at one Passover made Jonathas successor to Caiaphas, and at the next Theophilus to Jonathas.  Hence Luke tells us, that in the 15th year of Tiberius, Annas and Caiaphas were high Priests, that is, Annas till the Passover, and Caiaphas afterwards.  Accordingly John speaks of the high Priesthood as an annual office:  for he tells us again and again, in the last year of Christ’s preaching, that Caiaphas was high Priest for that year, John xi. 49, 51. xviii. 13.  And the next year Luke tells you, that Annas was high Priest, Acts iv. 6. Theophilus was therefore made high Priest in the first year of Caius, Jonathas in the 22d year of Tiberius, and Caiaphas in the 21st year of the same Emperor:  and therefore, allotting a year to each, the Passion, when Annas succeeded Caiaphas, could not be later than the 20th year of Tiberius, A.C. 34.

Thus there remain only the years 33 and 34 to be considered; and the year 33 I exclude by this argument.  In the Passover two years before the Passion, when Christ went thro’ the corn, and his disciples pluckt the ears, and rubbed them with their hands to eat; this ripeness of the corn shews that the Passover then fell late:  and so did the Passover A.C. 32, April 14, but the Passover A.C. 31, March 28th, fell very early.  It was not therefore two years after the year 31, but two years after 32 that Christ suffered.

Thus all the characters of the Passion agree to the year 34; and that is the only year to which they all agree.

Notes to Chap.  XI.

[1] I observe, that Christ and his forerunner John in their parabolical discourses were wont to allude to things present.  The old Prophets, when they would describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, 1 Sam. xv. from the sabbatic year, Isa. xxxvii. from the vessels of a Potter, Jer. xviii, &c. but also when such fit objects were wanting, they supplied them by their own actions, as by rending a garment, 1 Kings xi. by shooting, 2 Kings xiii. by making bare their body, Isa. xx. by imposing significant names to their sons, Isa. viii. Hos. i. by hiding a girdle in the bank of Euphrates, Jer. xiii. by breaking a potter’s vessel, Jer. xix. by putting on fetters and yokes, Jer. xxvii. by binding a book to a stone, and casting them both into Euphrates, Jer. li. by besieging a painted city, Ezek. iv. by dividing hair into three parts, Ezek. v. by making a chain, Ezek. vii. by carrying out houshold stuff like a captive and trembling, Ezek. xii, &c.  By such kind of types the Prophets loved to speak.  And Christ being endued with a nobler prophetic spirit than the