However, there are people who insist the Easter holiday was not created to celebrate Christ's sacrifice but rather that it has roots in ancient pagan tradition, specifically Babylonian.
Misunderstandings about the changing date of the Easter holiday, the historical timeline, where the name Easter comes from and even the use of eggs and rabbits in modern-day celebrations all contribute to this misconception.
"Christians have always celebrated the resurrection of Christ," said Beth Allison Barr, Ph.D., associate professor of history. "First-century Christians celebrated weekly on Sundays, as both biblical evidence, such as Acts 20:7, and extra-biblical evidence, such as the Didache, suggest."
D.A. Carson, research professor of the New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said that the early biblical church likely chose Sunday as their day of worship because they connected it with the Lord's resurrection.
The Bible says that Jesus' death and resurrection occurred around the time of the Jewish Passover that year, which is celebrated on the first full moon following the vernal equinox (the Last Supper was on the first day of Passover, and Christ's crucifixion occurred on the second day, resulting in today's recognition of "Holy Thursday" and "Good Friday"). Therefore, Christians today celebrate Easter on the Sunday following the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
This system for choosing the day on which Easter is celebrated was established at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The shifting date of the Easter holiday is merely a reflection of the varied dates of the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
The date on which Easter is celebrated clearly has nothing to do with any kind of pagan lunar worship or vernal equinox celebration, Barr said. However, there is still the theory that the holiday itself is derived from a pagan celebration of a goddess of spring and fertility, although no such event is known that predates the first Christian celebrations of Easter.
"Easter was clearly being celebrated by Mediterranean Christians during the second century, and probably in the first century as well," Barr said. "As such, there is no way that it is derived from a Nordic or Germanic pagan festival that, if it historically existed, postdates the Christian celebration. By the second century, we have clear evidence that the Christian community was celebrating an annual commemoration of Christ's Resurrection: Easter. Indeed, because of the quarrel over exactly when the precise date for this celebration should be, known as the Quartodecimanism controversy, it is clear that celebrating Easter was already a long-established custom by early Christians."
The idea of the existence of a pagan celebration forming the roots of Christian Easter came from an eight-century scholar known as the Venerable Bede. Bede claimed in his work "The Reckoning of Time" that there was a celebration of the goddess Eostre which took place each April that was replaced by the Christian celebration of the Resurrection of Christ.
However, there is no mention of this goddess in any other literature from the time outside of Bede's work. Therefore, we are unable to confirm the existence of such a pagan deity. The lack of evidence makes it unlikely that any kind of celebration in the goddess' honor existed, Barr said.
The issue is also one of etymology. Bede suggested that the term "Easter" was derived from the name of the month in which the goddess was supposedly celebrated, which was the equivalent of April.
A more modern theory, though, is that the word "Easter" originated from a mistaken interpretation of the early Latin-speaking Christians' designation of Easter week as hebdomada alba, or "the week of albs," because of the white robes worn by baptismal candidates during that time. Although in this context "alba" serves as the feminine form of "albus," meaning "white," some thought it was the word "alba" meaning "dawn."
Old High German speakers took the word "alba" to mean "dawn" and started referring to the holiday as "eostarun," which meant "dawn" in their language. "Eostarun" eventually evolved into the contemporary German word for Easter, "Ostern," and then the English "Easter."
Before the fourth century, the holiday was referred to as Pascha for its associations with Passover. The word for Easter in many European languages derives from Pascha, such as French (Pâques), Spanish (la Pascua de Resurrección), Dutch (Pasen) and Italian (Pasqua).
"The name Easter is clearly related to the word Pascha, and is more likely associated with the time that the Resurrection is celebrated than any sort of vague pagan deity," Barr said.
Outside of the date, historical timeline and name, some individuals point to the use of eggs and bunnies in today's celebrations of Easter as remnants of pagan tradition.
"Many religions and traditional customs have used eggs and even rabbits," Barr said. "But this doesn't mean that the Christian use of these symbols, especially eggs, is 'pagan.' Historical parallels do not equal historical evidence."
The Easter bunny was not used in Easter celebrations until the early modern world, and therefore the use of the rabbit has no historical or significant connection to any pagan festivals.
"I have seen arguments connecting Easter eggs to Babylonian and even Zoroastrian traditions," Barr said. "But the medieval European world had no knowledge of these customs or celebrations; historians didn't learn about them until very recently. The most historically logical roots for Easter eggs is their use during Medieval Easter traditions. Eggs were prohibited during Lent, and so in preparation for their return to eating eggs, people decorated eggs and used them as part of their Easter celebrations. This is the most reasonable source for the traditions we continue today."
In today's celebrations, eggs are used to commemorate new life, specifically, the new life of Jesus.
"Easter is and has always been a celebration of the Resurrection of Christ," Barr said. "Even if Bede was correct that the name for the time of celebrating the resurrection derives from an unrelated Anglo-Saxon goddess, it still doesn't affect the content of Easter. The only reason Easter exists as a holiday is because of the Resurrection. It is a shame that modern – and, I would argue, unsubstantiated – debates about its pagan roots have so distracted Christians from the purpose of Easter: celebrating the risen Christ."
