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Posted by James This is the time of year when we Catholics begin to hear nonsense from anti-Catholics about Easter being a pagan holiday. A few hours ago an anonymous visitor posted some of this balderdash on this very forum, in an obvious attempt to undermine your Catholic Faith, gentle visitors. (He or she didn't even post an email address, which is rather cowardly, IMHO). Since that is an abuse of this forum, My wife removed the posts (also to conserve space, since the board is quickly reaching its limit of 300 messages). But I don't want to leave their claims unanswered, so I will refute some general charges: These anti-Catholics make a big deal out of the possible derivation of the term "Easter" from "Eostra" (or Ostara), a Germanic goddess of whom we know almost nothing because her worship was crushed centuries ago when Christians converted all the Germanic tribes to Christ! Though many philologists accept that etymology, others say "Easter" comes from the word "east", referring to the the rising of the sun, which is a metaphor for the resurrection of Messiah (see Malachi 4:2). Still others say it derived from a word meaning "white", since early Christian converts would wear white during Easter Week (My wife covers all this in her article "Are Christmas and Easter Pagan?" on her website, see http://home.nyc.rr.com/mysticalrose/pagan8.html . That will be the final link below in this post). Some anti-Catholics will claim "Easter" derives from "Ishtar", a Middle Eastern goddess. This is plain wrong; the term "Easter" did not originate in the Middle East; it is definitely of northern European origin. In fact, Middle Eastern and Byzantine Christians don't call the Feast of Jesus' resurrection "Easter". They use the Greek term "Pascha", a transliteration of the Hebrew word "Pesach", or Passover! Why? Because this holiday was originally derived from the Jewish feast of Passover - NOT FROM PAGANISM!!! "Pascha" is also the Latin name of this feast, and all the Romance languages reflect that: the Italian "Pasqua", the French "Paques" and the Spanish "Pascua" each derive from the Latin "Pascha", and ultimately from the Hebrew "Pesach". So large portions of the Christian world have traditionally referred to the Feast of Jesus' Resurrection as "Passover"! Only Christians who speak Germanic tongues use a name possibly derived from Eostra ("Easter" in English, "Ostern" in German). Until the Gospel came to Northern Europe, this feast was called by a name which was Jewish, not pagan, in origin! The "Easter = Eostra/Ishtar" theory fails to take these facts into account, and is therefore unreliable. It is yet another example of the arrogance of English-speaking people assuming that the whole world speaks English! Pascha/Easter is a Christian holiday; not a pagan one. It was originally derived from the Jewish Passover, a feast ordained by God Himself. Though pagans had their own celebrations at the beginning of Spring, the commemoration of Our Lord's Resurrection replaced them as surely as Christianity replaced heathenism. We don't even know all that much about the pagan Ostern, so thoroughly was it replaced by Pascha/Easter! Yes, some elements from non-Christian cultures were eventually incorporated into Pascha/Easter (such as eggs and rabbits), but they took on a new Christian meaning. As long as the idolatrous worship of pagan deities is crushed, there is nothing wrong with "baptizing" harmless human customs and using them for the glory of the true God! After all, we translate the Holy Scriptures into other languages. If we are so paranoid over pagan influences why translate the Bible into Pagan English? The English word "God" originally referred to pagan deities, so how dare we use it to refer to YHWH?! If we want to be "pure" of pagan influences why doesn't everybody just start speaking "Biblical" Hebrew? (which, BTW also has "pagan" Chaldean linguistic influcences! I'm sorry you Fundamentalist purists out there, but you just can't escape it.) Ancient Judaism had elements in common with the pagan religions which surrounded them. For instance, in numerous places the Old Testament depicts YHWH riding on the clouds (Psalm 68:5, 34; 104:3; Isaiah 19:1). Did you know that this was actually a common portrayal of the pagan god *Baal*? In fact, one of Baal's titles was "Rider on the Clouds"! The true God YHWH and the false idol Baal are rivals in Scripture (see I Kings 18), so this was perhaps an attempt to "supplant" Baal; the sacred writers were saying "YHWH is the real Rider on the Clouds"! So what are we gonna do now; purge those passages from the Word of God because of "pagan influence"? Come on, how far are you going to take this absurd attempt to create a "pure" Christianity, 100% free of all elements derived from formerly pagan cultures? One last point: A lot of this "pagan origins of Easter" nonsense comes from a book called _The Two Babylons_, by the "Rev. Alexander Hislop". People foolish enough to read that work should know a few interesting facts: 1. Ralph Woodrow, author of _Babylon Mystery Religion_ has turned against Hislop and written a book called _The Babylon Connection?_, refuting his former book, which was derived from Hislop's crazy ideas. 2. Anyone who has actually read _The Two Babylons_ very closely can tell that the author does not believe in the Trinity. For instance, at one point Hislop denounces "the idolatrous worship of the Holy Spirit under the form of a dove". How can any worship of the Holy Spirit be "idolatrous"? The Spirit Himself took the form of a Dove at the Baptism of Jesus; if we were present there would it have been idolatrous to worship that Heavenly Dove? Of course not! When we depict the Holy Ghost as a dove in art we are not worshipping a bird, but the Third Person of the Trinity. Thus I ask you, why should any Bible-believing Christian take the words of an obvious Unitarian infidel (Hislop) over the words of the Church which defended the Trinity to the death in 325 AD at the Council of Nicea? YOurs in Yeshua and Miriam,
Link: Are Christmas and Easter Pagan?
on 4/9/2001, 11:59 pm
Dear Readers:
James
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