- Jun 12, 2025
- 45
- 15
Quartodecimanism: Myths and Facts
Myth: Those second-century Christians who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan were called "Quartodecimans".
Fact: The word "quartodeciman" is not reliably attested until after the council of Nicea. It was never applied in the second century to those who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan.
Myth: The second-century Christians who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan celebrated Easter on the night of 14/15 Nisan.
Fact: They may have, but they may instead have celebrated on the night of 13/14 Nisan. This is the date when, according to the Gospel of John (John 18.28) Jesus ate the last supper with his disciples. Polycrates, in his letter to the Roman bishop Victor, wrote that "my family have always kept the day when the people [i.e. Jewish people] put away the leaven." The removal of the leaven, according to the nearly-contemporary Mishnah, begins on the night of 13 Nisan. (Mishnah Pesachim 1).
Myth: Victor tried to excommunicate the churches in the Roman Province of Asia.
Fact: Eusebius's account is anachronistic. We can read between the lines of Eusebius's account by examining the letter that Irenaeus wrote to Victor, which Eusebius quotes: "Never was this [difference in practice] made a ground for repulsing anyone, but the presbyters before you, even though they did not keep it, used to send the Eucharist to Christians from dioceses which did." So what Victor actually did was refuse to send the fermentum to the Asian stranger-churches in Rome, not attempt to excommunicate the churches in Asia.
Myth: The Nisan-14 practice was the practice deprecated at the Council of Nicea.
Fact: The controversy at Nicea was between two schools of Sunday observance: Christians who might be called "Jewish calendarists" (an who were in later years called "Protopaschites") who wanted to celebrate Easter on the Sunday falling in the Jewish week of Unleavened Bread, even if that meant that the festival would fall before the spring equinox; and "Independent calendarists" who wanted to calculate their own month of Nisan and set the Easter festival to the third Sunday in that independently-calculated month of Nisan, so that the festival would always fall after the spring equinox. The "independent calendarists" carried the day. But the decision was controversial, with some Christians refusing to abide by it. One scholar has proposed that the Nisan-14 custom, moribound in the early 4th century, was revived in the later 4th century by Christians protesting against the decision, and who had read about the practice in Eusebius's book.
Myth: The controversy over the Nisan-14 practice was between the Eastern churches and the Western churches.
Fact: The Nisan-14 practice was confined to the Roman Province of Asia. All the other churches in the world, according to Eusebius, kept Easter on Sunday.
Myth: Those who kept the Nisan-14 practice were Torah-keepers.
Fact: The Evangelist Matthew's community were Torah-keepers, but there is no evidence connecting them to the Roman Province of Asia. The community in which the Didache was written were partial Torah-keepers ("If you can shoulder the Lord's yoke in its entirety, then you will be perfect; but if that is too much for you, do as much as you can." But again there is no evidence linking them to Asia. The Nisan-14 assembly as it is known to us from Melito of Sardis's Peri Pascha shows no evidence of Torah-keeping. Indeed, Peri Pascha is partly Jew-hating.
Myth: Those second-century Christians who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan were called "Quartodecimans".
Fact: The word "quartodeciman" is not reliably attested until after the council of Nicea. It was never applied in the second century to those who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan.
Myth: The second-century Christians who ended the Paschal fast on 14 Nisan celebrated Easter on the night of 14/15 Nisan.
Fact: They may have, but they may instead have celebrated on the night of 13/14 Nisan. This is the date when, according to the Gospel of John (John 18.28) Jesus ate the last supper with his disciples. Polycrates, in his letter to the Roman bishop Victor, wrote that "my family have always kept the day when the people [i.e. Jewish people] put away the leaven." The removal of the leaven, according to the nearly-contemporary Mishnah, begins on the night of 13 Nisan. (Mishnah Pesachim 1).
Myth: Victor tried to excommunicate the churches in the Roman Province of Asia.
Fact: Eusebius's account is anachronistic. We can read between the lines of Eusebius's account by examining the letter that Irenaeus wrote to Victor, which Eusebius quotes: "Never was this [difference in practice] made a ground for repulsing anyone, but the presbyters before you, even though they did not keep it, used to send the Eucharist to Christians from dioceses which did." So what Victor actually did was refuse to send the fermentum to the Asian stranger-churches in Rome, not attempt to excommunicate the churches in Asia.
Myth: The Nisan-14 practice was the practice deprecated at the Council of Nicea.
Fact: The controversy at Nicea was between two schools of Sunday observance: Christians who might be called "Jewish calendarists" (an who were in later years called "Protopaschites") who wanted to celebrate Easter on the Sunday falling in the Jewish week of Unleavened Bread, even if that meant that the festival would fall before the spring equinox; and "Independent calendarists" who wanted to calculate their own month of Nisan and set the Easter festival to the third Sunday in that independently-calculated month of Nisan, so that the festival would always fall after the spring equinox. The "independent calendarists" carried the day. But the decision was controversial, with some Christians refusing to abide by it. One scholar has proposed that the Nisan-14 custom, moribound in the early 4th century, was revived in the later 4th century by Christians protesting against the decision, and who had read about the practice in Eusebius's book.
Myth: The controversy over the Nisan-14 practice was between the Eastern churches and the Western churches.
Fact: The Nisan-14 practice was confined to the Roman Province of Asia. All the other churches in the world, according to Eusebius, kept Easter on Sunday.
Myth: Those who kept the Nisan-14 practice were Torah-keepers.
Fact: The Evangelist Matthew's community were Torah-keepers, but there is no evidence connecting them to the Roman Province of Asia. The community in which the Didache was written were partial Torah-keepers ("If you can shoulder the Lord's yoke in its entirety, then you will be perfect; but if that is too much for you, do as much as you can." But again there is no evidence linking them to Asia. The Nisan-14 assembly as it is known to us from Melito of Sardis's Peri Pascha shows no evidence of Torah-keeping. Indeed, Peri Pascha is partly Jew-hating.
