Some Christian groups incorporate Jewish holidays into their religious practice, typically altering and reinterpreting their observation to suit a supersessionist theology.
Many of the Jewish practices appropriated by these groups originated in modern rabbinic Judaism, long postdating early Christianity. Such Christian observances have been described by some as an offensive form of cultural appropriation and a misinterpretation of Jewish traditions.[3][4][5] Within Christianity, critics question the practice's theological consistency and its potential to harm interfaith relationships.[6][7]
Background
Specific practices vary among denominations: these holidays may be honored in their original form in recognition of Christianity's Jewish roots or altered to suit Christian theology. Symbolic and thematic features of Jewish services are commonly interpreted in a Christian light: for example, the Paschal Lamb of the Passover Seder is viewed as a symbol of Christ's sacrifice.
As a group these Christians form non-denominational alliances such as Christians for Israel and Christians United for Israel; they also form the root of a global, cross-denominational movement called Messianic Judaism, and of its offshoot known as Hebrew Roots.
Most point to the tradition that Jesus' parents kept God's holy days,[8] that Jesus himself kept God's holy days during his ministry,[9] and that the Apostles observed the same feasts after they were called "Christians".[10] The Book of Acts chapter 2 records that the start of the Christian Church began on a biblical feast day: "And when the day of Pentecost has fully come, they were all with one accord in one place."
Many of these Christians believe that the intended purpose of all of the biblical holy days is to foreshadow or point to the identity of the Messiah, citing that Paul the Apostle confirms this view by linking Jesus' sacrifice to the fulfilment of the Jewish feast of Passover.[11] Jesus was not only declared the "Lamb of God" by John the Baptist,[12] a reference to the Passover lamb but was also presented as the Lamb in Jerusalem on 10 Nisan, then four days later crucified on precisely the day Jews brought the Passover sacrifice, 14 Nisan.
The Eucharist was instituted on the night of the Passover Seder which Jesus and the apostles were celebrating. The transfiguration occurred while Jesus, Peter, James and John were celebrating the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles or Booths).[13] Prominent Protestant leaders such as Chuck Missler, Sid Roth, and John Hagee advocate the return to the 1st-century walk of faith and Christianity's connection to its Hebrew roots.
The main Christian view seems to present the Passover meal, which was held on the night before Jesus died, also named Last Supper, as the Evening of New Covenant, and Christians generally agree that was on Thursday being observed at Church.[clarification needed] The Christian view also seems to present the Day of First Fruit, which was held according to Jewish law on the day after Saturday during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as Resurrection Sunday (also known as Easter). Christian Passover is a religious observance celebrated by a small number of 1st-century believers instead of, or alongside, the more common Christian holy day and festival of Easter. The redemption from the bondage of sin through the sacrifice of Christ is celebrated, a parallel of the Jewish Passover's celebration of redemption from bondage in the land of Egypt.[14]
The traditional Christian holiday of Pentecost is based on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot celebrated seven weeks after the start of Passover. Pentecost is part of the Movable Cycle of the ecclesiastical year. Pentecost is always seven weeks after the day after the Sabbath day which always occurs during the feast of unleavened bread. Rabbinic Jews avoid celebration of Shavuot on the day after the Sabbath (the first day of the week). However, Haymanot and Karaite Jews celebrate this holy day according to Scriptural mandate on the day after the Sabbath. This Sunday celebration, in Christian tradition, is calculated as 50 days after Easter (inclusive of Easter Day). In other words, it falls on the eighth Sunday, counting Easter Day.
Pentecost celebrates the birth of the Church, when thousands of Jews were in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot, and heard Peter and the disciples speaking in their own language. However, Shavuot is one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals laid out for the Torah observant Jews, which was the reason for the huge gathering of Jewish believers in Jerusalem on that same day.
Christian Feast of Trumpets
Rosh Hashanah is celebrated by a number of Christian denominations and unincorporated house church groups within the United States, including: Assemblies of Yahweh, Messianic Jews, some congregations of the Church of God (Seventh Day), some evangelical Protestant churches (mainly Baptist), as well as Seventh Day Pentecostals in Eastern Europe. This day of resounding is also known in Judaism by the name "Yom Teruah" and in Christianity as the Feast of Trumpets.[15]
Christian believers connect hearing "the sound of the trumpet" or shofar, according to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians and the Book of Revelation, with the events that occur at the Resurrection of the dead ("For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud cry of summons, with the shout of an archangel, and with the blast of the trumpet of God. And those who have departed this life in Christ will rise first."1Thess 4:16, Revelation 1:10).
