What Really Happened at ''Easter''?

KOINONIA HOUSE ^ | March 2007 | Chuck Missler Ph.D.

[Uri’el-2012]

What Really Happened at ''Easter''?

Most reasonably informed Christians are well aware that many of the traditions
that surround the Christmas holidays have pagan origins and very little correlation
with the actual events as recorded in the Bible. However, most of us are surprised
when we discover that some of what we have been taught about “Easter”
is not only in error, but deliberately so!

Many, of course, are aware that the name “Easter” actually originates with the
pagan worship of Ishtar (or Astarte) that was traditionally observed at the time
of the vernal equinox, nominally about March 21 or 22. Traditional pagan fertility
symbols of both rabbits and eggs continue to be associated with this holiday.

However, the name as commonly used is also currently associated with the events
surrounding the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which actually
occurred on the Jewish Passover and is clearly defined in the Scriptures as the 14th of Nisan.

Read more here

[Knitting A Conundrum]

And it's been a memorial of Christ's resurrection first and foremost among Christians since anybody thought to write about it.

We can tell it is early from the controversies that arose over which day to celebrate it: Always on a Sunday, or on a fixed day of the Roman Calender, or on the 14th of Nissan, whenever that would fall. A summary of the early controversies:

The first was mainly concerned with the lawfulness of celebrating Easter on a weekday. We read in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., V, xxiii): "A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch [epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes], contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour. Synods and assemblies of bishops were held on this account, and all with one consent through mutual correspondence drew up an ecclesiastical decree that the mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord should be celebrated on no other day but the Sunday and that we should observe the close of the paschal fast on that day only." These words of the Father of Church History, followed by some extracts which he makes from the controversial letters of the time, tell us almost all that we know concerning the paschal controversy in its first stage. A letter of St. Irenæus is among the extracts just referred to, and this shows that the diversity of practice regarding Easter had existed at least from the time of Pope Sixtus (c. 120). Further, Irenaeus states that St. Polycarp, who like the other Asiatics, kept Easter on the fourteenth day of the moon, whatever day of the week that might be, following therein the tradition which he claimed to have derived from St. John the Apostle, came to Rome c. 150 about this very question, but could not be persuaded by Pope Anicetus to relinquish his Quartodeciman observance. Nevertheless he was not debarred from communion with the Roman Church, and St. Irenæus, while condemning the Quartodeciman practice, nevertheless reproaches Pope Victor (c. 189-99) with having excommunicated the Asiatics too precipitately and with not having followed the moderation of his predecessors. The question thus debated was therefore primarily whether Easter was to be kept on a Sunday, or whether Christians should observe the Holy Day of the Jews, the fourteenth of Nisan, which might occur on any day of the week. Those who kept Easter with the Jews were called Quartodecimans or terountes (observants); but even in the time of Pope Victor this usage hardly extended beyond the churches of Asia Minor. After the pope's strong measures the Quartodecimans seem to have gradually dwindled away. Origen in the "Philosophumena" (VIII, xviii) seems to regard them as a mere handful of wrong-headed nonconformists.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm

You can't tell me that St. Polycarp, who was raised Christan and knew St. John was busy celebrating a pagan holiday as the resurrection of Jesus.

And as you note, all arguments based on the English word for the holiday are a red herring, since the word in nearly every other language comes from Pesach. Can't help it if the English had to be non-conformist here, but Polycarp, Iraneus, and such didn't speak English, and didn't call it Easter. For them and those who followed, the holiday was first and foremost the anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus.

The fact of all these controversies is further proof of how important it was to these church leaders. All the spring symbols that would cluster around the holiday fail in comparison to what always was foremost and most central to Easter: Jesus' death and glorious resurrection. Unlike Christmas, which is a commemoration, Easter has always been an anniversary, one which heralds the dawning of our salvation. Alleluia!

[RobbyS]

A question that might be asked is how Passover came to be celebrated in the Spring.

