It is good and virtuous for Christians to want to live out their faith in a biblical and historically accurate way. But sometimes it’s not always clear what this looks like.
Unfortunately, many Christians—especially in the non-denominational world—are unfamiliar with historical practices of past Christians, generally motivated by a desire to be “authentic” and not appear too “catholic.”
In the absence of an understanding of Christian history, it can be tempting to look to contemporary Jewish traditions. After all, Jesus was Jewish—so it’d make sense to look to the Jewish community to establish acceptable biblical practices from the first century.
However, you might be surprised to learn that almost every aspect of modern Judaism was invented centuries—sometimes millennia—after the ministry of Jesus. In the wake of rabbinic Judaism’s rejection of Jesus—the central figure of the Hebrew Scriptures—and the destruction of the second temple—prophesied by Jesus as a judgment for their rejection of God—the non-Christian followers of Judaism shifted their interpretive lens and practices to accommodate life without a temple and without a hope in the Messiah.
Many practices—including how the calendar worked, what foods were permissible to eat, how to interpret the prophecies of Isaiah, why lamb should no longer be eaten on Passover, how to greet one another, how and when to celebrate biblical holidays, and what to wear—were created long after the first century, and oftentimes were in contradiction to the teachings of scripture.
This is fine for practitioners of Rabbinic/Talmudic/Modern Judaism—after all, they have a right to practice their beliefs as they see fit and allow their traditions to evolve over time—but Christians should use caution in appropriating many of these modern traditions, as they are foreign to Jesus and the scriptures—and sometimes were embraced as a rejection of Jesus.
A prime example of this is the kippah—a dome-shaped skullcap worn by orthodox Jews and sometimes known as a yarmulke.
The kippah is nowhere to be found in either testament of the Bible, and no first century Jew would have ever seen one before. While there isn’t a biblical imperative to wear a hat as part of your religious practice, there is a command to do just the opposite:
“Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head… for a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God” (1 Corinthians 11:4, 7).
Written around 55 AD, this command by Paul is certainly not a direct criticism of the kippah—kippahs would not exist for another thousand years. But Paul does suggest that while participating in church practices, it was considered dishonorable for a man to cover his head, and that a man “ought not” to do this. He also gives a reason: because man is made in the image and glory of God.
This is the only mention of head coverings found in the scriptures, and the admonition is that men should not wear them.
So if not from the scriptures, how did this practice develop in the Christ-rejecting Jewish community?
As previously stated, the Jewish practice of wearing a head covering did not exist in the first century. Neither the writings of Philo—a faithful Jew who lived during the first century—nor Josephus—a Jewish historian writing at the end of the first century—make mention of this practice. It also does not appear in the Mishnah—the first major collection of Jewish oral traditions, compiled around 200 AD.
The Gemara (6th century) makes a few brief references to head coverings—a rabbi who would ravenously steal food with his bare teeth if a cloak fell off his head, in accordance with the prophecies of a Babylonian astrologer (Shabbat 156b); and a comparison between two rabbis, one who stared at the ground while walking and another who covered his head with a cloak (Kiddushin 31a)—but these are limited to specific (and bizarre) practices of two individuals, not any sort of standard practice.
Two centuries later, the Soferim (8-9th centuries) record debates over whether the Shema and the Divine Name could be uttered by individuals with ripped clothing, uncovered heads, or blind men—with some saying it’s permissible and others stressing caution. The next mention of head coverings within the Jewish community comes almost 800 years later. The Shulchan Arukh, written by Rabbi Joseph Karo in 1565, records that debates were still taking place concerning head coverings: “There are those who say that it is forbidden to mention God’s name with an uncovered head, and there are those who say that one should object that people should not enter the synagogue with an uncovered head” (Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 91).
Over 1,500 years after the resurrection, the Jewish community who had parted from the teachings of Jesus had still not agreed upon the practice of head coverings. So when was this tradition finalized?
It came 81 years later in Poland, when David HaLevi—considered one of Europe’s greatest and most influential rabbinical authorities—published his commentary on the aforementioned Shulchan Arukh in 1646. He wrote that, while it had not previously been a requirement to cover one’s head, he believed that from henceforth it should be considered mandatory. Why?
“It has become a custom among the Akum [Christians] that they do this—immediately, as soon as they sit, they remove their hats—it therefore falls under the category of ‘do not walk in their statutes’” (Turei Zahav on Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 8.3).
The Potomac Torah Study Center, a Jewish educational organization, states that this ruling was made in response to “one of the prominent customs of the Christian church, based on verses in 1 Corinthians 11,” and that “as a result of this ruling, wearing a Kippah quickly became adopted by all Jews in Eastern Europe as standard practice, and remains in force today” (Volume 10, Issue 20).
Why did the Jewish community implement the standard practice of wearing the kippah? A driving factor was that Jews should cover their heads because Christians uncover their heads in accordance with their scriptures. In other words, it was implemented to distance themselves from the followers of Jesus and the teachings of the New Testament!
Again, my purpose isn’t to condemn the Jewish community for wearing kippahs. After all, they don’t worship Jesus and don’t believe the New Testament scriptures are authoritative—of course they would want to do their own thing. But it is undeniable that the kippah and any related head coverings were foreign to the biblical people of God. The practice developed over a thousand years after the resurrection of Jesus, and was mainstreamed by a community for the specific purpose of rejecting the people of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus.
As the people of Jesus Christ, we won’t find a historically accurate expression of our faith in the traditions of Rabbinic/Talmudic/Modern Judaism. Oftentimes, we’ll find the exact opposite—traditions that reject Jesus and lead us away from Him.
We don’t need to look to other religions—especially religions who have denied Jesus and the scriptures He gave us—to find an accurate portrayal of our Christian faith. We need only look to the Scriptures—both Old and New Testaments. The Triune God has sustained His people for over two thousand years. We don’t need to dip our toes into a Christ-less well for direction.
In the middle of the second century BC, things were not looking good for God’s people: They had been under Greco-Syrian occupation for over a hundred years; the priesthood had corrupted itself and was in the pocket of their pagan overlords; King Antiochus had demanded that the Jews stop serving Yahweh; and just about all of Israel decided to go along with it.
Then on the 25th of Kislev in the year 167 BC, Antiochus declared that he was God, and marching into Jerusalem He set up the abomination of desolation—a pagan idol of Zeus—right in the middle of the temple.
One family—led by Mattathias and his five sons Judah, Simon, John, Eleazar, and Jonathan—put a stop to this. They fled to the mountains, regrouped, and then began fighting. Not only did they stand against Antiochus and the Greeks—they stood against their kinsmen who had abandoned Yahweh in hopes of riches and political power.
And after three years of fighting, on the 25th of Kislev in the year 164 BC (the day celebrated as Hanukkah—“Dedication”), they recaptured Jerusalem. They marched back into the temple, tore down every abomination that had been raised, and rededicated the temple and nation to the one true God. As the war continued, almost every member of the Maccabean family was killed in the war or assassinated—with the exception of John, who died of natural causes.
And after seven years of war, the battle was won, the enemy was driven out, and the faithful remnant began rebuilding.
