SHOULD ADVENTISTS OBSERVE PASSOVER, EASTER, OR NEITHER OF THE TWO?
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Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,
Professor of Theology and Church History,
Andrews University


NOTE: In few weeks time most of the Christian world will observe
Easter, while the Jews and several seventh-day sabbathkeeping churches will
observe Passover few days earlier. Some Adventists churches are introducing
an Easter-Sunday morning service. I was invited to speak for an
Easter-Sunday Adventist service two years ago. This trend poses a question:
Should the Adventist church consider adopting an annual celebration of
Passover or of Easter in addition to the quarterly Lord's Supper? I have
addressed this question in my new book on GOD'S FESTIVALS IN SCRIPTURE AND
HISTORY. Here I am posting few brief excerpts from chapter 4. 

	Passover is the feast of redemption that spans both the Old and New
Testaments. Its observance continues in the Christian church with a new
meaning and ritual established by Christ Himself at His last Paschal
Supper. 
	A Prophetic Festival. A first indication of the continuity of
Passover in the Christian church is the prophetic nature of the festival
which celebrates the past, present, and future deliverance of God's people.
We have found that Passover is a remarkable typological feast which
celebrates the past fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant at the Exodus,
and yet it points to the future fulfillment of the Messianic ingathering of
all the nations. The deliverance from Egyptian bondage celebrated by the
Jewish Passover was a type of the Messianic redemption from the bondage of
sin which, in turn, is a promise of the final deliverance of the redeemed
from all the nations of the earth.
	We could say that Passover is commemorative, typical, and
prophetic. It is commemorative of the historic deliverance of God's people
from Egyptian bondage. It is typical of the Messianic deliverance of God's
people from the bondage of sin. It is prophetic of the final deliverance of
the great multitude of the redeemed out of all nations who "sing the song
of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Rev 15:3). 
	The prophetic nature of Passover is evident in the New Testament's
frequent allusions to the Exodus, the Paschal Lamb, the unleashing of the
plagues, the song of Moses, and the marriage supper of the Lamb. These
imageries show that the typology of Passover carries over from the Old to
the New Testament because the meaning and function of the feast did not
terminate with the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross as the true Paschal
Lamb. On the contrary, by offering up Himself on the Cross as the true
Paschal Lamb at the very time when the Passover lambs were slaughtered,
Christ gave a new realism to the feast. He made Passover commemorative, not
merely of the Israelites' deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, but
primarily of mankind's deliverance from the bondage of sin. Being a
commemoration of the Lamb that was slain to "ransom men for God from every
tribe and tongue and people and nation" (Rev 5:9), the Christian Passover
has a prophetic function to nourish the hope and to strengthen the faith in
the final deliverance of God's people. The fact that the ultimate
fulfillment of Passover still lies in the future, shows that Passover, like
the Sabbath, still remains for the people of God.

	A Sacrificial Festival. The second indication of the continuity of
Passover in the Christian Church is the sacrificial nature of the feast.
Feasts like Passover which are linked to the sacrificial system have been
viewed historically as ceremonial and typological, that is, of a temporary
nature that came to an end when Christ, the Antitype, died on the Cross.
This view is based on a one-sided interpretation of Scripture. Our study
shows that the temporary or permanent nature of Old Testament feasts is
determined not by the degree of their association with the sacrificial
system, but by the extent to which their typology carries over with new
meaning beyond the Cross. 
	Passover is a sacrificial feast that continues in the New Testament
because Christians eat their Passover sacrifice as do the Jews. The
difference is that Christians do not need to sacrifice a lamb to eat their
Passover because "Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Cor
5:7). Instead, Christians partake of the emblems of Christ's sacrifice, the
bread and wine. In other words, in the Jewish Passover, the people ate the
lamb which they had sacrificed; in the Christian Passover, believers,
through the emblems of the bread and wine, partake of the Paschal Lamb that
has already been sacrificed. 
	Christ's sacrifice as our Paschal Lamb, however, does not render
the celebration of Passover unnecessary. Christ Himself gave to the feast a
new meaning and ritual. The new meaning is the commemoration of deliverance
from the bondage of sin through Christ's death and the proclamation of His
future deliverance at His coming ("you proclaim the Lord's death until he
comes" 1 Cor 11:26); and the new ritual consists of the two elements of the
Passover meal, the bread and wine. Christ fulfilled the sacrificial
typology of the Passover, not by terminating the observance of the feast,
but by transforming it so that the festival could fittingly celebrate His
redemption from sin. 

