Because Jesus Rose Again--A Book in Honor of Easter

An Easter Prayer of Celebration: He Is Risen! - Your Daily Prayer - April 1, 2018

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By the later 3rd century, however, some Christians began to express dissatisfaction with the custom of relying on the Jewish community to determine the date of Easter. The chief complaint was that the Jewish communities sometimes erred in setting Passover to fall before the Northern Hemisphere spring equinox. Because of this dissatisfaction with reliance on the Jewish calendar, some Christians began to experiment with independent computations.

This controversy between those who advocated independent computations, and those who wished to continue the custom of relying on the Jewish calendar, was formally resolved by the First Council of Nicaea in , which endorsed changing to an independent computation by the Christian community in order to celebrate in common.

This effectively required the abandonment of the old custom of consulting the Jewish community in those places where it was still used. Epiphanius of Salamis wrote in the mid-4th century:. They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God's holy and supremely excellent day.

For it was variously observed by people [68]. That the older custom called "protopaschite" by historians did not at once die out, but persisted for a time, is indicated by the existence of canons [69] and sermons [70] against it. Dionysius Exiguus , and others following him, maintained that the Bishops assembled at the Nicene Council had specified a particular method of determining the date of Easter; subsequent scholarship has refuted this tradition.

It took a while for the Alexandrian rules to be adopted throughout Christian Europe, however.

The 8-year cycle originally employed was replaced by or by the time of Augustalis 's treatise on the measurement of Easter, after which Rome used his year lunisolar calendar cycle until It then switched to an adaptation by Victorius of the Alexandrian rules. Because this Victorian cycle differed from the Alexandrian cycle in the dates of some of the Paschal Full Moons, and because it tried to respect the Roman custom of fixing Easter to the Sunday in the week of the 16th to the 22nd of the lunar month rather than the 15th to the 21st as at Alexandria , by providing alternative "Latin" and "Greek" dates in some years, occasional differences in the date of Easter as fixed by Alexandrian rules continued.

From this time, therefore, all discrepancies between Alexandria and Rome as to the correct date for Easter cease, as both churches were using identical tables. Early Christians in Britain and Ireland also used an year cycle. From the 5th century onward this cycle set its equinox to 25 March and fixed Easter to the Sunday falling in the 14th to the 20th of the lunar month inclusive. Churches in western continental Europe used a late Roman method until the late 8th century during the reign of Charlemagne , when they finally adopted the Alexandrian method.

Since , when the Catholic Church adopted the Gregorian calendar while the Eastern Orthodox and most Oriental Orthodox Churches retained the Julian calendar , the date on which Easter is celebrated has again differed. The Greek island of Syros , whose population is divided almost equally between Catholics and Orthodox, is one of the few places where the two Churches share a common date for Easter, with the Catholics accepting the Orthodox date—a practice helping considerably in maintaining good relations between the two communities.

In the 20th century, some individuals and institutions have propounded a fixed date for Easter, the most prominent proposal being the Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite having some support, proposals to reform the date have not been implemented. The original form of this calendar would have determined Easter using precise astronomical calculations based on the meridian of Jerusalem. The revised Easter computation that had been part of the original agreement was never permanently implemented in any Orthodox diocese. In the United Kingdom, the Easter Act set out legislation to allow the date of Easter to be fixed as the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April or, in other words, the Sunday in the period from 9 to 15 April.

However, the legislation has not been implemented, although it remains on the Statute book and could be implemented subject to approval by the various Christian churches. At a summit in Aleppo , Syria, in , the World Council of Churches WCC proposed a reform in the calculation of Easter which would have replaced the present divergent practices of calculating Easter with modern scientific knowledge taking into account actual astronomical instances of the spring equinox and full moon based on the meridian of Jerusalem, while also following the Council of Nicea position of Easter being on the Sunday following the full moon.

The reform was proposed for implementation starting in , but it was not ultimately adopted by any member body. In January , Christian churches again considered the idea of a fixed and unified date of Easter, probably either the second or third Sunday in April. The WCC presented comparative data of the relationships:.

Resurrection Prayer

Astronomical Easter is the first Sunday after the Astronomical full moon. In the Eastern reckoning, that full moon is derived from the Metonic cycle while in the West it is referred to the meridian of Jerusalem. Passover commences at sunset preceding the date indicated as does Easter in many traditions.

In Western Christianity , Easter is preceded by Lent , a period of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter, which begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts forty days not counting Sundays. The week before Easter, known as Holy Week , is very special in the Christian tradition. Many churches begin celebrating Easter late in the evening of Holy Saturday at a service called the Easter Vigil.

