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earliest." And he then proceeds with the passage above cited, which necessarily refers to the latter date, 751. We presume that he had first stopped at 750: but (with that tendency to the accumulation of reasoning, without regard to relevancy or force, which so much characterizes this work) he unfortunately added the succeeding clause which, as introduced, destroys the connexion. But we must forbear noticing these things. If the reader will take half the trouble to find out false reasonings, incuria, needless accumulations, &c., that we have to discover what is really solid and useful in the work before us, he will require no vindication of our strictures. Few will give the tenth part of the labour we have to either; and yet if a person is investigating the same subject, Mr. Greswell's conjectures and errors may often aid him in discerning the truth; and while we censure his omissions of reference to those critics who have defended opinions which he opposes, we readily yield him the praise of the faithful and (we see no reason to doubt) accurate statement of a vast quantity of learned data, which may assist others in coming to sounder conclusions than his own often are.

The question discussed in the second part of this Appendix, on the Eclipse before the Death of Herod, is of real importance; but this we shall have occasion to notice hereafter.

The Fifth Dissertation presents useful calculations and data respecting the computation of the Jewish Passovers and other feasts. The Sixth enters upon the difficult question of the 15th year of Tiberius Cæsar. In this the author does not even notice the cautious, and by far more useful examination of the subject by Lardner; nor the valuable investigations of Mr. C. Benson, which may be referred to as a contrast with Mr. Greswell's. Lardner felt difficulties which Greswell seems never to have perceived; and Benson, while he appears fully satisfied in his own conclusions, is not so presumptuous as to say with the learned Dissertator, (p. 272,) that, if Tiberius were actually associated with Augustus in the administration of the empire, he knows not "from what date but the date of this association, an evangelical historian could possibly have deduced the years of his reign." Surely it was at least possible that he might date from the commencement of the sole sovereignty of Tiberius, after the death of Augustus; especially as all the heathen historians and Josephus did so, and as there is found no clear instance in which the joint sovereignty of Tiberius with Augustus has furnished the era of computation. All that can reasonably be maintained in favour of this mode of computation is, that Luke might possibly have dated by it; and that from the circumstance that he wrote in the provinces, which Tiberius's tribunician power peculiarly respected, it is less improbable that he did so, than if he had written at Rome.

Mr. Greswell's Seventh Dissertation is "on the beginning of the Government of Pontius Pilate." In the course of this, the author adduces some curious facts to shew that, according to the rate of travelling which prevailed in ancient times, a journey from Rome to Judæa would in summer occupy eight or ten weeks, and in winter much more. In reference to the latter period, he cites Nicias (in Thucydides vi. 21) as reminding the Athenians that it was a four months' voyage even from Sicily to Athens.

The Eighth Dissertation respects" the united, and the separate, duration of the ministry of John the Baptist, and of Jesus Christ ;" in which (p. 294) he maintains first, generally, that the true date of the commencement of the personal ministry of our Saviour is also the true date of the termination of the personal ministry of John the Baptist; and then qualifies a position which could not possibly be maintained without such qualification, by refer

ring the termination of the latter to the commencement of our Lord's public preaching in Galilee, which every reader of the gospels knows was after John was put into prison. In this way Mr. G. often makes a startling position; and then qualifies it so as to deprive it of every need of proof.-In this Dissertation there are, however, some valuable observations on the twofold commencement of our Lord's ministry, first in Judæa, and secondly in Galilee; and on the other hand, some specimens of the too frequent accumulation of vague and useless data. To it is subjoined an Appendix on the time of the imprisonment of John the Baptist, and of the marriage of Herod and Herodias. Here, and in various other parts, the discussions of Mr. Greswell more respect the accuracy of Josephus, than the Harmony of the Gospels; but in this case they are not irrelevant.

Dissertation the Ninth is on the Age of our Lord at his Baptism;" and, paying no attention to the opinion of those critics who (in Luke iii. 23) interpret apouevos on beginning his ministry, the author roundly asserts that "the genius and syntax of the original language, as well as the reason of the thing, will agree to no order of the terms, nor to any interpretation of the text but this-And Jesus himself was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years of age." The reason of the thing is against such a construction, for surely as it were" is useless with apxuevos; and there is nothing absurd in the rendering, "Now Jesus was about thirty years of age on beginning" and there is a presumption that it is not so very certain as Mr. Greswell represents it, that his is the only justifiable translation, when we see Grotius, Le Clerc, Rosenmüller, Schleusner, Griesbach, Paulus, Kuinoel, &c., as well as Petavius, Lamy, and Lardner,* adopting the reference of aproperes to the ministry, not the age, of Christ. It has long appeared to us that this was the meaning of the sacred historian.

"The time of the year when our Lord was born," forms the subject of the Tenth Dissertation: and this the author argues was "about the vernal equinox," and thinks was "in all likelihood-the 5th of April, and the 7th day of the week."-We may fix upon this Dissertation, extending to fifty pages, as affording ample illustrations, and as we think a full justification, of all the strictures we have given on the author's characteristical faults and style of investigation. To it he subjoins an Appendix of forty pages on the date of the Exodus, and of the first Passover."

