volume before us yet remain untouched. Our readers could not be relied on for patience equal to a longer train of observation at this time. We have not willingly misrepresented the author; but our admiration of his system has not been increased by his labours. They have resulted in no misgiving as to the foundation or the defences of catholic Christianity. "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever: He will be our guide, even unto death."

ART. III.-The alleged Discrepancy between John and the other Evangelists respecting our Lord's last Passover.

[This paper is from the pen of Dr EDWARD ROBINSON.]

EVER since the earliest centuries of the Christian era, a difference of opinion has existed in the church, as to the point, whether our Lord's last meal with his disciples, on the evening before his crucifixion, was the ordinary paschal supper of the Jews. The question may be stated in other forms; as, for example, Did the crucifixion of our Lord follow or precede the Jewish paschal supper? Was the Friday on which Jesus suffered, the fourteenth or the fifteenth day of the month Nisan? But it is obvious that in all these forms the point at issue is the same; and the solution must in all depend upon the same evidence and arguments.

In the following article I propose briefly to survey this field of controversy; partly because of the intrinsic importance and difficulties of the subject itself, and partly because, in late years, these difficulties have been brought forward very prominently by some of the commentators of Germany; and have been made the ground, sometimes, of fierce assault upon a single gospel, and, at other times, of systematic efforts against the credibility and authority of all the evangelists. It will, I trust, be made to appear, that these efforts are all in vain, and that the truth of God stands for ever sure. We shall be led to see, I think, that here, as well as elsewhere, the longer such efforts are continued, and the greater the learning and skill with which they are conducted, the more clearly will the grand result be brought out to view, and the striking truth be more and more developed, that a fundamental characteristic every where manifest in the testimony of the four evangelists is, UNITY IN DIVERSITY.

As the events of our Lord's Passion were so intimately connected with the celebration of the passover, it seems proper here to bring together in one view those circumstances relating to that festival, which may serve to illustrate that sacred history, and thus prepare the way for a better understanding of the main point to be discussed.

I. Time of killing the Paschal Lamb.

The paschal lamb (or kid, Exod. xii. 5) was to be selected on the tenth day of the first month.-(Exod. xii. 3.) On the fourteenth day of the same month, (called Abib in the Pentateuch, and later Nisan, Deut. xvi. 1, Esth. iii. 7.) the lamb thus selected was to be killed, at a point of time designated by the expression, between the two evenings (Exod. xii. 6; Lev. xxiii. 5; Numb. ix. 3, 5); or, as is elsewhere said,

nie, at evening about the going down of the sun.(Deut. xvi. 6.) The same phrase, De, between the two evenings, is put for the time of the daily evening sacrifice.—(Exod. xxix. 39, 41; Numb. xxviii. 4.) The time thus marked was regarded by the Samaritans and Karaites as being the interval between sunset and deep twilight; and so too Aben Ezra.* But the Pharisees and Rabbinists, according to the Mishnah, (Pesach. v. 3), held the first evening to commence with the declining sun (Greek den gwia); and the second evening with the setting sun (Greek din ía). Hence, according to them, the paschal lamb was to be killed in the interval between the ninth and eleventh hour, equivalent to our three and five o'clock, P.M. That this was in fact the practice among the Jews in the time of our Lord, appears from the testimony of Josephus: Пára καλεῖται, καθ ̓ ἣν θύουσι μὲν ἀπὸ ἐννάτης ὥρας μέχρι ένδεκάτης. † The daily evening sacrifice in the temple was also offered at the ninth hour, or three o'clock, P.M., as the same historian testifies. Similar was the Greek deían.

δείλη

The true time, then, of killing the passover in our Lord's day, was between the ninth and eleventh hour, or towards sunset, near the close of the fourteenth day of Nisan.

II. Time of eating the Passover.

This was to be done the same evening: "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs shall they eat it."-(Exod. xii. 8.) The Hebrews in Egypt ate the first passover, and struck the blood

*See Reland de Samar. § 22, in Diss. Miscell. t. ii.; Trigland de Karaeis, c. 4; Aben Ezra ad Exod. xii. 6.

† Jos. B. J. vi. 9, 3.

Jos. Antiq. xiv. 4, 3. Comp. Pesach. vi. 1; also Acts iii. 1, et Wetstein in loc.

of the victims on their door-posts, on the evening before the last great plague; at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn; and in the morning the people broke up from Rameses on their march towards the Red Sea, viz., "on the fifteenth day of the first month, on the morrow after the passover.”—(Num. xxxiii. 3.)

It hence appears, very definitely, that the paschal lamb was to be slain in the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the month; and was eaten the same evening, that is, on the evening which was reckoned to and began the fifteenth day.

III. Festival of Unleavened Bread.

"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses."-(Exod. xii. 18, 19, comp. Deut. xvi. 3, 4.) "And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.”—(Lev. xxiii. 6, comp. Num. xxviii. 17.) From these passages it appears that the festival of unleavened bread began strictly with the passover meal at or after sunset following the fourteenth day, and continued until the end of the twenty-first day.

*

In accordance with these precepts, and with an anxiety to go beyond rather than to fall short of them, the Jews were accustomed, at or before noon on the fourteenth day of Nisan, to cease from labour and put away all leaven out of their houses. On that day, too, towards sunset, the paschal lamb was killed, and was eaten in the evening. Hence, in popular usage, this fourteenth day itself, being thus a day of preparation for the festival which properly began at evening, very naturally came to be regarded as belonging to the festival; and is therefore sometimes spoken of in the New Testament as the "first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover." (Mark xiv. 12, Luke xxii. 7, comp. Matt. xxvi. 7.) That such an usage was common, appears also from Josephus, who, having in one place expressly fixed the commencement of this festival on the fifteenth of Nisan, speaks, nevertheless, in another passage of the fourteenth as the day of that festival, in exact accordance with the evangelists. In still another place, the same historian mentions the festival of unleavened bread as being celebrated for eight days.§

It is hardly necessary to remark, that in consequence of the

*Comp. Jos. Antiq. iii. 10, 5.

