When reading the bible, especially the old testament, one cannot help but notice that Yahweh has demonstrated a strong dislike, to say the very least, towards the mixing of Paganism with his form of desired worship. This amalgamation of worship amounts to nothing more than disobedience to God. In Deuteronomy 28, God provides a list of blessings to the Israelites for obedience in verses 1–14 followed by a list of curses for disobedience in verses 15–68. That is almost 4 times the amount of curses versus the amount of blessings. When one continues to search through the old testament, especially through the books of the prophets, Jeremiah in particular, one finds that God considers idolatry enough of an offense to first send Jeremiah to warn Israel of the plagues to come if he does not repent from his idolatry, and second to send Babylon to destroy, and bring Israel into captivity for 70 years, after which a small remnant will remain. When one reads Isaiah and Ezekiel, there is one pervasive theme, God executing his wraith on Israel for “prostituting herself to idols”, also known as Baal and the grove or sun and tree worship.
Some may argue that what God expected in regards to obedience from Israel is not the same today, because today we are under grace through Jesus Christ. This grace freeing us from the law is true of the Mosaic law, consisting of all of the rituals and temple sacrifices, which was given until Jesus “the seed” shall come (Galatians 3:19), however, one would be hard pressed to find a Christians who denies that we are to still follow the 10 commandments. Romans 3:31 tells us that our faith does not make void the law of God, and that we are to establish the law and according to Romans 11:17-24, Christians, through faith in Jesus, are grafted on to the root of the olive tree. The root of the olive tree is those of the Israelites that were not broken off of the promises of Yahweh through their unbelief. Thus, while the ritual law has been nailed to the cross (Galatians 3:19), the 10 commandments given to the original root of the olive tree that we Christians have been grafted onto through faith (Romans 11:17-24) not only still remains but applies to us as well. For Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that he has not come to destroy the law but to fulfill the law, to be the sacrificial lamb without blemish. Jesus also said in Matthew 22:40, “You shall love the lord your God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, on these two commandments hang the law and the prophets. In 2nd John 1:6 we see that, “this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.”
Loving God is walking in his commandments and Jesus is the same God from the old testament who gave the 10 commandments. We see in John 1:1, in the Beginning was the word, and the word was God and the word was with God and according to John 1:16, Jesus Christ is the word of God made flesh. In Hebrews 13:8 we are told that Jesus was the same yesterday, today, and forever. Since Jesus is the word of God made flesh, and the word of God is God and has been God since the beginning, and all things are sustained by the Word, and the word of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and since the characteristics of the law of God as found in the 10 commandments are the express image of the characteristics of God himself as can be seen in the comparative chart below, we see the 10 commandments have been the expectation of God since the beginning and still stand today. We also see that the 1st commandment is “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”. This does not mean that we should not place another god above Yahweh, this commandment establishes the exclusive nature of the relationship between those who follow Him (including those who are grafted into the promises of God through faith in Jesus) and Yahweh himself.
The character of God The Character of the Law
JUST – Romans 3:26
|
JUST – Roman 7:2
|
TRUE – John 3:33
|
TRUE – Nehemiah 9:13
|
PURE – I John 3:3
|
PURE – Psalms 19:7, 8
|
LIGHT – I John 1:5
|
LIGHT – Proverbs 6:23
|
FAITHFUL – I Corinthians 1:9
|
FAITHFUL – Psalms 119:86
|
GOOD – Nahum 1:7
|
GOOD – Romans 12:7, 16
|
SPIRITUAL – I Corinthians 10: 1 - 4
|
SPIRITUAL – Romans 7:14
|
HOLY – Isaiah 6:3; I Peter 1:15
|
HOLY – Exodus 20:8; Romans 7:12
|
TRUTH – John 14:6
|
TRUTH – Psalms 119: 142, 151
|
LIFE – I John 14:6
|
LIFE – John 12:50; Matthew 19:17
|
RIGHTEOUSNESS – Jeremiah 23:6
|
RIGHTEOUSNESS – Psalms 119:172
|
PERFECT – Matthew 5:48; Hebrews 13:8
|
PERFECT – Psalms 19:7, James 1:26
|
FOREVER – John 8:35; Hebrew 13:8
|
FOREVER – Psalms 118:8; Luke 16:17
|
Thus, if the first commandment still stands, and we are grafted onto the vine of promise through our faith in Jesus, then even though Jesus came teaching love and forgiveness of sins, according to the bible, the forgiveness of sins is Yahweh forgiving our sins, for we do not have the power to forgive sins, and our demonstration of love is seeking after the characteristics of Yahweh himself through obedience to his law which mirror His very characteristics.
