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Pascha, not Easter

Rich2018 said:
"...in Latin and Greek, the Christian celebration was, and still is, called Pascha (Greek: Πάσχα), a word derived from Aramaic פסחא (Paskha), cognate to Hebrew פֶּסַח (Pesach). The word originally denoted the Jewish festival known in English as Passover, commemorating the Jewish Exodus from slavery in Egypt..."

So the Christians stole Easter from the Hebrews ?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
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The same thought had occurred to me.
 
How Easter became a primary church festival is an example of inculturation—the blending of early New Testament Church and pagan cultures until a new ritual was created. The original Passover service as practiced by Jesus Christ and His early followers was replaced by a festival recalling not His death but His resurrection. At root, Easter is an ancient pagan fertility celebration and nothing to do with the practice of the early Church.

The debate over the timing of the new celebration, known eventually as the Quartodeciman Controversy, reverberated across the Roman Empire for almost three centuries. In 325 C.E. the Council of Nicea ruled in favor of Easter, and the Synod of Antioch reinforced it in 341. Though the synod called for the excommunication of any who resisted the new observance and their removal beyond the bounds of the empire, the issue did not go away: those who wanted to follow the early Church’s practice had strong precedent.

The Pass Over to Easter
 
A STATEMENT AGAINST JUDAISM
The term quartodeciman (Latin for “14th”) was applied to those followers of Jesus who honored His death as the early Church had done. They held the memorial on the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, the same date as the Jewish Passover. But it was clearly irksome to many that the Jewish dating of Passover was the determinant of the date of Easter. Following the church at Rome, they wanted to celebrate Christ’s resurrection on the Sunday following the first full moon of the new year. According to the Julian Calendar, the year began at the vernal or spring equinox. Thus Easter is always a Friday-Sunday celebration, while the 14th of Nisan may fall on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, but never on a Sunday.

The degree of antipathy toward the Jews and the Quartodecimans was expressed forcefully by the emperor Constantine as he heralded the changes established by the Council of Nicea: “It was decreed unworthy to observe that most sacred festival in accordance with the practice of the Jews; having sullied their own hands with a heinous crime, such bloodstained men are as one might expect mentally blind. . . . Let there be nothing in common between you and the detestable mob of Jews! We have received from the Saviour another way; a course is open to our most holy religion that is both lawful and proper. Let us with one accord take up this course, right honourable brothers, and so tear ourselves away from that disgusting complicity. For it is surely quite grotesque for them to be able to boast that we would be incapable of keeping these observances without their instruction” (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18.2–3).

It is apparent that Constantine had been grossly misinformed about the origins of Easter. In fact, the simplicity of the emperor’s pronouncement clouded some of the real issues. Thus the controversy that had led to the Council of Nicea continued to be intense for at least the rest of the century.

The Pass Over to Easter
 
zyzygy said:
How Easter became a primary church festival is an example of inculturation—the blending of early New Testament Church and pagan cultures until a new ritual was created. The original Passover service as practiced by Jesus Christ and His early followers was replaced by a festival recalling not His death but His resurrection. At root, Easter is an ancient pagan fertility celebration and nothing to do with the practice of the early Church.

The debate over the timing of the new celebration, known eventually as the Quartodeciman Controversy, reverberated across the Roman Empire for almost three centuries. In 325 C.E. the Council of Nicea ruled in favor of Easter, and the Synod of Antioch reinforced it in 341. Though the synod called for the excommunication of any who resisted the new observance and their removal beyond the bounds of the empire, the issue did not go away: those who wanted to follow the early Church’s practice had strong precedent.

The Pass Over to Easter
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Therein is the reason in a nutshell why Easter is wrong for Christians to observe...
 
Elvira said:
Therein is the reason in a nutshell why Easter is wrong for Christians to observe...
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Kicking the eternal deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit to the curb is why it is wrong for Christians to listen to the heresies of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which you keep pushing here.
 
