Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular Sect?

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Secret Alias
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Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular Sect?

Post by Secret Alias »

Most of us know the story. Eusebius notes that the Emperor Maximin forced the teaching of the Acts of Pilate and its dating of the Passion to the 7th year of Tiberius in schools. Eusebius says this was because he hated Christianity. But this week a French scholar has discovered that the Acts of Pilate was used by sectarians to date the Passion WITHIN Christianity as late as the 8th century:
French scholar Pierre Chambert-Protat today announced on Twitter that he has discovered a previously unknown ancient text in manuscript Montpellier 157. This 9th century manuscript, copied in 848, is a collection of extracts on Easter, assembled by Florus of Lyons.

Dr C-P is researching Florus, which is how he came to look at this manuscript, and to realise that the first item in it was unknown.

He has generously uploaded pre-prints of two articles on the subject at the French HAL repository. The first here discusses the manuscript and its contents. The second, here, is entitled, “Une source inédite sur la question pascale au concile de Nicée : le Liber Timothei episcopi de pascha“[1].

The letter is by a certain bishop Timothy to an unidentified group. His intention is to specify how they should calculate the date of Easter, and avoid falling into the errors of a certain Stephanus (recently condemned and otherwise unknown) and four other types of error. In the process he attacks those who want to fix the date of Easter to the Roman Julian calendar – shades of our own time! – and those who reference the apocryphal Acts of Pilate.

The language is Latin, and contains various hellenisms, not well-understood always by the Latin translator. The subject matter seems to belong to Asia Minor or Syria, where many different methods of calculation were known. However the work seems to be known to St Augustine, which indicates that copies were in circulation in the south of Spain or in African in the second half of the 4th century.
https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/201 ... of-pilate/

Clearly Luke dates the ministry of Jesus to the 15th year of Tiberius. But the Marcionites did not accept Luke. Were they the only ones who rejected the text? There are differences in the dating of the Passion in the synoptics and John. It is hard for me to tell what the sectarians in Lyons or known to the presbyter in Lyons used the Acts for. But if the Acts were used positively by a Christian group and Maximinus II was merely favoring that group then Eusebius's comments are taken in a different light.
Last edited by Secret Alias on Fri Jun 07, 2019 3:46 am, edited 2 times in total.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
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Secret Alias
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximin's Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by Secret Alias »

It seems like the Acts of Pilate were used by those who wanted to calculate the Passover according to a lunar calendar.
And these times, according to the evangelical precept, are days: not lunar cycles, which are right for the Jews.

§ 15 — The fake “Acts of Pilate” cannot be invoked either: their testimony is incompatible with the Gospels
. Now the Gospels check the prophecies; while the fake Acts, well, we do not even know where they come from. From private or public hands? But which ones? It’s a low-grade swindle.

§ 16 — In a certain sense, they fall into the error of those who don’t intercalate a month to keep the solar and lunar calendars in step: to celebrate the Easter on a different day is like celebrating the Easter of a different Christ.

§ 17 — They fear that this intercalation may make them celebrate the Passover/Easter of the unclean. But it’s because they did not understand the calendar. Intercalation is not there to introduce disorder, but to restore order: it is the law of nature. And those who want to fix Easter according to the Roman calendar create an absurdity, since the Passover/Easter is a Jewish holiday, not a Roman holiday.

§ 18 — It is not a question of celebrating Passover with the Jews, but on the contrary, that the Christian perpetuation of this feast constitutes an accusation against the Jews. The calendar shift must serve this purpose.
I want to remind readers that in the late Christian sources (fourth to fifth centuries) there is a constant invocation of the name 'Sabbatius' as some sort of heretic who was active in the world. There seems to be some sort of connection to a lost tradition which the Imperial Church couldn't entirely stamp out. It is easy to imagine that John was the gospel of the Quartodecimans. But I am not so sure. It would seem that the Quartodecimans used the Acts of Pilate to justify their calculation of Easter according to a lunar calendar. Does that mean that Maximinus II order to use the Acts of Pilate might be taken in a different light?

Let me explain what I mean. Already with Aurelian you have an Emperor who was involved in mandating Christian doctrine. It would seem that Aurelian deposed Paul of Samosata https://www.jstor.org/stable/300003?seq ... b_contents. He instituted the celebration of Christ's birthday to coincide with December 25th etc. There are many examples of the Roman Church working together with the Roman Emperor. Now look at the dating:

Maximinus ruled from 305–308 (as Caesar in the east, under Galerius); 310 – May 313 (as Augustus in the east, in competition with Licinius). Licinius eventually became Emperor but Licinius also co-authored the Edict of Milan with Constantine which protected Christianity. Interestingly Maximinus started out his political career as governor of Egypt and Syria - the heartland of Christianity - "In 305, his maternal uncle Galerius became the eastern Augustus and adopted Maximinus, raising him to the rank of caesar (in effect, the junior eastern Emperor), and granting him the government of Syria and Egypt."

