Easter—one of the most celebrated holidays in Christianity—holds deep meaning for believers worldwide. But where did it truly come from? Is Easter rooted in the Bible, or do its traditions stem from other ancient customs?

In this powerful teaching by God Honest Truth, we uncover the real history of Easter, exploring its origins, traditions, and how they align (or don’t align) with Scripture. We will examine what the Bible says about the resurrection of Messiah, the historical and cultural roots of Easter traditions, the truth about Easter eggs, rabbits, and the name “Easter”, and how believers today can honor Yeshua in truth.

Join us as we separate fact from fiction and seek to worship our Creator in Spirit and Truth (John 4:24). So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about Easter. If you desire God Honest Truth, this is a study you won’t want to miss!

#Easter #TruthAboutEaster #BiblicalTeachings #GodHonestTruth #Passover #Resurrection

Transcript

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Easter is one of the most celebrated holidays in all of Christianity. But have you ever wondered where Easter comes from? Where all the symbols and customs and traditions come from? It might surprise you to learn where the roots actually lie. So stick around for this teaching on Easter and learn more about the God honest truth regarding Easter.

So this drawstring is gonna be all about Easter, where it comes from, how we should relate to it, or at least give you the information so you can make your own decision about how you should think about it and how you should relate to this particular holiday as it’s called. Sometimes the one of the greatest seasons of the mainstream Christian calendar year. Probably second to Easter, but still is fairly big. I mean, you’ve got on the church calendar, you’ve got pretty much Easter and Christmas, unless you’re Catholic and then you’ve got saints on every day of the year. But, yeah, Easter’s pretty big deal for mainstream Christians.

So this draws is gonna be all about that, where it came from, some of the history behind it, and there’s gonna be a lot of information that we did not include in this draws simply due to the fact that we did not have time and we did not want to make this a teaching that went on for hours and hours. So if you like some more notes on this particular topic, you can go and look at the notes that we took and provided for you over at godhonesttruth.com. Simply click on the article for this particular episode and there on that article post you’ll have the on demand video. You’ll have the draw slides as you see up here on your screen if you’re watching on video. You’ll also have the notes that we took for this particular episode and many more notes than what you’ll see here in this presentation.

And you’ll also have the transcript if that helps you. And it’s all over there on godhonesttruth.com. And there’s even even an even easier way to get to all this. If you go down below in the description, we have placed a convenient link for you down there, and that’ll take you directly to that article post with the on demand video, the slides, the notes, and the transcript. All of that, one simple convenient link, and it should be down there in the description whether you’re watching on a video pod or a video platform or an audio podcasting platform.

So go check it out today. So Easter. Now pretty much everyone knows and understands what Easter is. Maybe there’s someone out there who has been living under a rock their entire lives and they don’t know what Easter is. But for the sake of posterity and just for setting up a foundation for this particular teaching, we’re gonna go ahead and define what Easter actually is.

Just in case it gets lost in the future and this is the only historical reference they have a hundred years from now, Here you go, people of the future. This is what Easter is. So Easter, according to the Encyclopedia Americana, is, quote, the Christian spring festival commemorating the resurrection, end quote, From Encyclopedia Britannica, quote, the annual festival observed throughout Christendom in commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, end quote. From the Zondervan illustrated bible dictionary, quote, a feast commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, end quote. From christianity.com, quote, Easter is one of the central holidays or holy days of Christianity.

It honors the resurrection of Jesus three days after his death by crucifixion, end quote. From crosswalk.com, quote, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb on the third day after his crucifixion, end quote. And finally, from Catholic Encyclopedia, quote, commemorating the slain of the true lamb of God and the resurrection of Christ, the cornerstone upon which faith is built, end quote. Now I took a little risk and tried to have a little fun in defining what Easter actually is. And I actually went to ChatGPT and asked it to create a definition of Easter using the elements and symbols of Easter itself.

And here’s the definition that ChatGPT came up with to define Easter. Quote, Easter, a season of rising hope and renewed life where the empty tomb speaks louder than words. The cross stands as the bridge to salvation, and the lamb becomes the sacrifice that conquered death. It is a time when light breaks through darkness, much like the dawn of resurrection Sunday, and when symbols of new life, from the hatching egg to the blossoming lily, echo the eternal truth of redemption. Easter is the triumph of the risen king, the fulfillment of prophecy, and the call to walk in the victory of Christ’s resurrection.

Now, I don’t know about you, but, personally, I think GPT done a fairly decent job at defining what Easter actually is. Or rather, should I say it another way, in what we currently think of Easter as being. Not necessarily what it is, but what it we think of it nowadays as bean. But did you know that Easter actually has a connection to Passover that we learned last week? So let’s go ahead and do a real quick recap about what Passover is.

So Passover according to Britannica.com, quote, Passover holiday commemorating the Hebrews’ liberation from slavery in Egypt and the passing over of the forces of destruction or the sparing of the firstborn of the Israelites when the Lord smoked the land of Egypt on the eve of the Exodus, end quote. And from the scriptures 2,009 explanatory notes, quote, Passover. The Hebrew word is Pesach, as a verb meaning to jump, skip, or pass over, as a noun referring primarily to the animal victim that was slaughtered, but secondarily to the period of time connected with the slaughter of the victim. In Acts twelve four, the King James version erroneously refers to this as Easter. However, this underlined word is the same word used throughout the rest of the messianic writings for Passover.