Logicman said:
Kicking the eternal deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit to the curb is why it is wrong for Christians to listen to the heresies of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which you keep pushing here.
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Obeying Christ is my one and only goal...not infiltrating pagan beliefs into my worship, as you do...
 
Elvira said:
Obeying Christ is my one and only goal...not infiltrating pagan beliefs into my worship, as you do...
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Nonsense.

The great God Jesus Christ, who is NOT Michael the CREATED Archangel as your twisted JW's teachings claim, is not a pagan deity.

You guys really screwed that one up bad.
 
The Venerable Bede, who lived in the 7th century, was the first to record her name as the source of the new Christian festival. Like many other pagan traditions, the festival of Eostre was adopted by the early Church in an attempt to convert followers of the old religions to their ways.
Other goddesses traditionally celebrated at this time include:
Aphrodite, in ancient Greece
Ashtoreth, from ancient Israel
Demeter from Mycenae
Hathor from ancient Egypt
Ishtar from Assyria
Kali, from India
Ostara, a Norse Goddess of fertility

The story of Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, is quite striking in its similarity to Christian mythology.
Gerald L. Berry, author of "Religions of the World," wrote:

"About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection."

This is the reason why Easter was condemned during the Protestant Reformation as a ‘pagan’ celebration, and was banned by many religious movements including the Baptists, the Quakers, and Congregational Protestants.

THE PAGAN ROOTS OF EASTER
 
Logicman said:
Nonsense.

The great God Jesus Christ, who is NOT Michael the CREATED Archangel as your twisted JW's teachings claim, is not a pagan deity.

You guys really screwed that one up bad.
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So why do you mix pagan rituals in your worship?
 
Logicman said:
Give me your best one (1, just ONE) example.
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Do you celebrate Christmas, Easter...do you own a cross, do you attend a church with a steeple? The list goes on...
 
Elvira said:
Do you celebrate Christmas, Easter...do you own a cross, do you attend a church with a steeple? The list goes on...
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You guys have a weird outlook on these issues.

Your JW's deny the eternal deity of Jesus Christ - telling people he is a created being, the Archangel Michael - and then you try to tell us who and what to celebrate?

Your Jesus is not the Jesus of scripture.

That's rich!
 
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Logicman said:
You guys have a weird outlook on these issues.

Your JW's deny the eternal deity of Jesus Christ - telling people he is a created being, the Archangel Michael - and then you try to tell us who and what to celebrate?

That's rich!
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So you can't deny you partake in all these pagan symbols...got it...
 
it's just me said:
Unbelievable....
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Yes, it is unbelievable that a person who calls himself a Christian would celebrate a holiday steeped in pagan roots...

IN TIME the Roman Empire, in which early Christianity began, collapsed. Many historians claim that that collapse was also the time of the final victory of Christianity over paganism. Expressing a different viewpoint, Anglican bishop E. W. Barnes wrote: “As classical civilization collapsed, Christianity ceased to be the noble faith of Jesus the Christ: it became a religion useful as the social cement of a world in dissolution.”​—The Rise of Christianity.

Before that collapse, during the second, third, and fourth centuries C.E., history records that in many ways those who claimed to follow Jesus kept themselves separate from the Roman world. But it also reveals the development of apostasy in doctrine, conduct, and organization, just as Jesus and his apostles had foretold. (Matthew 13:36-43; Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; 2 Peter 2:1-3, 10-22) Eventually compromises came to be made with the Greco-Roman world, and some who claimed to be Christian adopted the world’s paganism (such as its festivals and its worship of a mother-goddess and a triune god), its philosophy (such as belief in an immortal soul), and its administrative organization (seen in the appearance of a clergy class). It was this corrupted version of Christianity that attracted the pagan masses and became a force that the Roman emperors first tried to stamp out but later came to terms with and endeavored to use to their own ends.
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https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1993481?q=paganism&p=par
 
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