Posted on 04/10/2020 3:01:19 PM PDT by Kaslin
Excellent read.
....... In this explanation I am still curious as to the origin of the word "Ēostre" .....
Bkmrk.
Easter came from the pagan holiday of looking for rabbit eggs.
In a study done by the University of Sydney it was discovered that Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long before the advent of Christianity. In the first couple of centuries after Jesus’s life, feast days in the new Christian church were attached to old pagan festivals. Spring festivals with the theme of new life and relief from the cold of winter became connected explicitly to Jesus having conquered death by being resurrected after the crucifixion.
But the first of the actual religious intervention happened in 325AD when the first major church council, the Council of Nicaea, determined that Easter should fall on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. This is why Easter changes dates to this day and are sometimes called movable feasts.
Easter takes its name from a pagan goddess from Anglo-Saxon England who was described in a book by the eighth-century English monk Bede. Eostre was a goddess of spring or renewal and that’s why her feast is attached to the vernal equinox. In Germany the festival is called Ostern, and the goddess is called Ostara. But what’s in a name?
rwood
Likewise with Lent. Originally it just meant "spring"--it is connected to the word "lengthen"--spring is the time when the days are getting longer. In Dutch, one of the most closely related languages to English, "lente" means spring.
When Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the calendar reform in 1582 by saying that 10 days should be dropped (the day after October 4 would be October 15), he was getting the calendar back to where it was in A.D. 325, so that the rules for calculating the date of Easter would work properly.
That was the custom that the Church of Rome followed going back to the 2nd Century, ie. when to celebrate Pascha (Italian) or what we call Easter Sunday (wasn’t called that in 2nd Century Rome).
Saint Ireneaus of Lyons gives a clear account of Easter being celebrated in the late 2nd century. In paragraph 3, you see there were debates about not only the day (Easter day) but the length of the fast (Lent practices in the 2nd century) and if you read on to paragraph 7, you see the “day” is a reference to Easter Sunday (again using English terminology).
The discussion above relates to the debates between the Pope and some Eastern Churches over the celebration of Easter which is referred to as the Quartodeciman controversy over the Date for Easter and the related Lenten fast, etc. The Council of Nicea in 325 adopted the Church of Rome’s as the standard practice.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08130b.htm
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0134.htm
.... Yes.... But you are citing evidence that the author of this article says there is no evidence of the word being of pagan origin....
It leads me to know that Jesus couldn't have died on Friday afternoon and then resurrected on Sunday Morning...
... Yup ... The message and True Meaning of the season is the important thing.
There’s no actual evidence for a “goddess Eostre”. It may simply be a word meaning “dawn”, cognate to our modern word “east”.
Easter use to be more important holiday than Christmas till the emphasis came to be Santa Claus
Feminism is derived from pagan women seeking to dominate men through witchcraft. Abortion is derived from the pagan ritual of human sacrifice.
That is what you can tell someone anytime they try to diminish Christianity by claiming it has pagan origins.
Many of the other books of the New Testament were written by Paul, and the approximate dates of his Epistles are not in dispute. His first Epistle was written around 50 AD. The dates of Paul's writings make it impossible that the Gospels were written 70 years after Jesus' life, because much of the Book of Acts is about Paul, including his conversion on the road to Damascus and his missionary journeys. And, as I mentioned, the author of the Gospel of Luke and Acts are the same person, which is also not disputed. The Book of Acts also describes how a physician named Luke met Paul on his 1st missionary journey.
Also, a verse in 1 Timothy seems to be quoting from Luke's Gospel:
St Paul, while he was writing his Epistles, appears to have known what was written in the Gospel of Luke. I say appears to have known because Im open to alternative explanations, but on the face of it, this is how it looks. If you think Im wrong, show me why.Here is why this appears to be the case. This is an excerpt from Pauls first letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:1718):
Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in preaching and teaching; for the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain, and, The labourer deserves to be paid.
Paul claims to be quoting from scripture. But which parts of scripture is he quoting from? The first one is easy. You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain comes from the Torah, in Deuteronomy 25:4. What about the second quote, the labourer deserves to be paid? or more literally, the worker deserves his wages? (the NRSV from which I quoted often alters the sentence to remove reference to gender). Is it anywhere in the Hebrew Scripture? What about the Septuagint? Nope, nowhere. Was there any Jewish writing at the time that contained this saying and which might have been regarded as scripture? No. So what was he quoting from when he claimed that this is something contained in scripture?
Heres a quote from something that Christians today regard as Scripture: Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid.
And there it is, the elusive phrase. This is from the Gospel of Luke (10:7), where Jesus is giving his disciples instructions before sending them out. So how did Paul know about this saying being in Scripture? Remember that St Paul is believed to have died in AD 67.
Herod noted it.
Acts Chapter 12
1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. 2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.
(Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending
after Easter
to bring him forth to the people.
5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. 6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. 7 And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. 8 And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. 9 And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. 10 When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.
Where the English language term Easter comes from, I find of little or no significance, but will defer to some competent philologist, if such exists. Not to half assed home brewed skeptics.
” In Germany the festival is called Ostern, and the goddess is called Ostara. But whats in a name?”
Our days and months are named after pagan gods and figures (at least in English).
“the early Christian Catholic church melded some of the pagan traditions of Europe into the Easter holiday in order to convert the pagans to Christianity.”
There’s zero evidence that ever happened. Seriously, there is no evidence any pagan thing was adopted into Christian religious practice to convert anyone in the ancient Greco-Roman world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.