'barley' loaves (i,.r.L;; ^p,ll.,«^0, which, however, has a nearer reference to the offerings (two leavened loaves of the best wheat, etc.) and customs of Pentecost, which was distinguished by thank-offerings (.niinn ny = iix<'P'"''"^0 »"<! festive gather- ings for the poor (Lv 2422) ; (S) that the insertion of a Pa.ssover here would break the unity of the plot and interfere with the development of the drama from Jn 213 to 121, creating a gap between chs. 4 and 6 out of all proportion to the other intervals in the Gospel after Jn 213. These reasons are not conclusive, but they are sufficient to prove the possibility of to T«irj:« being an early gloss on -n ioprvi.
T!ie interval between the Feast of Tabernacles (Tishri, A.D. 28) and the Passover (14 Nisan, A.D. 29) is sufficiently ample to allow for the work inthetowiisiif (•■,.^,.,n;, riiill|.i.i (Mk S='l. the piv- paration nf l!i .'1 | '. <• , lli^ .Ir.'iili (1,1; '.)-'-•■ Mk 8"), 111- ! -- '' -1^ 'l^'V. nfirr (Ml
17'-"), His ^lu^^ ,„,.,P - lu •,l,TU-;ilr,„, |,n-,vj,.,l
by the Seventy' (Lk lU'). -when the days were
well-nigh come that He should be received up' (Lk 9"''), tlie visit to Jerusalem at the Feast of Dedica- tion (Jn 10--), His work in the Perwa (Jn 10", Mk 10'), and in the wilderness of Judaea (Jn 11"). A ministry from Passover A.D. 27, when He was baptized, to Passover A.D. 29, is quite long enough to allow for the development of the life of the Master, and for the many journeys and missionary tours in a district as small as Wales, and where the festivals at the capital were so frequent. The details would be distinctly meagre for a longer mission.
i. Date of the Crucifixion.— The procuratorship of Pilate and the high priesthood of Caiaphas roughly indicate the date. Josephus {Ant. XVIII. ii. 2) notes the appointment of Valerius Gratus by Tiberius (c. A.D. 14-15), his return to Rome after 11 years {c. A.D. 25-26), and the appointment of Pilate in his place. In Ant. XVIH. iv. 2 we read that 'Pilate when he had tarried 10 years in Judzea made haste to Rome ; but before he could reach Rome, Tiberius died' (A.D. 37). His office might be, therefore, dated A.D. 26-36. Pilate at the trial of Jesus seems to have already had trouble with the Jews and Galila;ans and Herod. His yielding to them in the present instance through fear of their accusing him to Tiberius, and his release of 'a notable iirisoner' {diirfj-iov iTrla-nixov, Mt 27'«), 'who for a ceitnin insurrection made in the city and for munlrr' (Lk li:!''') 'was lying bound with them thiil li.ul iiia.lr insurrec- tion' (Mk 15'), imply at lea.st. |«.l ..I I hu 10 years of cross purposes which markud I'ilaLe .^ rule, but need not be ascribed to the censure received from Tiberius, c. A.D. 33, on accomit of the votive shields (Philo, Legat. ad Gaium, § 38), as he had in his very first year of office experienced the in- flexibility of the Jews {Ant. XVIII. iii. 1). A Pass- over earlier than that of A.D. 28 would hardly suit. The high priesthood of Annas, referred to in Jn 1149 igu. 24^ is a termimis ad quern of the Crucifixion, his deposition occurring about the same time as Herod Philip's death. It is assigned by Josephus {Ant. XVIII. IV. 3, 6) to the 20th year of Tiberius. The latest possible date of the Crucifixion would thus be A.D. 34, the earliest A.D. 26.
As it is hard to believe that such an event would not be exactly chronicled by the Church, it is quite possible to regard Lk 3'—' m the fifteenth year of Tiberius '—as an indication of the ' acceptable year of the Lord' which terminated on the cross, whether with Bratke {SK, 1S92) we regard that acceptable year as terminating in the lotli, or with von Soden {Enci/c. Bibl. art. 'Chronology') in the 16tli of Tiberius. A well-known tradition of the Church assigns the Crucifixion to the con- sulship of the Gemini, L. Rubetlius and C. Kufius, A.D. '29, which year, according to the strict method of computation from Aug. A.D. 14, would corre- spond -vvith Tiberius 15, but, counting as a year the semester Aug. A.D. 14-Jan. A.D. 15, when the consuls dated their term of office, would be Tiberius 16.
^iw
the chronology ot the fai^sion ami hi i from Tiberius 15 to the razing ol 11 (Horn, in Hierem. xix. 13). Tertullia the reign Christ suffered . "' " *'
Fridav, March 25, in the 18th .\v;, ship of llufus and Rubellio,' evi.l. line.' >.';irB' ministry with I,k :ii, u! niir I.iiid's life is estimated at :; tiH'lli' ml, No. xviii., suggests I
i 111 l-^ of the latter work in
SI. .Inhii's chronology was inrm uiinislry. In the tables of Hijipi.
f the Crucifixion the ia : ' With the 16th .' completed the 30 I ; ' If you examine 1 of Jerusalem . . .
DATES
DATES
vhieh, I
lint' ^^^^ I'y i^^-Vi^l"
Gemini, \s , AeU of !■>
Tiberius IG (in t Tiberius 15 (Latir who wrote : 'Intl ship of the Gen Chronicle, which Buls, March 25 ' ; a: the Gemini, iMarcl Christian traditior to by Ori;jen (c.
_.rsted by the consulship of the _n(^-; erroneously with or after the 1 Rubellio. Other authorities who ric uiius. who seems to hover between -k of Eusebius, Dei/t. Evang.) and ime's Com. in Van. ix.) ; Lactantius, ear of Tiberius, that is, in the consul- Iv. Inst. IV. x. 18); the Liberian nder Tiberius, the two Gemini con- stim- (id- Civ. Dei, xviii. 64): 'Consuls L.n. -0 is therefore well supported by I'tt'' of the annalist Phle^'on, referred :;.:), and the Chronicle of Eusebius (under 01. 202. 4 = .\.ri. :i--:;.i), whi(-h mentions the earthquake in Bithynia and the darkness at the sixth hour of the da.v, ob- viously comes from some unreliable Christian source.