Letter from Antioch

In GRM 461.13, Jesus receives through a certain Zeno a letter from Syntyche (Sintica, Syntykhè), a fleeing Greek slave, who took refuge in Antioch of Syria, "this little Rome and great town 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.

Syntyche, a Greek herself, hastens to specify that Zeno acts not out of servile submission, but to "milk the cows of the Tiber [...] with his astute manners of servile flattery concealing his incurable hatred". Pompey’s conquest in 64 BC was not far off.

For the sake of evangelization, Syntyche 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

Syntyche 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 Christian strength when it becomes acquainted with You and that our work should begin from the citadels of heathen Roman spirit, because they will always be the masters of the world and a Christian Roman spirit will mean universal Christendom. When? I do not know. But I feel that it will happen. So I look at these witnesses of Roman power smiling, thinking of the day when they will place their insignia and their power at the service of the King of kings. I look at them as one looks at helpful friends who are not yet aware of their usefulness, and who will cause sufferings before they are conquered, but once they have been conquered, they will take You and the knowledge of You as far as the end of the world.

I, a poor woman, dare say to my older brothers in You, that when the time comes, the conquest of the world to Your Kingdom will have to begin not from Israel, too closed in its Mosaic rigorism exacerbated by the Pharisaic one and by the other castes to be conquered, but from here, from the Roman world and from its ramifications. The conquest of souls to the Truth must begin from the tentacles by which Rome strangles every faith, every love, every freedom which is not as she wants and is not useful to her.

You know that, Lord. But I am speaking for my brothers who cannot believe that we also, the Gentiles, yearn after Good. I say to my brothers that under the heathen cuirass there are hearts disappointed of heathen emptiness, sick of the life they lead simply because such is the custom, tired of hatred, of vice, of harshness. There are honest spirits who do not know on what to rely to find satisfaction to their yearning for Good. Give them a faith which may satisfy them. They will die for its sake, carrying it farther and farther ahead, like a torch in darkness, as the athletes of the Hellenic games do”.

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 wife 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 Syntyche’s analysis also finds an echo in the events that made Antioch "the first organized apostolic Church in history". 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, Syntyche mentions the death of John of En-Dor "the sixth day before the nones of June according to the Romans, almost at the new moon of Tammuz according to the Jews."

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 Syntyche "should have" written "the day before the Kalends", or "pridie Kalendas" or "two days before the Kalends". (Syntyche, 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 Syntyche’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 Syntyche 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!).

Syntyche’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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