2. But the specified dates given in Acts xiii., 17 -22, and which end with the death of Saul, amount to 530 years, which alone makes an excess over 1 Kings vi., 1 of 50 years. Then, in addition, there are the two breaks above named, to which St. Paul affixes no specific dates.

Now, of these two breaks, the first, between the death of Moses and the time of the Judges, embraces the following events, as recorded in the Book of Judges, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd chapters, to the 8th verse inclusive, viz.: The dividing of the conquered land by lot; the death of all the Judges who overlived Joshua; the gathering of that generation to their fathers, and the rising up of another that knew not the Lord; their conquering the remnant of the nations left by Joshua, and their final servitude under Cushan Rishathaim, consequent upon their intermarriages with the idolatrous Canaanites. The second break relates to the period of Samuel's administration, between Eli and Saul.

The chronology of these two breaks, therefore, being left to conjecture, we offer the following as that which to us reduces it to the greatest degree of certainty of which it is susceptible, and,

I. Of the period between the death of Moses and the first servitude, we offer the following: Caleb, when sent out as a spy with Joshua, was 40 years old,' to which add 39 years wanderings in the wilderness, Moses having sent him out on the second year of his

1. Joshua xiv., 7.

mission, and which together make 79 years. Now, supposing Joshua to be about the same age with Caleb, at his death he was 110 years old. From this deduct the above 79 years, and it gives to Joshua between the death of Moses and his own death, 31 years. Then, to the interregnum which followed, to the time of their first servitude, including the period of the Judges which overlived Joshua, and the time of anarchy, we add 19 years —- Josephus (no mean authority) assigns to this period 18 years. These together supply the first break with 50 years.

3

II. Of the other, between Eli and Saul, and which relates to the period of Samuel's administration, we offer the following: Samuel's official character was threefold. He acted as Priest,2 as Prophet, and as Judge. Now, that Samuel was Judge prior to the anointing of Saul as the first king of Israel, is evident from 1 Sam. vii., 6, compared with chapters viii. x., 1. Most chronologists assign to Samuel 21 years. But if we allow the full force of this passage, "and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life;5 i. e., from the commencement of his judicial authority to his death, which the Hebrew chronology places between 1099 and 1059 B. C., it makes the whole num

1. Josh. xxiv., 29.

2. 1 Sam. ii., 11, 18, 19; iii., 1.
3. 1 Sam. iii., 18-14; 15-20.
4. 1 Sam. vii., 6—15.

5. 1 Sam. vii., 15.

6. The dates B, C. of these events in our table will vary from the above. But as here introduced, they serve to shew that if any

ber of years of his administration as judge to be 40 years, which seems also to accord with the account given of him, 1 Sam. viii., 1. The 40 years assigned to Saul however, Acts xiii., 21, is to commence from Samuel's 24th year, at which point his separate administration ceased.

1

Before we proceed, however, to a recapitulation of the dates which belong to the period (the ivth) now under consideration, we claim the indulgence of a brief examination of that part of it of which Mr. Miller principally avails himself, in fixing upon A. D. 1843, as the termination of the 6000th year of the world. In his chronological table from Adam to Christ, as published in the "Signs of the Times" 2 of September 1, 1840; and again, with some slight alterations, in the "Report of the General Conference," &c., published in Boston, 1841, and of which he says, this chronology is not correct, I despair of getting from the Bible and History a true account of the of the world;" 4 he inserts for the 6th servitude under the Philistines, 40 years to Samson 20 years, and to Eli 40 years, making a total of 100 years. If these dates in his table, therefore, can be shown as

3

"if

age

two points of the chronology of our common English version agree in one instance, they may in another. There is such an agreement of the Hebrew Chronology of the birth and death of Moses, with his age, as given Deut. xxxiv., 7.

1. Mr. Miller, in his revised Chronological Table, allows to Samuel's administration as Judge, 24 years. Report, 1841.

2. Page 80.

3. Page 94.

4. Report, p. 93. Note,

obviously incorrect, we may spare ourselves the time and labor to point out its other inaccuracies.

In opposition to the above, then, we assume that the Scriptures assign but 40 years to this part of the chronology. Our position is as follows:- The 40 years of the 6th servitude under the Philistines, mentioned Judges xiii., 1, includes the whole time of Eli, he having succeeded Abdon, whose death is recorded, Judges, chap. xii., 14; and the last 20 years of Eli includes the 20 years assigned to Samson.

Proof. In 1 Sam. iv., 18, Eli, at his death is said to have judged Israel 40 years. The number of years, (viz. 1160 and 1120 B. C.) between the death of Abdon, Judges xii., 14, and that of Eli, 1 Sam. iv., 18, is just 40 years. Eli, therefore, was his immediate successor, as one of the Judges of Israel. The sacred narrative furnishes no other mode than this of determining the commencement of Eli's administration as Judge. Now, it is evident that the narrative which immediately follows the death of ABDON, gives an account of the birth of Samson, Judges xiii.;-not of the commencement of his judicial administration. At the time of Samson's marriage "the Philistines had dominion over Israel." Judges xiv., 4. Samson was then a young man, v. 10; say about 20 years of age. But it was at this very time, when his career as defender and deliverer of Israel commenced. "The spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan, between Zora and Astaol ;" and when he came to his father and mother, asking them to procure as his wife the woman of Timnath, they knew

not that it was of the Lord," and "that he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Judges xiii., 25;

χίν. 1 - 4.

If to this it be objected that, contrary to all precedent, it places two jduges over Israel at the same time, viz., Eli and Samson, we reply, that this circumstance can by no means invalidate a plain historical fact. We remark, then, that the supineness and want of decision betrayed by Eli in his complex official capacities, (for he was both Judge and High Priest)' seemed to call for some additional provision for the defence of the enslaved and suffering Israelites, while under servitude to the Philistines, with which Eli's administration was cotemporaneous. This provision was made by raising up Samson, as the defender and deliverer of Israel during the last 20 years of Eli; and if Scripture has any authority with Mr. Miller, I would respectfully refer to Judges xv., 20, which expressly says that Samson judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years." Nor will this be thought singular, when, in addition to the official inefficiency of Eli, you add the consequent misrule of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

The conclusion therefore is, that the interval between the death of Abdon and that of Eli, includes ALL that is narrated of the career of Samson, of Hophni and Phinehas, &c. In other words, the 40 years of Eli, and the 20 years of Samson are included in the 40 years of the SIXTH SERVITUDE. Here,

1. Compare 1 Sam. ii., 27, 28, with chap. ii., 22—25; and iii., 1-14. See also Townsend's Bible, Eng. Ed. vol., I, p. 608.