The Extant Fragments of the Five Books of the…

 III.—The Extant Fragments of the Five Books of the Chronography of Julius Africanus.

 When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of men. In some copies I found “the sons of God.” What is mean

 Adam, when 230 years old, begets Seth and after living other 700 years he died, that is, a second death.

 On the Deluge.

 Noe was 600 years old when the flood came on. From Adam, therefore, to Noe and the flood, are 2262 years.

 And after the flood, Sem begot Arphaxad.

 In the year of the world 3277, Abraham entered the promised land of Canaan.

 Of Abraham.

 Of Abraham and Lot.

 Of the Patriarch Jacob.

 From Adam, therefore, to the death of Joseph, according to this book, are 23 generations, and 3563 years.

 From this record, therefore, we affirm that Ogygus, After a break After another break

 1. Up to the time of the Olympiads there is no certain history among the Greeks, all things before that date being confused, and in no way consistent

 Æschylus, the son of Agamestor, ruled the Athenians twenty-three years, in whose time Joatham reigned in Jerusalem.

 And Africanus, in the third book of his History, writes : Now the first Olympiad recorded—which, however, was really the fourteenth—was the period whe

 On the Seventy Weeks of Daniel.

 On the Fortunes of Hyrcanus and Antigonus, and on Herod, Augustus, Antony, and Cleopatra, in Abstract.

 On the Circumstances Connected with Our Saviour’s Passion and His Life-Giving Resurrection.

 For we who both know the measure of those words, and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, give thanks to the Father,

X.16 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 107, al. 86.

Of the Patriarch Jacob.

1. The shepherd’s tent belonging to Jacob, which was preserved at Edessa to the time of Antonine Emperor of the Romans, was destroyed by a thunderbolt.17 Heliogabalus is probably intended, in whose time Africanus flourished. At least so thinks Syncellus.

2. Jacob, being displeased at what had been done by Symeon and Levi at Shecem against the people of the country, on account of the violation of their sister, buried at Shecem the gods which he had with him near a rock under the wonderful terebinth,18 On this terebinth, see Scaliger (ad Græca Euseb., p. 414); Franciscus Quaresimus, in Elucid. terræ sanctæ; Eugenius Rogerius, etc.; and also Valesius, ad Euseb. De Vit. Constant., iii. 53, notes 3 and 5. which up to this day is reverenced by the neighbouring people in honour of the patriarchs, and removed thence to Bethel. By the trunk of this terebinth there was an altar on which the inhabitants of the country offered ectenæ19 Scaliger acknowledges himself ignorant of this word ἐκτενας. In the Eastern Church it is used to denote protracted prayers (preces protensiores) offered by the deacon on behalf of all classes of men, and the various necessities of human life. See Suicer, sub voce. Allatius thinks the text corrupt, and would read, ἐφ᾽ ὃν τά ὁλοκαυτώματα καὶ τὰς ἑκατόμβας ἀνεφερον = on which they offered both holocausts and hecatombs. [Littledale, Eastern Offices, p. 253.] in their general assemblies; and though it seemed to be burned, it was not consumed. Near it is the tomb of Abraham and Isaac. And some say that the staff of one of the angels who were entertained by Abraham was planted there.