It was now the 189th Olympiad, which (Olympiad) in the year that had the bissextile day, the 6th day before the Calends of March,--i.e., the 24th of February,--corresponded with the 24th year of the era of Antioch, whereby the year was determined in its proper limits. [1124]
[1116] In Syncellus, p. 307, al. 244.
[1117] The sense is doubtful here: kai hos ouden exiou pisteuesthai est' an katachthe eis ten heautou archen, etc.
[1118] There is a break here in the original.
[1119] This is according to the rendering of the Latin version.
[1120] Here again there is a blank in the original.
[1121] The text is corrupt here. It gives, en to mesaiolio, a word unknown in Greek. Scaliger reads Maisaiolion. Goarus proposes Mausolaion, which we adopt in the translation.
[1122] i.e., sun and moon.
[1123] Samaria was so named in reference to its restoration by Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria. See Josephus (Antiq., book xiv. ch. x.), who states that Gabinius traversed Judea, and gave orders for the rebuilding of such towns as he found destroyed; and that in this way Samaria, Azotus, Scythopolis, Antedon, Raphia, Dora, Marissa, and not a few others, were restored.
[1124] The text is: en 'Olumpias rpth', hetis pro * kalandon Martion kata 'Antiocheis kd' etei echthe, di' hes epi ton idion horion este ho eniautos. In every fourth year the 24th day of February ( = vi. Cal. Mart.) was reckoned twice. There were three different eras of Antioch, of which the one most commonly used began in November 49 b.c. Migne refers the reader to the notes of Goarus on the passage, which we have not seen. The sense of this obscure passage seems to be, that that period formed another fixed point in chronology.
XVIII. [1125]
On the Circumstances Connected with Our Saviour's Passion and His Life-Giving Resurrection.
1. As to His works severally, and His cures effected upon body and soul, and the mysteries of His doctrine, and the resurrection from the dead, these have been most authoritatively set forth by His disciples and apostles before us. On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour falls on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their junction: how then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically opposite the sun? Let that opinion pass however; let it carry the majority with it; and let this portent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the sun, like others a portent only to the eye. [1126] Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Cæsar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth--manifestly that one of which we speak. But what has an eclipse in common with an earthquake, the rending rocks, and the resurrection of the dead, and so great a perturbation throughout the universe? Surely no such event as this is recorded for a long period. But it was a darkness induced by God, because the Lord happened then to suffer. And calculation makes out that the period of 70 weeks, as noted in Daniel, is completed at this time.
2. From Artaxerxes, moreover, 70 weeks are reckoned up to the time of Christ, according to the numeration of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to people Jerusalem, about the 120th year of the Persian empire, and in the 20th year of Artaxerxes himself, and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, up to this time, which was the 2d year of the 102d Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, there are given 475 years, which make 490 Hebrew years, since they measure the years by the lunar month of 29½ days, as may easily be explained, the annual period according to the sun consisting of 365¼ days, while the lunar period of 12 months has 11¼ days less. For which reason the Greeks and the Jews insert three intercalary months every eight years. For 8 times 11¼ days make 3 months. The 475 years, therefore, contain 59 periods of 8 years and three months over: thus, the three intercalary months for every 8 years being added, we get 15 years, and these together with the 475 years make 70 weeks. Let no one now think us unskilled in the calculations of astronomy, when we fix without further ado the number of days at 365¼. For it is not in ignorance of the truth, but rather by reason of exact study, [1127] that we have stated our opinion so shortly. But let what follows also be presented as in outline [1128] to those who endeavour to inquire minutely into all things.
3. Each year in the general consists of 365 days; and the space of a day and night being divided into nineteen parts, we have also five of these. And in saying that the year consists of 365¼ days, and there being the five nineteenth parts...to the 475 there are 6¼ days. Furthermore, we find, according to exact computation, that the lunar month has 29½ days.... [1129] And these come to [1130] a little time. Now it happens that from the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes (as it is given in Ezra among the Hebrews), which, according to the Greeks, was the 4th year of the 80th Olympiad, to the 16th year of Tiberius Cæsar, which was the second year of the 102d Olympiad, there are in all the 475 years already noted, which in the Hebrew system make 490 years, as has been previously stated, that is, 70 weeks, by which period the time of Christ's advent was measured in the announcement made to Daniel by Gabriel. And if any one thinks that the 15 Hebrew years added to the others involve us in an error of 10, nothing at least which cannot be accounted for has been introduced. And the 1½ week which we suppose must be added to make the whole number, meets the question about the 15 years, and removes the difficulty about the time; and that the prophecies are usually put forth in a somewhat symbolic form, is quite evident.
4. As far, then, as is in our power, we have taken the Scripture, I think, correctly; especially seeing that the preceding section about the vision seems to state the whole matter shortly, its first words being, "In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar," [1131] where he prophesies of the subversion of the Persian power by the Greeks, which empires are symbolized in the prophecy under the figures of the ram and the goat respectively. [1132] "The sacrifice," he says, "shall be abolished, and the holy places shall be made desolate, so as to be trodden under foot; which things shall be determined within 2300 days." [1133] For if we take the day as a month, just as elsewhere in prophecy days are taken as years, and in different places are used in different ways, reducing the period in the same way as has been done above to Hebrew months, we shall find the period fully made out to the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, from the capture of Jerusalem. For there are given thus 185 years, and one year falls to be added to these--the year in which Nehemiah built the wall of the city. In 186 years, therefore, we find 2300 Hebrew months, as 8 years have in addition 3 intercalary months. From Artaxerxes, again, in whose time the command went forth that Jerusalem should be built, there are 70 weeks. These matters, however, we have discussed by themselves, and with greater exactness, in our book On the Weeks and this Prophecy. But I am amazed that the Jews deny that the Lord has yet come, and that the followers of Marcion refuse to admit that His coming was predicted in the prophecies when the Scriptures display the matter so openly to our view. And after something else: The period, then, to the advent of the Lord from Adam and the creation is 5531 years, from which epoch to the 250th Olympiad there are 192 years, as has been shown above.
