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02 rnal evidence ^ as far as that may be allowed to decide the point . The evidence of Marcion . with
respect to the Introduction of Luke , is not to be placed upon a footing with that of the Jewish Christians respecting the Introduction to Matthew . This will
surely be admitted by all who consider the case impartially : and I wish to add farther ^ that unless we know upon what grounds he
decided against the genuineness of it , his unsupported decision can be of little importance to us . The weight of external evidence against the Introduction I cannot
therefore but regard as extremely trifling . Respecting the Introduction to Matthew we not only have strong external evidence of its
spuriousness ; viz . that it was not in the copies of the Hebrew Gospel used by the Jewish Christians ; but we can easily account for its early and general reception among the Gentile Christians . The
translator of the Gospel probably found , in the same language ^ an " Account of the Birth of Jesus Christ . " which he translated
and prefixed , as may reasonably be supposed , without any intention to palm it upon the readers of his translation , as the production of Matthew . But how could
the Introduction of Luke have become connected with his Gospel ? I acknowledge that I cannot see how the probability of it can be maintained , especially when it is recollected that the
Introduction to Matthew must have been received , at least nearly as early as the Gospel itself , among the Christians who used only the Greek copy : for those who received the Introduction to
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Matthew as genuine , could not easily have been led to receive Luke ' s Introduction as genuine , unless , in like manner , this had been always connected with the copies of his Gospel used among the Gentile Christians .
The true way of examining the evidence against the genuineness of Lukef ' s Introduction , and also the import of the passage , appears then to be , to consider it as totally independent of the Introduction to Matthew ' s Gospel : and I feel persuaded , that if it had been thus
considered from the first , it would never-hare been supposed that his narrative contained in chap . i . 26—38 , implies what is at direct variance with his own expressions in ch . ii . 33 , 41 , with the uncontradicted assertion of Philip , John i . 45 , and with the frequent declarations of the N . T . writers ^ that Jesus was the son of David . It appears to me , ( and the grounds of this opinion I hope to show in a future Letter ) that if the
Introduction to Matthew had never been received as a part of that Gospel , the Introduction of Luk « would not , of itself , have given rise to the idea that Jesus was not
the son of Joseph . In this Letter I shall confine myself to some remarks on the chronological difficulties on which your learned correspondent B . lays so much stress *
It is clear , from the extracts quoted by Lardner ( Works , vol . I . p . 382 , ) that the early Christians 4 C generally placed the crucifixion of Jesus at the Passover of the fifteenth of Tiberius s sole empire , when the two Gemini were
Consuls of Rome / It appears incredible that they should hava done so in direct and obvious op-
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On the Introduction to St . Luke ' s CrO&ptt . \ %
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1811, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2412/page/13/
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