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John xix.38. Pilate gave him leave.
Mtxxvii.58. then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered
Mark xv.45. he gave the body to Joseph'.

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It does not appear necessary to enter into any detailed exa-
mination of the harmony proposed by Hales, Newcome, Mac-
knight, or Doddridge. The first of these agrees generally with
Townson-Newcome's plan is among the number studied by
Cranfield, as are also those of Macknight and Doddridge.
Since Mr. West's publication indeed, the differences have been
very few, and are so entirely questions of opinion, that their
decision does not in the least affect the veracity of the Evan-
gelists (h). Thus it cannot be made evident at what exact time
our Lord shewed himself to St. Peter on the day of his resur-
rection, but all are agreed as to the fact. We may, in short,
consider the question respecting the consistency of the four
Evangelists, to be completely set at rest by the labours of these
learned authors. They have left little more to be done by their
successors than to incorporate the results of their labours; and
thus make their researches and their discoveries familiar to the
common reader. They will always be enumerated among the
most eminent illustrators of the sacred volume. They have con-
secrated their jewels to the service of God, and their offerings
will ever shine among the most brilliant ornaments of his holy
temple.

(a) npm from an Arabic root, protuberavit flos, vel pressius, rosa
quæ crepantem jam calycem effindit, indeque eminere, et protuberare
incipit. Hinc transfertur ad oculos, nominatim catuli, quum eos prima
vice aperit qua velut calyce effiso patent, nam tunc vibrantissima catu-
lorum acies, deinde hominum, quorum oculi protuberante acie per-
spicaces facti sunt. Nova V. T. clavis. Joan. Henric Meisner, vol. i.
ap. Gen. iii. 5. (b) I have not thought it necessary to allude here to
the curious questions which have been agitated, respecting the nature of
the body of Adam before he fell; and whether we shall rise from the
dead in the same form; or whether the resurrection body will be sur-
rounded with a glory, such as clothed the form of the man who is re-
presented by Ezekiel as appearing between the Cherubim.-See on these
points, Lord Barrington's Essay on the Dispensations, 1732, p. 11,
note. (c) Horsley's four Sermons on the Resurrection, p. 219. (d) See
Schleusner, Cranfield, and Townson's notes. (e) Cooke's View of the Evi-
dence of the Resurrection. (f) Introduction to the Critical Study, &c.
vol. i. p. 595, &c. &c. (g) Mr. West observes, that this text, "I am
not yet ascended," &c. comprehends in a few words a variety of most
important hints, which have not commonly been taken notice of in them;
particularly that our Lord intended by them to recall to the minds of his
disciples the discourse he had with them three nights before, in which
he explained what he meant by going to the Father (John xvi. 28.);
and by twice using the word ascend, designed to intimate, that he was
to go up to heaven, not merely in spirit, as the pious dead do, but by a
corporeal motion and translation, and that it would be some time before
he took his final leave of earth by this intended ascension: all which
weighty expressions and predictions concur with a thonsand other cir
cumstances to shew how impossible it was that such an apprebended
appearance should have been merely the result of a disordered imagina-
tion; a consideration which Mr. West illustrates at large, as he also
does the mistaken apprehension of the disciples, who, when some of
their companions, whose veracity they could not suspect, testified they
had seen the Lord, thought his body was not risen, but that it was only
his spirit had appeared to them. (h) When this part of the work was
going to press, I procured a work entitled "The New Trial of the Wit-
nesses." It revives many of the exploded and long answered objec-
tions urges no new remarks and does not appear worthy of more
especial notice. Assertion supplies the place of argument, as is usual
in the great majority of books of this nature.

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2 Mark xv. 42. ópías yɛvoμévns, the early evening being now

Jerusalem.

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John xix.38. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it
in a clean linen cloth,

Mtxxvii.59.

John xix.39. there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

40.

41.

Mtxxvii.60.

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in clean linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre,

And [Joseph] laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock 3:

come, or being immediately past, for the word yevopévng has
both these meanings. The early evening began at three in the
afternoon, and continued till sunset; or till about six, and a
littte after. The late, or second evening, began at six, and
lasted till nine. Both evenings are called bia: but St. Luke
describes the earlier evening by a periphrasis, and that which
began at sunset by the proper name among the Greeks, iσwspa,
Luke xxiv. 29.

3 In Isaiah liii. 9. we read, He made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death. On referring to the
original, it will be observed that the word yw may be the
dual number, and that Ty is the singular. The construction,
therefore, may be, "His death shall be with two criminals, and
with one rich man (a)." This rendering adds great force to
the prophecy.

