Part One of a Series
Easter has traditions that are not as pure and holy as people would like to believe. Many people know nothing of the pagan origins of the holiday. Many people simply do not care to find out the truth. The following should bring some fascinating reading and something to think about, to say the very least.
Origins of Easter:
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.”
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 Encyclopedia Americana says:
“Easter is a convergence of three traditions, (1) Pagan. According to the Venerable Bede, English historian of the early eighth century, the word is derived from the Norse Ostara or Eostare, meaning the festival of spring, at the vernal equinox, when nature is in resurrection after winter. Hence, the rabbits, notable for their fecundity, and the eggs colored like rays of the returning sun, and the northern lights, or aurora borealis.”
And according to the second century historian Eusebius the history is the same. The name of Easter is pagan in origin also. “The Greek ‘pascha’, formed from the Hebrew, is the name of the Jewish festival, applied invariably in the primitive church to designate the festival of the Lord’s resurrection, which took place at the time of the passover. Our word, Easter, is of Saxon origin, … (The church history of Eusebius)
Easter did not become a Christian holiday until the second century after Christ’s death.
End of Part One
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7 Responses to “Easter: Pagan Holiday?”
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Really interesting post. I’ll keep it in mind on Sunday.
Yes this is true just remember it is how your local church handles the easter holiday that is important do they focus on easter as in the last days for christ or do they focus on easter as a message for lost soles
kinda like christmas…it was really the solstice folks were celebrating. from what i’ve read, the culture-hero, jesus, wasn’t even born in the winter…but the folks who forced the religion on the indigenous peoples of northern europe…used the local religions to do so.
Most of Christianity is an evolution of paganism weather or not people want to accept it. They can’t. Because the very religion they have been condeming (even Islam) is their own.
When people start to realise that all is one, then they will start to see a very different story. Because no matter who and or what they hate, what they are afraid of, they are it!
Of course, no one will realise this until enlightenment.
Peace.
i think soon all holidays will merge into one n its only soo celebrated because of shops
Religeous fanatics all over the world have been, and will always be, convinced that they’re “way” is “the one”….Wars of greed, oppression, manipulation, deciept for the purposes of power,control, and profit. None has used theyr’es more effectively than the christians, as is easily evident to any truely enlightened soul. This being said, I believe this fact will be obvious at some point,….As the populations of the world, the common folk,the slaves you could call them, ….. when knowledge can no longer be kept from them, and they are finnaly able to read, and read what they will, they will realize that religeon serves no purpose other than its own, the world will be a better place without it, and we will outgrow the need for it. Like a pacifyer is to a child, so is religeon to man. One day we will all see that it not only looks silly stuck in your face, it makes it hard to communicate. The next step in evolution for humans is the retirement of religeon,..it will be a long time,.. i wont see it. Nor you. But i have faith it will happen. Maybe when we learn to use a little more of our unused brain power ! lol ……… P.S. I would think many will be releived that they have no real purpose ! Life itself is enough of a burden for most. …… Cheers !
I for one will never outgrow the need for God or for religion. I was merely pointing out that paganism has crept into Christianity.