31. This testimony is alone sufficient to expose the
anachronism of the Jews, who place the birth of Christ near
a century sooner. (Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, l. v. c. 14,
15.) We may learn from Josephus (Antiquitat. xviii. 3 [c. 2,
2, ed. Oxon. 1720]) that the procuratorship of Pilate
corresponded with the last ten years of Tiberius, A.D.
27-37. As to the particular time of the death of Christ, a
very early tradition fixed it to the 25th of March, A.D. 29,
under the consulship of the two Gemini (Tertullian adv.
Judaeos, c. 8). This date, which is adopted by Pagi,
Cardinal Norris, and Le Clerc, seems at least as probable as
the vulgar era, which is placed (I know not from what
conjectures) four years later.