Page:Chronologies and calendars (IA chronologiescale00macdrich).pdf/44

 yet be said to have been brought within the province of reasonable certitude, is the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, together with the dates of such epistle as may be referred to in the history therein contained. The pious student will fondly seek to attach a distinct date to each of the events recorded in the Gospels, but it is not a help but a hindrance to intelligent study to hold out the idea that this has yet been done.'

45. But coming down to the most recent trend of chronological and theological opinion, there is one point which should be mentioned. It is the date of the Quirinus Taxation. Wycliffe reads thus: 'And it was don in the daies a maundement went out fro the Emperor August that al the world schulde be discryued. This firste discryuing was maad of Cyryn, iustice of Sirie.'

46. This statement, which is perplexing (seeing Cyrenius or Quirinus was not appointed 'Justice' or Governor of Syria till a decade after the Advent), has been made even more perplexing by the wording of the R.T., which is, 'This was the first enrolment made when Quirinus was Govemor of Syria.' Nov, it only remains to note that this sentence leaves the date in question still beclouded. But it can hardly be a matter for wonder to find the revisers fighting shy of a praetorian dictum when one of the deepest thinkers upon Biblical enquiries has affixed to the verses the opinion that they revealed only 'chronological incon-