The Book of Abraham - Its Genuineness Established, Chapter VII

THE BOOK OF ABRAHAM—ITS GENUINENESS ESTABLISHED.
BY ELDER GEORGE REYNOLDS.

[CONTINUED FROM PAGE 84]

CHAP. VII

The chronology of the Ancients, a Key to its mysteries—The ante-deluvian monarchs—Josephus and Chinese chronology.

In the seventh paragraph of the Book of Abraham we find the following; “Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal, Pharaoh being a righteous man, established his king­dom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign. even in the reign of Adam and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the priest­hood.” The next paragraph is as follows: “Now Pharaoh being of that linage by which he could not have the Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pha­raohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry; but I shall endeavor, hereafter, to delineate the chronology, running back from myself to the beginning of the creation, for the records have come into my hands, which I hold unto this present time.”

We desire to draw attention to se­veral ideas advanced in the above quotations.

1st. That the early Egyptians were acquainted with events that occurred before the flood.

2nd. That the ante-diluvian patri­archs reigned in the midst of their de­scendants as kings.

3rd. That this form of government was the prevailing one, in the days immediately succeeding the deluge.

4th. That the Egyptians estab­lished in their midst an imitation or bogus priesthood that rapidly carried the people into idolatry.

5th. That Abraham and probably many others possessed records running back to the beginning of time.

Modern research has amply vindicated the statements of Abraham’s record with regard to the condition of society amongst the early dwellers on the banks of the Nile. Listen to what Mr. Osborn states on this sub­ject, and though in different wording, note how fully he bears out the patriarch’s assertions. Mr. O. remarks in his “Religions of the World” that “Egyptian remains prove clearly that while to all appearance the first settlers in Egypt carried along with them some germinal forms of very malignant religious error, they carried with them, in addition to the mere ancestral or genealogical and historical knowledge, a most deep experimental knowledge and conviction of the reality of divine being and agency, and a knowledge also of that form in which, from the time of the Fall the revelation of the most important elements of religion appears to have been imparted to mankind.”

We shall not attempt to establish the ideas from the Book of Abraham, above noticed, in the order in which they are placed, but before leaving this branch of the subject, we believe that we shall be able to adduce sufficient evidence to convince all who are willing to learn the truth, that Abraham’s statements as given by the Prophet Joseph are historically correct.

The fact of Abraham coming in pos­session of certain genealogical records may seem somewhat incredible to those who have not studied the subject. Many are too apt to consider the people of those early ages as but one step re­moved from barbarians, being, if we sense their idea correctly, very much on a par with the modern Tartar or Bedouin Arab; and the thought of such a people possessing a literature, seems to be inconceivable to the minds of many otherwise intelligent people. But have such ever noticed that the Bible, in one of its very first chapters actually speaks of “the book of generations of Adam.” (Gen. v., 1.) and it is from that book apparently that Moses’ genealogical record of the Ante-deluvians was transcribed. In confirmation of the existence of such a book, Josephus states that those who lived before the flood, “noted down with great accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men.” (Jos. book 1, chap. 3,) which record would undoubtedly be preserved among the royal archives, and as such, being deemed of the utmost value as giving the genealogy of the kings be saved by Noah in the ark, he, according to Abraham and Josephus also, being the reigning sovereign at the tune of the deluge. Josephus specifically states that that ‘'calamity happened in the six hundredth year of Noah’s government.” (Jos. book 1, chap 3.) In fact Josephus gives a list of the anta diluvian monarchs, or patriarchs as they are termed in the Bible, but the fact that he recognized them as the sovereigns of the ante-deluvian world is very strong corroborative testimony of the statement of Abraham that Adam and Noah reigned as kings over their fellow men. The following is Josephus statement with regard to this matter. (Jos. book 1, chap. 3)

