Expositum De Die Paschae Et Mensis

A QUINTUS JULIUS HILARIANUS'S EXPOSITION ON THE DAY OF PASCH AND THE MONTH. I. We have often come together, brothers and fellow servants of God, to treat something from the divine Scriptures, and there, with them desiring it, we have spoken a little about the PASCHAL CYCLE, and I promised that I would present a full account. Therefore, the command of the brothers has again and again reminded me of my promise, so that what we have long treated gradually and patiently concerning the rationale of Pasch might now be defined by my writing, that is, that since the Lord God named to Moses no other month than the first, and commanded that Pasch be celebrated in it, saying: "This month is the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you among the months of the year. Speak, therefore, to the whole Synagogue of the sons of Israel, that they should make Pasch, beginning from the fourteenth of this month at evening until the twenty-first" (Exod. 12:2, 3, 18, according to the LXX). But where this first month begins, or where it has its end, the divine Scripture has not declared to us with a very clear response. Why, therefore, today from the third of the Nones of March up to the fourth of the Nones of April is the first moon sought by us, or from the fifteenth of the Kalends of April up to the seventeenth of the Kalends of May, so that it may be the fourteenth, is confirmed. Thence, wherever the day of Pasch occurs, we celebrate it lawfully, just as we know it was celebrated and handed down by our Fathers.

Now the time has come when, by the reasoning of the law, we may set forth everything in my discourse in an orderly manner, clearly retaining that Pasch was not commanded to be celebrated from the beginning of the world, but by Moses with a sacred voice, and that the first month is not begun by us as the Egyptians do from the fourth day before the Kalends of September, or as the Romans from the Kalends of January, but by the authority of divine law always, and in every year the moon by its course first generates the month for us. But to know this first month legitimately for the sake of our Pasch, we are compelled by a certain reasoning to go back to the origin of the world; so that we may be able to know the day on which the lights were made, or what kind of moon God made for the world, although in the construction of the world we must believe nothing other than that almighty God established all things equal, full, and perfect. II. Therefore, it must first be demonstrated, when the fabric of the world was begun, what day it is that almighty God established by creating light; secondly, we will show that the moon was made by God in the evening, and of what kind it was indeed made, or where its year ends; then we will relate why from the third day before the Nones of March up to the fourth day before the Nones of April the first moon is sought by us, or from the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April up to the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May the fourteenth moon is required for celebrating Pasch completely, so that from every side the approach is closed to those who strive for contradictions, lest they judge that we have defined anything with insufficient reason.

III. When the law had not yet been handed down by the omnipotent Lord, men very often hesitated in the course of the moon. Some called the full orb, such as had arisen in the world by God’s command, the first; others thought otherwise. Therefore, reckoning the months only by the number of thirty, they completed the course of twelve months in three hundred and sixty days, as the Scripture of Genesis shows that the time of that flood ran with thirty days in the month. The five days, of course, which remain to finish the year, were called empty in memory of God’s work. For the world was made in five days, but man was made on the sixth day after everything, from which day also, for running through the twelve months, his count of days was three hundred and sixty up to the day before that day which God first established. Then there were five empty days up to the day before the birth of that same man who was first formed, from which custom or tradition it is known to have remained among some peoples, as among the Egyptians, who have these five empty days, which they name. And by some Roman writers, who wished to write the reckoning of the days, they were called black and intercalary.

Therefore, in ancient times, since God had not yet revealed the course of the sun and moon, no one grasped the seasons of spring and summer, the boundaries of autumn and winter, or gathered the increases and decreases of days and nights, which these luminaries, by the command of God, were ordered to unfold in their own times until the end of time. Hence, in due course, the omnipotent God admonished that most holy and blessed man Job concerning this matter among many words of reproof, saying: "And tell me this: do you know the course of the sun and moon?" (Job 28:19). For at that time when we know the law was given by our Lord God to Moses for the celebration of Passover, He handed over to him the reckoning of months and years through the course of the moon, so that from the new moon he could have the first month or the others, which is now gathered from the tradition of the law, if only he who wishes to gather it examines it most diligently. To this matter we, devoting our labor, set forth each point, beginning, as we have said, from the first day of the world.

IV. "In the beginning," says Moses, "God made heaven and earth; but the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was upon the abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and light was made. And God saw the light, that it was good, and He divided between light and darkness. And God called the light day, and He called the darkness night. And evening was made, and morning was made: one day. And God divided between light and darkness, that is, He balanced day and night" (Gen. 1:1–5, according to the Septuagint). For at God's command, the light that was made so cut through the darkness that a course equal between both appeared, and from then on day and night would receive increases and decreases in alternate succession and would mark the seasons. For just as Almighty God first caused every living soul, in its full age and kind, as well as all fruits of the earth complete with their seeds, to be brought forth at once, so He then established the span of light and darkness in an equal course from the beginning. This, therefore, is known to be the first day, which was made at the origin, on which the Lord God made light and night equal, namely at the time of spring, which Almighty God willed to be the head of the year.

V. At this time, therefore, He also fashioned the world. For before all times, the Lord deigned first to establish that very time which is more pleasant than the others, balanced in the quality of the air, in which all things born from the earth, after the torpor of icy winter has ended and the cheerful spring air has been received, burst forth into various flowers and seeds of different kinds; so that even they themselves, in a way, celebrate praises to the Lord Creator with the fertile fruits of the firstfruits, together with the feasts of men, with the most pleasing fertility of sweetness, in which also now the first equinox, instituted by the Lord, occurs, which is found according to the designation of the Roman months on the eighth day before the Kalends of April. Taking our start from here, therefore, we will run through all the things we have proposed. VI. We have briefly explained, speaking about the first day of the world. Now let us come to the reckoning of the moon. For after three days had passed, on the fourth day, that is, on the fifth day before the Kalends of April, the luminaries were established, not simultaneously in signs, times, days, and years. For although they were made in one day, nevertheless Almighty God, in order to make it clear to us, established the sun in the morning.

As night was approaching, therefore, He established the moon, which revolves through numbers and times in a varying course, as a monthly measure: which moon, on the fourteenth day, was made full at evening, for this reason, that it might both illuminate all the darkness of the first night and run through the entire night, and that for the new man, for whom the Lord God was making this on the sixth day, just as the sun had already been made for the day, so another work, the moon, might seem to proceed, benefiting the night, lest he, abandoned by the departure of light and the brightness of the sun, should suffer unexpected or solitary darkness. For at that time, such a moon in the morning, when it rises, the sun looks upon in the West; but at the beginning of night, after the departure of light and the completed courses of the sun, the moon proceeds, shielded with the power of its own light. Not undeservedly also, through Moses in Exodus, the Lord God commanded his people that from the fourteenth moon of the first month, full at evening, until the twenty-first, the Passover ought to be celebrated. For the Lord wished the week of Passover to have its beginning from the fourteenth, full at evening, so that on the day of Passover dawning, which is the first of that same week, the fifteenth moon would be for them the first day of Unleavened Bread. For the Lord declares in Leviticus, saying this: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the middle of the evening, the Passover of the Lord, and on the fifteenth day of this month, the feast of Unleavened Bread of the Lord" (Leviticus 23:5, 6, according to the Septuagint).

Lunar days begin in the evening and end in the evening, because the moon, in order to temper the darkness of night with its own light for the sake of man, who was still inexperienced, received its rising from God on the evening of the fifth day before the Kalends of April, the day of its birth, and displayed its course until the following evening, that is, the fourth day before the Kalends of April, the end of its first day. For this reason, we today, instructed by God, retain the lunar course and celebrate the vigils of Easter at the beginning of the evening. VII. We have set forth what the moon was like on the fifth day before the Kalends of April at evening, as made by the Lord. Now we also demonstrate where it completed its year. For that year set a limit for the other years. But that the moon, by its course, indicated months and years, as we recalled above, through the neomeniae, that is, the new and first days of the months, which the moon generates, the Lord God declares by His own testimony. For thus it is written: "And the Lord God spoke to Moses, saying: 'On the first day of the neomenia of the first month you shall dedicate the tabernacle of testimony.'" (Exod. 40:1-2, according to the LXX). And in another place, when speaking about sacrifices, when and how they ought to be offered, it says: "You shall also offer sacrifices, and on the neomeniae of the month from month to month of the year." (Num. 28:11, 14, according to the LXX). In the book of Kings also it is said: "When David hid himself, fearing King Saul, and the neomenia occurred, and the King entered the table to eat, and with him the usual guests came.

But David did not enter with him, and his place was empty, and Saul said nothing to him that day; and it happened on the next day, the second day of the month (1 Sam. 20:24–26, according to the LXX). In the Psalms also it is said: "God placed the moon for the seasons" (Ps. 103:19). Therefore, the moon completes its month in twenty-nine and a half days. Why? Because its light is not entirely diminished when it ends. Otherwise, it would be a different work, not what almighty God had first made. Thus the thirtieth moon, hidden in the half-day, is hollowed out. Therefore, twelve times twenty-nine and a half make three hundred fifty-four days. 8. And so, on the fifth day before the Nones of March, the same moon completed its year by running its course. We can prove this for each month of that lunar year. For this moon completed its first month on the second day before the Ides of April, because God made it full for the world and commanded it to proceed. It completed its second month on the fourth day before the Ides of May.

The third month, however, ended on the third day before the Ides of June. The fourth month on the sixth day before the Ides of July. The fifth month on the fifth day before the Ides of August. The sixth month on the seventh day before the Ides of September. The seventh month on the Nones of October. The eighth month on the Nones of November. The ninth month on the Nones of December. The tenth month on the third day before the Nones of January. The eleventh month on the fourth day before the Nones of February. The twelfth month, indeed, assigned its own month to the fifth day before the Nones of March, but on the fourth day before the Nones of March, after the fifth day before the same Nones had passed, with twelve lunations completed, that is, twelve months, the birth of that same moon appeared. IX. Therefore, in three hundred fifty-four days the moon completes the year, but the sun in three hundred sixty-five and a quarter; that is, eleven days and a quarter, which the reckoning of the moon seems to have less than the reckoning of the sun. The six days of the moon's hollows, twelve halves, and those five, which in memory of the building of God were called empty, which the Roman arrangement now divided over some months, which it called intercalary, and that quarter, which the reckoning of the sun rather contains, which quarter, counted in addition, four times through the accessions of four years, making an as, approaches the course of the sun on the twice sixth day before the Kalends of March. But since the sun and moon, day and night, have a connected disputation with each other over 353 days for the lunar year, these eleven days and the bissextile quarter are added, and thus the year of the sun is known to have 365 days and a quarter.

Therefore, because the moon completed its first year, that is, on the fifth day before the Nones of March, the third day before the Nones of March appears to belong to the first month. X. But since divine piety has decreed that the solemnity of Passover is without doubt to be celebrated in no other way than in the first month, for that reason we do not seek the first moon from the fourth day before the Nones of March on account of the reckoning of Passover; because on that day in that first turning year the moon did not appear full, but half, while on the other day, that is, the third day before the Nones of March, it is known to have been the first in its full form. Whence we understand that it must hold the increments of that same moon’s rise to its birth only from the fourth day before the Nones of March, so that the third day before the Nones of March may more correctly occur to us as the first. Now, therefore, when the first moon occurs on the fourth day before the Nones of March, we decline it for this reason, because that full form is completed in the twenty-four hours of night and day, and it begins its increase from the day of the last month of the past year, which is the fifth day before the Nones of March, to its full form, and lest the first moon of the first month appear to have its increase beginning in the last month. That day, the fourth day before the Nones of March, is retained by us as a middle day, so that it is between the day of the last month past and the third day before the Nones of March, so that the first moon, which was on the third day before the Nones of March, may have its beginning of increase from the fourth day before those Nones. For on that day, that is, on the third day before the Nones of March,

