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man, were availing only by virtue of the sacrifice which he was going to offer for the sins of the world. But instead of correcting, Jesus confirms the words of the lawyer; "And seeing that he answered wisely, Jesus said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of heaven."

Mark, throughout his gospel, has guarded against any expression that might favour the divinity or the miraculous birth of Jesus: and I cannot help ascribing this caution to the peculi arity of his situation. At Rome this evangelist published his gospel. At Rome these doctrines originated, and so far prevailed, as to be made the subject of public investigation. There therefore it became the historian of his life to shew by well selected facts, that Jesus was only a man, though endued with the highest power from God. One passage, peculiar to Mark, is in this view worthy of our attention. Nothing was better calculated to prove that our Lord was a mere man, and like other men dependent on God, as the circumstance, that he was limited in regard to the knowledge which he had derived from God. "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the son, but the Father," chap. xiii. 32.

There are some circumstances which render it probable, that LUKE published his gospel in Egypt, for the use of the Esseans.* The gos

Michaelis is inclined to this opinion: but he adds the following argument against it. "St. Luke has totally omitted the flight of Joseph and Mary, with Jesus, into Egypt; aud omitted it in such a manner, as to produce a very strong

pels of Mary and of the Infancy of Jesus, as well as the famous Egyptian gospel, were already in existence in that country. To these, among other spurious writings, Luke alludes in his introduction, "In as much as many have attempted to relate the things which have been accomplished among us, as they, who from the beginning, were eye-witnesses and ministers of the logos, delivered them to us; I also have determined, having gained an exact knowledge of every par ticular from the first, to write to thee, most excellent Theophilus, an exact account, that thou mightest know the certainty of the things in which thou hast been instructed." Many, it seems, attempted to relate things respecting our Lord, little calculated to satisfy a person who wished to know the truth; otherwise, this evangelist had good reasons not to write, as many of

apparent contradiction between what he has related, chap. ii. 22, 39, and the relation of St. Matthew, chap. ii. 13, 23. Now, as this part of the history of Christ, would have particularly interested the Egyptians, St. Luke would hardly have passed it over in silence, if he had written his gospel in Egypt. Besides, the apparent contradiction between the accounts of St. Matthew and St. Luke would be considerably augmented, if it were true that St. Luke wrote his gospel in Egypt; for his total silence of the flight of Joseph into that country might then be construed into a positive contradiction to St. Matthew's account," Michael. Introduction, vol. iv. p. 264. This certainly is a solid argument on the supposition that Luke's account is genuine; but it is found otherwise; and the noticed omission is a corroborating circumstance, that the gospel of Luke was published in Egypt where the flight of Joseph to that country was known to be a falsehood; and could not, therefore, be asserted by the forgers without prejudice to the story.

good authority, had already written on the subject. The accounts which many then attempted to give of Christ, were erroneous and unsatisfactory; and to prevent all well disposed persons from being mislead by misrepresentations, like Theophilus, Luke gave to the public a more faithful and adequate narrative.

The men who first taught the miraculous birth of Jesus, represented him as born many years before the death of Herod the Great, and put to death when advanced in life: see Irenæus, lib. ii. c. 39. The author of the Harmony, ascribed to Tatian says, that he continued in Egypt seven years, Lardner vol. ii. p. 423. The consequence of this was, that the time of his public ministry became involved in much uncertainty and contradiction, especially in countries remote from Judea. Luke, being aware of this evil, has with a precision unexampled, dated the period in which he made his first appearance, connecting it with the names of those who ruled in the several provinces, and thus enabling every subject throughout the Roman empire, to ascertain the exact time in which he appeared among men.

Luke iii. 1. "In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, tetrarch of Iturea, and Lysanias, tetrarcli of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being high priests, the word of God came to John in the Wilderness."

In the next place, he asserts in direct terms, that Jesus was the son of Joseph. "Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that

Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him; and a voice came from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (really), as he was thought to be, the son of Joseph." The purport of which is this, "Jesus was about his thirtieth year, when he became the son of God, and was announced as such by a voice from heaven." That this was the meaning of our historian, is plain, from the use of avros himself, which was intended to mark the opposition between Jesus, considered personally and the character he sustained as the son of God. Thus, "Jesus as the son of God began to exist after his baptism, while Jesus himself, or the man Jesus, was about thirty years' old."

The Evangelist farther states, that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph, and that he really was so conformably to that opinion.* Hav

* Και αυτος ην ο Ιησούς ώσει ετων τριακοντα ων, ὡς ενομίζετο, ύιος Ιωσηφ. Ch. iii. 28. ων ύιος Ιωσηφ being really the son of Joseph. It is known to every person who has any knowledge of Greek, that wv, wherever used, is intended to assert something true or real. Hence, the phrases, TO Oy that which is-substance, matter- wv the existing being, Jehovah―ovTWs truly, really-T OUT, in truth, in reality. It is therefore a fact beyond reasonable contradiction, that Luke here asserts that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph, and was so in truth; and thus by one single unequivocal expression, he has set aside the story of his miraculous birth as false, and the two disputed chapters as a forgery of a subsequent period.

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ing thus asserted that Jesus was the son of Joseph, Luke proceeds to trace his pedigree from Joseph in the line of David, which he would not have done, if his divine Master was not as the son of Joseph, a descendant of David.

One object of the miraculous birth ascribed to Jesus, was to shelter him from the disgrace of having been born and educated in so despised a place as Nazareth; and the first authors of it appear to have represented him as having spent all his early life either in Egypt or at Bethlehem. This misrepresentation Luke corrects in the fol lowing manner: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, (or as we should say, where he had been born and bred), and he entered into the synagogue, as his custom was on the sabbath day." Philo and Josephus inform us, that the Esseans were very scrupulous in observing the sabbath; and we see from the clause in italics, that the evangelist was willing to go as far as he could consistently with truth, to conciliate them in more important points, by sanctioning their prepossessions in regard to the Jewish sabbath.

The visit which our Lord paid to Nazareth, is more minutely related by Luke, than it is by Matthew and Mark, and his relation is peculiarly worthy of our notice. "And the book of the prophet Isaiah was delivered to him; and having opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, insomuch as he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he hath sent me to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at liberty those that are

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