OF THE NATIVITY WAS 8 B.C. 



215 



Canon Girdlestone thought that the discussion had gone away 

 from the real point, the date of our Lord's birth. Colonel 

 Mackinlay laid no stress on a.d. 29 as the date of the Crucifixion. 

 If his views were correct, then our Lord was on earth four more 

 years than was usually supposed. The words about 30 years of 

 age would then mean at least 34 years of age. This was a difficult 

 point. 



With regard to the date being about the Feast of Tabernacles, 

 there was one little thing in favour of it, namely, that in the first 

 chapter of St. John's Gospel, where they read that " the word was 

 made flesh and dwelt among us," the word "dwelt" was literally 



tabernacled " among us. This being the word, it seemed to fit in 

 with the suggestion that He was born during the Feast of Tabernacles. 



Lieut. -Colonel Mackinlay. — Before replying to those who have 

 spoken this afternoon, I should like to read a letter from Professor 

 Burkitt, Norrisian Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. He writes : 



My general opinions about the data in St. Luke that fix the year 

 of the Nativity agree with what Professor Percy Gardner has 

 written in Encycl. Bihlica 3994 fF. (Art. Quirinius). I feel sure in 

 my own mind that the evangelist's authority for introducing the 

 name 'Cy renins' was a misunderstanding of Josephus, Ant. xviii, 1. 



" I also feel inclined to suspect the accuracy of the information 

 about the course of Jehoiarib given in Taanith, but that is a matter 

 that would need much further inquiry into the general accuracy of 

 anecdotal (as distinct from customary) details in the Talmud, 

 especially those which refer to the state of things before the 

 destruction of the Temple. 



" My scepticism, you will see, is not confined to what I find in 

 the Bible. 



" What you say about the time of year is very plausible, assuming 

 the correctness of our authorities. But you will see from Professor 

 Gardner's article that we differ too much in principle from you and 

 from Sir William Eamsay to make discussion of details likely to be 

 profitable." 



Let us consider Professor Gardner's article in the Encycl. Bihlica. 

 He there states : "It is, however, pointed out that in a Eoman 

 census, every man reported at his place of residence ; no instance is 

 known to us in antiquity in which the citizens of a country migrated 

 to the ancestral home of the family in order to be enrolled." 



p 



