Section: 2E4 - Holy Times.
Number of quotes: 114
Ananias of Shirak upon Christmas
Ananias
Book ID: 537 Page: 1
Section: 2E4
…that the apostles appointed and laid it down firmly, that the Festival of the Birth and Epiphany of our Lord and Saviour, the chief and first of the festivals of the Churches [should be] on the 21st day of the month Tebeth, which is 6th of January, according to the Romans.
Quote ID: 9174
Time Periods: 7
Ananias of Shirak upon Christmas
Ananias
Book ID: 537 Page: 3
Section: 2E4
…Cyril fix the canon of the birth on the 6th of January? For at the beginning of the canon we find it written thus: that "the feast of the holy Epiphany is kept in January, on the 6th of the month.….
who will be so rash as to find any fault with the blessed Cyril or with his dispositions?
Quote ID: 9175
Time Periods: 4
Ananias of Shirak upon Christmas
Ananias
Book ID: 537 Page: 4
Section: 2E4
So then, if the Greeks are resolved to despise this, they have no respect either for time or for the gospel, because of their not admitting the festival of the birth. For the one and the other show both the birth and the baptism of Christ our God to have been on one and the same day. For it is written in Luke’s Gospel, in the mystery of the baptism, thus: that Jesus Himself was of about thirty years beginning. See how clearly it proves that on the same day with His birth He was baptised, and then made a beginning both of the thirtieth year of His age and of His teaching.
Quote ID: 9176
Time Periods: 7
Anatolius, ANF Vol. 6, Fathers of the Third Century
Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
Book ID: 527 Page: 148/149
Section: 2E4
PJ Note: This is Anatolius if Alexandria, not Anatolius of Constantinople.EASTER
“to the present time all the bishops of Asia—as themselves also receiving the rule from an unimpeachable authority, to wit, the evangelist John, who leant on the Lord’s breast, and drank in instructions spiritual without doubt—were in the way of celebrating the Paschal feast, without question, every year, whenever the fourteenth day of the moon had come, and the lamb was sacrificed by the Jews after the equinox was past; not acquiescing, so far as regards this matter, with the authority of some, namely, the successors of Peter and Paul, who have taught all the churches in which they sowed the spiritual seeds of the Gospel, that the solemn festival of the resurrection of the Lord can be celebrated only on the Lord’s day. Whence, also, a certain contention broke out between the successors of these, namely, Victor, at that time bishop of the city of Rome, and Polycrates, who then appeared to hold the primacy among the bishops of Asia. And this contention was adjusted most rightfully by Irenæus,1178 at that time president of a part of Gaul, so that both parties kept by their own order, and did not decline from the original custom of antiquity. The one party, indeed, kept the Paschal day on the fourteenth day of the first month, according to the Gospel, as they thought, adding nothing of an extraneous kind, but keeping through all things the rule of faith. And the other party, passing the day of the Lord’s Passion as one replete with sadness and grief, hold that it should not be lawful to celebrate the Lord’s mystery of the Passover at any other time but on the Lord’s day, on which the resurrection of the Lord from death took place”
Quote ID: 9148
Time Periods: 247
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 56
Section: 2E4
The gods provided so many holidays that these seriously interfered with the normal conduct of affairs.
Quote ID: 272
Time Periods: 1234
Apostolic Tradition Of St. Hippolytus of Rome, The
Edited by Gregory Dix and Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 274 Page: 32
Section: 2E4,2A1
Maundy ThursdayI.xx.5. And let those who are to be baptized be instructed to wash and cleanse themselves on the fifth day of the week.
Quote ID: 6927
Time Periods: 2
Apostolic Tradition Of St. Hippolytus of Rome, The
Edited by Gregory Dix and Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 274 Page: 62
Section: 2A4,2E4
III.xxxvi.1. And if there is a day on which there is no instruction let each one at home take a holy book and read in it sufficiently what seems profitable.2. And if indeed thou art at home pray at the third hour and praise God; but if thou art elsewhere and that time comes, pray in thy heart to God.
3. For in this hour Christ was seen nailed upon the tree (lit. wood). And therefore in the Old
Quote ID: 6938
Time Periods: 2
Apostolic Tradition Of St. Hippolytus of Rome, The
Edited by Gregory Dix and Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 274 Page: 64
Section: 2A4,2E4
III.xxxvi.5. And at the ninth hour also let prayer be protracted and praise [be sung]..... . . .
7. Pray also before thy body rests upon thy bed.
8. And at midnight rise and wash thy hands with water and pray. And [if thou hast a wife], pray ye both together.
Quote ID: 6939
Time Periods: 2
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 241
Section: 2E4
The council also decided to accept the date for Easter in Favor at Rome and Alexandria (unfortunately in 326 the two dates were different!{35}), tried to resolve the controversy over Melitius at Alexandria,{36} and issued twenty canons.{37}[Footnote 35] C. J. Hefele and H. Leclerq, Histoire des conciles I (Paris, 1907), 469.
[Footnote 36] Ibid., 488-503.
[Footnore 37] Ibid., 528-620; cf. H. Chadwick in HTR 53 (1960), 171-95.
Quote ID: 654
Time Periods: 34
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 307
Section: 2E4
Indeed as a loyal supporter of the Roman position, Irenaeus had to write letters in defense of it. One letter went to the Roman presbyter Blastus, who held that “the Passover was not to be observed except in accordance with the law of Moses, on the 14th day of the month.{47} When he would not change his position he was deposed by Victor.{48} Another was sent to “an Alexandrian” and argued that Easter was to be observed on a Sunday.{49} Evidently there was opposition to Victor’s proposal both at Rome and at Alexandria.[Footnote 47] Pseudo-Tertullian, Adv. Omn. Haer.8.
[Footnote 48] Eusebius, H. E. 5; 15.
[Footnote 49] Irenaeus, Syr. Frag. 27 (Harvey).
Quote ID: 664
Time Periods: 234
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 308
Section: 2E4
The date January 6 was presumably chosen because of pagan festivals celebrating the “birth” of the new year.{50} By the early fourth century the feast of Christ’s Epiphany at his birth was being observed by Christians in the eastern half of the empire.[Footnote 50] Cf. Epiphanius, Haer. 51, 22, 8-10.
Quote ID: 665
Time Periods: 4
Augustus to Constantine
Robert M. Grant
Book ID: 34 Page: 308
Section: 2E4
Since the early third century the “birthday of the sun” had been observed in Egypt on December 25, when the days began to lengthen after the winter solstice, and at Rome after Aurelian’s erection of a temple to Sol invictus in 274 the same date was celebrated as the natalis Invicti, with thirty races in the circus.{51} By 336 Christians at Rome began observing December 25 as Christ’s birthday.{52}[Footnote 51] CIL I (ed. 2), p. 338; cf. Marbach in RE III A 910.
[Footnote 52] B. Botte, Les origines de la Noel et de l’Epiphanie (Louvain, 1932), 32-37.
Quote ID: 666
Time Periods: 34
Birth of Europe, The
Jacques Le Goff
Book ID: 199 Page: 24
Section: 2E4
Christianity also introduced profound changes to the calendar. It gave the Christian era a new starting point when, in 532, the monk Dionysius the Little made the birth of Christ the new beginning of history. In point of fact, however, Dionysius made a mistake in his calculations, so the birth of Christ, which marks the beginning of the Christian era, was probably in 4 BC.
