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    which however he could not accede . This doctrine Trypho ac ~ knowledges to be the most rational , as the Jews ^ 11 expected that the Messiah would be a man born in

    the ordinary way . The distino tion which Justin here makes between the race of Trypho ^ i . e . the Jews to whom his new doc * trines appeared extravagant , and his own race , i . e . the Gentiles , some of whom held the same

    opinion with the Jews , together witfr Trypho ' s declaration of the uniform expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah , appear to me fully to warrant the conclusion , that in the time of Justin the Flebrew Christians universally , and considerable numbers even of

    gentile believers , regarded Jesus as a man born like other men , and chosen by God to be the Messiah . At any rate it is certain that tnanyj at that time , held this ddctrine . And consequently they must either have been ignorant of the existence of the

    disputed chapters , or they must have regarded them as unauthorised interpolations . And Justin himself , who though an enthusiast , was a man of amiable and

    exemplary character , so far from de * flouncing them as heretics ^ like the credulous Epiphanius , and his disciple the Q . Reviewer , ap . pears even to apologize for the singularityof his own opinions ,

    ^ and expresses his hope , that if these doctrines should prove erro * neou £ , his error might be regarded as venial , and not inconsistent with a belief in the Messiahship of Jesus ,

    Upon the whole therefore it is most evident , that the disputed chapters of Matthew ' s gospel were banting in the copies of the He-

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    brew christians early in the second century , and probably from the beginning : and that with whatever names of reproach these Christians may be branded by orthodox bishops and their pious partizans , from Epiphanius to Horsley * and from the pseudo-Barnabas to the Q . Reviewer ^ their opinions and their characters were treated with great tenderness and

    respect by their contemporaries , and even by those who , like Justin , were of a different persuasion . 3 . The Editors of I . V . argue , that " as it appears from Luke iii » 23 . that Jesus was thirty years of age in the fifteenth year of the emfteror Tiberius , he must have been born upwards of two years after the death of Herod , a circumstance which invalidates the whole narrative both in Mat - thew and Luke /'

    There are two ways in which those who believing with our Reviewer , in the inspiration of the writers , ' * unravel difficulties as they can , " endeavour to grt over this contradiction . The first is , that when the writer says of Jesus ,

    that he was beginning to be about thirty years of age , he knew that he was at least thirty-five . But this is an inaccuracy of language which no one would think of charging upon a correct , much less an inspired writer ^ if it were not to save an hypothesis . The other solution assumes .

    that Tiberius having been t ^ aken . into partnership in . the empire with Augustus , three years before his death , would create a twofold computation of Tiberius * s rtign ; and that Luke dates his history from the earlier period . This is

    a mere gratuitous supposition , advanced like the other U * support

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    The Quarterly Review and the Improved Version * 423

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    VOL , IV . 3 K

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1809, page 423, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1739/page/9/