J. Planck Gesch. d. Christenth. in der Periode seiner ersten Einführung in die Welt durch Jesum und die Apostel. Göttingen. 1818. 2 Bde. 8.

J. A. G. Meyer Versuch einer Vertheidigung und Erlaüterung. der Geschichte Jesu und der Apostel allein aus griech. und röm. Profanscribenten. Hannover. 1805. 8.

$ 20.

CHRONOLOGICAL DATA RESPECTING THE LIFE OF JESUS.

J. F. Wurm's astron. Beiträge zur genäherten Bestimmung des Geburts u. Todesjahres Jesu, in Bengel's Archiv. für d. Theol. II. 1, 261. R. Anger de temporum in Actis. Apost. ratione diss. c. 1, de anno quo Jesus in coelum ascenderit. Lips. 1830. 8. F. Piper de externa vitae J. Chr. chronologia recte constituenda. Gottingae. 1835. 4. K. Wieseler's chronolog. Synopse der vier Evangelien. Hamburg. 1843. 8.1

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The only definite date in the evangelical history 2 is in Luke iii. 1, relating to the appearance of John the Baptist. On the supposition that Jesus appeared in public half a year after John, as he was born half a year after him, the designation of his age in Luke iii. 23 gives nearly the time of his birth, which, perhaps, may be still more closely determined by the circumstance that it must have happened before the death of Herod († shortly

1 According to Wieseler, Christ was born in February 750 A.U. (4 B.C.), baptized in spring or summer 780, (27 A.D.), crucified on the 7th April 783 (30 A.D.). A work so acute and learned as that of Wieseler can not be sufficiently characterized in a few words. The exact coincidence, however, of different investigations produces more doubt than conviction, since the separate data may be bent, on account of their vacillating nature, in subservience to one object, without completely removing scruples in regard to them. In particular, doɛí, in Luke iii. 23, p. 126, appears to be taken too strictly; it is incredible that the chronological designation of Luke iii. 1, should reach to the captivity of the Baptist, p. 197; and the computation of the Jewish calendar, taken from Wurm for the purpose of ascertaining the year of Jesus' death, appears to be wholly uncertain, according to Wurm's explanations.

2 Doubtful chronological dates are: Luc. i. 5, έonμepia 'Aßrú (cf. 1 Chron. xxiv. 10. Jos. Scaliger de emendat. temporum. App. p. 54. Wieseler, S. 140. Comp. Paulus Comm. über die drei ersten Evang. i. 36, ff. Luc. ii. 2, the Census of Quirinus (cf. Jos. Ant. xviii. i. 1. Paulus i. 141, ff. On the contrary, P. A. E. Huschke über den zur Zeit d. Geburt J. Chr. gehaltenen Census. Breslau 1840. 8. Wieseler, S. 49. Comp. Hoeck's röm. Gesch. vom Verfall d. Republik b. Constantin. i. ii. 412).-Joh. ii. 20. The building of the temple (cf. Jos. Ant. xv. 11, 1, xx. 9, 7. Lampe, Paulus, and Lücke on John. Wieseler, S. 165).

3 Augustus died 19th August, the year 14 of our era. and thus the 15th year of Tiberius's reign fell between the 19th August, 28, and the 19th August, 29 (781-2, A.U.C.), Wurm in Bengel's Archiv. ii. 5.

before the passover, 750 A.U.), Matth. ii. 1, 19.4 Even in the first centuries accounts of the year of Jesus' birth are given;" but the Romish abbot Dionysius Exiguus (525) reckoned, independently of them, the period of the incarnation for the purpose of fixing by it the years in his table for Easter, making the first year from the incarnation coincide with the year 754 A.U. of the Varronian computation. This Dionysian era, applied first of all under the Anglo-Saxons," then by the Frankish kings Pepin and Charlemagne, begins at least four years after the true date of Christ's birth. The day of birth can not be determined."

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The ministry of Jesus was supposed by many of the older church fathers, after the example of the Alexandrians, to have

4 On the year of Herod's death see Klaiber's Studien d. evangel. Geistlichkeit Wirtemberg's, i. 1, 50. Wurm in the same, i. ii. 208. A list of the various opinions concerning the year of Christ's birth may be seen in Fabricii bibliographia antiquaria, ed. 2, Hamb. 1716, 4to, p. 187, ss., continued in F. Münter's der Stern der Weisen u. s. w. Kopenh. 1827, p. 109. The latest important investigations unite in the year 747 A.U. So Henr. Sanclementii de vulgaris aerae emendatione libb. iv. Romae. 1793. fol., solely on historical grounds. Münter, on the same grounds, and, also, because he regards with Keppler the star of the wise men as the great conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces. which happened on that year. Ideler Chronol. ii. 394, ff., Piper 1. c., Schubert Lehrb. d. Sternenkunde, s. 226, Winer bibl. Realwörterbuch, ii. 614, assent to these results. Compare, however, on the other side, Wurm in Klaiber's Studien, i. ii. 211, ff.

