For their harvest was between Easter and Whitsunday, and began about a month after the vernal Equinox. Harvest, John 4:35, that is, about the time of the winter Solstice. 4:12, being afraid, because the Pharisees had heard that he baptized more disciples than John, John 4:1 and in his journey he passed thro' Samaria four months before the But when he heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee, Mat. After this feast Jesus came into the land of Judea, and staid there baptizing, whilst John was baptizing in Aenon, John 3:22, 23. Whence the first Passover after his baptism mentioned John 2:13, was in the 16 th year of Tiberius. So soon as the winter was over, and the weather became warm enough, we may reckon that John began to baptize and that before next winter his fame went abroad, and all the people came to his baptism, and Jesus among the rest. The fifteenth year of Tiberius began Aug. As therefore relating to these things there is no tradition worth considering let us lay aside all and examine what prejudices can be gathered from records of good account. This was the opinion which obtained in the first ages, till Dionysius Exiguus, placing the baptism of Christ in the 16 th year of Tiberius, and misinterpreting the text of Luke 3:23as if Jesus was only beginning to be 30 years old when he was baptized, invented the vulgar account, in which his birth is placed two years later than before. The first Christians placed his baptism near the beginning of theġ5 th year of Tiberius and thence reckoning thirty years backwards, placed his birth in the 43 dJulian year, the 42 d of Augustus and 28 th of the Actiac victory. Neither is there any greater certainty in the opinions about the time of his birth. 25, more consonant to the times of the Jewish Passover, in the 17 th and 20 th years, have placed his death in one of those two years. Others afterwards, finding the opinion that he died in the Equinox Mar. At length Eusebius discovered four successive Passovers in the Gospel of John, and thereupon set on foot an opinion that he preacht three years and an half and so died in the 19 th year of Tiberius. Austin, Sulpicius Severus, Prosper, and as many as place the death of Christ in the 15 th or 16 thyear of Tiberius, make Christ to have preached but one year, or at most but two. For the Christians who first began to enquire into these things, as Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Lactantius, Jerome, St. Neither was there any certain tradition about the years of Christ. All which shews that these days were fixed in the first ChristianĬalendars by Mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in tradition and that the Christians afterwards took up with what they found in the Calendars. Philip and James on the first of May, a day dedicated both to the Bona Dea, or Magna Mater, and to the goddess Flora, and still celebrated with her rites. Barnabas on June 11, where Ovid seems to place the feast of Vesta and Fortuna, and the goddess Matuta and St. 28, when he entred ♏ : and if there were any other remarkable days in the Julian Calendar, they placed the Saints upon them, as St. 24, when he entred ♍ Simon and Jude on Octob. 25, when he entred ♉ Corpus Christi on May 26, when he entred ♊ St. So also at the entrance of the Sun into all the signs in the Julian Calendar, they placed the days of other Saints as the conversion of Paul on Jan. And because the Solstice in time removed from the 25 th of December to the 24 th, the 23 d, the 22 d, and so on backwards, hence some in the following centuries placed the birth of Christ on Decemb. John and the Innocents, as near it as they could place them. 29, which was the autumnal Equinox and the birth of Christ on the winter Solstice, Decemb. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the cardinal Periods of the year as the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, on the 25 th of March, which when Julius Caesar corrected the Calendar was the vernal Equinox the feast of John Baptist on the 24 th of June, which was the summer Solstice the feast of St. The times of the Birth and Passion of Christ, with such like niceties, being not material to religion, were little regarded by the Christians of the first age. Of the Times of the Birth and Passion of Christ. Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel.
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