Works 8 part 1/2

For much and by no means a little time we were anxious and greatly troubled, seeking to find, not in worldly writings but in the holy and divine Scriptures, which was the first day of the new month, in which month it was commanded to the Jews in Egypt to sacrifice the Passover on the fourteenth of the moon. And so He who beheld it, the Most Holy, granted our request, and we found. Now we found it through the immense goodness and justice of the Almighty God the Father Himself, and through the incomparable mercy of Christ His Son, our Lord and God, who, for our sins, obeying His Father, laid down His soul:

with which, rising from the dead on the third day, He promised to His disciples eternal life and gave the pledge of the grace of the Holy Spirit to those who believe in His Passion and Resurrection. In whom the Spirit, the Lord Himself, reveals deep mysteries and makes manifest hidden sacraments to those who are willing—that is, to His own who seek with the whole strength of their faith. And therefore, believing and knowing for certain that God denies nothing, but grants to each one who wills and desires, even as He wills, we committed ourselves to a work so laborious:

in which work, not forsaken but rather inspired by God Himself, we wish to show to those who love and desire divine studies that Christians can never stray from the way of truth, nor walk, like ignorant men, after the blind and dull Jews as to which is the day of the Passover; and, since we begin manifestly from God, we wish to show not only the first day on which the lamb was slain in Egypt, but moreover also to demonstrate the days of the Passover of the Jews and of the Christians for time to come. Let us begin, therefore, most beloved brethren, from the reading of Exodus: in which reading we recognize that God Himself, the Lord, said to Moses and to Aaron his brother in the land of Egypt: 'This month shall be for you the beginning of months, the first among the months of the year.'

'Speak to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, saying: On the tenth day of this month let them take to themselves, each for the houses of their tribes, a sheep for a house: and if they be too few in the house to be sufficient for a sheep, let each take with him his nearest neighbor: according to the number of souls, each shall reckon for the sheep what suffices for him. It shall be for you unblemished, perfect, a male, a yearling. From the lambs and from the kids you shall take. And it shall be kept by you until the fourteenth day of this month, and all the multitude of the congregation of the children of Israel shall kill it toward evening: and they shall take of the blood, and shall put it upon the two door-posts and upon the lintels of the houses in which they shall eat it:'

'and they shall eat this flesh roasted with fire by night; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. You shall not eat of it raw, nor boiled with water, but roasted, the head with the feet and the entrails; you shall leave nothing of it until morning, and you shall not break a bone of it: but whatever is left of it until morning shall be burned with fire. And thus you shall eat it: your loins girded and your shoes on your feet and your staffs in your hands, and you shall eat it in haste: for it is the Passover of the Lord.'

God therefore commanded through Moses to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, in the new month, which is the beginning of months, the first among the months of the year, in what manner they should eat the Passover on the fourteenth of the moon—to this end assuredly, both that He might make manifest His own divinity to us who believe in Christ, and that He might demonstrate their robbery even then, from the beginning of the age; and that those who in Egypt toward evening—that is, in the last times of the age—girded and shod, went out against the unblemished Lamb of God on the first day of unleavened bread toward evening with swords and clubs, and committed against Him all the things which had been foretold by all the prophets.

And therefore we, who now celebrate the Passover not according to the image as they did, but according to the truth, in commemoration of the Passion of the Son of God, ought first of all diligently to seek, with the whole strength of our faith, nothing else but the new month—that it may be, and whence it begins, and where it ends. And then we shall find that the Passover can be observed by the Jews themselves neither before nor after the fourteenth of the moon is found. This very thing indeed the holy and divine Scripture of Genesis will begin to show us manifestly, saying: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth. But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters. And God said: Let there be light. And light was made.'

'And God saw the light, that it is good. And God divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.' By reporting to us, therefore, and impressing upon us that the Lord Himself divided between the light and the darkness—that is, between day and night—the holy Scripture manifestly shows that this is the first day and its following night, between which the Maker of all things divided equally, that is, unimpeachably. Which day is now understood to be the eighth day before the Kalends of April; from which day some of us, reckoning, who wished first to show this new month and, by finding the fourteenth of the moon on it, to demonstrate the days of the Passover according to the Jews, said that the same month began from the Ides

of March begins and is completed on the Ides of April, and thus they went astray. And for this reason, although they rightly divided those thirty days into eleven and nineteen—eleven, namely, reckoning backward in the common year and reaching the Ides of March, and nineteen, casting forward into that former year in which the intercalation (embolism) occurs and coming down to the Ides of April—in this they erred, as I said, since they could not truly grasp the first day of the new month. Which matter, thus truly shown, will be demonstrated, since in the very table composed by us no year will be found to fail.

