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Some people are in the habit of believing complicated lies because they don’t want to accept simple truths. One such lie is that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Lord God, did not rise from the dead.
So Satan, unwilling to believe the simple truth of the resurrection, has perpetuated a complicated lie. Satan insists that Jesus Christ is dead. And to support that lie Satan wants you to believe that you need not celebrate the resurrection- but if you celebrate anyway Satan wants you to feel guilty about doing so because, according to Satan, Easter is just a pagan holiday that Christians adopted in order to disguise the fact (that is Satan’s lie) that Jesus Christ is dead and not risen.
The best lies always have some kernel of truth. But when it comes to Easter Satan may have lost all contact with reality. When it comes to Easter Satan’s lies are based on the idea that the Apostles and early Christians either did not celebrate Easter or that the Easter they did celebrate is pagan rather than Christian.
Satan’s lies are predicated on his ignorance of history and his ignorance of the facts, and unfortunately Satan’s ignorance is contagious. Thousands of people around the world now believe Satan’s lies and refuse to celebrate Easter.
It is a simple matter to dispense with the first lie. The Bible clearly indicates that the Apostles (and thus first century Christians) did celebrate Easter. But Satan insists that they celebrated the Jewish Passover. But Satan is wrong. All first-hand knowledge we have about the Apostles is written in Greek, and all first-hand knowledge we have about early Christians is written in either Greek or Latin. But neither Greek, nor Latin has a word for Easter- or even a word for Passover. The Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint simply transliterated the Hebrew word for the celebration of the Exodus from Egypt. The Greeks use the Hebrew word with a Greek spelling. The Latin translation of the Bible does the same thing and uses the Greek word with Latin spelling. Then the Wycliffe English Bible did the same thing when translating the Latin Bible and used an English spelling for the Latin word. So based on vocabulary alone we could not tell whether or not the Apostles or early Christians were celebrating the Passover of the Jews or the resurrection of Jesus.
The first English translation of the New Testament made from the original Greek was prepared by William Tyndale, and when it came time to explain the Jewish celebration of the Exodus Tyndale used the Old English word for spring- Easter- rather than following the existing pattern of transliterating the Hebrew Word.
Then when Tyndale began work on the Old Testament he had to translate the Hebrew word rather than the Greek version he had had to deal with in the New Testament. Furthermore, if Easter indicates the resurrection another word was needed to denote the Exodus in the Old Testament because Easter had not yet happened. So Tyndale invented the word Passover.
But only one word is used in the original Greek.
But wait a minute, Satan yells. The Apostles and first century Christians never celebrated the resurrection- so Easter must always be a mistranslation- and the Bible always says Passover.
The Bible does always say Passover in the original Greek, but the twelfth chapter of the Book of Acts clearly gives the word for Passover the meaning of Easter.
From the Book of Acts:
12:1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
12:2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
12:3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
12:4 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.
12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
12:6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
These verses give this sequence of events:
1. Herod begins persecuting the Church.
2. Herod kills James.
3. Herod captures Peter either before the day of Passover, on the day of Passover or during the days of unleavened bread that follow Passover.
4. The days of unleavened bread are in progress but Peter is still in prison.
5. Peter is miraculously released from prison before Easter, which is when Herod had planned to deal with him.
The author of Acts is making a distinction between Passover and Easter since he explained the days of unleavened bread. Everywhere else the author of Acts does not explain the details about Jewish holidays because he assumes that the reader is familiar with them. Anybody who knew what Passover was would not have needed an explanation for the days of unleavened bread. If Easter is just a mistranslation of Passover the intended reader still would not have needed an explanation of the days of unleavened bread.
So why does the twelfth chapter of Acts indicate two Passovers in a given year? Since it is unlikely that Herod would have kept Peter in prison until Passover the next year this second Passover that Herod was waiting for must have been something other than the Jewish Passover.
Yes, that’s the ticket, yells Satan. That second Passover is really Easter- but Easter is a pagan festival for a pagan goddess and it was this pagan festival that Herod was waiting for.
But who is this pagan goddess that delusional Christians are supposed to honoring when they celebrate Easter?
Apparently nobody knows for sure, but there are two main contenders.
For English speakers the obvious choice is Eoster, Anglo-Saxon goddess of springtime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
The English monk known as The Venerable Bede lived in the early 8th century AD. Bede makes the claim in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People that the Anglo-Saxons once had a goddess known as Eoster, and it is this goddess that Satan says the English word Easter comes from. Satan, speaking through Bede, claims that this goddess Eoster had a festival in the month of April about the same time that English Christians in Bede’s day celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus. Satan wants us to believe that Christians simply adopted Eoster’s holiday to cover up the fact that Jesus Christ is still dead.
