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September 4, 2016 |
| Ash, Lent, and Easter | ||
At the time of the Reformation most of the Catholic Church's Holy Days were dropped by the newly forming Protestant Churches. Most members of Protestant Churches now aren't even aware of the Catholic Church's Holy Days, such as "Epiphany, Feast of the Ascension, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Feast of the Immaculate Conception." A few were kept by most churches - Good Friday, Easter, and Christmas. A few were only kept by some churches. Lent is one of those.
Where did these Holy Days come from? Is there a Biblical basis for them? Why were only some of them kept? These are the questions this lesson will try to answer.
The churches started by the Apostles after Jesus' time all observed the Spring Feasts of the Jews. There are plenty of historical references to support this and no one who knows the history disputes this.
One trail of this evidence comes when the Roman, by that time Catholic, church began to expand outside of the Roman world. As they did, they encountered other Christians but found that all these groups could name the Apostle who started their church and they all observed the feasts of the Jews. By that time the Catholic Church had stopped observing those feasts. Therefore the church "Christianized" these peoples by persecuting them and killing them until they converted to Catholicism.
In this lesson we won't follow that trail of evidence. Instead we'll follow the much earlier trail of how the Church of Rome, which became the Catholic Church, changed from observing the Spring Feasts to persecuting those who did.
It begins with a man called Polycarp. There is an earlier lesson about him that provides more detail1. Around 155 A.D. Polycarp was the only man living who had known, worked with, and studied under the Apostles. This gave him an immense amount of credibility among believers.
Polycarp lived in the area of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor mentioned in Revelation and pastored one of them, the Church of Smyrna. He was appointed to that position of Bishop by the Apostles.
Because his name is Greek it is believed that he was not a Jew by birth.
Word reached Polycarp that the Church of Rome was having a lot of trouble keeping out false teachings. Rome had become a hub for world religions. The church there was growing and taking in new believers who came from these other religions but it was also taking on beliefs and practices from those religions and also factionalizing along its own theological lines.
Polycarp was an old man at the time but he decided to make the long trip to Rome to fight against these problems. Despite his credibility he would not be completely successful.
One of the issues Polycarp addressed while in Rome was a practice of the church there. They had started observing Passover on the Sunday following Nisan 14. He told Anicetus, who was then the Bishop of Rome, that John the Apostle and all the other apostles that Polycarp had met had always observed Passover when the Jews did, on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan. It appears that Anicetus agreed with Polycarp but replied that the church of Rome had celebrated it on Sunday for some time and he could not change that.
Anicetus was the Bishop of Rome and had all the authority to change it. His answer indicated that he had no desire to do so.
The two bishops celebrated communion together and went their own ways. This began what would become a large rupture between the Church of the East and the Western Church (which still included Greece).
Notice Polycarp's point - the date matters. This was serious enough that Polycarp felt he needed to correct them. Rejection of that correction resulted in a division within the church that would ultimately split the church.
They had moved the Passover observance from the 14th of Nisan, which could fall on any day of the week, to the following Sunday. Therefore it would always be on Sunday. This was to be an ongoing pattern for the Church of Rome / Catholic Church - moving observances to Sunday. The same thing happens a little later with the movement of Pentecost and the Sabbath to Sunday.
It is never said why these changes were made. We can only consider some of the factors that may have influenced them.
The Church of Rome had no power to enforce its views at that time. The people of that church, though, began to mock those Christians who held to the Nisan 14 date. They gave them the name "Quartodecimans". In English that would be fourteen-ers. The Church of Rome considered them too rigid, inflexible, and legalistic.
Christians within the Roman Empire had been organized into geographic areas called Sees. The Church of Rome had always seen itself as the primary See of all the Sees, though the other Sees did not agree.
After the death of Polycarp, the next person to run into this issue is a man called Polycrates. He was then the Bishop of the Church of Ephesus, the same church to which Paul's letter to the Ephesians was written, though that was written at an earlier time.
The Roman See has been growing quickly and spreading its influence. It now has more power and control than it had in the time of Polycarp but still not enough to enforce its will on everyone.
The problem arises about 40 years after Polycarp, around 195 A.D., because the Bishop of Rome, now a man called Victor, has sent a letter to the Churches of the East demanding they observe the Passover as Rome did, and as most other churches were doing.
By this time the Church of Rome had changed the date for Passover again. Its new date was no longer related to Nisan 14. Another interesting change occurred. Passover became a Friday, Good Friday. Now it was the day of resurrection that became the main observance. Even so they continued to call it Passover.
This is what Eusebius, a church historian, records that Polycrates wrote as a response.
We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord's coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumeneia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate [kingdom] from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead?
All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said 'We ought to obey God rather than man' … I could mention the bishops who were present, whom I summoned at your desire; whose names, should I write them, would constitute a great multitude. And they, beholding my littleness, gave their consent to the letter, knowing that I did not bear my gray hairs in vain, but had always governed my life by the Lord Jesus.2
Much could be learned from a thorough analysis of Polycrates' words but the most relevant insights are:
The Bishop of Rome is livid when he gets this response and is determined to excommunicate Polycrates. He still can't really enforce this, or anything. If he goes ahead with it but is unable to enforce it, he will just look weak, so he gives up the idea.
Instead he begins building Roman churches in the east. These churches start attracting people away. Also they begin persecuting the people of the eastern churches. Eventually, the persecution becomes so bad that the eastern churches have to leave and they head East. Some true remnant of them still exists but most Christians are not aware that they ever existed.
Constantine became the Western Emperor and converted to Christianity in 312 A.D.. In 313 he issued the Edict of Milan that legalized Christianity. Prior to that, Christians were executed when they were caught. That was why Polycarp died. He was burned at the stake for being an atheist - a person who had no (acceptable) religion.