Some say this "pivotal event of all human history to which the Feast of Trumpets points is the Return of Christ".[16] Some evangelical television channels call Rosh Hashanna eve the "Feast of Trumpets", for example at CBN TV that marks the Jewish New Year with a staff gathering for Rosh Hashanah.[17]
Latter Day Saint movement
Joseph Smith is said to have received the golden plates (which became The Book of Mormon) on the Rosh Hashanah on 22 September 1827.[18] Biblical references and interpretation by Jewish sages through the centuries set this day as the day God would remember his covenants with Israel to bring them back from exile. On this day ritual trumpet blasts signify the issuance of revelation and a call for Israel to gather for God's word of redemption. Set at the time of Israel's final agricultural harvest, the day also symbolizes the Lord's final harvest of souls.[19] Furthermore, it initiates the completion of the Lord's time periods, the Days of Awe, and signifies the last time to prepare for final judgment and the Messianic Age.[20] The coming forth of the Book of Mormon is said to be fulfilling such prophecies of the day.[20]
It is not common for mainstream Christians to observe Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). The New Testament refers to the Day of Atonement in Acts 27:9,[21] but does not specify whether or not Christians were observing it.[22]
In the Roman calendar still observed by Traditionalist Catholics, the MichaelmasEmber days (the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of the first full week after 14 September (the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, or "Roodmas") are penitential days inspired by the Jewish solemnities of the “seventh month,” Tishrei (תִּשְׁרֵי), especially Yom Kippur. Those days' first Lesson (liturgical reading) focuses on the Old Covenant’s Day of Atonement and the fast of the seventh month (Lev. 23, 26-32).[23]
Assuming an apostolic practice of observing Yom Kippur, a small number of evangelical Christians observe it today. Among congregations of the Churches of God, the Day of Atonement is observed as an annual Sabbath where members fast in observance of Leviticus 23:27-29. Most, like Roderick C. Meredith, former leader of the Living Church of God, also believe that the Day of Atonement "pictures the binding of Satan at the beginning of the Millennium and the world becoming at one with God."[24] Children and those with medical conditions for whom fasting could be detrimental are not expected to participate.[25]
Many groups affiliated with Messianic Judaism have provided instruction describing the evangelical significance for observance of this day.[26][27][28]
One rationale for celebrating the Day of Atonement is that the Apostle Paul celebrated it and would not miss it during a storm on a ship. Acts 27:9 reads, "Since much time had been lost and sailing was now dangerous, because even the Fast had already gone by, Paul advised them".
Christian Feast of Tabernacles
Early church history
Jesus observed the Jewish Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths) during his ministry (see John 7:1–52). Referring to Paul the Apostle, Acts 18:20–21 states: "When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not; but bade them farewell, saying, I must keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again to you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus". Scholars debate which feast this refers to, but Protestant scholar Thomas Lewin concluded that Paul was referring to the Feast of Tabernacles.[29][30]
In the 2nd century, Jewish Christians certainly kept the Feast of Tabernacles, according to 20th century Catholic scholar Cardinal Jean Danielou,[31] where its celebration was tied to millenarianism as it is with many Christians who observe it today. Its observance was centered in the Asiatic environment to which both Papias and Cerinthus belonged.[32] Cardinal Danielou also saw references to the Feast of Tabernacles in the Shepherd of Hermas,[33] which would indicate that around that time some in Rome also observed it, though he believes that later on they transferred it to become something else. According to Saint Jerome, Polycarp also kept the Feast of Tabernacles in the 2nd century in Asia Minor.[34]
Saint Methodius of Olympus (died c. 311) taught that Christians should observe the Feast of Tabernacles, and he also tied it to the teaching of the millennial reign of Christ: "For since in six days God made the heaven and earth, and finished the whole world, and rested on the seventh day from all His works which He had made, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, so by a figure in the seventh month, when the fruits of the earth have been gathered in, we are commanded to keep the feast to the Lord, which signified that, when this world shall be terminated at the seventh thousand years, when God shall have completed the world, He shall rejoice in us."[35]
Didymus The Blind (c. 313-398) also enjoined the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, and cited 2 Peter 1:14 and 2 Cor. 5:4, where he identified the temporary dwelling with the human body, saying that only those who preserve the purity of their bodies and spirits will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, and that Sukkot will be celebrated in the next world at the resurrection, when the saved will rise into an incorruptible body, rising up in power and glory to become a sacred dwelling.[36]
After the rise of Emperor Constantine, Christian observance of the Feast of Tabernacles became increasingly viewed as heretical by the developing Catholic church. In the 4th century, Epiphanius discusses Nazarene Christians who kept the Jewish Holy Days in various locations in his time, a practice which he considered heretical.[37]John Chrysostom (of Constantinople) commented that people who professed Christ in his area were also observing the Feast of Tabernacles, which he also considered heretical,[38] as did St. Jerome in the 4th and 5th Centuries,[39] who notes that these Christians also gave the feast a millenarian significance.[40]
Post-reformation
Nevertheless, a small number of Christian groups continued to observe the Feast of Tabernacles outside of the sphere of the Catholic Church. In 1588, the Szekler Sabbatarians of Transylvania united under the unitarian nobleman András Eőssi, observed Christian versions of all of the biblical Jewish Holy Days including the Feast of Tabernacles. They also rejected the observance of Christmas, Easter, and New Year's Day. Within a decade, they grew to be represented in many towns and villages, mainly centered in the towns of Szekely-Keresztur (today the Romanian town of Cristuru-Secuiesc) and Koropatak (today Bodoc), and a number of Hungarian villages. They developed a hymn book with songs specifically for Christian observance of the Jewish Holy Days [41][42] They considered themselves as converted gentiles who had inherited from the Jews the eternally binding law, which God had given.[43] By 1637, there were believed to number between 15,000 and 20,000, until they attracted the attention of the Hungarian parliament. In 1600 a decree was passed which allowed their estates and properties to be confiscated, and in 1618, a decree was passed in Cluj with the approval of Prince Bethlen to solve the "Jewish Christian Problem" by giving them one year to rejoin one of the reorganized churches. Soon afterward, their books were confiscated and burnt. By the end of the mid 17th century, they still were represented in at least eleven towns and villages in Transylvania, but by 1865 only about 170-180 members remained in the town of Bozod-Ujfalu (near Gyula Feheruar). The group was later absorbed into Judaism during the 1930s.
In 1900, the Feast of Tabernacles was formally celebrated by the Southern Baptists at Falls Creek Encampment. There are pictures of the original Falls Creek Tabernacle with the blowing of the shofar to call to service. It was also celebrated heavily among those in the south, known as Bush Arbors, as late as the 1960s. From this movement came the history of tent revivals, which birthed the world-wide evangelist Billy Graham.
Today, actual observance practice varies. Churches may construct a communal sukkah, on church property or elsewhere, in which services are held and meals eaten, and in some congregations, dancing. In some congregations, individuals may construct their own booths which may be slept in, or where only meals may be eaten. Some members may send or exchange greeting cards prior to the event, participate in special meals, music, and worship services, and give alms. Among congregations of the Church of God tradition, church leadership selects a Feast site designed to serve a large geographic area which includes a rented hall for congregational meetings and various amenities. Members travel and stay in tents at local campgrounds or (more commonly) stay in a hotel where they may attend daily worship services and participate in recreation, fellowship, sight-seeing, and church activities for eight days. As with many Christians who have observed it in the past, it is tied to Christ's millennial reign on earth, believed to be a time of great spiritual and physical blessing for all mankind.[25] Members are instructed to save a tenth of their income as part of a Second tithe to spend on themselves and their families in order to have the means to observe all the holidays, but particularly the Feast of Tabernacles.
Criticism
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Within Christianity
Some critics of Christian observances of Jewish holidays have echoed the comments of the 4th century theologian John Chrysostom who said,
The festivals of the pitiful and miserable Jews are soon to march upon us one after the other and in quick succession: the feast of Trumpets, the feast of Tabernacles, the fasts. There are many in our ranks who say they think as we do. Yet some of these are going to watch the festivals and others will join the Jews in keeping their feasts and observing their fasts. I wish to drive this perverse custom from the Church right now.[49]
Some Christians, like the popular evangelistJohn Hagee believe that the observance of Jewish holidays by Christians is educationally valuable, but they do not believe that it is obligatory.[citation needed] Others[who?] fear that the observance of Jewish holidays by Christians inevitably leads them to slide into Judaism, but there is little evidence to justify their fear.
