putation was held in the reign of Probus, appears from capp. 27 and 28a. Cf. Jerome, De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, lxxii. Operum iv. Pars iia. 120. ARNOBIUS-Trecenti sunt anni ferme, minus vel plus aliquid, ex quo cœpimus esse Christiani, et terrarum in orbe censeri. Arnobius, Adversus Gentes, i. p. 9. 1. 2. Ætatis urbs Roma cujus esse in annalibus indicitur? annos ducit quinquaginta et mille, aut non multum ab his minus. Ibid. ii. 94. 1. 24. from the Ascension, to the time of Manes, Aurelian, and Probus. The former of these dates might hold good, if referred to the Nativity; the latter, if to the Passion: Cf. 698. B. lxxvii. Operum ii. 176. A. De Mensuris et Ponderibus, xx: he dates the Disputatio of Manes and Archelaus in the ninth of Valerian and Gallienus. Suidas, under Mávns, places the appearance of Manes in the reign of Aurelian : but in the fragment relating to Nerva (Népßas) he dates it under Nerva, at the time of St. John's return from banishment. Probably in this last instance he has confounded Manes with Cerinthus. The Paschal Chronicon has the same statement, i. 469. 1. 10. Jerome, in Chronico, fixes the rise of Manichæanism to the second of Probus; both by other criteria, and by specifying the synchronism of ræ Antiochenæ 325, coincident with it. Eræ Antiochenæ 325 would expire, October, U. C. 1030, which was actually the second of Probus. Eusebius' Armenian Chronicon has the same date generally with Jerome. Cassiodorus, in Chronico, dates it A. D. 282, in the last year of Probus. Julius Pollux, 242, 244, dates the rise of this heresy under Probus or Carus: adding a Scholium, giving an account of the sect, its founder, and distinctive peculiarities, which is very like what occurs on the same subject in Socrates, E. H. i. xxii. 55. Eusebius, E. H. vii. xxxi. 283. places it generally about the beginning of the reign of Diocletian: and that it was actually of recent date, about that time, may be inferred from the exordium of one of his Constitutions, which occurs in the commentary on St. Paul's Epistles ascribed to Ambrose, Operum ii. Appendix, 310. C. in Secundam ad Timotheum, iii. 6, 7: Quippe cum Diocletianus Imperator constitutione sua designet, dicens: Sordidam hanc et impuram hæresim, quæ nuper, inquit, egressa est de Perside. Manichæanism had spread very generally by A. D. 355, in the reign of Constantius. See Ammianus Marcellinus, xv. 13. A. D. 355. and Cf. Socrates, E. H. ii. xxviii. 119. B. and Theodorit, ii. xiv. 88, 89. A. D. 350. a P. 202. The age of Arnobius, therefore, is about U. C. 1050. A. D. 297 : for he follows the Varronian computation : (cf. also lib. vii. 232. 1. 7 :) and consequently his date for the beginning of Christianity is about U. C. 750. B. C. 4. Jerome, in Chronico, places his acme in the twentieth of Constantine, A. D. 325, or 326. αν EUSEBIUS-Ιστορεῖται δὲ ὁ πᾶς τῆς διδασκαλίας καὶ παραδοξοποιΐας ὁμοῦ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν χρόνος τριών ἥμισυ γεγονὼς ἐτῶν, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἑβδομάδος ἥμισυ. τοῦτό πως Ἰωάννης ὁ Εὐαγγελιστὴς ἀκριβῶς ἐφιστᾶσιν αὐτοῦ τῷ εὐαγ γελίῳ παραστήσει. εἴη ἂν οὖν ἑβδομὰς ἐτῶν μία ὁ πᾶς χρόνος τῆς μετὰ τῶν ἀποστόλων αὐτοῦ συνδιατριβῆς, ὅ τε πρὸ τοῦ πάθους, καὶ ὁ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν αὐτοῦ. πρὸ μὲν γὰρ τοῦ πάθους ἐπὶ τρία καὶ ἥμισυ ἔτη τοῖς πᾶσιν ἑαυτὸν παρέχων, μαθηταῖς τε καὶ τοῖς μὴ τοιούτοις, ἀναγέγραπται ....μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν, τὸν ἴσον, ὡς εἰκὸς, τῶν ἐτῶν χρόνον τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ μαθηταῖς καὶ ἀποστόλοις συνῆν, δι' ἡμερῶν τεσσαράκοντα ὀπτανόμενος αὐτοῖς καὶ συναλιζόμενος, καὶ λέγων τὰ περὶ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὡς γοῦν αἱ πράξεις τῶν ἀποστόλων περιέχουσιν. Demonstratio Evangelica, viii. 400. Β. If Eusebius did not mean, in this passage, to assert that there was an interval of half a week, or three years and six months, between the resurrection and the ascension, it must be confessed that he has expressed himself very obscurely. Nor is much light reflected on this obscurity by the commentary of Jerome on Daniel ix, who has occasion to quote his opinion, among other expositions of the prophecy of the seventy weeks b His meaning, however, may probably be collected from Theodorit c, who assigns a prophetical week to the period between the commencement of our Lord's b Operum iii. 1111-1113 ad medium—1114 ad principium. 