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Show 478 TIIE !lio'NOCENISTS AND rity held, that St. Epipl1anius claims his previous co.nversiol~ ~5 ft·om Judaism! Hillel, continues Basnage, did three tlnngs wlnch rendered him famous among Jews and Christians. One of them was: "n was that he iixcd the epocha from the Creation of the World, and r l'oncd the y ars from them. Difl:erent epochas were made u e of bofo1·o. The departure from Egypt was tho wra of some; tho Law giv n at Sinai wns that of oth rs: one reckoned tho years from tbe Deuication of the 'rernple; another from the return out of captivity: some dated from Alexander tlte G1·eat's entering into Jerusalem, which they looked upon as a consid rablc event to the Ropnblick. But si11co th GemaTa was :finished, they b gan to reckon the years from Lhc roaLion of the world ; and we arc told that it was Hillel who ostablisl1od this epocha, and transmitted it to posterity (for it is still observed); and, according to his calculation, Jesus Ghrist was born in the year 3760." * * * 'l'he Jews sustained, however, that "Jesus Oltrist is not tho Messiah, since he came above 200 years before tho end of tho fourth millennium:" * * * on whicr1 Basnago comments that "Jesus Olt1·ist ought to be born in the year 3910"! "Variro opinionos do numero annorum a creationo ad naLivitatem Christi: et quid de line mundi sentiendam," -is a statement illustrated by OafHtrelli 236 with a list of more than twenty authorities, n:om Paulus Forosompronionsis down to Malvencb, in which the dates for the Creation range from D.o. 3760 to 6310! "Ex quibu concluditur, nee dies neque annos a ereatione ad Christum absque poculiari revelationo sciri posse." To tho above, his translator obligingly adds five more estimates of tho year of tho Nativity,-between A.M. 3837 and A. M. 3970: marvelling, with Clemens Aloxandrinus (lib. I, Strom. B), at the existence of persons, in lds tirne, who (not perceiving exactly, with our acuter national Diclymus, how chronology "binds man to God") attempt precision in determining Jesus's birth-" Sunt qui curiosius non solum annum sed di m addnnt !I' And this erudite father of tho Church was living (A. n. :J 02-217) barely two centuries after the occurrence of this tho greatest (among ourselves) event of events. Mosheim 237 honestly concedes that tho year of Christ "has not been ~itherto fixed with certainty;" but ador ts, as "most probable," "the year of Rome 7 48 or 7 49 (Matt. iii, 2; John i, 22; &c.):" in- :~aa l3ASNAOII (supra, note 229), pp. 157-9 :-conf. tLiso MAOKAY, Progrm of the Intellect, 1!, pp. 807-15. 236 Cttriositatre lnauditre de jiguris Pcrsarum Talismania&, Doroacopo Patriarcharum ct Cl•aracteribus Crele&tibu&,· Lalinll-opera M. G1·ogorii Miohoolis; Ilv.mburgi, 1676; oo.p. II, pp. 7, 44-8, 180-2. 887-40. 231 Eccluiaatical Ei1tory, trans!. Maolnire; 1st American ed., Philo.delphio., 1797; I, p. 52. 'l'HE POLYCF.Nl,''I'S. 470 forming UR, in a note, that "Lhc 1 arn d JonN ALDEllT FADRIOlUS kt~ coli ,ctod all tho opinions of the learn d concerning the year of ChriHL's birLlt." To his work I tum: ;,>.38 although tho question be not oven settled at this day!23o Under tho head of" Minutiro in chronologicis minus consoctandro," Fabricius onlal'ges upon the uncertainties of chronology; backincr assertion with citations of 141 different epochs assigned to C hri st~ nativity by about 283 authorities, who begin at A.M. 3616 and on<l at A. M. 6484, fot' this all-important event. Then, for those who "Christum natum consent" in An. U1·bis cond. (tho year of the building of Rome), they range between 720 and 756 A. u. o. If, more particular, we ask-" Quo menso natus hristns ?" a table is present 'd to our sight in which difrcront computators have agr cd upon the 6th January, or tho lOth idem, or February, or Man:lt, or the 1D-20th April, 01· the 20th May, or June "XI Kal. Julias," or Jul:IJ, o1· August "sub finom mcns~s," or Septembe1· "die XV optombris, Jo. Lightfootus ad Lucro TI, 7," or October "sub init.," or tho 6th November, or tho 18th of tho same, or, lastly, tho 25th December -"ox commnni Orrocro et Latinro Ecclosiro traditione." Fabricius adds this singular coincidence-" Pulchro obsorv-arunt Viri docti a Romania die VIII Cal. Januaril sivo XXV Docombris celebratum diem natalem Solis invicti, initinm nempo poriodi annuro ot bmmam: oamquc solennitatom a Christiania opportune translatam ad Natalem Solis Justitiw." Raoul-Roehotte,2 ' 0 in his erudite jnquirios into tho Phoonician god Mellcarth, as an incarnation of the Sun at the Winter Sol tice- a subject g reatly clovolopod by Lanci241 -has carried those Roman analogies back to a much earlier period in Canaan. lie says-"Wo know, through a precise testimony in tho ancient annals of Tyre, tho principal festivity of Mclkarth, at Tyro, was called his 1·e-birtlt ot· his awalcening, Uyspct1~ (Josi~Pli., Antiq. Jud., Vill, 5, 3); and that it was celebrated by means of a pyre, whor upon tho god was supposetl to regain, tltrougl~ tlte aid of fire, a new Nfe (NoNNUS, Dionysiaca, -' L, 238 Bibtiograpl!iCI Antiquaria, sive l11troductio i11110litiam Scriptorum, qui a11tiquate8 llebraicaa, Grrecae, Roma11aa, et Ohristia11a8 ac1·iptia ittuatravcrunt; 2d cd., linmbu1·gh, 4to, 1716; pp. 185-7, 1 !JS-8, 842-3, 344. 230 See D~1 SAur.ov, "Snr ln dntc de ln. nnissnncc ct do Ia mort du Cbrist,"-oontrovortcd by ALF'RHD MAURY, "Sur ln. date do In nnisso.noc du Christ" (Athenreum Franfais, 1855, pp. 485-6, 513-4). 240 JUmoirea d'ArcMologie comparee, Asiatiquo, Grocque ot Etru3que. Ir• M6m., "L'Ticrcule Assyrian ct l?hoonicion considcr6 dans so~ ro.pports n.veo 1' llcroulc Grcc ;" Po.ris, 4tc, 1848 j pp. 25-7, 28, 29-38. 2H t>aralipomeni all' 1Uu3trazione della Sagra Scrittura per Monumt11li Fenico-As8irii ad Egiziani; Paris, 18'15, 4to 2 vole. paw·m. I',I ,' |
