Letter from Antioch

In EMV 461.13, Jesus receives through a certain Zeno a letter from Syntica (Sintica, Syntykhè), a fleeing Greek slave, who took refuge in Antioch of Syria, "this little Rome, this great city, queen of the East." Indeed, at the time, it was the third city of the Roman Empire.

The letter from this intelligent and cultured Woman has several points of interest:

• It provides historical descriptions of this Roman metropolis of Syria and the populations who composed it.

• It sets forth a vision of the evangelization of the Roman world that was soon to begin. Antioch of Syria was indeed the first apostolic see (Peter stayed there), and it was there for the first time that the Disciples were called "Christians".

• Incidentally, it provides information that allowed Jean Aulagnier, then Jean-François Lavère to date the life of Christ according to the data collected in the work.

Antioch, the cosmopolitan metropolis

The power of Antioch goes back to Seleucus I Nicator (305–280 BC). A general of Alexander the Great, he received Syria and eastern Asia Minor as his share and became the founder of the Seleucid Empire. This explains the presence of Greeks, including Zeno, the courier. This Greek is "supplier to the house of the Legate and to many Roman households" but also to the Eastern cohorts. It is in Antioch of Syria, also called Antioch on the Orontes, that the emperor’s legate, governor of the imperial province, resides.

Syntica, a Greek herself, hastens to specify that Zeno acts not out of servile submission, but to "milk the cows of the Tiber [...] in a clever way made of servile homage that masks an implacable hatred". Pompey’s conquest in 64 BC was not far off.

For the sake of evangelization, Syntica leaves the residential quarter of Antigonia, property of Lazarus of Bethany, to join the city proper of Antioch, "certain of being able to work more on this ground where, like in Rome, all races blend and mix." The city was the third in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria and counted about 500,000 inhabitants, including 200,000 slaves.

Theophilus, the father of Lazarus of Bethany, a Syrian, was ethnarch of the Jewish community of the city, i.e. governor on behalf of the Roman authority. Possibly because his Woman, Eucheria of Theophilus, was a Jewish princess. These elements, learned elsewhere in the work, explain the fortune of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary of Magdala (Magdalene) and the Protection enjoyed by the properties of Jerusalem.

Antioch, first apostolic Church in history

Syntica continues her letter with a vision of the evangelization of the Roman world in which she predicts that the Good News would be better preached by the "Gentiles" (the pagans) from whom she herself came, rather than within Judaism where the Good News had been proclaimed. Her experience of Antioch also made her understand that the Church would rely on Roman power for its expansion.

I think, and I tell you, that this Roman strength will be the Christian strength when it has known you, and that it is through the strongholds of pagan Romanity that the work must begin because they will always be the masters of the world and a Christian Romanity will mean a universal Christianity. When will this happen? I do not know, but I feel it will happen. That is why I look smiling at these testimonies of Roman power, thinking of the day when they will put their standards and their force at the service of the King of Kings. I look at them like one looks at friends who do not yet know they are friends, who will make suffer before being conquered, but who, once conquered, will carry you, will carry the knowledge of You to the ends of the world.

I, poor Woman, this is what I dare say to those who are my great brothers in You. When it will be time to conquer the world for your Kingdom, it will not be necessary to start with Israel, too closed in its mosaic rigorism embittered by the Pharisees and other castes to be conquered, but here, with the Roman world, with its ramifications — the tentacles by which Rome strangles all faith, all love, all freedom different from what it wants, in the service of its interests — it is here that the conquest of spirits for the Truth must start.

You know it, Lord. But I speak for the brothers who cannot yet believe that we too, the Gentiles, aspire to the Good. It is to the brothers that I say that beneath the pagan armor there are Hearts disappointed by the emptiness of paganism, who are nauseated by the life they lead dictated by customs, who are weary of hatred, vice, harshness. There are honest spirits, but who do not know where to lean to find satisfaction for their Aspirations to Good. Give them a Faith that satisfies them, they will die for it while always carrying it forward, like a blaze in the Darkness, like athletes in the Hellenic games.

History indeed confirms the spread of Christianity in the very heart of the Roman Empire since the first large-scale persecution took place under Nero's reign on the occasion of the fire of Rome, only about thirty years after the death of Christ. Already, the Gospel mentions the intervention of the Woman of Pontius Pilate (Claudia Procula in the work) in confession of Jesus and the Church honors Saint Longinus, the centurion of Calvary. Not to mention the conversion of the centurion Cornelius, etc... But Syntica’s analysis also finds an echo in the events that made Antioch "the first organized apostolic Church in history (Acts 11:25-26)". Thus Father Siméon Vailhé (1873–1960), an Assumptionist specialist in Byzantine studies and winner of the Marcelin-Guérin Prize (1935 - French Academy) writes:

It was especially among the pagans that the word of life spread and the religious community in Antioch was formed. Entering directly into the fold of Christianity, without passing through the door of Judaic observances, these first Christians badly tolerated Circumcision, Sabbath rest, and other legal practices imposed by the converts of the Synagogue. The Baptism of the centurion Cornelius and the liberal tendencies professed by Saint Peter regarding the Gentiles led to vehement disputes between the two factions of the Antiochene community. Paul and Barnabas openly took sides Against the legal observances and presented the grievances of the faithful coming out of paganism before the Council assembled in Jerusalem. This council ratified the innovations of the two missionary Apostles and proclaimed the absolute liberation of the Gentiles from the yoke of the law. Shortly afterwards, the name Christian, given to the Disciples of Jesus Christ, further marked the schism between the Church and the Synagogue and completely freed the former from the Mosaic yoke. Antioch is therefore the cradle of the free Church, the true metropolis of independent Christianity; an honor which the community of Mount Zion, faithful to the Temple and the law until the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, cannot dispute it. An even greater glory early highlighted the privileges of Antioch and elevated it above other apostolic seats. Indeed, a constant tradition, recorded in the writings of Origen, Eusebius, Saint Jerome, and Saint John Chrysostom, attributes to Saint Peter the creation of the episcopal see of Antioch around the year 37. It is during this stay of the Prince of the Apostles in the Syrian capital that we must place the conflict between him and Saint Paul concerning relations with the Gentiles. Peter remained seven years on the see of Antioch (37-44), according to Eusebius of Caesarea, and left Saint Evodius as his successor.

