The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament, Part 1 · Section 9 – Section 12

The Harmony Chronicle and Order of the New Testament · Part 1 · Section 9 – Section 12

SECTION IX.

The Gospel began in JOHNS Ministry and Baptisme.

CHRIST. XXIX THe order of this Section is confirmed by all the three. Mark hath made this the beginning of his Gospel, because the preceding occurrences of Christs birth and Minoitry, were committed by the holy Ghost who held his pen, to the pens of others: He calls the Ministry and Baptisme of Iohn, the beginning of the Gospel, and that deservedly, both in regard of Iohns preaching and proclaiming Christs appearing to be so neer, as also in regard of the great change that his Ministry introduced, both in doctrine and practise: He preaching and administring the baptisme of repentance for the remission of sins, whereas baptisme till that time had been used and taken up as an obligation to the performance of the Law: And he baptizing Jews into another religion then their own, whereas till then, baptizing had been used, to admit Heathens into the religion of the Jews.

Here is the standard of time that the holy Ghost hath set up in the new Testament: unto which as unto the fullnesse of tim…, he hath drawn up a chronicall chain from the Creation: and from which as from a standing mark, we are to measure all the times of the new Testament if we would fix them to a certain date.

There are two main stories that Luke layeth down in his third Chapter: the one is Iohns baptizing, and the other is, Christ baptized by him, and he hath dated the former in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cesar, and how to date the latter we are taught and helped by these collections. 1. He intimateth to us that Christ when he was baptised by Iohn, was but entring on his thirtee…th year, as the wonders that he hath used do plainly evidence. p. 9foreign, He was beginning to be about thirty years of age, or after a manner, and in such a way of reckoning, as the Scripture ordinarily useth, accounting the very first day of a year, as that year. foreign: One day of the year is reputed that year. Tal. Bab. Resh hashavah fol. 2. 2. Iohn baptized half a year before Iesus came to be baptized of him, for he was half a year younger then Iohn, Luk. 1.26. and as Christ was baptized and entred his Ministry, just when he was beginning to enter upon his thirtieth year, so Iohn had begun his Ministry at the same age, and both according to the Law, Numb. 4. 3. Christ was baptized in September, at what time of the year he had been born: For the phrase of Luke mentioned before, doth plainly confirm, that his baptism was close to that time of the year, that had been the time of his birth. 4. For the synchronizing therefore of the year of Christ with the year of Tiberius, we must lay Tiberius his fifteenth collaterall in Annal, accounting with Christs nine and twentieth; whether you reckon Tiberius his year from the very time of the year that he began to reign, which was the 20^th of August, [and then in September when Christ was baptized, his sixteenth year was begun, and Christs thirtieth] or whether you reckon according to the common accounting of the Roman Fasti, from Iunuary to Ianuary, and then though Christ indeed spent three moneths of his thirtieth year in Tiberius his fifteenth so accounted, yet he spent three times three moneths of it in his sixteenth.

The fifteenth year of Tiberius then and the nine and twentieth of our Saviour, was the great year of the beginning of the Gospel, in the preaching and baptizing of Iohn, who began this work about Passeover time, or in the monethmonth Abib, otherwise called Nisan. The time of the year that Abraham had received the Promise, Isaac was born, Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, and the Tabernacle was erected in the wildernesse. The Jews speak more then they are aware of, when they say, that As in Nisan there had been redemption, so in Nisan there should be redemption. Tal. Bab. ubi supr. fol. 11. The Gospel began, and Christ died in that monethmonth.

Now whereas it may seem strange, that upon Iohns beginning to baptize, he introducing so strange a practise and doctrine among them, yet the people should flock to him in so great multitudes, as the Evangelists shew they did, and receive his baptisme with so much readinesse: [besides that generall satisfaction that may be given to this, from the consideration of Gods speciall hand and work, providing entertainment for his Gospel, now setting forth,] these four things also may be pertinently observed.

1. This was the time that the Nation expected that the Messia should appear: See Luk. 19.11. Gabriels seventy in Dan. 9. had so plainly and exactly pointed to this very time, that not only the pious and the studious among the Nation, could not but observe it, but it had even raised an expectation through a great part of the world, of some great Potencie to arise among the Jewish Nation about these times, which should subdue and be Ruler of all the world. Percrebuerat oriente toto vetus & constans opinio, esse in fatis ut eo tempore Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur. Sueton. in Vesp. cap. 4. An old and a constant opinion had grown through the whole East, that some coming out of the East should be Master of all.

