Gabb, Thomas: Finis pyramidis or Disquisitions concerning the antiquity and scientific end of the great pyramid of Giza, or ancient Memphis, in Egypt, and of the first standard of linear measure (Retford, 1806)

ί 115 )

intend the Works, 3000, and 300. See 13,14,15, and 16
verses of the 5 Chap. 1 Kings. And two last verses
2 Chap. 2 Book of Chronicles.

Are we to believe all these were employed, 7 years,
to bring to perfection a building of such dimensions, as
must be admitted to be no more than sufficient for a
saloon, in a gentleman's house, in the acceptation of
customary cubits in the stated dimensions of 60, and 20
cubits, recorded in 6 chap, first of Kings?

St. Jerome, when he translated the book of Kings,
no doubl, perceived, the term cubitus, which he ob^
sequiously there adopted, was liable to be mistaken for
the cubit of Cairo. Therefore when he translated the
Chronicles, and had the subject of the Temple's dimen-
sions again to translate from the same original expres-
sion, he qualified the term cubit, by which he gives the
length and breadth, saying, cubitus in mensura frima,
viz, cubits- in the primitive measure, and this he has
done in the second book of Chronicles, 3 chap. 3 v.
"the length was of 60 cubits by the primitive measure
(in mensura prima : ") and although we at this time
might be al a loss, to discover what that primitive mea-
sure really means, yet the people, especially the Jews,
in his days might be, and no doubt were, very well
acquainted with that term : nor has he left the ages,
then to come destitute of the means, to ascertain, what
the (then primitive,) measure signified ; for in the 4th
verse, he translates the terms, which express the height»
by the customary cubit, or cubit of Cairo, saying, "and
the portico that was before the house, the length of it
was according to the breadth of the house, 20 cubits,
and the height was 120:" now in the book of Kings,
the height is stated to be 30 cubits, of which, in their

jP unqualified