The calendar by which the Biblical feasts are given their dates is very different from the Western calendar. It’s not a straightforward lunar calendar, but every time there is a new moon it indicates a new Jewish month or “Rosh Hodesh”, which means “head of the month”. Passover is always right in the middle of the Jewish month of Nisan – when the moon is full. God says this is to be the first month of the year (Exodus 12:2). The Western calendar, on the other hand, does not follow the moon’s movements so closely, and so the cycle of the Jewish year is different.
More than that, the process of accurately fixing the dates according to the moon is not a simple one. Sometimes Jewish holidays are celebrated twice when there is a discrepancy about the precise day, just to be on the safe side! In ancient times, the sky would be carefully watched, and then the message of when the holiday was to be observed was sent to the Jewish communities far and wide by beacons and messengers. But this was not a foolproof method, with some Samaritan scoundrels lighting fires at the wrong time to deliberately confuse and aggravate the Jewish people.1 Date setting became a political power struggle within the Jewish diaspora.
HOW THE SPLIT OCCURRED
In the first centuries after Yeshua, the early disciples naturally remembered his death and resurrection every Passover, which was when it happened. And rightly so, since the Passover feast was designed from its outset to foretell the redemptive sacrifice of the Messiah. It is laden with symbolism all pointing to Yeshua, and how his death and blood would purchase our freedom, forcing death to “pass over” us as it did for the faithful Israelites who daubed the blood of the lamb on their door frames. But as the years went by, the Messianic community became more and more gentile, and gentile leaders grew weary of liaising with, and depending upon the rabbinic authorities for the right date on which to commemorate this important event. Relations between the Rabbinic Jewish community and the Christians had deteriorated significantly by this point, and there was a lot of hostility in both directions. So the church leaders decided, at the Council of Nicea in 325, to take matters into their own hands:
“It was declared to be particularly unworthy for this, the holiest of all festivals, to follow the custom [the calculation] of the Jews, who had soiled their hands with the most fearful of crimes, and whose minds were blinded. In rejecting their custom, we may transmit to our descendants the legitimate mode of celebrating Easter…
We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews, for the Savior has shown us another way…. We desire, dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews.”2
If these words are not shocking to you, they should be! The Nicean Council decided that they would celebrate a separate festival on the first new moon after the Spring Equinox, (which is always March 21st in the Gregorian Calendar) to make a deliberate break with the people of Israel. Easter doesn’t feature even once in the Bible. The King James Version erroneously translates the word Pascha (from the Aramaic for Passover) to Easter in Acts 12:4, but that is the closest we get. The English word “Easter” comes from “Eostre” – a goddess associated with Spring, and was co-opted for the name of the new festival to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, which was decidedly NOT Passover.
THE IMPLICATIONS, AND THE SITUATION TODAY
It’s heartbreaking that such animosity had developed between the Jewish and Christian communities, and it led to a ripping away of Yeshua’s followers from the roots of the tree that they had been grafted into. Christians decided to separate themselves not just from the people of Israel, but also from God’s festivals, which were deliberately created to help us appreciate more about God’s plan of redemption. Passover was God’s initiative, and he devised each detail of it on purpose. We are not judged for not celebrating the Passover, but we miss out on many treasures that God placed in his word for us to learn from. Sadly, the Nicean Council decided on behalf of all Christians from that time onwards that Passover had no relevance for them.
Not only were Christians cut off from the roots of their faith — their heritage, God’s own feasts, laid out in their own Bible — but also the message of Yeshua became more and more obscured and alien to the Jewish people. The church became a foreign, gentile “no-go-zone” for Jews. The two were severed apart, and the evil root of anti-semitism crept into Christianity. Sadly, for much of church history, Jewish people were persecuted, tortured and murdered at the hands of Christians for simply being Jewish. This happened especially at Easter times, when angry mobs would rage against those they considered to be “Christ killers”.3 Most Christians have no idea about the scale to which this sad statement is true – it’s not something that is taught in Sunday School or even church history classes. There is a real gap of information between the people of Israel and the church, and we’ve been separated so long that we have a lot of catching up to do!
JEWS AND GENTILES DRAW TOGETHER IN YESHUA
However, we live in exciting days and the last century has seen some colossal steps forward in healing the terrible rift between Jew and Gentile. More Jewish people have come to believe in Yeshua as Messiah in the last 19 years than in the previous 19 centuries combined! And many Gentile believers are now taking more interest in the Jewish foundations of their faith. Many churches hold Passover seders, explaining more about the feast, and there has been considerably more appreciation of the people of Israel since the Bible became widely translated and published in the last few centuries.
We are destined to become “One New Man” in Messiah, and this is a destiny that God will make absolutely sure we arrive at. His Son, Yeshua, will have only one bride, not two! It’s important to remember what Yeshua’s death and resurrection actually accomplished and meant. As Paul urges us in Colossians 2:14-17,
“When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with Him when He pardoned us all our transgressions. He wiped out the handwritten record of debts with the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. He took it away by nailing it to the cross. After disarming the principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.
