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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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of bis decree , almost as soon as it was begun . As the immediate effect of the decree was only temporary , and the Jews in general then wished for a change in their condition , there was neither time nor disposition for those
commotions which took place when the Census was actually made , after the banishment of Archelaus ; and the circumstances which really took place , might be lost sight of in subsequent occurrences .
In the two foregoing paragraphs I think I have given the real state of the case ; but this is not necessary to the vindication of the authenticity of Luke's Introduction . I have now only to offer some remarks on the assertions of Chronos . as far as they affect my
statements . Translating ch . iii . 23 , as Wakefield and the Improved Version do , in conformity with the Public Version , he
maintains , not only that Christ must have been somewhere between 2 . 9 ^ and 30 % at his baptism , but also , ( p . 257 , ) that " he could not have passed through the first half of the limited
year ; " in other words , that " he must have been baptized before he had completed his 30 th year . " If , therefore , he concludes , " with Dr . Carpenter , his baptism be placed in 782 , his birth
must be placed in 752 . " Even allowing" all this , it appears from col . 4 of the foregoing Table , that no chronological difficulty attends the Introduction .
Warped ( it is reasonable to suppose ) by his antipathy to the Introduction , Chronos has adopted a rendering of ch . iii . 23 which ( in his own judgment ) throws upon Luke an
incongruity between otpx ° fA'sv 0 $ ( beginning ) and wra , ( about , ) which , in the words of Campbell , " confounds the meaning , and leaves the reader entirel y at a loss . " Chronos knew of the
rcndermg m Ncwcome ' s Translation , for he speaks of it ; but he neither tells the reader what it is , nor attempts to shew that it is unfounded . And yet , if that rendering be the true one , Christ
U ) 1 gh t have been nearly thirty-one at lus baptism , without any i m peach - went of the minute accuracy of Luke . Uut then the chronological difficulty respecting the Introduction vanishes
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at once ; for if our Lord were more than thirty but less than thirty-one at his baptism in February 782 , then he was born after that month in 751 ; and even if Herod died in March 750 , there is nothing in the Introduction to prevent our placing the birth of Christ above a year after the death of Herod , say in April 751 .
But Chronos says there is . Every supposition I have stated , places the annunciation of the birth of the Baptist in the reign of Herod : Chronos
considers the Introduction as placing the birth of Christ also in the reigrn of Herod . Even if it did , allowing the later date of the death of Herod , ( early in 751 , ) the 3 d column of my Table shews that there is still no
chronological difficulty . But I see nothing to require us to place the birth of Christ before the death of Herod . Chronos says , ( p . 2 *> 2 , ) " Elizabeth is stated to have conceived ' in the days' wherein the Lord looked on her ( i 25 )
, . , that is , immediately after the appearance of the angel . * After those days , ' that is , those days of Herod which followed immediately after , she conceived , and hid herself five months
( ver . 24 )/ ' Chronos only looks to find objections , and therefore does not discern truth . The historian says , ver . 23 , that " as soon as the days of his ( Zacharias ' s ) ministration were accomplished , he departed to his own house i" and , in the next verse , that
" after these days' * ( assuredly the days of Zacharias ' s ministration ) "his wife Elizabeth conceived , and hid herself five months : " in which there is nothing whatever implying that this occurred " immediately" ( as Chronos strangely says ) " after the appearance of the angel ; " nor any thing which refers to the reign of Herod .
If the expression " after those days , " in ver . 24 , have no reference to "the days of Herod , " in ver . 3 , those marks of time which occur in ver . 39 , and in ch . ii . 1 , can have no necessary reference to " the days of Herod ; " and in my judgment they have none at all .
I am no advocate for shrinking from the closest examination of things held true and sacred ; but let it be conducted in the spirit of truth and in the love of it ; and if I understand the characteristics , of that spirit , I am
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Dr . Carpenter on the Introductory Chapters to Luke's Gospel . 349
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1822, page 349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2513/page/29/
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