The peculiar providence of God ordained, that our Lord should
suffer on a day succeeded immediately by the Jewish sabbath, and
in a place where an honourable disciple of his had a sepulchre,
so lately hewn in the rock, that no one had ever been laid in it.
These things decided at once where the body should be depo-
sited, when leave to dispose of it had been obtained by Joseph.
His own new sepulchre was nigh at hand. Had it been at a
distance, the case would have been altered. The followers of
our Lord would have been inclined to carry his body first to the
house of some friend, where they would naturally suppose they
could perform the ceremonies previous to interment with more
honourable tokens of respect. But, while they had been stu-
dying to complete them with order and decorum, the sabbath
would have come on: and then, wherever the body was, it
must have remained till that day of rest was over, and the third
was begun, on which he was to rise from the dead. A provi-
dential concurrence of circumstances compelled them to take
'it directly from the cross to a place that best suited the great
event of the third day: and where, in the mean while, the
Jewish rulers had access to it, and before the beginning of that
day set a guard upon it, as a testimony against themselves. If
Joseph of Arimathea had not begged the body, it would have
been buried in the common grave with the malefactors. In
making this request, it is not probable that he could have been
actuated by the idea that he was thereby fulfilling a prophecy.
We must consider the circumstances as one of those minute, and
apparently accidental events, which demonstrate to us that the
providence of God overrules all the actions of man, to the ac-
complishment of his own purposes.

Jerusalem.

John xix.41. wherein was never man yet laid.

42.

Lu, xxiii.54.

There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews
preparation-day, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath
drew on.

Mtxxvii.60.and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre,
and departed.

MATT. XXVii. part of ver. 57, 58.

57 When the even was come-who also himself was Jesus'

disciple:

58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus

MARK XV. part of ver. 43. 46.

43 Joseph of Arimathea-which also waited for the kingdom of God

46 took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre.

LUKE Xxiii ver. 50. part of ver. 51, 52. and ver. 53.

50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just:

51 he was of Arimathea,

52-went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.

53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

JOHN xix. part of ver. 38.

38-Joseph of Arimathea.

Jerusalem.

Mark xv.47.

SECTION II.

Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, and the Women
from Galilee, observe where the Body of Christ was
laid*.

MARK XV. 47.- -LUKE Xxiii. 55.

And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses

beheld where he was laid.

(a) See Doddridge in loc. and Schoetgen, on the manner in which the ancient Jews interpreted the passage Hore Hebraicæ, vol. ii. p. 552, 553.-Lightfoot's Harmony, 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. 168.

4 As these are the first passages in which the different women
are severally referred to, we may take the opportunity of in-
quiring whether that opinion may be considered as correct,
which has within the last century been so strenuously defended,
that there were two parties of women who attended at the
sepulchre. We must first examine the accounts of the number
which were present at the crucifixion, and at the interment of
the body.

The women named in this part of the Gospels, besides the
Virgin Mother of our Lord, are these:

Mary Magdalene, whose name occurs in all the Gospels, and
except John xix. 25. is constantly mentioned first.

Mary the mother of James the Less, and Joses, supposed to be Mary the wife of Cleophas, the sister of our Lord's mother, John xii. 35; and, if so, the Evangelists all speak of her.

Salome, the mother of Zebedee's children; compare Matt.

Lu. xxiii.55.

And the women also, which came with him from Gali- Jerusalem. xxvii. 56. with Mark xv. 40. St. Mark only has given us her

name.

Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, mentioned by
St. Luke only viii. 3. and xxiv. 10.

The blessed Virgin, mother of Christ, having been recom-
mended by Chrsit while she stood by his cross, to the protection
of St. John; the mother of this his beloved disciple, seems
pointed out by that recommendation, as the proper person to
attend and support her in the extremity of her grief, and to be
with her at his abode, when he had conducted her thither; and
it is further probable that Salome bore this part in the melan-
choly offices of that evening, because St. Matthew mentions
only the two Maries, with whom she is usually joined, as sitting
over against the tomb after the interment: St. Mark also men-
tions only these two on that occasion; whence we presume that
she was not with them when they followed the body to the se-
pulchre.

