Posted on 04/03/2007 6:31:28 AM PDT by DouglasKC
Every spring, the anticipation and excitement of Easter is electrifying for many people. Churches prepare elaborate Easter programs that illustrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Parents take time to color Easter eggs and hide them so their children can hunt for them.
It's typical for TV movies this time of year to depict Easter as an enjoyable occasion of renewed happiness. Television advertisements and commercial businesses also get very involved with Easter as they offer colorful Easter baskets, Easter costumes and chocolate rabbits to celebrate this great religious event.
Many churches advertise outdoor Easter sunrise services, with any and all invited. Weather permitting, the Easter celebration is visually reinforced by watching the sun rise in the east.
But what do bunnies and colored eggs have to do with Jesus' resurrection?
And if this celebration is so important, why didn't Jesus teach His apostles and the early Church to observe it? The books of the New Testament were written over a span of decades after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, yet nowhere do we see so much as a hint of any kind of Easter celebration.
So where exactly did Easter and its customs come from? Why do hundreds of millions of people celebrate the holiday today?
Can we find Easter in the Bible?
Easter is considered the most important religious festival in today's Christianity. "The Easter feast has been and still is regarded as the greatest in the Christian church, since it commemorates the most important event in the life of its Founder" (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1986, Vol. 2, "Easter"). Given its popularity, one would think that surely this observance is found in God's Word.
Some cite Acts 12:4 as authority for celebrating Easter. But there's a problem in that Easter isn't really mentioned there at all. The King James Bible translators substituted "Easter" for the Greek word Pascha, which means "Passover." "The word [Easter] does not properly occur in Scripture, although [the King James Version] has it in Acts 12:4 where it stands for Passover, as it is rightly rendered in RV" (ibid.).
The vast majority of Bible translations recognize this error in the King James Version and rightly translate the word as "Passover" in Acts 12:4. The truth is, "there is no trace of Easter celebration in the [New Testament]" (ibid.)
Where did Easter come from?
If Easter isn't found in the Bible, where exactly did it come from? And just exactly what does the name Easter mean?
It's important to review credible historical sources to understand the celebration's true history. For example, The Encyclopaedia Britannica tells us: "At Easter, popular customs reflect many ancient pagan survivals—in this instance, connected with spring fertility rites, such as the symbols of the Easter egg and the Easter hare or rabbit" (15th edition, Macropaedia, Vol. 4, p. 605, "Church Year").
In the ancient world of the Middle East, people were far more connected to the land and cycles of nature than we are today. They depended on the land's fertility and crops to survive. Spring, when fertility returned to the land after the long desolation of winter, was a much-anticipated and welcomed time for them.
Many peoples celebrated the coming of spring with celebrations and worship of their gods and goddesses, particularly those associated with fertility. Among such deities were Baal and Astarte or Ashtoreth, mentioned and condemned frequently in the Bible, whose worship typically included ritual sex to promote fertility throughout the land.
It was only natural to the peoples of the ancient Middle East to incorporate symbols of fertility—such as eggs and rabbits, which reproduce in great numbers—into those pagan celebrations for their gods. As The Encyclopaedia Britannica notes above, Easter eggs and the Easter rabbit are simply a continuation of these ancient spring fertility rites.
Nineteenth-century Scottish Protestant clergyman Alexander Hislop's work The Two Babylons is still considered a definitive work on pagan customs that survive in today's religious practices.
On Easter, he wrote: "What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by [early archaeologist Sir Austen Henry] Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar" (1959, p. 103).
The name Easter, then, comes not from the Bible. Instead its roots go far back to the ancient pre-Christian Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, known in the Bible as Astarte or Ashtoreth.
Ancient resurrection celebrations
What did worship of this goddess Ishtar involve? "Temples to Ishtar had many priestesses, or sacred prostitutes, who symbolically acted out the fertility rites of the cycle of nature. Ishtar has been identified with the Phoenician Astarte, the Semitic Ashtoreth, and the Sumerian Inanna. Strong similarities also exist between Ishtar and the Egyptian Isis, the Greek Aphrodite, and the Roman Venus.
"Associated with Ishtar was the young god Tammuz [mentioned in Ezekiel 8:14], considered both divine and mortal . . . In Babylonian mythology Tammuz died annually and was reborn year after year, representing the yearly cycle of the seasons and the crops. This pagan belief later was identified with the pagan gods Baal and Anat in Canaan " (Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1995, "Gods, Pagan," p. 509).
Alan Watts, expert in comparative religion, wrote: "It would be tedious to describe in detail all that has been handed down to us about the various rites of Tammuz . . . and many others . . . But their universal theme—the drama of death and resurrection—makes them the forerunners of the Christian Easter, and thus the first 'Easter services.' As we go on to describe the Christian observance of Easter we shall see how many of its customs and ceremonies resemble these former rites" (Easter: Its Story and Meaning, 1950, p. 58).