Considering the extent to which God has demonstrated his disdain for mingling pagan practices with his desired form of worship by completely destroying Israel and scattering her people to the four corners of the earth, as well as his repeatedly expressed desire for obedience, it is of the utmost importance that one carefully examines the yearly festivals to which one holds themselves to, in honor of Christ the lamb of God, to make sure that the traditions we practice to honor our God, does not in turn dishonor Him through the introduction of paganistic traditions into the days we hold to honor His sacrifice for us. Since the lamb of God was lead to the slaughter so that our sins might be forgiven, this paper will focus on examining the time honored traditions of Easter, the day most Christians honor the sacrifice made by Christ, and his resurrection shortly after. This examination will begin with a historical backdrop of challenges the early church faced in regards to pagan practices becoming part of the church. Next, the rest of the paper will focus on the various aspects of Easter to differentiate between ancient pagan customs in an attempt to remove the mud from the water so we can see clearly the simplicity of the original Christian faith.
I. ALMAGAMATION OF PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY IN REGARDS TO EASTER
Christianity faced corruption and infiltration from the first century onward. Historical records show that as far back as the close of the first century, approximately 100 A.D., there was a battle between Greek pagan philosophers who sought to convolute and distort the teachings of Christ handed down through his apostles, and those who wanted to keep the simplicity and purity of the original Christian faith. As can be seen throughout history, the philosophers won and paganism was introduced incrementally into the foundation of Christian perception of scripture and doctrinal thought, paving the way for future introductions of paganistic practices to subsequent generations (Mosheim, L. & Murdock, J. (1871). Institutes of Ecclesiastical History Volume 1: Ancient and Modern. Pg. 111). More poignantly, we must search out what history says about how and when various facets of the idolatrous pagan festival named after the springtime goddess came to become amalgamated with the observance of Passover.
History, from various sources, gives us the story spanning through multiple centuries of the contest between the inroads of the pagan spring festival and the practices of the original Christian customs. The beginning of this contest is commonly referred to as the “Quartodeciman Controversy.” However, it needs to be understood, the problem did not begin with such a black and white separation, Easter or Sabbath, there was a snowball effect of increasing error that simply began with the Quartodeciman controversy. Eventually, this problem—Passover versus Easter—became so pivotal, that disobedience brought the death sentence upon any who continued to keep either God’s Sabbath or God’s festivals, including Passover.
First, we need to understand who the Quartodecimans were. The 1967 New Catholic Encyclopedia states, “Quartodeciman, a term used to describe the practice in the early Church of celebrating Easter on the 14th of Nisan (die quarta decima), the day of the Jewish Passover (Ex. 12:6). Quartodecimanism, prevalent in Asia Minor and Syria in the 2nd century, emphasized the death of Christ, the true Paschal victim (Jn. 18:28; 19:42), while Roman practice emphasized the observance of Sunday as the day of the Resurrection. Implicit in these two positions is the disputed chronology of Holy Week. As Christianity separated from Judaism, gentile Christians objected to observing the principal Christian feasts on the same day as the Jewish Passover.” Thus we have a framework from which to understand the split in position between the original Christian church which grew out of Judaism and those gentile members of the church who were grafted onto the vine of promise and came from Rome; The same Rome which was completely steeped in Paganism through its pantheon which was dedicated to the worship of every god, while each god had their own mystical rites and temples throughout Rome as well.
