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Paschalion

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Initially the date of Pascha was fixed by consulting Jewish informants to learn when the Jewish month of Nisan would fall, and setting Pascha to the third Sunday in Jewish Nisan, the Sunday of Unleavened Bread. But beginning in the third century there are indications that some Christians were becoming dissatisfied with this reliance on the Jewish calendar. The chief complaint was that the third week in Jewish Nisan was sometimes placed before the spring equinox. [[Peter of Alexandria|Peter, Bishop of Alexandria]] (early 4th century A.D.), in a statement preserved in the preface to the [[Chronicon Paschale| ''Chronicon Paschale'']], expresses this view:<blockquote>On the fourteenth day of [the month], being accurately observed after the equinox, the ancients celebrated the Passover, according to the divine command. Whereas the men of the present day now celebrate it before the equinox, and that altogether through negligence and error.</blockquote>Those who held this view began to experiment with independent computations that would always place Pascha in the spring season. Traditionalists, however, felt that the old custom of consulting the Jewish community should continue, even if it sometimes placed Pascha before the equinox. [[Epiphanius]] of Salamis (''Panarion'' 3.1.10) quotes a version of the [[Apostolic Constitutions| ''Apostolic Constitutions'']] used by the sect of the Audiani which represents this school of thought: <blockquote>Do not do your own computations, but instead observe Passover when your brethren from the circumcision do. If they err [in the computation], it is no matter to you.</blockquote>
The controversy was resolved at the Council of Nicea. Although the decision was not recorded as a canon, its synodal letter to the Church in Alexandria conveys “...the good news of the agreement concerning the holy Easter, ...that all our brethren in the East who formerly followed the custom of the Jews are henceforth to celebrate the said most sacred feast of Easter at the same time with the Romans and yourselves.”[2] The Emperor Constantine confirmed this agreement in an epistle a letter to all churchesbishops that had not attended the Council, announcing two things: (1) "...the most holy festival of Easter should be everywhere celebrated on one and the same day. ...(So) cheerfully accept what is observed with such general unanimity of sentiment in the city of Rome, throughout Italy, Africa, all Egypt, Spain, France, Britain, Libya, the whole of Greece, and the dioceses of Asia, Pontus, and Cilicia;" and (2) "We have cast aside (the Jewish) way of calculating the date of the festival (because) ...we should never allow Easter to be kept twice in one and the same (solar) year!"[3]
Thus, the old custom of consulting the Jewish calculation of Nisan 14 and celebrating Pascha on according to that date was formally rejected, and the independent computations long in use at the influential city of Alexandria became the emerging, if still somewhat controversial, consensus. On the other hand, the comments of canonists, preachers, and chroniclers indicate that the old Quartodecimian custom of placing Easter in the month of Nisan as computed by the Jewish community continued to have adherents for generations.
== The Nicene Formula ==
The Alexandrian and Roman methods of determining the date of Pascha were based on three principles: (1) Pascha was always after the vernal equinox, (2) it was to follow, but not coincide with, the first full moon of spring, and (3) it was always to be on a Sunday. A fourth principle – and one enunciated following Nicea I – is implicit in the first three: namely, (4) the date of Pascha was not to depend on the Jewish dates for Passover in any way. This last criterion was met by formulating the Paschalion entirely in terms of astronomical events and the weekly cycle of days.[4] One early text that gives an explicit outline of the Nicene formula for dating Pascha is in a homily from 387 that is attributed to St. John Chrysostom: "Since we keep the first of times (spring), and the equinox (''isimera''), and after this the fourteenth of the moon, and together with these the three days Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; lacking any of these at one time it is impossible to fulfill the Pascha."[5] In summarizing the Paschalion, the homily makes no reference to any named month – lunar or solar – nor to any calendrical date – Julian or Jewish. Yet there were many tables of computed Paschal dates circulating in the 4th century.
The computational system that eventually prevailed was based on calendrical experiments made at Alexandria beginning in the mid-3rd century.[65] According to this system, Pascha is the first Sunday following the date of the Paschal Full Moon (PFM, also called the νομικον φασκα, "nomikon faska" in Greek) for a given year. The computational PFM is not, however, as commonly thought, the first full moon following the vernal equinoxas determined by direct observation or by high-accuracy astronomical computations. Rather, the PFM is the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon (EFM) date that falls on or after March 21 (or, what is the same thing, the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon that follows March 20). [6] Ecclesiastical Full Moons are calendar dates that approximate astronomical full moons using a cycle that repeats every 19 years. March 21 was the date used by the Alexandrians for determining the PFM because it was near the date of the vernal equinox in the late 3rd and early 4th century A.D., when Paschal tables were first being compiled. This conventional, cyclical Paschalion is called Nicene because some commentators in later generations erroneously attributed it to the Nicene Council and came to treat it as canonical.
