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Epistula ad Eusebium, Marcellum, Vivianum, Carpum et ad Aegyptios

A precise clarification concerning the day of Pascha by our father among the saints, Epiphanius, bishop of Constantia of the island of the Cyprians; from the letter to Eusebius and Marcellus, Vivianus (Bebianus cod.) and Carpus

letter.

205 The Jews therefore ate the Passover, with whom the Lord also ate this, two days before the appointed true Passover; as the scribes and the Pharisees said, 'Let us celebrate the Passover beforehand, lest in the tumult, when he is arrested, we might not be able to eat the Passover'; as the most holy Matthew also says concerning the Savior that he spoke to the disciples: 'You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up to be crucified'. And this was precisely fulfilled when Christ was led to the mystery on the second day of the week, the tenth being a symbol of the name of our Lord Jesus because of the iota. For then Judas received the price of the one who was priced, whom they priced from the sons of Israel according to what is written, and he was seeking an opportunity to betray him. But being in an uproar, they acted beforehand, instead of the lamb purchased for them with the silver coins given to Judas being kept by them until the fifth day of the week, and being numbered from the tenth to the fourteenth, which was the fifth day of the week. But being in an uproar on account of the people, they act beforehand and say: 'Let us celebrate the Passover beforehand, lest when the people come we might not be able to arrest him'. And for this reason they no longer ate the Passover on the fifth day, which fell on the 14th of the moon, but on the third day of the week, as the fourth was dawning, they arrest Christ, on which they also celebrated the Passover beforehand. 206 He had therefore eaten the Passover with them toward evening on the twelfth, two days before the Passover, as the 13th was dawning, the night being reckoned to the day, that is from the third to the fourth day of the week; wherefore the church observes the fourth day on account of the Lord's arrest, fasting throughout the whole year except only for Pentecost and Epiphany.

And having been arrested toward evening as the fourth day was dawning, he remains in the court of Caiaphas the whole night. For do not suppose that he was arrested on the fifth day toward evening; read in the Gospel according to John and consider, and you see that when he is arrested from Gethsemane he is brought to Caiaphas. And he remained in the house of Caiaphas until the dawn. And in the morning he is delivered to Pontius Pilate; and this happened on the fourth day of the week. And he spends that day with Pontius Pilate and the night until morning. And on the fifth day of the week he is sent to Herod, who was then in Jerusalem, because he too had come with the others to eat the Passover. And as that one asked him many things and was not deemed worthy of an answer, he sends him back to Pilate, and having remained shut up in the praetorium until the ninth hour. And a certain tradition has circulated even to our own times of those who say that at the ninth hour the disciples entered secretly to him and he broke plain bread and tasted with them in the prison. And he remained there the whole night and very early in the morning he brings him forth from the praetorium on the day before the sabbath, which is called preparation, and thus at the 3rd hour he is crucified according to the precise account of Mark and John, the divine evangelists; even if in some copies of the Gospel according to John, on account of a scribal error, the letter Gamma, which indicates the number three, has been altered to the episemon, which represents six, because the strokes of both letters look from the left toward the right

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Epistula ad Eusebium, Marcellum, Vivianum, Carpum et ad Aegyptios

Tοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἐπιφανίου ἐπισκόπου Κωνσταντίας τῆς Κυπρίων νήσου περὶ τῆς τοῦ πάσχα ἡμέρας ἀκριβὴς διασάφησις· ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Εὐσέβιον καὶ Μάρκελλον, Βιβιανόν (Βηβιανόν cod.) τε καὶ Κάρπον

ἐπιστολῆς.

