to us, who have come after Christ, with those pious men who lived in times long before? Whence it is evident that the religion delivered to us in the doctrine of Christ is not a new nor a strange doctrine; but if the truth must be spoken, it is the first and only true religion. Thus much may suffice on this point.
CHAPTER V.
The times of our Saviour's manifestation among men.
After the necessary preliminary to the Ecclesiastical History which we have proposed to write, it now remains that we commence our course, invoking God, the Father of the word, and Jesus Christ himself, our revealed Saviour and Lord, the heavenly word of God, as our aid and fellow-labourer in the narration of the truth. It was the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, but the twenty-eighth from the subjugation of Egypt and the death of Antony and Cleopatra, which terminated the dynasty of the Ptolemies, when, according to prophetic prediction, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea; the same year, when the first census was taken, and Quirinius[1] was governor of Syria. — This census is mentioned by Flavins Josephus, the distinguished historian among the Hebrews, who also adds another account respecting the sect of the Galileans, which arose about the same time, of which also mention is made by our Luke in his book of Acts, in the following words — " After this man arose Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing (assessment), and drew away much people after him, he also preached; and all, even as many as obeyed him were dispersed." Acts v. 37. The aforesaid author agreeing with this statement in the 18th
- ↑ Quirinius. — This Quirinius is the same Cyrenius mentioned by St. Luke. The former is the original Roman name, the latter the Latin mode oi transferring the name from the Greek. Had it been recollected that the Greek name was not the original, this proper name would not have been returned to its own language, in a form so disguised.
