Annals of the World

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The Annals of The World by Rev. James Ussher LONDON, Printed by E. Tyler, for F. Crook, and G. Bedell, 1658 The Epistle to the Reader Censorinus, in his little book, the "Explication of Times Intervals", written to Q. Cerellius on his birthday, wrote in the preface of it. ``If the origin of the world had been known to man, I would have started there.'' (Consor. in c. 20.) And a little later, speaking of this time: ``Whether time had a beginning or whether it always was, the exact number of years cannot be known.'' (Consor. in c. 21.) Therefore Ptolemy, from "Astronomical Supputations", concerning the creation and history of the world states that it is beyond the knowledge of man. ``To find the details of the history of the whole world or such an immense period of times, I think it is beyond us that desire to learn and know the truth.'' (Ptolem. l. 3.) Julius Firmius Maternus in his discourse of history, that "Geniture of the World", received from Esculapius and Anubius. ``That was not the creation of the wor
ld. Nor, indeed, had the world any certain day for its beginning. Nor was there anything existing at the time when the world was formed by the wisdom of the Divine Understanding and Provident Deity. Nor could man in his human frailty so far extend itself, that it could conceive or unfold, easily the world's origin.'' (Jul. Firm. Mattes. l. 3. c. 2.) It is not strange that the heathens who are totally ignorant of the Holy Bible, should despair of ever attaining the knowledge of the world's beginnings. Even among Christians, that most renowned chronographer Dionysius Petavius when asked his opinion concerning the creation of

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the world and the number of years from creation down to us, made this disclaimer: ``That the number of years from the beginning of the world to our time, cannot be known nor in any way found out without Divine Revelation.'' (Petav. de Doctrina Temporum, l. 9. c. 2.) Philastrius Brixiensis disagreed with him and called it heresy: ``to know the number of the years from the creation of the world is uncertain and men do not know the time.'' (Philast. De Heres. ib. c. 6. p. 63.) Lactantius Sirmianus, made this bold assertion in his "Divine Institutions": ``We who are trained by the Holy Scriptures to the knowledge of truth, do know both the beginning and end of the world.'' (Lastant. l. 7. c. 14.) For whatever may have happened in the past, we are taught that: ``The Father has reserved the knowledge of things future to himself. Nor is there any mortal to whom the whole period of time is known. (ib. Nicol. Lyranius.) Even the son of Sirach is thought to say. "The sands of the sea, the drops of rain and the days o
f the world, who can number?"'' /APC Sir 1:28 When Lyranus is thought to have been speaking of history, (when as others interpret it here and in Chap. XVIII. 11. of his "Days of Eternity") draws this erroneous conclusion. He thinks that from the beginning of the world, time was never by any man determined "certainly" and "precisely". The first Christian writer, (that I have known of) who attempted from the Holy Bible to calculate the age of the world, was Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch. Concerning this whole account, he states: ``All times and years are made known to them who are willing to obey the truth'' (Theoph. ad Autolyc. l. 3.) But concerning the exactness of this calculation he later states: ``And haply we may not be able to give an exact account of every year, because in the Holy Scriptures there is no mention of the precise number of months and days'' For the Scripture normally notes only entire years and not the days and months in each instance. Hence summing the years may give an inaccurate total
because the partial years were not included. But granting this one thing, (and this is a most reasonable assumption) that the Holy Writers had this purpose in noting the years of the world in their various places with such diligence. They sought to reveal to us the history of the world that otherwise,
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no one could know. This, I say,

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