Easter Monday a public holiday in many countries , Easter Tuesday a much less widespread public holiday , etc. Easter Saturday is therefore the Saturday after Easter Sunday. The day before Easter is properly called Holy Saturday. Eastertide , or Paschaltide, the season of Easter, begins on Easter Sunday and lasts until the day of Pentecost , seven weeks later. In Eastern Christianity , the spiritual preparation for Easter begins with Great Lent , which starts on Clean Monday and lasts for 40 continuous days including Sundays. The Vespers which begins Lazarus Saturday officially brings Great Lent to a close, although the fast continues through the following week.

The Paschal Vigil begins with the Midnight Office , which is the last service of the Lenten Triodion and is timed so that it ends a little before midnight on Holy Saturday night. The liturgical season from Easter to the Sunday of All Saints the Sunday after Pentecost is known as the Pentecostarion the "fifty days". The week which begins on Easter Sunday is called Bright Week , during which there is no fasting, even on Wednesday and Friday. The Afterfeast of Easter lasts 39 days, with its Apodosis leave-taking on the day before Ascension.

Pentecost Sunday is the fiftieth day from Easter counted inclusively. The Easter festival is kept in many different ways among Western Christians. The traditional, liturgical observation of Easter, as practised among Roman Catholics, Lutherans , and some Anglicans begins on the night of Holy Saturday with the Easter Vigil. This, the most important liturgy of the year, begins in total darkness with the blessing of the Easter fire, the lighting of the large Paschal candle symbolic of the Risen Christ and the chanting of the Exultet or Easter Proclamation attributed to Saint Ambrose of Milan.

After this service of light, a number of readings from the Old Testament are read. These tell the stories of creation , the sacrifice of Isaac , the crossing of the Red Sea , and the foretold coming of the Messiah. This part of the service climaxes with the singing of the Gloria and the Alleluia and the proclamation of the Gospel of the resurrection. At this time, the lights are brought up and the church bells are rung, according to local custom. A sermon may be preached after the gospel. The focus then moves from the lectern to the font. Anciently, Easter was considered the ideal time for converts to receive baptism , and this practice continues within Roman Catholicism and the Anglican Communion.

Whether there are baptisms at this point or not, it is traditional for the congregation to renew the vows of their baptismal faith. This act is often sealed by the sprinkling of the congregation with holy water from the font. The Catholic sacrament of Confirmation is also celebrated at the Vigil. The Easter Vigil concludes with the celebration of the Eucharist known in some traditions as Holy Communion. Certain variations in the Easter Vigil exist: Some churches read the Old Testament lessons before the procession of the Paschal candle, and then read the gospel immediately after the Exsultet.

Easter is the fundamental and most important festival of the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches:. Every other religious festival in their calendar, including Christmas, is secondary in importance to the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is reflected in rich Paschal customs in the cultures of countries that have traditionally had an Orthodox Christian majority. Eastern Catholics and Byzantine Rite Lutherans have similar emphasis in their calendars, and many of their liturgical customs are very similar.

This is not to say that Christmas and other elements of the Christian liturgical calendar are ignored. Instead, these events are all seen as necessary but preliminary to, and illuminated by, the full climax of the Resurrection, in which all that has come before reaches fulfillment and fruition. They shine only in the light of the Resurrection. Easter is the primary act that fulfills the purpose of Christ's ministry on earth—to defeat death by dying and to purify and exalt humanity by voluntarily assuming and overcoming human frailty.

This is succinctly summarized by the Paschal troparion , sung repeatedly for forty days, through the Apodosis of Easter, which is the day before Ascension:. Preparation for Easter begins with the season of Great Lent. In addition to fasting, almsgiving, and prayer, Orthodox Christians cut down on all entertainment and non-essential worldly activities, gradually eliminating them until Great and Holy Friday , the most austere day of the year.

On the evening of Great and Holy Saturday , the Midnight Office commences an hour or two before midnight see paschal vigil. At its completion all light in the church building is extinguished, and all wait in darkness and silence for the stroke of midnight. Then, a new flame is struck in the altar, or the priest lights his candle from the perpetual lamp kept burning there, and he then lights candles held by deacons or other assistants, who then go to light candles held by the congregation this practice has its origin in the reception of the Holy Fire at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Then the priest and congregation go in a procession around the temple , holding lit candles, chanting:. By Thy Resurrection O Christ our savior, the angels in Heaven sing, enable us who are on Earth, to glorify thee in purity of heart. This procession reenacts the journey of the Myrrhbearers to the Tomb of Jesus "very early in the morning".

In the Greek practice the priest reads a selection from the Gospel Book. He and the people chant the Paschal Troparion, and all of the bells and semantra are sounded.

