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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2011
The conception of a preliminary period of ritual preparation for occasions of special sanctity is common to many religions, including that of the Old Testament, where the touching of holy things or coming into the divine presence requires a period of previous abstinence from anything involving ceremonial defilement. In 1 Sam. 21 5 and Ex. 19 10, 15 this period is of “three days.” The longer period of “six days” is required for the supreme occasion when Moses meets Yahweh face to face on Sinai (Ex. 24 16), and this interval becomes as it were stereotyped in the most distinctive of Jewish institutions, the periodic seventh day “the sabbath of the Lord thy God,” to which the preceding six days of toil lead up. The Jew labors and does all his work in the first six days of the week in order that he may rest and enjoy the fruit of his toil the seventh day, just as in the creation Yahweh's activity had led up to a period of satisfied contemplation of all that He had made as “very good.” In like manner the later speculators of both Synagogue and Church expected the toil and turmoil of the six ages of “this world,” each of one thousand years’ duration, to lead up to the blessed repose and fruition of “the age to come,” ushered in by the “thousand years” of Messiah.
1 In a personal letter Professor George F. Moore of Harvard kindly explains that the Greek term is a rendering of the Hebrew hakanah, which has no ritual or moral sense, but refers simply to the preparation of food for the sabbath.
2 Panar. l, 1, 3; lxx, 12.
3 It is preceded by a leaving of the sindōn (linen sheet) by the Risen One “with the servant of the high priest,” doubtless as a testimony unto them. Had this Gospel a different version of Mk. 14 51 f., representing the loser of the sindōn as one of the servants of the high priest?
4 It would be precarious to suggest a connection between Ev. Petri, vii, 26 f. and the preparatory fast. The passage reads: “And I [Peter] with my companions was grieved, and wounded to the heart we hid ourselves, for we were sought by them as malefactors, and as desiring to burn the temple. And on account of all these things we were fasting, and sat mourning and weeping night and day until the sabbath.” If there be connection, it implies observance of the fast only on Good Friday. It is broken off by the sabbath, regardless of the fact that the disciples are still “weeping and grieving” (xiv, 59) at the end of the feast of unleavened bread, ignorant of what has transpired at the sepulchre “during the night of the dawn of the Lord's day” (ix, 35).
5 Thus Peter, Bishop of Alexandria (ca. 300), quotes a Quartodeciman Trecentius: “We have no other purpose than to keep the memory of his [Christ's] passion, and at the time when those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses have handed down.” Cited by Drummond, Authorship and Character of Fourth Gospel, 1904, p. 477.
6 See above, note 5.
7 See the chapter on “Quartodecimanism” in my Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate, 1910, pp. 412–439. The vigil with its readings from the Gospels (διανυκτερεύοντες ἐν ἀναγνώσεσι) formed a constant feature of the observance, while debate raged as to time and duration of the fasting.
8 The Fourth Gospel particularly specifies the sentence to the cross as given “at the sixth hour,” Jn. 19 14.
9 Panar. l, 3.
10 Epiphanius ibid.
11 Peculiarly strong evidence exists both textual and structural for regarding this episode as well as its reflection in the Appendix (Jn. 21 15–19) as a supplement to the earliest form of this Gospel.
12 Putting away the old leaven is the ceremony which marks midday of Nisan 14 in the Jewish ritual. Hence the expression “the fourteenth, the day on which the [Jewish] people put away the leaven,” in Polycrates of Ephesus (195 A.D.).
13 Clement of Alex. Fragment in Paschal Chron.
14 This harmonistic device is by no means original with Epiphanius. Eusebius had previously employed it and even the Quartodecimans of the second century accuse their opponents of “making the Gospels conflict,” besides not obeying the (Mosaic) law. Irenaeus, who opposed the Quartodecimans, had a reverse system of harmonizing, adapting the Johannine to Synoptic chronology; but he does not explain how (Haer. II, xxii, 3).
