Is Easter Pagan?
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- Every year fundamentalist Christians, New Agers, neo-pagans and many atheists loudly agree that Easter was not originally a Christian feast and was a pagan fertility festival stolen by Christianity. Unfortunately, despite what endless memes and pop history articles claim, this idea is complete nonsense. So is the claim that Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are also originally pagan.
historyforathe...
Greek Orthodox Christian here and absolutely tired of having to refute the connection between Easter and Paganism. I was kind of reserved about this video before clicking as I didn't know your channel but after watching the entire thing, I must say I am amazed at your knowledge on early Christianity and your respect towards the faith despite having none yourself. Thanks for this content!
Well wrote the Apostle Paul concerning the rebuke of the heretical Judaizers.
TITUS 1:9 Holding fast the faithful word as HE hath been taught, that HE may be able by *sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.*
10 For there are many UNRULY and VAIN talkers and DECEIVERS, specially they of the circumcision: (the Judaizers)
11 *WHOSE MOUTHS MUST BE STOPPED, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not,* for filthy lucre's sake…."
13 *This witness is true. Wherefore REBUKE THEM SHARPLY, that they may be sound in the faith;*
14 Not giving heed to *Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.*
15 *Unto the pure all things are pure:* but unto them *that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.*
16 They profess that they know God; *but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.*
I'm actually surprised the idea that Easter eggs, of all things, need some goddess to explain them got any traction in the 19th century. Any experience with the Lent and chickens would immediately suggest the obvious practical reason for the tradition.
I read your article covering several popular memes regarding the "Pagan Origins" of Easter. I'm glad you made a video regarding it.
Thanks Tim... Its the annual easter wibbet that did the rounds in 2024 that made me revisit your last years review
Hopefully the algorithm picks this up again
2:40 The Origin of Easter
8:01 Easter and Ishtar?
10:15 Easter and Eostre?
15:55 Rabbits, Hares and Eggs?
The SDA and their like, calls the worship of Christ on "Sun-day" as a Pagan Day of Worship. The self-righteous Pharisees didn't preach that stuff. The Priests of God were *commanded* to worship twice on Sunday, *every Sunday* in the Morning and the evening called *"the DAILY Sacrifice"* ! Exodus 29: 36-42, Numbers 28:1-8, and directly referred to in Dan.8:11, 8:12, 8:13, Daniel 12:11, Hebrews 7:27 .
*Not only is Sunday pure for worship of Christ, so is every other day of the year! Don't let the Pharisees tell you, the Pagans own ANY DAY! Christ is the author of every day of the year! 24/365 Read Genesis 2* God is the author of "all creation" and *EVERY DAY AND EVERY WEEK AND EVERY YEAR*
God has never forbidden his people to worship on Sunday and neither did Christ or the Apostles. *Moreover, Acts 2 is Pentecost Sunday* Pentecost is a sacred commanded day and Sabbath, by God Himself.
*The origin of Sunday worship comes from Heaven. The Angels have always worshiped God on Sunday as much as Saturday. Btw: Moses and the prophets, Christ and the Apostles never taught any day was Pagan. The Adventist have made a doctrine and tradition of men and fable out of the very first day God created in Gen. 2.*
If anyone is interested, in this video I completely cover the "Pagan Day" Propaganda from a scriptural point of view from the Law of Moses itself to the New Testament
. ua-cam.com/video/otTQK0JD3vA/v-deo.html
Very good and informative video.
I was always skeptical about the etymological arguments regarding "Eostre" as an origin for Easter because my first language is Spanish, a romance language, and we use the term 'Pascua', which comes from Greek 'Pascha' which in turn comes from Hebrew 'Pesach', for both Easter _and_ Passover. And I wasn't aware of any cult of Ishtar being a widespread thing in the Roman Empire (unless they meant the cult of _Isis_ )
I like to ask fundies how to say Easter in other languages. It doesn't often get very far. They think the whole world speaks English!
The English word "Easter" does indeed come from the name of the Germanic spring goddess Eostre, but that's all.
As usual, a well-researched highly intelligent exposé of widely and uncritically accepted pure nonsense. A pleasure to listen to. I have only one minor comment. The Jewish festival Passover is in Hebrew spelled פסח and in one of your slides it is spelled backwards. Hebrew is written right to left and this is a common error for people not accustomed to typing Hebrew words. It’s pronounced “pesakh”. A minor quibble. Keep up your excellent work.
Great work Tim. It's amazing how often Hislop's book turns up. I grew up hearing references to "The Two Babylons" - apparently you're about the only person to check sources :)
Great video as usual, one note I must make though is that increasingly Hebrew scholars have been pointing out that "Passover" isn't actually an accurate translation of Peshach and that it what it really means is Protection or Protector.