	The Paschal Nature of the Last Supper. A third indication of the
continuity of Passover in the Christian church is the paschal nature of the
Last Supper. The Last Supper was not simply a farewell fellowship meal; it
was a special Passover meal during which Jesus instituted a new Passover to
commemorate His sacrificial death.
	The synoptic Gospels consistently speak of the Last Supper as "the
Passover." Jesus Himself declares: "I have earnestly desired to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer" (Luke 22:15 ). The phrase "to eat the
passover," which occurs again in Jesus' instructions to His disciples (Mark
14:15; Matt 26:18; Luke 22:11), refers exclusively to the Passover meal,
which was the essence of the celebration of the festival.
	We noted several positive indications both in the Synoptics and in the Gospel
of John which show that the Last Supper was a Passover meal, even though it
was unique in two major ways. First, it was celebrated a day earlier
because Jesus knew that He would be sacrificed as the true Paschal Lamb on
Passover day. Second, most likely it was celebrated without the paschal
lamb because Jesus wanted to institute a new Passover meal to commemorate
His redemption from sin. Instead of using the flesh and blood of a lamb, He
used bread and wine, the new symbols of His own body and blood, soon to be
offered "for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt 26:28). There was no need of a
lamb because the Lamb of God was there in Person, giving Himself as food
and offering for the sins of the world.
	If Christ had chosen the flesh and blood of the Passover lamb to
represent His atoning sacrifice, He would have perpetuated the sacrificial
system which was designed to come to an end with His death on the Cross
(Matt 27:51). By choosing the bread and wine (nonsacrificial elements of
the Passover meal) as the emblems of His atoning death, Jesus detached the
new Passover from the sacrificial system and transformed it into a fitting
memorial of His redemption. 
	The continuity of Passover is clearly envisaged by Christ's
statement that He desired to eat Passover with His disciples before His
death, "for I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment
in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:16, NIV). The statement "I will not eat it
again" suggests that Christ expected people to be eating the Passover meal
during His absence until the eschatological marriage supper of the Lamb
(Rev 19:9). Then He would partake of it again with the redeemed. The
implication is clear. Christ viewed His Last Supper with His disciples to
be a Passover meal whose observance would continue until His Return. The
present observance of Passover aliments our hope and faith in the future
Passover Supper that we will celebrate with Christ at the consummation of
God's kingdom. 

	The Ethical Implications of the Christian Passover. A fourth
indication of the continuity of Passover in the Christian Church is the
ethical implications of the feast for the Christian life which presuppose
its actual observance. 
	In the New Testament, Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
have profound ethical implications for the Christian life-style. In his
first letter to the Corinthians, Paul challenges the members to correct
moral behavior by reminding them of the Feasts. "Do you not know that a
little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you
may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal
lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not
with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:6-8). 
	This incidental reference to Christ as the Passover sacrifice is
remarkable, because the church in Corinth was heavily Gentile. This
suggests that the existential meaning of Passover was well known and
accepted even among the Gentiles, presumably because they observed the
feast. Its observance, however, did not consist in the removal of the old
leaven from the homes and in the sacrifice of a lamb. Rather it was to be
in the removing of the leaven of malice and evil from their lives,
replacing them with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Celebrating Passover is not only a matter of celebrating the feast of
redemption from the bondage of sin, but also of experiencing the
deliverance of the Paschal Lamb from our sinful ways.