15 Panar. l, 1, 3; lxx, 12.
16 Heitmüller, Jesus, 1913, p. 58.
17 The expression of Polycrates of Ephesus (195 A.D.).
18 Irenaeus, Haer. I, xxx, 13. Specifically “Cerinthus” in xxvi, 1.
19 Irenaeus, Haer. III, xi, 7.
20 Those who, like the present writer, have attended the all-night observance of Dec. 24–25 in Bethlehem will think themselves almost to be reading an account of this Christian ritual in Epiphanius' description. The feast of Κόρη (Virgin mother of Dionysus) was celebrated on Jan. 6. The preceding night (Jan. 5–6) was spent in singing and worship of the images of the gods. At dawn descent in procession was made to the crypt, bringing up thence a wooden image which had the sign of the cross and a star of gold on hands, knees, and head. After being carried in procession this was returned to the crypt. The Virgin (Κόρη) was declared to have given birth to the Aeon. Compare with this the present-day ritual for Dec. 24–25 at Bethlehem.
21 Haer. III, xi, 3.
22 Tybi 15. This was probably to conform to the Basilidean system of thirties and halves of thirty. Jesus was thirty years of age. His ministry covered fifteen years of the reign of Augustus and fifteen of that of Tiberius, &c.
23 Strom. I, xxi, 146, ἑορτάζουσι προδιανυκτερεύοντες ἐν ἀναγνώσεσι.
24 The variant of Lk. 9 28—”about eight days”—would merely indicate the backward instead of the forward look; as the later Church spoke of “the octave” of Epiphany. To Luke the Confession of Peter would be the Epiphany and the Transfiguration its “octave.” To Mark and Matthew it would be the beginning of preparation.
25 Mark does not indeed give the moral content of the Temptation story, but only states the fact (1 13). The moral content is reserved for 8 27–33; but the occurrence of the Rebuke (8 33) in the very words of Mt. 4 10 cannot be accidental, and the transfer is the significant point.
26 Pliny, Nat. Hist. II, 231, relates of the consul Mucianus that he believed the story, Andro in insula templo Liberi patris fontem nonis Januariis semper vini saporem fundere. Cf. Pausanias, VI, xxvi, 1, 2. Athenaeus, I, 61, p. 34a, relates of a place ἀπέχων ὀκτὼ στάδια τῆς Ἠλείας, ἐν ᾡ οἱ ἐγχώριοι κατακλείοντες τοῖς Διονυσίοις χαλκοῦς λέβητας τρεῖς κενοὺς παρόντων τῶν ἐπιδημούντων ἀποσϕραγίζονται καὶ ὓστερον ἀνοίγοντες εὑρίσκουσιν οἴνου πεπληρωμένους. See a long list of further authorities cited by Walter Bauer Hdb. z. N. T., Johev., ad loc.
27 Panar. li.
28 F. R. Cana in Enc. Brit. ed. xi, s.v. “Nile.”
29 Egyptian datings are of course different. Variants arise from causes both physical and religious. The flood of Nile begins in July, not January. On the other hand, the calendar is largely determined by astral phenomena, so that sun-myths and nature-myths intermingle. Finally, the Egyptian calendar rotates through the year, the Egyptian year being defective.
30 The same Maximus Taurinensis who speaks of Epiphany as the dies natalis virtutum (sc. Domini), gives three alternative traditions of the origin of its observance: Ferunt enim hodie Christum Dominum nostrum vel (1) stella duce a gentibus adoratum, vel (2) invitatum ad nuptias aquas in vino vertisse, vel (3) succepto a Iohanne baptismate consecrasse fluenta Jordanis (Horn. xxix).
31 Oratio, Oxford ed. of 1730, ii, 573 and 612. Cited by Lake in Dictionary of Religion and Ethics, s.v. “Epiphany.”
32 The Cappadocian Quartodecimans adopted March 25, i.e. vernal equinox of the Julian calendar, in every year as their fixed date for the Feast of the Resurrection. See Bacon, Fourth Gospel in Research and Debate, 1910, p. 391 ff.
33 Fourth Gospel, &c., p. 390 ff.
34 Expositor, vii, 15 (March, 1907), pp. 206–220.
35 Fourth Gospel, &c, ch. xv.
36 Haer. II, xxii, 5. The whole chapter is significant.
37 Non, ut plerique aestimant, tricesimus annus aetatis prophetae dicitur.
38 Comm. in Ezek. ad loc.
39 Haer. II, xxii.
