Text
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 7.2:
If I were not restrained by a consideration of the present state of affairs, I could also show that Babylon had existed for twice that length of time when, more than fourteen hundred years after her founding, she was finally captured by King Cyrus. I should like, however, to add this. Holy Abraham, to whom the promises were renewed and from whose seed Christ would come, was born in the forty-third year of the reign of Ninus. He was the first of all the Babylonian kings, though there is a doubtful report that his father, Belus, was king before him. Later, Christ was born in the time of Augustus Caesar, who was the first of all the (Roman) emperors though his father Caesar had preceded him, but more as a surveyor of the Empire than as emperor. Toward the close of the forty-second year of his imperial rule, I say, Christ was born, Who had been promised to Abraham in the time of Ninus, the first king. Since, however, He was born on the twenty-fifth of December, when all the increase of the coming year begins, the result is that, whereas Abraham was born in the forty-third year, the nativity of Christ fell at the end of the forty-second, and so, instead of His being born in some part of the third year, the third year was born in Him.
Source (list of abbreviations)
Orosius, Historia adversus Paganos 7.2
Bibliography
| Raymond 1936, 322 | Raymond, Irving W. Seven Books of History against the Pagans. The Apology of Paulus Orosius. New York: Columbia University Press 1936. |
Amar Annus
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