I Think I Finally Figured Out Why the Marcosian Baptism Ritual Was Called 'Redemption'

If the readers have been following my posts they will know that I have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the original Apostle and his original followers - i.e. 'those of Mark' (Aramaic 'Marcionites' Greek 'Marcosians) not only maintained a Christian version of the Festival of Unleavened Bread but secured ritual baptism on the seventh day of that festival. This was rooted in the Apostle's statement in the Letter to the Corinthians (Marcionite 'letter to the Alexandrians') connecting Christian ritual water immersion to the final day of the celebration of the 'redemption' of the people of Israel. That this last day was identified as a 'redemption' is clear from the Song of Moses:

Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand--the earth swallowed them. Thou in Thy love hast led the people that Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation. [Exodus 15.13]

The LXX reads:

Thou hast guided in thy righteousness this thy people whom thou hast redeemed [ελυτρωσω] by thy strength, thou hast called them into thy holy resting-place.

There can be no doubt that this is the actual reason why the Marcosians called their baptism a redemption - i.e. it was done on the day of redemption, the seventh and last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

ALL Jewish traditions emphasize the seventh day of Passover (the Jews and the Samaritans call the same day - 21 Nisan - by different names) as a day of redemption. I am only ever interested in the Sephardim so we read in Dobrinsky that among the Syrian Jews there are series of prayers and songs (all what you'd expect) as well as a special piyyut Yom Leyabasha, the song of Moses is chanted in the Shaharit service and he notes "the theme of the entire limud of the seventh night of Passover is redemption and faith." [p. 259]

The Moroccan and Turkish Jews have much the same thing but interestingly have a festival called Mimouna which has been argued to come from "emunah", which means "faith" in Hebrew, faith in the sense that redemption for the Jewish people will come in the month of Nisan, as it came to pass in the month of Nisan during the exodus from Egypt.

Dobrinsky notes that "on Maimuna day, Jews make it a point to draw water from all kinds of wells and to pour water on their feet and also on the threshold of their homes. The connection with water is either the Keriat Yam Suf (the Splitting of the Red Sea)or the washing away of the danger of lethargy, which was believed to take root at that season of the year ... the custom of going to the seashore to relax or to a spring or brook where there is water directly relates to the fact that the last day of Pesach (the seventh day in Israel) was the actual day of the Splitting of the Red Sea. There was also a tradition to take the bones (which were saved from the night of the Seder) and throw them into the water on the day of Maimuna." [p. 267]

And the connection with 'redemption' is recognized throughout the festival as Dobrinsky notes again deriving its association with emuna (faith):

Some in fact refer to the celebration as Emuna instead of Maimuna. The derivation of the concept is from the teaching that Benisan nigalu ubienisan atidim lehigael ('In the month of Nisan the Jews were redeemed, and in the month of Nisan they will be redeemed again').

Thus since Nisan is almost over after Pesah has concluded and the promised redemption has not yet happened, this holiday is designed to assure the Almighty that the people have not lost faith, but that they do, indeed, have the abiding emuna that the redemption will be forthcoming in the month of Nisan in the future. This faith is expressed in the joyous outlook which the holiday portrays in its many forms of celebration." [pp 268 - 269]

I haven't work all of this out in my head yet but given that I have already established in my own mind at least that I know the day Jesus was arrested and crucified (15 Nisan), buried (16 Nisan) and it seems pretty straight forward that Christians WERE NOT originally baptized on the third day. They waited until the end of the Festival of Unleavened Bread (21 Nisan).

Yet it is not as simple as that because there is a very ancient tradition going back as far as anyone can remember that those outside of Israel added an eighth day to their celebration. Is this the origin of the dispute over the 'Sunday'? I think so and it reconciles almost everything in the calendar.

Notice Irenaeus' treatise 'the Ogdoad' written during the height of the disputes (and reconciliation with the Quartodecimianists) as Charles Hill notes. A look at the language of the Marcosians (a group which included Clement) notes that there are references everywhere to Jesus who is six descends "being the glorious Ogdoad" (Irenaeus,. Adv. Haer. I.I4.6-7).

I can't help but think that you had the Romans who argued that the 'ogdoad' HAD TO BE the Sunday of the Roman calendar, while the older traditions identified 'the ogdoad' as the extra day added on the week BECAUSE THE LITURGY OF CHRISTIANITY WAS ESTABLISHED IN ALEXANDRIA NOT IN JERUSALEM.

This would not only reconcile (and clarify) the dispute between the so-called 'Quartodecimianists' (who must have simply venerated the 'ogdoad' relative to the fourteenth of Nisan regardless of whether it was a Sunday or not. It also explains why the Gospel of Peter identifies the resurrection on a Sunday the 21 of Nisan (as many scholars have noted this is already a development away from the original system; a reconciliation - notice the emphasis on it being on the Sunday).

It also FINALLY resolves why the Marcosians were so interested in the number 30 in association with the redemption.

You see I am absolutely certain that the only year that the Passion could have occurred is 37 CE. I spend a great deal of time in my Real Messiah proving that and it is based on Jack Finegan's tables of when Passover occurred and takes into account all the evidence of the Church Fathers and especially the Alexandrian tradition.

Given this evidence it is beyond a shadow of a doubt in my mind that 15 Nisan was 23 Martius (March) that year, 16 Nisan was 24 Martius and 22 Nisan the day that ended the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Alexandria (and the rest of the Diaspora) was 30 Martius.

Not only can we now incorporate Talley's report that Macarius of Memphis that Friday was the original day of baptism for the tradition of St. Mark BUT THE DAY JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED (THE SIXTH DAY) IS NOW AT ONCE THE DAY OF THE BAPTISM OF THE CATECHUMEN AND IT WAS ALSO AN OGDOAD (I.E. AN 'EIGHTH DAY).

The genius of this system is that it easy to see how the controversy over the dating of Easter was resolved in stages - i.e. first by the 'third day' resurrection i.e. Sunday 25 Martius (17 Nisan) and then by Victor's compromise that Easter would fall wherever Sunday landed on the period during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

By the way - the month of 'Martius' goes back to the god of war Mars which also happens to be the root of the name of the Evangelist himself i.e. 'Marcus' ...