The reckoning of the date of Easter. As Christianity is based on the belief in Resurrection an the universal redemption, the most important holiday in the

Christian calendar is Easter (Lat. Pascha from Hebr. Pessach ’to jump over’;

„…and when I see the blood, I will jump over you…”, Shemos 12:13). However, its date varies from year to year being dependent on the phases of the monthly

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lunar cycle. Consequently, the most important problem when making an ecclesiastical calendar, is the reckoning of the date of Easter, the feast of the

„Resurrection” of Oto Ish. On the other hand, this most important Christian holiday is connected manyfoldedly with the Jewish Pessach. According to the Gospel (Jn. 18:28, 19:14, 31) Oto Ish was executed on the eve of Pessach (Erev Pessach, the 14th of the month Nissan) which, according to the synoptic Gospels (Mt. 27:62, 28:1; Mk. 15:42; Luk. 23:54; Jn. 19:31, 42) in that year fell on Friday.

However, since early times, there were differences in the fixing of the date of Easter between the Antiochean Church which followed automatically the Jewish Pessach (Nissan 15), and the Alexandrian Church which insisted on the independent fixing of the date of Easter together with the first vernal New Moon.

Effectively, already from the beginning of the second century, Roman Christians feasted Easter on the aniversary of the „Resurrection”, i. e. on Sunday following the 15th of Nissan. On the other hand, they did not follow necessarily the position of the Sun, but kept instead the feast according to (the Jewish) tradition on the 21 of March (in the East), on the 24th (on the Iberian peninsula), or the 25th (in Rome), respectively. The Nicean Council of 325 decided among other things about the principles of the unified feasting of Easter, fixing its date to the Sunday which follows the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox. At the same time, the Council – allegedly - charged the bishop of Alexandria with the reckoning of the date of Easter and the publication of this date. As the Council’s resolutions are no more extant, this is generally accepted following a letter of pope St. LEON I the Great (440-461).¹

In Alexandria, Easter-tablets were prepared already in the third century, containing all the data necessary for the reckoning of the date of Easter, and also

1 Cf. GINZEL, III. p. 217.

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the date of Easter, for a cycle of a certain amount of years. More than that, once the years of the cycle are finished, the date of Easter can be fixed in the same manner following the tablets. According to our actual knowledge, the first such Easter-tablet was prepared by Dionysios, bishop of Alexandria, however, it is no more extant. In the fifth century, the tablet prepared by the patriarch Kyrillos (412-444) established a cycle of 95 years (the first cycle starting in the 153th year after Diocletian and ended in the 247th), which became the base of ulterior computations. From among the Easter-tablets prepared for Western Christians who did not follow exactly the Alexandrians, the oldest known was prepared by Hippolytus, bishop of Portus; it is, however, no more extant. In 457, Victorius (Victurius) of Aquitaine reckons the dates of Easter for a cycle of 532 years, often differing from the Alexandrians: 28 x 19 = 532; the solar cycle being of 28 years, the lunar one of 19, what means that the Sun and the Moon arrive after 532 years to the same position on the same day of the week.

In 525, the Roman abbot, Dionysius Exiguus – referring himself erroneously to the Nicean Council – prepares Easter-tablets taking into consideration the Alexandrian principles together with the 95 years’ cycle of Kyrillos. With the time, his tablets became generally accepted for the reckoning of the date of Easter.¹ In the Christian Middle Ages, the first year of the first cycle was fixed, following DIONYSIUS Exiguus, for the year when the first lunar month – ending in January – started on the precedent December 25th, this being the first day of the „first” ecclesiastical year, i. e. 1 BCE. Consequently, the saltus lunae was fi-xed for the lunar month of the 19th year which ends in July or, following BEDA

Venerabilis, in November.

1 All these computations are based on PTOLEMAIOS’ tablets which were preapered, as mentioned above (see p. xlii-xliii), after earlier authors.