Seth was born when Adam was in his 230th year, who lived 930 years. Seth begat Enoch in his 205ih year, who when he lived 912 years, delivered the government to Canaan his son, whom he had at his 119th year. He lived 905 years. Canaan when he had lived 910 years, had his son Malaleel), who was born in his 170th year. This Malaleel having lived 895 years, died, leaving his son Jarad, whom he begat when he was at his 165th year. He lived 962 years and then his son Enoch succeeded him, who was born when his father was 162 years old. Now he, when he had lived 365 years, departed and went to God, whence it is that they have not written down his death. Now Methusela, the son of Enoch, who was born to him when he was 165 years old, had Lamech for his son, when he was 187 years old, to whom he delivered the government, when he had retained it 969 years. Now Lamech when he had governed 777 years, appointed Noah his son to be the ruler of the people, who was born to Lamech when he was 282 years old, and retained the government 950 years.”

We here draw attention to a some­what remarkable coincidence. It is that the length of the reigns of these Patriarchs, as given by Josephus, agrees, with one exception we believe, with the length of their lives according to Bible chronology, but what makes this feature more remarkable is that Josephus does exactly the same thing as the Chinese do in their antediluvian chronology, “The Chinese account speaks of ten dynasties of superior beings, who ruled in their country 1,000 years each, before the sky fell on the earth (i.e. the flood). It is not hard to see that this is only a different and a singular manner of relat­ing the same facts * * Moses informs us that each of these ten generations did extend near a thousand years, but he let us know that a son and his father walked much of their earthly race together. The journey of each was long but it was a simulta­neous travel.”1

Now we think that the statement of Abraham turns a key, by which a flood of light is thrown on the early history of the first nations that came into being after the food, for instance the Egyptian, the Chaldean, and the Chinese. Scientists and religionists have been wrangling for scores of years with regard to the chronology of these na­tions, both parties, as a rule, seeming to take it for granted that these chronological records should stop at the flood, presumedly for the reason that all mankind but one family of eight were then destroyed. As there is incontrovertable evidence that the ancients were acquainted with facts and events relating to the earth and the heavens long anterior to the gene­rally accepted date of the deluge, sceptics have loudly expressed their doubts as to the flood having occurred at all. But when we take into consideration the fact that those who were saved were the royal family—the king and queen with their three sous and the princesses, their wives—and that this king (Noah) ruled after as well as before the flood, it remains no longer a wonder how these nations traced their existence to years long anterior to that dire calamity. To them it was a terrible disaster in the history of their nation, nothing more, there was no break in the royal descent, the same king reigned before and after it took place, the same dynasty remained in power, his son succeeded him to the throne; the royal records were preserved, and the Egyptians, the Chaldeans, and the Chinese, alike with natural national pride all claimed, the sovereigns who ruled from Adam to Noah as the kings of their peculiar nation. Their records were like three converging lines, centering at Noah, and from him continuing backward in one and the same str light line to Adam. To illustrate, let us suppose a case. We will imagine what a vast desolation sweeps over the empire of Germany. The king and the three princes with their families alone are saved from its fatal horrors. By and by, these three princes establish thrones of their own, say one in Prussia, one in Pomerania and one in Hanover. Would the natural historians of future ages, when these three kingdoms had become great and pop­ulous, stop in their respective national histories at the date that this over whelming catastrophe occurred? Would it not be much more reasonable to conclude that they would accumulate the histories of this and former epochs and continue their accounts through this calamity to the earliest days their records would reach? We think so, and in this way we discover an easy and reasonable solution to the difficul­ties that beset Chinese and Egyptian chronology, and are able.to account for the interminable lists of kings that grace their annals. In fact, so far as Egypt is concerned, it bad no consecutive chronology. This truth is now admitted by the most learned in that branch of science. But they undoubt­edly carried their records, in a jumbled up way, back beyond the flood (probably obtaining some information there­on from the records in the possession of Abraham), and, in post deluvian days, they, in vanity, inserted (he names of scores of princes who reigned contemporaneously in various parts of the Valley of the Nile. Admit these two facts and the solution is found to the mysteries of Egyptian chronology, what they had of it. Again, why should we permit the descendants of Shem, as in the case of the Hebrews, to monopolize their antedeluvian progenitors. These men were the fathers of all mankind, and all had equal rights to claim them as their own.