Bible Problems Explained

by James Martin Gray

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: V ' 3 ) CHAPTER III. QUESTIONS ON THE PERSON OP CHRIST. Why give the date of the nativity as B. C. 4, instead of A. D. 1? The date of the nativity is calculated in its relation to the date of the founding of the city of Rome. For a time it was supposed to have occurred in the 754th year of that city, making the Christian era, or, as we say, A. D., begin at that time. But more recently scholars have come to the conclusion that a mistake was made in the original calculation. One of the data was the period of the reign of Herod the Great, and investigation has shown this to be four years earlier than it was hitherto supposed. The earlier date for Herod carries with it the earlier date for the birth of Christ, which must have been, not in the 754th year of Rome, but the 750th. This is still, therefore, A. D. 1913, only the years must be reckoned not from what has usually been called A. D. 1, or the year of Rome 754, but B. C. 4, or the year of Rome 750. There is no practical difference, as the inquirer will see, but if one is to speak with chronological exactness the Christian era began four years earlier than is popularly supposed, judging by the chronology of Rome. Under what law was it that Christ was made (or born), and why? The law here is the whole of the moral and ceremonial law of Moses. Christ was made under that law in the sense that, as a Jew, He was born subject to it. But furthermore, He was made under it by His Father's appointment and His own free will, to keep it as our representative and substitute, and to suffer and exhaust the full penalty of ourviolation of it. This, to quote the Bible Commentary, constitutes the significance of His circumcision, His presentation in the temple, His baptism by John, and other circumstances and events in His ...

38 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2010

About the author

James Martin Gray was a pastor in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a Bible scholar, editor, and hymn writer, and the president of Moody Bible Institute, 1904-34.

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