THE times of the Birth and Passion of Christ, with such like niceties, being not material to religion, were little regarded by the Christians of the first age. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the cardinal periods of the year; as the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, on the 25th of March, which when Julius Caesar corrected the Calendar was the vernal Equinox; the feast of John Baptist on the 24th of June, which was the summer Solstice; the feast of St. Michael on Sept. 29, which was the autumnal Equinox, and the birth of Christ on the winter Solstice, Decemb. 25, with the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John and the Innocents, as near it as they could place them. And because the Solstice in time removed from the 25th of December to the 24th, the 23d, the 22d, and so on backwards, hence some in the following centuries placed the birth of Christ on Decemb. 23, and at length on Decemb. 20: [145] and for the same reason they seem to have set the feast of St. Thomas on Decemb. 21, and that of St. Matthew on Sept. 21. So also at the entrance of the Sun into all the signs in the Julian Calendar, they placed the days of other Saints; as the conversion of Paul on Jan. 25, when the Sun entred [**symbol**];^ⁱ St. Matthias on Feb. 25, when he entred [**symbol**];^ⁱⁱ St. Mark on Apr. 25, when he entred [**symbol**];^ⁱⁱⁱ Corpus Christi on May 26, when he entred [**symbol**];^{^iv} St. James on July 25, when he entred [**symbol**];^{^v} St. Bartholomew on Aug. 24, when he entred [**symbol**];^{^vi} Simon and Jude on Octob. 28, when he entred [**symbol**]:^{^vii} and if there were any other remarkable days in the Julian Calendar, they placed the Saints upon them, as St. Barnabas on June 11, where Ovid seems to place the feast of Vesta and Fortuna, and the goddess Matuta; and St. Philip and James on the first of May, a day dedicated both to the Bona Dea, or Magna Mater, and to the goddess Flora, and still celebrated with her rites. All which shews that these days were fixed in the first Christian Calendars by Mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in tradition; and that the Christians afterwards took up with what they found in the Calendars.

Neither was there any certain tradition about the years of Christ. For the Christians who first began to inquire into these things, as [146] Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Lactantius, Jerome, St. Austin, Sulpicius Severus, Prosper, and as many as place the death of Christ in the 15th or 16th year of Tiberius, make Christ to have preached but one year, or at most but two. At length Eusebius discovered four successive Passovers in the Gospel of John, and thereupon set on foot an opinion that he preacht three years and an half; and so died in the 19th year of Tiberius. Others afterwards, finding the opinion that he died in the Equinox Mar. 25, more consonant to the times of the Jewish Passover, in the 17th and 20th years, have placed his death in one of those two years. Neither is there any greater certainty in the opinions about the time of his birth. The first Christians placed his baptism near the beginning of the 15th year of Tiberius; and thence reckoning thirty years backwards, placed his birth in the 43d Julian year, the 42d of Augustus and 28th of the Actiac victory. This was the opinion which obtained in the first ages till Dionysius Exiguus, placing the baptism of Christ in the 16th year of Tiberius, and misinterpreting the text of Luke iii. 23. as if Jesus was only beginning to be 30 years old when he was baptized, invented the vulgar account, in which his birth is placed two years later than before. As therefore relating to these [147] things there is no tradition worth considering; let us lay aside all and examine what prejudices can be gathered from records of good account.

The fifteenth year of Tiberius began Aug. 28, An. J. P. 4727. So soon as the winter was over, and the weather became warm enough, we may reckon that John began to baptize; and that before next winter his fame went abroad, and all the people came to his baptism, and Jesus among the rest. Whence the first Passover after his baptism mentioned John ii. 13. was in the 16th year of Tiberius. After this feast Jesus came into the land of Judea, and staid there baptizing, whilst John was baptizing in Aenon, John iii. 22, 23. But when he heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee, Mat. iii. 12.^{^viii} being afraid because the Pharisees had heard that he baptized more disciples than John, John iv. 1. and in his journey he passed thro’ Samaria four months before the harvest, John iv. 35. that is, about the time of the winter Solstice. For their harvest was between Easter and Whitsunday, and began about a month after the vernal Equinox. Say not ye, saith he, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest; [148] meaning, that the people in the fields were ready for the Gospel, as his next words shew ^a^{^ix}. John [149] therefore was imprisoned about November, in the 17th year of Tiberius; and Christ thereupon [150] went from Judea to Cana of Galilee in December, and was received there of the Galileans, who had seen all he did at Jerusalem at the Passover: and when a Nobleman of Capernaum heard he was returned into Galilee, and went to him and desired him to come and cure his son, he went not thither yet, but only said, Go thy way, thy son liveth; and the Nobleman returned and found it so, and believed, he and his house, John iv. This is the beginning of his miracles in Galilee; and thus far John is full and distinct in relating the actions of his first year, omitted by the other Evangelists. The rest of his history is from this time related more fully by the other Evangelists than by John; for what they relate he omits.

