Quartodecimanism
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Quartodecimanism ("fourteenism", derived from Latin) refers to the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on the fourteenth day of Nisan in the Old Testament's Hebrew Calendar (for example Lev 23:5, in Latin "quarta decima"). This was the original method of fixing the date of the Passover, which is to be a "perpetual ordinance"[1]. According to the Gospel of John (for example John 19:14), this was the Friday that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, the Synoptic Gospels place the Friday on 15 Nisan. A controversy arose concerning whether it should also be a resurrection holiday, and thus whether it should instead be celebrated on one particular Sunday each year, which is now the floating holiday that is commonly called Easter Sunday.
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[edit] Background
Since the Bible's calendar is lunisolar and the Roman/Western calendar is only solar, it is difficult to calculate Nisan 14 in the western calendar without knowledge of how a lunisolar calendar system works. For various reasons, the Church eventually chose to use a different method from the one that the Jews had used for their Passover.
Quartodecimanism was popular among Christians in Asia Minor and it is generally believed that this was the method specifically preferred by the followers of John the Apostle, since it was advocated by Polycarp who was a disciple of either John the Apostle or John the Presbyter, assuming they are not the same person.
In the 2nd century AD a dispute in the Church arose regarding the calculation of the Paschal festival. Many churches of the East, particularly those in Asia Minor, celebrated their Passover at the close of the 14th of Nisan regardless of the day of the week on which it fell, while many other churches, including the Church of Rome, celebrated Passover on the first day of the week following the 14th of Nisan. Based on the writings of Irenaeus, the Roman church had celebrated Passover on a Sunday at least since the time of Bishop Xystus or Sixtus I, 115-125 A.D. (Eusebius H.E. 5.24.14)
The aged Apostolic Father Polycarp visited Rome circa 154 A.D., at which time he discussed the difference in Paschal calculation with Bishop Anicetus and reached an amicable compromise. In addition Polycrates of Ephesus and Irenaeus wrote in support of the Quartodecimans. Irenaeus also noted that "Anicetus conceded to Polycarp in the Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of showing him respect". (Eusebius H.E. 5.24.17)
[edit] Pope Victor I excommunicates the Quartodecimans
However, one of Anicetus' successors, Victor I, excommunicated the Quartodecimans of Asia (then apparently led by Polycrates of Ephesus) for not adhering to the Paschal practices of the majority of Christians. Despite this schism, several Quartodecimans who died prior to the excommunication under Victor I, including Melito of Sardis and Polycarp, are recognized as Saints by both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Another recognized Catholic saint, Apollinaris, wrote, "There are, then, some who through ignorance raise disputes about these things (though their conduct is pardonable: for ignorance is no subject for blame -- it rather needs further instruction...)...The fourteenth day, the true Passover of the Lord; the great sacrifice, the Son of God instead of the lamb, who was bound, who bound the strong, and who was judged, though Judge of living and dead, and who was delivered into the hands of sinners to be crucified, who was lifted up on the horns of the unicorn, and who was pierced in His holy side, who poured forth from His side the two purifying elements, water and blood, word and spirit, and who was buried on the day of the passover, the stone being placed upon the tomb" (Apollinaris Claudius, From the Book Concerning Passover, Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Excerpted from Volume I of The Ante-Nicene Fathers).
[edit] Council of Nicaea attempts to standardize Easter
In 325 A.D., the First Council of Nicaea came to a decision that the Church as a whole should use a unified system, which was the Roman one. The Catholic Epiphanius wrote in the mid-4th Century, "...the emperor...convened a council of 318 bishops...in the city of Nicea...They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day. For it was variously observed by people..." (Epiphanius. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Books II and III (Sects 47-80), De Fide). Section VI, Verses 1,1 and 1,3. Translated by Frank Williams. EJ Brill, New York, 1994, pp.471-472). A Sunday date was selected, instead of Nisan 14 (which can fall on any day of the week). Eusebius' Life of Constantine, Book 3 chapter 18 records Constantine the Great as writing: "... it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way." Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History 1.9 records The Epistle of the Emperor Constantine, concerning the matters transacted at the Council, addressed to those Bishops who were not present: "It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. ... Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. ... avoiding all contact with that evil way. ... who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. ... a people so utterly depraved. ... Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. ... no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews."
Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, volume 3, section 79, The Time of the Easter Festival states: "The feast of the resurrection was thenceforth required to be celebrated everywhere on a Sunday, and never on the day of the Jewish passover, but always after the fourteenth of Nisan, on the Sunday after the first vernal full moon. The leading motive for this regulation was opposition to Judaism, which had dishonored the passover by the crucifixion of the Lord. ... At Nicaea, therefore, the Roman and Alexandrian usage with respect to Easter triumphed, and the Judaizing practice of the Quartodecimanians, who always celebrated Easter on the fourteenth of Nisan, became thenceforth a heresy. Yet that practice continued in many parts of the East, and in the time of Epiphanius, about a.d. 400, there were many, Quartodecimanians, who, as he says, were orthodox, indeed, in doctrine, but in ritual were addicted to Jewish fables, and built upon the principle: “Cursed is every one who does not keep his passover on the fourteenth of Nisan.” <footnote: Exodus 12:15> They kept the day with the Communion and with fasting till three o’clock. Yet they were divided into several parties among themselves. A peculiar offshoot of the Quartodecimanians was the rigidly ascetic Audians, who likewise held that the passover must be kept at the very same time (not after the same manner) with the Jews, on the fourteenth of Nisan, and for their authority appealed to their edition of the Apostolic Constitutions. And even in the orthodox church these measures did not secure entire uniformity. For the council of Nicaea, probably from prudence, passed by the question of the Roman and Alexandrian computation of Easter. At least the Acts contain no reference to it. At all events this difference remained: that Rome, afterward as before, fixed the vernal equinox, the terminus a quo of the Easter full moon, on the 18th of March, while Alexandria placed it correctly on the 21st. It thus occurred, that the Latins, the very year after the Nicene council, and again in the years 330, 333, 340, 341, 343, varied from the Alexandrians in the time of keeping Easter. On this account the council of Sardica, as we learn from the recently discovered Paschal Epistles of Athanasius, took the Easter question again in hand, and brought about, by mutual concessions, a compromise for the ensuing fifty years, but without permanent result. In 387 the difference of the Egyptian and the Roman Easter amounted to fully five weeks. Later attempts also to adjust the matter were in vain, until the monk Dionysius Exiguus, the author of our Christian calendar, succeeded in harmonizing the computation of Easter on the basis of the true Alexandrian reckoning; except that the Gallican and British Christians adhered still longer to the old custom, and thus fell into conflict with the Anglo-Saxon [one of the issues addressed at the Synod of Whitby ]. The introduction of the improved Gregorian calendar in the Western church in 1582 again produced discrepancy; the Eastern and Russian church adhered to the Julian calendar, and is consequently now about twelve days behind ... [the Western Church]. According to the Gregorian calendar, which does not divide the months with astronomical exactness, it sometimes happens that the Paschal full moon is put a couple of hours too early, and the Christian Easter, as was the case in 1825, coincides with the Jewish Passover, against the express order of the council of Nicaea."
[edit] Current practices
The vast majority of Christians abide by this decision and observe Easter (Pascha, that is, Passover) on a Sunday, although the method for calculating which Sunday varies. See also Computus and Reform of the date of Easter.
Currently some smaller groups (some Sabbatarian Church of God groups, for example) have revived a Quartodeciman observance, and celebrate a Christian Passover on that day—they typically use unleavened bread and wine, but do not have a Passover Seder like the Jews do. These groups typically claim to trace their history back to the Quartodecimans of the second century. However, most respected scholars of ecclesiastical history believe that the historical evidence cited is not firm enough to prove that claim of continuance. Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate the "Memorial of Christ's Death" or the "Lord's Evening Meal" on this day as well.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- Easter controversy
- Celtic Christianity
- Celtic Rite
- Old Testament#Christian view of the Law
- Expounding of the Law
- New Covenant
