What This Year’s Early Easter Date Tell Us about Early Christianity

The bright moon this morning provoked a conversation in which my daughter asked a telling question that reveals a lot about early Christianity.

The date of Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox. This year, the Vernal Equinox was March 20 (it is often on March 21). The full moon was March 23. The Sunday following is March 27. So we have an early Easter this year.

There is a logic to the date of Easter. Jesus was crucified on Passover, which is the fourteenth of Nissan, which is the month of spring (hence the Vernal Equinox). Nissan, like other months of the Jewish calendar, is a lunar month starting on the new moon. The fourteenth is thus the date of the full moon. The Resurrection was the Sunday following the crucifixion. 

On the calendar that we use, the Roman calendar, the date of Eastern changes from year to year. My daughters question was: “Didn’t they record the date of the Resurrection?”

The answer is that that they did, but they recorded it in the Jewish calendar, not the Roman calendar. The earliest Christians were all Jews or converts from Judaism. It was only later that the Christians started accepting converts from Gentiles, such as Greeks and Romans. So the early Christians recorded the date of the Resurrection according to the date on the Jewish lunar calendar, not the Roman solar calendar.

Starting in the second century, there was a controversy in Christianity between those that wanted to celebrate Easter on the 14th of Nissan (following the gospel of John) and those who wanted to celebrate it on Sunday and so the Sunday following (following the gospel of Matthew). The Easter controversy was not ostensibly settled until the fourth century.

There are only two Christian Holy Days that follow a Jewish calendar, that thus go back to the earliest period of Christian history. Both commemorate the Resurrection. Those Holy Days are Easter, and the Lord’s Day (Sunday). All the other Christian Holy Days follow the Roman calendar (including Christmas) and are thus later.

So, what we learn about early Christianity is that the Resurrection was the only event commemorated; it was memorialized in two Holy Days, Easter and the Lord’s Day. The dates of these events were recorded in the Jewish calendar, which was the one that the earliest Christians used.

Merry Christmas

I hope on this Christmas day that you are spending time with your family and thinking about Jesus rather than surfing the internet.

No Room for an Inn Again This Year

[I published this last year, but it seems appropriate to publish it again.]

An entire folk tradition has sprung up based on the translation of Luke 2:7 which explains that Jesus was laid in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn” (KJV). The King James translators did not invent the phrase. Tyndale rendered the passage as “because there was no roume for them within, in the hostrey.” Both translations match the Vulgate, which says “non erat locus in diversorio” and a diversorium is an inn. Thus nativity plays will often include an innkeeper and his wife and other parts derived from this particular phrase in the scripture. Sometimes in flights of artistic fantasy Joseph wanders from inn to inn seeking lodging only to find them all full. Bethlehem was a small town when Jesus was born. How many inns did they have? In the scriptural accounts, it is in the singular; Bethlehem could not have had more than one. One suspects it did not have that many.

But there is something wrong here. Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem because of the need to register for the census which was made for taxation purposes (Luke 2:1). If it was simply a matter of registering for the poll tax, the tax that Rome levied on its subjects simply for drawing breath, then they could register wherever they were. They could certainly register in Nazareth without having to travel to Bethlehem. The reason that they would have to register in Bethlehem is if they owned property there.[1] But if they owned property in Bethlehem, why were they staying in an inn?

The Greek word translated as “inn” is καταλύματι, the dative form of καταλύμα. What is a καταλύμα? It “designates the residence of the king or the general when he is staying outside” his normal residence.[2] It can also refer to an assigned lodging for a soldier or functionary.[3] It can also refer to an inn.[4] Thus a καταλύμα is “a lodging where one goes, where one stays for a time. The temporary character is constant.”[5]

Thus the word designates wherever Joseph and Mary were staying temporarily. Since Joseph either wholly or partly owned property, he would have either been staying with the relatives who occupied the property (in the case of part ownership) or with the tenants who were renting (in the case of whole ownership). As houses tended to be on the small side, the couple perhaps might have felt that there was more privacy with the animals. By the time the wise men visited, they were back in the house (Matthew 2:11).

A careful reading of the nativity story indicates that there is no room for an inn.

---

[1] Sherman L. Wallace, Taxation in Egypt from Augustus to Diocletian (New York: Greenwood Press, 1937), 98-104.

[2] Geneviève Husson, OIKIA: le vocabulaire de la maison privée en Égypte d’après les papyrus grecs (Paris: La Sorbonne, 1983), 133.

[3] Husson, OIKIA, 134.

[4] Husson, OIKIA, 134-35.

[5] Husson, OIKIA, 135.

In Memory of the Fallen

Memorial Day was originally started to remember and honor the casualties of war. There are, however, other kinds of casualties and I would like to honor some of them today. So far as I know they are all still alive, and I am grateful to have been associated with them:

Steve Booras
In 2003 Steve and I spent three weeks working together in Ireland. He had a good photographic eye, a good knowledge of the equipment, and a good way with people. He was always gracious. One could always count on Steve to quietly and efficiently do whatever he was asked. He would always deflect the credit; in Ireland he acted as though he was my assistant, though it was really the other way around.

Alison Coutts
Alison is a superb editor and an even better administrator. She could always be relied upon for an honest and candid opinion. She was fiercely defensive of those who worked under her. She could also get things done; she would pick up the slack and put in extra time, doing whatever menial task was necessary (indexing, typesetting, copy editing, running errands) to get the project done on time. She was a real pleasure to work with.

Dan Peterson
Witty, polished, and prolific, Dan Peterson has been a close friend of mine for over a quarter of a century. I cannot think of anyone who has worked harder on the projects he cared about. He has wide interests and is effective at fitting details into the big picture. He takes time to listen to others and is willing to consider and think through even unusual ideas. He is unfailingly articulate and genuinely charitable.

George Mitton
George is gentle and polished. He has an immense capacity to wade through nonsense knowing full well that it is nonsense. Unfailingly kind, he is genuinely concerned about and interested in what others are up to. He is also very wise about how to approach sensitive topics. I have never regretted following his advice.

Greg Smith
Greg reminds me in many ways of the great Thomas Young. Like Young he is a physician, and like Young his interests and contributions stretch beyond medicine. He has a great capacity for work. He has read whatever I sent him and responded quickly and thoughtfully. He also has a great capacity for compassion which is good in both a physician and a person.

Robert White
I had only a few encounters with Robert White, but it is hard not to be impressed. The author of at least four standard textbooks, he has an impressive list of academic credentials. Although he is a kind an gracious person, since he is also a Queen's Council, and a formidable opponent, I would dread being on the other side of an argument with him.

Lou Midgley
Another individual I would rather not argue with, Lou is a tenacious researcher who considers all sorts of angles before coming to a conclusion. He has also seen a great deal and dealt with copious amounts of nonsense over the years. Understandably, he has little patience for certain types of nonsense. He is surprisingly generous with his time. He is good for a two or three hour conversation if you bring up one of his favorite hobbies.

Dan McKinlay
For a number of years, Dan and I shared the cubicles in a trailer. There was essentially no privacy there. It was Dan's task to handle the many queries that came in. He spent a great deal of his time on the phone dealing with them. He invariably was well-informed, courteous and kind. In his spare time, Dan found the time to be the sixth most productive researcher at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute.

Paula Hicken
Paula was a quiet, efficient editor. She effectively did the many thankless tasks placed on her. If things were delayed, it was usually because someone up the line was not doing their work on time. She patiently dealt with a number of haughty authors and demanding superiors.

Paul Hoskisson
I have known Paul for at least a quarter of a century. He is surprisingly optimistic even when things give no reason for optimism. He plows ahead with projects that seem interminable and makes progress. He is a good editor who gives useful critiques and guides recalcitrant authors along constantly improving the essays on which he works. He is quietly productive. Having been a former student I appreciate him as a colleague.

I pay tribute to these great individuals for the work that they have done and the influence they have been in my life.

Valentine's Day

The earliest mention of Valentine's Day seems to be this one:

For this was on Saynt Valentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh there to chese his make,
Of every kynde that men thynke may,
And that so huge a noyse gan they make
That erthe, and eyr, and tre, and every lake
So ful was that unethe was there space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.
And right as Aleyn, in the Pleynt of Kynde,
Devyseth Nature of aray and face,
In swich aray men myghte hire there fynde.
This noble emperesse, ful of grace,
Bad every foul to take his owne place,
As they were woned alwey fro yer to yeere,
Seynt Valentynes day, to stonden there.
(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls, 309-322).

The whole poem is in praise of Valentine's Day and seems to be responsible for our current celebration. It is significant that except for the mention of Saint Valentine (309, 322, 386, 683) and an oath by Saint John (451), the poem is bereft of Christianity. Venus (260-273, 351, 652), Cupid (211-217, 652), Priapus (253-259) and other such beings of classical mythology are present and the convocation is convened by Nature.

My favorite lines, though, come earlier:

For out of olde feldes, as men seyth,
Cometh all this newe corn from yer to yere,
And out of olde bokes, in good feyth,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere.
(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls, 22-25).

And:

The day gan faylen, and the derke nyght,
That reveth bestes from here besynesse,
Berafte me my bok for lak of lyght,
And to my bed I gan me for to dresse,
Fulfyld of thought and busy hevynesse;
For bothe I hadde thyng which that I nolde,
And ek I ne hadde that thyng that I wolde.
(Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Fowls, 85-91).

Another Note on Khoiak

Part of the celebration of Khoiak was a large boat procession. If only Egyptian oars had paddles on both ends! Then they could have been Khoiaking.

Khoiak

The ancient Egyptians did not have Christmas but they did have a festival at this time of year that lasted most of the month. It was called the Khoiak festival. It coincided with both the winter solstice and the end of the inundation of the Nile and beginning of planting season. It celebrated the death of Osiris and the birth of Horus. For Egyptian Christians it commemorated the death of Abraham and the birth of Jesus.

Merry Christmas!

Surely you have something better to do on Christmas than reading blogs! Spend some time with your family!

If you are in a contemplative mood, contemplate what life would be like without Christ. Mosiah 16 can get you started.

Christmas Eve

In Duden's German etymological dictionary (p. 7), it very helpfully explains the reason for Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and All Hallows Eve:

Dieser Wortgebrauch erklärt sich daraus, daß nach der früher üblichen Zeiteinteilung der Tag mit der Nacht begann.

So in the old form of reckoning, Christmas Eve is properly part of Christmas.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas?

Somehow I expect that this was not one of Saint Nicholas's jollier moments.

A Passover Connection

One never knows where one might find insight into a scripture. Sometimes it is simply a matter of making an odd connection.

This connection deals with a side note on something I wrote about a a few years ago on the various versions of Leviticus 1-5. (Sorry, the pdf or print version will be necessary to follow the philological arguments.)

In the Septuagint version of the Chronicles account of the passover feast of Hezekiah it mentions more than once the peace offerings that were made (2 Chronicles 29:35; 30:22). Specifically it says:

And Hezekiah spoke to every heart of the Levites and of those who had a good understanding of the Lord, and they finished the feast of unleavened bread, seven days of offering "peace offerings" and confessing to the Lord God of their fathers (2 Chronicles 30:22 LXX).

The peace offerings, of course, are detailed in Leviticus 3. Two details strike me as significant in this passage.

1. The first is that the major offering of Passover was the so-called peace offering. 
2. The second is that the Septuagint does not call it the "peace offering." That is the translation the King James Version uses for the Hebrew of this term. The Septuagint calls it the θυσία σωτηρίου "the offering of salvation."

For early Greek-speaking Christians, whose version of the scriptures was the Septuagint, the connection of Jesus's death with the Passover would have made perfect sense. The major sacrifice associated with Passover was the sacrifice of salvation and Jesus offered his life to bring about salvation.

No Room for an Inn

An entire folk tradition has sprung up based on the translation of Luke 2:7 which explains that Jesus was laid in a manger “because there was no room for them in the inn” (KJV). The King James translators did not invent the phrase. Tyndale rendered the passage as “because there was no roume for them within, in the hostrey.” Both translations match the Vulgate, which says “non erat locus in diversorio” and a diversorium is an inn. Thus nativity plays will often include an innkeeper and his wife and other parts derived from this particular phrase in the scripture. Sometimes in flights of artistic fantasy Joseph wanders from inn to inn seeking lodging only to find them all full. Bethlehem was a small town when Jesus was born. How many inns did they have? In the scriptural accounts, it is in the singular; Bethlehem could not have had more than one. One suspects it did not have that many.

But there is something wrong here. Joseph and Mary came to Bethlehem because of the need to register for the census which was made for taxation purposes (Luke 2:1). If it was simply a matter of registering for the poll tax, the tax that Rome levied on its subjects simply for drawing breath, then they could register wherever they were. They could certainly register in Nazareth without having to travel to Bethlehem. The reason that they would have to register in Bethlehem is if they owned property there.[1] But if they owned property in Bethlehem, why were they staying in an inn?

The Greek word translated as “inn” is καταλύματι, the dative form of καταλύμα. What is a καταλύμα? It “designates the residence of the king or the general when he is staying outside” his normal residence.[2] It can also refer to an assigned lodging for a soldier or functionary.[3] It can also refer to an inn.[4] Thus a καταλύμα is “a lodging where one goes, where one stays for a time. The temporary character is constant.”[5]

Thus the word designates wherever Joseph and Mary were staying temporarily. Since Joseph either wholly or partly owned property, he would have either been staying with the relatives who occupied the property (in the case of part ownership) or with the tenants who were renting (in the case of whole ownership). As houses tended to be on the small side, the couple perhaps might have felt that there was more privacy with the animals. By the time the wise men visited, they were back in the house (Matthew 2:11).

A careful reading of the nativity story indicates that there is no room for an inn.

---

[1] Sherman L. Wallace, Taxation in Egypt from Augustus to Diocletian (New York: Greenwood Press, 1937), 98-104.

[2] Geneviève Husson, OIKIA: le vocabulaire de la maison privée en Égypte d’après les papyrus grecs (Paris: La Sorbonne, 1983), 133.

[3] Husson, OIKIA, 134.

[4] Husson, OIKIA, 134-35.

[5] Husson, OIKIA, 135.

Halloween

Perhaps one of the more neglected aspects of Halloween is that it is followed by All Saints Day or Hallow Day. It was originally a shortened version of All Hallow Even. All Saints Day, in turn, was a Christianized form of the Celtic New Year. It seems almost a shame that the Celtic artwork is no longer associated with the festivities.