lets spell it out with the OP shall we . "ash-WEDNESDAY"
It's only referred to as Ash
WEDNESDAY in English speaking countries because in English, that day of the week is called "
WEDNESDAY." That's all there is to it. In Germany, the day is referred to as
Aschermittwock (literally, ash mid week). Your whole point is silly.
Yes, you can blame the ENGLISH language (not the Roman Catholic Church or The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church or any other denomination) for the ENGLISH word for something when folks are speaking or using ENGLISH. Come on.....
Yes, we all know.... the roots to ENGLISH words have pagan origins. ORIGINS. Doesn't make them pagan days or even NOW pagan words but in any case, you seem to be confusing the ENGLISH LANGUAGE with most Christians Christian denominations which permit the use of the English language.
If you desire to abandon all words that have a pagan rather than Biblical origin - feel free (although you won't be able to post anymore; there just won't be words you can use). But it's profoundly silly to "blame" Christian denominations and Christian people for using proper ENGLISH when writing English rather than sticking solely to Hebrew or Koine Greek words which have their origins exclusively in God and not in any non-believing culture or person.
.:banghead:
I think it appears about 1000 years later .and is almost certainly of pagan origin.
The use of ashes to indicate personal mourning, repentance or humility —
goes back over three thousand years. Ashes were regarded as a symbol of personal remorse, repentance and sadness.
There are many Old Testament references to the practice. Here are just a few:
Job 42:6 (before 1000 BC) Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes."
Dan 9:3 (c. 550 B.C.) "And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and
ashes."
Jonah 3:5-6 In the fifth century B.C., after Jonah's preaching of conversion and repentance, the town of Nineveh proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, and the king covered himself with sackcloth and sat in the
ashes.
Esther 4:1 "When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on
ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry."
In NO cases were ANY rebuked for putting on ashes. Not in all the many cases in the Bible.
The very early Christian church encouraged the use of ashes for the same symbolic reasons.
Tertullian (c. 160-220 AD) wrote that the penitent "live without joy in the roughness of sackcloth and the squalor of ashes."
Eusebius (260-340 AD), the famous early church historian, recounted in his "The History of the Church" how a man named Natalis came to Bishop Zephyrinus clothed in ashes begging forgiveness. Also during this time, for those who were required to do public penance, the priest sprinkled ashes on the head of the person leaving confession.
Now, it may be true that other religions and cultures used ashes too but this doesn't make the practice pagan. LOTS of pagan cultures sing. And were singing LONG before Jesus was born but does that mean that ERGO Christians must not sing because singing is ALSO found in pagan cultures (perhaps even before Christians starting doing it)? Of course not, that whole premise is silly, laughable, and embraced by no one.
:banghead:
BOTH points of the opening post are simply absurd.
- Josiah
.