Posted on 04/16/2017 12:38:42 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Was “ Easter” actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration? The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan names for the celebration in English and German (“Easter”, “Ostern”). Note, however, that in most other European languages, the celebration’s name is derived from Pascha (Greek), from Pesach, (Hebrew), Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover.
[large snips here and throughout]
The usual argument for the pagan origins of Easter is based on Venerable Bede (673-735), an English monk who wrote:
“ … Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month" and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month.”Note: the forcible conversion of the Saxons in Europe began under Charlemagne in 772. Christians celebrated an Easter/Passover festival by the second century, if not earlier. Thus the Christian Easter/Passover celebration originated in the Mediterranean basin, not any Germanic pagan festival.
But does the name "Easter" come from the blurring of the Christian celebration with the worship of a English/Germanic fertility goddess named "Eostre"?. In his book, The Stations of the Sun Professor Ronald Hutton (a well-known historian of British paganism and occultism) says there is no evidence outside of Bede for the existence of this ‘goddess.’...
Another problem with Bede's explanation concerns Charlemagne's renaming of the months. Charlemagne was the scourge of Germanic paganism. He forcibly converted them to Christianity and repressed them when they revolted because of this. It seems very unlikely, therefore, that Charlemagne would name a month after a Germanic goddess.
Hutton suggests that Eosturmonath simply meant "the month of opening," which is comparable to the meaning of "April" in Latin. The names of both the Saxon and Latin months were related to spring, the season when the buds open….
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Jesus celebrated Passover. He is as Christian as it gets.
But at that last Passover Jesus transformed it forever by instituting the New Covenant sealed by the blood of the Lamb of God, not some "year old male lamb without spot or blemish".
Celebrate the New Covenant with His Eucharist.
You want a command. A list of requirements that you MUST do. I see. That would be a formula for going to heaven. Which is works. Works don't get you to heaven, faith does. But you prove your faith by your works.
If you wish to be grafted into the Vine, you must conform. Otherwise go do your own thing. Christ is the example. Follow His Example as He did in real life. Jesus said "If ye love Me, keep my commandments". So, if you want a command, there it is.
Not being an expert, I'm in no position to judge between these two historians, Bede and Hutton. However Bede cites no earlier sources, but Hutton *did* go back to earlier sources, and found no evidence of any such goddess, or of a cognate figure, in any of the extant Norse or Germanic texts.
So everybody's source is ultimately Bede, who is here challenged.
The fact that these festivals are not referenced in the NT is of little relevance. There's no rule that all Christian practices have to be found in the text. If that were so, we could not have church buildings, church weddings, church funerals, or even the church's Book, the Bible, since there was a church for decades before the books of the NT were completed, and for centuries before those writings were officially collected and recognized as the canon of Sacred Scripture.
There was a Pascha celebration --- and others --- before there was a (complete) Bible.
We’d be better off celebrating on Passover!
The early church hated the Jews and mostly tried to eliminate Jewish traditions from their practice. Thats the main reason most don’t.
Yeah, that’s why we don’t sacrifice an unblemished lamb anymore. He was the sacrifice. But Jesus and the Disciples didn’t hide Easter eggs either.
I didn’t know about that. Fascinating! Yes, it seems a reasonable hunch that these “children searching for goodies” customs could be related.
He is indeed risen!
Amen.
Agreed.
1. At the Lamb’s high feast we sing,
Praise to our victorious King,
Who has washed us in the tide
Flowing from his piercèd side;
Alleluia!
2. Praise we Him, whose love divine
Gives His sacred blood for wine,
Gives His body for the feast,
Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest.
Alleluia!
3. Where the Paschal blood is poured,
Death’s dark angel sheathes his sword; I
srael’s hosts triumphant go
Through the wave that drowns the foe.
Alleluia!
4. Praise we Christ, whose blood was shed,
Paschal Victim, Paschal Bread;
With sincerity and love
Eat we Manna from above.
Alleluia!
5. Mighty Victim from the sky,
Hell’s fierce pow’rs beneath Thee lie;
Thou hast conquered in the fight,
Thou hast brought us life and light;
Alleluia!
6. Now no more can death appall,
Now no more the grave enthrall;
Thou hast opened Paradise,
And in Thee Thy saints shall rise.
Alleluia!
7. Paschal triumph, Easter joy,
This alone can sin destroy;
From sin’s death do Thou set free
Souls reborn, O Lord, in Thee.
Alleluia!
8. Hymns of glory and of praise,
Father, to Thee we raise;
Risen Lord, all praise to Thee,
Ever with the Spirit be.
Alleluia!