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"This Appendix," says the Author in his Synopsis, p. xv., "proceeds upon the following supposition; that our Lord was born in the fulness of time on the tenth of Nisan and the fifth of the Julian April, B. C. 4, because [we intreat the reader to observe the reason-because] in the year of the Exodus from Egypt, and at the time of the institution of the Passover, the tenth of Nisan and the fifth of the Julian April coincided not only with each other, but with the vernal equinox. The year of this coincidence was B. C. 1560: the object of the Appendix is to prove that B. C. 1560 was actually the date of the Exodus."

Supposing that the author's system of hypothetical chronology were as well established as to us it seems groundless, what has all this to do with the "Principles and Arrangement of a Harmony of the Gospels," which appears, in the title-page, as the subject of his Dissertations?

The last three Dissertations in the first volume, the xith, xiith, and xiiith, are, "On the opinions of the most ancient Christians upon the preceding

See Wolfii Curæ, in loco, and the very valuable Commentarius in Libr. Nov. Test. Hist. by Kuinoel: also Mr. Benson's Chronology of our Saviour's Life, p. 180.

topics. On the census of Cyrenius, or the meaning of Luke ii. 2.-On the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, and the first part of the chronology [the chronology of the first part] of the Acts of the Apostles." Some remarks on the Author's opinions in this portion of his work, may properly find a place hereafter.

The first Dissertation in the second volume continues the subject of the last Dissertation in the first volume; and with a view, as it seems by the title, to the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, gives the chronology of the second portion of the Acts, beginning at the 13th chapter. In this Dissertation, the Author gives us an investigation of the dates of the leading events in St. Paul's apostolical labours, and also of his Epistles, including that to the Hebrews, occupying the first hundred pages;-forgetful, as it appears, of the judicious observation with which he cannot but be familiar, and which is alike applicable to works of philosophy and criticism, as to poetry: Ordinis hæc virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor,

Ut jam nunc dicat, jam nunc debentia dici;
Pleraque differat, et presens in tempus omittat.

We are of opinion that adherence to the Roman Poet's canon would have reduced this work to a single volume at most. But we ought to state, that in the Author's own judgment (Vol. I. p. xv.) the consideration of the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks "necessarily involved the question of the chronology of the first twelve chapters of the Acts of the Apostles"; and that the first Dissertation in the second volume" is intended to shew that the chronology of the Acts from the 13th chapter forwards, is not inconsistent with the order and distribution of the twelve chapters immediately preceding, as already given." We wish the Delegates of the Clarendon Press had kindly severed the spider-like threads with which the Author has joined many of his excursive discussions to the legitimate purpose of his work.

The remaining part of the second volume, together with a large portion of the third, is given to that purpose; and though we have continually to complain of the extreme diffuseness and immethodical excursiveness of the whole, and are of opinion that it is generally founded on erroneous positions, yet to the subject-matter we have no objection to make. Of this portion we will give the Author's own synopsis; both as a favourable specimen of the Author's power of methodizing, and an indication of the subjects which he brings forwards and the opinions he maintains; and also, we frankly confess, to prevent our occupying more room with those animadversions, which scarcely a few consecutive pages of this work present themselves without provoking.

"It is the object of the second Dissertation to explain and reconcile the two genealogies, on the supposition that St. Matthew's is the genealogy of our Lord's reputed father, and St. Luke's the genealogy of his real mother.

"It is the object of the third Dissertation to establish such a personal distinction between those who are called in common the Adeλpo of Christ, as will reconcile the Evangelical accounts, and no longer leave any difficulty on this point.

The fourth Dissertation, which treats of the visit of the Magi, endeavours to prove that the time of this visit was thirteen months posterior to the first appearance of the star, and four months posterior to the birth of Christ; and thence to infer that the star appeared twice, once at the Incarnation, and again at the Nativity.

"It is the object of the fifth Dissertation to harmonize and arrange the particulars of the ministry of John: and, preliminary to this, to define the

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true nature and design of his ministry itself. This Dissertation also is connected with the general argument of Dissertation viii. in Vol. I. and its chief purpose is to establish a necessary, but clear, distinction between the proper office and character of John, in which he agreed with those of Jesus Christ, and the truth of his personal relations to Jesus Christ, in which he differed from them.

"The sixth Dissertation endeavours to shew that, though St. Matthew's account of the order of the temptations may be the true, St. Luke's is not inconsistent with it.

"The seventh Dissertation carries forward the series of the Gospel history, and at the same time strictly exemplifies the supplementary character of the Gospel of St. John, by shewing that, beginning his narrative precisely where the other Evangelists had left off, he conducts it regularly down to the point of time where St. Luke, in particular, had begun again. To this Dissertation an Appendix is attached, designed to confirm a statement in the Dissertation itself, and involving the question of the computation of sabbatic years: one of which is shewn to have actually coincided with the first year of our Saviour's ministry.