5 Irenaeus, iii. 25, and Tertull. adv. Jud. 8, give the 41st year of Augustus, 751 A.U. On the other hand, Clemens. Alex. Strom. i. p. 339, the 28th year (namely, after the conquest of Egypt), with whom agrees Euseb. hist. eccl. i. 5, Epiphan. haer. li. 22, and Orosius histor. i. 1, the 42d year, 752 A.U.-Sulpicius Severus hist. sacr. ii. 27, gives the 33d year of Herod, Coss. Sabinus and Rufinus (which does not suit, as Sab. and Ruf. were consuls 751 A.U. Herod died after a reign of 37 years, 750 A.U. An Egyptian monk, Panodorus (after 400), placed the birth of Christ in the year 5493 of his aera, i. e., 754 A.U. (Ge. Syncelli chronographia, ed. Paris, p. 25, 326).

6 The Incarnatio, σúpkwoɩç, always means in the fathers the annunciation. Dionysius, therefore placed the birth of Christ in the conclusion of the first year of his era. When first about the time of Charlemagne, the beginning of the year was made to coincide with the 25th of December, the incarnation appears to have been taken as synonymous with the nativity. See Sanclementius, iv. c. 8. Ideler's Chronologie, ii. 381, ff.

7 Ethelbert, king of Kent, dated first of all an original document anno ab incarnatione Christi DCV. cf. Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici, opera J. M. Kemble. T. i. (Lond. 1839. 8.) p. 2. Afterward the venerable Bede used this era in his historical works.

8 G. A. Hamberger de epochae christianae ortu et auctore. Jenae. 1688. 4 (in Martini thesaur. dissertatt. T. iii. P. i. p. 241). Jo. G. Jani. historia aerae Dionysianae. Viteb. 1715. 4 (also in his opuscula ad hist. et chronolog. spectantia ed. Klotz. Halae. 1769). Ideler's Chronologie, ii. 366, ff.

9 Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 340, relates that some regarded the 25th of Pachon, (20th May), others the 24th or 25th Pharmuthi, (the 19th or 20th April), as the birth-day. After the 6th of January, solemnized as a day of baptism by the followers of Basilides, was kept by the Oriental Christians since the third century as the day of baptism and birth, people began to keep this day as the true day of birth, (Epiphan. haer. li. 21). After the 25th December was solemnized in the fourth century in the west, as the birth-festival, this day came soon to be looked upon as the day of birth, (Sulpic. Sever. hist. sacr. ii. 27).

continued one year, agreeably to Isaiah Ixi. 1, 2, comp. Luke iv. 19 (¿viavtòv kvpíov SEKTóv),10 On this was founded the hyκυρίου δεκτόν).10 pothesis, which became almost traditional in the ancient church, that Jesus was crucified in his thirtieth year, in the consulship of Rubellius Geminus and Fufius Geminus11 (in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, 29th of the Dionysian era). But, according to the gospel of John ii. 13 (v. 1), vi. 4, xi. 55, three, or perhaps four passovers occurred during the public ministry of Christ. It must, therefore, have continued more than two years, and may, perhaps, have extended over three. Thus, the year of his death falls between 31 and 33 aer. Dionys., making his age from thirty-four to thirty-eight years. Even if we could agree on the preliminary question whether the Friday on which Jesus died was the day before the passover, or the first day of the passover,12 yet, amid the uncertainty of the Jewish calendar of that time, an astronomical reckoning of the year of his death can scarcely be established.13

10 So the Valentinians, (Irenaeus, ii. 38, 39), in opposition to whom Irenaeus puts forth the singular assertion that Jesus was baptized in his thirtieth year, but did not appear as a teacher till between his fortieth and fiftieth (John viii. 57), and then taught three years. One year, however, was adopted by Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 340. Origenes, hom. 32 in Lucam, and de princip. iv. On the other hand, c. Cels. ii. p. 397, and Comment. in Matth. xxiv. 15, he says, that Judas was not three entire years with Jesus. Auct. Clementin. hom. 17 in fine. Julius Africanus (ap. Hieronym. in Dan. ix.). Philastrius haer. 106. Cyrill. Alex. in Esaiam, c. 32. Some moderns have attained to a simular result in another way. Priestley's Harmony of the Evangelists in Greek, 1777. Haenlein progr. de temporis quo Jesus cum apostolis versatus est duratione. Erlang. 1796. 4to.

