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LIEUT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY, E.A._, ON 



assumed, the unnamed feast was Passover a.d. 27, our diagram 

 tells us that the morning star was appropriately shining, as 

 would also have heen the case had it been Purim (Feby.) or the 

 feast of weeks at the beginning of June. 



(/) Though John was still in prison he was nevertheless 

 bearing witness to Christ, when he sent messengers to Christ, 

 and when the Lord said, Matt, xi, 10, that the Baptist fulfilled 

 the prophecy of Mai. iii, 1, as he was the messenger before the 

 face of the Lord. We have already seen (p. 245) that this 

 prophecy refers to the Baptist under tlie figure of the morning 

 star, which was shining when this scripture was quoted by 

 Christ when it was harvest time, A.D. 27, for it was spoken after 

 the Sermon on the Mount, Matt, v, etc., which was probably at 

 harvest time from its allusions to the lilies of the fields, and 

 the filling of barns ; and the quotation was made hefore the 

 plucking of the ears of corn, Matt, xii, 1, which was at the 

 latter part of the same harvest. 



{(j) From a comparison of Matt, xiv, 1, 10, 16-21, with John 

 vi, 4-13, it appears that the death of the Baptist took place 

 at about the time of Passover, a.d. 28 — the last one before 

 the Crucifixion. We see from the diagram that appropriately 

 the morning star was not then shining. 



XOTE. — If we had assumed A.D. 27 (see p. 251) for the date 

 of the l)eginning of the ministry, this would have involved the 

 utterance referred to in {e) and the quotation in (/) being 

 spoken in spring, a.d. 29, when the morning star was not 

 shining ; and the death of John would have occurred in spring, 

 A.D. 30, when the morning star icas shining — all three Ijeing 

 inharmonious ; we therefore definitely cast out a.d. 27 as a 

 possible date for the beginning of the Lord's ministry. 



(A) After the death of John, and liefore the CruciHxion, there 

 came another period of the shining of the morning star during 

 the Lord's ministry in the second half of a.d. 28 (see diagram). 

 At the Feast of Tabernacles, John vii, 2, in the autumn of 

 that year, the Lord called Himself " the Light of the World," 

 John viii, 12 (see also ix, 5), when there can be no doubt He 

 com])ared Himself to the sun, and wliich therefore carried on 

 the tigure of the r)aptist being tlie morning star. 



The Jews apparently recognised the similitude, and tlieir 

 minds must have gone back to John, when they addressed to 

 tlie Lord at tliis time (John viii, 25, see also 53) the identical 

 question they put to tlie liaptist some three years before, " Who 

 art Thou ?" John i, 19. On the later occasion they dared to 

 say to the Lord, "Thou bearest witness of Thyself, Thy witness 



