Works 8 part 2/2

Because in the seventh month they laid the foundations of the temple of Cyrus, and from then until the second year of Darius they did not complete the work upon it. Then Haggai and Zechariah prophesy, through whom the Lord exhorted them, and with one accord they came together and in a space of four years completed the remaining work of the temple. Which very thing indeed is plainly shown in the first book of Ezra, that in the sixth year of Darius the temple of God was in every respect completed. To the forty let us add the six of Darius, and they become forty-six. To which years were added three in the mystery of the passion and resurrection of Christ, and the seventh week was fulfilled. And then the street and the temple and the wall and the city itself, the forty-ninth year being completed, were shown to be in every respect finished and protected.

But all this work was being accomplished in the sacrament of the Church. Finally let us see what those forty-nine years signify. For not without cause did God will that in seven weeks so great, that is, so prophetic, a work should be consummated. And it is understood to have been prophetic in this manner: since out of the forty-nine years eighteen are separated in the name of Jesus Christ, and there remain thirty-one; upon whose completion Christ Jesus suffered for the salvation of believers and rose again, and through his very self showed all things to be perfected: and the temple, which he formed not with human but with his own sacred hands at the command of his Father, he anointed not with oil but with the Spirit of God, and the city, that is, the Church, he built up with sanctified stones, and in it he established the street.

But the street is a way straight and level, in which those who walk arrive at eternal life. For this city he established a strong and impregnable wall, that is, his own holy name, through which name he subjects all adversaries beneath its feet. And behold, how glorious and admirable are the things that have been shown to us by the grace of God through thirty-nine years—which years, on the contrary, to the unbelieving and to those who make persecution against the servants of God, portend that a great calamity is to come upon them. But by what reasoning let us see: for this world, in which the just and the unjust have dwelt from the beginning of the age, was consummated in six days, upon whose completion was blessed that seventh day, that day of the eternal sabbath yet to come.

In these days, therefore, from the beginning, not only for the devil and his angels but also for all sinners a fire has been prepared by God—in whose flame that rich Phineus (Dives) was shown by the very Son of God to burn. This is the fire of Gehenna, in whose likeness the furnace, kindled by the king's command seven times as much, grew up through forty-nine cubits and consumed the adversaries of Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, yet did not vex those three children themselves, protected by the Son of God (in a mystery of us who are the third race of men). And so, forty-nine years being completed after the seventy of the captivity, there came to be one hundred and nineteen years.

Which one hundred and nineteen years are joined to those nine hundred and ninety-five years reckoned from the Exodus down to Jechonias, and together they become, up to the restoration of Jerusalem with the seventh week completed, one thousand one hundred and fourteen years. But the seventh week being completed, we must needs turn to the sixty-two weeks, which contain four hundred and thirty-four years. Upon whose completion it behoved Christ to be born according to the flesh. Concerning whom, forthwith Simeon, a just man, bearing him in his own hands, said to Mary his mother: 'Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be contradicted.' But not only Simeon, but also those very four hundred and thirty-four years, both foreshowed the sign of the cross and the time of the passion and the third day of his resurrection.

But in what manner let us see: for above we said that a son was born to Abraham in his hundredth year in the mystery of Christ, and we showed that no one in Israel had obtained the blessing, nor can now in any way obtain the blessing, except in the seed of that same Abraham, which is Christ. And therefore, in the sacrament of Christ, out of the three hundred and thirty-four years there are first separated a hundred, and there remain two hundred and thirty-four; the three hundred years, namely, showed the sign of the cross, and there remained thirty-four; from which, three being subtracted on account of the day of his resurrection, there remained thirty-one years, upon whose completion it behoved Christ to suffer for the sins of believers.

These four hundred and thirty-four years, therefore, let us add to the sum above, and we shall find from the Exodus down to the nativity of Christ one thousand five hundred and forty-eight years. Desiring to know the time of that nativity, let us carefully count out those one thousand five hundred and forty-eight years from the Exodus, that is, from the first line of the table, and we shall come to the day of his nativity. Which day is found in the sixth sixteen-year cycle, in the thirteenth line, on the fifth of the Kalends of April, on the fourth day (Wednesday). O how glorious and divine the providence of the Lord, that on that day on which the sun was made, on that very day Christ should be born, on the fifth of the Kalends of April, on the fourth day! And therefore of him the prophet Malachi rightly said to the people: 'The sun of righteousness shall arise for you, and healing is in his wings.'

