66 came into Judea, an assessment was made there, and in the time of it, Jesus was born at Bethlehem, in the month of September or October. After the term of forty days was expired, Jesus was presented in the temple at Jerusalem, and Mary made her offering according to the law. When these things were finished, they went from Jerusalem, and dwelt in some city of Judea, possibly at Bethlehem. In the year following, viz. A. U. 749, or 750, about the beginning of February, came "wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?" they being guided by the star, which they" had seen in the east, went and worshipped him." After their departure, the virgin and the child Jesus being now fit for travelling, Joseph was admonished by " an angel, to take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt;" which he did. Herod soon perceiving from the wise men's not returning to him, that he had been mocked by them, and being much enraged thereat, "sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." He also put to death at the same time divers pharisees, and other persons at Jerusalem, some of his own family and attendants; who, being before in expectation of the coming of a great prince, who was to rise up from among them, and by the arrival of the wise men had been confirmed in the belief that this event was now at hand, expressed themselves in terms, which Herod and his son Antipater and their flatterers termed seditious. Immediately after these executions, Pheroras's wife was called to an account also, as being supposed to have entertained the same principles with these pharisees; to whom she had lately shown great favour, in paying the fine imposed upon them for not entering themselves, nor taking the appointed oath in the time of the fore-mentioned assessment. Pheroras not submitting to the orders given him by Herod in council to put away his wife, Herod and Pheroras fell out: hereupon, in the latter end of February, or beginning of March, the same year, Pheroras retires with his wife to his tetrarchy. And Antipater having before this, by various practices, and particularly by letters procured from Rome, disposed his father to The account of Antipater's sending letters and presents to Rome is Antiq. lib. xvii. cap. 1. sect. 1. of Herod's last quarrel with Pheroras, his forbidding Antipater to converse with Pheroras, or his wife; of Antipater's journey to Rome, and Pheroras's retirement, is ibid. cap. 3. In the War. [lib. i. cap. 29. sect. 2.] Antipater's letters to Rome, and his journey, are mentioned together; consent to his making a journey into Italy; and supposing, that by the execution now just over, all turbulent spirits had been awed, and that peace and quiet might ensue, set sail for Rome. In the latter end of April, or the beginning of May following, Pheroras dies, is brought to Jerusalem, and buried: no sooner is the mourning for him over, but his servants apply to Herod to make inquiry into the causes of his death; and now in the middle of May, or soon after, the examinations into this matter began: and though Antipater was sailed from Judea for Rome, and got at a distance from the place in which justice ought to be executed on him, and therefore, according to the ordinary course of things, it might have been supposed he was in safety; yet from this time the divine vengeance began to prepare itself against him, till at last it fell upon him for all his horrid crimes. The evidence was at first obscure and imperfect, but opened continually more and more: Herod, in his letters to Antipater, dissembled his resentments, but earnestly pressed his return to Judea. About the middle. of December, seven months after the first inquiry into the cause of Pheroras's death, Antipater arrived at Jerusalem: and is tried before Herod, and Varus president of Syria, and condemned to death. Herod, however, not daring to proceed to execute the sentence without express leave from Augustus, sent ambassadors to Rome with a full account of what had passed; and soon after a second embassy, new evidence having been found after the departure of the former. These last ambassadors return to Judea, with full power from Augustus, about the middle of March, A. U. 750, or 751; soon after which Antipater was executed, and in five days after Herod himself died, about a year and five or six months after the birth of Jesus. Upon the whole, I presume, it appears we lie under no necessity of dating the birth of Jesus before the latter end of the year of Rome 748, or 749. We hereby in part abate the objection, as stated above; but still we have before us undoubtedly a very great difficulty. We will now inquire what can be said to it. II. 1. When St. Luke says, " Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius,-the word of God came unto John;" he may intend some computation of the reign of Tiberius, different from that of his sole empire after the death of Augustus. It is no unusual thing, for the reigns of princes to but as his journey is here also represented as the effect of advice brought from Rome, it is supposed that these letters were sent by him some time before. And Pheroras's retirement is the thing next mentioned. 