About a thousand years after Bede Satan turned his attention to the German linguist Jacob Grimm who suggested that the Saxons’ Eoster had a German counterpart in the goddess Ostara.
So here’s the lie. Eoster never existed. Bede is the only known source for Eoster’s existence. No record of this goddess is found in any other Saxon documents from Britain and no mention of Eoster or Ostara can be found in any Germanic documents from Europe. Eoster is not a goddess and never was a goddess. She is simply something that Bede made up. Eoster is nothing more than the Old English term for spring.
So if Eoster is not a goddess how does Satan expect us to believe that Easter is pagan? He lies- again.
If Easter is not named after Eoster, then surely it is named after Ishtar- or so Satan tells us. We know about Ishtar; Ishtar has to be real for the Bible tells us she existed as the pagan goddess Ashtoreth and King Solomon even worshipped her.
So now Satan is absolutely convinced that it was Ishtar’s springtime festival that is known as Easter and that it is this pagan festival that ignorant Christians adopted because they weren’t celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But this connection likely isn’t real either. From what I gather the association between Easter and Babylonian paganism may have begun in the 1850s when a Scots theologian Alexander Hislop published a rabidly anti-Catholic book that claimed that the Roman Catholic Church was simply a latterday reincarnation of the ancient Babylonian religion. But, the cuneiform that was used for the Babylonian language was not fully deciphered until the 1850s. It is extremely unlikely that Hislop could have had access to any Mesopotamian documents that could have explained the Babylonian religion to him in any detail. And modern scholarship pretty much says Hislop was wrong about the little bit he could have known about Babylon’s religion.
Furthermore, William Tyndale and then the translators for the King James Bible had the same problem that Hislop would have later- lack of information. If there is no mention of a festival for Ishtar or that King Herod observed such a festival found in any document that would have been available to the King James Bible’s translators, then these translators would not have known to use the term Easter to indicate this alleged pagan holiday.
So now for some simple truths:
1. Jesus Christ is Lord.
2. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
3. Legitimate Christians do and have always celebrated His resurrection on Easter because-
4. Easter is not a pagan holiday.
Satan, get over it.
So Satan, unwilling to believe the simple truth of the resurrection, has perpetuated a complicated lie. Satan insists that Jesus Christ is dead. And to support that lie Satan wants you to believe that you need not celebrate the resurrection- but if you celebrate anyway Satan wants you to feel guilty about doing so because, according to Satan, Easter is just a pagan holiday that Christians adopted in order to disguise the fact (that is Satan’s lie) that Jesus Christ is dead and not risen.
The best lies always have some kernel of truth. But when it comes to Easter Satan may have lost all contact with reality. When it comes to Easter Satan’s lies are based on the idea that the Apostles and early Christians either did not celebrate Easter or that the Easter they did celebrate is pagan rather than Christian.
Satan’s lies are predicated on his ignorance of history and his ignorance of the facts, and unfortunately Satan’s ignorance is contagious. Thousands of people around the world now believe Satan’s lies and refuse to celebrate Easter.
It is a simple matter to dispense with the first lie. The Bible clearly indicates that the Apostles (and thus first century Christians) did celebrate Easter. But Satan insists that they celebrated the Jewish Passover. But Satan is wrong. All first-hand knowledge we have about the Apostles is written in Greek, and all first-hand knowledge we have about early Christians is written in either Greek or Latin. But neither Greek, nor Latin has a word for Easter- or even a word for Passover. The Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint simply transliterated the Hebrew word for the celebration of the Exodus from Egypt. The Greeks use the Hebrew word with a Greek spelling. The Latin translation of the Bible does the same thing and uses the Greek word with Latin spelling. Then the Wycliffe English Bible did the same thing when translating the Latin Bible and used an English spelling for the Latin word. So based on vocabulary alone we could not tell whether or not the Apostles or early Christians were celebrating the Passover of the Jews or the resurrection of Jesus.
The first English translation of the New Testament made from the original Greek was prepared by William Tyndale, and when it came time to explain the Jewish celebration of the Exodus Tyndale used the Old English word for spring- Easter- rather than following the existing pattern of transliterating the Hebrew Word.
Then when Tyndale began work on the Old Testament he had to translate the Hebrew word rather than the Greek version he had had to deal with in the New Testament. Furthermore, if Easter indicates the resurrection another word was needed to denote the Exodus in the Old Testament because Easter had not yet happened. So Tyndale invented the word Passover.