Therefore, do not let anyone pass judgment on you in matters of food or drink, or in respect to a festival or new moon or Shabbat. These are a foreshadowing of things to come, but the reality is Messiah.”
The origin of the Passover is found in Exodus 12. The Israelites had been under harsh slavery to the Egyptian Pharaoh, who had refused to let them go. Because of Pharaoh’s stubbornness, God sent a series of plagues on Egypt and was about to send the 10th and final plague: killing the firstborn of all people and animals. God would spare, or “pass over,” only those who smeared lamb’s blood on their doorway (Exodus 12:12-13). The day was called the Passover and was to be kept by Israel as a memorial of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 12:14; Leviticus 23:4-5).
What about Easter? You can’t find Easter commanded in the Bible. The word is actually found in Acts 12:4 in the 1611 King James Version, but most scholars recognize it as a clear translation error (modern translations replace it with the word Passover). There are over 70 references to Passover in the Old and New Testaments—but no legitimate references to Easter.
To learn more, read our article “Origin of Easter.”
Difference 2: God-ordained vs. human tradition
One of the major differences between Passover and Easter is this: The Creator God commanded Passover to be kept by His people. He never commanded anyone to observe Easter to commemorate Christ’s resurrection.
You can learn more about the history of this change in our article “The Days They Changed but Couldn’t Kill.”
Difference 3: Passover’s fixed day vs. Easter’s movable day
God ordained the Passover to be kept annually on a specific day: the 14th day of the first month on the Hebrew calendar (Deuteronomy 16:1; Leviticus 23:5). The Catholic Church persecuted the early Christians who kept the Passover, calling them Quartodecimans (Latin for “14thers”) and Judaizers.
The Passover was so despised that “in 325 CE the Council of Nicaea established that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. From that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox” (“Calculating the Easter Date,” timeanddate.com). This gave Easter a movable date that wouldn’t fall on the Passover. Even then, the Western churches use the Gregorian calendar and the Eastern churches use the Julian calendar, so their dates for Easter differ.
To learn more, read “Festival Calendar: Which Calendar Should We Use?”
Difference 4: Passover as a memorial of Jesus’ death vs. Easter as a celebration of His resurrection
Jesus Christ was ordained as the Passover Lamb that would be sacrificed to make freedom from the penalty of sin possible (John 1:29). The Passover of Exodus 12 pointed forward to Christ’s sacrifice 1,500 years later! Just as the Israelites were saved from death by the lamb’s blood, we can be saved from eternal death by Christ’s blood.
The Passover of Exodus 12 pointed forward to Christ’s sacrifice 1,500 years later!
At His last Passover, Jesus instituted unleavened bread and wine as new symbols—representing His broken body and blood. He commanded us to “do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19). The apostle Paul taught us to keep it on the “same night in which He was betrayed”—the evening of the Passover (1 Corinthians 11:23).
To learn more, read “Should Christians Celebrate Passover?”
Easter purports to celebrate Christ’s resurrection. The problem is, though His resurrection was extremely important, Christ never commanded that it be celebrated with an annual observance or holiday. There is also no record of the apostles or early Church celebrating it. Plus, biblical evidence shows Jesus didn’t even rise on a Sunday morning.
Difference 5: Passover symbols vs. Easter symbols
Symbols of the Passover are full of meaning. Jesus Himself is “our Passover” and “sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The unleavened bread represents His sinless and broken body (Matthew 26:26), and the wine represents His blood that was poured out for us (Matthew 26:28). The foot washing represents the humility and serving attitude of Jesus, which we are to emulate (John 13:5-8, 9-11, 12-15).
Every element of the biblical Passover is grounded in deep spiritual meaning.
The primary symbols associated with Easter are eggs and bunnies. But these have deep roots in ancient pagan practices. Bunnies and eggs are ancient fertility symbols that were appropriated years after Christ’s resurrection. Even the name Easter has origins in an ancient pagan goddess.
What does that have to do with Jesus and His sacrifice or His resurrection? To learn more, read “Bunnies Don’t Lay Eggs and Other Reasons to Ditch Easter.”
There are stark differences between Passover and Easter. We hope our readers will deeply consider these differences and reject the meaningless traditions of Easter and take a closer look at the biblical Passover and other “feasts of the Lord” found in the Bible.
While it is true that most professing Christians observe Easter, reasoning that it commemorates Christ's resurrection, the Bible actually commands Christians to observe a memorial to His sacrificial death! When Christ instructed His followers to keep the Passover with a fulfilled, Christian meaning, it became a memorial to His sacrifice as the Lamb of God—not to His resurrection. Christ avoided confusing the meaning of His unique sacrifice with the well-known pagan "resurrection" rites of His time and before.