Now, we did cover that a little bit last week when we went through our study and teaching on Passover, but just a real quick reference and recap going back to that. In the King James and a few others, in Acts twelve four, they pick the word in Greek for Passover, and instead of translating it as Passover, they translated it as Easter. And as we learned, that’s absolutely false, and we’re gonna learn again coming up in this teaching why that is absolutely false. The word that they translated here is the Greek word, and sounds a lot like another word we know, which is Passover, or sounds like a lot lot like another word that we know, which is Pesach, but it sounds absolutely nothing like Easter. And that’s because Pascha does not refer to Easter.

No way, no how. Pascha refers to Passover. Always has. It did in the apostolic times and the first few centuries. And we’re gonna get into all that.

So just stay tuned. Have your notes ready. But Pasco means Passover. Going on, looking at a quote from Origen, end quote, the Passover of the Jews consists of a sheep that is sacrificed, each taking a sheep according to his father’s house, and the Passover is accompanied by the slaughter of thousands of rams and goats in proportion to the number of the households of the people. But our Passover but our Passover is sacrificed for us, namely Christ.

Beautiful quote. Love that from Origen. Going on looking at christianity.com, quote, Passover or Pascha sanctified Israel’s time and life as a sign pointing them to the coming of the lord Jesus Christ. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he told his followers, behold, the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world. The Israelites were to know him in the blood of a slain lamb, a sign pointing to him as the lamb of god, end quote.

And then finally looking at Catholic Encyclopedia. The Romance languages have adopted the Hebrew Greek term Latin for Pascha, Italian Pasqua, Spanish Pascua, French, Pac, also some Celtic and Teutonic nations use it, Scotch has the word Pasque, Dutch has the word Pasquin, Danish, Pasque, Swedish, Pasque. Even in the German provinces of the Lower Rhine, the people call the feast Highsken, not Oostern. That is very, very interesting and this quote in particular from the Catholic Encyclopedia got me to doing some additional research and I got to looking in for the name of Easter around the world. And surprisingly enough, the vast majority of languages around the world use a word that denotes Passover not Easter.

In fact, if you look at the chart I put together here, when I went through and I looked at this and you do your own research. If I got something wrong, let me know. I did the translations and I look for each of these. And in Danish, the word is Pasca, and Dutch is Pascen, and Esperanto, which is a constructed language, but in Esperanto, it’s Pasco. In Filipino, it’s Pasco Negu Pagabuhay.

In French, it’s Pac, and Italian, it’s Pascois. In Norwegian, it’s Pasque. In Spanish, it’s Pascua. In Swedish, it’s Pascua. In Turkish, it’s Pascalia.

It’s not even well, we know it about it as today. The closest thing I was able to find here is the German word, which is, I guess, not from the Lower Rhine, but the German word is Ostern. Nothing like Pass or Passover. But most of the words I found around the world in all the languages I looked at, most of them, vast majority of them, had a word that denoted Passover, not Easter. Keep that in mind as we go through this next section and we start looking at Pascha and early believers.

Now, when the apostles and Yeshua were on the earth during the ministry of Yeshua, they did not celebrate Easter. Now, a lot of people will say, well, no duh, because Easter represents or celebrates the resurrection of Christ and yet not resurrected yet. Okay. Fair enough. But the thing is, even when Messiah was crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascended, even after all that, there’s not one single instance in all scripture where we can find anything even remotely close to Easter.

As we examined in previous episodes, the believers of the Brit Chadashah continued in the Torah. They continued in the Moedim. They continued celebrating things like Passover or better known in Greek as Pasq or Pascha. But for the believers and followers of Messiah, Passover took on a new additional meaning. It still had the meaning of the deliverance from Egypt, but it now it also had the additional meaning of Yeshua, our Passover lamb, dying for our sins and being slain for our sins.

So it took on a whole new different higher, much higher meaning than it had before. So that was those believers during the apostolic times of the Brit Chadashah. And this continued on because, of course, as they lived out through their lives and they set up new congregations, they taught their congregations these things, and these congregations passed on these traditions and these beliefs. And the early believers immediately after the time of the apostles still continue to celebrate, not Easter, they can still continue to celebrate Passover or better that’s they knew it, Pascha. We look at the quote from christianity.com, quote, from its earliest days, the church annually celebrated the anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection, often calling the whole holiday the Christian Passover.

The Greek name for Passover was Pasch, so Easter is sometimes called Paschal. Easter is an English word, end quote. And we’ll get into that a little bit later on, but the word Easter was never used for many hundreds of years after the time of the apostles and the Messiah. So when you read quotes like this from these early writers, these church fathers, when you read quotes like this and they’ve got the word Easter in there, that’s actually a mistranslation from whoever’s doing that. They did not know about Easter.

They did not celebrate Easter. They were saying, pask or pasca. They meant Passover, but the followers of Messiah were celebrating Passover in a much higher reverence and light than the traditional Passover before the time of Messiah because now Passover included Messiah and his sacrifice. We’re going on. We look at Polycrates.

