Didascalia Apostolorum

Historical source scan page 141

APPENDIX. Translation of note by Professor Nau on the Chronology contained in Chapter XXI. (La Didascalie, p. 119). "There are numerous discussions on the chronology of the week of the Passion.... The greatest difficulty consists in conciliating the Synoptics with St John. The Didascalia does not think of this conciliation, for it seems to ignore the Gospel of St John, but nevertheless it furnishes a solution. (On Sunday Jesus announces that in two days it will be the Passover, and that the Son of man will be delivered up to be crucified.) On Monday the chief priests assemble, and decide to seize Jesus and to keep the Passover on Tuesday. On this Monday Jesus was in the house of Simon the Leper. As Friday is to count for two days, that really takes place, as St John says, six days before the Passover or the Saturday. For the evening of Friday, when the Passover was usually celebrated, was the commencement of Saturday. Thus the Synoptists and St John speak, the first of the day on which the Passover was celebrated that year, and the second of the day on which it ought to have been celebrated. All are then right ; it was enough that we should understand them. Next, our Lord celebrates the Passover on Tuesday ; He is arrested on the night following Tuesday, that is to say, on Wednesday ; He passes Wednesday in the house of Caiphas, Thursday in the house of Pilate; He is crucified on Friday. At His death darkness covers the earth, which makes two days of Friday, and allows it to be said that our Lord appeared to be dead during three nights, namely, the supplementary night consisting of the darkness which followed His death, the night from Friday to Saturday, and the night from Saturday to Sunday. This explanation, if it had been imagined in our day, would be worthless, but as it has been written at the latest in the third century, it may rest upon a tradition still more ancient, and ought not to be rejected without examination." D.