Problems with Nisan in Christianity The Council of Nicaea adopted a formula for the determination of the Paschal month or Nisan. The Roman system had been keeping a sequence for the determination which was based on a system of calculation that differed from the East and was based on an eighty-two-year cycle rather than the nineteen-year cycle observed in Syria and the East. The British Christians were alleged to have also used this system (according to Krusch, cf. Cath. Encyc., art. ‘Easter,’ Vol. V, p. 229). Those in Gaul had adopted a five hundred and thirty-two year cycle of Victorius (ibid.). The Alexandrians were given charge of the calendar from Nicaea, but Rome did not always stay in step from their long cycle, which they also attribute to the Britons (and probably incorrectly, to avoid their being Quartodecimans; cf. Joseph Schmid Die Osterfestberechnung auf den britischen Inseln, 1904, cf. Cath. Encyc., ibid.; cf. the paper The Quartodeciman Disputes (No. 277)). After Nicaea, they were out of step with Alexandria on the matter of Easter in the years 326, 330, 333, 340, 341 and 343. The Romans also differed from the Greeks in the observance of Easter. They did not celebrate Easter the next day when the full moon fell on the Saturday. The problem was not resolved with the East for some decades. The result was that the variation affected the simplicity of the determination of the month of Nisan and thus the holding of the Passover or the later observance of the pagan festival of Easter.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:37:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015