Jewish holidays, also known as Jewish festivals or Yamim Tovim, are holidays observed by Jews throughout the Hebrew calendar. They include religious, cultural and national elements, derived from three sources: mitzvot, rabbinic mandates, the history of Judaism, and the State of Israel.
Many Christians observe a weekly day set apart for rest and worship called a Sabbath in obedience to God's commandment to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Shabbat or the Sabbath, also called Shabbos by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical stories describing the creation of the heaven and earth in six days and the redemption from slavery and the Exodus from Egypt, and look forward to a future Messianic Age. Since the Jewish religious calendar counts days from sunset to sunset, Shabbat begins in the evening of what on the civil calendar is Friday.
Pentecost is a Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day after Easter Day. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles of Jesus while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. The Catholic Church believes the Holy Spirit descended upon Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the same time, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
Messianic Judaism is a syncretic Abrahamic new religious movement that combines various Jewish traditions with belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. It is widely considered to be a sect of Evangelical Christianity, including by all major groups within mainstream Judaism, but the movement considers itself Jewish. Belief in Jesus as a messianic figure and as divine is considered by Jews to be one of the most defining distinctions between Judaism and Christianity.
The Church of God is a holiness Pentecostal body that descends from the Christian Union movement of Richard Spurling, A. J. Tomlinson and others. They consider themselves officially The Church of God, but also designate themselves as The Church of God (1957 Reformation) and The Church of God (Jerusalem Acres), which is the name of their headquarters.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has several unique teachings about Judaism and the House of Israel. The largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, the LDS Church teaches the belief that the Jewish people are God's chosen people and it also teaches the belief that its members share a common and literal Israelite ancestry with the Jewish people.
In Judaism, the High Holy Days, also known as High Holidays or Days of Awe consist of:
strictly, the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ;
by extension, the period of ten days including those holidays, known also as the Ten Days of Repentance ; or,
by a further extension, the entire 40-day penitential period in the Jewish year from Rosh Chodesh Elul to Yom Kippur, traditionally taken to represent the forty days Moses spent on Mount Sinai before coming down with the second ("replacement") set of the Tablets of Stone.
The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ commemorates the Christian belief of the bodily Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. It is one of the ecumenical feasts of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts of the Passion and Pentecost. Following the account of Acts 1:3 that the risen Jesus appeared for 40 days prior to his Ascension, Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter according to inclusive counting, although some Christian denominations have moved the observance to the following Sunday, sometimes called Ascension Sunday. The day of observance varies by ecclesiastical province in many Christian denominations, as with Methodists and Catholics, for example.
The United Church of God, an International Association is a nontrinitarian Christian church based in the United States.
Christian observance of Passover is in modern times referred to as Holy Thursday or Maundy Thursday and is held the day before Good Friday. Sometimes a shortened Sedar meal is practiced. Many churches do a washing of the feet of the congregation on this day in recognition of Jesus washing the apostles feet at the last supper. [oremus Bible Browser : John 13:5–14] It marks the end of the Lenten season.
High Sabbaths, in most Christian and Messianic Jewish usage, are seven annual biblical festivals and rest days, recorded in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. This is an extension of the term "high day" found in the King James Version at John 19:31.
The Hebrew Roots Movement (HRM) is a religious movement that advocates adherence to the Torah and believe that Yeshua or Jesus, is the Messiah. The movement stipulates that the Law of Moses was not abolished by Yeshua or Jesus and is, therefore, still in effect for his followers. Because HRM believes the Mosaic law is still active, it advocates the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath; biblical feasts; laws of cleanliness; and circumcision. Some HRM followers also choose to wear tzitzit and other Hebrew religious items. However, HRM followers do not generally follow Judaism or embrace the Talmud. Unlike other Christians, most HRM followers reject the traditional holidays of Christmas and Easter, insisting that they are pagan traditions.
Hebrew Catholics are a movement of Jews who have converted to Catholicism, and Catholics of non-Jewish origin, who choose to keep Mosaic traditions in light of Catholic doctrine. The phrase was coined by Father Elias Friedman (1987), who was himself a converted Jew. In the Holy Land, they are gathered in the Saint James Vicariate for Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel.