Wishing, therefore, truly to show this month—whence it begins and where it ends—let us return to Genesis, which reported to us that the Lord Himself divided between the first day and the first night. Whence we recognize that between the second and the third day and night no other than the Lord Himself divided; and thus, from the fourth day, He enjoined this office upon the sun and the moon. For these are the two greater lights, of which the Lord said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, so that they may shine upon the earth, and divide between day and night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years, and let them be for splendor in the firmament of heaven, so that they may shine upon the earth. And so it was done.'

'And God made the two greater lights, the greater light for the beginning of the day and the lesser light for the beginning of the night,' and so forth. Now these are the two lights, which received this office not only that they might divide between day and night, but also that they might be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years. On account of this, therefore, the Hebrews of that time, who had been worthy, being taught by the Spirit of God, reckoned each of the years also according to the course of the moon.

And in order that within sixteen years they might meet the course of the sun, they divided the thirty days of the first month into two parts, not equally but according to reckoning, just as we said above that our predecessors, following the Hebrews, rightly divided them into eleven and nineteen, but did not grasp the first day of the first month, and therefore erred. This first day of the new month, according to the course of the moon waning twelve times, is recognized as the sixteenth day before the Kalends of April: on which the moon is found at the same hour as it had been made a year before on the fifth before the Kalends of April. Of which year the Hebrews count 354 days, up to the seventeenth before the Kalends of April. But those who reckon according to the course of the sun, after eleven days and a fourth of a day, on the sixth before the Kalends of April,

having filled up 365 days and a fourth of a day, find that the year is completed, and thus show the first day of the coming new month on the fifth before the Kalends of April. And therefore, reducing the four quarter-days of the four-year period into one day, in every fifth year they insert it not on the fifth before the Kalends of April, but on the fifth before the Kalends of March, lest they should cast a whole day upon the first day of the coming new month and overturn this whole order which the earlier Hebrews, even before Rome itself was founded, attained by sure reckoning. The year of the Hebrews, therefore, divided into months, makes a month of 29½ days; likewise that of the Romans, partitioned also into twelve, makes a month of 30½ days. Therefore between 29½ and 30½ there is a difference which is understood to be 11 hours and a fourth of an hour.

In which eleven hours and a fourth of an hour the sun walked earlier, when the beginning of the day was made. But the moon, promised to be the beginning of the night, ought not to come to be after the setting of the sun and so be seen in heaven, since it ought to be seen from the first day and to follow after that with which it had obtained so great an office. This, therefore, is why, when the fifteenth moon is renewed through each month, it advances beyond the sun. And therefore through the year the sun is found to walk eleven days and a fourth part of a day more. And thus the moon, which on the fourth weekday, the fifth before the Kalends of April, had been made the fifteenth, was found, the first year being completed, at 26¼ on the fifth before the Kalends of April: likewise in the second year, eleven days and a quarter being added, it was found at 7⅝ on the fifth before the Kalends of April: in the third year at 18¾ on the fifth before the Kalends of April:

in the fourth year at 30 on the fifth before the Kalends of April: in the fifth year at 11¼: in the sixth year at 22½: in the seventh year at 3¾: but in the eighth year it was found at 15 on the fifth before the Kalends of April, such as it had been made in the beginning. Instructed in this way, not by their own but by God's wisdom, the Hebrews, concerning the course of the moon according to the first rule of the Greeks after the manner of the Egyptians, and not according to the lunar epacts, could not have erred; and therefore, when first in Egypt on the day before the Ides of April, on the second weekday, on the fourteenth of the moon, they sacrificed the Passover, when their first year was completed they could not celebrate the Passover on the day before the Ides of April, since the moon was found by them to be not the fourteenth but the twenty-fifth. And so, seeking the fourteenth, they were obliged, by inserting eighteen days, to find the fourteenth moon on the day before the Kalends of May.

But lest they should begin to keep the Passover in the second month and not in the first month, which is from the sixteenth before the Kalends of April up to the seventeenth before the Kalends of May, reckoning backward from the twenty-five days of the moon—that is, deducting eleven days of that moon—they found the fourteenth moon and the sixth weekday, on the Kalends of April, which was the common and first year. In the second year, likewise common, on the twelfth before the Kalends of April, the third weekday: but in the third year, not reckoning backward, lest they should exceed the sixteenth before the Kalends of April, which is the first day of the first month, and fall into the twelfth month of the past year, they reckoned otherwise. For this was the year in which they had to insert not nineteen but, with one deducted, eighteen days. But which is this one day of the nineteen that is deducted, we shall say by the grace of God.