This is gonna be very interesting because well, keep this just pay attention. From Polycrates, quote, then there is Polycarp, both bishop and martyr at Smyrna, and Thracias from Eumenia, both bishop and martyr who rest at Smyrna. Why should I speak of Sargeras, Papyrus, and Melito the eunuch? These all kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in accordance with the gospel without ever deviating from it, but keeping to the rule of faith. Moreover, I also, Polycrates, who am the least of you all in accordance with the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have succeeded, seven of my relatives were bishops, and I am the eighth, and my relatives always observe the day when the people put away the leaven.

End quote. Now several things to point out here that you really need to take notice of. Number one, he speaks of Polycarp. Who is Polycarp? Polycarp was a disciple of the apostle John.

Yeah. The John. So Polycarp got some first hand good training and discipleship from one of the apostles who went around with Yeshua. Polycarp is like the second generation disciple from Yeshua. So he was probably on his game and knew what he was talking about.

And if Polycarp was celebrating Passover, he was celebrating the 14 the month. He was celebrating when the people put away the leaven. We can take that as, well, that’s what the early believers and the apostles and Yeshua taught. That’s how they did things. They didn’t do Easter.

They did Passover. They did Pascha. Another thing, make sure to keep in mind that date. They all kept the Passover. And to keep Easter, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month.

What month? The first month. Not the third month, not the fourth month, the first month. And they kept it on the fourteenth day. Not a particular day of the week, but a particular day of the month, the fourteenth day.

Also, look down here where he’s saying that all his relatives, that they those in other words, those people who came before him, they these people who handed down the traditions to him, the younger generation, that his relatives always observe the day when the people put away the leaven. When is the day that the people put away the leaven? Well, if you’ve been in the messianic mindset for any amount of time, you know that is Passover because on the evening of the fourteenth, when it’s going into the fifteenth and you eat the lamb, that is when you stop for an entire week. You stop eating anything leavened. In fact, you get rid of everything leavened, any kind of leavening within your borders, within your house.

You just get rid of it. When the people put away the leaven, that is Passover. But looking at Tertullian, quote, if it were true that the apostle has erased all devotion absolutely of seasons, days, months, and years, why do we celebrate Pascha by an annual rotation in the first month? End quote. So writing in the third century, early in the third century, Tertullian is still stating that they celebrate Pascha, which is Passover, by an annual rotation and in the first month.

Now keep in mind the Gregorian calendar, not in use at this time. It’s still gonna be a while in history before the Gregorian calendar that we’re used to comes on the scene. But he’s still stating that they celebrate the Pascha, not Easter, Pascha in the first month. From Origen again, quote, we ourselves are accustomed to observe certain days. For example, there is Pascha.

He who considers that Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us and that it is his duty to keep the feast by eating of the flesh of the word never ceases to keep the Paschal feast, where Pascha means a Passover. So he is ever striving in all his thoughts, words, and deeds to pass over from the things of this life to God. End quote. This is another beautiful quote by Origen and here it says that those who consider that Christ is our Passover, they never stop with the feast of eating of the flesh of the word and that this flesh and what is being eaten on Pasco or Passover is the flesh of Messiah. That is what a lot of people would refer to probably as the Eucharist.

Because remember, when you look in these scriptures and you’re reading the final days of Yeshua, he tells his disciples to go and prepare a place for them to eat the Passover. And that is the last supper that he eats Is that meal that he told them was the Passover. So once again, for the early believers, this whole season of Passover took on a whole new additional higher, in my opinion, meaning than what Passover had traditionally been tied to. Now you’ve got not only the deliverance from Egypt way back in the time of Moses, but now you’ve got the deliverance from sin for all of us nowadays, thanks to Messiah and his sacrifice as our Passover lamb. Now let’s look a little bit at the Quartodeciman Controversy as it’s called sometimes.

It’s also referred to as the Paschal controversy or something like that. But even though the early believers, the apostles, and those around them, the churches they set up, even though they and the early believers in the first and second centuries kept Passover, they kept Pascha, they kept the fourteenth day of the month. Even though they did that, they were still spreading the gospel. They were still converting people into this way of thinking, this whole messianic faith or Christianity, if you wanna call it that or whatever it is you wanna call it. But they’re bringing people into the faith, and as they do so, these people they’re bringing in, they bring in their baggage.

And they don’t get rid of their baggage, they bring it in with them, unfortunately. And some of this baggage is Hellenistic ways of thinking. And, unfortunately, that means things ended up changing and not always for the better. One instance of that is this quarter decimal controversy, and it comes in because people wanted to celebrate Pascha. Again, at this point, it’s still called Pascha, not Easter, but people want to celebrate Pascha on a day different than what scripture alluded to as, you know, being the fourteenth, the Passover day.

They wanted to celebrate it on a Sunday specific day of the week, not what scripture says, and that will be a specific day of the month. You’ve got now you’ve got the people who are sticking to the traditions that were handed down to him by the apostles, keeping the fourteenth day of the month. And then you’ve got another group who wants to keep a different date for Pasco. And this is where the controversy comes in. You’ve got these new people wanting to do things in a new way.

