Primeval Theology. Its revival, after the deluge, is noticed by Job, with abhorrence, xxxi. 26-28. See vol. 11. p. 105.

It is indeed highly probable, that when Cain, after his transgression, was banished from the presence of the Lord, or the visible SHECHINAH, stationed before Paradise, he and his family, in the land of Nod, or of their "exile," (which is generally supposed to have been Chusistan, or Susiana*,) forgat GOD, and fell into that stupid idolatry of worshipping the Creatures, instead of THE CREATOR; of whom, the most glorious were the celestial Luminaries. Diodorus Siculus, himself a heathen, observes, that "the first man, looking upwards to the Heavens, and struck with awe and admiration at their nature, supposed the Sun and Moon to be the chief and eternal Gods." Compare Wisd. xiv. 12, &c.

I have attempted to adjust the Chronology of Sanchoniatho's list, by reference to Cain's line, which is nearly related to Seth's. See vol. II. p. 1. Assuming, that Adam was only 130 years old, at the birth of his first born Cain; and according to the Jewish apocryphal book, called the little Genesis, that Cain was 190 years old, at the birth of his son Enoch; and that the remaining generations of both lines, were equal in length, respectively.

3. The third generation were said to have found out the art of kindling fire, by rubbing dry sticks together, and to have taught it to mankind. This was intimated in their names, ows, light, Ivp, fire, and λok, flame. Here we are led to remark, that the gradual discovery of the useful arts, and improvement of social life in the ensuing generations, is evidently borrowed from the scriptural account of their rise and progress in the family of Cain. Gen. iv. 17-22. See vol. 11. p. 33.

4. The fourth generation, their immediate offspring, were of uncommon bulk and stature, who are said to have given names to the mountainous regions which they occupied; namely, Cassius, Libanus, Antilibanus, and Brathys.

5. The offspring of these giants, begotten on prostitutes who lay with all the men they met, were named by their mothers, Memrumus and Hypsouranius. This fifth generation strongly resembles that produced by

* Instead of Susiana, eastward of Paradise, Sanchoniatho, to exalt his own country, placed Cain's family in Phenicia, westward..

the

the promiscuous intercourse of the sons of God, or pious Sethites, with the fair daughters of men of the idolatrous race of the Cainites, recorded in Scripture. Gen. vi. 1-2. See vol. 11. p. 37.

Hypsouranius is said to have dwelt at Tyre, and to have invented the art of building huts of reeds, sedge and papyrus. His brother Usous, with whom he was at variance, first invented clothing for the body with the skins of wild beasts which he had contrived to catch. And when the friction of the trees in a wood, near Tyre, during violent storms of wind and rain, had set fire to the branches, Usous formed a canoe out of a tree, whose branches he had lopped off, and ventured first to embark therein. on the sea. He consecrated two pillars to the Elements of Fire and Wind, and offered sacrifices and oblations to them of the wild beasts which he caught in hunting.

After their decease, the survivors of that generation consecrated stocks, (or wooden images) to them, and also adored the pillars, and held anniversary feasts in honour of them.

Here we have a natural account of the progress of primeval idolatry and superstition, beginning with the Zabian, proceeding to the adoration of the Elements of Nature, and ending with the deification of dead men, or Heroes, for their useful inventions *.

6. Many years after, Agreus and Halieus, the descendants of Hypsouranius, are said to have invented hunting and fishing, as their names imply.

7. Their offspring, in the seventh generation, were two brothers, who found out the use and method of working iron. Chrysor, one of them, cultivated logic, divination and incantations. He was also called He

* The following remarkable passage relating to Sanchoniatho, is recorded by Cyril in his answer to Julian the Apostate, lib. vi. p. 205.

"Sanchoniatho speaks like one full of the Grecian superstition. For the most ancient of the Grecians, and especially the Phænicians and the Egyptians, (from whom the rest of the world received it,) reckoned those the greatest Gods who found out matters of public utility, or in any respect served the world; and accounting fuch persons benefactors, and authors of many goods, they worshipped them as Gods; and they built temples to their use, and consecrated pillars and stocks in their names. And the Phænicians, highly veerating them (pillars) held the greatest feasts to them," (the Gods). See the original passage, Jackson's Chronology, vol. 1. p. 370.

phaistus

phaistus, or Vulcan. He invented hooks and baits and fishing tackle; and was the first who practised navigation. After his decease, he was worshipped as a God, under the title of Diamichius, (probably from "N", Di michi, "the power of engines." Ezek. xxvi. 9.) His brothers, according to some, found out the method of building brick walls.

8. Of this family were afterwards born two youths, the one called Τεχνίτης, artist," the other гiv auToxwv, "Native son of Earth." They found out the art of mixing stubble with clay to make bricks, which they dried in the sun. These brothers resemble Jabal, Jubal and Tubal Cain, in Scripture. Gen. iv. 20-22.

