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From: Peggy Jones
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: The history of Easter


    Recently I had a Pastor's wife ask me why Easter and Passover do not
always fall in the same week. I pulled this article from the Funk &
Wagnells New Encyclopedia 1988 Edition (pages 432-434). I'm including
the whole article because I personally found them enlightning. I'm
only typing what was contained in the article. The reason for sending
this is not to argue Easter and Passover (for which there is no
arguement) but only for information purposes. I have found very few
people who even knew that the two festivals did not coinside. hmmmm?

                                     EASTER

Annual festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and
the principal feast of the Christian year. It is celebrated on a
Sunday on varying dates between March 22 and April 25 and is therefore
called the movable feast. The dates of several other ecclesiastical
festivals, extending over a period between Septuagesima Sunday (the
ninth Sunday before Easter) and the first Sunday of Advent, are fixed
in relation to the date of Easter.

    Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential
season of Lent, beginnning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight
of Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday; Holy week, commencing
on Palm Sunday, including Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and
terminating with Holy Saturday; and the Octave of Easter, extending
from Easter Sunday through the following Sunday. During the Otave of
Easter in early Christian times, the newly baptized wore white
garments, while being the liturgical color of Easter and signifying
light, purity, and joy.


                        PRE-CHRISTIAN TRADITION

Easter, a Christian festival, embodies many pre-Christian traditions.
The origin of its name is unknown. Scholars, however, accepting the
derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar St. Bede,
believe it probably comes from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a
Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated a
month corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day
of the vernal equinoz; traditions associated with the festival survive
in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored easter
eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight
of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts.

    Such festivals, and the stories and legends that explain their
origin, were common in ancient religions. A Greek legend tells of the
return of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth, from
the underworld to the light of day; her return symbolized to the
ancient Greeks the resurrection of life in the spring after the
desolation of winter. Many ancient peoples shared similar legends. The
Phrygians believed that their omnipotent deity went to sleep at the
time of the winter solstice, and they performed ceremonies with music
and dancing at the spring equinox to awaken him. The Christian
festival of Easter probably embodies a number of converging
traditions; most scholars emphasize the original relation of Easter to
the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived
Pasch, another name for Easter. The early Christians, many of whom
were of Jewish origin, were brought up in the Hebrew tradition and
regarded Easter as a new feature of the Passover festival, a
commemoration of the advent of the Messiah as foretold by the
prophets.

                      THE DATING OF EASTER

  According to the New Testament, Christ was cricified on the eve of
Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the
Easter festival commemorated Christ's resurrection. In time, a serious
difference over the date of the Easter festival arose among
Christians. Those of Jewish origin celebrated the resurrection
immediately following the Passover festival, which, according to their
Babylonian lunar calendar, fell on the evening of the full moon (the
14th day in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year); by their
reckoning, Easter, from year to year, fell on different days of the
week.

    Christians of Gentile origin, however, wished to commemorate the
resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday; by their method,
Easter occured on the same day of the week, but from year to year it
fell on different dates.

    An important historical result of the difference in reckoning the
date of Easter was that the Christian Churches in the East, which were
closer to the birthplace of the new religion and in which old
traditions were strong, observed Easter according to the date of the
Passover festival. The churches of the West, descendants of
Greek-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a Sunday.


 RULINGS OF THE COUNCIL OF NICAEA ON THE DATE OF EASTER

Constantine I, Roman emperor, convoked the Council of Nicaea in 325.
The council unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be
celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after
the full moon following the vernal equinox; and that if the full moon
should occur on a Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover
festival, Easter should be commmemorated on the Sunday following.
Coincidence of the feast of Easter and Passover was thus avoided.

The Council of Nicaea also decided that the calendar date of
Easter was to be calculated at Alexandria, then the pricipal
astronomical center of the world. The accurate determination of the
date, however, proved an impossible task in view of the limited
knowledge of the 4th-century world. The principal astronomical problem
involved was the descrepancy, called the epact, between the solar year
and the lunar year. The chief calendric problem was a gradually
increasing discrepancy between the true astronomical year and the
Julian calendar then in use.

                            LATER DATING METHODS

   Ways of fixing the date of the feast tried by the church proved
unsatisfactory, and Easter was celebrated on different dates in
different parts of the world. In 387, for example, the dates of Easter
in France and Egypt were 35 days apart. About 465, the church adopted
a system of calculation proposed by the astronmer Victorinus (fl. 5th
cent.), who had been commissioned by Pope Hilarius (r. 461-68)  to
reform the calendar and fix the date of Easter. Elements of his method
are still in use. Refusal of the British and Celtic Christian churches
to adopt the proposed changes led to a bitter dispute between them and
Rome in the 7th century.

Reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, through
adoption of the Gregorian calendar, eliminated much of the difficulty
in fixing the date of Easter and in arranging the ecclesiastical year;
since 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted in Great
Britain and Ireland, Easter has been celebrated on the same day in the
Western part of the Christian world. The Eastern churches, however,
which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, commemorate Easter on a
Sunday either preceding or following the date observed in the West.
Occasionally the dates coincide; the most recent times were in 1865
and 1963.

    Because the Easter holiday affects a varied number of secular
affairs in many countries, it has long been urged as a matter of
convenience that the movable dates of the festival be either narrowed
in range or replaced by a fixed date in the manner of Christmas. In
1923 the problem was referred to the Holy See, which has found no
canonical objections to the proposed reform. In 1928 the British
Parliament enacted a measure allowing the Church of England to
commemorate Easter of the first Sunday after the second Saturday in
April. Despite these steps toward reform, Easter continues to be a
movable feast.

In HIM
pjones

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From:        Neal Walters
To:            heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject:       The Passover Controversy

Dear Eddie,

Source of the Material Below:

     The entire text below is directly quoted from a book
 called "The Church and the Jews - The Biblical Relationship", by
 Daniel Gruber (published by the General Council of the Assemblies of
 God, Intercultural Ministries, 1991, Springfield, MO).


-----------------
Beginning of quotes from the section entitled "The
Passover Controversy": ------------

     How did the Passover controversy arise?  Jesus had celebrated
 Passover on the fourteenth of Nisan because that is its Biblical
 date.  He observed all the Levitical holy days on the days when God
 had decreed and designed them to be observed.  The Apostles and the
 first century Church did much the same.

 "As the Christian Passover was celebrated at the same time as the
 Jewish, this simultaneous observance was preserving the Jewish ritual
 in the Christian festival, and strengthening the bonds between
 Christianity and Judaism.  The date must be changed.  In some
 quarters the Church attempted to restrict the celebration to a single
 day, 14 Nisan; elsewhere - and this became the prevailing custom -
 she made Holy Week the week in which fell 14 Nisan (the day when the
 Jewish feast began), and removed the festival, which had already
 changed its character, to the Sunday following Holy Week.  In all
 these cases there was dependence on the Jewish calendar, a
 'humiliating subjection' to the Synagogue which irked the Church."

      Besides changing their dates the Church also gave to the Jewish
 festivals, which she adopted, a purpose different from that which
 they had for the Jews.  [Thus] Sunday commemorates the resurrection
 of the Lord, the victory over the Jews. (1)

     Sometime in the second century, some of the churches in the west,
 among the Gentiles, began to celebrate Passover/Easter so that their
 commemoration of the Lord's resurrection would always take place on a
 Sunday regardless of the Biblical calendar.  Towards the end of the
 second century, these western churches, led by the bishops of Rome,
 Casesarea, and Jerusalem (where there were no longer Jewish bishops),
 began to agitate for all the churches to keep the Passover on their
 fixed Sunday, rather than on the fourteenth of Nisan.  They also were
 accustomed to using the Roman calendar, rather than the Biblical
 calendar.

    Eusebius says, "There was a considerable discussion raised about
 this  time, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the
 observance of the paschal season.  The churches of all Asia, guided
 by a remoter tradition, supposed that they ought to keep the fourteen
 day of the moon for the festival of the Savior's Passover, in which
 day the Jews were commanded to kill the paschal lamb.But as it was
 not the custom to celebrate it in this manner in the churches
 throughout the rest of the world.there were synods and convocations
 of the bishops on this question.There is an epistle extant even now,
 of those who were assembled at the time; among whom presided
 Theophilus, bishop of the church in Cesarea, and Narcissus, bishop of
 Jerusalem.  There is another epistle extant on the same question,
 bearing the name of Victor [the bishop of Rome].(2)

    "The bishops, however, of Asia, persevering in observing the
custom handed down to them from their fathers, were headed by Polycrates.
He, indeed, had also set forth the tradition handed down to them, in
a letter which he addressed to Victor and the Church of Rome.

     "We,' said he, 'therefore, observe the genuine day; neither
 adding  thereto nor taking therefrom.  For in Asia great lights have fallen
 asleep, which shall rise again in the day of the Lord's appearing, in
 which he will come with glory from heaven, and will raise up all the
 saints; Philip, one of the twelve apostles, who sleeps in Hierapolis,
 and his two aged virgin daughters.  His other daughter, also, who
 having lived under the influence of the Holy Ghost, now likewise
 rests in Ephesus.  Moreover, John, who rested upon the bosom of our
 Lord; who also was a priest, and bore the sacerdotal plate, both a
 martyr and teacher.  He is buried in Ephesus; also Polycarp of
 Smyrna, both bishop and martyr.  Thraseas, also, bishop and martyr of
 Eumenia, who is buried at Smyrna.  Why should I mention.

     "All these observed the fourteenth day of the passover according
 to  the gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.
  Moreover, I, Polycrates, who am the least of all of you, according
 to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have followed.  For
 there were seven, my relatives bishops, and I am the eighth; and my
 relatives always observed the day when the people (i.e. the Jews)
 threw away the leaven.  I, therefore, brethren, am now sixty-five
 years in the Lord, who having conferred with the brethren throughout
 the world, and having studied the whole of the sacred Scriptures, am
 not at all alarmed at those things with which I am threatened, to
 intimidate me  For they who are greater than I, have said, "We ought
 to obey God rather than men."

     ".Upon this, Victor, the bishop of the Church of Rome, forthwith
 endeavored to cut off the churches of all Asia, together with the
 neighboring churches, as heterodox, from the common unity.  And he
 publishes abroad by letters, and proclaims, that all the brethren
 there are wholly excommunicated."(3)

     There were others, like Irenaeus, who "with much severity"
 exhorted  Victor to withdraw his decree.  Irenaeous reminded Victor of what had
 happened about fifty years earlier.  Anicetus, the bishop of Rome at
 that time, had tried to persuade Polycarp.  "For neither could
 Anicetus persuade Polycarp not to observe it, because he had always
 observed it with John the disciple of our Lord, and the rest of the
 apostles, with whom he associated."(4) In another section, Eusebius
 says this about Polycarp: "He always taught what he had learned from
 the apostles, what the church had handed down, and what is the only
 true doctrine." (5)

    . The issue, in a slightly altered from, was finally settled by
 the  Council of Nicea in 325 AD.  There it was decided that all the
 churches should celebrate Passover, or actually Easter, on the
 ecclesiastically chosen Sunday rather than the Biblical date.  All
 the churches were thus informed.  The Emperor Constantine sent his
 personal exhortation to all the churches concerning the decision of
 the Council.  What the Emperor said had great weight.  After all,
 Constantine was the one who had ended the persecution of the
 churches.  He was the founder of the Holy Roman Empire.  He openly,
 personally professed the Christian faith.  He had convened the
 council.  The churches, therefore, were more than willing to hear
 whatever he had to say to them. 

    What he had to say to them is a clear presentation of the
sentiment and theology of the Council of Nicea.  It expresses what then became
the nearly universal sentiment and theology of the Church.  Following
are excerpts from his letter:

---- beginning of Constantine's letter ----

Constantine, august, to the Churches.

Having experienced, in the flourishing state of public affairs, the
greatness of the divine goodness I though it especially incumbent on
me to endeavor that the happy multitudes of the Catholic [i.e. the
universal] Church should preserve one faith, be united in unfeigned
love, and harmoniously join their devotions to the Almighty God.  .

When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter, it was
decreed by common consent to be expedient, that this festival should
be celebrated on the same day by all, in every place.  For what can be
more beautiful, what more venerable and becoming, than that this
festival, from which we receive hope of immortality, should be
suitably observed by all in one and the same order. it seemed to every
one a most unworthy thing that we should follow the custom of the Jews
in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who, polluted
wretches! Having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are
justly blinded in their minds. 

It is fit, therefore, that, rejecting the practice of this people, we
should perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of this rite, in
a more legitimate order, . Let us then have nothing in common with the
most hostile rabble of the Jews.  We have received another method from
the Savior.  A more lawful and proper course is open to our most holy
religion. .

As it is necessary that this fault should be so amended that we may
have nothing in common with the usage of these parricides and
murderers of our Lord; and as that order is most convenient which is
observed by all the churches of the West, as well as those of the
southern and northern parts of the world, and also by some in the
East, it was judged therefore to be most equitable and proper, and I
pledge myself that this arrangement should meet your approbation, viz.
That the custom which prevails with one consent in the city of Rome,
and throughout all [list of countries] .., and to have no fellowship
with the perjury of the Jews.

And, to sum up the whole in a few words, it was agreeable to the
common judgment of all, that the most holy feast of Easter should be
celebrated on one and the same day.  . it is your duty to receive and
establish the arguments already stated, and the observance of the most
holy day; ..