Just under two hundred years later, we read a New Testament story about Hanukkah. On the 25th of Kislev, Jesus declared that He was God and marched into the temple (John 10:22-30). The Jews were outraged and tried to have Him killed (v. 31).
So… what’s going on here?
The Jews in the temple were acting like it was “167 BC” repeating itself. They acted like Jesus was a false king, a false god, an idol being set up in the temple. They acted like they were the Maccabees, fighting against Antiochus and the pagans.
But that wasn’t what was actually happening, and they knew it.
The Jews in the temple had already corrupted themselves years before. Under the occupation of Rome, the priesthood had abandoned God’s ways and partnered with the Romans in exchange for riches and power. They had steered the Jewish community away from God’s Word through their pagan traditions. They had desecrated the temple by exulting a false Yahweh made in their own image. In other words, the Jewish leaders weren’t the Maccabees—they were the paganized Jews who had sold out to Antiochus!
And John 10 wasn’t repeating 167 BC—it was repeating 164 BC.
After three years of ministry, Jesus and His disciples—half of whom were named after the Maccabees—had reached the temple on Hanukkah. They triumphantly marched in and declared Jesus was Yahweh—the one true God—tearing down the false caricature the rabbis had built up for all Israel to see.
The story didn’t end there. The corrupt Jewish leaders doubled down on their alliance with Rome and spent the next forty years persecuting the followers of Jesus. Every disciple of Jesus was eventually murdered—with the exception of John, who died of natural causes.
Eventually Rome turned on the leaders in Judea who had perverted God’s Word and led so many astray. After seven years of tribulation, those false leaders were slaughtered in 70 AD and Jerusalem was destroyed—an event Jesus described as another “abomination of desolation” in the temple.
But just like the Maccabees, the faithful remnant survived. Heeding Jesus’ warning (Matthew 24:15-16), they had fled to the mountains—just like the Maccabees. And after the temple was destroyed and the corrupt leaders were defeated, they began rebuilding.
Today there are 2.3 billion Christians around the world. We are here because two thousand years ago, a faithful remnant of Christ-followers refused to surrender. They refused to lose hope. Instead, in the spirit of the Maccabees they dedicated themselves to the Lord, fought for what was good and right and true, and committed their lives to rebuilding.
And we have the same commission—to fight the good fight, to occupy until Jesus returns, to disciple all nations, and to take dominion over all the earth.
Kosher laws far exceed the biblical dietary restrictions. For example, the law not to boil a goat in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19, 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21) was expanded to restrict people from eating any dairy product with any meat product—even though both Abraham and David ate dairy products with meat (Genesis 18:8, 2 Samuel 17:27-29). Current kosher laws like the restriction on meat and cheese originated centuries after Jesus’ resurrection and wouldn’t have been observed by Jesus or any Old Testament Jews.
Concerning the dietary laws found in the Hebrew Scriptures, the early church—including Jewish Christians—believed that these laws had been fulfilled and had stopped observing them by the end of the first century. The Epistle of Barnabas was written was written by the eponymous Jewish companion of Paul, sometime after the destruction of the second temple. In this letter, the apostle explains that the Old Testament dietary laws were given primarily to instruct His people in how they should interact with gentile peoples (10:1-3), and that their purpose had been fulfilled in Christ (2:6-10).
This is in line with Peter’s vision in Acts 10. While Peter is praying on a rooftop, he falls into a trance and God commands him to eat unclean animals. Peter responds as we’d expect him to: “Not so, Lord! I have never eaten anything common or unclean” (Acts 10:14). The Lord responds,
“What God has cleansed you must not call common.” (Acts 10:15)
Soon after, a group of messengers arrive and invite Peter to come visit a gentile named Cornelius. Peter acquiesces, and tell the gentiles,
“God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” (Acts 10:28)
This culminates with Jesus being preached not just to a Jewish audience but to the gentile world as well, opening the gospel to all nations.
You might read this and respond, “Well, that wasn’t about food; it was about people.” And yes, you are correct. This was about people. And it always was. These dietary restrictions were never about food—they were always about people, and now that the lesson has been learned in Christ, these dietary restrictions became obsolete.
Jesus, Peter, and Barnabas aren’t alone in this understanding, either. Philo of Alexandria was a Jewish teacher who was born about two decades before Jesus and who died about two decades after Jesus. He lived in Egypt, and it is unlikely he ever heard about Jesus. He too taught that these dietary laws were never about the food itself, but were instead instituted as symbolic lessons.
The consistent teaching of the Bible is that the dietary laws of Moses were given for a specific purpose, and that purpose has been fulfilled in Jesus, understood by the Church, and are no longer necessary. Whether it’s Mark’s claim that Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), Paul’s encouragement that “every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4, 5) and to claim otherwise is “giving heed to deceiving spirits” (v. 1), or the Jerusalem Council’s pronouncement that the dietary laws would not be put on new believers because there was “no distinction between us (Jews) and them (gentiles)” (Acts 15:9-11), the biblical teaching is clear—these requirements are no longer in effect today.
So what then? Should Christians do the opposite? Should you gorge yourself on shrimp and hotdogs in the name of Jesus?
Not exactly.
In Romans 14, Paul gives instruction to believers dealing with weaker brothers in the faith. Paul states that, although he “knows and [is] convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean” (v. 14), he is aware that some Christians haven’t comprehended this truth yet. Paul recognizes that his freedom to eat all foods might offend some without full knowledge and drive them away from the faith. Thus, he warns against “destroying with your food [the faith of] one for whom Christ died” (v. 15).
Alternatively, Paul spends much of his epistle to the Galatians warning against false teachers who will try to deceive unknowledgeable Christians into unnecessarily subjecting themselves to misunderstood Jewish rituals such as circumcision and dietary restrictions. Paul discloses that even Peter got off-track with this. Though Peter had been “living in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews,” he was pressured by Judaizers to “compel the Gentiles to live as Jews” (Galatians 2:14). Paul would have none of it, and confronted Peter for his misleading acquiescence and cowardice, and warned that anyone who taught as the Judaizers had taught was teaching a false gospel (Galatians 1:6), had perverted the message of Christ (v. 7), and would be accursed (v. 8).
Paul’s position is clear. Though the dietary laws are no longer useful or needed, there may be those weaker in the faith who do not understand such things. To them, you are to gently guide them to the truth without damaging their faith. But on the other hand, there are those who will attempt to pervert the gospel by insisting that believers submit themselves to these restrictions, as if that will work alongside grace to benefit the Christian. To them, you are to firmly admonish lest they damage the faith of others.
So once again, should Christians eat kosher? No, there is no need or command to restrict one’s diet in this way, except to spare the faith of a weaker brother as you guide him to the full truth of the gospel. The lesson of these guidelines were fully realized in Christ, and as far as He is concerned, all are purified by faith (Acts 15:9), not by whatever enters a man from outside (Mark 7:18).