	The Observance of Passover in the Apostolic Church. A fifth
indication of the continuity of Passover in the Christian Church is the continuity
between Judaism and Christianity which presupposes its observance. This
presupposition is supported by several indirect indications of the
observance of Passover in the New Testament.
	A prevailing assumption has been that the earliest converts who
accepted Christ as their Messiah immediately perceived themselves as "the
New Israel" with a New Moses, a New Faith, and a new liturgical calendar.
To give expression to their new faith, the earliest Christians immediately
felt the urgency to establish, among other things, new places of worship,
namely, Christian churches, and new Holy Days, namely, Sunday,
Easter-Sunday, and Christmas.
	This conception of Christian origins is grossly inaccurate and
misleading. The New Testament recognizes that Christ's coming brought about
a certain discontinuity by fulfilling Old Testament typological
institutions, but this discontinuity is never interpreted in terms of
abrogation of the Mosaic law, in general, or of Holy Days, in particular.
	The "many thousands" of Jews who "believed" (Acts 21:20) as a
result of the Messianic proclamation did not view their acceptance of Jesus
of Nazareth as their expected Messiah as representing a breaking away from
their Jewish religion and a joining to a new religion-Christianity. They
simply viewed themselves as believing Jews, still "zealous for the law"
(Acts 21:20). The frequent references to the temple, the synagogue, the
hour of prayer, the Sabbath, Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost suggest that
the religious life of the apostolic church was still regulated by the
Jewish liturgical calendar.
	Regarding Passover in the New Testament, we found only a few
indirect indications of its observance, presumably because it was taken for
granted. John frequently says: "The Passover of the Jews was at hand"
(2:13; 6:4; 11:55). This presupposes that, to use Joachim Jeremias's words,
"He obviously distinguishes the Jewish Passover from the Christian."1
	Another indirect indication of the Christian observance of Passover
is Luke's report that Paul and his travelling companions "sailed away from
Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread" (Acts 20:6). Paul postponed
his departure from Philippi until after the Feast of Unleavened Bread
presumably because he wanted to celebrate the Passover season with the
church at Philippi. Ellen White and several scholars support this view. 
	That the Passover season still had special significance for Paul is
also suggested by his exhortation to "celebrate the festival, not with the
old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth" (1 Cor 5:8). Paul's emphasis on the behavioral
implication of the feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread presupposes the
actual observance of these feasts. Paul did not divorce himself from the
religious festivals of Judaism, because he found in them profound meaning
for the Christian life.
	The meaning and ritual of the Christian Passover apparently were
similar to those of the Lord's Supper, the latter being an extension of the
former. Undoubtedly, both constituted a proclamation of the "Lord's death
until he comes" (1 Cor 11:26). It is clear, however, that for Paul the
memorial of Christ's death is to be observed not only once a year at
Passover, but "as often as" the Lord's Supper is celebrated (1 Cor 11:26). 
	 The fundamental importance attached to the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus made it imperative for the primitive church to celebrate
the memorial of His death not only annually at Passover but periodically
during the course of the year. Postapostolic documents indicate that the
main difference between the two was that at Passover the Lord's Supper was
celebrated at dawn after an all-night vigil of fasting. 

