Early Christian Beliefs About Pascha and Easter

Methodius, Concerning Free Will Direct teaching

...s public ministry, He did not eat of the lamb. Instead, He Himself suffered as the true Lamb in the Paschal feast, as John, the divine and evangelist, teaches us in the Gospel written by him, where he says this: "Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the judgment hall. And it was early. And they themselves did not go into the judgment hall, so that they would not be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover." John 18:28 And after a few more things: "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out, and sat down in the judgment seat, in a place that is called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the third hour," as the correct books render it, and as the copy itself that was written by the hand of the evangelist says, which, by the divine grace, has been preserved in the most holy church of Ephesus, and is there adored by the faithful. And again the same evangelist says: "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, so that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath day was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away

Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching

Lastly, the slaying of the lamb by those very persons who perform it is called the paschal feast, from the word paschein, because it is a figure of the passion, which God, foreknowing the future, delivered by Moses to be celebrated by His people.

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching

...amined the Gospels to determine how many times after His baptism the Lord went to Jerusalem for the Passover, as was the custom for Jews from every land to gather there each year to celebrate it. First, after turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee, He went to the Passover, and it is written, "Many believed in Him when they saw the signs He did," as recorded by John, the disciple of the Lord. Then, withdrawing from Judea, He went to Samaria, and there He conversed with the Samaritan woman and cured the son of the centurion from a distance by saying, "Go, your son lives." Later, He went a second time to Jerusalem for the Passover, where He healed the paralytic man who had been lying by the pool for thirty-eight years, telling him to rise, take up his bed, and walk. Again, withdrawing to the other side of the Sea of Tiberias, seeing a large crowd had followed Him, He fed them all with five loaves of bread, and twelve baskets of leftovers were collected. When He raised Lazarus from the dead and the Pharisees plotted against Him, He withdrew to a city called Ephraim; and from there, it is written, "He came to Bethany six days before the Passover," and from Bethany went to Jerusal

Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Direct teaching

...he day of His passion, Moses was not unaware, and he foretold it in a symbolic manner by naming the Passover; and during that very festival, long ago proclaimed by Moses, our Lord suffered, thus fulfilling the Passover. Moses not only described the day but also the place and the time of day when the sufferings ended, and the sign of the setting of the sun, saying: “You may not sacrifice the passover within any other of your cities that the God gives you; but in the place which your God chooses for His name to be called on there, you shall sacrifice the passover in the evening, towards the setting of the sun.”

Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho Direct teaching

... He showed that He alone would save those who do not turn away from His faith. And the blood of the Passover, sprinkled on each man’s doorposts and lintel, saved those who were rescued in Egypt, when the firstborn of the Egyptians were destroyed. For the Passover was Christ, who was later sacrificed, as Isaiah also said, ‘He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.’ And it is written, that on the day of the Passover you seized Him, and also during the Passover you crucified Him. And just as the blood of the Passover saved those who were in Egypt, so also the blood of Christ will save from death those who have believed. Would God, then, have been wrong if this sign had not been placed above the doors? I do not say that; but I assert that He announced the future salvation for humanity in advance through the blood of Christ. For the sign of the scarlet thread, which the spies sent to Jericho by Joshua, son of Nun, gave to Rahab the harlot, instructing her to tie it to the window through which she let them down to escape from their enemies, also showed the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those who were once harlots and unrighteous people from all nations are saved, receiving f

Tertullian, Against Marcion Direct teaching

...fer, since the law foreshadows His passion. So, out of all the feast days of the Jews, He chose the Passover. Luke 22:1 In this, Moses had declared that there was a sacred mystery: "It is the Lord's Passover." Leviticus 23:5 How earnestly, then, He shows the bent of His soul: "With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Luke 22:15 What a destroyer of the law was this, who actually longed to keep its Passover! Could it be that He was so fond of Jewish lamb? Was it not because He had to be led like a lamb to the slaughter, and because, "as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He was not to open His mouth," Isaiah 53:7 that He so deeply wished to fulfill the symbol of His own redeeming blood? He might also have been betrayed by any stranger, if I did not find that even here too He fulfilled a Psalm: "He who ate bread with me has lifted up his heel against me." And He might have been betrayed without a price. For what need of a traitor was there in the case of One who offered Himself openly to the people, and might just as easily have been captured by force as taken by treachery? No doubt this might have been well enough for another Christ, but it w