He goes on to explain how such practices as fasting during Lent, erecting an image of the deity in the temple sanctuary, singing hymns of mourning, lighting candles and nighttime services before Easter morning originated with ancient idolatrous practices (pp. 59-62).
Another author, Sir James Frazer (1854-1941), knighted for his contributions to our understanding of ancient religions, describes the culmination of the ancient idolatrous worship this way: "The sorrow of the worshippers was turned to joy . . . The tomb was opened: the god had risen from the dead; and as the priest touched the lips of the weeping mourners with balm, he softly whispered in their ears the glad tidings of salvation.
"The resurrection of the god was hailed by his disciples as a promise that they too would issue triumphant from the corruption of the grave. On the morrow . . . the divine resurrection was celebrated with a wild outburst of glee. At Rome, and probably elsewhere, the celebration took the form of a carnival" (The Golden Bough, 1993, p. 350).
A new celebration with ancient idolatrous roots
In various forms, worship of this god under the names Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, among others, spread from the outer reaches of the Roman Empire to Rome itself. There a truly remarkable development took place: Early Catholic Church leaders merged customs and practices associated with this earlier "resurrected" god and spring fertility celebrations and applied them to the resurrected Son of God.
The customs of the ancient fertility and resurrection celebrations weren't the only ones morphed into a new "Christian" celebration, but they are among the most obvious. After all, many historians readily admit the origin of the name Easter and the ancient fertility symbolism of rabbits and decorated eggs (which you can verify yourself in almost any encyclopedia).
Frazer observes: "When we reflect how often the Church has skilfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Christ was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis" (p. 345).
He goes on to note that the desire to bring heathens into the Catholic Church without forcing them to surrender their idolatrous celebrations "may have led the ecclesiastical authorities to assimilate the Easter festival of the death and resurrection of their Lord to the festival of the death and resurrection of another Asiatic god which fell at the same season . . . the Church may have consciously adapted the new festival [of Easter] to its heathen predecessor for the sake of winning souls to Christ" (p. 359).
Surprisingly, the celebration of Easter didn't finally win out until A.D. 325, nearly 300 years after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection!
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains in the section titled "The Liturgical Year," "At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter . . . should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon . . . after the vernal equinox" (1995, p. 332).
Up until this time, many believers had continued to commemorate Jesus' death through the biblical Passover as Jesus and the apostles had instructed (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Now, however, with the power of the Roman Empire behind it, the Catholic Church enforced its preference for Easter. Those who wished to continue to observe the biblical Passover had to go underground to avoid persecution.
Would Jesus Christ celebrate Easter?
The record of the New Testament is clear: The faithful members of the early Church continued to observe all that the apostles taught them, as they were taught by Jesus Christ. The record of history is equally clear: In later centuries new customs, practices and doctrines were introduced that were quite foreign to the original Christians, forming a new "Christianity" they would scarcely recognize.
So a key question is, should a Christian follow what Jesus taught or what later religious teachers taught?
It's always a good idea to ask the question, what would Jesus do?
If Jesus were in the flesh today, would He celebrate Easter? The simple answer is No. He does not change. "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever," as Hebrews 13:8 tells us (emphasis added throughout). Jesus never observed Easter, never sanctioned it and never taught His disciples to celebrate it. Nor did the apostles teach the Church to do so.
Today, Jesus would observe the biblical Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread as Scripture teaches and as He practiced and taught (John 13:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8). In fact, He specifically said that He anticipated observing the Passover with His true followers "in My Father's kingdom" after His return (Matthew 26:26-29).
The feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread have deep meaning to Christ's true disciples. They reveal aspects of God's plan for the salvation of humanity—commemorating the fact that Jesus died for us and lives in us and for us (1 Corinthians 11:26; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3-4).
Should you observe Easter?
If you want to be a true disciple of Christ Jesus, you need to carefully examine whether your beliefs agree with the Bible. It is not acceptable to God to merely assume that He approves of or accepts non-biblical celebrations, regardless of whether they are done for proper motives.
The fact is that God says, "Learn not the way of the heathen"—those who don't know God's truth (Jeremiah 10:2, King James Version).
His Word gives us explicit instructions regarding worshipping Him with practices adopted from pagan idolatry: "Do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods . . . Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it" (Deuteronomy 12:30-32).
Jesus Christ now commands everyone to repent of following all man-made religious traditions: "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30; compare Matthew 15:3).
Will you honor Christ's lifesaving instructions so that God can bless you? He said: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26).
God wants you and me to obey His life-giving Word. When we do, we can serve Christ as His ambassadors on earth. There is no greater calling on earth and throughout time. For your ongoing happiness and security, turn to God now and seek His complete and perfect way. GN
This takes place late in the second century and as you can see, Bishop Polycrates observes the Passover...as had the last living Apostle, John....and all his disciples...... including Polycarp.