This is the sun of righteousness, in whose wings healing was foreshown. Concerning whom Moses too is recognized to say in his song: 'And over his young ones he yearned, spreading out his wings.' He is the Lord, in whose likeness this yearly sun completes its course through three hundred and sixty-five days and a fourth part of a day. Which fourth part of a day has three hours. But three hours bear the image of those three days which in the beginning of the age were without sun and moon. And therefore, just as three hours, reckoned four times in a four-year period, made up one day of twelve hours, so also those three days, claiming for themselves three months in each of the four seasons, showed the year to be completed after twelve months.

And thus, through this manifold trinity, those very twelve hours also showed forth one gospel divided into four parts, and the three months, through the four seasons—that is, through the four evangelists—manifested to us the twelve apostles chosen by Christ. These are the apostles, by whose words being edified we have recognized that our Lord suffered in the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when he himself was thirty-one years of age. To the sixteenth year, therefore, and the thirty-one, let us add eighteen in the name of Jesus himself, and the number becomes sixty-five; to which three hundred are lacking that the year may be filled up according to the course of the sun. But three hundred, among the Greeks, is noted by one letter which is called tau, and plainly shows to all the tau of the sign of the cross.

Behold, again let us now truly believe that on the fifth of the Kalends of April Christ was born according to the flesh—on which day we have proved the sun to have been made. We ought to show that this very thing too was not empty, but was foreshown for our salvation. For on the fourth day, when the sun was made, on that very day the moon also was made, being the fifteenth; but on the next day it was the sixteenth, and on the third the seventeenth: and thus was Adam formed from the earth, who by his own disobedience had summoned an unjust death not only for himself but also for us; which death our Lord Jesus, treading it down, suffered on the fifteenth moon, and rested in the heart of the earth on the sixteenth; but on the third day, the moon being found the seventeenth, he returned from the lower regions, from the foundations of the earth:

and thus to Adam himself and to all who believe in him he restored eternal life. But just as through the course of the sun the sign of tau and the time of the passion were shown, so also through the course of the moon the third day of his resurrection was evidently displayed. For from the first day, on which the moon was made the fifteenth, thence for fifteen days it was seen in the sky; but on the sixteenth day—just as in the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—it was, as it were, dead, and was not seen by men; likewise on the seventeenth day it was not seen; but on the eighteenth, in the likeness and in the name of Jesus himself, that very moon too, after the third day, restored at evening, rose again, and demonstrated that our resurrection—the resurrection of us all—is to come at evening, that is, in the last hour of the age.

Behold, therefore, how great things the day of the Lord's nativity has shown to us. Which day of the nativity was found from the Exodus, as we said, after one thousand five hundred and forty-eight years. Which years, gathered by us thus truly from the Exodus, we have shown, since we also demonstrate that the reckoning of those very years is not empty. For the holy and divine Lord, in order to show us that he is foreknowing of things to come, manifested even in those very years the time in which the water that washes away sins was to be sanctified by his Son in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

And therefore, just as Abraham, when he wished to make war against those who had led captive Lot the son of his brother, first numbered his home-born servants, eighteen in the name of Jesus, and others, on account of the hundredfold generation, in the sacrament of three days, tripling, numbered three hundred and made the tau-sign of the cross: so also let us subtract from the one thousand five hundred and forty-eight years fifteen hundred, and there remain forty-eight; from which, eighteen being taken away in the name of Jesus, there were found thirty years; upon whose completion the Lord Jesus was baptized from his nativity by John in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—in whose sixteenth year he suffered and rose again. Let us add, therefore, once more to the sum thirty-one years, and there are, all together from the Exodus down to the passion, one thousand five hundred and seventy-nine years.

From which time, that is, from the passion down to the fifth year of Gordian, in the consulship of Arrianus and Papus, there were completed two hundred and fifteen years; but from the Exodus, all the years are one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four. And let us consummate all these years from the Exodus—that is, from the first line of the table—through the seven sixteen-year cycles, numbering all the aforesaid years right up to that point; and then, coming to the third line of the first sixteen-year cycle, we shall find, according to the Jews, Passover on the twelfth of the Kalends of April, on the third day (Tuesday), but according to us, on the third line of the first sixteen-year cycle, the Lord's day (Sunday) falls on the seventh of the Kalends of April. Walking therefore in this very order into things prior, right up to the end of the age, wishing to find the day of Passover of both Jews and Christians, we have not erred.

And on this account let us give thanks always without ceasing to God the Father almighty, who called us to so great a grace and manifested the divine sacraments, through his Son our Lord Christ and our Saviour. (Marginal notes: 'wishing to find' omitted in c; 'this' in c; 'and' omitted in c. At the foot of the Rheims codex there is found this table: a table composed according to the author's intent by Wallis: The Lord's day next following is the Passover of the Christians.)