Then all re-enter the temple and paschal matins begins immediately, followed by the paschal hours and then the paschal divine liturgy. The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom is read at matins. After the dismissal of the liturgy , the priest may bless paschal eggs and baskets brought by the faithful containing those foods which have been forbidden during the Great Fast.

In Greece the traditional meal is mageiritsa , a hearty stew of chopped lamb liver and wild greens seasoned with egg-and-lemon sauce. Traditionally, easter eggs , hard-boiled eggs dyed bright red to symbolize the spilt Blood of Christ and the promise of eternal life, are cracked together to celebrate the opening of the Tomb of Christ. The next morning, Easter Sunday proper, there is no Divine Liturgy , since the liturgy for that day has already been celebrated. In this service, it has become customary during the last few centuries for the priest and members of the congregation to read a portion of the Gospel of John in as many languages as they can manage, to show the universality of the Resurrection.

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For the remainder of the week, known as " Bright Week ", fasting other than before holy communion is suppressed, and the customary Paschal greeting is: The services during Bright Week are nearly identical to those on Easter itself, except that they do not take place at midnight, but at their normal times during the day. The outdoor procession during Bright Week takes place either after paschal matins or the paschal divine liturgy. Along with the celebration of Christmas and Advent , many Lenten and Easter traditions were altered or even abandoned altogether by various offshoots of the Protestant Reformation , as they were deemed " pagan " or " Popish " and therefore tainted by many of the Reformation's Puritan movements.

In Lutheran Churches, for example, not only were the days of Holy Week observed, but also Christmas, Easter and Pentecost were observed with three-day festivals the day itself and the two following. Other Protestant groups took a different attitude, with most Anabaptists , Quakers , Congregationalists and Presbyterian Puritans regarding such festivals as an abomination. Groups such as the Restored Church of God reject the celebration of Easter, seeing it as originating in a pagan spring festival taken over by the "Roman" Catholic Church.

Jehovah's Witnesses maintain a similar view, observing a yearly commemorative service of the Last Supper and the subsequent execution of Christ on the evening of Nisan 14 as they calculate the dates derived from the lunar Hebrew Calendar. It is commonly referred to by many Witnesses as simply "The Memorial". Members of the Religious Society of Friends Quakers , as part of their historic testimony against times and seasons , do not celebrate or observe Easter or any other Christian holidays, believing instead that "every day is the Lord's day", [94] and that elevation of one day above others suggests that it is acceptable to do un-Christian acts on other days.

Some Christian groups feel that Easter is something to be regarded with great joy: In this spirit, these Christians teach that each day and all Sabbaths should be kept holy, in Christ's teachings. This is especially true of Christian groups that celebrate the New Moons or annual High Sabbaths in addition to seventh-day Sabbath.

They support this textually with reference to the letter to the Colossians: These are shadows of things to come; the reality belongs to Christ. In countries where Christianity is a state religion , or where the country has large Christian population, Easter is often a public holiday.

As Easter is always a Sunday, many countries in the world also have Easter Monday as a public holiday. Some retail stores, shopping malls, and restaurants are closed on Easter Sunday. Good Friday , which occurs two days before Easter Sunday, is also a public holiday in many countries, as well as in 12 U. Even in states where Good Friday is not a holiday, many financial institutions, stock markets, and public schools are closed. Few banks that are normally open on regular Sundays are closed on Easter. It is a holiday for most workers except some shopping malls which keep open for a half-day.

Many businesses give their employees almost a week off, called Easter break. According to a poll, 6 of 10 Norwegians travel during Easter, often to a countryside cottage; 3 of 10 said their typical Easter included skiing. Like first and second Christmas Day, they are both considered Sundays, which results in a first and a second Easter Sunday, after which the week continues to a Tuesday. In Commonwealth nations Easter Day is rarely a public holiday, as is the case for celebrations which fall on a Sunday.

The same day Jesus appeared to two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. They failed to recognize him until he broke bread and gave thanks, and he then vanished. The two go at once to Jerusalem where they found the disciples describing Jesus' appearance to Peter. As they told their story Jesus appeared to them all. They were afraid, but he invited them to touch his body, then ate with them, and explained the prophecies which are fulfilled through him.

The Acts of the Apostles is presented as a continuation of the Gospel of Luke. Jesus appeared to the apostles for forty days, giving many proofs that he was alive, and instructing them not to leave Jerusalem until they were baptised with the Holy Spirit. Early on the day after the Sabbath, before sunrise, Mary Magdalene visited the tomb and found the large stone had already been rolled away.

