THE BOOK OF JOB.

DR. CLARK says: 66 On all hands it is accounted a work that contains the purest morality, the sublimest philosophy, the simplest ritual, the most majestic creed.

"It is a poem of the highest order; dealing in subjects the most grand and sublime; using imagery the most chaste and appropriate, describing by language the most happy and energetic, conveying instruction in both Divine and human things, the most ennobling and useful, abounding in precepts the most pure and exalted which are enforced by arguments the most strong and conclusive, and illustrated by examples the most natural and striking."

Viewed as a literary production, it has challenged the admiration of all capable of appreciating its beauty, sublimity, and force, who have ever studied this production of the Idumean poet.

That Job was a real and not a fictitious person, is proved by the manner in which he is referred to in other parts of the Bible. Ezekiel says [xiv. 14], "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own soul by their righteousness, saith the Lord God."

James v. 11, we read; "Behold ye have heard of the patience of Job, and seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy."

Now, would an inspired prophet speak of "three men," when one of them was a man of fancy, and no man. Would he associate him with Noah and Daniel, talk of his righteousness and the effect of his prayers to preserve the devoted people from ruin?

And if Job was not a real person, all his patience under suffering, and all the tender mercy of God to him are all fiction.

Look at the variety of facts and statements in reference to him. His country is well defined, and is known to be Idumea, or Edom, at the south of Judea. Lam. iv. 21: "Rejoice and be glad, O daughters of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz."

We have his piety, his wealth, the number of his children, the conduct of his wife, the number, names, and countries of his friends, his afflictions, deliverance, the address of God to him, and his prayer for his friends, all of which is fiction if Job be fictitious.

He says: No "reasonable doubt can be entertained of his real existence, when we reflect that it is proved by the concurrent

testimony of all eastern tradition. He is mentioned by the author of the book of Tobit, who lived during the Assyrian captivity.

"He is also frequently mentioned by Mohammed as a real person. The whole of his history, with many spurious additions, was known among the Syrians and Chaldeans, and many of the noblest families among the Arabians bear his name, and boast of being descended from him."

As to when Job lived, when the book bearing his name was written, and who wrote it, the learned are far from being agreed. Mason Good thinks it the oldest book in the world, and written by Moses.

He thinks the author must have been a Hebrew by birth and language, an Arabian by long residence, equally master of the simple and the sublime; intimately acquainted with the astronomy, natural history, and general science of the age, and all these requisites meet in Moses.

Clark thinks Solomon wrote it, and hence places Job posterior to Moses.

Others ascribe it to Ezra, Isaiah, to Elijah, or some learned Jew; while a few, with more reason, ascribe it to Job himself, while they allow that Moses compiled it, made some verbal changes-wrote the introduction, and changed the first to the third person in the beginning of the chapters.

1. I believe Job lived before the destruction of Sodom, or the exodus from Egypt, as not the slightest reference is made to either of these events, so well suited to the line of arguments pursued by his friends in support of their major proposition, namely, that the wicked are destroyed and the righteous preserved.

The plagues inflicted upon Egypt, the passage of the Red Sea, the overthrow O Pharaoh, the manna of the wilderness, the water in the desert, all these could have been, and would have been, passed into the arguments had they been known; and they could not fail to have been known had they occurred before the date of the poem.

2. The great age Job attained proves him to have lived in that early age.

After his deliverance he lived 140 years. (See chap. xlii. ver. 15).

He was doubtless seventy at the time of the commencement of this trial, for he had seven sons named and settled around him. (chap. i. ver. 2—4).

He speaks of the sins of his youth, xiii.

26; "Thou writest bitter things against me, to possess the iniquities of my youth."

And still Eliphaz taunts him with being young, xv. 9, 10; "What knowest thou that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?

"With us are both the gray-headed and very aged man, much elder than thy father."

Now admitting him to have been seventy at the beginning of his trial, he was 210 or more at the time of his death, an age men did not reach after the days of Moses.

3. His wealth is reckoned in cattle and flocks, a peculiarity of the patriarchal age.

4. He acted as high priest in his family, "for he rose up early in the morning and offered sacrifice according to the number of his sons, when the time for their fasting had gone about;" i. 5.

He lived, therefore, before the establishment of an order of priests; that is, before the days of Moses.

5. Learned men find proofs of this proposition in the fact that though all the friends of Job were Idumean, or Arabians, they nevertheless spoke in Hebrew, and the book must be while that was the language of Idumea.

This is important, chiefly as showing the creed of the patriarchal times.

