EASTER
Easter,
according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is "the principal
festival of the church year..." In the spring of the year, this
is born out by the sharp increase in attendance by many who at no
other time of the year are inclined to assemble for worship on this
one particular Sunday in the year. Why is this the case? And when
asked where this annual festival called Easter came from, why is it
that many are unable to tell of its origin? What is the real
intended purpose for such a popularly embraced "holy day?"
These and other related questions on this topic are the subject of
this article.
It
may be amusing to many that the Encyclopedia Britannica also states
that "...The English name Easter is of uncertain origin."
It would seem that the Word of God would be the source for that
answer and would therefore remove all of the mystery. After all,
Peter said that "...His [God's, gvw]
divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and
godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and
virtue." (2 Pet. 1:3) Peter, being one of the apostles, was
subject to the promise Jesus made to all of the other apostles when,
shortly prior to Jesus' crucifixion, He said to them, "I still
have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He
will guide you into all truth;
for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He
will speak; and He will tell you things to come." (Jn. 16:12-13)
Not
only should the Bible be the source of information on all matters of
spiritual significance, but we are to be familiar with what it
teaches and give ourselves to wholeheartedly comply to its teachings
and submit to its authority. As the apostle Paul said, "Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,
teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And
whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col. 3:16-17)
Therefore, it is to the Word of God that we must go in order to find
the answers regarding what many call Easter.
As
we turn our investigation to the scriptures, with the help of a
concordance, it is to the amazement of some that we find the word
"Easter" only once.
We find this reference in Acts chapter 12, where king Herod had
begun to harass the church by killing James. Seeing how it pleased
the Jews, he imprisoned Peter with the intention of putting him to
death also. Therefore we read in Acts 12:4; "And when he had
apprehended him [Peter, gvw],
he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of
soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter
to bring him forth to the people."
Now,
if you are reading from a translation other than the King James
Version which was quoted here, you may notice that the word Easter
is not there. Instead, you will find the word Passover
in its place. There is good reason for that. The word used here in
the original is Pascha,
which is the Greek spelling of the Aramaic word for "Passover,"
which is from the Hebrew word pasach,
meaning "to pass over or to spare." Everywhere else in the
King James Version, this same word is translated Passover.
So why did the translators use the word Easter
in this single passage, and where did the word Easter
come from?
As
stated in the quote from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the origin of
the name Easter
is uncertain. It is said that Bede in the 8th century derived it
from the name of the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess Eostre.
Another source (W. E. Vines) states that Easter
is another form of the name of the Chaldean goddess astarte.
The truth is that we don't know conclusively where
the name Easter came from. So, why is this the only passage of
scripture where the name Easter
is put in place of the correct name, Passover?
We
will consider the answer to that question a bit later. In the mean
time however, let's consider what Passover was all about in order to
understand what is behind the present day Easter observance by the
majority of the religious world.
After
430 years, the descendants of Jacob had become a very populous people
within the land of Egypt. God had sent nine plagues against the
Egyptians, showing them that He was the
God of Heaven and that the Israelites were His own people to be
released upon His demand, even in the face of their stubborn king's
refusal to comply. On the eve of God's last plague which would
result in the death of the first-born in every Egyptian houshold, He
forewarned His people of this eminent event and how to be spared from
its awful wake.
The
events of that night would become the cause for the most highly
regarded religious feast for this flegling nation which was about to
publicly gain their identity among the nations. So significant was
this event that its related memorial would mark the beginning of
their year and establish for them a religious calender that would
count their days from that point onward. The frequency
of this memorial as an annual
observance is seen in the instructions that God gave to them on that
occasion; "This
month
shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the
first month of the year
to you." (Ex. 12:2)
God
gave these instructions exclusively to this emerging Israelite
nation, saying, "On the tenth of this month every man shall take
for himself a lamb...you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of
the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of
Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the
blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses
where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that
night...with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and
your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It
is the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will
strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt...So this day shall be
to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord
throughout your generations." (Ex. 12:3-14)
The
shadow of this memorial and its sacrificial lamb would be cast over a
period of a little over 1,400 years, reaching forward to, and giving
way to, the very image of its intended focus; Jesus Christ, "...the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn. 1:29)
The
coming of Christ marked the beginning of a series of events that
would culminate at a roughhewn cross on a hill outside the walls of
the city of Jerusalem. The last days preceding His death are the
focus of this part of our study.
While
teaching His disciples on the Mount of Olives outside the city of
Jerusalem (Mt. 24:3; Mk. 13:3), Jesus said, "You know that after
two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to
be crucified." (Mt. 26:2) Two days later, "...on the first
day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus,
saying to Him, 'Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the
Passover?' " (Mt. 26:17) This fourteenth day of the first month
of the Jewish calendar fell on a Thursday on that particular year.
"And He sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and prepare the
Passover for us, that we may eat.' " (Lk. 22:8)
"In
the evening He came with the twelve." (Mk. 14:17) "When
the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him.
Then He said to them, 'With fervent desire I have desired to eat this
Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I will no longer
eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.' " (Lk.
