SCOPE, METHOD, STANDPOINT AND SOURCES.
 
The purpose of the present work is to construct a Standard Chronology of the period covered by the writings of the Old Testament.

In addition to the Hebrew Massoretic Text of the Old Testament, there are many other sources affording data for the construction of a Chronology of this period, of which the principal may be classified as follows:-
1. Other texts and versions such as (1) the Septuagint (LXX) or Greek Version of the Old Testament, and (2) the Samaritan Pentateuch.
2. Ancient Literary Remains, such as those fragments of Sanchoniathon of Phoenicia, Berosus of Chaldea, and Manetho of Egypt, which have come down to us; the national traditions of Persian History preserved in the writings of the Persian poet, Firdusi; the books of the Old Testament Apocrypha; the works of the Jewish Historian Josephus, and the Talmudic Tract, Sedar Olam.
3. Ancient Monumental Inscriptions upon rocks, temples, palaces, cylinders, bricks, steles and tablets, and writings upon Papyrus Rolls, brought to light by modern discoveries in recent times.
4. The classic literature of Greece and Rome.
5. Astronomical observations and calculations, especially eclipses of the sun, eclipses of the moon, and the risings of Sirius the dogstar with the sun.
6. The works of ancient and modern chronologers.

The results obtained from any one of these several sources must, if true, be consistent with the results obtained from each of the other sources.