Was Easter Borrowed From a Pagan Holiday?

[GreatLakesGramma]

In order for Christians to truly "take over" a pagan festival, they should ditch the pagan name and all the pagan fertility symbols. Some Sunday-keeping churches have done that very thing. When my kids were little & we homeschooled, we got them weekly papers, similar to the Weekly Reader, only Christian. Those papers were made by Sunday-keeping Christians, but they never, ever used the word "Easter." They called it "Resurrection Day." There also was no mention of the Easter Bunny, or of any rabbits at all in connection with the day. And my husband mentioned to me that the Baptist radio station he listens to has been talking about Resurrection Day too, rather than Easter.

The Catholic church renamed Saturnalia when they adopted it. They named it Christ's Mass (Christmas). I wish all Adventists who want to celebrate Easter would call it Resurrection Day instead. Don't tell me people know what they're doing when they call a celebration of the Resurrection by a name associated with orgies and sun worship.

[jasd]

QR fram:

By any other name...

Umm, a little less flagellation and a little more perspective here, folks. If y’alls got a problem with Xmas and Easter, then yous got to have

a problem with Saturday. Saturday commemorates Saturn, a cannibalizing god who ate his own children – and for whom drunken debauchery is celebrated. Oi, Yoi, Yoi! (one hardly needs remark upon the Babyonish months used by the post-exilic Jews)

Incidentally, the two solstices and the two equinoxes are said to represent the ‘four corners’ of the world, in Writ. Ancient Temples were designed with pillars subscribing to these four points/corners – with Solomon’s Temple said to have also validated the significance of these points/corners... (some dispose of this thesis with the demur that the four corners of Holy Writ indicates the four points of the compass)

I believe Writ states that Gd gave the seasons for all – not to be assigned as strictly the provenance of ‘pagans’; that is, rustics or those who live by the land...

Having said the above, let me reference what St Paul has to say re the matter...

1 Cor 9:22 ... I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

1 Cor 9:23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

It is questionable whether we should practice zero sum religiosity.

Per the rising Sun: throughout history peoples everywhere greeted the rising Sun. Some, for this reason, others for that... One reason was – that there existed a belief in the healing properties of the rising Sun. (American Indians, when unwell, rose early and with back to a pine tree, spread his or her arms and faced the rising Sun. It has since been discovered that rays of the morning sun – effected a release of efficacious serotonins in the human body)

[jasd]

The RCCs celebrate Easter on a different day from the Pasch of the Jews as – they celebrate the accepted day upon which the Saviour arose, which they take to be Sunday. The Pasch of the Jews is a transient day – one year celebrated on this day of the week, next year celebrated upon another day of the week – and celebrates the Exodus.

Acts 12:3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)

I read the above “Then were the days of unleavened bread”

as informing me that the Pasch had already concluded. That being so, then the events of the following...

Acts 12:4 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.

are properly translated (per the KJV) as occurring after Easter – a celebration being well-established at that time.

Though a word, such as pascha may be thought to mean one thing – it may also be properly translated otherwise. Butter is a thing spread on toast, yet can

form the initial segment of the compound butterfly... (paraphrased from a member of this list)

[jasd]

Per Matthew 28:1, I agree that "Resurrection Day" was the seventh day of the week.

[delta]

What's the day between Good Friday and Sunday, then?

[Taylor]

The resurection had to be Sunday as it says "The dawning of the first day" and Good Friday when Jesus died was Friday and the women didn't want to annount his body on Sabbath so they waited till "The dawning of the first day". So Jesus clearly rose on Sunday.

[delta]

In other words, Jesus clearly rose on the the first day of the week.

Yes, I agree that the "Resurrection Day" was the first day of the week, of course.

[jasd]

>>What's the day between Good Friday and Sunday, then?<<

As I've already indicated: Resurrection Day, or if you will, Saturday.

[jasd]

>>The resurection had to be Sunday...<<

Had to be? I should be so certain of that which is more opaque than transparent...

