Epistula ad Eusebium

Of our holy father Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia in the island of Cyprus, an exact clarification concerning the day of Pascha, from the letter to Eusebius and Marcellus, Bibianus (Bebianus) and also Carpus. Therefore the Jews ate Pascha, with whom the Lord also ate it, two days before the appointed true Pascha; as the scribes and the Pharisees said, "Let us anticipate and celebrate Pascha, so that in the uproar of his arrest we may not be unable to eat Pascha." As also the most holy Matthew says concerning the Savior, that he said to the disciples: "You know that after two days Pascha occurs, and the Son of Man is handed over to be crucified." This was exactly fulfilled when Christ was led into the mystery on the second day of the week, the tenth being a symbol of the name of our Lord Jesus because of the iota. For then Judas received the price of the valued one, which was valued by the sons of Israel according to what is written, and he sought an opportunity to betray him. They anticipated, being in turmoil, instead of keeping for themselves the sheep purchased for them with the silver given to Judas, until the fifth day of the week, counting from the tenth to the fourteenth, which was the fifth day of the week. They anticipate, being in turmoil because of the people, and they say: "Let us anticipate and celebrate Pascha, so that when the people come we may not be unable to arrest him.

And for this reason they no longer ate the Pascha on the fifth day, which fell on the fourteenth of the moon, but on the third day of the week at the onset of the fourth day they conceive Christ, on which they also anticipated and celebrated the Pascha. So he ate the Pascha with them toward evening on the twelfth, two days before the Pascha, at the onset of the thirteenth, the night being reckoned into the day, that is from the third to the fourth day of the week; whence the church keeps the fourth day because of the Lord's conception, fasting throughout the whole year except only Pentecost and Epiphany. Having been conceived toward evening at the onset of the fourth day, he remains in the court of Caiaphas the whole night. For do not suppose that he was taken on the fifth day toward evening; read the Gospel according to John and examine and you will see that when he is taken from Gethsemane he is brought to Caiaphas. He remained in the house of Caiaphas until dawn. In the morning he is handed over to Pontius Pilate; this happened on the fourth day of the week. And he spends that day with Pontius Pilate and the night until morning. On the fifth day of the week he is sent to Herod, who was then in Jerusalem, because he too had come with the others to eat the Pascha. And when that one had questioned him much and had not been deemed worthy of an answer, he sends him back to Pilate, and he remained shut up in the praetorium until the ninth hour. And a certain tradition has run, continuing even to our times, that at the ninth hour the disciples entered secretly to him and he broke plain bread and ate with them in the prison.

He remained there the whole night, and very early in the morning he brings him forth from the praetorium on the day before the Sabbath, called the day of preparation, and thus at the third hour he is crucified according to the accurate account of Mark and John, the inspired evangelists; even if in some copies of the Gospel according to John, due to a scribal error, the letter gamma, which signifies the number three, has been altered to the letter digamma, which represents the number six, because the strokes of both letters face us from left to right; this was also accurately determined before us by Clement and Origen and Eusebius Pamphilus. And it is not necessary for learned hearers, because of the removal or addition of the letter, to disrupt the harmony of the divine Gospels. For see how the most wise Matthew precisely marks the time of the cross by saying, "and coming to a place called Golgotha, which is the place of a skull," then also the wine with myrrh and the division of the garments he adds: "and from the sixth hour darkness came over the whole earth until the ninth hour" and so forth. But some think that the holy Matthew says he was crucified at the sixth hour; but the holy one has carefully considered the darkness from the sixth hour.

He is crucified then, as has been said, on the day before the Sabbath at the third hour, and one day was counted for him from the third hour onward. For after the crucifixion, he thereafter worked the salvation of those in the underworld, and from the sixth to the ninth hour there is one night, and from the ninth to evening one day. And there have been three days and two nights. And throughout the whole Sabbath there is one day and the night that dawns into the Lord's day. And what was said about him was fulfilled, that "the Son of Man must spend three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." He was crucified at the third hour, full, on the sixth of the Sabbaths, the fourteenth according to the moon, the twenty-fourth of the month Phamenoth, before the thirteenth of the Kalends of April. For this reason we also fast on the day before the Sabbath. And he rose on the Lord's day, when the cocks crowed, in the night of the equinox joined with the equinox, that is, on the twenty-fourth of the month Phamenoth, which was Nisan among the Hebrews, interpreted as Pharmouthi. The months of the Hebrews anticipate those of the Egyptians, and those of the blessed Athenians likewise, and those of the Lacedaemonians by eight days, if it so happens. And the night was the one having the same hours, and the past day the same.