of his critical Annotations on the N. T., gives much on the subject that can hardly be found any where else by a mere English reader. Large references might be made to the works of the original German writers; but it would require a very protracted statement, and would be useless to nearly all readers, because those to whom these rare and deep treasures of sacred knowledge are accessible, are doubtless better able to give an account of them than I am. It may be worth while to mention, however, that of all those statements of the facts on this subject with which I am acquainted, none gives a more satisfactory view, than a little Latin monograph, in a quarto of eighty pages, written by H. W. Halfeld, (a Goettingen theological student, and a pupil of Eichhorn, for whose views he has a great partiality,) for the Royal premium. Its title is, "Commentatio de origine quatuor evangeliorum, et de eorum canonica auctoritate." (Goettingen, 1796.) The Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius, (Harles's edition with notes,) contains, in the chapters on the gospels, very rich references to the learned authors on these points. Lardner, in his History of the Apostles and Evangelists, takes a learned view of the question, "whether either of the three evangelists had seen the others' writings." This he gives after the lives of all four of the evangelists, and it may be referred to for a very full abstract of all the old opinions upon the question. Few of these points have any claim for a discussion in this book, but some things may very properly be alluded to, in the lives of the other evangelists, where a reference to their resemblances and common sources, will be essential to the completeness of the narrative.
III. At what time did Matthew write his gospel?
This is a question on which the records of antiquity afford no light, that can be trusted; and it is therefore left to be settled entirely by internal evidence. There are indeed ancient stories, that he wrote it nine years after the ascension,—that he wrote it fifteen years after that event,—that he wrote it while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome,—or when he was about leaving Palestine, &c., all which are about equally valuable. The results of the examinations of modern writers, who have labored to ascertain the date, have been exceedingly various, and only probabilities can be stated on this most interesting point of gospel history. The most probable conjecture on this point is one based on the character of certain passages in Christ's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, which by their vividness in the evangelist's record, may be fairly presumed to have been written down when the crisis in Jewish affairs was highest, and most interesting; and when the perilous condition of the innocent Christians must have been a matter of the deepest solicitude to the apostles,—so much as to deserve a particular provision, by a written testimony of the impending ruin. A reference made also to a certain historical fact in Christ's prophecy, which is known on the testimony of Josephus, the Jewish historian, to have happened about this time, affords another important ground for fixing the date. This is the murder of Zachariah, the son of Barachiah, whom the Jews slew between the temple and the altar. He relates that the ferocious banditti, who had possessed themselves of the strong places of the city, tyrannized over the wretched inhabitants, execu-
