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Cracking the Code of Easter Or, Understanding Why the Date of Easter “Hops” All Over the Calendars of March and April

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Cracking the Code of Easter Or, Understanding Why the Date of Easter “Hops” All Over the Calendars of March and April 168 JURNAL JAFFRAY, Vol. 13, No. 2, Oktober 2015 CRACKING THE CODE OF EASTER OR, UNDERSTANDING WHY THE DATE OF EASTER “HOPS” ALL OVER THE CALENDARS OF MARCH AND APRIL Steven L. Wa e1)* 1) Professor of Historical Theology Nyack College, New York *) Authors Correspondence: ste en.ware"nyack.edu Abst act Why i it that in mo t year , but not every year, We tern Chri tian --both Catholic and Prote tant--celebrate Ea ter at lea t one ,eek before Ea tern .Orthodo/0 Chri tian 1 Furthermore, ince the 2ible portray the re urrection of Je u a occurring on the Sunday morning directly after Pa over, ,hy i it that in many year both Ea tern and We tern Chri tian celebrate Ea ter more than a ,eek after Pa over, or even before Pa over1 The ma7or key to under tanding the cycle of annual date for Pa over, Orthodo/ Ea ter, and We tern Ea ter i the 8etonic Cycle, and ho, it ,a haped and applied in three different hi torical conte/t . Thi article eek to e/plore the hi torical gene i of the 8etonic Cycle and ho, it ,a applied to each of the e fe tival to yield the re ult ,e ee today. 9ey,ord : Ea ter, calendar, Chri tian, orthodo/, Catholic, Prote tant 9enapa kebanyakan tahun, ,alaupan bukan etiap tahun, Gere7a-gere7a barat, yaitu gere7a 9atolik dan gere7a Prote tan, merayakan Pa kah paling edikit atu minggu ebelum Pa kah 9ri ten Timur .gere7a Ortodok 01 Selan7utnya, karena Alkitab men7ela kan kebangkitan Ye u ditentukan pada pagi hari 8inggu lang ung etelah Pa kah Yahudi, mengapa terkadang orang-orang 9ri ten Timur dan orang-orang 9ri ten 2arat merayakan Pa kah lebih dari atu minggu e udah Pa kah Yahudi, ataupun ebelumnya1 9unci yang paling penting untuk mengerti putaran tanggal ini antara Pa kah Yahudi, Pa kah gere7a Ortodok , dan Pa kah gere7a 2arat adalah Putaran 8etonik, dan bagaimana Putaran ini dibentukan dan diterapkan dalam ketiga kontek hi tori . Artikel ini mau menyelidiki permulaian Putaran 8etonik ini dan bagaimana Putaran ini diterapkan pada etiap fe tival ini ampai apa yang kita lihat hari ini. 9ata-kata kunci: Pa kah, kalender, 9ri ten, ortodok , 9atolik, Prote tan Int oduction 8o t Chri tian ,ill agree that every one of their gathering for ,or hip i at it core a celebration of Je u ’ re urrection from the dead. 168 JURNAL JAFFRAY, Vol. 13, No. 2, Oktober 2015 Furthermore, almo t all Chri tian ,ill agree that Je u ’ re urrection i the ingle-mo t important event in human hi tory. Yet if a ked e/actly ,hen thi mo t important event occurred, many Chri tian have no clue ,here to begin. Some ,ill re pond that it really make no difference ,hen it occurred ince; again, every gathering for ,or hip i at it core a celebration of Je u ’ re urrection. 2ut thi i not ho, early Chri tian thought about the matter, for ,ithin a fe, generation the que tion of preci ely ,hen to celebrate thi mo t important event became a many- ided debate ,hich la ted for centurie . In addition, uch a laissez-faire approach run counter to human p ychology: ,hile many of u are grateful 7u t to be alive on any given day, mo t of u very much appreciate having a pecific birthday, ,hich give u pecific attention on a pecific day. For mo t Chri tian today, ho,ever, the date of Ea ter i a rather confu ing matter. In the early pring of any year, it i not uncommon for Chri tian to a k, “When i Ea ter thi year1A and to ,onder ,hy Ea ter “hop A all around the calendar of 8arch and April. Furthermore, it i not uncommon for We tern Chri tian Bboth Catholic and Prote tantBto note ,ith no mall amount of curio ity that their Orthodo/ Chri tian brethren are celebrating the re urrection of Je u Chri t on a different dateBtypically a ,eek or more later in the calendar. Conver ely, Chri tian of the Orthodo/ communion have ,ondered equally ,hy their ,e tern brethren often celebrate thi mo t important event a ,eek or more “early.A Chri tian on both ide have tended to a k their religiou leader or con ult eccle ia tical te/t to find out ,hich et of date i “correct,A but u ually ,ith little ucce , ince little ha been ,ritten on the matter from either