For in the first time, when the Passover was observed in Egypt, in that very year the quarter was owed: in the first following year a half was made: in the second year, with an addition, a three-quarters was made: but in the third year a whole (as, an 'as') was made. The third year, therefore, in the table, is that in which now both the bissextile (leap) and the embolism are noted. In which year the Passover is shown to have been on the fourteenth moon, on the sixth before the Ides of April, and on the second weekday: in the fourth year, common, on the fifth before the Kalends of April, the sixth weekday: likewise in the fifth year, common, the fourteenth moon on the sixteenth before the Kalends of April, the third weekday: in the sixth year, embolism, on the Nones of April, the second weekday: in the seventh year, bissextile, on the ninth before the Kalends of April, the sixth weekday: in the eighth year, embolism, on the day before the Ides of April, the fifth weekday. Behold, therefore, how we reckoned above that after eight years, on the fifth before the Kalends of April,

the fifteenth moon was again found. So too, after eight years, on the day before the Ides of April, the fourteenth moon was found, and on a weekday not the second as before, but the fifth. And therefore, according to the same table, we have shown that it returns to its own first day not through eight years but through sixteen years: and in it we have noted the bissextile years according to the course of the sun, or through the error of the ignorant. Which itself, the sixteen years being completed, although it meets, with the embolism inserted, its own certain day with the fourteenth moon, yet it does not meet the second weekday but the first. So likewise the second sixteen-year period, being completed, meets the seventh weekday; the third indeed the sixth weekday; the fourth the fifth weekday.

The fifth sixteen-year period the fourth weekday, the sixth sixteen-year period the fourth weekday, but the seventh, when it has completed 112 years, returns to the day before the Ides of April, and the fourteenth moon and the second weekday are found. These, therefore, are the 112 years in which, cycling round and reckoning the years from the first day of the Passover observed in Egypt up to Christ, we arrive, and we show the day of His Passion and Resurrection. Yet it is first necessary that we demonstrate the remaining eight years of the table: for we have reckoned up to the eighth. And so in the ninth year, common, the fourteenth moon and the second weekday meet on the Kalends of April; likewise in the tenth year, common, on the twelfth before the Kalends of April, the sixth weekday; in the eleventh year, bissextile and embolism, on the sixth before the Ides of April, the fifth weekday; in the twelfth year, common, on the fifth before the Kalends of April,

the second weekday; in the thirteenth year, likewise common, on the sixteenth before the Kalends of April, the sixth weekday; in the fourteenth year, embolism, on the Nones of April, the fifth weekday; in the fifteenth year, bissextile and common, on the ninth before the Kalends of April, the second weekday; in the sixteenth year, an embolism having been made, the moon is again found at the head—that is, in the first verse—the fourteenth moon and the first weekday, on the day before the Ides of April, on which day we said the Jews first observed the Passover in Egypt. Whence, up to Jesus son of Nun, 41 years being completed, the children of Israel sacrificed the Passover on the Kalends of April, a Sabbath. But Hezekiah, from the going forth out of Egypt up to the first year of his reign, after 867 years, celebrated the Passover on the sixth before the Ides of April, the fourth weekday.

Likewise Josiah, in the eighteenth year of his reign, after 970 years, sacrificed the Passover on the twelfth before the Kalends of April, the second weekday. But Ezra, at the time when the seven weeks were completed from the Temple restored and finished and the city of Jerusalem restored, after 1114 years, sacrificed the Passover on the twelfth before the Kalends of April, a Sabbath. But our very Lord and Savior Jesus, after 1579 years, ate the Passover with His disciples on the sixth before the Ides of April, the fifth weekday; and He suffered on the following day, on the fifth before the Ides of April, the sixth weekday. This is Christ Jesus, who according to the flesh was the son of Abraham, in whose mystery Isaac, born to his father at a hundred years, carried the wood upon his own shoulders:

that from this it might be shown both that adversaries are conquered and that believers obtain salvation through the wood, that is, through the sign of the Cross. He is Abraham, to whom God said: 'In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' Does then anyone obtain mercy in Isaac? No, but every man believing God in Christ shall be blessed. And therefore Abraham, who was called a prophet by the Lord God, when he clearly knew, in the sacrament of Christ, that a son had been born to him at a hundred years, who after the third day emptied out death and bound that strong one, our enemy—he numbered all his home-born servants, and on account of the hundred-year nativity he tripled the C and made the sign T, to which he also added XVIII, that is,

iota-eta, in the name of Jesus, and he conquered the adversaries and freed Lot, his brother's son, from their captivity. And rightly did the Lord Himself, our Master, say to the Jews: 'If you are the sons of Abraham, do the deeds of your father.' But those who heard these things from Christ chose to do not the deeds of Abraham but the iniquitous deeds of the devil. And for this reason the Gentiles, doing the deeds of their father Abraham with the sign of the Cross and the name of Jesus, daily conquering the apostate angels, armed with the word of God, free men from the captivity of Satan.