Nonetheless, the intention === The Zonaras Proviso ===The decision of the Nicene Fathers council concerning Pascha was to establish a simple set of rules that would allow Pascha to it should be dated computed independently of any Jewish computations: hence, a Paschalion that is consistent with Nicene principles cannot have any built-in dependence on the Jewish calendar. Nevertheless, possibly as early as the 12th century and ensure certainly in recent times it has been widely believed[7] that Christian Pascha is required always to follow, and never coincide with, the basic chronological sequence first day of Passion and Resurrection as recorded Passover, which is Nisan 15 in the Gospels was imitated every yearJewish calendar. Insisting on Sunday as By the only day suited to commemorating 12th century the Resurrection reveals their intention to imitate errors in the chronology Julian calendar's equinoctial date and age of the original event; and their preference for an astronomically determined vernal equinox is evident from moon had accumulated to the Eastern Church’s early adoption degree that Pascha did, in fact, always follow Jewish Nisan 15. This state of affairs continues to the Alexandrian Paschal computations based on March 21st rather than March 25thpresent day, even though the conventional date Jewish calendar suffers from a slight solar drift of its own, because the vernal equinox on Julian calendar's errors accumulate more rapidly than the Imperial Julian and Alexandrian calendarsJewish calendar's.[7]
A thousand years later, the The 12th century canonist Matthew Blastaris reaffirmed [[Joannes Zonaras]] seems to have been the importance of these four principles in a concise way: "First, that it is necessary first to celebrate state the principle that Pascha after the spring equinox; second, that it is not the same day as the must always follow Jewish festival; thirdNisan 15, that it is not merely after the equinox, but after so the first full moon following the equinox; and fourth, that (it principle is) called the Sunday immediately “Zonaras Proviso” after the full moon."[8] Blastaris clearly states that it is the equinox and the full moon that determine the proper Sunday, not March 21st Julian - or Nisan 14/15 on the Hebrew calendarhim. But Zonaras derived his second new rule is open to misconstrual. The Nicene Council rejected the Quartodecimian practice of celebrating Pascha on “the same day as the Jewish festival (of Passover)” and adopted three rules that prevent that from happening except by coincidence. Yet Blastaris’ second rule is understood by some to mean that the date of Pascha must be moved in order to avoid coinciding with Passover.[9] This his reading of BlastarisApostolic Canon 7, howeverwhich states: <blockquote>"If any Bishop, or Presbyter, compromises or Deacon celebrate the independence holy day of Easter before the Christian Paschalion from vernal equinox with the Jewish festal calendar and lends the so-called “Zonaras Proviso” canonical authorityJews, let him be deposed."[7]</blockquote>
=== The Zonaras Proviso ===, commenting on this Canon, wrote <blockquote>Ἐαρινὴν ἰσημερίαν τινὲς τὴν κε᾽ φασὶ τοῦ Μαρτίου· τινὲς δἐ τὴν κε᾽ τοῦ Ἀπριλλίου. Οῖμαι δὲ μήτ᾽ ἐκείνην μήτε ταυτην τὸν κανόνα λέγειν· ὡς ὲπι τὸ πολὺ γὰρ τὸ Πάσχα πρὸ τῆς κε᾽ τοῦ Ἀπριλλίου ἑορτάζεσθαι είωθεν· ἔστι δὲ ὅτε καὶ πρὸ τῆσ κε᾽ τοῦ Μαρτίου, ὡς συμβαίνειν (εἰ οὔτως νοοϊτο ἡ ἐαρινὴ ἰσημερία) παρὰ τὸν κανόνα τοῦτον τὸ Πάσχα ἑορτάζεσθαι. Ἔοικεν οὐν ἄλλο τι ἐαρινὴν ἰσεμερίαν τοὺς συνετοὺς ἀποστόλους ὀνομάζειν. Ἡ δὲ πᾶσα τοῦ κανόνα, διαταγὴ τοῦτό ὲστι, τὸ μὴ μετὰ Ἰουδαίων (ἤγουν κατ᾽ αὐτὴν τὴν ἡμέραν) ἑορτάζειν τὀ Πάσχα Χριστιανούς. Χρὴ γὰρ προηγεϊσθαι τὴν ανέορτον ἐκείνων ἑορτὴν, καὶ οὕτω τὸ καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς τελεϊσθαι Πάσχα. Ὁ δὲ μὴ τοῦτο ποιῶν ἱερομένο, καθαιρεθήσεται. Τοὺτο δὲ καὶ ἡ ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ σύνοδος ἐν πρώτῳ κανόνι διετάξατο, λέγουσα τῆς ἐν Νικαίᾳ πρώτης συνόδου ὄρον εὶναι περὶ τῆς ἑορτῆς τοῦ Πάσχα· εἰ καὶ μὴ εὑρισκεται ὲν τοῖς κανόσι τῆσ ἐν Νικαίᾳ συνόδου τοιοῦτος κανών.[8]</blockquote> The decision which can be read as <blockquote>Some say the Spring equinox is the 25th day of March; others, the 25th day of April. I deem that the canon refers to neither the Nicene council concerning one nor the other. For Pascha was is often celebrated before the 25th of April; and there are times when it is celebrated before the 25th of March; so that , (if "Spring equinox" were so understood) Pascha is being celebrated in violation of this canon. Whence it appears that the wise apostles call something else the "Spring equinox." So the whole thrust of the canon is this, that Christians should be computed independently of any Rabbinic computations: hencenot celebrate Pascha with the Jews, a Paschalion that is consistent with Nicene principles cannot have any built-in dependence , on the Jewish calendarsame day. Nevertheless, since at least the 12th century For it has been widely believed is fitting that Christian their feast (which is no feast) is done first; and thus we do our Pascha is required always . If one consecrated to followGod does this even once, and never coincide withhe is removed from orders. The synod in Antioch also ordered this, the in their first day of Passovercanon, which where they stated that this was decreed concerning the feast of Pascha by then being celebrated on Nisan 15 in the Jewish calendar (that synod of Nicea, although no such canon is, on found in the evening canons of the 14th day Nicene synod.