Hi Tim, I've just found your website and YT channel and I can feel a great learning curve coming up for me. Looking forward to reading your material, cheers Steve (from Brisbane).
Glad to hear that mate. Take advantage of the “Contact the Author” link on the History for Atheists site if you have any specific questions.
Hey Tim, would you ever consider appearing on the atheist experience as a guest. It would be SO cool to see you on there.
I think I’d need to be invited first.
Fascinating talk! Thank you. I'm a believer but I love your lectures.
Dude! Im somewhat of a Christian Mystic (doubt there is really a label lol) and I was not aware that the atheist and agnostic beliefs was also so full of myths. Holy Cow..my suspicions are correct, atheism and agnosticism in many forms today is only...a new religion. Very kewl.
I have shared this around my Atheist groups and so far got responses barely longer than five words, denying it.
So far they are proving you correct that some Atheists lap up shallow memes and have no interest in actually reading thought provoking content.
I was hoping to help downsize the cycle of blindly passing around misinformation and making skeptics look like fools. So much for that...
Well, it depends on the atheist. The ones who tend to hang around in groups online are the more angry, contrarian, militant types, and are often people who have recently left religion. They are also often fairly immature. So that’s the kind of response I’d expect. But yes, it makes a nonsense of all that big talk about being rational and respecting evidence.
As to Easter eggs, Orthodox tradition has a body of legends about Mary Magdalane that is pointed to as the source in those communities. You find the stories pretty easily online. I am not sure how far that legends go back but it is a real tradition that you will hear in Orthodox churches.
One thing for certain is a fact. When Jesus was celebrating the last supper with his apostles he commanded them to "keep doing this in remembrance of me" No where in the Bible did Jesus command his followers to celebrate his resurrection and furthermore, the covenant that Jesus made with his apostles for a kingdom was made during the last supper, not when Jesus was resurrected. So, rather than be obedient to Jesus Command to celebrate the passover, instead Christians world wide completely ignore the commandment and celebrate his resurrection instead. How pleased Jesus must be that they completely ignore his commandment but instead do what he never commanded or asked them to do
Careful chief - you're using up the world's limited supply of exclaimation marks. Ease up.
@@historyforatheists9363 I fixed it 🙂
@@campnoutdoors1621 Okay. This channel is about history. If you want to preach to people about your religion, please do it elsewhere. People who do that here get warned once and then blocked.
as a non english speaker, i have thought the eostre origin theory very bizarre since the first time i heard about it. "did roman christian use the english term? did they plagiarize the germanic pagan feast instead of mediterranean one? was germanic pagan religion popular among romans during classical antiquity?" such questions made me search for the information about this topic and i found that such kinds of myths usually had been sprouted from the deep tradition of anticatholic historical view prevalent in anglosphere.
I just found your videos and blog and really like them. however do you have an easy overview of your sources somewhere? (I might have overlooked it, I am not exactly fit right now.)
There is a link to the article on my site this video is based on, with full citations of the works I refer to, in the video description.
@@historyforatheists9363 thank you. also thanks for answering so fast
A fabulous summary Tim, I guess the lack of historical information about Eostre means that neo-pagans are free to make up what they like! It would be nice if some long-lost Icelandic saga is discovered to flesh out the identity of an, as yet unknown, Nordic spring Goddess. I line of reasoning that I was surprised not to find in my research today, was a link to an Egyptian deity.
There is even a Hare in Unut's name, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unut
As a Christian I don't mind you making atheist more accurate because it leads to more honest debates. Of course I'm praying that one day you get saved but just take it as my way of wishing you well. All the best.
Thank you for this! Much appreciated, liked and shared!
This is superb debunking. Only complaint is that you pronounce the terms rooted in Hebrew and Greek related to Easter and Passover as Pash when the Pasch tranliteration refer to the gutteral sound iike the German ich. Closer to say Paska or Paskal.
I remember being really confused about rabbits and eggs as a kid. Did rabbits lay eggs?
It made sense to me but then i also believed dogs laid eggs
Slight correction on the Hebrew - it's Pe - sa-kh, not pe-asch. Otherwise, grand.
Yes, several comments have made this point.
And Christmas?
I would like to see your take on that in a similar light
That video will be coming at the end of this year. Just in time for Christmas. ;>
Nice!
Great video. Would you consider making a video on the "bloodline argument" for Jesus? I've seen it being parroted a lot lately.
Only if it is being parroted by atheists. My channel is about debunking atheist bad history, not bad history generally.
Super minor correction. At 7:57 you said "gospel references to him dying on a Sunday" I think you ment Friday...
True.
Oh.
Well, this is all good to know. I confess that I previously assumed that those pagan-origin claims must have something to them. I’m pleased to learn how wrong I was.
Thanks!
