cree was probably promulgated by the venerable Patriarch, about the same time. Eusebius, and others of the fathers, on the authority of ancient tradition, assign it to the nine hundred and thirtieth year of Noah's life, or about twenty years before his death; that is, in the three hundred and thirtieth year after the deluge, or B.C. 2825. Euseb. Chron. p. 10. Syncell. Chronog. p. 89. Epiphan. Oper. I. p. 703. DIVISION OF THE EARTH. The prevailing tradition of such a Decree for this three-fold division of the earth, is intimated both in the Old and New Testament. Moses refers to it, as handed down to the Israelites, "from the days of old, and the years of many generations; as they might learn from their fathers and their elders,” and further, as conveying a special grant of the land of Palestine, to be the lot of the twelve tribes of Israel. "When THE MOST HIGH divided to the Nations their settlements, When He separated the Sons of Adam, He assigned the boundaries of the peoples [of Israel] For the portion of the Lord is his people, Jacob the lot of his inheritance."-Deut. xxxii. 7-9. And this furnishes an additional proof of the justice of the expulsion of the Canaanites, as usurpers, by the Israelites, the rightful possessors of the land of Palestine, under Moses, Joshua, and their successors, when the original grant was renewed to Abraham. Gen. xv. 13-21. And the knowledge of this Divine decree will satisfactorily account for the panic terror, with which the devoted nations of Canaan were struck, at the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, by the Israelites, and approach to their confines; so finely described by Moses: "The nations shall hear [this] and tremble, Sorrow shall seize the inhabitants of Palestine. Fear and terror shall fall upon them, By the greatness of thine arm they shall be petrified, Till thy people pass over [Jordan] O LORD, Till the people pass over, whom Thou hast redeemed!"-Exod. xv. 14-16. St. Paul also addressing the Athenians, refers to the Divine decree, as a well known tradition in the heathen world. "God made of one blood every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth; having appointed the predetermined seasons and boundaries of their dwellings. Acts xvii. 26. Here he represents mankind as all of one blood, race, or stock, 66 the sons of Adam" and of Noah in succession; and the seasons and the boundaries of their respective settlements, as previously regulated by the divine decree. And this was conformable to their own Geographical Allegory: that Chronus, the god of time, or Saturn, divided the universe among his three sons; allotting the heaven to Jupiter; the sea to Neptune, and hell to Pluto. But Chronus represented Noah, who divided the world among his three sons, allotting the upper regions of the North to Japheth, the maritime or middle region to Shem, and the lower regions of the South to Ham. According to the Armenian tradition recorded by Abulfaragi, Noah distributed the habitable earth from north to south between his sons, and gave to Ham the region of the blacks; to Shem the region of the tawny (fuscorum); and to Japheth, the region of the ruddy (rubrorum). P. 9. And he dates the actual division of the earth, in the 140th year of Peleg, B.C. 2614; or 541 years after the deluge, and 191 years after the death of Noah, in the following order: "To the sons of Shem was allotted the middle of the Earth, namely, Palestine, Syria, Assyria, Samaria, (Singar or Shinar,) Babel (or Babylonia), Persia, and Hegiaz (Arabia.) "To the sons of Ham, Teiman (or Idumea, Jer. xlix. 7.) Africa, Nigritia, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Scindia, and India, (or India, west and east of the river Indus.) "To the sons of Japheth also, Garbia (the north), Spain, France, the countries of the Greeks, Sclavonians, Bulgarians, Turks, and Armenians." Annals. p. 11. In this curious and valuable Geographical Chart, Armenia, the cradle of the human race, was allotted to Japheth, by right of primogeniture; and Samaria and Babel to the sons of Shem ; the usurpation of these regions therefore by Nimrod, and of Palestine by Canaan, was in violation of the divine Decree. Though the migration of the primitive families began at this time, B.C. 2614, or about 541 years after the deluge, it was a length of time before they all reached their respective destina tions. The "seasons" as well as the "boundaries" of their respective settlements were equally the appointment of GOD. The nearer countries to the original settlement being planted first, and the remoter in succession. These primitive settlements seem to have scattered and detached from each other, according to local convenience. Even so late as the tenth generation after the flood, in Abraham's days, there were considerable tracts of land in Palestine unappropriated, on which he and his nephew Lot freely pastured their cattle, without hindrance or molestation. That country was not fully peopled till the fourth generation after, at the exode of the Israelites from Egypt. And Herodotus represents Scythia as an uninhabited desert, until Targitorus planted the first colony there, about a thousand years, at most, before Darius Hystaspes invaded Scythia, or about B.C. 1508. The orderly settlements of the three primitive families are recorded in that most venerable and valuable Geographical Chart, THE TENTH CHAPTER OF GENESIS, in which, it is curious to observe how long the names of the first settlers have been preserved among their descendants, even down to the present day. I. Japheth, the eldest son of Noah, Gen. x. 21, and his family, are first noticed. Gen. x. 2—5. The name of the patriarch himself, was preserved among his Grecian descendants, in the proverb του Ιαπετου πρεσβυτερος, “Older than Japetus," denoting the remotest antiquity. The radical part of the word IanεT, evidently expressing Japhet. 