In fact, God's Holy Days do include a date to commemorate the resurrection of faithful Christians at the return of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:12–20, 50–52). That Holy Day is known as the Feast of Trumpets, which occurs in the autumn (Leviticus 23:24), not in the spring. As we shall see shortly, the practice and the meaning of the Christian Passover are explicitly taught in the Bible and were taught by the first-century Church.
"The Asiatic practice in the 2d century of observing Easter [Pasch] on the day of the Jewish Passover conflicted with the Roman custom of celebrating Easter on Sunday, the day of the Resurrection.... Originally both observances were allowed, but gradually it was felt incongruous that Christians should celebrate Easter on a Jewish feast, and unity in celebrating the principal Christian feast was called for" (p. 8).
"Quartodecimanism [meaning the practice of observing Passover on Nisan 14 of the Hebrew calendar], prevalent in Asia Minor and Syria in the 2d century, emphasized the death of Christ, the true Paschal victim (John 18:28; 19:42), while Roman practice emphasized the observance of Sunday as the day of the Resurrection.... As Christianity separated from Judaism, Gentile Christians objected to observing the principal Christian feast on the same day as the Jewish Passover" (vol. 12, p. 13).
CHRISTIANIZED VENEER OR SOLID SCRIPTURAL PRACTICE?
It is clear that Easter is a "Christianized" pagan festival. And in Scripture, God strongly condemns attempts to worship Him with practices taken from the worship of false gods. Notice how He instructed Israel:
"When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.' You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it" (Deuteronomy 12:29–32).
God clearly tells us to avoid recycling pagan religious customs for His worship. We are to worship God as He instructs, not as we might reason on our own. Keeping Easter certainly adds to what God instructed, and rejecting the Christian Passover certainly takes away from what we are told to do as Christians.
Christ said, "'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men" (Mark 7:6–8).
THE GOSPELS SHOW WHAT TO DO
Some people may be surprised to learn that the New Testament gospels have a lot to say about the actual practice that Jesus and His disciples followed the night before Jesus' death: "And He sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat'... And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you'" (Luke 22:8, 13–20). He also washed the disciples' feet and instructed them to do the same for each other (John 13:1–15).
Christ said that they were eating the Passover and that they should "do this in remembrance of Me." He commanded them to keep that night as a memorial to Him, and He showed them the manner in which to keep it, using unleavened bread as a symbol of His body and wine as a symbol of His blood.
WHEN TO OBSERVE THE PASSOVER?
Now notice on what day of the Hebrew calendar these events took place. It is important to note that, by biblical reckoning, a day begins at sunset and ends with sunset the next day.
The First Day of Unleavened Bread, an annual Holy Day, falls on Nisan 15 of the Hebrew calendar and begins at the evening ending Nisan 14 (Leviticus 23:5–6). In the time of Christ, the Jews killed the Passover lamb the afternoon of Nisan 14 at about the hour Christ, the Lamb of God, died at the hands of the Romans. Christ's last supper took place at the beginning of Nisan 14, on the evening before the crucifixion. That night He was betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter and beaten before the high priest (Matthew 26:30–75; John 18:1–27).
The following morning—still Nisan 14—He was tried by Pilate, condemned, scourged and crucified (Matthew 27; John 18:28–40). Notice in John 19:31 that Christ had to be buried before evening "because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day)." These scriptures show conclusively that the Passover memorial that Christ ordained was on the evening that began Nisan 14. This was the evening before the Jewish Passover celebration, which was held in the evening beginning the Holy Day of Nisan 15.
THE MEANING OF THE SYMBOLS
We now have seen what Christ instructed His followers to observe as a memorial to Him, and when they were to keep it. But why did He say to do this? The Apostle John, in his gospel, preserved Jesus' explanation of the reason for the Passover bread and wine: "I am the bread of life.... I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world… Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:48, 51–54).
CHRIST IS OUR PASSOVER
The events of the Exodus pictured what would be fulfilled later in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is our Passover sacrifice. As the Apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians, "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Remorse and repentance are not the same thing. True repentance changes what we are going to do—it changes our future. But all the repentance in the world cannot change what we did. Only one thing can remove the guilt of our past sins—the sacrifice of our Passover, Jesus Christ.
"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Romans 5:10). Christ was resurrected on Saturday evening, after exactly "three days and three nights" in the tomb (Matthew 12:40). We have a living, resurrected Savior, and our hope for eternal life is by resurrection through faith in Him. Jesus Christ's resurrection is of great importance to Christians, but we were not given a spring festival to commemorate it.
THE APOSTLE PAUL'S TEACHING
What did the first-century Church teach and practice? Here is what Paul told the Christians at Corinth: "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed [the evening of the beginning of Nisan 14] took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.' In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.' For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).
This is Paul's explicit instruction for the Church to keep the Passover as a memorial—at the very same time, in the same manner and with the same meaning that Christ taught His disciples.
