was acquainted with the whole affair from Herod before. Tiberius therefore was living subsequently to these negociations with Artabanus, that is, he was alive a considerable time subsequent to the first Passover after Pilate's removal.-Hence it is clearly demonstrable that the first Passover after Pilate's removal was not the first after the death of Tiberius, but some Passover before it. Consequently whatever difficulty we may experience in accounting for Pilate's not reaching home until more than a year after his removal from the government of Judea,-a difficulty, however, which the dilatory character of Tiberius, and the natural repugnance of Pilate to appear before him, render not altogether unexplicable,-we are bound to adhere to the plain testimony of facts, and not permit ourselves to be driven from the belief of a truth which may be proved by an objection which may be deduced from our ignorance of the reasons of a particular circumstance.

To proceed, we have seen that the first Passover after Pilate's removal was some Passover before the death of Tiberius. What Passover it actually was is now to be determined, and for this purpose we must go on with our quotations. from Josephus.

About this time, that is, after the termination

of the affair with Artabanus and Aretas King of Arabia Petræa, an engagement took place, in which the whole army of Herod was defeated, and Herod immediately dispatched letters to Tiberius, (another proof of that Emperor being still alive,) who commanded Vitellius to make war upon Aretas; and Vitellius in obedience to the order, having collected a considerable force, began his march towards Petra, and arrived at Ptolomais.

As it is evident from the preceding part of the historian's narrative, which we have already epitomised, that a considerable portion of the Summer which succeeded the removal of Pilate must have been employed in the negociations with Artabanus, and it does not appear that the defeat of the Jewish troops had then taken place, we must conclude that Herod did not write to Tiberius, nor Tiberius send orders to Vitellius, until after the conclusion of the treaty with Artabanus, and the return of the præfect of Syria to Antioch. This was probably about the latter end of the year, or at least so late as to prevent our supposing that the collection of the troops and the other necessary preparations for war could have been made in sufficient time to permit Vitellius to march towards Arabia before the following Spring. The expedition against Aretas and the arrival of the Roman army at Ptolomais,

on its road to Petra, may therefore with most propriety be dated in the second Spring after the removal of Pilate.

Now Josephus informs us "that, as Vitellius was about to march his army through Judea, the chief men met him, entreating him not to go through their country; he complied with their request, and having ordered his army to take their route through the great plain, he himself, with Herod the tetrarch and their friends, went up to Jerusalem, to worship God, a feast of the Jews being at hand." This, therefore, was evidently either the Passover or Pentecost in the second year, that is the second Passover or the second Pentecost after Pilate's removal. Vitellius "was received by the people of the Jews with great respect. Having been there three days, he took away the High Priesthood from Jonathan, and gave it to his brother Theophilus.-And on the fourth day after his arrival, receiving letters which brought an account of the death of Tiberius, he took an oath of the people to Caius."

This feast of the Jews, at which Vitellius was present in Jerusalem, whether a Passover or a Pentecost, was evidently the first Passover or the first Pentecost after the death of Tiberius, because Vitellius then first of all received intelligence of

that event; intelligence which could not be delayed above a few months in its passage from Italy into Asia. It was also, as we have seen, the second Passover or Pentecost after Pilate's removal by Vitellius. The first Passover therefore, after Pilate's removal must have been the first Passover before the death of Tiberius, that is, the Passover J. P. 4749; for Tiberius died on the 16th of March J.P. 4750. Now Pilate was removed after having been Governor of Judea for ten years. J. P. 4749-10-J. P. 4739. Consequently Pilate was appointed Governor of Judea before the Passover J. P. 4739, and was therefore undoubtedly the Governor of Judea, as St. Luke observes, when "the word of God came unto John" in the Spring of that year. I deem this a sufficient solution of the difficulty, and would refer to the pages of Lardner those who are desirous of a more enlarged view of the objection.

SECTION III.

Considerations upon John, chap. ii. ver. 20.

AT the first Passover in his ministry Jesus was present at Jerusalem, and standing in the midst of the temple, he said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?"

Almost all, if not all the modern Protestant commentators conceive this assertion of the Jews to relate to those repairs and alterations which Herod made in the temple of Jerusalem, and which he commenced, according to Josephus," in the eighteenth year of his reign; but they have felt considerable difficulty in reconciling this opinion with the actual fact. The first Passover in our Saviour's ministry was, according to our calculations, the Passover J. P. 4740. The eighteenth

* See upon the subject of the present section Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 14, and lib. xx. cap. 8.