Page:The chronology of ancient nations (IA chronologyofanci00biru).djvu/47

Besides these two copies of the Thora, there is a third one that exists among the Samaritans, also known by the name of Al-lâmasâsiyya. To them, as the substitutes for the Jews, Nebucadnezar had given the country of Syria, when he led the Jews into captivity, and cleared the country of them. The Samaritans had helped him (in the war against the Jews), and had pointed out to him the weak points of the Israelites. Therefore, he did not disturb them, nor kill them, nor make them prisoners, but he made them inhabit Palestine under his protection.

Their doctrines are a syncretism of Judaism and Zoroastrianism. The bulk of their community is living in a town of Palestine, called Nâbulus, where they have their churches. They have never entered the precincts of Jerusalem since the days of David the prophet, because they maintain that he committed wrong and injustice, and transferred the holy temple from Nâbulus to Aelia, i.e. Jerusalem. They do not touch other people; but if they happen to be touched by anyone, they wash themselves. They do not acknowledge any of the prophets of the Israelites after Moses.

Now as to the copy which the Jews have, and on which they rely, we find that according to its account of the lives of the immediate descendants of Adam, the interval between the expulsion of Adam from Paradise till the deluge in the time of Noah, is 1,656 years; according to the Christian copy the same interval is 2,242 years, and according to the Samaritan copy it is 1,307 years. According to one of the historians, Anianus, the interval between the creation of Adam and the night of the Friday when the deluge commenced, is 2,226 years 23 days and 4 hours. This statement of Anianus is reported by Ibn-Albâzyâr in his Kitâb-alḳirânât (Book of the Conjunctions); it comes very near that of the Christians. However, it makes me think that it is based upon the methods of the astrologers, because it betrays evidently an arbitrary and too subtle mode of research.

Now, if such is the diversity of opinions, as we have described, and if there is no possibility of distinguishing—by means of analogy—between truth and fiction, where is the student to search for exact information?

Not only does the Thora exist in several and different copies, but something similar is the case with the Gospel too. For the Christians have four copies of the Gospel, being collected into one code, the first by Matthew, the second by Mark, the third by Luke, and the fourth by John; each of these four disciples having composed the Gospel in conformity with what he (Christ) had preached in his country. The reports, contained in these four copies, such as the descriptions of Messiah, the relations of him at the time when he preached and when he was crucified, as they maintain, differ very widely the one from the other. To begin with his genealogy, which is the genealogy of Joseph, the bridegroom of Mary