The Quartodeciman Question: Johannine Roots of a Christian Controversy

Abstract

In the ante-Nicene era the Quartodecimans (the “fourteeners”) preserved a tradition that was said to go back to “John.” They commemorated 14 Nisan rather than Easter Sunday, the day that the larger Christian community commemorated as the day of the resurrection. For more than a century now, scholars have addressed the ‘Quartodeciman question,’ defined in various ways but essentially, “What did their observance of 14 Nisan mean? What did it commemorate?” This brief paper offers additional support to arguments posited by others that, as theological descendants of Johannine thought, the Quartodecimans preserved a tradition which commemorated Jesus’ death as the paschal lamb, which was simultaneously a glorification, the exaltation of the Christ.