Posted on 04/08/2006 7:12:48 AM PDT by DouglasKC
Easter is one of the most popular religious celebrations in the world. But is it biblical? The word Easter appears only once in the King James Version of the Bible (and not at all in most others). In the one place it does appear, the King James translators mistranslated the Greek word for Passover as "Easter."
Notice it in Acts 12:4: "And when he [King Herod Agrippa I] had apprehended him [the apostle Peter], 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."
The Greek word translated Easter here is pascha, properly translated everywhere else in the Bible as "Passover." Referring to this mistranslation, Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible says that "perhaps there never was a more unhappy, not to say absurd, translation than that in our text."
Think about theses facts for a minute. Easter is such a major religious holiday. Yet nowhere in the Bible—not in the book of Acts, which covers several decades of the history of the early Church, nor in any of the epistles of the New Testament, written over a span of 30 to 40 years after Jesus Christ's death and resurrection—do we find the apostles or early Christians celebrating anything like Easter.
The Gospels themselves appear to have been written from about a decade after Christ's death and resurrection to perhaps as much as 60 years later (in the case of John's Gospel). Yet nowhere do we find a hint of anything remotely resembling an Easter celebration.
If Easter doesn't come from the Bible, and wasn't practiced by the apostles and early Church, where did it come from?
Easter's surprising origins
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, in its entry "Easter," states:
"The term ‘Easter' is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter' was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity" (W.E. Vine, 1985, emphasis added throughout).
That's a lot of information packed into one paragraph. Notice what the author, W.E. Vine—a trained classical scholar, theologian, expert in ancient languages and author of several classic Bible helps—tells us:
Easter isn't a Christian or directly biblical term, but comes from a form of the name Astarte, a Chaldean (Babylonian) goddess known as "the queen of heaven." (She is mentioned by that title in the Bible in Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17-19, 25 and referred to in 1 Kings 11:5, 33 and 2 Kings 23:13 by the Hebrew form of her name, Ashtoreth. So "Easter" is found in the Bible—as part of the pagan religion God condemns!)
Further, early Christians, even after the times of the apostles, continued to observe a variation of the biblical Passover feast (it differed because Jesus introduced new symbolism, as the Bible notes in Matthew 26:26-28 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-28).
Moreover, Easter was very different from the Old Testament Passover or the Passover of the New Testament as understood and practiced by the early Church based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and the apostles.
And again, Easter was a pagan festival, originating in the worship of other gods, and was introduced much later into an apostate Christianity in a deliberate attempt to make such festivals acceptable.
Easter symbols predate Christ
How does The Catholic Encyclopedia define Easter? "Easter: The English term, according to the [eighth-century monk] Bede, relates to Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown . . ." (1909, Vol. 5, p. 224). Eostre is the ancient European name for the same goddess worshipped by the Babylonians as Astarte or Ishtar, goddess of fertility, whose major
celebration was in the spring of the year.
The subtopic "Easter Eggs" tells us that "the custom [of Easter eggs] may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter" (ibid., p. 227).
The subtopic "Easter Rabbit" states that "the rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility" (ibid.).
Author Greg Dues, in his book Catholic Customs and Traditions, elaborates on the symbolism of eggs in ancient pre-Christian cultures: "The egg has become a popular Easter symbol. Creation myths of many ancient peoples center in a cosmogenic egg from which the universe is born.
"In ancient Egypt and Persia friends exchanged decorated eggs at the spring equinox, the beginning of their New Year. These eggs were a symbol of fertility for them because the coming forth of a live creature from an egg was so surprising to people of ancient times. Christians of the Near East adopted this tradition, and the Easter egg became a religious symbol. It represented the tomb from which Jesus came forth to new life" (1992, p. 101).
The same author also explains that, like eggs, rabbits became associated with Easter because they were powerful symbols of fertility: "Little children are usually told that the Easter eggs are brought by the Easter Bunny. Rabbits are part of pre-Christian fertility symbolism because of their reputation to reproduce rapidly" (p. 102).
What these sources tell us is that human beings replaced the symbolism of the biblical Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread with Easter eggs and Easter rabbits, pagan symbols of fertility. These symbols demean the truth of Christ's death and resurrection.
