andrewcriddle

The passage is in Ben's PDF section 245 or the beginning of chapter XXIII in single brackets to indicate text uncertain There is a interesting disussion of the problem of different texts of the commentary Hippolytus on Daniel

Andrew Criddle

mountainman

Dear Vid,

The sources for this will include at least one entire temple (built by Aurelius to the Sovereign Sun) and many of his coins. I am not sure, but the literature reference may be from the Historia Augusta and thus not regarded as entirely reliable. Nevertheless, the epigraphic, coin and monumental evidence may prove to be at the source of the above claims.

Best wishes,


Pete

mountainman

Dear vid,


Here is an extract of what most scholars appear to be convinced that Constantine authored and narrated in regard to a number of prophecies concerning the birth of the historical jesus ...



Constantine refers to an ancient Sibyl, a priestess from Erythrae
who had served Apollo at the 'serpents Tripod' at Delphi.
Constantine then quotes (in the Greek) thirty-four hexameters,
from the inspired truth of the Sibyl.
Most notably, the acrostic formed by the first Greek letter
of each line spelt

"Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, Cross."

But Constantine was alive to the arguments of skeptics ...

"They suspect that "someone of our religion,
not without the gifts of the prophetic muse,
had inserted false lines and forged the Sibyl's moral tone.
These skeptics were already known to Origen ... (Constantine continues)
"Our people have compared the chronologies with great accuracy",
and the "age" of the Sibyl's verses excludes the view
that they are a post-christian fake."

Does this sort of propaganda sound familiar?


Robin Lane Fox has more to say:


Constantine informs us that
the advent of Christ had been predicted by Virgil (70-19 BCE)
in a Latin poem, written 40 BCE, to the poet's patron Pollio.
Fox says: "Constantine cites Latin's loveliest Eclogue
to a christian audience [ED: this is DISPUTED]
for a meaning which it never had."

Constantine began with the seventh line, in a free Greek
translation which changed its meaning"

p.651: Fox writes:


So we have Constantine c.324/325 CE making the claim that the birth
of the historical jesus was actually predicted by a number of Roman
poets of the first century BCE, as well as the ancient sybil.

So what do you make of that?


Best wishes,



Pete

vid

Well, pre-christians predicting birth of jesus, and BCE poem containing his name surely would be interesting if real, but, ... what does it have to do with "early christians commenting on jesus birth date?"

Connecting aurelius with sol invictus seems safe even from textual evidence (according to Roger Pearse's website). What is questionable is 25th december as somehow special date to Sol Invictus at Aurelius' time. Does any non-textual evidence link Sol Invictus and 25th december about time of aurelius?

vid

Noting relevant article to this thread: http://www.hypotyposeis.org/weblog/2...-polycarp.html

More on Ephraim Syrus in a comment from mentioned article: