The fact that Easter did not originate with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Encyclopedias and dictionaries trace the term Easter variously back to Eostre ,
the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring; to Eostur , the Norse word for the
spring season; or to Ishtar , the ancient spring goddess of Near Eastern countries,
also known as Astarte , or, in the Bible, Ashtoreth .
All are connected to the spring season and springtime fertility festivals that represented
rejuvenation, reproduction and the life-enriching qualities of the sun. Customs and symbols
associated today with Easter observance can be directly traced back to Easter's pre-Christian origins.
The Babylonians taught that Tammuz was mystically revived from death in the spring by the
anguish and crying of Ishtar, who, as already noted, was the same as the pagan goddess
Ashtoreth referred to in Scripture (Judges:2:13; 10:6; 1 Kings:11:5).
This ancient custom of mourning for the return of a dead god is mentioned in Ezekiel:8:14,
where we read of women "weeping for Tammuz." His supposed resurrection marked the end
of winter and the beginning of spring, with its new life and vegetation.
Ishtar, wife of Tammuz, was also worshiped as the "Queen of Heaven" ( Harper's Bible Dictionary ,
"Asherah"). The Bible shows that idolatry and sun worship connected with Ishtar and Tammuz became
so widespread and influential that they were practiced even by people who had once known the true God
but had fallen into wrong kinds of worship (Ezekiel:8:12-18)
the Sabbath and the festivals of God, outlined in Leviticus 23 and practiced by both Judaism
and the early Church (see Acts:13:14, 42, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 21; 20:6, 16; 27:9),
were supplanted by non biblical traditions and practices.
The pagan festival honoring the goddess of spring (renamed Easter) began to supplant the
Christian Passover. "In Rome Easter was celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon
after the spring equinox, and was a memorial of the resurrection" (The Oxford Illustrated
History of Christianity, 1990, p. 36).
The Christian Passover, instituted by Jesus to annually commemorate His death, was subtly
changed to a celebration memorializing His resurrection. But there is no command in the Bible,
by Jesus or His apostles, to solemnize His resurrection.
Instead, Jesus highlighted what was to be accomplished by His death in instituting new symbols
for the New Covenant meaning of the Passover (Matthew:26:26-28; Mark:14:22-24; Luke:22:17-20)
He was the Lamb of God who offered Himself as the true Passover sacrifice for the sins of the world
, and His death fulfilled what had long been foreshadowed by the slaying of the Passover lambs.
Notice this frank admission from the Catholic Encyclopedia’s article on Easter: “[Easter] is also
the oldest feast of the Christian Church, as old as Christianity, the connecting link between the
Old and New Testaments. That the apostolic fathers do not mention it and that we first hear of it
principally through the Controversy of the Quartodecimans are purely accidental”
(emphasis ours throughout).
The New Catholic Encyclopedia adds: "Originally both observances [Passover and Easter] were allowed,
but gradually it was felt incongruous that Christians should celebrate Easter on a Jewish feast, and unity
in celebrating the principal Christian feast was called for" .
http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=4116
the Passover ceremony, observed by Jesus Christ and commanded by Him for His followers
(1 Corinthians:11:23-26
As part of the mixing of this ancient pagan festival with the death and resurrection of Christ,
whether to keep Easter, and if so on what date, was heatedly debated during the second century.
A group in Asia Minor known as the Quartodecimans (after the Latin word for 14) rigorously
defended the original biblical truths. They insisted on an observance of the Christian Passover
on the correct biblical date, the 14th day of the month Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. This was
a movable date, meaning it did not fall on the same weekly or Roman calendar day each year.
"In the mid-second century, however, some Gentile Christians began to celebrate [Easter] on
the Sunday after 14 Nisan, with the preceding Friday observed as the day of Christ's crucifixion,
regardless of the date on which it fell. The resulting controversy over the correct time for observing
the Easter festival reached a head in A.D. 197, when Victor of Rome excommunicated those
Christians who insisted on celebrating Easter [actually the Passover] on 14 Nisan.
The dispute continued until the early fourth century, when the Quarto-decimans . . . were required
by Emperor Constantine to conform to the empire-wide practice of observing Easter on the Sunday
following 14 Nisan, rather than on the date itself.
"Currently celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox
[the Council of Nicea fixed this date in A.D. 325], Easter falls differently for [Eastern] Orthodox
Christianity which, unlike Western Christianity, did not accept the Gregorian calendar reform in 1582"
(Harper's Bible Dictionary, 1985, "Easter").
the world's observance of Easter is a curious mixture of ancient mythological and idolatrous practices
and arbitrary dating that actually obscure and discredit the proof of Jesus Christ's messiahship and
resurrection. The Passover was discarded and replaced with Easter.
This gives some of the background on how Friday came to be observed as the time of Jesus' crucifixion,
and the following Sunday as the date of His resurrection.
If Jesus were in the grave only from late Friday afternoon to sometime before dawn
on Sunday morning, then the only sign He gave that He was the prophesied Messiah
was not fulfilled. The claim of His messiahship rests on the fulfillment of His words
Each of the Gospel writers gives an account of the events, but each presents different
aspects that we need to correctly synchronize and harmonize to produce a clear sequence
and understanding of what happened.
The Bible does not contradict itself (Psalm:119:160; John:10:35), that not one
of the Gospel accounts contradicts what the other Gospels reveal.