Easter or Passover for Christians?
Should Christians celebrate Easter? What about Passover?
LCG minister Dexter Wakefield wrote (with this year’s dates added by COGwriter):
On April {8th}… billions of people will celebrate Easter…{a few days} earlier, after sunset {5th}…, many Christians will gather to observe the biblical Passover. Does it matter which festivals you observe? The answer may surprise you!This spring, billions of people will memorialize Jesus Christ’s resurrection by observing the ancient rite of Easter. Although the festival’s name and seasonal observance pre-date Christianity, and the Easter Sunday observance does not even correspond to the actual day of Christ’s resurrection, most professing Christians assume that the non-Christian festival has now been “Christianized” into something of which Jesus Christ would approve. But is their assumption correct? Christians who study the Bible carefully, who look closely at the historical record, will come to a different conclusion. Rather than commemorate Christ’s resurrection on an incorrect date, they will commemorate His sacrifice by observing the Christian Passover, in the way the early Church did—in the way He instructed—as we find in Scripture…
Another well-known cultural anthropologist, Joseph Campbell, drew the conclusion that the “Christian” practice of Easter “occurs on the date of the annual resurrection of Adonis, which in the Christian cult became Easter. In both the pagan cult and the Christian, the resurrection is of a god” (Occidental Mythology, p. 138).
These authors are expressing a view commonly held among cultural anthropologists that there was a significant continuity in “Christianized” Gentile cultures with their pagan past. They had a tendency, over time, to superimpose Christian themes as a veneer over their existing pagan practices, which were already deeply ingrained in their societies and psyches. They are saying that in history, the incorporation of Easter as memorial to Christ’s resurrection is an adaptation of an earlier pagan resurrection festival. The practice did not originate in Christianity.
While it is true that most professing Christians observe Easter, reasoning that it commemorates Christ’s resurrection, the Bible actually commands Christians to observe a memorial to His sacrificial death! When Christ instructed His followers to keep the Passover with a fulfilled, Christian meaning, it became a memorial to His sacrifice as the Lamb of God—not to His resurrection. Christ avoided confusing the meaning of His unique sacrifice with the well-known pagan “resurrection” rites of His time and before.
The Bible
The Bible does not enjoin the celebration of Easter. Translations such as the NKJV (Protestant) and Douay Rheims (Roman Catholic) also do not use the term Easter (at least one Protestant translation, KJV, erroneously translated the word everywhere else translated in that version as Passover as Easter in Acts 12:4–and all scholars recognize that this is not a true translation from the original Greek).
The Old Testament uses the term Spring four or so times, and does, however, endorse certain religious observances for that time of the year. It also mentions that the year begins on the first day of a certain lunar month (called Abib or Nisan) which is normally the first day of Spring (though it does not actually use that term). Note that God defines when the year begins:
This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2 NKJV, throughout unless otherwise noted).
The God-ordained religious festivals mentioned as occurring in what is the Spring season of the year include Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost. Easter was not listed then.
Here is the mention of the first two:
‘These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:4-6).
The above were clearly observed by Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church (for additional documentation, please see the articles Passover and the Early Church, Melito’s Homily on the Passover, and Should Christians Keep the Days of Unleavened Bread?).
The term Spring is not mentioned in the New Testament. When referring to the early Spring season, the New Testament mentions biblical holy days, like Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread (for early Spring) and Pentecost (for late Spring)–it also mentions that Jesus and/or His disciples observed all of those. The Days of Unleavened Bread
The Apostle Paul taught:
Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
There is no doubt that early Christians kept Passover. And there is substantial evidence to show that they kept it along with the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in the Spring.