But only one word is used in the original Greek.
But wait a minute, Satan yells. The Apostles and first century Christians never celebrated the resurrection- so Easter must always be a mistranslation- and the Bible always says Passover.
The Bible does always say Passover in the original Greek, but the twelfth chapter of the Book of Acts clearly gives the word for Passover the meaning of Easter.
From the Book of Acts:
12:1 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.
12:2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
12:3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
12:4 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.
12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
12:6 And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
These verses give this sequence of events:
1. Herod begins persecuting the Church.
2. Herod kills James.
3. Herod captures Peter either before the day of Passover, on the day of Passover or during the days of unleavened bread that follow Passover.
4. The days of unleavened bread are in progress but Peter is still in prison.
5. Peter is miraculously released from prison before Easter, which is when Herod had planned to deal with him.
The author of Acts is making a distinction between Passover and Easter since he explained the days of unleavened bread. Everywhere else the author of Acts does not explain the details about Jewish holidays because he assumes that the reader is familiar with them. Anybody who knew what Passover was would not have needed an explanation for the days of unleavened bread. If Easter is just a mistranslation of Passover the intended reader still would not have needed an explanation of the days of unleavened bread.
So why does the twelfth chapter of Acts indicate two Passovers in a given year? Since it is unlikely that Herod would have kept Peter in prison until Passover the next year this second Passover that Herod was waiting for must have been something other than the Jewish Passover.
Yes, that’s the ticket, yells Satan. That second Passover is really Easter- but Easter is a pagan festival for a pagan goddess and it was this pagan festival that Herod was waiting for.
But who is this pagan goddess that delusional Christians are supposed to honoring when they celebrate Easter?
Apparently nobody knows for sure, but there are two main contenders.
For English speakers the obvious choice is Eoster, Anglo-Saxon goddess of springtime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
The English monk known as The Venerable Bede lived in the early 8th century AD. Bede makes the claim in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People that the Anglo-Saxons once had a goddess known as Eoster, and it is this goddess that Satan says the English word Easter comes from. Satan, speaking through Bede, claims that this goddess Eoster had a festival in the month of April about the same time that English Christians in Bede’s day celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus. Satan wants us to believe that Christians simply adopted Eoster’s holiday to cover up the fact that Jesus Christ is still dead.
About a thousand years after Bede Satan turned his attention to the German linguist Jacob Grimm who suggested that the Saxons’ Eoster had a German counterpart in the goddess Ostara.
So here’s the lie. Eoster never existed. Bede is the only known source for Eoster’s existence. No record of this goddess is found in any other Saxon documents from Britain and no mention of Eoster or Ostara can be found in any Germanic documents from Europe. Eoster is not a goddess and never was a goddess. She is simply something that Bede made up. Eoster is nothing more than the Old English term for spring.
So if Eoster is not a goddess how does Satan expect us to believe that Easter is pagan? He lies- again.
If Easter is not named after Eoster, then surely it is named after Ishtar- or so Satan tells us. We know about Ishtar; Ishtar has to be real for the Bible tells us she existed as the pagan goddess Ashtoreth and King Solomon even worshipped her.
So now Satan is absolutely convinced that it was Ishtar’s springtime festival that is known as Easter and that it is this pagan festival that ignorant Christians adopted because they weren’t celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But this connection likely isn’t real either. From what I gather the association between Easter and Babylonian paganism may have begun in the 1850s when a Scots theologian Alexander Hislop published a rabidly anti-Catholic book that claimed that the Roman Catholic Church was simply a latterday reincarnation of the ancient Babylonian religion. But, the cuneiform that was used for the Babylonian language was not fully deciphered until the 1850s. It is extremely unlikely that Hislop could have had access to any Mesopotamian documents that could have explained the Babylonian religion to him in any detail. And modern scholarship pretty much says Hislop was wrong about the little bit he could have known about Babylon’s religion.
Furthermore, William Tyndale and then the translators for the King James Bible had the same problem that Hislop would have later- lack of information. If there is no mention of a festival for Ishtar or that King Herod observed such a festival found in any document that would have been available to the King James Bible’s translators, then these translators would not have known to use the term Easter to indicate this alleged pagan holiday.
So now for some simple truths:
1. Jesus Christ is Lord.
2. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
3. Legitimate Christians do and have always celebrated His resurrection on Easter because-
4. Easter is not a pagan holiday.
Satan, get over it.