---- end of Constantine's letter ----

In this letter, Constantine officially establishes an anti-Judaic
foundation for the doctrine and practice of the Church, and declares
that contempt for the Jews, and separation form them, is the only
proper Christian attitude.  ..

The most revealing question to ask is,  "When did God give such
authority over the Church to Constantine?"  It is a question that was
not really articulated at that time nor in most of the sixteen and a
half centuries since. 

The relationship of Church and State which began under Constantine was
seen as the greatest blessing of God.  There was an end to what had
seemed like endless persecution.  But with the end of persecution and
the beginning of new alliance came great compromises which have
distorted the nature of the Church to this day.  .

From that point on, Church doctrine was to be enforced by the sword of
the State.  Those who would not conform were to be exiled or put to
death.  The book of heretics - those who taught what was contrary to
the accepted teaching - were to be burned and exterminated from the
earth.  After all, as Constantine had written, "no pretense was left
for dissension or controversy respecting the faith."

The Church ceased to be the Church of Jesus, and became the Church of
Constantine.  It was no longer the bride of Messiah.  It had become
the bride of Caesar.  The light within turned to darkness.  The Church
changed from a means of salvation into a means of destruction.  It
poisoned the waters of eternal life, turning them into an everflowing
fountain of death. 

Jesus had warned his followers, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it
over them; and those who have authority over them are called
'Benefactors."  But not so with you, but let him who is the greatest
among you become as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.":
(Luke 22:25-26).  Constantine presented himself as the Benefactor of
the Church, having ended the persecution, and therefore expected the
Church to conform to his will.  The prophetic voice of the Church vis
a vis the State was silenced, and a hierarchical structure was imposed
upon it. 

Under Constantine, Eusebius wrote a history of the church that
pointedly eliminated any positive references the restoration of Israel
and earthly reign of Jesus.  .

The Church made a significant official change both in doctrine and in
the way doctrine was to be established.  . For what was approved by
300 bishops can only be considered as the pleasure of God. God's Truth
was to be determined by Church councils, and not by the Word of God.
Consequently, the teaching which was a blasphemous heresy to Justin
Martyr became the new, unchallengeable orthodoxy.

It is remarkable that this change was made over such a clear, but
seemingly insignificant issue as when the Church should celebrate the
Passover.  The Bible sets the date for Passover as the fourteenth of
Nisan.  That is when Jesus celebrated the Passover.  The apostles did
the same.

The Apostle Paul, whose ministry was to the Gentiles, observed the
Biblical dates.  The book of Acts records, simply in passing, that
Passover (Acts 20:7), Shavuot [Pentecost] (Acts 20:16) and Yom Kippur
[the Day of Atonement] were fixed, significant dates for Paul. .

Eusebius tells the story in The Last Days of Constantine.  All these
edifices the emperor consecrated with the desire of perpetuating the
memory of the Apostles of our Savior before all men.  He had, however,
another object in erecting this building (i.e. the Church of the
Apostles at Constantinople); an object at first unknown, but which
afterwards became evident to all.  He had in fact, made a choice of
this spot in the prospect of his own death, anticipating with
extraordinary fervor of faith that this body would share their title
with the Apostles themselves, and that he should thus even after death
become the subject, with them, of the devotions which should be
performed to their honor in this place, and for this reason he bade
men assemble for worship there at the altar which he placed in the
midst.  He accordingly caused twelve coffins to be set up in this
church, like sacred pillars in honor and memory of the apostolic band,
in the center of which his own was placed, having six of their on
either side of it. (5). .

"Planning the Church of the Apostles, Constantine had dreamed of
resting there forever in the midst of the Twelve, not merely one of
them, but a symbol of, if not a substitute for, their Leader.  During
the months of the church's construction, his agents had been busy in
Palestine collecting alleged relics [i.e. bones] of the apostles and
their companions, to be laid up in the church with his body, awaiting
the general resurrection."(6)

"The project was started but not completed.  However, an official
search was made for the locations of the bodies of the Apostles, and
this official search was possible the precipitating cause for the
inventory which was made for the Apostolic remains or relics.  After
this time there arose the practice of the veneration of relics.(7)

Constantine sought bones and buildings as the focus of worship.
Constantine built buildings which were called churches, and people who
were not the Church began to fill them.  They 'went to church," but
did not seek to "be the Church."  Rome was to become the new "holy
city", geographically defining and confining worship. 

Paul had warned the Gentile believer in Rome, "Don't be arrogant
towards the natural branches.  Don't be ignorant of God's faithfulness
to the Jewish people."

