se; his
Father was one hundred and forty-five years old, and therefore
must have lived sixty years after his son Abraham left Haran. But
Stephen in the passage in question says, that Abraham left Haran
after his Father was dead. Now this direct contradiction is quite
cleared up by the Samaritan copies of the Pentateuch, which give
the whole age of Zerah exactly 145 years: and confirm the
account of Stephen, that Abraham waited till the decease of his
father, and then immediately left Haran. Had Mr. English no light
upon this subject, but what he derived from his unlettered Rabbi,
or even from the Commentators whose "troubles" he finds or
feigns, one could not blame him for passing over this fact in
silence. But I remember well the time, when Mr. English
collected[fn40] the text of the Samaritan copy as it stands in
Kennicott's Bible, for the express purpose of ascertaining the
diversity of the Hebrew and Samaritan texts. To suppress now a
reading from this copy, which entirely removes his objection,
argues a deplorable forgetfulness, or a willful fraud; and it would
be a piece of affectation in me to speak of it in milder terms," p.
340. of Mr. Everett's work.

To put this courteous language to the blush, it is only necessary to
observe, that the most distinguished Hebrew Critics [I think, if my
memory does not deceive me, I may name De Rossi, for
instance,] adhere to the reading of the Hebrew bible as the true
one, and have not suffered themselves to be swayed by the
strong Christian motives which have biassed Mr. Everett in this
instance. Stephen, who was a Jew, would also never have given
the preference to a reading-of the Pentateuch of the Samaritan's,
which also abounds with blunders. The Gentile author of the Book
of Acts probably fabricated the speech.]

[fn39 for "Zerah" read "Terah"]

[fn40 for "collected" read "collated"]

[fn41 Mr. Everett, in. a note to p. 194 of his work, speaks of
Salathiel and Zorobabel as succeeding to the "throne of Judah
after the Babylonish captivity. Any one who will read the books of
Ezra and Nehemiah with attention, will be satisfied that this
language is quite ridiculous: forasmuch as that Salathiel was a
captive slave at Babylon, and Zorobabel was but at best the
Governor of Judea for the King of Persia, and all the Jews under
his command were subject to the orders of Tabnai[fn42] and
Shether Boznia. "Governors beyond the river" for the Persian
King. See Ezra ch. ix.