Page 32 - BV3

MONTH, namely, THE 1ST, 7TH, 14TH, 22ND, AND 30TH, as times to be observed by
abstinence from all worldly business...These precepts are no longer observed; in fact,
their very existence is unknown to most Parsis at the present day. See D.F. Karaka, His-
tory of the Parsis, London, 1884, i, 132 sqq. (Rest Days: A Study in Early Law and Mo-
rality. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1916. Footnote p. 166).

In the early centuries of the Christian era many Christians became confused over the proper
date for Passover. This is made clear by the early 5th century church historian Socrates Scholasti-
cus (born circa 379 A.D. in Constantinople) in his Ecclesiastical History --

...In Asia Minor most people kept the fourteenth day of the moon, DISREGARDING
THE SABBATH: yet they never separated from those who did otherwise, until Victor,
bishop of Rome, influenced by too ardent a zeal, fulminated a sentence of excommunica-
tion against the Quartodecimans in Asia. Wherefore also Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in
France, severely censured Victor by letter for his immoderate heat; telling him that al-
though the ancients differed in their celebration of Easter [Passover], they did not desist
from intercommunion. Also that Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who afterwards suffered
martyrdom under Gordian, continued to communicate with Anicetus bishop of Rome, al-
though he himself, according to the usage of his native Smyrna, kept Easter on the four-
teenth day of the moon, as Eusebius attests in the fifth book of his Ecclesiastical History.
While therefore some in Asia Minor observed the day above-mentioned, OTHERS IN
THE EAST KEPT THAT FEAST ON THE SABBATH INDEED, but differed as regards
the month. THE FORMER [those in Asia Minor] THOUGHT THE JEWS SHOULD BE
FOLLOWED, THOUGH THEY WERE NOT EXACT: the latter kept Easter [Passover]
after the equinox, REFUSING TO CELEBRATE WITH THE JEWS; "for," said they, "it
ought to be celebrated when the sun is in Aries, in the month called Xanthicus by the An-
tiochians, and April by the Romans." In this practice, they averred, THEY CONFORM-
ED NOT TO THE MODERN JEWS, WHO ARE MISTAKEN IN ALMOST EVERY-
THING, BUT TO THE ANCIENTS, and to JOSEPHUS according to what he has writ-
ten in the third book of his Jewish Antiquities. Thus these people were at issue among
themselves. But all the other Christians in the Western parts, and as far as the ocean itself,
are found to have celebrated Easter after the equinox, from a very ancient tradition (book
5, chapter 22).

Notice here that the early Christians were sharply divided over the correct date for Passo-
ver. Two ideas were prevalent: (1) That Passover should be observed on the 14th day of the moon
while disregarding the lunar weekly Sabbath cycle. (This belief was based upon the premise that
"the Jews should be followed"). However, this idea was vigorously contested by (2) "Others in
the East [who] kept that feast ON THE SABBATH indeed, but differed as regards the [use of a
calendar based exclusively upon the whole moon] or month." "Based upon the Eastern practice,"
notes James Dwyer, "it was believed that the then Jews WERE NOT IN COMPLETE ADHER-
ENCE WITH MORE ANCIENT JEWISH PRACTICES" (A New Look at the Christian
Sabbath).

"Essentially," continues Dwyer, "one group adhered to the practice of current Jews (which
was the determination of Passover by the 14th day of the Moon, and by a strictly lunar-based

32