I am aware that in order to locate Pentecost correctly, I must first nail down Passover exactly. How can this be done when there are so many views of when it is? Didn’t the Crusades have something to do with calendation? Print

Answer: Much controversy erupted over the time reckoning for “Easter,” the Passover replacement. Beginning at Pope Victor I A.D. 193-202, this conflict ensued because of the calendars that the differing factions held to. Those of the west who followed the Roman Julian calendar were amiable to keeping an “Easter Sunday”, while those of the east followed the Scriptural luni-solar calendar, held tightly to observing “Passover” on the night of the 14^th. This last group became known as Quartodecimans.

Quartodecimanism ("fourteenism", derived from Latin) refers to the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on the fourteenth day of Nisan in the Old Testament's Hebrew Calendar (for example Lev 23:5, in Latin "quarta decima"). This was the original method of fixing the date of the Passover, which is to be a "perpetual ordinance. . .

Since the Bible's calendar is luni-solar and the Roman/Western calendar is only strictly solar, it is difficult to calculate Nisan 14 in the western calendar without knowledge of how a luni-solar calendar system works. For various reasons, the Church eventually chose to use a different method from the one that the Jews had used for their Passover.

A controversy arose concerning whether it should also be a resurrection holiday, and thus whether it should instead be celebrated on one particular Sunday each year, which is now the floating holiday that is commonly called Easter Sunday.

Quartodecimanism was popular among Christians in Asia Minor and it is generally believed that this was the method specifically preferred by the followers of John the Apostle, since it was advocated by Polycarp who was a disciple of either John the Apostle or John the Presbyter, assuming they are not the same person. Theological Dictionary

If we faithfully follow the principle of “solo Scriptura” we can not go wrong.

The Passover Feast is the first annual appointed festival of the year and is always in the spring. It is always on the 14^th day of the first month of Abib as counted from the New Moon day, which according to Scripture is also New Year’s Day. Passover is always the 6^th day of the week and also located on the preparation day. It is always on or very near the full moon. The day following Passover is always the seventh-day Sabbath, which is also always a High Sabbath, because it is the day Feast of Unleavened Bread commences. A side note is that the Hebrew O.T. and Greek N.T. never refer to Passover as “Friday” or to the Resurrection day as “Sunday”. Passover is always referred to as the 6^th day of the week and Resurrection day was the fist day of the week. In the sequence that follows, Passover is the first of the Appointed Feasts which Yahushua the Messiah fulfilled precisely. (For more details and color illustrations, please refer to the eCourse, “Twelve Criteria of the True Crucifixion Date.”)

These are the feasts of Yahuwah, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed (yearly) times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is Yahuwah’s Passover. Leviticus 23:4-6

The point was raised also regarding the Crusades being fought over calendation. There is some evidence of this, but not solid proof, that the Islamic nations once followed the luni-solar calendar. The Oxford English Dictionary gives evidence that the word “Ramadan”, literally means dry and hot, and was at one time connected to a warm harvest season. However, I believe that just as the calendation of Scripture was messed with, so was theirs, which is likely to have originally been luni-solar. Due to much pressure the west has followed after Rome and the revolutions of the “sun” only, as in the solar calendar. In contrast, the Islamic nations began to follow after the “moon” only, in keeping a strictly lunar calendar. This has caused their “Ramadan” to rotate throughout the year, so that it is often celebrated in winter when no harvest is possible. Here is why this happens:

A “solar only” calendar year has 365.25 days in its complete cycle from the winter solstice to winter solstice.
A “lunar only” calendar year has 354 days in each year, which falls short of the solar year by 11 days. This causes it to fall backwards by eleven days each and every year. This lunar only calendar which is the one recognized by the Islam religion does not incorporate a 13^th month to bring it back into harmony with the seasons. As a result Ramadan floats through the seasons of the year. Approximately every eight years Ramadan floats from spring to summer, summer to fall, fall to winter, then from winter back to spring in a full 32 year cycle.
The “luni-solar” calendar, a dual action orchestration of both sun and moon, has 354.3 days in its regular years, which falls short of the solar year by 11 days. This causes it to fall backwards by eleven days each year. However, unique to the luni-solar calendar, is that it incorporates a 13^th month every two to three years to bring it back into alignment with the solar year every 19 years. This 13^th month added to the end of twelve months, is called “an embolismic year”. An embolismic 13 month year is 384.3 days in length, which when balanced with the 354.3 day years restores the luni-solar calendar into harmony with the solar year and the correct seasons. This ensures that Passover is always in the spring of the year. By divine design Yahuwah has set up a system utilizing the dual action of both sun and moon, yet it still comes back into harmony with the solar year, so that the spring and fall festivals will always be located in their respective seasons.

There are 235 lunations (lunar months) in a 19 year solar year.
There are 365.25 days in each solar year.
A regular luni-solar year has 354.3 days.
An embolismic 13 month year has 384.3 days.
There are 6939 days in 19 solar years.
There are 6938.2 days in 19 luni-solar years, which is less than a day short.