sages: καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς δεκαοκτώ Αἰῶνας φανεροῦσθαι διὰ τοῦ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν δεκαοκτώ μησὶ λέγειν δια τετριφέναι αὐτὸν σὺν τοῖς μαθηταῖς. Cf. p. 112. 1. 22. cap. xxxiv. where the same statement is repeated: Rememoratum autem eum post resurrectionem xviii. mensibus, et sensibilitate in eum descendente didicisse quod liquidum est: et paucos ex discipulis suis, quos sciebat capaces tantorum mysteriorum, docuit hæc, et sic receptus est in cœlum, &c.

The most authentic accounts of Valentinus, the founder of this sect, represent him as contemporary with Hyginus, the ninth bishop of Rome; and to have flourished in the reign of Hadrian, or early in that of Antoninus Piust. Clemens Alexandrinus tells us that he was said to have been an hearer of Theodadis, Theodas, or Theudas, who had personally known St. Paul". Notwithstanding, therefore, the errors of doctrine into which he fell, the circumstance of his coming so near to the apostolical times must give weight to his opinions concerning facts-which he might have learned, by only one intermediate link, from the testimony of St. Paul himself. And as to his errors of faith or

lentinians took their rise. The number of the Eons, in any case, has respect to the number of months in the duration of the personal ministry of the Christ, between his baptism and his ascension into heaven. If the number of ons was thirty, so was the number of months. If the former was thirty-two, so was the latter. It is however

to be observed, that others of the school of Valentinus, as Ptolemæus and Secundus, added to the number of his Eons; yet according to Tertullian, De Præscriptionibus Hæreticorum, 49. Operum ii. 73. not simply two but eight more than he supposed. Cf. Adversus Valentinianos, 33-38: Ibid. 183-188. Also, Irenæus, i. 5, 6. p. 49–55.

s Lib. i. v. 16. 10. t Irenæus, iii. iv. 206. 1. 18: Tertullian, ii. 35. De Præscriptionibus Hæreticorum, 30: also 147. Contra Valentinianos, 4: Eusebius, E. H. iv. 10, 11.22. 30: Epiphanius i. 164. A. Valentiniani 2: Theodorit, iv. 296. Hæreticarum Fabularum i. 7. Eusebius and Jerome in Chronico, ad Antonini Pii vi. u Opera, ii. 898. 1. 12. Strom. vii. 17.

doctrine, Tertullian informs us he did not become an hæresiarch, until he had been disappointed of a bishopric.

It may be inferred, also, from the following passage, that they thought our Lord was born at the same time in one year, at which he was baptized and suffered in another: Illam enim, quam circa duodecimum Æonem dicunt accidisse passionem, conantur ostendere, quod Salvatoris passio a duodecimo apostolorum facta sit, et in duodecimo mense. uno enim anno volunt eum post baptismum prædicasse *. I consider this to mean the twelfth month of his ministry; though Irenæus understands it of the twelfth month in the year, and charges the Valentinians with an absurdity accordingly. There is an end of the analogy for which this sect contended, if the ministry in question was either more or less than a year in duration. The same thing follows, if our Lord was supposed to have been baptized at more or less than the age of thirty. As they supposed him, therefore, to have been baptized at thirty complete, so they supposed him to have suffered at thirtyone complete; and consequently to have been born at the same time of the year, at which he was baptized and suffered.

I cannot dismiss this subject, without taking notice of a very extraordinary opinion of Irenæus' own; viz. that though he believed our Lord to have been baptized in his thirtieth year, he did not consider him to have entered on his ministry, until he was forty or fifty. The reasons of his opinion are thus stated: Triginta quidem annorum existens cum veniret ad baptismum, deinde magistri ætatem perfectam habens, venit Hierusalem, ita ut ab omnibus juste audiretur (leg. audiret) magister magister ergo existens,

x Irenæus, ii. xxxvi. 156. l. 24.

y Lib. ii. xxxix. 160. l. 30.

