Of the Conformity of Facts mentioned or referred to in the Acts of the Apostles, with the state of things in those times, as represented by Foreign and Independent Accounts. (Vide Paley's1 Evidences of Christianity, Part II. chap. vi.)2

Acts iii. 1.-Now Peter and John went up together unto the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

Jos. Ant. lib. xv. ch. vii. sect. 8: Twice every day, in the morning, and at the ninth hour, the priests perform their duties at the altar.'

Acts iv. 1. And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them.

Here we have a public officer, under the title of captain of the temple, and he, probably, a Jew, as he accompanied the priests and the Sadducees in apprehending the apostles.

Jos. de Bel. lib. ii. ch. 17, sect. 2: And at the temple, Eleazar, the son of Ananias, the high priest, a young man of a bold and resolute disposition, then captain, persuaded those who performed the sacred ministrations, not to receive the gift or sacrifice of any stranger.'

Acts iv. 6.—Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.

Annas is here called the high priest, though Caiaphas was now in the office of the high priesthood.

Jos. lib. ii. ch. 20, sect. 3: Joseph, the son of Gorion, and the high priest, Ananus, were chosen to be supreme governors of all things in the city. Yet Ananus, though here called the high priest, was not then in the office of the high priesthood. The truth is, there is an indeterminateness in the use of this title in the New Testament. Sometimes it is applied exclusively to the person who held the office at the time, sometimes to one or two more, who probably

'In collecting these examples, I have done no more than epitomize the first volume of the first part of Dr. Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History.' (Paley.)

2 The writer principally made use of in the enquiry is Josephus. Josephus was born at Jerusalem four years after Christ's Ascension. He wrote his history of the Jewish wars some time after the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened A.D. 70, i.e. thirty-seven years after the Ascension, and his history of the Jews he finished A.D. 93, i.e. sixty years after the Ascension.'

shared with him some of the powers or functions of the office; and, sometimes, to such of the priests as were eminent by their station or character; and there is the very same indeterminateness in Josephus.

Acts v. 17.-Then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and were filled with indignation.

St. Luke here intimates, that the high priest was a Sadducee: which is a character one would not have expected to meet with in that station. This circumstance, remarkable as it is, was not, however, without examples.

Jos. Ant. lib. xiii. ch. 10, sects. 6 and 7: John Hyrcanus, high priest of the Jews, forsook the Pharisees upon a disgust, and joined himself to the party of the Sadducees.' This high priest died B.C. 107.

Ant. lib. xx. ch. 9, sect. 1: This Ananus, the younger, who had received the high priesthood, was fierce and haughty in his behaviour, and, above all men, bold and daring, and, moreover, was of the sect of the Sadducees.' This high priest lived a little more than twenty years after the transaction in the Acts.

Acts v. 37.-After this man, rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him.

Jos. Ant. xviii. 1. 1. &c.: ' He (viz. the person who in another place is called by Josephus, Judas the Galilean, or Judas of Galilee) persuaded not a few not to enrol themselves, when Cyrenius the censor was sent into Judea.'

Acts ix. 31.—Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria.

This rest synchronises with the attempt of Caligula to place his statue in the temple at Jerusalem; the threat of which outrage produced amongst the Jews a consternation, that for a season diverted their attention from every other object. Vide Jos. Ant. xviii. 8, &c. Acts xi. 27.—And in those days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch; and there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world (or all the country); which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cæsar.

Jos. Ant. lib. xx. ch. 5, sect. 2: In their time (i.e. about the fifth or sixth year of Claudius) a great dearth happened in Judea.' Acts xii. 1.-Now about that time Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.

In the conclusion of the same chapter, Herod's death is represented to have taken place soon after the persecution.

Jos. Ant. lib. xviii. ch. 7, sect. 10. ‘Sending for him into his palace, Caligula put a crown upon his head, and appointed him king of

the tetrarchy of Philip, intending also to give him the tetrarchy of Lysanias.' And that Judea was at last, but not until the last, included in his dominions, appears by a subsequent passage of the same historian, wherein he tells us (lib. xix. ch. 5, sect. 1), that Claudius, by a decree, confirmed to Agrippa the dominions which Caligula had given him; adding also Judea and Samaria in the utmost extent, as possessed by his grandfather Herod.

The accuracy of our historian, or rather the unmeditated coincidence which truth of its own accord produces, is, in this instance, remarkable. There was no portion of time for thirty years before, or ever afterwards, in which there was a king at Jerusalem, a person exercising that authority in Judea, or to whom that title could be applied, except the three last years of this Herod's life, within which period the transaction recorded in the Acts is stated to have taken place. This prince was grandson of Herod the Great. In the Acts, he appears under his family name of Herod; by Josephus he was called Agrippa. For proof that he was a king, properly so called, we have the testimony of Josephus in full and direct terms.

Acts xii. 19-23.-And he (Herod) went down from Judea to Cæsarea, and there abode. And on a set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them; and the people gave a shout, saying, it is the voice of a god, and not of a man; and immediately the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten up of worms, and gave up the ghost.

