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Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:11 pm
by Secret Alias
There are a lot of speculative ideas about the reference to the 'day of preparation.' But Clement clearly makes reference to it as a name for Friday:
He knows also the enigmas of the fasting of those days — I mean the Fourth and the Preparation (τῆς τετράδος καὶ τῆς παρασκευῆς). For the one has its name from Hermes, and the other from Aphrodite. (Stromata 7.12.75).
The Greeks called Friday "Hemera Aphrodites" (Day of Aphrodite). This is the best proof that the editor of the four gospels deliberately left Matthew out of this habit (because he assumed the ur-text went back to a Hebrew original).

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Thu Feb 20, 2020 1:10 pm
by Ben C. Smith
Secret Alias wrote: Thu Feb 20, 2020 12:11 pm There are a lot of speculative ideas about the reference to the 'day of preparation.' But Clement clearly makes reference to it as a name for Friday:
He knows also the enigmas of the fasting of those days — I mean the Fourth and the Preparation. For the one has its name from Hermes, and the other from Aphrodite. (Stromata 7).
The Greeks called Friday "Hemera Aphrodites" (Day of Aphrodite). This is the best proof that the editor of the four gospels deliberately left Matthew out of this habit (because he assumed the ur-text went back to a Hebrew original).
Possibly relevant: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2078&start=20#p46500.

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:20 am
by Secret Alias
Thank you. Very useful thoughts there. What I am wondering though is Clement's assumption that his readership would readily know - or perhaps better, that among a certain culture or community it was well known - to refer to Friday by this name. It's a reference to Fridays as such being a preparation not merely to the Friday before Passover. I am surprised to see that in modern Greek 'Fridays' as such have this name - https://books.google.com/books?id=rj0Uv ... ay&f=false. Or again:
The irrational fear of the number 13 has been given a scientific name: "triskaidekaphobia"; and on analogy to this the fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia, from the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th
But this:
In Greek, the word for Friday is Paraskevi, meaning “to prepare”. Like Saturday (Sabbato, Sabbath) and Sunday (Kyriaki, Day of The Lord) Friday has a religious significance, a day of preparation for the Sabbath, inherited by the Greek Orthodox culture from Jewish practices.
There is no significance for Friday in Judaism. I wonder if there is a Pythagorean context here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=TbHmB ... as&f=false

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:34 am
by Secret Alias
Some claim it goes back to a goddess named Paraskevi - https://books.google.com/books?id=abHEn ... in&f=false

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:53 am
by Secret Alias
Four persons bearing this name figure in the annals of Eastern hagiography : the sister of the Samaritan woman (who had no developed cult); Paraskevi the Roman, who would have been martyred under Antoninus Pius (137-161), and whose Passion dates back at least to John of Euboea (eighth century), but exists in various versions; Paraskevi of Iconium, also reputed to have been martyred but under Diocletian (284- 305), who appears for the first time in the sixteenth-century Menologium of Macarius of Moscow, but based on earlier Slav (not Greek) texts; Paraskevi of Epibati «the Younger* (Petka with variant Slav orthographies), who would have lived as late as the tenth century and whose relics were translated to Tirnovo https://www.persee.fr/doc/rebyz_0766-55 ... 367_0000_1

The author assumes that Paraskevi the Roman and Paraskevi of Iconium are one and the same person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_s ... _Paraskevi

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:58 am
by Secret Alias
παρασκευάζω =

Acts 10:10 And he became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing (paraskeuazontōn | παρασκευαζόντων | pres act ptcp gen pl masc) it, he fell into a trance,
1 Corinthians 14:8 Again, if the bugle gives an uncertain call, who will get ready (paraskeuasetai | παρασκευάσεται | fut mid ind 3 sg) for battle?
2 Corinthians 9:2 for I know your readiness to help, about which I keep boasting to the Macedonians, saying that Achaia has been ready (pareskeuastai | παρεσκεύασται | perf mid ind 3 sg) since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.
2 Corinthians 9:3 But I am sending these brothers so that what we say in praise of you may not be an empty boast in this instance, that you may be ready (pareskeuasmenoi | παρεσκευασμένοι | perf mid ptcp nom pl masc) just as I said you would be.

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:12 am
by Secret Alias
ἀποκηρύκτους εἶναι τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγγράφους τοὺς φοιτητὰς παρασκευάζοντες
They make themselves excluded from the kingdom of God instead of enrolled disciples [3.18.109.3]

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:25 am
by Secret Alias
Clement of Alexandria seems to be referring to an Alexandrian custom regarding Wednesdays and Fridays - https://books.google.com/books?id=U3cRA ... nt&f=false there was "an ancient custom (or a custom from the beginning of our religion there) to meet on the fourth and sixth days of the week, for to hear the Scriptures read and expounded by the Doctors; and to do all other things belonging to an assembly , excepting the celebration of the Eucharist , ( which it seems was omitted there , though not in other places on those days as unsuitable to fast."