We look at from the Jewish Encyclopedia, quote, under the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem, who were all Jews, no difference occurred between the Jewish and the Christian dates, end quote. That’s the Jewish and Christian dates for Passover or Pascha. Now remember, Jews were still or those within Judaism were still celebrating Passover the way they celebrated before Yeshua. They were still doing it that way. But now those within Christianity were celebrating Passover still on the same date, but they were celebrating it with Yeshua in mind also.

But the dates were still the same because it was still Passover. There’s no difference there. And that’s what they’re alluding to here. There’s no difference during the reign of the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem. But going on the Jewish encyclopedia quote, greater stress was laid in the Western church at least on the connection of Easter with the vernal equinox of the sun than with the full moon of the fourteenth of Nisan.

In other words, Easter became a solar date whereas Passover was essentially lunar. End quote. And when it says here that great stress was laid in the western church, read there Alexandria and Rome because, in my opinion, a lot of bad things come out of both Alexandria and Rome in those early years. This is just one of those. And now you’ve got people wanting to do a different date or passcode.

And those in the East were wanting to base the date off the sun. You’re starting to pick up on this? Just don’t just want to do it after the sun. Whereas those in the East, we’re still wanting to do it according to scripture on the fourteenth like scripture says to do. And then we go on to the Catholic Encyclopedia, quote, the Alexandrians, on the other hand, accepted it as a first principle that the Sunday to be kept as Easter day must necessarily occur after the vernal equinox, then identified with twenty one March of the Julian year, end quote.

And according to Melito, when Servilius Paulus was proconsul of Asia at the time that Sagaris suffered martyrdom, there arose a great controversy at Laodicea concerning the date of Pascha, which had fallen due at that time, end quote. And then reading from Irenaeus, quote, when the blessed Polycarp was visiting in Rome in the time of Bishop Anacetus, they were at once well inclined toward each other. They were not willing that any quarrel should arise between them upon this matter. Anacetus could not persuade Polycarp to forego the observance of his Pascha customs. For these things had been always observed by John the disciple of our Lord and by other apostles with whom Polycarp had been conversant.

Nor, on the other hand, could Polycarp succeed in persuading Anasetas to keep Pascha in his way. For Anicetus 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. Now one good thing to point out here, these two people, Polycarp and Anacetus, they have a difference of opinion about when Pascha should be celebrated. Is it on a particular Sunday or is it on the fourteenth?

Polycarp, a disciple of John, still maintained the biblical tradition of the fourteenth. Anasetas was going the new direction of doing it on a Sunday in a different way than what scripture had prescribed. But even though they disagreed and even though they did not come to a consensus and they could not convince one another, they still had fellowship with each other. They still treat each other as brothers and messiah. And this is a beautiful thing.

Even though I disagree with Anasetas for obvious reasons, it was still a wonderful thing to see that they’re both not killing each other. They’re not burning each other at the stake or drowning each other or beheading each other because they have a difference of beliefs. No. Even though they have a difference of beliefs, they’re still getting together, they’re still fellowshipping, and this is, in my opinion, how brothers should act when they have a non salvation issue difference of opinion. It’s just unfortunate that this kind of attitude did not continue on down through the believers.

So but anyways, this controversy between the two days went on for some time, and it was finally well, sort of finally decided at the Council of Nicaea. And here is a letter from the emperor, emperor Constantine, going out to all those who were not present at the Council of Nasia. And it says here, this comes from Eusebius, but, quote, when the question relative to Easter arose, it was universally thought that it would be convenient that all should keep the feast on one day. We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews. We desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews, for it is truly shameful for us to hear them boast that without their direction, we could not keep this feast.

You should consider not only that the number of churches in these provinces make a majority, but also that it is right to demand what our reason approves and that we should have nothing in common with the Jews. By the unanimous judgment of all, it has been decided that the most holy of at the most holy festival of Easter, or Paschub, should be everywhere celebrated on one and the same day, except joyfully the divine favor and this truly divine command where all which takes place in assemblies of the bishops ought to be regarded as proceeding from the will of God. Keep this most holy day according to the prescribed mode. We can thus celebrate this holy Easter day at the same time. So like we saw earlier, the first believers still kept the Passover, but they kept it with an additional commemoration that of the sacrifice of Yeshua.

But when the controversy came up and there was a new way presented that was not going according to the scriptural way, controversy arose and they finally decided. And the reason they made the decision they did, and this is from Constantine’s own letter. The reason they made the decision they did, instead of going with the biblically prescribed way, they went with the other way, which is not biblically prescribed in which the dating comes from, well, pretty much paganism. And they did this because of antisemitism. From what I can see, they had a dislike, we’ll put it that way for the time being, but they had a dislike for Jews and they didn’t want to be seen as doing anything that was even remotely close to the Jews.

So they didn’t want to keep the fourteenth like scripture commanded, not the Jews. It was scripture that commanded it. But they saw that as something the Jews did, and they didn’t want to do the fourteenth like the biblical like the bible commands. They wanted to do instead this new way that more than likely came from paganism. Now think about it.

This new way, it was finally decided that it should always be on a Sunday. Okay. Whatever. That’s not entirely true. It’s not entirely biblical, but whatever.