While it is clear that this was the teaching and practice of Paul and the Corinthian Christians, it is also interesting to note that, historically, this doctrine continued into the second, third and fourth centuries ad in the churches in Asia Minor, which were raised up by Paul and guided by the Apostle John in his old age. The Roman church, which advocated the observance of Easter, labeled those who continued the practice of observing a Christian Passover on Nisan 14 as Quartodecimans—from the Latin for "four and ten." The eastern or Asiatic churches, however, insisted on continuing in the faith delivered to them by the apostles.
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna—a disciple of the Apostle John—debated the issue with Pope Anicetus (ca. 155ad) and asserted that he had been personally taught the proper observance by the Apostle John.
Later, "an attempt by Pope Victor I (189–198ad) to impose Roman usage [Easter] proved unsuccessful in the face of a determined opposition led by Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus [a church founded by the Apostle Paul].... All accepted the Roman practice except the Asiatic bishops. When Victor attempted coercion by excommunication, St. Iranaeus of Lyons intervened to restore peace (Eusebius, History Ecclesiastical, 5. 23–25). During the 3rd century Quartodecimanism waned; it persisted in some Asiatic communities down to the 5th century" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, vol. 5, p. 8; vol. 12, p. 13).
The fact that this practice dropped out of sight is not surprising. The Christians who continued their Quartodecimanism were excommunicated and made anathema in the fourth century by the increasingly powerful Roman church, and as a result many suffered terrible persecution—even death. It is clear that the Asiatic churches considered it extremely important to keep the Passover on Nisan 14!
Actually, this practice of observing the Christian Passover did not die out, but continues today as a faithful observance by true Christians every spring, in the evening at the beginning of Nisan 14.
The Bible teaches that it is important for us to worship God as He commands—and to commemorate Christ as He taught us to do. We should not borrow religious practices from pagan cultures! This spring, billions of people will keep Easter. But a few true Christians, who faithfully follow Jesus' instructions and the examples of the Apostles Paul and John, will joyfully continue the observance of the Christian Passover. Which will you choose?
While most professing Christians consider Passover to be a Jewish festival, it should also be a sacred observance for all Christians. The apostle Paul writes to the predominantly Gentile church in Corinth:
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." (I Corinthians 11:23-25)
This is not, as is commonly believed, the command to take communion as often as one likes. In reality, this is Jesus' own command, communicated through the apostle Paul, for the church to celebrate the Passover "on the night in which He was betrayed," which was the evening of the Passover, Nisan 14 on the Hebrew calendar (see Leviticus 23:5). This was the practice of the New Testament church—in fact, it kept all of the holy days of Leviticus 23—as long as the original apostles lived.
However, like all men, the apostles died one by one until only the apostle John was left, an old man living in or near the city of Ephesus. Around the turn of the second century, John died at an advanced age. For a few generations under the leadership of John's disciple, Polycarp (AD 69-155), and a successor, Polycrates (c. 130-196), the Ephesian church remained faithful to the teachings and traditions of the early church, including the keeping of the Passover on Nisan 14.
Those few who stubbornly resisted the change to the celebration of Easter, which had supplanted Passover throughout most of Christendom, were called Quartodecimans ("fourteenthers") and Judaizers. By Origen's day (c. 185- 254), they were, he wrote, "a mere handful" among the millions living in the Empire. Even so, the Roman Church did not effectively ban the practice of keeping the Passover on Nisan 14 until AD 325 at the Council of Nicea, when rules were set down to calculate the date of Easter for the entire Church. Canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea (held in 363-364) later anathematized those Judaizers who kept the seventh-day Sabbath, many of whom were also Quartodecimans.
The controversy over Passover or Easter boils down to following Scripture versus following Roman Catholic tradition. Frankly, the reason that the Roman Church chose to keep Easter rests on two faulty pillars: 1) an intense prejudice against "the perfidy of the Jews" in the crucifixion of Christ (which has come to be known as the "blood libel") and 2) the widespread celebration of Easter among pagan cultures throughout the Empire. The convoluted theological arguments that have come down from the so-called apostolic fathers, repeated endlessly by their successors, are window dressing to obscure these unpleasant factors.
Even during the first century, an anti-Jewish element had begun to creep into the church of God. In his epistles to the Romans and to the Galatians, the apostle Paul had attempted to explain the place of God's law under the New Covenant, but as Peter later testified, in Paul's epistles "are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction" (II Peter 3:16). And twist them they did, moving the church away from the truths written in the Old Testament and expounded by Christ and His apostles. Soon, many Greek-speaking Christians, not wanting to be constrained by the "Hebrew" law, entertained Gnostic ideas that encouraged spiritual license. Finally, the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 ratcheted up anti-Jewish fervor to a fever pitch, and across the Empire, association with Jews and things Jewish was generally avoided.
In this way, the church that appears in second-century history is quite different from its first-century counterpart. It is largely Gentile, keeping Sunday (which it calls "the Lord's Day") rather than the Sabbath, and growing in power and political influence. It is also attracting new converts, not only out of Greco-Roman paganism, but also from the gods and goddesses of the frontier areas like Britain, Germany, and Dacia. This church found it easier to assimilate these new converts by syncretizing the "Christian" Easter celebration with their pagan spring festivals, often called after the name of the widely worshipped fertility goddess, Ishtar (or some close variation: Astarte, Eoster, Ostara, Isis, Aphrodite, etc.). It is from these heathen influences that the Easter Bunny, dyeing eggs, giving candy, and other non-biblical Easter traditions have sprung.
