave or the child is ready to bring in the red lentile soup for the weary hunter, or to kill the calf for the unexpected guest. Even the ordinary social state is the same : polygamy, slaverj', the ex- clusiveness of family ties ; the period of service for the dowry of a wife ; the solemn obligations of hospi- tality; the temptations, easily followed, into craft or falsehood"' (^Lectures on Jeicish Church, lect. i, p. 12).