He became the sole emperor in 325 and was interested in ridding Christianity of the divisions within it. Some people claim he was trying to make Christianity into what he wanted. That does not appear to be true. He saw the value of Christianity to ruling the empire and didn't want it to factionalize. When disputes arose, he wanted them settled but cared less about how they were settled.
"The First Council of Nicaea was convened by Constantine I upon the recommendations of a synod led by Hosius of Cordoba in 325" Wikipedia - First Council of Nicaea
At the council, the Roman date for Passover was voted on by bishops and declared the official date for all Christianity. By this time most of the bishops in Christianity were Roman or heavily influenced by Roman thinking. In this council and later ones, Rome usually got its way.
This name is mentioned in the Bible but the first mention of it in writing doesn't come until about 420 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo, a Roman Catholic author. It came to be a commonly used term for Passover.
It hadn't, however, been used before that time. For this reason and from other evidence it appears the Greek manuscripts of the Bible were changed to use that term in 1 Corinthians 11:20. It seems there was an effort to justify the new Passover date and also change the name so it was not a Jewish name. Remember many Romans were anti-Semites.
In making this change a new Greek word was created for "The Lord's". It isn't used anywhere else in Greek literature and is still not a Greek word. This word appears in 1 other place in the Bible, in Revelation 1:10, where Sunday is referred to as "the Lord's Day". The same method was used to backdate the Sabbath change (made official in 364).
CoG7 originally believed the "Lord's Supper" was the same as Passover, just a different name. When Herbert Armstrong joined, he originally disagreed but changed his mind later. Even later on he said the "Lord's Supper" was an inaccurate name. That is true. In what sense is a cracker and a sip of juice equal to supper?
Throughout the languages of the Christian world, Passover is almost universally referred to as Pascha or a word derived from Pascha such as Pascua in Spanish. Pascha is the phonetic translation of the Aramaic word for "pass over". The exception to using Pascha comes in English and German. In those cases the name is Easter.
The name Easter comes from a German goddess who had various names in many dialects, Eostre, Eastre, Ostern, Ostara, etc. This goddess appears to have originated from the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, but the history isn't certain. Some people say the name goes back even further.
It isn't clear how the name of a pagan goddess became attached to what had been Passover. She was not primarily a fertility goddess though she did have a spring feast. The usual symbols of spring (renewal) and rabbits and eggs (fertility) would be expected at that feast. Likely her feast was at about the same time as the Passover celebration and the two became connected.
All along, the Roman Church had been adding new days to the Christian calendar. For example, All Saints Day was added to commemorate the Christian martyrs. We now call this day Halloween. In the same way they also added to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
The internet has made it possible for Christians to understand all of what happened to Passover. As a result there are some churches and people who prefer to call it Resurrection Sunday. Because it is the 800 lb. gorilla sitting on the same day, they have had little success and still commonly say Easter.
The information age church can know all of this and many do know but they no longer care. They makes excuses:
"Even if it could be proved that the word Easter is etymologically related to the name of a pagan goddess such as Ishtar or Eostre, it would not change what the holiday Easter means to us." (GotQuestions.org/Ishtar-Easter.html)
He means it doesn't matter to him if the name is tied to a pagan goddess and there are eggs, rabbits and chicks in the church. The author is thinking as a man and has no concern for how God sees things. But, allowing those things in the church does change what Passover means.
Polycrates accused Rome of adding or taking away for only a date change. Passover is now filled with other things.
A period of fasting was added prior to Good Friday. The exact details of when and how it started are lost in time. At first it was for different lengths of time and different kinds of fasts. Over time it became more uniformly observed as 40 days without eating meat and was called Lent.
Some Protestants believe that the church has always observed Lent. That does not appear to be true. Certainly Passover, from which Easter derived, had no such fast associated with it. The closest thing in Passover is that no leavened bread could be eaten for the 7 days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but that begins after Passover.
Some of the Fathers as early as the fifth century supported the view that this forty days' fast was of Apostolic institution … But the best modern scholars are almost unanimous in rejecting this view…Formerly some difference of opinion existed as to the proper reading, but modern criticism (e.g., in the edition of Schwartz commissioned by the Berlin Academy) pronounces strongly in favor of the text translated above. We may then fairly conclude that Irenaeus about the year 190 knew nothing of any Easter fast of forty days … And there is the same silence observable in all the pre-Nicene Fathers, though many had occasion to mention such an Apostolic institution if it had existed. We may note for example that there is no mention of Lent in St. Dionysius of Alexandria (ed. Feltoe, 94 sqq.) or in the "Didascalia", which Funk attributes to about the year 250 (Lent. The Catholic Encyclopedia).
The point in the above quote is that Lent was unknown in the early church. It entered the church sometime after 190 A.D. but before 400 A.D.
An even later addition to the Easter celebration was Ash Wednesday where a priest wipes ashes, in the shape of a cross, onto the foreheads of the congregants. This mark is worn for the rest of the day. This practice is done on the first day of Lent.
The name dies cinerum (day of ashes) which it bears in the Roman Missal is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead (Ash Wednesday. The Catholic Encyclopedia)
What began as Passover became something else. Passover, with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits were prophetic and full of deeper meaning. They showed the necessity of removing of leaven (sin) from our lives, the sacrifice of an unblemished lamb for salvation, that no bone of that lamb would be broken, and that he would rise again 3 days later.
Easter, with its Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Good Friday has none of that prophecy or depth. Instead it is a confused set of contradictions to Passover as seen in a previous lesson4. It also carries the name of a false fertility goddess and offers us rabbits and eggs.
Some of the dates for the events above are unclear as are the motivations of the people involved. We do know some things: