What is Easter

[hobie]

Many Christians think that Easter is the Pasch or Passover, and are surprised to find out it is not. Easter is anglo-saxon name for the Babylonian goddess Ishtar/Astarte: the queen of heaven, mother goddess. As for Easter, the name "Easter" never appears in the Greek New Testament. It has nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ. It was celebrated by pagans long before Jesus.

It was celebrated at vernal Equanox when the day is equal to night. Pagan holidays depend on the movement of the sun: equinox, solstice.

From Babylonian mythology, Easter/Ishtar (Ashtoreth in the Bible) conceived by the spirit of her dead husband and gave birth to Tammuz, the pagan messiah.

The bible tells us Solomon worshipped goddess Ishtar/Easter/Ashtoreth.

1 Kings 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

Also in 1 Kings 11:33 & 2 Kings 23:13. It's considered an abomination to the LORD.

To cover up the pagan connection, they claimed it was really a celebration of the resurrection of Christ and by the 8th century it had come to be applied to this so called anniversary of Christ's resurrection. This of course caused a major dispute when the bishop of Rome first allowed the celebration of the Pasch or Passover to continue till the following Sunday so the pagan 'convert' could also celebrate Spring Equinox festival as they had done before. Now the danger of allowing the Christians to join in pagan solistice celebrations was overlooked as the new pagan 'converts' joined the church and swelled the numbers under the bishop of Rome. But other Christian leaders saw the danger of worship according to the old pagan festivals and tried to stop it in what came to be known as Paschal/Easter controversies. The first recorded such controversy came to be known as the Quartodeciman controversy.

Eusebius of Caesarea (Church History, V, xxiii) wrote:
"A question of no small importance arose at that time [i.e. the time of Pope Victor I, about A.D. 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, according to an ancient tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon [of Nisan], on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch (epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes), contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour."

So the bishop of Rome began the practice of fixing the celebration of Passover for Christians on Sunday and it spread through the old areas of the Empire. Polycarp the disciple of John the Apostle who was now the bishop of Smyrna, came and confronted Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome who had allow the changes in the Passover and other changes to bring in converts. According to Irenaeus, around the 150s or 160, Polycarp visited Rome to discuss the differences that existed between the other centers of Christianity in Asia and Rome "with regard to certain things" and especially about the time of the Pasch or Passover which in Rome were now the Easter festivals. Irenaeus says that Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, observed the fourteenth day of the moon, whatever day of the week that might be, following therein the tradition which he derived from John the Apostle. Irenaeus said that on certain things the two bishops speedily came to an understanding, while as to the time of the Pasch and the change to Easter, each adhered to his own custom. Polycarp following the eastern practice of celebrating Passover on the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover, regardless of what day of the week it fell while the bishop of Rome let it be observed on Sunday.

So the Bishop of Rome ignore the warning and continued to allow the Passover to be observed on the day of the sun at the pagan Spring Equinox festival, so this is how the Pasch was change to the festival of Easter. But not only was it just the festival for a few, as more pagan converts came in, they were allowed to worship on the 'festival' day which they were used to, rather than the Sabbath as the Christians were doing.

With the passage of time the connection with the goddess was lost as the 'festival' spread beyond Rome, the only remaining meaning then being associated with the claim that it was the date of Christ's resurrection. Unquestionably the resurrection was of enormous importance but there is no date in the Bible when it occurred, other than to note in a factual manner that the resurrection occurred on the first day of the week.

https://www.khouse.org/articles/2012/1042/print/
https://www.vision.org/passover-easter-432
https://www.tomorrowsworld.org/magazines/2013/march-april/are-you-a-quartodeciman-should-you-be
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartodecimanism

 

[Josiah]

Easter is an English word for the Resurrection of Christ.

I believe Christ rose from the dead. So I embrace that reality and event, even celebrate it. One may not like the WORD "Easter" (perhaps preferring "Wester" or something) but that seems irrelevant. Actually, liturgically,the day on the calendar in English is called "The Festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord."


Sometimes people complain about the ORIGIN of some English words. Like Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Or a long, long, long list of other English words which often have ORIGINS in pre-Christian times. I think that's pretty irrelevant. But I'd be more convinced of their sincerity if they rejected ALL words in the English language that did not have clear and accurate CHRISTIAN origins. Problem is, there ain't many....




