Is “Easter” in the original Scriptures?

[Bob Estey]

No, the Lord calls it passover... that's what the word was that the KJV translators translated to "easter" in error.

There was a day Jesus rose from the dead. We call it "Easter."

 

[Bob Estey]

There's not any rules that say we can't smoke crack either... but, God doesn't support that either View attachment 42280

The Pharisees were known for adding a lot of unnecessary rules on top of the ones the Lord gave us to obey. I don't think we need to add a rule that says we can't hide eggs.

 

[Big Boy Johnson]

There was a day Jesus rose from the dead. We call it "Easter."

No, the Lord calls it passover... that's what the word was that the KJV translators translated to "easter" in error.

 

[Bob Estey]

No, the Lord calls it passover... that's what the word was that the KJV translators translated to "easter" in error.

Passover is a major Jewish holiday. Jews don't recognize Jesus as the Christ.

 

[DJT_47]

Easter is an anomaly only found in the KJV and an improper translation by those translators who took the liberty to impose that word in lieu of 'pascha' which is translated as passover.

 

[JohnDB]

What's in a pronunciation or a term?

Especially when they change between languages.

What about eating a barbecued guinea pig for Easter? Would that be sacrilegious?

How about a baked/roasted pig?

Are there limits to how we celebrate any holiday or are there ways we must enact to celebrate holy days?

And exactly how and where are these ways and means referred to in scripture?

 

[Hobie]

Hi, SS!

King James-only-ism is a thing I held onto for a number of years simply because I was raised that way and when I transitioned from Baptist to Adventist, I found plenty of sympathizers. I read Wilkinson's "Vindicated" book and found it very impressive (although I can see it for what it is now).

I could've saved myself a lot of time if I'd only gotten my hands on some of Peter Ruckman's hack material. My dad used to watch him on TV in Pensacola and he really liked him. I thought he was a colossal jerk.

But, like with the "eternal security" doctrine I think that, in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn't a hill upon which I was prepared to die, and once I was exposed to some dispassionate criticism, it didn't take me long to realize that the non-English speaking peoples of the world were at a decided disadvantage if I were to cling to my pre-conceptions.


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Well, the Geneva Bible is not the easiest thing to read to say nothing to try to quote from it...

 

[BarneyFife]

Well, the Geneva Bible is not the easiest thing to read to say nothing to try to quote from it...

Why should non-English speaking folks have to depend on any English text if they have a decent native translation available to them? I'm not sure what your point is here, H.


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[DJT_47]

Only in the kjv, one of its few anomalies. The Greek word is 'pascha', which is passover, but the kjv translators took it upon themselves to substitute Easter because of the overlap of that pagan celebration which coincided with the passover at that time.

 

[Hobie]

Why should non-English speaking folks have to depend on any English text if they have a decent native translation available to them? I'm not sure what your point is here, H.


True, in Spanish we call it La 'Reina Valera' which is what most Latins have unless they are Catholic. My subtle point was I am not a KJV only adherent per se, but what else can one use since most new versions are changed by the distorted Alexandrian text they are based on.

 

[BarneyFife]

@Hobie

Can't quote your post properly.

Anyway, I read several dozen books on the subject and came to the conclusion that textual accuracy and all that junk is something the devil likes for us to worry about while we should really be reading the Bible, praying, studying, worship, serving others, or just changing the oil in the car He's letting us borrow until He burns it up.

You'll have to come to your own conclusions, of course.

Johannine commas and all that stuff just make me wanna dig a hole and bury myself. I don't want to turn into Bart Ehrman or William Lane Craig.


.

 

[BarneyFife]

Or worse yet, Matt Dillahunty

 

[Hobie]

@Hobie

Can't quote your post properly.

Anyway, I read several dozen books on the subject and came to the conclusion that textual accuracy and all that junk is something the devil likes for us to worry about while we should really be reading the Bible, praying, studying, worship, serving others, or just changing the oil in the car He's letting us borrow until He burns it up.

You'll have to come to your own conclusions, of course.

Johannine commas and all that stuff just make me wanna dig a hole and bury myself. I don't want to turn into Bart Ehrman or William Lane Craig.


.

Yes , it posted off a bit, but will show you where the changes actually affect doctrine, am on a tablet so hard to get to.my notes.

 

[BarneyFife]

Yes , it posted off a bit, but will show you where the changes actually affect doctrine, am on a tablet so hard to get to.my notes.

I'm not sure what you're asking here exactly, but I'm of a mind that there are no essential Bible doctrines that depend on disputed textual accuracies/inaccuracies.

I don't need any notes to show what I hold as orthodoxy in hardly any English version of which I am aware, and all of the striving over such things tends to perplex and discourage new believers, which is something I am slow to recommend, to put it lightly.

