"istry of Jesus began about six months before a Passover, " and that he was crucified at the fourth Passover from his bap"tism. During that interval, the Passover, the Pentecost, and "the Feast of Tabernacles, each occurred thrice; and besides "these nine national festivals, the Feast of Dedication was "thrice celebrated. Now we are not informed that our Lord 66 was present at more than three of the national festivals, be"sides the Passover at which he was crucified; and, admit"ting that the Passover spoken of in John vi. 4. was not the "last Passover, there are still, on the common hypothesis, five "national festivals, which are not noticed in the Gospels."Attention, then, to the order and number of the Jewish festi"vals, materially increases the presumption in favor of the "ancient opinion, respecting the duration of our Lord's min"istry; it also furnishes us with the means of ascertaining, "with some degree of precision, the dates of several of the "leading facts."*

7. The prejudices of the apostles would hardly have continued so strong, if they had received the instructions of Christ for three years. 8. The high priesthood was an annual office: the passover was the time of making a new high priest. Luke tells us that Annas and Caiaphas were high priests during the fifteenth year of Tiberius, which beginning in August would include parts of two paschal years, which commenced in March or April. But Caiaphas was high priest when Jesus was crucified. This will well accord with the supposition that there were but two passovers in the ministry. Previous to the first of them Annas was high priest, and Caiaphas succeeded him and continued to the second. 9. There are several series of events noticed by the Evangelists as occupying small spaces of time, during which our Saviour must have been exceedingly active; as a week or two before the crucifixion. A few months thus pp. 75, 76.

spent would be sufficient time for all the events recorded in the gospels. And as our Lord went about doing good, and as his good actions excited much odium, as he necessarily opposed the prejudices of the Jews, and excited the ill will and anger of their rulers, it is inconceivable that he could have been suffered to pass three years in his ministry. A series of miracles like those of Christ, must in a shorter period than this have excited great commotion throughout the Jewish nation, and either have made all acknowledge him as the Messiah, or so embittered his enemies as to have produced his destruction. So long a display of his power could not we think have been made consistently with the ends of our Saviour's advent ; and it is more honorable to him to suppose, that his important purposes were obtained by active exertions during a short period.

Dr. Carpenter is very concise in the statement of the principles of his arrangement :

"An elementary work," he says, "would be thought an "improper place for the full discussion of the grounds of the 66 arrangement; but a brief statement of them may not be use"less to the thoughtful, inquiring pupil; and, till a reference "can be made to a detailed view of the principles of the hy"pothesis here advanced, and the arguments in its favor, it "seems requisite in justice to the author."*

We wish very much that he may explain and defend his new system at large; we must be grateful to him for what he has done in this book; but we fear that the subject is too perplexed and difficult to permit many, except studious theologians, to appreciate his merits or detect his errors, from a statement so short as necessarily not to be very lucid. We have not therefore at all confined ourselves to Dr. Carpenter's arguments, but have principally taken our arguments from Dr. Priestley.

It has been perceived, that there are two questions with respect to a harmony, which are themselves distinct, although their results are connected: viz. the duration of the ministry; and the order of events. The question, which of the Evangelists wrote in chronological order, is of importance to each. On the first of these questions, we have given our opinion, and after the decision of this, the difficulties with respect to the other are not very great; and differences of opinion are not very material among those who agree as to the duration of the ministry. But a statement of these differences, and a defence of any particular opinions, would require too minute a detail to be here admitted. We shall confine ourselves to a general account of Dr. Carpenter's arrangement.

Dr. Carpenter supposes the baptism of Christ to have taken place on the sixth of January, A. D. 28.* The time between the twenty third of May and the twenty fourth of September, he supposes to have been passed in retirement.

