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The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era

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The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES General Editors Gillian Clark Andrew Louth THE OXFORD EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES series includes scholarly volumes on the thought and history of the early Christian centuries. Covering a wide range of Greek, Latin, and Oriental sources, the books are of interest to theologians, ancient historians, and specialists in the classical and Jewish worlds. Titles in the series include: Clement of Alexandria and the Beginnings of Christian Apophaticism Henny Fiska˚ Ha¨gg (2006) The Christology of Theodoret of Cyrus Antiochene Christology from the Council of Ephesus (431) to the Council of Chalcedon (451) Paul B. Clayton, Jr. (2006) Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica Aaron P. Johnson (2006) Union and Distinction in the Thought of St Maximus the Confessor Melchisedec To¨ro¨nen (2007) Contextualizing Cassian Aristocrats, Asceticism, and Reformation in Fifth-Century Gaul Richard J. Goodrich (2007) Ambrosiaster’s Political Theology Sophie Lunn-RockliVe (2007) Coptic Christology in Practice Incarnation and Divine Participation in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt Stephen Davis (2008) Possidius of Calama A Study of the North African Episcopate in the Age of Augustine Erica T. Hermanowicz (2008) Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church Volker L. Menze (2008) The Christocentric Cosmology of St Maximus the Confessor Torstein Theodor Tollefsen (2008) Augustine’s Text of John Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts H. A. G. Houghton (2008) Hilary of Poitiers on the Trinity From De Fide to De Trinitate Carl L. Beckwith (2008) The Easter Computus and the Origins of the Christian Era ALDEN A. MOSSHAMMER 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox26dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dares Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With oYces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York # Alden A. Mosshammer 2008 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Mosshammer, Alden A. The Easter computus and the orgins of the Christian era/Alden A. Mosshammer. p. cm.–(The Oxford early Christian studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–954312–0 1. Easter. 2. Church calender–History. 3. Church history–Chronology. 4. Dionysius Exiguus, d. ca. 540. I. Title. CE83.M65 2008 263’.9—dc22 2008021637 Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire ISBN 978–0–19–954312–0 13579108642 Acknowledgements The University of California, San Diego, granted two separate periods of sabbatical leave between 2001 and 2003 for work on this project. During that period and again after my retirement from UCSD in the fall of 2002, the Department of Classics and the Associate Dean for Humanities at Dartmouth College extended to me the privileges of a Visiting Scholar. The excellent collections of the Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth greatly facilitated my work. After I relocated to Prescott, Arizona, in the fall of 2004, I found myself several hundred miles from the nearest major research library. The Interlib- rary Loan Department at the Prescott Public Library obtained a number of volumes for me. The Interlibrary Loan Department at the University of California, San Diego, has also been extremely helpful in providing electronic copies of articles and chapters and sometimes sending me whole volumes by overnight parcel delivery. I especially want to thank Shannon Carreras for prompt and gracious response to my many requests. Several individuals responded to my requests by email for assistance with matters beyond my linguistic competence. Meir Bar-Ilan of Bar-Ilan Univer- sity responded to several questions about Jewish calculations and provided me with a reference to a Piyyut of Ha-Qalir. David Goodblatt, my colleague at UCSD, kindly translated the relevant passage for me. Armenuhi Drost- Abgarian of the Institut fu¨r Orientalistik at the Martin-Luther-Universita¨t Halle-Wittemberg sent me a copy of an Armenian text diYcult to obtain in the United States. Grigor Broutian at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory responded to a number of my questions about his work on the Armenian calendar. Timothy Greenwood, aYliated then with the Oriental Institute in Oxford, now at the University of St Andrews, responded to questions about Armenian authors and granted permission for me to use his translations of Armenian inscriptions and colophons, which were at that time posted on the internet. I thank Martin WallraV, then of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universita¨t Jena, now at the Universita¨t Basel, for the outstanding conference he organized on Julius Africanus in Eisenach in May of 2005. Richard Burgess of the University of Ottawa was present. His comments on my reconstruction of the chrono- logical system of Africanus led me to revise my views substantially. I want to thank my mentor and friend Charles Fornara in the Department of Classics at Brown University. He had no direct role in this project, but his vi Acknowledgements inXuence upon it is great. It was he who Wrst taught me to love the study of history.Ihaveappliedoneofhismostimportantlessonsthroughoutthis study—work from the sources and worry about the scholarship later. The readers for Oxford University Press made several suggestions for improvements and corrections in my text. I am especially indebted to Leofranc Holford-Strevens for his detailed commentary on the penultimate draft, as well as his many helpful comments and corrections during copy-editing. The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford granted permission for use of the image on the cover, MS Digby 63, fo. 6r. This is a page from St Bede’s 532-year continuation of the Easter table of Dionysius Exiguus, showing the data for the years ad 754–78. Finally and especially, I want to thank Mary, my wife of 36 years, for her patience and support during the several years I have been at work on this project. Alden A. Mosshammer Prescott, Arizona Contents List of Tables ix Abbreviations x PART I. CONTEXTS 1. Introduction 3 2. Chronological Systems 10 3. Easter and the Passover Moon 40 PART II. THE EASTER TABLES OF DIONYSIUS EXIGUUS 4. The Letters to Boniface and Petronius 59 5. The Structure of the 19-Year Cycle 72 6. The Computistical Rules 97 PART III. PASCHAL CALCULATIONS IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY 7. The 8-Year Cycle and the Invention of the Epacts 109 8. The 19-Year Cycle of Anatolius 130 9. Athanasius and the Council of Sardica 162 10. The Classical Alexandrian Cycle 190 11. Paschal Calculations at Rome 204 12. Paschal Calculations in the Eastern Empire 245 13. The Chronicon Paschale and the Origins of the Byzantine Era 278 PART IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA 14. Evidence for the Chronology of Jesus 319 15. The Christian Era of Dionysius Exiguus 339 viii Contents 16. The Christian Era of Panodorus 357 17. The Christian Era of Julius Africanus 385 18. Anatolius and the Christian Era 422 References 439 Index 465 List of Tables 1. The Paschal cycle of Dionysius Exiguus 73 2. The 112-year cycle of Hippolytus 123 3. The Wrst 16-year cycle of Hippolytus 124 4. The 19-year cycle of Anatolius as reconstructed by Schwartz, compared with the classical cycle 149 5. The cycle of Anatolius as reconstructed in the present study, compared with the classical cycle 161 6. Athanasian Index and Headings, compared with Anatolian and classical cycles 179 7. Paschal full moons in Sardica document, compared with Anatolian and classical dates 185 8. The Roman 84-year cycle 210 9. The 100-year list of Easter dates in the Chronograph of 354 214 10. The 19-year cycle of Victorius, compared with the Alexandrian cycle 242 11. The 19-year cycle in the fourth Paschal wheel of the Chronicon Paschale, compared with the classical Alexandrian and Anatolian cycles 295 Abbreviations A&A Astronomy and Astrophysics AJP American Journal of Philology BZ Byzantinische Zeitschrift CIArm Corpus inscriptionum Armenicarum [Divan Hay Vimagrut‘yun], ed. H. A. Orbeli et al., vols. i–ii, iv–viii (Erevan, 1960–99) CIG Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum, 4 vols. in 11 (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1828–77) CP Classical Philology CSEL Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum CSHB Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers FGrHist Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, ed. F. Jacoby (Berlin: Weidmann, 1923; Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1926–55) JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JBL Journal of Biblical Literature JHA Journal for the History of Astronomy JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies JRASC Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada JRS Journal of Roman Studies LNPNF Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Series One A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed.
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