in Palestine, after a fhort expedition of about three months. Finding that Antigonus had kept his mother, fifter, and family, ever fince his retreat, in close siege at Mafada, a fortrefs in the tribe of Judah, he haftened to their relief. His brother Jofeph, who all the while repelled the affailants, at last reduced to extremity for want of water, had refolved, in defperation, to attempt an escape. But a plentiful fall of rain having supplied all the cifterns, Herod came up in time to relieve his friends. This circumftance plainly indicates the fummer season. It is here mentioned purely as a conjecture; for, in the hiftory of the second commencement, more decifive notations occur; and it may perhaps be fhewn, that each computation originates from the fame day of the fame month in two different years. THE first of the feast of seven days, provided by Antony for Herod, at his inauguration, is by Jofephus denominated, in two paffages, the FIRST DAY of his reign, A. U. C. 714. It was afterwards, as the original date of his regal honours, diftinguished by the title of NATALIS REGNI, the nativity of his kingdom. In its future repetitions it was celebrated with regal magnificence; but none of the hiftorians fpecify the day of the month. "HEROD took Jerufalem, and made Antigonus aprifoner, in the confulate of M. Agrippa and Canidius Gallus, in the 185th olympiad, on the third month, on the folemnity of the fast, as if a periodical revolution of * Ant. xiv. 14. 1. and War, i. 14. 4. calamities calamities had returned, fince the reduction of the fame city by Ptolemy, after 27 years *.” IT may be enquired whether this were not the anniversary of his first appointment by the fenate, and alfo the fource of the fecond reckoning? AGRIPPA and Gallus were confuls A. U. C. 717. That year was the fourth of the 185th olympiad; and the olympic years were always counted from the new moon before the fummer folftice. In the first year of the first olympiad, that new moon fell on the 9th July; and the next autumnal equinox on the 1ft October. After 740 years, or 185 olympiads, the 5th July was the time of the fummer folftice in 717. Whether Jofephus meant the third month of the Hebrew year, or of the fiege, has improperly been controverted. This author elsewheret mentions the fifth month of the fiege, and then reckons only from the term of Herod's engaging in that enterprise; for Sofius had, with a numerous army, begirt the city one full month before. The third month of the year must be the true notation. "Herod marched up to Jerufalem, about the end of winter, in the third year of his reign ‡." "At the end of the fiege it was fummer §." This criterion of time corresponds to the commencement of the olympic year, and to the third Hebrew month. The hiftorian omits the day of the month, though he specifies it by a character Jofephus, Ant. xiv. 16. 3. †They bore a fiege of five months. War, i. 18. 2. § Ant. xiv. 16. 2. War, i. 17. 8. then then well known, but now obfcure; on the sSOLEM NITY of the FAST. is THE Hebrew feftivals and fafts, as well thofe of hu man as of a divine appointment, are an indispensable directory in calculation. Without a middle term of fuch exquisite use, and so infallible both in its principles and conclufions, chronology could not have a firm basis. Mofes prescribed no faft for the third month; neither any of a fubfequent date to be found in Levi's Account of the Rites and Ceremonies of the modern Jews. Jofephus, however, often refers to the faft of that month, as folemnized in his time and it has already been remarked, that it was enacted to commemorate the introduction of idol-worship into Samaria, in the first of Rehoboam. The 23d of the third month was the time of its obfervance annually. In the year of Rome 717, the 23d of Sivan was coincident with the 22d of June; and this feems to be the most probable date of Herod's acceffion, whether reckoned from the decree of the fenate, or from the capture of the city. DID this conclufion reft on one doubtful character of time, or on the authority of an equivocal record, when or by whom written, none can tell, it might be rejected as an ideal conjecture. But with the evidence arifing from calculation, from the harmony of national eras, and magiftracies, from several specifications of seasons, it derives every criterion of probability. Or this complicated difquifition the result is, that Herod died about three months before the end of his 37th year from the decree of the fenate, and of his 34th from the reduction of Jerufalem: for 750-713 37; and 750-716-34; from each remainder three months are to be deducted. 7. The foregoing Computations applied to the hiftorical Date of Chrift's Nativity. IN the days of Herod the king was born John the Baptift, and Jesus Christ about fix months after*. In the fame reign, and but a very fhort space before its termination, was Jefus, in his infancy, conveyed into Egypt, and recalled at the acceffion of Archelaus t. THE vifit of the eaftern fages at Bethlehem must be referred to the interval from the first to the 40th day of our Lord's life. On the latter he certainly was presented in the temple, whence his parents returned with him, not to Bethlehem, but immediately to Nazareth, in Galilee, and there was intimated to them the warning for their removal with him into Egypt, together with the reason of that injunction. "There they continued until the death of Herod." All these notations juftify the pofition, that, according both to the Hebrew and Roman computation, Jesus was born in the year before Herod's demife. The time of the recefs in Egypt is a point which has unhappily divided the fentiments of chronologers and critics. All However agree, that the return thence was immediately subfequent to the death of Herod. Luke, i. † Matt. ii. 1-19. Matt. ii. 15. FROM FROM the age of the infants comprehended in the bloody edit for a general maffacre in Bethlehem; and its precincts, (" two years old and under,") has it been conjectured, that either our Lord was born about two years before the execution of that edit; or, that Herod. lived as long after. By the latter clause of the alternative, the refidence in Egypt was two years. It is replied to both claufes in common, that, from the capricious humour of a defperate tyrant, driven to madness by diseases, fury, jealousy, and the dread of a political revolution, no certain conclufion is deducible. Refolved, at any rate, not to permit the escape of one innocent victim, he extended the terms of the fanguinary mandate to two years and under; though Jefus, at the time, might be an infant of a few days or weeks. But the hypothefis merits a more special and minute examination. FIRST; if our Lord were two years old, or nearly fo, at the date of the mandate, his age must have been more than twelve when he conferred with the doctors in the temple, in the year after the removal of Archelaus; which year coincides in aftronomical and hiftorical connection with the taxation levied by Cyrenius; Judea having then, and no fooner, become a Roman province for till then, Herod and Archelaus had paid a ftipulated fum into the Roman treasury, as a yearly compofition for all the revenues accruing from the lands and other property in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. While that regulation was in force, no Roman officers either did or could impofe taxes on the inhabitants |