205 Ἔφαγον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὸ πάσχα, μεθ' ὧν ὁ κύριος τοῦτο συνέφαγε, πρὸ δύο ἡμερῶν τοῦ τεταγμένου ἀληθινοῦ πάσχα· ὡς ἔλεγον οἱ γραμματεῖς καὶ οἱ φαρισαῖοι, ὅτι προλάβωμεν ποιῆσαι τὸ πάσχα, ἵνα μὴ ἐν τῷ θορύβῳ συλληφθέντος αὐτοῦ μὴ δυνηθῶμεν φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα· ὥς φησι καὶ ὁ ἱερώτατος Ματθαῖος περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος ὅτι εἴρηκε τοῖς μαθηταῖς· "οἴδατε ὅτι μετὰ δύο ἡμέρας τὸ πάσχα γίνεται καὶ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου παραδίδοται εἰς τὸ σταυρωθῆναι". τοῦτο δὲ ἀκριβῶς ἐτελέσθη ὁπηνίκα ὁ Χριστὸς εἰς τὸ μυστήριον ἤγετο τῇ δευτέρᾳ τοῦ σαββάτου, σύμβολον οὔσης τῆς δεκάτης τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ διὰ τὸ ἰῶτα. τότε γὰρ ὁ Ἰούδας ἔλαβε τὸ τίμημα τοῦ τετιμημένου, οὗ διετιμήσαντο παρὰ τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, καὶ ἐζήτει εὐκαιρίαν ὅπως αὐτὸν παραδῷ. προέλαβον δὲ τεθορυβημένοι ἀντὶ τοῦ φυλαχθῆναι παρ' αὐτοῖς τὸ ἠγορασμένον αὐτοῖς πρόβατον διὰ τῶν τῷ Ἰούδᾳ δοθέντων ἀργυρίων ἕως πέμπτης σαββάτων καὶ ἀπὸ δεκάτης ἀριθμουμένων ἕως τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτης ἥτις ἦν ἡ πέμπτη σαββάτων. προλαμβάνουσι δὲ θορυβούμενοι διὰ τὸν λαὸν καί φασι· προλάβωμεν ποιῆσαι τὸ πάσχα, ἵνα μὴ ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ λαὸς μὴ δυνηθῶμεν συλλαβέσθαι αὐτόν. καὶ τούτου ἕνεκα οὐκέτι τῇ πέμπτῃ ἔφαγον τὸ πάσχα, ἥτις κατήντα τῇ ιδ τῆς σελήνης, ἀλλὰ τῇ τρίτῃ σαββάτων ἐπιφωσκούσης τετράδος συλλαμβάνουσι τὸν Χριστόν, ἐν ᾗ καὶ τὸ πάσχα προλαμβάνοντες ἐπετέλουν. 206 βεβρώκει τοίνυν μετ' αὐτῶν τὸ πάσχα πρὸς ἑσπέραν τῇ δωδεκάτῃ πρὸ δύο ἡμερῶν τοῦ πάσχα, ἐπιφωσκούσης ιγ, λογιζομένης τῆς νυκτὸς εἰς τὴν ἡμέραν τουτέστιν ἀπὸ τρίτης εἰς τετράδα σαββάτων· ὅθεν ἡ ἐκκλησία τὴν τετράδα φυλάττει διὰ τὴν τοῦ κυρίου σύλληψιν, νηστεύουσα δι' ὅλου τοῦ ἔτους πάρεξ μόνον πεντηκοστῆς καὶ ἐπιφανίων.

Συλληφθεὶς δὲ πρὸς ἑσπέραν ἐπιφωσκούσης τετράδος μένει ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τοῦ Καιάφα ὅλην τὴν νύκτα. μὴ γὰρ νόμιζε ἐν τῇ πέμπτῃ πρὸς ἑσπέραν αὐτὸν συνειλῆφθαι, ἀνάγνωθι εἰς τὸ κατὰ Ἰωάννην εὐαγγέλιον καὶ διάσκεψαι καὶ ὁρᾷς, ὅτι ὅτε μὲν ἀπὸ Γεθσημανῆ συλλαμβάνεται πρὸς Καιάφαν φέρεται. ἔμεινεν δὲ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τοῦ Καιάφα ἕως τῆς ἕω. πρωίας δὲ παραδίδοται Ποντίῳ Πιλάτῳ· γέγονε δὲ τοῦτο τετάρτῃ τῶν σαββάτων. καὶ ποιεῖ τὴν ἡμέραν ἐκείνην παρὰ Ποντίῳ Πιλάτῳ καὶ τὴν νύκτα ἕως πρωΐ. πέμπτῃ δὲ σαββάτων ἀποστέλλεται πρὸς Ἡρῴδην, ὄντα τότε ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις, διὰ τὸ καὶ αὐτὸν ἐληλυθέναι μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα. καὶ ὡς ἐκεῖνος πολλὰ αὐτὸν ἐρωτήσας καὶ μὴ καταξιωθεὶς ἀποκρίσεως ἀντιπέμπει αὐτὸν Πιλάτῳ, καὶ ἐπιμείνας ἕως ἐνάτης ὥρας ἐν τῷ πραιτωρίῳ συγκεκλεισμένος. παράδοσις δέ τις ἔδραμε λεγόντων ἕως καὶ τῶν ἡμετέρων χρόνων, ὅτι τὴν ἐνάτην ὥραν εἰσῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ κρυφῇ πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ἔκλασεν ἄρτον ψιλὸν καὶ συνεγεύσατο μετ' αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ. ἔμεινε δὲ ἐκεῖ ὅλην τὴν νύκτα καὶ πρωῒ λίαν προφέρει αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ πραιτωρίου ἡμέρᾳ προσαββάτου τῇ παρασκευῇ καλουμένῃ καὶ οὕτως ὥρᾳ γ σταυροῦται κατὰ τὴν ἀκριβῆ τοῦ Μάρκου εἰσήγησιν καὶ Ἰωάννου τῶν θεσπεσίων εὐαγγελιστῶν· εἰ καὶ ἔν τισιν ἀντιγράφοις τοῦ κατὰ Ἰωάννην εὐαγγελίου γραφικοῦ ἕνεκεν σφάλματος παραπεποίηται τὸ Γ στοιχεῖον, ὅπερ τὸν τρεῖς ψῆφον δηλοῖ, εἰς τὸ ἐπισήμου, ὅπερ τὸν ἓξ παρίστησι διὰ τὸ ἀμφοτέρων τῶν στοιχείων τὰς κεραίας ἐκ τῶν εὐωνύμων εἰς τὰ δεξιὰ ἐπιβλέπειν