>>...as it says "The dawning of the first day"<<

Moreso, Writ reads:

Mt 28:1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

There is only one “end of the sabbath” with only the one interpretation. That cannot be said

about the varied translations and expositions re Sunday/first day of the week...

>>...and Good Friday when Jesus died was Friday...<<

Regardless, that the Xtian world, for the most part, accepts Catholic tradition in this instance – texts cannot support this dogma/tradition.

>>...and the women didn't want to annount his body on Sabbath...<<

St John states that the day of crucifixion was the preparation day for the Pasch. Would Holy Writ sustain the assertion that the Pasch is a Sabbath?

>>...so they waited till "The dawning of the first day". So Jesus clearly rose on Sunday.<<

As I recall, the women strode out to perform the sacred act while it was yet dark (disabuse should my recollection prove faulty). Further,

when they arrived at the tomb – it was empty. Ipso fact, Mathew 28:1, “in the end of the Sabbath” -- Jesus Christ arose from the tomb. That is, late the previous afternoon.

Note: Theological discussion is discouraged on this board. Besides, I am of the opinion that these same subjects are too important to be placed in the hodge-podge of subjects discussed in these threads, which several days later - fall off the page.

I am more inclined to discuss Theology within the parameters of the boards designed for them.

[Woody]

Quote:

Matt.28:1 " In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre."

It does say that it was "toward the first [day] of the week"

Does that help our theological discussion. Of course ... the Bible does not say when He rose ... is just says when Mary discovered it to be empty. I guess if it was important to know when ... then the Bible would have been more specific.

[phkrause]

Jesus in his own words said he would be in the grave a total of three days. I would think that he would rest on the Sabbath.

pk

[Woody]

Jesus in his own words said he would be in the grave a total of three days. I would think that he would rest on the Sabbath.

pk

Well ... it does get a little dicey when you look at the three days thing. I guess some think he died on Wednesday I think it was. I think they are Seventh day Church of God or something like that.

[phkrause]

Yes I understand that. But for me, its seems pretty clear that he died on what we call the preparation day, friday. And again the reason I think that is because I believe that Jesus was observing the Sabbath.

pk

[Woody]

Do you mean that if he got out of bed ... he would not be keeping the Sabbath?

[phkrause]

No I don't, but I think I know what you mean.

pk

[cardw]

There is a book that has just been published called "Christ in Egypt, the Horus-Jesus connection" This book details the many connections between ancient Egyptian gods, rituals, myths, and solar events with the Jesus story.

In a nutshell, this book presents the evolution of Christianity out of the mystery cults of Egypt as they began to be combined with Greek and Hebrew religious traditions to form the gospel story.

Easter and Christmas are simply the tip of the iceberg so to say. Horus a version of the sun god was called the light of the world, the lamb of god, etc. The various versions of the death of Horus include drowning in the underworld and rising by conquering the powers of darkness. He is baptized or dies in the river Eridanus which symbolizes the passage of the Sun through the constellation of Eridanus. He battles Set in the underworld and conquers the powers of death and rises again.

Sometimes the Sun is Horus' father and Horus becomes his father Osiris in order to rise from the dead. This may be the source of the idea of becoming one with one's god to gain eternal life. This becoming one includes the symbolic eating of the body and blood of one's god, which are integral parts of the Christian communion ceremony. So just as Christians are given eternal life through the body of Christ, so the ancient Egyptians gained eternal life through their death rituals which had the goal of making the dead person become Osiris or Horus.

John the Baptist is born 6 months prior to Jesus and states that he must decrease and Jesus must increase. This is a reference to the old Sun becoming shorter in days before Dec. 25 the birth of Jesus and Jesus becoming the new sun after the solstice. These things seem strange to us, but these Egyptian symbols and astrological underpinnings were part of the daily life of the ancient world. Pagans would recognize these references because they had been celebrating these festivals for thousands of years and the temples present in pre-Christian Rome would have many different versions of this celebration.