+Lightfoot Opp. ed. Leusd. i. p. 728 sq.; Hor. Heb. in Marc. xiv. 12. Jos. Antiq. iii. 10, 5; B. J. v. 3, 1; comp. Antiq. xi. 4, 8.

Jos. Antiq. ii. 15, 1.

close mutual relation between the passover and the festival of unleavened bread, these terms are often used interchangeably (especially in Greek) for the whole festival, including both the paschal supper and the seven days of unleavened bread.*

IV. Other Paschal Sacrifices.

1. "In the first day [fifteenth of Nisan] shall be an holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work. But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire, a burnt-offering unto the Lord; two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year;" also a meat-offering, and "one goat for a sin-offering; "after this manner shall ye offer daily throughout the seven days." (Num. xxviii. 18-24.) All this was in addition to the ordinary daily sacrifices of the temple. "And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work." (verse 25.) The first and last days of the festival, therefore, were each a day of rest or a sabbath; distinct from the weekly Sabbath, except when one of these happened to fall upon this latter.

2. On the morrow after this first day of rest or sabbath, that is, on the sixteenth day of Nisan, the first-fruits of the harvest were offered, together with a lamb, as a burnt-offering. —(Lev. xxiii. 10-12.) This rite is expressly assigned by Josephus, in like manner, to the second day of the festival, the sixteenth of Nisan.† The grain offered was barley; this being the earliest ripe, and its harvest occurring a week or two earlier than that of wheat. Until this offering was made, no husbandman could begin his harvest; nor might any one eat of the new grain. (Lev.xxiii. 14.) It was therefore a rite of great importance; and in the time of our Lord, and later, was performed with various formalities. Some of these were the following, according to the Mishnah, Menach. cap. x. Towards the end of the fifteenth of Nisan, some members of the Sanhedrim, appointed for the purpose, went with much ceremony out of Jerusalem over the brook Kidron, and there, in some field not far from the city, selected a portion of barley. During the evening or night following, i. e., early on the sixteenth of Nisan, it was cut and brought into the court of the temple, even though that day might be the Sabbath.§ Here the grain was separated from the ears, ground in a hand-mill, and sifted thirteen times. Of the flour, the tenth part of an ephah was mixed with oil and frankincense for a wave-offering; one

See Luke xxii. 1; John vi. 4; Acts xii. 3, 4, &c.; Jos. Antiq. ii. 1, 3, comp. B. J. v. 3, 1.

† Jos. Antiq. iii. 10, 5.

Joseph. i. c.; Bibl. Res. in Palest. ii. p. 99.

§ Lightfoot Hor. Heb. in John xix. 31; Reland Antiq. Sac. iv. 2, 4, p. 227.

handful of which was burnt upon the altar, and the rest eaten by the priests.*

3. There was also another sacrifice connected with the passover, known among the later Hebrews as the Khagigah (), of which there would seem to be traces likewise, in the Old Testament. It was a festive thank-offering (D, Engl. Vers. peace-offering), made by private individuals or families, in connection with the passover, but distinct from the appointed public offerings of the temple. Such voluntary sacrifices or freewill-offerings (ni), differing from those offered in fulfilment of a vow (D), were provided for in the Mosaic law. After the fat was burned upon the altar (Lev. iii. 3, 9, 14), and the priest had taken the breast and right shoulder as his portion (Lev. vii. 29–34, x. 14), the remainder was eaten by the bringer with his family and friends in a festive manner, on the same or the next day; beyond which time none of it might be kept.-(Lev. vii. 16-18, xxii. 29, 30; Deut. xii. 17, 18, 27, xxvii. 7.) These private sacrifices, or freewill-offerings, were often connected with the public festivals, both in honour of the same, and as a matter of convenience.-(Num. x. 10; Deut. xiv. 26, xvi. 11, 14, comp. 1 Sam. i. 3-5, 24, 25, ii. 12-16, 19.) They might be eaten in any clean place within the city (Lev. x. 14; Deut. xvi. 11, 14); but those only might partake of them, as likewise of the passover, who were themselves ceremonially clean.-(Num. xviii. 11, 13; John xi. 55, comp. Num. ix. 10-13; 2 Chron. xxx. 18; Joseph. B. J. vi. 9, 3.) Such a voluntary private sacrifice in connection with the passover would seem to be implied in Deut. xvi. 2: "Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God, even flock and herd" (PNS), Sept. Ovous rò Táoxa Kugiw TM Op σou τgólara xai Bóas. It might indeed be said, that while the "flock" here stands for the paschal lambs, the "herd" is mentioned in allusion to the extraordinary public sacrifices on each of the seven days.-(Num. xxviii. 19.) Yet other passages the later Jewish history show that such a limitation is unneces sary and improbable. Thus in 2 Chron. xxxv. 7-9, Josiah and his princes are said to have given to the people not only nearly forty thousand lambs, but also three thousand eight hundred oxen; which latter especially could not of course have all been for the daily public sacrifices. Indeed, it is expressly said, that when these were offered in sacrifice they "sod them in pots and in caldrons and in pans, and divided them speedily among all the people."-(verse 13.) So, too, thank (peace) offerings are enumerated in connection with Hezekiah's great passover; for which likewise he and his princes gave to the people two

in

*See Lev. ii. 14-16; Jos. Antiq. iii. 10, 5; Lightfoot Hor. Heb. in Joh. xix. 31; Reland Antiq. Sac. iv. 3, 8.