6 6 be computed from several dates. There were two computations of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. For, as Prideaux observes, Nabopollaser, king of Babylon, being old and infirm, took his son Nebuchadnezzar into partnership in the 'empire, and sent him with an army into those parts [Syria and Palestine]. And from hence the Jewish computation of the years of Nebuchadnezzar's reign begins. But according to the Babylonians, his reign is not reckoned to ⚫ begin till after his father's death, which happened two years afterwards. And both computations being found in scrip⚫ture, it is necessary to say so much here for the reconciling of them.' And there were two or three ways of computing the reign of 1Cyrus. But to come nearer to our time; there were many computations of the reign of m Augustus. Some computed the beginning of his reign from the year in which Julius Caesar was killed; as "Josephus, who says, Augustus reigned fifty-seven years six months and odd days. Some from the year after, and reckoned his reign fifty-six years; others computed from the year in which the victory was obtained at Actium, and say, he reigned forty-four years; others from the year after, as Ptolemy in his canon, and St. Clement of Alexandria, and give him only forty-three years. And Herod reigned thirty-four years from the death of Antigonus, thirty-seven from the time he was declared king of Judea by the Roman senate. 2. There seems to be very good reason to conclude, from divers passages of the Roman historians, and the most ancient christian writers, that there were two different computations of the beginning of Tiberius's reign; one from the time he was made colleague with Augustus, and the other from his sole empire after the death of Augustus. Several very learned men and very eminent chronologers are of opinion, that St. Luke intends the former of these two computations. I shall give a brief account of the grounds * Conn. Part. i. p. 60. 70 Weeks, p. 44. 'Marshall's Treatise of the m Vid. Petav. Rationarium Temp. Par. 2. 1. iii. cap. 15. Pagi. Appar. n. 66-73, 103, 114. Atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis, primum cum M. Antonio. Marcoque Lepido, dein tantum cum Antonio per duodecim fere annos, novissime per quatuor et quadraginta solus rempublicam tenuit. Sueton. in August. c. 8. vid. Dio. 1. li. P Strom. p. 339. A. Edit. Paris. Joseph. de Bell. 1. i. c. ult. sect. 8. Antiq. 1 xvii. cap. 8. sect. 1. Herwaertus in nova et vera Chronologia, c. 248. Usser. Ann. A. M. 4015. Joann. Cleric. Dissertatio. de Ann. Vitæ Christi. Prideaux Conn. Part. ii. Book ix. A. D. xii. Pagi, Critic. in Baron. A. Chr. 11. 71. 117. 147. there are for this supposition, taken chiefly from Pagi; who appears to have bestowed a great deal of pains upon this argument, and must be allowed to have treated it with great accuracy and judgment. (1.) That Augustus did in part lay aside government some time before he died, may be inferred from the words of an uncertain author of a panegyric, in which, in the name of the city of Rome, he dissuades Maximianus Herculeus from resigning the empire. Is it fit,' says he,' that you ⚫ should now give yourself a discharge, and do that so soon, which Augustus did not do till after the seventieth year ' of his age, and the fiftieth of his reign?' (2.) Several of the Roman historians have expressly mertioned Tiberius's being taken into partnership in the government with Augustus. Velleius Paterculus, who lived in the reigns of these two emperors, says; That at the desire of Augustus there was a law passed by the senate and people of Rome, that Tiberius might have equal power with him in all the pro'vinces and armies.' Suetonius says; There was a law 'made, that Tiberius should govern the provinces jointly with Augustus, and make the census with him.' Tacitus says; That Tiberius was made colleague in the empire (with Augustus), taken into partnership in the tribunician 'power, and