202 



LIEUT. -COLONEL G. MACKINLAY, THE DATE 



as their supplies of corn and wine must have fallen very low, 

 because there had been practically no harvest or vintage in 

 the previous year. When all the fruits of the earth had been 

 safely gathered in, the Feast of Tabernacles 8 B.C. must have 

 been a specially joyous season, and therefore specially suited 

 to Herod's purpose. It is not at all likely therefore that he 

 would have delayed the census to a later year. 



In reviewing these reasons for supposing that the census and 

 •consequently the Nativity was at the Feast of Tabernacles, 

 Sir W. M. Ramsay* states : " This seems highly probable, and 

 may even, I tliink, be regarded as approximating to certainty." 



This opinion should give great force to the same conclusion 

 for the date 8 B.C. drawn from the next line of investigation, 

 which has been undertaken since Sir William wrote the words 

 just quoted. 



(y) The Nativity was in the autumn of 8 B.C., hecause 

 ZacUa^-ias was of the order of Ahijah. 

 The connection oetween these two events may not be at 

 once apparent, but it is most interesting. There were twenty- 

 four courses of priests (1 Chron. xxiv, 1-19). Each course 

 served for a week (see 2 Chron. xxiii, 4, 8 ; 2 Kings xi, 5 ; 

 1 Chron. ix, 24, 25). We learn from Jewish recordsf that the 

 first course, that of Jehoiarib, had just again begun their tour 

 of service on the Sabbath day, the ninth of the fifth month, Ab., 

 or 4th August, A.D. 70, when the Temple of Jerusalem was 

 burnt by the soldiers of Titus. There is no reason to suppose 

 that there was any break in the regularity of the sequence of 

 the courses in the eighty years previous to that date, because 

 the priests of that day were known to be most exact and 

 punctilious in the performance of all their observances. Hence 

 it is easy to calculate^ when the eighth course, that of Abijah 



The Expositor^ Jan., 1908, p. 18, and also Luke the Physician, 1908, 

 p. 243. 



t The Talmud (Taanith, p. 29, and Erachim, p. 11). 



I To find for instance when the course of Abijah began its duties in 

 "9 B.C. proceed as follows. 



The first course began, we are told, on 4th Aug., a.d. 70, therefore the 

 eighth course should have begun after 7 x 7 or 49 days later, i.e., on the 

 22nd Sept., a.d. 70. 



There are 78 years between 22nd Sept., 9 B.C., and 22nd Sept., a.d. 70. 

 (It is always necessary to cast out one year in calculating from B.C. to a.d 

 or vice versa, as there is no year 0 in chronology.) 



In those 78 years there are : — 



78 X 365 + ^-"^^ = 28,489 days. 