The church father Epiphanius (310-403 AD) writes the following description of the mystery winter solstice celebration at Alexandria on the eve of Dec. 25 at the Temple of the Virgin...

Quote:

First, at Alexandria, in the Coreum, as they call it; it is a very large temple, the shire of Core. They stay up all nigh singing hymns to the idol with a flute accompaniment. And when they have concluded their nightlong vigil torchbearers descend into an underground shrine after cockcrow...and bring up a wooden image which is seated naked on a litter. It has a sign of the cross inlaid with gold on its forehead, two other such sings, one on each hand, and two other signs, one actually on each of its two knees--altogether five signs with a gold impress. And they carry the image itself seven times round the innermost shrine with flutes, tambourines, and hymns, hold a feast, and take it back down to its place underground. And when you ask them what this mystery means they reply that today at this hour Core--that is, the virgin--gave birth to Aeo.

The Christians mistook these mystery cults for blasphemes against Christianity and began a systematic murder, torture, and destruction of these temples. The similarity of Christianity and these ancient Egyptian mystery cults was so apparent that Justin Martyr agued that the Jesus was THE true SUN of god.

When you study and understand the surrounding belief systems that were already in place long before Christianity you begin to see that Christianity is a blending of Greek neo platonic ideas, Hebrew messianic theology, and Egyptian religious myth and theology that came from astrotheology that went back thousands of years before Christianity.

It was a common practice in Pagan religious history to combine gods from different cultures to unite various factions because pagans believed in everyone's gods, and saw each god as a part of the great unknown god. So combining gods would simply give a more complete description of the the one true god. They had a sort of monoism or early monotheism with different manifestations of the One true god. Christianity, apparently, was a variation of this practice, except instead of embracing all gods, it followed the Hebrew practice of killing everyone who didn't accept their specific manifestation of the Sun god as Jesus. This was evident from the great emphasis of the OT within the early church since the Bible as we know it was not formed until much later. There was a great Pagan holocost.

As soon as Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire by imperial edict (315), more and more pagan temples were destroyed by Christian mob. Pagan priests were killed.

Between 315 and 6th century thousands of pagan believers were slain.

Examples of destroyed Temples: the Sanctuary of Aesculap in Aegaea, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgatha, Aphaka in Lebanon, the Heliopolis.

Christian priests such as Mark of Arethusa or Cyrill of Heliopolis were famous as "temple destroyer." [DA468]

Pagan services became punishable by death in 356. [DA468]

Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) even had children executed, because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues. [DA469]

According to Christian chroniclers he "followed meticulously all Christian teachings..."

In 6th century pagans were declared void of all rights.

In the early fourth century the philosopher Sopatros was executed on demand of Christian authorities. [DA466]

The world famous female philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to pieces with glass fragments by a hysterical Christian mob led by a Christian minister named Peter, in a church, in 415.

[DO19-25]

[DA]

K.Deschner, Abermals krähte der Hahn, Stuttgart 1962.

[DO]

K.Deschner, Opus Diaboli, Reinbek 1987.

There is simply too much evidence to post. The book is 600 pages long and is thoroughly documented from over 900 sources. Christians are largely ignorant of their own history.

[Daniel1632]

The RCCs celebrate Easter on a different day from the Pasch of the Jews as – they celebrate the accepted day upon which the Saviour arose, which they take to be Sunday. The Pasch of the Jews is a transient day – one year celebrated on this day of the week, next year celebrated upon another day of the week – and celebrates the Exodus.

Acts 12:3 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)

I read the above “Then were the days of unleavened bread”

as informing me that the Pasch had already concluded. That being so, then the events of the following...

Acts 12:4 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.

are properly translated (per the KJV) as occurring after Easter – a celebration being well-established at that time.

