The Quartodecimans & The Council of Nicea of 325 A.D. - How the Passover Got Changed

The Quartodeciman controversy was about keeping the Passover on the 14th of the first month. The disagreement lingered until it was finally settled at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

The ;purpose of this message is to demonstrate that the Church Jesus established observed the biblical Passover on the 14th of Aviv/Nisan for the first 200 years of its existence. And that is was only after significant political pressure that most Christian congregations changed the date of this observance to what is now called Easter Sunday.

Using the biblical record we can discern that the new covenant Passover service contained the following elements: a foot washing, a sharing of bread and wine, a session of spiritual instruction and a closing hymn.

The new covenant Passover is not based on Jewish traditions, or old covenant practices... other than the date of observance which is the 14th day of the month of Aviv/Nissan. Jesus Himself replaced the sacrificed lamb with the bread and wine. And gave us instruction that from that point forward the Passover would be a memorial of Jesus death and our deliverance from sin rather than Israel's deliverance from Egypt.

But then what happened after the apostles were gone... men like Paul, Peter, and John? Drawing on historical references from early writers such as Irenaus, Eusebius, and Epiphanius we'll see that the eastern churches established by Paul were still keeping the Passover according to the Apostolic tradition 200 years later.

Men like Polycarp and Polycrates tried to hold the line against innovators like Anicetus and Victor of Rome. The matter was an open question until the decisive Council of Nicea in 325 A. D.

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