The creation of the world before the birth of Christ. From the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. How to find out what people thought before the birth of Christ

It is rather strange that pages 286 to 289 (reverse), according to Kloss, are written in another handwriting, which is used only here. However, there is nothing special on these pages. On page 286, however, as indicated in the comments to the text of the first edition, a corner is damaged, but there seems to be no loss of text; the previous entry continues. And on the 289th, in general, part was written by one scribe, and part by another.

So here, I think, Kloss got carried away. But as for the two scribes... An interesting consideration arises here. What if the text was originally written by the first of them? The one in whose handwriting the entire beginning of the collection is written. And then they started editing his text. And the second scribe was told: “You must put a new, expanded text in the same volume of pages in which it was.” So he started to get smaller. Eh, I should check the sheets! What if one text was erased and another was written on top? Who will give it!

As for the time of creation of the Rogozh Chronicler, researchers, based on the watermarks, came to the conclusion that the collection in which it is included was written in the middle of the 15th century. N.P. Likhachev, having analyzed part of the sheets, those on which “ the sign is more or less noticeable" talked about the 40s. N.P. Popov, based on the handwriting, believed that this was the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. Y. S. Lurie dated the compilation of the Rogozh chronicler (in terms of content) to the 50s. XV century, and the collection (on paleography) - a little later. B. M. Kloss, preparing a new edition, as he himself writes, clarified the time of creation of the sheets on which the collection was written. It turned out that they date from 1439–1445. (deer filigree), 1447 (horseshoe), 1432–1456. (“a horn in a heart-shaped shield, above which is a fleur-de-lis”), 1448 (“a bull’s head with fused nostrils, between the horns a mast with an asterisk”) and 1444 (“a pilgrim’s flask”). Anisimova’s clarifications did not add anything fundamental. The earliest date is 1439, the latest is 1456.

In general, it seems that Lurie was closer to the truth, and the chronicle was written after 1450, but before 1500. Although for some reason Kloss believes that Likhachev is right. This is strange, considering that among the filigree there is one (“the head of a bull with a bang and a mast between the horns, ending in a five-petalled flower”), dating, according to the Briquet catalog, to 1455. It is used, according to Kloss, on sheets 372–379 and 391 –392. Next to them are pages whose dates may well also be after 1450. Thus, paper for sheets 388–389 and 394–395 was produced between 1429 and 1461. And some time must have passed between the time the paper was issued and the date the text was written on it. So the end of the 15th century, in my opinion, looks more preferable as the date for writing the collection, based on the dating of the paper.

The part that interests us, dedicated to the Battle of Kulikovo and the events around it, is located on sheets 316-344, that is, in notebooks 40-43. The text was written by one scribe. And there is only one filigree on the sheets, “ploughshare”. That is, for the collection - the main one. So this part of the Rogozhsky collection seems quite homogeneous. Let's see what can be learned from its contents.

From the Creation of the World to the Nativity of Christ

The most interesting thing: in this chronicle there are many dates for which the days of the week are indicated. Which is very valuable for checking dating. After all, in the chronicles the years are indicated from the Creation of the World (S.M.), and we like to translate them to dates from the Nativity of Christ (R.C.).

This is where the problems begin. The fact is that how much time has passed from S.M. BC, no one knows. There are different opinions. And different old chroniclers and historians use different dates in their works. There is, for example, the so-called. the era of Hippolytus, in which the Nativity of Christ falls on 5500 from S.M. There is the African era, in which Christmas is in 5502 from S.M. In the Alexandrian era, Panodorus - 5495, in the Alexandrian, but Annian, - 5502, in the Proto-Byzantine - 5508, in the Byzantine - 5507.

If we compare it with the traditional era from A.D., proposed by Dionysius the Less (the first who painted the Easter canon according to the Julian calendar and years from the Nativity of Christ), then we will see different numbers. The fact is that, according to Dionysius, Christ was born on December 25, 1 A.D. That is, by the time of his birth, one year of the new era had almost passed. And this first year “from A.D.” Dionysius corresponded to 5502 from S.M. Hippolyta and Africana, 5494 Panodora, 5493, Anniana, 5510 Proto-Byzantine and 5509 Byzantine.

Confused yet? But I didn’t give all the options. There were about 200 of them in total! Moreover, the spread of dates from R.H. - from 3483 to 6984 years. We indicate only the main eras.

Table 1

Three so-called world eras became most widespread: Alexandrian (starting point - 5493–5494 BC), Antioch (5969 BC) and Byzantine (5508 BC).

Well, at least it became clear to you, I hope, that you should not automatically subtract 5508 years from the date from the Creation of the World to get the date from the Nativity of Christ (as we are all taught in school). It doesn’t hurt to first clarify: which S.M. is he talking about? are we talking? Otherwise, you will inadvertently miss the mark by fifteen years, as there is nothing to do. Or even for all 461, if the date is given according to the Antiochian era!

There is such discrepancy in Russian chronicles. To be convinced of this, it is enough to look at what is written there at the very beginning, in the traditionally undated parts.

Let's take a look at The Tale of Bygone Years:

“...from Adam to the flood there are 2242 years, and from the flood to Abram 1000 and 82 years, and from Abram to the march of Moses 430 years; and from the descent of Moses to David the years were 600 and 1; and from David and from the beginning of the kingdom of Solomon until the captivity of Jerusalem in 448 years; and from captivity to Oleksandr 318 years; and from Alexander to the birth of Christ 333 years.”

Let's sum it up and get 5454 years. This, by the way, is a very original number, as far as I know, not found anywhere else except in the Russian chronicles, which were set out in the first part of the PVL. Most likely, the Tale contains a clear error in calculating the number of years from Abraham to the exodus from Egypt. Here it stands 430 years, while in all other chronicles, in which the PVL is not slavishly repeated, it is 505. And in fact, according to the official Jewish (Masoretic, 7 AD) tradition, the exodus was after 505 years after the birth of Abraham (Book of Exodus). 430 is the number of years the Jews spent in Egypt. But the author of the PVL obviously accepted the Samaritan version, according to which 430 years have passed since the settlement of the Jews “in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt,” that is, it should be counted from the resettlement of Abraham. However, if we add these 75 years, we get 5019. Also original.

World creation. Old Russian painting

Now we look at the Rogozhsky chronicler. And we read: “ From Adam to Christ 5500 years". That is, something like the era of Hippolytus was used. And here’s what the 1st Pskov Chronicle says: “ Our Lord Jesus Christ was born from the Virgin Mary in the year 5000 505...". Here we most likely have the so-called. Bulgarian era. In the same chronicle the figure 5505 is confirmed in several other places (“From Adam to Christ there are 5500 and 5 years”). But... in the same chronicle, on the same page where the first entry is located, there is also a calculation of the date of Christmas, similar to that available in the PVL. Here he is: " From Adam to the Flood 2242 years; and the descent of Noah from the ark in the month of April in 28; and from the flood to the mixing of the tongue 500 and 30 years; from the placement to the beginning of Abraham 550 and 2 years; from the beginning of Abraham to the end of the Jews through the Red Sea, 500 and five years; from the exodus of the children of Israel to the death of King David 630 years; from the beginning of the reign of Solomon to the capture of Jerusalem 443 years; from the captivity of Jerusalem to the death of Alexander, King of Macedon, 261 years; from the death of Alexandrov to the reign of Tsar Augustus, 200 and 90 years; from the beginning of King Augustus to the birth of Christ, the great king of heaven and earth, the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, whose kingdom has no end, 42 years.” We count. It turns out... 5495, Alexandrian era. That is, on the same page - two different dates for the Creation of the World!

That was a long time ago. According to the Byzantine tradition, the creation of the world occurred in 5580 BC, and today it is 7519 from the creation of the world, or rather, it has already gone 7520, because the beginning of the year falls on September 1 (September 14 according to the Julian calendar). True, they managed to convince us, and we believed, that the world was not created by the Lord God, but arose by itself as a result of some kind of explosion or something else. In general, for some reason we are inclined to believe everything that the enemy of the human race instills in us. And he seems to be an expert at distorting historical facts, however, this is not surprising, because the devil, as we know, is the father of lies. Today, only the Church adheres to the chronology from the creation of the world, remembering that the earthly world was created by the Lord, however, the Church quite rarely reminds us of this. The date from the creation of the world can only be found on the title page of some liturgical book (and even then extremely rarely, mostly in reprint editions), and that’s all. Why do we so persistently avoid mentioning that there is such a calendar from the creation of the world? Probably because this dating, willy-nilly, suggests that the world was created by God after all, and not by some other means. Why remind people once again of their divine origin? In Bolshevik times, they even went so far as to throw out from the Russian language such familiar attributes of dating historical events as “before Christ” and “after Christ” (before the Nativity of Christ and after the Nativity of Christ), replacing them with “before AD.” » and "N.E." (BC and AD). And what kind of “our era” is this, when all of humanity (in any case, the entire European Christian culture) singles out only one event in history, the Nativity of Christ, in relation to which all events that took place either before the Nativity of Christ or after him? BC (Before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini/year of our Lord) are commonly used and understandable designations. But the atheistic rulers in Russia were really sick of any mention of anything Divine. And what’s remarkable is that “before AD” is persistently preserved in our language to this day. (sometimes you can even hear about this “new era” from the pulpit), although Soviet power seems to have left, yes, apparently, godlessness is too deeply rooted in the people, who suddenly, for no apparent reason, began to believe that man is not God was created in His image and likeness, but came from a monkey, and the whole of God’s world is not God’s at all, but simply no one’s and exists on its own, and therefore is devoid of any higher meaning and purpose. Thus, having abandoned God, we unexpectedly discover that we live in a meaningless, insane, no one’s world, governed by no one, and our whole life is the same useless absurdity and misunderstanding. After this, is it any wonder that we have turned the God-given world order into complete madness, taken to the extreme degree of absurdity, making our own life unbearable and mediocre torment and eternal punishment?

Many things in human civilization appeared only after the birth of Christ. What happened before Christmas? What are Old Testament times, why are there different calendars and even Christmas itself is celebrated on different days? All these questions can be answered by knowing history.

How to find out what people thought before the birth of Christ

The guardians of human wisdom are books... Each of them stores someone's thoughts, hopes, sleepless nights. But there are a number of books-symbols, they are wisdom - those that are revered by billions of people around the world.

In all centuries, humanity has had different religions and accepted different beliefs. The science of religious studies divides faiths into religions, sects, denominations, movements and simply personal beliefs. Faith is not scientifically provable. In fact, every person has faith in something Higher, even atheists who are convinced that there is no God cannot prove this.

World religions - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism - these are the four religions that are most widespread on Earth, while Christianity is historically inherent in the Slavic lands of Rus'. However, it is also divided into confessions - movements within the religion. Orthodoxy and Catholicism are widespread in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, and Moldova.

The key books of world religions are, respectively, the Bible, the Koran and the Vedas.

Bible - Old Testament about the times before our era

The book of books is what the Bible is called, and this is how its name is translated from Greek. The Bible is made up of many parts, also called “books.” All of them were written by a number of authors under God's inspiration over thousands of years. It is the basis of a number of human civilizations and cultures.

The main division of the Bible is into the New and Old Testaments. The word “covenant” means agreement, that is, the old and new covenant of God and man are the definition of the different relationships of man with God. Many people know the word “Gospel” (translated as Good News) - these are books about the Birth, life, death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world to save people and concluded the New Testament, a new agreement between God and man.

Traditionally, people pray before reading the Old Testament. You can read the Lord's Prayer “Our Father”. A brief summary of each book of the Old Testament can be read in a number of publications: the Orthodox Encyclopedia, the Children's Bible, and also before each part of the Bible in most of its editions.

History of the ancient Jews and other peoples

Every believer and simply cultured person needs to understand the difference between the names of the books of the Bible and know what the Torah or the Pentateuch are. These are the 2 names of the first five books of the Bible, according to legend, written by the prophet Moses himself.

The Torah is revered in both Judaism and Christianity. For Jews, this is such a sacred book that it can be opened only after a number of rituals. In Christianity, even the Gospel is treated more simply.

In Judaism, the Torah, also known as the Pentateuch, is still read on scrolls, which are inserted into expensive cases and passed on from generation to generation.

The Book of Genesis is a story about the Creation of the world by God, His creation of people, the Fall of man, as well as the history of several generations of people who lived before the Flood and its history. These points are still controversial to this day, but even the most atheistically minded scholars understand that the language of the Bible is metaphorical, and “in the eyes of God a thousand years are like one day.” Therefore, the Creation of the world could not have taken seven days, as written in the Bible, but many years. It's the same with the first people. Regarding the Flood, many scientists agree that it really happened.

In the middle of the book of Genesis, the plot entirely tells about the history of only one family - the patriarch (that is, the forefather, ancestor, head of the clan) Abraham. It was his sons who became the “twelve patriarchs” of the Jews - the “tribes of Israel” (tribes) of the Jewish people were named after their names (Leviticus, Benjamin, etc.). For centuries, the Jews maintained their faith in the true God, despite many falls into sin. The Jews were the chosen people in the Old Testament, but Christ, incarnate from the Virgin Mary, being a man in the flesh, became the Savior of all humanity - all nations. Christ's apostles eventually called upon people of all nationalities to "make a covenant with God."

In addition to Genesis, the Pentateuch of Moses includes the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They contain the laws, quite cruel ones at that, by which the Jews lived before Christ came into the world.

In addition to the Pentateuch, the Old Testament includes about a dozen more books. They tell the history of the Jewish people (as, for example, in the books of Chronicles and Kings), provide poetic comparisons of love for God and a loved one (Song of Songs), tell about the life, death and miracles of the prophets (for example, Amos and the most famous and revered Old Testament righteous man - Elijah the prophet). An important book is the Psalter, a collection of prayers and reflections written mainly by the prophets and kings David and Solomon. The Psalter is read at services in Christian Churches every day.

