Today, very few in the Christian world celebrate the same festivals that Jesus or the apostles observed. It may come as a surprise to learn that the earliest Christians kept the Passover dates according to instructions given in the Hebrew Bible (Leviticus 23) they also continued to keep the other festivals mentioned in this Old Testament passage, including Shavuot (Pentecost), Yom Kippur (Atonement), Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles), and even the weekly Sabbath-more on this further down. … The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed” (11th edition). Regarding Easter, the Catholic Encyclopedia writes that “the apostolic fathers do not mention it.” The Encyclopedia Britannica states: “There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic fathers. Of this verse, Adam Clarke, author of the renowned Clarke’s Commentary, wrote: “Perhaps there never was a more unhappy, not to say absurd, translation than that in our text.” Other New Testament translations use “Passover” instead. That’s because it is a flagrant mistranslation the Greek word is pascha, “Passover,” used as such throughout the New Testament and the Greek Septuagint Old Testament. This is the only verse in the New Testament that uses the word “Easter.” And you’ll only find it if you are using a King James Bible. Where, then, did these Easter traditions come from? As it turns out, the Hebrew Bible has a lot to say on the subject.īut wait, Easter is mentioned in the New Testament: Acts 12:4. Yet as we have examined in the past regarding Christmas, there is no mention of Easter in the New Testament, but some strikingly apt descriptions in the Hebrew Bible. Have you ever wondered where the many peculiar Easter traditions came from? What do painted eggs, bunnies and hot cross buns have to do with Jesus? Why is the crucifixion marked on “Good Friday” and the resurrection on “Easter Sunday,” less than two full days and nights later-when Jesus said that he would be buried for “ three days and three nights” (and that as a sole sign of his Messiahship, no less)?Ĭhristmas and Easter are two of the most widely celebrated holidays on the Christian calendar. What if I told you that there is no mention of Easter in the New Testament? And conversely, that Easter traditions are mentioned in the Old Testament-the Hebrew Bible-and that it even describes Israelites celebrating “Easter” many centuries before Christianity?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |