continued gazing; hoping, perhaps, to catch a last glimpse through the splendid veil which concealed him from their sight. To set at rest their anxious curiosity, two heavenly messengers stood by them, and declared to them that the same Jesus, whom they had seen taken from them into heaven, shall come again-when every eye shall see him-in like manner, visibly, and certainly, as they had seen him going into heaven. Then, full of veneration and exulting transport, the Apostles prostrated themselves on the ground, in reverential homage of their ascended Lord; and speedily returning to Jerusalem with great joy, were continually in the Temple, praising and blessing God.

I SAW IN THE NIGHT VISIONS, AND, BEHOLD, ONE LIKE THE SON OF MAN CAME WITH THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN, AND CAME TO THE ANCIENT OF DAYS, AND THEY BROUGHT HIM NEAR BEFORE HIM. AND THERE WAS GIVEN HIM DOMINION, AND GLORY, AND A KINGDOM, THAT ALL PEOPLE, NATIONS, AND LANGUAGES, SHOULD SERVE HIM: HIS DOMINION IS AN EVERLASTING DOMINION, WHICH SHALL NOT PASS AWAY, AND HIS KINGDOM THAT WHICH SHALL NOT BE DESTROYED.' Dan. vii, 13, 14:

APPENDIX TO DISSERTATION IV.

CHRONOLOGY OF OUR LORD'S MINISTRY.

1. General Principles.

THE only date by which we can decide in what year our Lord's Baptism occurred, is that assigned by St. Luke to the commencement of the Preaching of the Baptist in the Desert of Judæa, viz. 'the 15th year of the government of Tiberius Cæsar'. The Emperor Augustus died Aug. 19, A. D. 14. Reckoning from this event, the 15th year of Tiberius began Aug. 19, A.D. 28; and I suppose that the Baptist commenced his work immediately after the succeeding Feast of Tabernacles.*

On this reckoning, the Baptism of Christ must have occurred between the Tabernacles of A. D. 28 and the Passover of A.D. 29. The recorded facts require us to place it not later than the early part of February: I suppose it to have occurred on the 20th of January. See the Notices of the Seasons, p. cxxviii.

In the year 29, the paschal full-moon was either on the 18th of March, about two hours before midnight, or on the 17th of April, an hour and half before noon. If the Jews added their occasional thirteenth lunar month, Ve Adar, before the Passover of A.D. 29, then the festival occurred at the later date; but if not, at the former. It was the general principle, to have the 14th of Nisan occur at the vernal equinox, or the nearest full-moon after it; but as the object of this was, that the first-fruits of the earth

I agree with the Translator of Heeren's Manual, that it is now time to compute uniformly, forward and backward, from the Christian Æra; though, as all chronologers allow, this is not commenced at the real time of our Saviour's Birth. Since most critics, however, who write on the chronology of the New Testament, employ other dates, either alone, or with those of our æra, the following table of corresponding dates will often be found useful:

might be offered on the 16th of Nisan, there is reason to believe that they did not intercalate Ve-Adar unless the paschal full-moon would otherwise occur more than three days before the equinox; and in the plain of Jericho, barley was usually ripe before that time. Mr. Greswell, VOL. I. p. 266, assigns the 18th of March as the earliest paschal limit; and, with Dr. Priestley, I suppose the 14th of Nisan, A.D. 29, to have begun at sunset on the 18th of March. In this case the Pharisees would kill the paschal lamb before sunset on the 19th; so that the first fruits would be offered on the 21st. Since this was so near the equinox, and since the postponement of the Passover for a month would have made the Tabernacles occur very late in the autumn,-at a time less suitable for the object of it,—I deem it probable, independently of other considerations, that the Passover of the year 29 occurred at the earlier date.

As respects the commencement of our Lord's Public Preaching in Galilee, this earlier date is important. If it could be proved, or even rendered most probable, that the Passover occurred that year so late as the 17th of April, it would not indeed render it necessary to relinquish the week succeeding the Tabernacles as the time when the Public Preaching in Galilee began; and of course it would not alter the interval between the Tabernacles and the Dedication: nevertheless it would postpone the series of instructions and mighty works which occurred in that interval, to a period inconvenient for the later portion of it. It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that I feel at liberty, not only without any improbability, but even with antecedent probability, to place the First Passover on the 19th of March.

All the dates of the Jewish year depended upon that of the Passover; and the determination of the Passover in the year 29, fixes them till the Passover in the year 30. The paschal full-moon of this latter year occurred on Thursday the 6th of April, an hour and half before midnight; and the 14th of Nisan extended, therefore, from sunset on the Thursday to sunset on the Friday, chiefly corresponding with the 7th of April.

Mr. Benson calculates that the death of Herod took place in February, B.C. 3. If this were the case, and I see no decisive reason against the supposition, then if our Lord were born in the preceding year, B. C. 4, in which Mr. Greswell places the event,—say in the autumn,—he was thirty years of age in the autumn of A. D. 27, and consequently above thirty-one when I suppose his Baptism to have taken place. As St. Luke does not say in what year of Augustus Jesus was born, nor even whether it were before the death of Herod, I presume that he had not ascertained the exact year, and had merely learnt, generally, that our Lord was 'about thirty years old' at his Baptism: if he were not much more than thirty-one, such a latitude of expression, where the exact truth would be scarcely ascertainable, would not be unreasonable.*

If we are to take St. Luke's words very closely, and suppose him to mean, definitely, that at our Lord's baptism he was between thirty and thirty-one years of age, we must then admit one of two things: either, first, that he was not born before the death of Herod; or, secondly, that the 15th year of the government of Tiberius' is to be reckoned from the period when Augustus associated him with himself in the tribunitial authority.†

As the Levites were not regarded as fully prepared for their sacred functions till they were thirty years of age, (see Jennings's Jewish Antiquities, VOL. 1. p. 274), it was well that both the Messiah and his Forerunner should have attained that age before entering upon their high duties.

yɛpovia, used by Luke in ch. iii. 1, is of geneval Josephus calls the Roman Emperors ἡγεμονες,

+ It may be requisite to observe here, that the word applicability, like our own word government. governors. See Schleusner.