Let us note that not only Christians revere the Bible, but also Muslims, Jews, and even many Buddhists. In all centuries, humanity has had different religions and accepted different beliefs. The science of religious studies divides faiths into religions, sects, denominations, movements and simply personal beliefs. Faith is not scientifically provable. In fact, every person has faith in something Higher, even atheists who are convinced that there is no God cannot prove this.

World religions - Christianity, Islam, Buddhism - these are the four religions that are most widespread on Earth, while Christianity is historically inherent in the Slavic lands of Rus'.

Commandments - moral laws before Christmas and after Christmas

The Pentateuch of Moses contains the Ten Commandments that God Himself gave to Moses. They are still relevant today. They can be explained as follows:

The first three commandments tell us how to relate to God: to worship only Him, not to believe in the gods of other religions, pagan gods, and not to worship dark and unknown spirits. Do not make idols, that is, do not worship anything earthly as God. Do not simply call on the Name of God in conversation, do not break an oath in the face of God.

The fourth commandment calls for devoting part of your time to serving God and neighbor, to work with zeal and diligence. Don’t be lazy, but also don’t indulge in revelry, fun with oblivion of others and excesses.

The fifth commandment is to treat your parents with respect, take financial and emotional care of your parents, give them love and support, and at least pray to God for them if you have a difficult relationship.

The sixth commandment prohibits encroaching on the lives of other people and your own; prohibits harming the health of another, only for the purpose of self-defense; says that a person is guilty even if he did not stop the murder. Suicide is also a terrible sin; we give away what has been given to us by God and others - life, leaving our loved ones and friends in terrible grief, dooming our soul to eternal torment.

The seventh commandment prohibits sexual relations outside of marriage. The Lord does not bless shamelessness, viewing explicit and pornographic visual materials, and monitoring your thoughts and feelings. It is especially sinful, because of one’s lust, to destroy an already existing family by betraying a person who has become close.

With the eighth commandment, the Lord instructs us that we must not only take other people’s property, but, what is important for the modern world, we must not cheat, make fraudulent transactions, or take bribes.

The ninth commandment prohibits all lying and deception. And, of course, this commandment prohibits slander and intrigue.

With the tenth commandment, God blesses us to rejoice in what we have, not to envy or grumble about the arrangement of our lives and the lives of our neighbors.

You can often hear that the worst sin is pride. They say this because pride clouds our eyes, it seems to us that we have no sins, and if we did something, it was an accident. Of course, this is absolutely not true. You need to understand that people are weak, that in the modern world we devote too little time to God, the Church and improving our souls with virtues, and therefore we can be guilty of so many sins even through ignorance and inattention. It is important to be able to weed out sins from the soul in time, like weeds, through confession.

Nativity of Christ

It has long been proven that Christ as a real Man existed on Earth. The place of His burial was widely known among the Jews of His time. In addition, after His Resurrection, He appeared to many people more than once, as the evangelists say. And the apostles themselves - holy men, according to the testimony of many - could not lie, unanimously asserting that He ascended to Heaven and pointing out the place where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is now located as the place of His burial.

The most important dogma of Christianity is that Jesus Christ, the Almighty Son of God, became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and voluntarily accepted death to save people from the power of sin. He Himself showed people the meaning of the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ. His words and actions remain in the Gospel.

After being condemned to death, the Lord Jesus was Crucified on the Cross like the last thief, with ordinary thieves nearby. The apostles left Him, afraid of death, and only the Most Holy Theotokos with the Apostle John the Theologian remained at the Cross.

When the Lord gave up the ghost, the disciples - not the apostles, but simply the disciples of Christ Joseph and Nicodemus - asked to give them the Body of the Lord for burial. They left it in the garden, where Nicodemus himself had bought a place for his future burial. However, Christ rose again a day later, appearing to the holy myrrh-bearing women.

Only after the Resurrection did the Apostles believe in the Divine will about the Crucifixion, death and the Kingdom of the Lord and understood this to the end.

On the 40th day after the Resurrection, Christ called the apostles to the Mount of Olives, blessed them and ascended to heaven on a cloud, that is, he began to rise higher and higher until he disappeared from view. At the Ascension, the apostles received a blessing from the Lord to go and teach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Holy Trinity.

Christ is one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity - God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit - is the One and Only God, Whom Christians all over the world worship. The dogma of His Unity in Three Persons is the most important for Christians, regardless of denomination.

An Orthodox xmas

It is known that in the Orthodox Church every day the memory of a saint or a holiday is celebrated in honor of an important historical event for the teaching of Christ. Each church holiday has a special edifying, educational meaning. Church holidays preserve the true purpose of holidays - it is a renewal of life, a reminder of special events, and not just drunken fun, unbridled fun.

Many church holidays have become truly popular, signs were associated with them, people began to bring certain seasonal fruits for consecration, that is, God’s blessing in the church, and to pray for certain things related to the holiday.

In the annual church circle there are twelve holidays, called “twelve” (in Church Slavonic duodecimal). These are days dedicated to the most important events in the earthly life of Christ and the Most Holy Theotokos, as well as the most important historical events of the Church.

In every Orthodox country, these holidays reflect traditions, national mentality and historical culture. Thus, in Russia and Greece, on various holidays, earthly fruits are brought for blessing. Elements of Slavic ritualism have been preserved, for example, in the traditions of caroling on Christmas Day in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Thanks to the tolerance and love of the Orthodox Church, many good ancient traditions have survived to this day.

The twelfth holidays are divided by content:

• Lord's (Lord's) - eight holidays,
• Theotokos - four,
• days of remembrance of sacred events.

It is interesting that Christmas refers to the Lord's holidays, and the priests' vestments on this day are the Theotokos, that is, blue and silver. This is a tribute to honoring the Mother of Christ, because this is also Her holiday.

On Christmas Day the birthday of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is celebrated. The Gospel tells that because of the population census, Joseph the Obrochnik and the Most Holy Theotokos were forced to come to Bethlehem, Joseph’s homeland. Due to a simple everyday detail - hotels for the poor were overcrowded and there was no money for expensive rooms - they were forced to take refuge in a cave along with their livestock and pets. Here the Virgin Mary gave birth to the Son of God and laid him in a manger, in straw. Simple shepherds, called by the Angels, came here to worship the Baby, and wise wise men led by the Star of Bethlehem.

It is historically testified that at the time of the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ there was a certain new star in the sky, a celestial phenomenon - perhaps a comet. However, it lit up in the sky as a sign of the coming into earthly life of the Messiah, Christ the Savior. The Star of Bethlehem, according to the Gospel, showed the way to the Magi, who, thanks to it, came to worship the Son of God and bring their gifts to Him.
On Christmas, they ask the Lord for the gift and upbringing of children, remember the simplicity of the Birth of the Infant God, and try to do good deeds during Christmastide - the week between the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany.

