Our Calendar The Julian Calendar and Its Errors. How Corrected by the Gregorian |
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| Author:
| Packer, George |
| ISBN: | 978-1-4912-3012-1 |
| Publication Date: | Jul 2013 |
| Publisher: | CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
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| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | USD $6.99 |
Book Description:
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PREFACE - TO THE REVISED EDITION. SOON after the publication of the former edition of this work, it was suggested that a chapter be added on Easter; rules for fixing its date, and also church festivals that depended upon the date of Easter. It was suggested that this would add very much to the value of the work, if so presented as to be brought within the comprehension of ordinary minds. Knowing that the determination of Easter was an affair of considerable nicety...
More Description PREFACE - TO THE REVISED EDITION.
SOON after the publication of the former edition of this work, it was suggested that a chapter be added on Easter; rules for fixing its date, and also church festivals that depended upon the date of Easter. It was suggested that this would add very much to the value of the work, if so presented as to be brought within the comprehension of ordinary minds. Knowing that the determination of Easter was an affair of considerable nicety and complication, and had had the attention of our best minds, and they had failed so to present it, that even among scholarly men, probably not one in a hundred was able to determine its date without referring to tables prepared for that purpose the author of this work felt as though he was hardly competent for the task. Nevertheless it was undertaken, and the work has been revised and enlarged by a Chapter on the Peculiarities of the Roman Calendar, another on fixing the date of events prior to the Christian era, and a third part on Easter, church festivals, and the Hebrew Calendar. In the opinion of the author, the rules for determining the date of Easter are so simplified by his new method that any person of ordinary intelligence may understand them. How well he has succeeded the public will decide.
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An excerpt from the beginning of Part III, Chapter V. - EASTER:
Easter. The English name is probably derived from Ostera or Eostre, the Teutonic goddess of spring, whose festival occurred about the same time of the year as the celebration of Easter. The Hebrew-Greek word Pascha has passed into the name given to this feast by most Christian nations. This festival is held in commemoration of our Lord''s resurrection.
The Jews celebrated their passover, in conformity with the directions given them by Moses, on the 14th day of the month Nisan, being the lunar month of which the 14th day either falls on or next follows the day of the vernal equinox. In the year of our Lord''s crucifixion this fell on a Friday; the resurrection, therefore, took place on the first day of the week, which from thence is denominated the Lord''s Day.
The primitive Christians, in celebrating this anniversary, fell into two different systems. The Western churches observed the nearest Sunday to the full moon of Nisan, taking no account of the day on which the passover would be celebrated. The Asiatics, on the other hand, following the Jewish calendar, adopted the 14th of Nisan upon which to commemorate the crucifixion, and observed the festival of Easter on the third day following, upon whatever day of the week that might fall, hence they obtained the name of Quartodecimans, (from quarto, four, and decem, ten,) the fourteenth day men. The former appealed to the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, the latter to that of St. John.
The dispute which took place upon this point in the second and third centuries of our era is remarkable, as connected with perhaps the first event which can be brought to bear upon the question of the primacy of the Roman bishop; and it is the more interesting as both parties are accustomed to claim it as a testimony in favor of their own views. Victor, bishop of Rome, wrote an imperious letter to the Asiatic bishops, requiring their conformity to the Western rule...
Such continued to be the practice till the time of Constantine, when the Council of Nice determined the matter by the following Canons:
a-Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday.
b-This Sunday must follow the 14th day of the paschal moon, so that if the 14th day of the paschal moon fall on a Sunday, then Easter must be celebrated on the Sunday following.
c-The paschal moon is that moon of which the 14th day either falls on or next follows the day of the vernal equinox.
d-The 21st of March is to be accounted the day of the vernal equinox.