</blockquote> So Zonaras read the word "equinox" out of the lunar monthcanon entirely, deciding that the canon must refer to something else: "Their feast (which is no feast)must be done first; and thus we do our Pascha. By " If Zonaras was restating the 12th rule that Pascha must always fall after the Paschal Full Moon and never coincide with it, then this reading has no foundation in the 4th century historical context, or in the errors in plain meaning of the sentence: The canon clearly refers to the Julian calendar's equinoctial date and age rule of the moon had accumulated equinox, not to the degree rule of the full moon. If Zonaras meant that Pascha did, in fact, always follow the Jewish festival of 15 Nisan 15. This state of affairs continues to the present day, even though as computed on the Jewish calendar suffers from a slight solar drift , must precede the Christian Pascha, then he was interpreting the canon to mean almost the opposite of its ownwhat it means in fact, because and replacing the Julian calendar's errors accumulate more rapidly than the Jewish calendar'srule of independence with a rule of dependence.
The 12th 14th-century canonist [[Joannes Zonaras]] seems to have been canon lawyer Matthew Blastares also enumerated the first paschalion's principles in a way that can be taken to state require dependence on the principle that Pascha must always follow Jewish Nisan 15calendar. <blockquote>First, so the principle that it is called necessary to celebrate the “Zonaras Proviso” Pascha after him. Upon examinationthe spring equinox; second, that it appears that Zonaras derived his new rule from a misconstrual of Apostolic Canon 7, which reads is not the same day as follows: "If any Bishopthe Jewish festival; third, or Presbyter, or Deacon celebrate that it is not merely after the holy day of Easter before the vernal equinox with , but after the Jews, let him be deposed."[10] Zonaras found two prohibitions in this one statement: first, that Pascha must be celebrated after full moon following the vernal equinox; and secondfourth, that Pascha must never coincide with (it is) the Sunday immediately after the full moon."[9]</blockquote> If by "the Jewish feast of Passover. Although Zonaras’ festival" Blastares simply meant the Paschal Full Moon or nomikon faska, then his second prohibition has no foundation in principle is redundant, merely restating the 4th century historical context, or third principle in other words. If he meant the grammatical meaning 15th of Nisan on the sentenceRabbinic Jewish calendar, it resembles then, as Zonaras may have done before him, he replaced the fourth (implicit) Nicene principle closely enough to be confused with it. That is, the rule that Christians are not to go along “with of independence from the Jews” in setting the date of Pascha has been confused Jewish calendar with the fear a rule that if Passover happens to coincide with an independently determined Pascha, Christians would be wrongfully praying “with the Jews” just because both are praying paschalion must instead depend on the same dayit.
== Implementation ==
== The Byzantine Proposal of 1324 ==
In the 14th century Nicephoras Gregoras calculated the current error in dating the vernal equinox to be three days, and proposed a reform of the Julian calendar to Andronicus II. The reform was not adopted, apparently from lack of popular or political support; and in fact would have corrected less than half of the seven-day error that actually existed at that time.[1110]
== The Gregorian Proposal of 1582 ==
== The Orthodox Proposal of 1923 ==
A [[Revised_Julian_Calendar|congress]] of Orthodox bishops meeting in 1923 under the presidency of Patriarch [[Meletios_IV_(Metaxakis)_of_Constantinople|Meletios IV]] agreed to set Pascha by means of precise astronomical computations referred to the meridian of Jerusalem, using a midnight to midnight day to date the full moon.[1211] This agreement was never permanently implemented in any Orthodox diocese. But the Revised Julian calendar, a more accurate version of the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by the same congress has been adopted by some jurisdictions for celebrating the fixed feasts of the liturgical year.
== The World Council of Churches Proposal of 1997 ==
A consultation of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant delegates met in Aleppo, Syria and issued an agreed statement recommending that all member churches work toward a common method of dating Pascha based on the three original Nicene principles, but employing astronomical observations from the meridian of Jerusalem instead of any cyclical tabular computation.[1312] This was essentially the same proposal as that of 1923, and was not implemented in the proposed year of 2001 when Eastern and Western dates for Pascha coincided. Resistance to such a reform by Orthodox jurisdictions is apparently rooted in respect for a widespread belief that March 21st Julian was designated by the Nicene Fathers to be the only true vernal equinox, and nourished by persistent fears that changing the received tradition for dating Pascha would endanger the integrity Orthodoxy’s witness to the Patristic Tradition by creating a purely “cosmetic” unity with other Churches.[1413]
== East and West Today ==
4. James Campbell, “The Paschalion: An Icon of Time,” ''St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly'', Vol. 28 No. 4 (1984) pp. 245-262.
5. Chrysostom, Paschal Homily VII, Migne, ''Patrologiae graecae'' Vol. 59, col. 747A. 6. The basic system can be found in the “Paschal Canon” of the Alexandrian scholar Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, which was composed c. 277 A.D. See http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf06.vi.iii.ii.i.html and following pages.
76. Until the 6th century the Paschal tables used in Rome were based on the conventional date of March 25th for the vernal equinox. Jones, “The Development of the Latin Ecclesiastical Calendar” in Bedae, ''Opera de Temporibus'' (Cambridge: Medieval Academy of America, 1943), pp. 1-104.
87. Matthew Blastaris''The Rudder'', Apostolic Canon 7, available at http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/cannons_apostles_rudder.htm . Also ''Syntagma AlphabeticumThe Rudder'', MigneCummings ed. (Chicago: The Orthodox Christian Education Society, PG 1451957). The Rudder's words "after the Passover of the Jews" may simply refer to the paschalion's Paschal Full Moon, 96Dnot to any date in the Jewish calendar. In practice, it is often understood to mean the 15th of Nisan in the Rabbinic Jewish calendar. See for example http://orthodoxwitness.org/over-the-97Arooftops/how-the-date-of-pascha-is-determined/2/ (Last visited April 15, 2015) where the author states that Pascha in 2015 is set to April 12 2015 to avoid coinciding with "the Jewish Passover" which he dates (incorrectly) to April 5, and that Pascha 2016 is set to May 1 to avoid coinciding with the Jewish Passover which he dates to April 22. This last date corresponds to 14 (not 15) Nisan 5776 and so is the Jewish Passover in a strict sense, but April 22, 2015 is a Friday, not a Sunday. In any case, the author clearly uses "Jewish Passover" to refer to a date on the Jewish calendar, and not to the paschalion's Paschal Full Moon, which falls on Tuesday, April 7 in 2015 and on Tuesday, April 26 in 2015.
98. See Agapios and NicodemusJoannes Zonaras, ''The Rudder (Pedalion)'', Masterjohn (tr.) 2006 “Apostolic Commentary on Apostolic Canon 7,” p. 115; available at http://orthodoxbahamas.com/wpMigne, PG 137, 49-content/uploads/2012/01/THE_RUDDER_Copyright__Ralph_J._Masterjohn_2006.pdf50.
109. Matthew Blastaris, ''The RudderSyntagma Alphabeticum'', Cummings ed. (Chicago: The Orthodox Christian Education Society, 1957), p. 9. Also, Agapios & NicodemusMigne, ''The Rudder''PG 145, p. 11396D-97A.
1110. See Guiland, ''Essai sur Nicephore Gregoras'' (Paris: P. Geuthner, 1926), pp. 282-284. Also, ''Dictionnaire de Théogogie Catholique'' (Paris, 1911) Tome 11, col. 455; and Welborn, "Calendar Reform in the 13th Century" (Chicago: University of Chicago Dissertation, 1935), p. 31.
1211. M. Milankovitch, "Das Ende des julianischen Kalenders und der neue Kalender der orientalischen Kirchen", ''Astronomische Nachrichten'' 220, 379-384(1924).
1312. See World Council of Churches / Middle East Council of Churches Consultation, “Towards a Common Date for Easter” (1997); available at http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/faith-and-order-commission/i-unity-the-church-and-its-mission/towards-a-common-date-for-easter/index?set_language=en.
1413. For an example of this, see Fr. Luke Luhl, “The Proposal for a Common Date to Celebrate Pascha and Easter,” ''Orthodox Christian Information Center'' (1997); available at http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/common_luhl.aspx.
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