Quote ID: 4497
Time Periods: 056
Birth of Europe, The
Jacques Le Goff
Book ID: 199 Page: 25
Section: 2E4
In the West, the seventh century witnessed an innovation the impact of which was widely felt, namely the introduction of church bells and the construction of bell-towers or campaniles. In the hands of the monks, the passing of the hours remained imprecise, but now bells announcing each hour could be heard both in the towns and in the countryside. This audible measuring of time was an innovation of capital importance.
Quote ID: 4498
Time Periods: 7
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 54
Section: 2E4
“The death and resurrection of Attis, represented by a decorated tree rather like our Christmas trees . . . .”
Quote ID: 973
Time Periods: 0234
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 54/55
Section: 2D2,2E4,2E5
vis a vis Cybele, the Great Mother. “The image of the goddess was transported on a chariot amid the acclamations of the faithful, in a manner which seems to prefigure the veneration paid to the statue of Our lady in the streets of contemporary Seville during Holy week.”PJ Note: procession
Quote ID: 974
Time Periods: 047
Cathars: Perfect Heresy, The
Stephen O’Shea
Book ID: 261 Page: 230/231
Section: 2E4
The year 1300 saw the papacy institute the jubilee, the greatest occasion for raising funds and consciousness ever devised in the Middle Ages.* Pope Benedict VIII, the most ambitious and abrasive pontiff since Innocent III, declared that pilgrims to Rome that year would receive a raft of spiritual indulgence so ample as to render future damnation an utter fluke. Somewhere between one and two million people accepted his offer, an army of the anxious faithful from all over Europe, crossing the Alps on foot and horseback, docking at ports on the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian, ready to open wide their hearts and purses once in sight of the holy city on the Tiber. The clergy and merchants of Rome exulted.
Quote ID: 6621
Time Periods: 7
Christian Liturgy: Catholic and Evangelical
Frank C. Senn
Book ID: 54 Page: 188
Section: 2E4
The church year calendar as it is known today in the Western churches came to full development in the period of the sacramentaries. Sunday had been firmly established since early times as the fixed day of Christian assembly. Not until the ninth century were saints’ days allowed to take precedence over the Lord’s Day, with propers for the lesser festival replacing those of the Sunday in Eucharistic liturgy.Easter, too, was well established since early Christian times, and since the end of the fourth century, especially through the influence of Jerusalem, Holy Week was also well established.
Quote ID: 1222
Time Periods: 47
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 39
Section: 2E4
So far as regulation had rested with the central authorities through lists of days to be observed by the army or by any city sufficiently duteous to notice them, the world changed with Constantine’s conversion, for Christian emperors, outside of the imperial cult, could not prescribe pagan days and rites as an obligation.
Quote ID: 1279
Time Periods: 4
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 39
Section: 2E4
So, too, the birthday of Helios at the winter solstice persisted, on December 25th, as did the vernal equinox of March 21st;{19} also a first-of-March festival of which little is known.{20}
Quote ID: 1280
Time Periods: 4
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
The same need forced the invention of many celebrations during the year, since Christians’ attendance at events like the Kalends proved too much for the church leadership to control except by competition (and these indeed survived all too vigorously into the sixteenth century and later, west and east alike).{7}A twelfth-century Syrian bishop explained, "The reason, then, why the fathers of the church moved the January 6th celebration [of Epiphany] to December 25th was this, they say: it was the custom of the pagans to celebrate on this same December 25th the birthday of the Sun, and they lit lights then to exalt the day, and invited and admitted the Christians to these rites. When, therefore, the teachers of the church saw that Christians inclined to this custom, figuring out a strategy, they set the celebration of the true Sunrise on this day, and ordered Epiphany to be celebrated on January 6th; and this usage they maintain to the present day along with the lighting of lights."{8}By similar inventions other popular pagan celebrations were directly confronted with a Christian challenge. Saint John’s day has been instanced, also the festival of Saint Peter’s throne; or the Robigalia of April 25th, in protection of the crops against blight, perpetuated for the same ends on the same date under the title Laetania Maior. There are many other examples of the process.
Quote ID: 1394
Time Periods: 345
Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ
Harold W. Hoehner
Book ID: 59 Page: 25
Section: 2E4
The traditional date for the birth of Christ from as early as Hippolytus (ca. A.D. 165-235)# has been December 25th. In the Eastern Church January 6th was the date for not only Christ’s birth, but also the arrival of the Magi on Christ’s second birthday, His baptism in His twenty-ninth year, and the sign at Cana in His thirtieth year. However, Chrysostom (A.D. 345-407) in 386 stated that December 25th is the correct date and hence it became the official date for Christ’s birth in the Eastern Church.#Hippolytus Comentarii in Danielem iv. 23. 3.
Quote ID: 1508
Time Periods: 2345
Chrysostom, NPNF1 Vol. 9, St. Chrysostom: On the Priesthood; Ascetic Treatises; Select Homilies and Letters; Homilies on the Statutes
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 663 Page: 422
Section: 2E4
For what purpose then I ask did He add a reason respecting the Sabbath, but did no such thing in regard to Murder? Because this commandment was not one of the leading ones. It was not one of those which were accurately defined of our conscience, but a kind of partial and temporary one; and for this reason it was abolished afterwards.{3} But those which are necessary and uphold our life, are the following; “Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not steal.” On this account then He adds no reason in this case, nor enters into any instruction on the matter, but is content with the bare prohibition.PJ footnote reference: Chrysostom, Homily XXII.9.
Quote ID: 9491
Time Periods: 45
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 178
Section: 3B,2B,2E4
Nevertheless, forty years later, matters had advanced so far that Gallienus proposed to dominate the city, from the highest point of the Esquiline Hill, with a chariot-group including a colossal statue of himself as the Sun. {73} His successor Claudius II Gothicus (268-70) was devoted to the same deity, and then the logical, conclusive move was taken soon afterwards by the next emperor Aurelian. For he established, as the central and focal point of Roman religion, a massive and strongly subsidized cult of Sol Invictus (274), endowing him with a resplendent Roman temple, and instituting on the model of the ancient priestly colleges, and as their equal in rank, a new college of Priests of the Sun. {74} The birthday of the god was to be on 25 December, and this transformed into Christmas Day, was one of the heritages which Christianity owed to the solar cult.
Quote ID: 4737
Time Periods: 23
Closing of the Western Mind, The
Charles Freeman
Book ID: 205 Page: 161
Section: 3C,2E4,2E3
In the fifth century, Pope Leo was to rebuke Christians at St. Peter’s for turning their backs on St. Peter’s tomb and standing on the front steps of the basilica to worship the rising sun. Remarkably, the main festival of Sol Invictus was the day of winter solstice, December 25, adopted by Christians in the fourth century as the birthday of Christ. In short, the sun was a symbolic image through which Constantine could be presented effectively to both Christian and non-Christian audiences, thus maintaining his neutral position between opposing faiths.
