What is Easter?
What is Easter?
- Easter is a creation of the Catholic Church and adapted to by the Protestant Christian church.
The Catholic Church dubbed the Biblical Passover as a Jewish festival and replaced Passover with the pagan Saxon name Easter, creating the façade of a New Christian holy day to be observed by Catholics and Christians instead of celebrating the Biblical Passover as Commanded by YeHoVaH.
Yeshua was crucified on Passover. The Catholics changed the name of Passover to Easter and gave Easter a new meaning to refer to the resurrection.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua have become the foundation and cornerstone of the American Gospel. The Catholic Church created a Good Friday as the day Yeshua was crucified instead of Passover and an Easter Sunday narrative surrounding the resurrection that the Protestant Christian Church embraced and continued when it broke away from the Catholic Church. The modern day Charismatics mutated that narrative into a Resurrection Sunday doctrine.
When Is Easter?
- Easter is the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. If the full Moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday.
- Easter’s exact date varies because it depends on the moon.
What Does the Word Easter Mean?
- There is no Hebrew word for Easter.
- In the Bible, the word Easter was inserted to replace Pesach or Passover.
- The word is “Easter” in the English, but it is from the Greek word “Pascha” translated from the Hebrew word “Pesach” which is Passover.
- The Word “Easter” appears only once in the King James Version of the Bible and is taken from the word “Passover.”
Does Easter Have any Biblical References?
- The word “Easter” in the New Testament refers to the Passover, not a separate Christian holiday.
- There is no mention of the word or the celebration of Easter from Genesis to Malachi or in the New Testament Gospels.
- Modern religious theologians associated Yeshua’s resurrection with Easter. However, the word Easter is the same Greek word for Passover.
- In Scripture, there was no Christian “Easter celebration” during Passover or the days of Unleavened Bread.
Where did the Easter Tradition Originate?
- Easter was originally a Saxon word, Eostre, denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in whose honor sacrifices were offered around the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival of the Resurrection of Christ, which occurred at the time of the Passover. In the early English versions of the Bible, this word was frequently used as the translation of the Greek pascha(the Passover).
- The goddess of fertility, Eostre, had an animal symbol which was a bunny. Rabbits, known for their energetic breeding, have traditionally symbolized fertility.
- According to some sources, the Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs.
- Easter actually began as a pagan festival celebrating spring in the Northern Hemisphere, long before the advent of Christianity. “Since pre-historic times, people have celebrated the equinoxes and the solstices as sacred times,” (University of Sydney Professor Carole Cusack).
- The Christian Church inherited all of its traditions and celebrations from the Catholic Church including Christmas, Lent, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, etc. When Martin Luther protested the Catholic Church’s Authority on Indulgences in 1517, it gave birth to the Protestant Church movement that was named after Luther’s protest (thus Protest-ant). However Martin Luther was a devout Catholic and therefore he and all who followed him continued to keep the Catholic Church traditions and celebrations including Easter and Christmas. These became the two holiest days of the Christian calendar and yet neither of them are found anywhere in Scripture.
- The word Easter was inserted into the King James Bible by translators and interpreters of the Hebrew/Greek writings giving the illusion to modern day readers that it always existed and was even celebrated by the 1st Century Messianic Community.
What Are the Commanded Instructions for Easter?
- There are NO commanded Instructions for Easter in Scripture.
What Does Easter Commemorate?
- On Easter Sun-Day the Coptic, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant (Non-Catholic) Churches and the people of the world celebrate the pagan holiday Easter. The Protestants have dubbed the day “Resurrection Sunday” because it is erroneously believed that Jesus (Yeshua) resurrected on Easter Sunday. (See below: Did Yeshua Resurrect “Early Sunday/Easter Morning”?)
- Although denominational scholars agree that the word Easter mentioned in Acts 12:4 was mistranslated and should actually be translated as Passover (Pesach), it is still regarded as the day of the Resurrection because of the change made by the Catholic Church late in the 2nd Century.
