first day of this month was wont to be fixed, were liable to mislead; or if they were capable of misleading once, that they might not mislead repeatedly; if the influence of the Pharisees, who are supposed to have decided upon a wrong day, was not at this time altogether paramount, so as even to have given public sanction to an error; or, if in fact there was any material difference of opinion, upon this point at least, between them and the Sadducees, the Karaites, or any other sect; could these things, I say, be proved, the explanation of the present difficulty, which proceeds upon them, might be entitled to some attention.

But until this can be done, we have no option except to embrace the remaining alternative, which assumes that our Lord in particular antedated, by one day, the true time of the Passover: and if it can be made to appear that he had special reasons for so doing-reasons, which rendered it absolutely impossible that he could keep the Passover at its usual time on the occasion before he suffered the truth of this alternative may be considered as sufficiently established. Although therefore, the existence of the present difficulty has exercised, more than any one thing, the sagacity and ingenuity of commentators, so that little, perhaps, remains to be said either on one side or on the other; I shall proceed to state what arguments may be urged in support of the opinion in question; but with as much conciseness and perspicuity as possible.

I take it for granted that the legal period, at which only the Passover could be duly celebrated, was the fourteenth of the month Abib, Nisan, or Xanthicus, Kaтà σeλývŋv; and consequently that the question is,

t Exod. xii. xiii. 4—8. xxiii. 15. xxxiv. 18. Lev. xxiii. 5-8. Numb. ix. 2. 3. xxviii. 16—25. xxxiii. 3. Deut. xvi. 1-8. Josh. v. 10. II. 2 Chron. xxix. xxx. 1-3. 15. 21. XXXV. 1-19. Ezra vi. 19.

whether our Lord celebrated it on this day or on the day before it; on the fourteenth, or on the thirteenth of the month prescribed. As to the day of the week there can be no uncertainty. It was the day before he suffered; and that day was Friday: his Passover therefore was kept on the night of the Thursday.

First then in St. Matthew's account of our Saviour's message to the man in the city, the particular stress which is laid upon the circumstance ὁ καιρός μου ἐγγύς éσTI", may justly be considered to imply that the Passover, about to be celebrated, was something out of course. The man, to whom the message was sent, was probably a believer in Christ; or our Saviour would not address him in such terms as the Master saith. Now the injunction of the Law, and the invariable practice of the Jews, both required that the Passover should be kept within Jerusalem; and our Lord manifestly complies with each so far as to send his disciples to make ready for him in the city. But when it is considered that the resort of strangers, at the seasons of the feasts and in peaceful times, was such as many times to double its ordinary population; it will be evident that, for the accommodation of so great an influx of visitors, the houses of the regular inhabitants must all have been thrown open to their reception. Μυρίοι γὰρ ἀπὸ μυρίων ὅσων πόλεων, οἱ μὲν διὰ γῆς, οἱ δὲ διὰ θαλάττης, ἐξ ἀνατολῆς καὶ δύσεως, καὶ ἄρκτου καὶ μεσημβρίας, καθ ̓ ἑκάστην ἑορτὴν εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν καταίpovo. And that this is no exaggerated description appears from the numbers assembled at the Passovers U.C. 819. and U. C. 823. respectively—the former of which as we shall see elsewhere amounted to two or three millions, and the latter to more than one million. It was an Oos Táтριov, says Josephus, to receive into Jerusalem,

u Ch. xxvi. 18.

w Vide the Appendix.

v Philo Judæus, ii. 223. l. 15—18. De Monarchia ii. x Bell. iv. iii. 3.

πᾶν τὸ ὁμόφυλον ἀπαρατηρήτως. Nor was even this facility of admission, at such times as those of the Passovers, sufficient for the reception and entertainment of all parties, without the further necessity of forming themselves into pparpiai, sodalitia, companies, or households; varying from ten to twenty in number.

The message of our Lord, then, though sent to an householder in Jerusalem, announcing in his own name and in that of his Twelve disciples, that he meant to keep the Passover at his house; if sent at the regular time, would have been nothing extraordinary. It was what any one, under such circumstances, might have undertaken to send: the right of admission into some house within the city belonged to every stranger, whether from Judæa, from Galilee, or from abroad, who came up to attend the feast. What necessity, then, for an especial reason-or even for any reason at all-in claiming it now? and why should not the simple notification of our Lord's wish, if made at the regular season and in the regular manner, have been sufficient, particularly for a disciple?

It is impossible to understand his time, or rather his season, of any thing but the season of his passion; that determinate period which St. John so often and so emphatically denominates his hour. If this season was the following day, and also the season of the Passover, then, if under such circumstances our Saviour proposed to keep his Passover at all, he must keep it at an unusual time; if he must keep it at an unusual time, he would select the house of some believer in himself; and in sending a preparatory message to a believer, he might assign such a reason as this-My time is at hand-I am to suffer tomorrow-and, therefore, though it is before the usual period, I shall keep my Passover with thee to-night. A disciple of or believer in Christ would neither dispute his

commands, nor question the propriety of his conduct. Hence it is, that the Apostles themselves appear to have been already aware of his purpose; and taking it for granted that he would keep his Passover that night, they come to him in each of the Evangelists simply to inquire in what place. There is no difficulty in conceiving that he had previously acquainted them with his intentions on the morning of the Thursday; or even on the night of the Wednesday.