Conversely, the Christian Passover is not a celebration but a solemn observance that commemorates the agonizing blood-sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay for our sins (Matthew 26:28; Romans 4:25; I Corinthians 15:3; Ephesians 1:7; Titus 2:14; I John 1:7), to redeem us from spiritual bondage (Matthew 20:28; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 2:1-3; Hebrews 2:14-15; I Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 5:9), and to open the way to fellowship with the Father (Romans 8:34; Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 7:25; 10:19-22). Each year in the Passover ceremony, baptized Christians wash one another's feet to follow Christ's example of selfless service (John 13:1-17), as well as partake of the bread and the wine, recommitting themselves to the everlasting covenant that they have made with God. As Paul writes in I Corinthians 11:26, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes."
Easter, however, celebrates, not the Savior's death, but His resurrection, which most professing Christians believe occurred at sunrise on the Sunday morning after His death (please see "After Three Days" which explains from the Bible that this is not the case). Neither Jesus nor His apostles mention anything about observing or memorializing His resurrection. In fact, His death is the only event of His life that the Bible consistently commands us to remember (Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:24-25; see the principle in Psalm 116:15; Ecclesiastes 7:1).
And, yes, this excludes His birth too, making Christmas another non-biblical addition to the liturgical calendar. Despite the human desire to mark such times, Christians must be careful to do only what God's Word commands lest they be guilty of adding to or taking away from it (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Joshua 1:7; Proverbs 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18-19). When we add to or take from what God has said, we alter His revelation to us and are sure to veer from His way.
The Passover story
The Passover story is recorded in the book of Exodus and took place more than 3,000 years ago. The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt under the bitter rule of the pharaoh of the time (possibly Rameses II who ruled from 1290 to 1223 BCE). Deciding that the Jewish people were too numerous, pharaoh issued a genocidal decree: every Jewish newborn male would be thrown into the Nile River to drown.
The story begins when Jocheved, Moses’ mother, decides to hide her newborn son to prevent his murder. However, after three months, Jocheved can no longer hide her infant quietly. She chooses to risk everything by sending her child down the river in a basket, hoping that he will miraculously reach a safe destination. The baby is discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter who names him Moses, which comes from the Hebrew verb meaning “to draw out” of water.
Moses grows up in Pharaoh’s palace and is raised as an Egyptian. One day, an adult Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave; Moses decides to defend the slave from this cruel treatment and kills the Egyptian. This puts Moses’ life in danger, and he is forced to flee from Egypt to the distant land of Midian (believed to be present-day Saudi Arabia near the tip of the Red Sea). While in Midian, Moses meets his wife Zipporah, and the two have a son named Gershom.
Meanwhile, the Jewish people are still toiling under the backbreaking labor of Pharaoh. In a critical turn of events, while Moses is herding his sheep in Midian, God appears to him through the flames of a burning bush and tells Moses to go back to Egypt and say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” This iconic moment begins Moses’ blossoming career as the greatest prophet in Jewish history. Moses becomes the only prophet in the Bible to ever speak with God face to face, and the only one who could speak with God whenever he wanted.
After initially protesting the plan, Moses ultimately agrees to carry it out and returns to Egypt, his family by his side. At this point, there’s a new Pharaoh in town, most likely Merneptah who ruled beginning in 1223 BCE. Through Moses, God inflicts 10 devastating plagues onto the Egyptian population in order to set the Hebrew slaves fee. Pharaoh resists each round of divine intervention and refuses to let the Jewish people go until the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborn. Ahead of this, Moses tells the Jewish people to put the blood of a lamb on their doors as a symbol for God to “pass over” their homes and spare their children.
Pharaoh’s son is among the thousands of Egyptians to die. Faced with this personal tragedy, he finally agrees to let the Jewish people go. However, just as the Jewish people leave, Pharaoh changes his mind again and chases after them. With Egyptian chariots on their heels, the Jewish people come to a dead end at the sea of reeds.
It is here that the Jewish people witness yet another astonishing act of divine intervention: the waters part, enabling the people to cross the sea and reach the opposite shore. At this moment, the walls of the water fall down behind them, drowning Pharaoh’s entire army. Moses goes on to lead the Israelites through the desert to the brink of the promised land.
The 10 Plagues
God sends 10 plagues to Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. During the seder, participants pour a drop of wine out of their cups for each plague: according to many interpretations, this serves as a reminder of the pain the Egyptians endured in the process of the Jewish people’s liberation.
The Ten Plagues
- Blood
- Frogs
- Lice
- Flies
- Pestilence
- Boils
- Hail
- Locusts
- Darkness
- Killing of the firstborn
The Seder
The Four Questions: Traditionally recited by the youngest child at the seder, the Four Questions highlight the purpose of the Passover seder and what makes it different from a typical meal. These questions, which come early in the service, set the stage for telling the Passover story.
