NOTES AND STUDIES

PAPIAS ON THE AGE OF OUR LORD.

In a former article in this JOURNAL (July 1907, vol. viii p. 590) I have argued that certain calculations which placed the Birth, Baptism, and Passion of Christ in the years 9, 46, and 58 were made by Hippolytus in his youth, with the help of the imperial chronology of Tertullian, and that they were based on no ancient tradition. But it appeared that Hippolytus must have appealed to tradition for some other part of the statements attributed to him by the independent witness of Alexander of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, and Annianus. From their confused testimony it would seem that he based his assertions on 'tradition' from 'one who had known the Apostles'. This in a disciple of Irenaeus suggests that he had used the book of Papias. The points which might with some probability be supposed to be grounded on Papias were found to be three only: (a) that the Annunciation took place on the same day of the week as the Resurrection and the Creation of light (Alexander and Annianus); (b) that Christ was seven months in the womb (Epiphanius, from 'tradition'); (c) possibly the two lines of Dom Morin's fragment of Alexander :— _1

Feria vj annuntiatus, feria j natus,

feria v baptizatus, feria vj passus,

provided that we harmonize this with a, by conjecturing feria j annuntiatus, feria vj natus.

I added that these three points are to be found together in a fragment of Victorinus, which I had on independent grounds recognized as probably dependent on Papias, perhaps verbally.

§1. Hippolytus and a fragment of Victorinus.

I quote the passage of Victorinus's fragment De fabrica mundi from the only MS 2:—

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fol. 72b 'Ecce 1septem cornula (cornua) agnuli, septem oculos di, 3 septem oculi stagnei (agnuli), septem oculi, 'septem sps, 'septem faces ardentes ante thronum dei, septem candelabra aurea, 7 septem o*viculae, septem mulieres apud

1 J.T.S. April 1906, p. 459.

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2 Lambeth 414 (originally 851 in the Library of St Augustine's, Canterbury). This MS, used by Routh and others, had been lost sight of, and I should have been unable to collate it, but for a letter from Mr A. Souter in the Athenaeum, Aug. 20, 1904, p. 240, mentioning that he had found it, with the help of Dr M. R. James's Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover. The fragment will be found in Routh's Reliquiae sacrae iii, reprinted in Migne P.L. vol. v.

Esaiam, 'septem ecclesiae apud Paulum, 10 septem diacones, "septem angeli, 12 septem tubae, 13 septem signacula libri, 1septem septimanae quibus pentecosten concluditur, 15 septem septimanae apud Danihelum, item quadraginta tres septimanae apud Danihelum, 16 apud Noe septem omnia munda in arca, 17 septem vindictae de Cain, 18 septem anni remittendi debiti, 19 lucerna cum septem orificis (-ciis), 20 septem columnae sapientiae in domo Salomonis.

'Nunc igitur de inenarrabili gloria dei in providentia videas memorari; tamen ut mens parva poterit conabor ostendere. Ut Adam illum per septimanam reformaverit, atque universae suae creaturae subveniret (subvenerit), nativitatem filii sui Iesu Christi domini nostri factum est. Quis itaque lege dei doctus, quis plenus Spiritu sancto, non respiciat corde ea die Gabrihel angelum Mariae virgini evangelizasse qua die draco Aevam seduxit; ea die Spiritum sanctum Mariam virginem inundasse qua lucem fecit; ea die in carne esse conversum qua terram et aquam fecit; ea die in lacte esse conversum qua stellas fecit; ea die in sanguine qua terra et aqua foetus suos ediderunt; ea die in carne esse conversum qua die hominem de humo instruxit; ea die natum esse Christum qua hominem finxit; eadem die esse passum quo Adam caecidit; ea die resurrexit a mortuis qua lucem fecit.

'Humanitatem quoque suam septimano (septenario) numero consummat, nativitatis, infantiae, pueritiae, adulescentiae, iuuentutis, perfectae aetatis, occasum (-sus). Iudaeis quoque humanitatem suam etiam his modis ostendit, cum esurit, sitit, cibum potumque dedit,' cum ambulat eas esse scit (et sedet?), cum super cervicalem dormivit. Cum autem freta aut procella (?) pedibus ingreditur, ventis imperat, aegros curat, et clodus (-dos 2 m.) reformat, caecos [visu, mutos] eloquentia instituit 2 videte dominum se esse nuntiari eiusdem (eisdem).'

Before this passage there is a comparison of the seven days with the seven heavens and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, partly to be quoted later. The long list of sevens is found twice in St Cyprian (Testimonia i 20, and ad Fortunatum 11). But St Victorinus is not quoting from him, as I hope the appended note will clearly shew.

1 Sumit is wanted. I suppose edit will not do with potum, even in Victorinus. 'We may perhaps read 'caecis visum, mutis loquelam restituit'. Routh suggested: Forte excidit "surdos fecit audire et mortuos restituit,"' leaving the gift of speech to the blind as needing no emendation! But we want a seventh miracle. Perhaps 'freta pedibus ingreditur, ventis aut procellis imperat'. Or else 'caecis visum, surdis auditum, mutis loquelam'.

