Who is a Jew? Today many Rabbinic and Karaite Jews deny that Messianic Jews are Jewish, whether they are of Jewish or Gentile background. They say that the person of Jewish background has forfeited his Jewishness by believing in Yeshua. And that the person of Gentile background has not become Jewish because he has not converted to a legitimate sect of Judaism. Sadly many Messianic Jews of Jewish background will defend their own Jewishness based on the legitimacy of Rabbinic Judaism by claiming descent from a woman who practiced Rabbinic Judaism. But is this what the Scriptures say makes a person Jewish? What is just as sad is the fact that many Messianic Jews will vehemently deny the Jewishness of their fellow congregants who are of a Gentile background. But they do not realize that by doing so they are admitting in a very real way that their form of Judaism is illegitimate. I've actually heard Messianic Jews of a Jewish background say that in order for a Gentile to become Jewish they must convert to Rabbinic Judaism(which requires denial of Yeshua). And some go so far as too say that it is impossible for a Gentile to become Jewish at all. But is that what the Scriptures say? Who is a Jew? I will attempt to give an answer in this article.
First lets look at the Scriptures to see how the word Jew is used. The Hebrew word for Jew is Yehudi which comes from the name of Yehudah(Judah) the fourth son of our father Yaakov(Jacob). See Bereshit(Genesis)29:35. So one of the obvious definitions of the word Jew is a descendant of the Patriarch Yehudah. The word Jew can also refer to a citizen of the Kingdom of Yehudah. Which included the the tribes of Yehudah, Benyamin(Benjamin), Levi and members of the ten tribes of Yisrael(Israel) who remained faithful to YHWH. See 2Chronicles 11:12-17 and Esther 2:5. I agree with the Rabbinics that the ten lost tribes are out there somewhere, but I don't want to get into that subject right now because it distracts people from the point I'm trying to make. The word Jew can also mean any descendant of our father Yaakov. See Romans 2:9-10. When used in this way it would make the word Jew a synonym of Israelite. This is also what most people think of when they hear the word Jew today.
This is where this article is going to get a little bit controversial. Are the Jewish people today the physical descendants of our father Yaacov? Lets look at the genetics. Now most people have been told that most of the Jewish people all over the world are genetically the same, proving that the vast majority of them are the physical descendants of our father Yaacov. Look at this quote.
"Recently published research in the field of molecular genetics –- the study of DNA sequences –- indicates that Jewish populations of the various Diaspora communities have retained their genetic identity throughout the exile. Despite large geographic distances between the communities and the passage of thousands of years, far removed Jewish communities share a similar genetic profile. This research confirms the common ancestry and common geographical origin of world Jewry."
http://www.aish.com/ci/sam/48937817.html
This statement is somewhat misleading. Here is another quote from that same article. Only I'm going to emphasis some key words.
"Despite their long-term residence in different countries and isolation from one another, most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level. The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population, and suggest that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora." (M.F. Hammer, Proc. Nat'l Academy of Science, May 9, 2000)
Notice that the Jewish people have multiple paternal gene pools that come from an ancestral population not a paternal gene pool that comes from a singular ancestor. Paternal gene pools are often referred to as haplogroups in genetic studies. When the above quote says that "most Jewish populations were not significantly different from one another at the genetic level" it means that the same haplogroups were found among them at approximately the same percentages. It is not saying that all those haplogroups trace back to our father Yaakov. Here is a list of the different haplogroups found among the Ashkenazi Jews.
J2 19%-21%
E1b1 16%-23%
J1 14%-25%
R1a 7%-20%
R1b 10%-11%
Q1 5%-7%
G 5%-10%
I 4%-5%
Obviously there is a lot of wiggle room when it comes to the percentages of the different haplogroups. It depends on what study you use. I've tried to give you the extremes based on different studies. A good overall source of information on the genetics of the Jewish people is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews The Sephardic Jews are basically the same except as far as I can tell they have a slightly higher percentage of R1b. So why do I bring this all up? You have eight different haplogroups listed above which were fathered by eight different men, and none of them are descended from any of the others. Now it is true that some of the men are closely related. Such as J1 and J2. And the same goes for R1b and R1a. So here is the question. What haplogroup was fathered by our father Yaakov? We can only pick one. So which is it? Most geneticists pick J1 because the famous Cohen Modal Haplotype is a subgroup of J1. So the best case scenario is that only 25% of the modern Jewish population are the physical descendants of our father Yaakov. And even that is wishful thinking, because J1 is also the father of a lot of Arabs which would mean that J1 is more likely to be our father Avraham than our father Yaakov. Look at this quote.
