Posted on 04/09/2015 5:11:32 PM PDT by NRx
As Greek-Orthodox Christians prepare to celebrate Easter on Sunday,April 12th, we would like to shed some light on the reasons why the Orthodox Christian Church celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ later than the Catholic one. While the issue is somewhat complicated, it may be summarized in the two factors at work that cause this conflict in dates:
1) The issue of the calendar; and 2) the adherence by the Orthodox to the early practices of the Christian Church.
The first factor, the calendar, has to do with the fact that the Christian Orthodox Church continues to follow the Julian calendar when calculating the date of Pascha (Easter). The rest of Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar. There is a thirteen-day difference between the two calendars, the Julian calendar being thirteen (13) days behind the Gregorian.
The other factor at work is that the Orthodox Church continues to adhere to the rule set forth by the First Ecumenical Council, held in Nicea in 325 AD, that requires that Pascha must take place after the Jewish Passover in order to maintain the Biblical sequence of Christ’s Passion. The rest of Christianity ignores this requirement, which means that on occasion Western Easter takes place either before or during the Jewish Passover.
(Excerpt) Read more at usa.greekreporter.com ...
I'll bet Jesus was bummed after inspiring his disciples to write the scriptures and then having to wait a few hundred years for Constantine's Crew to get off their butts and sort it all out...
A lot of people think Europe followed the Gregorian calendar as soon as it was proclaimed in 1582.
1700: Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark (+iceland/norway)
1752: Great Britain (including their American possessions)
1753: Sweden
You also seem to have a hangup regarding passover vs Easter. Just for informational purposes Easter is only the English name given to the feast, which in Greek (the language of the Church which gathered in that Council) is Pascha, or Passover. If you read the Latin documents of the Church you will never find the term Easter or Oster or any German names at all, and so supposed Pagan origins for the name are hardly relevant to what we as Catholics do or believe. It is just the name in our language for that day and feast, nothing more.
As for paganism and the major feasts, that is all built on assumptions based on correlations but no actual evidence. Sure, there are periods of the year which have supposedly drawn multiple people to celebrate various festivals on them, but that demonstrates nothing other than a shared human interest in the seasons and cosmos. That the equinoxes, solstices and other such times might have been observed by many peoples in common demonstrates no shared origin. After all, according to many anthropologists and such people we can find Celts, Romans, Greeks, Germans and American Indians all recognizing these events and developing various myths around them, but that hardly means that the Amerindians of Cahokia were actually worshiping Roman gods. If these various peoples all celebrate some sort of ritual or festival on an equinox it certainly cannot imply that they derive this from one another, and therefore neither can it be reasonably assumed that early Christians were following pagans in what they did.
And, if you don't believe me, then just ask yourself why the Jews would be engaging in pagan worship by observing Passover? It is that feast, after all, which is the model and origin of our Easter, and not some Roman pagan festival.
Actually the Greek word for Passover is transliterated as “Pascha”.
They used the same Greek word at the council of Nicaea, and never used the word “Easter”.
Orthodox Christians to this day still use the word “Pascha”.
So how can you say they imposed “Easter” on anyone?
Your argument falls apart...
“Looking to “fathers” who lived over 200 years after Jesus conveyed the faith in pure form to the Apostles is like looking to the writings of Justice Ginsburg for guidance on the Constitution.”
No, it isn’t. The Fathers were Christians in the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ. Ginsburg is not even a constitutionalist. There’s a huge difference there.
“Orthodox Christians to this day still use the word “Pascha”.”
Most, yes. Not all: https://vimeo.com/25843227
(yeah, I know, using the “Western Rite Orthodox” is unfair).
Did they mention the word Easter even once in the service?
I’d bet a large sum not.
Insulting to whom? Why?
There can be only one way to read my comment, and yet that is apparently invisible to you.
Given that propensity for misconstruction, maybe you would benefit from the practice of overlooking what you think is disturbing to you.
The vast majority of Protestants, even in this rough Freeper neighborhood, are not such ignoramuses as to think the Catholic Church is the whore of Babylon.
Therefore you are bearing false witness against your (protestant) neighbor.
It's a needless poke in the eye.
“Did they mention the word Easter even once in the service?”
I don’t know.
“I’d bet a large sum not.”
You might lose that money - depending on what Western Orthodox group you’re talking about. And in the entire 90 minute Easter Vigil Catholic Mass in English it is only mentioned twice by a Catholic priest or anyone else. It’s not mentioned at all in the text for the Mass of Easter Day. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is used in rubric instructions in Eastern Orthodox books - in fact I know it is.
That three days is a parable..
Not literal.. no sacrifice was deemed acceptable If it lasted till the 3rd day.
Lev 7:18..
14th day of our heavenly Father’a month is His 6th work day, ending His 2nd week.