Jos. Ant. lib. xix. ch. 8, sect. 2: 'He went to the city of Cæsarea. Here he celebrated shows in honour of Cæsar. On the second day of the shows, early in the morning, he came into the theatre, dressed in a robe of silver, of most curious workmanship. The rays of the rising sun, reflected from such a splendid garb, gave him a majestic and awful appearance. They called him a god, and entreated him to be propitious to them, saying, hitherto we have respected you as a man; but now we acknowledge you to be more than mortal. The king neither reproved these persons, nor rejected their impious flattery. Immediately after this he was seized with pains in his bowels, extremely violent at the very first. He was carried therefore with all haste to his palace. These pains continually tormenting him, he expired in five days' time.' Acts xiii. 6. And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man.

The word which is here translated deputy, signifies proconsul, and upon this word our observation is founded.

The provinces of the Roman empire were of two kinds; those belonging to the emperor (governor called proprætor), and those belonging to the senate, in which the governor was called proconsul, and this was a regular distinction. Now it appears from Dio

Cassius (lib. liv. ad A.U.C. 732), that the province of Cyprus, which in the original distribution was assigned to the emperor, had been transferred to the senate in exchange for some others; and that, after this exchange, the appropriate title of the Roman governor was proconsul.'

Acts xv. 21.-For Moses, of old time, hath in every city them that preach him, 'being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.'

Jos. Contra Ap. ii. 18: 'He (Moses) gave us the law, the most excellent of all institutions; nor did he appoint that it should be heard once only, or twice, or often, but that, laying aside all other works, we should meet together every week to hear it read, and gain a perfect understanding of it.'

Acts xvi. 13.-And (at Philippi) on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made (or where a proseuche, oratory, or place of prayer was allowed).

The particularity to be remarked, is the situation of the place, where prayer was wont to be made, viz. by a river side.

Philo, describing the conduct of the Jews of Alexandria on a certain public occasion, relates of them (Philo in Flac. p. 382), that early in the morning, flocking out of the gates of the city, they go to the neighbouring shores (for the proseuchai were destroyed), and standing in a most pure place, they lift up their voices with one accord.'

Josephus gives us a decree of the city of Halicarnassus, permitting the Jews to build oratories, a part of which decree runs thus (Jos. Ant. lib. xiv. ch. 10, sect. 23): We ordain that the Jews who are willing, men and women, do observe the sabbaths, and perform sacred rites, according to the Jewish laws, and build oratories by the sea side.'

Tertullian, among other Jewish rites and customs, such as feasts, sabbaths, fasts, and unleavened bread, mentions (Tert. ad Nat. lib. i. ch. 13), 'orationes litorales,' i.e. prayers by the river side.

Acts xvii. 22.-Then Paul stood up in the midst of Mars' hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious: for as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Un

1 The proprætor may be regarded as a military commander; he was appointed by the emperor himself, and held his office during the emperor's pleasure. The proconsul or deputy was destitute of military power; he was appointed to his office by lot, and held his authority for one year only.

'A Greek coin of Cyprus, struck in the reign of Claudius, has been found, having an inscription on the reverse, which gives to Proclus, the successor of Sergius Paulus, the same title as applied in the Acts.'

known God.' Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

In Epimenide, lib. i. 110, Diogenes Laertius, who wrote about the year 210, in his history of Epimenides, who is supposed to have flourished nearly 600 years before Christ, relates of him the following story: That, being invited to Athens for the purpose, he delivered the city from a pestilence in this manner. Taking several sheep, some black, others white, he had them up to the Areopagus, and then let them go where they would, and gave orders to those that followed them, wherever any of them should lie down, to sacrifice it to the god to whom it belonged; and so the plague ceased.' Hence, says the historian, it has come to pass, that to this present time may be found in the boroughs of the Athenians anonymous altars; a memorial of the expiation then made.'

Pausanias, who wrote before the end of the second century, in his description of Athens, having mentioned an altar of Jupiter Olympius, adds (Paus. lib. v. p. 412), and nigh unto it is an altar of unknown gods;' and in another place (Paus. lib. i. p. 4) he speaks 'of altars of gods called unknown.'

Philostratus, who wrote in the beginning of the third century, records it as an observation of Apollonius Tyanæus, 'that it was wise to speak well of all the gods, especially at Athens, where altars of unknown demons were erected.' (Philos. Apoll. Tyan. lib. vi. ch. 3.)

The author of the dialogue of Philopatris (by many supposed to have been Lucian, who wrote about A.D. 170, by others some anonymous heathen writer of the fourth century) makes Critias swear by the unknown god of Athens (Luc. in Philop. tom. ii.; Græv. pp. 767 and 780), and, near the end of the dialogue, has these words: But let us find out the unknown god of Athens; and, stretching our hands to heaven, offer to him our praises and thanksgivings.'

This is a very curious and a very important coincidence. It appears, beyond controversy, that altars with this inscription were existing at Athens at the time when St. Paul is alleged to have been there. It seems also (which is very worthy of observation), that the inscription was peculiar to the Athenians. There is no evidence that there were altars inscribed to the unknown god' in any other country. Supposing the history of St. Paul to have been a fable, how is it possible that such a writer as the author of the Acts of the Apostles was, should hit upon a circumstance so extraordinary, and introduce it by an allusion so suitable to St. Paul's office and character?

Acts xviii. 2.-Because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome.

Suet. Claud. ch. 25: Judæos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Româ expulit.'

Acts xviii. 12.-And when Gallio was deputy (proconsul) of Achaia.

The propriety of the title 'proconsul' is in this passage still more