Texts in Conversation
The Christian theologian Anatolius, in his work on the Easter calendar, uses 1 Enoch to argue that the first month in the Hebrew calendar begins near the spring equinox, drawing on the details from the Astronomical Book, which describes the sun’s path in the sky.
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1 Enoch 72:1
Pseudepigrapha
1 This book describes the courses of the heavenly bodies, detailing each according to their classes, control, seasons, names, origins, and months as shown to me by Uriel, the holy angel guiding me. He explained precisely all their laws and the eternal progression until a new creation is established forever. 2 The first rule of the luminaries: the Sun rises from the eastern portals of the heavens and sets in the western portals. 3 I observed six portals for the sun's rising and setting, and for the moon's rising and setting. The leaders of the stars and their groups also follow this path: six portals in the east and six in the west, all precisely aligned, with numerous windows on either side.
Date: 200-50 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Anatolius The Paschal Canon 5
Early Christian
I am aware that very many other matters were discussed by them, some of them with considerable probability, and others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration, by which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be kept after the equinox. But I shall pass on without demanding such copious demonstrations (on subjects ) from which the veil of the Mosaic law has been removed; for now it remains for us with unveiled face to behold ever as in a glass Christ Himself and the doctrines and sufferings of Christ. But that the first month among the Hebrews is about the equinox, is clearly shown also by what is taught in the book of Enoch.
Date: 270-280 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The ecclesiastical historian Eusebius preserves a lengthy abstract from a work by Anatolius called Canons on the Pascha. He begins writing about Anatolius in Ecclesiastical Histories 7.32.6 and continues through paragraph 21 ... As he quotes from Anatolius's work on the Pascha, he includes these words: 'But that the first month with the Hebrews lies around the equinox is shown also by the teachings of the Book of Enoch' (7.32.19). In connection with this attribution, J. E. L. Oulton referred to 1 Enoch 72:6, 9, 31, 32, while Milik pointed to 72:1-10. In that chapter of 1 Enoch the writer says that in the first month of the solar year the day and night are equal in length (nine parts each) as the sun emerges from the fourth gate at the beginning of the year. Hence, Anatolius may have been adding information from a Greek form of the Astronomical Book ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E.
A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82
(p. 349) Fortress Press, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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