Easter substituted for Passover season
But that's not the entire story. In fact, many credible sources substantiate the fact that Easter became a substitute festival for the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. (To learn more about what this Feast represents, see "What Does the Feast of Unleavened Bread Mean for Christians?".)
Notice what The Encyclopaedia Britannica says about this transition: "There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers . . . The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals foreshadowed . . .
"The Gentile Christians, on the other hand, unfettered by Jewish traditions, identified the first day of the week [Sunday] with the Resurrection, and kept the preceding Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the day of the month" (11th edition, p. 828, "Easter").
Easter, a pagan festival with its pagan fertility symbols, replaced the God-ordained festivals that Jesus Christ, the apostles and the early Church observed. But this didn't happen immediately. Not until A.D. 325—almost three centuries after Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected—was the matter settled. Regrettably, it wasn't settled on the basis of biblical truth, but on the basis of anti-Semitism and raw ecclesiastical and imperial power.
As The Encyclopaedia Britannica further explains: "A final settlement of the dispute [over whether and when to keep Easter or Passover] was one among the other reasons which led [the Roman emperor] Constantine to summon the council of Nicaea in 325 . . . The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the world, and ‘that none should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews'" (ibid., pp. 828-829).
Those who did choose to "follow the blindness of the Jews"—that is, who continued to keep the biblical festivals kept by Jesus Christ and the apostles rather than the newly "Christianized" pagan Easter festival—were systematically persecuted by the powerful church-state alliance of Constantine 's Roman Empire .
With the power of the empire behind it, Easter soon became entrenched as one of traditional Christianity's most popular sacred celebrations. (You can read more of the details in our free booklet Holidays or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Keep? )
Christianity compromised by paganism
British historian Sir James Frazer notes how Easter symbolism and rites, along with other pagan customs and celebrations, entered into the established Roman church:
"Taken altogether, the coincidences of the Christian with the heathen festivals are too close and too numerous to be accidental. They mark the compromise which the Church in the hour of its triumph was compelled to make with its vanquished yet still dangerous rivals [the empire's competing pagan religions].
"The inflexible Protestantism of the primitive missionaries, with their fiery denunciation of heathendom, had been exchanged for the supple policy, the easy tolerance, the comprehensive charity of shrewd ecclesiastics, who clearly perceived that if Christianity was to conquer the world it could do so only by relaxing the too rigid principles of its Founder, by widening a little the narrow gate which leads to salvation" ( The Golden Bough, 1993, p. 361).
In short, to broaden the appeal of the new religion of Christianity in those early centuries, the powerful Roman religious authorities, with the backing of the Roman Empire, simply co-opted the rites and practices of pagan religions, relabeled them as "Christian" and created a new brand of Christianity with customs and teachings far removed from the Church Jesus founded.
The authentic Christianity of the Bible largely disappeared, forced underground by persecution because its followers refused to compromise.
Easter does not accurately represent Jesus Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, though it appears to do so to those who blindly accept religious tradition. In fact, it distorts the truth of the matter. Easter correctly belongs to the Babylonian goddess it is named after—Astarte, also known as Ashtoreth or Ishtar, whose worship is directly and explicitly condemned in the Bible.
The ancient religious practices and fertility symbols associated with her cult existed long before Christ, and regrettably they have largely replaced and obscured the truth of His death and resurrection.
When confronted with these facts about Easter, many professing Christians might raise this question to justify its continuance: With hundreds of millions of well-meaning Christians observing Easter, doesn't this please Jesus Christ? Yet He has already answered this question in Matthew 15:9: "In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." How will you choose to worship Him—in spirit and in truth, or in fraud and in fable? GN
Read it again:
Exo 32:5 Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."
"LORD" is:
yehovah
yeh-ho-vaw'
From H1961; (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God: - Jehovah, the Lord. Compare H3050, H3069.
This word is ALWAYS used in scripture to designate the one, true God. It IS the name (or as close as we can come to the name) of the one, true God.
Aaron desired to honor the one true God. He created a golden calf to represent the one, true God. He proclaimed a feast to the one true God. God wasn't happy BECAUSE he had just spoken a commandment that we were to not make an image, any image, to represent him. He had already created the Passover and the days of unleavenend bread, biblical feasts of God.
