(col. 111)
The first [sub-question]. In what year, month, [and] day from the Egyptian departure did this ascent of Moses take place? And of the former two it is agreed among all [that] it was the first year and the third month from the exit. For that is plain from Exodus ch. 19, v. 1, [and] then from Numbers ch. 10, v. 11. But about the day there is some disagreement, which again hangs on other little questions. And so let there be a second little question: On what day did the Israelites come to Mount Sinai? A third: which was the day on which the Lord bade the Israelites be ready against the third day (Exodus 19)? A fourth: on what day was the Law given? A fifth: on what [day] was it confirmed? Beginning, then, from those on which the answer to that first [question] is bound up, [it] must be observed [that] in the second [question] two [points] are again included, which are to be asked. One is: On what day of that third month did they pitch camp at Sinai? The other: What number of day this was from the departure out of Egypt. Of the former there are three opinions, but others can be added — [for] this [phrase] may be interpreted, namely, in five ways (Exodus 19, v. 1: “On this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai”). The first way is: “on this day,” that is, on the first day of the already-named third month. For, as Abulensis says (ch. 19, q. 1), “the first [day] of each month is called ‘this day,’” because, when it dawns, from it the month begins to be denominated as such — for example, first, second, third. And hence is the first, and most widely spread of all, opinion: [that] the coming into this wilderness of Sinai was on the first day of the third month. For this hold — besides [Abulensis] himself (ch. 19, qq. 1 and 10; ch. 24, q. 21) — Ibn Ezra, the Seder (ch. 5), and nearly all the Jews (in the same [Abulensis], that question 21); St. Jerome (on Hosea ch. 3); St. Augustine (Epistle 119 [i.e. Quaest.], ch. 16, question 70 on Exodus); Rupert (book 3 On the Trinity and [his] Works, chs. 23 and 41); and, of the more recent, Cajetan [and] Lipomanus. The second way of interpreting those same words is: [that] because there had been mention of the third month, when “on this day” is added, the same number is signified — as though it were “on the third day of the month,” which is also the third. And thus is the second opinion, [that] that coming was on that [third] day. In which are also not a few writers, and those distinguished: St. Jerome (in the Epistle to Fabiola, mansion 12, correcting what he had written in the cited place); Hugh of St. Victor (in [his] Annotations); Rabbi Solomon [Rashi]; Lyranus; Ribera (book 5 On the Temple, ch. 7). Bellarmine approves either (book 3 On the Saints, ch. 13). The third way of interpreting is [that] the words “on this day” be referred to the later words of the preceding ch. 18, by which the return of Jethro into his own country is narrated. And [there] would also be the opinion [that] Israel came into that Sinaitic desert in the third month, and on the same day on which Moses’s father-in-law Jethro had gone back home. And there favors this exposition the Hebraism by which those demonstratives “this” [masc.] and “this” [fem.] are often put for “the same” — as [in] Psalm 141 [140]: “In this way, in which I walked, the proud have hidden a snare for me,” that is, “in the same way in which I walked”; Job 19 (from the Hebrew): “And he whom I most loved is turned away from me,” that is, “that very one, that same one”; Nehemiah 8: “The seventh month was come,” and of the same afterward (ch. 9): “And on the four-and-twentieth day of this month”; Leviticus 23: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, is the Phase [Passover] of the Lord, and on the fifteenth day of this month is the solemnity of the unleavened bread of the Lord.” It is indeed plain, and to the text and the phrase…
(col. 112)
…quite agreeable, this interpretation. But then, from these words, [there is] nothing toward the proposed question. For it still remains to be asked: which was that day on which both Jethro’s going-home and the Israelites’ arrival at Sinai fell out. As would also happen, if one should understand “this day” [to be the day] on which Moses either spoke or wrote these things. The fourth way of interpretation, then, is that “on this day” mean “on the fifteenth day of the third month” — that is, on the same day on which they went out of Egypt, in the first month. For this accords excellently with the very words: “In the third month of the going-out from the land of Egypt, on this day” (namely of the going-out; or “on the same day,” the fifteenth, but not of the same [month], rather of the third) “they came into the wilderness of Sinai.” And there could lend strength to this interpretation the [things] said a little before about that phrase, and the so frequent repetition of that chodesh hazeh [חדש הזה, “this month”] in ch. 12 of Exodus. But because I have as yet seen no one who, from these two ways, would suppose a different day of the Sinai-arrival than the aforesaid — let these [interpreters], though they most easily explain the text, now be passed over; and let there be a third, or last, opinion, [that] that same arrival fell on the last day of the third month. For thus says Oleaster: “On this day,” namely on which three months were completed from the going-out of Egypt. You will say [that] they were completed first on the fifteenth day of the fourth month. For from the fifteenth day of the first month up to the fifteenth day of the second month is one [month] completed, and from the fifteenth of this [second] up to the fifteenth of the third is a second; and therefore at the fifteenth of the fourth the third will have been completed. I answer [that] he speaks of the first month synecdochically — [the month] which was completed at the going-out of Nisan itself, and immediately the second month began; and this being completed, the third; and this being completed, the approach to Sinai was made. Otherwise, [it would be] against the text: [for] not in the third, but in the fourth month of the departure would the Israelites have penetrated hither. For in what way is [the month] called “the first month” (Exodus 12, v. 2 and 18)? — namely, by beginning from the new moon; and (Numbers 10, v. 11) “the second month”; [and] in this same way, from the third new moon, is “the third month.” But not by setting the beginning of the first month at that fifteenth of the first month, and other beginnings for the others. Meanwhile [it is] exceedingly harsh and unheard-of [that] by “this day” the “last” be signified. Who anywhere speaks so? What conjecture [supports] this exposition? And by the same argument it seems to be weakened as [does] the reason which Abulensis brought for the first opinion. For nowhere is “this” [masc.] or “this” [fem.] read [as] said for “first.” Otherwise “this month” too would be called “the first month of the year.” Nay, and from this it appears [that] this whole interpretation is fabricated — [namely] that, by this indicative [demonstrative], Oleaster takes the beginning of that month for its end. But when the first day of each month dawns, at the same time the month also begins. What then? When the last [day] likewise grows dark, the month ends. Is the day “this” therefore either the first or the last? [I incline], therefore, to the second opinion from him [Abulensis], that they came “on the third day of the third month.” For this manner of speaking also seems worn common enough by daily use — [namely] that a number once prefixed be joined to another subordinate thing as well: as if I should say, “on the sixth day [Friday], and at the same hour, the Lord was crucified”; [and] it was the third week of December, and on that same [Friday] I was writing this. For that “this” is taken for “the same” was said above. Let us now go on to the other little questions.
(col. 113)