Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/343

 S. Clemens Alex.+on New Testament Chronology. 333 Now Clement's period (3) of 42y. 3m. " from the Passion"- it should have been said "from the Baptism" to the destruction of Jerusalem, leads from 16 Tybi M. Nab. 776 to 16 Pharmuthi M. Nab. 818 = 19th March a. d. 71, precisely 42 Julian years not indeed from 18 but from 19 March (which was 15 Nisan) of a. d. 29. Nay, the exact day is involved if the 42y. 3m. are reckoned from the 15th Tybi, the day mentioned in the text of Clement. But again, in a different connexion ( 140), Clement has given us the interval "from the destruction of Jerusalem to the death of Commodus 121 years, 6 months and 24 days." This statement evidently belongs to a different computation, and is not necessarily to be referred to the vague year. In the Julian reckoning it reaches (according as months or days are counted first) to 6 or 7 June a.d. 71 (= 5 or 6 Epiphi M. Nab. 818) : and the term of 42 y. 3 m. (of course moveable, as before) gives as the date of the Passion 5 or 6 Pharmuthi M. Nab. 776 = 18 or 19 Mar. a.d. 29. The former calculation gave us 19 Mar. a. d. 71 as the Julian anniversary, in that year, of the Passion (or of 15 Nisan) : the present yields the same day as the precise day of the Passion itself in a. d. 29, and exactly verifies the statement d ov Se enaOev err) /a/3', firjues y. Clement does not himself express the date ; he does not take the trouble to work out the calculation : had he done so, he might have discovered the confusion into which he has fallen between (1) a period of 42 (upon his own showing it should have been 43) years and 3 months from the Baptism to a day which was 42 Julian years from 18-19 Mar. a. d. 29, and (2) a period of the same length from the Passion 18-19 Mar. a.d. 29 to the destruction of Jeru- salem. Some, however, did take the pains which he thought super- fluous. To re nddos avrov a,Kpi(3ooyovp.voi (pepovtriv ol fiev rives tw eKKai- SexaTcp erei Tificpiov Kaicrapos &ap,evu>6 ice', ol 5e Qappovdl ice'. aXXoi Se &appovffi iff irenovBevai top Scoria Xeyovai. vai p.rv tivcs avrcop (paarl $ap- povffi yeyevrjcrdai /c8' ^ tie'. The first two of these dates I explain thus. The computists saw that, if the Baptism belonged to the 15th, the Passion must years, and the fall of Jerusalem there- year for Galba Otho and Vitellius be- by assigned to a.d. 71, perhaps in con- tween Nero and Vespasian, 144. sequence of the insertion of an entire 232