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Untitled Article
itxg them to the consideration of your readers , sincerely hoping , that the subject may be again taken up and if possible brought to an issue by some of your learned and able correspondents . Much , it is true , has been
alleged against the authenticity of these passages by a Priestley , a Bekliam , and other writers of great talents and learning , particularly Mr . John Palmer , and a correspondent under the signature of Nazarenus , in the Theological Repository . But on the other band , the authenticity of the passage
in Luke has been defended by Dr . Carpenter ; and while both passages continue to be inserted in every version of the Scriptures , the question respecting their authenticity must be regarded as undecided , if not upon the whole as preponderating in its favour .
The leading point on which I wish to insist , is the great and , as I conceive , irreconcileable inconsistency between the contents of these passages and those of the subsequent gospel
history and of the New Testament in general . The many extraordinaryparticulars detailed , of which the greater number had for their object the annunciation of Jesus as the
Christ , and abounding in promises of salvation and blessedness to the Jewish people , are inconsistent both with t ; he subsequent narrative and with the events which actually followed . The miraculous conception and the other events declaring Jesus to be in this sense the Son of God and also the
Messiah , would naturally lead his parent , with Joseph and many others , to adopt steps in his education and circumstances in life conformable to his high destination . But no such steps appear to have b ^ en take n or attempted ; he is . trained up in the
humble occupation of his " supposed " father j he is notmade acquainted with the learning of his age and country ; and from the opinion of the Jewish people , particularly expressed by their leaders ahd hy his fellow-townsmen , he seems to have been regarded in
the same light as ordinary mechanics in general , and his whole treatment , both on the p ^ art of his friends and others , as far as U sfrewn by the subsequent histo fj , was precisely the same a ^ if no such even t had happened .
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If an angelic -choir announced tUe birth of " a Saviour , Christ the Lord » to a company of shepherds , wha s < made known abroad the saying" m ' Bethlehem , at a time of public taxing-, when that city was crowded with
people , ; if the miracles and sayings respecting the birth of Christ , his precursor , and their parents , the anticipations of Mary and the predictions of Zachariah , were " noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea ; " if , in the words of Simeon , the
great deliverer was " prepared before the face of all people , " and if the prophetess Anna " spake of liim to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem , " it must have been in order that he might be made very
generally known , and that that knowledge might be productive of some permanent and valuable effects . And if no such effects were produced , but when the period of his entering upon the exercise of his office arrived all
perscms were estranged to liis character and destination , those numerous miracles and predictions which had plainly for their object the diffusion of such knowledge , must have been wrought and uttered in vain 3 a conclusion which is manifestly inadmissible .
But that on the first preaching of John the Baptist till the descent of the Holy * Spirit upon Jesus at his baptism , he was unknown in his true character to all persons , is , I think , perfectly evident from all the particulars of the ensuing historv : unknown
to the people in general , since on the public appearance of John , " all men were musing in their hearts whether he were the Christ or not , " clearly shewing that they were strangers to both characters , notwithstanding that series of wonders with which they are
just before represented as being introduced into the world ; unknown to John himself , who expressly declares this to have been the case , till hy the descent of the Holy Spirit he was announced to him ( John i . 31 , 33 ); unknown to many , and probably to alt
the apostles , till they were introduced to him by John or made acquainted with him by his own public ministry , it not being till after Jesus had preached . mul wrought miracles throughout OaJiJec , and thus made himself known , that he called upon
Untitled Article
208 On the Passages ascribed to Matthew and Luke *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1826, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2547/page/20/
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