Quartodecimanism: Myths and Facts
- By PesachPup
- Christian History
- 1 Replies
John 18:28 does not prove that Jesus ate the Passover meal on the night of the 13th/14th. But rather just the opposite. Nine times in the NT it confers the notion that Jesus ate the PASSOVER meal with his disciples on the same night that he was betrayed. John 18:28 in fact confirms that it was the scripturally mandated time to eat the PASSOVER on the 14th day of the month at evening when all of it was to be consumed before the dawn of the next day.Quartodecimanism: Myths and Facts
Myth: Those second-century Christians who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan were called "Quartodecimans".
Fact: The word "quartodeciman" is not reliably attested until after the council of Nicea. It was never applied in the second century to those who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan.
Myth: The second-century Christians who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan celebrated Easter on the night of 14/15 Nisan.
Fact: They may have, but they may instead have celebrated on the night of 13/14 Nisan. This is the date when, according to the Gospel of John (John 18.28) Jesus ate the last supper with his disciples. Polycrates, in his letter to the Roman bishop Victor, wrote that "my family have always kept the day when the people [i.e. Jewish people] put away the leaven." The removal of the leaven, according to the nearly-contemporary Mishnah, begins on the night of 13 Nisan. (Mishnah Pesachim 1).
Myth: Victor tried to excommunicate the churches in the Roman Province of Asia.
Fact: Eusebius's account is anachronistic. We can read between the lines of Eusebius's account by examining the letter that Irenaeus wrote to Victor, which Eusebius quotes: "Never was this [difference in practice] made a ground for repulsing anyone, but the presbyters before you, even though they did not keep it, used to send the Eucharist to Christians from dioceses which did." So what Victor actually did was refuse to send the _fermentum_ to the Asian stranger-churches in Rome, not attempt to excommunicate the churches in Asia.
Myth: The Nisan-14 practice was the practice deprecated at the Council of Nicea.
Fact: The controversy at Nicea was between two schools of Sunday observance: Christians who might be called "Jewish calendarists" (and who were in later years called "Protopaschites") who wanted to celebrate Easter on the Sunday falling in the Jewish week of Unleavened Bread, even if that meant that the festival would fall before the spring equinox; and "Independent calendarists" who wanted to calculate their own month of Nisan and set the Easter festival to the third Sunday in that independently-calculated month of Nisan, so that the festival would always fall after the spring equinox. The "independent calendarists" carried the day. But the decision was controversial, with some Christians refusing to abide by it. One scholar has proposed that the Nisan-14 custom, moribound in the early 4th century, was revived in the later 4th century by Christians protesting against the Nicene decision, and who had read about the practice in Eusebius's book.
Myth: The controversy over the Nisan-14 practice was between the Eastern churches and the Western churches.
Fact: The Nisan-14 practice was confined to the Roman Province of Asia. All the other churches in the world, according to Eusebius, kept Easter on Sunday.
Myth: Those who kept the Nisan-14 practice were Torah-keepers.
Fact: The Evangelist Matthew's community were Torah-keepers, but there is no evidence connecting them to the Roman Province of Asia. The community in which the _Didache_ was written were partial Torah-keepers ("If you can shoulder the Lord's yoke in its entirety, then you will be perfect; but if that is too much for you, do as much as you can." But again there is no evidence linking them to Asia. The Nisan-14 assembly as it is known to us from Melito of Sardis's _Peri Pascha_ shows no evidence of Torah-keeping. Indeed, _Peri Pascha_ is partly Jew-hating.
The events of John 18 actually records (in one blurred account) of Jesus being brought before Pilate not once but twice. Luke records the third time taking place the third time after having been seen to Herod. The first instance took place before dawn. It was early according to John 18:28. Back to this in a minute. Luke 22:66 says, AS SOON AS IT WAS DAY, Jesus was taken before their council. And then in Luke 23:1 Jesus was taken inside the judgment hall to where Pilate then asks him, "Are you the king of the jews?" Compare that to John 18:33,34 where it is inside the judgment hall [he called for Jesus to be brought to him]. The 1st encounter of Jesus with Pilate was in John 18:29 where Pilate meets with Jesus and his accusers OUTSIDE OF the judgment hall. Thus, on this 1st encounter, The Jews did not go into the judgment hall "so that they might eat the PASSOVER ".
You see the PASSOVER must be eaten before dawn arrives. The dialog between Jesus and Pilate on the subsequent encounters is in the presence of the Jews inside the judgment hall, for Pilate says in Luke 23:14 "I have examined him [who was brought before ME] before you".
WHY was this okay now and but not okay the 1st time? Because it was after daybreak when the restriction about eating the PASSOVER expires at dawn. If the time for eating the Passover had not yet arrived, it would have defiled them to enter into the judgment hall. If they were so conscientious to not defile themselves in the 24 hour period prior to the time, they would have not entered the judgment hall during the daylight hours in which Jesus was brought TO Pilate. But they did. Verifying the time required to eat the Passover... before dawn.
Be blessed
The Pup
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