First Century Christianity
First Century Christianity
Easter
And He said to them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will not any more eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And He took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And He took bread and gave thanks, and He broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is My body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of Me. In the same way also the cup, after having dined, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is being poured out for you.
(Luke 22:15-20)
Jesus commanded His followers to continue keeping the Passover in remembrance of Him. Easter is a fertility celebration for a pagan goddess. It has nothing to do with Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior whatsoever. Easter was grafted into Christianity over many centuries as Christianity drifted away from its Hebrew roots. Observance of Easter, as passed down through the Apostolic church through the ages, became so commonplace, that it even made it into the King James Bible!
And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) [The parenthesis are in the KJV, I didn’t put them there.] And when he had apprehended him, 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.
(Acts 12:3-4 KJV)
But the word being translated “Easter” in verse 4 is “Pascha” which is the Greek word for Passover. But don’t take my word for it, verse 3 proves it is a reference to Passover because Passover is the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread!
In the fourteenth day of the first month, between the evenings, is the LORD's Passover, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. You must eat unleavened bread seven days. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no work of labor, but you shall offer a fire offering to the LORD seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no work of labor.
(Leviticus 23:5-8)
Also, working off of the 3 days and 3 nights issue, it is pretty clear that Jesus was not resurrected on Sunday morning, thus Sunday morning services aren’t really relevant. The tomb was discovered Sunday morning, but it was already empty.
The first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, darkness still being on it , and she saw the stone taken away from the tomb.
(John 20:1)