With the basic understanding of the split in position between the two parties, a telling of the Quartodeciman controversy goes as follows. According to Ecclesiastical historian, Eusebius, in Book V, chapters XXIII and XXIV: “A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour’s Passover…the bishops of Asia, led by Polycrates, decided to hold to the old custom handed down to them (Eusebius, Crusé, C. F., & Boyle, I. (1955). The ecclesiastical history of Eusebius Pamphilus: Bishop of Cesarea, in Palestine. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House.). “Generally speaking, the Western Churches (Roman Catholic) kept Easter on the 1st day of the week, while the Eastern Churches followed the Jewish rule [the 14th day of the moon at evening…without regard to the day of the week]. “Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist (last of the 12 apostles), and bishop of Smyrna [who followed the rule of Passover observance], visited Rome in 159 to confer with Anicetus, the bishop of that see, on the subject, and urged the tradition which he had received from the apostles of observing the 14th day. Anicetus, however, declined. About forty years later (197), the question was discussed in a very different spirit between Victor, bishop of Rome, and Polycrates, metropolitan of proconsular Asia. (Phillips, W. A., (1911). Quartodeciman Controversy. In Encyclopedia Brittanica. (Vol. VIII, pp. 828-829). Cambridge University Press). “He [Polycrates] himself, in a letter which he addressed to Victor and the church of Rome, set forth in the following words the tradition which had come down to him:
“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…and, moreover, John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord…and Polycarp in Smyrna, who was a bishop and martyr; and Thraseas, bishop and martyr from Eumenia…the bishop and martyr Sagaris…the blessed Papirius, or Melito…All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the Gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith.” (Eusebius, Crusé, C. F., & Boyle, I. (1955). The ecclesiastical history of Eusebius Pamphilus: Bishop of Cesarea, in Palestine. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House.)
In response, “Pope Victor (189-198) sought unity through a series of synods held in both East and West; all accepted the Roman practice except the Asiatic bishops. When Victor attempted coercion by excommunication, St. Irenaeus of Lyons intervened to restore peace” (Phillips, W. A., (1911). Quartodeciman Controversy. In Encyclopedia Brittanica. (Vol. VIII, pp. 828-829). Cambridge University Press). Thus there was an uneasy peace between the western churches and the Asiatic churches in regards to the observance of Passover that continued to cause infighting and controversy until the time of Constantine and the Nicaean Council in 324 A.D. when unity in regards to the observance of Passover was brought into the church.
However, when considering the “unity” that Constantine brought into the church in regards to Passover observance, we must take a closer look at what history tells us of Constantine and his character, as well as what he did to the church, and for the church, to give us a better understanding of the events that occurred to help bring us our modern Easter.
Constantine was not a Christian, born and raised. Like many people, he converted to Christianity. Constantine’s conversion to Christianity was said to have happened just prior to his battle with general Maxentius at the Milvian bridge when he reportedly saw a vision in the sky of a cross with the words “In hoc signo vinces” a Latin phrase meaning "In this sign you will conquer”. After winning said battle, Constantine marched onwards to become the sole emperor of the Roman empire. “Constantine's vision took place on 312 AD. Even after this supposed conversion, Constantine portrayed Sol Invictus (The God of the Unconquerable sun [Sun and tree worship]) on his official coinage with the inscription SOLI INVICTO COMITI, claiming the Unconquered Sun as a companion to the Emperor.” (A comprehensive discussion of all sol-coinage and sol-legends per emperor from Septimius Severus to Constantine can be found in Berrens (2004)) “Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, appear in three places in reliefs on the Arch of Constantine. Constantine's official coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325/6. A solidus of Constantine as well as a gold medallion from his reign depict the Emperor's bust in profile twinned (jugate) with Sol Invictus, with the legend INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS.” (The medal is illustrated in Jocelyn M.C. Toynbee, Roman Medallions (1944, reprinted 1987) plate xvii, no. 11; the solidus is illustrated in J. Maurice, Numismatique Constantinienne vol. II, p. 236, plate vii, no. 14)
Constantine sought to make Christianity the sole religion of the empire, however, it could not be accomplished all at once due to the strong pagan presence. Through Constantine’s efforts to make Christianity the state religion and to attract pagans to Christianity so that all the people of the empire would be united through religion, Constantine put continued restrictions upon pagan priests and conferred to the Christian church clergy all the former privileges of Pagan priests and even encouraged the church clergy to adopt the pagan priest’s pomp, riches, and glory, while Constantine himself adopted the title of the pagan high priest, “Pontifex Maximus”, which is the term applied to the Pope to this day (Mosheim, L. & Murdock, J. (1871). Institutes of Ecclesiastical History Volume 1: Ancient and Modern. Pg. 217). While Constantine was still claiming the unconquered sun as a companion to the emperor, with Dies Solis (Sunday) as Sol Invictus’ [the pagan sun God of Rome] particularly important day of worship brought in through ancient Mithraic tradition, the Roman emperor Constantine enforced Christian Sunday worship throughout his empire. Constantine decreed (on March 7, 321) dies Solis—day of the sun, "Sunday"—as the Roman day of rest (Codex Justinianus 3.12.2):
“On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.” (Article: "Sunday Legislation," Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge). Disobedience to the emperor's command could result in death to Sabbath-keeping Christians.
In 325, Emperor Constantine convened the Nicaean Council in part to settle the dispute between those who thought the date for Easter should be calculated using the 14th day of the month method, and those who thought it should always be on a Sunday. The council decreed Easter to be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox (March 21) — unless that full moon is on a Sunday, then Easter is to be celebrated the following Sunday. Since Constantine was a sun worshipper and was looking to unify his fractured empire through a state religion, setting the date of Easter in the manner he did most likely was done to include pagans, since the vernal equinox represents the rebirth of the sun and is celebrated with festivals dedicated to the springtime Goddess. Aside from being a set method of calculating the date of the holiday, this essentially did two things. It kept Easter on a Sunday [the venerable day of the sun]. It also served to create a distinct separation between the Christians and the Jews, which was a continuation of the effort reaching back to the Quartodeciman controversy of the 2nd century.
Although Constantine could not do away with paganism all at once, the decision to incrementally change Christianity rather than force Christians to paganism would be the obvious choice because while paganism allows the worship of a complete pantheon in a form of polytheism, Christianity claims exclusivity of worship towards Jesus whom Christians believe is the one and only God made flesh. Pagans could just as easily add Jesus to their pantheon and worship him as just another god as they could worship any other god in their pantheon. Christians on the other hand would refuse to worship anything or anyone other than Jesus, and they would resist such idolatry to the death. Thus, when Constantine declared Christianity the Roman state religion and paganism became outlawed, Constantine only opposed paganism as being prejudicial to the state in order to move pagans to join Christianity and unify the fractured Roman empire through religion (Mosheim, L. & Murdock, J. (1871). Institutes of Ecclesiastical History Volume 1: Ancient and Modern. Pg. 111).
Paralleled with this effort to bring aspects of paganism into Christianity, there was a simultaneous effort to divorce Christianity from its Jewish roots because Judaism has historically been diametrically opposed to ancient Pagan practices. This effort to divorce Christianity from its Jewish origins was known as the “Jewish question” and “The answer to this question and others came via the Council of Nicea in the year 325 C.E. and later via the Council at Antioch wherein those of Jewish ancestry were told to cease all things "Jewish" to include circumcision, Jewish religious training, all feasts and festivals. On March 7, 321 A.D. came the uniform change to Sunday as the day of worship, throughout the Roman Empire as Constantine and the Bishop of Rome, later known as the "Pope" reached agreement" (Rabbi Doctor Mikha'el Snidecor's Doctoral Thesis).
Somewhere between the years 363–364 AD, the Roman church also passed a decree at the Council of Laodicea. The council of Laodicea declared: "Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, resting rather on Sunday. But, if any be found to be Judaizing [keeping God's Sabbath], let them be declared anathema from Christ" (A History of the Councils of the Church, p. 316). Thus, history has shown us that over the centuries, there was an incremental shift from the Judaistic origins of the Christian faith to Pagan practices in an attempt to amalgamate the two religions. However, the story does not end there. Because the dating of Easter revolves around the vernal equinox, which is solar based, and the observance of Passover is following the Jewish soli-lunar reckoning of time, there was a discrepancy in the dating system. This discrepancy was partly resolved by Dionysius Exiguus “the little”. Dionysius was a vehement and unscrupulous "upholder of the see of Rome; he is suspected to have been guilty even of forgery in its support. In the year of 525 A.D. with the change in the calendar implemented by Dionysius, Easter coincided more closely with the observance of Passover. This change was met with extreme resistance in areas that still observed Passover according to what they believed was the original Jewish calendar, following which calendar Passover and Easter were almost a month apart, and only through violent bloodshed was the entire world of Christendom brought under subjection of the calendar changes to make Christianity and paganism shake hands (McClintock, John. Strong, James. Dionysius Exiguus. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature).
