Easter is another of my pet hates .. Jesus was nailed up on the day of the Jewish Passover which occurs at the time of the first new moon after the vernal equinox, as well we know a total eclipse was underway as he died on the cross confirming the date / time .. yet Christian Easter which allegedly commemorates his demise is held at the time of the full moon, make me puke.
Your rapid segues make me think you aren't here to discuss, but to just throw volleys of Protestant-style arguments at Catholicism. There is no consensus at all that Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday at Passover; this is an argument often hurled by Baptists.
Most concur that Christ was crucified on the Friday after Passover.
You are also wrong about Jewish Passover. It happens on a full moon, not a new moon.
Also, it has nothing to do with the vernal equinox, which is a solar relationship to the planet earth. The Jews tracked time by a lunar calendar.
Passover for them occurred on the 15th day of a lunar month called Nissan, so that it always came on a full moon. This month was decided by the chief rabbis based on the weather. They'd spontaneously add a lunar cycle to their year if the weather was not Spring-like enough to justify having their Spring celebration, pushing Nissan back another cycle.
The solar calendar is more accurate and more closely tethers our time keeping with what is relevant, our relationship to the sun and not the moon.
Christians celebrate Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon on or proceeding the vernal equinox, a solar date.
This causes it to no longer be coupled perfectly to Passover, but it is actually a better choice. That is because the Jewish calendar drifts more than the Gregorian one. It just isn't possible to set a date of the year to have a celebration that would perfectly match the literal day of Christ's crucifixion because every year is a little different than the last because of small wobbles in earth's orbit.
But since the Gregorian calendar is more accurate than the Jewish lunar months, the Christian tradition of celebrating Easter is almost certainly more authentic to the springtime localization of Christ's death and resurrection than Passover is.
Christian Easter is not held on a full moon. It is held on a Sunday after the full moon closest to the vernal equinox.
If you are thinking practically and accounting for the significance of (a) Passover and (b) setting a date which is more reliable with respect to the true timekeeper for earth (the sun), then our date for Easter is perfectly rational. You can imagine that it closely approximates the time of the year corresponding to Christ's death and resurrection, which combined with its fixed nature, makes it an appropriate date for celebration.
Most concur that Christ was crucified on the Friday after Passover.
Scripture says the Magdalene found the empty tomb on Sunday morning (John 20:1 (biblegateway.com)) and that Christ was crucified on the day before the Sabbath ("parasceve") (John 19:31 (biblegateway.com)). All other relevant verses, like the "three days and three nights" idiom, must be interpreted in accordance with these verses (and in accordance with verses that refer to Christ rising on the third day (1 Cor 15:4 (biblegateway.com)), which could not be the case if a literal interpretation of three days and three nights is applied).
But since the Gregorian calendar is more accurate than the Jewish lunar months, the Christian tradition of celebrating Easter is almost certainly more authentic to the springtime localization of Christ's death and resurrection than Passover is.
I also find it relevant that a solar calendar is more befitting a Church that has become universal as a result of the New Covenant, whereas a lunar calendar is more acceptable to a single people localized in one area of the world, as was the case under the Old Covenant.
Good point on the solar connection to the universal church. I agree. There is a way to think about it as a motion from the secondary to the primary or the inferior to the superior light. Perhaps. That might be a bit of a stretch.
You can't ignore that the Christian change corresponded with the transition to a more accurate and knowledgable system of time keeping, also one which demonstrated a more apt knowledge of our local cosmos.
I also think the sexual difference is relevant. The lunar is always associated with the feminine, and after Christ, we find that the rabbinic tradition in Judaism begins to speak about the shekinah. It is the feminine aspect of God, and it essentially equates to the Holy Spirit.
The Jews equated this with the exiled aspect of God, and that is the material world or emanation. The receptacle of light. So it is interesting to consider the emphasis on the full moon, which as receptacle is receiving the most of the sun's light at this time. It is as if it symbolizes self-exaltation though because the Jews believed that the shekinah shared in their exile/s.
So the tracking of the moon is almost as if to say when the Jews themselves were receiving the most of the divine light. It is very self-centered though, which is the reason for my statement above. Rather than to emphasize the giver, they emphasize the receiver.
With the revelation of Christ, there is the focus on the giver. A major transition over to an emphasis on God's grace, and a change over from the foregoing notion of one being exiled from God, to having a direct access to the 'light giver'.
I don't want to give the impression of Jewish moon worship. Rather, I think it was much more tied to the notion of women, menstruation, blood and sanctity, for sex was forbidden during menstruation, and of course there is the connection of Passover to sacrifice, exile, menstruation and renewal. So all of that elicits mother imagery in one sense.
Fatherly has always been the sun.
I am mostly spitballing though.
Also, isn't it the protestant argument that there was a high and a low sabbath or something, and that's how they justify the Wednesday crucifixion?
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