Though a word, such as pascha may be thought to mean one thing – it may also be properly translated otherwise. Butter is a thing spread on toast, yet can

form the initial segment of the compound butterfly... (paraphrased from a member of this list)

That view has no merit:

"Acts 12:3-4 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people.

unleavened bread:  Luke uses the words "unleavened bread" to refer to the whole feast season from the 14th day to the 21st day (cf. Luke 22:1 and 22:7). The word Passover is used in an equivalent way. If Peter was arrested on the 14th of Nisan before the Passover offering, then Herod and the Jews would have wanted to wait eight days before putting Peter on trial.

Easter: see below. This translation in the KJV is a remnant that was not weeded out from earlier translations. It stands for an Anglo-Saxon spring goddess in the original sense, but was adopted as the name for the Sunday resurrection.. This sort of syncretism was prohibited by the Scripture (cf. Deut. 12:30), and chronologically Tyndale's usage of it in his translation made no sense, since Passover is on the 14th of Nisan, and the resurrection was on the 17th of Nisan. The opinion that the "passover" was after the "passover" and that it really means "Easter" is refuted by Luke's broad usage of the term (cf. Luke 22:1, 7, and see above). It is grasping at straws to try to legitimize something that is a perversion. Some scholars believe that "Easter" was retained in this one passage for ecclesiastical reasons to encourage Anglo-Saxon's to keep calling the resurrection day "Easter".

the Passover: &#964;&#8056; &#960;&#8049;&#963;&#967;&#945;. The King James Version translates this word "Easter". William Tyndale encouraged the tradition of translating "Passover" as "Easter":

"When Tyndale applied his talents to the translation of the New Testament from Greek into English, he was not satisfied with the use of a completely foreign word, and decided to take into account the fact that the season of the passover was known generally to English people as 'Easter', notwithstanding the lack of any actual connection between the meanings of the two words. The Greek word occurs twenty-nine times in the New Testament, and Tyndale has ester or easter fourteen times, esterlambe eleven times, esterfest once, and paschall lambe three times.

When Tyndale began his translation of the Pentateuch he was again faced with the problem in Exodus 12.11 and twenty-one other places, and no doubt recognising that easter in this context would be an anachronism he coined a new word, passover, and used it consistently in all twenty-two places. It is therefore to Tyndale that our language is indebted for this meaningful and appropriate word. His labours on the Old Testament left little time for revision of the New Testament, with the result that while passover is found in his 1530 Pentateuch, ester remained in the N.T. of 1534, having been used in his first edition several years before he coined the new word passover."

(http://www.trinitarianbiblesociety.org/site/articles/easter.asp)"

Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/act1203.html)

[phkrause]

I read somewhere, and for the life of me I can't remember where, that the interpretation of easter is a mistake and incorrect. Ah! I just found it, its in the SDA Bible Commentary Dictionary. It says: "Easter. A mistranslation in Acts 12:4, KJV, of the Gr. pascha, a transliteration of the Heb. pesach "the passover." Pascha is elsewhere in the NT uniformly translated "passover" (Mt 26:2: etc.). The word "Easter" is never properly used of the Jewish Passover. It is of Anglo-Saxon origin, from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre, the goddess of spring, in whose honor a festival was celebrated at eh crime at the time of the vernal equinox."

pk

[Daniel1632]

Originally Posted By: pkrause

Jesus in his own words said he would be in the grave a total of three days. I would think that he would rest on the Sabbath.

pk

Well ... it does get a little dicey when you look at the three days thing. I guess some think he died on Wednesday I think it was. I think they are Seventh day Church of God or something like that.

"Luke 23:56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested that Sabbath according to the ordinance.

that Sabbath: This was the annual Sabbath on the 15th of Nisan, Thursday that year. The commandment to rest on this Sabbath is specified in Leviticus 23:7."

Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/luk2356.html)

[jasd]

Note: that the last post of this thread is dated the 23rd and already there is only one post from it falling off the Townhall Board. It is almost a waste of time to post Theological material in Townhall.

Okay, the above observation dispensed with..., continuing:

>>That view has no merit:<<

Au contraire, Daniel 1632.

