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ring the termination of the latter to the commencement of our Lord ' s public preaching in Galilee , which every reader of the gospels knows was after John was put into prison . In this way Mr . G . often makes a startling position ; and then qualifies it so as to deprive it of every need of proof . In this Dissertation there are , however , some valuable observations on the
twofold commencement of our Lord ' s ministry , first in Judaea , and secondly in Galilee ; and on the other hand , some specimens of the too frequent accumulation of vague and useless data . To it is subjoined an Appendix on the time of the imprisonment of John the Baptist , and of the marriage of Herod and Herodias . Here , and in various other parts , the discussions of Mr . Greswell more respect the accuracy of Josephus , than the Harmony of the Gospels ; but in this case they are not irrelevant .
Dissertation the Ninth is " on the Age of our Lord at his Baptism ;" and , paying no attention to the opinion of those critics who ( in Luke iii . 23 ) interpret ocp ^ of ^ evoq on beginning his ministry , the author roundly asserts that " the genius and syntax of the original language , as well as the reason of the thing , will agree to no order of the terms , nor to any interpretation of the text but this—And Jesus himself was , as it were , beginning to be thirty years of age . " The reason of the thing is against such a construction , for and there
surely ua-ei " as it were" is useless with apx ^^ evoq ; is nothing absurd in the rendering , " Now Jesus was abour thirty years of age on beginning : " and there is a presumption that it is not so very certain as Mr . Greswell represents it , that his is the only justifiable translation , when we see Grotius , Le Cierc , Rosenmiiller , Schleusner , Griesbach , Paulus , Kuinoel , &c , as well as Petavius , Lamy , and Lardner , * adopting the reference of ocpxo ^ Bvoq to the ministry , not the age of Christ . It has long appeared to us that this was the meaning of the sacred historian .
" The time of the year when our Lord was born , " forms the subject of the Tenth Dissertation : and this the author argues was " about the vernal equinox , " and thinks was *« in all likelihood—the 5 th of April , and the 7 th day of the week . "—r We may fix upon this Dissertation , extending to fifty pages , as affording ample illustrations , and as we think a full justification , of all the strictures we have given on the author ' s characteristical faults and style of investigation . To it he subjoins an Appendix of forty pages " on the date of the Exodus , and of the first Passover . "
" This Appendix , " says the Author in his Synopsis , p . xv ., " proceeds upon the following supposition ; that our Lord was born in the fulness of time on the tenth of Nisan and the fifth of the Julian April , B . C . 4 , because [ we intreat the reader to observe the reason—because ] in the year of the Exodus from Egypt , and at the time of the institution of the Passover , the tenth of Nisan and the fifth of the Julian April coincided not only with each other , but with the vernal equinox . The year of this coincidence was B . C . 1560 : the object of the Appendix is to prove that B . C 1560 was actually the date of the Exodus . "
Supposing that the author ' s system of hypothetical chronology were as well established as to us it seems groundless , what has all this to do with the " Principles and Arrangement of a Harmony of the Gospels , " which appears , in the title-page , as the subject of his Dissertations ? The last three Dissertations in the first volume , the xith , xiith , and xiiith , are , " On the opinions of the most ancient Christians upon the preceding
* Sec Wolfii Cures , in luco , and the very valuable Commeniarius in Libr . Nov Test . Hint , by Kuinoel : also Mr . Benson ' s Chronology of our Stwiour ' s Lift , |> . 180 .
Untitled Article
On the Chronology and Arrangement of the Gospel Narratives . 41
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 41, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/41/
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