Quote ID: 4825
Time Periods: 5
Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 7, The
Edited by Eugene F. A. Klug
Book ID: 339 Page: 45
Section: 2E4
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY [ME] Martin Luther, for example, taught that the only way to honor the Sabbath was by “heeding God’s Word and doing good works,” which he defines as “attending church, hearing and studying God’s Word, thanking, praising, and praying to God.”"But on the seventh day God decreed that people should worship him, designating it as the Sabbath,…."
Pastor John’s note: False
Quote ID: 7860
Time Periods: 7
Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 7, The
Edited by Eugene F. A. Klug
Book ID: 339 Page: 45
Section: 2E4
5. The point is that whoever wishes to honor and keep the Sabbath must do so by heeding God’s Word and doing good works—attending church, hearing and studying God’s Word, thanking, praising, and praying to God, and doing good works. In this way the Sabbath is sanctified….
Quote ID: 9304
Time Periods: 7
Complete Sermons of Martin Luther Volume 7, The
Edited by Eugene F. A. Klug
Book ID: 339 Page: 357
Section: 2E4
THE DAY OF MARY’S VISITATION1. The meaning of this festival has not been understood even though it has been celebrated under the papacy for several hundred years, along with the singing of the Magnificat in all the churches. That is why we must preach about the reason for the observance, so that we have a correct understanding of this special day and how to observe it.
Quote ID: 7866
Time Periods: 7
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 217
Section: 3C,2E4
The Council of Nicaea had much other business and remained in session for another month. It was perhaps Constantine himself who had asked the council to determine the proper date of Easter. He took a prominent part in the discussion, {83} and afterward wrote a circular letter communicating the decision to the churches of each province in Syria and Palestine.
Quote ID: 1625
Time Periods: 4
Constantine and Eusebius
Timothy D. Barnes
Book ID: 64 Page: 217
Section: 3C,2E4
The council shared the emperor’s view that to allow different Easters in different places was absurd and sinful, and it legislated for uniformity, ordering all churches everywhere to adopt the calculation which prevailed throughout the West, Asia Minor, and Egypt.
Quote ID: 1626
Time Periods: 4
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 135
Section: 2E4
And indeed he was not, and had not been, the only man to take this view, which, with the assistance of Neoplatonism, allotted the solar religion a sort of middle ground between paganism and Christianity. Old Testament prophecy was interpreted as identifying the ’Sun of Righteousness’ with Jesus Christ, who was often called Sol Justitiae and depicted by statues resembling the young Apollo or Sol. Clement of Alexandria writes of Christ driving his chariot across the heavens like the Sun-god, and a tomb mosaic found beneath St Peter’s at Rome, probably made early in the fourth century, displays him in this chariot, mounting the sky in the guise of Sol. Moreover, Sol remained a Christian symbol, and on a coin of Betranio (c.350), with a Christian inscription, Sol Invictus crowns the Christian standard, the labarum. The Christian Sunday was manifestly named after the Sun, and Tertullian remarks that many pagans believed that the Christians worshipped the Sun, because it was on Sundays that they met, and prayed to the east, in which the Sun rose. Moreover, in the fourth century, in the western part of the empire at least (the date in its eastern regions is uncertain), there began the commemoration of 24 December, the Sun-god’s birthday at the winter solstice, as the date for the birth of Christ.
Quote ID: 1710
Time Periods: 234
Councils: First Council of Nicaea (Online Source)
From Wikipedia
Book ID: 89 Page: 9
Section: 2E4
The controversy between those who argued for independent computations and those who argued for continued reliance on the Jewish calendar was formally resolved by the Council, which endorsed the independent procedure that had been in use for some time at Rome and Alexandria. Easter was henceforward to be a Sunday in a lunar month chosen according to Christian criteria—in effect, a Christian Nisan—not in the month of Nisan as defined by Jews.PJ Note: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea.
Accessed 7-01-2022.
Quote ID: 2351
Time Periods: 4
Councils: First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology, The
Leo Donald Davis
Book ID: 224 Page: 30
Section: 2B2,2E4,3A1
By law, the clergy were exempted from onerous public functions; wills in favor of the Church were permitted, and slaves could be freed in the Christian churches. Still these privileges were already those of pagan priests and institutions. Even the declaration of the first day of the week as a day of rest was ambiguous, since it was both the day of Christ’s resurrection and the day sacred to the sun.
Quote ID: 5632
Time Periods: 4
Cult of the Saints, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 208 Page: 31
Section: 2A3,2E4
The careful noting of the anniversaries of the deaths of martyrs and bishops gave the Christian community a perpetual responsibility for maintaining the memory of its heroes and leaders.{32}
Quote ID: 5072
Time Periods: 45
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 44
Section: 2E4
That was the beginning of nine days of penitence, a sort of ‘Lent’. People abstained from bread, pomegranates, quinces, pork, fish and probably wine as well. Only milk was drunk.
Quote ID: 5138
Time Periods: 2345
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 63
Section: 2E4
Nor is there cause to extrapolate on the hypothetical coincidence in that year of the Christian Holy Week with the March Mother-cult cycle. {106}
Quote ID: 5144
Time Periods: 345
Cults of the Roman Empire, The
Robert Turcan
Book ID: 209 Page: 113
Section: 2E4
At the eighth hour (around two in the afternoon), after a kind of ‘vespers’ intoned by the officiants and taken up in chorus by those in attendance (Martial, Epigrams, X, 48, 1).. . . .
A similar discipline in devotions, which prefigured that of cloistered monks, radically transformed the customs of pagan worship. It was no longer a matter of sacrificing once a month or once a year to this or that god.
Quote ID: 5158
Time Periods: 17
Cyprian, ANF Vol. 5, Fathers of the Third Century
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 666 Page: 437
Section: 2E4
“He who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of worldly appointment, neither does he who hopes for eternity from God calculate the seasons of earth any more.”
PJ footnote: Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian, III.2.
Quote ID: 9507
Time Periods: 2
Didache: The Oldest Church Manual
Phillip Schaff
Book ID: 254 Page: 208/209
Section: 2E4
CHAP. XIV.
THE LORD’S DAY AND THE SACRIFICE.
1. And on the Lord’s Day of the Lord come together, and break bread, and give thanks, having before confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.
Quote ID: 6405
Time Periods: 12
Druids, The
Peter Berresford Ellis
Book ID: 212 Page: 208
Section: 2E4
Frank O’Connor, who also believed the author was Siadhal Mac Feradach, translated the verse as follows:To go to Rome -
Is little profit, endless pain;
The Master that you see in Rome,
You find at home, or seek in vain.
Quote ID: 5229
Time Periods: 7
Earliest Christian Heretics – Readings from Their Opponents, The
Edited By Arland J. Hultgren and Steven A. Haggmark
Book ID: 213 Page: 152
Section: 2E4
“Quartodecimans” (or “Fourteenthers”) is a designation for a group of Christians, primarily in Asia Minor in the second century A.D., who celebrated a Christian Passover-including a commemoration of Jesus’ death and resurrection-on the fourteenth day of the Jewish month called Nisan. In so doing, they followed the chronology of the Gospel of John regarding the day of Jesus’ death (14 Nisan). Their fasting ended on that day and was followed by an Easter vigil in the evening. This practice resulted in the celebration of Easter on any day of the week (on whatever day 14 Nisan occurred). Meanwhile, the custom had emerged in Rome of always celebrating Easter on a Sunday in commemoration of Christ’s resurrection on a Sunday. The discrepancy gave rise to what has been called the “Easter Controversy.”. . . .
it is the first recognizable illustration of the rise of the power of the Roman episcopate.