The Cup of Elijah: In addition to the four cups of wine drunk by each guest, an additional cup of wine is poured in honor of Elijah the prophet who is thought to “visit” each Passover seder. According to tradition, Elijah will one day arrive and proclaim the advent of the messianic age.
After we are seated casually, the first prayer (the kiddush, or prayer of sanctification) is uttered by the paterfamilias.
... ברוך אתה יי אלהינו מלך העלמ בורא פרי הגפנ
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who has created the fruit of the vine. . . . And you, O Lord our God, have given us festival days for joy, this feast of the unleavened bread, the time of our deliverance in remembrance of the departure from Egypt. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to enjoy this season.”
The kiddush: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, . . . who has created the fruit of the vine. . . . Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to enjoy this season.”
Then the first cup of ritual wine is poured and the first verb of Exodus 6:6-7 is recited by the father:
אני יהוה והוצאתי אתכמ מתחת סבלת מצרימ
“I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”
The wine may now be drunk. (After this cup, you may now drink non-ritual wine until the second cup is served. The non-ritual wine may be any of the previously mentioned non-ritual wines, or it may be the wine used for the first cup.)
- The Karpas (bitter herbs and the first dipping): The head of the house dips bitter herbs (traditionally lettuce or celery) into salt water or vinegar. He dips herb together with the chief guest of honor (the person on his right), and then the bitter herbs are passed on down the table.
- After all partake of the karpas, all food is removed from the table. This heightens the interest of the evening, prompting the questions from the youngest son.
- Second Cup: poured, but not yet drunk.
- Questions from the youngest son/least significant person:
Why is this night different from all other nights? On all other nights we eat leavened or unleavened bread, but this night only unleavened bread.
On all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but this night only bitter herbs. Why do we dip the herbs twice?
On all other nights we eat meat roasted, stewed, or boiled, but on this night why only roasted meat?
- Answer by the father (recounting the history of Israel from Abraham till Moses and the giving of the Law)7:
Acts 7:2-38 (with some lacunae) is read. It is interesting that Stephen’s speech so closely parallels the kinds of things that the paterfamilias would say at the Passover (though with some interesting twists to it) that one wonders if this was indeed the message that Stephen, as head of his own home, would recite at Passover (for at 7:39 Stephen goes beyond what was to be recited and begins to pronounce his indictment against the religious leaders).
- All food and wine is returned to the table, including the lamb.
- Father now explains the significance of the lamb, bitter herbs, and unleavened bread.
- Singing of the first half of the Hallel Psalms: Psalms 113-114.
Done in one of two ways: father singing the lines with the family saying “Hallelujah” after each verse, or all singing the psalms together. We will do the latter. [NIV]
Psa. 113:1 Praise the LORD. Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
Psa. 113:2 Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore.
Psa. 113:3 From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.
Psa. 113:4 The LORD is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens.
Psa. 113:5 Who is like the LORD our God, the One who sits enthroned on high,
Psa. 113:6 who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?
Psa. 113:7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
Psa. 113:8 he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people.
Psa. 113:9 He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD.
Psa. 114:1 When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
Psa. 114:2 Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
Psa. 114:3 The sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back;
Psa. 114:4 the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
Psa. 114:5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
Psa. 114:6 you mountains, that you skipped like rams, you hills, like lambs?
Psa. 114:7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
Psa. 114:8 who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.
- Prayer over the Second Cup:
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who has created the fruit of the vine. . . .
Exodus 6:6b: “I will deliver you from their bondage”
- והצלתי אתכמ מעבדתמ
- Second hand-washing: This hand-washing is done out of respect for the unleavened bread that is about to be eaten.
- The Paschal Lamb, charoseth with vegetables, and two of the unleavened bread wafers are served.
- Prayer over the bread (by the father):
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the univese, who brings forth bread from the earth. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments, and commanded us to eat unleavened bread.”
- Breaking of the bread:
The host breaks the guest of honor’s bread and they dip it together in the charoseth and bitter herbs. The guest in turn breaks his neighbor’s bread and they dip it together, and so on down the line.
- The meal may now be eaten.
After drinking the second cup of wine, any wine that has already been drunk may now be drunk non-ritually.
- The Third Cup: Prayer and consumption
After the meal, the third cup is poured. The last of the unleavened bread wafers is blessed, broken, and eaten:
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments, and commanded us to eat unleavened bread.”
All participants recite the post-meal grace together, and then the prayer over the wine.
“The name of the Lord be blessed from now until eternity. Let us bless him of whose gifts we have partaken: Blessed be our God of whose gifts we have partaken, and by whose goodness we exist.”
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who has created the fruit of the vine. . . .
Then the father recites the third verb from Exodus 6:6:
“I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”
וגאלתי אתכמ בזרוע נ טימ גדלימ
Then the wine is drunk.