Perhaps you are familiar with the term "old landmarks" in church history.

Again, let everyone be convinced in their own mind. I don't wish to coerce others to make a standard of my opinions.

The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus...


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[Hobie]

Yes, as you have grown beyond just the milk, but what of those opening Gods Word for the first time or asking for truth, and the texts are gone or distorted or worse. Many of the 'old landmarks' are made unrecognizable by changes, its like when I am out in my sailboat and round past Biscayne Bay and look for the familiar lighthouse, which brings me to my safe landing...

 

[BarneyFife]

Yes, as you have grown beyond just the milk, but what of those opening Gods Word for the first time or asking for truth, and the texts are gone or distorted or worse. Many of the 'old landmarks' are made unrecognizable by changes, its like when I am out in my sailboat and round past Biscayne Bay and look for the familiar lighthouse, which brings me to my safe landing...

I've mentored countless new believers and, to my my knowledge, have never lost a single person to this issue. Some are more technical-minded (like myself—who had little or no mentoring) and are more difficult to reassure but, in the end, the Spirit is willing, even where the flesh is weak.


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[Aunty Jane]

Are there limits to how we celebrate any holiday or are there ways we must enact to celebrate holy days?

The answer is “YES”. God himself put limits on the “holy days” and “festivals” that the Jewish people celebrated or observed……the reason for that was when they were released from slavery in Egypt, and Moses was taking too long in the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments, the Israelites decided for themselves to hold “a festival to Jehovah”….but they did so with the trappings of Egyptian paganism. They coerced Aaron into making them a golden calf and they called it “Jehovah”……what was God‘s response?

Those who engaged in that false religious practice were put to death! Thereafter, God did not allow his people to hold any celebration or observance, unless he provided detailed instructions on what to celebrate and why….and they had to follow those instructions to the letter. No one was permitted to hold any celebration without God’s sanction. Sinful humans cannot be relied upon to make those choices, as is amply demonstrated with the two primary celebration in Christendom….both renamed pagan celebrations that have nothing whatever to do with Jesus Christ.

And exactly how and where are these ways and means referred to in scripture?

That is just the point…There are no “holy days“ mandated for Christians other than the memorial of Christ’s death, which was to be, like the Passover, celebrated on the correct date, annually rather than a day (or days) of the week to suit the church. Do you celebrate an anniversary on the date of that occasion or the closest day of the week?

There is no command to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, because that was simply to facilitate his return to heaven….a miraculous event without question….but it was the death of Christ that paid for mankind’s sin. Humans have again done what the ancient Israelites did with the golden calf….they mixed true worship with false worship….something the apostle Paul spoke about….

2 Cor 6:14-18…
”Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? 15 Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Beʹli·al? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: “I will reside among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 “‘Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in.’” 18 “‘And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.”

Paul leaves us in no bout about mixing true worship with false worship….”get out from among them and separate yourselves…and quit touching the unclean thing”….this is spiritually unclean practices that were introduced by men…..they were never sanctioned by God.
If we want to be God’s “sons and daughters” we cannot be found among those who blatantly practice what God condemns.

The pagan fertility goddess whose festival many unwitting “Christians” are celebrating has her name right there along with the fertility symbols she promoted….rabbits and eggs. There is nothing “Christian” about “Easter”.
It was the invariable policy of the early Church to give a Christian significance to favored pagan celebration that could not be rooted out. In the case of Easter the conversion was very easy. Joy at the rising of the natural sun, and the awakening of nature from the death of winter, became joy at the rising of the Sun of righteousness, at the resurrection of Christ from the grave.….too easy, but deceitful. It doesn’t “Christianize” the paganism, but “paganizes“ the Christianity.….defiling it.

 

[BreadOfLife]

Well, the thing is they replaced it with something of another origin. Easter was never about anything about Christ, but about continuing a pagan festival so they could get more people in so they would be more influential than the other churchs, bishops and Patriarchate. It was given a Christian veneer so pagans could join and continue as they had during the Empire. The pagan festival or Spring Equinox festival was characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death.

Easter is nothing else but Ashtarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the Queen of Heaven. The Easter "buns" were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess of Easter. As early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, fifteen hundred years before the Christian era. The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this offering when he says,

"The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven." Jeremiah 7:18.