15th day is the weekly Sabbath every month and is a High sabbath in His 1st and 7th months,
16th day is the first ‘day’ of His 3rd week every month.
He showed the template to Ezekiel when He detailed, in ezekie
46, a new moon day, 6 work days, and the sabbath.
That sign of Jonah is an interesting study..there are a few ways to look at it.
One is certainly that Jerusalem is the heart of the earth that His message was pumped to the whole world from.
That 40 years after His death, Jerusalem and her ‘leaders’ didn’t repent (unlike Nine ah) and it was sacked.
And even that by count, the Savior was arrested the evening of the 13th by the hands of sinners. And spent the 14th day/night in those sinners hands. Laid in the tomb for a full 15th day/night and finally raised on the 16th ‘day’..
Three ‘days’ , three ‘nights’ separated from His Father and in the ‘heart’ of this wicked sinful world that as genesis states that the imagination of the thoughts of the ‘heart’ of man is only evil continually..
Gen 6:5
I tried for awhile to test that sign as literal but I was accepting the false premise that Rome tells time correctly.
Today is our Heavenly Fathers 5th day. A day He created the creatures in the seas and the birds of the heavens.
.
I have no idea what the east calls today, but the English west name it Friday.
Friya is some false goddess that gets a day every week in the pope Gregory calendar..
The ‘east and west’ accept either Rome’s Julian calendar or Rome’s pope Gregory calendar.
Neither of those Rome calendars call today His 5th Day..
Neither of those Rome calendars commemorate His Creative and Redemptive Work.
There is a calendar that does. His..
And each day points to Him. All about Him,.
After studying this, things like Friya Day sort of misses the mark. Pray it doesn’t leave a mark...
The names of the days of the week come from the English language, not from Pope Gregory (or Julius Caesar, for that matter).
BTW, in church Latin (i.e., in, e.g., the official Roman Missal in Latin), the names of the days of the week translate to "Day of the Lord," ("Sunday" in English), "Day One," "Day Two," "Day Three," "Day Four," "Day Five," and "Sabbath".
Oops, it’s actually “Day of the Lord”, “Day Two,” “Day Three” ... “Day Five”, “Sabbath”.
The pope gregory calendar is a counterfeit calendar.
His calendar, according to scripture ( like Ezekiel 46) has a New Moon Day, SIX WORK DAYS, and a Sabbath Day..
There are 8 days there, not 7..
It is whythe Sabbaths were located on the 15th dayof His 1st and 7th months.
And why the 22nd day of the 7th month is a Sabbath.
And why the first Sabbath recorded in the Exodus ( exodus 16), occurred coincidently on also the 22nd day of His 2nd month.
The ‘names’ are not the only issue..
The sun worshippers in Rome ignore the moon and His Word doesn’t..
The pope Gregory calendar is a countefeit that hides not only His New Moon Day detailed in scripture, but also His Sabbath ( which will be on a Sunday for a couple more weeks) ..
Times and laws have changed...
New moon day, 6 work days, sabbath...
He has 3 different ‘types’ of days..
Pope only has two..
Tomorrow will be His 6th Work day. Jews and some Christians will be resting and worship., thinking Rome is wrong..
When ‘Rome’ is right for a couple more weeks..
Then all will be wrong when His Sabbath will appear to ‘move’ to Monday.. only thing is, Rome’s calendar floats around His.. His New Moon begins the new count .. and according to our Sovereign, it isn’t one of His 6 work days or His 7th day Sabbath.
If it was, Ezekiel 46 wouldnt say 6 Work days. It would say 5.
Great deception.. a master counterfeiter..
The truth usually is.
Don't know what they think of Greek Orthodox, but I reckon the poster will find out soon enough.
An eight day week was characteristic of pagan Rome under the republic. The Jewish week was seven days, reflecting the mseven days of creation in Genesis.
Primary source documentation for that claim?
and the secular authorities were more than happy to enforce it for the Church. Without that assistance, the Church would have been powerless to impose Easter on Christians (like myself) who found that the Apostles observed Passover. “Easter” not even being in the Scriptures was a totally foreign concept. Where that word appears in the King James, the Greek word is properly “Passover”.
Constantine never knew any word that sounded anything like "Easter". The holiday whose dating was promulgated under his name was called Πασχα, or in the Latin alphabet, "Pascha".
Don't believe me? The decree of Nicaea on the dating of Pascha (Easter) is online in the original Greek. Look it up.
"Pascha" is obviously related to the Hebrew "pesach". In fact, some scholars think that "pascha" is the correct Hebrew vowel pointing, and "pesach" is a later invention intended to distance Jews from Christians.
If your complaint is that Pascha is not celebrated on the 14th of Nisan, all I can say is that that was an active topic of discussion in the early church. The "Quartodeciman" (14th of Nisan) side lost the argument, but they didn't go into schism over it.
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