'I give the two passages of St Cyprian. The text of that from the Testimonia is that of the MS L, from Hartel's apparatus; that of the Ad Fortunatum is Hartel's text, except that I read Petrum for petram (a mere slip of S, corrected by the second hand) :—

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St Cyprian Testim. i 20 'Item in Basi[li]on primo: "Sterilis septem peperit, et quae plurimos habebat filios, infirmata est." Filii autem ecclesiae septem sunt, unde et * Paulus ecclesiis septem scripsit, et Apocalypsis Ecclesias septem ponit, ut servetur septenarius numerus, ut dies septem quibus Deus mundum fecit, 11 ut angeli septem, qui adsistunt et conversantur ante faciem Dei, sicut Raphael angelus in Tobia dicit, "et lucerna septiformis in tabernaculum martyrii, et 2 oculi Domini septem qui mundum speculantur, et lapis cum oculis septem, ut Zacharias dicit, et 'spiritus septem, et candelabra in Apocalypsi septem, et 20 columnae septem super quas aedificavit domum sapientia apud Salomonem.'

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Idem ad Fortunat. 11 'Quid vero in Machabaeis septem fratres, et natalium

Victorinus next applies the seven days to the Humanity of Christ, shewing that He sanctified the days of the week by certain events; then we hear of seven ages and of seven human and seven divine works.

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The passage is corrupt and dislocated. Somewhat earlier in the pariter et virtutum sorte consimiles, septenarium numerum sacramento perfectae consummationis implentes? Sic septem fratres martyrio cohaerentes, ut primi in dispositione divina septem dies annorum septem milia continentes ut *septem spiritus et angeli septem qui adsistunt et conversantur ante faciem Dei, et 19 lucerna septiformis in tabernaculo martyrii, et in Apocalypsi septem candelabra aurea, et 20 aput Salomonem columnae septem super quas aedificat domum sapientia, ita et istic septem fratrum numerus, ecclesias septem numeri sui quantitate conplexus, secundum quod in primo Regnorum legimus sterilem septem peperisse. Et apud Esaiam septem mulieres unum hominem adprehendunt, cuius invocari super se nomen exposcunt. Et Apostolus Paulus, qui huius numeri legitimi et certi meminit, ad septem ecclesias scribit. Et in Apocalypsi Dominus mandata sua divina et praecepta caelestia ad septem ecclesias et earum angelos dirigit. Qui nunc istic numerus in fratribus invenitur, ut consummatio legitima conpleatur. Cum septem liberis plane copulatur et mater, origo et radix, quae ecclesias septem postmodum peperit, ipsa prima et una super Petrum Domini voce fundata.'

If we number the members of Victorinus's enumeration, from 1 to 20, they recur in Cyprian thus, Testim. 9, a, 11, 19, 2, 3, 4, 6, 20; ad Fortun. a, 4, 11, 19, 6, 20, c, 8, 9, b. The addition in Cyprian which I have marked b, is not really an addition, the seven Churches and seven angels of the Apocalypse,—for Victorinus discusses them at length in his commentary on the Apocalypse, and here he may be supposed to refer to all the sevens in the first chapter of the Apocalypse under the heading septem candelabra. The addition marked a is precisely what Victorinus is commenting upon, viz. the seven days of creation. The addition in ad Fortunatum, c, ‘sterilis septem peperit' is the point on which the passage of the Testimonia comments. The whole list in ad Fortunatum is to illustrate the seven Maccabees. A very simple consideration will now demonstrate that Victorinus has not used Cyprian. The treatise ad Fortunatum is later than the Testimonia; it gives most of the same sevens, adding the sterilis septem peperit which is the text of the sermon in the former work. Both treatises cite the seven days which form the text of Victorinus's sermon, but are not in his list. But Victorinus has neither of Cyprian's texts, neither the sterilis septem peperit nor the seven Maccabees. Yet if he had made up his list out of St Cyprian's two lists, these two members of the enumerations were just those he could not have avoided giving. On the other hand Cyprian adds nothing to Victorinus except precisely the two points which give occasion to his two lists. It is clear, therefore, that Victorinus did not borrow from Cyprian, but that Cyprian has twice employed a source which Victorinus has followed more closely and completely. Whether the points given by Victorinus which are not in Cyprian were added by the former, or found in the source, we cannot, of course, know. All we know is that Cyprian borrowed from a source in which all the sevens were used to illustrate the seven days. (As Papias lived but a few miles from Laodicea and Colossae, he was in a Pauline circle. The idea that he knew nothing of St Paul is fortunately long since superannuated; and there is nothing impossible in his having put the epistles of St Paul to seven Churches as a parallel to those of St John as in the Muratorian fragment.) On the sources of the Testimonia see J. R. Harris in Expositor, Nov. 1906.

fragment we find 'Die quinto terra et aqua foetus suos ediderunt', else one would have suggested in this passage aer or aera et aqua; for birds and fishes belong to the fifth day, and beasts to the sixth. Of the sixth day the earlier passage has, as ours has, 'Ac sic Deus hominem de humo instruxit.' A little later, the comparison of the seven days with the seven gifts supplies us with another list, the former of the following columns; the second column gives the list in our passage ::

