Nisan 14 and polycarp - Memorials in March??

by hamsterbait 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • hamsterbait
    hamsterbait

    I have been reading about Polycarp and the disputes with the western churches over the celebration of Easter.

    Polycarp celebrated on Nisan 14 as did the jews. In Rome it was the first Sunday after Nisan 14. According to what I am reading, Nisan 14 cannot come before the end of March in any year.

    When was the last time the WTBCS celebrated the Memorial in March, and if so, why - if the information above is correct?

    AND if they have incorrectly calculated the date, does this invalidate the annointed eating the emblems?

    I think there was an Asleep article on calculating Nisan 14....

    HB

  • Honesty
    Honesty

    Since when did the early church limit the Lord's Supper to one time a year?

    For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Cor 11:26

  • hamsterbait
    hamsterbait

    Honesty -

    my reading is on the celebration of easter and what later became known as good Friday - not the regular partaking of communion, which early Christians did all year round when they gathered to worship.

    HB

  • Honesty
    Honesty

    Oh, OK, HB.

    I celebrate Easter because Jesus won victory over death for all who trust in Him as Lord.

    I see that passover begins at sundown on Monday April 2.

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    In Asia, Pascha was the observance of the Last Supper as a Christian passover, which sometimes included the slaughtering and eating of a lamb (cf. Aphrahat, Demonstratio 12, Epiphanius, Panarion 50.2-3, 70.12; cf. the later Byzantine-era description of Pascha in Walafrid Strabo, De Rebus Ecclesiasticus 18), and the Quartodeciman dispute was over whether the Holy Week fast (which varied in length from a few days to a fortnight, cf. the later fast of Lent) should end with Pascha or a feast on Easter Sunday (cf. Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica 5.23-25). The position that maintained that the fast should be broken on the day of the resurrection would preclude one from observing Pascha, and there were other reasons why Pascha was undesirable to some (e.g. it was viewed as Judaizing, cf. the anti-Jewish polemic in Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha). The dispute did not concern whether the Eucharist (i.e. partaking the bread and wine) should be held only yearly on Nisan 14, as some have characterized it. The Eucharist was usually held weekly on Sunday (the Lord's Day), as Justin Martyr described it.

    I'm not sure what reason there is for claiming that Pascha "could not come before the end of March". If Nisan 1 is reckoned as the nearest new moon to the vernal equinox (as it has been since Hillel II, and certainly this drew on what Jews already practiced in the diaspora), or according to barley ripening (which also occurred near to the equinox), a date of Nisan 14 would certainly be possible in March in non-intercalated years (i.e. in years without a leap month), with the vernal equinox falling around March 20. Only a reckoning that insists that Nisan 1 must begin after the vernal equinox would a date for Pascha in March be ruled out (since there is only 10 days to the end of the month, too few to accommodate the 14 days to the passover). However, I haven't encountered this kind of reckoning though it certainly could have existed before the standardized lunisolar calendar of Hillel II was generally adopted. BTW, Hillel II also had a slightly inaccurate dating of the equinoxes, adding in another relevant factor, as we don't know how the Jews in the diaspora reckoned the vernal equinox.

    March 28 was the date of the JW Memorial in 2002. This is in accordance with Hillel's method of basing Nisan 1 on how close the new moon falls to the vernal equinox.

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    Mind the brackets in the Watchtower 2/15, 2003:

    10

    Should Jesus’ death be commemorated monthly, weekly, or even daily? No. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Evening Meal and was killed on the day of Passover, which was observed "as a memorial" of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage in 1513 B.C.E. (Exodus 12:14) The Passover was held only once a year, on the 14th day of the Jewish month Nisan. (Exodus 12:1-6; Leviticus 23:5) This indicates that Jesus’ death should be commemorated only as often as the Passover—annually—not monthly, weekly, or daily.

    11

    So, then, it is appropriate to observe the Memorial annually on Nisan 14. Says one reference work: "The Christians of Asia Minor were called Quartodecimans [Fourteenthers] from their custom of celebrating the pascha[Lord’s Evening Meal] invariably on the 14th of Nisan . . . The date might fall on Friday or on any of the other days of the week."—TheNewSchaff-HerzogEncyclopediaofReligiousKnowledge, Volume IV, page 44.

    12

    Commenting concerning the second century C.E. practice, historian J. L. von Mosheim says that the Quartodecimans observed the Memorial on Nisan 14 because "they considered the example of Christ as possessing the force of a law." Another historian states: "The usage of the Quartodeciman churches of Asia was continuous with that of the Jerusalem church. In the 2nd century these churches at their Pascha on the 14th of Nisan commemorated the redemption effected by the death of Christ."—StudiaPatristica, Volume V, 1962, page 8.

  • JosephMalik
    JosephMalik

    Polycarp celebrated on Nisan 14 as did the jews. In Rome it was the first Sunday after Nisan 14. According to what I am reading, Nisan 14 cannot come before the end of March in any year.

    hamsterbait,

    What nearly everyone seems to miss is the fact that it was an evening meal on the 14th and the calendar date for the meal changes at that time to the 15th of Nisan. The entire day of the 14th was a day of Preparation and the meal was not consumed during Preparation but on the Sabbath that followed it in the evening when the date changed. It was still Nisan 15th and a Sabbath the next daylight period when our Lord was arrested, therefore our Lord was NOT executed the next afternoon as nearly everyone teaches. Passover and that first meal is a Sabbath and continues for seven days always ending in a Sabbath. The day of Preparation for the seventh day of Passover involved the preparation of Unleavened bread made from new grain and it was on this day that our Lord died. This is because Passover was also the start of the wave offering which lasted until Pentecost and preparing this grain on the second Sabbath of Passover was an integral part of Passover.

    Joseph

  • Doug Mason
    Doug Mason

    Is it possible to show that Nisan 16 in 33 CE fell on the first day of the week (= Sunday)?

    Doug

  • Narkissos

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