He is Abraham who at seventy-five years of age believed when he was called, and although he was foretold by God Himself to have sons as many as the stars of heaven, yet through his only son—whose image the unblemished lamb slain in Egypt bore—both the first-formed Adam himself and every believing man obtained mercy from God. Finally, let us return to Exodus, that is, to the first day of the Passover, and from there let us number the years in order up to Christ. In which years we shall find great and admirable sacraments demonstrated to us; numbering, then, in order: from the day on which they went out of Egypt up to the day on which they ought to have gone forth from the wilderness, forty years:

and going out of the wilderness and entering in and possessing the land promised to them by the Lord, from Jesus son of Nun up to Samuel the judge and priest of God, according to the word of the blessed Apostle Paul, who, taught by the Spirit of the Lord, reported that they fulfilled 450 years. This is Samuel, who by the command of God anointed Saul as king, who reigned first over the people of the Jews forty years. After whom David reigned forty years and six months; Solomon his son forty years; Rehoboam seventeen years; Abijah three years; Asa forty-one years; Jehoshaphat twenty-five years; Joram eight years; Ahaziah one year; Athaliah forty years; Joash forty years; Amaziah twenty-nine years; Uzziah fifty-two years; Jotham sixteen years; Ahaz sixteen years; Hezekiah twenty-nine years; Manasseh fifty-five years; Amon two years.

Josiah thirty-one years; Jehoahaz three months; Jehoiakim eleven years; Jehoiakim his son, who was also called Jechoniah, one hundred days. These are the years [of the Kings 505, but from the Exodus] 995. And Judea was captured by King Nebuchadnezzar, who, when Jechoniah had been carried away into Babylon, set up in Jerusalem Zedekiah as king of Judah, whom after eleven years he stormed, and slew his sons before his very eyes: and thus he bereaved Zedekiah himself, and commanded him to be led bound into Babylon, and set him in a mill, where also he died. Then was fulfilled concerning him what the Lord had said through Ezekiel the prophet:

'And I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in the enclosure; and I will bring him to Babylon into the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall not see that land, and there he shall die.' In like manner also the prophet Jeremiah prophesied concerning him and all his people, saying: 'Thus says the Lord: So will I deliver up Zedekiah king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant in Jerusalem who are left in this land, and those who dwell in Egypt; and I will give them over to dispersion among all the kingdoms of the earth, and for a reproach, and for a byword, and for hatred, and for a curse, in every place whither I shall have driven them; and I will send upon them famine and death and the sword, until they be consumed from the land which I gave them.'

And so in the eleventh year of Zedekiah there were completed from the Exodus one thousand and six years. And then the people of the Jews, who had not kept the law but rather, against the will of God, had sacrificed their sons to idols, is itself led away captive; and their city, which bore the figure of the synagogue, is burned by the adversaries and razed to the ground; and that temple, which had been built in the mystery of Adam, is itself overthrown from its foundations and levelled to the plain. And thus to us, who were foreseen to believe in the last days, a great sacrament, as I have said, was being shown. For if the people and the city themselves had deserved to be destroyed, what had the temple of God committed that it should suffer this?

Unless it is because it truly stands that it was made, as I have said, in the mystery of him who first transgressed the law of God and was the father of all sinners; and therefore not only was it fitting that Adam should be succoured, but also all sinners who were foreseen to become the sons of Abraham. Deservedly, then, to that very city and temple, before it should be overthrown, it was promised that it would be restored after seventy years. And this was what was even then, from the beginning of the age, being shown in Abraham the father of faith: who, when he had completed seventy years from the day of his birth, could not go forth out of his land except in the likeness of the Pentateuch—all whose commandments the people of Israel would not keep—unless five years were added; and thus, believing God, it was reckoned to him for righteousness.

This, then, is the Abraham of whom we spoke above, that he believed when called at seventy-five years of age. To these seventy-five years one year is added, and they become seventy-six. But who is this one that is added? Namely, he who from his seed was called an unblemished lamb of a year old. Therefore let us subtract seventy-six from one thousand and six, and there remain nine hundred and thirty years, upon whose completion Adam departed this life. But after this let us show the time of the captivity of seventy years. For, having completed from the Exodus down to Jechonias nine hundred and ninety-five years, let us add the eleven of Zedekiah, which eleven years are counted within the body of the seventy years. And in what manner, let us see. From when Jerusalem was taken, Zedekiah himself reigned eleven years.