Different calendars

In the main Christian Churches, the church calendar is divided: the Orthodox Church celebrates holidays and days of remembrance of saints according to the old style (Julian calendar), the Catholic Church - according to the Gregorian calendar (this is due to astronomical phenomena).

Regarding the Nativity of Christ, the Gregorian calendar is more convenient: after all, the week of holidays begins on December 24-25 with Christmas and continues with the New Year, but Orthodox Christians must celebrate the New Year modestly and calmly in order to observe fasting. However, an Orthodox person can also have fun on New Year's Eve, trying not to eat meat or any particularly tasty things (if he is visiting). Likewise, children in Orthodox families should not be deprived of the New Year holiday and the joy of Santa Claus. It’s just that many Orthodox families try to emphasize the significance of Christmas with more expensive gifts, more active joint visits to events, etc.

Let us note that Christmas is celebrated on December 25 by a number of Orthodox Local Churches, but all Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter on the same day (this holiday shifts depending on the phases of the moon). The fact is that only on Orthodox Easter does the descent of the Holy Fire take place in Jerusalem.

God bless you!

There is such a thing in chronology as era. The fact is that whatever the calendar year, it must have a serial number, that is, counted from some starting date - the basis of chronology.

Actually, the term era itself is believed to be an abbreviation of the following phrase: “ab exordio regni Augusti”, i.e. “from the beginning of the reign of Augustus” (aera - era).

In this regard, we note that an era can be real - this is when the counting of years comes from some real event, for example, from the beginning of the reign, or fictitious - this is when the counting of years comes from some mythical event, for example, from the creation of the world .
As long as the count is consistent, this doesn't matter.

We know one such era - the Christian era, or chronology system from the Nativity of Christ.
It was created by the Roman monk Dionysius the Lesser in the 6th century. n. e. Then the so-called era of Diocletian was used, i.e., the years were counted from the date of accession to the throne of the Roman Emperor Diocletian.
Dionysius somehow calculated that the year of Christ's birth took place 284 years before the beginning of the era of Diocletian, or, in other words, he equated the initial year of Diocletian's reign to 284 of the Christian era. The era of Dionysius was accepted throughout Christian Europe.

This was not the case in Russia at all. Since Christianity came to us from Byzantium, the Byzantine chronology system also came to us from there. from the creation of the world. This system was used in Russia until 1700, until by decree of Peter I Russia was transferred to the Christian era.

According to the Byzantine chronology system, 5508 years passed from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. The year in it, as well as in the Christian system, was built on the basis of the Julian calendar.

It would seem that if the difference is only in the starting point, then the translation between eras is trivial, but in fact in ancient Rus' until the end of the 17th century, the new year began not from January, as in the Christian era, but from March (as in ancient Rome) or from September (as in Byzantium). That is, before the decree of Peter I, there were already two parallel calendar styles: the March style, according to which the new year fell on March 1, and the September style, with the new year coming on September 1.

Different styles change the calculation slightly, since in the March style the new year is two months behind the Christian new year, and in the September style, on the contrary, it is four months ahead of the Christian new year. Let's explain this with an example.

Let's assume the year March 7100 is indicated according to the “March style”. This corresponds to (7100-5508=1592) March 1592 from the Nativity of Christ.
If February 7100 is indicated according to the “March style”, that is, almost the end of the year, then it will correspond to February 1593 from the Nativity of Christ.

Now let's look at September 7100 according to the “September style”. This corresponds to September 1591 from the Nativity of Christ, but February 7100 according to the “September style” corresponds to February 1592.

At the same time, when dating events in the chronicles, naturally, it was not indicated which “style” was used. However, there are a lot of logical techniques that help researchers establish the style used in the chronicle. It is also known that since the end of the 15th century, the September style has practically replaced the March style (really, why look up to Rome). In addition, the March style had two more modifications - ultra-March and circus-March styles, but we will not go into such jungle.

Actually, the calculator below converts dates from our era to Old Russian (Byzantine), and is more for fun. The task of reverse translation required to correctly date the chronicles, as shown above, is more complex and requires an analysis of the context to determine the style used in the chronicles.

A final word about the months - since it was based on the ancient Roman (Julian) calendar, in the earliest sources the names of the months are found in the form closest to the Latin prototype, which have not yet acquired a Russified form, for example, June, Julius, Augustus, and so on.

Already in the first centuries AD. e. some Christian writers and historians sought to “throw” a chronological bridge from the events described in the Bible to those that happened before their eyes. They began calculating the number of generations “from Adam to Abraham”, “from Abraham to David”, etc. (Jewish scribes did this independently), hoping to “more accurately” establish the number of years that have elapsed since the “creation of the world” described in the Bible. . Thus, about 200 eras were created from the “creation of the world”, according to which the period of time from the “creation of the world” to the “birth of Christ” ranges from 3483 to 6984. But why is the average about 5500 years? And why are so many of them created based on the same data in the Bible?

Why 5500? A certain role in all the chronological “research” carried out at that time was played by the ideas of the Jews and the first Christians about the close connection between the number of “days of the creation of the world” and the duration of its existence and, in particular, the following statement contained in the Bible: “For in Your sight there are a thousand years.” like yesterday..." (Psalm 89:5), which is also found in the New Testament's "Second Epistle of the Apostle Peter": "...with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" ( 3, 8). That is why the Talmud quite unequivocally states that “the six-day number of the creation of the world was for evidence and signification that the world would last 6 thousand years.” On the same basis, Rabbi Eliezer argued that the 84-year period constitutes “1 hour of the Lord’s day” and after its expiration the Sun and Moon return to the very point from which they emerged during creation.

And so, based on the premise that “Adam was created in the middle of the sixth day of creation,” Christian theologians came to the conclusion that “the savior of the world Christ” descended to Earth in the middle of the 6th millennium, i.e., around 5500. from the "creation of the world." Calculating the time based on the life expectancy of the patriarchs and kings mentioned in the Bible led to some “clarification” of this date.

Why 200? To answer this question, we first quote the words of one of the researchers of biblical chronology, I. Spassky: “Although in the sacred books the years of events are not counted from one era..., but through the demolition, comparison and combination of chronological texts scattered over different books of Holy Scripture, one can come to a general definition of the time that has elapsed from the beginning of the human race to Jesus Christ.” But... “No matter how simple, apparently, the method of studying Biblical chronology is, however, it is associated with great difficulties, which are hardly ever completely solvable. They arise primarily from the fact that the chronological indications, as we now find them in different copies of the same text, in different translations of the sacred books and in the original itself, are different from each other, so that it is difficult to determine which indication is in which text or list is genuine and correct."

And now let us recall that by the beginning of our era, in addition to the Hebrew text of the Bible, chronologists already had at their disposal a translation into Greek (“Septuagint”), carried out in Alexandria on the initiative of King Ptolemy VIII around 130 BC. e. both for the needs of the large number of Hellenized Jews living there, and for “all others in the universe.” A thousand years later, it was from the text of the Septuagint that the Bible was translated into Slavic. In the IV century. e. Bishop Jerome translated the Hebrew text of the Bible into Latin (Vulgate).

