the resurrection on the day following. Now the 14th day of
_Nisan_ always fell on the full moon next after the vernal Equinox; and the
month began at the new moon before, not at the true conjunction, but at the
first appearance of the new moon: for the _Jews_ referred all the time of
the silent moon, as they phrased it, that is, of the moon's disappearing,
to the old moon; and because the first appearance might usually be about 18
hours after the true conjunction, they therefore began their month from the
sixth hour at evening, that is, at sun set, next after the eighteenth hour
from the conjunction. And this rule they called [Hebrew: YH] _Jah_,
designing by the letters [Hebrew: Y] and [Hebrew: H] the number 18.

I know that _Epiphanius_ tells us, if some interpret his words rightly,
that the _Jews_ used a vicious cycle, and thereby anticipated the legal new
moons by two days. But this surely he spake not as a witness, for he
neither understood _Astronomy_ nor _Rabbinical_ learning, but as arguing
from his erroneous hypothesis about the time of the passion. For the _Jews_
did not anticipate, but postpone their months: they thought it lawful to
begin their months a day later than the first appearance of the new moon,
because the new moon continued for more days than one; but not a day
sooner, lest they should celebrate the new moon before there was any. And
the _Jews_ still keep a tradition in their books, that the _Sanhedrim_ used
diligently to define the new moons by sight: sending witnesses into
mountainous places, and examining them about the moon's appearing, and
translating the new moon from the day they had agreed on to the day before,
as often as witnesses came from distant regions, who had seen it a day
sooner than it was seen at _Jerusalem_. Accordingly _Josephus_, one of the
_Jewish_ Priests who ministred in the temple, tells us [2] that the
Passover was kept _on the 14th day of_ Nisan, [Greek: kata selenen]
_according to the moon, when the sun was in _Aries__. This is confirmed
also by two instances, recorded by him, which totally overthrow the
hypothesis of the _Jews_ using a vicious cycle. For that year in which
_Jerusalem_ was taken and destroyed, he saith, the Passover was on the 14th
day of the month _Xanticus_, which according to _Josephus_ is our _April_;
and that five years before, it fell on the 8th day of the same month. Which
two instances agree with the course of the moon.

Computing therefore the