All this time Matthew passeth over in few words, and here begins to relate the preaching and miracles of Christ. When Jesus, saith he, had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt at Capernaum, and from that time began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, Matth. iv. 12. Afterwards he called his disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John; and then went about all Galilee, teaching in the Synagogues,——and healing all manner of sickness:——and his fame went thro’out all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people,——and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan, Matth. iv. 18, 25. All this was done before the sermon in the mount: and therefore we may certainly reckon that the second Passover was past before the preaching of that sermon. The multitudes that followed him from Jerusalem and Judea, shew that he had lately been there at the feast. The sermon in the mount was made when great multitudes came to him from all places, and followed him in the open fields; which is an argument of the summer-season: and in this sermon he pointed at the lilies of the field then in the flower before the eyes of his auditors. Consider, saith he, the lilies of the field, how [152] they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven, &c. Matth. vi. 28. So therefore the grass of the field was now in the flower, and by consequence the month of March with the Passover was past.

After this Christ did many miracles, and went about all the cities and villages of Galilee, teaching in their Synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness, and every disease among the people, Matth. ix. he then sent forth the twelve to do the like, Matth. x. and at length when he had received a message from John, and answered it, he said to the multitudes, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; and upbraided the cities, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not, Matth. xi. Which several passages shew, that from the imprisonment of John till now there had been a considerable length of time: the winter was now past, and the next Passover was at hand; for immediately after this, Matthew, in chap. xii. subjoins, that Jesus went on the sabbath-day thro’ the corn, and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat,——rubbing them, saith Luke, in their hands: the corn therefore was not only in the ear, but ripe; and consequently [154] the Passover, in which the first-fruits were always offered before the harvest, was now come or past. Luke calls this sabbath _,*_$@"$4* _, the second prime Sabbath, that is, the second of the two great feasts of the Passover. As we call Easter day high Easter, and its octave low Easter or Lowsunday: so Luke calls the feast on the seventh day of the unleavened bread, the second of the two prime sabbaths.

In one of the sabbaths following he went into a Synagogue, and healed a man with a withered hand, Matth. xii. 9. Luke vi. 6. And when the Pharisees took counsel to destroy him, he withdrew himself from thence, and great multitudes followed him; and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known, Matth. xii. 14. Afterwards being in a ship, and the multitude standing on the shore, he spake to them three parables together, taken from the seeds-men sowing the fields, Matth. xiii. by which we may know that it was now seed-time, and by consequence that the feast of Tabernacles was past. After this he went into his own country, and taught them in their Synagogue, but did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Then the twelve having been abroad a year, returned, and told Jesus all that they had done: and at the same time Herod beheaded John [155] in prison, and his disciples came and told Jesus; and when Jesus heard it, he took the twelve and departed thence privately by ship into a desert place belonging to Bethsaida: and the people when they knew it, followed him on foot out of the cities, the winter being now past; and he healed their sick, and in the desert fed them to the number of five thousand men, besides women and children, with only five loaves and two fishes, Matth. xiv. Luke ix. at the doing of which miracle the Passover of the Jews was nigh, John vi. 4. But Jesus went not up to this feast; but after these things walked in Galilee, because the Jews at the Passover before had taken counsel to destroy him, and still sought to kill him, John vii. 1. Henceforward therefore he is found first in the coast of Tyre and Sidon, then by the sea of Galilee, afterwards in the coast of Caesarea Philippi; and lastly at Capernaum, Matth. xv. 21, 29. xvi. 13. xvii. 34.

