scripture in three passages which do not agree with each other.'

Fresh light can now be thrown on the mysteriously delineated person of Ananias, who, with Stephen, and perhaps Judas at Damascus, was the principal medium of Paul's conversion. It results, from a hitherto overlooked passage in Josephus, that, "upon the death of King Agrippa," a Jewish merchant called Ananias had a conversation with King Izates of Adiabene, one of the Mesopotamian kingdoms. Izates was told "that he might worship God without being circumcised, even though he should resolve to follow the Jewish Law entirely, which worship of God was of a superior nature to circumcision. But another Jew, Eleazar, "who was esteemed very skilful in the learning of his country," persuaded Izates to be circumcised by showing him from the Law what great impiety he would be guilty of by neglecting this divine command. Josephus adds, that God preserved Izates from all dangers, demonstrating thereby that "the fruit of piety does not perish as to those who have regard to him, and fix their faith upon him only."

The doctrines of this Ananias include Paul's principle of righteousness by faith only, without the deeds of the Law, especially without circumcision. The party represented by Ananias at Adiabene we may safely identify with that of the Essenic Therapeuts in Egypt, of Jewish dissenters who

1 Acts ix. 3-19, xxii. 6-21, xxvi. 9-18.

2 Jos. "Ant.," xx. 2.

one

discarded the Law. Against these Jewish dissenters or Hellenists, not against Paul, the Epistle of James was written, during the reign of Herod Agrippa or soon later, at all events before Paul had begun to promulgate the doctrines of his new faith, which should afterwards be revealed.' The Ananias at Adiabene may well have been identical with Ananias at Damascus, trading between the two emporiums of commerce, Damascus and Babylon. At Adiabene the goods would be transferred from caravan to another, and this time Ananias would devote to missionary labours, uniting in himself, as was done later by Mahomed, the occupations of a caravan-leader with that of a missionary. The important fact is now established that at the beginning of the apostolic age two Jewish parties promulgated essentially different doctrines, and that Paul can have been confirmed in his new faith by a Jewish dissenter, perhaps by one of the Lawrejecting Essenes or Therapeuts to whom Stephen belonged. No wonder that the disciples at Jerusalem "were all afraid" of Saul, did not believe that he was "a disciple," and that during fourteen years they did not give to him the right hand of fellowship.

THE THREE DAYS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURE.

Philo of Alexandria, well acquainted with the opinions and rites of the Essenes, probably himself

1 James must have referred to Paul if the epistle was written after the first meeting between Paul, Peter, and James in 44-45.

a Therapeut, states that this Essenic sect "first preeminently studied " the "invisible sense which lies enveloped in the expressions-the soul." He wrote. a treatise on the festivals" of the Law' as figuratively interpreted and mystically observed by the Therapeuts, who were "in the habit of turning plain stories into allegory." Philo shows that the feast of the 14th Nisan, when the Jews in Palestine ate the Paschal lamb, was by these Essenes explained as "figuratively" representing "the purification of the soul," and that on this day they fulfilled" their hereditary custom with prayer and songs of praise." The 15th was a day of "cheerfulness and giving of thanks to God," as the day of "the great migration" from Egypt, the memorial day of "the gratitude due for their deliverance." Philo does not refer to the "holy convocation" which the Law orders for the 15th Nisan, but it is almost certain that "the solemn assembly" of the Therapeuts on the 16th Nisan took place in the night before the morning of that day, which commenced with the sunset of the 15th Nisan. For the presentation of the firstfruits on the 16th Nisan took place with the break of day, the exact time of which could not be previously determined. The initiated men of the Therapeuts may have passed the hours of that night in holy expectation, as was later done by the Christian Church. For they knew that this

1 Philo, "de sept. et diebus festis."

2

'Pervigilium Pascha" in the holy night of the 25th of March is mentioned by Fathers of the Church, and Jerome states that Jews expected the Messiah at midnight, perhaps

G

16th Nisan was the third day after the slaying of the Paschal lamb, which they interpreted as a symbol of "the purification of the soul," and that Hosea had designated "the third day" and the rising of the sun as symbols of life's renewal.

Some solemn event could therefore be expected by the allegorizing Essenes on the 16th Nisan. It is possible that the Essenes were led to expect the death of the Messiah to take place on the day of the slaying of the Paschal lamb, and his resurrection, which perhaps they expected, with the day of the first-fruit. On this, perhaps doubtful, assumption Paul would not have invented the doctrine of "the third day according to the Scripture." The remarkable agreement thus traced between doctrines and rites of Essenic Therapeuts and those of Christians is confirmed by Eusebius. He asserts the identity of the hereditary customs of the Therapeuts at the time of the Passover and the Christian Easter. He even

considers it "highly probable" that the ancestorial Scripture commentaries, to which Philo referred as known to him, formed the groundwork of "the very gospels and writings of the apostles."

Paul expressed his belief that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture, and that he was

like Christians on the 25th of our December, on the third day after the sun's having begun to enter the constellation of the winter solstice, on the birthday of the new-born sun, when Christ (like Buddha), the Sun of righteousness, was said to have been born (Matt. xxv. 6; Mark xiii. 35; Luke xi. 5; Hier. on Matt. iv. 28; Aug. v. 285; Lact. vii. 19; &c.).

1 Eus. "H. E.," ii. 17.

buried, and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the Scripture." When he wrote this to the Corinthians, he could say that he had already before that time delivered unto them "first of all," as if before all others, that which he also had received and which he first announced to them. He declares that like the doctrine on Christ's atoning death, so also his resurrection was by him proclaimed according to the Scripture, that is, to the Old Testament, since the New Testament was not yet in existence. Yet we find in the Scripture no direct reference to the Messiah's death on a fixed date, nor to the day of his resurrection. To what passage in the Bible can Paul have referred his "third day" by figuratively interpreting the same, and thus giving it a new meaning? The positive conviction which Paul has conveyed verbally and in writing presupposes that two institutions in Israel connected with two days of the month of Nisan, and separated by a day, have been by Paul's figurative and typical interpretation referred to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These institutions can have been no others than the slaying of the Paschal lamb on the 14th Nisan, and the presentation of the first-fruit or Paschal omer on the 16th Nisan.

If it could be asserted that Jesus was crucified on the 14th Nisan-and few would then know the exact date-it was easy to believe, and to lead others into the belief, that on "the third day according to the Scripture," that is, on the 16th Nisan, at break of day, when the first-fruit was offered in