[Uri’el-2012]

A question that might be asked is how Passover came to be celebrated in the Spring

Because YHvH commanded it to be so in His Holy Word.

[gondramB]

I've been thinking about this thread off and on through the evening.

The more I think about it the less I care where the bunnies came from or even which day we set aside to particularly remember the sacrifice and miracle.

I wonder how Jesus would feel if he had known that instead of setting aside our differences to celebrate coming to God through His sacrifice that Christians would argue for centuries over the details. Even the greatest schism in Christian history, with East and West excommunicating each other happened over a dispute of Easter's date and how much to acknowledge the connection with Passover.

Well, Jesus would probably understand the human condition and forgive, but that doesn't mean we can't work to do better.

I think I'm going to find a local church that celebrates Easter differently and make a point to visit on their Easter to better appreciate my fellow Christians.

[gondramB]

>>Should we confuse the supposed Biblical experts with inconvenient facts? Few care that the sola scriptura of the Reformation really just exchanged the post-Nicean Roman authority for the pre-Nicean dogma of equally confused "church fathers." When disconnected from the root, the branches tend to think that they are what supports everything.<<

I felt kind of confused about this paragraph - I see you are drawing a parallel between the reformation and the Council of Nicaea. Are you saying they were both futile because church leaders are human?

[gondramB]

>>A question that might be asked is how Passover came to be celebrated in the Spring

---

Because YHvH commanded it to be so in His Holy Word.<<

There is a real symmetry to it. Creation of man on the first of Nisan, Passover and the resurection on the 15th. Perhaps the return will come on the 30th.

[vladimir998]

Chuck Missler? Isn't he the guy who was caught stealing passages from someone? Didn't he steal from Edwin Yamaguchi?

Missler in "Magog Invasion" (1995) (p. 51): "The name Scythian designates a number of nomadic tribes from the Russian steppes, one group of which invaded the Near east in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C. After being repulsed from Media, many of the later Scyths settled in the fertile area of the Ukrain north of the Black Sea. Other related tribes occupied the area to the east of the Caspian sea."

Yamaguchi in "Foes from the Northern Frontier" (1982) (pp. 63-64): "The name Scythian designates a number of nomadic tribes from the Russian steppes, one group of which invaded the Near east in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. After being repulsed from Media, many of the later Scyths settled in the fertile area of the Ukrain north of the Black Sea. Other related tribes occupied the area to the east of the Caspian sea."

Missler in "Magog Invasion" (p. 54): "Herodotus indicates that the Scythians were active in Media southwest of Lake Urmia. It is also evident in the Assyrian texts that the Scythians were active directly south of the lake. A spectacular discovery of treasure of Ziwiye in this area now offers corroborative evidence of the Herodotus accounts."

"Ziwiye is 25 miles east of Modern Sakkea in Kurdistan in northwest Iran. The name Ziwiye may preserve the Akkadian name Zibie (Izibie), a site attacked by Sargon II in 716 and by Ashurbanipal in about 665."

Yamaguchi in "Foes from the Northern Frontier" (1982) (pp. 72-73): "Herodotus indicates that the Scythians were active in Media southwest of Lake Urmia. It is also evident in the Assyrian texts that the Scythians were present in Mannean territory directly south of the lake. (See maps 4 and 6.) A spectacular discovery of treasure of Ziwiye in this area now offers corroborative evidence of the Scythian presence."

"Ziwiye is located 25 miles east of Modern Sakkea in Kurdistan in northwest Iran. The name Ziwiye may preserve the Akkadian name Zibie (Izibie), a site attacked by Sargon II in 716 and by Ashurbanipal in about 665."

The Calvary Chapel Frequently Unanswered Questions page has more examples of Missler's cheating!

Also, wasn't Missler one of those nuts who got all worked up about Y2K? Poof! Nothing happened.

[safisoft]

I see you are drawing a parallel between the reformation and the Council of Nicaea. Are you saying they were both futile because church leaders are human?