Between the first and second Passover John and Christ baptized together, till the imprisonment of John, which was four months before the second. Then Christ began to preach, and call his disciples; and after he had instructed them a year, sent them to preach in the cities of the Jews: at the same time John hearing of the fame of Christ, sent to him to know who he was. At the third, the chief Priests began to consult about the death of Christ. A little before the fourth, the twelve after they had preached a year in all the cities, returned to Christ; and at the same time Herod beheaded John in prison, after he had been in prison two years and a quarter: and thereupon Christ fled into the desert for fear of Herod. The fourth Christ went not up to Jerusalem for fear of the Jews, who at the Passover before had consulted his death, and because his time was not yet come. Thenceforward therefore till the feast of Tabernacles he walked in Galilee, and that secretly for fear of Herod: and after the feast of Tabernacles he returned no more into Galilee, but sometimes was at Jerusalem, and sometimes retired beyond Jordan, or to the city Ephraim by the wilderness, till the Passover in which he was betrayed, apprehended, and crucified. [158]

John therefore baptized two summers, and Christ preached three. The first summer John preached to make himself known, in order to give testimony to Christ. Then, after Christ came to his baptism and was made known to him, he baptized another summer, to make Christ known by his testimony; and Christ also baptized the same summer, to make himself the more known: and by reason of John’s testimony there came more to Christ’s baptism than to John’s. The winter following John was imprisoned; and now his course being at an end, Christ entred upon his proper office of preaching in the cities. In the beginning of his preaching he completed the number of the twelve Apostles, and instructed them all the first year in order to send them abroad. Before the end of this year, his fame by his preaching and miracles was so far spread abroad, that the Jews at the Passover following consulted how to kill him. In the second year of his preaching, it being no longer safe for him to converse openly in Judea, he sent the twelve to preach in all their cities: and in the end of the year they returned to him, and told him all they had done. All the last year the twelve continued with him to be instructed more perfectly, in order to their preaching to all nations after his death. And upon the news of John’s [159] death, being afraid of Herod as well as of the Jews, he walked this year more secretly than before; frequenting desarts, and spending the last half of the year in Judea, without the dominions of Herod.

Thus have we in the Gospels of Matthew and John all things told in due order, from the beginning of John’s preaching to the death of Christ, and the years distinguished from one another, by such essential characters that they cannot be mistaken. The second Passover is distinguished from the first, by the interposition of John’s imprisonment. The third is distinguished from the second, by a double character: first, by the interposition of the feast to which Christ went up, Mat. viii. 19. Luke ix. 57. and secondly, by the distance of time from the beginning of Christ’s preaching: for the second was in the beginning of his preaching, and the third so long after, that before it came Christ said, from the days of John the Baptist until now, &c. and upbraided the cities of Galilee for their not repenting at his preaching, and mighty works done in all that time. The fourth is distinguished from the third, by the mission of the twelve from Christ to preach in the cities of Judea in all the interval. The fifth is distinguished from all the former by the twelve’s being returned from preaching, and [160] continuing with Christ during all the interval, between the fourth and fifth, and by the passion and other infallible characters.

I know that Epiphanius tells us, if some interpret his words rightly, that the Jews used a vicious cycle, and thereby anticipated the legal new moons by two days. But this surely he spake not as a witness, for he neither understood Astronomy nor Rabbinical learning, but as arguing from his erroneous hypothesis about the time of the passion. For the Jews did not anticipate, but postpone their months: they thought it lawful to begin their months a day later than the first appearance of the new moon, because the new moon continued for more days than one; but not a day sooner, lest they should celebrate the new moon before there was any. And the Jews still keep a tradition in their books, that the Sanhedrim^{^x} used diligently to define the new moons by sight: sending witnesses into mountainous places, and examining them about the moon’s appearing, and translating the new moon from the day they had agreed on to the day before, as often as witnesses came from distant regions, who had seen it a day sooner than it was seen at Jerusalem. Accordingly Josephus, one of the Jewish [162] Priests who had ministered in the temple, tells us that the Passover was kept on the 14th day of Nisan, according to the moon, when the sun was in Aries [Joseph. Antiq. lib. 3. c. 10.]. This is confirmed also by two instances, recorded by him, which totally overthrow the hypothesis of the Jews using a vicious cycle. For that year in which Jerusalem was taken and destroyed, he saith, the Passover was on the 14th day of the month Xanticus, which according to Josephus is our April; and that five years before, it fell on the 8th day of the same month. Which two instances agree with the course of the moon.

But because the 15th and 21st days of Nisan, and a day or two of Pentecost, and the 10th, 15th, and 22d of Tisri, were always sabbatical days or days of rest, and it was inconvenient on [163] two sabbaths together to be prohibited burying their dead and making ready fresh meat, for in that hot region their meat would be apt in two days to corrupt: to avoid these and such like inconveniences, the Jews postponed their months a day, as often as the first day of the month Tisri, or, which is all one, the third of the month Nisan, was sunday, wednesday or friday: and this rule they called **Heb** Adu, by the letters **Heb**, **Heb**, **Heb**, signifying the numbers 1, 4, 6; that is, the 1st, 4th, and 6th days of the week; which days we call sunday, wednesday and friday. Postponing therefore by this rule the months found above; the 14th day of the month Nisan will fall in the year of Christ 31, on wednesday March 28; in the year 32, on monday Apr. 14 ; in the year 33, on friday Apr. 3; in the year 34, on friday Apr. 23; in the year 35, on wednesday Apr. 13; and in the year 36, on saturday March 31.