per pective ,hich clarifie the larger picture and it hi torical development.1 Part of that larger picture i the Je,i h fea t of Pa over. 2iblically- minded Chri tian both Ea t and We t ,ill note that according to all four Go pel of the Ne, Te tament, Je u ’ crucifi/ion took place on Pa over2 .8atthe, 26:1C; 8ark 14:12; Luke 22:C; John 13:10, and hi re urrection on the follo,ing Sunday morning .8atthe, 28:1; 8ark 16:2; 1 See 2onnie 2lackburn and LeofrancEolford-Streven , The Oxford Companion to the Year: An Exploration of Calendar Customs and Time-Reckoning .O/ford: O/ford Univer ity Pre , 19990, 815-816; 8arco J. 8onte , “The Orthodo/ Eccle ia tical Calendar,A http://,,,. mart.net/Hmmonte /orthea t.html; 2orgna 2runner, “A Tale of T,o Ea ter ,A http://,,,.factmon ter.com/ pot/ea ter1.html; A tronomical Society of South Au tralia, “Calculate the Iate of Ea ter Sunday,Ahttp ://,,,.a a.org.au/edm. 2 On the que tion of the preci e date of Je u ’ crucifi/ion, ee Steven L. Ware, When Was Jesus Really ,orn-: Early Christianity, the Calendar, and the .ife of Jesus .Saint Loui : Concordia, 20130, C4-CC; Andre, E. Steinmann, /rom A0raham to Paul: A ,i0lical Chronology .Saint Loui : Concordia, 20110, 261, 288. Cracking168 The Code of Easter K 1 2te en .. Ware JURNAL) JAFFRAY, Vol. 13, No. 2, Oktober 2015 169 Luke 24:1; John 20:10.What ,ould then appear to many a Chri tian a the imple an ,er to thi dilemma i to di cern ,hether it i Orthodo/ Chri tian or We tern Chri tian ,ho have follo,ed the 2iblical pattern of imply celebrating Je u ’ re urrection on the Sunday follo,ing Pa over. To their di may, ho,ever, they ,ill di cover that the matter i only complicated till further, a in ome year Pa over occur directly before Orthodo/ Ea ter, in ome year directly before We tern Ea ter, in ome year directly before both Ea ter , and in ome year no,here clo e to either of them. Whence thi confu ion of date and the method of computing them from one year to the ne/t1 The imple yet many- ided an ,er i that the annual date of Pa over, Orthodo/ Ea ter, and We tern Ea ter flo, according to three different 8etonic cycle . Furthermore, it i the contention of thi author that the 8etonic cycle i a mo t fruitful avenue for under tanding the calendrical relation hip bet,een the e fe tival , a ,ell a the hi torical evolution of that relation hip. In order to under tand the definition, hi torical gene i , and dynamic of the 8etonic Cycle, a ,ell a it effect on the relative date of Pa over and both Ea ter , ,e hall begin ,ith the ancient calendrical under tanding of Pa over. Passove One of the fir t indication of calendrical con ciou ne among the ancient Eebre, i found in God’ command to 8o e in preparation for the fir t Pa over: “Thi month i to be for you the fir t month, the fir t month of your yearA .E/odu 12:20. A fe, ver e later God commanded that at t,ilight on the fourteenth day of the ame month each family ,a to acrifice a year-old male lamb, pread it blood on the door,ay of their home , and roa t and eat the lamb that evening. The blood of the lamb on their door,ay ,a of cour e their a urance that the plague of death ,hich ,a to trike every hou ehold in Egypt that night ,ould “pa overA them. That month ,a Abib .Aviv0, ,hich later became kno,n a Ni an, and 14 Ni an ha been celebrated ever after by Je, ,orld,ide a their day of divine deliverance from ervitude to the Egyptian . So ,hen i 14 Ni an1 And ho, doe it relate to the We tern .Gregorian0 calendar mo t of u are accu tomed to u ing mo t of the time1 Like the earlie t calendar of almo t every ancient civiliJation, the Je,i h calendar ,a Band till i Ba lunar-ba ed calendar. A in other early agrarian ocietie , mo t ancient Eebre, ,ere non-literate. Thi i not to pre ume ignorance upon our ance tor , of cour e, but to recogniJe that opportunitie for learning ,ere much more limited in ancient 1C0168 JURNAL JAFFRAY, Vol. 13, No. 2, Oktober 2015 ocietie . Since mo t of them ,ere non-literate, they ,ere ome,hat dependent upon the literate elite among local or regional authoritie for keeping an accurate calendar for planting and harve t time , a ,ell a for ta/ation and cheduling of religiou celebration . From an early date, the literati of nearly every ancient civiliJation calculated the lunar cycle .moonth, or month0 at appro/imately 29.5 day in length.
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