How Is Easter Celebrated?
- On Easter, people traditionally visit churches. They also bake hot cross buns and decorate Easter eggs, which they say are symbolic of Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb.
- Many Christians worldwide celebrate Easter with special church services, music, candlelight, flowers and the ringing of church bells.
- Easter baskets filled with candy are given to children.
Is Easter the Passover?
- No
- Read the blog What Is Passover? https://arthurbaileyministries.com/blog/ask-arthur-bailey-what-is-passover/
Should Believers Celebrate The Resurrection?
- The Disciples of Yeshua did not celebrate a resurrection. In fact, the First or Second Century Messianic Community did not celebrate a Resurrection like Easter is celebrated today.
- Yeshua’s Disciples and the First and Second Century Messianic Congregations were celebrating Passover (Pesach), Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits
- Yeshua was our Firstfruits.
1 Corinthians 15:20-26
But now is Messiah risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiah shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits; afterward they that are Messiah’s at his coming
Did Yeshua Resurrect “Early Sunday/Easter Morning”?
Those who keep the Easter Sunday tradition maintain that Yeshua was buried just before sunset on “Good Friday” afternoon, and resurrected early Sunday morning. This logic accounts for only two nights and one day, or thirty-six hours! Some argue the definition of the word “day.” They cite rabbinical or Jewish tradition which dictates that any part of a day is considered the whole day. Thus a part of Friday, all day Saturday, and then a part of Sunday constitutes three days. Yeshua did not say that He would be in the heart of the earth a part of three days and a part of two nights, but three days and three nights. (Mark 8:31 and John 2:19-21)
The Sunday resurrection proponents contend that He had risen just moments before. If they were correct, then “three days and three nights” earlier would mean just before sunrise on Thursday morning. Yeshua wasn’t buried on Thursday morning or any morning for that matter and with good reason. Biblical days, including Sabbaths, begin at sunset and end the following sunset (Genesis 1:5-31; Leviticus 23:32). They include a nighttime period followed by a daytime period. When Joseph of Arimathaea laid Yeshua’s body in the tomb, “the Sabbath drew near” (Luke 23:50- 54). Yeshua was buried in the late afternoon, before a particular Sabbath began at sunset.
If we assume that Yeshua was buried on Friday afternoon, as the Good Friday tradition asserts, then His resurrection seventy-two hours later would have been on Monday afternoon. Remember that Yeshua had already risen before the women came to His tomb prior to daybreak Sunday morning!
What then, is the answer?
The answer to the apparent dilemma is that the weekly Sabbath is not the only Sabbath mentioned in the Bible. Leviticus 23 lists seven annual Holy Days that occur during YeHoVaH’s Festivals. Each of these days was considered as a Sabbath, meaning a “rest” from normal labor.
Now the mystery can be solved by reading the following verse.
John 19:31, “Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” NKJV
Yeshua died on the cross on Passover – the 14th of Abib or Nisan according to the Hebrew Calendar. This Scripture reports that the next day, (beginning the evening after his crucifixion) was not a weekly Sabbath, but an annual Sabbath – the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Leviticus 23:5-7, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.” KJV
Let us put together the facts. From the Bible, we clearly understand that Yeshua died and was buried on Passover afternoon, and that the following day was an annual Sabbath. It is also clear that he was resurrected at the same time of day – late afternoon. But which afternoon is the question. Since the women found him already gone Sunday morning, it would be sensible to conclude that he had been resurrected the previous afternoon on Saturday! This would mean that he was buried three days and three nights earlier, on Wednesday afternoon.
For an in-depth discussion and more Scriptural proofs, read Sunday Is Not the Sabbath? pages 51-57. The Book is available in our Bookstore.
Wrong doctrine/teaching will cause you to live a wrong life and worship in vain.
Matthew 15:9
But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.