Phlegon Examined Critically and Impartially; In Answer to the Late Dissertation and Defence of Dr. Sykes. to Which Is Added a PostScript, Explaining a Passage in Tertullian. by John Chapman (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1734. Excerpt: ... V. The next Writer, that Dr. Sykesk raises up in opposition to Eujebim &c. is Origin, whom he seems to prize and caress exceedingly, spending no less than fifteen Pages together, to set him out in his full Strength and brightest Colours. Origen, I confess, is a Writer of great Authority, and for whom I have as high an esteem, as, I believe, Dr. Sykes himself. But never sure was Or hen so harmless an Adversefy, as I shall prove him to be in the present dispute. The Reader is defired to remember, that the Point, which I have laboured all along, and that which is now the principal Point in dispute, is the true Reading of Phlegon. I maintain, that Phlegon placed his Eclipse in the 4th year of Ol. 202. Dr. S. allow.s, if that be true, Phlegon's Eclipse did relate to our Saviour's Passion; therefore what he is to shew, is, that Phlegon did not place his Eclipse in that year but iomc other. Let us now fee, what Or'h gen's testimony amounts to. Origen in a certain Discourse1 upon St. Matthew, of which there is now preserved only a Latin Translation, and that a very barbarous and obscure one, and composed by no body knows who or when, has drop'd some Jc Dissert, p. 19. 34. 1 Tractat. XXXV. in Matt. p. 197, 200. Ed. Bdsil. particuparticulars, which Dr. Sykes has mightily insisted on, but which seem to me as foreign and of as little consequence, as any thing imaginable. To make this clear to every Reader, I must correct that imperfect, erroneous, and obscure Representation of him, which Dr. Sykes has given us, and explain the whole Paflage more minutely and particularly, than he has done. Origen first introduces some Enemies of the Gospel, as saying, How can that be true according to the Text, that there was darkness over all the Earth from the sixth hour to the nin...