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Biblical Chronologies

by Gavin Palmer

In the English-speaking branch of Nostradamus literature, one of the least discussed yet most curious aspects of The Centuries is the appearance in the Letter to Henri II of two completely different biblical chronologies. The fact that this letter is dated twice, once for 14/3/1557 and once for 27/6/1558, does suggest that what has come down to us as a single preface is perhaps an amalgamation of two different letters, each originally intended for different editions of the Centuries. This in itself would explain the two separate delineations of Old Testament history. What it wouldn't explain, however, is why the two chronologies differ both in length and in points of reference. For instance, chronology 1 states that there were 1242 years between Adam and Noah whereas chronology 2 gives 1506 years for ostensibly the same period. Likewise, after the era of Abraham, chronology 1 confines itself to listing the epochs between Moses, David and Jesus whereas chronology 2 takes a more winding path through Isaac, Jacob, Egypt, Exodus and Soloman's Temple before finally reaching Jesus. To add the icing to this cake of confusion, Nostradamus gives only one total of his reckoning of biblical history, and this number disagrees both with the sum of the figures he's just listed for chronology 2, and with the sum of the figures he lists for chronology 1!

Chronology 1 comes to 4757 or 4758 years (he can't decide if there were 515 or 516 years between Abraham and Moses), chronology 2 comes to 4092 years, 2 months and the figure he states for the latter is 4173 years, 8 months. These divergences naturally suggest one of two things: either a) Nostradamus was hopeless at maths and absent-minded when it came to checking his notes, or b) he was a mathematical genius who left clues to his prophetical technique in the form of obvious numerical errors and inconsistencies. Which of these two statements you tend to agree with probably depends upon how keen you are on number games and how well acquainted you are with the man's astrological competence. One thing that does need to be borne in mind however is the sheer multitude of competing chronologies masquerading as historical fact in 16th Century Europe. Every scribe and his dog had an opinion as to how long it had been since the day of Creation and the printing press gave them all a voice, much as the internet does today. Such was the divergence of opinion when it came to dating history that by 1583 one Joseph Scaliger felt compelled to invent a religiously and culturally neutral dating method, his "Julian Day System" which proved so beyond reproach (except for its potentially confusing name) that it's still in use today by astronomers and software programmers. Nostradamus himself, in his almanacs, utilised three more differing dates of Creation [see Pierre Brind'Amour, "Nostradamus Astrophile" pp176-7] so he obviously had difficulty in deciding which he liked best, or which historian deserved his allegiance that year.

The table below provides some examples of these variations for comparison. This is not even close to being an exhaustive list but hopefully it puts the Letter to Henri chronologies into some context. Most of the variations occurred in the pre-Exodus eras and I dare say the whole subject has been given the full scholarly treatment by some professor somewhere on the planet, but if anyone reading this has access to Eusebius' version of events please feel free to get in touch via Mario (the webmaster) as that would obviously be a useful addition to the table, given Nostradamus' mention of his work. A dash indicates either a figure isn't available or it's still a matter of considerable dispute even today.

*The Samaritan Pentateuch are those Hebrew texts adopted by the Samaritans, a people who were settled in the Palestine area by the Assyrians at the beginning of the Jewish exile in Babylon. Religious differences between them and the Jews grew to outweigh what they had in common.

†Nennius was the editor of a 9th Century History of Britain which, like most histories, sought to legitimise itself by reference to the Bible.

A final note to those who feel Nostradamus surely can't have been a mathematically-ignorant magpie - there's a simple maths interlinking between chronology 1, quatrain I:48 and a couple of dates given in the Letter to Cesar. Have a look, have a think and decide for yourself if this is design or lucky, triplicate coincidence.

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