The parallel was in the "church fathers" before and after the Nicean Council. The Reformists, in their attempt to be "more authentic" (sola scriptura) said they took their cues from the Scriptures only, and yet they repeatedly drew from the ante-Nicean "church fathers" - they were unsuccessful in finding the truly authentic, because they continued the error that they accused the Roman ante-Nicean "church fathers" of - they remained disconnected from the root.

Without exception, the Reformists, noble in motive, remained largely anti-Semitic. No one in that day considered that they were detached from the root. Judaism is the root. By continuing to dispise all things Jewish, from the Leviticus 23 Feast days to the weekly seventh day Sabbath, to the "Jewish Law", they were unable to get past the anti-Nicean "church fathers" bias against Jews. Scan this thread and you can see it still exists. We are called "Judaizers" a term that does not exist in Scripture - and anti-Semitic word invented by the anti-Semite Marcion. I am a want to be more like my Master, Who was and is a Jew, and lived and lives like a Jew. For that I am called a "Judaizer?"

Though laudable, the Reformation did not reform enough. "Christianity" was a religion that did not exist in the First Century. Almost every seminary teaches this when they teach that to understand the New Testament theology, we must study what the Second Century "church fathers" formulated - because the disciples/apostles were too close to the events of Jesus' death and resurrection to have "figured out" all the intricacies.

Ironically, Paul, the one that many consider to be the formulator of much "Christian" theology, was the most rabbinically trained of them all. He remained a Pharisee till the end of his life (Acts 28). Apparently no one reads Acts chapters 21 through 28 and asks the question, "What religion did Paul consider himself a part of?"

[Uncle Chip]

Thanks for posting this. Is there some reason that Easter could not have been standardized as the first Sunday after the Jewish Passover [Nissan 14] in order to maintain their historical/religious connection?

[gondramB]

Thank you very much for that clarification and expansion.

You make a number of good points - There is a saying in my family that says when a boy rebels against his father he becomes more like his grandfather. I guess I shouldn't be surprised it happens in the larger human family.

I ran into some posters on another board who said Jesus wasn't Jewish because the bible clearly says he was a Hebrew. When I told some friends about it expecting them to be shocked they instead showed a site for the "Jesus was not Jewish" crowd that claimed the original Hebrews were white and that they became the Christians and founded Britain. Then, they claim, the dark skinned Jews snuck into Israel and stole the name "Hebrew."

I don't understand how a person could read the bible and not understand the children of Abraham are a chosen people of God and much loved and that we have much in common. Baffling.

[Uncle Chip]

Thanks for your link. I didn't know that Polycarp was a Quartodeciman.

Here is what I don't understand about the Quartodeciman position and perhaps someone could enlighten me: Why would they think that Easter should be celebrated on Passover [Nissan 14]? Afterall, Jesus was not resurrected on the Nissan 14th but three full days and nights later on Nissan 18th.

It seems to me that the reasonable historical position would be to celebrate Passover on Nissan 14th and then Resurrection Day [Easter] on either Nissan 18th or the following Sunday, if preferred.

[RobbyS]

Well, it appears in "Numbers." The fact remains that it is tied to the natural rhythms of the seasons, just like the two other major feasts for which the people were commanded to make pilgrimage. God is also the god of the seasons.

[RobbyS]

You can observe passover if you are Jewish, but for Christians, the Lord's Passover is in fact what happened on between Holy Thursday and Easter.

[Uncle Chip]

You can observe passover if you are Jewish, but for Christians, the Lord's Passover is in fact what happened on between Holy Thursday and Easter.

Actually the Lord's Passover is what happened on Nissan 14th 30 AD on a Wednesday --- not Thursday or Friday. Otherwise there would not have been three days and three nights between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

And Easter Sunday of that week [Nissan 18th] was the Jewish Feast of First Fruits --- coinciding with the Resurrection. So no matter how hard theologians try to avoid it, the Jewish roots are the determining factor of Holy Week and cannot be avoided.