Tiberius in the beginning of his reign made Valerius Gratus President of Judea; and after 11 years, substituted Pontius Pilate, who governed 10 years. Then Vitellius, newly made President of Syria, deprived him of his honour, substituting Marcellus, and at length sent him to Rome: but, by reason of delays, Tiberius died before Pilate got thither. In the mean time Vitellius, after he had deposed Pilate, came to Jerusalem in the time of the Passover, to visit that Province as well as others in the beginning of his office; and in the place of Caiaphas, then High Priest, created Jonathas the son of Ananus, or Annas as he is called in scripture. Afterwards, when Vitellius was returned to Antioch, he received letters from Tiberius, to make peace with Artabanus king of the Parthians. At the same time the Alans, by the sollicitation of Tiberius, invaded the kingdom of Artabanus; and his subjects also, by the procurement of Vitellius, soon after rebelled: for Tiberius thought that Artabanus, thus pressed with difficulties, would more readily accept the conditions of peace. Artabanus [165] therefore straightway gathering a greater army, opprest the rebels; and then meeting Vitellius at Euphrates, made a league with the Romans. After this Tiberius commanded Vitellius to make war upon Aretas King of Arabia. He therefore leading his army against Aretas, went together with Herod to Jerusalem, to sacrifice at the publick feast which was then to be celebrated. Where being received honourably, he stayed three days, and in the mean while translated the high Priesthood from Jonathas to his brother Theophilus: and the fourth day, receiving letters of the death of Tiberius, made the people swear allegiance to Caius the new Emperor; and recalling his army, sent them into quarters. All this is related by Josephus Antiq. lib. 18. c. 6, 7. Now Tiberius reigned 22 years and 7 months, and died March 16, in the beginning of the year of Christ 37; and the feast of the Passover fell on April 20 following, that is, 35 days after the death of Tiberius: so that there were about 36 or 38 days, for the news of his death to come from Rome to Vitellius at Jerusalem; which being a convenient time for that message, confirms that the feast which Vitellius and Herod now went up to was the Passover. For had it been the Pentecost, as is usually supposed, Vitellius would have continued three months [166] ignorant of the Emperor’s death: which is not to be supposed. However, the things done between this feast and the Passover which Vitellius was at before, namely, the stirring up a sedition in Parthia, the quieting that sedition, the making a league after that with the Parthians, the sending news of that league to Rome, the receiving new orders from thence to go against the Arabians, and the putting those orders in execution; required much more time than the fifty days between the Passover and Pentecost of the same year: and therefore the Passover which Vitellius first went up to, was in the year before. Therefore Pilate was deposed before the Passover A. C. 36, and by consequence the passion of Christ was before that Passover: for he suffered not under Vitellius, nor under Vitellius and Pilate together, but under Pilate alone.

Now it is observable that the high Priesthood was at this time become an annual office, and the Passover was the time of making a new high Priest. For Gratus the predecessor of Pilate, saith Josephus, made Ismael high Priest after Ananus; and a while after, suppose a year, deposed him, and substituted Eleazar, and a year after Simon, and after another year Caiaphas; and then gave way to Pilate. So Vitellius at one Passover made Jonathas successor to [167] Caiaphas, and at the next Theophilus to Jonathas. Hence Luke tells us, that in the 15th year of Tiberius, Annas and Caiaphas were high Priests, that is, Annas till the Passover, and Caiaphas afterwards. Accordingly John speaks of the high Priesthood as an annual office: for he tells us again and again, in the last year of Christ’s preaching, that Caiaphas was high Priest for that year, John xi. 49, 51. xviii. 13. And the next year Luke tells you, that Annas was high Priest, Acts iv. 6. Theophilus was therefore made high Priest in the first year of Caius, Jonathas in the 22d year of Tiberius, and Caiaphas in the 21st year of the same Emperor: and therefore, allotting a year to each, the Passion, when Annas succeeded Caiaphas, could not be later than the 20th year of Tiberius, A. C. 34.

