232 



and dispensation. To tliis we tnust attribute the genera! 

 disposition of the earlier writers, to antedate the aera of 

 Moses, and make him contemporary with the Grecian. 

 Inaohus; a position, however, which it appears clearly from 

 his books against Apion, was not professed or defended by 

 Josephus, who, although anxious for the reputation of his 

 people, is more modest in his pretensions. This supposition 

 of the intentional corruptions, or emendations of Josephus, 

 will receive additional authority, when we consider that the 

 generality of his manuscripts appear to have been almost 

 separately corrected; those of the Latin translator were ac- 

 commodated more nearly to the sentiments of the Latin 

 church, and many of the original Greek have chronological 

 annotations and summaries to the books and chapters, not 

 reconcileable to the principles of the historian, as they now 

 stand; but evidently marked from the opinions and suppu- 

 tation of the possessor, and which, of course, were adjusted 

 and accommodated to the hypothesis of his church ; but the 

 opinion of St. Paul, (granting an enlarged interval to the 

 judges,) was particularly insisted on by the Greek chrono- 

 logists, and afforded them a strong argument for their com- 

 putation, and paraphrase of the text. Syncellus concludes 

 his review of the reasoning on this subject, by saying, that he 

 is resolved to adhere to "the evangelic calculus;" a term 

 sufficiently indicating both his sense of the authority of the 

 test, and the spirit in which he rejects it. 



The 