Besides the deacon Nicolas of Antioch, the work of Maria Valtorta identifies several other evangelizers from the Antioch community: Lucius of Cyrene, Silvanus (Silas), a person of authority, companion of Paul, and this Zeno (Zenus) whose practice in commercial exchanges gave him an excellent knowledge of laws and customs.

Dating data

In her letter, Syntica mentions the death of John of En-Dor "the sixth day before the Nones of June according to the Romans, roughly at the new moon of Tammuz for the Hebrews" (EMV 461.16).

This correspondence of the two calendars was noted by Jean Aulagnier, then by Jean-François Lavère since such a conjunction of the new moon (neomenia) of Tammuz with May 31 (sixth day before the Nones of June) occurs only every 19 years. At the beginning of the first century, there are only three possible dates: year 10, year 29, and year 48. During the life of Jesus, it was therefore certainly May 31, 29. From there it became possible to date everything more closely according to the data collected in the work.

Raised objections

It has been objected that the mention "sixth day before the Nones of June" was an incorrect term since the Nones of June fall on June 5 and that there is therefore no "sixth day before" in June, and that the moon of Tammuz did not fall on May 31.

Response from Jean-François Lavère

Indeed, according to what is known today about the use of the Julian calendar in force at the time of Jesus, the Nones of June did indeed fall on June 5, and so "6 days before the Nones" is therefore "the day before the Kalends"!

According to the entire "Valtorta" chronology, this happened in the year 29, and the Nones thus took place on Sunday, June 5, 29. "Six days before the Nones" therefore represents Tuesday, May 31, 29, and strictly speaking Syntica "should have" written "the day before the Kalends", or "pridie Kalendas" or "two days before the Kalends". (Syntica, being a young Greek slave who lived in Palestine, may not have mastered all the subtleties of the Latin language?). In any case, what is remarkable in Syntica’s sentence is the indication immediately following: "quasi alla neomenia di Tamuz".

Indeed, Astronomy confirms that in May/June 29, the new moon occurred on Tuesday, May 31, 29, (at 23:31 local time!). It was therefore actually "observed" on the evening of June 1 (which corresponds to June 2 according to the Jewish way of starting the day at sunset).

Astronomy proves that in that year, and only in that year, the Kalends of June and the neomenia (new moon) of Tammuz coincided to within one day. This is a rare event for the Greek Syntica to have pointed it out. Hence the word "quasi" perfectly indicated by the text transmitted by Maria Valtorta!

Julian Date                             Lunar phase (according to NASA ephemerides)

June 1, 26                               between last quarter and new moon

Sunday June 1, 27:       first quarter moon

Tuesday June 1, 28:                   between full moon and last quarter

Wednesday June 1, 29:            new moon

Thursday June 1, 30:                    between first quarter and full moon

Friday June 1, 31:              last quarter moon

Sunday June 1, 32: between new moon and first quarter

Monday June 1, 33:                    full moon

34                                           between last quarter and new moon

35                                           first quarter moon

36                                           between full moon and last quarter

37                                           new moon on June 2

38                                           between first quarter and full moon

The only years in the 1st century when the new moon corresponds to June 1 are the years 10; 29; 48; 67; 86; 94, according to a 19-year cycle (Metonic cycle) corresponding to 235 lunations or 6940 days.

Mathematically, there is therefore a one in 7000 chance that the new moon falls on June 1. But it is no longer a question of chance or coincidence once it is the year 29!

(One understands the astonishment and enthusiasm of Annie Jaubert, specialist in biblical calendars at CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research), when Jean Aulagnier communicated this information to her!).

Syntica’s phrase, "imperfect" from a "linguistic" point of view, nevertheless provides fundamental information from a scientific point of view since it allows the "alignment" of the Julian and Hebrew calendars, while "strengthening" the period of Jesus' public ministry between the years 27 and 30.

How to explain that Maria Valtorta could produce a sentence both awkward and relevant, if not that she received it through authentic private Revelation?

Moreover, the assertion that Tammuz cannot fall on May 31 is correct nowadays, since Passover on 15 Nisan (full moon day) is fixed after the spring equinox, hence after March 21/22.

…Except that since the Greeks Meton and Eudoxus, and until about the 5th century, the date of the equinox was fixed at March 18, so Passover, in extreme case, could fall on March 18 or 19. In the year 29, the full moon fell on March 18, the day of the "apparent" equinox, and Passover on March 19.

Many historians, unaware of this rule (which was still used in Judaism in the 4th century), place Passover on the following full moon (April 17, 29), but then have to assume that the year 29 was embolismic, which contradicts the Pascal Canon of St. Hippolytus of Rome, which fixes it in the year 28.

In the year 29, very exceptionally, the month of Tammuz thus began in early June.

When Jean Aulagnier presented his "discovery" to the specialist of Hebrew calendars Annie Jaubert, she was surprised and amazed, since this lower limit of March 18 Julian to fix Passover at that time is barely known nowadays.

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