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James Ussher, was one of the greatest scholars and
theologians of his time. In his enduring search for knowledge he travelled
widely in Britain and Europe, seeking the earliest available manuscripts, buying
those he could, and copying others. After his death, his extensive and valuable
library, formed the nucleus of the great library of Trinity College, Dublin.
James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh, was the pre-eminent figure
in the contemporary Church of Ireland, and a leading patron of scholarship at
Trinity College, Dublin. A staunch defender of episcopacy, he was nevertheless
respected on all sides during the religious upheavals of the 1640s and 1650s,
and regarded as the person most likely to achieve an accommodation between the
Presbyterians and the Church of England. As such, he was valued by Hartlib and
Dury, both of whom helped him at times with his scholarly work and looked to him
as a potential patron for their own schemes.
Despite his success as a churchman, Ussher is perhaps most famous for having
dated the start of the creation to the evening before 23rd October, 4004 B.C.
Ussher calculated this timing in his Annals, a work of biblical chronology which
he published in Latin in 1650 (Hartlib noted its progress through the press with
great interest), and which was translated into English in 1658. The book was the
fruit of many years labour; as early as the summer of 1640, Ussher had been
reported ‘spend[ing] constantly all the afternoones’ in the Bodleian working at
it (Constantine Adams to Hartlib, Hartlib Papers, 15/8/3A–4B).
In the Annals, Ussher developed the chronological work of many earlier scholars,
in particular Joseph Justus Scaliger (who had pioneered the use of the Julian
period in calendrical calculations) to provide a framework for dating the whole
Bible historically. He argued that, although scripture itself only tended to
take notice of entire years, the Holy Ghost had left clues in the Bible which
allowed the critic to establish a precise chronology of its events, through the
application to the text of the results of astronomical calculations and its
comparison with the dates of pagan history. Ussher’s system had the advantage of
preserving several attractive numerical symmetries, for example the ancient
Jewish notion, adopted by Christians, that the creation anticipated the birth of
the Messiah by 4,000 years, but it was also heavily dependent on classical
chronologies and on an interpretation of the calendar which already seemed
out-dated to many scholars.
Although not wholly original, Ussher’s work was nevertheless influential and
became widely accepted, not least because its dates were later incorporated into
the margins of some editions of the Authorized Version. However, Ussher’s
chronology rested too heavily on the Hebrew text of Old Testament to escape
controversy even in his own day. Its findings were attacked by those who were
persuaded that the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) or
the Samaritan Pentateuch (both of which presented different chronologies from
the Hebrew) were more reliable witnesses to the dictation of the Holy Ghost, or
that they concurred more closely with the evidence of astronomy and pagan
history. Yet, in the opinion of Hartlib, and perhaps of many others, Ussher’s
critics were churlish individuals who were unwilling to admit their own debts to
his scholarship. Despite such debates, most seventeenth-century readers of the
Bible would have agreed with Ussher that it ought, in principle, to have been
possible to establish an accurate and detailed biblical chronology.
Illustrated opposite is the title-page from the Annals, engraved by Francis
Barlow and Richard Gaywood. This shows a number of the crucial figures and
episodes from Ussher’s chronology. Adam and Eve are flanked by the figures of
Solomon and Nebuchadnezzar, the builder and destroyer of the first Temple, which
is also shown both in its glory and after its fall. The engraving also depicts
the second Temple, built after Cyrus allowed the return of the Jews to
Jerusalem, and its eventual destruction. The figures of Cyrus and of Vespasian
(who was Emperor at the time of the destruction of Herod’s Temple, in A.D. 70)
flank a depiction of the Last Supper. This copy of the Annals has also been
extra-illustrated by the pasting in of a contemporary engraved portrait of
Ussher, which shows him holding ‘God’s Word’, the Bible, in his hand. It was
executed for the London printseller, Peter Stent, who advertised it for sale in
1653, 1658, 1662, and 1663. |