Rather than what Eusebius claims couldn't Maximinus's efforts have represented the first step toward Imperial acceptance of Christianity?
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by Secret Alias »

The date we are looking at is Friday Nisan 15, 21 CE J. Vardaman (‘Jesus’ Life: A New Chronology’ in J. Vardaman and E. M. Yamauchi [eds.], Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan [Eisenbrauns, 1989], 55-82)

Does anyone know how we could calculate what date this translates to in the current Roman calendar? My money is on March 23 or 25th?

Interestingly the Friday in 21 CE Julian calendar is March 21st, the Sunday March 23rd https://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1227757509

Time and Date https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/se ... ar=1&n=110 sets the Equinox at March 22 at 11:00 pm in Jerusalem.

One thing that speaks in its favor is that the Winter Solstice 21 CE or 7 BCE is calculated to December 23 which translated into Julian calendar = December 25th.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
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DCHindley
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by DCHindley »

Secret Alias wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:02 am The date we are looking at is Friday Nisan 15, 21 CE J. Vardaman (‘Jesus’ Life: A New Chronology’ in J. Vardaman and E. M. Yamauchi [eds.], Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan [Eisenbrauns, 1989], 55-82)

Does anyone know how we could calculate what date this translates to in the current Roman calendar? My money is on March 23 or 25th?
Parker & Dubberstein (Babylonian Chronology) dates Nisan 15 of 21 CE, based on Cunieform tablets, to April 17 (Julian) 21 CE. Whether that is a Friday or not I do not know. It is also not known if the Judeans were following Babylonian 18 year intercalation cycle at this time, or doing it independently with some sort of 3 yr cycle.

DCH
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by Ben C. Smith »

DCHindley wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2019 5:21 am
Secret Alias wrote: Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:02 am The date we are looking at is Friday Nisan 15, 21 CE J. Vardaman (‘Jesus’ Life: A New Chronology’ in J. Vardaman and E. M. Yamauchi [eds.], Chronos, Kairos, Christos: Nativity and Chronological Studies Presented to Jack Finegan [Eisenbrauns, 1989], 55-82)

Does anyone know how we could calculate what date this translates to in the current Roman calendar? My money is on March 23 or 25th?
Parker & Dubberstein (Babylonian Chronology) dates Nisan 15 of 21 CE, based on Cunieform tablets, to April 17 (Julian) 21 CE. Whether that is a Friday or not I do not know. It is also not known if the Judeans were following Babylonian 18 year intercalation cycle at this time, or doing it independently with some sort of 3 yr cycle.

DCH
This online calculator says that April 17, AD 21, was a Thursday in the Julian calendar. Another calculator agrees. No idea how accurate any of this is.
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Secret Alias
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

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“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by Secret Alias »

What do we know about the Quartodeciman celebration other than the dating of Easter? Did the Resurrection follow on Sunday? How did it work?
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
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Secret Alias
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by Secret Alias »

I saw that but the one I cited is more recent. It should also be noted that despite the fact that the Jews and Samaritans have the same basic data to work with - they never celebrate Passover on the same dates. Meaning - we can't simply assume we know what the date was. For instance from Pummer:
According to Jewish calculation, the 14th of Nisan sometimes fell before the spring equinox.7 Socrates argues that Easter must always be celebrated after the spring equinox as the Jews did in ancient times8 and the Samaritans still do.

[7] See Huber Passa 62 - 63
There seems to be a sense in Huber's citations that the Jews did not take the equinox into account in their calculations.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
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Charles Wilson
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Re: Could the Emperor Maximinus Prescription of the Acts of Pilate Have Been 'Positive' - i.e. to Support a Particular S

Post by Charles Wilson »

Note: Will not Post 2 Attachments inline. Will Post Continuation in next Post.

There appears that there was a Calendar War that may have been cut short by the Roman Intrusion. The Pharisees won (after Salome gave the Pharisees the Bureaucracy) and to the Victors go the Calendars.

Matthew 16: 1 (RSV):

[1] And the Pharisees and Sad'ducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.

As with the number of Watches (Jewish = 3, Roman = 4): "Could you not stay awake one more hour?...", it appears that the Jewish Way is being put on trial when it is the Pharisees and their Calendar(s) that are being examined and found wanting. The Julian Calendar gives predictable results and the arguments in favor of it mask confusion over "...the way it was".

As usual, nice work SA.

CW
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