Quote ID: 5248
Time Periods: 2
Earliest Christian Heretics – Readings from Their Opponents, The
Edited By Arland J. Hultgren and Steven A. Haggmark
Book ID: 213 Page: 153
Section: 2E4
18.1. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 8.11. Rome, ca. A.D. 230.. . . .
[But in this] they only regard what has been written in the law, that he will be accursed who does not so keep [the commandment] as it is enjoined. They do not, however, attend to this [fact], that the legal enactment was made for Jews, who in times to come should kill the real Passover. And this [paschal sacrifice, in its efficacy,] has spread unto the Gentiles, and is discerned by faith, and not now observed in letter [merely]. They attend to this one commandment, and do not look unto what has been spoken by the apostle: “For I testify to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to keep the whole law” [[Gal. 5:3]]. In other respects, however, these consent to all the traditions delivered to the Church by the Apostles.
Quote ID: 5249
Time Periods: 23
Earliest Christian Heretics – Readings from Their Opponents, The
Edited By Arland J. Hultgren and Steven A. Haggmark
Book ID: 213 Page: 153/154
Section: 2E4
18.2. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.23-25. Caesarea, ca. A.D. 325.. . . .
24. The Asian bishops who insisted that they must observe the custom transmitted to them long ago were headed by Polycrates, who in the letter which he wrote to Victor and the Roman church set out in the following terms the tradition that he had received:
We for our part keep the day scrupulously, without addition or subtraction. For in Asia great luminaries sleep who shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s advent, when He is coming with glory from heaven and shall search out all His saints-such as Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis with two of his daughters, who remained unmarried to the end of their days, while his other daughter lived in the Holy Spirit and rests in Ephesus. Again there is John, who leant back on the Lord’s breast, and who became a sacrificing priest wearing the mitre, a martyr, and a teacher; he too sleeps in Ephesus.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: What?!
Quote ID: 5250
Time Periods: 2
Earliest Christian Heretics – Readings from Their Opponents, The
Edited By Arland J. Hultgren and Steven A. Haggmark
Book ID: 213 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
Thereupon Victor, head of the Roman church, attempted at one stroke to cut off from the common unity all the Asian dioceses, together with the neighbouring churches,. . . .
We still possess the words of these men, who very sternly rebuked Victor. Among them was Irenaeus, who wrote on behalf of the Christians for whom he was responsible in Gaul. While supporting the view that only on the Lord’s Day might the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection be celebrated, he gave Victor a great deal of excellent advice, in particular that he should not cut off entire churches of God because they observed the unbroken tradition of their predecessors. This is how he goes on:
The dispute is not only about the day, but also about the actual character of the fast. Some think that they ought to fast for one day, some for two, others for still more; some make their “day” last forty hours on end. Such variation in the observance did not originate in our own day, but very much earlier, in the time of our forefathers,
Quote ID: 5251
Time Periods: 2
Earliest Christian Heretics – Readings from Their Opponents, The
Edited By Arland J. Hultgren and Steven A. Haggmark
Book ID: 213 Page: 157/158
Section: 2E4
18.3. Epiphanius, Panarion 50.1.1-8; 50.3.2-4. Salamis, Cyprus, A.D. 375-78.. . . .
[1.4] But their great failure is that they hold to the statement in the law: “Cursed is he who does not keep the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month.” [1.5]
. . . .
[3.2] …But God’s holy church observes not only the fourteenth day, but also the seventh day which recurs cyclically [in the] order of the seven days of the week, so that the feast of the Resurrection may occur [as] it did originally, according to the things accomplished by the Lord.
Quote ID: 5252
Time Periods: 34
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 104
Section: 2E4
(Mid second century). The community assembled each week, still in a private house, on the Sunday ‘because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world, and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.’
Quote ID: 5277
Time Periods: 2
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 153
Section: 2E4
The CalendarAccording to Cyprian, “he who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of worldly appointment, neither does he who hopes for eternity from God calculate the seasons of earth any more.” Such an attitude serves to explain the relatively late date of the development of an ecclesiastical calendar.
The Church’s year, as it was to be arranged eventually, was the result of the fusion of two elements: the festivals of the martyrs, referred to by Tertullian, which were often local in character, and the festivals of Christ, which were universally accepted.
Quote ID: 5305
Time Periods: 34
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 154
Section: 2E4
This very meagre calendar perpetuated in part the eschatological outlook of the first Christians, and it was not until the conversion of Constantine, the consequent reconciliation of Church and State and more a sympathetic interest in the affairs of the world and so in time and history, that it underwent any extensive elaboration.
Quote ID: 5306
Time Periods: 4
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
Some - washing of hands and putting off of cloaks before and sitting down on a bed afterwards - were condemned as superstitious; others - standing with arms outstretched, like Christ on the cross, and facing the east - were recommended. The sign of the cross was an habitual practice: ‘in all our travels and movements, in all our comings-in and goings-out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.’ Cyprian
Quote ID: 5307
Time Periods: 23
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 155
Section: 2E4
In the Apostolic Tradition seven hours are listed - as soon as one wakes; at the third, sixth and ninth hours; before sleep; at midnight and finally at cockcrow. The second, third and fourth of these corresponded with the main divisions of the day in the Roman world and were Christianized by relating the third hour to Christ’s crucifixion, the sixth to the darkness and the ninth to the piercing with the lance.
Quote ID: 5308
Time Periods: 3
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 210
Section: 2E4
Whereas previously there had been few festivals and their predominating note had been eschatological, there now took place an elaboration and an historicization which was the outcome of a changed outlook consequent upon the reconciliation between Christianity and the State, following the conversion of Constantine. The purpose of the new liturgical cycle was to set the facts of the gospel before the many nominal Christians who flocked into the Church. This is clearly shown by the institution of Christmas Day on December 25th to commemorate Christ’s nativity. The date was chosen deliberately and principally to draw the converts away from the pagan solemnities associated with the day since the establishing of the Natalis Solis Invicti by Aurelian in 274. It appears to have been accepted in Rome c. 336.
Quote ID: 5337
Time Periods: 234
Early Christian Church, The
J.G. Davies
Book ID: 214 Page: 211
Section: 2E4
Gradually the whole year was being organized to set forth the facts of the ministry and the meaning of the gospel.
