Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/815

 CHRONOLOGY

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CHRONOLOGY

The "Chronicon Paschale" is a huge compilation. For the earlier part of his history the author follows the antediluvian chronology of the work of Sextus Julius Africanus. In his genealogies he makes use of the Bible, quoting passages from it, and also employs another, unknown, source. After reaching the history of Abraham he follows the " Chronicle " of Eusebius (always bearing in mind his ecclesiastical purpose) and another authority which probably agreed with the old Byzantine chronicles of Panodorus (395-408) or Annanius (412). He also makes use of the " Chronographia " (XpovoypaQla) of Malalas (537) in its most complete text. When he reaches the history of the Roman Republic he depends for his authorities on the Fasti consulares (register of events, the dates being indicated by the respective consuls) and on the so-called Annates consulares. Here the author gives in Greek the version of the Fasti which the chronicle of Hydatius gives in Latin. But, as Frick has pointed "out, the "Chronicon Paschale" combines what it borrows from the Fasti, or from their source, with extracts from Eusebius and es- pecially from Malalas. For certain chronological annotations the writer may have made use of the l\aster tables of the Dioceses of Alexandria and Ant inch. In recounting the events of ecclesiastical history the principal sources used by the writer are the "Chronicle" and the "Ecclesiastical History" of Eusebius and the "Chronographia" of Malalas. He also employs the Acts of the martyrs and the Ucpl lUrpwv koI aTa.8p.Civ (On measures and weights) of Epiphanius of Cyprus (d. 403). From 532 until about the close of the reign of the Emperor Maurice (582-602) the Chronicle gives little infor- mation and contains nothing more than the Fasti '•trcs. On the other hand, from 600 to 627, that is, for the last years of the Emperor Maurice, the reign of Phocas, and the first seventeen years of the reign of Heraelius, the author is a contemporary historian, and his narrative is in every way quite interesting.

The chronology of the writer is based on the figures of the Bible and begins with 21 March, 5507. It is the first attempt at chronology of the so-called Byzantine, or Roman, Era followed by the Greek Church until modern times. For its influence on Greek Christian chronology, also, and because of its wide scope, the "Chronicon Paschale" takes its place beside Eusebius, and the chronicle of the monk Georgius Syncellus which was so important in the Middle Ages; but in respect of form it is far inferior

to these works.

Where the chronicle treats of Julius Csesar a later hand has inserted a list of the Roman and Byzan- tine Emperors, the latter ending with Constantine Monomachus (1042). In the Bonn edition of the Byzantine historians (Corpus Scriptorum Historise Byzantia;, Bonn, 1828-78, II, 90) this addition is rightly rejected and put in an appendix.

The Met edition is that of DlNDOKF, taken from the Vatican codex, in thn second volume of the Corpus Script Histories liy- lv, hn, 1832), and reproduced in P <;, JCCII, 1 -1 158. The most important work on the subject is Gi i.zmi. Sa- tufi Julius Africanus unddiebi/saniiniseheChronooraphu Leip tig, I**", '. II, 138-176. Cf. [oeler, Handh

lechnisehen Chronologic (Berlin, 1826), II, 350, ■ <.',-. von (IrTsrHMin, Zur Knlik ins Aia^epiffMos TTjf y»j< in fihrin r Phdologie (1858), new series,

XIII, 377—408; Dulaprxeb, Recherches ™r la chronologic armfnietms (Paris. 1859). p. vii. and 167 sqq.; MoimsEN, R..mi.ichc Chronologic (2d ed, Berlin, is.",!),, [13; HoldeH

I'nt'rsiichungrn Qber einige annalisli V untl VI. Jnhrhun.lf rts, in Scuc, Archiv (1877), II

MoinuEN, in Mm Germ. Hist.: Aue. In/17 (1891-92), l\. pt I I10-J47 272-301; In and oVm

Chronicon BOSChoU, in «>/:>■ > ift (1892), 1.