[1125] In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 322 or 256.
[1126] hen ti kata ten opsin. [Vol. iii. p. 58, Elucid. V., this series.]
[1127] dia ten leptologian.
[1128] Or, on a table; hos en graphe.
[1129] The text in the beginning of this section is hopelessly corrupt. Scaliger declares that neither could he follow these things, nor did the man that dreamt them understand them. We may subjoin the Greek text as it stands in Migne: Metaxu de tou legein ton eniauton hemeron txe, kai tetramoriou, kai ton apo ith' tes nuchthemerou, meron e...eis ta uoe, hemerai to parallelon eisi *, kai tetramorion. Eti ge men ton tes selenes mena kata ten akribe leptologian heuriskomen kth', kai hemiseias hemeras kai nuktos diairetheises eis mere se, touton ta o', kai hemisu...ha ginetai ennenekostotetarta tria.
[1130] kataginetai.
[1131] Dan. viii. 1.
[1132] Dan. viii. 13, 14.
[1133] Dan. viii. 13, 14.
XIX. [1134]
For we who both know the measure of those words, [1135] and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, give thanks to the Father, [1136] who has bestowed on us His creatures Jesus Christ the Saviour of all, and our Lord; [1137] to whom be glory and majesty, with the Holy Spirit, for ever.
[1134] In Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, ch. xxix. § 73; Works, vol. iii. p. 61, edit. Paris. [Elucidation II.]
[1135] For rhematon, words, three mss. give rheton, sayings.
[1136] For hemin Patri there is another reading, hemon patrasi = to Him who gave to our fathers.
[1137] These words, "and our Lord," are wanting in three mss.
IV.--The Passion of St. Symphorosa and Her Seven Sons. [1138]
------------------------
The text is given from the edition of Ruinart. His preface, which Migne also cites, is as follows: "The narrative of the martyrdom of St. Symphorosa and her seven sons, which we here publish, is ascribed in the mss. to Julius Africanus, a writer of the highest repute. And it may perhaps have been inserted in his books on Chronography,--a work which Eusebius (Hist. Eccles., vi. 31) testifies to have been written with the greatest care, since in these he detailed the chief events in history from the foundation of the world to the times of the Emperor Heliogabalus. As that work, however, is lost, that this narrative is really to be ascribed to Africanus, I would not venture positively to assert, although at the same time there seems no ground for doubting its genuineness. We print it, moreover, from the editions of Mombritius, Surius, and Cardulus, collated with two Colbert mss. and one in the library of the Sorbonne. The occasion for the death of these saints was found in the vicinity of that most famous palace which was built by Adrian at his country seat at Tiber, according to Spartianus. For when the emperor gave orders that this palace, which he had built for his pleasure, should be purified by some piacular ceremonies, the priests seized this opportunity for accusing Symphorosa, alleging that the gods would not be satisfied until Symphorosa should either sacrifice to them or be herself sacrificed; which last thing was done by Hadrian, whom, from many others of his deeds, we know to have been exceedingly superstitious, about the year of Christ 120, that is, about the beginning of his reign, at which period indeed, as Dio Cassius observes, that emperor put a great number to death. The memory of these martyrs, moreover, is celebrated in all the most ancient martyrologies, although they assign different days for it. The Roman, along with Notker, fixes their festival for the 18th July, Rabanus for the 21st of the same month, Usuardus and Ado for the 21st June. In the Tiburtine road there still exists the rubbish of an old church, as Aringhi states (Rom. Subter., iv. 17), which was consecrated to God under their name, and which still retains the title, To the Seven Brothers. I have no doubt that it was built in that place to which the pontiffs in the Acta, sec. iv., gave the name, To the Seven Biothanati, i.e., those cut off by a violent death, as Baronius remarks, at the year 138." So far Ruinart: see also Tillemont, Mém. Eccles., ii. pp. 241 and 595; and the Bollandists, Act. S.S. Junii, vol. iv. p. 350.
1. When Adrian had built a palace, and wished to dedicate it by that wicked ceremonial, and began to seek responses by sacrifices to idols, and to the demons that dwell in idols, they replied, [1139] and said: "The widow Symphorosa, with her seven sons, wounds us day by day in invoking her God. If she therefore, together with her sons, shall offer sacrifice, we promise to make good all that you ask." Then Adrian ordered her to be seized, along with her sons, and advised them in courteous terms to consent to offer sacrifice to the idols. To him, however, the blessed Symphorosa answered: "My husband Getulius, [1140] together with his brother Amantius, when they were tribunes in thy service, suffered different punishments for the name of Christ, rather than consent to sacrifice to idols, and, like good athletes, they overcame thy demons in death. For, rather than be prevailed on, they chose to be beheaded, and suffered death: which death, being endured for the name of Christ, gained them temporal ignominy indeed among men of this earth, but everlasting honour and glory among the angels; and moving now among them, and exhibiting [1141] trophies of their sufferings, they enjoy eternal life with the King eternal in the heavens."