Evidently it is the second day that is omitted. The Incarnation is on the first day, the Nativity, with the Passion, on the sixth. Between these there are wanted four stages of growth in the womb to correspond to the four intervening days; in fact, only three stages are mentioned, for in carne esse conversum comes twice over. The succession, milk, blood, flesh, was a commonplace. We find it in St Augustine :

'Sex, nouem, duodecim, decem et octo, haec in unum fiunt quadraginta quinque. Adde ergo ipsum unum, fiunt quadraginta sex: hoc sexies, fiunt ducenta septuaginta sex. Dicitur autem conceptio humana sic procedere et perfici, ut primis sex diebus quasi lactis habeat similitudinem, sequentibus nouem diebus conuertatur in sanguinem, deinde duodecim diebus solidetur, reliquis decem et octo diebus formetur usque ad perfecta lineamenta omnium membrorum, et hinc iam reliquo tempore usque ad tempus partus magnitudine augeatur. Quadraginta ergo quinque diebus addito uno, quod significat summam : quia sex et nouem et duodecim et decem et octo in unum coactis, fiunt quadraginta quinque, addito ergo, ut dictum est, uno, fiunt quadraginta sex. Qui cum fuerint multiplicati per ipsum senarium numerum, qui huius ordinationis caput tenet, fiunt ducenti septuaginta sex; id est, nouem menses et sex dies, qui computantur ab octauo calendas aprilis, quo die conceptus Dominus creditur, quia eodem die passus est, usque ad octauum calendas ianuarias, quo die natus est. Non ergo absurde quadraginta sex annis dicitur fabricatum esse templum, quod corpus eius significabat, ut quot anni fuerunt in fabricatione templi, tot dies fuerint in corporis Dominici perfectione.' (De Diuersis Quaestionibus, ad Simplicianum 56 'De annis quadraginta sex aedificati templi', begun A.D. 388.)

The same ingenious calculation is repeated by St Augustine in his De Trinitate (iv 5 n. 9).1 Only there he merely makes 46 × 6 = 276

1 The Ven. Bede, In S. Ioannis evang. Expos. ii 20, copies St Augustine Ad Simpl. almost word for word; he begins 'Tradunt enim naturalium scriptores rerum. He adds another explanation of the forty-six years from Augustine Tract.

days equal to the nine months from March 25 to December 25 (of these dates he says 'sicut a maioribus traditum suscipiens Ecclesiae custodit auctoritas '), and he says nothing of the milk, blood, and flesh, the 6, 9, 12, and 18 days. In fact these only make 45, not 46, and addito uno, quod significat summam was an awkward expedient. From what medical authority St Augustine got these numbers of 6, 9, 12, 18, I do not know; but they were not known to Victorinus, for they cannot be made to give consecutive weekdays. Similarly Victorinus cannot have meant March 25 and December 25, which cannot fall on the same weekday. His only point of contact with Augustine is the series milk, blood, flesh, growth. We get the following scheme :Creation of light.

:

Ist day :

Annunciation.

Fall of Eve.

But whether this diagram is so far correct or not, at least it seems that even more is wanting. We should have expected to be told again that Christ was taken prisoner (!) on the fourth day, Wednesday, as Victorinus had said already: 'Homo Christus Iesus, auctor eorum quae supra memoravimus, tetrade ab impiis comprehensus est. Itaque ob captivitatem eius tetrade(m) . . . superpositionem facimus.'' And if so, we might suppose that the Baptism was mentioned on the fifth day, e. g. 'ea die baptizatum esse Christum qua terra et aqua foetus suos ediderunt.'

The repetition of the first day looks like an interpolation, and cannot be retained unless we change resurrexit into resurrexisse.

X in Ioann. ii 19 no. 12 (where that Doctor is borrowing from Pseudo-Cyprian De duobus Montibus Sina et Sion 4 p. 108), to the effect that 46 = 'Adáμ = a' + d′ + a' + μ', i. e. I + 4 + 1 + 40! Bede repeats the former explanation in a Homily, Bk. i 22; and we find the same over again in the Chronicon Palatinum cap. 12-13 (Mai Spicilegium and P.L. 94, 1167). This chronicle is directed against the Easter calculations of the 'Scotti', i. e. St Columbanus, without doubt. The first eleven chapters are from John Malala, and so is the list of Emperors (col. 1172-4). As this list ends with the ninth year of Justin II, it is clear that the chronicle of Malala must have ended at that date. It is worth while noting this, in case it has not been pointed out before, for the date of Malala is usually spoken of as doubtful, and the end of his chronicle (abridged) is lost in the Bodleian MS, the only one.

'Epiphanius (Haer. 52, 26, clearly not from Hippolytus, but from the authority from whom he got his own chronology) says Συλλαμβάνεται δὲ τῇ τρίτῃ τῇ αὐτῇ ὀψέ, i. e. Tuesday! (Cp. Didaskalia 21.)