All of these folks were the early leaders of your own Church....the Eastern Church...in Asia.
Other than that, the whole article is a load of hooey.
It was the Roman church that began this heresy of Easter and they began it in their zeal to eliminate anything "Jewish" from their theology. You should probably take another look and really determine if this is a lot of "Hooey".
Your statement that the Church has always celebrated Easter has been found to contain much "Hooey" itself! Let's face it....some "Dudes" just do..... seem to know better!
I'm not of the opinion that you're going to fry in hell. You may call what you celebrate "Pascha", but it's not a feast of the Lord as specified by the Lord in Leviticus.
Other than that, the whole article is a load of hooey. The Church has always celebrated Easter. What makes this dude think he knows better than the Christians who were much closer to the Apostles' time and teachings?
The church has not "always" celebrated Easter. There is no mention of it's celebration in scripture. It was not an official part of church doctrine until 300 years AFTER the death of Christ.
And I wish you a happy and fulfilling feast of unleavened bread.
I knew it.
It’s for these type of threads we need a “Biblical P!ssing Match” Bump List
It can be a pretty educational thread if used in the right way. Thanks for the bump.
Where do you think the Bible came from? It was not faxed from Heaven. What we know today as the books of the Bible were actually selected by St. Athanasius in a letter setting the date for the Easter celebration!
And Easter not only pre-dates the New Testament, it goes back far beyond the Council of Nicea. Do you really believe the bishops at Nicea just decided on a whim to invent a festival? There is all sorts of evidence that Easter goes back to early Christian times. Where is there any proof that it did not?
I don't understand your repeated references to Levitical festivals. I am really curious, not being sarcastic: do you observe all the Mosaic law and believe that Christians should follow the old law? That was also dealt with in the early Church (Council of Jerusalem) and discussed in Acts.
I hesitate to take this thread off topic with this discussion, so I'll just say that my belief is that the books of the bible were selected by the apostles and were later made official by what some call the Church Fathers. I'm sure you also believe that God guided the preservation of the scriptures that he inspired.
And Easter not only pre-dates the New Testament, it goes back far beyond the Council of Nicea. Do you really believe the bishops at Nicea just decided on a whim to invent a festival? There is all sorts of evidence that Easter goes back to early Christian times. Where is there any proof that it did not?
I don't think it happened on a whim. Traditional Christianity began to abandon the Lord's holy days relatively early in it's history. However, I do believe that were always Christians who observed them.
I don't understand your repeated references to Levitical festivals. I am really curious, not being sarcastic: do you observe all the Mosaic law and believe that Christians should follow the old law? That was also dealt with in the early Church (Council of Jerusalem) and discussed in Acts.
A few points here. The feasts of the Lord fall outside of all covenants. For example, Passover and the days of unleavened bread were commanded by the Lord before the old covenant was ratified:
Exo 12:14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever.
Exo 12:15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
Exo 12:16 And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
Exo 12:17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance forever.
In addition, the feasts of the Lord are going to be observed after Christ returns:
Zec 14:16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zec 14:17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
Zec 14:18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zec 14:19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
And finally, there is no passage in the new testament that invalidates the Lord's holy days or commands that any other days be designated as holy.
Deu 16:9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
That "time as they begin to put the sickle to the corn" is the day of First Fruits. That day marked the beginning of the seven week harvest and the day of Pentecost marked the end, just as a holy convocation marked the beginning and end of the feast of Unleavened Bread.
So are you going to celebrate the Resurrection this Sunday on the day of First Fruits or not? You don't have anything against the Resurrection, do you??? or is it just a problem with Sunday???
bookmarked
You're right I did miss that reference to the wave sheaf offering.
That day marked the beginning of the seven week harvest and the day of Pentecost marked the end, just as a holy convocation marked the beginning and end of the feast of Unleavened Bread.
Correct on all counts. But the question is still whether or not this ceremony was a "feast of the Lord". My evidence is that it occurs during a feast of the Lord. Scripture doesn't say it's holy. Scripture doesn't say that there should be a commanded gathering, a holy convocation. It's not a day that is regarded as a Jewish holy day.
For the sake of argument though, let's say it IS a feast day.
I take it that you believe that this wave sheaf offering represents the resurrection of Christ. Is that correct?
Correct —
And let's be real, according to the instructions for the day of First Fruits, everyone brought their first fruits together to the priest for the wave offering. They gathered together around the priest with their offerings. The day of First Fruits didn't have to be specifically called a holy convocation or a feast day for it to be one. By doing what the Law told them to do on that day, it was one.
Agreed.
