Do You Have the Wrong Date for Easter?

Many calendars have the wrong date for honoring the death and resurrection of Jesus. Find out what happened.

A long time ago, back around 190 AD, there was a disagreement among church leaders about how to calculate the date of Easter (which in Greek and Latin is called Pascha, or Passover).

Several bishops issued a decree that all churches should celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on the Sunday after the Jews keep the Passover.

But the bishops of Asia Minor (western Turkey), refused to follow the decree.

Polycrates, a bishop of the church at Ephesus, wrote a letter to Victor, the bishop of Rome to explain why all the churches in Asia Minor celebrated a different day. He gave a long list of church leaders who had always kept a certain day, all the way back to Phillip and John, two of Jesus’s 12 Apostles.

This is what Polycrates wrote:

”All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.” (Eusebius, Church History, 5.23.6)

Polycrates said that the churches in Asia Minor all kept the date according to what is written in the Gospel, following the tradition that they received from the apostles of Jesus.

Victor insisted that all churches must celebrate on the day that Jesus rose from the grave.

Which tradition is the original one?

Which day did Jesus say to remember Him on?

Which day did Jesus rise?

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