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Art. VIII.—Corrections of the Canon of Ptolemy, required in order to place it in harmony with the Solar Eclipses of Jan. 11th, B.C. 689, and May 28th B.C. 585

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

Extract

In a paper which I had the honour of reading before this Society On the eighth of July last, I endeavoured to establish—First, that the remarkable astronomical phenomenon which occurred in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, King of Jndah—viz., the retrograde motion of the sun's shadow on the dial, or steps, of the king's palace at Jerusalem, accompanied by some visible wonder in the heavens—must have been the effect of an eclipse of the sun. Secondly, that if the phenomenon was indeed caused by a solar eclipse, it must have been one combining the following distinguishing characters, viz.:—

1st, That it should have been visible at Jerusalem.

2nd, That it should have occurred within about twenty days of the winter solstice.

3rd, That it should have occurred about noon-day.

4th, That the occultation should have been on the upper limb of the sun.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1854

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References

page 421 note 1 “From Xisuthrus, and from the time of the Deluge, even to the time when the Medes took Babylon, Polyhistor enumerates eighty-six kings, and mentions them each by name, from the work of Berosus.”—Aucher's Eusebius, p. 19. And again, after enumerating the kings of Babylon down to the capture of Bifcylon by Cyrus, Eusebius writes—“As Berosus briefly relates each event concerning the kingdom of the Chaldeans, so in the same manner has Polyhistor described it.”—p. 23. Nevertheless, we may be certain that Polyhistor was giving his own version, not that of Berosus, when he enumerates the Persian kings who followed Cyrus; because the passage does not correspond with the extract given by Josephus, in the words of Berosus, concerning the same events.

page 421 note 2 Auoher's Euseb. p. 22.

page 421 note 3 Ibid, p. 27.

page 422 note 1 “Demetrius says, in his work concerning the kings of Judea, that she tribes of Benjamin and Levi were not carried into captivity by Senacherim; but that from this deportation to the last from Jerusalem by Nabuchadonosor was a period of 128 years and six months. And that from the time when the ten tribes were made captive from Samaria to the reign of the fourth Ptolemy (Philopater) was 573 years (qu. 473) and six months. And from the carrying away from Jerusalem, 338 years and three months. Philo, however, wrote the kings of Judah differently, from Demetrius.”—Clemens. Alex., Strom, i.

page 423 note * This difference of two years, arises from two years more being given, in some of the copies, to the reigns of Evilmerodach and Neriglissar.

page 426 note 1 Lectures on Ant. Hist., vol. i, pp. 91, 92.

page 426 note 2 P. Orosius contra Paganos, 1. ii. c. 2; p. 74.

page 426 note 3 Aucher, p. 22.

page 427 note 1 Dissertationes Cypriauicae. Appendix.

page 427 note 2 Aucher's Euseb. p. 30.

page 427 note 3 Daniel, vi. 28.

page 427 note 4 Ibid. x. 13, and xi. 1.

page 427 note 5 Clem. Alex., Strom. i.

page 429 note 1 See Note, p. 422.

page 430 note 1 Corrected from 6 to 16.

page 430 note 2 Jerem. xl. vi. 25, 26.

page 430 note 3 Compare xlvi. 2, with xxv. 1.