Methodius, Concerning Free Will Direct teaching

... people of Israel rightly kept the fourteenth day of the first lunar month and celebrated on it the Passover of the law. Therefore, when the holy prophets, and all those who, as I have said, walked rightly and justly in the law of the Lord, together with the whole people, celebrated a symbolic and shadowy Passover, the Creator and Lord of every visible and invisible creature, the only-begotten Son, and the Word co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and of the same substance with them according to His divine nature, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, in the last age of the world, was born according to the flesh from our holy and glorious Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, truly from Mary the Mother of God. And when He was seen on earth, and truly and really lived as a man among men who were of the same substance as He was according to His human nature, He Himself also, with the people, in the years before His public ministry and during His public ministry, celebrated the legal and shadowy Passover, eating the symbolic lamb. For the Savior Himself said in the Gospel, "I came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them."

Methodius, Fragments Direct teaching

The typical Passover, therefore, then ceased, the true Passover being present: For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us, as has been before said, and as that chosen vessel, the apostle Paul, teaches.

Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching

for even Christ our passover is sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:7 Background

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

1 Corinthians 5:8 Background

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

John 18:28 Background

Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.

Commodianus, Writings Direct teaching

They will gather together at Easter, that most blessed day of ours. Let those rejoice who ask for divine feasts. Let enough be spent on them for wine and food. Look back to the source from which these things may be told on your behalf. You are lacking in a gift to Christ, in moderate expenditure. Since you yourselves do not do it, how can you persuade such people of the righteousness of the law, even once in the year? Thus blasphemy often suggests such things to many concerning you.

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

...a meeting of many, I will do this when the time is right. For now, during the first celebrations of Easter, almost all of them are staying at home with their brothers. When they have finished the solemn observance to be celebrated among their own people, and have begun to come to me, I will consider the matter more fully with each one. Then a settled judgment on the subject you have asked me about, weighed in the council of many priests, may be established among us and written to you. I bid you, dearest brothers, a heartfelt farewell always.

Cyprian, Epistles Direct teaching

... a subdeacon. By the general advice of all, we had already placed them next to the clergy, since on Easter Day we had entrusted the reading to Saturus more than once. And while, together with the teaching presbyters, we were carefully testing readers, we appointed Optatus from among the readers to be a teacher of the hearers, first examining whether everything proper was found in them, as ought to be found in those being prepared for clerical office. Therefore, nothing new has been done by me in your absence. Rather, what had been begun by the general advice of all of us has now, because of urgent necessity, been completed. I bid you, beloved brothers, a heartfelt farewell always; and remember me. Farewell.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

But as After the Festival of Easter There Would Be a Council of Bishops with Him, He Would Then Consider the Matter with Them.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Direct teaching

...pletely uninstructed in knowledge, and more quarrelsome than usual, join together in insisting that Easter must be kept on the fourteenth day of the first month, according to the commandment of the law, whatever day of the week it falls on. But in this they pay attention only to what is written in the law: that he will be accursed who does not keep the commandment in the way it is ordered. However, they do not consider this fact: the legal command was made for the Jews, who in later times would kill the true Passover. And this Passover sacrifice, in its power, has spread to the Gentiles and is understood by faith, and is not now observed merely by the letter. They pay attention to this one commandment, and do not look to what has been spoken by the apostle: "For I testify to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to keep the whole law." Galatians 5:3. In all other respects, however, these agree with all the traditions handed down to the Church by the Apostles.

Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness

any one may know also from the fact, that concerning the celebration of Easter, and concerning many other sacraments of divine matters, he may see that there are some diversities among them, and that all things are not observed among them alike, which are observed at Jerusalem, just as in very many other provinces also many things are varied because of the difference of the places and names.

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Direct teaching

How those are mistaken who argue that Easter should be kept on the fourteenth day.

Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus Background

Now this custom took its rise from apostolic times, as the blessed Irenæus, the martyr and bishop of Lyons, declares in his treatise On Easter, in which he makes mention of Pentecost also;

Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness

...lly perfected in understanding a mystery, is a new and not outdated feast, legal and everlasting, a Passover of the Lord God kept through our generations by those who are able to discern this mystery, at the beginning of the fourteenth day, which, he says, is the beginning of a decade from which they count. For the monad, up to fourteen, is the summary of that one small stroke of the perfect number. For one, two, three, and four become ten, and this is the one small stroke. But from fourteen to twenty-one, he says there is a Hebdomad contained in the one small stroke of the world, and it makes an unleavened creature in all these. For in what way, he says, would the one small stroke need any substance such as leaven from outside for the Lord's Passover, the eternal feast, which is given from generation to generation? For the whole world and all the causes of creation make up a passover, that is, a feast of the Lord. For God rejoices in the conversion of the creation, and this is brought about by ten strokes of the one small stroke. And this small stroke is Moses' rod, which God gave into Moses' hand. And with this rod Moses strikes the Egyptians in order to alter bodies, for exam

Anonymous, Treatise on Re-Baptism Background

...ong prudent and faithful men, if it is judged to be against the ancient, memorable, and most solemn observance of all those holy and faithful men who have deserved well, ought certainly to be condemned. For when a matter has once been arranged and ordained, whatever is brought forward against the quiet and peace of the Church will result in nothing but discords, strifes, and schisms. And in this no other fruit can be found except this alone: that one man, whoever he is, should be vain-gloriously declared among certain fickle men to be of great prudence and constancy. And, gifted with the arrogance of heretics, whose only consolation in destruction is not to seem to sin alone, he should be renowned among those most like and agreeable to himself, as having corrected the errors and vices of all the churches. For this is the desire and purpose of all heretics: to frame as many slanders of this kind as possible against our most holy mother the Church, and to think it a great glory to have discovered anything that can be charged against her as a crime, or even as a folly. And since it becomes no faithful man of sound mind to dare to hold such a view, especially no one ordained in any

Irenaeus, Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus Background

...ime—it began long ago with our predecessors. Some of them probably, not being very precise in their observance, passed down the custom to future generations as it was, through simplicity or personal preference. Yet, despite this, all of them lived in peace with one another, and we also maintain peace together. Thus, the difference in observing the fast fosters the harmony of our shared faith. The presbyters before Soter who led the Church you now govern—namely, Anicetus, Pius, Hyginus, Telesphorus, and Sixtus—neither observed it in that manner themselves nor allowed those with them to do so. Despite this, those who did not observe the feast in this way remained at peace with those from other dioceses where it was practiced, even though such observance was more strongly opposed by those who did not conform to it; and no one was ever expelled from the Church over this issue. On the contrary, the presbyters who came before you and did not observe this custom sent the Eucharist to those in other dioceses who did. When the blessed Polycarp visited Rome during the time of Anicetus, even though a minor controversy arose over certain other points, they were immediately well disposed tow

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

XVII. It is therefore your duty, brethren, who are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, to observe the days of the passover exactly, with all care, after the vernal equinox, lest you be obliged to keep the memorial of the one passion twice in a year.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

8. If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon shall celebrate the holiday of the passover before the vernal equinox with the Jews, let him be deprived.

Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Direct teaching

...ht at once to begin their festival joy and gladness. But in what you wrote to me, you showed very clearly, and with an intelligent understanding of the Holy Scriptures, that they do not seem to give any exact statement of the hour when He rose. For the Evangelists describe differently the people who came one after another to the tomb, and all declare that they found the Lord already risen. Matthew says it was at the end of the Sabbath. John writes that it was early, while it was still dark. Luke says it was very early in the morning. Mark tells us it was very early in the morning, at the rising of the sun. So no one has shown us clearly the exact time when He rose. It is admitted, however, that those who came to the tomb at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, found that He was no longer lying in it. And let us not suppose that the Evangelists disagree or contradict one another. Even if there seems to be some small difficulty in the matter we are asking about, they all agree that the Light of the world, our Lord, rose on that one night, though they differ about the hour. So we may rightly try, with a wise and faithful mind, to bring their

Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Direct teaching

However, it will be acknowledged cordially by all, that from the date of the resurrection of our Lord, those who up to that time have been humbling their souls with fastings, ought at once to begin their festal joy and gladness.

Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching

Luke 22:19 and thenceforward leave off your fasting, and rejoice, and keep a festival, because Jesus Christ, the pledge of our resurrection, is risen from the dead.

Luke 24:1 Background

Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.

Mark 16:2 Background

And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.