“The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:24-26)
Revelation 4 kicks off with John seeing and hearing a bunch of crazy stuff:
Four creatures full of eyes, six wings, and the faces of a lion, calf, man, and eagle (Rev. 4:7, 8)
A throne surrounded by a rainbow with the appearance of an emerald (v. 3)
Lightnings, thunderings, and voices everywhere (v. 5)
God sitting on the emerald throne, appearing like a jasper and sardius stone (v. 3)
Twenty-four elders on twenty-four thrones, clothed in white robes with golden crowns on their heads (v. 4)
And all day and night they worship God together, crying out “Holy holy holy!” (v. 8)
This was quite a sight for John to see. And not surprisingly, every part of this vision had been witnessed before—in the Old Testament.
It’s lifted almost verbatim from Ezekiel 1. The Book of Ezekiel is about a man (Ezekiel) born to be a priest and serve in the temple. However, due to the sins of his unfaithful countrymen, Ezekiel is exiled from the land and all his dreams of ministering before the Lord was dashed… until God appears to him in Babylon and reestablishes his calling. While the physical temple will be destroyed and the unfaithful scattered, Ezekiel will nonetheless serve God and His people as a priest.
The rainbow throne, the crystal, the many-eyed, multi-winged creatures… all of them appear in the opening chapter of Ezekiel—the book of the exiled priest without a physical temple.
But that’s not the only priestly imagery in the book. The emerald, jasper, and sardius stones all appear in Exodus’s instructions concerning the priests’ attire—as well as the robes and the golden crowns (Exodus 28, 39).
Even the lightnings and thunderings come from Exodus 19—at the base of Mount Sinai, where God calls all of His people to be a kingdom of priests before the Lord.
And right in the middle of all this priestly language are the twenty-four elders—the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples—representing the entirety of God’s people before and after the resurrection, united as one to serve before the Lord as that kingdom of priests God called for at Mount Sinai.
Later in Revelation, the temple will again be destroyed. Those who should be God’s people will instead rebel against the Lord and be scattered once again. Hopes for God’s faithful will seem dashed.
But don’t lose hope. God doesn’t dwell in a temple made with hands (Acts 7:48). And even in exile, God still dwells among His people. Even without a physical temple, God’s people stills minister as kingly priests in the true temple—the Church.
Is Christianity as we know it today an invention of Emperor Constantine and a perversion of the true faith handed down from Jesus to His disciples?
In recent decades, many allegations have been leveled at the infamous emperor, including:
He handpicked which books would be included in the Bible
He invented the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity
He forced the Church to abandon their calendar
He enacted antisemitic laws that forced Jews away from Christianity
Which of these accusations, if any, are true, and how did it shape the Christianity we practice today?
Who Was Constantine?
Constantine was a Roman emperor in the early fourth century. On October 27, 312 AD, he supposedly received a vision from the Christian God, who promised him victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Sure enough, his forces won the battle the following day.
Constantine eventually converted to Christianity and legalized Christianity (and all other religions). And in 325 AD, he assembled the Council of Nicaea, which (among other things) declared Arianism a Christological heresy and announced that Christians would calculate the dates of Passover independently from the Jewish community.
Did Constantine Create the Bible?
No, Constantine did not have any impact on what books were included in the Bible.
The twenty-seven books of the Old Testament were written prior to 400 BC and their canonicity was agreed upon hundreds of years before Constantine was born. Furthermore, the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written and in circulation before the destruction of the temple in 70 AD—over two centuries before Constantine’s reign and the Council of Nicaea.
A document called the Muratorian Fragment dates to around 175 AD (150 years before Constantine and Nicaea) and, while portions of the document are missing and difficult to translate, provides a list of New Testament books that were generally accepted and read in churches. This list largely coincides with the New Testament books we have today, and importantly doesn’t make any mention of the false gospels that are sometimes claimed to have been banned by Constantine.
So, what did Constantine and the Council of Nicaea have to say about the canon of scripture? Nothing. This was not one of the topics of discussion at the Council, and there is no historical evidence that Constantine was involved in deciding which books should be included.
Why, then, were some books (such as the Gospels of Thomas and Bartholomew) rejected? Because they were written long after the life of Jesus and the other New Testament writings, because they were falsely attributed to apostles who had long since died, and because they made fantastical claims at odds with the other New Testament writings[1] and contained obvious political messaging[2] that ran contrary to the rest of scripture.
Did Constantine Invent Jesus’ Divinity?
One reason Constantine called for the Council of Nicaea was to clarify Christian doctrine related to the divinity of Jesus. While this seems like an obviously biblical belief nowadays, in the fourth century a man named Arius was promoting the idea that Jesus was just a human, not God in the flesh.
Did Constantine suppress Arius’ heart-felt belief and promote Jesus to the Godhead? No. In fact, Constantine actually leaned towards Arianism. The idea that a mere human could achieve god-like status (rather than the biblical doctrine that Jesus was and is eternally God) was much more attractive to Constantine’s Roman upbringing, so Constantine entered the Council of Nicaea supportive of Arius’ heresy.
Over the course of the three-month council, hundreds of bishops (led by a man named Athanasius) bravely opposed Arius—and Constantine—to espouse the Bible’s teaching that Jesus was and had always been God. And rather than oppose the bishops and demand that they agree with him, Constantine submitted to their leadership and expertise, and the Council of Nicaea affirmed the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity.
Later in life, Constantine continued to flirt with Arianism, even being baptized by an Arian bishop at the end of his life. After he passed, Constantine’s successors persecuted Athanasius over the issue of Jesus’ divinity, exiling him an astounding five times. However, the bishops remained firm, submitting to the Scriptures rather than the emperors, and today the doctrine of the Trinity and Jesus’ divinity is firmly established—without any influence from Constantine.
Did Constantine Force Christians to Abandon the Biblical Calendar?
After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, the Jewish community changed how they determined the dates of Passover. For over 800 years, there were many competing methods for structuring the calendar, none of which were the system in place during the time of Jesus.
During this time, the Christian community struggled to find consistent dates to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus (which they called Pascha, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Pesach, meaning Passover). Many churches relied on their Jewish neighbors for these dates, but this wasn’t ideal. For one, many Christians distrusted the synagogues, which had persecuted the Church for almost a hundred years, had forced the Christians out of their communities by declaring them heretics, and had taught that Jesus was a false sorcerer who had been sent to hell for His sins. Additionally, Passover in one synagogue might be as much as a month off from the synagogue in the next town, leading to churches from town to town celebrating at different times.
For hundreds of years prior to Constantine’s reign, Christians debated the proper time to observe Passover. So when the Council of Nicaea was finally called to address the Arian heresy, the subject of the timing of Passover was also discussed.
While a dating method was not determined, the bishops agreed that all Christians should celebrate on the same day and that this day should be calculated independent from the Jewish community.
Later that century (and long after Constantine’s death), the Church finally agreed on a way to determine the date of Passover. Passover would always be celebrated after the first full moon that fell after the spring equinox—the same method that was in place during Jesus’ life, according to Jewish-Roman historian Josephus, Jewish scholar Philo, the translators of the Septuagint, and several other ancient Jewish teachers.[3]
Constantine did not force the Church to change the calendar, nor did he dictate when Passover would be celebrated, though the Christians of the day agreed that the calendar needed to be corrected and eventually made that correction.[4]
Did Constantine Enact Anti-Jewish Laws?