[RobbyS]

You are speculating about the dates. For on thing, "Third Day" does not necessarily mean an interval of at least 72 hours.

[Uncle Chip]

How many days is "three days and three nights"?

[Ping-Pong]

I ran into some posters on another board who said Jesus wasn't Jewish because the bible clearly says he was a Hebrew. When I told some friends about it expecting them to be shocked they instead showed a site for the "Jesus was not Jewish" crowd that claimed the original Hebrews were white and that they became the Christians and founded Britain. Then, they claim, the dark skinned Jews snuck into Israel and stole the name "Hebrew

Part of what they said is true but not all. Jesus was Jewish. He was of the tribe of Judah and Levi, which made Him King of Kings and Lord of Lords - He was of the King line, Judah, and the Priest line, Levi.

All 12 tribes are Hebrew. Only the tribe of Judah are Jews. 10 of the tribes split from Judah and Benjamine long before the birth of Christ. They were taken into captivity and eventually migrated over the Caucus Mountains and settled Europe then later England and America. They are referred to as the 10 lost tribes.

Many don't make a distinction between the House of Judah and the House of Israel (the house of Israel are the 10 lost tribes). They are referred to as such in the Bible and it would be difficult to understand prophecy if we didn't realize the difference. The Nation of Israel wasn't founded until 1948 and that is not who the Bible speaks of when it references Israel in prophecy.

The children of Abraham are a chosen people but "only through Isaac is the seed called". Remember Abraham also had a son, Ishmael, with Hagar, the Egyptian maid of Abraham's wife Sarah.

Through Ishmael are the Arab nations of today. In Gen.16:12 God told Hagar what her son would be like, and it holds to this day:

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Isn't it amazing to read God's Word from the beginning and see it coming true today?

[Ping-Pong]

My family will join you in observing Passover.

Some think it not important to keep the correct date as long as they know that it is Christ's resurrection they honor but God certainly cares.

Think of His plan from the beginning. Christ was crucified where long before Abraham placed his son Isaac to be crucified. Christ wore a crown of thorns while God provided Abraham a sacrifice that was caught in thorns. The Passover, to mark the angel of death passing over their houses because of blood on their door - Christ became our Passover and His blood makes the death angel passover us. Christ became the lamb on Passover for us - not the easter bunny on Ishtar, with eggs from a fertility rite which were originally colored with blood from children slain on an altar.

It matters.

To God it is an abomination and He lets us know in Ezekiel 8:
14....There say women weeping for Tammuz.
(Tammuz was Ishtar's son who was killed by a wild boar and the people had to give up their happiness for 40 days and weep for him - ham on easter & lent)
15........and thou shalt see greater abominations than these
16.And He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
(Easter sunrise service)
18.Therefore will I also deal in fury; Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

The day matters to Father.

[Uri’el-2012]

The children of Abraham are a chosen people but "only through Isaac is the seed called".
Remember Abraham also had a son, Ishmael, with Hagar, the Egyptian maid of Abraham's wife Sarah.

Through Ishmael are the Arab nations of today. In Gen.16:12
God told Hagar what her son would be like, and it holds to this day:

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man,
and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Isn't it amazing to read God's Word from the beginning and see it coming true today?

37 posted on 03/31/2007 12:09:08 PM MDT by Ping-Pong

Upon closer reading, Ishmael was conceived by Abram
with man's will and planning, but later Elohim changed
Abram's name by inserting the breath of Elohim into
his name by adding a Hey at the end.

Elohim also changed Sarai's name to Sarah by breathing
the breath of Elohim in to her and causing her to conceive Isaac.

b'shem Yah'shua

[Uri’el-2012]

The day matters to Father.

Amain and Amain

May the Lord bless you and keep you:
The Lord make his Face shine upon you:
and be gracious to you:
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
and give you peace.

b'shem Yah'shua