But the timing of it is not based off of Passover anyways. The timing of it was eventually decided to be at the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox. Now, correct me if I’m wrong. As you go through scripture and you look at all of the things to remember during the year, whether it’s a feast day, whether it’s a moadim, or anything else, Nothing in scripture is ever calculated by an equinox or a solstice. All of that, the solstices and the equinoxes, all that timing and dating stuff comes from outside of scripture.

So we know this new dating thing for Pascha that they introduced did not come from scripture. It came from somewhere else. But finally, they had a dating system for this festival of Pascha. However, this dating thing was not the last straw or the last modification to the Passover that the believers were celebrating. It would go on and continue to change in unfortunate ways.

Things will be added. Things will be rejected, and it will be rejected because, like we saw, because of antisemitism. You’re doing things that came from scripture. If the Jews did them, then you were a Judaizer if you did those biblical things. Even though it didn’t come from Judaism, it came from the bible, which makes no sense.

And there is, unfortunately, a lot of antisemitism within the early church. I mean, let’s just call a horse a horse, shall we? Look at the works of Justin Martyr, and you can certainly see some antisemitism there within the councils of the church. You can see some antisemitism there from the letter we read here from Constantine. You can look at also the Council of Laodicea when they changed the Sabbath, and it said anyone who is caught resting on the Sabbath are their Judaizers.

Let them be anathema. Okay. It was not a Jewish command that the seventh day is a rest day. It’s a biblical command. So, anyways, yeah, unfortunately, there was some antisemitism there, and this contributed to some of the changes within the Passover celebration within the Christian community.

And, like I said, unfortunately, the dating was not the only thing that was changed about this. There was some other stuff too. And as the empire and eventually the, quote, unquote, church continued to grow and expand and go throughout history, they went into new territories. And, unfortunately, they adopted some of the customs and beliefs that were in those new territories. Now this is something called with the Romans interpretatio Romanum.

And according to Clifford Ando who wrote in Classical Philology, quote, among scholars of classical religion, the terms interpretatio graeca and interpretatio romana commonly refer to the broad identification among Greeks and Romans of a foreign godhead with a member of their own pantheons, end quote. And from the Oxford classical dictionary, quote, interpretatio Romana, a phrase used to describe the Roman habit of replacing the name of a foreign deity with that of a Roman deity considered somehow comparable. Different Latin names could sometimes be substituted for the same foreign name depending on which characteristic of the god was chosen as the basis for comparison. The process continued as the Romans came into contact with other cultures so that the German Woden was called Mercurius by Roman writers, end quote. So as they went into new areas and they conquered new peoples and they interacted with these new cultures, a lot of times they would absorb those cultures into what they already had existing, and they would just take those names and replace the names and switch them around, things like that.

This is similar and pretty much, in my opinion, the same thing as syncretism that the church has been doing pretty much ever since its inception. The when I say church, I mean the Catholic church when it was started back in 03/25. But according to wikipedia.org, quote, religious syncretism is the blending of religious belief systems into a new system or the incorporation of other beliefs into an existing religious tradition. This can occur for many reasons where religious traditions exist in proximity to each other or when a culture is conquered and the conquerors bring their religious beliefs with them but do not succeed in eradicating older beliefs and practices. Many religions have syncretic elements, but adherents often frown upon the application of the label, especially those who belong to revealed religions such as Abrahamic religions or any system with an exclusivist approach, seeing syncretism as corrupting the original religion.

Non exclusivist systems of belief, on the other hand, feel more free to incorporate other traditions into their own, end quote. And it’s so true because you incorporate these other beliefs from paganism into the true belief of scripture, and it corrupts it. No doubt. We’ve seen that over and over again with the Catholic church, what they brought into the system. We’ve seen that sometimes with Judaism when they bring in various things.

If you for those of you who don’t know, Judaism has brought in things like eggs at Passover, and that’s not a scriptural thing. It actually comes from paganism. At Hanukkah, there are certain Jews who bring in what’s called Hanukkah bushes. Guess where that comes from? There’s there’s no use of greenery in scripture.

The use of greenery such as trees and shrubs and flowers and wreaths and all this other stuff, all that comes from paganism. So we can look at the Catholic church. We can look at Christianity and how they brought in these elements of paganism, and that’s syncretism, but it also happens with other religions as well. Here, we’ve set examples forth from Judaism. So syncretism happens with more than just the true religion that we hold to.

It happens with these other religions as well. Like I said, it wasn’t just the Greeks and the Romans who did this. In my opinion, Rome never died. It just simply became the Catholic church. So as the Catholic church expanded into all these new territories around the world, They adopted a lot of the customs and beliefs and, unfortunately, even the religious elements of the cultures and the lands of where they went, and this was pretty much for the sake of recruitment, bringing people into the church for the reasons of power and money and control.

And that’s really what the Roman church has been all about since the beginning. Power, money, control. But they adopted these new ways, new beliefs as they went throughout these various lands, went to new territories. And according to Crystal de Costa of Scientific American, quote, it is well known that under the Roman Empire, Christianity did indeed adopt the pagan rituals of conquered peoples in an effort to help convert them. It worked pretty well as a strategy as it allowed the conquered peoples to continue a semblance of their observances as they remembered, and with time, the population would would be replaced with those who only knew the new traditions.