Constantine did indeed enact what could be considered an anti-Jewish law. On October 18, 315, Constantine made it illegal for Jews to “attack with stones or any other kind of violence” fellow ethnic Jews who had converted to Christianity. According to the law, there had been recent instances of Jews committing violence against converts to Christianity, so Constantine outlawed this practice and made it punishable by “immediately being given over to the flames and burned” (Codex Theodosianus 16.8.1[5]).
Constantine did enact several other laws related to the Jews as well. In addition to making Judaism a legal practice with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD, he also exempted Jewish leaders from compulsory military service (16.8.2) and public service (16.8.4); preserved the rights of Jews to serve on municipal councils (16.8.3); and prohibited recent Christian converts from “disturbing Jews or inflicting any injury on them” (16.8.5).
Based on the historical record, Constantine did not actually enact any laws that could be interpreted as oppressive towards the Jewish people, other than preventing them from oppressing Christian converts—and even then, he also outlawed Christian converts from oppressing Jews as well. Additionally, he passed several laws that protected the Jewish clergy and preserved the roles of the Jewish people in civil society. If anything, it could be said that Constantine enacted laws that actually protected the Jewish people in the increasingly Christianized empire.
Was Constantine a Good Person?
The purpose of this article was not to comment on Constantine’s morality or to conclude whether he was a genuine Christian. The goal was simply to clarify the role that Constantine played in the development of Christianity.
And from the historical record, Constantine did not directly influence Christianity as we know it today, nor did he subvert what Christianity was prior to his conversion. He simply got out of the way. He prevented the enemies of the Faith from persecuting God’s people and allowed Christians the freedom to practice their religion in peace.
When Constantine held doctrinal views contrary to the Church, he submitted to their theology rather than demand they cave to his. And despite tensions that had flared between Christians and Jews for hundreds of years, he prohibited violence from either side, allowing both to serve in the empire so long as they did so in peace.
The Faith that Christians practice today—what is sometimes called Nicene Christianity—is the same faith Jesus passed on to His disciples. It is Biblical Christianity, and no historian can reasonably claim that Constantine had a hand in creating it.
[1] As an example, the so-called Gospel of Bartholomew (tells a story where Jesus pulled up the earth like a carpet and led the devil out on a leash in the presence of the disciples, who immediately died out of fright and had to be resurrected one at a time.
[2] The Gospel of Thomas, for instance, makes disparaging claims about women, suggesting that they aren’t fully human.
[3] As you can see, the correction of the calendar was based almost exclusively on Jewish writings. Whether ancient Jewish scholars (translators of the Septuagint), Jewish scholars of Jesus’ day (Philo), or a Jew-turned-Roman historian (Josephus), all testify that of the proper calendar dating method. Additionally, the Talmud (a compilation of oral Jewish tradition formalized shortly after the Council of Nicaea) affirms there were many varying methods for determining Passover, none of which matched the system in place during Jesus’ ministry or in place today.
[4] While on the subject of Passover, Constantine also didn’t invent Christmas or Valentine’s Day. He did, however, make Sunday a civil day of rest in 321 AD, allowing Christians to continue the practice of Sunday worship (established in the Book of Acts) without interfering with their work.
Jesus was crucified during the feast of Passover around 30 AD and was raised to life three days later. Since then, faithful Christians have commemorated this historic event every year. But what is the proper date to celebrate this holiday?
This was one of the many questions that early believers debated during the first three centuries of Christianity, with various factions of the religion celebrating on different days. Amidst disagreement as to which day was the correct day, in 325 AD the Roman Emperor Constantine gathered hundreds of bishops from around the world to settle this question (and several others) once and for all. By the end of the council, an official date for Pascha[1] (the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Pesach, meaning “Passover”) was not set, but two determinations were made:
All Christians should celebrate on the same day
“It was determined by common consent that everyone, everywhere should celebrate it on one and the same day. For what can be more appropriate, or what more solemn, than that this feast from which we have received the hope of immortality, should be kept by all without variation, using the same order and a clear arrangement?”[2]
The date of Pascha should be determined independent of the Jewish community
“It seemed very unworthy for us to keep this most sacred feast following the custom of the Jews… Since we have cast aside their way of calculating the date of the festival, we can ensure that future generations can celebrate this observance at the more accurate time which we have kept from the first day of the passion until the present time… Therefore have nothing in common with that most hostile people, the Jews. We have received another way from the Savior. In our holy religion we have set before us a course which is both valid and accurate.”[3]
Nowadays the Jewish Passover and the Christian Easter generally coincide, except for three years[4] out of every nineteen-year cycle. As faithful Christians who want to honor Jesus on the correct day, should we celebrate during Jewish Passover or on Easter Sunday? Should we observe Jesus’ resurrection at the same time that the Jews observe the deliverance from Egypt, or were the Nicene bishops correct to separate themselves from the Jewish calculations?
What the Bible Says
Even before the crucifixion of Jesus, Passover was about more than the escape from Egyptian slavery. It seems that God placed many deliverances during this week-long festival. To name just a few,
Lot was delivered from Sodom and Gomorrah during Passover
Joshua entered the Promised Land during Passover
Daniel received the vision of the return from Babylonian captivity during Passover
Esther’s fast for the deliverance of the Jews from Haman occurred during Passover
The original Passover had become the template for God’s great and ever-present salvation. In fact, Passover had become so synonymous with God’s deliverance that Jeremiah prophesied the Messiah’s eventual deliverance of mankind would mirror and yet outshine the original Passover (Jeremiah 16:14-16, 23:5-8).
Given the history, symbolism, and importance of Passover, it’s no surprise that Jesus died on the cross during this feast. Just as Jesus had rescued the Israelites from slavery to Egypt during Passover (Jude 1:5), so too did He rescue humanity from slavery to sin and death during this feast.
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God repeatedly gave the date of the Passover as the fourteenth day of Abib—the first month:
“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread…” (Exodus 12:18)
“The Feast of Unleavened Bread[5] you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.” (Exodus 34:18)
“On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day[6] of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord…” (Leviticus 23:5, 6)
“Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.” (Deuteronomy 16:1)
Turning to the New Testament accounts, all four gospels record that Jesus’ crucifixion occurred during Passover:
“Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And [Pilate] said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ …Then he delivered Him to [the chief priests] to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led Him away.” (John 19:14, 16[7])
If the people of God are looking for the date on which they should celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the days during the weeklong celebration of Passover/Unleavened Bread would be the answer.
More specifically, Jesus’ death and burial would have taken place on the first Friday of the Passover week:
“Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath [the day before Saturday, i.e., Friday]… he laid Him in a tomb…” (Mark 15:42, 46)
…while His glorious resurrection would have taken place during the first Sunday of Passover:
“Now on the first day of the week [Sunday] Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” (John 20:1)
Jesus was crucified before sunset on the 14th day of the first month (a Friday); He was in the tomb on the 15th day of the first month (a Saturday); and He rose from the dead shortly before sunrise on the 16th day of the first month (a Sunday).[8]
What the Jews Do
In determining the proper dates to recognize these historical events, one must examine when the Jewish community and Christian community celebrate these holidays—and how they arrived at those dates. Today, observant Jews enjoy a Passover meal at sundown, just after the fourteenth day ends and the fifteenth day begins, during what they consider the first month of the year—the month of Nisan. This appears accurate to the biblical commission, but when does their first month begin—and why do they call it Nisan rather than Abib?