Quote ID: 5338
Time Periods: 234
Ecclesiastical History, The, Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates Scholasticus
Book ID: 217 Page: 25
Section: 2E4
We have also gratifying intelligence to communicate to you relative to unity of judgment on the subject of the most holy feast of Easter: for this point also has been happily settled through your prayers; so that all the brethren in the East who have heretofore kept this festival when the Jews did, will henceforth conform to the Romans and to us, and to all who from the earliest time have observed our period of celebrating Easter.PJ Note: Socrates Scholasticus 380–post 439
Quote ID: 9044
Time Periods: 4
End of Ancient Christianity, The
Robert Markus
Book ID: 219 Page: 103
Section: 2E4
The problem posed by one rival sacred calendar, the Jewish religious week and year, had long ago been dealt with. The problem posed by the traditional Roman calendar was more difficult. Its celebrations were rooted in a distant religious past; but they were also the rites which governed the rhythm of public life, and they articulated a corporate civic and municipal consensus. Many Christians were deeply involved in public life, and found it easy to persuade themselves that the religious overtones of public celebrations were faint enough not to offend their piety.
Quote ID: 5426
Time Periods: 456
End of Ancient Christianity, The
Robert Markus
Book ID: 219 Page: 128
Section: 2E4
And, similarly, charitable almsgiving, too, though a permanent duty, was especially and solemnly binding on the days set aside for the ‘collections’, when the offerings of the more affluent were to be brought to the churches for redistribution among the poor. So it was a wise institution of the Fathers, Leo preached on one such occasion,{15} to have laid down that there should be special days set aside in each season which would act as a call to the faithful people to the public collection. And because those in need of assistance flock, mainly, to the church, provision should be made through the care of the clergy to dispense what is needed from what has been provided out of the wealth of the many, contributed by them willingly to the holy collection.One of these ‘collection’ days occurred at the time that the ancient Apollinarian games had traditionally been celebrated each July to commemorate Rome’s deliverance from calamity after the battle of Cannae.
Quote ID: 5434
Time Periods: 5
End of Ancient Christianity, The
Robert Markus
Book ID: 219 Page: 129
Section: 2E4
We are invited to celebrate this day by apostolic institution, this day on which the fathers have prudently and profitably ordained the first of these holy collections; because at one time the pagan people used to render superstitious cult to their demons at this time, the fathers intended that our most holy offering of alms should be celebrated against contra the profane sacrifices of the impious.Pastor John’s note: Leo I, 440-61
Quote ID: 5435
Time Periods: 5
End of Ancient Christianity, The
Robert Markus
Book ID: 219 Page: 130
Section: 2E4
The middle of the fifth century, that is to say the time of Leo’s pontificate in Rome, of Peter Chrysologus in Ravenna, and of Maximus, perhaps a little earlier, in Turin, seems to mark the climax of the century-old effort to create a cycle of Christian sacred time.{26}
Quote ID: 5437
Time Periods: 5
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History Books, LCL 153: Eusebius I, Books 1-5
Eusebius
Book ID: 141 Page: 503
Section: 2E4
Book V chapter XXIII
At that time no small controversy arose because all the dioceses of Asia thought it right, as though by more ancient tradition, to observe for the feast of the Saviour’s passover the fourteenth day of the moon, on which the Jews had been commanded to kill the lamb. Thus it was necessary to finish the fast on that day, whatever day of the week it might be. {1} Yet it was not the custom to celebrate in this manner in the churches throughout the rest of the world, . . . .
Quote ID: 3109
Time Periods: 34
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 163
Section: 2E4
“John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and being a priest wore the sacerdotal plate.”Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, XXIV.2.
PJ Note: Eusebius is quoting a letter from Polycrates, a leader among believers in Ephesus, to Pope Victor in the late second century.
Quote ID: 9527
Time Periods: 24
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 242
Section: 2E4
“But the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them. He himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him: We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now at rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus, And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito, the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead? All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day When the people put away the leaven. Thereupon Victor, who presided over the church at Rome, immediately attempted to cut off the common unity the parishes of all Asia, with the churches that agreed with them, as heterodox; and he wrote letters and declared all the brethren there wholly excommunicated. . . . He fittingly admonishes Victor that he should not cut off whole churches of God which observed the tradition of an ancient custom….Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, Church History, V.xxiv.2–9, 11.
Quote ID: 9540
Time Periods: 2
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 544
Section: 2E4
He enjoins the General Observance of the Lord’s Day, and the Day of Preparation.
He ordained, too, that one day should be regarded as a special occasion for prayer: I mean that which is truly the first and chief of all, the day of our Lord and Saviour.
…………….
Accordingly, he enjoined on all the subjects of the Roman empire to observe the Lord’s day, as a day of rest, and also to honor the day which precedes the Sabbath; in memory, I suppose, of what the Saviour of mankind is recorded to have achieved on that day. And since his desire was to teach his whole army zealously to honor the Saviour’s day (which derives its name from light, and from the sun), he freely granted to those among them who were partakers of the divine faith, leisure for attendance on the services of the Church of God, in order that they might be able, without impediment, to perform their religious worship.
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, IV.xvii.
Quote ID: 9599
Time Periods: 4
Eusebius, NPNF2 Vol. 1, Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 668 Page: 545
Section: 2E4
That he directed even his Pagan Soldiers to pray on the Lord’s Day.
With regard to those who were as yet ignorant of divine truth, he provided by a second statute that they should appear on each Lord’s day on an open plain near the city, and there, at a given signal, offer to God with one accord a prayer which they had previously learnt. . . . The emperor himself prescribed the prayer to be used by all his troops, commanding them to pronounce the following words in the Latin tongue:
Pastor John’s footnote reference: Eusebius, The Life of Constantine the Great, IV.xix.
Quote ID: 9600
Time Periods: 4
Hippolytus of Rome: Commentary on Daniel. Version 12, Book 4, First edition
T.C. Schimdt
Book ID: 531 Page: 140
Section: 2E4
23.3 For the first advent of our Lord in the flesh, when he was born in Bethlehem, was December 25th,{3} Wednesday,{4} while Augustus was in his forty-second year, but from Adam, five thousand and five hundred years. He suffered in the thirty-third year, March 25th,{5} Friday,{6} the eighteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, while Rufus and Roubellion were Consuls.{7}PJ Note: Hippolytus of Rome: Commentary on Daniel, IV.23.3.
Quote ID: 9152
Time Periods: 3
Hippolytus, ANF Vol. 5, Fathers of the Third Century
Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
Book ID: 407 Page: 123
Section: 2E4
PJ Note: VIII.xii.And certain other (heretics), contentious by nature, (and) wholly uninformed as regards knowledge, as well as in their manner more (than usually) quarrelsome, combine (in maintaining) that Easter should be kept on the fourteenth day{3}of the first month, according to the commandment of the law, on whatever day (of the week) it should occur. (But in this) they only regard what has been written in the law, that he will be accursed who does not so keep (the commandment) as it is enjoined. They do not, however, attend to this (fact), that the legal enactment was made for Jews, who in times to come should kill the real Passover.{4}
From Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies, ANF, Vol. 5, Book 8
Quote ID: 8533
Time Periods: 23
History of Christmas
History.com Editors
Book ID: 534 Page: 5
Section: 2E4
Also around this time, English author Charles Dickens created the classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol. The story’s message-the importance of charity and good will towards all humankind-struck a powerful chord in the United States and England and showed members of Victorian society the benefits of celebrating the holiday.
Quote ID: 9186
Time Periods: 7
History of the Franks
Gregory Bishop of Tours
Book ID: 110 Page: xxiii
Section: 2E4
The administration of justice was also affected by the same causes which brought about the disappearance of medicine. There was little inducement to look for evidence when an appeal could be made to superstitious fear. Hence the importance of the oath. Gregory himself, when he was charged with slandering queen Fredegunda, had to take oath to his innocence on three altars. We have also other appeals to the supernatural in the trial by combat and the ordeal.
Quote ID: 2642
Time Periods: 67
Holidays and the Invention of Tradition
Digital History
Book ID: 535 Page: 1
Section: 2E4
But despite the Puritans’ best efforts, Christmas in America became an excuse for dangerous hell raising. At Christmastime, men drank rum, fired muskets wildly, and costumed themselves in animal pelts or women’s clothes – crossing species and gender.
Quote ID: 9172
Time Periods: 7
How the Irish Saved Civilization
Thomas Cahill
Book ID: 111 Page: 200
Section: 2E4
But the stricter Roman Christianity of Augustine’s Canterbury was also slowly spreading north and west through the English territories, and was bound eventually to meet Celtic Christianity, marching in the opposite direction. A clash of custom and sensibility was as unavoidable as it had been between Columbanus and the Burgundian bishops. It came to a head at a synod, held in 664 at the Abbey of Whitby in Northumbria, at which the Northumbrian king ruled in favor of the “Roman” party---that is, the party who were heirs to Augustine’s papal mission. The main issue---as had also, by the way, been the case in the Burgundian synod---was the correct date for celebrating Easter.
Quote ID: 2666
Time Periods: 67
How the Irish Saved Civilization
Thomas Cahill
Book ID: 111 Page: 204
Section: 2E4
Even the “Romans” at Whitby presented their point of view in the new way. They did not argue, for genuine intellectual disputation was beyond them. They held up pictures for the mind---one set of bones versus another. Indeed, the Northumbrian king, who ruled in favor of the Roman party, did so because he imagined that Peter, Rome’s supposed first bishop, to whom Jesus had, in a metaphorical phrase, given “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” would use those keys to lock the king out of heaven if he ruled against Rome.
Quote ID: 2667
Time Periods: 7
Justin Martyr, ANF Vol. 1, The Apostolic Fathers
Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
Book ID: 674 Page: 186
Section: 2B2,2E4
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun.
PJ footnote: Justin Martyr, The First Apology of Justin, XLVII.
Quote ID: 9671
Time Periods: 2
Justin Martyr, ANF Vol. 1, The Apostolic Fathers
Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
Book ID: 674 Page: 206
Section: 2E4
“Now, sirs,” I said, “it is possible for us to show how the eighth day possessed a certain mysterious import, which the seventh day did not possess, and which was promulgated by God through these rites.
PJ footnote: Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, XXIV.
Quote ID: 9685
Time Periods: 2
Last Pagans of Rome, The
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 241 Page: 169
Section: 2E4
The Codex Calendar of 354 has reduced the number of pagan festivals illustrated to four; while an early fifth-century mosaic from Carthage has only one.{154} And that one is the consular games of the first week of January, which, like many other ludi, certainly continued. The long series of consular diptychs show consuls, all now Christian, spending fortunes year after year on their (now entirely de-paganized) consular games in both Rome and Constantinople, right down to the Basilius who celebrated the last consulate of all, at Rome, in 541.{155}Pastor John’s note: “The previous forms of pagan worship had fallen out of favor, but what is it that had not fallen out of favor? Answer: ceremony and desire for political status.
Quote ID: 6060
Time Periods: 45
Lives of the Twelve Caesars, The
Suetonius
Book ID: 246 Page: 107
Section: 2E4
It was not till near the reign of Severus that the Romans began to divide their time into weeks, as we do, in imitation of the Jews.
Quote ID: 6204
Time Periods: 23
Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus By W.H.C. Frend
Book ID: 316 Page: 257
Section: 2A3,2E4,3C
Even at this stage Churches had their roll of honour of martyrs whose ‘birthdays’ (natalicia) were celebrated each year.{132} The niche in the Red Wall under St. Peter’s with its fragmentary Greek word ... may be the earliest material evidence for the cult. In addition, they inherited from Judaism a sense of social obligation which even if it was confined mainly to benefiting their own members, impressed outsiders with their cohesion and inner strength.
Quote ID: 7674
Time Periods: 0123
Medieval Latin Lyrics
Helen Waddell
Book ID: 149 Page: 39
Section: 2E4
Spring wakens the birds’ voices, but for meMy Saint’s day is my spring, and in its light
. . . .
And what gay voices, so I know the day
Year after year that is St. Felix’ Feast,
And know the springtime of my year is come,
And sing him a new song.
Quote ID: 3241
Time Periods: 37
Medieval Origins of Christmas Traditions, The
Michael Livingston
Book ID: 533 Page: 3
Section: 2E4
By far the most popular early date for Christ’s birth, though, was March 25.
Quote ID: 9155
Time Periods: 23
Mithras: Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, The
Manfred Clauss
Book ID: 389 Page: 61
Section: 2B,2E4
…the cult of Mithras had no public ceremonial of its own. The festival of the natalis Invicti, 25 December, was a public festival of the Sun and thus by no means limited to the mysteries of Mithras.
Quote ID: 8344
Time Periods: 234
Mithras: Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, The
Manfred Clauss
Book ID: 389 Page: 66
Section: 2E4
Light comes from the firmament, Mithras is the god of light, the new light which bursts forth each morning from the vault of heaven behind the mountains, and whose birthday is celebrated on 25 December. A late antique Syriac commentator describes this festival, and correctly observes that it later developed into the birthday of Christ:It was in fact customary among the pagans to celebrate the festival of the Sun’s birthday on 25 December and to light bonfires in honour of the day. They even used to invite the Christian population to these rites. But when the teachers of the Church realized that Christians were allowing themselves to take part, they decided to observe the Feast of the true Birth on the same day. {80}
Quote ID: 8346
Time Periods: 234
Pagan Book of Days, The
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 259 Page: 3
Section: 2E4
All of the world’s religious traditions teach that sacred rites and observances should be performed not only on the correct day but also at the correct time.
Quote ID: 6515
Time Periods: 2
Pagan Book of Days, The
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 259 Page: 8
Section: 2E4
Traditionally, Sunday is the first day of the week. It is also known as the Lord’s Day from its original association with the Lord, that is, the sun god, personified as Helios, Apollo, Ogmios, Mithras, and St. Elias.
Quote ID: 6516
Time Periods: 1234
Pagan Book of Days, The
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 259 Page: 60
Section: 2E4
April 11- EasterEaster is named for the goddess of spring, Eostre or Ostara.
Quote ID: 6520
Time Periods: 7
Pagan Book of Days, The
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 259 Page: 63
Section: 2E4
April 25--Robigalia/St Mark/Cuckoo DaySt. Mark’s Day is the old Roman festival of the Robigalia, the observance of which was magically intended to avert the spirit of mildew, which threatens crops around this time. For many years, the Litania Major of the Catholic church for St. Mark’s Day at Rome followed the earlier festival. Its purpose, like the Robigalia, was to gain the blessing of heaven for the growing crops.