Constantine following the example of the early pagan philosophers of the 1st century church, and subsequently, the post-Nicaean church following the example of Constantine, incrementally grafted Pagan holidays to the Christian festival calendar that the church could not do away with entirely. Perhaps there has never been such an accurate and succinct summarization of the amalgamation of sun and tree worship with Christianity, as been shown through history, then through a quote from the clergy of the Catholic church through its publication, Catholic World. “The Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. She took the pagan Roman Pantheon, temple of all the gods, and made it sacred to all the martyrs; so it stands to this day. She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season. “Sunday and Easter day are, if we consider their derivation, much the same. In truth, all Sundays are Sundays only because they are a weekly, partial recurrence of Easter day. The pagan Sunday was, in a manner, an unconscious preparation for Easter day. The Sun was a foremost god with heathendom. Balder the Beautiful, the White God, the old Scandinavians called him. The Sun has worshipers at this hour in Persia and other lands. ... There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the Sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence, the Church, in these countries, would seem to have said, "Keep that old pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified." And thus, the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus. The Sun is a fitting emblem of Jesus. The Fathers often compared Jesus to the Sun; as they compared Mary to the Moon, the beautiful Moon, the beautiful Mary, shedding her mild, beneficent light on the darkness and night of this world—not light of her own; no Catholic says this; but—light reflected from the Sun, Jesus.” (The Rev. William L. Gildea, D. D., CATHOLIC WORLD, Vol. LVIII (58), Oct., 1893 to Mar., 1894, pgs. 808-813.) Catholic World was a general magazine for the Catholic reader, published in the US by Paulist Press. Catholic World began publication with the April 1865 issue. In the 1970s, the magazine was renamed New Catholic World, though a 1990s revival apparently went back to the old name. According to Paulist Press, the magazine is no longer being published.
EASTER IN THE BIBLE
Now that it has been demonstrated how paganism, and more specifically Easter, came to find its way into the Church incrementally over the centuries, starting back in the first century, another issue that needs to be discussed is how Easter found its way into our bibles. We find that “In the earlier English versions of the bible, Easter had been frequently used as the translation of πάσχα (pascha or Passover). πάσχα is a Greek form of the Hebrews פֵּסִח, and so Latinized by the Vulgate pascha, i.e., Passover. At the last revision of the Authorized King James bible, Passover was substituted in all passages but Act_12:4. It would seem from this, and from the use of such words as "robbers of churches" (Act_19:37), " town-clerk" (Act_19:35), " sergeants" (Act_16:35), " deputy" (Act_13:7, etc.), as if the Acts of the Apostles had fallen into the hands of a translator who acted on the principle of choosing, not the most correct, but the most familiar equivalents (comp. Trench, On the Authorized Version of the N.T. p. 21)” (McClintock, John. Strong, James. Easter. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature) “The anachronism of Easter in the Authorized Version was inherited from older manuscripts which avoided, as far as possible, expressions which could not be understood by the people.” (Hastings, James. Encyclopedia Of Religion and ethics: Easter) Since Judaism had been systematically removed from early Christianity in a process that started near 100 A.D., people did not know or understand what Passover was, so the Pagan term of Easter, which most people were able to understand and were familiar with, was used instead of the correct translation of “Pascha”. Thus the name of a Pagan goddess of springtime and fertility became synonymous with the resurrection of Jesus.
III. THE WORD “EASTER”
Now that we have seen that the word Easter does not even belong in the bible, because it was a term that supplanted the original “pascha” or Passover, the next step is to examine the etymology and trace the origins of the word Easter itself.
The name of the holiday Easter comes from the “old English Easterdæg, from Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre), from Proto-Germanic *austron-, "dawn," also the name of a goddess of fertility and spring, perhaps originally of sunrise, whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox, from *aust- "east, toward the sunrise" (compare east), from PIE *aus- (1) "to shine" (especially of the dawn).” (Easter (n.) Look up Easter at Etymology Dictionary). Because “Easter is a word of Saxon origin, and imports a goddess of the Saxons, or, rather, of the East, Estera, in honor of whom sacrifices being annually offered about the Passover time of the year (spring), the name became attached by association of ideas to the Christian festival of the resurrection, which happened at the time of the Passover: hence we say Easter-day, Easter Sunday, but very improperly.” (McClintock, John. Strong, James. Easter. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature).
While there may be a cornucopia of springtime goddesses and spring festivals throughout the world, in history and in present, our goal is to focus on the etymology of the term Easter itself and trace the development of that word in particular throughout history, not list or acknowledge all the springtime goddesses that do not follow the line of etymology even though the festivals may be similar.