1. Gomer, his eldest son, was the father of the Gomerians. These, spreading from the regions north of Armenia and Bactriana, Ezek. xxxviii. 6, extended themselves westward over nearly the whole continent of Europe; still retaining their paternal denomination, with some slight variation, as Cimmerians, in Asia; Cimbri and Umbri, in Gaul and Italy; and Cymri, Cambri, and Cumbri, in Wales and Cumberland, at the present day. They are also identified by ancient authors, with the Galate of Asia Minor, the Gaels, Gauls, and Celta, of Europe, who likewise spread from the Euxine Sea to the Western Ocean; and from the Baltic to Italy southwards, and first planted the British Isles. Josephus remarks, that the Galata were called Toμapɛiç," Gomariani," from their ancestor Gomar. Ant. I. 6,1. See the numerous authorities adduced in support of the identity of the Gomerians and Celts, by that learned and ingenious antiquary, Faber, in his Origin of Pagan Idolatry, Vol. III. B. 6. chap. 3. p. 447. Of Gomer's sons, Ashkenaz appears to have settled on the coasts of the Euxine Sea, which from him seems to have received its primary denomination of Ažɛvoç, Axenus, nearly resembling Ashkenaz; but forgetting its etymology in process of time, the Greeks considered it as a compound term in their own language, A-Eεvos, signifying "inhospitable;" and thence, metamorphosed it into Ev-vos, Eu-xenus, " very hospitable." His precise settlement is represented in Scripture as contiguous to Armenia, westward: for "the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz," are noticed together. Jer. li. 27. Riphat, the second son of Gomer, seems to have given name to the Riphean mountains of the north of Asia, and Togarmah, the third son, may be traced in the Trocmi, of Strabo, the Trogmi, of Cicero, and Trogmades, of the Council of Chalcedon, inhabiting the confines of Pontus and Cappadocia. 2. Magog, Tubal, and Mesech, sons of Japhet, are noticed together by Ezekiel, as settled in the north, xxxviii. 2, 14, 15. And as the ancestors of the numerous Sclavonic and Tariar tribes; the first may be traced in the Mongogians, Monguls, and Moguls; the second in Tobolski, of Siberia; and the third, Mesech or Mosoch, in the Moschici, Moscow, and Muscovites. 3. Madai was the father of the Medes, who are repeatedly so denominated in Scripture. 2 Kings xvii. 6; Isa. xiii. 17; Jer. li. 11; Dan. v. 28, &c. 4. From Javan was descended the Javanians, or Iaoves of the Greeks, and the Yavanas of the Hindus. Greece itself is called Javan by Daniel, xi. 2; and the people Iaoves by Homer, Iliad. XIII. 685. These aboriginal Iaoves of Greece, are not to be confounded, as is usually the case, with the later Iwves, who invaded and subdued the Javanian territories, and were of a different stock. The accurate Pausanias states, that the name of Iwves, was comparatively modern, while that of Iaoves is acknowledged to have been the primitive title of the barbarians who were subdued by the Iwveç. Achaic. p. 396, 397. Strabo remarks, that Attica was formerly called both Ionia and Ias, or Ian. Geogr. Lib. IX. p. 302. While Herodotus asserts, that "the Athenians were not willing to be called Iwveç:" and he derives the name from Iov, the son of Xuth, B. VIII. 44, descended from Deucalion, or Noah. And this Ion, is said by Eusebius, Chron. p. 13, 14, to have been the ringleader in the building of the tower of Babel, and the first introducer of Idol worship, and Sabianism, or adoration of the sun, moon, and stars. This would identify Ion with Nimrod. And the Ionians appear to have been composed of the later colonists, the Palli, Pelasgi, or roving tribes from Asia, Phenicia, and Egypt, who, according to Herodotus, first corrupted the simplicity of the primitive religion of Greece. B. II. §. 51, 52. and who, by the Hindus, were called Yonigas, or worshippers of the Yoni, or dove. This critical distinction between the Iaones and the Iones, the Yavanas and the Yonigas, we owe to the sagacity of Faber. Vol. III. p. 449. Of Javan's sons, Elishah and Dodon, may be recognized in Elis and Dodona, the oldest settlements of Greece; Kittim, in the Citium of Macedonia, and Chittim, or maritime coasts of Greece and Italy, Numb. xxiv. 24; and Tarshish, in the Tarsus of Cilicia, and Tartessus of Spain. II. Ham and his family are next noticed. Gen. x. 6—20. The name of the patriarch is recorded in the title frequently given to Egypt, "the land of Ham." Ps. cv. 23, &c. 1. Of his sons, the first and most celebrated appears to have been Cush, who gave name to "the land of Cush," both in Asia and Africa: the former still called Chusistan, by the Arabian geographers, and Susiana by the Greeks, and Cusha dwipa within, by the Hindus. The other, called Cusha dwipa without. And the enterprizing Cushim or Cuthim, of Scripture, in Asia and Europe, assumed the title of Getæ, Guiths, and Goths; and of Scuths, Scuits, and Scots; and of Sacas, Sacasenas, and Saxons. The original family settlement of Abraham was "Ur of the Chasdim," or Chaldees, Gen. xi. 28, who are repeatedly mentioned in Scripture; Isa. xiii. 9; Dan. ix. 1; &c. According to Faber's ingenious remark, it may more properly be pronounced Chus-dim, signifying "God-like Cushites." Vol. III. p. 435. It is highly improbable that they were so named from Chesed, Abraham's nephew, Gen. xxii. 22, who was a mere boy, if born at all, when Abraham left Ur, and was an obscure individual, never noticed afterwards. |