It’s almost like every year, #Easter, #Passover, and #Ramadan convey a message:

“Hey, everything’s gonna be okay!
The stars keep shining!
This, too, shall pass…”

https://inaniludibrio.com/2025/04/13/ancient-high-holidays/

Irenaeus

Irenaeus of Lyons (circa 130-202 AD) is 1 of the most important theologians of the 2nd century. He’s often called the “Father of Catholic Theology.” He served as a crucial bridge between the era of the Apostles & the developed institutional Church of the later Roman Empire.

He was born in Smyrna (modern-day Turkey). He was a student of Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of John the Apostle. This connection to an actual eyewitness of Jesus gave Irenaeus a unique statue. In an era where secret teachings were being whispered in various sects, Irenaeus could claim a direct, public, & verifiable line of “transmission” back to the source.

Around 177 AD, he traveled to Lugdunum (Lyons, in modern-day France) to serve as a priest. Eventually, he became the bishop after his predecessor, Pothinus, was martyred.

Irenaeus’ legacy is defined by his battle against Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a diverse movement that threatened to dismantle early Christianity. Generally, Gnostics believed:

• The material world was evil, created by a lesser, bumbling deity (Demiurge).
• Salvation came through secret, esoteric knowledge (gnosis).
• Jesus didn’t have a physical body (Docetism), as matter was inherently corrupt.

Irenaeus saw this as a total rejection of the Hebrew scriptures & the reality of the Incarnation. To counter this, he wrote his 5-volume masterpiece, “Against Heresies” (Adversus Haereses). Irenaeus’ theology’s centerpiece is the concept of Recapitulation. He argued that Jesus “summed up” all of humanity in Himself.

Just as the 1st Adam failed at the Tree of Knowledge, Jesus (the “new Adam”) succeeded on the tree of the Cross. Irenaeus taught that Jesus went through every stage of mortal human life (infancy, youth, & adulthood) to “sanctify” & “undo” the corruption introduced at each stage of the Fall.

Before Irenaeus’ time, there wasn’t the New Testament as we know it today. Different groups/sects used different, & various, gospels. This is where we get the infamous banned books of the Bible. Irenaeus was the 1st major figure to argue for the Four-Fold Gospel.

He insisted that there could be no more, & no fewer, than 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John), using a poetic justification: just as there are 4 zones of the world (or 4 corners) & 4 principal winds, the Church had to have 4 “pillars” of the Gospel. By doing this, he helped stabilize the core of the Christian Bible.

To fight the Gnostic claim of secret traditions, Irenaeus proposed 2 tests of “Truth”:

• The Rule of Faith:
  • A summary of essential beliefs (a forerunner of the Apostles’ Creed) that all true churches held in common.
• Apostolic Succession:
  • Irenaeus argued that if Jesus had secret knowledge, he would’ve given it to the bishops he appointed.

Irenaeus’ most profound contribution to theology is the concept of Recapitulation (anakephalaiosis). Using the math of his day, he sought to “sum up” the entire human experience through Christ.

To counter his Gnostic opponents, Irenaeus significantly develops Paul’s presentation of Christ as the Last Adam. Irenaeus’ presentation of Christ as the New Adam is based on Paul’s Christ-Adam parallel in Romans 5:12-21.

But also dervies significantly from the Johannine presentation of Adam-Christ typology. Irenaeus uses this parallel to demonstrate that Christ truly took human flesh. Irenaeus considered it important to emphasize this point because he understands the failure to recognize Christ’s full humanity links the various strains of Gnosticism together, as seen in his statement that “according to the opinion of no one of the heretics was the Word of God made flesh.”

Irenaeus believes that unless the Word became flesh, humans weren’t fully redeemed. He explains that by becoming man, Christ restored humanity to bring in the image & likeness of God, which they’d lost in the Fall of Man.

Just as Adam was the original head of humanity through whom all sinned, Christ is the new head of humanity who fulfills Adam’s role in the Economy of Salvation. The Economy of Salvation (a.k.a. Divine Economy) is that part of divine revelation in the Roman Catholic tradition that deals with God’s creation & management of the world, particularly his plan of salvation accomplished through the Church. Irenaeus calls this process of restoring humanity: Recapitulation.

Irenaeus emphasizes the importance of Christ’s reversal of Adam’s actions. Through His obedience, Christ undoes Adam’s disobedience. Irenaeus presents the Passion as the climax of Christ’s obedience, emphasizing how this obedience on the tree of the Cross undoes the disobedience that occurred through a tree.

Irenaeus’ interpretation of Paul’s discussion of Christ as the New Adam is significant because it helped develop the recapitulation theory of atonement.

Irenaeus took part in the Quartodeciman Controversy. When Victor I of Rome tried to force a universal practice of fasting until Easter to supersede the Jewish practice & prevent Christians from partaking of the Passover, Polycrates who led the Churches of Anatolia continued to hold old traditions of the paschal feast. For this reason Victor I wanted to excommunicate Polycrates & his supporters. But this was a step too far for Irenaeus & other bishops.

Tradition holds that he was martyred around 202 AD during the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus. Thought historical records of his death are sparse compared to his writings.