magistri quoque habebat ætatem . . . illi autem, ut figmentum suum, de eo quod est scriptum, vocare annum Domini acceptum, affirment, dicunt uno anno eum prædicasse, et duodecimo mense passum..... quomodo autem docebat, magistri ætatem non habens?.... et si (ita leg.) a baptismate uno tantum anno prædicavit, complens trigesimum annum passus est, adhuc juvenis existens, et qui necdum provectiorem haberet ætatem. quia autem triginta annorum ætas prima indolis est juvenis, et extenditur usque ad quadragesimum annum, omnis quilibet confitebitur: a quadragesimo autem et quinquagesimo anno declinat jam in ætatem seniorem: quam habens Dominus noster docebat, sicut Evangelium, καὶ πάντες οἱ πρεσβύτεροι μαρτυροῦσιν, οἱ κατὰ τὴν Ασίαν Ἰωάννῃ τῷ τοῦ Κυρίου μαθητῇ συμβεβλη κότες, παραδεδωκέναι ταῦτα τὸν Ἰωάννην. παρέμεινε γὰρ αὐτοῖς μέχρι τῶν Τραϊανοῦ χρόνων. quidam autem eorum non solum Joannem, sed et alios apostolos viderunt, et hæc eadem ab ipsis audierunt, et testantur de hujusmodi relatione.

Notwithstanding the traditionary authority to which he appeals in support of this opinion, it is so improbable, that no one can hesitate to reject it. Nor would I be understood to say that there was no traditionary authority for the substance of the above statement in general; but only, that in all probability, the testimony of St. John and of the other apostles, to which it refers, went no further than this; viz. that when our Lord entered on his ministry, he had, what Irenæus calls, the perfecta magistri ætas: which among the Jews was thirty: he was in the full possession of all the natural powers both of mind and of body".

It is clear, from the reasoning of Irenæus, that he himself understood the perfect age of a master or z See Dissertation xi. vol. i. 374-380.

teacher to begin at forty, not at thirty; in which respect there is no doubt, that his opinion was opposed to that of the Jews. If then his traditionary testimony had been given simply to this effect, that when our Saviour entered upon the work of teaching he was of the full age for a master or teacher-though that in reality might mean no more than that he was of the full age of thirty-it is morally certain that Irenæus would understand it of the age of forty. In a word, that our Lord was of the perfect age of a master when he entered on his ministry, might be truly said to have been traditionally handed down from St. John, through the elders; that he was consequently forty, and not merely thirty, at the same time, is an inference from this fact, or a gloss upon the traditions of Irenæus' time, which is not to be received as sanctioned by the same authority, but to be rejected as inconsistent with it.

In support of the same opinion, he lays some stress in the next chapter, upon the implicit testimony of John viii. 57 : πεντήκοντα ἔτη οὔπω ἔχεις· καὶ ̓Αβραὰμ Epakas; which he thinks would not have been said to Jesus, if he had not been more than forty, and known to be so by the speakers. But Irenæus mistook the meaning of this text: which has nothing to do with the absolute age of our Lord at the time; with his personal appearance, as looking older than he really might be, or the like: but was, as I should understand it, simply intended to remind him he was still a young man; he was not yet of an age even to be called old -how then could he have seen Abraham? The age of fifty is mentioned, because that was the first age at which men began properly to be considered old. Irenæus himself proves this: Quinque ætates transit

a Lib. ii. xlii. 166. 22.

humanum genus: primum infans, deinde puer, deinde parvulus, (μepákov,) et posthæc juvenis, sic deinde senior and the age of juvenis he fixes above to begin at thirty, and to end at forty. The Persians placed the beginning of old age at fifty-two: the Roman law at fifty b. Jerome, in Is. iii. observes: Tuli senem et quinquagenarium, et admirabilem consiliarium, et sapientem architectum, et prudentem conditorem, etc., from which it appears that senex and quinquagenarius were convertible terms. Cf. on this subject, the passages collected, Dissertation xi. vol. i. 377-379 *.

Lastly, we may observe, that after the commencement of our Lord's ministry, whether at thirty or forty years of age, Irenæus reckons three passovers d; the first, John ii. 13: the second, the controverted one of John v. 1: Quando paralyticum qui juxta natatoriam jacebat xxxviii annos, curavit: of which, however, he speaks without any hesitation, as of a Passover. The third Passover, is the last; when Jesus came to Bethany, six days before it, and is represented in the Gospels as, Manducans Pascha, et sequenti die passus. With respect to any other Passover, though he men

b Xenophon, Cyropædia, i. ii. §. 12, 13. Cf. Zonaras, iii. xv. 147. D. Pliny, Epp. iv. 23. Seneca, de Brevitate Vitæ, xx. 3. Seneca Pater, Controversiæ, i. viii. 138. Aulus Gellius, x. 28. Suidas, voce Aiaithras, and 'Epéra, will shew that the same thing held good at Athens. c Hieronymus, iii. 36. ad principium. Cf. Josephus, Ant. Jud. iii. viii. 2. xii. 4. Numbers iv. 3, &c. d Lib. ii. xxxix. 160.