those, who are called his adeλpal, were living without her at Nazareth. And it is in unison with this distinctness that, John ii. 12. though our Lord, his mother, and his brethren, are all said to have gone down to Capernaum, his sisters are not. Mary the wife of Cleopas, and her husband, might possibly be inhabitants of Nazareth: the latter in particular, if he was a kinsman of Joseph, might even be a native of it. His wife, on the contrary, before her marriage with him, might have been a native, or an inhabitant, of Cana; and that might be the reason why, though Cleopas lived at Nazareth, their marriage was celebrated there. It was the custom of the Jews to celebrate a marriage among, and with, rather the friends of the female, than those of the male. DISSERTATION IV. On the visit of the Magi. OF the questions connected with this visit, and properly concerning a Harmony-the time of the appearance of the star-and the time of the arrival of the Magi-the latter is to be determined principally by the help of the former: with respect to which, it is possible to establish a maximum—that is, to shew before what time the star could not have appeared-if not a minimum; or the very time when it actually appeared. In order to this, we must reason as follows. When the Magi were come to Jerusalem, Herod, having privately sent for them, ἠκρίβωσε παρ' αὐτῶν τὸν χρόνον τοῦ φαινομένου ἀστέρος α; the answer to which enquiry would ascertain this time, or shew how long before their arrival the star had first been seen. Upon this information he proceeded in limiting the age of the children: it was, xaтà tòv χρόνον ὃν ἠκρίβωσε παρὰ τῶν Μάγων. The age of the children, therefore, had a certain relation to what we may call the age of the star; and, if the former could once be determined in either of its extreme limits, the latter would so far be determined also. St. Matthew has defined this age by anò diéтous xaì xatwτέρω. Tép. The order was limited to children of two years old and under; that is, it was limited at one extreme, but not at the other; a child above two years old would be exempted from it, a child of two years old, or of any age less than that, would be included in it. Now it was a maxim among the Jews, that the son of a day was the son of a year: Unus dies in anno habetur pro anno integro. The age of puberty is reckoned in a male, at thirteen years and a day, and in a female, at twelve years and a dayd: a ram, or any other animal, was considered bimus, or two years Matt. ii. 7. h Ibid. 16. Mutat. Annot. i. 8. cii. 16. d Maim. De Best. Consec. old, which was one year and thirty days old, or thirteen months old in alle. On this principle a child of thirteen months old would answer to the limit anò dérous, as well as a child of full two years. And when it is considered that the phrase anò diétous is used here, to fix the beginning of a scale of descent, and as understood in its most general, or in its most particular sense, would vary at least to the extent of ten months, it will appear only reasonable to conclude that the first age which, in the popular mode of reckoning, would correspond to the limit prescribed, must have been the age primarily and properly intended. Now this would be the age of thirteen months. Nor is the testimony of Macrobius, while it confirms the material fact, at variance with such a limitation. Cum audisset (Augustus) inter pueros, quos in Syria Herodes, rex Judæorum, intra bimatum jussit interfici, filium quoque ejus occisum, ait, Melius est Herodis porcum esse (ròv v) quam filiumf (ròv vióv.) This expression, intra bimatum, is exactly equivalent to St. Matthew's ἀπὸ διέτους καὶ κατωτέρω. If, then, the order respecting the children was strictly framed in accordance to the information obtained about the age of the star, the utmost limit of the age of the one is the utmost limit of the age of the other; that is, if thirteen months was the utmost limit of the age of the children, the star could not have appeared more than thirteen months before the arrival of the Magi, though it might have appeared less. The quarter whence the Magi came is not specified, except in general terms, as somewhere in the cast. Justin Martyr and Tertullian suppose it to have been Arabia; but more, as it will appear on referring to the passages which contain this opinions, to shew the fulfilment of an alleged prophecy, than from any certain knowledge of the