Richard Carrier wrote a blog post on pre-Christian dying-and-rising gods, who may have had an influence on Christianity. He gave multiple examples (e.g. Osiris, Dionysus). Wouldn’t that make Easter pagan in some loose sense?
What aspect of Christianity does he claim these gods influenced?
@@elenisidiropoulou7475 he claims that Christians stole the mytheme of a virgin birth from pagans. Look up his article, it’s called “virgin birth: it’s pagan, guys. Get over it”
I think Mr. O'Neill covers some of this in his "History For Atheists" blog article: "THE GREAT MYTHS 2: CHRISTMAS, MITHRAS AND PAGANISM".
You may be surprised at his opinion of Mr. Carrier and his scholarship.
Love the articles even though some are a bit upsetting. I was raised in the non-believing world and the truth of many of these things were taken for granted. Personally I am a bit in-between. I am a classic agnostic with respect to objective knowledge of the existence of God, and yet I would put myself at 1.5 on the Dawkins scale. I am a theist who acknowledges that his belief in God is epistemically very little different that the belief others have in UFOs, psychics, ghosts, healing with crystals, and fairies. I am both a scientist (physicist) and a Christian (evangelical even), often fighting for the acceptance of evolution in the evangelical community. I also frequently defend atheism as a perfectly rational alternative rejecting the validity of all the arguments for the existence of God. I also have connections to the modern pagan community and have advocated celebrating the "so called" pagan roots of Christianity (oh well).
That was great, thanks. I’ll be sharing it on Facebook this Easter as I know a lot of atheists and new age hippies that regurgitate this stuff every Easter without fail.
God told the children of Israel in Exodus and all those who sojourn with Israel they were to keep the Passover forever has a memorial to God .
It was to remind them when God bought them out of Egypt and deliver them from their enemies they were to tell their kids about the great things that God did throughout their generation .
We read the word Easter one time in Scripture and the funny thing is the Jews were not celebrating Easter so who was ?
Cuz Jesus told his disciples to go and purchase the upper room and get ready for the Passover .
Nowhere in scripture do you see the disciples sitting around coloring Easter eggs .
And if you knew anything about Jewish history you would know that Jesus rose on a double Passover .
Christ’s last supper was not a Passover meal. The Greek term for the bread that was eaten is the word for leavened bread. But, only unleavened bread can be eaten at the Passover meal. Christ’s last meal was actually the first meal of the day since the Jewish day begins at sunset.
Irrelevant. The gospels all agree he was executed around Passover and that was the origin of the date of Easter as a result.
@@Sextus666 Identifying the last meal as a Passover meal leads to a conflict between the Gospels regarding the timing of the crucifixion that doesn't really exist.
@@purrdiggle1470 Still irrelevant. The fact remains that the gospels depict it happening at Passover. So Christians believed it happened at Passover. So they commemorated it in line with Passover and that's the origin of the date of Easter, not some "pagan festival. Understand?
And the crucifixion of Jesus is one of the few things about him that we can be almost certain is totally historical.
@@Sextus666 John 19:14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
This verse is used by some to suggest that Christ died a day before Passover, which conflicts with the Synoptic Gospels if the last supper was a Passover Seder. But, the leavened bread at the last supper means that meal was not a Passover Seder. The Passover Seder would have happened the following afternoon.
@@purrdiggle1470 I know what you're referring to. How many more times do I have to explain to you that it's COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to any of the points I make about why the date of Easter is linked to Passover? Regardless of what DAY Jesus was executed on, the fact is that all the gospels depict it happening during the Passover festival. So that's why Christians linked Easter to Passover and that's why the dates have nothing to do with any "pagan festival".
Have you read Nicola Griffith's "Hild"?
Yes. Here’s my review on my old blog: armariummagnus.blogspot.com/2014/09/hild-novel-by-nicola-griffith.html?m=1
Don't mean to be arsey...but the traditional claims are of death on Friday/Thursday
Friday. Not Thursday.
@@historyforatheists9363 Raymond Brown is ambivalent about the day that gJohn is using
Pagan or religious, does it really matter which superstition it derives from? It does seem though, that people were celebrating solstice and equinoxes many centuries before modern day cults.
“Pagan or religious”? The word “or” makes no sense in that phrase.
And people *marked* key calendrical dates, certainly. That doesn’t change the fact that the date and the traditions of Easter had absolutely nothing to do with that. Easter almost never falls on the venal equinox, for example and it usually *can’t* do so.
@@historyforatheists9363 Sigh. Then your title makes no sense if you don't differentiate pagan from christian... My point was, it seems christians blended the jewish passover traditions into their own, and the holiday blended as it came through Europe, as you can't deny it's modern name of Easter, and despite your anal retentiveness, it's likely the Easter bunny was tacked on there as well. And even you would have to admit Easter has changed in modern times, becoming extremely secular with most kids identifying the day more with a big bunny and candy than a 2000 year old fable.
