Oops, Lent was originally meant to be 40 hours, not 40 days

Tim Kimberley:

It appears … the earliest of Christians spent 40 hours, not days but hours, fasting and praying in preparation for Easter celebrations. This is where a translation mistake changed the way we have and continue to celebrate Easter. A man named Rufinus translated Eusebius’ History of the Church from Greek into Latin. For some reason he put a punctuation mark between “40″ and “hours.” It gave people reading the letter of Irenaeus the idea that Irenaeus meant “40 – 24 hour days.”

Very interesting article offering a short history of Lent. Fascinating that a translation error could be the reason we have 40 days of Lent rather than 40 hours. Also, some interesting observations on the number 40 itself.