We have two accounts of the martyrdom of James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and surnamed the Just; one from Hegesippus, an ancient Christian writer, and the other from Josephus. The former of these places it at the time of a Passover; and the latter when the younger Ananus was high-priest, and in the first year of the administration of Albinus, but before he was arrived in the province*. The first year of Albinus may be determined as follows.

The history of Jesus the son of Ananusf demonstrates that Albinus was already procurator and in office, at or after the feast of Tabernacles, πρὸ τεσσάρων ἐτῶν τοῦ πολέμου— and seven years, and five months, before the time when this Jesus himself perished, during the siege of Jerusalem, A.U. 823. The siege was begun at a Passover; and, consequently, at the Passover of A. U. 823: Albinus, therefore, was procurator and in office at or soon after a feast of Tabernacles, seven years, and five months, before this Passover; which could be the feast of Tabernacles A. U. 815. only, the beginning of the ninth of Nero-seven years, and five or six months, before the Passover A. U. 823. when the city was invested by Titus; and three years, five or six months, or what might be called in current language, four

* I am not ignorant that the words which relate to James, in this account of Josephus-Τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰησοῦ, τοῦ λεγομένου Χριστοῦ· 'Iákwßos öroμa air-have been considered an interpolation; but I have seen no argument to this effect, which is not absolutely gratuitous, and resolvable into the ipse dixit of the critic. If all these words are to be given up, the whole section must be pronounced spurious; for this part and the rest must stand and fall together. The words To λeyouévou Xploro may very possibly have been an interpolation, but we have no proof that the remainder, τὸν ἀδελφὸν Ἰησοῦ· Ἰάκωβος ὄνομα αὐτῷ, is justly to be considered so ; nothing, in short, but suspicion and mere possibility-in opposition to the weight of internal and external testimony, from manuscripts, quotations, and recognitions, as far back as we can trace the history of the passage-which is entirely on the other side.

Euseb. E. H. ii. 23.

Ant. Jud. xx. ix. 1.

f B. Jud. vi. v. 3.

years, before the time in A. U. 819. when the war broke

out.

This feast of Tabernacles is undoubtedly the feast alluded to, as next after the arrival of Albinuss; which the very circumstance of its not being specified by name would also of itself imply: it is likewise the feast next after the death of James; at the time of which death, or soon after it, Albinus was in Alexandria, and still on his way to the province. As he was travelling through Alexandria, it is clear he had set out from Rome, taking advantage of the Etesian winds; and, consequently, not before the middle of July, when those winds commonly began to blow. Ananus was deposed from the priesthood in consequence of this very act; but he was deposed by Agrippa, not by Albinus; and at a time when Albinus had not arrived further, at the utmost, than Alexandria. By the aid of the Etesian winds, he could not fail to be in Alexandria some time in the month of August. Pliny mentions instances of Prefects who, under similar circumstances, made the passage from the fretum Siculum to Alexandria in seven days, and even in six days; and from Puteoli, in nine b.

Now Ananus had been three months in possession of the priesthood, before he was deposed; on which principle he must have been deposed in the last half of the eighth of Nero, A. U. 815; and the time of his deposal might have coincided with the month of June or July, in that year. The tradition of Hegesippus, then, that James was put to death at the time of a Passover, may be correct, but it must have been the Passover of A. U. 815-for Ananus might then have been in office; and thus much we may assert with confidence-that he was in office, if not at the Passover, at least at the Pentecost, A. U. 815-the former of which fell out upon April 11. and, consequently, the latter upon June 1. And if St. James was put to death by Ananus, and put to death at some Jewish feast, it must have been at one of these two. Jesus the son of Damnæus was ap

xx. ix. 3.

h H. N. xix. Procem.

pointed by Agrippa in his stead; and as Ananus must certainly have been deposed, so must a successor to him have been appointed, in the interval between the next feast of Tabernacles, October 6. and the last at least of these feasts.

Though, therefore, the account of Hegesippus contains many other particulars, which appear to me to offend against probability, yet in the main fact he is so well supported by Josephus, that we may, perhaps, implicitly believe him. The death of James, then, and the first year of Albinus, were consecutive upon each other, and both coincident with A. U. 815. the latter half of the eighth of Nero. The assertion, therefore, of Jerome, that St. James suffered in the seventh of Nero, though it is grounded apparently on the alleged authority of Josephus, and also on that of the Υποτυπώσεις of Clemens Alexandrinus, is entitled to no credit; for Josephus certainly does not warrant this inference, nor, if the truth were known, perhaps, did Clement.