The exact same situation occurs with Easter, only worse. Easter is closely associated with all sorts of pagan, idolatrous symbols. Easter is merchandised, packaged and sold. AND man has proclaimed that this is to honor the one, true God.
You're engaging in some serious eisegesis.
What exactly is your argument?? That the Jews in new testament times were celebrating Easter, a pagan festival, and not the Passover, a festival ordained by God?
Clearly Jews had and have a lot of tradition that is not scriptural. Same as Christianity today. Christ upbraided the Jews of his time:
Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Jews thought they were doing what the one, true God wanted. Most Christians today think they are doing the same.
1Sa 7:3 And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel saying, If you return to Jehovah with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts to Jehovah, and serve Him only....
Easter is not a biblical holy day so I don't celebrate it at all. I celebrate the days that God said to and that Jesus Christ did.
But the celebration of Easter was celebrated since the first century
Easter has been celebrated long since then. It became associated with the resurrection of Christ shortly after biblical times through the influence of Satan.
Yes, but these particular practices were unknown to Christians who established the recognition of Easter, so it is ridiculous to say that Easter stems from those practices
Nonsense. Rome wished to convert pagans so they used symbols and concepts which pagans were familiar with in order to convert them. From the article:
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, in its entry "Easter," states:
"The term ‘Easter' is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter' was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity" (W.E. Vine, 1985, emphasis added throughout).
He commanded his followers that God died? Of course not! the good news is that through his death, Christ conquered death, and established that there is life afterward! Look to the examples of the apostles! Did they preach that Christ died, or did they preach that he died and was resurrected? Where did their hope lie? In his death, or in his resurrection? For without the resurrection, his death is mere tragedy; Paul says we'd have to be fools to practice Christianity without remembering his resurrection!
I honestly don't care what arguments you use to disobey the clear instructions of God and the practices and words of Christ. Yes, the resurrection was wonderful. But no, it's not a holy day and it's not how God wanted to be worshipped.
Do you celebrate Pesach?
Do you realize that if you translate this into any language except German, Dutch, and maybe Norwegian, it says, "That the Jews in new testament times were celebrating Passover, a pagan festival, and not the Passove, a festival ordained by God?"
You "pagans under every bed" fellows are amazing, and amusing. My God sat on paganism and smashed it flat; yours runs away from it. Maybe you just never understood the difference between the OT and the NT ... which is precisely that.
Funny, I seem to recall this fellow named Paul who said that it was fine to eat meat sacrificed to idols if you didn't believe in the idol and didn't thereby scandalize anyone, because the idol was simply ... nothing. A non-entity.
Most of the Jewish Seder meal is strictly tradition. Where in scripture are you finding requirements for a seder meal?
Exodus 12 and 13, mainly.
Three different words are translated "Hell" in the New Testament. Let's see if we can locate the next arena for the Stanley Cup Playoff.
In 2 Peter 2:4 you will find the word "Tartarus" used to describe the place where the sinning angels have been kept in chains in dark, gloomy conditions. The New International Version even calls it "Dungeons". This place is also alluded to in Jude 6.
In Matthew 5:29 Jesus is talking about "Gehenna", which was a garbage dump outside the city limits of Jerusalem. You can also see Gehenna referred to in Mark 9:42-49, Luke 12:5, James 3:6, Matthew 10:28/18:9/23:15 and 23:33.
Of course we are all familiar with the term Hades. It means in the Greek....simply, the grave.
So....take your pick. I guess the only one where the ice might melt on the rink would be "Gehenna"....with its unquenchable fire. Tartarus is dark and gloomy and Hades, at 6 feet under, would just be unpractical.
Hell........ another piece of "Main Stream Christian" mythology....just like Easter.
Problem is a lot of the commands in the Torah, could no longer be carried out when the Temple was destroyed. Many Jewish traditions, though not found in the Bible, are attempts to symbolically replace the Temple practices.
Do you realize that calling a dog a pig doesn't make it a pig? In other words, calling a day 'passover' doesn't make it the passover of God.
You "pagans under every bed" fellows are amazing, and amusing. My God sat on paganism and smashed it flat; yours runs away from it.
My God tells me what days to observe in the bible. You disregard God's instructions in order to keep tradition. It's that simple.
Maybe you just never understood the difference between the OT and the NT ... which is precisely that
I understand that God created certain days to worship and honor him and never said to do otherwise.