There is no exact history on when the first month of the biblical calendar was supposed to begin, but what is known is that the methodology for calculating the start of this month has changed several times throughout the history of the Jewish people. From the time that the Passover was given to Moses and the Israelites (1446 BC) until the time of the Babylonian captivity (586 BC), the first month was called Abib—Hebrew for “barley ripening.” It is unknown how the new year was determined during this period, but it is agreed that the first day of each month was announced upon the first observation of the crescent moon immediately following a new moon and that the first month began near the spring equinox.[9] Each year typically had twelve months, and every few years a thirteenth “leap month” was added to keep Passover from drifting too close to winter.[10]
After the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered in 586 BC, Jews en masse were exiled to Babylon. Here they were introduced to the more sophisticated calendar of Babylonia, which was based not on agriculture but strictly on the movements of the sun and the moon. The exiled Jews quickly adopted the precise Babylonian methodology (and a new Babylonian name for the first month of the year—Nisan, meaning “beginning”) while living in a foreign land, and—upon their return to the Promised Land in 539 BC—continued determining their feasts based on astronomy.
Using the Babylonian method to sort their calendar, the first day of the year (1 Nisan) would fall on the day after the new moon closest to the spring equinox, while Passover (14 Nisan) would always fall on the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
This rationale continued from the Babylonian captivity until well into the first century AD. In The Antiquities of the Jews, which was written in 93 AD, Josephus writes:
“But in the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the Lunar month, when the sun is in Aries;[11] for on this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians: the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt; and which is called the Passover.” (The Antiquities of the Jews, 3.10.5)
This system was not without its problems. Given that the first month could begin fourteen days before the spring equinox, adherence to this system required both an accurate observation of new moons as well as a foreknowledge of when the spring equinox would begin.[12] When the Sanhedrin was confident that the stars had aligned properly, they would announce the new year and the people could begin preparing for the upcoming Passover.[13]
After the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD, the determination for the Hebrew new year—and thus the proper dating for the Passover—became fractured within the Jewish community, with various groups using different standards and thus celebrating on different days. For instance, Rabbi Jose ben Halafta suggested the following criteria for establishing a new year:
“A year may be intercalated on three grounds: for the ripening of the grain, for the fruit of the trees, and for the equinox. Any two of these can justify intercalation, but not one alone.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 11b)
Rabbi Shimeon ben Gamaliel offered a different view, suggesting that the month of Nisan should be pushed back thirty days if “the pigeons are still tender and the spring lambs thin” (Sanhedrin 11a). Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi said the new year should be delayed a month if the spring equinox is over twenty days away, while others suggested it should be delayed if the equinox is only sixteen days (Mishnah Sanhedrin 12b). There was also disagreement concerning whether a leap month could be added to adjust the timing of Sukkot,[14] as well as whether leap months could be used during successive years or during sabbath years.
Without an objective, universal standard, the Sanhedrin would end up deciding when the new year had begun based on some combination of the above rationales, and these often varied from year to year. Those abroad had no way to know when the new year would begin, which led to scattered communities either waiting for messengers to arrive with the message that Nisan had officially been declared or celebrating Passover on the day they figured it would most likely fall on. This disparate methodology continued for almost a thousand years, with historical records revealing many distinct dates and competing calculations for Passover throughout the first millennium AD, even in the same year.
According to a tenth century tradition, Hillel the Nasi[15] proposed a fixed nineteen-year calendar in the year 359 AD.[16] However, this idea didn’t gain widespread attention until the ninth century. Sometime after 836 AD, the Jewish community began using a repeating nineteen-year cycle to determine the beginning of the month of Nisan. Adjustments were made over the next ninety years, and around 924 AD this new calendar system reached its modern form by applying the nineteen-year cycle to the Julian Calendar. This system is still in use by the Jewish community today.
Since the modern Hebrew calendar is based on a fixed timeline and not the actual movements of the sun, it is slightly out-of-sync with the solar year. As a result, the Hebrew calendar drifts by approximately two hours every nineteen years, which has led to a roughly five-day shift since its inception in the tenth century. Eventually this discrepancy will push Passover into summer, Sukkot into winter, and Hanukkah into spring. Jewish scholars have suggested that this shift will need to be rectified eventually, but currently there are no plans to adjust the calendar.
What the Christians Do
After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus occurred during the Passover festival, followers of Jesus continued celebrating the Passover in the context of this momentous event. Evidence in the Book of Acts demonstrates that the apostle Paul and his ministry team observed Passover while living in gentile Philippi (Acts 20:6), and Paul explicitly connects Jesus’ passion to the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians 5:7).
While there was general agreement among Christians that the crucifixion and resurrection should be celebrated during the month of Nisan, disagreement arose concerning on which day of the month it should be observed. Bishops in the East, led by Polycrates of Ephesus, “held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Savior’s Passover.”[17] In a 195 AD letter, Polycrates cited half a dozen Christians throughout history, including the apostle John and Polycarp of Smyrna, who also observed the crucifixion on the fourteenth day of Nisan.
On the other hand, bishops in the west, led by the Roman African Bishop Victor I, contended that the resurrection should always be celebrated on a Sunday—albeit the Sunday during the weeklong Feast of Unleavened Bread. This necessitated that the crucifixion be observed on a Friday during Passover, which wouldn’t always fall on the fourteenth.
Though much ink and several synods were convened, no decision was reached. All parties involved agreed to live peaceably despite the difference and their various congregations continued observing these holidays between 14 Nisan and 22 Nisan.
This tacit arrangement continued for the next century and a half, but dissatisfaction arose concerning the method of deciding when Nisan had officially begun. During this time the Jewish people lacked a consistent technique for determining the new year. As such, Christian churches depended on an announcement from their local Jewish community. And depending on where you lived, the date you received from the Jews in your region might differ by as much as thirty days from the date celebrated a few towns away.
There was also a general acknowledgement that the dates provided by the Jews, inconsistent or not, were based on a relative system foreign to the calculations of old. Anatolius of Laodicea wrote in 260 AD that the Jews, whose newer system could place the Passover before the spring equinox, had “committed no slight or common blunder” in abandoning the calendar system used from the sixth century BC until the destruction of the second temple. He continued,
“And this is not an opinion of our own, but it was known to the Jews of old, even before Christ, and was carefully observed by them.”
Looking back into Jewish history, he cited Philo, Josephus, Musaeus, “and not only them, but also those yet more ancient, the two Agathobuli, surnamed ‘masters,’ and the famous Aristobulus, who was chosen among the seventy interpreters of the sacred and divine Hebrew Scriptures” as those who used the older system:
“These writers, explaining questions in regard to the Exodus, say that all alike should sacrifice the Passover offerings after the spring equinox, in the middle of the first month.”[18]
The growing sentiment was that—since the Jewish community had abandoned the calendar which was in place during the latter years of the Hebrew Scriptures, during the life and ministry of Jesus, and during the early church—it didn’t make sense to rely on their inconsistent and constantly evolving guidance in determining the official dates of Passover.