1245-1250-52. in Dan. ix. c Operum ii. personal ministry, and the stoning of Stephen: allowing three years and an half to the duration of that ministry, and another three years and an half to the remaining interval, after which the apostles ceased to preach exclusively to the Jews, and began to preach to the rest of the world. The beginning of our Lord's ministry the same writer dates in the fifteenth of Tiberius, U. C. 782; and therefore its close in the eighteenth or nineteenth, U.C. 785 or 786: and he specifies his own age, immediately afterwards, as 440 years later, about U. C. 1226, A. D. 473 *. CYRILL OF JERUSALEM—Ἐν γαστρὶ μὲν παρθένου γέγονεν ὁ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐννεαμηνιαῖος (ὁ) χρόνος· ἀνὴρ δὲ γέγονεν ὁ Κύριος τριάκοντα καὶ τρία ἔτη. Catechesis xii. 14. ad finem. Cyrill, whose age, as we have seen, is about A. D. 340, thus estimates the length of our Lord's ministry at three years: for in another passage he supposes him to have been baptized at thirtyd. If the Historia Ecclesiastica et Mystagogica, ascribed to him, be really his, or represent his opinions rightly, he there places the Nativity A. M. 5500 e. JULIANUS IMPERATOR-Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς, ἀναπείσας τὸ χείριστον τῶν παρ' ὑμῖν, ὀλίγους πρὸς τοῖς τριακοσίοις * It is singular that Eusebius should maintain the whole duration of our Lord's ministry to have been three years and an half, yet tell us, that the three first Gospels contained only the particulars of one year; viz. that between the Baptism and the Passion; and the fourth Gospel only the particulars which d Catechesis vi. 11. p. 90. l. 12. preceded the Baptism. See E. H. iii. 24.95.C.&c. This interval of three years and an half between the Baptism and the Ascension, is recognised and assumed by Arethas, in Rev. xx. 7. apud Ecumenium, ii. 816. A. in one of the explanations of the Thousand years, there proposed. e Caput 18. p. 330. ἐνιαυτοῖς ὀνομάζεται, ἐργασάμενος παρ' ὃν ἔζη χρόνον ἔργον οὐδὲν ἀκοῆς ἄξιον, εἰ μή τις οἴεται τοὺς κυλλοὺς καὶ τυφλοὺς ἰάσασθαι, καὶ δαιμονῶντας ἐφορκίζειν, ἐν Βηθσαϊδᾷ καὶ ἐν Βηθανίᾳ ταῖς κώμαις, τῶν μεγίστων ἔργων εἶναι. Julianus Imperator, apud Cyrillum, lib. vi. 191. D. E. If it be true, as Jerome informs us, that this work of Julian's was written in expeditione Persica, its date was A. D. 362 or 363. EPIPHANIUS-Epiphanius' date for the Nativity is viii Ides of January, (January 6,) in the forty-second of Augustus, U. C. 752, and in the thirty-third of Herod for the visit of the Magi, and the flight into Egypt, it is two years later, in the thirty-fifth of Herod for the Baptism, it is vi Ides of November, (November 8,) U. C. 781: for the Passion, it is xiii Kalends of April, March 20, U. C. 784: the age of our Lord at his Baptism, he supposes to be twentynine years and ten months exactly: his age at the Passion, thirty-two years and seventy-four days: and the precise length of his ministry, from his Baptism, November 8, U. C. 781, to his death, March 20, U. C. 784, to be two years, one hundred and thirty-four days. These things are so often asserted by him that it would be endless to refer to particular passages. Vide however, i. 432. A. Alogi, x—450. xxix: ii. 135. Anacephalæosis, cxxiii: 169. B. De Mensuris et Ponderibus, xii. The mistake of Epiphanius in placing the birth of Christ in the thirty-third of Herod, four years before the death of that king, might possibly arise from his confounding together the two lengths of his reign, thirty-four years, and thirty-seven. Our Saviour, I believe, was actually born in the thirty-third of Herod, as dated from U. C. 717-one year before his death *. * It appears from Arethas, in Rev. xii. 14. apud Ecumenium, Another singular mistake of his, is, that though he certainly places the Passion U. C. 784, he places it Coss. Vinicio et Longino: and these were consuls U. C. 783. The true date of the Passion, I believe, to be this very consulate. Epiphanius, however, by a remarkable oversight, distinguishes the consulate of the two Gemini from that of Rufus and Rubellius, or rather Fusius and Rubellius, who were in reality the same persons. Hence, though he has made no mistake in his supposed year of the Passion, he has assigned it to the consuls of the year preceding. The Ancoratus, we may observe, is quoted in the work Adversus Hæreses: 751. D. Ariani, xxvii: and 887. D. Pneumatomachi, ii. Otherwise they were written very near to each other, the date of the former being Æræ Diocletianæ 90, and that of the latter Æræ Diocletianæ 92. Vide ii. 1. B: 64. A. lx: 123. B. cxxi: and i. 2. C. D. caput ii: Epistola ad Epiphanium : 404. A. Cataphrygastæ, ii: 638. A. Manichæi, xx. PRUDENTIUS-Quid est quod artum circulum Christusne terris nascitur Heu quam fugacem gratiam Quam pæne subductam facem Sensim recisa exstinxerat! Coelum nitescit lætius, ii. 757. B. C. that such commentators, as understood the woman travailing with child, in the Revelation, of the mother of our Lord, explained the three years and an half of her sojourn in the desert, after the birth of the child, of our Lord's, and the rest of the Holy Family's sojourn in Egypt for the last three years and an half of the reign of Herod. The length of this sojourn in Egypt is also supposed to have been three years, in the Apocryphal Evangelium Infantiæ, capp. xxv. xxvi. See the Codex Apocryphus, i. 187, 188. |