The Exposition on the Day of Easter and the Month

It must therefore first be shown, when the fabric of the world was begun, what day it was that Almighty God established by creating the light: secondly we shall show what the moon was made like by God at evening, and where its year takes its end: thus then we shall explain why the first moon is sought by us from the third of the Nones of March to the fourth of the Nones of April, or why the fourteenth moon is required from the fifteenth of the Kalends of April to the seventeenth of the Kalends of May for the full celebration of Pascha, so that on every side access may be closed to those who are eager for contradictions, lest they should think that in any point we have defined the reckoning with too little reason.

Since the law had not yet been given by the Almighty Lord, men were often uncertain in the course of the moon. Some called the "first" moon the full orb, such as it had arisen at God's bidding for the world; others held a different view. Reckoning the months only by the number of thirty, they completed the course of twelve months in three hundred and sixty days, just as the Scripture of Genesis shows that at the time of the flood the months ran thirty days each. The five days, indeed, which remain over to complete the year, were called "empty" in memory of God's work of fashioning. For in five days the world was fashioned, but man was made on the sixth day after all things else; wherefore also, reckoning from that day for the running of twelve months, the number of days for him was three hundred and sixty, up to the day before that day which God first established.

Then there were five empty days up to the day before the birthday of that same man who was first formed; from which custom or tradition it is known to have remained thus among certain peoples, as among the Egyptians, who have these five empty days, which they call epagomenai. And by certain Roman writers, who wished to record the reckoning of the days, they were named "black" and "intercalary" days. No one, therefore, in ancient times, since God had not yet made manifest the course of the sun and moon, no one among men grasped the seasons of spring and summer, the bounds of autumn and winter, nor gathered the increase and decrease of days and nights, until these luminaries were commanded by the rule of God to unfold their own times even to the end of time. Wherefore, in his own time, Almighty God, among many words of correction, admonished even that most holy and most blessed Job concerning this, saying: And tell me this, dost thou know the course of the sun and moon?

At that time indeed, when we know that the law was given by the Lord our God to Moses for the celebration of Pascha, He delivered to him the reckoning of months and years through the course of the moon, that from the new moon he might reckon the first month or others, which reckoning is now gathered from the tradition of the law, if only he who wishes to gather it will most diligently search it out; to which task, giving our effort, we set forth each point, beginning, as we said, from the first day of the world.

In the beginning, says Moses, God made heaven and earth, but the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God was borne over the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and he divided between the light and the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And it was evening, and it was morning, one day. And God divided between the light and the darkness, that is, he balanced the day and the night. For at God's bidding the light so cut off the darkness that the course between the two appeared equal, and thenceforth day and night, by alternate turns, took increases and decreases, and showed forth the seasons.

For just as Almighty God commanded the earth and seas at once to bring forth, in a state of complete maturity, according to kind, every living soul, and also all the fruits of the earth perfected with their seeds, so also from the first he established the span of light and darkness in equal course. This day, therefore, is known to be the first, which was made in the beginning, on which the Lord God made the light and the night equal, that is, in the season of spring, in which Almighty God willed that the head of the year should be.

At this time, therefore, He also fashioned the world.

For before all seasons the Lord deigned to establish this season first, since it is more pleasant than the others, being balanced in the quality of its air, in which all things springing from the earth, the torpor of icy winter having ceased, and this joyful air of the vernal season having been received, burst forth into flowers and seeds of various kinds; that they too, in a certain manner, might celebrate praises to the Lord Creator, with the fruitful firstfruits together with the festivals of men, in a most pleasing sweetness of fertility—in which season also there now occurs the first equinox instituted by the Lord, which, according to the naming of the Roman months, is found on the eighth of the Kalends of April. Taking our beginning from this point, then, we shall run through all that we have proposed.

Concerning the first day of the world we have spoken and briefly explained. Let us now come to the reckoning of the moon. For when three days had passed, on the fourth day, that is, the fifth of the Kalends of April, the luminaries were established for signs and seasons, for days and years, though not simultaneously. For although they were made in one day, yet Almighty God, that He might make the day clear for us, established the sun in the morning.