fact. From the time of Zoroaster downwards to the age of Christianity itself, the parts beyond the Euphrates-Persia, • De rat. Sacrif. i. 14. f Saturn. ii. 4. Just. Mart. Dial. 304. Bactria, or Parthia-had always been the chief seats of the Magian philosophy. Τὴν μὲν οὖν ἀληθῆ Μαγικὴν, ὀπτικὴν ἐπιστήμην οὖσαν, ἢ τὰ φύσεως ἔργα τρανωτέραις φαντασίαις αὐγάζεται, σεμνὴν καὶ περιμάχητον δοκοῦσαν εἶναι, οὐκ ἰδιῶται μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ βασιλεῖς, καὶ βασιλέων οἱ μέγιστοι, καὶ μάλισθ' οἱ Περσῶν, διαπονοῦσιν οὕτως, ὥστ ̓ οὐδένα φασὶν ἐπὶ βασιλίαν παραληφθῆναι δύναμιν παρ' αὐτοῖς, εἰ μὴ πρότερον τοῦ Μάγων γένους κεκοινηκὼς τυγχάνοι. That the Magi in the present instance came, accordingly, from those regions, which are as much to the east of Judæa, as Arabia, has been uniformly the tradition of the Churchi. Theophylact, in loco, observes upon the star; ̓Αλλὰ καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ βορείου μέρους, ὅ ἐστι τῆς Περσίδος, εἰς τὸ νότιον ἐκινεῖτο. But, if this was the case, the length of their journey, or the time for which they would be on the road, may presumptively be determined. I. By Herodotus, a day's journey on foot is computed at 150 stades, and the distance from Sardis to Susa, as exactly a three months' journeyk. II. Xenophon makes the distance from Ephesus, to Cunaxa in the plain of Babylon, a distance of 535 parasangs, which, on the usual computation of thirty stades to a parasang, and 150 stades, as according to Herodotus, to a day's journey, is a journey of 107 days, or three months, and seventeen days at least1. III. The march from Tarsus in Cilicia to Bactria is computed, in Diodorus Siculus, at four months for an army m. IV. The Jews, from beyond the Euphrates, in their annual visits to Jerusalem, had δυσβάτους, καὶ ἀτριβεῖς, καὶ ἀνηνύτους, ὁδοὺς περαιοῦσθαι ". V. Ἤδη δέ τινες, says Josephus, καὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ Εὐφράτην μηνῶν ὁδὸν τεσσάρων ἐλθόντες. h Philo Jud. De Leg. Spec. 792. Vide also, Quod omnis probus liber. 876. Εν Πέρσαις μὲν τὸ Μάγων κ. τ. λ. Plin. Η. Ν. xxx. I. Clem. Alex. Strom. I. 357. Irenæus. iii. 213. iii. xviii. 240. Chrys. ii. 37. Origen. contra Cels. i. 19. Clem. Alex. Strom. i. 359. κ ν. 53. 1 Anab. ii. • Ant. Jud. iii. xv. 3. VI. Tiridates, when he came to Rome, A. U. 819. in the reign of Nero, to receive the investiture of Armenia, had been nine months previously on the road P. Five of these might be taken up in travelling to Italy from Asia Minor 9: the preceding four, therefore, had been taken up in arriving in Asia from Parthia. VII. Nehemiah set out from Susa in the month Nisan ; and in three days' time after his arrival at Jerusalem, he began the rebuilding of the walls, which he had finished in fifty-two days after, by the twenty-fifth of Elul, the sixth month in the sacred year 1. Consequently he could not have been less than three months, and, probably was as much as four, in travelling to Jerusalem *. I think it of so much importance to establish the positions, respecting the days of the week, and other points, formerly discussed in the tenth Dissertation, and its Appendix, volume i. that whatever opportunity for this purpose the course of the subject may present ought not to be let slip. The allusion to the mission of Nehemiah furnishes me with one among others, of which I shall avail myself accordingly. The year of the mission of Nehemiah I assume as B. C. 444. In the year after that, B. C. 443. according to Pingré, the moon was eclipsed for the meridian of Jerusalem, April 4. 7. 57. in the evening. Add to this time ten days, twenty-one hours of mean time; and B. C. 444. the moon must have been at the full, April 15. 4. 57. in the evening. Let this date coincide in that year with the fifteenth of the Jewish Nisan. Between April 15. B. C. 444. inclusive, and April 15. A. D. 1. exclusive, the interval of time, estimated by tropical days and nights, amounts to 162, 167 days, fourteen hours; or 23, 166 weeks, and what may be considered six days of another week. Now A. D. 1. the tables exhibit April 15. on Friday; which I should consider to be on Sunday. And this would be the case, if B. C. 444. April 15. had been Monday: for then A. D. 1. April 9. would be Monday, and April 15. Sunday. I assume, then, that B. C. 444. Nisan 15. coincided with Monday. Nehemiah vi. 15. the wall of Jerusalem was finished in fifty |