For Phrygia and Cappadocia we have no satis- factory evidence with regard to the observance of Saturday in the 4th century. The 49th canon of Laodicea in Phrygia (e. 380?) says that during Lent the bread shall not be ottered except on Saturday and Sunday, from which it may perhaps be inferred that these two days were ' liturgical ' all through the year. St. Basil in his 03rd Epistle, ad CcEsariam (v.l. Csesariuiu ; in the Paris ed. of 1618, Ep. 289), says that he communicated four times a week, on the Lord's Day, Wednesday, Friday, and the Sabbath, and on other days 'if there were a commemoration of any saint [v.l. martyr) ; he refers to and defends tlie practice of private reservation, and says that in E<;yiit eaeli layman kept the Eueharistic elements in 'his own house and partook when he liked. Thus the fact that Basil communicated on the days mentioned does not necessarily imply a Eucharist on those days.
It is noteworthy that Saturday and Sunday have remained in the Greek Chnrcli as tlie only ' I'itnrgi- cal' days in Lent, as i.idviilcd i]i tin' L.-indieean canon ; whereas tlie Ncsl(iii:iii> [.iw iilc ImuIlh istic lections for every day in ceitaiii selocted weeks in Lent (called the • w'eeks of the mysteries') with the one exception of Saturday.
II. Thk Chrlstian Year.— In addition to the weekly observances, tiiere were annual commemo-
rations of events in ourlLord's life, although their development was slow. Two of these, Easter and Pentecost, passed to the Church from the Jews ; while others, such as Good Friday, Lent, Ascen- sion, Christmas, Epiphany, Advent, are of purely Christian origin.
1. Easter. — (a) The name. — 'Pascha' (irdo-xa) was the common name for Easter at least from the 2nd cent, onwards in Greek and Latin Chris- tianity ; and it is of some importance to gather from the earlier writers the reasons for its use, as they will show us the exact meaning of the com- memoration. Trdirx" is taken from the Aramaic Kfips ipisha), the equivalent of Heb. nps (pcsak) 'the passover.' Syrian Christians, however, have
usually written the word in the form
^5f
Payne - Smith, Thesaurus St/riacus, in Inc.) ; though, in translating into Syriac from Greek, James of Edessa and others use the form |'~"^i=^ (as in the Testament of our Lord, passim) ; and the Lexicons give a verb -^.rrsos 'to celebrate Easter.' The meaning in Syriac literature is usually ' Easter,' though the Nestorian writers, like their descendants to this day, use it in the sense of 'Maundy Thursday.' The older Greek and Latin writers commonly derive it from Tva.cxf'-v, ' to sutt'er,' and draw analogies from etymology between the paschal lamb and the suttering Christ. Thus, perhaps, Justin Martyr (Dial. 40 ; he is showing how the lamb sacrificed as the passover is a type of the Pa.ssion) ; and most probably Iremeus (Ilcer. IV. x. 1: 'Moses foretold Him after a figurative manner by the name given to the passover, and at that very festival did our Lord sufTer, thus fulfilling the passover '). And so perhaps Tertullian (adv. Jud. 19, Migne, vol. ii. col. 670) : ■ It is the Lord'.'' passover, that is, the I'^i^sidii uf Christ.' Lactan- tius expressly adopts tin- eiyninloLjy (Dip. Inst. iv. 26, Migne, vol. i. ceil ."i:;i) ; • i'^M-iia nominatur djTo ToC Trdffx"") via pasMoiiis liyuiii est.' Augu.s- tine, on the other hand (Ep. Iv. 1, ad Januar., A.D. 400) denies this interpretation, while he pro- poses a scarcely better one : ' The word Pascha itself is not, as is commonlj' thought, a Greek word ; those w ho are acquainted with both lan- guages affirm it to be a Hebrew word. It is not derived, therefore, from the Passion because of the Greek word Trcfffyra., signifying- to suffer, but it takes its n.-mie fiom the transition of which I have spoken, Ircui <le:iilj to life; the meaning of the Hebrew vend I'aselia being, as those who are acquainted with it assure us, a passing over or transition. To this the Lord Himself designed to allude when He said : " He tliat believeth in me is passed from death to life. . . ." '
The question then arises, What did these earlier writers mean by Pascha? Was it the com- memoration of the Passion, or of the Resurrec- tion ? Irenneus wrote a work, vepl toO irdax"- (quoted by psendo- Justin, Qiiatst. et rcsp. ad Oi-thodoxos), which is probably the letter to Victor from which Eusebius gives extracts (HE v. 24). In this he speaks of a festival preceded by a fast of varying duration (see below, e) ; and he may use the word Trdcrxa of the festival or of the festival and fast combined. Bp. J. Wordsworth (Ministry of Grace, iii. S U says that the Christian irdaxa always in I lie lir-t lliiee centuries and often in the fourtli iiie;iiis I lie ( .'lebratiou of the fast of Good Friday, exlemleii uu doubt by vnipdeais or super- position 111 luusL (.Uses over Easter ; and he adduces
256 CALENDAE, THE CHRISTIAN
CALENDAR, THE CHRISTIAN
Tertullian, adv. Jiid. 10, as above (but this hardly shows it), and de Bapt. 19 (' Pascha alfords a more solemn day for baptism, when all tlie passion of the Lord, in which we are baptized [tinguimvir], was completed '). We may add dc Oral. 18, where he says that they did not give the kiss of peace 'die paschae' when there was a general fast. But in de Cor. 3 he seems to use the word of Easter Day ; he says that the Christians did not kneel ' a die Pasch;B in Pentecosten usque'; and in de Jejini. 14 he speaks of celebrating Pascha, and of the fifty ensuing (cxindc) days being spent in exultation, which is suitable language if Pascha means Easter Day, but hardly if it means Good Friday. It may, however, in these passages, mean Easter and the preceding fast, and this would suit the remark which follows in de Jejim. 14, that Saturday was never a fast 'nisi in Pascha.' Origen (<•. Cds. viii. 22) distinguishes irapaaKtv-^ from -irdcxa, and doubtless means Easter by the latter. He men- tions tlie observance of the Lord's Day, of the Preparation, of Pascha, and of Pentecost ; and cannot here mean euenj Friday by the ' Prepara- tion,' for then he would also have mentioned Wednesda}-, as in Hoin. in Lev. x. (see above, L § 2).