Are we required to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread annually?

[Mockingbird]

The following passage from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is sometimes taken as a proof-text for the proposition that Christians should celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread every year:

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

For though absent in body I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. (OR, "I have already pronounced judgment on the man who has done such a thing in the name of the Lord Jesus.") When you are assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Cor. 5:1-8 RSV).

But Paul is not inviting the Corinthians to keep an annual festival. He is inviting them to forsake the old life of "malice and evil" and to undertake the new life of "sincerity and truth". The reference to the Feast of Unleavened Bread is intended to compare the new life of sincerity and truth to a festival. It is a metaphor.

Another passage that is sometimes alleged in support of the idea that Christians should celebrate an annual Festival of Unleavened Bread is this one from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me". For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (1 Cor. 11:23-26 RSV).

This passage is linked to the Synoptic Gospels' chronology for the crucifixion and resurrection, according to which Jesus was crucified on the 15th of Nisan and rose on the 17th of Nisan. His last supper would therefore have been the banquet of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Therefore, the argument goes, when Jesus said "do this", he meant that we should celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread annually. (They seem to imply also that we should use the Rabbinic Jewish calendar in scheduling the festival, instead of, say, the Gregorian lunar calendar.) But the "this" that Jesus said we should "do" is not to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread annually, it is the giving of thanks whenever we meet together to share food. Paul says that Jesus took the cup "after supper". In other words, Jesus was offering blessing over bread, the hamotzi-blessing as it is now called, and the grace-after-meals, the birkath ha-mazon as it is now called. He meant that we should remember him whenever we say these blessings. No annual festival is implied.

As it happens, I accept John's chronology of the crucifixion and resurrection, according to which Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan (John 18:28) and rose on the 16th of Nisan, the day of waving the sheaf (Leviticus 23:11) according to the Temple priests (Josephus, Antiquities 3.250/3.10.5). So the last supper would not have been the banquet of Unleavened Bread. But even if the Synoptics are right and it was, my interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 still holds good.

I do not mean to imply that Christians must not have annual festivals. The church has the authority to establish annual festivals if it desire to. But we are not required to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread according to the Rabbinic Jewish calendar and the Maxwell House Haggadah.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Required? No certainly not. I don't think any Jewish or Christian feast is required. As Paul said, the Jewish feasts were merely "shadows of coming things." In other words they were prophetic foreshadowings of future events, several of which were fulfilled during New Testament times.

Now as for if they could be observed by a Christian, I see no law against it so long as they do not falsely assume they are bound to keep it. But required? No. There is no requirement in scripture to keep anything other than the Lord's supper.

Blessings,
- H

 

[Manasseh]

I'm just a dumb guy with a nice vocabulary. The more I learn, the less I know. So please forgive me in advance, isn't the Lord Jesus Christ literally the fulfillment of everything? The feasts were all about Him, the Temple services, the prophecies, he fulfilled everything. He said as much.
Is He not our High Priest? Are we not His Temple. Is He not the bread of Life? Even the Sabbath has been fulfilled. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Sum of All Spiritual Things.

Hebrews 4
1Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

3For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

7Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

8For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

 

[Bruce.Leiter]

The following passage from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians is sometimes taken as a proof-text for the proposition that Christians should celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread every year:

But Paul is not inviting the Corinthians to keep an annual festival. He is inviting them to forsake the old life of "malice and evil" and to undertake the new life of "sincerity and truth". The reference to the Feast of Unleavened Bread is intended to compare the new life of sincerity and truth to a festival. It is a metaphor.

Another passage that is sometimes alleged in support of the idea that Christians should celebrate an annual Festival of Unleavened Bread is this one from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians:

This passage is linked to the Synoptic Gospels' chronology for the crucifixion and resurrection, according to which Jesus was crucified on the 15th of Nisan and rose on the 17th of Nisan. His last supper would therefore have been the banquet of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Therefore, the argument goes, when Jesus said "do this", he meant that we should celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread annually. (They seem to imply also that we should use the Rabbinic Jewish calendar in scheduling the festival, instead of, say, the Gregorian lunar calendar.) But the "this" that Jesus said we should "do" is not to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread annually, it is the giving of thanks whenever we meet together to share food. Paul says that Jesus took the cup "after supper". In other words, Jesus was offering blessing over bread, the hamotzi-blessing as it is now called, and the grace-after-meals, the birkath ha-mazon as it is now called. He meant that we should remember him whenever we say these blessings. No annual festival is implied.

As it happens, I accept John's chronology of the crucifixion and resurrection, according to which Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Nisan (John 18:28) and rose on the 16th of Nisan, the day of waving the sheaf (Leviticus 23:11) according to the Temple priests (Josephus, Antiquities 3.250/3.10.5). So the last supper would not have been the banquet of Unleavened Bread. But even if the Synoptics are right and it was, my interpretation of 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 still holds good.

I do not mean to imply that Christians must not have annual festivals. The church has the authority to establish annual festivals if it desire to. But we are not required to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread according to the Rabbinic Jewish calendar and the Maxwell House Haggadah.

Another reason is that there is a big difference between the old and new covenants. The old covenant was the national law of Israel, whereas the new covenant carries forward the principles or main ideas of the old covenant but does away with the outward form because of Jesus' death, because the new covenant is for the international church, as described and illustrated by Paul in Colossians 2:11-17:

Col 2:11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
Col 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
Col 2:14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Col 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Col 2:16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
Col 2:17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

 

[D-D-W]

Required? No.
Allowed? Yes.

 

[for_his_glory]

Ask yourself, do we live by the 614 Levitical laws as in the requirements of the Temple laws, or are we under the new covenant of God's grace where we are still to follow the moral parts of the law that have nothing to do with the various feast as Jesus has already fulfilled all the Temple laws.

There are laws (commandments) of God that were especially written just for the Hebrews pertaining to the rituals of the Temple, sacrifices, festivals, Torah, Kohanim and Levites, the King and the Nazarite. Then there are the existing moral laws (commandments) for all of us to still follow as in prayers and blessings, love and brotherhood. The poor and unfortunate, treatment of the Gentiles, Marriage, divorce and family. Forbidden sexual relations, business practices, employees and servants. Vows, oaths, swearing, Court and Judicial procedures. Injuries and damages, property and property rights, criminal laws. Prophecy, idolatry and all its practices as the moral laws (commandments) keep us in line with the will of God.