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baptized in the following November ; * and that after preaching about two years and a halt , he was crucified at the third Passover in his ministry , in th « consulship of the Gemini , in the year 4742 , J . P . [ 782 , R . ] ( pp . 293 and 336 ) .
This date for the crucifixion , which places it in the 15 th year of Tiberius , reckoned from the death of Augustus , Mr . Benson tells us , " has the peculiar advantage of corresponding with the most ancient and uniform tradition
which exists upon the subject in the church" ( p . 2 . 93 ) . In page 214 he does not speak quite so confidently . There he only says , that " the Christian fathers from the earliest times , and almost with one consent declare "
for it . Samuel Basnage , in his Angles Politico-Ecelesiastiei , Rotterod . 1706 , fol ., holds the balance more evenly . In Vol I . p . 245 , he states that " bene multi" and " complures " were for this date : but in p . 247 he adds , that " alii bene multi de non
namorum gentium grege" were against it ; and among the latter he ranks Irenaeus , a more ancient name than any that Mr . Benson has produced in favour of the d&te . But even takes no notice ( Hi . 1 ) : which hypothiesfs , for I can call it no better , ' * ( says
Mr . Bowyer , Conject . N . T . note in p . xxiv . of Ptef ., ed . 1782 , 4 to ., ) " Sir Isaac Newton did not intend to follow , as appears p . 165 " of his Observat . on Daniel . One would think no person , who allowed himself a moment ' s reflection , could be . so absurd as to follow it . While Augustus was living , no man would have dared to date in this way . No share of power that he could have conferred on Tiberius ,
nothing less than his own complete abdication , could have made it safe fo use s « nch a mode of reckoning . And after Autftastira was dead , to dare in this way , without crr p res ^ y statfcng that the pe rani w * be > used kf b&gam the reign of Tiberius bt > ft ) r © tht ; death of his predecessor , would have caused Biieh eonftisiotl afi would have
rendered all dating useless , unless this inodt > of it had been so constantly practised and established as to prevent a » U ambiguity ; which was so far ' from being the case , that not a single instance of it can be produced . * At which time he would have been a year and a half older than the Evangelist Luke says he wafa at his baptism . ( Oh . iii . 23 . )
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Basnage , who himself argues at length and with ability against this date , overstates the evidence in favour of it In fact , the opinion was neither ancient nor uniform , nor were there many who asserted it . Mr . Benson enumerates eight writers who are supposed to h ^ ve dec l ared for it . Basnage has added a ninth . Ami where do we find a tenth ? Nay , even of the
nine , some , as Basnage observes , have been erroneously reckoned among the maintainers of this date . Then the antiquity of the works in which it is found has been much over-rated . They abound with interpolations . The particular passages are very suspicious :
some of them scarcely intelligible , others quite vague and inexplicit , and others again so ambiguous , that it is not easy to say in what spirit they are written , whether in jest or in earnest . But , setting aside these drawbacks , what right has the voice of nine individuals to be considered as the uniform
tradition of the church ? Were it uncontradicted , it would be of no great weight in the scale . But in the present case it is not only contradicted by the writers mentioned by Basnage , but b y the united voice of the Christian Church in all
ages , the voice which has always connected the crucifixion with the year 33 of the vulgar aera , and with the pascal limit of the 1 st of April ; than which no voice was ever more steady , more uniform , or more invariable . That Jesus was crucified in this
year is not a mere traditionary rumour that has floated loose and unconnected down the stream of time : it is a thread closely interwoven with , and running through the whole weh
of the Christian history : it is a position that has not only always been believed , but that has been uniformly acted upon , from the crucifixion to the present hour , b y all associated bodies and communities of Christians
in all parts of the world . All Christian Churches , whether Jewish or Gentile , Greek or Roman , Eastern or Western , Catholic or Protestant ,
lifitablishcd or Non-established , have always maintained that the day ot the crucifixion was to be regulated by the dominical letter that stands opposite to the vcar 33 , in their tables , and the paschal full moon for that year by the
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264 The Introductory Chapters to Lake ' s Gospel Spurious .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1822, page 264, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2512/page/8/
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