"The eighth Dissertation, which is divided into four parts, is designed to give a general preliminary or prospective survey of the whole course of our Saviour's ministry, both in Judæa, and out of it. The first part is devoted to the consideration of the ministry in Judæa, and its object is to prove that, as St. John alone has given any account of this ministry, so he has given a complete account of it. Each of the three last parts is devoted to a separate year, down to the middle of the third year in particular, where the review will be found to stop short: and their common purpose is not merely to give the student of the Gospel history a clear view of the course and connexion of his subject beforehand, but to contribute to the general purpose of the work, by shewing with what facility the Evangelical accounts, duly arranged, may be made to fill up the periods of time allotted to them-to supply in a great many instances the most distinct proofs of the accommodation of the latter to the prior narratives-and to prepare the way for the discussion of particular questions by a better understanding of the grounds on which they proceed.

"The Dissertations, which follow from the ninth to the fourteenth inclusive, are accordingly all devoted to the discussion of such questions: the ninth being designed to prove the conclusion that the miraculous draught of fishes, in St. Luke, is no Trajection: the tenth, that the feast which ensued on the call of Levi is no Anticipation: the eleventh that the sermons from the mount were distinct, and may each be related in their proper place: the twelfth, proposing to reconcile St. Matthew's account of the time and manner of our Saviour's interpretation of the first of his parables with St. Mark's, or St. Luke's: the thirteenth, to adjust St. Mark's account of the question concerning eating with unwashen hands to St. Matthew's: the fourteenth, to investigate the proximate cause of the disputes concerning precedence, and at the same time to establish the proof of a luminous instance of the supplementary relation of St. Mark in particular to St. Matthew.

"It is the object of the fifteenth and the sixteenth Dissertations respectively, to prosecute the subject discussed in the eighth, and to exhibit another clear and decisive proof of the critical accommodation of St. John's Gospel to the three first Gospels in general, and of St. Luke's to the two first in particular.

"The seventeenth Dissertation has it in view to determine the locality of the village of Martha and Mary, so far at least as to prove that it was not Bethany and by way of corollary to this disquisition to explain and illustrate the circumstances of the uretion at Bethany.

"It is the business of the eighteenth Dissertation to compare the account of the dispossession in St. Luke with the similar account of St. Matthew;

the result of which comparison is to prove that neither of them is a transposition.

"The object of the nineteenth Dissertation is to point out the many critical indications of time, which occur in the twelfth chapter of St. Luke, and which all converge upon one 'and the same conclusion, that they belong to the last period of our Saviour's ministry.

"The object of the twentieth Dissertation is to render it probable that the destruction of the Galileans, alluded to at Luke xiii. 1, was a recent event, and a consequence of the sedition of Barabbas.

"The object of the twenty-first is to harmonize the accounts of St. Matthew and St. Mark, in reference to the question concerning divorce: and the object of the twenty-second, which concludes the volume, is, by the simple consideration of later and supplementary accounts, to remove every difficulty connected with the miracles at Jericho.

"The business of all the Preliminary Dissertations contained in the third and last volume, is to harmonize the several accounts of the Gospel history, from the time of the arrival at Bethany before the last Passover, to the day of the ascension into heaven. This object is effected through six consecutive Dissertations-of which the first ascertains more particularly the true date of the arrival at Bethany, and the true date of the procession to the temple: the second, the time of the cleansing of the temple: the third, the order and succession of events on the last day of our Lord's public ministry, and the time of the unction at Bethany: the fourth, the time of the last supper: the fifth, the course and succession of events from the evening of Thursday, to the evening of Saturday in Passion-week: the sixth harmonizes the accounts of the resurrection itself. The particular purposes, which each of these Dissertations also embraces, are too many and various to be comprehended under any general statement; and will be sufficiently evident from the Table of Contents itself.

"The remainder of this volume is taken up by a number of Appendices to the Preliminary Dissertations in general, the common purpose of all which is to supply some omission in former Dissertations of the work; and consequently the particular purpose of any one of these Appendices is subservient to that of the corresponding Dissertation, to which the reader is accordingly referred." Vol. I. pp. xvi.—xix.

The titles of the Appendices are, "On the Supplemental Relations of the Gospels-Principle of Classification as applied to St. Luke's GospelChronology of the Kingdoms of Judah and of Israel"-which irrelevant matter, designed as supplementary to the useless Appendix of the tenth Dissertation in the first volume, occupies more than fifty pages-" Computation of Sabbatic Years-Journey of St. Paul from Philippi to JerusalemRate of a Day's Journey-Time of the celebration of the last Passover-Miscellaneous Notes."

In what further we propose to lay before our readers, on the Chronology and Harmony of the Gospels, according to the order of subjects which we traced in the preceding volume, (pp. 763-768,) we shall have little occasion, we hope, for the style of animadversion which has hitherto marked our review of the Dissertations. We are desirous of stating what we deem substantial truth, without entering upon the examination of opposing opinions, unless these appear to have some real force. Following this course, we shall not be required to enter much upon Mr. Greswell's data and reasonings. We shall find opportunity of considering such as really bear against our own views; but if the principles we shall advance are just, there is comparatively little in those on which the peculiarities of Mr. Greswell's Harmony rests, that can have a solid foundation.

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