End quote. From Socrates Scholasticus in his writing the Ecclesiastical History or Church History, quote, and it seems to me that just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage, the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiar peculiarities of the people in as much as none of the apostles legislated on the matter. End quote. And he’s right. As the people went into these various localities, they adopted the customs that were there, brought them into things like Easter, and he’s also right at the that the apostles did not legislate this matter.

They didn’t need to because they were not celebrating Easter as we know it. They were celebrating Passover, and that legislation was laid down in the Torah, not the Brit Chadashah, not by the apostles. So they didn’t need to legislate Pascha. There was already legislation for Passover, and they didn’t need to legislate, quote, unquote, Easter because at that time, there was no Easter, at least not the way we think of it, at least not in any sort of Christian context. It was all paganism, and they did not care about paganism.

These apostles, they shunned paganism in things like Easter celebrations. They celebrated Passover, and we saw that clearly. We can see it in the scriptures. We can see it from the quotes of the early believers. They celebrated Passover, not the Easter that we know.

We’re going on looking at Encyclopedia Britannica, quote, Easter like Christmas has accumulated a great many traditions, some of which have little to do with the Christian celebration of the resurrection but derived from folk customs, end quote. So true. You think about what we consider Easter to be today, and they’re absolutely right. A lot of what we think of is as Easter today has very little to do with the resurrection. It all has to do with the full customs that were adopted into the Easter celebration.

Read that as pagan customs that were adopted into the Easter celebration. Even the Easter word itself, the name Easter comes from paganism. From the Jewish encyclopedia, quote, Easter from Yostre Ostara, the Teuton the Teuton goddess of the rising day, particularly of spring, name given by Anglo Saxons to the Christian Passover. Remember, Easter is the name given by Anglo Saxons to the Christian Passover as the feast of resurrection and rather incorrectly used for the Jewish Passover. Originally, Pascha or Passover was the name given by the Christians to the fourteenth day of Nisan as the day of the crucifixion.

Corresponding to the eve of the Jewish Passover, the season of the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb. This was followed by the memorial of the resurrection on the succeeding Sunday. End quote. So we’re gonna look at that name a little bit more as we go along in another section. But, yeah, even the Easter name that comes from a Teutonic European pagan goddess of spring fertility.

It’s and like I said, it fortunately, a lot of languages around the world, as we saw earlier, still continue that tradition of using a word that denotes Passover. But, unfortunately, this name Easter, which is the name of a pagan goddess, still continues. And we really do need to get rid of it. And why do we need to get rid of it? Because things like the name, things like the various symbols and customs that come along with it are all elements that come from paganism, And when we adopt things from paganism, we bring them in to the true belief that is polluting the true belief, and it is, according to scripture, considered to be the same thing as adultery, but adultery towards God.

Because scripture clearly states that idolatry, things like doing pagan things, is adultery toward God. Remember the incident with the golden calf at the foot of Sinai. Let’s look at Exodus chapter 32 verses one through 20. And when the people saw that Moshe was so long in coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, arise, make us mighty ones who go before us. And Aaron formed the gold with an engraving tool and made a molded calf, and Aaron saw and built a slaughter place for it.

And they rose early on the next day and offered ascending offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. And Yahweh said to Moshe, go, get down, for your people whom you have brought out of the land of Mitsrayim have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. And now let me alone that my wrath might burn against them and I consume them, and I make of you a great nation.

But Moshe pleaded with Yahweh his Elohim. And it came to be, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it into powder, and scattered it on the face of the water and made the children of Israel drink it. So here the people, they thought that Moshe was gone, that he was not coming back, and they did not know who would mediate for them because Moses was a mediator between them and Yahweh. They didn’t know who know who would mediate for them so they fell back into their old pagan ways that they had become accustomed to in Egypt and they made an idol, this golden golden calf.

And this was doing things in a pagan way and trying to bring it into the true faith, and that did not turn out good. You read this entire section right here. Yahweh wanted to destroy them, to wipe them off the face of the Earth and start over with Moshe. But Moshe mediated. He intervened and pleaded with Yahweh and got him to change his mind.

And so the people were saved, at least the vast majority of them anyways. But it didn’t turn out well. The people thought, well, we can do this the way we know instead of doing it the right way, and they made this idol. We should not be doing the same thing. In their hearts, I’m sure they were thinking, well, it’s okay because we have good intentions.

But that’s not the way that Yahweh sees it. They should have known better, and they were told probably before this, but specifically in many other places, do not do as the pagans do. From Leviticus chapter 20 verse 23, and do not walk in the laws of the nation which I am driving out before you, for they do all these, and therefore I loathe them. Deuteronomy chapter 12 verses 29 through 31. When Yahweh your Elohim does cut off from before you, the nations which you go to dispossess and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, guard yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire about their mighty ones, saying, how did these nations serve their mighty ones, and let me do so too?

Do not do so to Yahweh your Elohim. For every abomination which Yahweh hates, they have done to their mighty ones, for they even burned their sons and daughters in the fire to their mighty ones. Flat out, specifically, in no uncertain terms, do not do as the pagans do. Do not bring in their ways. Do not allow it.