The Galilean women who had attended the body of our Lord to the sepulchre, and seen how he was laid, then went back to the city, to prepare spices and ointments before the commencement of the sabbath, that they might be ready for use on the morning after it. To prepare these spices was probably little more than to purchase them according to a remark of Dr. Lardner, for in so populous a city as Jerusalem, where there was a constant, and often, a sudden demand for them, they would be sold ready compounded. Short therefore as the time was before the sabbath began, it would be sufficient for this purpose. And that the women did so employ it, is manifest from St. Luke, whose words literally translated run thus: "And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid; and being returned, prepared spices and ointments. And they rested indeed the seventh day, according to the commandment; but on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they went into the sepulchre, carrying the spices which they had prepared." (Luke xxiii. 55, 56. xxiv. 1.) On which words Grotius observes, that nothing can be clearer than that the spices were purchased by these women on the evening before the sabbath, and not after it. But this, which is so clear of the Galilean women in general, is to be understood with an exception of three of them; Salome, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James.

It is probable, as hath been shewn, that Salome was not in the procession to the sepulchre; and it is no less probable, that the two Maries did not quit it with the other Galilean women. Matt. xxvii. 59-61. The words of St. Matthew seem to imply, that even after the closing of the sepulchre they still lingered near it, till it was too late to purchase their spices that evening. The fact is certain that they purchased none till the sabbath was past.

Let us now consider the objections which have been, or may be made to this arrangement.

It may be said, if we divide the women into two parties, it is not easy to apprehend how they could have been at the sepulchre without any sight of each other; since all the Evangelists assign nearly the same time for their coming thither. It is to be remembered, that the verb pxoμai, used by the Evangelists, bears the sense of going as well as coming; and it here means, the time when the women went from their several houses: in which case there is no difficulty in conceiving the means that

Lu.xxiii.55, lee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how Jerusalem. the body was laid.

may have kept the two parties asunder, as long as we suppose it
requisite.

Let us but consider the situation of certain places in Jerusa-
lem, and we shall find it not only possible, but probable, that
these things should have fallen out as they have been stated;
and indeed that they could not well have happened otherwise,
if we may rely on a map of that city, not of arbitrary construc-
tion, but compiled from ancient documents. In Zebedee's
house, Salome, whether then his wife or widow, would abide
with her son St. John. It stood very near to that which the
map of Dr. Townson, which is here referred to, calls the
Dung-gate; which opened the nearest way to the sepulchre
from that part of the town. In this house would be deposited
the spices prepared on the preceding evening by her, Mary
Magdalene, and the other Mary, as the most convenient place
from which they might be taken to the sepulchre. Her friends,
the two Maries, who had staid at the sepulchre by themselves
on Friday evening, probably lodged together, perhaps in an
interior part of the city, at least more remote from the Dung-
gate, and on that account went forth before it was clear day-
light, that they might be in good time at Zebedee's house:
from which, when all things were ready, they and Salome pro-
ceeded to the sepulchre, so as to be there at the rising of the
sun. The lodgings of Joanna, whose husband was steward to
Herod, we may tix in or near the palace; the direct way from
which to the sepulchre was through the Gate of the Valley. It
is seen, at once, that this palace and Zebedee's house were in
different quarters of the city. They therefore who started from
either, had little inducement to make such a round, as would
be necessary to call at the other; when it was supposed they
would all meet at the sepulchre.

The map of Dr. Townson shows also, that the distance from Herod's palace to the sepulchre was at least twice as much as from Zebedee's house. If, therefore, the three women that went from the latter to the sepulchre, and reached it about six, were half an hour in going, they who set out from the palace, at the same rate of walking, twice the distance, would be there half an hour later. But we can hardly believe them to have been thus expeditious, as to have arrived but half an hour after the first party. Early in the morning, as Joanna and one or two of her friends were prepared to set out, they bad to wait for others, who might live at some distance, or not be quite so punctual; and when they were collected, the women of Galilee, and the women of Jerusalem, if any of them were slow walkers, the rest could get on no faster, if they were to keep together in a body. We may therefore well allow near an hour between the arrivals of the two companies at the sepulchre, and this is amply sufficient for all that is supposed to have happened in the interim.

The errand of the women who had seen an angelic vision, was to the Apostles; of whom, St. John would dwell in his own house, that had been his father Zebedee's. Nor was St. Peter's far from him, John xxii. 2. To these the women would first repair, as Mary Magdalene had before. And wherever the rest of the Apostles were to be found, unless the path towards their lodgings lay through the gate of the valley, which we have no reason to suppose, the company that first retired from the sepulchre could not meet the other advancing towards it. Herod's palace may be admitted to have been where the map places it. It may seem more questionable, how the site of Ze

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