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[hobie]

Easter is an English word for the Resurrection of Christ.

I believe Christ rose from the dead. So I embrace that reality and event, even celebrate it. One may not like the WORD "Easter" (perhaps preferring "Wester" or something) but that seems irrelevant. Actually, liturgically,the day on the calendar in English is called "The Festival of the Resurrection of Our Lord."


Sometimes people complain about the ORIGIN of some English words. Like Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. Or a long, long, long list of other English words which often have ORIGINS in pre-Christian times. I think that's pretty irrelevant. But I'd be more convinced of their sincerity if they rejected ALL words in the English language that did not have clear and accurate CHRISTIAN meanings. Problem is, there ain't many....

Nothing till centuries after Christ, and it was a long held pagan festival, dig deeper.

 

[Josiah]

Nothing till centuries after Christ, and it was a long held pagan festival, dig deeper.

I reject that celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus is a pagan festival. I simply don't buy that.


Again, you MAY object to the origins of some English WORDS.... and I'll give that some credibility if I note that you NEVER use an English word that does not have a clear, obvious CHRISTIAN origin. But good luck with that.

 

[MennoSota]

Easter is a pagan celebration of fertility consumed by the Roman Church in order to rule the pagans and force them into obedience to the State run religion. Christians should ignore the word and go back to remembering the atoning sacrifice of Christ on Passover. We should celebrate the sedir meal and follow Christ's replacement of himself as the blood and body of the slain lamb, which redeems the children of the promise.

 

[tango]

Nothing till centuries after Christ, and it was a long held pagan festival, dig deeper.

I think this is one of those things where the quick and easy "aha, gotcha" kind of objection to Easter, usually from people opposed to Christianity for whatever reason, sounds good and is presented as if someone has thought up a really clever argument, but falls flat on so many levels.

Yes, Easter is named after a pagan goddess of fertility. Ishtar/Eostre was the wife of Tammuz, and the two were associated with the cycle of death and rebirth. In Ezekiel chapter 8 (I think, might be a little either side) one of the abominations Ezekiel is shown is people in the temple weeping for Tammuz. That was the done thing in pagan circles - the god would "die" with all the vegetation only to be reborn in the spring. Tammuz was associated with the cyclical death, Ishtar with the cyclical rebirth. Many of the symbols associated with Easter are symbols of fertility - eggs are obviously things that initiate new life and I'm sure no explanation of how rabbits relate to fertility is required.

The question that all this has to lead into is very simple - what of it? If we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead we commemorate it. Does it matter that we commemorate it on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring equinox? In many ways it's like Christmas - there's little to no evidence that Jesus was born on December 25 and it matters little whether we got the date right. Jesus never told us to commemorate the exact date, that's something that we decided to do somewhere in history. What matters is that Jesus came, not the precise date he happened to be born. What matters is that Jesus died and rose again, not the precise dates it all happened. If we got the date wrong, so what?

To be honest it troubles me when things get made up to explain why the symbols of fertility have anything to do with Jesus. I've heard children being told that eggs are symbols of new life (which is true enough) but in my childhood I remember being told that the stone in front of the tomb was egg-shaped. This sort of thing seems to be setting children up to struggle with faith later - when they come to realise that actually rabbits have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ whatsoever we shouldn't be surprised if they start to ask what other improbable-sounding aspects of the faith are also made up. If we lied to them about the rabbits, we shouldn't be surprised if they wonder whether we also lied about this unlikely-sounding story of a guy named Jesus who came back to life.

It can be hard enough, especially for younger people, to defend their beliefs in the face of scientific objection so to give their opponents such easy fodder as the Easter Bunny seems to be inviting trouble.

 

[FredVB]

Easter of course is an english word that Christians today, but not really others who have Easter observances, associate with remembering the resurrection of Christ. It is not in the Bible though (translations having this word have added it in place of the word already there). The issue to some believers is that it is a word for celebration that is from pagan origin. That is not on the same level as other words of pagan origin. None of us celebrate Thursday just for being Thursday. It is just the name we use for the day, as it it with words for other days, these are not celebrated. But this holiday with pagan origin behind it is celebrated, and there are the believers legitimately concerned with it being associated with things that are meaningful in Christianity, when there is nothing in the Bible in support of the observance as a day of the year. And there are in some cases similar issues with other yearly observances.

