29—THE DATE OF THE DELUGE
By Editor
Will you kindly inform me why the date of the Flood in the Bible is 2348 B. C., and historical works credit the Babylonian and Egyptian dynasties with passing on down beyond that date, without any reference to the Flood, claiming that the dates were obtained from unearthed tablets? A more exact date for the Deluge would not be a date B. C., but a date A. M. (Anno Mundi). That would be 1656 A. M., that is, the year of the world. According to Archbishop Usher's chronology, that was 2348 years before Christ. The Septuagint gives a number of years more than this. There is a general agreement, however, concerning the first 1656 years. This can be learned from the age of the patriarchs from Adam to Noah. The dates gleaned from the tablets by archeologists are very uncertain. Some of the most learned archeologists declare that there is nothing as yet found that would in any wise upset the general Bible chronology, that is, that would carry civilization back farther than the Bible carries it. Some of these things that are found may have antedated the Deluge. We do not know anything that would forbid this. It is safe to say that we can hold in a general way to the commonly received Biblical chronology. The dates of the archeologists yet are too uncertain to be depended upon.