And, finally, the multi-volume work of Josephus Flavius ​​(c. 37 - c. 95) “Jewish Antiquities,” which provides an account of the history of the Jewish people and its neighbors, had a significant influence on attempts to organize the events of world history in the era from the “creation of the world.” from Adam" almost until the end of the 1st century. n. e.

And, as it turned out, in the text of the Bible, which the Jewish people have used at least since the end of the 2nd century. n. e., and in the Latin translation from it the life expectancy of the “ancient patriarchs”, the reign of kings, etc. is indicated completely different than in the Greek translation of the 2nd century. BC e. and, naturally, in the Slavic Bible. Let's give a few examples (the numbers in the Slavic Bible are given in parentheses): Adam lived 130 (230) years before the birth of Seth, Seth lived 105 (205) years before the birth of Enos, Enos lived 90 (190) years before the birth of Cainan, etc. Duration The reign of Joshua is indicated in 14 (32), King Cyrus 9 (32) years, etc. It is easy to imagine how violent the mutual accusations of Christians and Jews were for the corruption of the “sacred text”. It was argued that this was done by Christians (the time intervals were increased) to justify the fact that after the “creation of the world” the “predicted” number of years had already passed - 5500 and Christ the Messiah had already come. And, on the contrary, from the point of view of Christians, Jews, believing that the time of the Messiah had not yet come, somewhere at the beginning of the 2nd century. n. e. shortened the above-mentioned periods of time, so that by the beginning of our era there are only 3760 years.

In addition, biblical data ceased to exist at the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews (586 BC), so later calculations had to be made from various non-biblical sources. That is why Christian historians, each in their own way assessing this or that period of time, created about 200 different versions of the era from the “creation of the world”...

Several other important eras. It is obvious that when comparing the events mentioned by church historians at the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. and the first decades A.D. e. the following is important: to which year of one or another independent era - counting years according to the Olympiads or from the “foundation of Rome” - they attribute the “Nativity of Christ”. After this, you can determine how far the era of the era is from the “creation of the world” from the era of our era.

Perhaps the first of the Christian theologians who created the era from the “creation of the world” was the Bishop of Antioch, Theophilus. The era of the era, which was called Antiochian, is September 1, 5969 BC. e. (however, some sources indicate the number 5515, others - 5507 BC). It was compiled around 180 AD. e. Clement of Alexandria (190) “found” another number - 5472 (however, the number 5624 is also indicated). The Roman Bishop Hippolytus (200), and after him Sextus Julius Africanus (221), determined this period of time to be exactly 5500 years. Describing the events of the last 500 - 700 years, Sextus Julius Africanus in his “Chronography” mentions a number of historical figures (for example, the Persian king Cyrus), the Greek Olympiads, etc. Based on the totality of this historical information, it can be established that the 5500th year of this era falls on the 2nd year BC. e. In the chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea, from the “creation of the world” to the “birth of Christ”, only 5199 years are counted.

The eras of two Alexandrians - Panodorus and Annian - became widely known in their time. Around 400 AD e. Panodorus assigned the date of the “Nativity of Christ” to 5493 from the “creation of the world,” and the first year of this era began on August 29. A few years later, Annian moved the start of the countdown six months forward - to March 25. Outwardly, these eras seemed to differ slightly from each other. However, a comparison of references to historical events of recent years before and after the “Nativity of Christ” showed that Annianus attributed the “Nativity of Christ” to the 5501st year of our era, which corresponded to the consular year of Sulpicius Camerinus and Gaius Poppaeus, and this is the 9th year AD . e., whereas in the 1st year AD. e. occurred in 5493 of the Annian era. In order to fit further events into his era, Annianus reduced the reign of the Roman emperors by one or two years until the end of the 1st century. n. uh....

The Annian era was used by many Byzantine historians until the 9th century. n. e., however, almost immediately after its “invention,” its era was moved back to August 29, 5493 BC. e., and soon moved two days forward - to September 1, 5493 BC. e. Byzantine chronologists considered the beginning of the year on March 25 to be unsuccessful, since in every 532 years Easter falls 20 times before March 25, and therefore so many times in one year of the Annian era there were two Easters, while in others - not once. Annian era with the era of August 29, 5493 BC. e. was usually called Alexandrian.

The Easter Chronicle, a work by an anonymous Byzantine writer compiled shortly after 628 AD, became widely known in the Middle Ages. e. This chronicle includes information from the Bible and the “lives of the saints,” but as we move to later times, its author increasingly turns to documentary material. The Chronicle received its name from the fact that it provided guidance on establishing the date of Easter. The starting date here is taken to be March 21, 5509 BC. e.

The so-called Bulgarian era, according to which the “creation of the world” took place in 5504 BC, also reached Rus'. e. However, the most important place in chronological calculations in Rus' for many centuries was occupied by two Byzantine eras. According to the first of them, chronology was carried out from Saturday September 1, 5509 BC. e. This era was created under Emperor Constantius (reigned from 337 to 361), but since he was not a “consistent Christian” in his religious views, in the future they tried to “forget” him and the era compiled under him for some time. . From the 6th century in Byzantium, a different era began to be used from the “creation of the world” with the era of March 1, 5508 BC. e. (this era is also called Constantinople and also Old Russian). This era seems to be “better in agreement” with the Bible: it was counted “from Adam”, who “was created” on Friday. March 1st of the 1st year of this era fell on Friday.

The Catholic Church has long adhered to the principles of Eastern Christian chronology. But already at the end of the 9th century. her views changed. Thus, Archbishop of Vienne (France) Adoi (about 879) in his work gave preference to the chronology of the Latin translation of the Bible. Since the Council of Trent (1545), at which this translation of the Bible was declared canonical, a “short” chronological scale has become dominant in Western Europe. So, according to one of the eras from the “creation of the world” to the “birth of Christ” there are 4713 years, according to another - 4004 years.

Eras are based on cycles. It is interesting to trace how the gap of 5861 was obtained, separating the 69th year of the era of Diocletian from the “original moment” found in 353 by the compilers of the Byzantine era.

Let us recall that the Christian Church linked the annual cycle of its “movable” holidays with the lunisolar calendar and that in the combination of the Julian calendar with the lunisolar calendar there are the following important cycles: 28-year (solar), after which the days of the week fall on the same calendar dates , and 19 years (metons), after which the phases of the Moon (as we already know, not very accurately) fall on the same dates of the solar calendar. The years in each cycle are numbered. The years are also counted in a 15-year cycle according to indicts.

At the time when attempts began to establish the Byzantine era from the “creation of the world,” a certain system of counting years in the mentioned cycles had already developed. In particular, the 69th year of the era of Diocletian was the 9th year in the 28-year solar cycle, the 9th year in the lunar ("Syrian") 19-year cycle, and, finally, the 11th year in the 15-year indic cycle . The compilers of the new chronology system were faced with the task of finding the year in which all three cycles began simultaneously. The “convincing argument” should be this: “it cannot be that the world was created not at the beginning of the cycles”...