The Didache toldus that Christians areto fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. But Clement wants the Christian gnostic to understand the reason for this. The gnostic:
understands too the hidden meanings of the fasting of these days, I mean of Wednesday and Friday: 46 for the one is dedicated to Hermes, the other to Aphrodite. At any rate he makes his life a fast both from love of money and love of pleasure, which are the springs of all the vices; for I have often ere now pointed out 47 that, according to the apostle, the generic varieties of fornication are three, viz., love of pleasure, love of
money and idolatry.

Accordingly he fasts both from evil deeds according to the law and from wicked thoughts according to the perfection of the gospel. He is also subjected to trials, not for his own purification, but, as we said, 48 for the benefit of his neighbours, if, after experience of labours and troubles, he is seen to despise and disregard them. The same is to be said about pleasure: the great thing is to abstain from pleasure after having had experience of it. For what credit is it to practise self-control, where pleasure is unknown? The gnostic carries out the evangelical command and makes that the Lord's day on which he putsaway an evil thought and assumes one suited for the gnostic, doing honour to the Lord's resurrection in himself. Moreover when he gets hold of a scientific principle, he believes that he sees the Lord, while he directs his eyes to the unseen; and if he fancies that he sees what he is unwilling to see, he chides the faculty of vision whenever he is conscious of a feeling of pleasure at the visual impression; since he desires to see and hear nothing but what beseems him. For instance, while contemplating the souls of his brethren, he sees also the beauty of the flesh with the soul itself, which has been trained to look on beauty alone apart from fleshly pleasure.

77. And brethren indeed they are according to the elect creation and the similarity of disposition and the character of their actions, where thought and word and deed manifest that same holiness and beauty which the Lord willed them, as elect, to have in mind. For faith is shown in the choice of the same things, and knowledge in having learnt the same and keeping them in mind, and hope in desiring the same. And if, owing to the necessities of life, some slight portion of his care is occupied about food, he thinks he is defrauded by such distraction. Thus he never sees even a dream which is unsuited to an elect soul. For verily a stranger and pilgrim 49 all his life through is every one who, dwelling in a city, despises the things that others admire in it, and lives in it as though it were in a desert, that he may not be constrained by locality, but that his own free will
may show him to be just. To sum up, such a gnostic fills the vacant place of the apostles by his upright life, his exact judgment, his assistance of the deserving, by removing mountains from the hearts of his neighbours and casting down the inequalities of their souls; though indeed each one of us is his own vineyard and his own labourer. He however, even in his best actions, desires to escape the eyes of men, as long as he persuades the Lord and himself that he lives according to the commandments, preferring those things on which he believes that his life depends. "For where a man's heart is," says one, "there is his treasure also." 51 Through the perfection of his love he impoverishes himself that he may never overlook a brother in affliction, especially if he knows that he could himself bear want better than his brother.
The Marcionites are reported to fast on the Sabbath. The origin of the 'day of preparation' isn't likely to be Jewish as Jews fasted on Mondays and Thursdays as the Didache notes. So what to make of all this? It would seem to me to suggest that the use of the terminology in the gospel is connected with the establishment of a Christian liturgy. The reader knows that Friday is a 'day of preparation' presumably for the Lord's day. But the author can't have written this reference if he didn't know of this ritual connection.

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 1:34 am
by andrewcriddle
See Josephus Antiquities Book XV! chapter 6 section 2
ἔδοξέ μοι καὶ τῷ ἐμῷ συμβουλίῳ μετὰ ὁρκωμοσίας γνώμῃ δήμου Ῥωμαίων τοὺς Ἰουδαίους χρῆσθαι τοῖς ἰδίοις θεσμοῖς κατὰ τὸν πάτριον αὐτῶν νόμον, καθὼς ἐχρῶντο ἐπὶ Ὑρκανοῦ ἀρχιερέως θεοῦ ὑψίστου, τά τε ἱερὰ * εἶναι ἐν ἀσυλίᾳ καὶ ἀναπέμπεσθαι εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα καὶ ἀποδίδοσθαι τοῖς ἀποδοχεῦσιν Ἱεροσολύμων, ἐγγύας τε μὴ ὁμολογεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐν σάββασιν ἢ τῇ πρὸ αὐτῆς παρασκευῇ ἀπὸ ὥρας ἐνάτης. ’

it seemed good to me and my counselors, according to the sentence and oath of the people of Rome, that the Jews have liberty to make use of their own customs, according to the law of their forefathers, as they made use of them under Hyrcanus the high priest of the Almighty God; and that their sacred money be not touched, but be sent to Jerusalem, and that it be committed to the care of the receivers at Jerusalem; and that they be not obliged to go before any judge on the sabbath day, nor on the day of the preparation to it, after the ninth hour.
Andrew Criddle

Re: Solving the Mystery of the Day of Preparation (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31)

Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 6:30 am
by Secret Alias
But when was Antiquities written? And where is the evidence Jews has a day of preparation outside of books of questionable origin?