FIRST , THE PYRAMIDS OR THE FLOOD ? Alden

A pologists throughout the centuries have recognized the significance of historical details in the biblical record and their impact on biblical claims of ultimate truth and divine origin. It has been famously remarked that " chronology is the backbone of history " (Thiele, 1983, p. 33). If this maxim is true, then the Christian apologist must understand that attacks on biblical chronology undermine both the historicity and the veracity of the Holy Book, and strike at the very heart of the Gospel message. Fortunately , this subject has long occupied defenders of The Faith, who have effectively vindicated the Bible again and again. The-ophilus of Antioch, the " father of Christian chronology " (1971, pp. 118ff.), systematically dated the major events of sacred history in the early second century, using only the Scriptures, and, by comparing biblical chronology to secular history, declared the chronology of the Bible to be more ancient and more accurate than that found in any profane work. Similarly, in the third century, Julius Africanus authored five volumes (of which only fragments remain) on the subject, giving special attention to objections regarding the antiquity of Egyp-tian civilization. Indeed, as long as men have studied biblical chronology, a primary obstacle in the pursuit of defending God's Word has been the antiquity of other civilizations , especially that of the Egyptians. The sacred chronology, as given in the Bible and endorsed by scholars, was wholly accepted for centuries, until fairly recent times. James Barr unabashedly remarked: " Though biblical chronology may in modern times seem to be an area for cranks and crackpots, in older times it occupied some of the greatest minds " (1999, p. 379). The " church fathers " accepted it, the Scholas-tics endorsed it, and Enlightenment scholars were perhaps its staunchest allies. These researchers did not rely on the Bible alone for information, though it was their primary source; they also compared the ge-nealogies and king lists of the Old Testament to other ancient works of histori-ography. Using the Bible as the framework, all the additional secular history was successively fleshed onto that skeleton, resulting in the creation of a comprehensive body of world history. This rich heritage of scholarship included Augustine in the fifth century , Isidore of Seville (the great Catholic theologian) in the seventh century, the En-glish scholar Bede in the eighth century, andrabbiMosesMaimonidesinthetwelfth. Men who would have burned each oth-erat the …