Mathematically it can be depicted like this. Let us denote the year of the desired era by R. Further, we take into account that by the 69th year of the era of Diocletian, an unknown number of x solar, y lunar and g indictive cycles had expired. Taking into account the serial numbers of the 69th year of the Diocletian era in all three cycles, we can write the year R alternately in the 28-year solar, 19-year lunar and 15-year indictive cycles as follows:

R = 28x + 9, R = 19y + 9, R = 15z + 11.

These equations indicate that x 28-year cycles and another 9 years have passed since the beginning of chronology, 19-year cycles and 9 years, z 15-year cycles and 11 years. This makes it possible to find the relationship between the number of cycles in the form of so-called Diophantine equations:

28x = 19 y, 28x - 15z = 2.

The problem is solved by trial method: integer (!) numbers x, y and z are selected so that the equalities given here are satisfied. This occurs if x = 209, y = 308, z = 390.

Then R = 28*209 + 9 = 5861.

It follows that the 69th year of the era of Diocletian was the 5861st year of the era of the beginning of the three mentioned established cycles, which was accepted as the era from the “creation of the world.”

Note that the coincidence of the beginning of all three cycles repeats every 28 * 19 * 15 = 7980 years. And, of course, the compilers of the era mentioned above accepted the year 5861, and not, say, 7980 + 5861 = 13,841, because they were also guided by direct calculations of the number of generations “from Adam”...

It is curious that in ancient Georgia, for chronology purposes, a cycle of 532 years was used, called a chronicle or koronicon. When dating events, they indicated the number of whole coronicons that had elapsed since the beginning of the era, and the ordinal place of a given year in the current coronicon, which was also called the coronicon. For the first time, chronology using coronics was introduced in Georgia in 780 and was used for more than a thousand years.

Our chronology

Today, in almost all corners of our planet, chronology is calculated from the “Nativity of Christ.” This era was introduced in 525 by the Roman monk, papal archivist, and Scythian by birth, Dionysius the Lesser. Often the year in this era is denoted by the letters AD, which in Latin means Anno Domini - “year of the Lord,” but most often they say “such and such a year of our era,” since this era is completely conventional.

Facts and speculation. Dionysius’s service to the church lies in the fact that as soon as the Western Church began to use the Paschalia compiled by him, there were no differences on the issue of celebrating Easter between the Eastern and Western churches until the calendar reform in 1582. Dionysius achieved this in the following way: firstly, he, following Victoria of Aquitaine, calculated the phases of the Moon, using the 19-year Metonic cycle; secondly, and this is the most important thing, he, according to the custom of the Eastern Church, placed Easter on the 15th of Nissan, unless it fell on a Sunday (and this was not allowed in Rome before!).

At the time of Dionysius, the technique for calculating the date of Easter was already reliably developed. Let's take 1988 as an example. Subtracting 284 from the year number (the year number of the era of Diocletian; after all, we are calculating as Dionysius should have done it) and dividing the remainder by 19, we find in the remainder the serial number of the year in the 19-year Alexandrian cycle - golden number. It is equal to 13. From the table. it follows that the spring full moon in 1988 falls on March 24, Art. Art. Easter will be next Sunday - March 28th Art. Art. = April 10th Art.

Usually, the Alexandrian bishops compiled Easter tables for 95 years (the so-called small Easter circle) and sent them to all Christian churches. In the new 95th anniversary, in every three out of four years Easter falls on the same dates as in the previous one, in the fourth year (due to the mismatch of leap years) it moves forward by one number, and once approximately every 27 years - 6 days ago. Therefore, the compiler of the new Easter made amendments, checking the correspondence of the phases of the Moon and the days of the week. This is exactly how the Alexandrian Patriarch Cyril compiled the Paschal for the period from 153 to 247 of the era of Diocletian, i.e., 531 AD. inclusive.

Dionysius the Small decided the following: “Since there are only six years left of this circle, we decided to extend it for the next 95 years.” At the same time, he abandoned the era of Diocletian (they say, it is not proper for Christians to count years from the coming to power of the emperor, who cruelly persecuted them) and introduced the counting of years from the “birth of Christ”, and according to other sources - ab incarnatio Domini - from the “incarnation of the Lord” , i.e. from the “Feast of the Annunciation” (even then it was celebrated on March 25).

But Dionysius never explained for what reasons, on the basis of what calculations, he attributed the beginning of his era to precisely this and not another place in the continuous change of years. On this matter, historians have expressed various guesses, although none of them seems more convincing than the other. Thus, there is an assumption that when compiling his era, Dionysius took into account the tradition that Christ died in the 31st year of his life and was resurrected on March 25. Consequently, the “first Easter” fell on this day. The next year in which, according to Dionysius' calculations, Easter fell again on March 25, was the 279th year of the era of Diocletian. By comparing his calculations with the gospels, Dionysius could assume that in fact the “first Easter” was celebrated 532 years ago from 279 of the era of Diocletian. By adding another 31 years to the number 532 (the supposed age of Christ) and counting these 563 years ago from 279 of the era of Diocletian, Dionysius allegedly “established” the beginning of the era from the “birth of Christ,” i.e., that 279 of the era of Diocletian = 563 from the “Nativity of Christ”.

We, however, have already noted earlier that the tradition that Christ was resurrected on March 25 was popularized by Eastern church writers. Representatives of the Western Church, in particular the Roman Bishop Hippolytus, the Christian writer Tertulian (c. 150 - 222 AD) and others argued that Christ was crucified on March 25, and that he was resurrected on March 27. This difference in views is reflected, in particular, in the following documents, belonging respectively to the Christian East and West: "Constantinople List of Consuls of 395" (Consularia Constantinopolitana ad A. CCCXCV) and “Chronographic collection of 354” (Chronographus anni CCCLIIII). Both documents were published in the 9th volume of the collection “Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctorum Antiquissimorum. - Berolini, 1892."

In the first document after the later date of the year - 29 AD. e.- and the names of the consuls Fufius Gemina and Rubellius Gemina there is a postscript: “His conss. passus est Christus die X Kal. Apr. et resurrexit VIII Kal. easdem” - “under these consuls, Christ suffered on the 10th day before the Kalends of April and rose again on the 8th day,” that is, he suffered on March 23 and rose again on March 25. In "Chronograph 354" under the same year, after the indication of the consuls, we read: “His consulibus dominus Iesus passus est die Ven. Luna XIIII” - “during their consulate, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered on Friday when the Moon was 14 days old,” and in section XIII “Roman Bishops” we find additional information: “Imperante Tiberio Caesare passus est do-minus noster Iesus Christus duobus Geminis cons. VIII Cal. April." - “during the reign of Tiberius, our Lord Jesus Christ suffered during the consulate of both Gemins on the 8th day before the Kalends of April.” Consequently, the death of Christ here is dated to March 25, Sunday - to March 27.