FOOTNOTES:

1) Les Juifs dan l'empire romain I, Paris 1914, P.308ff,quoted in "A
Note on the Quartodecimans," C.W. Dugmore, Studia Patristica, Vol.IV,
Berlin, 1961, P.412.

2)The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus, op.cit., Bk 5,
Ch.23, P.207.

3) ibid, Bk.5, Ch.24,Pp..208-209.

4) ibid, Bk 5, Ch.24,Pp.210-211.

5) ibid, Bk.4, Ch.14,P.141.

6) J. Stevenson, A New Eusebius, P.395, quoted in The
Search for the Twelve Apostles, William Steuart McBirnie, Tyndale
House, Wheaton, IL., 1977, P.19

7) John Holland Smith, Constantine the
Great, Pp.301-302, quoted in The Search for the Twelve Apostles,
William Steuart McBirnie, Pp.19-20.

8) The Search for the Twelve Apostles, P.20

Neal Walters

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From         Dennis Andress
To:             heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org 
Subject:    Easter, Ishtar or Passover?


                             Easter or Ishtar?

The word Easter appears once in the King James version of the Bible.
Herod has put Peter in prison,  "intending after Easter to bring him
forth to the people" (Acts 12:4). Yet in the original Greek text the
word is not Easter, but Pesach, that is Passover. So why was the name
changed? Please read on, and remember Exodus 34:14;  For you shall
worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God.

"Asherah" the Greek form of this word from the Septuagint is
"Astarte", who is the Babylonian goddess of the sea, sea being
symbolic of people, and consort of the god El. She was the mother of
several gods, including Baal, the Babylonian god of the sun. These
deities were soon adopted by the Canaanites when they named these
female deities the Ashereh or Asherim. These deities were made of wood
carved from a type of evergreen tree, or often they were set up in
Canaanite homes as full trees cut down from a forest. The Asherim
normally were highly acknowledged during two specific occasions. First
and foremost, they were the fertility gods of the spring equinox, when
the days and nights were approximately the same in length, signifying
the beginning of living things growing for the summer season. A very
common practice in the Canaanite religion was performed on the first
Sunday of the equinox. The families would face east to await the
rising of the sun, which was the chief symbol of the sun god, Baal.
Later on during the day, the children of the Canaanite parents would
often go and hunt for eggs, which were symbolic of sex, fertility and
new life. It was believed that these eggs came from rabbits, which in
the pagan world were symbolic of lust, sexual prowess and
reproduction. The Canaanites, however, were not the only ones who
worshipped rabbits as deities. The Egyptians and the Persians
(Babylon) also held rabbits in high esteem because they believed that
rabbits first came from the divine Phoenix birds, who once ruled the
ancient skies until they were attacked by other gods in a power
struggle. When they were struck down, they reincarnated into rabbits,
but kept the ability to produce eggs like the ancient birds to show
their origins. Other stories concerning the egg rose later in the
Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, where they believed the origin of the
Universe had the earth being hatched out of an enormous egg.
Decorating eggs came about to honor their pagan gods and were often
presented as gifts to other families to bring them fertility and
sexual success during the coming year.

And secondly, they were highly worshipped and celebrated during the
winter solstice. As according to Jer. 10:1-5; Is. 40:19-20; 41:7 and
44:9-20, the pagans would go out into the forest and do one of two
things. Either they chopped down a tree and carved a female deity out
of it, or they would simply bring the tree into the house and decorate
it with gold and silver ornaments symbolizing the sun and the moon
while nailing a stand on the bottom so it would not totter or tip
over.

Out of this practice came many other variations of these pagan
festivals until the Roman Catholic Church adopted the Asherah worship
and named it EASTER around 155 A.D. According to the CATHOLIC
ENCYCLOPEDIA, Easter was named after a pagan goddess of the
Anglo-Saxons named Eostre, the goddess of the dawn.  A great
controversy arose between the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox
Church in 325 A.D. on whether to celebrate Easter on Sundays or on
whatever day the Jewish Passover fell upon. Unfortunately, the Greeks
lost a lot of followers and the Catholics contended that keeping
Easter on Sundays would stimulate the practices of both the Christian
world and the pagan worshippers.  Note that the word CATHOLIC means
"universal" or "one world" in thought, concept and practice. Hence,
since the original practice of Asherah worship we now have in our time
the celebration of Easter, a counterfeit holiday to the true Christian
festival of the Passover which was instituted in the Bible and
completed in the New Testament when Christ died on the cross as our
Passover Lamb.

...For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
(I Cor 5:7)

Dennis L. Andress

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