That creed as here presented embraces the following doctrines:

I believe in fallen angels, who have access to men to tempt and try them; that they are controlled by Jehovah, in the erection of the world by one God; the fall of man; worship by sacrifice; redemption by Christ; the resurrection of the dead, and everlasting life after death, either of bliss or woe, according to the character here formed.

Such was the creed of the patriarchs, the creed of the prophets, the creed of the apostles.

THE YEAR OF CHRIST'S BIRTH.
BY DR. KITTO.

"How long ago was our Lord born?" Some will smile at this question, and will answer it by another question.

"Does not the date of the present year answer that very plainly? Eighteen hundred and fifty-three years since, of course." "Then, in what year was our Lord born?"

"In the year 1, of course," some will

answer.

"In the year 0, of course," others will affirm.

Then here, to begin with, is a year's difference, seeing that some count one at the moment Christ was born, while others do not count one till the first year of his life had expired.

But there is greater difference still. A marginal note at the head of our English New Testaments informs us, that Jesus was born in the "fourth year before the account called Anno Domini," by which account, therefore, it would seem that the year of our Lord which we call 1853 is really 1857, leaving us to infer that the person who first calculated the year of Christ's birth was mistaken to this extent. Nor should this surprise us, seeing that it was not done until the sixth century-a most unscientific and uncritical age. It was not until then that the usage of counting from the birth of Christ began, and it was but slowly that it acquired prevalence; so that although, with differences, it was generally established in the eighth century, it cannot be said to have become universal in Christendom until the fifteenth.

Lately, the whole question has been reexamined by continental and English scholars with much care; and although the precise year of our Lord's birth is still uncertain, a reasonably near approximation has been attained. The safest process, indeed the only attainable one, is to find, as nearly as we may, the year of Rome in which the event occurred. For this, there are certain data in the Gospels and in Josephus, which, without leading us to absolute certainty, will not allow us to go far astray. We will endeavour to state this very briefly. As a preliminary, it may be well to remind the reader, that the first year of the present vulgar era coincides with the year 733 of the building of Rome (A.U.)

According to Matt. ii. 1, Jesus was born in the reign of Herod the Great, and not long before his death. Now, Herod died in the year of Rome 750, just before the passover. If, then, we make an allowance of time for the purification, the visit of the Magi, the flight into Egypt, and the remaining there till Herod was dead-for all which not less than six months can well be required-it will follow that the birth of Christ cannot in any case be fixed later than the autumn of the year of Rome 749, being four years before the present era.

Again, Luke (iii. 1, 2) says, that John the Baptist entered upon his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius; and, further on (iii. 23), that Jesus was "about thirty years of age at the time of his baptism by John. Now if, as is quite likely, John commenced his ministry at the same age as Jesus, we may, by reckoning back thirty years, ascertain the time of John's birth, and, consequently, that of Jesus, who is known to have been six months younger. Now, reckoning from the death of Augustus, in the year of Rome 767, the

fifteenth year of Tiberius, who succeeded him, commenced August 29th, A.U. 781; and going back thirty years, we find that John must have been born not earlier than August 29th, A.U. 751; and our Lord, of course, not earlier than A.U. 752-a result differing by three years from that obtained from Matthew. But Tiberius had been associated with Augustus in the empire certainly two years, and probably three, before the death of the latter; and if, as may be well presumed, Luke reckoned from this the commencement of the reign of Tiberius, the date deduced from his statement coincides entirely with that drawn from Matthew.

Further, in John ii. 20, the Jews say, "Forty and six years was this temple in building." Now, Herod commenced the temple in the eighteenth year of his reign, coinciding with A.U. 732; if, therefore, our Lord was at the time of his first passover, forty-seven years after, as is probablethirty and a half years of age, this would carry back the year of his birth to the autumn of the year of Rome 748.

Moreover, a tradition preserved by the Latin fathers, on a point wherein authentic information is easily obtainable by them, makes the death of Christ to have taken place in the consulship of C. Rubellius and C. Rufius-that is, in A.U. 782. If, therefore, the duration of our Lord's ministry was three and a half years, making his age thirty-three and a half at the time of his death, this takes us back to the same date of 748, A.U.