Then, as night drew near, He instituted the monthly moon, moving in various course through numbers and seasons: which moon at evening was made a fourteenth-day moon lacking a quarter, for this reason, that it might both illumine all the darkness of the first night, and run through the whole night, and that to the new man, for whom the Lord God was doing these things on the sixth day, just as the sun had already been made for the day, so also another work, that of the moon, proceeding for the night, might seem to advance for him, lest, forsaken by the departure of light and the brightness of the sun, he should suffer unforeseen or unrelieved darkness. For at that time, such a moon as this, when it rises in the morning, the sun beholds in the west; but at the beginning of night, after the departure of light and the completion of the sun's course, it proceeds shielded, as it were, with the power of its own light.

Not without reason also did the Lord God, through Moses in Exodus, command his people that Pascha should be celebrated from the fourteenth full moon of the first month at evening until the twenty-first. For the Lord willed that the week of Pascha should have its beginning from the fourteenth full moon at evening, so that, as the day of Pascha dawned—which is the first of that same week—the fifteenth moon should be for them the day of unleavened bread. For the Lord declares this in Leviticus, saying: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings, is the Pascha of the Lord, and on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast day of unleavened bread to the Lord.

For lunar days begin at evening, and end at evening; since the moon, that by its light it might, for the sake of man still untaught, temper the darkness of the night, received its rising at evening on the fifth of the Kalends of April, the day of its nativity, and continued the course of its first day until another evening, that is, the fourth of the Kalends of April; wherefore today we, taught by God the lunar course, keep the vigils of Pascha, celebrating them with the evening as our beginning.

We have explained of what sort the moon was made by the Lord at evening on the fifth of the Kalends of April. Now let us also show where it completes its own year. For this year set the terminus for all other years. But that the moon, by its own course, should mark out the months and years, as we mentioned above, through the new moons, that is, the new and first days of the months which the moon generates, the Lord God declares by His own testimony. For thus it is written: And the Lord God spoke to Moses, saying: On the first day of the new moon of the first month thou shalt dedicate the tabernacle of the testimony. And in another place, when speaking of the sacrifices, when and how they ought to be offered, He says: Ye shall also offer sacrifices, both at the new moons of the month, from month to month, throughout the months of the year.

In the book of Kings also it is said: When David hid himself, fearing king Saul, and the new moon came, and the king went in to the table to eat, and his usual guests were with him. But David did not go in with him, and his place appeared empty, and Saul said nothing that day, and it came to pass on the morrow, the second day of the month. In the Psalms also it is said: He made the moon for the seasons. Therefore the moon completes its month in twenty-nine and a half days. Why is this? Because it is not entirely finished when its light is spent. Otherwise it would be another work altogether, not the same as that which Almighty God had first made. The thirtieth moon, therefore, hidden, is reckoned in the half. Twelve times, then, twenty-nine and a half make three hundred fifty-four days.

And so on the fifth of the Nones of March that same moon, in running its course, completed its year. This we can prove through the several months of that same moon. For it completed its first month on the Ides of April, since God made it full for the world and commanded it to proceed. The second month it completed on the fourth of the Ides of May. The third month it completed on the third of the Ides of June. The fourth month on the sixth of the Ides of July. The fifth month on the fifth of the Ides of August. The sixth month on the seventh of the Ides of September. The seventh month on the Nones of October. The eighth month on the Nones of November. The ninth month on the Nones of December. The tenth month on the third of the Nones of January. The eleventh month on the fourth of the Nones of February.

The twelfth, indeed, of its own months it assigned to the fifth of the Nones of March; and on the day of the fourth of the Nones of March, after the fifth of the Nones of the same month had passed, when twelve moons—that is, twelve months—had gone by, the birth of that same moon appeared.

Accordingly the moon completes its year in three hundred fifty-four days, but the sun in three hundred sixty-five and a quarter, that is, there are eleven days and a quarter, by which the reckoning of the moon appears to have less than the reckoning of the sun. Six days of the moon's hollows make twelve halves, and those five, which were named "vacant" in memory of the fashioning of God, which the Roman arrangement has now divided over certain months, calling them intercalary; and that quarter-day, which rather the reckoning of the sun contains, which quarter-day, being reckoned over and over, four times through the accession of four years produces a whole day, and it is added to the course of the sun on the twice-sixth day of the kalends of March.

But since the sun and the moon, day and night, one has its connected reckoning with the other, over the three hundred fifty-four days of the lunar year there are added these eleven days and a quarter of the bissextile, and thus the solar year is known to have three hundred sixty-five days and a quarter. Therefore, since the moon has completed its first year, that is, on the fifth day before the nones of March, the third day before the nones of March appears to belong to the first month.