11 Tertull. adv. Jud. 8 (but comp. adv. Marcion. i. 15). Lactant. institutt. iv. 10. Augustin. de civ. Dei. xviii. 54, de trinit. iv. 5 (according to Tertull. and August. II. cc. and according to the old Acta Pilati in Epiphan. haer. I. 1, he was crucified the 8th of the Kalends of April, on the 25th of March the day of the vernal equinox, comp. Thilo cod. apocr. N. T. i. 496. Wieseler, S. 390). That Christ was thirty years old: Hippolytus Portuensis in canone paschali. Chronicon anonymi (in Canis. lect. antiq. T. ii.) c. 17 u. 18. Hieronym. epist. 22. ad Eustochium. Augustin. epist. 80 and 99. Comp. Petavii rationarium temporum (ed. Ludg. 1745). P. ii. p. 266, ss.

12 The first three evangelists designate the last supper as the passover (Matth. xxvi, 17, ss., Mark xiv. 12, Luke xxii. 7), and hence it has been usually assumed in the Western Church that Christ was crucified on the first day of the passover. On the contrary, the day of Christ's death was according to John xiii. 1, 29, xviii. 28, xix. 14, 31, the day before the passover. The latter is followed by Tertullian, adv. Jud. c. 8, the Greeks, Scaliger, Casaubon, Capellus, Lampe, Kuinoel, &c. It is strongly in favor of the latter hypothesis. that the first day of the passover can never fall on a Friday, at least according to the pres ent calendar of the Jews. See Ideler's Chronologie, Bd. i. p. 519. Probably the account of the first three evangelists is to be explained by the circumstance, that they took the last supper of Jesus to be the Christian passover; see Theile in Winer's Krit. Journal der Theol. Literat. ii. 153, ff., v. 129, ff. Comp. Hase's Leben Jesu, p. 167. [Bibliotheca Sacra, new series, 1845, an article by Robinson.]

13 Bynaeus de morte J. C. libb. 3. Amstel. 1691, 98. 3 voll. 4. Paulus über die Möglich.

$ 21.

HISTORY OF THE YOUTH OF JESUS.

The history of Jesus' life before his public appearance is very obscure,1 and affords no disclosures in relation to the important question of the mode and progress of his spiritual development.

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2

Modern scholars have endeavored to supply this deficiency by conjectures, and have attributed a decided influence on his character, sometimes to the doctrines of the Essenes, sometimes to those of the Sadducees, sometimes to a combination of Pharisaism and Sadduceism, sometimes to the Alexandrian-Jewish education." But such a spirit could not have received its direction from any school, and least of all from the schools of those times, which were better adapted to fetter the spirit, partly by their literal externality, partly by their fanatical idealism, than to prepare it for a clear and great self-development. On the contrary, the reading of the prophets of the Old Testament must have quickened in his kindred spirit a religious feeling as spiritual as that of the time was literal and carnal, and must have

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keit Jesu Todesjahr zu bestimmen, in his Comment. über das N. T. iii. 784. Wurm in Bengel's Archiv. ii. 261.

1 Chr. Fr. Ammon's bibl. Theologie. Bd. 2, (2te Ausg. Erlangen 1801) s. 244, ff. Paulus Commentar über das neue Testament, Th. 1. Schleiermacher on the writings of Luke, Th. 1. Berlin. 1817. S. 23, ff. [Translated by Thirlwall, Lond. 8vo, 1825.]

