Page:The chronology of ancient nations (IA chronologyofanci00biru).djvu/49

for Messiah, and not that of Mary, is to be explained in this way, that according to the law of the Israelites, nobody was allowed to marry any but a wife of his own tribe and clan, whereby they wanted to prevent confusion of the pedigrees, and that it was the custom to mention only the pedigrees of the men, not those of the women. Now Joseph and Mary being both of the same tribe, their descent must of necessity go back to the same origin. And this was the object in their statement and account of the pedigree.

Everyone of the sects of Marcion, and of Bardesanes, has a special Gospel, which in some parts differs from the Gospels we have mentioned. Also the Manichæans have a Gospel of their own, the contents of which from the first to the last are opposed to the doctrines of the Christians; but the Manichæans consider them as their religious law, and believe that it is the correct Gospel, that its contents are really that which Messiah thought and taught, that every other Gospel is false, and its followers are liars against Messiah. Of this Gosj^el there is a copy, called, " The Gospel of the Seventy," which is attributed to one Balâmis, and in the beginning of which it is stated, that Sallâm ben 'Abdallâh ben Sallâm wrote it down as he heard it from Salmân Alfârisî. He, how ever, who looks into it, will see at once that it is a forgery; it is not acknowledged by Christians and others. Therefore, we come to the conclusion, that among the Gospels there are no books of the Prophets to be found, on which you may with good faith rely.

Era of the Deluge.—The next following era is the era of the great deluge, in which everything perished at the time of Noah. Here, too, there is such a difference of opinions, and such a confusion, that you have no chance of deciding as to the correctness of the matter, and do not even feel inclined to investigate thoroughly its historical truth. The reason is, in the first instance, the difference regarding the period between the Æra Adami and the Deluge, which we have mentioned already; and secondly, that difference, which we shall have to mention, regarding the period between the Deluge and the Æra Alexandri. For the Jews derive from the Thora, and the following books, for this latter period 1,792 years, whilst the Christians derive from their Thora for the same period 2,938 years.

The Persians, and the great mass of the Magians, deny the Deluge altogether; they believe that the rule (of the world) has remained with them without any interruption ever since Gayômarth Gilshâh, who was, according to them, the first man. In denying the Deluge, the Indians, Chinese, and the various nations of the east, concur with them. Some, however, of the Persians admit the fact of the Deluge, but they describe it in a different way from what it is described in the books of the prophets. They say, a partial deluge occurred in Syria and the west at the time of Tahmûrath, but it did not extend over the whole of the then civilized world, and only few nations were drowned in it; it did not