4. But another and not a less difficulty arises, which has been already treated of in the Preface to the work, “Against the Jews;” viz. that in a certain discourse against the Jews, held in the month of September of the year 386, Chrysostom in reproving many of the Christians at Antioch who fasted and kept Easter975 with the Jews, or at the same time observed by the Jews, “Behold,” saith he, “the first day of unleavened bread in this year falls on Sunday, and it is necessary that we should fast throughout the whole week, and after the Passion is past, and the Cross and the Resurrection arrived,976 we should continue fasting; and very often the same thing occurs, that after the Passion has passed away, and the Cross and the Resur- rection arrived, we are still keeping the fast, the week being not yet finished.” From these 319 words it is further evident, that those Christians, who acted as Jews in keeping the fast and celebrating the Passover, must sometimes have fasted when other Christians were celebrating the Paschal feast, and at other times not so; for example, they fasted on the day of the Resur- rection when the Jews celebrated the feast of the Passover later than the rest of the Christians did, but they did not fast when the Jews celebrated the same feast earlier than the Christians. But in the discourse of Chrysostom above mentioned, and held about the month of September of the year 386, he is doubtless treating of Lent and Easter of the year 387. But in that year, according to the Paschal tables, the feast fell on the 25th of April, that is to say, as late as it can possibly occur. How then could these judaizing Christians be fasting this year during the Paschal feast, and celebrate that feast too late, when this could not occur later than on the 25th of April, on which day the other nonjudaizing Christians celebrated it this year, at least if the Paschal tables are to be relied upon? This is certainly a very great difficulty; but one which, as Tillemont himself confesses, is not sufficient to overturn the marks of the period by which we assign the Homily, “Against the Jews,” to the month of September, in the year 386. For as we have said in the Preface to the Homilies against the Jews, it has not yet been made out to us so certainly, whether the people of Antioch always followed by an invariable rule the Alexandrian reckoning as to the Feast of the Lord’s Pas- 975 Pascha is either Passover or Easter. St. Thos. Aquinas, in the Hymn Lauda Sion, appropriates it to the Christian Festival, calling the Jewish Phase vetus. 976 i. e., the actual days of them on the Jewish computation. This appears the true answer to the difficulty. The Jews kept the Passover this year earlier than the Christians: viz. on the 14th day of the moon, or April 18. See l’Art de Verifier les Dates on the year. Thus the supposed difficulty becomes a confirmation of the date oth- erwise determined. Montfaucon understood it, “we must…if we follow the Judaizers.” Tillemont is at a loss to explain the title of Homily III. against the Jews. Against those who would fast the first Passover. It may mean either the original, or that which then happened to be the earlier. The word fast is explained by taking it as their expression for keep. He thinks it necessary to tell them that the true Passover is not fasting, but the Holy Com- munion. Ben. t. i. p. 611, b. And this agrees with what he says is the common case, viz. that the Christian Easter is so much later, as is required to complete the week. 441 Preface to the Benedictine Edition.