In Arabic countries, J1 climaxes among the Marsh Arabs of South Iraq (81%), the Sudanese Arabs (73%), the Yemeni (72%), the Bedouins (63%), the Qatari (58%), the Saudi (40%), the Omani (38%) and the Palestinian Arabs (38%). High percentages are also observed in the United Arab Emirates (35%), coastal Algeria (35%), Jordan (31%), Syria (30%), Tunisia (30%), Egypt (21%) and Lebanon (20%)
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_J1_Y-DNA.shtml
So unless your willing to say that all those Arabs are Jewish you have no other choice but to say J1 is (best case scenario) our father Avraham. So now we are down to less than 25% of the Jewish population being descendants of our father Yaakov. Because some of those Jews that are J1 are going to be descendants of Ishmaelites, Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites who have converted to Judaism. So the Messianic Jews of a Jewish background better hope that a Gentile can become Jewish, because if they can't over 75% of them are actually Gentiles. I'll say one more thing regarding genetics. It is a very young science and there is a lot that we don't understand. So there might be a chance that this is all wrong but as far as we can tell there is not any other way to interpret the evidence. At least not until further discoveries are made. Now that we know that as far as genetics is concerned that most Jews today are no more Jewish physically than their Gentile neighbors down the street, what are we supposed to do? Should we declare that over 75% of the Jews today are Gentiles and that there is no way they can be Jewish? This is a question all those Messianic Jews of Jewish background that think that it is impossible for a Gentile to become Jewish needs to ask themselves.
So, can a Gentile become a Jew? Lets see what the Scriptures have to say about it.
Esther8:17 And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.
This passage makes it clear that Gentiles can indeed become Jewish. In fact this passage is so clear that I'm surprised that there are even people who deny that it is possible. But how does a Gentile become a Jew? The Rabbinics would say convert to Rabbinic Judaism and sadly many Messianic Jews of a Jewish background would agree with them. But is this what the Scriptures say?
Ephesians2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Mashiakh, being aliens from the commonwealth of Yisrael, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Elohim in the world: 13 But now in Yeshua HaMashiakh ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Mashiakh.
This Passage should make it clear to any Messianic that Gentiles become Jewish through belief in Yeshua. Notice that they were Gentiles in the past. So if they are no longer Gentiles then they must be Jews.
Galatians3:29 And if you are Mashiakh’s, then you are Avraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Need I say more? You have Jews who were born Jewish and you have Jews who became Jewish. So, Who is a Jew? I am!
"I consider as Jewish anyone who is meshuge(crazy) enough to call themselves 'Jewish.'"
David Ben Gurion
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Easter vs Passover
We are coming in to that time of year when we start seeing Easter bunnies and colorful eggs in baskets, and I ask my self what does any of it have to do with the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua? The answer is nothing! So how does YHWH want us to remember His sacrifice? I will attempt to answer this question in this article.
First, why do we call it Easter? In the King James Version the word is used one time.
Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
Sadly this is a miss translation. The Greek word being translated Easter is Pascha, Strongs number G3956 which comes from the Hebrew Pesakh which is properly translated as Passover. So the text should read when properly translated
Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep; intending after Passover to bring him forth to the people.
So the only place in all of Scripture that mentions Easter is a miss translation. So if the term is not Biblical then where did it come from? The Church scholar Bede (A.D. 673-735) had this to say
"Eosturmanath has a name which is now translated " Paschal month," and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance."
Bede: The Reckoning of Time, trans. Faith Wallis, vol. 29, Translated Texts for Historians(Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press, 1999) p. 54.
Here Bede is saying that some Christians started calling Pesakh/Pascha/Passover by the name Eostre a pagan goddess. This is confirmed by Jacob Grimm
"The two goddesses, whom Bede (De temporum ratione cap. 13) cites very briefly, without any description, merely to explain the months named after them, are Hrede and Eastre, March taking its Saxon name from the first, and April from the second. It would be uncritical to saddle this father of the church, who everywhere keeps heathenism at a distance, and tells us less of it than he knows, with the invention of these goddesses.