Funny, I seem to recall this fellow named Paul who said that it was fine to eat meat sacrificed to idols if you didn't believe in the idol and didn't thereby scandalize anyone, because the idol was simply ... nothing. A non-entity.
Paul also said:
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Unbelievers and believers alike are yoked together with Easter. Unbelievers have the bunnies, the eggs, all the pagan symbols. Believers embrace the same symbols. You ARE yoked unequally with unbelievers whether you recognize it or not.
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
God doesn't create in vain and he didn't create holy days only to have man ignore them.
So why weren't the NT Gentile christians commanded ... or even encouraged ... to keep these days ?
There is easily a much stronger argument from the New Testament ... that it doesn't matter what special days one keeps ... than that it does.
There are twenty-one books of christian instruction from the Apostles in the New Testament. Though these are full of doctrine, encouragement, and command as to the specifics of christian living, ... the keeping of special days is almost never mentioned, ... and then not positively (i.e. as regards specific days to be kept).
My take on New Testament teaching is that it majors on the maturing and conditioning of the heart, ... rather than the keeping of any external practices.
Paul says that the christian's focus is to be love.
If one lives within the context of abiding in ... and the sharing of ... God's love, ... then one will be sure to be carryng out the will of God for one's life.
Keeping the Law is Old Testament stuff ... it only served to bring us to the knowledge that we need the Saviour.
Once we have come to the Saviour and have made our peace with God, ... we are free to live our christian lives as we are led by His Spirit, ... and according to the higher principle ... of God's love.
You're right. Paul was settling a dispute among the Christians in Rome who did not want to eat meat at all. That's why he says in verse 2 of Romans 14 "The one whose faith is weak eats only vegetables. He goes on to say, "Don't look down on them who do this"....and vice versa. He expostulates this position more in 1 Corinthians 8.
The reason the folks were unsure about this was because many meat markets in Rome sacrificed to idols....and they could never be sure of whether their meat purchase had been sacrificed or not. Many of them simply chose not to eat meat because of this....and a dispute evolved. Paul is saying in verse 1 of Romans 14, "Hey, this is no big deal!" "It is a disputable matter." "Don't pass judgment."
So.....what's your point?
Jews thought they were doing what the one, true God wanted. Most Christians today think they are doing the same.
If they (christians) are abiding in ... and spreading forth ... the love of God, ... they are doing what God wants.John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Shouldn't that be "yolked together"? 8>)
Believers embrace the same symbols.
No... People on both sides will often fight over the same symbols, because of the significance and power of the symbols. So, to take a political example, both Democrats and Republicans try to attach themselves to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, etc.
Vine's work is noteworthy for its scope, not its accuracy. He starts his research already convinced religiously of the premise that the entire Western culture is in apostasy, and has been for 1600 years. He is of no particularly impressive linguistic education. His work is of note because of its exhaustiveness, not its excellence. And he didn't come to his flaky beliefs as a result of his work, rather, he initiated his work to support his flaky beliefs.
Vine is writing in 1985, (according to you; I believe he was long dead by then, actually), and obviously belongs to a crackpot sect, given his labelling of the entirety of Western Christianity as apostate. Using a source who starts from the premise that most of Christianity is apostate to define a term which you think demonstrates that most of Christianity is apostate does not grant Vine much credibility.
So, we must look at Vine's assertions. Where does he get his ideas? Unfortunately, Vine was not scholarly enough to tell us. "Chaldean" refers to a region of the northern Persian gulf. The only ancient reference to Eostre is in the writings of a 7th-century historian in England. How can Vine possibly know the two are related? Certainly Ashtereth and Eostre are not obviously linked by their names.
What then? What so filled Vine that he could declare apostate most of Christianity, and also make the completely unfounded leap to declare that Eostre was Astarte? Their names are hardly that similar.
It's also interesting that Vine chose to relate Eostre to Astarte, and not any of the other gods who have been suggested to be related to Astarte, such as Ishtar (which seems more similar to Eostre), Ashtoreth, and even Aphrodite. Could it be because Astarte was a name used by Satanic cults? Could Vine be pushing (*gasp*) an agenda?
I'll type this slow so it'll get through:
Easter *is* Passover.
Groan... :-)
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