Chronology

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Chronology \Chro*nol"o*gy\, n.; pl. {Chronologies}. [Gr. ?; ?
     time + ? discourse: cf. F. chronologie.]
     The science which treats of measuring time by regular
     divisions or periods, and which assigns to events or
     transactions their proper dates.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           If history without chronology is dark and confused,
           chronology without history is dry and insipid. --A.
                                                    Holmes.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  chronology
       n 1: arrangement of events in time
       2: a record of events in the order of their occurrence
       3: the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past
          events

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  75 Moby Thesaurus words for "chronology":
     Clio, Muse of history, account, adventures, almanac, annals,
     autobiography, biographical sketch, biography, calendar,
     case history, check sheet, chronicle, chronicles, clock card,
     confessions, continuity, curriculum vitae, date slip, datebook,
     daybook, diary, duration, duree, experiences, fortunes,
     hagiography, hagiology, historiography, history, journal,
     lastingness, legend, life, life and letters, life story, log,
     martyrology, memoir, memoirs, memorabilia, memorial, memorials,
     necrology, obituary, period, photobiography, profile,
     psychological time, record, register, registry, resume, sequence,
     space, space-time, story, tense, term, the future, the past,
     the present, theory of history, tide, time, time book, time chart,
     time scale, time schedule, time sheet, time study, timebinding,
     timecard, timetable, while
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Chronology
     is the arrangement of facts and events in the order of time. The
     writers of the Bible themselves do not adopt any standard era
     according to which they date events. Sometimes the years are
     reckoned, e.g., from the time of the Exodus (Num. 1:1; 33:38; 1
     Kings 6:1), and sometimes from the accession of kings (1 Kings
     15:1, 9, 25, 33, etc.), and sometimes again from the return from
     Exile (Ezra 3:8).
     
       Hence in constructing a system of Biblecal chronology, the
     plan has been adopted of reckoning the years from the ages of
     the patriarchs before the birth of their first-born sons for the
     period from the Creation to Abraham. After this period other
     data are to be taken into account in determining the relative
     sequence of events.
     
       As to the patriarchal period, there are three principal
     systems of chronology: (1) that of the Hebrew text, (2) that of
     the Septuagint version, and (3) that of the Samaritan
     Pentateuch, as seen in the scheme on the opposite page.
     
       The Samaritan and the Septuagint have considerably modified
     the Hebrew chronology. This modification some regard as having
     been wilfully made, and to be rejected. The same system of
     variations is observed in the chronology of the period between
     the Flood and Abraham. Thus:
     
        |                          Hebrew Septuigant  Samaritan
     
        | From the birth of
     
        |   Arphaxad, 2 years
     
        |   after the Flood, to
     
        |   the birth of Terah.     220      1000        870
     
        | From the birth of
     
        |   Terah to the birth
     
        |   of Abraham.             130        70         72
     
       The Septuagint fixes on seventy years as the age of Terah at
     the birth of Abraham, from Gen. 11:26; but a comparison of Gen.
     11:32 and Acts 7:4 with Gen. 12:4 shows that when Terah died, at
     the age of two hundred and five years, Abraham was seventy-five
     years, and hence Terah must have been one hundred and thirty
     years when Abraham was born. Thus, including the two years from
     the Flood to the birth of Arphaxad, the period from the Flood to
     the birth of Abraham was three hundred and fifty-two years.
     
       The next period is from the birth of Abraham to the Exodus.
     This, according to the Hebrew, extends to five hundred and five
     years. The difficulty here is as to the four hundred and thirty
     years mentioned Ex. 12:40, 41; Gal. 3:17. These years are
     regarded by some as dating from the covenant with Abraham (Gen.
     15), which was entered into soon after his sojourn in Egypt;
     others, with more probability, reckon these years from Jacob's
     going down into Egypt. (See {EXODUS}.)
     
       In modern times the systems of Biblical chronology that have
     been adopted are chiefly those of Ussher and Hales. The former
     follows the Hebrew, and the latter the Septuagint mainly.
     Archbishop Ussher's (died 1656) system is called the short
     chronology. It is that given on the margin of the Authorized
     Version, but is really of no authority, and is quite uncertain.
     
        |                         Ussher   Hales
     
        |                          B.C.     B.C.
     
        | Creation                 4004     5411
     
        | Flood                    2348     3155
     
        | Abram leaves Haran       1921     2078
     
        | Exodus                   1491     1648
     
        | Destruction of the
     
        |   Temple                  588      586
     
       To show at a glance the different ideas of the date of the
     creation, it may be interesting to note the following: From
     Creation to 1894.
     
       According to Ussher, 5,898; Hales, 7,305; Zunz (Hebrew
     reckoning), 5,882; Septuagint (Perowne), 7,305; Rabbinical,
     5,654; Panodorus, 7,387; Anianus, 7,395; Constantinopolitan,
     7,403; Eusebius, 7,093; Scaliger, 5,844; Dionysius (from whom we
     take our Christian era), 7,388; Maximus, 7,395; Syncellus and
     Theophanes, 7,395; Julius Africanus, 7,395; Jackson, 7,320.