"Accustomed to suppose the whole of our Lord's minis"try, however long its duration, constantly and publicly oc"cupied in prosecuting the objects of it, we are at first una"ble to admit the possibility of such an employment of so

large a proportion of it. The considerations advanced in § "7. however seem to present greater difficulties on any oppo"sing hypothesis, and those here felt are lessened by the fol"lowing statements. 1. The leading Jews had already "sought the life of Jesus; hence he could not continue open❝ly in Judæa. (John vii. 1.) 2. In all probability, Herod was " in Galilee during the time of which we are speaking: if so, "the way was not clear, and Jesus was not to expose himself

1

• The year from which our æra commerces, and the year in which Christ was born, are not the same, on account of some error in the fixing the date of the birth of our Saviour. St. Luke says, that Christ was about thirty years old when he was baptized

แ

"to danger needlessly. 3. It seems that Jesus was not pub❝licly known during the time of John, (Matt. xiv. 2. xvi. 14.) "and that he waited till the ministry of his forerunner was fi"nally closed before he fully exercised his own, (see Matt. iv. "17.) 4. We need not suppose that our Lord, though in re"tirement, was unemployed. The words in John vii. 3, 7. 66 seem to refer to actions and discourses, which were not "much known. 5. There are other intervals of whose em"ployment we know little or nothing; the forty days in the "Desart; the abode at Bethabara, and near Ephraim, &c. "(John x. xi.) 6. The difficulty presses equally, if not more "heavily, on hypotheses already proposed. Long intervals ne❝cessarily occur in every arrangement formed upon the hy"pothesis of the long duration of our Lord's ministry ;—and ❝even in Dr. Priestley's arrangement, we find several of the "later months unoccupied; as will be obvious to any one "who inspects his Calendar, or Mr. Field's, which is formed

upon it: a very large proportion of the time from the be"ginning of August A. D. 28. to the beginning of March A. "D. 29. has no assigned employment. Either Dr. Priestley's "arrangement or that here advanced, seems preferable to any "that have been formed on the less ancient opinion as to the "length of our Lord's ministry; but the former is burdened "with no inconsiderable difficulties, independent of that men❝tioned in § 3. Whether the latter lies under equal pres"sure must be left to the judgment of others; but two of "those difficulties may be briefly stated:-the fact related in "Mark ix. 30, 31. is placed by Dr. Priestley in July, and that "related in Luke ix. 51. in September, where in one case on❝ly six months had passed out of the eleven between the be"ginning of our Lord's public preaching in Galilee, and his "crucifixion, and in the other only about three months :-and "that portion of his ministry, which we should à priori expect

"to be most occupied, and most dwelt upon by his historians, "has comparatively little employment assigned to it."*

The period of four months before mentioned, of which we have no account, Dr. Carpenter places between the eleventh and twelfth verses of the fourth chapter of Matthew. Indeed he considers seven months to have elapsed after the temptation, before the commencement of the public preaching in Galilee. Some of the events of this interval are related by the other Evangelists. It should be observed in justice to Dr. Carpenter, that between the same verses-the eleventh and twelfth of Matthew, Archbishop Newcome supposes an interval of a year, Macknight of six months, and Dr. Priestley of one month. It is necessary even upon the supposition of the short duration of the ministry, to suppose some considerable periods of time of which there is no account. If this is a difficulty when the ministry is thought to have continued but little more than one year, how much more does it press upon the other hypotheses? Dr. Priestley indeed supposes the interval in this place to have been but one month; but in the months from the beginning of August to the end of February of the next year, he places but very few events. He supposes as long intervals as Dr. Carpenter, but at times much less probable-at the close of the ministry.

4

Dr. Carpenter arranges the events in seven divisions. The first is from the Baptism, January sixth, to the miracle at Cana, which was about the twenty ninth of February. The second comprehends all the events to the commencement of the public preaching in Galilee, October sixth. In this division he includes the first passover, March thirtieth; the walk through the corn fields, April seventeenth; the pentecost, May twentieth; the imprisonment of the Baptist, some time in September; the feast of Tabernacles, September twenty fourth. The third division goes to the mission of the twelve, pp. 80-82