@@joe19912 Sigh, indeed. I DO “differentiate pagan from Christian”. I simply noted that your phrase “pagan or *religious*” makes no sense. Pagan traditions were “religious”. If you meant “pagan or *Christian*” you should have said that.
No, they didn’t blend “the Jewish Passover traditions into their own”. Only the date of Passover had a minor influence on the date of Easter, not its traditions. And I have no idea what “the holiday blended as it came through Europe” means, but you’re trying to say it “blended” with pagan practices, it didn’t. That’s wrong. I explain why it took the name Easter in English and German only and how that’s the ONLY (indirectly) pagan thing about it. And the Easter Bunny was “tacked on” in the US in the nineteenth century and so is not pagan at all. Finally, why would I have to “admit” Easter has become secular and commercialised? Of course it has. That has zero to do with the dumb claim it was originally “pagan”.
So it seems you have no point to make that actually counters a single thing I said. So why did you bother commenting at all?
@@historyforatheists9363 I think you were being a bit obtuse, since your subject was pagan vs. xtian, me saying pagan vs. religious shouldn't have been too hard to decifer.
Who is your audience? if it's we the unlearned masses, why are you being a pedantic ass instead of helping us understand?
I enjoyed the topic, learned some things, and agreed with 90% of what you said, but it almost seems like you are a black and fundamentalist over how no other cultures or religious traditions could have influenced Easter.
Again, my simple point was that I don't see a stark wall between the different religious influences. Cultures change traditions over time, and you seemed to agree our modern Easter has changed dramatically from it's origins.
@@joe19912 I “deciphered” your phrase. And then I pointed out it made no sense. Precision in language goes hand in hand with precision in thought. I’m trying to get you to think more clearly.
I am not a “black and white fundamentalist” on how pre-Christian practices *could* have influenced Easter, but a mere “could” here doesn’t get you very far. Historians don’t stop at what merely “could” have happened, which encompasses a vast number of potential possibilities, but proceed from there to what is *most likely* based on the EVIDENCE available. That gives no indication of any discernible pagan influence other than the origin of the English word “Easter”. All that aside, my video is not debunking the claim Easter “could” have been influenced by pre-Christian elements, but dogmatic assertions that it definitely WAS. Which, as I show, is bullshit.
I have no idea why you would have even 10% of a problem with that. Either the date of Easter was originally pagan or it wasn’t. And it wasn’t. Either Easter is connected to Ishtar or it isn’t. And it isn’t. Either Eostre was associated with eggs and bunnies or she wasn’t. And she wasn’t. And so on. Debunking these things that are simply bullshit doesn’t make me “a pedantic ass”. Perhaps pointing out the sloppy thinking behind your sloppy use of “religious” as a synonym for “Christian” does, but I don’t apologise for criticising bad thinking and imprecise language. There’s far too much of both around lately.
Outstanding.
Do you have Jewish ancestry?
No. Why?
What a weird question
stockpile of easter eggs and assorted goodies? check. another sardonic tim o'neill rant in the chamber? double check. 2 days to zero hour...
Don’t laugh at me
to be fair, pagans probably noticed hares showing up around spring too, and may very well have incorporated them into their own rituals... not that this would be anything more than a coincidence.
Lots of things “may have” happened. So that doesn’t get us very far at all.
@@historyforatheists9363 wasn't trying to get us anywhere, really, was just making (mostly) on topic commentary for the purposes of encouraging yuut's algo to up-rank your content.
Commenting, "Commenting for the algorithm" is so passé, you know?
Still pagan
@@keeya_ks Idiot.
Zzzzzzzz. The connections between eggs, rabbits, and fertility are obvious. Chrisitans did not invent seasonal holidays.
Gosh. So if this connection is so obvious, perhaps you could demonstrate that with … actual evidence and sources. Because I’ve done that to show the eggs tradition came from Christian Lenten fasting practices and the bunnies from the Easter Hare that was part of Christian folk traditions associating Easter with animals active in spring time.
But if you have some actual evidence I’ve somehow missed, let’s see it. Otherwise we can dismiss your comment as brain dead blurting.
@@historyforatheists9363
Hey Tim I’ve read that the hare was a popular motif in medieval church art because in ancient times, it was widely believed (as by Pliny, Plutarch, Philostratus, and Aelian) that the hare was a hermaphrodite. The idea that a hare could reproduce without loss of virginity led to an association with the Virgin Mary, with hares sometimes occurring in illuminated manuscripts and Northern European paintings of the Virgin and Christ Child.
@@joellaz9836 Yes, but that doesn’t seem to be connected to the Easter Hare traditions.