Passover (Christian holiday) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about how a Jewish holiday is celebrated by Christians. See Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...

for Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

's Jewish holiday
Jewish holiday
Jewish holidays are days observed by Jews as holy or secular commemorations of important events in Jewish history. In Hebrew, Jewish holidays and festivals, depending on their nature, may be called yom tov or chag or ta'anit...

celebrating the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...

of the Israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...

s from Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

. See Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

for the major Christian festival usually linked to Passover.

Christian Passover is a religious observance celebrated by some churches to keep faith with Old Testament teaching. It is often linked to the Christian holiday and festival of Easter

Easter

Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

. Often, only an abbreviated seder is celebrated to explain the meaning in a time-limited ceremony. The redemption from the bondage of sin through the sacrifice of Christ is celebrated, a parallel of the Jewish Passover's celebration of redemption from bondage in the land of Egypt.

Christian Passover ceremonies are held on the evening corresponding to 14 Nisan or 15 Nisan, depending whether the particular church uses a quartodeciman

Quartodecimanism

Quartodecimanism refers to the custom of some early Christians celebrating Passover beginning with the eve of the 14th day of Nisan , which at dusk is Biblically the "Lord's passover".The modern Jewish Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread is seven days, starting with the sunset at...

or quintodeciman application. The United Church of God

United Church of God

The United Church of God, an International Association is a Christian denomination based in the United States with members in various countries around the world...

celebrates Passover (followed by the seven-day Festival of Unleavened Bread) on 14 Nisan (sunset, April 7 through sunset, April 8, 2009, for example). Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

refer to this day as Lord's Evening Meal and Memorial of Christ's death (for 2010 and 2011, respectively, that is after dusk on Tuesday, March 30 or Sunday, April 17).

In other cases, the holiday is observed according to the Jewish calendar on 15 Nisan. This is the same calendar used by Samaritan

Samaritan

The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...

s, who also celebrated Passover at sunset on Friday, 10 April 2009.

Meaning

According to Blaine Robison, the Passover is full of meaning. He claims that greater knowledge of Passover and the Seder, with assistance from Messianic Jewish congregations, can only strengthen the Body of the Messiah and appreciation for all that the meal symbolizes and prepare Gentile Christians for the religious calendar of the millennial kingdom.

The Epistle to the Hebrews

Epistle to the Hebrews

The Epistle to the Hebrews is one of the books in the New Testament. Its author is not known.The primary purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews is to exhort Christians to persevere in the face of persecution. The central thought of the entire Epistle is the doctrine of the Person of Christ and his...

states that the sacrificial killing of animals could not finally take away sin, but awaited the atonement of Christ. . It proceeds to explain that Jesus Christ offered the one sacrifice that was acceptable to God, and that he lives forever as the believers' intercessory high priest, replacing the Jewish sacrificial system and its sacerdotal priesthood. Most Christians consider the external ritual of sacrifice instituted in the Old Testament by God to be a precursor of the self-sacrifice offered by Jesus. For this reason, Jesus is called the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" .

The main Christian view is that the Passover, as observed by ancient Israel as well as Jews today, was a type

Typology (theology)

Typology in Christian theology and Biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship between the Old and New Testaments...

of the true Passover Sacrifice of God that was to be made by Jesus. The Israelites' Passover observance was the commemoration of their physical deliverance from bondage

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

in Egypt, whereas Passover represents for most Christians a spiritual deliverance from the slavery of sin and, since Jesus' death, a memorial of the sacrifice that Jesus has made for mankind.

Jesus is the innocent lamb of God, slaughtered for the blood that takes away the spiritual death
The matzoh is pierced and striped, as Jesus' body was striped from the whip, and pierced by the thorns and the sword
The middle matzoh (the afikoman
Afikoman
Afikoman is a half-piece of matzo which is broken in the early stages of the Passover Seder and set aside to be eaten as a dessert after the meal.Based on the Mishnah in Pesahim 119a, the afikoman is a substitute for the Korban Pesach, which was...

), held aloft, broken, wrapped, hidden and later redeemed represents Jesus, who likely used that bread when he said "This is my body broken for you."(1 Corinthians 11:24)
It was probably the third cup, which declares "I will redeem you with a demonstration of my power", that Jesus used when he declared "This is my blood poured out for you." (1 Corinthians 11:25)
It was probably the fourth cup "I will make you my people" of which Jesus declared '"This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you" (Luke 22:20)

These interpretations are also the dominant Messianic viewpoints

In addition, as the Israelites partook of the Passover sacrifice by eating it, most Christians commemorate the Lord's unselfish death by taking part in the Lord's Supper

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, which ordinance Jesus instituted , in which the elements of bread and wine are reverently consumed. Most Protestants see the elements as symbolic of Jesus' body

Body of Christ

In Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two separate connotations: it may refer to Jesus's statement about the Eucharist at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in , or the explicit usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in to refer to the Christian Church.Although in general usage the...

and blood

Blood of Christ

The Blood of Christ in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby; and the sacramental blood present in the Eucharist, which is considered by Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and...

, while Roman Catholic and Orthodox

Orthodox Christianity

The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...

Christians hold that the elements are changed into Jesus' literal body and blood, which they then eat and drink. Lutherans hold a similar belief

Sacramental Union

Sacramental union is the Lutheran theological doctrine of the Real Presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Christian Eucharist....

.

The spiritual theme of Passover is one of salvation by the atoning blood of a perfect, spotless sacrificed lamb. At the very beginning of the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise had been given by the God of Abraham that "God would provide Himself a lamb." For many Christians, this is the spiritual pattern seen in Passover which gives it its eternal meaning and significance. The theme is carried on and brought to its ultimate New Covenant

New Covenant

The New Covenant is a concept originally derived from the Hebrew Bible. The term "New Covenant" is used in the Bible to refer to an epochal relationship of restoration and peace following a period of trial and judgment...

fulfillment in the sacrificial death of Christ as the promised Sacrificed Lamb

Celebrations

Most Christians simply no longer celebrate the Passover, since it is seen to belong rather to a Jewish or Old Testament tradition which they believe to be no longer necessary. Among those Christians who do observe the Passover, there are some differences in how this is done. Some follow the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples at the time of his last meal

Last Supper

The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...

before he was crucified, and share instead of roasted lamb, bread (usually unleavened) and wine. In the Christian Passover service the unleavened bread is used to represent Jesus' body

Body of Christ

, and wine represents his blood

Blood of Christ

of the New Covenant

New Covenant

. These are a symbolic substitute for Jesus as the true sacrificial Passover "Lamb of God" . It should also be noted that Passover day is followed in the Scriptures by seven days of unleavened bread . These days have a great dual significance to the observant Christian. Just as leavening causes bread to be puffed up, so sin causes Christians to be "puffed up" with the sin of "malice and wickedness," and therefore must "purge out" that "old leaven" and replace it with "the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (King James Version - ). Therefore, in the Christian Passover service Christ's body is represented by unleavened bread symbolizing his sinless life, for he alone had no sin . Since these Scriptures indicate that during the seven days of unleavened bread, leavening represents sin and unleavened bread represents righteousness, when Christians remove leavening during these days they are reminded to put sin out of their lives.

In some traditions, the ceremony is combined with washing one another's feet, as Jesus did to his disciples the night that he suffered .

Other Christians celebrate the Passover as the Jews celebrate it. They roast and eat lamb, bitter herbs, and the unleavened Matza.

Many Adventist, Sabbatarian Churches of God

General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh-Day)

The General Conference of the Church of God , or simply Church of God or CoG7, is a seventh-day Sabbath-keeping Christian denomination...

, Messianic Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

(who call it the 'Memorial of Christ's Death') and other groups observe a Christian Passover — though all do not agree on the date(s) or the related practices.

Date

Some differences between when groups observe passover are:

Disputes over reckoning of the 24-hour day, for example, the modern western 24-hour day begins at midnight(12:00 A.M.), whereas the biblical 24-hour day is generally reckoned to begin at sunset.
Disputes over which day Jesus was crucified on: according to and the Gospel of Peter
Gospel of Peter
The Gospel According to Peter , commonly called the Gospel of Peter, is one of the non-Canonical gospels which were rejected by the Church Fathers and the Catholic Church's synods of Carthage and Rome, which established the New Testament canon, as apocryphal...

, it was the "day of preparation for the Passover", Nisan
Nisan
Nisan is the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month of the civil year, on the Hebrew calendar. The name of the month is Babylonian; in the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to the month in which barley was ripe. It is a spring month of 30 days...

14, also called the Quartodeciman. (John nowhere identifies the Last Supper as a Passover meal, and John 18:28 has the priests preparing to eat the Passover meal in the morning after the Last Supper.) According to many other interpretations of the Synoptic Gospels
Synoptic Gospels
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...

, it was the day of Passover, Nisan 15.
Some Christians observe the celebration on the day before Passover, at the same time that Jesus held his Last Supper
Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...

, while others observe it at the same time that the Passover was sacrificed, that is, the time of Jesus' death, which occurred "at the ninth hour" of the day , or approximately 3:30 p.m, according to the Synoptic Gospels. (see evening
Evening
Evening is the period between the late afternoon and night when daylight is decreasing, around dinner time at 6pm. Though the term is subjective, evening is typically understood to begin before sunset, during the close of the standard business day and extend until nightfall, the beginning of night...

and Time
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....

for technical reference on time).
Still others celebrate it after sunset, at which time it would be the 15th of Nisan, the time in which the Israelites ate the Passover meal (for example see ).
Some Christians, out of deference for traditional Gentile Easter dates, choose to celebrate Passover, or hold Seders, on the Thursday before Easter, known as Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday
Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great & Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, is the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the Canonical gospels...

, or the Last Supper observance. These dates vary among Hebrew, Gregorian, and Julian calendars, and they vary between Western (e.g. Roman Catholic) and Eastern Orthodox (e.g. Greek Orthodox) traditions. (There is also a school of thought that the Last Supper may have been on the Tuesday night, with most passion week "sabbath" references in the Gospels referring to a Thursday holy day of rest instead of to the traditional Saturday main sabbath. Contrast Mark 16:1 after the weekday day of rest with Luke 23:56-24:1 before the weekend sabbath.)

