"Easter" or "Passover"?

[Anna]

Easter
This article on Easter is divided into three sections. In the first section I explore the only passage where the word Easter is found in scripture. In the second section I take a look back at where Easter is believed to have originated. And lastly I answer a question as to why the Easter holiday is not on a set day of the year like others.

Easter in Acts 12:4 - Is it a mistranslation? Yes it is!

Acts 12:4

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.(KJV)

The word "Easter" in Acts 12:4 of the King James Version is often seen as a mistranslation of the Greek word pascha. Even the well-known Barnes' Notes comments on 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."

But the truth is that the word "Easter" is the correct word and the KJV is the only version that gets it right! If you read in Exodus 12 and Numbers 28:16-17 it will be clear that the Passover came before the days of unleavened bread.

In fact, by translating the Greek word pascha as "passover" in Acts 12:4 modern bibles have inserted an error that displays not only their lack of knowledge of the Greek in context, but even more so their lack of knowledge of English!

Of a truth that person who invented the word "passover" - William Tyndale, did not use the word he invented (passover), in Acts 12:4. Why? Because the days of unleavened bread come after Passover. That's one reason why Tyndale did not use the word passover in Acts 12:4. The second reason is because Herod was looking forward to the pagan feast of Ishtar, from which the word "Easter" is derived, and therefore Tyndale, did not use the word "passover" in Acts 12:4 in his own translation.

Don't believe me? Check these things out for yourself:

The seven days of unleavened bread always followed the Passover.

The pagan festival of Astart or Ishtar (Easter) was always held late in April to celebrate the earth regenerating itself after winter.

Peter was arrested during the days of unleavened bread after Passover.

To me there is not doubt that Herod wanted to kill Peter during his own pagan festival of Easter coming up in a few days.

What is the origin of Easter? Where did it come from?

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 same Sun-day throughout the world and that "non should hereafter follow the blindness of the Jews." 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 our Saviour 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). [1]

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 favor 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." Another fragment records that Constantine urged all Christians to follow the custom of "the ancient church of Rome and Alexandria." [2]

The case for the yearly Easter Sun-day was held in common with the case for the weekly Sun-day. Origen wrote, "The resurrection of the Master is celebrated not only once a year but constantly every eight days." Eusebius also stated, "While the Jews, faithful to Moses, sacrificed the Passover lamb once a year. . .we men of the New Covenant celebrate our Passover every Sunday." Pope Innocent I wrote, "We celebrate Sunday because of the Venerable resurrection. . .not only at Easter but. . .every Sunday." [3]

But where did this Easter Sun-day originate? Any encyclopedia or dictionary, such as The Oxford English Dictionary, will supply the answer; Easter had a pre-Christian origin, namely a festival in honour of Eostre, the Teutonic dawn-goddess, also known as Eos, the Greek dawn-goddess, ans as Usha or Ushas, the Hindu dawn-goddess. This Eostre was also known to be the spring goddess and the goddess of fertility. Thus, another form of Sun-worship, another variant in the form of a dawn-deity, Eostre, also called Eastre, Eostra or Ostara, was adopted by, or merged with Christianity. This same dawn-goddess was also well known in the Greek Classics (Homer, Hesiod) as Eos (the Roman Aurora) and the Assyrian Ishtar, goddess of the morning. In classical mythology Eos was an amorous deity and the idea of fertility with its fertility-symbols of eggs and rabbits was to be expected. Any reference work will testify to the fact of the origin of Easter eggs and the Easter rabbit or bunny, because "Easter" was not only goddess of dawn but also goddess of spring with all its fertility-symbols and fertility-rites. [4]

This word Eos, Eostre, Ostara, is related to the Sanskrit and Vedic usra or ushas, the Zendic ushastara and the Lithuanian Ausra, the old Teutonic austron, and the male spring or dawn deity of the Norwegians, Austri, of which we read in the Edda. Most likely this Eostre, dawn deity/fertility deity, is the same as Ashtaroth and Ashtoreth (the latter being changed because of deliberate Hebrew misvocalization). The name Astarte was Ishtar in Nineve. She was also known as the "queen of heaven." [5]

Let us further examine the festival of this dawn- or spring-deity. Just like Eostre, the dawn-deity of the Germanic tribes, we find Eos, the dawn-deity of the Greeks, who although married to Tithonus, was consistently faithless to him, which accounts for the blush of dawn. She was known to be the sister of Helios, the Sun-deity, and represented in sculpture with radiant sun-rays around her head. [6]

Similarly, and probably the same origin of this Eos and Eostre, we find in Hindu mythology the goddess of dawn to be Ushas, daughter of Heaven. Other spring festivals were celebrated, with the rites of Adonis or of Tammus (well known as the youthful Sun-deity) which were held in summer in some places, but held in spring in others, such as in Sicily and Syria, our dead and risen Messiah being assimilated to the pagan celebration of the dead and risen Adonis (Tammuz). This "weeping for Tammuz" is exactly what Yahuweh included amongst His verdict of "wicked abominations," as we read in Eze. 8:9, 14. [7]

Rev. Alexander Hislop comments on this fusion of the Scriptural Passover Memorial (and the events following it in the New Testament) with that of the pagan spring celebrations: "To conciliate the pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing ists usual policy, took measures to get Chrisitan and pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in general, to get paganism and Christianity--now far sunk in idolary--in this as in so many other things, to shake hands." [8]

Sir James Frazer similarly comments, "When we reflect how often the Church has skillfully contrived to plant the seeds of the new faith on the old stock of paganism, we may surmise that the Easter celebration of the dead and risen Messiah was grafted upon a similar celebration of the dead and risen Adonis. . .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 danerous rivals." [9]

Adonis was known also as the Phrygian Attes, Attis, Atys. Attis was beloved by Cybele, the "Mother of the Gods," the great Asiatic goddess of fertility, who had her chief home in Phrygia. Some held that Attis was her son. The worship of Attis and Cybele was adopted in 204 B.C.E. by the Romans where the great spring festival in their honour became well known. This festival lasted from the 22nd to the 25th of March, the last day, when the mourning was turned to joy for the resurrection of the dead Attis. Attis was also identified with the Sun. The 25th March was regarded as the vernal (spring) equinox, and we can easily see how the pagan worshippers of many different pagan religions were reconciled with the Messianic Belief, by means of assimilating a similar commemoration, but which had a different date, according to the day of the year, and not according to the day of the week, the Sun-day, Easter Sun-day, year after year. This was the decision taken by the Council of Nicaea. [10]

Futhermore, not only was the time of the Scriptural feast supplanted by the pagan day's date, but also the rites of the pagan Easter took over, namely the fertility pagan symbols of Easter eggs and Easter rabbits (bunnies), and also the Easter buns, the hot-cross buns. [11]

The "buns," known by the identical name boun, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven already 1500 years before the Christian era. They were also known amongst the Teutonic tribes as osterstuopha and moonshaped ostermane. Even the round shape of them with the cross on top exactly represents the very ancient symbol of the sun, namely the cross with a circle around it. This was especially known to be the symbol of the Babylonian Sun-deity. The circled cross was also later found on a coin of Julius Caesar, 100-44 B.C.E., and subsequently on coins stuck by Caesar's heir, Augustus 20 B.C.E., and by Hadrian and other Roman emperors. [12]

How then were these things ever permitted to enter in? In an attempt to justify this, the Church uses the term "Christianization." The adoption of these pagan emblems of Easter eggs, Easter rabbits and Easter buns, are explained by The Catholic Encyclopedia, "a great many pagan customs celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. . .The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility." [13]

The whole subject of Easter, its Sunday-emphasizing date, and its pagan emblems and rites, such as Easter sunrise services, is crowned by the general admission that the word "Easter" is derived from the name of a goddess, the dawn-goddess, the spring-deity, the goddess of fertility. [14]

**Note: Taken from "Come Out of Her My People" by C.J. Koster

There are a number of interesting things I could point to about the so-called history of these pagan origins. The sad truth is that most “pagan origin” claims come from the work of an Alexander Hislop. For those who have taken the time to check out Hislop, they will discover that his research on the pagan origins is often contradictory. Read what “The Saturday Review” dated September 17, 1859, p. 340. had to say about Hislop’s work:

In the first place, his whole superstructure is raised upon nothing. Our earliest authority for the history of Semiramis wrote about the commencement of the Christian era, and the historian from whom he drew his information lived from fifteen hundred to two thousand years after the date which Mr. Hislop assigns to the great Assyrian Queen. The most lying legend which the Vatican has ever endorsed stands on better authority than the history which is now made the ground of a charge against it.

Secondly, the whole argument proceeds upon the assumption that all heathenism has a common origin. Accidental resemblances in mythological details are taken as evidence of this, and nothing is allowed for the natural working of the human mind.

Thirdly, Mr. Hislop’s method of reasoning would make anything of anything. By the aid of obscure passages in third-rate historians, groundless assumptions of identity, and etymological torturing of roots, all that we know, and all that we believe, may be converted…into something totally different.

Fourthly, Mr. Hislop’s argument proves too much. He finds not only the corruptions of Popery, but the fundamental articles of the Christian Faith, in his hypothetical Babylonian system…

We take leave of Mr. Hislop and his work with the remark that we never before quite knew the folly of which ignorant or half-learned bigotry is capable. [15]

Now about C.J. Koster's book "Come Out Of Her, My People", Roy Ingle, a Christian book reviewer, had the following to say:

C.J. Koster's COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE was given to me by a lady who left our church for the radical Messianic Jewish followers such as Koster and Michael Rood. I read the book with great doubts about the book since most serious Messianic Jewish Gentiles I have met were simply bizarre. This book did nothing more than confirm this view.

Koster appears to have taken most of his information from the cult, the Assemblies of Yahweh. His insistance upon using the various Hebrew names for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit go from poor understandings of the Greek language to flat out denials. His writing style is poor and the structure of the book appears to not have been very well thought out. Koster appears mad throughout the book at the "established Church" and he seems mad enough to essentially condemn anyone who calls the holy Scriptures "the Bible" or calls Yahushua "Jesus" or has a cross up in their meetings or calls their assemblies "church" or who worship on Sunday (or some other day other than Saturday and dare not call the days or months by its Greek names!) than they are going to burn forever. Further, any follower of the Messiah not keeping the entire Law of Moses is lost! Ironically, few Jews have "converted" to Messianic Jewish roots despite Koster's belief that this will usher in a great harvest of Jews into the kingdom of Elohim. Could it be they see the error of the Sacred Name Movement as do many Gentiles such as I?

For me, Koster and the rest of the radical Messianic follwers are nothing more than the Pharisees of Acts 15. They seek to add to the salvation given to us by Jesus Christ (Acts 15:9-11). They want us to keep the Law of Moses but not one person (including themselves) is capable of doing so (Galatians 3:11). How sad that these men have dived into a works salvation that focuses on rules rather than on Christ's atoning sacrifice (Colossians 2:11-23). I for one thank God that I am free from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13-14) and that Jesus brings no condemnation (Romans 8:1-4; Galatians 5:1-13). [16]

Why is Easter not on a set day?

I had a visitor ask me why the date of Easter is not a set date as other holidays are. I found this to be a good question and have provided the answer below.

Prior to the time of Pope Victor I (189-c. 198), the Western churches as a rule kept Easter on the first day of the week, while many of the Eastern churches, conforming to the Jewish rule, observed it on the fourteenth of the month of Nisan. Through the energetic efforts of Pope Victor, the latter practice gradually disappeared. But another problem came to the fore: granted that Easter was to be kept on Sunday, how was that Sunday to be determined? The Council of Nicaea (325) paved the way for a final settlement by ruling that Easter is to be observed by all on the same Sunday, that this must be the sunday following the fourteenth day of the paschal moon, and that that moon was to be accounted the paschal moon whose fourteenth day followed the vernal equinoz. Because of differences in the sytems of chronology followed in various places, however, the decrees of Nicaea did not immediately remove all difficulties nor win universal acceptance. The Gregorian correction of the calendar in 1582, moreover, introduced still further discrepancies. Throughout Western Christendom the corrected calendar is now universally accepted, and Easter is solemnized on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox, with the result that the earliest possible date is March 22, the latest, April 25. In the east, however, the calendar has not been brought into accord with the Gregorian reform, and the day for Easter seldom coincides with the Western date. In recent years laudable endeavors have been made to fix the date of Easter, but definite results are still awaited

[Eric Hancock]

I am going to get back with you because I have some information I believe that is mirroring what your saying