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Untitled Article
interval of comparative privacy . To prevent needless repetition , we beg to referjhiin to what we have aj ready advanced in pp . 305 . and 306 ? in which we have dwelt upon what appears to us sufficiently clear , and in that proportion decisive—that the grand display of miraculous power , and of public teacfcirig , which wet peculiarly denote : by the Ministry in Galilee , could not have ; ; taken . place before the Tabernacles * . —But we mu £ t further observe
that , pursuing the train : of jevents , in St . Matthew ' s Gospel , in an , inserted order , from the time of our Lord ' s finally leaving Galilee , we find no interval in which we can place any festival ttfl we come to the absence of the Twelve ; during which we may reasonably suppose , the Feast of Dedication to have occurred : and going backward from . the mission of the Twelve , we find no interval ; in which the Feast , of Tabernacles could have occurred .
The . fprmer did not require the attendance of the people at large ; the latter did ; and it is' not credible that such transactions as those recorded jby John , ( ch ; yii . 2—x . 21 , ) as connected with the Tabernacles , could have occurred after the commencement of ourLqrd ' s Public Preaching in Galilee , and yet iu > t t , have , even been noticed by the historians of it . The occurrence of the Feast of Dedication , during the absence of the Twelve , may sufficiently explain the want of all reference to it ; and also the silence of Matthew
respecting that great miracle which occurred not long after it—the resurrection of Lazarus . These , on our arrangement , are to be placed between the xith and the xiith chapters of Matthew . < ^ " If the reader should still feel a difficulty in admitting that for so long a period our Lord could remain in privacy , after he had so publicly taught at Jerusalem , we mav observe , to lessen the influence of it , that similar
difficulties press on every other arrangement . All which are founded upon the long duration of his ministry , necessarily have grcfctantervals , of which" we have no account ; and even in Dr . Priestley ' s , wef-find several of theJater months unoccupied : a very large proportion of tlie-timej from August till near the last Passover , has , in his Harmony , no iassigiied employment ;* and yet this is a portion of his ministry which we should expect to be mcfet occupied , and most dwelt upon by his historians . ' ' - '
Three circumstances appear to have mainly contributed to our torcHs comparative retirement during this interval . ( 1 . ) The Jews had rejected him , and sought his life : ourXord , therefore , could not have taught in" Jerusalem during the ? interval between the feasts , at which tittle * the Roman ' Governor resided at Caesarea . ( 2 . ) It is probable , from the known course of events , that Herod the Tetrarch was then in Galilee , which would prevent our Lord ' s public exercise of his ministry , as at a subsequent period . ' ( 5 . )
During the greater part of the interval between the Pentecost and the Tabernacles , the heat was usually so intense , that the people could not have collected together around him as they did in the period following the Tabernacles . —Perhaps to these considerations should be added , that the imprisonment of the feaptist , with the consequent termination of his ministry , appears to have been regarded b y our Lord as the signal of . Divine Providence for commencing his own public preaching in Galilee . That in this interval he was employed in the less public exercise of his great work , as occasion
served , is sufficiently intimated by the words of his relatives in John vii . 3 , 4 ; and it is by no . means without probability , that his instructions on prayer , in Luke xi . 1—13 , were delivered during this period . , They must have been before the Sermon on the Mount .
Untitled Article
On the Chronology and Arrangement of the ^ G $ jt # i Narratives . 467
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 457, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/25/
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