2 So first the English Deists (see against them Prideaux's Connection). From them Voltaire borrowed this idea, as well as many others, (Philosophical Dictionary, under Esséniens). Frederic the Great, Oeuvres ed. de Berlin, T. xi. p. 94. Stäudlin Geschichte der Sittenlehre Jesu, Th. 1. S. 570, ff. The same hypothesis has been enlarged in J. A. C. Richter das Christenthum und die ältesten Religionen des Orients. Leipzig. 1819. Christianity is supposed to be the public revelation of the Essene doctrines, and that these were connected with the ancient schools of the prophets, with Parsism, the Egyptian and Grecian mysteries, and through them with Brahmaism! According to Gfrörer, (das Heiligthum u. die Wahrheit. Stuttgart. 1838, S. 382), Jesus was educated among the Essenes, and afterward followed his own course, but continued to hold what was sound in their doctrines and customs. On the other side see Bengel über d. Versuch Christenth. a. d. Essenismus abzuleiten, in Flatt's Magazine, vii. 148, ff. Heubner in the 5th appendix to his edition of Reinhard's Versuch über d. Plan Jesu. V. Wegnern über das Verhältniss des Christenthums zum Essenismus, in Illgen's Zeitschrift für die histor. Theol. 1841, ii. 1.

3 Des-Cotes Schutzschrift für Jesum v. Nazereth. Frankf. 1797.

4 Versuch den Ursprung der Sittenlehre Jesu historisch zu erklären (in Henke's Magazin. Bd. 5. S. 426.)

5 Bahrdt's Briefe über die Bibel im Volkstone. Berlin. 1784, ff.

6 So in John vii. 15, all higher cultivation in any school is denied to Jesus

given it a standard for estimating the condition of the Jewish nation at that period, and for judging of the means by which alone it could be elevated, very different from the usual view.

$ 22.

JOHN THE BAPTIST.

William Bell's Inquiry into the divine mission of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Lond. 1761. 8vo. Translated into German by Henke, Braunschweig. 1779, 8vo. J. G. E. Leopold Johannes d. T., eine biblische Untersuchung. Hannover. 1825. 8. Joh. d. T. in s. Leben u. Wirken dargestellt nach den Zeugnissen d. h. Schrift von L. v. Rohden. Lübeck. 1838.8.

Before Jesus, appeared one of his relatives John, in the wil derness of Judea, with the solemn call, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and dedicating his followers to this altered state of mind by a symbolical washing of the body.1 It is certain that John and Jesus had been earlier acquainted with one another; but it is improbable that there existed a close connection between them, or the concerting of a common plan. The peculiarities of John point to an earlier connection with the Essenes.2 The same character was possessed by his disciples, who, after Jesus' appearance, continued apart from the disciples of the latter (John iii. 26; Luke v. 33; Matth. ix. 14; xi. 2, ff.), and of whom we meet with remains in Asia Minor, long

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1 Was the baptism of John an imitation of Jewish proselyte baptism? The question is answered in the affirmative by Buxtorf Lexic. talmud. p. 408. Lightfoot, Schoettgen, Wetstein ad Matth. iii. 6. J. A. Danz baptismus proselytorum Judaicus ad illustrandum baptismum Joannis, and his antiquitas baptismi initiationis Israelitarum vindicata (both contained in Meuschen N. T. ex talmude illustratum. Lips. 1736. 4, p. 233 u. 287, ss.). W. C. L. Ziegler über die Johannistaufe als unveränderte Anwendung der jüdischen Proselytentaufe (in his theol. Abhandlungen. Bd. 2. Göttingen. 1804, S. 132, ff.). E. G. Bengel über das Alter der jüd. Proselytentaufe. Tübingen. 1814. 8. On the other hand, others deny that Jewish proselyte baptism existed so early. Among the moderns, Paulus Comment. Th. 1, S. 278. De Wette comment. de morte J. C. expiatoria. Berol. 1813. p. 42, J. G. Reiche de baptismatis origine et necessitate necnon de formula baptismali. Goeting. 1816. 8. D. M. Schneckenburger über das Alter der jüdischen Proselytentaufe. Berlin. 1828. 8. Washing, as a symbol of moral cleansing, is mentioned as early as in the writings of the prophets, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, Zech. xiii. 1.

SS.

2 Even the place of his appearance έv Tỷ ¿pýμų rñs 'Iovdaías (Matth. iii. 1), where, according to Plin. Nat. Hist. v. c. 17, the Essenes also dwelt.

3 There is a remarkable testimony concerning John in Jos. Ant. xviii. 5, 2 (first men. tioned by Orig. c. Cels. i. p. 35). Κτείνει τοῦτον (Ἰωάννην) Ἡρώδης, ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα, καὶ τοὺς Ἰουδαίους κελεύοντα, ἀρετὴν ἐπασκοῦντας, καὶ τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν εὐσεβείᾳ χρωμένους, βαπτισμῷ συνιέναι· οὕτω γὰρ καὶ τὴν βαπτισικ