22:14-16) This particular
Passover, unlike the many that had preceded it, marked the
fulfillment
of its ultimate purpose when it was
first
instituted in Egypt on the eve of Israel's freedom from Egyptian
bondage. This
Passover that Jesus was now participating in with His apostles marked
the ending of one era of God's unfolding plan to redeem man from sin,
and the beginning
of another in which man's redemption would be realized in a greater
sacrificial lamb than that offered previously. The fulfillment of
the Passover was about to usher in the kingdom of God.
"And
as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave
it to the disciples and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body.' Then He
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink
from it, all of you. For this is My blood of
the new covenant,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you,
I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day
when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom.' " (Mt.
26:26-29) It should be noted that in the midst of observing this
Passover, Jesus was instituting a memorial of His own death on the
eve of its fulfillment. This would mark the end of the old covenant
and the beginning of the new.
On
the next day, Friday, Jesus was crucified. Then, on the third day,
Sunday, He was raised from the dead (Mt. 28:1-6; Mk. 16:1-6; Lk.
24:1-6; Jn. 20:1-9). Near the end of forty days after He had been
raised from the dead (Acts 1:1-3), and just shortly before He
ascended back into Heaven, Jesus delivered His great commission to
His apostles, saying, "Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be
saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." (Mk.
16:16) Of these baptized believers, the apostles were commanded to
be busy "...teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you..." (Mt. 28:20)
Paul,
an eyewitness of the Christ and the last
of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:8), fulfilled this responsibility that
Jesus gave to them. We see an example of this in regard to the
Christians at Corinth in his "teaching them to observe all
things" that Jesus had commanded them, with these instructions:
"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to
you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed
took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in
remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after
supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do,
as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till
He comes." (1 Cor. 11:23-26) A reading of verse 17 to the end
of that chapter reveals that these Christians at Corinth had
digressed by having profaned this solemn memorial that Jesus had
instituted just prior to His death. Beginning at verse 27, Paul gave
instructions on how to properly
observe what is identified as "the Lord's Supper" (vs. 20).
This
Lord's Supper was the occasion for which the early Christians came
together to remember the sacrifice of Christ as instructed by the
apostles. We see this in the example of the church at Troas. Prior
to arriving in that city, Paul and some of those traveling with him,
"...sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened
Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven
days. Now
on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to
break bread,
Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his
message until midnight." (Acts 20:6-7) The timing of their
arrival at Troas is identified as "after
the Days of Unleavened Bread," also known as the Passover. The
fact that they met on the first day of the week other
than
at the time of the annual Passover feast (still being observed by
many of the Jews) "to
break
bread," gives evidence that this was not an annual
observance, but was a weekly
observance, and Paul had timed his arrival there in order to be
present on that occasion to join them in this memorial.
It
was only a few days after departing from Troas that Paul warned the
elders from Ephesus that there would to be an uprising among them
that would result in a departure from the faith (Acts 20:17-21,
26-32), much like that he warned of in 1 Tim. 4:1-3 and in 2 Thess.
2:3 where he spoke of a "falling away" that was
approaching. It was almost three hundred years later that we see
further evidence of these warnings. In 325 AD the Roman emperor
Constantine called for the council of Nicea to convene. This was the
first
such council in which select representatives from local churches the
world over came together to exercise legislative authority that
Christ never gave to His church. All such authority was and is held
by Christ from His throne in Heaven and was proclaimed through His
apostles as we find in Jesus' words spoken to Peter and the other
apostles; "...Whatever you bind on the earth will have been
bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been
released in heaven." (Mt. 16:19, NET)
There
is evidence that as early as the second century there were churches
already observing such an annual
celebration contrary to the teaching and examples found in the
Scriptures. However, there was disagreement as to when
it should be observed. Some celebrated it on whatever day the 14th.
of the month Nisan fell and others observed it on the Sunday
following that date. Therefore, it was in this first
of many such councils (at the council of Nicea) that the time of the
observance of "Easter" was discussed. It was at this time
that "Easter" was officially
recognized as an annual
observance and the dispute over which
Sunday
it was to be celebrated was settled, decreeing that it be the Sunday
following Passover. However, there continued to be disputes over how
to calculate when
"Easter" should be observed due to differences in the
Jewish calendar and the Julian calendar. Finally, at the Synod of
Whitby in England (664 or 663 AD), the present-day means of
calculating the observance of "Easter" was decreed and is
therefore widely observed in this and most other countries. Yet
there have continued to be disagreements regarding the timing of this
celebration even as recently as the 20th century.
Such
confusion only gives testimony to the fact that God did not reveal an
annual date for such an observance called Easter. We are therefore
called upon to choose between that which man cannot agree upon, or
that which is revealed in the Scriptures in the observance of the
Lord's Supper on every first day of the week. The choice seems
simple enough. But it all comes down to what Peter and the other
apostles stated; "We ought to obey God rather than men."
(Acts 5:29) In that which we do, will we glorify God or man?
-
Gary V. Womack - April 2006
