Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/344

 334 Journal qf Philology. be assigned to the 16th year of Tiberius: consequently, that, If the paschal date for the former year was 6 Pharmuthi, the date for the latter year would be given by counting 12 lunations, or 354 (= 365 11) days forward : these would lead to 25 Phamt- noth of 16 Tiberius. It would be perceived, however, that this day (=8 Mar. a. d. 30), besides being too early for the passover, would fall on a Wednesday. The addition of another month, of 30 days, would lead to a Friday, namely, 25 Pharmuthi (= 7 April a. d. 30). The other date, "19 Pharmuthi," I cannot explain: but if we read QappovOl (rejecting the iota of the numeral as derived from the final iota of QappovOl), the date (as before, in the vague year) will be 22 March, precisely the day assigned to the Crucifixion in the synodical letter (ap. Bed. de AZquinoct.) of the Council of Caesarea in Palestine (cf. Eus. H. E. v. 23), held in a.d. 195, i.e. in Clement's own times. The dates assigned to the Nativity, 24 or 25 Pharmuthi = 14 or 15 April, and(in144) 25 Pachon =15 May I am unable to explain. Concerning the day 11 Tybi = 6 Jan., Jablonsky in his Dissert, de Origine festi Nativ. Christi in eccl. Chr. quotannis stato die celebrari soliti (Opp. t. in. p. 317) supposes that the Basilidians assigned the Theophania, Epiphania (viz. the Baptism) to that day, because it was the annual solemnity of the Inventio Osiridis, when the people throughout Egypt "accepto nuntio de invento jam Osiride exclamare solebat, (vpr)Kap,cv, a-vyxaipnpfv." As a kind of protest and security against the superstition of the heathen, Basilides transformed this solemnity into a Christian festival : as at a later time, after this example, in the Western Church the 25 Dec. was rescued from the heathen celebration of the Natalis Solis Invicti to be consecrated to the Nativity of our Lord. But it is very improbable (though Gieseler, i. 154, 302, favours the hypothesis) that a festival invented by Gnostics would be adopted by the orthodox, and far more likely (as Neander supposes) that Basilides borrowed it from the Church. Bat there is nothing in the Gospel narrative to fix the exact day of our Lord's Baptism, and it is scarcely supposable that it was recorded by any histori- cal tradition. I venture to suggest that the date 6 Jan. was originally obtained by a speculative consideration of the pro- phetical numbers of Daniel, ix. 25, " And after sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. . .And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice to cease," &c. Now if from 18 Mar. a.d. 29