Nay so evident was the time and truth in Daniel, that the Ierusalem Gomarists that could be well content to deny that Messias was already come, as the rest of their Nation do, yet they cannot but confesse it in Beracoth. fol. 1. col. 1. in this story. Our Doctors say, the Name of King Messias is David: R. Ioshua ben Levi saith, His Name is The branch ▪ [Zech. 3.8.] R. Iudah the son of R. Ibhu saith, his Name is Menahem, [the Comforter.] And this helps to prove that which R. Iudah saith, namely this example of a certain Iew: who as he was polwing, his Ox lowed: A certain Arabian passing by and observing his Ox low, said, O Iew, O Iew, loose thine Oxen, and lay by this plow, for behold your Sanctuary is destroyed. The Ox lowed a second time. He saith to him again, O Iew, O Iew, yoke thine Oxen, and tie on thy plow, for behold King Messias is born. He saith to him, What is his Name? the other answered Menahem [the Comforter:] And what is his Fathers Name? He answered, Hezekiah [the strong God.] He saith to him, Whence is he? He answered, From the royall Palace of Bethlehem Iudáh. He went and sold his Oxen, and sold his plow and gears, and went about from City to City selling swadling clothes for babes. When he came to that City, all the women bought of him, but the Mother of Menahem bought not. He heard the voice of the women saying, O Mother of Menaham, thou Mother of Menahem, Bring some things sold here to thy childe. She answered, Now I pray, that all Israels enemies may be hanged, for on the day that he was born the house of the Sanctuary was destroyed. He saith to her, We hope p. 10as it is destroyed at his feet, so it will be built at his feet. She saith to him, I have no money. And why, saith he, doth he suffer for that? If thou have no money now, I will come again after two dayes and receive it. After the dayes he came to the City and saith to her, How does the Childe? She answered him, Since the time that thou sawest me, there came windes and storms and took him out of my hands. A cleer confession of Christs being already come, and of the poverty of his Mother.

2. They expected a great change of things when Messias should come: That Promise in the Prophet of new Heavens and a new earth, to be created, raised this expectation. Hence have they this saying, foreign The holy blessed God will renew the world for a thousand years. Aruch in foreign. [Iohn speaks their own language, when he speaks of reigning with Christ a thousand years, Rev. 20.4. which is no more to be understood of the time yet to come, then Messias is yet to be expected as not come.] Hereupon they call the dayes of the Messias foreign A new Creation, as 2 Cor. 5.17. In Midris Tillin. fol. 4. col. 3. R. Houne speaketh of three ages, and the last that he mentioneth is foreign the age of the Messias: And when that comes, saith he, the holy blessed God saith, Now it lies upon me to Create a new Creation. They likewise call at that time foreign the world to come, because of the change of things that they expected then, as if a new world were created. Tanchum. fol. 77. col. 3. In the world to come I will send my messenger speedily, and he shall prepare the way before me. Paul taketh the world to come in this sense, Heb. 2.5.

3. Baptisme had been in long and common use among them many generations before Iohn Baptist came, they using this for admission of Proselytes into the Church, and baptizing, men, women and children for that end.

Talm. in Jobamoth cap. 4. and Moym. in …ssure biah, cap. 13. A person is not a proselyte till he be both circumcised and baptized.

Id. in Chittubeth cap. 1. foreign. A little one they baptize, by the appointment of the Consistory. And Maym. in Avadim. cap. 8. An Israelite that takes a little Heathen childe, or that findes an Heathen infant, and baptizeth him for a proselyte, behold he is a proselyte.

Hence a ready reason may be given, why there is so little mention of baptizing Infants in the new Testament, that there is neither plain precept nor example for it, as some ordinarily plead: The reason is, because there needed no such mention, baptizing of Infants having been as ordinarily used in the Church of the Jews as ever it hath been in the Christian Church: It was enough to mention that Christ establisht baptism for an Ordinance under the Gospel; and then, who should be baptized, was well enough known, by the use of this Ordinance of old. Therefore it is good plea, Because there is no cleer forbidding of the baptizing of Infants in the Gospel, ergo they are to be baptized: for that having been in common use among the Jews, that Infants should be baptized as well as men and women, our Saviour would have given some speciall prohibition if he intended that they should have been excluded: so that silence in this case doth necessarily conclude approbation to have the practise continued which had been used of old before.

