Memorial Question I Never Have Had Answered ???

by RubaDub 18 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  belbab

  When I went to Gilead around 1960 it was reported that one year the Society announced a wrong date for the memorial. The way the Jews calculated the passover was counting Nisan 1 from the date of the first new moon closest to the spring equinox, that can be before and after. Counting 14 days from Nisan 1, brings us the date of the passover/memorial.

  Some smart ass, calculated the date and found the Society had made a mistake when the Society announced it. What did they do when the error was pointed out to them? Change it to the correct date? and acknowledge their error to the flock. No, they just wrote back to the brother, thanked him and told him to let it be. So one memorial at least was celebrated on the wrong date.

  Another point of interest. Sometimes the date of the memorial differs from the Jewish passover. How come?

  belbab
• 

  Yerusalyim

  Rub,

  They think they're following Jewish Law. Under the Law the Lamb that was slain had to be eaten before morning...therefore, everything happens at night.
• 

  TD

  Another point of interest. Sometimes the date of the memorial differs from the Jewish passover. How come?

  According to the OT and the synoptics, the Lamb was sacrificed and prepared on the 14th day of the month. (Exodus 12:6,18-19; Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:3, 11; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7) The next day immediately after Passover was the 15th (Numbers 33:3) Therefore the actual celebration technically occurs on the 15th. (After sundown on the 14th day) This corresponds to Pesach.
  

  The Witnesses celebrate the Lord?s Evening Meal immediately after sundown on the 13th day. (When the 14th technically begins) However by this reckoning, the Lamb would have been sacrificed during the afternoon of the 13th and the day immediately after is the 14th. (As Rubadub observed at the outset) So the Witnesses start off on the wrong foot right off the bat by being a full 24 hours too early. (This year, 2004 is a good example, the Witnesses will celebrate the Memorial on the 4th, the Jews will celebrate Sedar on the 5th)

  However since they don't seem to really understand the lunar calendar either, the dates do sometimes coincide.
• 

  got my forty homey?

  In the Lower East Side where I grew up our Kn Hall was shared by 2 english speaking congo's, 2 spanish speaking congo's and a chinese speaking congo. So Memorial night the schedule was very tight. They started the first Memorial service about 1/2 before sunset so that but the time of the passing of the emblems it was sunset.

  I never understood the sunset thing either, but I think its because Jewish days start and sunset whereas regurlaly its day break that starts the day off.
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  You'll probably hafta get the answer from the "whore-sez" mouth, dontcha think?

  Frannie B
• 

  slipnslidemaster

  Darndiddlyiddily!! That is a really good question!!

  I'll have to think about that one but the immediate answer I see is that it could be celebrated on Nisan 14 at anytime. Wow. Good question!!
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  Yerusalyim

  TD,

  Well spoken lad.
• 

  RunningMan

  Because he hasn't "came" yet

  Well, that's not strictly true, either. If you check one of the new WTs (I think it is March 1), there is a box that describes the coming of Jesus. According to this article, he "came" in 1914 in the sense that he sat down in kingly power. It then goes on to explain how he "comes" in at least five different senses, eventually "coming" at Armageddon.

  He must be multi-orgasmic.
• 

  itsallgoodnow

  I liked minimus' comment that it had to be done at night because that's when Jesus did it.. I heard from a talk in the last year that (because JWs only celebrate this once a year, compared to the Catholics who do it (weekly?) more often than that) even though we don't have anything in the Bible restricting how often to do this, the fact that Jesus did it on passover suggests that it should be done annually and any more often would be unscriptural. Unscriptural? That's just a bad interpretation. They had just admitted there was no scriptural limit or command on how many often to celebrate it. Whatever!