If our Lord were not born before the death of Herod, then the authenticity of the Narrative preceding St. Matthew's Records of the Ministry of Christ must be entirely relinquished. I cannot lay any stress upon the authority of that Narrative, if in any instance it be really inconsistent with just deductions from that given by St. Luke; but were there no more reason for doubt, than what arises from his expression 'about thirty years', that could scarcely be allowed any weight.

In favour of the position that the 15th year of Tiberius is reckoned from the time when he was associated with Augustus in the tribunitial authority, I know of but one material consideration, viz. that he then had the same power with the Emperor in the provinces. It is, however, indisputable, that no instance occurs, in the Roman historians, n which any year of Tiberius's government is reckoned from the time when he was thus associated with Augustus; and it is not even ascertainable at what exact time the association took place. Nor is there any distinct trace that such a mode of reckoning was ever so adopted even in the provinces, as that a writer of St. Luke's accuracy should choose to employ it, instead of the ordinary, or, rather, the universal mode of reckoning, especially when writing for one who was himself probably a Roman Governor. This supposition is, in my judgment, attended with incalculably greater improbability than that Luke used the indefinite expression about thirty years' with sufficient latitude to include upwards of thirty-one. And when to this I add, that not only Dionysius Exiguus, who at the beginning of the sixth century fixed the Christian Æra, but also all the early Fathers, whether they referred the death of Christ to the fifteenth or to the sixteenth year of Tiberius, (see Diss. I. Sect. ii. §. 3.), obviously reckoned the fifteenth year of Tiberius from the death of Augustus,-I cannot but regard the supposition which has thus been briefly considered, although maintained by Lardner, Kuinoel, Penson, and many others, as having no solid foundation.

The difficulties attending the enrollment of which St. Luke speaks in ch. ii. 1, Harm. p. 8, have been excessively magnified. The decree was obviously directed against Palestine alone, to make it a Roman province; and since the enrollment was not exccuted till the banishment of Archelaus, it is less difficult to account for the silence of Josephus respecting it, even if the occurrence took place, as the first Introductory Narrative requires, before the death of Herod. If we had St. Luke's Narrative alone to consider, we might place the birth of our Lord in the autumn following the death of Herod; and then we might, with much confidence, refer to the subsequent train of circumstances, recorded by Josephus, which would fully explain the issuing of the decree by Augustus, and which far better accords with it than any known events do that preceded the death of Herod. See Ant. l. XVII. c. ix-xiii.

• The arguments against the authenticity of that Narrative, are stated with great force by Professor Norton, in the work referred to in Diss. II. App. (C).

2. Calendar of our Lord's Ministry.

A. D. 29.

Jan. 20.

Feb. 28.

Mar. 1.

2.

N. B. The Jewish Sabbaths are marked §.

BAPTISM OF JESUS: after this he retires to the Desert, for forty days
The Priests and Levites come to John, from the Sanhedrim

Christ returns to the Baptist, and receives his Testimony
John, Andrew, and Peter, follow Jesus

3. Philip and Nathanael become disciples of Jesus

7. FIRST MIRACLE at Cana

8.

Our Lord goes to Capernaum, which thenceforwards was his ordinary residence

19: The FIRST PASSOVER begins: during the festival, our Lord drives the Traders from the Temple, and converses with Nicodemus

27. Christ exercises his Ministry in the Country of Judæa

Apr. 22. Conference with the Samaritan Woman at Sychar

27. Jesus while at Cana heals the Youth lying ill at Capernaum

May 8. The PENTECOST begins

June

July
Aug.

14. § The Cure of the Infirm Man at Bethesda

15. Christ departs for Galilee, where he remains till the Feast of Tabernacles
21. § The Walk through the Corn-fields. See p. cxxxii. and Harm. p. 37.
28 § Christ rejected at Nazareth

During these months, our Lord appears to have been occupied in preparatory instruction in the synagogues of Galilee; occasionally employing his miraculous powers; but awaiting the fit season, and the signal given by the imprisonment of John, to commence the public announcement, and the series of wonderful works, which immediately afterwards ensued Sept. 13. The FEAST OF TABERNACLES begins. A little before this, probably, the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod Antipas. See p. cxl.

16.

Our Loid reaches Jerusalem

19. The last day, the great day, of the Feast'

20. Our Lord gives sight to the Blind Man.

He then goes to Galilee

23. CHRIST BEGINS HIS PUBLIC PREACHING. Call of Peter, &c.

24. § Cure of the Dæmoniac in the Synagogue at Capernaum

25. FIRST PROGRESS through Galilee

Oct. 16. Our Lord delivers the Sermon on the Mount, heals the Leper, &c.

17. The Widow's Son at Nain raised from the dead

20. The Tempest stilled in crossing the Lake, and the Dæmoniacs restored to sanity on the eastern shore, in the district of Gadara

21. Cure of the Paralytic at Capernaum, and Call of Matthew

23. The Day of Matthew's Feast: (The 22d was a sabbath)

24. Christ selects the 'Twelve, and begins his SECOND PROGRESS through Galilee Nov. 20. MISSION OF THE TWELVE into Galilee

21. The Disciples of John come to Jesus. The Visit to Simon the Pharisee 22. MISSION OF THE SEVENTY into the Perxa

The regular sabbath fell on the 17th; bnt by the Law, this eighth day' was appointed to be a sabbath. See Lev. xxiii. 36 and 39.