 

[Josiah]

It seems a FEW Christians don't like the origin of the ENGLISH word "easter." Fine. Silly, but fine. Then don't use it.

The same people also should protest the English words "Monday" "Tuesday" "Wednesday" "Thursday" and "Friday." And nearly half of the words in the English language.

 

[atpollard]

In 8th Century German, the Teutonic words for the goddess Easter, the direction East, the Sunrise (in the east) are all related. The Roman Priests at that time wore WHITE robes on Resurrection Sunday Mass (which always occurs around the same time as Passover which always occurs around the Spring Equinox). The German Christians living in Rome (read about the Gothic Invasions) called Resurrection Sunday as “White” Sunday after the color of the robes. The word for “white” could be translated as either “White” or “East/Sunrise/goddess Easter” in the northern Germanic language, so “White Sunday” (named for the robes) became “East/Sunrise Sunday” due to a mistranslation, but it was still appropriate given the biblical resurrection story and traditional Sunrise Mass on Resurrection Sunday. “Easter” is the anglicized version of the Teutonic (Old German) word for “East” and “Sunrise” and “the name of the goddess of the East and the sunrise”.

So the assumption that the word Easter is named after the goddess is at best a part-truth and at worst a convenient lie. Easter means “Sunrise” and the direction “East” every bit as much as it is the name of an ancient goddess of those things. So “Easter Sunday” is really “Sunrise Sunday” (named after the Sunrise Service to remember the Resurrection), or “East Sunday” (as in the light breaking forth from darkness and the direction of the Holy Land from Europe), or a mistranslation of “White Sunday” (after the white liturgical robes traditionally worn).

 

[Particular]

It seems a FEW Christians don't like the origin of the ENGLISH word "easter." Fine. Silly, but fine. Then don't use it.

The same people also should protest the English words "Monday" "Tuesday" "Wednesday" "Thursday" and "Friday." And nearly half of the words in the English language.

Do each of those days pertain to the resurrection of the God/Man?
It would be a blessed thing to change the name to "Resurrection Sunday."
You are correct, not all Christianity has to call this special day of remembrance, Easter. Indeed, not all Christianity celebrates Resurrection Sunday on the same Sunday. My personal preference is to celebrate Resurrection Sunday on the Sunday of Passover.

 

[Michael]

Although I normally refer to it as "Resurrection Day", I have no problem with "Easter" as it is commonly known in Christendom today.

"Easter" is the day my family recognizes as the day on which our Lord Jesus Christ came forth from the tomb as the "Firstborn from the dead."

The origins of the word mean little to me. What the Day signifies is of infinitely greater importance than being distracted by semantics which only cause our focus to shift from the Truth that our Lord who was crucified is now alive!

Every year the term "Easter" or the fact that we celebrate "Christmas" on the 25th of December always seems to get a group or two in the churches all worked up, and they tell the rest of us we are really honoring pagan gods or worshiping Nimrod or some other such nonsense. These have only allowed themselves to be distracted from fixing their eyes on Jesus and tuning their ears to "hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches."

 

[Josiah]

Do each of those days pertain to the resurrection of the God/Man?

There seems to be an objection to using English words that have pagan origins. Except the complaint is only about ONE such word. What about MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY and FRIDAY? Those English words all have pagan origin, infact they refer to pagan gods. They seem to have no problem using word that's about pagan gods.... not to mention MANY other English words they use that also have pagan origins. Just one.

It would be a blessed thing to change the name to "Resurrection Sunday."

As mentioned, the day is called "The Festival of the Resurrection of our Lord." The SEASON is called "Easter" in English. Thursday is called Thursday in English because it originally honored the god Thor. Is that it's meaning today? When the opening poster uses the word "Thursday" are they therefore honoring the god Thor? If so, then why does he use the word? If not, then there goes the entire point.





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[Particular]

There seems to be an objection to using English words that have pagan origins. Except the complaint is only about ONE such word. What about MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY and FRIDAY? Those English words all have pagan origin, infact they refer to pagan gods. They seem to have no problem using word that's about pagan gods.... not to mention MANY other English words they use that also have pagan origins. Just one.