Quote ID: 6521
Time Periods: 67
Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices
Frank Viola
Book ID: 168 Page: 110
Section: 2E4
Constantine is also noted for bringing to the Christian faith the idea of the “holy site” which was based on the model of the pagan shrine. {89} Because of the aura of “sacredness” that the fourth-century Christians attached to Palestine, it became known as “the Holy Land” by the sixth century. {90}
Quote ID: 3559
Time Periods: 456
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 195
Section: 2E4
He introduced the Mithraic Sunday, “the day of the Lord,” in 321, {10}
Quote ID: 3785
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 249
Section: 2E4
all branches of the Church agree that no data exist for determining the day, month, or year of the event, nor was such a festival celebrated in Apostolic or early post-Apostolic times. It does not appear in the festival lists of Tertullian or Irenaeus who both died in the early third century.
Quote ID: 3807
Time Periods: 2345
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 249
Section: 2E4
There is evidence, however, that in the West December twenty-fifth was not accepted by the Church until the middle of the fourth century when it borrowed the dies natalis invicti solis, “birthday of the unconquered Sun,” a festival long known to the ancient world from Mithraism.
Quote ID: 3808
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 250
Section: 2E4
Origen at that time in a sermon {5} denounced the idea of keeping Jesus’ birthday like that of a Pharaoh and said that only sinners such as Herod were so honored. Arnobius later similarly ridiculed giving birthdays to “gods.” {6} A Latin treatise, De pascha computus {7} (of ca. 243) placed Jesus’ birth on March twenty-first since that was the supposed day on which God created the Sun (Gen. 1:14-19), thus typifying the “Sun of righteousness” as Malachi (4:2) called the expected Messiah. A century before, Polycarp, martyred in Smyrna in 155, gave the same date for the birth and baptism placing it on a Wednesday because of the creation of the Sun on that day. {8}
Quote ID: 3809
Time Periods: 23
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 250
Section: 2E4
The first authentic record of December twenty-fifth as the “Festival of the Nativity” is found in the Roman Church calendar of Furius Dionysius Philocalus compiled in 353-354, though probably a rewriting of an older one of about 336.
Quote ID: 3811
Time Periods: 4
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 252
Section: 2E4
The Christian adoption of the date is only one of many examples of the Church custom already noted of tolerating and absorbing pagan customs as it spread over pagan lands.Pastor John’s note: RE - the date for Christmas
Quote ID: 3812
Time Periods: 345
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 252
Section: 2E4
Without doubt Christmas inherited its spirit of mirth and jollity from the great Roman festival of the Saturnalia.
Quote ID: 3813
Time Periods: 345
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 261
Section: 2E4
Charlemagne at Aquisgranum (Aachen) in 788 decreed that all ordinary labor on the Lord’s Day be forbidden since it was against the Fourth Commandment, especially labor in the field or vineyard which Constantine had exempted.
Quote ID: 3814
Time Periods: 7
Paganism to Christianity in the Roman Empire
Walter Woodburn Hyde
Book ID: 172 Page: 261
Section: 2E4
In 813 as emperor he decreed that “all servile labor must be abstained from.” From his time onward, then, the idea of substituting Sunday for the Sabbath began, for all his decrees were based on the Old Testament command to keep the Sabbath day holy, and throughout the succeeding Middle Ages the Old Testament became the basis for Sunday observance.
Quote ID: 3815
Time Periods: 7
Perth Assembly
David Calderwood Edited by Greg Fox
Book ID: 177 Page: 87
Section: 2E4
From the beginning of the Reformation to this present year of our Lord 1618, the Kirk of Scotland hath in diverse ways condemned the observation of all holy days, the Lord’s Day only excepted.
Quote ID: 3920
Time Periods: 7
Polycrates, ANF Vol. 8, The Twelve Patriarchs
Edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson
Book ID: 476 Page: 773/774
Section: 2E4
FROM HIS [PJ: POLYCRATES,{2} BISHOP OF EPHESUS] EPISTLE TO VICTOR AND THE ROMAN CHURCH CONCERNING THE DAY OF KEEPING THE PASSOVER{7}As for us, then, we scrupulously observe the exact day,{8} neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great luminaries{9} have gone to their rest, who shall rise again in the day of the coming of the Lord, when He cometh with glory from heaven and shall raise again all the saints. I speak of Philip, one of the twelve apostles,{10} who is laid to rest at Hierapolis; and his two daughters, who arrived at old age unmarried;{11} his other daughter also, who passed her life{12} under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and reposes at Ephesus; John, moreover, who reclined on the Lord’s bosom, and who became a priest wearing the mitre,{13} and a witness and a teacher—he rests at Ephesus. Then there is Polycarp, both bishop and martyr at Smyrna; and Thraseas from Eumenia, both bishop and martyr, who rests at Smyrna.
….
These all kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in accordance with the Gospel, without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of faith.
Quote ID: 9055
Time Periods: ?
Porphyrius The Charioteer
Alan Cameron
Book ID: 180 Page: 228
Section: 2E4
Venationes were long performed to imperial frowns—Leo’s disapproval emerges clearly from the law he issued in 469 banning public entertainments on Sundays {3}
Quote ID: 3951
Time Periods: 5
Priscillian of Avila: The Occult and Charismatic in the Early Church
Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 378 Page: 75
Section: 2E4
The observance of special days was highly characteristic of paganism.
Quote ID: 8263
Time Periods: 5
Rome 1300: On The Path of the Pilgrim
Herbert L. Kessler and Johanna Zacharias
Book ID: 189 Page: 2
Section: 2E4
Origins of the Christian JubileeThough new in Christian vocabulary in the thirteenth century, the concept of the Jubilee, like Christianity itself, had ancient roots in Judaism.
Quote ID: 4171
Time Periods: 7
Rome 1300: On The Path of the Pilgrim
Herbert L. Kessler and Johanna Zacharias
Book ID: 189 Page: 2
Section: 2E4
For Pope Boniface, whose papacy spanned the turn of a new century, a one-hundred-year period (that is, twice fifty) seemed fitting for a Christian Jubilee cycle. The pontiff, once he recognized the opportunity that was presenting itself to him, therefore decreed that Jubilees would be celebrated at the start of each new century. (Later, it was noted that the ninety-nine-year span between Jubilees, being far longer than practically anyone could expect to live, would deprive a great many Christians of the opportunity to seek a Jubilee year’s plenary absolution in Rome and would thus consign most Christians to an afterlife of agony. The cycle was therefore shortened to the original fifty years of the Jewish Jubilee. Later still, it was halved again, to occur every quarter-century, which timetable the Vatican continues to follow today.)
Quote ID: 4172
Time Periods: 7
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 211
Section: 1A,2E4,2E5
After the physical empire came the ghostly empire; and the Roman gods fell before the single god incarnate in Jesus, crucified by an obscure provincial governor in the reign of Tiberius.....
A calendar published in Rome in A.D. 354 lists the birthdays of the apotheosized rulers from Augustus to Constantius, the consuls from the year 510 B.C. and the pagan festivals throughout the year, noting that on December 25 there were games in the Circus to celebrate “ the birth of the unconquerable sun” (natalis solis invicti). There followed a table of Easter Sundays, and the feast-days of the martyrs. Christianity and paganism walked side by side in apparent harmony; it seems not to have been impossible for a man to attend the feast of the Lupercalia in the morning and divine service in the evening.