tunora (Leipzig, 1893 . I. p kc sqq ; n dds atudium der olim <■

tni

, Ckr

■- . !9 Wacbsmi n

(Leipzig, 1895), 195 sqq.: KRuifBACHER, Gesch derbyzantin-

Literatur von Justinian bis zum Endc dr* ostromisehen

(2d fd, Munich. 1897), 337-39. For the

lie manuscripts cf. Kkumbacher, op oil 139;

Pottb fcST, BibliotKi ■ .1 historica mcdii onri < 2d cd., Hcrlin, 1896),

282; Bakuy, History of the Later Roman Empire (London, 1900). _

L. Vax der Essen.

Chronology, Biblical, deals with the dates of the various events recorded in the Bible. It has to con- aider how far the Bible contains a chronology at all; to what extent the Sacred Writers aimed at exactness, or were satisfied with round numbers; whether, and to what extent, textual errors and other sources of corruption have crept into the numbers of the Bible; and finally, what relation exists between the chronol- ogies that have been handed down by neighbouring nations and that which exists in the Bible. "There is no Chronology of the Bible", wrote Silvester de Sacy; and, though this saying is too sweeping, it may be said with truth that for large parts of the Bible there is little to guide us to an exact determination as to when the events related happened. It is not merely that in the matter of numbers the Hebrew text has not always reached us incorrupt (cf. the differences between the Hebrew, Scptuagint. and Samaritan Pentateuchs), but the Books of Scripture, moreover, are not a mere history. Some of them, as the Psalms, are in no sense such. And even those that are so, are not written primarily from the point of view of history. Else, e. g., why two parallel his- tories of the kingdom — Kings and Chronicles? It is because, as Father Comely says of the Book of Kings ("Introductio", Vol. II, i| p. 284), it had a higher end than the historical, viz., to show the peoples of Israel and of Juda that it was their wickedness that brought destruction on them, and, by setting before them the proofs of God's mercy, to lead them back to the ob- servance of the Law. On the other hand, the Book of Chronicles (D.V. Paralipomenon) written after the Exile, by setting forth the splendours of ancient ritual, sought to move them to the worthy celebration of Divine worship (op. cit., p. 321 1. What compli- cates the earlier periods of Bible history is the fact that there was no recognized era (such as the Diony- sian Era of our own times) to reckon events from, though for the Roman world the founding of Rome in the eighth century B. c. gradually began to be rec- ognized as such, and, in later times, among the Jews, the date of the defeat of Nicanor by Seleucus Nicator, and the establishment of the Seleucid domination in Syria (312 b. c.) came to be looked upon as a fixed era. In this article the data that exist for the formation of a chronology of the Bible will be briefly discussed under the following heads: (1) Creation of the World; (2) Creation of Man; (3) Creation of Man to the Flood; (4) Flood to the Birth of Abraham; (5) Birth of Abraham to the Exodus; (6) Exodus to the building of Solomon's Temple; (7) Building of the Temple to fall of Jerusalem; (8) Destruction of Jerusalem to Jesus Christ; (9) Date of the Nativity; (10) Begin- ning of the Ministry; (ID Duration of the Ministry; (12 i Date of the Crucifixion; (13) The Acts of the Apostles.

(1) Creation of the World.— In an article on Biblical chronology it is hardly necessary in these days to discuss the date of the Creation. At teas! 200 dates have been suggested, varying from 3483 to 6934 years b. c, all based on the supposition thai the Bible en- ables us to settle the point. But it does nothing of the Sort. It was natural that in t he early days of the

Church, the Fathers, writing with little scientific

knowledge, should have had a tendency to explain

the days of Genesis, i. as natural days of twenty-four hours. Still, they by no mean all did so. Thus the Alexandrian Fathers (St. Clement, Origen, St. %i Bius, and St. Cyril i interpreted the day- ol Creation ideally, and held thai God created all things simul- taneously. So did St. Augustine; and St. Thomas Aquinas hesitated between ideali m and litei The literal interpretation has now been entirely abandoned; and the world is admitted to be of im-