István Józsa
"AFTER CHRIST"

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Catholic Archbishop György Jakubinyi published a book entitled "Your years don't end - short chronology" (Gyulafehérvár, 1998) - about the book we are talking about the beginnings of our time calculation. "After Christ" -
what do these two words mean?
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--The time calculation according to Christ does not begin with the birth of Jesus - but when? Not even during the 32-33 years of Jesus' life, the life story ends with crucifixion -- so when? Jesus founded Christianity by training twelve men and sending those twelve men into the world. Centuries of Christian persecution followed. The reckoning of time according to Christ obviously does not begin in this period — but when? After the reign of Emperor Diocletian, the persecution of Christians ends.

"Caius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, commonly known as Emperor Diocletian (Salona, ​​December 22, 244 - Spalato, December 3, 311), originally named Διοκλής (Diocles), Roman emperor between November 20, 284 and May 1, 305. The reign of Diocletian marked the end of the period from 235 to 284, often referred to by historians as the "Crisis of the Third Century". 1

"Emperor Diocletian ordered the last persecution of Christians (303-313), which is considered the bloodiest in the history of the empire. Shortly after his death, Christianity received equal rights with other religions (under Constantine I), and soon Christianity was the main religion of the empire. Exact data on the persecution of Christians under Diocletian are scarcely available. Most of the numbers come from contemporary or later Christian historians." 2

--Unfortunately, the New Testament is not precise about the date of birth of the Lord Jesus. However, according to the custom of the time, he gives the historical coordinates: he is born during the time of the emperor Augustus during the census. About 30 years old in the 15th year of the emperor Tiberius. "Little Saints" of Bethlehem B.C. It must be dated from 6. According to this, the traditional birthday is Christmas 1 AD and his death at 33 AD. Good Friday the 33rd does not stand. Since there is no dogma/article of faith regarding the age of the Lord Jesus, we leave it to the scientists to discuss the date. In any case, it is currently most likely that he was born between 6-4 BC and AD. He died on the cross on Good Friday, April 5, 30. He rose again on the third day.

Unfortunately, in the beginning, Christians also counted the years from Diocletian's Christian persecution (from 29.08.284). Dionysius Exiguus (Dénes the Dwarf), a Roman monk abbot (born in Dobrudja, 470 kr. †Rome after 550) was the first to propose that the years should not be numbered after the Christian persecutor Roman emperor Diocletian, but after the birth of the Lord Jesus. Since Dobruja was Scythia Minor in the IV-V. century, and the current Romanian official state history claims 2500 years of Romanian presence, Dionysius Exiguus was canonized as a Romanian saint by the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR) under the name Sfântul Cuviosul Dionisie Exiguul (Smeritul) (Holy Venerable Monk Dénes Törpe, the humble) on 07.09.2008. He therefore introduced the AD. years, but it was slowly accepted in the Christian world from the 10th century. This is the current standard, but the Jews, Muslims and Communists call it "the year of our reckoning" to avoid mentioning the name of the Lord Jesus!

Traditionally, there were ten major Christian persecutions during the Roman Empire. The biggest – and best known – was the persecution of Christians during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (303-314). We must mention, however, that - according to the repeated announcements of our Holy Father Francis - the greatest persecution of Christians is taking place in our time!


--The Roman Empire converted to Christianity during the reign of Emperor Constantine I, in 313 AD.
“Constantinus or Constantine the Great, full name: Caius Flavius ​​Valerius Aurelius Constantinus; in the Eastern Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Church: Saint Constantine[1] (Naissus, c. 27 February 272 - Nicomedia, 22 May 337), Emperor of the Roman Empire." 3

"In Europe today, thanks to the negotiations and compromises that took place between the leading bishops of the Christian Church and the emperor - the Edict of Mediolanum, better known as Milan, issued in 313 (which allowed the Christian religion for the first time in the Roman Empire) and the First Council of Nicaea held in 325 known for the Christian creed called Symbolum Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum issued at the council; both were important steps in the spread of Christianity. From Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea to the present day, many people consider him the first Christian emperor, although there are doubts about his faith, since he only accepted Christianity on his deathbed - or not even there. 4

--Emperor Constantine the Great is the first Christian Roman emperor. It is true that he was only baptized on his deathbed, because this was the custom at the time: with full forgiveness of baptismal sins, he immediately goes to heaven! Until then, he was a catechumen = a novice, so he was a Christian! Byzantium venerates him as a saint, we Catholics only venerate his mother, Saint Helena, the finder of the Holy Cross, as a saint. Moreover, the East (Byzantium) gives the title of "isapostolos" (Greek), "ravnoapostolicheskij" (Old Slavonic), "întocmai cu Apostolii" (Romanian), "equal to the apostles" to all those holy rulers who were baptized together with their people, St. Constantine, St. Vladimir, Grand Duke of Kiev, etc.

But let's make a distinction: Emperor St. Constantine the Great issued a decree of tolerance with the Edict of Milan issued in 313: The Christian religion became an established religion, equal to the other recognized pagan religions that had been practiced until now. So the Roman Empire did not yet become a Christian state. I mention it only because, 12 years before the Milan forbearance decree, the Parthian Prince St. Gregory the Illuminator, in 301, baptized III. King Trdat of Armenia together with his people, who made the Christian religion the state religion - thus excluding other religions - and thus Armenia became the first Christian state in world history in 301!

