days between the Passover and Pentecost of the same year: and therefore the Passover which _Vitellius_ first went up to, was in the year before. Therefore _Pilate_ was deposed before the Passover A.C. 36, and by consequence the passion of _Christ_ was before that Passover: for he suffered not under _Vitellius_, nor under _Vitellius_ and _Pilate_ together, but under _Pilate_ alone. Now it is observable that the high Priesthood was at this time become an annual office, and the Passover was the time of making a new high Priest. For _Gratus_ the predecessor of _Pilate_, saith _Josephus_, made _Ismael_ high Priest after _Ananus_; and a while after, suppose a year, deposed him, and substituted _Eleazar_, and a year after _Simon_, and after another year _Caiaphas_; and then gave way to _Pilate_. So _Vitellius_ at one Passover made _Jonathas_ successor to _Caiaphas_, and at the next _Theophilus_ to _Jonathas_. Hence _Luke_ tells us, that in the 15th year of _Tiberius_, _Annas_ and _Caiaphas_ were high Priests, that is, _Annas_ till the Passover, and _Caiaphas_ afterwards. Accordingly _John_ speaks of the high Priesthood as an annual office: for he tells us again and again, in the last year of _Christ_'s preaching, that _Caiaphas_ was high Priest for that year, _John_ xi. 49, 51. xviii. 13. And the next year _Luke_ tells you, that _Annas_ was high Priest, _Acts_ iv. 6. _Theophilus_ was therefore made high Priest in the first year of _Caius_, _Jonathas_ in the 22d year of _Tiberius_, and _Caiaphas_ in the 21st year of the same Emperor: and therefore, allotting a year to each, the Passion, when _Annas_ succeeded _Caiaphas_, could not be later than the 20th year of _Tiberius_, A.C. 34. Thus there remain only the years 33 and 34 to be considered; and the year 33 I exclude by this argument. In the Passover two years before the Passion, when _Christ_ went thro' the corn, and his disciples pluckt the ears, and rubbed them with their hands to eat; this ripeness of the corn shews that the Passover then fell late: and so did the Passover A.C. 32, _April 14_, but the Passover A.C. 31, _March 28th_, fell very early. It was not therefore two years after the year 31, but two years after 32 that _Christ_ suffered. Thus all the characters of the Passion agree to the year 34; and that is the only year to which they all agree. Notes to Chap. XI.