The hot cross buns were given as offering on the festival of Astarte. The origin of the Easter egg, was from ancient times were they were used in religious rituals throughout Egypt and Greece. Eggs were hung for mystic purposes in temples. These sacred eggs can be traced to the banks of the Euphrates and Babylon paganism. Pagan priests were celibate, tonsured, and received the power of sacrificing for the living and the dead. The goddess in ancient religions was worshipped as the life giver and nurturer and as such, this religion was imbued with sexual undertones. Phallic symbols, as well as symbols of femininity and divine intercourse, were common in ancient temples. Other symbols of pagan worship include the solar wheel dating back to the Chaldeans of Babylon, halos, various pagan crosses, lightning bolts, hand-signals from sun worship cults, tridents, astrological signs, globes as symbols of rulership of the universe, sacred hearts as used in many sun cults, sacred animals, sacred trees, and prayer beads for repetitive prayers even though the Bible admonishes:

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Matthew 6:7

The Babylonian system of worship has essentially been maintained all the way to pagan Rome, and even is hidden as mysterys or ceremonies or otherwise to modern day and can be seen in some form or another.

NONSENSE.
Whereas the "Easter bunny" may find its roots in paganism - the Easter egg - and the word, "Ester" is ALL Christian.

Sadly, YOU'VE been sucked in by the idiotic nonsense about "Astarte" or "Ishtar" or some other pagan goddess, which has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Christian celebration of Easter..
Time for a Linguistics Lessen . . .

FIRST of all – YOU need to understand that English is a relatively NEW language on the world stage. Some scholarly sources point out that Ostern/Easter is most likely derived from "erstehen", which is the old Teutonic form of "auferstehen/auferstehung" meaning "resurrection".

Don't forget - in all of the Latin and Middleeastern languages - the word sounds NOTHING like "Easter".

So, IF Easter is derived from Eostra/Ostara, that would only prove a pagan influence on Christians who spoke Germanic tongues.

And NOT all Christians reefer to the Feast of the Resurrection as "Easter". Byzantine Christians use the Greek term "Pascha", a transliteration of the Hebrew word "Pesach", or Passover.
"Pascha" is also the name of this feast in Latin, the official language of the Roman Rite.
The Romance languages reflect this usage; the Italian word "Pasqua", the French "Paques".
The Spanish "Pascua" each derive from "Pascha", and ultimately from "Pesach".

So, it's absurd to assume that "Easter" comes from "Ishtar" or "Eostra" or "Ostara" - or ANY other such nonsense.

According to one scholarly linguistic source -
"More recent studies seem to indicate that Easter may be derived from the Latin phrase "hebdomada alba", the old term for Easter week based upon the wearing of white robes by the newly baptized. The octave of Easter, the following week, was known as "post albas", the time when the white robes were put away....Easter may thus mean "white" and be named from early Christian baptismal practices."
("Easter", The Dictionary of Bible and Religion, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1986) 287)

As for the Easter Egg – this tradition comes NOT from pagan bunnies or fertility gods - but from the ancient traditions surrounding the Lenten Season. Meat was not the only thing that was abstained from in the Early Church during Lent. For the Catechumens awaiting Baptism and entry into the Church - Eggs and ALL Dairy products were also abstained from. This is where we get the tradition of the Shrove Tuesday dinner of pancakes. They would use up all of their eggs and dairy prior to Ash Wednesday and make pancakes.

On Easter - eggs were painted RED - the traditional color of the Holy Spirit and happily feasted upon by those who abstained.

If you don't believe me - the Greek Orthodox still cling to this practice. In the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" - there is a scene where they are having Easter dinner and the girl, Toula picks up an RED egg along with her father and they crack them together. She says to him, "Cristos anesti (Christ is risen)", and he replies, "Alithos anesti (He us truly risen)."

If people just stopped and did some homework instead of inventing all of these fanciful fairy tales about the Church – you’d be a LOT less-confused . . .

 

[JohnDB]

The answer is “YES”. God himself put limits of the “holy days” and “festival” that the Jewish people celebrated or observed……the reason for that was when they were released from slavery in Egypt, and Moses was taking too long in the mountain receiving the 10 Commandments, the Israelites decided for themselves to hold “a festival to Jehovah”….but they did so with the trappings of Egyptian paganism. They coerced Aaron into making them a golden calf and they called it “Jehovah”……what was God‘s response?

Those who engaged in that false religious practice were put to death! Thereafter, God did not allow his people to hold any celebration or observance, unless he provided detailed instructions on what to celebrate and why….and they had to follow those instructions to the letter. No one was permitted to hold any celebration without God’s sanction. Sinful humans cannot be relied upon to make those choices, as is amply demonstrated with the two primary celebration in Christendom….both renamed pagan celebrations that have nothing whatever to do with Jesus Christ.

That is just the point…There are no “holy days“ mandated for Christians other than the memorial of Christ’s death, which was to be, like the Passover, celebrated on the correct date, annually rather than a day (or days) of the week to suit the church. Do you celebrate an anniversary on the date of that occasion or the closest day of the week?

There is no command to celebrate Christ’s resurrection, because that was simply to facilitate his return to heaven….a miraculous event without question….but it was the death of Christ that paid for mankind’s sin. Humans have again done what the ancient Israelites did with the golden calf….they mixed true worship with false worship….something the apostle Paul spoke about….

2 Cor 6:14-18…
”Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? 15 Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Beʹli·al? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement does God’s temple have with idols? For we are a temple of a living God; just as God said: “I will reside among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 “‘Therefore, get out from among them, and separate yourselves,’ says Jehovah, ‘and quit touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in.’” 18 “‘And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me,’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.”

Paul leaves us in no bout about mixing true worship with false worship….”get out from among them and separate yourselves…and quit touching the unclean thing”….this is spiritually unclean practices that were introduced by men…..they were never sanctioned by God.
If we want to be God’s “sons and daughters” we cannot be found among those who blatantly practice what God condemns.

The pagan fertility goddess whose festival many unwitting “Christians” are celebrating has her name right there along with the fertility symbols she promoted….rabbits and eggs. There is nothing “Christian” about “Easter”.
It was the invariable policy of the early Church to give a Christian significance to favored pagan celebration that could not be rooted out. In the case of Easter the conversion was very easy. Joy at the rising of the natural sun, and the awakening of nature from the death of winter, became joy at the rising of the Sun of righteousness, at the resurrection of Christ from the grave.….too easy, but deceitful. It doesn’t “Christianize” the paganism, but “paganizes“ the Christianity.….defiling it.

The first word of the Lord's Prayer is "our"....as in speaking collectively for a group.
Meaning worshipping, CELEBRATING, and of course praying together IN HARMONY with others IN HUMILITY is a mandate.

I think you have forgotten about this key principle. If people don't join you in your lack of doing anything then you need to join them when they do something.

 

[BlessedPeace]

Many preconceived ideas and wrong teachings can be brought in and have been, even by well meaning men and become tradition, but not be true. We see this in the idea that the wicked will continue to live eternally in hell, or that man is immortal, etc.. So we have to look at what was brought in from outside of the scriptures, and being picked up although not its true meaning. In the case of this preconception, it actually led to the word being changed from its original meaning, to "Easter". The Greek word that the King James Version translates as “Easter” is actually the word “Pascha” (Hebrew: פסח—Pesach) which means “Passover”. It was during an annual Passover celebration that Jesus was crucified at Jerusalem. Here is the text in question:

Acts 12:4 King James Version

"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."

We find it was translated incorrectly because the bible scholars preconceived ideas led them to this. If we look at the text from previous versions we find it was correctly translated...

Acts 12:4 1599 Geneva Bible

"4 [a]And when he had caught him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to be kept, intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people."

Acts 12:4 Wycliffe Bible

"4 And when he had caught Peter, he sent him into prison; and betook him to four quaternions of knights, to keep him, and would after pask bring him forth to the people [willing after pask to bring him forth to the people]."

And others..

Acts 12:4 Complete Jewish Bible

"4 so when Herod seized him, he threw him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each, with the intention of bringing him to public trial after Pesach."

Acts 12:4 Young's Literal Translation

"4 whom also having seized, he did put in prison, having delivered [him] to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him, intending after the passover to bring him forth to the people."

So how could this happen, why would such learned men change something from one meaning to another, simple, because of their preconceived ideas. You see, it has taken time, but Greek philosphy and Ghonosticism had been picked up and in Rome the old beliefs and festivals were still followed by the Romans and many Christian and leaders didnt see a problem with it. One of the first disputes arose as the bishop of Rome allowed the celebration of the Pasch or Passover to continue till the following Sunday so Christians could also celebrate Spring Equinox festival as they had done before. Now the danger of allowing the Christians to join in pagan solstice 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 ignored the warning and continued to allow the Passover to be observed on Sunday at the pagan Spring Equinox festival and we can see how the Pasch was change to the festival of Easter. But not only was it just the festival as more pagan converts came in, they were allowed to worship on the pagan Spring Equinox festival day which they were used to, while Christians continued to worship on Sabbath. 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. Now the danger of allowing the Christians to join in pagan solstice celebrations was overlooked as the new pagan 'converts' joined the church and swelled the numbers under the bishop of Rome. The festival on Easter controversy continued, with the Eastern churches giving it stiff opposition until the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., at which time Sunday was declared the official day for Easter observance. Emperor Constantine immediately followed this, the same year, with civil enactments enforcing it among the churches, and it began to take hold as we see to this day.

So now you can see how this led to the Bible Scholars changing Gods truth, to their preconception of what it was, yet it was from another tradition, not of God.

About Easter? Nothing.