A Biblical “Easter”

I cannot imagine what the world would do if a church today stood up and celebrated the resurrection of Christ in correspondence with the Jewish Passover. This would be a novel concept considering that Easter as we know it was established in 325AD and was a conscientious decision to separate Christianity from Judaism. So if we went back to a true biblical Easter this year when would it have occurred in 2008? The answer would by based upon the Jewish Passover of April 3, 2008. Since resurrection occurs three days later the proper celebration time would be Sunday the 6^th of April. OK…so how do we get to this dating for Easter. Let us examine a few facts.

First: Christianity cannot be separated from its parent religion Judaism. While some principles of Judaism have vanished in Christianity it still remains the foundation of our faith. Christianity is based upon Jesus Christ and His fulfillment of Judaism.

Second: The resurrection is tied to the Jewish Passover (14 Nissan) and a particular day. When holidays are tied to a day the date changes (the fourth Thursday of November, is Thanksgiving regardless of the date). However, when a holiday is tied to a date the day changes (December 25^th is Christmas whether it is Saturday or Wednesday). Our Easter is tied to a day while Passover is tied to a date. Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon, following the spring solstice of March 21^st (a pagan holiday), thus making the date change from year to year.

Third: Calendar differences between the Jewish year and our calendar exist. The Jewish calendar of the Bible was based upon a 360 day year. Our year is based upon 365 days. We must trust our Jewish brothers who have compensated for the difference and thus base what I will call "Resurrection Day" on their adjustments. Admittedly this will cause a shifting of dates in our current dating process, but does not eliminate the truth of the principle being discussed.

So let us look at Christ's resurrection and how this could affect our holiday. As we answer these questions hopefully we will gain understanding:

    When was Jesus crucified?

    Is there a "Good Friday"?

    What is a "High Sabbath"?

    How did the normal Sabbath work?

Jesus was crucified prior to the beginning of the Passover. The timing of the Passover being a floating day occurred in the year of the crucifixion on a Thursday. According to Jewish customs the Passover would begin at approximately 6PM Thursday (Sundown) and end as a "High Sabbath" at 6PM Friday (Sundown). However, the normal Sabbath would begin at 6PM Friday and end 6PM Saturday. Also in accordance with the customs of the day, any event occurring in portion on a day was considered "that day". This is true of something at 7AM or something at 4PM. Therefore, Christ could be removed from the cross and buried between 3PM (the 9^th hour) and 6PM, and be considered in the grave Thursday (Day). Thus to fulfill His own prophecy of fulfilling the sign of Jonah (3 days and nights in the whale being equal to His time in the earth) Christ would have been in the grave, in addition to Thursday (Day), Thursday (Night), Friday (Day), Friday (Night), Saturday (Day), and Saturday (Night). This would also account for the women arriving at day break on this first day of the week (Sunday) to anoint the body. Thus, we get the tradition of Sunday as the day, but in truth it should be tied to the date not the day.

So how about the year 2009 in a biblical sense? Passover Wednesday April 8, 2009. Resurrection Day would be Saturday April 11, 2009.

And our traditional dating will be Sunday April 12^th. I guess that is not too far from each other. Anyways, this is something just to ponder and be informed about as we separate Biblical truth from the traditions of men.

Have a great day, and remember in the end the most important thing is that Jesus arose and because of that God forgives sin.