Subject: Re: Lent & Ash Wednesday
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 01:44:31 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com wrote:
>
> From Joan Sammons
> To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
> Subject: Lent & Ash Wed.
>
> I would like information on history of Lent & Ash Wed.
>
> Thank you..
>
> Joan
>
> ******************************************************************
>
> >From Stan & Cynthia Greene
> To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
> Subject: What about "Lent"?
>
> Dear Eddie:
>
> The mainstream "Christian" church is about to enter the season of
> "Lent". I would appreciate some insight into the origin of this
> practice.
>
> Your information is always great!
>
> Cynthia Greene
>
> ********************************************************************
From: Jeff Neckonoff
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Re: Lent & Ash Wednesday
>
> The mainstream "Christian" church is about to enter the season of
> "Lent". I would appreciate some insight into the origin of this
>practice.
>
As my Catholic wife is going to the local Catholic church to get ashes
on her forehead tonight, I also would like some history of this
practice.
Thanks!
In Yeshua,
Jeff Neckonoff
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From: Ken Blue
To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: Re: Lent & Ash Wednesday
The 40 Days of Weeping for Tammuz. (Lent)
Search the scriptures diligently, from Old Testament to New, and
you will find no mention of Jews or Christians observing an annual
period of 40 days of fasting and abstinence preceding the festival of
the Passover, yet today most of the Christian world observes a 40 day
period called Lent, which precedes the festival of Easter Sunday. A
period of 40 days is rather common in scripture, however:
#1) It rained 40 days and nights: (Gen 7:4, 12)
#2) Forty days after sighting the tops of the mountains, Noah
set forth a raven and a dove: (Gen 8:6-7)
#3) Joseph mourned the death of his father Jacob for a period
of 40 days: (Gen 49:33 - Gen 50:3)
#4) Moses on Sinai for 40 days: (Exo 24:18, 34:28, Deu 9:9-11)
#5) Moses pleads for Israel 40 days on Sinai: (Deu 9:18-25, 10:10)
#6) Canaan spied on for 40 days: (Num 13:25, 14:34)
#7) Goliath taunted Israel for 40 days: (1 Sam 17:16)
#8) Elijah fasted and journeyed to Horeb for 40 days: (1 Kings 19:8)
#9) Ezekiel bore the iniquity of Judah for 40 days: (Eze 4:6)
#10) Jonah warned Nineveh of judgment in 40 days: (Jonah 3:4)
#11) Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days: (Matt 4:2,
Mark 1:13, Luke 4:2)
#12) Jesus was seen for 40 days after His crucifixion: (Acts 1:3)
So, if the Bible does not enjoin the Jew or the Christian
to observe the 40 day period called Lent, then what is its
origin? Can the answer be found in the Catholic Church?
540 ... "For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with
our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tested as we
are, yet without sinning" [Heb 4:15]. By the solemn forty days of Lent the
Church unites herself each year to the mystery of Jesus in the desert.
Source: The Catechism of the Catholic Church, copyright 1994 by the
United States Catholic Conference, Inc., published by Liquori
Publications.
Lent is the 40-day period (Sundays excluded) prior to Easter, which the
church observes as a penitential season. It begins on Ash Wednesday
(which can occur any time between February 4 and March 11,
depending upon the date of Easter), and it concludes with the
passiontide, the two-week period during which the church's liturgy
follows Christ's activity closely through the final stages of his life
on earth. These two weeks are called Passion Week and Holy Week. It
was once claimed that the Lenten practice was of apostolic origin, but
historians fix its establishment at a later date, probably the 5th
century. Catholics are required to fast and are urged to adopt other
penitential modes during the season.
The Catholic Fact Book, copyright 1986 by John Deedy, published by
Thomas More Press, page 360.