From the concurrence of all these data, it would appear that the birth of our Lord cannot have taken place later than the year of Rome 749; but it may have been a year or two earlier, if we suppose the period of six months too short to cover the interval between the birth of Jesus and the return of the family from Egypt, on hearing of Herod's death. Some think that it could not have been less than one, two, or three years. Taking all things into account, we suppose it could not well have been less than between one and two years. The uncertainty on this point seems the sole remaining difficulty. And the result is, that the birth of our Lord cannot well have been less than four years anterior to the present era, and may have been a year or two more. Upon the whole, we do not feel satisfied with less than a year more, and this would throw back the true date five years before the present era, so that the present year of 1853 would be actually the 1858th year since the birth of our Lord.

THE FIELD OF BLOOD.

66

AT the foot of the eastern elevation of the Mountain of Offence, where it rises from the valley, is pointed out the Aceldama, or Field of Blood; said to be that purchased by the Jewish priests with the thirty pieces of silver that Judas had received for betraying his Master, but which he afterwards returned in remorse. The transaction is thus recorded by the Evangelist: "Then Judas which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day." This same transaction is thus noticed in the Acts of the Apostles: Now this man (Judas) purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood." This field still retains its name, and is called in every language, and by every people within or about Jerusalem, Jews, Christians, and Mohammedans, Aceldama. It is not far distant from the stream of Gihon; and at the period of our visit, there were still the marks and remains of bricks and pottery-ware in the adjoining ravine, a place likely to be used for their manufacture, as it contained the clay suited for such purposes, and was in the vicinity of a rivulet. Toward the upper end of this enclosure, the traveller is shown, among the many wonders to which tradition, ignorance, and credulity, in this country attach the credence due only to historic record, a large square chamber, sunk in the earth, partly excavated in the rock upon the side of the hill, and partly built of masonry. It is arched at top, and there were formerly on the outside a number of small cupolas, like the tops of furnaces, with a hole in the centre of each, through which were let down the dead bodies to the vault beneath; much in the same manner as is practised in Naples at the present day. A tradition existed that the earth in the bottom of this cavern was possessed of some extraordinary destructive or corrosive power; for it was said to com

pletely consume the bodies thrown into it in twenty-four hours; and on account of this supposed quality, ship-loads of it were, in former years, exported from Joppa to Europe. This tomb has been figured in the rare work of Sandys, who described it in 1610. The cupolas at top somewhat resembled those upon the Roman tomb, represented by Montfauçon as erected over the Curiatii at Albano. The dead continued to be interred in this vault up to the days of Maundrell, who says, Looking down through these holes, we could see many bodies under several degrees of decay; from which it may be conjectured that this grave does not make that quick despatch with the corpses committed to it, which is commonly reported." Some few bodies were also to be seen in it at the time of Dr. Richardson's visit; but their condition proved how little reliance was to be placed upon the boasted sarcophagus properties of the place. It is now in a state of complete dilapidation; one side is a ruin; the cupolas have been demolished, and its only occupants, when we visited it, were owls, bats, and cockroaches.

But the

This tomb has been generally described as that which was bought with the bloodmoney that was returned by Judas Iscariot. It is pointed out as such by the priests and guides, and the belief in its identity seems to have gained strength from its having been permitted to remain uncontradicted; and traveller after traveller has repeated the tale, till it is believed by all. architecture, the small stones of which it is built, and the very mortar with which they are connected, all testify to the absur dity of this opinion; and prove that it cannot possibly be coeval with the Christian era. It is of a character totally dif ferent from all other Eastern tombs, and the similarity in external appearance to the Roman, and in purport to the Neapolitan, is very remarkable. A date, however, of three centuries later, has been assigned to it by Sandys. "In the midst whereof," says he, when describing the field, "a large square room was made by the mother of Constantine; the south side walled with the natural rock, flat at top, and equal with the upper level, out of which rise certain little cupolas, open in the midst, to let down the dead bodies."

Having heard a rumour of a tomb that had been lately discovered and opened by the Arabs, in this vicinity, and it being reported that some human remains were found in it, I rode out one evening during our sojourn in Jerusalem, to examine the place. A little higher up in the cliff that rises from the cavern erected by the Empress Helena, within the ground denomi

nated Aceldama, and in the neighbourhood of the painted chambers, and that excavation called the tomb of Isaiah, some Arabs, when at work in the place, accidentally discovered the doorway of a tomb carved out of the solid rock, which had been concealed by a heap of rubbish, over which the soil had accumulated so as to completely conceal the entrance. Such was the account given to me by credible witnesses in Jerusalem. This entrance at the time of our visit was still partly concealed by brambles, stones, and dirt, so that but one half of the doorway was visible.