As mentioned, the day is called "The Festival of the Resurrection of our Lord." The SEASON is called "Easter" in English. Thursday is called Thursday in English because it originally honored the god Thor. Is that it's meaning today? When the opening poster uses the word "Thursday" are they therefore honoring the god Thor? If so, then why does he use the word? If not, then there goes the entire point.





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English certainly borrows from Latin. No doubt it's not called Thursday in the Mandarin language. However, with Easter you get the Easter Bunny, chocolate eggs and other secular/pagan festivals, which have been co-oped into various Christian families.
As I stated, I prefer Resurrection Sunday and I prefer to celebrate on the weekend of Passover. It's preference. I defur to society as I can't force a change on what is for many just a family tradition and a chance to dress their children in special clothes for the grandparents to see.

 

[George]

The Orthodox call it Pascha.

 

[tango]

Although I normally refer to it as "Resurrection Day", I have no problem with "Easter" as it is commonly known in Christendom today.

"Easter" is the day my family recognizes as the day on which our Lord Jesus Christ came forth from the tomb as the "Firstborn from the dead."

The origins of the word mean little to me. What the Day signifies is of infinitely greater importance than being distracted by semantics which only cause our focus to shift from the Truth that our Lord who was crucified is now alive!

Every year the term "Easter" or the fact that we celebrate "Christmas" on the 25th of December always seems to get a group or two in the churches all worked up, and they tell the rest of us we are really honoring pagan gods or worshiping Nimrod or some other such nonsense. These have only allowed themselves to be distracted from fixing their eyes on Jesus and tuning their ears to "hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches."

True, at Christmas there's always the discussion about the passage in (I think) Jeremiah 17 that talks about the people who bring a tree into their house and adorn it with gold and silver, and how heathen we all must be if we bring a tree into our house and adorn it with cheap petrochemical byproducts that glitter. My wife and I haven't had a Christmas tree since we welcomed a kitten into our home but even when we did we somehow managed to walk past it without worshipping it, which seems to have been more of a problem in Jeremiah's day than the fact a tree was indoors.

 

[hobie]

The Orthodox call it Pascha.

Well, its not that if you look at the historical breakdown of what occurred that led to the pagan festivals such as Easter that entered the church in the early centuries. Most originated in Rome and from here they gradually spread to many of the western churches, and then to some of the eastern ones. Until the fourth century and some time beyond, the eastern churches, being farther from Rome, tended to remain closer to the teachings of the Apostles.

Pagan sun worship continued to be the official religion of the empire until Constantine would make the changes that would allow it to be 'christianized'. The early church especially in Rome, compromised and began to let pagan sun worship and festivals creep in and basically there was no one to stop it as most of the disciples were gone by 65 A.D. John, the last of the Apostles, died just before 100 A.D. Then came a clash as the pagan festival day was instated in Rome in the Quartodeciman Controversy

About the year 154 A.D., Anticetus, bishop of the church at Rome, authorized a Sunday festival to correspond with the Attis fertility festival. This was a combining of Mithra, Attis and Christ and would better appeal to the heathen, he thought. Polycarp who was a close friend of the Apostle John before his death, the same one who tried to win Anticetus back to the true Sabbath, also tried to dissuade him from keeping the pagan festivals. But he failed in his efforts and returned with a sad report to the brethren in the eastern churches.

Then in In 195 A.D., Victor, bishop of Rome, tried to force all of the eastern church leaders to keep the annual celebration of Christ's resurrection on Sunday. Of course, the bishops of the other churches protested, insisting that if done at all, the Biblical precedent for this was on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan [Ex 10,12,14, Lev 23:5].

But Victor would not consider this, and had the boldness to write letters "ex-communicating" all leaders and churches that refused to do as he said. He declared all the churches of Asia to be apostates because they would not follow his example in the matter. Back in those days, some churches were more influential than others, but none were "over" the others. What Victor tried to do in 195 AD. was basically trying to consolidate all religious power of the church under Rome. This was probably the first time in history that the bishop of Rome attempted to gain control over all the other churches. One scholar, Dr. Bower, in his History of the Popes, calls it "The first essay of papal usurpation." or what we would call it, "the first attempt at papal takeover." A careful study of the historical records reveals that gradually, with the passing of the years, the Roman bishop tended to use his new day, Sunday, as a ploy for political supremacy over the other churches. Victor's decree was the first ecclesiastical Sunday Law of any kind, in history.