We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ostarmanoth is found as early as Eginhart [c. 800] ([contemporary of Charlemagne]). The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the plural, because two days (ostartaga, aostortaga, Diut. 1, 266) were kept at Easter. This Ostra, like the [Anglo Saxon] eastre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the nam, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries. all the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical "pascha;" even Ulphilas writes paska, not austro, though he must have known the world; the Norsetongue also has imported its paskir, Swed[ish] pask, Dan[ish] paaske. The [Old High German] adv.ostar expresses movement toward the rising sun (Gramm. 3, 205), likewise the [Old Norse]austr, and probably an [Anglo Saxon] eastor and Goth[ic] austr.
Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 1, 4th ed., trans. James Steven Stallybrass (George Bell and Sons, 1882), pp. 289-291.
So it was the German Christians that first started calling Pesakh/Pascha/Passover by the name of Eostre/Ostra/Eastre but all the nations around Germany continued with the Biblical tradition of calling it Pesakh/Pascha/Passover.
"originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival ot the Resurrection of Christ, which occured at the time of the Passover. In the early English versions this word was frequently used as the translation of the Greek pascha (the Passover). When the Authorized Version (1611) was formed, the word "passover" was used in all passages in which this word pascha occurred, except in Acts 12:4, In the Revised Version the proper word, "passover," is always used."
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary under Easter
There you have it, Easter is the name of a pagan goddess that German and then English speaking Christians used to replace the Biblical term of Pesakh/Pascha/Passover. This is horrible for two reasons. One, it is mixing pagan practices with the worship of YHWH. Just like Yisrael did with the golden calf. And two, it has caused people to think that the Scriptural feast of Passover has been done away with and replaced by Easter. When in reality before the Christianization of the Germanic tribes, all Christians celebrated and called it Pesakh/Pascha/Passover. That is why I call it Pesakh(Hebrew), Pascha(Greek) or Passover. This can be confusing to some people because when they read the Early Church Fathers writings (most of which wrote in Greek and Latin) Pascha gets translated as Easter in English versions instead of the more correct Passover Just like in Acts 12:4. So remember whenever you see "Easter" in the Early Church writings it is in reality Pascha/Passover.
Now there were arguments as to when to celebrate Pesakh but everyone believed that it should be kept. Even today the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches disagree on when to keep Pascha. Also, many people today will be surprised to find out that in the first century Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Samaritans could not agree on when to keep Pesakh. Even today the Rabbinic and Karaite Jews do not agree on when to keep Pesakh! I do not want to get into all of the different arguments on when to celebrate Pesakh, which would take quite some time. Maybe in another article. However, I do recommend that everyone read all the arguments and study for themselves when to celebrate Pesakh. I do want to compare the overall Jewish approach for determining the Pesakh to the overall Christian approach for determining the Pesakh. But first lets see what the Scriptures say about when to celebrate Pesakh.
Vayikrah(Leviticus)23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Pesakh of YHWH.
It is clear that this passage says that the Pesakh is on the 14th day of the 1st Hebrew month of the year. What is not so clear is which month is the 1st month and which day is the 14th day of that month. This is why there were and still are disagreements among the Jewish sects. You see a lot of the Jewish sects had their own distinct calendars. Most were luni-solar in nature with the exception of the Essenes which used a completely solar calendar, but all disagreed in some way or another. However, they all believed that they were keeping Pesakh on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar. Sadly the Christian approach has been to ignore this verse completely. Why do they ignore it? Let's find out with this quote from Emperor Constantine:
When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for that could be more beautiful and more desirable, and more desirable, than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord, and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom [the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded....We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Saviour has shown us another way....As, on the one hand, it is our duty not to have anything in common with the murderers of our Lord.
"On the Keeping of Easter," in Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, 2nd series, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), pp. 54.
Remember, whenever you see the word "Easter" in the above quote it is in reality the word "Pascha", it has just been miss translated as "Easter". There it is, the reason why Christians today do not keep Pesakh on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar is because of antisemitism. They were not going to do it that way because that was the way the Jews did it. Apparently they believed that Yeshua being raised from the dead on a Sunday not only changed the Shabbat from Saturday to Sunday but that it also changed Pascha from 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar to the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the vernal equinox. Of course there is nowhere in the Scriptures that says the day of Pesakh was changed. In fact Yekhezkel(Ezekiel) tells us when we will be keeping Pesakh during the thousand year reign of Yeshua.
