interdisciplinary study, one that swarmed with unsolved problems." It was a pursuit that
required a scholar conversant in a wide variety of fields, and capable of handling the
historical, linguistic, and scientific material available in order to produce a satisfactory
work. But for the Christian chronologist, there was a purpose additional to the sheer
intellectual challenge of the study. "It had to show that all of the local histories it
encompassed fit a single divine plan, one that led up to the unification of the world by
Rome and the appearance of the Messiah."
from Julius Africanus, through Scaliger and Ussher to Michael Russell.
The great problem for all of these scholars was the fact that in many cases, the extra-
biblical data, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Aztec, astronomical, etc., often contradicted the
Biblical data, and generally indicated a much longer history for the human race than even
the LXX text of the Old Testament. Did this problem have a solution, and if so, how did
the scholar accomplish that solution? For the modern scholar, the consensus has been that
the problem is insoluble. Given that, the attempt to solve it has been abandoned, and the
consequent attempt to create a grand scheme encompassing all of human history from the
beginning to the present has been abandoned.
The Chronology of the Old Testament by Floyd Jones. The latest issue of JETS contains
an article on the chronology of the Book of Judges. Jack Finegan's Handbook of Bible
Chronology remains in print. Reference works continue to include essays on chronology.
There are two problems, or perhaps disappointments, with the recent publication dealing
with Biblical chronology. First, the new work makes use of recent discoveries (an
important plus) but is largely unfamiliar with the older works. Hence the treasures of the
past have largely been lost. As Grafton puts it, "But what they [16
has become a sunken city. ... The waters of oblivion cover the ruined towers of
Renaissance chronology."
massive works of Scaliger, Ussher, and Russell, has been lost. The scholars who have the
ability, or even the desire, to produce works of similar vision, such as Jacques Barzun in
his work From Dawn to Decadence, are few and far between. Grafton is probably right to
say that "chronology will never again become fashionable." But it is to the loss of our age
that even evangelicals, who claim to worship and serve the Lord of history, seem too
often content to work at the microscopic level of time and history, around the fringes of