Lent is the period of six and one half weeks from Ash Wednesday
to Easter Sunday. During Lent, for 40 days, excluding Sundays, fasting
is recommended for all Catholics according to the laws of fast. This is
reminiscent of the 40 days of our Lord's unbroken fast (Mt. 4:3-4). The
entire period of Lent is also a time of spiritual preparation for the
passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. It is observed as a time of
penitence other than fasting, and as a time of prayer. The Liturgy of
the Church reflects the significance of this period of spiritual
preparation: each day has a special Mass assigned to it; those Masses
date back to the seventh and eighth centuries; there are no feasts
observed on Sundays; purple vestments are the daily color...
It [Ash Wednesday] was established as the first day of Lent by [Pope]
St. Gregory the Great (590 to 604).
Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, revised and updated, edited by Robert
Broderick, copyright 1987, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers
The reasons for celebrating our major feasts when we do are
many and varied. In general, however, it is true that many of them have
at least an indirect connection with the pre-Christian [pagan] feasts
celebrated about the same time of year - feasts centering around the
harvest, the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice (now Dec. 21, but
Dec. 25 in the old Julian calendar), the renewal of nature in spring,
and so on.
Source: The New Question Box - Catholic Life for the Nineties,
copyright 1988 by John J. Dietzen, M.A., S.T.L., ISBN 0-940518-01-5
(paperback), published by Guildhall Publishers, Peoria Illinois, 61651.,
page 554.
The observance of Lent dates back to the Apostles.
MYTH ... In the fifth century, some Fathers claimed that Lent
was of apostolic institution, but the claim is doubtful. From the
earliest Christian times everyone agreed that a penitential season
should preceed the solemnities of Easter, but for at least three
centuries there was no agreement over how long that should be. Saint
Irenaeus, writing around the year 190, clued to the diversity of
opinion, saying: "some think they ought to fast for one day, others for
two days, and others even for several, while other reckon forty hours
both of day and night to their fast." Apparently he knew nothing about
any Lent or pre-Easter fast of forty days, else he would have mentioned
it.
In the fourth century Saint Athanasius enjoined the people of
Alexandria to observe a forty day period of fasting prior to Easter,
indicating that this was the mode now practiced throughout Christendom."
... [W]hile all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not
become a laughing stock as the only people who do not fast but take
pleasure in those days." Athanasius wrote. The year was 339, and
Athanasius was recently back from a trip to Europe, including Rome.
Some sources allege that the forty-day Lent was not known in
the West until the time of Saint Ambrose (c339-397). The date of
Athanasius'letter would seem to negate that theory.
So, no, our Lent does not date from the time of the Apostles.
But apparently it was observed before the year 339. That's early enough.
Source: Facts, Myths & Maybes (Everything You Think You Know About
Catholicism But Perhaps Don't), by John Deedy, copyright 1993,
published by Thomas More Press, page 235.
All About Lent by James Aiken
So according to Catholics, Lent is derived from the 40 days Jesus
spent fasting in the wilderness, but it is admitted that the observance
of Lent was unknown to the disciples and it did not find its way into
the church until several centuries after the time of Christ. It should
be noted that the 40 days of fasting in the wilderness preceeded
the earthly ministry of Jesus, which lasted some three and a half years,
and was not connected in any way to His crucifixion or the Passover.
Now from non-Catholic sources, a little more information:
"It ought to be known," said Cassianus, the monk of arseilles,
writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive Church with
the Church in his day, "that the observance of the forty days had no
existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained
inviolate."
Source: Gieseler, vol. ii. p. 42, Note. Cited in The Two Babylons
by Alexander Hislop, page 104.
Many Christians had already reserved a period prior to Easter
for fasting, confession, and schooling candidates for baptism on Easter
Eve. But the time frame was never fixed, rules never formalized.
Different groups of Christians followed different customs--some fasted
for several days, others several weeks. Some observed a total fast for
exactly forty days (minus the Lord's day, Sunday), a feast called
Quadragesima, which would evolve into Lent.
Thus, by mid-fourth century, the duration of Lent--the word
itself means "lengthening spring days," from the Indo-European
langat-tin, "long"+ "day" -- became more or less fixed at forty days,
less Sundays; the time frame did not become official, though, until the
eighth century.