Yekhezkel(Ezekiel)45:21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Pesakh, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
So the obvious question is, why would we keep Pascha on the 14th day of the 1st month during the thousand year reign of Yeshua, if it was changed to some other day by His death? I believe the answer is that Pesakh was not changed by His death at all. This would mean that all the people that celebrate Pascha according to the Roman Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox Churches calendars are keeping Pascha on the wrong days. Believe it or not but there was a group of early believers in Yeshua who agree with me. They were called Quartodecimans. It means fourteener. Meaning that they followed the Biblical practice of keeping the Pascha on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar. And these were not nobodies either. As this quote from Bishop Polycrates shows.
“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 Eumenia, 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 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.’”. He then writes of all the bishops who were present with him and thought as he did. His words are as follows: “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 Master Yeshua.” Eusebius of Caesarea Historia Ecclesiastica, 3. 24
There you have it! I'm going to do my best to do what these men of Faith did and keep Pascha on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar. Instead of keeping Pascha on a different day just so I can be different from the Jews. What a Pathetic reason for discarding the Biblical date of Pascha! I encourage everyone reading this to study the Quartodeciman controversy and try to determine for themselves when they should celebrate Pascha instead of just doing what everyone else does.
Shalom
First, why do we call it Easter? In the King James Version the word is used one time.
Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
Sadly this is a miss translation. The Greek word being translated Easter is Pascha, Strongs number G3956 which comes from the Hebrew Pesakh which is properly translated as Passover. So the text should read when properly translated
Acts 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep; intending after Passover to bring him forth to the people.
So the only place in all of Scripture that mentions Easter is a miss translation. So if the term is not Biblical then where did it come from? The Church scholar Bede (A.D. 673-735) had this to say
"Eosturmanath has a name which is now translated " Paschal month," and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance."
Bede: The Reckoning of Time, trans. Faith Wallis, vol. 29, Translated Texts for Historians(Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press, 1999) p. 54.
Here Bede is saying that some Christians started calling Pesakh/Pascha/Passover by the name Eostre a pagan goddess. This is confirmed by Jacob Grimm
"The two goddesses, whom Bede (De temporum ratione cap. 13) cites very briefly, without any description, merely to explain the months named after them, are Hrede and Eastre, March taking its Saxon name from the first, and April from the second. It would be uncritical to saddle this father of the church, who everywhere keeps heathenism at a distance, and tells us less of it than he knows, with the invention of these goddesses.
We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ostarmanoth is found as early as Eginhart [c. 800] ([contemporary of Charlemagne]). The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the plural, because two days (ostartaga, aostortaga, Diut. 1, 266) were kept at Easter. This Ostra, like the [Anglo Saxon] eastre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the nam, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries. all the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical "pascha;" even Ulphilas writes paska, not austro, though he must have known the world; the Norsetongue also has imported its paskir, Swed[ish] pask, Dan[ish] paaske. The [Old High German] adv.ostar expresses movement toward the rising sun (Gramm. 3, 205), likewise the [Old Norse]austr, and probably an [Anglo Saxon] eastor and Goth[ic] austr.
Jacob Grimm, Teutonic Mythology, vol. 1, 4th ed., trans. James Steven Stallybrass (George Bell and Sons, 1882), pp. 289-291.
So it was the German Christians that first started calling Pesakh/Pascha/Passover by the name of Eostre/Ostra/Eastre but all the nations around Germany continued with the Biblical tradition of calling it Pesakh/Pascha/Passover.
"originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival ot the Resurrection of Christ, which occured at the time of the Passover. In the early English versions this word was frequently used as the translation of the Greek pascha (the Passover). When the Authorized Version (1611) was formed, the word "passover" was used in all passages in which this word pascha occurred, except in Acts 12:4, In the Revised Version the proper word, "passover," is always used."