Early History Supports Passover
Notice, for example, a letter than Polycrates sent to the Roman Bishop Victor in the late second century concerning the date of Passover (the Church of Rome did not observe a time they called Easter that early):
We observe the exact day; neither adding, nor taking away. For in Asia also great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again on the day of the Lord’s coming, when he shall come with glory from heaven, and shall seek out all the saints. Among these are Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who fell asleep in Hierapolis; and his two aged virgin daughters, and another daughter, who lived in the Holy Spirit and now rests at Ephesus; and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate. He fell asleep at Ephesus. And Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia, who fell asleep in Smyrna. Why need I mention the bishop and martyr Sagaris who fell asleep in Laodicea, or the blessed Papirius, or Melito, the Eunuch who lived altogether in the Holy Spirit, and who lies in Sardis, awaiting the episcopate from heaven, when he shall rise from the dead? All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. And I also, Polycrates, the least of you all, do according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have closely followed. For seven of my relatives were bishops; and I am the eighth. And my relatives always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘ We ought to obey God rather than man’ (Eusebius. Church History, Book V, Chapter 24. Translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. Excerpted from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series Two, Volume 1. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. American Edition, 1890. Online Edition Copyright © 2004 by K. Knight).
Notice that Polycrates said that he and the other early church leaders (like the Apostles Philip and John, and their successors like Polycarp, Thraseas, Eumenia, Sagaris, Papirius, Melito) would not deviate from the Bible, and that they knew the Bible taught them to keep the Passover on the correct date. Also notice that they always observed the day when the people put away the leaven. Polycrates also reminded the Roman bishop that true followers of Christ “obey God rather than men.”
Around 155 A.D. Polycarp of Smyrna went to Rome to deal with various heretics and he tried to persuade the bishop not to switch Passover to be on a Sunday. Irenaeus records this:
And when the blessed Polycarp was sojourning in Rome in the time of Anicetus, although a slight controversy had arisen among them as to certain other points…For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp to forego the observance [in his own way], inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of our Lord, and by other apostles with whom he had been conversant; nor, on the other hand, could Polycarp succeed in persuading Anicetus to keep [the observance in his way], for he maintained that he was bound to adhere to the usage of the presbyters who preceded him. And in this state of affairs they held fellowship with each other; and Anicetus conceded to Polycarp in the Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of showing him respect (Irenaeus. FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF IRENAEUS. Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Excerpted from Volume I of The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, editors); American Edition copyright © 1885. Electronic version copyright © 1997 by New Advent, Inc).
The Eastern Orthodox realize that Passover was originally observed at night as one of their priests has written:
Our earliest sources for the annual celebration of the Christian Pascha come to us from the second century…The feast, however, must have originated in the apostolic period…According to the earliest documents, Pascha is described as a nocturnal celebration…(Calivas, Alkiviadis C. The Origins of Pascha and Great Week – Part I. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1992. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8504 viewed 11/04/2011)
Over time, instead of being a holy day in memorial to Christ’s sacrifice at night, Easter became a resurrection holiday in the morning.
Notice what a respected Protestant scholar reported about the second century Christians:
The most important in this festival was the passover day, the 14th of Nisan…In it they ate unleavened bread, probably like the Jews, eight days through…there is no trace of a yearly festival of the resurrection among them…the Christians of Asia Minor appealed in favor of their passover solemnity on the 14th Nisan to John (Gieseler, Johann Karl Ludwig. A Text-book of Church History. Translated by Samuel Davidson, John Winstanley Hull, Mary A. Robinson. Harper & brothers, 1857, Original from the University of Michigan, Digitized Feb 17, 2006, p. 166).
In the late third century, Anatolius of Alexandria wrote the following about the Passover and related days:
I am aware that very many other matters were discussed by them, some of them with considerable probability, and others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration, by which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be kept after the equinox…
But nothing was difficult to them with whom it was lawful to celebrate the Passover on any day when the fourteenth of the moon happened after the equinox. Following their example up to the present time all the bishops of Asia—as themselves also receiving the rule from an unimpeachable authority, to wit, the evangelist John, who leant on the Lord’s breast, and drank in instructions spiritual without doubt—were in the way of celebrating the Paschal feast, without question, every year, whenever the fourteenth day of the moon had come, and the lamb was sacrificed by the Jews after the equinox was past; not acquiescing, so far as regards this matter, with the authority of some…(THE PASCHAL CANON OF ANATOLIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. Chapters V,X, p. 415, 419).
This should be proof to any with “eyes to see and ears to hear” that some who professed Christ were keeping Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread centuries after Jesus died–and that this was also a valid tradition that the apostles practiced. And on the 14th day, which this year will be Thursday evening, April 5th, after sunset.
What about Easter?
