410
DATES
DATES
made in Ej;ypt {Class. Rev., Mar. 1893). Prof. Ramsay {Was Christ born at Bethlehem/} builds on these. It is quite possible that a series of periodical enrolments in a cycle of 14 yeai-s were initiated by Augustus, an indefatigable statistician, in other parts of the empire, and that the first of these may have taken place in the days of Herod, who would have carried it out according to Jewish tastes, and so without much disturbance (unless the riots of Ant. xvil. ii. 4, BJ I. xxxiii. 2 might be connected with it), whereas the later census was conducted according to Roman ideas, and pro- voked a rebellion. If this be true, the hrst census would occur B.C. 7-5, just where it would be re- quired. Some hold that it is possible that St. Luke made a mistake in the name Quirinius (C. H. Turner), and also in the census (von Soden).
(c) Patristic testimony, as represented by Iren- aeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Hippolytus, and perhaps based upon Lk 2-, favours a date between B.C. 3 and B.C. 2. Irena;us wrote, ' Our Lord was bora about the 41st year (B.C. 3, reckoning from the death of Julius Cicsar B.C. 44) of the empire of Augustus ' {H(cr. iii. 21. 3). Clement stated, ' Our Lord was born in the 28th year (B.C. 3, counting from battle of Actium, B.C. 31) of the reign of Augustus, when first tliey ordered the enrolments to be made ' {Strom, i. 147). Hippolytus said, in his Com. on Daniel, 'Our Lord was born on Wednesday, Dec. 25, in the 42nd (B.C. 2) year of the reign of Augustus.'
With regard to the month and day of the Nativity, no data exist to enable us to determine them at all. Farrar {Life of Christ, p. 9) inferred from tlie presence of the shepherds in the fields that it was during winter, but Lewin {Fasti Saeri, pp. 23, 115) argues for August 1 as the approxi- mate date. Tlie date of the Annunciation is given in Lk 1-'' as tV di tu ^irjvl ti} lKT<f — ' in the sixth month,' which is generally referred to Lk 1*" euros ^Tjf «7-os ^o-7-ii' ai5rj, k.t.X., ' this month is sixth with lier,' but which may with equal probability refer to the six til month of the Jewish calendar, Elul, or to both dates, both terms of si.>c months running concurrently. The date of the service of the course of Abia, the eighth in order (1 Ch 24'»), for the year 748 A.U.C. (B.C. 6) has been calculated from the fact that the course in waiting on Ab 9 A.D. 70, when Jerusalem was taken, was the first, Jehoiarib (Jannj^A on ' Fasting,' p. 29a ; BJvi. iv.). Tills would give courses of Abia for 748 A.U.C, B.C. 6, April 18-24, and (24 weeks later) October 3-9. Six months from the latter date would give a day in March as the date of the Annunciation and a date in December for the Nativity ; but six months from the former date would give Elul, or the sixth month of the Jewish year, bogiiming about Sept. 19, for the Annunciation, and the third month, Sivan or June, for the Incarnation. Elul was the month of the constellation Virgo, who holds in her hand the .ipiea Virginia, which may be 'the ottspring of a Virgin.' The fourth month belongs to Cancer, among two stars of which is a group called ' The Manger.'
Patristic tradition. — Hippolytus is the first to give Dec. 25 for the date of the Nativity. On his chair in the library of St. John Lateran in Rome his celebrated table is given. The second year of the cycle has April 2, yiveai^ XptcroS, evi- dently the conception, the calculation being made on the strength of Lk 1*", which seems to imply an interval of 6 months between the conception of our Lord and that of the Baptist, and on the popular presumption th.at Gabriel appeared toZacharias on the great Day of the Atonement, tlie 10th day of the seventh month. This would bring the conception of our Lord to the 14th day of the first month, or the Passover full moon. Hippolytus afterwards, in his
Com. on Daniel, in order to allow for two additional years in our Lord's life, altered the date April 2 to March 25, on which the Church has always celebrated the conception, and consequently the Nativity was assigned to Dec. 25. Edersheim {The Temple, p. 293) suggests the influence of the feast of the Dedication of the Temple, held on the 25th of Chislev.
2. The Baptism of Jesus miglit be settled, but not very approximately, by (1) the statement (Lk 3-^) that He was ijo-ei erQv TpiiKovTa. ipxiiiems (at the beginning of His ministry) ; (2) the date of the Baptist's preaching, Lk 3' ' Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Ca?sar . . . the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness'; and (3) by the retort of the Jews in Jn 2?" ' Forty and six years was this temple in building.'
(1) This is an elastic expression, which gave the Valentinian Gnostics a basis for their belief that Jesus was in His 30th year when He came to His baptism {Ilwr. ii. 25. 5). But as Irenwus, in his reference to Jn 8" 'Thou art not yet fifty years old,' pointed out, 40, not 30, is the perfect age of a master (cf. Bab. Aboda Zara) ; and on the stiength of this statement the presbyters in Asia Minor, who misled Irenajus, ascribed an age of 40 or 50 years to Jesus. Again, while the maximum age of a Levite was 50 years, the minimum varied between 20 (1 Ch 23='-=', where the change is ascribed to David), 25 (Nu 43- •" LXX), and 30 (Nu 4?- « Heb.). This latitude, added to the general sense of uad (' about') and the vague apxoi'^e''os, which is omitted in Syr. Sin., makes this indication of our Lords age indefinite, and capable of meaning either two years over -ii ii;: '; r ;;'•.