Since it is from the name of a pagan goddess of fertility and springtime that the term Easter originates from, there is a particular etymological trail of the term Easter coinciding with similar festivals and traditions that can be traced back even further throughout history. The term Easter can be traced back to the European nomadic Teutons Goddess, Oestra in the 2nd century B.C. (McCoy, E. The Sabbats. Llewellyn Publication - 1999 - 1st Ed.) From Europe the name of the springtime Goddess with associated festivals can be traced even further back to ancient Nineveh in Assyria under the name of Ishtar. Finally, the trail goes all the way back to ancient Babylon and bears Chaldean origin as the name of Astarte (Layard, A.H. (1853). Discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon).
Thus, it can be seen that the modern term Easter can be traced back to the ancient Babylonian goddess. In Revelation 17:5 we are told of “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Babylon here mentioned is a system of idolatrous worship instituted from the literal Babylon in the book of Genesis. It should be noted that in the bible the term harlot is used to denote infidelity to Yahweh through the worship and honoring of other gods. The term Easter itself is of Pagan origin and is the name of a Pagan goddess stemming from the imagination of men from ancient Babylon, since the bible says there is only one God, and should provide us a very strong clue in regards to the nature of the tradition held so strongly by most Christians around the world as well as our own infidelity to Yahweh by honoring this pagan goddess through the observance of her by attaching her name on a Christian festival.
God says in Exodus 23:13 “And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.”
As has been discussed, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and since he is the only God and there is no other, He never wanted us to acknowledge nor say the name of any other God because there is no other God. To acknowledge another God or to say the name of another God is to replace Yahweh with a figment of our own imagination. However, as history has shown us, we live in a time of amalgamated Christianity, and as such, we must learn the names of other Gods, and where they come from in order to recognize those names when we see them used in our Christian traditions. If, and when the names of other gods are found comingling with Christianity, a Christian must mark them and divide their faith from them in order to find ourselves to be obedient to God.
It is of interest to note that the other festivals celebrating the goddess of the spring equinox were the feast of Isis (Egypt), fest of Cybele (Italy), Aphrodite day (Greece), Festival of Astarte (Persia/Babylon/Greece/Rome), Festival of Athena (Greece), and Hilaria (Rome). (McCoy, E. (1999). The Sabbats 1st Ed. Llewellyn Publication.) Throughout almost all of paganism, the same festival is honored at roughly the same time sharing many of the same traditions, all of which bare the name of their goddess, yet not all the details of each respective tradition are the same. This is exactly what one might expect when watching a tradition travel from culture to culture from generation to generation.
IV. EASTER EGGS
“The most pervasive symbol of Ostara is the “Easter Egg”. Since antiquity, the egg is the symbol of new life, symbolizes eternal life, is used as fertility amulets, decorated to honor pagan deities, and placed on spring altars.” (McCoy, E. (1999). The Sabbats 1st Ed. Llewellyn Publication.) In various cultures, eggs were buried in fields, or various locations where someone would want the earth to be infused with life giving properties that ancient pagan cultures believed eggs provided. Eggs were also rolled across farm fields and eaten by people who wished to acquire fertility as well. (McCoy, E. (1999). The Sabbats 1st Ed. Llewellyn Publication.)
During the events of ecclesiastical history, when the customs of Christianity were systematically being brought in line with pagan customs, Easter eggs “were brought to the table on Easter Day, colored red to symbolize the Easter joy. This custom is found not only in the Latin but also in the Oriental Churches. The symbolic meaning of a new creation of mankind by Jesus risen from the dead was probably an invention of later times. The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. Easter eggs, the children are told, come from Rome with the bells which on Thursday go to Rome and return Saturday morning. The sponsors in some countries give Easter eggs to their god-children. Coloured eggs are used by children at Easter in a sort of game which consists in testing the strength of the shells (Kraus, Real-Encyklopædie, s.v. Ei). Both coloured and uncoloured eggs are used in some parts of the United States for this game, known as "egg-picking". Another practice is the "egg-rolling" by children on Easter Monday on the lawn of the White House in Washington.”
(Holweck, F. "Easter." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. Retrieved 29 Mar. 2016).
