Laurentius Suslyga
Laurentius Suslyga | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1570 |
| Died | 1640 |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Known for | the first to suggest that Christ was born in or before 4 BC, not in AD 1 or in 1 BC |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | history, chronology |
| Institutions | University of Graz, Austria |
Laurentius Suslyga or Laurence Suslyga (Polish: Wawrzyniec Susliga or Susłyga) (1570–1640), was a Polish
chronologist, and an author of Baroque visual poetry. He was the first person to claim that Jesus Christ was born in or before 4 BC, not in AD 1 or in 1 BC, as the Christian era would imply. Suslyga was thus questioning the Anno Domini chronology introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525.[1][2] Suslyga presented this theory in his 1605 doctoral thesis entitled Theoremata de anno ortus et mortis Domini, deque universa Jesu Christi in carne oeconomia at the University of Graz.[3] Among other arguments, Suslyga's treatise included the following: Herod's son, Philip the Tetrarch, renamed a city (Bethsaida) after Augustus's biological daughter, Julia. Since she had been exiled from Rome by Augustus in 2 BC, Suslyga assumed that Philip must have renamed the city prior to that date, and Herod must have died prior to Philip's becoming a ruler, which pushes the Massacre of the Innocents at least 3, if not more, years before AD 1. Dionysius Exiguus' chronology did need to be questioned; his chronology did not even match the point of view of the early Christians. The Church Fathers generally believed that Jesus was born either in the 41st or 42nd year of the reign of Augustus (consulship, principate, etc.), that is in 3 or 2 BC.[4]
Suslyga's work was used by
Kepler to bolster the astronomer's theory that the Star of Bethlehem was perhaps a new star which may have appeared during or following the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 7 BC (later joined by Mars in 6 BC). In AD 1604, Kepler had witnessed the appearance of a nova in the region between the two planets during a similar Jupiter / Saturn great conjunction. He suggested that perhaps a new star, a miraculous "stella nova," had possibly been associated with the conjunctions in 7/6 BC, as had happened in AD 1604.[5] According to the biblical account, the wise men indicated that Christ's birth happened within a year or two of the appearance of the star. Kepler's scenario seemed to offer a logical explanation concerning the star of Bethlehem, while lending astronomical support to Suslyga's chronological ideas.[6][7]
Suslyga's ideas about the renaming of
Identifying Julias with Livia, instead of Julia the Elder, essentially renders invalid one of Suslyga’s main arguments for a 4 BC date of the death of Herod the Great.References
- ^ Duncan Steel, Marking Time p.324.
- ^ A.J. Sachs, "Kepler's View of the Star of Bethlehem"
- ^ Velificatio seu theoremata de anno ortus ac mortis domini, deque vniuersa Iesu Christi in carne oeconomia. 1605.
- ^ Finegan, Jack. Handbook of Biblical Chronology, Rev. ed. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998) p. 291.
- ^ A.J. Sachs, "Kepler's View of the Star of Bethlehem"
- ^ W. Burke-Gaffney, "Kepler and the Star of Bethlehem"
- ^ A.J. Sachs, "Kepler's View of the Star of Bethlehem"
- ^ Frederick M. Strickert, Philip’s City: From Bethsaida to Julias, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2011), pp. 163-188.
- ^ Strickert, Philip’s City, pp. 163-188.
- ^ Velleius Paterculus, Roman History 2.75.3
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 5.15.71
- ^ Ptolemy, Geographia 5.16.4
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