The liturgical year is a relatively modern invention. The term itself only came into use in the late sixteenth century. In antiquity, Christians did not view the various festivals and fasts that they experienced as a unified whole. Instead, the different seasons formed a number of completely unrelated cycles and tended to overlap and conflict with one another. In early Christianity, the fundamental cycle was that of the seven-day week. Taken over from Judaism by the first Christians, this was centered on Sunday rather than the sabbath. As the early Church established its identity, the days of the week set aside for fasting came to be different from those customary among the Jews. There also existed an annual cycle related to Easter. Drawing upon the latest research, the authors track the development of the Church's feasts, fasts, and seasons, including the sabbath and Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, Christmas and Epiphany, and the feasts of the Virgin Mary, the martyrs, and other saints.

The liturgical year is a relatively modern invention. The term itself only came into use in the late sixteenth century. In antiquity, Christians did not view the various festivals and fasts that they experienced as a unified whole. Instead, the different seasons formed a number of completely unrelated cycles and tended to overlap and conflict with one another. Drawing upon the latest research, the authors track the development of the Church's feasts, fasts and seasons, including the Sabbath and Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, Christmas and Epiphany, and the feasts of the Virgin Mary, the martyrs and other saints.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Packed with dozens of charts, maps, and timelines, over 150 illustrations and photographs, and easy-to-understand summaries, this full-color, reproducible book on the feasts and celebrations of the Bible will help you understand key information at a glance! Passover. Yom Kippur. Feast of Tabernacles. Rosh Hashanah. With all the ceremonies, festivals, and observances in the Bible, it’s hard to keep track of them all and remember why they’re important to our faith! But what if you could distill all this key information across dozens of chapters of the Bible into one solid, easy-to-read handbook with images, charts, and diagrams? It’s never been easier to get an expert look at the traditions, fasts, and feasts of the Bible: with this guide, 5 leading authorities on biblical celebrations and disciplines will help condense their research and historical knowledge into key takeaways that you can learn quickly and easily: Solid overviews of the feasts, celebrations, and rituals kept in ancient Israel and the Old Testament Historical background of the feasts and holy days in the centuries leading up to the New Testament Summary of modern-day traditions kept by Jews today Key takeaways of how messianic communities observe biblical feasts and holidays today Presentation of how non-messianic Christian congregations have adopted the feasts into liturgies, theologies, etc. God commanded Moses and the children of Israel to observe feasts and holy days as memorials to the great things that he had done in their lives. With expert research, clearly understand how these times of celebration are important to help us better see God’s complete picture and plan of redemption.

Why is Christmas the way it is? How did we get from the birth of Jesus to everyone pushing their credit card and their belts to their maximum extent? Starting with the events surrounding Jesus' birth, this book takes us through centuries of commemoration, celebration and over-consumption. Along the way we'll find out why we eat turkey, how an obscure Turkish saint turned into a man flying a sleigh, and why that tree in your house should really contain an apple and a snake. Combining in-depth historical research, cheerfully irreverent humour and cutting-edge guesswork, Nick Page explores what this festival really means, and how we can get back to something real and true beneath all that wrapping.

Passover and Easter constitute for Jews and Christians respectively two of the most important religious festivals of the year. This volume concentrates on the contexts in which they occur - the periods of preparation for the feasts and their connection to Shavuot and Pentecost.

"A Pueblo book."Includes index. Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: Historical and typological background -- Ministry in the earliest Christian communities -- Ministry and ordination in the third and fourth centuries -- Early ordination rites -- Ordination rites in the churches of the East -- Ordination rites in the medieval West -- The theology of ordination in the Middle Ages -- Orders and ministry in the churches of the Reformation -- The Roman Catholic Church from the Council of Trent to the present -- Other modern ordination rites.