from being associated with Augustus in the Empire A.D. 12 (not from 19 Aug. A.D. 14, when Augustus died), agreeably to what Suetonius and Dio inform us; according to Pagi and Mr. Mann, a year sooner, A.D. 11. Whichsoever was the year, it may be questioned with Bucherius, whether he was invested in more than a partnership of the Imperial provinces with Augustus. But it is certain none of the Antients have ever dated the commencement of his reign from that year. Usher alleges, that during the life of Augustus he is styled Princeps by Suetonius and Pliny *. But Noris has fully shewn that this appellation, in the passages cited, is given to Tiberius, speaking of him after the death of Augustus. Pagi, in support of his æra, cites Sulpitius Severus, who, by placing the Passion in the Consulship of the two Gemini, and at the same time in the eighteenth of Tiberius, carries back the commencement of his reign to A.D. 11. But Tillemont observes §, that the Historian speaks of Herodes Antipas, whom Pagi has mistaken for Tiberius. What Pagi|| farther urges from Clemens Alexandrinus, deserves no consideration. That Father, in shewing how many years it was from Julius Cæsar to Commodus, enumerates the years which each Emperor reigned. Now to reckon in that number of years which Tiberius jointly reigned with Augustus, is not to his purpose, and confounds the account. And yet Pagi presses into his service a corrupted passage of this author, mentioning the limits of Tiberius's reign in these terms: "Afterwards Tiberius reigned 26 years 6 months and 19 days. Which should be read, says he, 25 years; but the number of "months and days is right, though the years are wrong; which shews us "that the association was made Aug. 28." But, with nearly as little variation, and as the scope of the writer would direct, we should read 22 years 6 months and 29 days, the time Tiberius reigned from the death of Augustus. To say then that St. Luke has made use of an æra of which. no example is produced, is begging the question, instead of supporting it by authority; without which it is surprising it should remain in our Bibles to this day.

* Suetonius' Tiberius, c. 42; Pliny's Natural History, xiv. c. 22.

↑ Dissertation H. xvii. 512, 513.

Historia, l. ii.

§ Mem. des Empereurs, sur August. not. IV. p. 393, 12mo.

Critica in Baron. c. xi. p. 10 et 30.

To dispatch things of a similar nature, I would just observe, that the nativity of Christ is pretty plainly fixed between September 2, U. C. Var. 747 and 748 (before Christ 7); if we may credit Tertullian, who says, it was while Saturninus was præfect of Syria. Varus succeeded him, as appears from Josephus, Ant. xxii. 5, 2; and from coins that year, which testify, one of them, that Varus was præfect of Syria in the 23d year, the other in the 26th, from the battle of Actium, which happened Sept. 2, U. C. Var. 723. The 23d year of Varus being but just begun; 22 complete years, added to 723, bring us to U. C. Var. 745*; and 25 complete years, added to 723, bring us to 748.

What season of the year, cannot now be determined; it was afterwards. fixed to the reputed Winter solstice, a time of great festivity among the heathen world for above 390 years before Christ.

It is somewhat remarkable that two very learned men, Mr. Mann and Mr. Reynolds, lately undertook, independently of each other, to examine this question, the former in A. D. 1733, the latter in 1758; and both by very plausible arguments brought it to the same year. They both agree to a year in fixing one previous point, the death of Herod the Great, which was determined by the Eclipse of the Moon happening in his last sickness, mentioned by Josephus, which fell on March 13, U. C. Var. 750. Mr. Reynolds, with Usher, thinks it was VIII months afterwards, on the 7th of Kisleu, or our Nov. 28, at which time the Jews kept a traditionary feast in memory of him: Mr. Mann, about March 21, nine or ten days after the Eclipse. Both happy, as they thought, in a coin of Mons. Rigord, cited by Tillemont, vol. I. p. 707, of Herodes Antipas, inscribed on the obverse HPQAHC TETPAPXHC LMг. i. e. Anno XLIII. Reckoning from U.C. Var. 750, the year of his succeeding to the throne, his XLII year ended 7 Kisleu, or November 793. But he was banished by Caius in the August before. True, says Mr. Reynolds; but the Jews, by reckoning

* See J. Reynolds, Census habitus nascente Christo, c. 5, p. 31, Oxon. 1728; from Noris, Ep. Syromac. p. 247, 4to, and from Vaillant.