ix Newton’s note a: I observe, that Christ and his forerunner John in their parabolical discourses were wont to allude to things present. The old Prophets, when they would describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, 1 Sam. xv. from the sabbatic year, Isa. xxxvii. from the vessels of a Potter, Jer. xviii, &c. but also when such fit objects were wanting, they supplied them by their own actions, as by rending a garment, 1 Kings xi. by shooting, 2 Kings xiii. by making bare their body, Isa. xx. by imposing significant names to their sons, Isa. viii. Hos. i. by hiding a girdle in the bank of Euphrates, Jer. xiii. by breaking a potter’s vessel, Jer. xix. by putting on fetters and yokes, Jer. xxvii. by binding a book to a stone, and casting them both into Euphrates, Jer. li. by besieging a painted city, Ezek. iv. by dividing hair into three parts, Ezek. v. by making a chain, Ezek. vii. by carrying out household stuff like a captive and trembling, Ezek. xii. &c. By such kind of types the Prophets loved to speak. And Christ being endued with a nobler prophetic spirit than the rest, excelled also in this kind of speaking, yet so as not to speak by his own actions, that was less grave and decent, but to turn into parables such things as offered themselves. On occasion of the harvest approaching, he admonishes his disciples once and again of the spiritual harvest, John iv. 35. Matth. ix. 37. Seeing the lilies of the field, he admonishes his disciples about gay clothing, Matth. vi. 28. In allusion to the present season of fruits, he admonishes his disciples about knowing men by their fruits, Matth. vii. 16. In the time of the Passover, when trees put forth leaves, he bids his disciples learn a parable from the fig-tree: when its branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh, &c. Matth. xxiv. 32. Luke xxi. 29. The same day, alluding both to the season of the year and to his passion, which was to be two days after, he formed a parable of the time of fruits approaching, and the murdering of the heir, Matth. xxi. 33. Alluding at the same time, both to the money-changers whom he had newly driven out of the Temple, and to his passion at hand; he made a parable of a Noble-man going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, and delivering his goods to his servants, and at his return condemning the slothful servant because he put not his money to the exchangers, Matth. xxv. 14. Luke xix. 12. Being near the Temple where sheep wore kept in folds to be sold for the sacrifices, he spake many things parabolically of sheep, of the shepherd, and of the door of the sheepfold; and discovers that he alluded to the sheepfolds [149] which were to be hired in the market place, by speaking of such folds as a thief could not enter by the door, nor the shepherd himself open, but a porter opened to the shepherd, John x. 1, 3. Being in the mount of Olives, Matth. xxxvi. 30. John xiv. 31. a place so fertile that it could not want vines, he spake many things mystically of the Husbandman, and of the vine and its branches, John xv. Meeting a blind man, he admonished of spiritual blindness, John ix. 39. At the sight of little children, he described once and again the innocence of the elect, Matth. xviii. 2. xix. 13. Knowing that Lazarus was dead and should be raised again, he discoursed of the resurrection and life eternal, John xi. 25, 26. Hearing of the slaughter of some whom Pilate had slain, he admonished of eternal death, Luke xiii. 1. To his fishermen he spake of fishers of men, Matth. iv. 10. and composed another parable about fishes, Matth. xiii. 47. Being by the Temple, he spake of the Temple of his body, John ii. 19. At supper he a parable about the mystical supper to come in the kingdom of heaven, Luke xiv. On occasion of temporal food, he admonished his disciples of spiritual food, and of eating his flesh and drinking his blood mystically, John vi. 27, 53. When his disciples wanted bread, he bade them beware of the leven of the Pharisees, Matth. xvi. 6. Being desired to eat, he answered that he had other meat, John iv. 31. In the great day of the feast of Tabernacles, when the Jews, as their custom was, brought a quantity of waters from the river Shiloah into the Temple, Christ stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, John vii. 37. The next day, in allusion to the servants who by reason of the sabbatical year were newly set free, he said, If ye continue in my word, the truth shall make you free. Which the Jews understanding literally with respect to the present manumission of servants, answered, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, ye shall be made free? John viii. They assert their freedom by a double argument: first, because they were the seed of Abraham, and therefore newly made free, had they been ever in bondage; and then, because they never were in bondage. In the last Passover, when Herod led his army thro’ Judea against Aretas King of Arabia, because Aretas was aggressor and the stronger in military forces, as appeared by the event; Christ alluding to that state of things, composed the parables of a weaker King leading his army against a stronger who made war upon him, Luke xiv. 31 And I doubt not but divers other parables were formed upon other occasions, the history of which we have not.