In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath or Shabbat is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as God rested from creation. The practice of observing the Sabbath (Shabbat) originates in the biblical commandment "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy".
This is a glossary of terms used in Christianity.
Lists of holidays by various categorizations.
The Sabbath is a weekly day of rest or time of worship given in the Bible as the seventh day. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and informs a similar occasion in several other faiths. Observation and remembrance of Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments considered to be the fourth in Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and most Protestant traditions, and the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions.
Yom Kippur Katan, is a practice observed by some Jews on the day preceding each Rosh Chodesh. The observance consists of fasting and supplication, but is much less rigorous than that of Yom Kippur proper.
Christian observances of Yom Kippur occur when a Christian-style Day of Atonement models itself on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
References
↑ Matthew 26:17, John 5:1, John 7:4, 37, 10:22, 11:56, 12:12, 13:1, 29.
1 2 Editors of Beyond Today Magazine (2016, March–April), Questions and Answers, Beyond Today, p. 29. A publication of the United Church of God, an International Association.
↑ Lewin, Thomas, Fasti Sacri, Or A Key To The Chronology of The New Testament, Longmans, 1895, p. 300
↑ Lewin, Thomas, The Life And Epistles of St. Paul, Vol. 2, G. Bell and Sons, 1878, p. 343.
↑ Danielou, Cardinal Jean-Guenole-Marie. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Transl. by John A. Baker. The Westminster Press, 1964, pp. 343, 345.
↑ Danielou, Cardinal Jean-Guenole-Marie. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Transl. by John A. Baker. The Westminster Press, 1964, pp. 345-346.
↑ Danielou, Cardinal Jean-Guenole-Marie. The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Transl. by John A. Baker. The Westminster Press, 1964, pp. 341-345.
↑ Migne JP Argumentum Patrologia Latina Volumen MPL025 Ab Columna ad Culumnam 1415 - 1542A, pp. 922, 930.
↑ Methodius, Banquet of The Ten Virgins, Discourse 9, Transl. by William R. Clark, From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6, Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, Buffalo, New York, Christian Literature Co., 1886. Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
↑ Epiphanius. The Panarion of Ephiphanius of Salamis: Book II (sects 1-46) Section 1, Chap. 19, 7-9. Frank Williams, editor. Publisher BRILL, 1987, p. 117-119.
↑ John Chrysostom. Homily I Against The Jews 1:5; VI: 5; VII:2. Preached at Antioch, Syria in the Fall of 387 A.D., Medieval Sourcebook: Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) Eight Homilies Against the Jews. Fordham University. (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/chrysosto-jews6.html)
↑ Migne JP Argumentum Patrologia Latina Volumen MPL025 Ab Columna ad Culumnam 1415-1542S, pp. 922, 930
↑ Bagatti, Bellarmino., Transl. by Eugene Hoade. The Church from the Circumcision. Nihil obstat: Marcus Adinolfi. Imprimi potest: Herminius Roncari. Imprimatur: +Albertus Gori, die 26 Junii 1970. Franciscan Printing Press, Jerusalem, pp. 202, 297, 298.
↑ Die Sabbatharier in Siebenburgen (The Sabbatarians in Transylvania), Ihre Geschichte, Literatur und Dogmatic (their story, literature and doctrines) ein Beitrag zur Religions und Kulturgeshichte der Juengsten Drei Jahrhunderte (a contribution to the religious and cultural history of the last three centuries) by Dr. Samuel Kohn, printed in Leipzig, Germany, 1894., pp. 62-67. Samuel Kohn was Chief Rabbi of Budapest
↑ Die Sabbatharier in Siebenburgen (The Sabbatarians in Transylvania), Ihre Geschichte, Literatur und Dogmatic (their story, literature and doctrines) ein Beitrag zur Religions und Kulturgeshichte der Juengsten Drei Jahrhunderte (a contribution to the religious and cultural history of the last three centuries) by Dr. Samuel Kohn, printed in Leipzig, Germany, 1894., p. 116.
↑ "Today there are still Christians faithfully observing the same festivals Christ kept. These annual occasions were instituted to keep God's people, in all ages, aware of the key aspects of the mission and work of the true Messiah." Good News magazine, September/October 1997
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