With this generation Sanchoniatho ends the line of Cain. A plain proof that he had no other original document, beside the Mosaical account, to continue that line to the deluge; of which he takes no manner of notice in this fragment; perhaps, because the impious and idolatrous race of Cain were destroyed therein, whom he chose to record, in preference of Seth's pious line.

10. Recurring therefore, of necessity, to Scripture, Sanchoniatho resumes the genealogy, after the deluge, with Seth's line, in Agros, or Agrotes, signifying “husbandman," who is plainly the representative of Noah. Gen. ix. 20.

Sanchoniatho continues his idolatrous system, in the person of Agrotes, whom he represents as having a statue and a shrine in Phoenicia, drawn about by a yoke of oxen; that he was worshipped, and called, at Byblos, by way of eminence," the greatest of the Gods." It is highly probable, indeed, that when the Heroic Idolatry was revived after the deluge, in the fifth generation of Nimrod, the first object of it was the second ancestor of the human race, as Adam, the first. The veneration of Noah would easily degenerate into idolatry among the family of Ham, who strongly resemble that of Cain before the deluge. Noah and his wife seem to be the same divinities, whom Sanchoniatho, shortly after, entitles Exir," the most high God, and Baps, Beryth, "the Covenant;" figuratively alluding to the Divine grant of the whole earth and its productions to Noah and his family; and the covenant of the rainbow, established with them by THE MOST HIGH GOD, POSSESSOR OF Gen. ix. 13; xiv. 22.

HEAVEN AND EARTH.

11. We next find his descendants noticed, and strangely caricatured, in Ausy, denoting "the race of Ham," and May,

Αληται,

Magician," famous in Egypt. Exod. vii. 11. These are represented as the immediate offspring of the Aanra, "Wanderers," and Traves, "Giants," of the dispersion that followed the confusion of tongues at Babel. Gen. xi. 8-10. 12. The sons of Amun and Magus, were Misor and Sydik. The former was evidently the father of Misraim, "the Egyptian." Gen.

x. 6.

13. The son of Misor was Taaut, or Thoth. He was the first, according to Sanchoniatho, who took religion out of the hands of the ignorant vulgar, and molded it into a rational system; but who, in reality, appears to have been one of the first corrupters of the primitive And these patriarchal religion in Egypt, by philosophizing thereon. corruptions were propagated by the sons of Sydik, the Dioscuri, Cabiri, and Corybantes, in Samothrace, Greece, and the rest of Europe. See Faber's Cabiri.

And here also, Sanchoniatho ends the line of Ham, in the third descent, corresponding to Caphtor, the father of Caphtorim, the Egyptians of lower Egypt. Gen. x. 13-14. The remainder of the fragment is filled with a strange, confused and unintelligible jargon, heterogenously collected from the Mythologies, or fabulous Theologies of the Egyptians and Greeks, furnishing internal evidence, indeed, the most satisfactory, that Sanchoniatho's writings, if genuine, were of later times; much later than Hesiod, Homer, and Orpheus, those grand corrupters of Pagan Theology. The total silence, however, of Josephus, that learned Jewish antiquary, respecting Sanchoniatho, who was himself so well acquainted with the Tyrian and Phænician records, affords a reasonable doubt of the existence of this author, and gives colour to Dodwell's suspicion, that his reputed writings were a spurious fabrication either of Porphyry, or of Philo Byblius, artfully ascribing thereto a remoter antiquity and authority, in order to prop the sinking cause of Pagan Polytheism and Idolatry, after the promulgation of CHRISTIANITY. Still, the fragment is curious and useful.

II. The chasm in the Antediluvian Chronology of Sanchoniatho, is fortunately supplied by another and more valuable fragment of Berosus, whose genuineness is indisputable.

Berosus

Berosus was a Chaldean by birth, and a priest of Belus at Babylon. He lived, as he himself said, in the time of Alexander the Great, and wrote the Chaldean or Babylonian history, in three books, which he dedicated to Antiochus Soter, king of Syria, about B. C. 268. He collected his history from most ancient archives, preserved in the temple of Belus, and from early histories, and was held in the highest repute by Josephus, Alexander Polyhistor, Julius Africanus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Vitruvius, and Eusebius. Pliny relates, that he was in such estimation for his Astrological predictions, that the Athenians erected a statue to him with a golden tongue, in the Gymnasium.

The first book of his Chaldean History contained an account of the Creation of the World, and of the early ages of mankind, corresponding to the Mosaic account. The second book began with a dynasty of ten kings who reigned in Chaldea before the deluge; and also recorded ten generations of men after the deluge to Abraham, conformably to Scripture. But only a few scattered fragments of his writings are preserved. The rest are unfortunately lost.

The following list of Chaldean kings who reigned before the deluge, from Berosus, is compiled from the varying accounts of Apollodorus, B. C. 144, Polyhistor, B. C. 88, Abydenus, B. C. 60, and Africanus, A. D. 220, in Syncellus Chronographia, p. 36; given from thence by Jackson, in his Chronology, vol. 1. p. 198, 199, &c.