add another forcible argument in favour of the proposed correction of 1 Chron. iii. 22.

that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and a word (or decree) went forth ordering it to be done. For until that time the city continued to lie waste and desolate. For though Cyrus, after the seventy years' captivity, dismissed all who chose to return, those who came back with Jeshua the high-priest and Zorobabel, and those afterward who came with Ezra, were in the first instance prevented from building the temple, and from surrounding the city with a wall, for which it was said no permission had been granted. The city, therefore, continued as it was till the time of Nehemiah, and the reign of Artaxerxes, and the 115th year of the Persian empire. But 185 years had elapsed from the taking of Jerusalem, and then king Artaxerxes ordered the city to be rebuilt. Nehemiah being sent to Jerusalem, presided over the work and the street and the wall were rebuilt according to the prophecy. And from thence, if we reckon to the time of Christ, we shall find that seventy weeks were completed.

*

'But from Artaxerxes to the times of Christ seventy weeks are completed, according to the reckoning of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem, in the 115th year of the Persian empire, and in the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, and in the 4th year of the 83rd Olympiad, to this time, which was the 2nd year of the 202nd Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, there are 475 years. These are equal to 490 Hebrew years, For the Hebrews number their years according to the revolutions of the moon, which it is easy to calculate make 354 days. And since the sun's cycle consists of 365 days, it exceeds 12 lunar months by 11 days. For this reason both Greeks and Jews insert 3 intercalary months every 8 years; for 8 times 114 days make 3 months. So then the 475 years are 59 octaeterids +3 years. And since the intercalation of 3 months takes place every 8 years, they amount to 15 years within a few days. And if these be added to the 475 years, the 70 weeks are complete.'

CHAPTER XII.

Concluding Chapter.

T now only remains to sum up the chief points

IT

of the preceding argument. We have seen that both St Matthew and St Luke give the genealogy of our Lord through Joseph his reputed and legal father, and we have ascertained that the former, giving the succession to the throne of Solomon, necessarily deduces his line through Solomon and the kings of Judah, whose legal heir and representative Joseph was; while the latter, giving Joseph's real parentage, traces his lineage to Nathan, whose children became the heirs of his brother Solomon's throne upon the failure of Solomon's line in the person of Jehoiachin. And we found a most satisfactory corroboration of this opinion, as regards St Matthew's list: First, in the very fact of the existence of a second genealogy, which could not have been the case had St Matthew's list given Joseph's real lineage; and, Secondly, in two express declarations of Scripture, that neither Jehoiakim nor Jehoiachin should have any successor upon the throne of Judah: as regards St Luke's list, in the names of the ancestors which gave as distinct a proof as the nature of the case admits, that that list exhibits Nathan's descendants and Joseph's ancestors. Moreover, we found a third evidence in favour of this conclusion, of a very

forcible and indeed conclusive kind, in the fact, that two, we may now say four, generations are common to the two genealogies in the part immediately subsequent to him who was pronounced childless. This view was further fortified by shewing, from several examples out of the Old Testament, that it was in strict accordance with Jewish usage that persons deriving property, not from their direct ancestors, should have a genealogy suited to their inheritance, as well as one exhibiting their real parentage. It was then shewn that no valid objection could arise to this scheme, either from the tradition reported by Africanus, which was examined both on its merits as a tradition, and on its own intrinsic merits, and on both counts condemned; or from the use of the term 'begat;' or on the ground of its excluding the lineage of the Virgin Mary, who was shewn to have been, in all probability, the cousin-german of Joseph, descended from the same grandfather, and therefore having precisely the same pedigree. And having thus laid down and vindicated the general principles upon which these genealogies are composed, we proceeded to shew, step by step, their mutual agreement with the Old Testament genealogies of the house of David, observing, from time to time, several striking internal proofs of their truth and historical accuracy, and indications of the sources from whence they were compiled: specially, by two very slight alterations of the text, where it was evidently, or probably, corrupt, we were enabled,

for the first time since the earliest days of Christianity, to exhibit an exact agreement between St Matthew, St Luke, and the first book of Chronicles, in respect to the two generations following Zerubbabel; and, by one of these emendations, we at the same time got rid of an extraordinary anomaly— the extension, viz. of one genealogy in 1 Chron. iii. to a time subsequent by at least two centuries to the close of the canon of Scripture, and of several anachronisms beside. We were also enabled, by the view taken, to throw light upon several remarkable prophecies of Holy Scripture: and by ascertaining Hattush's true genealogical place we were greatly assisted in fixing the true interpretation of the famous prophecy in Daniel ix. and in removing one argument by which it has been thought that a system of chronology for the times of Ezra, involving the most prodigious improbabilities, was supported and made necessary. sought at the same time to meet and refute three other arguments in defence of the same system. An attempt, lastly, has been made to reconcile that glaring discordance between the genealogy and the chronology of the times preceding David, which has so greatly perplexed the learned, but which they have done so little to remove; and if, in some points, our success has been less complete than might have been desired, and considerable doubts and difficulties still encumber the subject, it is yet hoped that progress has been made in a right direction, and that some assistance has been given to future labourers, who, with more extensive knowledge, and

We

greater powers, may be able, by God's blessing, to finish what is here left incomplete, and to present, at length, to the pious but intelligent reader of Scripture, the interesting history of the times between Moses and Samuel in a connected and consistent shape, in harmony alike with nature and with other portions of the Word of God. To the writer the subject, which may seem dry to others, has been one of the deepest and most lively interest. Never before was he so much impressed with the profound truth and majesty of the Word of God, as when, under some corruption of word or letter which has worn the rust of two or three thousand years, and passed into every language spoken by man, he seemed to discover the original deposit of the Holy Ghost, shining forth in all the simplicity and brightness of truth. Never was he more affected with a sense of the never-failing Providence of God in His care of the Holy Scriptures, than when the restoration of some one statement to its proper place seemed to restore simultaneous harmony to many others which were previously disjointed, contradictory, or obscure. And never was the lesson more forcibly brought to him, how worthy all the Scriptures are of the most reverent and diligent study, than when some bare catalogue of names, or other equally unpromising field, seemed to yield a most bountiful and pleasant harvest in return for such labour as he was able to bestow upon it. Profound and intimate too is the conviction which these studies have left upon his mind, that while the Scriptures are from God,