The Roman church instituted the new Easter Sunday to avoid appearing to be "Judaizers" to the Roman authorities. There is a direct relationship between observing an Easter Sunday and a weekly Sunday as a day of worship. Each Sunday is held to be a "mini Easter" in commemoration of the (supposed) resurrection of Christ. Tertullian states, "On Sunday it is unlawful to fast or to kneel while worshipping. We enjoy the same liberty from Easter to Pentecost." Origin states "The resurrection of the Lord is celebrated not only once a year but constantly every eight days." Eusebius says, "While the Jews faithful to Moses, sacrificed the Passover lamb once a year . . . we men of the New Covenant celebrate every Sunday our Passover."

The same causes that led to the abandonment of the Sabbath for Sunday were instrumental in the abandonment of Passover for Easter. With the abandonment of Passover came the abandonment of the Hebrew Calendar. Mario Righetti, a well known Catholic liturgist, states that Rome and Alexandria after "having eliminated the Judaizing Quartodeciman tradition [annual Passover on Nisan 14], repudiated even the Jewish computations, making their own time calculations, since such a dependence on the Jews must have appeared humiliating."

The Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) settled the Quartodeciman Controversy in favor of Easter. It enjoined "All the brethren in the East who formerly celebrated Easter with the Jews, will henceforth keep it at the same time as the Romans, with us and with all those who from ancient times have celebrated the feast at the same time with us." Further, Constantine's Nicean letter stated "Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd . . . ."

 

[Josiah]

Easter is the English word for the celebrating of the Resurrection of Our Lord.

If you passionately deny that event and thus don't want to celebrate it, that's fine with me.

But the complaining about the pagan origins of a LOT of English words is just silly.

 

[hobie]

Easter is the English word for the celebrating of the Resurrection of Our Lord.

If you passionately deny that event and thus don't want to celebrate it, that's fine with me.

But the complaining about the pagan origins of a LOT of English words is just silly.

Dig a little deeper, here is a site with the explanation: "The word “Easter” in acts 12:4 of the King James Version is a mistranslation of the Greek pascha. All other translations have subsequently rendered it correctly as “Passover”. The well-known Barnes Notes comments on this mistranslation in this single occurrence of the word “Easter” in the King James Version, as follows, “There was never a more absurd or unhappy translation than this.” Not only is the name “Easter” incorrect, but also the time of the feast....The passover dispute between the Western Church and the more Scripture-adhering believers of the Near East was finally settled by Constantine’s Council of Nicaea in the year 325, where it was decided that Easter was to be kept on Sun-day, and on the came Sun-day throughout the world and that “none should here-after follow the blindness of the Jews.”58 Prior to that, Polycarp, the disciple of the Apostle John, had learned from the apostle himself that the 14th Abib was the Scriptural day of the year, which had been legislated in the Old Testament to determine the onset of the Passover, which Yahushúa kept the night that He was betrayed. Polycarp, Polycrates, Apollinarius and others contended for the correct calculation of the Passover Memorial Supper (and the events following it), to be reckoned as beginning from the 14th Abib (Nisan). Now, with Constantine taking the lead, the Council of Nicaea decided to reject the Scriptural way of determining the correct date according to the yearly date, in favour of Easter Sun-day, according to a day of the week. Constantine exhorted all bishops to embrace “the practice which is observed at once in the city of Rome, and in Africa; throughout Italy, and in Egypt.”59 Another fragment records that Constantine urged all Christians to follow the custom of “the ancient church of Rome and Alexandria.”...http://come-out-of-her-my-people.com/easter/

 

[Albion]

When Christians actually start worshipping pagan deities with pagan ceremonies on Resurrection Sunday, I will be alarmed.

Until that happens, I am not going to be venerating a teenage girl who claimed to have had conversations with God that turned out to be nothing more than a bad rendition of what she read in some history book.

 

[hobie]

When Christians actually start worshipping pagan deities with pagan ceremonies on Resurrection Sunday, I will be alarmed.

Until that happens, I am not going to be venerating a teenage girl who claimed to have had conversations with God that turned out to be nothing more than a bad rendition of what she read in some history book.

Think about it, Christians getting up early morning and worship facing the rising sun........check this site https://www.reviewofreligions.org/2306/ancient-sun-worship/