She told Peter and "the beloved disciple", who then ran to the tomb to only find the grave-clothes, then went home. They assumed his body had been stolen. Mary wept, then saw two angels who spoke to her, and then saw Jesus, whom she did not recognize. Jesus told her to tell the disciples that he is ascending to God, and Mary then told the disciples she had seen the Lord. That evening Jesus appeared among them inside a locked room, and gave them power over sin and forgiveness of sin. A week later he appeared to doubting Thomas , who had not believed, but when Thomas was instructed to touch the wounds of Jesus he said, "My Lord and my God!

In the New Testament all four gospels conclude with an extended narrative of Jesus's arrest , trial , crucifixion , burial , and his resurrection. In each gospel these five events in the life of Jesus are treated with more intense detail than any other portion of that gospel's narrative.

Scholars note that the reader receives an almost hour-by-hour account of what is happening. The death and resurrection of Jesus are treated as the climax of the story, the point to which everything else has been moving all the while. Another characteristic of the gospel accounts is that they include only a plain description of the events. Unlike elsewhere in the gospels, there is an absence of any citation of the Hebrew scriptures to contextualize or interpret the resurrection appearances. After his death by crucifixion, Jesus was placed in a new tomb which was discovered early Sunday morning to be empty.

The New Testament does not include an account of the "moment of resurrection". In the Eastern Church icons do not depict that moment, but show the myrrhbearers and depict scenes of salvation. The synoptic gospels agree that, as the evening came after the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus, and that, after Pilate granted his request, wrapped it in linen cloth and laid it in a tomb.

In Matthew, Joseph was identified as "also a disciple of Jesus;" [23] in Mark he was identified as "a respected member of the council Sanhedrin who was also himself looking for the Kingdom of God ;" [24] in Luke he was identified as "a member of the council, good and righteous, who did not consent to their purpose or deed, and who was looking for the Kingdom of God'" [25] and in John he was identified as "a disciple of Jesus".

The Gospel of Mark states that when Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus's body, Pilate marveled that Jesus was already dead, and he summoned the centurion to confirm this before releasing the body to Joseph. In the Gospel of John, it is recorded that Joseph of Arimathea was assisted in the burial process by Nicodemus , who brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes and included these spices in the burial clothes per Jewish customs. Although no single gospel gives an inclusive or definitive account of the resurrection of Jesus or his appearances, there are four points at which all four gospels converge: All four gospels report that women were the ones to find the tomb of Jesus empty.

According to Mark and Luke, the announcement of Jesus' resurrection was made to several women. According to Mark and John, Jesus appeared first in Mark In the gospels, especially the synoptics , women play a central role as eyewitnesses at Jesus' death, entombment, and in the discovery of the empty tomb. All three synoptics repeatedly make women the subject of verbs of seeing, [29] clearly presenting them as eyewitnesses. After the tomb was found empty, the gospels indicate that Jesus made a series of appearances to the disciples.

He was not immediately recognizable, according to Luke. Sanders concluded that although he could appear and disappear, he was not a ghost. Writing that Luke was very insistent about that, Sanders pointed out that "the risen Lord could be touched, and he could eat". The first two disciples to whom he appeared, walked and talked with him for quite a while without knowing who he was, the road to Emmaus appearance.

At a later time, on the road to Damascus , Saul of Tarsus , then the arch-persecutor of the early disciples, was converted to Christ following an extraordinary vision and discourse with Jesus which left him blind for three days.

Luke 24 NIV - Jesus Has Risen - On the first day of - Bible Gateway

New Testament scholar and theologian E. Sanders argues that a concerted plot to foster belief in the Resurrection would probably have resulted in a more consistent story, and that some of those who were involved in the events gave their lives for their belief. Sanders offers his own hypothesis, saying "there seems to have been a competition: What the reality was that gave rise to the experiences I do not know.

Dunn writes that, whereas the apostle Paul's resurrection experience was "visionary in character" and "non-physical, non-material," the accounts in the Gospels describe physical appearances to the other apostles and women.

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He contends that the "massive realism' He contends that the more detailed accounts of the resurrection are also secondary and do not come from historically trustworthy sources, but instead belong to the genre of the narrative types. Wright argues that the account of the empty tomb and the visionary experiences point towards the historical reality of the resurrection.

In tandem with the historically certain visionary experiences of the early disciples and apostles, Jesus' resurrection as a historical reality becomes far more plausible. Wright treats the resurrection as a historical and accessible event, rather than as a 'supernatural' or 'metaphysical' event.