*No non-ritual wine may be drunk between the third and the fourth cup.
- The Fourth Cup and the final Hallel Psalms:
The fourth cup of wine is poured and blessed by all:
“Blessed are you, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who has created the fruit of the vine. . . .
Then the father recites the fourth verb from Exodus 6:6-7:
“Then I will take you as my people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
Psalms 115-118 are now sung as a closing hymn [NIV, slightly modified]
Psa. 115:1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
Psa. 115:2 Why do the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Psa. 115:3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
Psa. 115:4 But their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
Psa. 115:5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see;
Psa. 115:6 they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but they cannot smell;
Psa. 115:7 they have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but they cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
Psa. 115:8 Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.
Psa. 115:9 O house of Israel, trust in the LORD — he is their help and shield.
Psa. 115:10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD — he is their help and shield.
Psa. 115:11 You who fear him, trust in the LORD — he is their help and shield.
Psa. 115:12 The LORD remembers us and will bless us: He will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron,
Psa. 115:13 he will bless those who fear the LORD — small and great alike.
Psa. 115:14 May the LORD make you increase, both you and your children.
Psa. 115:15 May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psa. 115:16 The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man.
Psa. 115:17 It is not the dead who praise the LORD, those who go down to silence;
Psa. 115:18 it is we who extol the LORD, both now and forevermore. Praise the LORD.
Psa. 116:1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.
Psa. 116:2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
Psa. 116:3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.
Psa. 116:4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, save me!”
Psa. 116:5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.
Psa. 116:6 The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me.
Psa. 116:7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
Psa. 116:8 For you, O LORD, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling,
Psa. 116:9 that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
Psa. 116:10 I believed; therefore I said, “I am greatly afflicted.”
Psa. 116:11 And in my dismay I said, “All men are liars.”
Psa. 116:12 How can I repay the LORD for all his goodness to me?
Psa. 116:13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
Psa. 116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.
Psa. 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Psa. 116:16 O LORD, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant;
ou have freed me from my chains.
Psa. 116:17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD.
Psa. 116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,
Psa. 116:19 in the courts of the house of the LORD — in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.
Psa. 117:1 Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.
Psa. 117:2 For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.
Psa. 118:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psa. 118:2 Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.”
Psa. 118:3 Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.”
Psa. 118:4 Let those who fear the LORD say: “His love endures forever.”
Psa. 118:5 In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free.
Psa. 118:6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psa. 118:7 The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.
Psa. 118:8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.
Psa. 118:9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.
Psa. 118:10 All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
Psa. 118:11 They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
Psa. 118:12 They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
Psa. 118:13 I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me.
Psa. 118:14 The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
Psa. 118:15 Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!
Psa. 118:16 The LORD’s right hand is lifted high; the LORD’s right hand has done mighty things!”
Psa. 118:17 I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
Psa. 118:18 The LORD has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death.
Psa. 118:19 Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
Psa. 118:20 This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.
Psa. 118:21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.
Psa. 118:22 The stone the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone;
Psa. 118:23 the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Psa. 118:24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psa. 118:25 O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.
Psa. 118:26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.
Psa. 118:27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
Psa. 118:28 You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Psa. 118:29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
1 The basic source for the ancient Passover ceremony is the tractate Pesachim (from which the Greek word pascha is derived and which is translated as ‘paschal’ in the RSV of 1 Cor 5:7, ‘passover’ in most other modern translations) in the Mishnah, a document that was written down in c. A. D. 200 by Rabbi Judah ha-Nassi. Judah had received it via oral tradition dating back to the great Rabbi Hillel, who lived in the century before Christ.
2 The date I follow has been argued for by Harold Hoehner in his Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ.
3 Passover lambs were slain between noon and 3 p.m. on Nisan 14 (recall that there were three hours of darkness, from approximately noon to 3 p.m., when Jesus was on the cross [Mark 15:33]. When Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn in two, from top to bottom [Mark 15:38]—right when the last of the lambs would be on the altar in front of the sanctuary!). In A. D. 70, the last year that the temple was still standing, 270,000 lambs were slain.
When the lambs were slain, the Levites would chant the Hallel Psalms (Psalms 113-118) repeatedly.
4This practice apparently stems from a rabbinic interpretation of Zephaniah 1:12—“I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent.’” Since leaven often represents sin, Paul makes the tie between the leaven of the Passover and our commitment to Christ in 1 Cor 5:7 (“Get rid of the old leaven that you may be a new batch without leaven—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”)
5The footwashing was not a part of the Passover per se, but was the custom in Israel when one entered a home to eat a meal.
6 There is some dispute about when the first handwashing was performed. In modern times, it is done prior to the meal and before sitting down. In ancient times it may have been done once all reclined at table and after the first cup of wine was poured.
Cf. Matt 15:1-20 (Jesus refutes this tradition as merely “the precepts of the men,” noting that the Pharisees and scribes had abandoned the commandments of God for such traditions.)
7 The command to recount Israel’s history is recorded in Exod 10:2; 12:26-27; and 13:8.
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