Disagreement continued for another sixty years, until, amid growing confusion, Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea to address this topic (along with the Arian heresy). At the council, bishops from around the world argued for a variety of possible solutions. Some wanted to rely on the Jewish calendar, while others wanted to break away and return to the ancient and thus “correct” system for dating Nisan. Some felt the observance should always occur on Sunday, while others felt it should always occur on the 14th day of the lunar month.
At the conclusion of the Nicene Council, the bishops had formally resolved the issue. While no formal calculation was established, it was agreed that Pascha would be determined independently from the Jews. Within a century, the Church widely adopted a calendar system based on the methodology that had been in place during the life of Jesus[19]: the fourteenth of Nisan would fall on the first full moon on or after the spring equinox, and Pascha in turn would be celebrated on the following Sunday.[20] The consensus was that this calculation wasn’t new but instead was that “which we have kept from the first day of the passion,” and by returning to this tradition they had “set before us a course which is both valid and accurate.”[21]
Differences Between the Calendars
Today both the Christians and the Jews use a nineteen-year calendar first developed by Anatolius. While the calendars mostly align, the Jewish calendar places Jewish Passover a month after Christian Easter three times every nineteen-year cycle. This is because the Christian calculation is based on the spring equinox while the Jewish calculation is fixed to the now defunct Julian calendar. As a result, the dates for Jewish Passover are slowing shifting toward summer. Unless Jewish calendar is updated, more and more dates on the nineteen-year cycle will shift further from the spring equinox over the coming centuries.[22]
Which System Should Christians Use Today?
The proper date to observe Pascha is during the week of Passover/Unleavened Bread, from 14 Nisan to 22 Nisan. Both the Jews and the Christians agree on this but disagree on when the month of Nisan begins. And throughout history, the standard for calculating the month of Nisan has changed many times, with (according to many scholars) a seemingly foreign system adopted from Babylon even being used during the ministry of Jesus (not to mention replacing the Hebrew name of the month with the Babylonian name).
As the Jews and Christians each believe they are celebrating during the correct month of Nisan and the Bible doesn’t define when Nisan should begin, it could be argued that both are striving for the spirit of the law and thus neither are provably in error.
However, while neither system can be condemned, it is my opinion that the current Christian system is more faithful than the others, for the following three reasons:
First, it was the system in place during the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. According to a plethora of Jewish sources, Jesus would have celebrated Passover during the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. He would have eaten His last supper and died upon the cross during the Nisan based on this system. And He would have been raised from the dead on the Sunday following the fourteenth of this Nisan. Additionally, Peter, Paul, and the rest of the early church would have observed the feast using this system.
Secondly, third century Christians had the authority to break from the Jews and adopt this system. As has been mentioned, the Jews changed their calendar on multiple occasions. In fact, several of these changes occurred after they had rejected the Messiah, rendering their religious service unfaithful to the Torah. If the Jesus-denying Jewish community had the authority to break from the past and update their calendar, how much more would a Church submitted to Christ have the authority to break from the present and return to the ways of old?
Finally, the Christian system is based on the motions of the sun while the Jewish system is based on a defunct Roman calendar. While the Christian system was established within the context of the Roman Empire, it doesn’t actually place the celebration of Pascha within the confines of a Roman calendar; it instead uses the spring equinox and the phases of the moon. The Jewish calendar, on the other hand, uses a Roman calendar established by Julius Caesar rather than the equinox. And given the slight inaccuracy of the Julian calendar, the Jewish system will have to eventually be changed yet again.
For these reasons, it is my belief that the Christian Pascha is the more accurate date to celebrate Christ our Passover. However, Jesus isn’t only the Lamb of God on the fourteenth of Nisan, nor is He only alive on Sundays.
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.” (Revelation 1:18)
As believers in the Messiah, we should remember His broken body and His shed blood whenever we gather together, and we should rejoice in the power of His resurrection at all times. The most proper day to observe the Passover Lamb is every day, and he who recognizes the Lordship of Christ shall not be condemned, whether he recognizes it using my preferred Paschal system or not.
[1]Pascha is the common and historical name for Easter. To this day, most languages refer to the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection as some form of Pascha (Spanish: Pascua, French: Pâques, Dutch: Pasen, Filipino: Pasko, Hawaiian: Pakoa, Turkish: Paskalya, Swahili: Pasaka, and so on); while a handful of languages (like English, German, and Japanese) use some variant of the word Easter. The first recorded use of the word Easter was in 725, when the Venerable Bede wrote that “Eosturmonath [the month of Easter] has a name now translated ‘Paschal month,’ and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre” (The Reckoning of Time, Chapter 15: The English Months). Ironically, he was commenting how Pascha took place during the English month of Eostre (an old English deity unknown to history except for Bede’s passing reference), but his pointing this out caused the English people to adopt the name Easter for the holiday season.
[2] Source: Vita Constantini, Book III.17-20 (Eusebius).
[4] While the dates currently vary three times every nineteen years, this discrepancy will grow as time goes on (albeit slowly). By the year 3000, for instance, there will be six discrepancies every nineteen years.
[5] “Passover” originally referred to the sacrificial lamb that was slain on the afternoon of the fourteenth day of the first month. This was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began that evening and lasted seven days. Over time, the term “Passover” began to describe the meal eaten on the first night of Unleavened Bread (i.e., the Passover Seder), and nowadays it’s not uncommon for the entire weeklong festival to be called Passover.
[6] Because Genesis 1 recounts each day with the words “so the evening and the morning were the [first/second/etc.] day,” the traditional Biblical calendar day begins at sunset rather than at midnight. Thus, “the fifteenth day” began at sundown a few hours after the Passover sacrifice of the fourteenth day, not twenty-four hours later.
[7] Similar accounts are recorded in Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, and 1 Corinthians 5.
[8] It should be noted that, while scripture seems to indicate these were the calendar dates and weekdays of these events, there is scholarly debate as to which exact weekday and which calendar date during the weeklong festival all of these things happened. Regardless, there is universal agreement that these events took place during the Paschal season.
[9] Most scholars believe that, before the Babylonian exile, Israelites used agricultural observation rather than astronomical observance to determine when the spring equinox would occur. However, as there are no records indicating their methodology during this time, this is educated speculation.
[10] A lunar month is about 29.5 days long, meaning a twelve-month lunar year is about 354. This is a little over eleven days short of a solar year (~365.2425 days), so leap months are occasionally added to make up for this eleven-day drift into winter.
[12] It is recorded that when a Jew saw the first slivers of a crescent moon, he was to report it immediately to the Sanhedrin. This witness would then select the shape and rotation of the crescent moon from a lineup of several possible choices to confirm that the shape they claimed to have seen matched the shape predicted during that time of year. Only when two witnesses had been confirmed to have seen the correct moon phase would the Sanhedrin officially declare that the new month had begun.
[13] A comical historical detail reveals that when the Sanhedrin observed a new moon, they would light signal fires to inform the nation of the change in month. The Samaritans, always a thorn in the side of the Jews, interrupted this practice by lighting fake signal fires to throw off the celebration of Biblical feasts. To ward against this, the Jews began sending messengers rather than relying on signal fires. However, this method took much longer, resulting in far-off communities missing feasts by a day or so. To be safe, Jewish communities outside of Israel would estimate the true day of the feast and begin the celebration both a day early and the next day—to ensure the feast was celebrated on the correct day. This is why modern Jewish families living in the diaspora observe feasts for two days, while those in Israel only observe for one day.