	The Observance of Passover in the Postapostolic Church. A sixth
indication of the continuity of Passover in the Christian church is its
widespread observance in the immediate postapostolic period. Several
documents of the second century clearly attest that Christians observed
Passover in accordance with the apostolic tradition. 
	We have found that Christians celebrated Passover at the same time
as Jewish Passover, beginning at sundown on Nisan 14 and continuing their
vigil until the next morning. For this reason, they are called
"Quartodecimans," the Latin for "fourteeners." They did not eat the
Passover lamb but fasted in memory of Jesus' death and, possibly, in
reparation for the rejection of Jesus by the Jews. They read and expanded
the Passover story in Exodus 12, applying it to the suffering and death of
Jesus. They engaged in prayers and singing until dawn, when they broke
their fast with the Lord's Supper, commemorating Jesus' expiatory suffering
and death.
	A clear indication of the importance of Passover in the religious
life of the early Church is the controversy which flared up in the second
century over the date for celebrating Passover. We noted that this major
controversy in the latter half of the second century threatened to split
Christian churches. 
	The two protagonists of the controversy were Bishop Victor of Rome
(A. D. 189-199) and Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus. Bishop Victor championed
the observance of Passover on the Sunday following the date of the Jewish
Passover (Easter-Sunday). He tried to enforce the adoption of this date on
the Christian church at large. 
	Bishop Polycrates of Ephesus and the leaders of the Asian churches
strongly advocated the traditional Passover date of Nisan 14, transmitted
to them by the Apostles Philip and John. They refused to be frightened into
submission by the threats of Victor of Rome and eventually were
excommunicated by the Roman bishop. 
	Our study suggests that two significant factors contributed to the
abandonment of the Biblical Passover date of Nisan 14 and to the adoption
of Easter-Sunday, namely, anti-Judaism and paganism. Anti-Judaism
influenced the abandonment of the traditional date of Passover (Nisan 14)
in order for Christians to distance themselves from the Jews. Paganism
influenced the adoption of pagan cosmic speculations and myths to make
Easter-Sunday attractive to Christians coming from a pagan background.
	Anti-Judaism reached a high point when Emperor Hadrian ruthlessly
crushed the Barkokeba revolt (A. D. 135), rebuilt a new Roman city, Aelia
Capitolina, on the ruins of Jerusalem, and promulgated the most repressive
anti-Judaic legislation prohibiting the practice of Judaism, in general,
and Jewish festivals, in particular. Jews and Jewish-Christians were
expelled from Jerusalem, and only Gentile Christians were allowed to settle
in the city. 
	The new Gentile Christians who settled in Jerusalem after A. D. 135
apparently differed from the Jewish-Christians not only ethnically but also
theologically. According to the Palestinian historian Epiphanius (ca A. D.
315-403), they stirred up the Passover controversy by adopting and
promoting Easter-Sunday. This action was apparently motivated by a desire
to show separation and differentiation from the Jewish religion that at
that time was considered illegal.
	The change from the primitive observance of Passover to that of
Easter-Sunday was not merely a change of dates; it was also a change of
meaning and experience. Essentially it was a change from the celebration of
the drama of redemption through Biblical symbols to the celebration of
death and resurrection through a host of pagan symbols and myths which, as
we have seen, became part of the Easter celebration.
	Passover, like other Biblical institutions, was corrupted first by
philosophical speculations and then by barbarian superstitions. The
Fathers, most of whom were imbued with Greek philosophies, tried to explain
the meaning of Easter on the basis of philosophical speculations about
springtime, the Spring equinox, numerical symbolism, and the conflict
between light and darkness. Later, when hordes of barbarians entered the
church, they added to the Easter celebration such superstitious practices
as carnival, Lent, the blessing of the fire with the lighting of candles,
the Easter bunny, and Easter eggs.
	The Reformers tried to rid the church of all the pagan
superstitions which had become part of the popular piety by doing away with
a host of saints' days and Marian feasts instituted by the Catholic church.
They tolerated only Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. The Puritans went a
step further and swept away all religious holy days, including Easter,
Pentecost and Christmas. They retained only Sunday. It is regrettable that
the Reformers and the Puritans were so preoccupied with cleansing the
church from superstitious observance of the multitude of holy days which
occasioned pagan revelry that they ignored the need to restore those
Biblical holy days which help Christian conceptualize and experience the
reality of salvation. 

	Conclusion. Passover is the feast of redemption that lives on both
in Judaism and Christianity. It began as a commemoration of the historic
deliverance of God's people from Egyptian bondage. It became a type of the
Messianic deliverance of God's people from the bondage of sin. It still
serves as a prophetic reassurance of the future fulfillment of the
Messianic ingathering of all the nations to celebrate the marriage of the
Lamb (Rev 19:9).

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Christian regards

Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,
Professor of Theology and Church History
Andrews University
4990 Appian Way
Berrien Springs, MI 49103
samuele@andrews.edu