Unfortunately, I have to correct: "the "Symbolum Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum" published at the first Council of Nicaea held in 325 defined only the first part of the great Creed, which concerns the Son, while the part concerning the Holy Spirit is defined in II. a universal council (Constantinople I 381) defined and issued the "creed", which is now called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan or Great Creed and is sung on solemn occasions in the Holy Mass.
 
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--"According to our time calculation", i.e. "according to Christ" the year is 313 - so who, where, when, how did he calculate that the... calculated from where?... are exactly in the 313th year? From there, the time measurement seems clear and easy to follow - but only from there. So how?

--"According to our time" is the wording of those who do not tolerate the name of Jesus Christ.
Those who accept it are "Kr. e. and AD.” that is, before and after Christ notation is used. I already pointed out that the Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus introduced the new time calculation instead of the Christian persecutor Diocletian. I have already briefly explained that it is impossible to keep a precise time calculation from AD. So our time calculation today is a general agreement, a convention.


--Since when can Jesus be officially called "the Christ", the savior through the cross?
 
--According to Saint Paul, the shortest confession of faith is: Jesus is the Christ (Phil 2:11). Jesus in Hebrew
Jöhosuá = Józsué in Hungarian, several people bore this name, meaning = God is the savior. Christ in Greek = anointed, in Hebrew Mashiach = in the Old Testament the king of Israel was anointed, so he was the Messiah. According to the predictions of the prophets, the Savior will be the real Fölkent, Messiah = Christ. Therefore, the confession of faith Jesus Christ = means that we acknowledge and believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Savior, Fölkent = Messiah, Christ.


-- Where, when, how was the new time calculation introduced? Inauguration of…

--The official introduction of the new time calculation has not been completed. Dionysius Exiguus's suggestion simply passed into the public consciousness and became common in Christian circles from the 10th century.
 

--I. At the First Council of Nicaea, Emperor Constantine together with the church fathers accepted the Christian creed called "Symbolum Nicaeano-Constantinopolitanum" -- does the text deal with the temporal placement of Christ? The councils after that? Some church synod, meeting...?
 
-- In point 2, I already mentioned that the First Universal Council in Nicaea in 325 was not the
"Symbolum Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum" accepted the great Creed, only its first part, concerning the Son. In the great Creed, the time-determining reference to the Lord Jesus is only this: "suffered under Pontius Pilate". This Roman knight, governor of the Roman province of Iudaea in AD. 26-36 (procurator, not proconsul), a well-known anti-Semite, only agrees to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ under pressure from the Jewish council. He washes his hands, proving his innocence.

Emperor Tiberius exiles him. The tradition differs: According to some, he died in Switzerland
He died in exile in Switzerland (Pilatusberg), but he converted and became a Christian. According to others, e.g. he is revered as a saint by the Coptic Church.

As far as I know, apart from the timing of the great Faith (under Pontius Pilate), church councils etc. they did not deal with the temporal definition of the life of the Lord Jesus.
 

--The Bible says that the flood lasted forty days and forty nights. Moses was forty years old when he received the great task from God. The migration of the Jews lasted forty years. Moses spent forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai - after that he brought down the stone tablets, the Ten Commandments. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness. The ascension follows forty days after the crucifixion. And the whole "forty" certainly appears in other important places of the text. – How do you interpret "forty" as a symbol? People measure everything in the decimal number system - weight, distance, etc. --, we have one exception: time. 60, 60, 24, 7, 4, 12 – a series of attempts to grasp and make time measurable. The clear line of the Bible seems to say otherwise. How do you interpret "forty" as a unit of time?
 
--It is common knowledge that there are "holy numbers" in the Holy Scriptures. The three are holy because the
Holy Trinity number: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The four are also sacred: earthly completeness, the four heavenly landscapes: north, south, east, west. Then we understand that 3+4=7 is also a holy number: The 7 petitions of the Lord's Prayer: 3 glorifies God, and 4 pleads for earthly needs. The Lord Jesus institutes 7 sacraments and gives the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit at confirmation. In other words: Human nature needs supernatural help to fulfill the great commandment of love, and therefore the 7 sacraments, the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, completely help it to be able to fulfill the great commandment. Especially in the Gospel of Matthew, 7 is common: the Lord Jesus has 7 speeches, his genealogy table has 3x2x7 = 3x14 = 52 members, and for the sake of the number, he omits a royal ancestor! At the same time, 3x14 indicates that the numerical value of David in the Hebrew alphabet is DVD = 4+6+4 = 14, so in the number of the ancestors of Saint Joseph, the son of David, the numerical value of King David's name appears three times!

Forty doesn't mean anything in particular. True, it is often a time of testing: the 40-year wandering of the chosen people in the desert, Moses prepares for 40 days and 40 nights on Mount Sinai to receive the Law, Elijah flees to Horeb for 40 days and 40 nights, Jonah's preaching leaves Nineveh 40 days for conversion, etc. Even in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus fasts for 40 days, the trace of which is the 40 days of Great Lent in our Church. Apart from the biblical basis, there is no clue as to why 40 became such a holy number, moreover, it has a penitential and punitive sign.




Notes

1 http:/ www.wikipédia.org/wiki/Diocletianus_római_császár
2 I.m.
3 http:/www.wikipédia.org/wiki/I._Constantinus_római_császár
4 I.m.
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