I've got an 'Eve poast upcoming but in the meantime, let's get a jump on Easter. This is the real Christian holiday as you know. When's that?
Passover - duh. But there remain some questions on when, exactly. The Johannine Gospel presents Jesus as the Lamb; as do John of Patmos, and Paul. Jesus would have died on 14 Nisan/Artemisios. Mark disagreed and said, 15 Nisan; the other two follow Mark.
But what if... Luke didn't? I have in mind that Luke's Nativity has (famously) shepherds in the field. This is when lambs are born in the first place: that's before mid-Nisan, but not long before. Certainly not midwinter.
A few points follow. (1) Luke did not compose the manger scene himself since his Jesus is the sin-offering, not the Lamb. (2) The L source here, clearly neither Mark nor Matthew, agreed with the Johananaym that Jesus is the Lamb.
These would tempt Johannines to prefer Easter shifted forward in spring; they could possibly get some L/protoLuke-believers, like Marcion, aboard with this as well. Clement (who was not a Marcionite) recorded Nativity options to run late with the singular exception 25 Pharmuthi (21 March), rendering Clement unserious for the Passion. Orthodox Passion, by contrast, looks credible: 14 Artemisios, 6 April (7 in Armenia).
This has... implications for Bcheiry, incidentally, as Isho'yahb bishop of Nineveh celebrated an Easter miracle in the very day-of-month of that original Easter. Bcheiry assumed 25 March. Should it be 25 March, in 630s AD Nineveh?
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