Definition of "than"

Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.

2013 July 20, “Old Soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

Answer me if you can, any other way, than because the Scriptures, which are infallible, Say so.

1665, Edward Stillingfleet, William Laud, Thomas Carwell, A Rational Account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion

If thou say yes, then puttest thou on Christ (that is, the wisdome of God, the Father) unkunning, unpower, or euil will: for than he could not make his rule so good as an other did his.

1854, Reformation series

You shall also take the fine earth or mould which is found in the hollow of old Willow trees, rising from the root almost to the middle of the Tree, at least so far as the tree is hollow, for than this, there is no earth or mould finer or richer.

1668, William Lawson, A Way to Get Wealth