Long before Jesus was ever born, there are traces of Easter egg hunts in Pagan China and India. The idea is that the hunting of the egg is symbolic of the belief that we are responsible for ourselves and that we must “hunt” for our own path to new life. Embedded into this belief is concept of karma which by definition is “in Hinduism and Buddhism, the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.” (Karma. (n.d.). Retrieved April 9, 2016, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/karma). Tied into this definition of karma we see the concept of reincarnation, or the future rebirth of ourselves into some varying level of life based on a supposed cosmic hierarchy that we are placed into by our collected karma, good or bad (McCoy, E. (1999). The Sabbats 1st Ed. Llewellyn Publication.). This concept of karma and reincarnation is diametrically opposed to what it says in the bible, for in Hebrews 9:27 we read “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment…”
The ancient druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of their order (Davies, E. (1809). The Mythology and rites of the British Druids, Ascertained by National documents. Pg. 208). In the mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony is the consecration of an egg. Hindu fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden color (Kennedy, V. (1831). Researches into the nature and affinity of ancient and Hindu Mythology. Pg. 223) while the people of Japan celebrate a bronzed egg (Coleman, C. (1832). The Mythology of the Hindus. P. 340). In China, dyed or painted eggs are used during their sacred festivals just as in pagan Easter (Reverend James Johnston of Glasgow, former missionary to Amoy, China). As can be seen in the image below, Eggs were used in ancient Egypt (egg of Heliopolis with a crescent moon) and Greece (Typhon’s egg with a snake wrapped around it) for pagan religious rites and were hung up for mystical purposes in their temples (Wilkinson, Sir J.G. (1883). The Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians vol. 3. Pg. 20. Boston: S.E. Cassino and Company). Most importantly, the Egyptian use of the egg can ultimately be traced back to the ancient Babylonian egg from the banks of the Euphrates River; see image below of egg with a man on top. As the Babylonian legend goes, an egg of enormous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the Euphrates River. The fishes rolled the egg to the bank of the river where the doves settled upon it and hatched it, and out comes Astarte, who later became known as Venus (Hyginus, (1872). Fabulae. Pg. 148,149; with an English translation available at http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusFabulae1.html).
Thus it becomes obvious that the tradition of eggs during Easter is an ancient tradition predating Christianity by thousands of years dating all the way back Babylon in honor of the springtime goddess who is nothing more than the vain imagination of men, since there is only one God, and is a practice that honors that Goddess and goes against the commandment of Yahweh to put no other god before him.
LENT
Lent was not widely practiced before the council of Nicea in the year 324 A.D. and was not practiced at all in the non-violate church. As time went along, more and more days of fasting were unofficially added prior to the observance of Passover. It was not until 450 A.D., through the writings of Socrates Scholasticus in his “Ecclesiastical Histories” that we see anything that closely resembles modern Lent of 40 days celebrated before Passover. It was not until 519 A.D. that Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome, decreed Lent should be observed before Easter.
The 40 days of Lent were borrowed directly from worshippers of the Babylonian Goddess. Among the ancient religions that go back centuries before the birth of Christ, lent was a period of alternatingly weeping and rejoicing the death and resurrection of an ancient pagan god known as Tammuz. It is easy to see what God thinks of this tradition when we read Ezekiel 8:13-15, “He said also unto me, turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” As time went on and the custom traveled throughout the world, different cultures absorbed and expressed the practice in various ways that one would expect to see when different cultures across many miles through many years practice the same tradition: A variation in details of the practice of the tradition in order to fit the customs and minds of the people, while large portions of the fundamental practice remains the same.
Lent of 40 days in the spring of the year is observed to this day by the Yezidi’s, or the Pagan devil worshippers of Kurdistan (Layard, A.H. (1849). Nineveh and Its Remains.). A similar fast of 40 days was held by the pagan Mexicans three days after the vernal equinox in honor of the sun (Humboldt, A. (1814). Researches Volume 1. Pg 404. Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, J. Murray & H. Colburn). Egypt, who were notorious sun worshippers, also held a 40-day fast following a feast that celebrated the loss of Ausar, also known as Osiris. (Gadalla, M. (2003). Egyptian Mystics: Seekers of the Way. Pg 86) (Wilkinson, Sir J.G. (1883). The Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians vol. 1. Pg. 278 Boston: S.E. Cassino and Company). In Rome, another culture of sun worshippers, there was another similar custom. After the rape of Proserpina, there would be wailing and lamenting to continue for 40 nights. It seems that wherever one looks in history, especially in regards to ancient religions, wherever one sees 40 days fasting, sun worship in some varying form is not far off. Fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in commemoration of Jesus in the wilderness, or Moses on Mount Sinai is not Pagan, however, there is no association of Jesus’s wandering in the wilderness or Moses’s time on Mount Sinai with the timing of Easter. The application of the 40 day fast prior to Easter Sunday revolves around the vernal equinox and is an observance of pagan origin. Thus we have another example of the amalgamation of biblical and pagan observances.
