of its functions, it became a highly plausible conjecture that the precise beginning of our Lord's ministry was the precise termination of John's-or, in other words, that the day of the imprisonment of John, which must have been some determinate day in particular, was the very day, A. U. 780. in the thirteenth of Tiberius Cæsar, on which our Lord ascended into heaven, A. U. 783. in the sixteenth. It has been shewn also" that, whensoever he was imprisoned, it is most likely he was imprisoned some time in the spring. Now, by a reference to the table of Jewish feasts in Dissertation v. of vol. i. the day of Pentecost, A. U. 783. will be seen to have fallen on May 26—and, consequently, ascension-day, ten days before that, fell on May 16. If we are right, then, in the conjecture upon which we are proceeding, May 16. the date of the ascension into heaven, A. U. 783. was also the date of the imprisonment of John, A. U.780. It was the date also of our Lord's arrival in Galilee, and, consequently, of his departure from Sychar. The day of his arrival in Sychar, therefore, was either May 14. or May 13-the former, if the day of his arrival was included in the days of his residence there; the latter, if it was exclusive of them. Now the same table of feasts will shew that the Passover was celebrated A. U. 780. on April 9-and the Paschal feast would expire upon April 16. which coincided with Nisan 21. In this case, if we suppose our Lord to have left Jerusalem upon April 17. or 18. and to have arrived at Sychar on May 13. or 14. the length of the previous residence in Judæa, to the time when he set out for Galilee, might be twenty-six or twenty-seven days, very little less than one month; and in support of this conclusion we may argue further as follows.

I. It is not inconsistent with the fullest import of the terms, in which the Evangelist speaks of its duration, xai Exε diéтpiße V. The same expression occurs w to describe another similar residence in Judæa, of which it is capable of proof that it could not have lasted even so long as a month.

Vol. i. Diss. viii. Appendix. 315.

viii. 22.

W

Vxi. 54.

II. It is adequate to account for the intervening particulars on record; the commencement, continuance, and progress, of the work of baptizing by our Lord's disciplesthe increasing celebrity of his reputation-the comparative decrease of John's-the jealousy, produced by this cause in the disciples of the latter-the attention to the conduct, or the pretensions, of Jesus, beginning to be excited in the Sanhedrim-the expediency, on prudential considerations, of withdrawing himself from their personal cognizance, and the commencement, accordingly, of his journey into Galilee. And yet it may not be more than sufficient for this purpose, or no more than we may well suppose would be requisite to bring all these things to pass.

III. That a little before this departure John was baptizing in Ænon, near Salem, and no longer at Bethabara, because there was much water there, after what has been elsewhere observed already, and what will be shewn more fully hereafter, may justly be considered a proof that the rainy season had been some time over, and water was beginning to be scarce; which would necessarily be the case a little before the feast of Pentecost, or nearer to midsummer than to the vernal equinox; but not at the opposite quarter of the year. According to Eusebius and Jerome, Enon and Salem were both about eight Roman miles distant from Scythopolis, the ancient Bethshan, which Josephusa places at one hundred and twenty stades from Tiberias, the southern extremity of the Lake of Galilee. Whether they were on the Galilean or the Peræan side of the Jordan, is decided in favour of the former by John iii. 23. 26. where Ænon is opposed to Tégav Toũ 'Iopdávov.

IV. If St. John's computation of hours, throughout his Gospel, is, as there is good reason to conclude, the same neither with the Jewish, nor with the Roman, which were in fact alike, but with the modern-the sixth hour, when our Lord arrived at Gerizim, was either six in the morn

* iii. 23.

• Vit. 65. p. 97.

y Vol. i. Diss. ix.

Oper. ii. De Situ et Nominibus. b Vide Townson's Discourses on the Gospels. Discourse

ing, or six in the evening; at both which times after the autumnal equinox, and near midwinter, it would necessarily have been dark; but at each of which times, after the vernal equinox, and near to midsummer, it would still be open day. The very distance of the frontiers of Judæa from Sychar confirms this conclusion in the present instance; for we cannot calculate this distance, from any part of Judæa, at less than twenty-seven or twenty-eight miles d-and from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, or of Jericho, it would be half as many more. If our Lord had travelled this distance in one day, he could not have arrived before six at night; and if he had travelled twenty miles of it on one day, he would accomplish the other seven or eight, before six in the morning of the next.

That he arrived at the usual period of some meal appears from iv. 8. and that both gwi, the first hour of the day, and via, the last but one, were such stated periods among the Jews, is also a well known fact. In the summer season, too, the morning or evening, and not the middle of the day, is notoriously the most convenient time for travelling, in the east, and the most commonly selected for that purpose; and yet, in the same season, the heat of the sun even at that time, and especially in the morning, would be such before six o'clock, that one who had travelled for an hour or two after sunrise, might well be weary, as Jesus is said to have beene.

It favours the presumption, respecting the time of his arrival at Gerizim, that shortly afterwards a Samaritan woman was found coming thither to fetch water: for the customs of the east have always been invariable, both in assigning this kind of menial service to the women in particular, and in fixing on morning or evening for sending them upon it. That there were wells, likewise, of great antiquity, and of very elaborate construction, still to be met with in Judæa, is attested by Origen, contra Celsum §. “Ori

d Rel. Pal. ii. 416. 423. iii. 1007. ix. 11. Mark xiv. 13. Luke xxii. 10. Hieron. Oper. ii. De Situ et Nominibus.

e iv. 6.

f Gen. xxiv. II. I Sam. iv. 193. Vide also Euseb. et

ging ögxov.

δὲ καὶ φρέατα ἐν γῇ Φιλιστιαίων κατεσκεύασται ὑπὸ τῶν δικαίων, ὡς ἐν τῇ Γενέσει ἀναγέγραπται, δῆλον ἐκ τῶν δεικνυμένων ἐν τῇ ̓Ασκαλώνι θαυμαστῶν φρεάτων, καὶ ἱστορίας ἀξίων, διὰ τὸ ξένον καὶ παρηλλαγμένον τῆς κατασκευῆς, ὡς πρὸς τὰ λοιπὰ φρέατα.

That the woman came out of the neighbouring city is so obviously implied in the account, as to make it superfluous even to remind the reader of this fact, had not Bretschneider, in his paradoxical work on the genuineness of St. John's Gospel, thought proper, from iv. 7. EрXETαι γυνὴ ἐκ τῆς Σαμαρείας, to suppose it was meant that she came from the city of Samaria-two hours' journey at least from Mount Gerizim-and to draw an inference, from the absurdity of such a supposition, disparaging to the accuracy of the Evangelisth. By so doing he has betrayed, in the first place, a want of discernment, or a want of candour, in not perceiving, or not acknowledging, that youÒ ÈX TÕS Σαμαρείας, in this passage, is plainly equivalent to ἡ γυνὴ ἡ Zapapeitis, in another; and both describe merely a native of Samaria, in opposition to one of Judæa, or of Galilee: secondly, an inattention to contemporary history; that there was now no city of Samaria, but, since the ancient Samaria had been rebuilt by Herod, that its modern name was Sebaste k. Nor is it of any use to oppose to this assertion the testimony of Acts viii. 5. which speaks of πόλιν τῆς Σαμαρείας: had that meant the city of Samaria, the Greek idiom would have required εἰς πόλιν, ΟΙ εἰς τὴν πόλιν, Σαμάρειαν: as at Acts xi. 5. év móλ 'lóлy. We know not, consequently, what city of Samaria is intended here: but, if it was the city of which Simon Magus himself was a native, then, according to Justin Martyr', it was a city called Gitton. Thirdly, a total disregard to the context m; which shews clearly that the city from which this woman came, and the city to which she returned, and the city near which our Saviour had originally arrived, and where he subsequently stayed two days, were all one and the same, Shechem, Sychem, Sicima, or Sychar; for it is called by each of these

i iv. 9.

hiii. 17.98.

Jos. Ant. Jud. xiii. x. 2. xv. viii. 5. B. i.

names indifferently; situated formerly within the tribe of Ephraim; and, after a Roman colony had been planted either on its site, or within one Roman mile of its site, better known by the name of Flavia Neapolis, and the birthplace of Justin, the Philosopher and Martyr, himself P. Its proximity to Mount Gerizim is attested by Josephus— Σίκιμα... κειμένην πρὸς τῷ Γαριζειν ὄρει—Τὸ ὄρος τὸ Γαριζείν· ὑπέρκειται δὲ τῆς Σικίμων πόλεως 9.

ney

The rate of travelling anciently for a day's journey on foot, which, in Arbuthnot's Tables of ancient Coins, Weights, and Measures, is estimated at thirty-three English miles, is probably beyond the truth; since, one day with another, we cannot suppose it to have much exceeded the standard of five or six and twenty even Roman miles. It is repeatedly asserted by Josephus, that the ordinary length of the jourfrom Galilee to Jerusalem, even by the shortest route, viz. through Samaria, was an interval of three days' time; though it is certainly possible that it might be accomplished in two. The calculation of Reland will shew that from Jerusalem, through Bethel, or Bethar, and by Sychem, or Neapolis, the usual, and at the same time the most direct, route to the lake of Tiberias in Galilee, was a distance of seventy-three Roman miles; which is an average of twentyfour Roman miles to a day.

This ordinary or average rate of travelling for pedestrians is well illustrated by a case in point, the distance between Cæsarea and Joppa, and the length of time taken up in travelling over that. This distance, by the help of the Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, and that of Antoninus, conjointly, is calculated by Relands at forty-one Roman miles: for though that is properly the distance between Cæsarea and Lydda, or Diospolis, yet Lydda and Joppa, referred to Cæsarea, in point of distance, were on a par.

Now, if we compare together Acts x. 30. 3. 33. 8. 9. 23. 24. it will appear that the messengers of Cornelius were

n Josh. xxiv. 32. • Itinerar. Hieros. Ap. Rel. Pal. ii. 416. Ant. Jud. xi. viii. 6. v. vii. 2. Vide also iv. viii. 44. v. 1. 19. 416. 423.

• Ibid. ii. 445.

P Apol. i. 1.

' Pal. ii.