But since divine piety has so ordained that the solemnity of Pascha should without doubt be celebrated in no other way than in the first month, for that reason the first moon is sought by us not from the fourth day before the nones of March for the reckoning of Pascha, because on that day, in the very first turning year, the moon appeared not as a full whole but as a half; but on the other day, that is, the third day before the nones of March, it is known to have been the first in a full whole. From this we understand that only from the fourth day before the nones of March—so that the third day before the nones of March may more rightly fall to us as the first—ought the rising increments of the whole of that same moon to hold their nativity.

Now therefore, when the first moon falls on the fourth day before the nones of March, we for that reason set it aside, because within twenty-four hours of night and day the whole is completed, and from the day of the last month of the past year, which is the fifth day before the nones of March, its increase begins toward its wholeness; and lest the first moon of the first month seem to have its beginning of increase in the last month. This day, the fourth before the nones of March, is kept by us as a middle point, so that it may be between the day of the last month past and the third before the nones of March, so that the first moon, which shall have been on the third before the nones of March, may have its beginning of increase from the day of the fourth before the nones of the same month.

For on that day, that is, on the third before the nones of March, if the first moon occurs without any doubt of the year, it is found to be the first also on the day of the first month, and from the day of the first month it receives its increase toward its own nativity.

Therefore from that day, the third before the nones of March, up to the fourth before the nones of April, it must be sought by us that the first moon fall, because on whichever day out of these twenty-nine days the first moon shall occur, from there the first lunar month begins. But from the fifteenth day before the kalends of April up to the seventeenth before the kalends of May, it is confirmed by true reckoning that, according to the Law, the moon should be the fourteenth. For running on from here, wherever the most sacred day of Pascha shall fall, surely it is fitting to keep Pascha justly and without any interruption in that same first month which the moon has begotten previously. For thus does the Lord testify concerning this matter in Exodus, and says: You shall observe the feast day of Pascha; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time of the month of new things. For in it you went out from the land of Egypt.

Likewise in Leviticus the Lord commanded and says: In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, in the middle of the evening hours, is the Pascha of the Lord, and on the fifteenth of this month is the feast day of unleavened bread to the Lord. Likewise in Numbers: The Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, in the second year of their departure from Egypt, in the first month, saying: Speak, and let the children of Israel make the Pascha in its time, on the fourteenth day of the first month, toward evening you shall make it, according to its times, according to its law, and according to its ordinance you shall make it. And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to make the Pascha in the desert of Sinai, and according as the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

And a little after, with a threat, the Lord commanded and says: The man who shall be clean, and shall not be on a long journey, and shall cease to make the Pascha, that soul shall be cut off from his people, because he did not offer the gift to our Lord in its time, and that man shall bear his sin. Likewise in Deuteronomy Moses speaks to the people, saying: Observe the month of new things, and you shall make the Pascha to the Lord your God, because in the month of new things you went out from the land of Egypt by night, and you shall sacrifice the Pascha of the Lord your God. Also in the first book of Esdras it is more openly written: And Josiah kept the Pascha in Jerusalem to the Lord, and sacrificed the Passover on the fourteenth moon of the first month toward evening.

But why do we run through so much, since the same thing is recorded in all the sacred Scriptures, that Pascha ought to be celebrated in the first month. But this first month does not have a fixed and determined bound in this moon, so that it always falls on the same day, but rather the days which we mentioned above, twenty-nine, from the third before the nones of March to the fourth before the nones of April, on which, in the first year passed from the fashioning of the world, it displayed its first month, so that when the first moon shall have fallen on one of these days, from then it generates for us the first month. For this reckoning makes both embolismic and common years.

If ever, indeed, in the twelfth month, before the day of the third before the nones of March, the days of its year, which we mentioned above, not yet having been completed, the same moon shall appear as the first, it must necessarily complete a thirteenth month and make an embolismic year. If, its year having been completed at its proper time, that is, on the days which appear to belong to the first month, twelve months of it having passed, the first moon shall occur, it becomes a common year. For these twenty-eight days manifest embolismic and common years thus. There are eleven days from the third before the nones of March to the day of the ides of the same, in which, if the first moon shall have fallen, since it will appear to have been born after twelve months, it shows that the past years were common, but the present years, in which its birth makes the first month, it designates as embolismic.

