Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/340

 330 Journal of Philology, days of the interval between the Baptism (confused, however, in his recital, with the Passion) and the death of Commodus, he im- plicitly assigns the very day of the Baptism (=16 Tybi vague of 15 Tiberius), and the entire sum which he expresses (194y. lm. 13 d.) leads up to a day which lies (1) thirty vague years before that day, (2) thirty Julian years before the received fixt date of the Baptism when referred to the 15 Tiberius, i. e. before 6 Jan. = 11 Tybi a. d. 29. After a slighting mention ( 145 fin.) of certain persons who " over-curiously assign to our Saviour's Nativity not only its year, but its day, which they say is the 25th Pachon in the 28th year of Augustus," he remarks, ol 8e drro BacriXei'Sov* Kai tov fianTio-paTos avrov ttjv rjpepav eoprafavai TrpoSiawKTepevovres dpayvuxTfari. <pao~ 8c civai to TrcvTCKai8eKaT0V ctos tov Tifieplov KaiVapoy, ttjv 7rcvTCKai8cKdTTjv tov Tv/3t prjvbs, tivcs 8e clvttjv cvSeKanjv tov avrov prjvos. Compare with this the date resulting from Clement's enumeration: 42y. 3m. plus 121 y. 10m. 13d. lead up, from the specified goal", not to the fifteenth, but to the sixteenth of Tybi. But perhaps the date "fifteenth Tybi" instead of sixteenth, arose from confusion with the "fifteenth of Tiberius:" or, which I think more likely, the date 15 Tybi relates to the vigil, and so the expressions avrr)v [tt)v?] cv8eKaTTjv may mean that some assigned the day itself of the Baptism, not its vigil, to the 11 Tybi. At any rate, we seem here to find the explanation of the double date assigned by the persons men- tioned by Clement. For (1) if the Baptism be referred to 16 Tybi vague of 15 Tiberius (a. d. 28, 29), thirty vague years lead up to 16 Tybi vague =11 Tybi fixt and 6 Jan. of 28 Augustus (b. c. 2). And, conversely, (2) the Baptism being assigned to a. d. 29 (15 Tiberius) 6 Jan. =11 Tybi fixt, 30 Julian years lead up to b. c. 2 (28 Augustus) 6 Jan. and 11 Tybi fixt = 16 Tybi vague. But it is also worth remarking, that the 11 Tybi vague of the 15th Tiberius is the 25 December (a. d. 28), just thirty Julian years after the Nativity, if this was referred to 28 Augustus (b. c. 3) and to the day which the Church ultimately consecrated to the commemoration of the Nativity. I do not believe that the phany was first instituted in commemo- that it was first introduced by th< ration of the Baptism and Manifestation lidians as feast of the Baptism and of of Jesus as the Messiah by the Jewish the union of the vovs with the man Christians of Syria and Palestine (Gnost. Jesus which then took place, K. 0. I. Syst. and A". G. z. 655), and adopted 14-2.
 * Neander thinks the feast of Epi- from them by the Basilidians : Gieseler,