(excerpt from "The Works Of The Apostles" by Rivqah Coover, pages 25-29)
Acts 12:3-4 – ".... Then were the days of Unleavened Bread. 4. And when [Herod] had apprehended [Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quarternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."
Written that way, these verses are the fulness of mixed worship. We don’t need to go very deep to find out that this translation is utterly wrong. The word translated "Easter" is actually Greek Word # 3957 – "pascha; the Passover (the meal, the day, the festival, or the special sacrifices connected with it)" This has NOTHING to do with Easter, but is all in support of the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread, thus more correctly reading
Acts 12:3-4 – "..... Then were the days of Unleavened Bread. 4. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quarternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Passover to bring him forth to the people."
Doesn’t that make a lot more sense that way?
We know that even after Yahshua’s death and resurrection, the Jews were still keeping the Festivals, even as they do today. What about Messianic believers though?
Acts 18:21 – "But [Paul] bade them farewell, saying, ‘I must by all means keep this Feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if Elohim will.’ "
Acts 20:16 – "For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost."
1 Corinthians 16:8 – "But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost."
Acts 20:6 – "And we sailed away from Philippi, after the days of Unleavened Bread......." 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 – "Your boasting is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7. Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye may be a renewed lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Messiah our Passover is slain for us. 8. Therefore, let us keep the Feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened of sincerity and truth."
These statements about the Festivals may have been written by Jewish believers, but Scripture makes clear to us that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles.
Galatians 3:28-29 – "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Messiah Yahshua. And if ye be Messiah’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise."
Paul went on to say:
Philippians 4:9 – "Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the Elohim of peace shall be with you."
Furthermore, Scripture says:
Zechariah 14:16-19 – "And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17. And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague, wherewith Yahweh will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." The fact that these verses come from the "Old Testament" is irrelevant. They speak of the end times. If those in the TaNaK were expected to keep the Festivals and those in the end times are expected to keep the Festivals, why should there be a little gap in the middle where no one has to do them? Furthermore, why wouldn’t we WANT to do them?
Now we will take a look at the book of Galatians.
Galatians 4:8-10 – "Howbeit, then when ye knew not Elohim, ye did service unto them which by nature are no Elohim. 9. But now, after that ye have known Elohim, or rather are known of Elohim, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10. Ye observe days and months and times and years."
Verse ten suffers much at the hands of men. To take out all of the curves and twists that have been wrought in it, I would like to make a few points.
1. The Galatians were not Jews. They would not have been observing the Torah Festivals back "when [they] knew not Elohim". Thus, they could not be turning (or backsliding) to keeping the Festivals.
2. If Paul is calling the Festivals of Yahweh "weak and beggarly elements", he seems to be not agreeing with himself, for at another place he emphatically declares
Romans 7:12 – "Wherefore, the Torah is set-apart, and the commandment set-apart and just and good!"
Also, Paul himself kept the Festivals, and instructed others to do likewise, as we saw previously.
3. Observing "days and months and times and years" refers to pagan practices, not the Festivals commanded in Torah.
2 Kings 21:5-6 – "And [Manasseh] built altars for all the host of heaven, in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. 6. And he made his son to pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits, and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke Him to anger."
THESE are weak and beggarly elements. THIS is doing service to them which are by nature no elohim. THIS kind of religion puts those who practice it in bondage. On the contrary, the Festivals of Yahweh are a joy and a delight to those who wholeheartedly partake of them.
Deuteronomy 16:13-15 – "Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine. 14. And thou shalt rejoice in thy Feast, thou and thy son and thy daughter, and thy man servant and thy maid servant, and the Levite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow that are within thy gates. 15. Seven days shalt thou keep a Feast of dancing (See Hebrew Word # 2287) unto Yahweh thy Elohim, in the place which Yahweh shall choose: because Yahweh thy Elohim shall bless thee in all thy increase, and in all the works of thine hands: therefore, thou shalt surely rejoice."
The entire book, "The Works Of The Apostles", is available online at Real Messiah Press & Teaching Ministry.