Scholars know that early Christians observed Passover and did not observe it as a resurrection holiday. Notice one account:
The first Christians celebrated the death of Jesus with a Pascha meal (eucharist) on the lunar date of the Jewish Passover (note 1 Cor. 5:7-8).
At first there was no annual celebration of the resurrection. Eventually, in the gentile world, the day of resurrection was added to the Pascha festival. That day was Sunday. At the Council of Nicea (325) it was ruled that Easter Sunday would be celebrated on the Sunday immediately following that full moon which came after the vernal equinox. At the same time the Council decided that the vernal equinox would be March 21 in the Julian calendar (Eusebius, Vit. Const. 3.18). (Synder GF. Irish Jesus, Roman Jesus: the formation of early Irish Christianity. Trinity Press International, 2002, p. 183)
The original practices of the earliest Christians was to observe Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. Some apparently thought compromise with non-biblical holidays would substitute for biblical ones like the Days of Unleavened Bread.
But what about Easter?
Here is some of what The Catholic Encyclopedia teaches:
The English term, according to the Ven. Bede (De temporum ratione, I, v), relates to Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown, even in the Edda (Simrock, Mythol., 362); Anglo-Saxon, eâster, eâstron; Old High German, ôstra, ôstrara, ôstrarûn; German, Ostern… Since Christ, the true Paschal Lamb, had been slain on the very day when the Jews, in celebration of their Passover, immolated the figurative lamb, the Jewish Christians in the Orient followed the Jewish method…For this observance they claimed the authority of St. John and St. Philip…
Easter eggs
…The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter…
The Easter rabbit
The Easter Rabbit lays the eggs, for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden. The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility (Simrock, Mythologie, 551)…
Men and women
On Easter Monday the women had a right to strike their husbands, on Tuesday the men struck their wives… In the Neumark (Germany) on Easter Day the men servants whip the maid servants with switches; on Monday the maids whip the men. They secure their release with Easter eggs. These customs are probably of pre-Christian origin (Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, 118).
The Easter fire
The Easter Fire is lit on the top of mountains (Easter mountain, Osterberg) and must be kindled from new fire, drawn from wood by friction (nodfyr); this is a custom of pagan origin in vogue all over Europe, signifying the victory of spring over winter. The bishops issued severe edicts against the sacrilegious Easter fires (Conc. Germanicum, a. 742, c.v.; Council of Lestines, a. 743, n. 15), but did not succeed in abolishing them everywhere. The Church adopted the observance into the Easter ceremonies…(Holweck, Frederick. “Easter.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. 12 Mar. 2012 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm>)
Bede, was a monk in England, who died 26 May 735. He correctly noted that Easter was not a Christian term, but one of a pagan goddess. As The Catholic Encyclopediaindicate, many of the traditions associated with Easter come from paganism and were not from the Bible nor early apostolic tradition.
Thus, the Romans admit that the name Easter is the name of a pagan goddess, many of its practices are of pagan origin, and that the churches in Asia Minor (which they call the Orient) continued to observe Passover on the date that the Jews and Jesus did, Nisan 14.
The Bible itself also condemns certain practices, now associated with Easter, such as hot Easter buns/cakes (Jeremiah 7:18), the worship towards the sun in the east (Ezekiel 8:15-18), and the worship of Astarte/Ishtar/Ashtaroth (other spellings of the word Easter).
Will you follow those who followed Christ or do you prefer later adaptations?
Some articles of possibly related interest may include:
Did Early Christians Celebrate Easter? If not, when did this happen? What do scholars and the Bible reveal?
Is There “An Annual Worship Calendar” In the Bible? This paper provides a biblical and historical critique of several articles, including one by the Tkach WCG which states that this should be a local decision. What do the Holy Days mean? Also you can click here for the calendar of Holy Days.
Passover and the Early Church Did the early Christians observe Passover? What did Jesus and Paul teach? Why did Jesus die for our sins?
Melito’s Homily on the Passover This is one of the earliest Christian writings about the Passover. This also includes what Apollinaris wrote on the Passover as well.
Should Christians Keep the Days of Unleavened Bread? Do they have any use or meaning now? What is leaven? This article supplies some biblical answers.
The History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?
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