While it is true that various cultures did not all celebrate lent at exactly the same time, or in exactly the same manner, a large portion of this problem became a part of forgotten history back in the year of 525 A.D. with the change in the calendar implemented by the abbot Dionysius the little as has been discussed in the section entitled “ALMAGAMATION OF CHRISTIANITY”. The change in the calendar for the observance of Lent and the changing of the dates to make the pagan Easter coincide more closely with the observance of Passover was met with extreme resistance in areas that still observed Passover according to what they believed was the original Jewish calendar and only through violent bloodshed was the entire world of Christendom brought under subjection of the calendar changes to make Christianity and paganism shake hands.
VI. HOT CROSS BUNS
Hot cross buns have always been pagan and there is no indication of this tradition commanded anywhere in the bible. The cross on the top of hot cross buns were a simplistic depiction of the sun wheel, a pagan symbol of perfect balance at the equinox. (McCoy, E. (1999). The Sabbats 1st Ed. Llewellyn Publication.) It was said that the queen of heaven turned the solar wheel, also known as the wheel of the year in the heavens and that these hot cross buns were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess of Easter, as early as the day of Cecrops, the founder of Athens; approximately 1500 years before the Christian era.
One species of this sacred bread which was offered to the gods and goddesses from great antiquity was known as a “Boun” (Bryant, J. (1807). A new System or an Analysis of Ancient Mythology. Vol 1. Pg 373). Diogenes Laertius, a biographer of Greek philosophers, speaking of this boun, or hot cross bun, describes the chief ingredients as fine flour and honey (Laertius, D. (1853). The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. Pg. 227). The bible commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (1871) states “cakes to the queen of heaven--Cakes were made of honey, fine flour, &c., in a round flat shape to resemble the disc of the moon, to which they were offered. Others read as Margin, "the frame of heaven," that is, the planets generally; so the Septuagint here; but elsewhere the Septuagint translates, "queen of heaven." The Phoenicians called the moon Ashtoreth or Astarte: the wife of Baal or Moloch, the king of heaven. The male and female pair of deities symbolized the generative powers of nature; hence arose the introduction of prostitution in the worship.” Here we have a couple of points. First we are introduced to the connection between the springtime goddess and her consort, Baal or Moloch, whom both are denounced vehemently throughout the old testament. Through this connection between Ashtoreth and Baal, we are given light into understanding some of the origin of Pagan temple prostitution. More to the point however, we see that these ancient cakes of the Greeks, and cakes to the queen of heaven follow their main basic formula (fine flour and honey) and for the same purpose, as an offering. Thus we can trace the pagan origin of the hot cross bun back through antiquity.
While the ingredients used to make the hot cross buns of the past are vastly different then what we see today, we still see a couple of similarities. First, the symbol of the cross. It has always been a depiction of the pagan wheel of the year. Also, the time of the year in which these cakes to the queen of heaven were made, around the time of the vernal equinox, is another factor tying this hot cross bun directly to the ancient “bouns” of antiquity and to the worship of the queen of heaven, and more importantly, tying the tradition of the buns directly to the pagan gods’ Baal and Molech, which according to the bible, are no gods at all, but man’s vain imagination.
To see what God thinks about these cakes to the queen of heaven, we only need to turn to Jeremiah 7:16-18. “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.”
Once again, since we Christians follow Jesus, and Jesus is the word of God made flesh, and since Jesus, as the word of God was there at the beginning with God, and by Jesus were all things made, and Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and it is through the word of God (Jesus) that the 10 commandments were given, and since Romans 3:31 tells us that our faith does not make void the law of God, and that we are to establish the law, it has been proven that the first commandment, not to bring any other Gods before Yahweh still stands. Through this paper, it has also been established the many of the time honored traditions of paganism in observance of their springtime goddess has not only crept its way into the traditions of the Church, but the date of Passover itself has been adjusted to honor the pagan goddess while the name of the pagan goddess, Easter, has found its way into our tradition and completely supplanted the original simplicity of our faith. It should be the mind of every true Christian to root out all traces of paganism from their beliefs, traditions, and practices, and revert back to the practices that reflect the original faith given to us in the bible through the teachings of Jesus and the original apostles in order to demonstrate our love and obedience to the only God that is not the vain imagination of man.