There are eight days from the seventeenth before the kalends of April to the tenth before the kalends of April, in which, if the first moon shall have appeared, it signifies both the past and present years as common. Then there are ten days from the eighth before the kalends of April to the third before the nones of the same, in which, if the first moon shall have fallen, it makes the past years embolismic, and shows the present as common—which common years have three hundred fifty-four days; for either the reckoning of the moon has eleven days less than the reckoning of the sun, and makes a common year, or it exceeds by nineteen, and makes an embolismic year.

Thence, through single years, by this diversity, the days of the years of the moon do not seem to agree with the days of the sun, which completes its year in three hundred sixty-five and a quarter. Accordingly we also show this, so that it may appear to all that they have equal days between them, and that from the beginning of their course they have run in this order, and that the losses of the common years have been compensated by the same moon in the embolismic years. Let us bring forward into the open the reckoning of eight years, which appears to be perfect. In eight years, that is, the moon has five common years and three embolismic. Therefore five times three hundred fifty-four make one thousand seven hundred seventy, and three times three hundred eighty-four make one thousand one hundred fifty-two; together they make two thousand nine hundred twenty-two days.

So then let us also gather into one the sum of the sun's eight years: eight times three hundred sixty-five and a quarter make two thousand nine hundred twenty-two. Thus, then, the course of the sun and moon agrees together with the days written above.

We have narrated what is the day of the world which almighty God, in creating light, established, and how the moon was made at the beginning of night, or where it first completed its year, and why the first moon is sought by us from the day of the third before the nones of March, and from which days the fourteenth is comprised, along with the reckoning of embolismic and common years, for full instruction, so that our descendants also, running through infinite years and future times, may more easily and truthfully investigate this course of the moon together with the days of Pascha, so as to know on what day of the kalends or ides it might fall; so that they may know on which day, or on what moon, it can fall in the first month, so that this little Work of ours may be established for all without labor, since both the true reckoning has been set forth above, and without labor or the stumbling-block of falsehood, by many who are doubting and ignorant, the days of Pascha itself may be known each in its own time.

For our Pascha is one thing, that of the Jews another. Indeed our sacrament is far different from theirs, nor do we celebrate Pascha to the Lord as they do, which is shown with clear reasoning in the following reading.

For in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar the Lord Christ, being about thirty years of age, beginning from the baptism of John, came forward. The Evangelist bears witness to this. For one year, then, he preached to the Jewish nation, to which he had come, in which year he not only foretold that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, but also, that they might believe, showed himself manifestly as Lord in his powers, up to the sixteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, in which now not, as was customary for the Jewish solemnity, a lamb from the flocks, but the Lord Christ himself was sacrificed for us; so that we might be freed, believing, not from Egypt, but from the world and its vices. In that very year, indeed, as the trustworthiness of the computation shows, and as the reckoning itself persuades, the same Lord Christ suffered on the fourteenth moon, on the eighth before the kalends of April, on the sixth day of the week.

But on the third day, dawning on the first day of the week, which is after the Sabbath of the Jews, the Lord's day, that is, our true Sabbath and true Pascha, on which the same Lord Christ, death having been conquered, by rising sanctified our Pascha, that is, made the passage of liberation for the living and the dead from the sentence of the old man, and there arose for those fearing the Lord, and believing in Christ, the true sun of righteousness, and health in his wings.

Whence we today, as Christians, in memory of our liberation, no longer as the Jews in a slain lamb, and unleavened bread of fine flour, and on any day whatsoever, but in the likeness of the resurrection of the same our Lord, on the first day of the week, that is, the Lord's day, keeping only the first month from the Law, which the moon by its running begets by its own numbers, as it is written: From the fourteenth full moon at evening until the twenty-first, in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, that is, in purity of mind, we celebrate Pascha to the Lord.

Having run through the whole, God favoring us, we have set forth whatever needed to be said concerning the reckoning of Pascha. Let us now here make an end to our discourse, and we have completed this laborious Work on this day, the third before the nones of March, after the consulship of Arcadius for the fourth time and Honorius for the third time. Wherefore we admonish those who previously hastened to receive these writings from us unamended, that they endeavor to have the Work amended according to this order; and therefore both the day and the consuls, which we did not set down at first, we have now affixed to this reckoning, so that henceforth one may know that this Work has been amended. Quintus Julius Hilarianus completed and amended it on the third day before the nones of March, in the consulship of Caesarius and Atticus.