When you go in, you take the word of Yahweh, his ways, his Torah, his instructions, and that’s what you do, but you get rid of all that pagan stuff. You don’t adopt it. You don’t bring it in to the ways that you’re doing things. And, unfortunately, that’s what happened as the church spread throughout the world. They incorporated various elements into their worship practices and their beliefs.

And this is what happened to what was originally Passover for the believers. They took this Passover, they changed the date, then they changed the customs, and they kept changing it and twisting it and adopting these pagan practices into it. And now it’s the Easter that we know today, but it has nothing to do with the Passover of the scriptures. It has nothing to do with what the early believers were celebrating and believing. And as you look in the scripture, even though they’re told specifically, do not go after these pagan gods, do not go and do these pagan things towards Yahweh, your God, they still fell into adultery.

I’m sorry. They still fell into idolatry, and this idolatry is considered according to scripture as adultery towards Yahweh. Jeremiah chapter three verses six through nine. And Yahweh said to me in the days of Yoshiyahu, the sovereign, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there committed whoring.

And after she had done all these, I said, return to me. But she did not return, and her treacherous sister, Yehudah, saw it. And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister, Yehudah, did not fear, but went and committed whoring too. And it came to be through her frivolous whoring that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and wood.

A lot of this is symbolic and metaphoric, but they’re not actually talking about physical sex and adultery. They’re talking about idolatry, how the people went after green trees. They went up on the high mountains. They committed adultery or idolatry with stones and wood. These idols that they encountered or made, that’s the whoring that is being spoken of here in the book of Jeremiah.

And this idolatry is going after other gods, going after pagan ways, bringing in pagan practices, this was the adultery that’s being spoken of towards Yahweh because Yahweh is a jealous El. He is a jealous god. He does not want any other gods in our lives. It’s just him. He is to be our one and only and sole true husband.

And when we go after other gods, when we go and bring in pagan practices, that is spiritual adultery towards our husband, Yahweh. And it’s that serious. It’s as serious as adultery in this life on this Earth. Probably even more so actually, to tell you the truth. But adopting these pagan practices and bringing them in is like committing adultery against our husband, Yahweh.

Jeremiah chapter three verse 20. But indeed, as a wife betrays her husband, so you have betrayed me, oh, house of Israel, declares Yahweh. And this is just a small selection of the verses that speak of this in scripture and reference the idolatry as adultery towards Yahweh. And you may be thinking to yourself, okay, well, that’s all well and good. That’s what scripture says, but that’s not what it means to me.

That’s not what’s in my heart. And people think that’s okay. What does scripture say about the matters of the heart? We look at Matthew chapter 15 verse 19. For out of the heart come forth wicked reasonings, murders, adulteries, whorings, thefts, false witnessings, slanders.

From Mark chapter seven verses 21 to 23. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil reasonings, adulteries, whorings, murders, thefts, greedy desires, wickednesses, deceit, indecency, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these wicked matters come from within and defile a man. So it doesn’t matter what it means in your heart because we see from scripture what comes out of man’s heart. Instead, we need to focus on what Yahweh wants when we are living for him.

And Yahweh clearly, from his word tells us not to go after these pagan gods, not to go after these pagan practices and pagan ways to shun it, get rid of it, obliterate it. So it’s not about what it means to us. It’s about what it means to Yahweh. If you truly love Yahweh and want to serve him. I can’t answer that for you.

As for me and my household, we will serve Yahweh. You make your own decisions. Now let’s go and look at some elements of Easter itself, and this is probably what a lot of people have been waiting for some of the information here. But the other information is probably more relevant and probably better for you to learn, but this is still good all the same. Looking at the name for Easter, we hit on this a little bit before, but let’s get into some more depth here.

From Encyclopedia Britannica, quote, the name Easter or German Osterin, like the names of the days of the week, is a survival from the old Teutonic mythology. According to Betty, it is derived from Eostre or Ostara, the Anglo Saxon goddess of spring to whom the month answering to our April and called Eostre Monath was dedicated, end quote. And from the Catholic Encyclopedia, quote, the English term according to the Venerable Beddae relates to Eostre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown even in the Edda, Anglo Saxon Easter Iostran, Old German, Ostra Ostraer, Ostraerun, German, Ostern. Easter was called Easter Monad, end quote. Then going on looking at Jacob Grimm’s Dutch mythology, quote, Ostara or Easter seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn of ups up springing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection day.

Bonfires were lighted at Easter, and according to popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps. He dances for joy. Water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing. Here also, heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great Christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains are suggestive of the ancient goddess, end quote.

Yeah. It’s pretty bad. Even just the name the name Easter from paganism. But that’s not the only element that was brought in and was syncretized into this celebration of what was originally Passover. Other things were brought in as well, things such as the egg, which most people are probably familiar with when it comes to Easter celebrations.

