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been very sufficiently answered , in common with those which Mr . Evanson made to several other parts of the New Testament , by Dr . Priestley , in his Letters to a Young Man . Howvver , as this work may not be in the hands of
many of your renders , I hope you will admit a ft w observations which have occurred to me from an attentive comparison of the history , as detailed in the Acts , with the Epistle , and which , I think ,
will tmd to confirm and illustrate the genuineness of both . Before I consider the main ob ~ jfction which Mr . Kvanson has brought against this Epistle , I will take notice of several others ^ from which it will easily appear
how superficial an attention he had paid to the subject . 1 . Mr , Evanson says , in page 307 of his Dissonance , ' In Romans xv . 5 , we ascertain the time of Paul ' s writing this Epistle to be , when he was going to Jerusalem with the contributions for the poor
Christians of that city , that is , in the reign of Claudius ; and he says , that when he has performed that good office , he will come , by way of Rome , to Spain * Now , whoever has lead with proper attention the history of Paul's travels in the Acts of the Apostles , must be convinced that Paul
never had the least idea of travelling into Spain , and that he did not go to Rome , till , by the partiality of Festus to his persecutors ^ ht was constrained to appeal unto CcesarS
Upon this I observe , 1 st , that before we can be convinced that Paul never had the leabt idea of travelling into Spain , we must be convinced that that apostle never formed an intention which his
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brief historian has not recorded in the Acts . Again , if Mr . Evanson means to have it inferred , from
Paul ' s being taken to Rome by force , that he had not previously formed the intention of visiting that city , we must appeal to Acts
xix . 21 . " Paul purposed in his spirit , when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia , to go to Jerusalem , saying , " After 1 have been there , I must see Rome also . " — From the passage just quoted , we
may easily deduce a mark of time which will shew , that in the date which Mr . Evanson has given to the Epistle to the Romans , there is an error of at least three years . He says that u it is ascertained to be written when Paul was going to
Jerusalem with contributions ^ &c . that is , in the reign of Claudius . " Now , Paul could not form the intention of going to Rome , mentioned ( Acts xix . 21 ) , ' until he heard of the death of Claudius , by whose decree all Jews were forbidden to come to Rome . But
his journey to Jerusalem , with the contributions , described in Acts xx . could not possibly take place , according to the calculation of Lardner and others , earlier than three years after this time , that is , three years after the death of Claudius .
2 . " I cannot forbear , " says Mr . Evanson , " remarking farther , the inconsistency of this writer ( which , indeed , must generally be discernable in all falsifiers ) , in making Paul personally acquainted with so long a list of members of the
church at Rome , where he had never been , amongst whom we find the names of Aquila and Priscilla * * of whom Luke tells us , that about , or rather before ^ the pretended date of this Epistle ,
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400 On the Genuineness of the Epistle to the Romans *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1813, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2429/page/44/
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