333 Victory of Alexander at Issus. 332 Siege of Tyre. Foundation of Alexandria. 331 Victory at Gaugamela. Onias I. High-Priest. 330 Overthrow of Darius and the Persians. 323 Death of Alexander. 320 Ptolemy I. in Palestine and Central Syria. 312 His victory at Gaza. Antigonus and Demetrius rule in Palestine till 301, 301 Battle at Ipsus. In the Arabic Chronicle of Hamza, p. 94, three years are correctly assigned to Belshazzar: to his predecessor, how ever, (derived from Evil-Merodach) twenty-two years are erroneously ascribed. The same writer (p. 82 sq.) speaks of the expedition of Alexander to Africa as the beginning of an era. 4 Cf. Lepsius in the Berl. Akad. Monatsberichte, 1854, p. 495 sqq.; on the Ptolemies ibid. 1852, p. 480 sq. This is the beginning of the ordinary Seleucidic chronology, as appears in 1 Macc. On the other hand, in 2 Macc. the year 311 is taken as the starting point, p. 467 note 2. Clinton, it is true, Fasti Hell. iii. p. 371 sqq., endeavours to disprove this, but he can only refute the view, which is in any case erroneous, that in 2 Macc. the chronology is reckoned from the spring, and in 1 Macc. from the autumn. There is, in fact, a difference of a year in the chronology of the two books; and it appears, also, from other traces that the year 311 was adopted in Africa. Cf. also Martin in the Rev. Archéol. 1853, p. 193 sqq., 338 sq. • Corsinus, Fasti Attici, iv. p. 114 sq., actually places the Athenio-Judean affair mentioned on p. 405 under Hyrcanus I., and consequently places the archon Agathocles referred to in the document in Ol. clxiii. 3, as though the circumstance fell in the ninth year of Hyrcanus I. But while it is probable that Josephus confounded Hyrcanus II., although he is clearly designated in the words of the document, with Hyrcanus I., it cannot be determined when this archon actually held office, as his name has not been discovered anywhere: that the occurrence took place precisely in the sixth year of Hyrcanus is in no way affirmed by Josephus. Clinton leaves the whole question alone. 7 Cf. Clinton's calculation in the Fasti Hell. iii. p. 331 sq.; cf. i. p. 428. A further means for determining the date would be supplied by the statement in Jos. Ant. xiii. 8, 4, that Antiochus rested for two days at the desire of John, in consequence of the immediate sequence of a day of Pentecost after a sabbath. 8 According to Jos. Contr. Ap. ii. 12 ad fin. the Judeans had maintained their freedom for about one hundred and twenty years till the time of Pompey, and had even ruled over the surrounding cities (where Greek culture prevailed). But this number is as indefinite and exaggerated as every other in Josephus. Besides, many of these cities reckoned their years from a date before Pompey, according as one or another succeeded, in the general weakness of the kingdom of the Seleucidæ, in obtaining some amount of liberty: for instance, Ascalôn reckoned from the year 104 B.C. (Chron. Pasch. p. 182a). Unfortunately, however, we know little of the eras of these several towns except through coins. In the Fasti Hell. iii. pp. 220, 595, Clinton states his opinion, founded on certain contradictions in Josephus and also between him and Dio Cassius, that Jerusalem must have been taken in December of 38 B.c. If, however, the Parthians did not overrun Syria until 40 B.C., and Antigonus, according to Jos. Ant. xx. 10, 4, and other testimony, reigned for at least three years and three months, Jerusalem cannot have been taken till the year 37; and the same date results from the 107 years which, according to Jos. Ant. xx. 10 ad fin., elapsed between this conquest of Jerusalem and its destruction. The frequentinaccuracy of the chronology of Josephus is further shown in this fact, that, instead of specifying twenty-seven years (adopted on his authority in p. 416) as the interval between the conquests of Pompey and Sosius, he ought strictly only to have named twenty-six. 4 ADDENDA [The following additions and corrections (with the exception of that to p. 93, which was inadvertently omitted) are taken from the seventh volume of the German edition (Gött., 1868). The Translator regrets that he only became cognisant of them too late to insert them in their proper places.] P. 14 note 3. As the Dul-kift is peculiarly closely connected in the Koran with Elijah and Elisha, the name would seem to have been originally applied to Obadiah, 1 Kings xviii. 