According to the Farmers’ Almanac, quote, the oval shaped egg has been a universal symbol in many religions across the millennia, symbolizing new life, rebirth, and fertility. In Germany and other countries, the eggs are pierced and made hollow so that they can be suspended from shrubs and trees during Easter week, much like decorations on a Christmas tree. Eggs play symbolic role in many cultures and religions. Its oval shape is a symbol of fertility, eternity, and the circle of life with neither beginning nor end. In the Egyptian myth of creation, eggs were linked to the creation of the universe suggesting that the Earth itself may have been born out of an egg.

The new life that lies dormant in the egg came to be associated with life energy. Painting or decorating eggs has been a popular tradition in many cultures for thousands of years, end quote. Make sure to take note here where it says that eggs were a symbol of fertility. Now this Eostre or Easter that Easter is named after is a spring fertility goddess. Who else is a fertility goddess?

Well, you’ve got the people in or I’m sorry, the false gods in scripture known as Astarte, better known as Ishtar. And due to this whole concept of interpretatio romana and other things where they go in and they adopt and rename certain gods and practices of the territories they conquer, these names change, but it’s still the same false goddess tradition. So even though this Easter name comes from the Teutonic goddess named Eostre or Easter, wherever you wanna pronounce it, way back when. It originally came from probably some other element, probably from Astarte, that same one is spoken of in scripture as, quote, unquote, the queen of heaven. These are all fertility goddesses, and eggs were an important part of the worship of these fertility goddesses because the eggs were symbols of fertility, and it continues on today not only within paganism, but also within our modern Easter celebrations.

Looking at rabbits from livescience.com, quote, some historians attribute the rise of an egg I’m sorry. Some historians attribute the rise of egg and rabbit imagery on Easter to the holidays roots in springtime fertility celebrations, end quote. From National Geographic, quote, over the years, Easter has merged with pagan spring celebrations. Popular traditions include a visit from the Easter Bunny, a folk symbol of spring, who bears eggs that symbolize new life, end quote. Another symbol of fertility, the rabbits, the Easter Bunny.

And I know. I’ve heard this, I don’t know how many times, and it’s irritating. But some people, when you start talking to them about these elements, where they came from, they’ll say, well, these pagans, they did not have the imagery of a rabbit or a bunny. No. They had the imagery of a hare.

Okay. You’re trying to make a difference when there’s really no distinction. Again, let’s call a horse a horse, shall we? Both reproduce prolifically, both the rabbits and the hares. Both have long legs that jump around.

Both have long ears. Both are fuzzy. Hey. It’s the same thing. Even though we call it by different name, it’s still the same thing, still the same symbol.

It still comes from paganism. So that’s a nonstarter right there. But it wasn’t just the name and the eggs and the rabbits that were incorporated. There were also other elements that come into it, and, unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there. There’s other things like the lilies that come into it, the new clothes at Easter time that a lot of people have the tradition of, but many various elements come into this.

From the Standard Reference Encyclopedia, quote, although Easter is a Christian festival, it embodies traditions of an ancient time antedating the rise of Christianity. The origin of its name is lost in the dim past. Some scholars believe it probably is derived from Eostre, Anglo Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated Eostre Monath, corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox, and traditions associate with the festival survive in the familiar Easter bunny, symbol of the fertile rabbit, and in the equally familiar colored Easter eggs originally painted with gay hues to represent the sunlight of spring. End quote.

So, yeah, there’s a lot of information that goes into this and there’s a lot of information we did not put up here just for the sake of time. So go check it out on the notes and like always, we encourage you, we invite you, we implore you, Go further than this study, than this teaching. Do your own research. Find out even more and let us know. Write to us.

Leave us a comment on the videos and let us know what you found out so that we can all learn. But there’s a lot that goes into this. This is just the basics and pretty much the highlights of what happened to the celebration of Passover as it went down through the years. How it how and when it changed from the fourteenth of the first month, as scripture tells us, to the Sunday after the first journal equinox, where the customs of eggs and symbols of rabbits and all this other stuff comes from. There’s a lot more out there, and I invite you go check it out.

Do your own research, and by all means, please let us know what you find out. So we would love to have the information to add to our notes. So in summary, number one, Easter is not found or commanded in scripture. Remember, we don’t get Easter in scripture, not the Easter that we know of. What we get in scripture is Passover, what the first believers referred to as Pasch or Pascha.

The earliest Christians did not celebrate Easter. Calculations for the day of Easter are not based on scripture. Call it paganism if you want to, but it’s dated due to the equinox, not scripture. Next, Easter was mandated by Constantine and the Council of Nicaea due to antisemitism. We saw that in letter from Constantine where they got away from Passover went towards what we now know as Easter, the beginnings of it anyways, due to them not wanting to associate with Jews.

Next, over time, the church mixed pagan elements into Easter And slowly but surely, throughout the course of history, they changed the Passover celebration into what we now know as Easter, which represents nothing like what we see in scripture. The name Easter, the Easter bunny, and Easter eggs comes from the worship of a pagan goddess, Eostre, and like we saw from this whole concept of interpretatio romana, originally from things like Ishtar and Astarte. Next, scripture tells us to not follow after the ways of the pagans, heathens, or gentiles. They’re all the same thing, all the same word, but scripture tells us not to follow after these pagans or these gentiles. And finally, Yahweh does not want us to worship him in the way that pagans worship their false gods.

And that’s just the God honest truth.