In 2022, Pope Francis officially declared him a “Doctor of Unity” (Doctor Unitatis), acknowledging his role in bridging the Eastern & Western theological traditions.

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White supremacist terror plot on Passover foiled in US

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/01/30/fbi-neo-nazi-passover-terror-plot-foiled/

"Rooted in his personal experience and perspectives, this #play explores memory, identity, and ritual through #spokenword, #dance, and #music, using the metaphor of the #seder to question how we remember, tell, and live with our history.

Seder confronts inherited stories as #Jewish tradition meets contemporary artistic expression. Thought-provoking, tender, sometimes angry and poignant, it wraps personal feeling into wider global narratives and contemporary social contexts.

At the heart of Seder is the ritual of the #Passover meal. In #Jewishtradition, the seder is an act of collective memory – the retelling of the #Exodus story; in #Kammerling’s work, it becomes a space to examine fractured histories and the weight of inherited trauma."

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/why-adam-kammerlings-seder-is-a-must-see-this-february/

Classic Italian Jewish Recipe for Passover | Holiday

Buon Appetito! A great cookbook does not just give the reader narrow-focus, step-by-step instructions for how to prepare a food. A great cookbook expands its focus to sho…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Italianholidayrecipes #holidayrecipes #Italia #Italian #italianholidayrecipes #italiano #italy #louisfinkelman #Passover #passover2023 #Passoverrecipes
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2460631/classic-italian-jewish-recipe-for-passover-holiday/

Jesus the Passover Lamb was examined and declared innocent—yet punished so the guilty could go free. Exodus 12 meets Luke 23.

Blog: https://www.scottlapierre.org/jesus-the-passover-lamb-examined-declared-innocent/

Sermon: https://youtu.be/vdg-G3GEejo

#Passover #Exodus12 #Luke23 #Jesus #Gospel #HolyWeek

#Chanukah ended on Tuesday. I don't ever really celebrate it much due to it's lacking importance.
#Christmas is today, for most Christians.

The Jewish #NewYear's, which is #RoshHashanah was months ago (September 23th) & it with Yom Kippur & Sukkote (before it) are really the end of what I consider my "Holiday season", with #Passover really their beginning. I rarely celebrate the ACE calendar #NewYear's much if at all because similar to Christmas I don't see it as "my holiday" at all.

Maybe it's autistic rigidity of concepts & definitions, possibly traumas of the past, likely some of both mixed with a lack of resources to celebrate every holiday of every sizable group of people.

For those who are celebrating something today though, enjoy!

Samaritanism

Samaritanism is an Abrahamic monotheistic, ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, & legal traditions of the Samaritan people.

Often preferring to be called Israelite Samaritans, who originated from the Hebrews & Israelites. They began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the 4th, & penultimate, stage of ancient Assyrian history.

Central to their continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy Land is keeping the Patriarchal & Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah. Samaritans believe this is the original & unchanged version of the Pentateuch (which is the first 5 books of the Hebrew & Christian bible) since Moses & the Israelites at Mount Sinai.

The Abisha Scroll is traditionally held by the community to be the oldest existing scroll written by Abisha, son of Aaron the priest, around 3,000 years ago based on living tradition. However, Jewish & Christian theologians have made attempts to dispute this claim which proved unsatisfactory.

Judaism claims Samaritanism developed right alongside their own religion. Samaritanism asserts itself as the true preserved form of the monotheistic faith that the Israelites kept under Moses. Samaritan belief also holds that the Israelites’ original holy site was Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, the State of Palestine (West Bank).

They also believe that Jerusalem only attained importance under Israelite dissenters who had followed Eli (In the Book of Samuel, Eli was a priest & judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh) to the city of Shiloh.

The Israelites who remained at Mount Gerizim would become the Samaritans in the Kingdom of Judah. Mount Gerizim is revered by Samaritans as the location where the Binding of Isaac occurred. In comparison to the Jewish belief that it occurred at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Today there are only about 900 registered communal members. This puts Samaritanism as 1 of the smallest ethnoreligious groups globally in the Abrahamic faiths. Samaritans believe that this is a prophecy fulfilled from the scriptures: “You’ll be left few in number.”

Though they hope for a future time when a prophet like Moses known as the “Taheb” (Restorer) will perform 3 signs, namely the jar of manna, the staff of Moses, & Cherubim, or the Golden Candlestick.

This time period they believe is when an era of Divine Favor would return, & the hidden tabernacle of Moses would miraculously be revealed for the Israelite people & Mount Gerizim is restored to its former glory.

Samaritans trace their history, as a separate entity, to a period soon after the Israelites’ arrival into the “Promised Land.” Samaritan historiography traces the schism to High Priest Eli leaving Mount Gerizim, where stood the 1st Israelite altar in Canaan, & building a competing altar in nearby Shiloh.

The dissenting group of Israelites who followed Eli to Shiloh would be the ones who, in later years, would head south to settle in Jerusalem (the Jews). Whereas the Israelites who stayed on Mount Gerizim, in Samaria, would become known as the Samaritans.

