[159]Evidently at Alexandria (the capital of that country which was the chief granary of Rome) either the necessitous citizens or perhaps all between forty and seventy were entitled to receive doles of corn; but now the relief was extended to all ages between fourteen and eighty.
[160]Either the heathen are meant, who ought to tremble and be convinced, or the Christians, who were too courageous through trust in God to tremble.
[161]The last sentence is involved and obscure. I am not sure that my paraphrase rightly expresses the thought.
[162]I have adopted our modern mode of expression, but in the early Church Pascha was often used for the fast which receded Easter as well as for the feast itself, and that is how Dionysius uses it here.
[163]i. e. at 3 a.m. on Easter Day, the traditional hour of our Lord’s Resurrection, especially in the West.
[164]i. e. at 6 p.m. on Easter Eve.
[165]“All,” i. e. “who came,” or perhaps “all the four evangelists.” The “difference” is not really confined to the time, but to the parties which came, the other devout women coming later than the two Marys.
[166]The four references are to Matt. xxviii. 1, John xx. 1, Luke xxiv. 1, and Mark xvi. 2.
[167]Cf. John ix. 5, etc.
[168]The Council in Trullo (A.D. 680) accepted this second meaning and consented to Dionysius’s ruling on the point raised without reserve.