Note 840 — Chapter XI · THE BEGINNING OF WINTER

Most of these dates were in the spring (Duchesne, 247). As late as †243 the Pseudo-Cyprianic de Pascha computus gives March 28. On the other hand, December 25 is given early in the third century by Hippolytus, Comm. super Danielem, iv. 23 (p. 243, ed. Bonwetsch, 1897), although the text has been suspected of interpolation (Hilgenfeld, in Berlin. phil. Wochenschrift, 1897, p. 1324, s.). Ananias of Shirak (†600-50), Hom. de Nat. (transl. in Expositor, Nov. 1890), says that the followers of Cerinthus first separated the birth and baptism: cf. Conybeare, Key of Truth, cliv. This is further explained by Paul of Taron (ob. 1123), adv. Theopistum, 222 (quoted Conybeare, clvi), who says that Artemon calculated the dates of the Annunciation as March 25 and the Birth as December 25, ‘the birth, not however of the Divine Being, but only of the mere man.’ Both Cerinthus (end of 1st cent.) and Artemon (†202-17) appear to have held Adoptionist tenets: cf. Schaff, iv. 465, 574. Paul adds that Artemon calculated the dates from those for the conception and nativity of John the Baptist. This implies that St. John Baptist’s day was already June 24 by †200. It was traditional on that day by St. Augustine’s time, ‘Hoc maiorum traditione suscepimus’ (Sermo ccxcii. 1, in Migne, P. L. xxxviii. 1320). The six months’ interval between the two nativities may be inferred from St. Luke i. 26. St. Augustine refers to the symbolism of their relation to each other, and quotes with regard to their position on the solstices the words ascribed to the Baptist in St. John iii. 30 ‘illum oportet crescere, me autem minui’ (Sermo cxciv. 2; cclxxxvii. 3; cclxxxviii. 5; Migne, P. L. xxxviii. 1016, 1302, 1306). Duchesne, 250, conjectures that the varying dates of West (Dec. 25) and East (Jan. 6) depended on a similar variation in the date assigned to the Passion, it being assumed in each case that the life of Christ must have been a complete circle, and that therefore he must have died on the anniversary of his conception in the womb. Thus St. Augustine (in Heptat. ii. 90) upbraids the Jews, ‘non coques agnum in lacte matris suae.’ March 25 was widely accepted for the Passion from Tertullian onwards, and certain Montanists held to the date of April 6. Astronomy makes it impossible that March 25 can be historically correct, and therefore the whole calculation, if Duchesne is right, probably started from an arbitrary identification of a Christian date with the spring equinox, just as, if Ananias of Shirak is right, it started from a similar identification of another such date with the summer solstice. But it seems just as likely that the birth was fixed first, and the Annunciation and St. John Baptist’s day calculated back from that. If the Passion had been the starting-point, would not the feast of Christmas, as distinct from the traditional date for the event, have become a movable one?