3 sq., as the preserver of so many fugitives; subsequently, however, it was confounded with that of the prophet Obadiah.-A later narrative of the martyr-death of Ezekiel may be seen in Tischendorf's Apocal. Apocr. p. P. 74 note 3. Mosis. 66 sq. Compare the seventy-seven years of the Ascensio P. 80 sq. Cf. vol. ii. p. 335, and the brief remarks on Lam. iv. 21 in the Dichter des A. Bs. I. b, p. 345, 3rd ed. P. 83. The expression in the Ascensio Mosis, iv., ' unus qui est supra eos' probably designates Zerubbabel. P. 93 ad fin. To all these testimonies fresh evidence has lately been added from a totally different quarter. A modern Karaite, named Firkowitz, discovered a great number of very old Hebrew tomb-inscriptions in the Crimea, and made a large collection of them. For a considerable time our information was somewhat uncertain, but a few years ago nine of these very stones were sent to the Academy of St. Petersburg, and were somewhat more fully described by Dr. Ad. Neubauer in its Bulletin of March 16, 1868. The Israelites must have been regularly naturalised there at an early period, so that they even assumed quite Turkish names, like Toktamish and Severg’elein (i.e. Amabilis, a name of a woman). On these tomb-stones three chronologies appear. 1) The first starts from the Creation. In the Gött. Gel. Anz., 1863, p. 650, I expressed my conviction, àpropos of the fourth book of Ezra, that there is no reason for doubting that the chronology by the years of the world was already in use at the beginning of our era, an opinion which this discovery confirms. 2) The second chronology was reckoned by the years of our exile.' The comparison of two of the inscriptions transcribed in the communication above cited, where the date is given according to both computations, VOL. V. K K 6 shows that this exile began in the year of the world 3215, and was therefore that of the Ten Tribes. 3) The third chronology differs from the first only by 251 years, and probably rests only on another calculation of the years of the world. It was called that of the ", which is abbreviated from Taman-Türk (the Turkish Taman in the Crimea); cf. in Fürst's Qaräern, vol. ii. p. 97. According to these data the oldest inscriptions would belong to the year 17 B.C. In any case we may expect further trustworthy information from this newly-opened source. We do not know when these Israelites began to reckon by either of these three chronologies; and it would be premature to endeavour to prove by the mere chronology according to the exile of the Ten Tribes that they were still at that time in all respects what they had formerly been in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. But the importance of the discovery remains; and as these monuments exhibit essentially the square character, our previous remarks on this are confirmed.—Cf. Chwolson's Krimische Grabinschriften p. 73 sq., 94, with the Gött. Gel. Anz., 1866, p. 1241 sqq. [and see also Davidson on Ancient Tomb Inscriptions of the Crimean Jews, in the Theological Review, October, 1868-Transl.]. P. 96 note 3. To these may be added many other Samaritan localities indicated in Abulfatch's Ann. p. 132, 13 sq.; p. 133, 7 sqq. P. 100 note 7, line 9, the passage cited is from Jos. contr. Ap. i. 21. P. 107 note 1, ad fin. So in 3 Bar. (Dillmann's Chrest. Eth. p. 6, 12) Persia is put for Babylonia. P. 177 note 2, line 11. P. 206 note 2, line 5. P. 209 line 7. Cf. the Propheten des A. Bs. iii. p. 216. For 'by a Christian' read in Christian times.' P. 225. Cf. the Numism. Chron., 1865, ii. pp. 126 sqq., 131 sqq. That the fragment attached to the book of Baruch belonged to this period, and that the Psalms of Solomon may also be ascribed to it, is explained in the Propheten des A. Bs. iii. p. 267 sqq. The language of Bar. v. 7 sq. is in reality an echo of Ps. Sol. xi. 5-7; and the piece in question may have been written only a little while after this book of Psalms, and then translated into Greek. P. 234 note 1. Cf. Jahrbb. der Bibl. Wiss. xi. p. 221 sq. P. 239. On the early dispersion of the Judeans in the most northerly Greek cities on the Black Sea, cf. L. Stephani in the Bulletin de l'Acad. de St. Pétersbourg, 1860, p. 244 sqq., Heidenheim's Vierteljahrsschr., 1866, p. 353, and Chwolson's Krimische Grabinschriften, pp. 59 sq., 71 sq., 93, 123 sq. P. 245 note 3. Cf. Chwolson's Krimische Grabinschriften, p. 55. Cf. Lebrecht's Kritische Lese (Berl. 1864), p. 19 sq. On the reference to Dan. xi. 21-24, see the Propheten des A. Bs. iii. p. 459. |