Genetic studies in 2004 suggest that Samaritans’ lineages trace back to a common ancestor with Jews in the paternally-inherited Jewish high priesthood (Cohanim) temporally near to the period of the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel. They’re probably descendants of the historical Israelite population. The Cohanim refers to the Jewish priestly class, male descendants of Aaron the priest.

The Hasmonean king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed the Mount Gerizim Temple & brought Samaria under his control around 120 BCE. This led to a long-lasting sense of mutual hostility between the Jews & Samaritans.

From this point, the Samaritans likely sought to consciously distance themselves from their Judean brethren. Both peoples came to see the Samaritan faith as a religion distinct from Judaism. By the time of Jesus, Samaritans & Jews deeply disparaged one another, as shown by Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The main beliefs of Samaritanism are:

• There’s 1 God, Yahweh, the same God recognized by the Jewish prophets.
• The Torah is the only true holy book & was given by God to Moses. The Torah was created before the creation of the world & whoever believes in it is assured a part in the world to come. The Torah’s status in Samaritanism as the only holy book causes them to reject the Oral Torah, the Talmud, & all the prophets & scriptures, except for a version of the Book of Joshua (which they don’t hold as Scripture), whose book in the Samaritan community is significantly different from the Book of Joshua in the Jewish “Bible.” Moses is considered to be the last of the line of prophets.
• Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the 1 true sanctuary chosen by God. The Samaritans don’t recognize the sanctity of Jerusalem & don’t recognize the Temple Mount, claiming instead that Mount Gerizim was the place where the Binding of Isaac took place.
• The Apocalypse, called “the day of vengeance,” will be the end of days. When an entity called the Taheb (basically the Jewish Messiah equal) that comes from the tribe of Joseph will come, be a prophet like Moses for 40 years & bring about the return of all the Israelites, following which the dead will be resurrected. The Tahib will then discover the tent of Moses’ Tabernacle on Mount Gerizim, & will be buried next to Joseph when he dies.

The Samaritans have retained the institution of a high priesthood & the practice of slaughtering & eating lambs on Passover Eve. They celebrated Pesach, Shavuot, & Sukkot. But they use a different method from that used in mainstream Judaism in order to determine the dates annually.

For example, Yom Teru’ah (the biblical name for Rosh Hashanah), at the beginning of Tishrei (This is the 1st month of the civil year & the 7th month of the ecclesiastical year in the Hebrew calendar.), isn’t considered a New Year as it is in Rabbinic Judaism.

Their Sabbath is observed weekly by the Samaritan community every week from Friday to Saturday, beginning & ending at sundown. For 24 hours, the families gather together to celebrate the rest day: all electricity with the exception of minimal lighting (kept on the entire day) in the house is disconnected, no work is done, & neither cooking nor driving is allowed.

The time is devoted to worship which consists of 7 prayer services, reading the weekly Torah portion, spending quality time with family, taking meals, rest & sleep, & visiting other members of the community.

Passover is particularly important in the Samaritan community, climaxing with the sacrifice of up to 40 sheep.

The Counting of the Omar remains relatively unchanged. The Counting of the Omar is a ritual in Judaism that consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover & Shavuot. However, the week before Shavuot is a unique festival celebrating the continued commitment Samaritanism has maintained since the time of Moses.

During Sukkot, the Sukkah (the temporary hut built for use during Sukkot) is built INSIDE of houses, instead of OUTSIDE like mainstream Judaism. This Samaritan tradition is traced back to the persecution of the Samaritans during the Byzantine Empire.

The roof of the Samaritan Sukkah is decorated with citrus fruits & branches of palm, myrtle, & willow trees. This is in accordance with the Samaritan interpretation of the 4 species designated in the Torah for the holiday. The 4 species are 4 plants (the etrog, lulav, hadass, & aravah) mentioned in the Torah as being relevant to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

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#120BCE #4Species #Aaron #Abisha #AbishaScroll #AbrahamicFaiths #AncientAssyria #Apoclypse #Aravah #BindingOfIsaac #BookOfJoshua #BookOfSamuel #ByzantineEmpire #Canaan #Cherubim #Christians #CitrusFruits #Cohanim #CountingOfTheOmar #Eli #Etrog #GoldenCandlestick #Hadass #Hasmonean #HebrewCalendar #Hebrews #HighPriestEli #HighPriesthood #IndigenousPeoples #IronAge #IsraeliteSamaritans #Israelites #Jerusalem #Jesus #Jewish #JewishProphets #Jews #Joseph #Judah #KingJohnHyrcanus #KingdomOfIsrael #Lulav #Manna #Messiah #MosaicCovenant #Moses #MountGerizim #MountSinai #Myrtle #Nablus #NeoAssyrianEmpire #OralTorah #Palestine #ParableOfTheGoodSamaritan #Passover #PatriarchalCovenant #Pentateuch #Priest #PromisedLand #RabbinicJudaism #RoshHashanah #Sabbath #SamaritanTorah #Samaritanism #Shavuot #Shiloh #StaffOfMoses #Sukkah #Sukkot #Tabernacle #Taheb #Talmud #TempleMount #Tishrei #Torah #WestBank #Willow #Yahweh #YomTeruAh