It was a question of defilement that gave rise to the words: “They themselves did not enter into the governor’s palace, that they might not get defiled but might eat the passover.” (Joh 18:28) These Jews considered it a defilement to enter into a Gentile dwelling. (Ac 10:28) This statement was made, however, “early in the day,” hence after the Passover meal had taken place. It is to be noted that at this time the entire period, including Passover day and the Festival of Unfermented Cakes that followed, was at times referred to as “Passover.” In the light of this fact, Alfred Edersheim offers the following explanation: A voluntary peace offering was made on Passover and another, a compulsory one, on the next day, Nisan 15, the first day of the Festival of Unfermented Cakes. It was this second offering that the Jews were afraid they might not be able to eat if they contracted defilement in the judgment hall of Pilate.—The Temple, 1874, pp. 186, 187.

Historic issues

Most Christians who keep the biblical Passover are considered to be Quartodeciman as they keep Passover on the 14th of Nisan

Nisan

Nisan is the first month of the ecclesiastical year and the seventh month of the civil year, on the Hebrew calendar. The name of the month is Babylonian; in the Torah it is called the month of the Aviv, referring to the month in which barley was ripe. It is a spring month of 30 days...

. Apollinaris and Melito of Sardis

Melito of Sardis

Melito of Sardis was the bishop of Sardis near Smyrna in western Anatolia, and a great authority in Early Christianity: Jerome, speaking of the Old Testament canon established by Melito, quotes Tertullian to the effect that he was esteemed a prophet by many of the faithful...

were both 2nd century writers that wrote about the Christian Passover.

Apollinaris

Apollinaris Claudius

Saint Apollinaris Claudius, otherwise Apollinaris of Hierapolis or Apollinaris the Apologist, was a Christian leader and writer of the 2nd century.-Life:...

, 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), and say that on the fourteenth day the Lord ate the lamb with the disciples, and that on the great day of the feast of unleavened bread He Himself suffered; and they quote Matthew as speaking in accordance with their view. Wherefore their opinion is contrary to the law, and the Gospels seem to be at variance with them. … 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"

Melito's Peri Pascha
Peri Pascha
Peri Pascha is a 2nd century document from Melito of Sardis that was assembled from surviving fragments in the 1930s, and translated into English in the 1940s....

("On the Passover") is perhaps the most famous early document concerning the Christian observation of Passover.

"For indeed the law issued in the gospel–the old in the new, both coming forth together from Zion and Jerusalem; and the commandment issued in grace, and the type in the finished product, and the lamb in the Son, and the sheep in a man, and the man in God...For at one time the sacrifice to the sheep was valuable, but now it is without value because of the life of the Lord. The death of the sheep once was valuable, but now it is without value because of the salvation of the Lord. The blood of the sheep once was valuable, but now it is without value because of the Spirit of the Lord. The silent lamb once was valuable, but now it has no value because of the blameless Son. The temple here below once was valuable, but now it is without value because of the Christ from above… Now that you have heard the explanation of the type and of that which corresponds to it, hear also what goes into making up the mystery. What is the passover? Indeed its name is derived from that event–"to celebrate the passover" (to paschein) is derived from "to suffer" (tou pathein). Therefore, learn who the sufferer is and who he is who suffers along with the sufferer...This one is the passover of our salvation".

Polycrates of Ephesus

Polycrates of Ephesus was an Early Christian bishop who resided in Ephesus.Roberts and Donaldson noted that Polycrates "belonged to a family in which he was the eighth Christian bishop; and he presided over the church of Ephesus, in which the traditions of St. John were yet fresh in men's minds at...

, was a late 2nd century leader who was excommunicated (along with all Quartodecimans) by the Roman bishop Victor

Pope Victor I

Pope Saint Victor I was Pope from 189 to 199 .Pope Victor I was the first bishop of Rome born in the Roman Province of Africa: probably he was born in Leptis Magna . He was later canonized...

for observing the Christian Passover on the 14th of Nisan and not switching it to a Sunday resurrection celebration. He, Polycrates, claimed that he was simply following the practices according to scripture and the Gospels, as taught by the Apostles John and Philip, as well as by church leaders such as Polycarp

Polycarp

Saint Polycarp was a 2nd century Christian bishop of Smyrna. According to the Martyrdom of Polycarp, he died a martyr, bound and burned at the stake, then stabbed when the fire failed to touch him...

and Melito of Sardis

Melito of Sardis

.

It is important to note that the Christian Passover ceremony, which includes the bread and wine, proclaims the Lord's death, not specifically his resurrection. Paul confirmed this when he wrote, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes

Second Coming

In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...

" . According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration."

External links

Jewish Passover to Christian Passover Explains the transition from Passover (or the Jewish Passover from certain Christian points-of-view) to the Christian Passover, which predated the founding of the Easter holiday.
Melito's Homily on Passover also known as Peri Pascha from Kerux: The Journal of Northwest Theological Seminary

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Meaning

Celebrations

Date

Historic issues

See also

Further reading

External links