If the first moon is found to be without any scruple of the year, and is discovered to be the first on the day of the first month, it receives its increase from the day of the first month to its nativity. XI. Therefore, from that day, the third day before the Nones of March, up to the fourth day before the Nones of April, we must seek so that the first moon may be present, because on whichever day among these twenty-nine days the first moon occurs, from that day the first lunar month begins. From the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April up to the seventeenth day before the Kalends of May, it is legally established by true reasoning that the moon must be the fourteenth. For as we proceed from this point, wherever the sacred day of Easter falls, it is proper to celebrate Easter in that same first month which the moon has generated, justly and without any interruption. For concerning this matter, the Lord testifies in Exodus and says: "You shall observe the feast day of Passover; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, during the time of the month of new grain. For in that month you departed from the land of Egypt" (Exod. 23:15, according to the LXX). Likewise, in Leviticus the Lord commands and says: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the middle of the evening, the Passover of the Lord, and on the fifteenth day of this month, the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord" (Lev. 23:5, 6, according to the LXX).

Again in Numbers: The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai in the second year of their departure from Egypt, in the first month, saying: "Speak, and let the children of Israel make the Passover in its time, on the fourteenth day of the first month at evening; you shall make it according to the seasons, according to its law, and according to its ordinance." And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to make the Passover in the desert of Sinai, and according to what the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did (Num. 9:1–5, according to the LXX). And a little later, with a threat, the Lord commanded and says: "A man who is pure, and has not been on a long journey, and has failed to make the Passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he did not offer a gift to our Lord in its time, and that man shall receive his sin" (Ibid., 13). Again in Deuteronomy, Moses speaks to the people, saying: "Observe the month of new things, and you shall make the Passover to the Lord your God, because in the month of new things you came out of the land of Egypt by night, and you shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God" (Deut. 16:1, 2, according to the LXX). Also in the first book of Esdras it is written more plainly: "And Josiah kept the Passover in Jerusalem to the Lord, and he sacrificed the Phasec on the fourteenth day of the first month at evening" (1 Esd. 1:1, according to the LXX; Vulg. 2 Par. 25:1).

XII. But why do we run about so much, when it is recorded in all the sacred scriptures that the Passover must be celebrated in the first month? But this first month does not have that moon fixed and determined, so that it itself always occurs on the same day, but the days which we mentioned above, the 29th from the 3rd day before the Nones of March to the 4th day before the Nones of April, in which, after the first year from the foundation of the world had passed, it exhibited its first month, so that when it has been the first on one of these days, from then on it itself generates the first month for us. For this reason makes embolismic and common years. For if, in the twelfth month before the 3rd day before the Nones of March, on a day not completing the days of its year, which we mentioned above, the same moon has appeared as the first, it is necessary that it fill a thirteenth month and make an embolismic year. If, at its completed year at the appropriate time, that is, in the days which seem to pertain to the first month, after twelve months have passed, the first moon has occurred, a common year is effected. For these 28 days thus manifest embolismic and common years. There are eleven days from the 3rd day before the Nones of March to the day of the Ides of the same, in which, if the first moon has occurred, because it will be seen to have been born after twelve months, it shows that the past years were common, but the present ones, in which it makes the first month when born, designates embolismic. There are eight days from the 17th day before the Kalends of April to the 10th day before the Kalends of April.