If we are to believe the testimony of Philo Judæus, the master of every household, or some one fit person in the name and on the behalf of a particular Paschal company, which in the present instance would be Peter or John, without having recourse to the ministry of the regular priesthood, was empowered to act as his own priest-and consequently, as we may presume, at home, not in the temple-for the immolation of his peculiar Paschal victim. This testimony is so express, and as coming from a contemporary Jew, who had often partaken in the ceremony himself, is so justly entitled to credit, that it ought to outweigh an host of the rabbinical writers, who certainly give a different account; which shall be my excuse with the reader, if I transcribe it at full length.

- Ι. Τῷ δὴ μηνὶ τούτῳ, περὶ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην ἡμέραν, μέλλοντος τοῦ σεληνιακού κύκλου γίνεσθαι πλησιφαούς, ἄγεται τὰ διαβατήρια, δημοφανὴς ἑορτὴ, τὸ Χαλδαϊστὶ λεγόμενον πάσχα· ἐν ᾗ οὐχ οἱ μὲν ἰδιῶται προσάγουσι τῷ βωμῷ τὰ ἱερεῖα, θύουσι δὲ οἱ ἱερεῖς, ἀλλὰ νόμου προστάξει σύμπαν τὸ ἔθνος ἱερᾶται, τῶν κατὰ μέρος ἑκάστου τὰς ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ θυσίας ἀνάγοντος τότε, καὶ χειρουργοῦντος.

ΙΙ. Καὶ ὴν Ἑβραῖοι, πατρίῳ γλώττῃ, πάσχα προσαγορεύουσιν· ἐν ᾗ θύουσι πανδημεὶ αὐτῶν ἕκαστος, τοὺς ἱερεῖς αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀναμένοντες· ἱερωσύνην τοῦ νόμου χαρισαμένου τῷ

y Operum ii. 169. l. 16-24. De Mose, iii.

ἔθνει παντὶ μίαν ἡμέραν ἐξαίρετον, ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος, εἰς αὐτ τουργίαν θυσιῶν τ

...

ΙΙΙ. Μετὰ δὲ νουμηνίαν ἐστὶν ἑορτὴ τετάρτη, τὰ διαβα τήρια, ἣν οἱ Ἑβραῖοι πάσχα καλοῦσιν ἐν ᾗ θύουσι πανδη μεὶ, ἀρξάμενοι κατὰ μεσημβρίαν, ἕως ἑσπέρας . . . ἱερεῖς οὐκ ἀναμένοντες. τὸ δὲ τότε (sc. at the time of the first Passover) πραχθὲν δρᾷν ἐφῆκεν ὁ νόμος ἅπαξ κατ' ἐνιαυτὸν ἕκαστον, εἰς εὐχαριστίας ὑπόμνησιν...ἑκάστη δὲ οἰκία, κατ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον, σχῆμα ἱεροῦ καὶ σεμνότητα περιβέβληται, τοῦ σφαγιασθέντος ἱερείου πρὸς τὴν ἁρμόττουσαν εὐω χίαν εὐτρεπιζομένου, καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ τὰ συσσίτια συνειλεγμένων ἁγνευτικοῖς περιῤῥαντηρίοις κεκαθαρμένων· οἱ παραγεγόνασιν οὐχ ὡς εἰς τἄλλα συμπόσια, χαριούμενοι γαστρὶ δι' οἴνου καὶ ἐδεσμάτων, ἀλλὰ πάτριον ἔθος ἐκπληρώσοντες, μετ ̓ εὐχῆς τε καὶ ὕμνων. ἄγεται δὲ ἡ πάνδημος θυσία τεσσαρεσκαι δεκάτῃ τοῦ μηνός *

* The account of Josephus, Ant. Jud. ii. xiv. 6. iii. x. 5, or Bell. vi. ix. 3, is not at variance with this testimony of Philo's. The estimation of the number of Paschal communicants, from the number of Paschal victims, in the way described by the last of these passages, would still be possible. Each of those victims might be taken up in the name of a particular Paschal company, and kept in the quarter where the lambs, intended for sacrifice, were usually taken up and kept; viz. in the conclave agnorum, within the temple. By this means their tale or number might be calculated.

The account of the Passover kept by Hezekiah, 2 Chron. xxx. 15-17, leads presumptively to a similar conclusion: for it would not be mentioned as something

extraordinary, that the Levites had the charge of killing the Passovers for every one that was not clean, had it not been usual for such as were clean to kill their own. 2 Chron. xxxv. 7, 8, 9. also, the Passover-offerings for the people as such, for the priests as such, and for the Levites as such, are all mentioned distinctly; and at verse II. it is said ἁπλῶς they killed; but with respect to the priests and the Levites, only that the former sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the latter flayed the victims. Perhaps this was the whole which was done at any time. The people themselves slew the victims; but brought the blood to be sprinkled by the priests. Ezra vi. 2o. may be understood of such of the people as were not clean.

z Operum ii. 206. l. 16-22. De Decem Oraculis. 44. De Septenario et Festis Diebus.

a Ibid. 292. 1. 16—