Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/558

* TTEW TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY. -484 NEW TESTAMENT CHRONOLOGY. VI tliat Luke has made a mistake in naming Qui- rinius instead of Saturninus as the (Jovernov of Syria at the time. Tliiis botli Luke and Matthew agree to the etVect that the Nativity took |)hioe about B.C. 7 or A.r.c. 747. It would seem that further aid might be derived from Luke iii. 1-3 and -23. whieh verses apparently state that Josus was thirty years of age in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Civsar. But this is not the case. Wc are uncertain ( 1 ) from what date Luke reckoned the reign of TiUuius; (2) how nuicU latitude is to be allowed to the expression "about thirty years;" and (3) how dose the connection is between v. 23 and vv. 1-3. For these reasons we must be content with the result stated above, and date the Nativity about n.c. 7. There are no data for determining the month and day of the birth of .Tesus. Ancient tradition wavered between two dates, .Jaiuuuy Cth and December 25th, each of which seems to have been the result of calculation, not based on trustworthy tradition. (2) The Dale of Jesus' linptism. — From Luke we learn that .lohn the Baptist took up his work in the lifteentli year of Tiberius. Such, at least, seems to be the meaning of Luke iii. 1-3. "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tibe- rius CiESar . . . the word of God came unto John ... in the wilderness." If Luke reckoned the reign of Tiberius from the death of Augustus, the year August a.d. 2S-August A.u. 2!) would be the" year intended. If he counted from A.I). 12, when Tiberius was associated with Augustus, as the first year, then A.D. 20-27 would be the year indicated. Accordingly, the baptism of .Jesus was either in A.u. 27 or in A.n. 29. In the Gospel of .Tohn we have a datiun which enables us to decide between these two dates. In John ii. 20, at the time of .lesus' first public appearance in .Jerusalem, which was not long after the beginning of His public ministry, there is the statement that the Temple had been. at the time, forty-six years in the process of construction. Since the reconstruction of the Temple was begun bv Herod in B.C. 20-10. the baptism of .resus could not have been later than ^^ ^j^^ ^^^^^ Gospels (ilark vi. 30 and parallels) A.n. 27. Early in the .vear A.i.. 27 seems, then, ^,^j^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^p,,^ ^.^,.^ proliable. For sucl the most probable date for this event. (3) The Duration of the Minifttrt/. — The first 1-4, .Jesus is again in Galilee at the time of a Passover, vii. 2 s(|(i., .lesus goes to Jerusalem to a Feast of Tabernacles. After this there is no mention of a return to Galilee. X. 22, Jesus is in Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedication; thence He retires beyond Jordan. While here He is called to Betliany by the (loath of Lazarus. He then goes to Ephraim in Judea. xii. 1. six days before the (last) Passover Jesus arrives at Bethany. Two of these data are somewhat uncertain. The reference in iv. 3.5 to the "^mr months, and then Cometh the harvest," may indicate the actual season of the year when the words were spoken. In that case .Jesus must have passed through Samaria in December or January after His first Passover (John ii. 13 sqq.). If the first Passover was that of a.d. 27, the events narrated in chap. iv. took place in Deceml)er, A.D. 27, or in January. A.D. 28. But it is pos'^ible that the statement in iv. 3.5 may have been a mere inoverbial expression used by .Jesus to point a lesson. In that case it has no chronological significance, and the journey through Samaria niav have taken place in May, a.d. 27. The un- named feast of v. 1 ("After these things there was a feast of the .Jews, and .Jesus went up to Jerusalem") introduces the greatest element of uncertainty. The main question is whether it was a Passover. If it was, then John's Gospel gives us four Passovers in Jesus' public min- istry. There are two weighty reasons against taking the reference in this sense. First, John's 1ISUS loquendi would lead us to expect him to have expressly stated that it was a Passover, if such had been the case. Second, a Passover is expressly indicated in the next chapter (.John vi. 1-4). If v. 1 refers to a Passover, we have not only a whole year passed over in complete silence by John, but we also have two wliole years and more of active public ministry to place before the Passover of .lohn vi. Since the narrative of John at this jilace meets that three Gosjiels give us only the vaguest hints as to the length of the Lord's public ministry, llicy b<'gin their narrative of His public life with His work in (iaiilee after the im|)risonnient of John the Baptist. But Mark i. 14 ("Now after f hat John was delivered up. .Tesus came into Galilee") seems to imply that some time elapsed between the Temptation and .John's imprisonment. This gap is partially filled by the Gospel of .John, which also gives a well-ordered arrangement of the events of the ministry narrated by it. lis data are as follows: ii. 13 sqq., Jesus in Jerusalem at a Passover. after His baptism and a brief sojourn in (ialilee. iii. 23 sqq.. a brir'f sojourn, length not stated, in Jiidea. l>efore .lohn was impri-oned. iv. 1-35. .Tesus retires into Galilee. On the way. in Samaria, He says to His disciples. "Do ye not say that there are yet four months and the hardest conies?" v. 1, .Tesus goes up to Jerusalem to attend a feast (unnamed). uch reasons it seems better to take .John v. 1 as referring to some minor feast between the two Passovers of ii. 13 sqq. and vi. 1-4. The evi- dence of the Gospel of John, then, is to the elTect that there were three Passovers in the public ministry of Our I-«rd, those of the years A.D. 27, 28. and 29. (4) The Bute of the Crucifixion.— AW the Gosjiels agree that the day of the week wa.s Friday. It is a question whether this Friday was the Passover day or the day after the Pass- over. Since the Passover always came on the fourteenth day of the .Jewish [lunar] numth Nisan. the question is. Was .lesus crucified on the 14th or on the 15th of Nisan? On this )H>iiit the evidence of the CJospels appears con- trailictory. The Synoptic Gos]>els positively state that Jesiis ate his last supper with His disci- ples on the Passover evening, i.e. on the 14th of Nisan. and that He was crucified on the next or 15th day. But the Gosp<d of .John in several passages, xiii. 1-2. x'iii. 28. xix. 13 and 31, appears to place the Crucifixion on the Passover day. Of the references noted, xyiii. 28, "they themselves [the Jews] entered not into