There is an extraordinary variety of eras of this class. The idea seems to have been struck out
*The reckoning was stated independently by M. Imhoof Blumer in Grriechische Miinzen, p. 33 (357), Zft. f. Nunism. Xx. p. 257: ef. Kaestner, de Aeris, p. 418.
+ Recueil d’ Archéologie Orientale, i. pp. 9 es betty
{ Niese in Hermes, 1893, p. 208ff.: cf. Was Christ Born at Bethlehem ? p. 222. ‘
§ The need is clearly shown by the meagre and uncertain account given of this era in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopddie, s.v. ‘ Aera,’
in the effort which Greek civilization made, after Alexander the Great’s time, to suit itself to the Asiatic dominions which it had conquered. The practical needs of governing greatly modified the character and outward expression of the Greek spirit ; and the use of this kind of chronology was nearly confined to Macedonia and the subject lands of Western Asia. But the proud self-conscious- ness characteristic of the Greek cities reacted on this custom, and it was made a point of honour for each district and State and city to adopt an era of its own and count therefrom, instead of agreeing in the use of some common era. No ancient era, however, was used so widely or so long as the Seleucid, which continued to be employed for more than a thousand years, until the Arab conquest of Syria destroyed the Greeco-Asiatic civilization in that country.
To those who regard St. Luke as a Syrian of Antioch, it must seem strange that he did not employ this familiar Syrian era in his careful datings in 3. But to those who regard him as connected with Macedonia as well as with Antioch, his Greek character and feeling will sufficiently account for his employing a method of dating which is more akin to the style of Greek reckon- ing. 7. The Beginning of the Year im current wse.— Local variation as to the day on which the year began was a most fruitful cause of chronological difficulties. ‘The varieties were extremely numer- ous and perplexing; but of them all only a few have any bearing on NT questions.
(a) Roman custom made the consular year and the official year generally begin on 1 January. On careful examination, no probability can be found that those writers in the NT who speak about the lapse of any number of years counted them accord- ing to the Roman system. Still less chance is there that the Roman tribunician year, beginning on 10 December, had any influence on the NT. It is true that a few emperors* counted their reigns according to tribunician years, so that their first year ended on 9 December, and the second year began on 10 December, following their accession. But that could have no effect on NT usage.
(5) In Asia Minor and North Syria a year begin- ning about the autumn equinox was very widely used. It might, with great probability, be argued that men like St. Luke and St. Paul, brought up in lands where a year of that kind was certainly or probably in ordinary use, would naturally count according toit. That must be admitted as reason- able; and there seems to be no weighty considera- tion against it.
(c) In various regions of Southern Syria a year beginning at or near the spring equinox was in use: the years of Damascus (from 23 March) and of Tyre (from 18 April) have been referred to above (6). The Jewish sacred year began also about the spring equinox; but it was a lunar year, and therefore was not likely to be used for chronological purposes, for which the irregularity of lunar years made it unsuitable.
With that one exception, all the years which have been alluded to in this article are to be understood as solar years. They had all been transformed from an original lunar character to suit the Julian year, though keeping their New Year’s Day at various different seasons.
Lireraturn,—On hours: besides the special articles in the treatises and Dictionaries of Antiquities (esp. M. Ardaillon, ‘Horologium’ in Daremberg-Saglio),, see Bilfinger, Die Zeit- messung der antiken Volker, Der virgerliche Tag, and Die antiken Stundenangaben; Unger, Zeitrechnung der Griechen
und Réme?, 1892; and Kaestner, de Aeris, 1890. : On chronology: the elaborate article ‘Aera’ by Kubitschek
* Nero (after 60), Nerva (in 97), and Trajan (as mentioned above, p. 480»).
a
484. PATRISTIC COMMENTARIES
PATRISTIC COMMENTARIES
in Pauly-Wissowa should be consulted; and Lewin, Fasté Sacri, should always be at hand. The discussion of numerous eras by the recent numismatists, especially M. Imhoof Blumer and M. Theod. Reinach, are highly instructive. The present writer has treated some of the principles in Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, i. p. 201ff.; Was Christ Born at Bethlehem? chs. V.-X: W. M. RAMSAY.
GREEK PATRISTIC COMMENTARIES ON THE PAULINE EPISTLES.—
The subject will be dealt with in this article under the following heads :—
i. The original bulk of the literature, p. 484. ii. Catenz and compilers of the later period, p. 485. ili, Patristic commentators on St. Paul, p. 489. iv. Summary of MS material for ii. and iii., p. 521. v. Patristic editors of St. Paul, p. 524. Index, p. 529,
i. THE ORIGINAL BULK OF THE LITERATURE.— There is a sense in which nearly the whole of the writings of the early Christian Fathers may be said, and truly said, to be expositions of Holy Scripture. The controversy with the Jews turned on the interpretation of the Old Testament, the controversy with Valentinus and Marcion on the interpretation of the New: the theologians who dealt with these topics, which filled so large a space of the horizon of the Church in the 2nd and 3rd cents., like the theologians who dealt with the equally pressing danger of Arianism in the 4th, were all contributing their share to the explana- tion of the Prophetic and Apostolic writings. A book like the adversus Hereses of Irenzeus contains a mass of exegetical material ; and few tasks in the domain of early Christian literature would be better worth doing than the collection and co- ordination of the fragmentary comments on _pas- sages of the NT which are scattered up and down the writings of the period anterior to the develop- ment of formal exegesis.