The Passover Question

At that time a question of no small importance was stirred up. The churches of all Asia, following what they took to be an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, the day on which the Jews had been commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be kept as the feast of the Savior’s Passover. They held that the fast must be ended on that day, whatever day of the week it happened to fall on. But it was not the custom of the churches in all the rest of the world to do it this way. They kept the practice that has prevailed from apostolic tradition down to the present time: that the fast should be ended on no other day than the day of our Savior’s resurrection. [a]

Synods and assemblies of bishops were held on this matter, and all of them, of one mind, drew up by letters a church decree for everyone everywhere: that the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead should never be celebrated on any other day than the Lord’s day, and that on that day only we should observe the end of the Passover fasts. [b] There is still extant a writing of those who met in Palestine at that time, over whom Theophilus, bishop of the church at Caesarea, and Narcissus, bishop of Jerusalem, presided. There is likewise another from those assembled at Rome on the same question, which names Victor as bishop; another from the bishops in Pontus, over whom Palmas presided as the oldest; another from the churches in Gaul, of which Irenaeus was bishop; and another from those in Osrhoene and the cities there. There is also a letter of Bacchylus in his own name, bishop of the church of Corinth, and letters of a great many others. All of them expressed one and the same opinion and judgment, and cast the same vote. This was their one decision, as stated above. [c]