In the Western Church today, Lent begins six and a half weeks
before Easter, providing forty fast days when Sundays are excluded. In
the Eastern Church, however, Lent begins eight weeks before Easter,
since fasting is excluded on Saturdays and Sundays. Today, too, a fast
can be as slight an inconvenience as abstaining from chocolate or ice
cream for the duration. A token fast.
Source: Sacred Origins of Profound Things, by Charles Panati,
copyright 1996, published by the Penguin Group, page 206.
Whence, then, came this observance? The forty days abstinence
of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian
goddess [Astarte / Ishtar]. Such a Lent of forty days, "in the spring of
the year," is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers
of Koordistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the
Babylonians.
Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan
Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of
Mexican observances: "Three days after the vernal equinox .... began a
solemn fast of forty days in the honour of the sun."
Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be
seen on consulting Wilkinson's Egyptians.
Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensible
preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death
and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate
weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably
later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and
Assyria in June, therefore called the "month of Tammuz;" in Egypt, about
the middle of May, and in Britain, some time in April. To conciliate the
Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took
measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by
a complicated but skillful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no
difficult matter, in general, to get Paganism and Christianity--now far
sunk in idolatry--in this as in so many other things, to shake hands.
Originally, even in Rome, Lent, with the preceding revelries
of the Carnival, was entirely unknown; and even when fasting before the
Christian Pasch was held to be necessary, it was by slow steps that, in
this respect, it came to conform with the ritual of Paganism. What may
have been the period of fasting in the Roman Church before the sitting
of the Nicene Council does not very clearly appear, but for a
considerable period after that Council, we have distinct evidence that
it did not exceed three weeks. The words of Socrates, writing on this
very subject, about A.D. 450, are these: "Those who inhabit the
princely city of Rome fast together before Easter three weeks,
excepting the Saturday and Lord's day." But at last, when the worship
of Astarte was rising into the ascendant, steps were taken to get the
whole Chaldean Lent of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on
all within the Roman empire of the West. The way was prepared for this
by a Council held at Aurelia in the time of Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome
[514-523], about the year 519, which decreed that Lent should be
solemnly kept before Easter. It was with the view, no doubt, of carrying
out this decree that the calendar was, a few days after, readjusted by
Dionysius.
Source: The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, second American
edition, 1959, published in America by Loizeaux Brothers, pages 106,
107.
Legend has it that Tammuz was killed by a wild boar when he
was forty years old. Hislop points out that forty days--a day for each
year Tammuz had lived on earth--were set aside to "weep for Tammuz." In
olden times these forty days were observed with weeping, fasting, and
self chastisement--to gain anew his favor--so he would come forth from
the underworld and cause spring to begin. This observance was known
not only at Babylon, but also among the Phoenicians, Egyptians,
Mexicans, and, for a time, even among the Israelites.
Source: Babylon Mystery Religion, by Ralph Edward Woodrow,
Copyright 1966, 1992 printing, page 139.
So the 40 days of Lent is connected with the Babylonian goddess
Ashtoreth / Astarte / Ishtar (the origin of the word Easter), and the
worship of Tammuz. Unlike Lent, both of these can be found in scripture:
Ezek 8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the
LORD'S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women
weeping for Tammuz. Ezek 8:15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this,
O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater
abominations than these.
Ezek 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S
house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the
porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs
toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they
worshipped the sun toward the east.
2 Ki 23:5 And he [King Josiah] put down the idolatrous
priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the
high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about
Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to
the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
2 Ki 23:11 And he [King Josiah] took away the horses that the
kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of
the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in
the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
2 Ki 23:12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper
chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which
Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the
king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of
them into the brook Kidron.
2 Ki 23:13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem,
which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon
the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the
Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for
Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
Baal, Tammuz, Ashtoreth, Astarte and Ishtar are all connected with
pagan sun worship. Note that Lent is a moveable observance, connected to
and preceding the festival of Easter. Easter is celebrated on a day
specified only by the Roman Catholic Church, and not the Bible, and is
fixed based on the sun and the Spring or Vernal equinox.
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