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3.5.3. The „A. d.”-reckoning. Considering the activity of Oto Ish as the starting point of a new World-Era, Christianity arrived naturally to insist upon the necessity of the introduction of a new – Christian - time-reckoning system. In one of the rubrics of his abovementioned Easter-tablets of 457, Victorius of Aquitaine enlists the years according to the crucifiction also, nevertheless, his initiative was not followed. In his remarks to his Easter-tablets redacted in 525, DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS refutes the use of the so-called Era-Diocletiana (which started with the year 284) saying, Christians should not reckon the years according to the reign of an Emperor ill-famed because of his persecutions of Christians. Instead, he proposes the year of the birth of Oto Ish as the starting point of the – Christian – time-reckoning. This new, Christian concept is manifested, in the Middle-Ages and, in ecclesiastical texts even in modern times, in the expressions anno domini [’in the year of the Lord’], annus domini [’the year of the Lord’], annus ab incarnatio domini [’the year after the incarnation of the Lord’], annus gratiae [’the year of grace’]. Although we do not know with certainity, how did Dionysius Exiguus establish this birthdate, and nonwithstanding the fact that today his computation is generally accepted as be-ing erroneous, still, until our days, Christian ecclesiatical (and, consequently, modern civil) time-reckoning is based on his data. According to Dionysius, the year 248 of the so-called Era Diocletiana is the year 532 A. d. Consequently, the year of the birth of Oto Ish – the first year of the Christian World-Era - is the year 754, after the foundation of Rome (ab Urbe condita), and also the 42th year of Augustus’ reign. In reality, 42 BCE is not the begin of Augustus’ reign who remained, after Antonius’ suicide, the „only” ruler over the entire Empire in 27

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BCE. In the battle near Philippi, on October 23, 42 BCE the triumvirs defeated decisively the murderer of Caesar, Brutus and the republicans.

In the West, Dionysius’ computation became widespread through the works of the British monk, later presbyter at Jarrow, BEDA Venerabilis (c. 673-735): the

„Chronica maior” [Universal Chronicle], an appendix to his „De temporibus liber” [About Time-Reckoning. 725] and the „De ratione temporum”, also a chronological work in 71 chapters. The principal sources of Bede’s chronological works are the „Etymologiarum” of ISIDORUS Hispalensis, and the „Historia Francorum libri X” [The Ten Books of the History of the Franks, called also

„Historia ecclesiastica”] by St. GREGORY of Tours (Gregorius Turonensis, c.

540-594). In Chapter 30 of Book V of „Etymologiarum” are discussed the year, month, day, week; while in Chapter 17 of Book VI, the reckoning of the date of Easter and other problems of time-reckoning. Curiously, Bede knows about and utilises zero, which did not arrive to Europe from India, through Arab intermediaries, until after the year 1100. It is also very surprising that he knows about the inconstant revolt of the Moon, still unknown by Hermann of Reichenau in the middle of the 11th century.

However, the time-reckoning according the birth of Oto Ish starts to be generally used in the Christian West. Presumabely, it was Regino, abbot of Prüm (c. 845-915) who uses for the first time consequently the „A. d.” dating. His chronicle, finished in 908 but extant only in later copies,¹ the „Chronicon sive Annales”, relates annalistically the world’s history until the year 906 A. d., but his data are often lacking reliability.² The list of the years of the popes according to

1 See W. R. SCHLESINGER, Die Überlieferungsgeschichte der Chronik des Regino von Prüm. 1974.

2 „As we are in front of an annual not written year after year but, rather, in one time, his dates cannot be considered as being reliables.” KRISTÓ Gyula ed. A Honfoglalás korának írott forrásai. [The Written Sources of the Period of the Magyar Occupation of and Settlement in Hungary] Szeged, 1995, p. 194.

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the „A. d.”-reckoning, is first composed following an order by pope EUGENE IV (1431-47). The Eastern Church will not, however, accept Dionysius’ computation until the 18th century.

According to the Gospel (Mt. 2:15), Oto Ish was born in one of the last years before HERODE the Great’s death, during the all-imperial census odered by emperor Augustus (Lk. 2:1). According to IOSEPHUS, Herode died in the spring of the year 750 „ab Urbe condita” [„aUc.”], while modern computations give the date of 749 aUc., i. e. 4 BCE (the year can easily be identidfied through the lunar eclipse of March 12-13 of that year. The all-imperial census by emperor Augustus – the second one, according to his own autobiography – took place in 8/7 BCE. According to CLEMENT of Alexandria (c. 140/150 – after 215), Oto Ish was born in the 28th year of Augustus’ reign i. e. in 1 CE. In connection with his observing the coniunction of the Jupiter and the Saturn in 1604, Johannes KEPLER (1571-1630) came to the idea to identify this astronomical phenomenon with the so-called star of Bethlehem, described by the Gospel (Mt. 2:1-10).

Accordingly, he reckoned that in 7 BCE, the two planets met three times in the constellation Pisces. To evaluate justly Kepler’s idea, we have to take into consideration the fact that the Fish was a symbol of primitive Christianity. The Greek word for fish, ikhthys was understood as being formed from the initials of the words expressing the deity and messianic character of Oto Ish: „Iessous Khristos, Theou Hyos, Soter”, ’J., the anointed, the son of G-d, Redemptor’.

Modern historiographical data vary between 7 and 4 BCE. At the same time, we can observe that, taking away 525 years (when Dionysius is making his computations) from the 532 years of Victorius’ Easter-cycle, we arrive to 7, i. e.

again 7 BCE.

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