However, using the tables of Appendices I and III, it is easy to see that both options - “the first Easter on March 25 or 27” - are unacceptable from a “purely calendar” point of view. First of all, March 25 in 29 fell on a Friday, and for this reason the “eastern version” does not work. But most importantly, the Jewish Passover (Nisan 15) fell in the year 29 on Sunday, April 17, therefore, almost a month later than Saturday, March 24, where it should have been to agree with the gospels...

Moreover, when compiling his Easter table, Dionysius could not help but notice that, based on the 19-year Metonic cycle “in the historically real period of time in the life of Jesus Christ,” Easter does not fall on March 27 at all (according to formal calculations in the 1st century AD Christian Easter fell on March 27 three times: in 12, 91 and 96). Thus, Dionysius, willy-nilly, was forced to accept the Eastern Christian point of view, according to which the “first Easter” (“Resurrection of Christ”) took place on March 25.

Alas, here too Dionysius failed, although without knowing it. After all, if he sincerely believed that the “first Easter” was on March 25, 31 AD. e., then he was grossly mistaken in extrapolating the inaccurate Metonic cycle back to 28 circles. In fact, the 15th of Nissan is the Jewish Passover - in 31 AD. e. was not on Saturday, March 24th (where, we repeat again, he should have been to be consistent with the gospels), but on Tuesday, March 27th!

According to the “calendar of 354”? According to Dionysius, the era of our era is January 1, 753 from the “foundation of Rome”, the 43rd year of the reign of Augustus, the 4th year of the 194th Olympiad, on this day Gaius Caesar and Aemilius Paulus assumed their consular positions. From April 21, 1 AD e. began in 754 from the “foundation of Rome”, from the new moon on June 10 - the 1st year of the 195th Olympiad, from August 1 - the 44th year of the reign of Augustus. It is worth recalling that Dionysius himself began counting the days of the year on March 25, and on December 25 of the 1st year of the era he adopted, Christ was supposedly born.

It would be interesting to check whether Dionysius, when establishing the epoch of his era, could have used someone else’s ready-made calculations or assumptions. In particular, what did Christian writers of the 3rd - 4th centuries say about the year of the “birth of Christ”?

It turns out that the Lyon bishop Irenaeus and Tertulian believed that “Christ the Lord came into the world around the year of the 41st reign of Augustus.” Eusebius of Caesarea says more specifically: “it was the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus, and the 28th of his rule over Egypt.” “Saint” Epiphanius even indicates the consuls and the year from the “foundation of Rome”: the 42nd year of Augustus, 752 from the “foundation of Rome” under the consulate of Augustus for the 13th time and Silvanus. Sextus Julius Africanus writes: “about the year 29 after the battle of Cape Actium.” Somewhat later, the Greek historian John Malala (491 - 578) attributed the “Nativity of Christ” to the year (01. 193.3), the 752nd from the “foundation of Rome”, the 42nd of August, and the “Easter Chronicle” - to the 28th year of rule Augustus in Egypt, "to the consulate of Lentulus and Piso."

The above-mentioned document from 395 “Consularia Constantinopolitana”, like Epiphanius, dates this event to the year of the consulate of Augustus and Silvanus: “His conss. natus est Christus die VIII Kal. Ian." - “under these consuls Christ was born on the eighth day before the Kalends of January” (i.e. December 25).

As you can see, all of the listed authors point to the 3rd or 2nd year BC. e., “Easter Chronicle” - for 1 BC. e. And all of them contradict the Gospel of Matthew, according to the 2nd chapter of which Christ was allegedly born during the reign of the Jewish king Herod. After all, Herod died in 750 from the “foundation of Rome”, i.e. in 4 BC. e.

It can be assumed that the writers mentioned (like many others not named here) used a single source. Probably, they were given the following instructions from the Evangelist Luke: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was in charge in Judea,... there was a word of God to John...” (Luke 3: 1-2). John allegedly began his preaching and soon baptized Christ in the Jordan. Moreover, “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years old...” (Luke 3:23). Emperor Tiberius Claudius Nero ruled the Roman Empire from 14 to 37. Tertulian and other writers apparently accepted that John the Baptist began his activity in 14 + 14 (the number of complete years of Tiberius' reign) = 28 AD. e., at the beginning of the 29th he baptized Jesus, who “was about 30 years old.” From this it followed that Christ was born in 2 BC. e. Apparently, none of the writers mentioned above knew the year of Herod's death (or, less likely, were familiar with the Gospel of Matthew).

There is an indication of the year of the “Nativity of Christ” in the “Chronograph of 354”. Here this event is dated to the year of the consulate of Gaius Caesar and Aemilius Paulus, i.e. 1 AD. (!!). Entry about the “Nativity of Christ” in the “Chronograph of 354” sounds like this: “Nose cons, dominus Iesus Christus natus est VIII Kal. Ian. d. Ven. luna XV" - "under these consuls the Lord Jesus Christ was born on the 8th day before the Kalends of January on Friday of the 15th moon."

"Chronograph 354" (fig.) is a serious work containing, in particular, a list of all Roman consuls, starting from 245 from the “foundation of Rome” (from 509 BC) to 354 AD. BC, lists of prefects of Rome for a hundred years (251-354 AD) and Roman bishops from the Apostle Peter to Julius (died 352). And, of course, Dionysius, who also held the position of papal archivist, could not help but know about the document that contained such important chronological information. Well, if he knew about the “Chronograph of 354”, then he could well have used the above-cited mention of the year of “the birth of Christ” when establishing the starting point of his era (perhaps this record gave him the idea to introduce a count of years from “ Nativity of Christ"?).

Rice. The title of a copy of a Roman calendar from 354 AD. e. contains the following wishes to a certain Valentine: prosper in God, live prosperously, live joyfully and rule happily

Of course, another possibility cannot be ruled out. After all, the mention of the Nativity of Christ “during the consulate of Caesar and Paul,” now contained in copies of the “Chronograph of 354” (the original has long been lost), may be an insertion made after Dionysius. One should, however, think that this is not so. The assumption about the authenticity of the recording under discussion is supported by the above-mentioned mention in the “Chronograph 354.” about the date of Christ's death. After all, after the Easter calculations of Dionysius, carried out by him on the basis of the 19-year Metonic cycle, it was hardly possible to return to the grossly erroneous statement about the 29th year!

Let us remember that Dionysius had another predecessor: Panodorus also believed that the “birth of Christ” was for the same year (1 AD).

