CHAPTER I. OUR LORD'S LIFE PREVIOUS TO THE MINISTRY.— The Birth of Yaw Christ and its Circumstances, both Previous and Concomitant.— Instead of a formal register of the date of Christ's birth after the manner of biography, the N. T. uses a general phrase only (` In the days of Herod the king,' Matt. ii. r. Comp. Luke i. 5, ii. 1-7), which has much engaged the attention of the learned, and given occasion to many chronological conjectures. It does not fall within our plan to consider these ; we only place in a note below* a few results derived from the chief authorities. One remarkable desig-nation of the epoch of our Lord's birth occurs in Gal. iv. 4, where St. Paul calls it the fulness of time' (rd 7rXiipuw. TOD xp6vou).
Few topics have received ampler illustration than this. Dean Alford has briefly summed up the various phases in his note on the passage :—‘ Not only are God's absolute will and the workings of his providence included in the apostle's phrase, but likewise the preparations which were made on earth for the Redeemer, in the various courses of action which he had brought about by men as his instruments.' The elements contributing to the full ripeness of this 7rXi)pcof.ta, on the human side, have been much illustrated, especially by modern writers on the evidences, who have seen in the political state of the world, in the prevalence of the Roman power, in the wide spread of the Greek language, and in the failure of the several schools of philosophy* to fulfil the expectations which they had raised, a complex preparation both for the advent of Christ and for the propagation of Christianity. Others have dwelt on the developed sins of mankind, which called for a remedy ("Ore rblp enos Kalcias SicEEXOolica Oats cba-pcerlyn eSeird 9-6-pan-etas, Theophyl. quoted by Meyer ; Non decuit ante peccatum Deum incarnari, ciim non detur rnedicina nisi infirmis, nec statim post peccatum, ut homo per peccatum humi liatus recognosceret se liberatore indigere, sed in plenitudine temporis,' etc. — Aquinas, Summa iii. 1-5). Others, again, especially the Fathers, dwell largely on the divine side of the preparation for the Redeemer's advent, in the several progres sive dispensations which preceded it, wherein the Son of God himself,' as Tertullian strikingly puts it, was, in fact, the dispenser of things—ever limn the beginning laying the foundation of the course of his own dispensations,* which he meant to follow out unto the end ' (see Tertullian's whole statement and other passages quoted and finely annotated by Bishop Bull, Deftns. Fir'. as
translated by the writer of this art. vol. t pp. 15 2o). It is in accordance with this preparation, that the coming of Christ was an object of general expectation about the time of his birth. The longing of the pious Jew was stimulated by the voice of prophecy ; indications occur in the sacred songs of Elizabeth (Luke i. 42-45) ; of Mary (vers. 48-55) ; and of Zacharias (vers. 76-79) • in the character of the holy Simeon (ii. 25, 26;; in his thanksgiving (vers. 29-32) ; in the conversation of the aged Anna and her pious companions (ver. 3S) ; to which may well be added what is said of Joseph of Arimathea (by St. Mark xv. 43, and St. Luke xxiii. 51). Nor was Israel alone expectant. As of old prophecy had shed its message upon the Gentile Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17) ; so now, on the eve of its accomplishment, Gentile hearts are moved, and one of the most touching events con nected with the Saviour's birth is the visit of the Eastern magi, rendering their homage, as Gentiles, to Him whose illumination of their race they saw symbolised in their guiding star (Matt. ii. 1-12, COMp. with Luke ii. 32 - Oti.ig ci7rcuoiXul,tau 6.7/63v, and Acts xiii. 47—E1S IVC271,, which is, in fact, the prophet's phrase, xlii.
6 ; xlix. 6, comp. with Ts. lx. 3). It is satisfactory to find that these intimations of the sacred writers are confirmed, as to the latter point, by heathen tes timony. The oft-quoted passages of Suetonins, Ves pasian., cap. 4-8 (` Percrebuerat oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis eo tempore Juckea profecti rerum potirentur'), and of Tacitus, Hist. v. 9-13 (`Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdoturn literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret oriens, profectique Judaea rerum poti rentur'), are express and to the point, and seem to afford all the greater corroboration from their very obscurity of language, so natural in paaan writers, who were ignorant of the nature of the Pact, and the character of the persons of which they wrote. The actual advent of the illustrious Saviour was not un accompanied indeed with suitable pageantry. 'The same Evangelist,' says Bp. Ellicott, that tells us that the mid-day sun was darkened during the last hours of the Redeemer's earthly life (Luke xxiii.