Iohns baptism differed from that before, only in this; that whereas that admitted proselytes to the Jewish religion, this admitted and translated Jews into the Gospel religion: that was a baptisme binding them over to the performance of the Law, as their Circumcision did, but this was a baptisme of repentance for the remission of sinnes, as was observed before.

4. Though some of the Nation expected that the Messias would come and redeem them, though they were impenitent, as some of the Gentiles plead in Talm. Bab. Sanhedr. cap. 10. & R. Samuel in articulis fidei Iudaicae: yet was it more generally held and with good reason, that the Messias would look for a repenting generation: and thereupon others of the Gomarists in the place alledged say: If Israel repent but one day, presently the Messias cometh.

Upon the consideration of these things, it will appear the lesse strange, that the people flowed in to Iohns baptisme in so great a conflux, this being the time about which the Nation expected the appearing of Messias, baptisme being a thing most commonly known and used among them, and this baptisme of repentance administred preparatively toward the entertainment of Christ now ready to come, being sutable to their own apprehensions of the necessity of repentance, against his coming.

Baptisme was [besides other tendencies of it] as a badge whereby those that received p. 11it and stuck to it, were marked out for safety and preservation against that destruction that was to come upon the Nation for unbelief. Therefore Iohn construes their coming to be baptized, their fleeing from the wrath to come: and Peter in the same sense, doth say, that baptisme doth now save, 1 Pet. 3.21. as the Ark had done in the destruction of the old world, so this from the destruction now coming. And Acts 2.40. to his admonition to Repent and be baptized, he addeth, Save your selves from this untoward genenation.

CHRIST. XXX CHRIST is baptized being thirty years old initiant. Iosephs age at his appearing before Pharaoh, Gen. 41.46. The Priests, at their entrance into their office, Numb. 4. and Davids when he began to raign, 2 Sam. 5.4.

He hath now three years and an half to live, and to be a publike Minister of the Gospel, as the Angel Gabriel had told, Dan. 9.27. that in half of the last seaven of the years there named, he should confirm the Covenant: R. Iochavan saith, Three years and an half the divine glory stood upon the mount of Olives and cried, Seek the Lord while he may be found. Midr. Till. fol. 10. col. 4.

This space of time had been renowned before, by Elias his shutting up Heaven, Luk. 4.25. Iames 5.17. and now Heaven is opened: by the persecution of Antiochus when all religion was destroyed, Dan. 12.7, 11. and now redemption and restoring is come.

Christ therefore living three years and an half and dying at Easter, it followes that he was baptized in Tizri, about the Feast of Tabernacles, at which time of the year he had been born: and was now, when he was baptized, nine and twenty years old compleat, and just entring upon his thirtieth: to which add his three years and an half after his baptisme, and it resulteth, that he died, being two and thirty years old and an half: the exact time of Davids reign in Ierusalem, 1 King. 2.11. The dayes that David reigned over Israel, were fourty years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned be in Ierusalem: that is, in Hebron seaven years and an half, 2 Sam. 5.5. and in Ierusalem two and thirty years and an half: so the Ierus. Talm. counteth well, in Rosh hashavah, fol. 1. col. 2.

As Christ by Circumcision was admitted a member of the Church of the Jews, so is he by baptisme of the Church of the Gospel: being withall installed into his Ministeriall function by baptisme, and unction of the holy Ghost, as the Priests were into theirs, by washing and annointing.

SECTION X. LUKE Chap. III. from Ver. 23. to the end of the Chapter. CHRISTS Genealogy by his Mothers side.

MATTHEWS Genealogy, and this, as they run by a different line, so they are brought in upon different ends. Matthew intends to shew, that Iesus Christ was the Son promised to David. Luke shews him the seed of the woman promised to Adam, Gen. 3.15. who in the next following Section begins to break the head of the Serpent. Therefore when that promise to Adam beginneth to take place in Christs entring upon his Ministry, and in his being sealed for the Messias by the holy Ghost, this Genealogy is divinely woven in.

Matthew derives his line by the pedigree of Ioseph his supposed Father, and drawes it from Solomon: Luke by the pedigree of Mary his Mother, and drawes it from Nathan: For as the Jews looked on him as the Son of David, they would regard the masculine line and the line Royall, therefore Matthew giveth it at his birth. But looked on, as the seed promised to Adam, the seed of the woman, he was to be looked after, by the line of his Mother. And whereas this seed of the woman was to destroy the power of Satan by the word of truth, as Satan had destroyed men by words of falshood, Luke doth properly draw up his line to Adam, now when he is to begin to preach the word.

