Tuesday 29 April 2014

Why Easter Doesn't Always Coincide with the Ancient Passover


Someone wrote this regarding the dates for Easter and the Passover coinciding:

"For historical reasons it does not, though it did originally. The jewish passover date used to be set by people actually observing the new moon - the very first sliver of light around it's edge. This observation would be confirmed by the temple authorities and hence the time of passover (14th Nissan) was known. However, during Christ's time, many jews lived abroad and many of these "diaspora" communities formed the core of the new Christian groups. They could not communicate quickly with Jerusalem so would make their own observations. Christians would then celebrated Easter when their Jewish neighbours celebrated Passover. 

As the church became more organised, it wanted to ensure everyone was celebrating Easter at the same time, so they devised the standard formula which we still use today. The Jews eventually came up with their own formula, but it was different so now Jewish and Christian celebrations are not always synchronised. 

Neither formula necessarily replicates what the Jewish temple would have decided had they continued beyond c 70AD."

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