in which if the first moon appears, it signifies both past and present years as common. Therefore, there are ten days from the eighth day before the Kalends of April to the third Nones of the same month, in which if the first moon occurs, it makes the past years embolismic and shows the present years as common. These common years have 354 days; for either the moon's reckoning falls short of the sun's reckoning by eleven days and makes a common year, or it exceeds by nineteen and makes an embolismic year. XIII. Hence, through each year, with this diversity, the days of the lunar years do not seem to agree with the days of the sun, which completes a year in 365 and a quarter. Therefore, we also show this, so that it may appear to all that they have equal days with each other, and that from the beginning their courses have run in this order, and that the losses of common years have been compensated by the same moon in embolismic years. Let us bring forward the reckoning of eight years, which seems to be perfect. In eight years, the moon has five common years and three embolismic years. Therefore, five times 354 makes 1770, and three times 384 makes 1152; together they make 2922 days. Then let us also gather the sum of the sun's eight years: eight times 365 and a quarter makes 2922. Thus, therefore, the course of the sun and moon has been assembled with the days written above.

XIV. We have explained what the day of the world is, which Almighty God established by creating light, and what the moon was like at the beginning of the night, or where it first completed its year, and why we seek the first moon from the third day before the Nones of March, and from which days the fourteenth is understood, and also the reckoning of embolismic and common years for full instruction, so that our posterity, running through infinite years and future times, may more easily and truthfully investigate this course of the moon with the days of Easter, so that they may know on which Kalends or Ides it falls; so that they may know which day or which moon can occur in the first month, so that this little work of ours may be established for all without labor, since the true reasoning has been set forth above, and so that the days of Easter themselves may be known in their own time without labor or without stumbling into falsehood by those who doubt and are ignorant. For our Easter is one thing, that of the Jews another. Indeed, our sacrament is far different from theirs, and we do not celebrate the Lord's Passover as they do, which is shown by clear reasoning in the following reading.

XV. For in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, the Lord Christ, when he was about thirty years old, approached, beginning from the baptism of John. The Evangelist testifies to this. Therefore, for one year he preached to the Jewish people, to whom he had come, in which year he not only foretold the coming of the kingdom of heaven, but also, so that they might believe, showed himself to be the Lord manifest in miracles, and this continued up to the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, in which year, not as is customary for the Jewish solemnity a lamb from the sheep, but the Lord Christ himself was sacrificed for us; so that believers might be freed not from Egypt, but from the world and its vices. For in that year, as the reliability of the calculation shows, and reason itself persuades, the same Lord Christ suffered on the fourteenth day of the moon, on the eighth day before the Kalends of April, on the sixth day of the week. But on the third day, as the first day of the week dawned, which is after the Sabbath of the Jews, the Lord's day, that is, our Sabbath and the true Passover, on which the same Lord Christ, having conquered death by rising, sanctified our Passover, that is, he made a passage of liberation from the sentence of the old man for the living and the dead, and the true sun of righteousness arose for those fearing the Lord and believing in Christ, and health in its wings.

Therefore we Christians today, in memory of our liberation, no longer as the Jews do with a slain lamb and unleavened bread of fine flour and on any day, but after the pattern of the resurrection of our same Lord, on the first day of the week, that is, the Lord’s day, retaining from the law only the first month, which the moon generates by running through its numbers, as it is written: from the fourteenth full moon at evening up to the twenty-first in unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, that is, with purity of mind, we celebrate the Passover of the Lord. EPILOGUE. Having run through everything with God’s favor, we have set forth whatever was to be said concerning the reckoning of Easter. Let us now make an end here to our discourse, and we have completed this laborious work on this day, the third day before the Nones of March, after the consulship of Arcadius for the fourth time and Honorius for the third time. Therefore we warn those who have hastened to receive these writings uncorrected by us, that they should strive to have the corrected work according to this order, and for that reason we have fixed both the day and the consuls, which we did not place at the beginning, now into this account, so that from this anyone may know that this work is corrected.

Quintus Julius Hilarianus set this forth and corrected it on the third day before the Nones of March in the consulship of Caesarius and Atticus.