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary under Easter
There you have it, Easter is the name of a pagan goddess that German and then English speaking Christians used to replace the Biblical term of Pesakh/Pascha/Passover. This is horrible for two reasons. One, it is mixing pagan practices with the worship of YHWH. Just like Yisrael did with the golden calf. And two, it has caused people to think that the Scriptural feast of Passover has been done away with and replaced by Easter. When in reality before the Christianization of the Germanic tribes, all Christians celebrated and called it Pesakh/Pascha/Passover. That is why I call it Pesakh(Hebrew), Pascha(Greek) or Passover. This can be confusing to some people because when they read the Early Church Fathers writings (most of which wrote in Greek and Latin) Pascha gets translated as Easter in English versions instead of the more correct Passover Just like in Acts 12:4. So remember whenever you see "Easter" in the Early Church writings it is in reality Pascha/Passover.
Now there were arguments as to when to celebrate Pesakh but everyone believed that it should be kept. Even today the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches disagree on when to keep Pascha. Also, many people today will be surprised to find out that in the first century Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Samaritans could not agree on when to keep Pesakh. Even today the Rabbinic and Karaite Jews do not agree on when to keep Pesakh! I do not want to get into all of the different arguments on when to celebrate Pesakh, which would take quite some time. Maybe in another article. However, I do recommend that everyone read all the arguments and study for themselves when to celebrate Pesakh. I do want to compare the overall Jewish approach for determining the Pesakh to the overall Christian approach for determining the Pesakh. But first lets see what the Scriptures say about when to celebrate Pesakh.
Vayikrah(Leviticus)23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Pesakh of YHWH.
It is clear that this passage says that the Pesakh is on the 14th day of the 1st Hebrew month of the year. What is not so clear is which month is the 1st month and which day is the 14th day of that month. This is why there were and still are disagreements among the Jewish sects. You see a lot of the Jewish sects had their own distinct calendars. Most were luni-solar in nature with the exception of the Essenes which used a completely solar calendar, but all disagreed in some way or another. However, they all believed that they were keeping Pesakh on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar. Sadly the Christian approach has been to ignore this verse completely. Why do they ignore it? Let's find out with this quote from Emperor Constantine:
When the question relative to the sacred festival of Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day; for that could be more beautiful and more desirable, and more desirable, than to see this festival, through which we receive the hope of immortality, celebrated by all with one accord, and in the same manner? It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom [the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded....We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Saviour has shown us another way....As, on the one hand, it is our duty not to have anything in common with the murderers of our Lord.
"On the Keeping of Easter," in Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, vol. 4, 2nd series, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), pp. 54.
Remember, whenever you see the word "Easter" in the above quote it is in reality the word "Pascha", it has just been miss translated as "Easter". There it is, the reason why Christians today do not keep Pesakh on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar is because of antisemitism. They were not going to do it that way because that was the way the Jews did it. Apparently they believed that Yeshua being raised from the dead on a Sunday not only changed the Shabbat from Saturday to Sunday but that it also changed Pascha from 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar to the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the vernal equinox. Of course there is nowhere in the Scriptures that says the day of Pesakh was changed. In fact Yekhezkel(Ezekiel) tells us when we will be keeping Pesakh during the thousand year reign of Yeshua.
Yekhezkel(Ezekiel)45:21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Pesakh, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
So the obvious question is, why would we keep Pascha on the 14th day of the 1st month during the thousand year reign of Yeshua, if it was changed to some other day by His death? I believe the answer is that Pesakh was not changed by His death at all. This would mean that all the people that celebrate Pascha according to the Roman Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox Churches calendars are keeping Pascha on the wrong days. Believe it or not but there was a group of early believers in Yeshua who agree with me. They were called Quartodecimans. It means fourteener. Meaning that they followed the Biblical practice of keeping the Pascha on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar. And these were not nobodies either. As this quote from Bishop Polycrates shows.
“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 Eumenia, 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 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.’”. He then writes of all the bishops who were present with him and thought as he did. His words are as follows: “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 Master Yeshua.” Eusebius of Caesarea Historia Ecclesiastica, 3. 24
There you have it! I'm going to do my best to do what these men of Faith did and keep Pascha on the 14th day of the 1st month of the Biblical calendar. Instead of keeping Pascha on a different day just so I can be different from the Jews. What a Pathetic reason for discarding the Biblical date of Pascha! I encourage everyone reading this to study the Quartodeciman controversy and try to determine for themselves when they should celebrate Pascha instead of just doing what everyone else does.
Shalom
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