[14] Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, is an eight-day fall festival celebrated during the seventh month of the Biblical calendar.
[15]Nasi means “prince” in Hebrew, revealing Hillel II was a leader of the Sanhedrin during the fourth century.
[16] The fixed nineteen-year lunar calendar was first proposed by Christian bishop Anatolius of Laodicea almost a hundred years earlier.
[17] Source: Church History, Book V.23.1 (Eusebius).
[18] Source: Church History, Book VII.32.15-17 (Eusebius).
[19] Anatolius proposed this system in 260 AD, and in addition to being formally adopted by the Church a century later, six hundred years later it also became the basis for the Jewish calendar in use today.
[20] Not all Christian churches use this system today. The Orthodox Church, for instance, adds an additional rule to the above criteria: it must occur after Jewish Passover.
[21] Source: Vita Constantini, Book III.17-20 (Eusebius).
[22] Ironically, the impetus for the Christians breaking from the Jewish calendar was because the system of the third century placed too many Passovers before the spring equinox. The Jews’ current system—put in place during the tenth century—now places too many Passovers over a month after the spring equinox.
After David defeated Goliath and drove the philistines away from the Valley of Elah, he and King Saul returned home. They were met by an array of celebratory women, who joyfully sang,
“Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.” (1 Samuel 18:7)
Saul was ticked. “They have credited David with tens of thousands, but me only with thousands,” he lamented. And from that day forward, Saul’s jealousy burned against David, eventually culminating in the king going mad and committing suicide.
But was Saul even right? Were these singing women really praising David more than Saul?
Outside of the David/Saul debacle, there are only four verses in the scriptures that compare “thousands” (Hebrew “eleph”) to “ten thousands” (Hebrew “rebaba”)—and all are poetry:
In Deuteronomy 32, Moses sings about how “one could chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight” only through the help of the Lord.
In Deuteronomy 33, Moses blesses Joseph, prophetically declaring that his two sons will drive their enemies “to the ends of the earth”—the older Manasseh defeating “thousands” and the younger Ephraim overcoming “tens of thousands.”
The author of Psalm 91 sings that even if “a thousand fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand,” pestilence and destruction “shall not come near you.”
Micah 6 warns that God will not be pleased with sacrifices of “thousands of rams” and “ten thousand rivers of oil” if His people refuse justice, mercy, and humility.
In all of these verses, it becomes evident that the escalation from “thousands” to “tens of thousands” is poetic way of elevating the point God is making. Furthermore, that escalation often results from additional people joining the cause, even someone younger.
When Manasseh—the older brother—fights against God’s enemies, he overcomes thousands; but when Ephraim—his younger brother—takes up arms at the right side of his eldest brother, their efforts increase tenfold. And how good it is when these brothers dwell together in unity (Psalm 133)!
When the women sang that Saul had slain thousands and David ten thousands, they weren’t saying, “David is ten times better than Saul”; on the contrary, they were declaring that, because David had joined the king’s cause and because Saul had welcomed this younger man into the family, their joint efforts had increased tenfold. Saul (who himself was a descendant of Benjamin, the younger brother of Joseph), they rejoiced, had defeated their enemies by inviting the next generation to join the work of God!
But Saul couldn’t see this. His pride and his fear blinded him to what was so plain. And for the rest of Saul’s short reign, the tens of thousands of philistines that had been driven to the ends of the earth were allowed to once again invade the land while Saul aimed his spite at David—his spiritual Ephraim.
Tomorrow night is the start of Pentecost/Shavuot. As you may recall, the celebration of Shavuot takes place in the opening chapters of Acts, where the Holy Spirit is poured out on all believers. With that in mind, take a look at a few details that Luke chooses to include in Acts 1:
– Jesus was taken up from a mountain after He had given commandments
– He was with the disciples for an additional forty days
– Jesus was taken up in a cloud to sit with God
And wouldn’t you know, all of these details also appear in the story of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19, 20, 24), which is the basis for Shavuot:
– Moses comes down from a mountain to give Israel the commandments
– Moses spent forty days on the mountain with God
– When Moses ascends the mountain, he is covered by a cloud
Jesus’ actions (such as waiting forty days) and Luke’s authorship (such as mentioning Jesus’ giving of the commandments) are meant to scream to us, “SHAVOUT! SHAVUOT! SHAVUOT!” We’re being primed to think of Jesus as a new and better Moses, and any reader familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures would be thinking of Exodus, Moses, and Pentecost as they read through Acts 1.
Well, what happened during that first Shavuot at Mount Sinai? As God’s people gathered together at the foot of the mountain, there was crashing thunder and loud trumpets. Thick storm clouds rushed through the people. God descended from heaven in a raging fire.
And what happens in Acts 2, as the disciples celebrated Shavuot? As God’s people gathered together in Jerusalem, there were loud sounds from heaven. A rushing, mighty wind blew through their midst. Flames of fire appeared over each of the disciples’ heads as God descended upon them.
Jesus is thus the new Moses. He has delivered us from the bondage of sin, written the Word of God upon the tablets of our hearts, and commanded us to reclaim the earth for His Kingdom.
* * * * *
“I will raise up for them a Prophet like Moses from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.” (Deuteronomy 18:18)
[This was originally posted on September 28, 2020]
Yom Kippur started at sunset last night, and the Book of Jonah is traditionally read on this Day of Atonement.
I was immediately struck by how often God refers to Nineveh as “the great city.” In the 8th century BC, it truly was a great city. Its population was greater than any city in seven US states; it was three times the size of Washington, D.C.; and it was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire, the strongest and wealthiest nation to have ever existed at that time.
But it was great in another way: This shining city was overflowing with wickedness. Murder, slavery, and every sexual perversion you could imagine. A few decades later, they would destroy the northern kingdom of Israel, and a few decades after that, they would threaten to wipe the southern kingdom of Judah off the face of the map. And yet, in spite of all this depravity, God desired their salvation.
This got me thinking about the greatness of America. I truly believe that this is the greatest country that has ever existed. We’re militarily the strongest nation the world has ever seen, and time and again we’ve used our strength to liberate others from tyranny. We’re the most innovative nation, from walking on the moon to putting a super-computer in every pocket. We’re the wealthiest country in existence, while also the most generous, both in terms of our nation giving to other nations and our citizens giving to those in need.
These are great things, but we have also allowed ourselves to become greater and greater in wickedness as well. We murder half a million of our own children every year, and pay for countless children to be murdered around the world. We collect money for the purpose of helping the needy, but then allow our corrupt leaders to keep most of it for themselves. We use our power and strength to exploit others. In terms of sexual perversion, we’re giving Nineveh a run for their money. We lie about one another constantly, we extend only judgment but demand only compassion, and we use other’s sins as justification for our own. We’re selfish, hypocritical, judgmental. Depending how you slice it, we’re better than Nineveh could’ve ever dreamed of and more wicked than Nineveh would’ve ever dared become.
