A TREATISE

ON THE

CHRONOLOGY,

AND

THE PROPHETICAL NUMBERS,

OF THE

BIBLE,

IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM CUNINGHAME, ESQ., OF
LAINSHAW, IN THE COUNTY OF AYR.

WITH AN APPENDIX,

PROVING THAT THE DAYS OF THE CREATION, IN THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS,
MUST BE RANKED AMONG THE PROPHETICAL NUMBERS OF THE BIBLE: AND
SHOWING THAT THE CHRONOLOGY, AND THE PROPHETICAL NUMBERS, OF THE
BIBLE PROVE EACH OTHER TO BE CORRECT IN AN EXTRAORDINARY MANNER,
AND THEREFORE THAT THE JEWISH SCRIBES BECOME VINDICATED FROM
THE CHARGE OF CORRUPTING THE HEBREW TEXT, SO FAR AS NUMBERS ARE
CONCERNED, AND THAT THE THANKS OF THE WORLD ARE JUSTLY DUE TO
THEM FOR THE GREAT CARE THEY MUST HAVE TAKEN OF IT.

BY DUNCAN MACDOUGAL,

Accountant and Teacher, Manchester.

BIBL

LONDON:

W. SMITH, 113, FLEET STREET; HATCHARD, & SON :
EDINBURGH ; W. TAIT, 78, PRINCES STREET, AND W. WHITE & CO.:
GLASGOW; R. GRIFFIN & SON, AND JOHN SMITH & SON :
DUBLIN, JOHN CUMMING, AND ROBERTSON & CO.:
MANCHESTER; JOHN ROBERTS.

1840.

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PREFACE.

THE principal objects which the author has in view in sending forth this publication into the world, are the following.

The first is, to show that Geologists and Astronomers may assign any age to this planet, and to the creation of animals lower than man, which their knowledge in their respective sciences may determine, without, in the smallest degree, contradicting the account given in the first chapter of Genesis.

The second is, to show that the Hebrew text, by two streams of time, prophetic and historic, fixes the time of the creation of Adam prior to the birth of Christ to be 3969 years, and not-as our present chronology has it-4004 years, and as inserted in some of our English Bibles.

The third is, to show that the term DAY, as mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, is not to be understood as signifying a day of twenty-four hours; but is to be received in a prophetic sense, signifying a period of 1000 years, and, consequently, the six days' creation comprehends the first 6000 years of man's existence upon earth; and his creation and condition

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