After him Nebuchadnezzar, who led him bound into the land of the Chaldeans, reigned twenty-five years; Evilmerodach twelve years; Belshazzar four years; and Darius the son of Cyrus eighteen years—these together are seventy years. And thus Cyrus received the kingdom of the Medes and Persians. This is that Cyrus in the beginning of whose reign the people of the Jews returned into their own land with the treasures of the house of God. From which time we ought to reckon the weeks. For concerning these we recall that the angel of God said to Daniel:

'Seventy weeks are cut short upon your people and upon that holy city, that sin may be consummated and that sins may be sealed and iniquities blotted out and iniquities expiated, and that everlasting righteousness may be brought back, and that vision and prophecy may be sealed, and that the Holy of Holies may be anointed. And you shall know and understand: from the going forth of the word, that answer may be given and that Jerusalem may be built again, unto Christ the leader, are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and it shall be turned back, and the street and the wall shall be built, and the times shall be emptied out. And after these sixty-two weeks the anointing shall perish, and judgment is not in him.'

'And he shall destroy the city and that holy place, together with that leader who shall come; and they shall be cut off in a deluge, and even unto the end of the war of the shortened destruction. And one week shall confirm the testament for many; and in the midst of the week my sacrifice and libation shall be taken away, and upon that holy place the abomination of desolations, and even unto the consummation of the time consummation shall be given upon this desolation.' 'And one week,' it says, 'shall confirm the testament for many.' This, then, is the one week which the angel separated out from the seventy and placed in the last times of the age. This week we recognize to have seven years:

in which it is fitting that first Enoch and Elijah should come, and by their prophecy confirm the gospel—that is, the New Testament—to a great multitude. For thus we have heard the angel say to Daniel: 'One week shall confirm the testament for many. And in the midst,' it says, 'of the week my sacrifice and libation shall be taken away.' And the half of the week designates 'a time and times and half a time,' which is three years and six months, which are, according to the Apocalypse, one thousand two hundred and sixty days. In which days that antichrist shall make a great desolation; and therefore then no one of the Christians shall be able to offer sacrifice to God, since that antichrist himself shall begin to sit in the temple of God and to affirm that he is God to those who know him not:

whom it behoves the Lord and our Saviour to slay with the breath of his mouth and to bring to nought by the presence of his coming, and in him himself to consummate the world, as it is written: 'And upon that holy place the abomination of desolations, and even unto the consummation of the time consummation shall be given upon this desolation.' After this let us return to the seven and so to the sixty-two weeks. These seven weeks contain forty-nine years; upon whose completion, at that time Jerusalem was recognized to be restored, and the street built through the midst of it was seen, and the wall raised up round about that city was mightily guarding all things that were within.

In which city that temple, which had been destroyed in the likeness of Adam, was again built in his name over the course of forty-six years, and in the sacrament of the Holy Spirit was anointed with oil, even as had been said by the angel, 'that the vision and prophecy may be consummated and the Holy of Holies anointed.' But that Holy of Holies was anointed as an image of the man—which, together with that very city, was destroyed again in the times of Vespasian by our very Lord for the unbelief of the Jews. For so it had been written in the same chapter which we are expounding:

'And after sixty-two weeks the anointing shall perish, and judgment is not in him; and he shall destroy the city and that holy place, together with that leader who shall come; and they shall be cut off in a deluge, and even unto the end of the war of the shortened destruction.' 'They shall be cut off,' it says, 'in a deluge.' Of whom is this said? Assuredly of those very Jews who, after the coming of Christ, were cut off and cast out of their city in that siege and storming by Vespasian—into which they do not return, nor even at the very end of the shortened war. But what is this shortened war, if not the kingdom of antichrist which is to arise against the people of the Christians? These are the days of which the Lord says in the gospel: 'And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved.'

The temple, therefore, was restored in the name of the first-formed man, who was called Adam, as we said above, after forty-six years. And thus it is shown in the name of Adam: since among the Greeks the first letter of his name is called alpha—one; the second, delta—four; the third again alpha—one; and the fourth, mu—forty; and thus is made the number forty-six. Which number of years is comprehended thus: from that day on which the people of the Jews returned into their own land, Cyrus of the Persians reigned thirty-one years; after whom Cambyses nine years, and there were completed forty. But after the forty years reigns Smerdis the Magian for seven months, which months are not reckoned by us. Why?