If Jesus lived out the meaning of the Sabbath day, and revealed the shadow of things to come through the annual festivals, then why aren't these customs a part of traditional Christianity today? Did Christianity, in the ancient world, lose its God-given festival heritage when it disassociated itself from the Jews? In part one of this series, we briefly examined the teachings of Jesus, Paul and the gnostics of his day in regards to the weekly Sabbath and annual festivals. In part two, let's examine the historical accounts of the times following the New Testament until the council of Nicaea, and uncover the philosophical and political movements that reshaped the celebrations of Jesus and His apostles.

In the eastern provinces of Rome, especially before A.D. 125, there lay “centuries of ill-feeling between Greek and Jews” which displayed in “malicious mischief and characterizations of Jewish beliefs” by the Greeks (MacMullen, Paganism and Christianity: 100-425 C.E. A Sourcebook, p. 152-153). The most contentious points between Jews and Greeks were predominantly in Roman cities—yet the most hostile events transpired in Alexandria, Egypt (an eastern province of Rome).

Here, in Alexandria, a Jewish philosopher named Philo (a contemporary to the time of Jesus and the apostles) made sense of the world by syncretizing the Hebrew Scriptures with the allegorical principles of Platonic Greek philosophy. Plato believed the physical aspects of the world were a shadow of a higher actualized form. As the gospel spread into the Greco-Roman world, these allegorical and Greek philosophical concepts—alongside the growing antisemitism of their day—reformed the practices, teachings and customs of the post-apostolic Church.

Epistle of Barnabas

During the second century there was a flood of forgery gospels, heretical letters and false accounts of Jesus and His followers that circulated among the early Church. One of the most influential writings in “proto-orthodox Christianity’’ was a fraudulent letter in the name of Barnabas (who had ministered with the apostle Paul), written around A.D. 130 (Ehrman, Lost Scriptures, p. 219). We know that some congregations erroneously “regarded it as part of the New Testament canon” and put stock in “its basic thrust … that Judaism is, and always has been, a false religion” (Ehrman).

One section of this letter described Genesis’ account of creation as something not literal, but rather an allegorical picture of Jesus’ role in human history. In this picture, humanity would exist for 6,000 years (the symbol of the six days of creation) and in the last 1,000 years Jesus would reign on earth (the symbol of the seventh-day Sabbath rest). Then, the author determined that since God hated the Sabbaths, new moons and festivals of the Jews (who had belonged to the theocratic nation of Israel), He would “make a beginning of an eighth day, which is the beginning of another world” (“Letter of Barnabas,” Ehrman, p. 232). And therefore, since the apostles discovered Jesus’ empty tomb on a Sunday morning, this eighth day should displace the practice of the seventh-day Sabbath and annual festivals.

Interestingly enough, the Sabbath and the annual fall festival known as the Feast of Tabernacles do represent a millennial reign of Christ as the author of this letter mentions. Likewise, the festival known as the Eighth Day, which follows immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles, represents the time of the resurrection of the “dead small and great,” all who have never had a chance to accept Christ as Savior (Revelation 20:12). After this time of judgment God will make a new heaven and new earth. The very early Church understood these festivals, and how they had substance in Christ and were shadows of future realities like Paul had said. However, this interpretation of the creation account in regards to the resurrection of Jesus and the annual festivals was not part of the teachings of the early apostles. In fact, the book of Hebrews (which is believed to be written by Paul—though some have argued it was written by the actual Barnabas) commands: “While the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it…[because] there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:1, 9, English Standard Version).

Keeping the rule of faith

Yet, by A.D. 155-160, many had already adopted Sunday worship as their new tradition and as a demonstration of Jesus’ rejection of the Jewish people (and acceptance of Christians) as the people of God. But this proposition had created a false dichotomy in the minds of believers, because Christians were still celebrating the Passover in connection with the annual spring festivals. So, if Sunday was the new rule of faith, then should a Christian still celebrate the Passover according to the biblical lunar calendar as the Jews?

In A.D. 155, around 50 years after the apostle John died, Anicetus (who was a bishop in the western church) and Polycarp (who was a bishop in the eastern church) disputed with one another over this issue. In A.D. 180, Irenaeus explains in a letter that Polycarp could not persuade Anicetus to celebrate the Passover on the 14th of the Hebrew calendar because Anicetus felt compelled to keep the traditions given to him by his elders in Rome (to celebrate it on a Sunday). He wrote: “Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp to forego the observance [of Passover on the 14th of the Hebrew calendar] inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of our Lord and by [the] other apostles with whom he had been [associated with]” (A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, 1998, “Paschal Controversy,” p. 500).