Summarizing its traditional analysis, the Catholic Church stated in its Catechism: In his book The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity , Thomas Sheehan argues that even Paul's account of the resurrection is not meant to be taken as referring to a literal, physical rising from the grave, and that stories of a bodily resurrection did not appear until as much as half a century following the crucifixion.

Thus the 'third day' does not refer to Sunday, April 9, 30 C. And as regards the 'place' where the resurrection occurred, the formula in First Corinthians does not assert that Jesus was raised from the tomb, as if the raising were a physical and therefore temporal resuscitation. Without being committed to any preternatural physics of resurrection, the phrase 'he was raised on the third day' simply expresses the belief that Jesus was rescued from the fate of utter absence from God death and was admitted to the saving presence of God the eschatological future.

Peter Kirby, the founder of EarlyChristianWritings. Price , Christian "apologists love to make the claims He concludes that there are eight possible theories to explain the resurrection of Jesus. Vermes outlines his boundaries as follows,. I have discounted the two extremes that are not susceptible to rational judgment, the blind faith of the fundamentalist believer and the out-of-hand rejection of the inveterate skeptic. The fundamentalists accept the story, not as written down in the New Testament texts, but as reshaped, transmitted, and interpreted by Church tradition.

They smooth down the rough edges and abstain from asking tiresome questions. The unbelievers, in turn, treat the whole Resurrection story as the figment of early Christian imagination. Most inquirers with a smattering of knowledge of the history of religions will find themselves between these two poles. From his analysis, Vermes presents the remaining six possibilities to explain the resurrection of Jesus account,. Vermes states that none of these six possibilities are likely to be historical.

Paul is a firm believer in bodily resurrection. He stands with his fellow Jews against the massed ranks of pagans; with his fellow Pharisees against other Jews. Habermas also argues three facts in support of Paul's belief in a physical resurrection body. And 3 In Philippians 3: According to Habermas, if Paul meant that we would change into a spiritual body then Paul would have used the Greek pneuma instead of soma. But they say that it was a true resurrection nonetheless. This passage mentions John the Baptist and Jesus as two holy men among the Jews.

There are various other arguments against the historicity of the resurrection story. For example, the number of other historical figures and gods with similar death and resurrection accounts has been pointed out. Price claims that if the resurrection could, in fact, be proven through science or historical evidence, the event would lose its miraculous qualities.

On this theory, the women who visited the tomb Sunday morning mistook its vacancy. New Testament historian Bart D. Ehrman recognizes that "Some scholars have argued that it's more plausible that in fact Jesus was placed in a common burial plot, which sometimes happened, or was, as many other crucified people, simply left to be eaten by scavenging animals.

In Christian theology, the resurrection of Jesus is a foundation of the Christian faith. They form the point in scripture where Jesus gives his ultimate demonstration that he has power over life and death, thus he has the ability to give people eternal life. Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus' followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church.

The apostle Paul wrote that: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile". For this and other reasons, it is widely believed that this creed is of pre-Pauline origin. But Christ really has been raised from the dead. He is the first of all those who will rise. Death came because of what a man did. Rising from the dead also comes because of what a man did. Because of Adam, all people die. So because of Christ, all will be made alive. Paul's views went against the thoughts of the Greek philosophers to whom a bodily resurrection meant a new imprisonment in a corporeal body, which was what they wanted to avoid—given that for them the corporeal and the material fettered the spirit.

According to international scholar Thorwald Lorenzen, the first Easter led to a shift in emphasis from faith "in God" to faith "in Christ". Today, Lorenzen finds "a strange silence about the resurrection in many pulpits". He writes that among some Christians, ministers and professors, it seems to have become "a cause for embarrassment or the topic of apologetics". In the teachings of the apostolic Church , the resurrection was seen as heralding a new era. Forming a theology of the resurrection fell to the apostle Paul.

It was not enough for Paul to simply repeat elementary teachings, but as Hebrews 6: Fundamental to Pauline theology is the connection between Christ's Resurrection and redemption. The teachings of the apostle Paul formed a key element of the Christian tradition and theology.

If his death stands at the center of Paul's theology, so does the resurrection: The Apostolic Fathers , discussed the death and resurrection of Jesus, including Ignatius 50— , [84] Polycarp 69— , and Justin Martyr — Following the conversion of Constantine and the liberating Edict of Milan in , the ecumenical councils of the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries, that focused on Christology helped shape the Christian understanding of the redemptive nature of resurrection, and influenced both the development of its iconography, and its use within Liturgy.

Belief in bodily resurrection was a constant note of the Christian church in antiquity. Download our free Bible audio app here! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. They stood still, their faces downcast. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.

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The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. All rights reserved worldwide. You'll get this book and many others when you join Bible Gateway Plus.

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