As noted, there is an assumption that Dionysius “established” the year of the “birth of Christ” after determining the year and date of “Christ’s first Easter” - March 25, 31 AD. Alas... Not only he, but also many other Christian writers and “fathers of the church” were unlucky in this regard. After all, the “calendar situation” is such that the 15th of Nissan (Jewish Passover) fell on Saturday (and the eve of Passover - “the day of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ” - on Friday) only in 26 AD. e. (March 23), in 33 (April 4) and in 36 (March 31). It is no coincidence that today (and, apparently, from relatively recent times, already in the 20th century) the Christian church takes Sunday April 5, 33 AD as the most likely date of the “first Easter.” e. . In the year 28, to which the Aquitaine bishop Victor dates the “first Easter,” the 15th of Nissan fell on Tuesday, March 30, in the year 29, on Sunday, April 17, in the year 30, on Thursday, April 6. But if we talk about the year of Christ’s death, then since the time of Tertulian and Hippolytus of Rome, no one in the West has put it later than 29. And, therefore, they were mistaken, not being able to reliably calculate the phases of the Moon...

Dionysius was also mistaken if he really proceeded from the fact that the “first Easter” (“resurrection of Christ”) was on March 25, 31. And not only because in fact the spring full moon in that year was on Tuesday, March 27. Even if the Metonic cycle used by Dionysius in his calculations had been perfectly accurate, then March 25, 31, in principle, could not be accepted as the date of the “resurrection of Christ,” since according to the Alexandrian 19-year circle it turned out that it corresponds to 15 Nissan (the first day of the Jewish Passover), while, according to the Gospel of John, Christ was resurrected “on the 16th day of the moon.” It was for these reasons that he so stubbornly insisted on his date - March 25, 42 AD. e. Annian: this year the “17th day of the Moon” fell on March 25, and this was quite consistent with the first three evangelists, although it was a gross anachronism, since Pilate was recalled from Judea back in 37, and by the Roman emperor in 42 It was no longer Tiberius, but Claudius.

By the way, in medieval literature a lot of “research” was carried out to find out the relative position of the planets in the sky, which could “call the wise men on their way to worship the newborn Messiah.” After all, as the Jewish rabbi Abarvanela (15th century) said: “The most important changes in the sublunary world are foreshadowed by the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn. Moses was born three years after such a conjunction in the constellation Pisces...”

The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation Pisces took place in 747 from the “foundation of Rome” - 7 BC. e., and the distance between them at that time was about half a degree (which is equal to the diameter of the Moon). The following year, Mars joined these planets. And as a curiosity, we note that based on calculations of the positions of the mentioned planets in the sky, Kepler made a “conclusion” that Jesus Christ was born in 748 from the “foundation of Rome.” In an effort to defend his idea of ​​​​a possible era of the era from the “birth of Christ,” Kepler dated his book “New Astronomy” as follows: “Anno aerae Dionisianae 1609,” thereby emphasizing the complete conventionality of the era introduced by Dionysius.

For convenience of calculations? It is quite possible that Dionysius introduced his chronology solely for the convenience of calculating the date of Easter. As we will now see, this chronology allows us to carry out such calculations without looking at previous Easter tables. The starting point in this chronology is the assumption that in the year immediately preceding 1 AD. e., the new moon fell on March 21 (but this is a calculated new moon, repeating every 19 years in accordance with the Metonic cycle; in fact, the astronomical new moon - conjunction - was on March 24 in 1 BC).

Let's take 1986 for example. Dividing the number of the year by 19, we find that 104 full 19-year cycles have passed since the beginning of the era introduced by Dionysius (they are not of interest to us) and the remainder has a = 10. In the last year BC. e., and therefore, in the last year of the 19-year “Dionysian” cycle, the new moon (calculated!) came on March 21, and the spring full moon - 15 days later, i.e. on April 5. For each year, the spring full moon shifts 11 days back or (take the next one) 19 days forward. The magnitude 19a +15 indicates how much the full moon has shifted in the year of interest to us. Let's divide it by 30 - the number of days in one lunar month. The remainder will show how far the nearest spring full moon is from March 21 (from the vernal equinox).

Specifically for 1986, we find 19a + 15 = 205, 205: 30 = 6 and the remainder d = 25. Consequently, the spring full moon falls this year on 21 +25 = 46 (-31) = April 15, Art. Art. = April 28 AD Art. This coming Sunday, April 21st. Art. = May 4 AD Art. and there will be Easter. This conclusion, which remains true for any year, can be tested using the exact Gaussian method.

As you can see, everything here is very simple, there is no need to even look at the tables of the phases of the moon or consult Easter eggs compiled by other authors. Essentially, everything done here is the first stage of determining the date of Easter using the Gauss formula: this is how the distance of the full moon from the date of the spring equinox is found. Of course, Dionysius was not calculating conjunctions, but neomenia. But the result is the same. Just in 1 BC. e. the estimated neomenia occurred on March 23 (strictly speaking, it was observed on March 23 in 532 AD). This means that the age of the Moon on March 23 in the last year BC. e. taken equal to 1-lunar epacta EL = 1 (also designated as luna I). The calculated Easter full moon, which was designated as luna XIV, fell 13 days later than Neomenia. This is exactly the same as saying that it occurs 15 days later than the conjunction.

So, it is possible that Dionysius could have introduced his chronology to simplify the “Easter arithmetic” as much as possible, although he, perhaps unexpectedly for himself, came into conflict with history... After all, as we know, Herod, the king of the Jews, under whom supposedly Christ was born, died in 4 BC. e.

Concluding this review of various assumptions about the possible date of birth of Jesus Christ, which, as we have seen, is directly related to the problems of the calendar, we note: today our domestic scientists are increasingly inclined to the opinion that Christ as a historical figure really existed. Here is what academician B. M. Kedrov writes on this issue: “Defenders of Christian teaching have long tried to combine the question of the reality of Christ with a statement about his divine essence. And in the history of atheism, some authors’ refutation of the Christian legend was based on the fact that a number of historical testimonies about Christ were presented as interpolations, as later insertions made by defenders of the Christian doctrine.” Currently, based on research, scientists are striving to clearly “separate the question of Christ as a real person from the Christian legend about his divine nature. The idea of ​​Christ as a real person is reflected not only in modern historical research, but also in fiction. The question of the reality of the person of Christ leads directly to the idea of ​​​​his human nature and thereby allows us to reduce the Christian legend about the divine nature of Christ to its earthly basis.

Approbation of the era. The era introduced by Dionysius the Less was soon used by some historians and writers, in particular by Dionysius's contemporary Marcus Aurelius Cassiodorus, a century later by Julian of Toledo, and still later by Bede the Venerable. During the VIII-IX centuries. it has become widespread in many countries of Western Europe. This era was tested in 607 by Pope Boniface IV, and it is also found in the documents of Pope John XIII (965-972). But only since the time of Pope Eugene IV (1431) has the era from the “Nativity of Christ” been regularly used in documents of the papal office. As for the Eastern Church, according to E. Bickerman, it avoided using it, since disputes about the date of Christ’s birth continued in Constantinople until the 14th century. However, apparently, there were exceptions. Thus, in the table of Easter dates compiled in the 9th century. for the entire 13th indiction (877-1408) John the Presbyter, next to the year from the “creation of the world”, circles of the Sun and Moon, and epacts also marked the year from the “Nativity of Christ”.