It represents a Doric pediment, supported by rude pilasters, with some remains of floral embellishments carved upon the architrave, such as I have noticed as being characteristic of Hebrew sculpture; the whole hewn out of the rock, from which it stands out in good relief. The most remarkable circumstance connected with this façade was its door, which struck me the moment I saw it, as being totally different from that of any other tomb that I had ever seen or read of, except one at Petra. It is formed of a single slab of stone, and moves on horizontal pivots that run into sockets cut in the pilasters at top, in the manner of a swinging hinge, similar to that which is sometimes seen in the doors of cottages in this country. The lower part of it had been, as I was informed, broken off by the Arabs, in order to effect an entrance. It is the only outside door of a tomb that I have ever seen, and it differs from all others in not having been formed for concealment, or for being completely closed when the body was deposited within; but was evidently made for the purpose of being opened occasionally. Having entered beneath this ponderous portal, and lighted our candles, we were greatly surprised to find ourselves within a tolerably-sized hall of an oblong shape, cut with great precision out of the rock, but without ornament or adornment of any kind whatever.

Curious to relate, the whole of this tomb afforded a most striking illustration of its appropriateness to describe the character of self-righteous scribes and pharisees, and showed the forcible application of the language used by the Saviour when denouncing their hypocrisy : "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for you are like unto whited walls, sepulchres, which, indeed, appear beautiful outward; but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." At the end, and on either side of the hall, a number of doors led into inner apartments. Each of these chambers was a small oblong crypt, about seven feet long; on either side of which was a trough or sarcophagus, hewn like all

the rest of the tomb out of the solid rock, and raised about three feet from the floor, and in all of them were quantities of human bones lying without order or regu larity, but in a state of most astonishing preservation. The edges of these troughs were in many places chipped and broken, as if from long use; and the whitewash had not only coated these parts, but had actually spotted several of the bones that lay low down in the bottoms of the troughs. These bones were piled in layers, and as each trough contained several, the whitewash must have been used subsequently to some of the bodies being placed within them. This whitewash (which is the only instance of the kind that has yet been discovered of that ancient Jewish custom), was in a most extraordinary state of perfection; and from the number of layers that could be seen, on picking it off the wall, it was evident that it had been frequently renewed. Such was the appearance that this tomb presented when we examined it; and such I was informed was its state when discovered.

But the most remarkable feature in this catacomb was, that each set of crypts, that is, those on the three different sides, contained the remains of distinct and separate races of mankind, as shown by the skulls found in the trough: the skulls of one side were not in any instance mixed up with those of the other; all were perfectly distinct and separate from each other. Now, none of these curious heads belonged to the Jewish race, for not one single European or well-marked Caucasian head could I find among the numbers scattered in the chambers; and as all who did not belong to that family, must have been strangers in Jerusalem, and as these heads belonged to races of mankind that we know did not inhabit Judæa for the last two thousand years, they must have been foreigners; and this has led me to conjecture, that this tomb, which is situated in the acknowledged Field of Blood, may be one of those sepulchres of the actual Aceldama that was purchased by the priests "to bury strangers in."-Dr. Wilde.

DEATH WARRANT OF JESUS
CHRIST.

OF the many interesting relics and fragments of antiquity which have been brought to the light by the persevering researches of modern philosophers, none could have been more interesting, if genuine, to the philanthropist and believer, than the one we publish below. "Chance," says the Courrier des Etats Unis, "has just put into our hands the most imposing and interesting judicial document to all Christians that ever has been recorded in human annals;"

Orders the first Centurion, Quilius Cornelius, to lead him to the place of execution.

Forbids any person, whomsoever, either poor or rich, to oppose the death of Jesus Christ.

The witnesses who signed the condemnation of Jesus, are

1. Daniel Robani, a Pharisee.
2. Joannus Robani.
3. Raphael Robani.
4. Capet, a citizen.

Jesus shall go out of the city of Jerusa lem by the gate of Struenus.

The above sentence is engraved on a copper-plate; on one side are written these words: "A similar plate is sent to each tribe." It was found in an antique vase of white marble, while excavating in the ancient city of Aquilla, in the kingdom of Naples, in the year 1810, and was discovered by the Commissioners of Arts of the French armies. At the expedition to Naples, it was enclosed in a box of ebony, at the sacristy of the Chartem. The French translation was made by the Commissaries of Arts. The original is in the Hebrew language.

EXTRACTS FROM BARNES' NOTES.

"For every one shall be salted with fire. and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt," Mark ix. 49.

Every one shall be salted with fire.-Perhaps no passage in the New Testament has