Some debate has occurred over whether or not the goddess was an invention of Bede's, particularly in the 19th century before more widespread reconstructions of the Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess. Writing in the late 19th century, Charles J. Billson notes that scholars before his writing were divided about the existence of Bede's account of Ēostre, stating that "among authorities who have no doubt as to her existence are W. Grimm, Wackernagel, Sinrock [sic], and Wolf. On the other hand, Weinhold rejects the idea on philological grounds, and so do Heinrich Leo and Hermann Oesre. Kuhn says, 'The Anglo-Saxon Eostre looks like an invention of Bede;' and Mannhardt also dismisses her as an etymological dea ex machina." Billson says that "the whole question turns [...], upon Bede's credibility", and that "one is inclined to agree with Grimm, that it would be uncritical to saddle this eminent Father of the Church, who keeps Heathendom at arms' length and tells us less of than he knows, with the invention of this goddess." Billson points out that the Christianization of England started at the end of the 6th century, and, by the 7th, was completed. Billson argues that, as Bede was born in 672, Bede must have had opportunities to learn the names of the native goddesses of the Anglo-Saxons, "who were hardly extinct in his lifetime."[14]Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostreWriting in the late 20th century, Rudolf Simek says that, despite expressions of doubts, Bede's account of Eostre should not be disregarded. Simek opines that a "Spring-like fertility goddess" must be assumed rather than a "goddess of sunrise" regardless of the name, reasoning that "otherwise the Germanic goddesses (and matrons) are mostly connected with prosperity and growth". Simek points to a comparison with the goddess Rheda, also attested by Bede.[15]
Scholar Philip A. Shaw (2011) writes that the subject has seen "a lengthy history of arguments for and against Bede's goddess Eostre, with some scholars taking fairly extreme positions on either side" and that some theories against the goddess have gained popular cultural prominence. Shaw, however, notes that "much of this debate, however, was conducted in ignorance of a key piece of evidence, as it was not discovered until 1958. This evidence is furnished by over 150 Romano-Germanic votive inscriptions to deities named the matronae Austriahenae, found near Morken-Harff and datable to around 150–250 AD". Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet most are in a complete enough for reasonable clarity of the inscriptions. As early as 1966 scholars have linked these names etymologically with Eostre and an element found in Germanic personal names.[16] Shaw argues against a functional interpretation from the available evidence and concludes that "the etymological connections of her name suggests that her worshippers saw her geographical and social relationship with them as more central than any functions she may have had".
The Council of Nicaea set the rules for determining the date of Easter...which is why Pope Gregory's calendar reform in 1582 was designed to return the date of the vernal equinox to where it had been in A.D. 325 rather than to where it was in 46 B.C. when Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar.
That the Anglo-Saxons, when they became Christians, took over the name of a pagan spring festival and applied it to a Christian feast is unimportant. Likewise, the English word "Lent" originally just meant "spring"--other languages have a term for Lent based on the number 40 for the length of Lent.
Dutch lente means "spring." The Dutch word for Lent is vasten, from the word meaning "to fast."
The connection between Lent and spring is that it is the time when the days are growing longer--etymologically it is connected to "long" and "lengthen." Doesn't work in the southern hemisphere.
Cite any scripture that says to not celebrate it. Again, the Church was celebrating Liturgy before defining a NT Canon in the 4th century. St. Irenaeus writing around 180 AD clearly notes that the celebration of Pascha (Easter) was so well in place in the Church (which was the Mediterranean world) primarily at that time that no one debated the celebration of it, what was debated was on what day to celebrate it as their were differences in calendars used to determine when to celebrate it (Rome had its way, Dioceses in the East had theirs), and on how long to keep the fast before “Easter” was it, 40 hours, 40 days, etc (i.e. the Pre-Pascha (easter) season, which is what we call Lent today).
See paragraph 3 of the link which provides the writings of
http://newadvent.org/fathers/0134.htm
The Last Supper was a Passover Sedar. “Why is this night different than the others?” Big time.
Here is the same writing from P. Schaff’s translation
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.viii.iii.html
Yes, it was a Passover Sedar. That’s not a Christian festival. There are none.
I was referring to the ‘holiday’ Easter. Christians have celebrated thr Resurrection since it happened. However, my point was that local customs became attached to it as Christianity spread. Constantine made an official holiday to end the controversy then, as he established the modern day canon with the Council of Nicea. He established the early rules, including stopping the slaughter of Christians to end the controversies. However, the discussion here was the question of the Pagan origins of the Easter Holiday, not the resurrection and its relationship to Passover.
How many would you like to see?
Colossians 2:8
Deuteronomy 12:29-32
Jeremiah 10:1-5
Galatians 4:8-11
Isaiah 66:1-24
But the real issue isn't what you choose to celebrate. It's about judging others for not doing so, and/or defining a Holiday as Christian or making observance of the holiday a litmus test for Christianity.
“Cite any scripture that says to not celebrate it.”
Colossians 2:8
Deuteronomy 12:29-32
Matthew 15:3
few others ...
But then the issue is not framed in the negative now is it?
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