+ Denominated by the Jutes, Saxons, and the other Northern nations, OL, GEOL, Yule, which Dr. Hickes, Diss. Ep. p. 184, has discovered was a feast on Barley wine. From the same original with Barley we retain BARN and BEER to this day; and from Ol or Yule, ALE. But neither he nor any of our Antiquaries have observed, that the original is preserved in the Greek Oval, Barley, whence Ovλoxútaι, Hom. Il. A. 449, and in other places, molæ salsa, cakes made of barley. This I mention as an instance, among many, which the late Mr. William Clarke hath shewn, of the near alliance of the Greek with the Saxon. Ant. xviii. 8, 1; B. Jud. ii. 1.

each king's reign from the Nisan which preceded his taking possession of the throne for a whole year, make his reign to have begun from Nisan 749*. So that the second year of Antipas began from November 750, the third from November 751; and so on. Mr. Mann, in the common way, looks upon it as a proof that Herod died in March preceding.—Unhappily for Mr. Reynolds, one coin more destroys his calculation, cited by Monsieur Vaillant, mentioning LMA, Anno XLIV. If he succeeded his father in March 750, he entered on his XLIVth year in March U. C. Var. 793, which, for want of this proof, Noris likewise, following Usher, was at a loss to apprehend.

However, both agree that there are circumstances enough in Christ's infancy to fill up the intermediate space between A. U. Var. 747 and 750. The Holy Family go from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to the Purification; return from thence to Nazareth, their usual dwelling-place; from thence again to Bethlehem before the Magi paid their adoration. After which, they immediately fled to Egypt. Christ was probably one or two years old when the Magi arrived. When Christ was carried into Egypt, and the Star and the Magi had disappeared, Herod slew all the children under two years. How long Christ staid in Egypt is uncertain; but there was a tradition, believed by Epiphanius, that it was two years. If it was somewhat less, it will bring us to A. U. C. Var. 747, the chronology fixed upon by the coin of Varus.

The learned Author§ of A Critical Examination of the Holy Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. Luke, with regard to the History of the Birth and Infancy of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1738, 4to, maintains both the eclipse and the coins to be spurious, and endeavours to confute the other historical arguments brought by Cardinal Noris and others; which I must leave to the Reader's examination.

* So Noris has shewn the people of Laodicea reckoned: Vignolius, that Herodian in his History, De Anno Primo Imp. Severi Alexandri; and Bishop Sherlock, that Ptolemy in his Canon, reckons in the same manner, Trial of the Witnesses, p. 48. But Jackson, Chronology, vol. I. pp. 438, 451, observes, that by this rule he could not have omitted Galba, Otho, and Vitellius; in whom, except Otho, there was a Thoth. The rule, therefore, in that canon seems to have been, to leave out all the reigns which consist of months only. But no one rule will hold throughout; and yet it is said, to have been a constant method: see Prideaux, vol. I. b. viii. ed. fol. p. 411, Ann. 321, and Lancaster, Chron. Essay, p. 153.

+ Mem. de Literature tirez de l'Academie Royale, tom. IV. p. 197, 12mo. See Reynolds, p. 116, part 4. Mann, p. 40, Engl.

Charles Hayes, Esq. some time sub-governor of the African Company.

It is time for me to withdraw my disabled hand, and to ask pardon of those learned Friends whose collections I have purloined. That is the least injury I have done them: I have so unconscionably used the liberty indulged me by one of them*, that to him I can make no apology, though I need one to my Readers, for not making greater use of that indulgence. My imperfections they will impute to age, and the consequent infirmities of it. Torpid with the Palsy, and only quickened by a painful vicissitude of the Stone, I feel the worse side of Humanity: they will have the pleasure of exercising the better side, even of forgiving, which approaches nearest to Divinity.

W. BOWYER, 1772.

* Mr. MARKLAND, whose notes were pointed out in the Octavo Edition of 1772 by the signature R; and to whose learned labours the Reader, as well as the Editor, is now under still farther obligations. J. N.

+ The following liberal remarks were made on this work by a respectable Critick: “Ju"dicious attempts to elucidate and explain any parts of the Sacred Writings are always worthy of commendation; as are likewise the endeavours which are used to facilitate this kind "of enquiries, and to render more general an acquaintance with those remarks and disco"veries which have been already made. It is in the latter view that the present volume "claims any merit; since it is, as the title expresses, a collection, from several writers, of "the different readings, or pointings, of particular passages, together with alterations and " emendations which they have proposed. Critical enquiries of this kind have, no doubt, "been productive of very considerable advantages: yet it must be confessed that there are "instances in which we are pleased with the ingenuity of the criticism, without obtaining "any real satisfaction as to the meaning of the text in question; and mere conjectures, "though attended with a degree of probability, sometimes serve but to increase our doubts "and perplexity. It may, however, be curious to observe the different methods of lessening " or removing a difficulty; and certainly it is an important and a pleasing consideration to "those who value the Scriptures that, notwithstanding the various readings of manuscripts "and versions, with the errors of transcribers, &c. yet the meaning and sense of the "writings of the New Testament (to which our Author confines himself) is not commonly "affected by them in any essential or material degree.".... ...." He has not, we think, "thrown his materials together in quite so exact and agreeable a manner as, with some "farther attention, he possibly would have done: but his work has its value, and may be "very serviceable to many who have not larger productions at hand, or leisure for consulting "them: farther, as it presents several observations upon the same passages of Scripture at "one view, it may prove useful and entertaining to all who apply themselves to this kind of "study." Monthly Review, vol. XLVI. pp. 555,.558.

MR.