Quote ID: 4432
Time Periods: 14
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 215
Section: 2E4
Paganism survived. Until the eleventh century, the afternoon of Easter Saturday in Rome was marked by the festival of Coromannia, when the archpriests of the eighteen parishes summoned the faithful to church, while the sacristans adorned in white garments, with flowers in their hair and wearing two horns like the ancient Silenus, headed the processions. These sacristans waved wands covered with bells, and danced all the way to St. John Lateran, and the archpriests rode asses back to front. In the Lateran, the Pope was presented with a clock and a doe, and gave branches of laurel, cakes and holy water in return. The Bacchanalian procession had been incorporated into the worship of Easter.
Quote ID: 4442
Time Periods: 7
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 217
Section: 2E4,3A4C
When the Pope threw himself down at last in prayer before the Apostle’s grave, he was exhausted, but perhaps no more exhausted than the ancient triumphatores when they placed their laurels on the lap of Jupiter Capitolinus. In the continuing story of the triumph, the prayer at the grave of St. Peter took the place of the sacrifice on the Capitol.The papal triumph was not the only expression of the ancient Roman Triumph in the Middle Ages. In the wars between the Italian city states, in poetry and painting and devotion the triumph remained, haunting men with visions of glory.
Quote ID: 4446
Time Periods: 7
Sabbath and Synagogue
Heather A. McKay
Book ID: 193 Page: 11
Section: 2E4
It is commonplace in biblical studies that the sabbath in ancient Israel was a day of rest and a day of worship.
Quote ID: 4452
Time Periods: 0
Sabbath and Synagogue
Heather A. McKay
Book ID: 193 Page: 12
Section: 2E4
But these comments embody unexamined assumptions, and beg various questions. They imply that Jews had special sabbath activities distinct from observing a sabbath rest. They assume that ‘ancient Israel’ provided a uniform religious experience for all Jews living in the land.….
…these and similar assertions have been made without adequate consideration of what the texts actually say.
Quote ID: 4453
Time Periods: 12
Sabbath and Synagogue
Heather A. McKay
Book ID: 193 Page: 15
Section: 2E4
The small amount of textual material that describes sabbath activities will now be summarized, showing that the holy day sabbath appears in only fifteen books of the Hebrew Bible. {15}In the Pentateuch, the sabbath is referred to in Exodus fourteen times about the cessation of work; there is nothing about worship.
Quote ID: 4454
Time Periods: 12
Secret Archives of the Vatican, The
Maria Luisa Ambrosini & With Mary Willis
Book ID: 269 Page: 72
Section: 2E4
The Celtic Church remained separate until the major confrontation between Celtic and Roman Christianity sixty years later, when the Synod of Whitby decided for the Roman date of Easter, on the ground that Saint Peter outranked Saint Columba. But it was hundreds of years before all of the recalcitrant Irish and British clergy submitted to Rome in regard to all the details of the faith.
Quote ID: 6801
Time Periods: 7
Talmud Unmasked, The: The Secret of Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians
I. B. Pranaitis
Book ID: 558 Page: 29
Section: 2E4
2. In the Talmud Christ is called Otho Isch-‘That Man,’ i.e. the one who is known to all. In the Tract Abhodah Zarah, 6a, we read: “He is called a Christian who follows the false teachings of that man, who taught them to celebrate the feast on the first day of the Sabbath, that is, to worship on the first day after the Sabbath.”
Quote ID: 9223
Time Periods: 47
Talmud Unmasked, The: The Secret of Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians
I. B. Pranaitis
Book ID: 558 Page: 40
Section: 2E4
1. FALSEHOODIn Abhodah Zarah (6a) it says: “A Nazarene is one who follows the false teachings of that man who taught them to worship on the first day of the Sabbath.”
Quote ID: 9224
Time Periods: 47
Talmud Unmasked, The: The Secret of Rabbinical Teachings Concerning Christians
I. B. Pranaitis
Book ID: 558 Page: 58
Section: 2E4
Some Christian festivals are mentioned by name, such as the feast of Christmas and Easter. Moses Mikkozzi,{57} referring to the above text of Abhodah Zarah, says: “Rabbi Sammuel declares, in the name of Solomon Iarchi, that in particular the festivals of Christmas and Easter, which are their principal evil days and the foundation of their religion, are forbidden to us.”
Quote ID: 9226
Time Periods: 47
Tertullian, Apology and De Spectaculis, LCL 250
Translated by T.R. Glover
Book ID: 134 Page: 85
Section: 2E4
chapter XVI
Equally, if we devote the day of the sun (Sunday) to joy (from a very different cause than sun-worship) we stand next in line to those who devote Saturn’s day to resting and eating, wide as they are from Jewish usage of which they know nothing.{e}
Quote ID: 2955
Time Periods: 23
Theodosian Code, The
Clyde Pharr, Theresa Sherrer. Davidson, Mary Brown. Pharr, and C. Dickerman. Williams
Book ID: 293 Page: 300
Section: 2E4,3D
On the Day of the Sun (Sunday), which our ancestors rightly called the Lord’s Day, the prosecution of all litigation and actions shall entirely cease. No person shall demand payment of either a public or a private debt. There shall be no cognizance of any contention, even before arbitrators, whether these arbitrators be demanded in court or voluntarily chosen. If any person should turn aside from the inspiration and ritual of holy religion, he shall be adjudged not only infamous but also sacrilegious.
Quote ID: 7412
Time Periods: 4
Two Babylons, The
The Papal Worship Proved to be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife by Alexander Hislop
Book ID: 391 Page: 105
Section: 1A,2E4
To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity—now far sunk in idolatry—in this as in so many other things, to shake hands.
Quote ID: 8388
Time Periods: 4
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 114
Section: 2E4
Adoption of Latin distinguished Christians in Rome from Greek-speaking Christians, as did a related development: in Rome, Christians began to celebrate Easter, but unlike most Christians of Asia Minor, they decided it must always be on a Sunday rather than on the same day as the Jewish Passover. The Roman practice coincided with that of Alexandria. The difference in the date of celebration caused controversy, but in the AD 190 bishop Victor of Rome demanded that all other churches adopt the Roman practice.
Quote ID: 6986
Time Periods: 2
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 168
Section: 2E4
Adapting the pagan assembly hall (basilica) for Christian purposes, Constantine built swiftly and on a mammoth scale, given that the city’s Christian community probably did not top a hundred thousand. (Not only did he Christianize space, but also time, by making Sunday a holiday from 321.)
Quote ID: 6995
Time Periods: 4
Vigilantius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vigilantius
Book ID: 604 Page: ?
Section: 2E4
Vigilantius opposed monastic asceticism and superstitions connected with it. Jerome attacked Vigilantius, even calling him a monster; for “believing that the graves of martyrs and saints should not be venerated, opposing virginity and being against fasting for the saints.”{1}Vigilantius also denied the veneration of saints and relics, which he considered superstition and idolatry. Vigilantius said his adversaries “worshipped bones and ash of dead men” and called them idolaters.{1}
Vigilantius also attacked intercession for the dead as useless.{1}
Quote ID: 9336
Time Periods: 5
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