recommended to all the armies.' And there are in this last-mentioned historian frequent references to Tiberius's partnership in the empire with Augustus. W V u Quo usque hoc, Maximiane, patiar, me quati, te quiescere, mihi libertatem adimi, te usurpare tibi illicitam missionem? An quod Divo Augusto post septuaginta ætatis, quinquaginta imperii, non licuit annos, tam cito licuit tibi? Panegyr. cap. 11. laudat. a Pagio. Critic. A. Ch. 11. n. iii. Cum res Galliarum maximæ molis, accensasque plebis Viennensium dissensiones, coërcitione magis quam pœnâ molîsset, et Senatus Populusque Rom. (postulante patre ejus) ut æquum ei jus in omnibus provinciis exercitibusque esset, quam erat ipsi, decreto complexus esset-in urbem reversus, jampridem debitum, sed continuatione bellorum dilatum, ex Pannoniis Dalmatiisque egit triumphum. Vellei. lib. ii. cap. 121. "A Germaniâ in urbem post biennium regressus, triumphum, quem distulerat, egit.——Dedicavit et Concordiæ ædem: item Pollucis et Castoris, suo fratrisque nomine, de manubiis. Ac non multo post, lege per Coss. latâ, ut provincias cum Augusto communiter administraret, simulque censum ageret, condito lustro in Illyricum profectus est. Suet. in Tiber. cap. 20, 21. ▾ Drusoque pridem extincto, Nero solus e privignis erat: illic cuncta vergere: filius, collega imperii, consors tribunitia potestatis adsumitur, omnisque per exercitus ostentatur Tacit. An. lib. i. cap. 3. "Etenim Augustus, paucis ante annis, cum Tiberio tribuniciam potestatem a patribus rursum postularet, &c. id. ib. cap. 10. Versæ inde ad Tiberium preces. Et ille varie disserebat, de magnitudine imperii, suà modestia; solam Divi Augusti mentem tantæ molis capacem: se, in partem curarum 6 I must be allowed to be particular in the account of some things said by Dio. In his history of the affairs, A. U. 765, A. D. 12, he says: Augustus now advanced in years, ' recommended in a writing Germanicus to the senate, and "the senate to Tiberius. He did not however read the 'writing himself, (not being able,) but Germanicus, as he 'had been wont to do.-But yet he did not lay aside the 'care of the public.'-Under the next year, A. U. 766, A. D. 13, the same historian says: Augustus then acceptedy for the fifth time, though unwillingly, the government of 'the state for ten years, and renewed also the tribunician 'power to Tiberius.' He says also, That Augustus, on account of his great age, (which likewise hindered his 'coming to the senate, except very rarely,) desired he might have twenty annual counsellors.—And a decree was passed, that whatever was enacted in council by him, together ' with Tiberius, and those said counsellors, and the consuls in being, and the consuls elect, and his grandsons adopted by him, and any others, whom he should call to his council, should be ratified, and deemed of the same authority, as if enacted by the authority of the whole senate.' This mention of Tiberius, and of him only by name, in this decree of the senate, next after Augustus, appears to me remarkable. I do not observe, that any of these passages of Dio have been quoted by Pagi; for what reason he omitted them I do not know. He has however insisted upon another passage of this historian, taken from the preceding year, A. U. 764, A. D. 11; but his argument from it seems to me to be founded upon a forced and arbitrary construction of Dio; and therefore I content myself with referring the reader for it to him, and Mr. Le Clerc, who also lays a stress upon it. a C b Once more, Dio says, That upon the death of Augustus, 'Tiberius immediately sent away letters from Nola to the vocatum, experiendo didicisse, quam arduum-regendi cuncta onus. Ibid. cap. 11. * Ο δε δη Αυγετος εκείνον τε, ὡς και επι γηρως ων, τη βέλη, και ταυτην τη Τιβεριῳ παρακατέθετο ανεγνω δε το βιβλίον εκ αυτος (= γαρ οίος τε ην γεγωνισκειν) αλλ' ὁ Γερμανικός, ώσπερ ειωθει μεντοι και ταλλα ήττον τι παρα τετο διωκει. Dio. I. Ivi. p. 587. Β. C. * Την τε προςασίαν των κοινών την δεκέτιν, την πεμπτην ακων δη ὁ Αύγετος έλαβε, και την Τιβεριῳ την εξεσίαν την δημαρχικήν αυθις εδωκε. Ib. p. 588. Β. * Και συμβελες, ύπο το γηρως (ὑφ' ούπερ εδε ες το βελευτήριον ετι, πλην σπανιώτατα, συνεφοιτα) εικοσιν ετησίως ητησατο -και προσεψηφισθη, πανθ' όσα αν αυτῷ μετα τε το Τιβέριο και μετ' εκείνων, των τε αει ὑπατευόντων, και των ες τετο αποδεδειγμένων των τε εγγόνων αυτό των ποιητων δηλονότι, των τε αλλων όσως αν έκαςοτε προσπαραλαβη, βελευομένῳ δοξη, κυρία, ως και παση τη γερεσία αρέσαντα, ειναι. Ib. C. D. a A, C. 11. n. 13, 14, 15. · Τοιουτος ουν δη τις ων, ες τε τα τρατοπεδα Ubi supra. |