Festus, who succeeded to Felix, in the fourth of Nero, died in officek; but before his death he had sent the highpriest, Ishmael, and certain others of the chief of the Jews, to Rome1; some of whom, including Ishmael, were subsequently detained by Poppaa, whom Josephus calls the wife of Nero. This may be the mission alluded to in the Life of Josephus m, ascribed by a lapse of memory to Felix instead of Festus; though it is by no means a necessary supposition. In consequence of the detention of Ishmael, the priesthood was conferred by Agrippa on Joseph, surnamed Cabi, the son of Simon"; and, on the death of Festus, upon Ananus the younger, who held it, as before stated, only three months.

It is clearly implied by the account, that Joseph continued in possession of the priesthood a very short time; and when he was appointed, Festus was still alive, Ishmael was in detention at Rome, and Poppaa was then, or, according to the usage of Josephus, might be reputed and called even then, the wife of Nero. Now she was formally espoused by

i Script. Eccles. Catalog. 2.
n Ant. xx. viii. 11.

Vit. 3.

k Ant. Jud. xx. ix. 1.

。 xx. ix. I.

1 Ib. viii. 11.

Nero, in the eighth year of his reign, A. U. 815. within twelve days after the divorce of OctaviaP-and not long before the beginning of the month of June-the ninth of which was the time of the death of Nero, as well as of Octavia subsequently to the divorce 9. But, from the intimacy which had long subsisted between them, she might be called, and would be considered by Josephus, as his wife, from A. U. 811. and thenceforward', as early as the fourth or the fifth of Nero.

If, then, we suppose that Ishmael was sent to Rome in the seventh of Nero, before A. U. 814. medium, and Joseph was appointed high-priest in the eighth, after A. U. 814. medium, that Festus died, and Ananus was made to succeed Joseph, about the spring of A. U. 815. and that he was again deposed, and Albinus, being sent after midsummer, arrived in the province by or before the feast of Tabernacles, October 6. A. U. 815. at the close of the eighth, or the beginning of the ninth, of Nero, we make no supposition which is not both possible in itself, and entirely consistent with the accounts of Josephus. It is true that Festus, on this principle, must have been three years and six months in office, before his death; but it is also true, that Felix had been eight years in office, before Festus; and Albinus, who must have come into office at midsummer A. U. 815. was not superseded by Gessius Florus before A. U. 817. at the earliest, and possibly not before A. U. 818: for Poppæa, to whom the latter is said to have owed his appointment, did not die before the close of the first six months in A. U. 818; soon after which time Nero put the consul Atticus Vestinus to death, and married Messalina his wifes. The war is said to have broken out in the second year current of the administration of Florus; which might still be true of the first part of A. U. 819. when the war broke out, though that administration had begun only in A. U. 818.t

▷ Tac. Ann. xiv. 60. Suet. Neron. 35.

Neron. 57.

35. 15. 12.

9 Ann. xiv. 60-64. Suet. Ann. xiii. 45. $ Tac. Ann. xvi. 6. 13. Suet. Neron. Ant. Jud. xx. xi. 1.

The propriety, then, of the allusion at Hebrews xiii. 7. though we should understand it of the death of St. James, if the Epistle was written in A. U. 816. a year after the event, must be apparent; and I think this coincidence between the matter of fact, and the allusion to it, should be a strong argument that the Epistle was now written. The reference to the chains of the writer" is clearly a reference to some past, and not any present, circumstance of his personal history; which also would be in character in reference to either the imprisonment of St. Paul at Cæsarea, six or seven years before, or to his imprisonment at Rome, three or four. The same conclusion is implied by x. 25. and x. 37; which can be understood of nothing except the approaching visitation of the Jews; for that was also the term of deliverance to their Christian brethren, and in A. U. 816. the visitation, which began about the same time, A. U. 819. was only three years remote: and having arrived at these conclusions, I shall pass to the remainder of St. Paul's Epistles, which are three in number, the two Epistles to Timothy, and the Epistle to Titus.

I. If these Epistles were really written the last of all, they must each have been written between the date of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the date of the death of St. Paul; concerning which something will be said hereafter.

II. The Second to Timothy was unquestionably the last of the three, and written in the year of Paul's second imprisonment, and, very probably, even of his death; first, because it was written when the writer was again in chains', and when he either was, or had been, again in Rome; secondly, because it was written when the writer had a strong and lively presentiment, in his own mind, that the time of his departure was come, that is, that his martyrdom was at hand*; under which presentiment, and consoled by the pleasing re

* This appears particularly in his use of the term ¿péotŋke, verse 6; for that does not denote is ́at hand—however near—but is come, or actually arrived.

"x. 34.

v 2 Tim. i. 8. 12. 16. ii. 9. 10. 11. 12.

w 2 Tim. i. 17.