The line on this side the captivity, for which there is no record elswhere in Scripture, Matthew and L…k took from some known records then extant among the Nation. R. Levi p. 12saith, there was found a book of genealogies at Ierusalem, in which it was written, Hillel was of the family of David. Ben Jat…aph of the family of Asap, &c. Tal. Ierus. in Taanith, fol. 68. col. 1. They kept the records of pedigrees and of all other, they would be sure to keep those of the family of David, because of the expectation of the Messiah from it.

SECTION XI.

The seed of the woman and the Serpent combating.

MARK and LUKE by these words, immediatly the spirit driveth him, and Iesus, returned from Iordan, do make the order necessary: so that as for the subsequence of this to what preceded there can be no scruple. Only there is some difference twixt Matthew and Luke in relating the order of the temptations: which Matthew having laid down in their proper rank [as appeareth by these particles then, ver. 15. and again, ver. 8.] Luke in the rehearsing of them, is not so much observant of the order [that being fixed by Matthew before,] as he is carefull to give the full story, and so to give it, as might redound to the fullest information.

As our mother Eve was tempted by Satan to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, as 1 Joh. 2.16. [for she saw it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise, Gen. 3.6.] so by these, had it been possible, would the same tempter have overthrown the seed of the woman: For he tempted him to turn stones into bread, as to satisfie the longing of the flesh; to fall down and worship him upon the sight of a bewitching object to his eyes, and to fly in the aire in pride, and to get glory among men. Luke for our better observing of this parallel, hath laid the order of these temptations answerable to the order of those.

Iesus being baptized about the feast of Tabernacles, toward the latter end of our September, is presently carried into the wildernesse of Iudea, by the acting of the holy Spirit, to enter that combat with the Serpent which was designed, Gen. 3.15. Forty dayes and forty nights [He being all the while, in watching, fasting and solitude, and among the wild beasts, but safe as Adam among them in innocency] the Devill tempteth him invisibly as he doth other men, namely striving to inject sinfull suggestions into him, but he could finde nothing in him to work upon, as Ioh. 14.30. therefore at forty dayes end he taketh another course, and appeareth to him visibly in the shape of an Angel of light [and so had Eve been deceived by him, mistaking him for a good Angel] and trieth him by perswasion, by Scripture and by power, but in all is foiled, mastered and banished by sword.

SECTION XII. JOHN Chap. I. from Ver. 15. to the end of the Chapter. CHRIST is pointed out by Iohn and followed by some Disciples.

COnceive the continuance of the story thus: Christ newly baptized, goeth immediatly into the wildernesse, and leaveth Iohn at Iordan on Iudea side: In the time of the forty dayes temptation, Iohn having now gathered his harvest of Disciples on that side the River, goeth over into the country beyond Iordan, and baptizeth in Bethabara. Thither came some Pharisees by commission of the Sanhedrin, to question him about the authority whereby he baptized, making no strangenesse at baptizing, which had been so long in use among them, but questioning his authority to baptize in that tenour that he did.

The next day after their questioning of him, Christ cometh into sight, is pointed out by Iohn, and followed by some of his Disciples.

For half a year Iohn had baptized in the Name of Christ and knew him not, ver. 31, 33. Only as all the Nation expected the Messias to come in time, and Iohn had it revealed to him that he was now ready to appear, so Iohn baptized and the people came to him upon this account: He professed to all that came to him to be baptized, and so he did to the Jews Commissioners now, that he baptized only in the Name of him that was to come after him, whose shoos latchet he was not worthy to unloose, ver. 27. Let a passage in Tosaphtoth, p. 13comment upon these words: foreign. What is the token of a servant? He ties his Masters shoos, or looses his shoos, and bears his things after him to the bath, In Kiddushin cap. 1. And the like saith Maymony in Mekerah cap. 2. A Canaanite servant is like land as to buying: and he is bought by money, or by script, or by service in way of earnest: And what is the earnest in buying servants? Namely that a man use them as they use servants before a Master. As, to loose his shooe, or to tie his shooe, or to carry his things after him to the bath, &c.

So that those that were baptized in this time, of whom there was a very great number, knew not of Iesus of Nazareth his being the Christ, nor knew they more of Christ then they had known before, but only that he was ready to come: only they were baptized into faith in him, and to repentance.

But when Christ himself came to be baptized, Iohn had discovery of him, and so is able now upon the sight of him to point him out to his Disciples: whereupon Peter [and probably Iohn] and Andrew, and Philip, and Nathanael follow him.