VERS. XX.
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Forty and six years.
I. THAT this was spoken of the Temple as beautify'd and repair'd by Herod, not as built by Zorobabel, these reasons seem to sway with me.
I. That these things were done and discours'd betwixt Christ and the Jews in Herod's Temple.
II. That the account if meant of the Temple of Zorobabel, will not fall in either with the years of the Kings of Persia; or those seven weeks mention'd Dan. IX. 26. in which Jerusalem was to be built, even in troublous times. For whoever reckons by the Kings of Persia, he must necessarily attribute at least thirty years to Cyrus, which they willingly do that are fond of this account; which thirty years too, if they do not reckon to him, after the time that he had taken Babylon, and subverted that Monarchy, they prove nothing as to this computation at all.
a 1.1 Cyrus destroy'd the Empire of the Medes, and reign'd over Persia, having overthrown Astyages the King of the Medes. And from thence he reckons to Cyrus thirty years. But by what authority he ascribes the Jews being set at liberty from their captivity, to that very same year, I cannot tell. For Cyrus could not release the Jews from their captivity in Ba∣bylon, before he had conquer'd Babylon for himself; and this was a great while after he had subdu'd the Medes, as appears from all that have treated upon the subversion of that Empire, which how they agree with Xenophon, I shall not enquire at this time; content at present with this, that it doth not appear amongst any Historians that have committed the acts of Cyrus to memory, that they have given thirty or twenty, no not ten years to him, after he had taken Babylon. Leunclavius in his Chronolog. Xenoph. gives him but eight years, and Xenophon himself seems to have given him but seven. So that this account of forty and six years falls plainly to the ground, as not being able to stand, but with the whole thirty years of Cyrus included into the number.
Their opinion is more probable who make these forty and six years parallel with the seven weeks in Dan. IX. 26. But the building of the Temple ceast for more years than wherein it was built; and in truth if we compute the times wherein any work was done upon the Temple, it was really built within the space of ten years.
II. This number of forty six years fits well enough with Herod's Temple; for Josephus tells us that b 1.2 Herod began the work in the eighteenth year of his reign; nor does he con∣tradict himself when c 1.3 he tells us, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, In the fifteenth year of his reign he repair'd the Temple; because the fifteenth year of his reign alone after he had conquer'd Antigonus, was the eighteenth year from the time wherein he had been declar'd King by the Romans. Now Herod (as the same Josephus re∣lates) d 1.4 liv'd thirty seven years from the time that the Romans had declar'd him King; and in his thirty fifth year Christ was born; and he was now thirty years old when he had this discourse with the Jews. So that between the eighteenth of Herod, and the thirtieth of Christ exclusively, there were just forty six years compleat.
III. The words of our Evangelist therefore may be thus render'd in English, Forty and six years hath this Temple been in building; and this Version seems warranted by Josephus e 1.5, who beginning the History of G. Florus the Procurator of Judea about the 11th. of Nero▪