And yet, in spite all of this depravity, God desires our salvation. And truly, the only greatness that really matters comes from Him. Our faithfulness to God has allowed us to become great in so many wonderful things. Our rejection of God has allowed us to become great in so many terrible things.
If America is to be as great as it can be, it must be as godly as it can be. And if America is to be a godly nation, its people must return to godliness. That means you and me taking responsibility for our lives, our families, our churches, and our communities. That extends beyond Facebook and Twitter, beyond November 3 and January 20. It’s an everyday sort of thing, and it requires patience and sacrifice. But for God’s people, it’s our commission.
“I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12)
“Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” (Revelation 13:18)
Revelation says that 666 is the number of a man. So who is that man? Is it Trump or Biden? Pope Frances or King Charles? Bill Gates or Elon Musk?
I have a different theory. The number 666 is not talking about a forthcoming man. Instead, 666 is a reference to King Solomon.
How can that be? To understand this theory, we need to look back at the history of the kings who reigned over Israel.
Pharaoh, King of Egypt
At the beginning of the book of Exodus, the Israelites have found themselves residing in Egypt after relocating there under the governorship of Joseph. Soon after, there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He was concerned that the Israelites might soon become a threat, so he decided he would “deal wisely [חָכַם – chakam] with them” (Exodus 1:10):
“Therefore they set taskmasters [שָׂרֵי מִסִּים – saray mesiym, lit. “rulers of slaves”] over them to afflict them with their burdens [סְבָלָה – subala]. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities [עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת – aray miskunot], Pithom and Raamses.” (Exodus 1:11)
God, of course, did not take kindly to the enslavement of His people, so He brought plagues upon Egypt, resulting in the deliverance of the Israelites and the destruction of the Egyptians.
As the Israelites wandered through the desert towards the Promised Land, God commanded the Israelites that they were to be a nation unlike any of the other nations. They were to be a special treasure above all others, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5-6).
Of course, God knew what lay ahead. One day, God foretold, they would come to Him and say, “Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations” (Deuteronomy 17:14, 1 Samuel 8:5). To ensure that the Israelites would have a good king, God gave three commandments specifically to these future kings. Upon their ascension to the throne, they were to write down these three commandments and read them every single day. And what were those three commandments?
He shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses;
Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away;
Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. (Deuteronomy 17:16-20)
Even though the very first thing God said to mankind was that they were to “multiply” (Genesis 1:28), God demanded that the kings abstain from multiplying in these three areas: Egyptian horses, wives, and silver and gold.
Solomon, King of Israel
Fast forward four hundred and eighty years. Solomon the son of David has been crowned King of Israel, commissioned by his father to build God a temple. God has granted Solomon a wise [חָכָם – chakam] heart, to be used to “administer justice” (1 Kings 3:28). Thus Solomon begins the work of building God a house.
And how does it build this house?
“So the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as He had promised him… Then King Solomon raised up a labor force [מַס – mas, singular of mesiym] out of all Israel; and the labor force [מַס – mas] was thirty thousand men.” (1 Kings 5:12, 13)
Solomon built the temple using the labor of 30,000 slaves—something the pagan king of Tyre called very “wise” [חָכָם – chakam] (1 Kings 5:7). Just as the Egyptians, in an attempt to be wise, enslaved the Israelites to build their temples, so too did King Solomon, in all his supposed wisdom, enslave the surrounding nations to build his temple (1 Kings 5:13, 9:15).
Following in Egypt’s footsteps, Solomon also ordered that storage cities [עָרֵי הַֽמִּסְכְּנוֹת – aray hamiskunot] be built (1 Kings 9:19); he appointed Israelite rulers [שָׂרֵי – saray] over the slaves (1 Kings 9:23); he even appointed Jeroboam (who would soon lead a rebellion against Solomon’s son) to oversee the burden [סֵבֶל – sabel, root of “subala”] of the labor force (1 Kings 11:28).
Rather than lead the people to be a holy nation, set apart from the rest of the nations, Solomon seemed set on emulating the other nations. He apparently took Exodus 1:11—a description of the persecution and enslavement of his people—and used it as a template to establish his own kingdom.
It should then come as no surprise what we read in the following chapters. Solomon begins making alliances with all of the pagan nations that surrounded Israel, intermarrying with idolatrous wives—wives who would soon turn his heart from the LORD. He winds up with an astonishing seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, mostly from Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon; and sure enough, he was soon worshipping Ashtoreth and building temples for Chemosh and Molech (1 Kings 11).
He also began purchasing thousands of Egyptian horses to build up his army, trusting in chariots and horses for protection rather than in the name of the LORD (Psalm 20:7). To build his wealth and strengthen his alliances with the pagan nations, he exported some of these Egyptian horses to the kings of Syria and surrounding nations—the same nations that would soon attempt to conquer Israel (1 Kings 10:28, 29).
Between profiteering from the sale of Egyptian war horses to enemy nations and exploiting slave labor to build his kingdom, Solomon became one of the wealthiest men who ever lived, generating over a billion dollars in silver and gold every year. Far from multiplying justice and righteousness, Solomon was multiplying the precise things he was commanded to abstain from: foreign women, Egyptian war horses, and silver and gold.
And just how much did he make every year?
“The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold.” (1 Kings 10:14)
That’s right. After building his kingdom—and God’s!—on the backs of slaves, after forsaking the three commandments that God had given him, after abandoning the call to use his wisdom to spread justice and righteousness to the surrounding nations, Solomon instead turned from God’s Word and exploited the gifts he had been given to make himself rich and famous.
And the number assigned to that betrayal was 666.
The Number of the Beast
I don’t think that Solomon was the Antichrist, or that he’s coming back to usher in the last days. Rather, my current reading is that the warnings we were given concerning the number of the beast were meant to prepare us against the spirit that turned Solomon away from the LORD.
Israel was called to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, a special treasure set apart from the rest of the world (Exodus 19:5, 6). But instead, Israel decided to fall in line with the sins of every other nation, leading to sexual immorality, greed, human rights abuses, and idolatry.
We too, the Church, are called to be a holy nation, a royal priesthood, His own special people, who will proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of the darkness of this wicked world and into the marvelous light of His kingdom (1 Peter 2:9). Will we walk in that light, or will we follow in the footsteps of Solomon—and Pharaoh before him? Will we give into lust and celebrate sexual perversion in order to fit in with this corrupt generation? Will we betray God’s Word if it will make us a few extra bucks? Will we exploit and dehumanize those made in God’s image to score cheap political points? Will we bow our knee to the gods of this generation? Or will we hold fast to the one true God, regardless of the cost?
Here is wisdom. Choose this day whom you will serve.
P.S.
Isn’t 666 a reference to [Nero/the pope/Nickelback/etc.]?
Sure, I see no reason why that can’t also be true. God, in His infinite wisdom, is able to give prophesies that could have multiple accurate meanings. It’s certainly possible that Revelation 13 could be warning Christians of the dangers of following in the footsteps of Solomon while also warning that various world leaders have already followed in Solomon’s footsteps and are an immediate threat.
It’s also possible that 666 has nothing to do with Solomon. It just seemed like too big a coincidence not to be intentional.
Garrett Milovich 