# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1856_S111
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Dr. Seyffarth's Corrections, etc. 111

the oldest and most learned church fathers place Christ's birth shortly before the beginning of the old Dionysian era, on the winter-solstice day of the astronomers' year zero; according to Petavius, Christ was born 4 years before Christ's birth. The book of Judges reckons, from the exodus of the Israelites to the building of Solomon's temple, without the gaps, nearly 800 years, Petavius only 480 years, and lets the judges rule, one simultaneously with another, against Scripture. Josephus and the Septuagint reckon, from the Creation to Moses, 1500 years more than the Hebrew text does, and the church fathers and disinterested Arabic authors expressly affirm that the Jews, namely Rabbi Akiba, after the destruction of Jerusalem shortened the biblical chronology by 1500 years, in such a way that among the first 15 patriarchs from Adam to Abraham, 100 years each were omitted up to the birth of the son, in order to be able to claim that Jesus was not the true promised Messiah, whose coming was generally expected in the 6th millennium; but now, they say, he came 1500 years too early. Nevertheless Petavius takes the chronology of the Hebrew text as his basis. Josephus, Manetho, and the church fathers expressly affirm that the Israelites were Manetho's shepherd-kings, that they came into Egypt only in 2081 B.C. and departed after 215 years under Amos I of the 18th Dynasty. According to Petavius the latter event occurred 400 years later. Abarbanel, Josephus, and others expressly report that 8 years before Moses' birth a remarkable conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter took place in Pisces — an impossibility according to Petavius. Scripture affirms that no one except Noah's family was saved in the Flood; according to Petavius, Lamech and Methuselah survived the Flood. From this it can be seen that the Hebrew history and chronology, too, is not in order.

The principal aids by which it is now possible to correct the errors of Petavius are astronomical facts reported in connection with certain regnal years or events. These are: the constellations of the 7 planets, the planetary conjunctions, the transits of Mercury across the sun (self-immolations of the phoenix among the Egyptians and Romans), the Apis periods, the phases of the moon, the equinox and solstice observations of the ancients, the risings and settings of constellations and fixed stars, the solar and lunar eclipses of the ancients, the solar months of the Athenians, Macedonians, and Hebrews, and the weekday determinations of the ancients.

By applying these aids, the corrections to history now result, of which we report the principal ones in what follows.

In Roman history Petavius, against the express testimony of the Roman authors, inserted 2 pairs of consuls in 47 and 79 A.D.; hence from this point on all consuls and events must be moved down 2 years, up to Caesar's death. The astronomical observations confirm the reports of the ancient authors and fell 2 years later than