Still, a few decades later in A.D. 190, Polycrates (the eastern bishop in Ephesus), wrote to Victor the First (the western bishop in Rome) a defense for their celebrations of Passover and Unleavened Bread according to the biblical calendar which nearly got him and the eastern church excommunicated from the western church in Rome.

He wrote: “As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries have gone to their rest, who shall rise again in the day of the coming of the Lord…These all kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in accordance with the Gospel, without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of faith…[Having] always observed the day when the people put away the leaven…I myself…[have] read through all Holy Scripture, [and] am not frightened at the things which are said to terrify [threaten] us. For those who are greater than I have said, ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’” (“Paschal Controversy,” p. 500).

Although Victor the First was unsuccessful in excommunicating Polycrates and the eastern church for not conforming to their new tradition established in Rome, he did declare that a Sunday worship of Passover would be the official practice and tradition of the West, regardless of the biblical calendar. Consequently, those who “had preserved the most ancient and apostolic custom…had become heretics simply by being behind the times” (Chadwick; The Early Church; p. 85).

“My appointed Feasts,” says the Lord

When Emperor Constantine took on Christianity as the official religion of Rome, he implemented this antisemitic predisposition in regards to this festival. In a letter to the churches after the council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, he wrote:

“It was resolved [that] this feast ought to be kept by all and in every place on one and the same day…[For it is] 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…[Therefore], let us have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd…let us with one consent adopt this course, and withdraw ourselves from all participation in their baseness…[For] how should they be capable of forming a sound judgment, who [in] their parricidal guilt [slayed] their Lord” (Eusebius, The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine 3:17-18, p. 128).

Consequently, with one tradition for the global church strengthening his empire, any dissenting opinions and practices would have been a threat to his authority. Additionally, these newly adopted traditions of Christianity had created a seamless bond between the Christian faith and the religiously pagan world of Rome. So, as the Passover fell near the Spring Equinox and celebration of the fertility goddess Ishtar, the celebrations of Christians and pagans could be morphed into one practice of Easter. As the birth of the sun god, Mithras, was on Dec. 25 near the Winter Solstice, so also could Christianity adopt its pagan traditions as a celebration of the birth of Jesus. A multicultural Roman could worship the sun god Mithras each Sunday, and also worship Jesus, without ever having to disassociate from any pagan form of worship. Thus, the blended traditions of paganism and Christianity have continued throughout history, and continue to resist the Sabbaths and annual festivals that were founded by Jesus.

When Jesus spoke to the nation of Israel long ago, He said in regard to the weekly and annual Sabbaths, that “These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies” (Leviticus 23:1-2, New International Version). These Sabbaths and annual festivals have never belonged to the Jews; they have always belonged to Jesus Christ and the people of God. He is their substance, the highest authority on how they should be practiced, and the One who will bring forth their ultimate reality out of their shadows of things to come.

So, let us not forsake these sacred festivals of the Lord. Let us celebrate His sacred assemblies, in honor of the One whom they represent—Jesus our High Priest and King. And let us never face a day when Jesus might yet again say to the people of God, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandments of God and hold [on] to the traditions of men” (Mark 7:6-8, ESV).

For more information on the Christian significance of the Sabbath and annual festivals, follow the links below: Sunset to Sunset: God's Sabbath Rest and God's Holy Day Play: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.

References:

Bercot, David W. “Paschal Controversy.” A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, Hendrickson, Peabody, MA, 2012, p. 500.

Ehrman, Bart D. “The Letter of Barnabas.” Lost Scriptures, Oxford Univ. Press, 2003, p. 219.

MacMullen, Ramsay. Paganism and Christianity: 100-425 C.E.: A Sourcebook, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 1992, p. 178-179.

Pamphilus, Eusebius. “Constantine’s Letter to the Churches Respecting the Council at Nicea.” The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine 3:17-18, p. 128. as reproduced in Ecclesiastical History, the Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, from 306 to 337 A.D., Samuel Bagster and Sons, London, 1845.

Chadwick, Henry; The Early Church; Pelican; London, 1967; p. 85