Few Christians today are aware that the very first Christians commemorated Passover as the day the Lord provided His own Passover Lamb for the sake of the entire world. The concept of commemorating the Lord Jesus Christ's supreme sacrifice on the same day that the Jewish people commemorate Passover may seem like a strange concept but this is exactly what the earliest Christians did. The great holy day of the Jews was also the great holy day of the first Christians.
We can recognize that Paul was an observer of the Passover. Paul instructed the church at Corinth, a gentile church, to commemorate Passover.
1 Corinthians 5:7,8 – Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Scholars who study earlier church history are aware of this practice of commemorating Christ's sacrifice on Passover, the 14th day of the first month of the ancient Hebrew calendar. Scholars now refer to this practice as Quartodecimanism. The word Quartodecimanism is based on the Latin word for the number fourteen.
The practice of commemorating the Jewish day of Passover as the day that Christ died continued for at least a century and a half after the time of Christ. A very contentious debate took place in about the year 190 AD concerning whether or not it was proper to commemorate Christ's sacrifice on the great holy day of the Jewish people. Polycrates, the leader of the church at Ephesus, strongly defended the practice. Victor, the leader of the church at Rome, vigorously opposed the practice.
Victor became very upset with a letter he received from Polycrates in which Polycrates strongly defended the practice. Victor became so enraged with this letter that he sent out his own letters to other churches in the Roman empire in which he attempted to have these churches break off fellowship with Polycrates and the church at Ephesus. After the time of Victor there is little evidence indicating that Quartodecimanism continued.
A question to be asked is if Jesus did indeed die on the very anniversary of the sacrificing of the Passover lambs in Egypt then is this not profoundly significant? Should it not be obvious that Lord brought about both of these days and that the first was the foreshadowing of the latter? Why should there have been such opposition to the custom of commemorating the Jewish day of Passover as the day Jesus died? One answer clearly has to do with antisemitism.
To know much at all about the history of organized Christianity down through the centuries is to know that the organized church has been a horrific tormentor of the Jewish people. Antisemitism within the church did not first begin in the middle ages with the crusades and the inquisition. Antisemitism within organized Christianity can be traced way back to the early centuries.
Constantine is often considered to be the Roman emperor who first unified church and state. In the year 325 AD a council of churches was held in Nicaea of Asia minor. Representatives from many churches in the Roman empire came to attend this gathering. One subject of discussion at the council was which day of the year was to be regarded as the holiest day, the day set aside to most glorify Jesus Christ. Now Constantine, who spoke at this council, was fully aware that in an early time many Christians did indeed commemorate the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the great holy day of the Jewish people. On this subject Constantine addressed the council with the following words:
"And first of all, it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. For we have it in our power, if we abandon their custom, to prolong the due observance of this ordinance to future ages, by a truer order, which we have preserved from the very day of the passion until the present time. Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Savior a different way."
I believe that a tremendously profound truth of Christianity was lost in the early centuries. To disregard the following truths is to ignore what I regard to be the greatest single testament that authenticates the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In addition, these truths also proclaim His position as the Son of God and Redeemer of the world. They are as follows:
1 - God had Moses institute a calendar.
2 - The day of Passover was both the central day and the focal point of this calendar.
3 - The ultimate purpose of God in bringing about the day of Passover was to foretell the day that He Himself would provide a Passover Lamb for the entire world, for both Jew and Gentile alike.
My faith and hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ are not based on wishful thinking, but rather on powerful evidence. Although by no means is it the only evidence, the greatest single proof to me that the Gospel is true is the timing of the great sacrifice made by Jesus relative to the original Hebrew calendar. When I consider the many profound parallels between the original day of Passover and the day that Jesus became the Passover Lamb of God, I see the most persuasive proof that this Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Savior of the world, as well as my personal Savior.
Those early Christian leaders (including Constantine) who felt that it was improper to commemorate the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the Passover were most definitely wrong! Because of their stance, a most magnificent truth largely has been ignored by organized Christianity for centuries. Yet I have no doubt that one day in the future, this omission will be rectified. One day, Christians again will recognize fully the profound relationship between the original Passover and its spiritual counterpart.
