200 



3clly. That all have computed by the times of the Judges, 

 Avliich they would not have done, had the passage under 

 review been known to them; lor that would have been to 

 have rejected a certain mode of computation in favour of 

 one that is not absolutely so. 



4thly. Josephus refers to this text, but found no such num- 

 ber in it. He says, that " Solomon began to build the temple 

 in the fourth year of his reign, in the second month, od~ 

 years after the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt." 



5thly. Origen too, in his commentary on John's Gospel, 

 cites this text without the number, which shews it was. not 

 known in his days. 



Lastly, That no writer, Jewish or Christian, ever quoted 

 or observed this passage, until Eusebius took notice of it^ 

 about the middle of the third century, which makes it hight^ 

 probable that an interpolation was made not long before 

 that period, founded perhaps on a pretended traditional uitcr- 

 pretation of the Jews, that the years of the servitudes ought 

 to be reckoned in the years of the judges. 



In 



• He however acknowledges the servitudes of the Ammonites began in the days of 

 Jair, and counts 307 years to Jeplitliah ; " the last servitude under the Philistines is like- 

 wise to be included in the coi responding years of the jiiilges — they commenced about tlie 

 time of Sampson's nativity, (.ludg. xiii.) and they terminated about the time of his death 

 (Judg. XV. 20); so that he must have judged Israel during the last 20 years of this 

 servitude.' Afterwards there was an anarchy of 20 years, as may he collected from 

 Saml. iii. 1.— iv. 15. — vi. 1.— vii. 1. 2. and viil. 1. — 5.) Unless this interval be ad- 

 mitted. 