To determine exactly what the wave sheaf represented, let me ask the following questions:
1. At what point of time did the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ occur?
2. At what point of time did the Levitical priesthood perform the wave sheaf offering?
3. At what point of time was the wave sheaf actually harvested?
I need to make a technical disagreement here. In scripture, the "day of firstfruits" is Pentecost, the feast of weeks.
Num 28:26 Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the LORD, after your weeks be out, ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work:
This is why you're postings are confusing. Most people who observe the feasts of the Lord recognize the "day of firstfruits" as Pentecost, or the feast of weeks, because it also represents a harvest of the firstfruits.
Did you ever read the link provided by Xenia St at Post #212. If not, perhaps you should. It will answer some of your questions.
1. At what point of time did the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ occur?
Scripture does not say precisely --- His death was clearly at the end of Nisan 14th, but by the time they finished with his burial and rolled the rock over the entrance, it was probably evening well past sunset and thus early on Nisan 15th.
2. At what point of time did the Levitical priesthood perform the wave sheaf offering?
Probably later in the day of First Fruits giving the farmers enough time to bring their freshest harvest to the priest.
3. At what point of time was the wave sheaf actually harvested?
Those that lived nearby probably harvested theirs that morning, and those further away the evening before. Those that came from afar or lived in the city probably bought some of the freshly harvested sheafs from local farmers for their offering.
[Luke 6:1] And it came to pass, on the second-first sabbath, as he is going through the corn fields, that his disciples were plucking the ears, and were eating, rubbing with the hands,"Young's Literal Translation"
The reason I posted this scripture is to show the distinction of the "Count of the Omer" by numbering the Sabbaths during the count. To a first century Jew this phrase simply means "The Second Weekly Sabbath" during the count of fifty days to Pentecost from the second day of Unleavened. Thus there was also a "First" first Sabbath and it would have been the first one after Passover....in any year. The year of the crucifixion(30 A.D.)it happened to be Nisan/Abib 17. 30 A.D. Israel
The "First" of the Sabbaths is mentioned by all the Gospel accounts [Matthew 28:1][Mark 16:2][Luke 24:1][John 20:1,19] and it refers to the first Saturday after Passover. Any reference to the " first day of the week" in any translation is from tradition as it simply does not say that in the Greek. It is also the same Greek term used in [Acts 20:7]....but that's another story.
The women rested the First Day of Unleavened(the 15th) [Leviticus 23:7][Mark 16:1] and then went out and purchased spices (the 16th), prepared them and rested again for the weekly Sabbath (the 17th)[Luke 23:56] according to the commandment.
[Luke 23:50-55] And lo, a man, by name Joseph, being a counsellor, a man good and righteous, he was not consenting to their counsel and deed -- from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself was expecting the reign of God, he, having gone near to Pilate, asked the body of Jesus, and having taken it down, he wrapped it in fine linen, and placed it in a tomb hewn out, where no one was yet laid. And the day was a preparation, and sabbath was approaching. And the women also who have come with him out of Galilee having followed after, beheld the tomb, and how his body was placed. The body was in the tomb prior to sundown.
The only sign Our Saviour agreed to give "A wicked an adulterous generation" was [Matthew 12:40]....three days and three nights. This did not mean 2 1/2 days, 36 hours or any other such nonsense. It meant 72 hours in the heart of the Earth....the tomb!
Now...getting back to the numbering of the Sabbaths during the fifty day count. [Matthew 28:1] And on the eve of the sabbaths, at the dawn, toward the first of the sabbaths, came Mary the Magdalene, and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre.....(verse 6) He is not here, for He rose, as He said; come, see the place where the Lord was lying. He was not there.....He had risen!
The Greek word "Epiphosko" translated here as dawn....means to "Begin" and the only other place in scripture where this Greek word "Epiphosko" is noted is in [Luke 23:54] and another day was soon to begin...the First Sabbath of Unleavened Bread. The Hebrew days, of course....began at sundown. The "Eve of the Sabbaths are referring to the plurality of both the First Sabbath in the count to Pentecost and the weekly Sabbath. "The Eve of the Sabbaths", the Evening of these Sabbaths would be between 3:00 P.M. and sunset.
We have thus shown from scripture that Our Lord resurrected on the weekly Sabbath, the 17th of Nisan/Abib shortly before sundown and the women arrived a few minutes later.....and he had already risen. The day of resurrection was not a Sunday!
While I agree that this is true, I would hope most of us use this day to remember the death on the Cross for all of us, rather than the pagan beginnings of this.
If Christ didn't raise from the dead, then we are hopeless, but He did, and this is what I think of on "Easter."
I hope you have on your asbestos suit btw, cause this will anger many here! :-)
Christ IS the New Covenant.
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."
Father cares what we do and how we worship. He chose Passover as The Day His Son would be crucified. Verse 18 tells us how He feels about man's choice of another day, easter, to celebrate the Holiest Day in Christianity.
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