>>"Acts 12:3-4 And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people.

unleavened bread: Luke uses the words "unleavened bread" to refer to the whole feast season from the 14th day to the 21st day (cf. Luke 22:1 and 22:7). The word Passover is used in an equivalent way.<<

That may appear so; however,

as I recall, there are two schools of thought about the inclusiveness or exclusiveness re the Pasch vis-à-vis the Feast of Unleavened Bread – thereby, defining whether the feast days are inclusively – of seven, or eight days duration. Many Modern Jews of State of Israel prefer to celebrate a total of seven days including the Pasch.

Incidentals and particulars: St Luke uses the quite proper “day” (singular) of unleavened bread in Luke 22:7; however, in Acts 12:4 – he transitions to the plural use “days” [of unleavened bread]. That has St Luke separating the Pascha from that immediately following...

>>If Peter was arrested on the 14th of Nisan before the Passover offering,<<

"If"? unsustainable... Umm, correct me should I err, but doesn’t Passover/Pasch specifically reference the sacrifice of either the lamb or the goat? And that would have occurred on the 14th, yes?

Although the Pasch was sacrificed upon the 14th at evening, its consumption (including the roasting of it, which labor/work argues against a Friday evening crucifixion) was on the 15th – at night. The Days of Unleavened Bread began upon that same 15th. Ipso facto, the Paschal sacrifice (Passover) had already occurred.

One must remember that the Vernal Equinox and Pasch are relatively coincident on most years with them sharing, not infrequently, the same date. Further, the worship of Astarte, Ashtoreth, Isis, Inanna, Ishtar – or any of a number of cognates, yes, even the Germanic Easter – was almost universally associated with the Spring Equinox..., even among the Judean Romans – whose client was Herod.

>>This sort of syncretism was prohibited by the Scripture (cf. Deut. 12:30),<<

Yet, in the above you’ve readily availed yourself of the Babylonian Nisan – rather than Abib.

>>...is refuted by Luke's broad usage of the term (cf. Luke 22:1, 7, and see above).<<

I think it may be found that St Luke is more exact than given credit.

>>It is grasping at straws to try to legitimize something that is a perversion.<<

No, it is attempting to make the most sense of Biblical passages...

>>Some scholars believe that "Easter" was retained in this one passage for ecclesiastical reasons to encourage Anglo-Saxon's to keep calling the resurrection day "Easter".<<

That, may indeed be true; and then again – it may simply be best effort...

Pasch/passover is currently understood to apply to the actual passing-over by the angel of death the night of the 15th.

I’m okay with that...

[Daniel1632]

The resurection was on the Sabbath: "John 20:1 The first of the Sabbaths cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and sees the stone taken away from the sepulcher. first...Sabbath: According to Leviticus 23:15, this was the first Sabbath after the annual Passover Sabbath." The Greek phrase is Τη δε μια των σαββατων. Wherever it occurs in the Scripture, it always occurs in a context such that it is the first Sabbath after Passover (including Acts 20:7 and 1Cor. 16:2). It is a contraction of μια ημερα των σαββατων, which is to say the normal and ordinary phrase for the sabbath with the word first added onto the front. It is equivalent to the Hebrew אחת השבתות, which solves the gender conflict problem. The whole Greek phrase was simply borrowed from Hebrew where the word אחת is feminine. The phrase may also be rendered more literalistically one of the sabbaths , however, the Hebrew word אחד, אחת stands for both the ordinal "first" and the cardinal "one". Since the whole phrase is borrowed from Hebrew, and it takes place always just after the Passover (Mat. 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1Cor. 16:2), it is evident in the light of Lev. 23:15 that it does not mean just generally "one of the sabbaths". It means specifically the "first of the sabbaths". comment1: Various rationalizations are offered for translating, "first day of the week". Only two need serious comment:  (1) "First day from the Sabbath". The problem here is that there is no pious usage of counting "from" the last Sabbath. In pious usage, days were counted "to" the next Sabbath. This opinion is mentioned in Thayer's Lexicon. It also suffers from breaking up the implied idiom "first day of the sabbaths", which is "day of the sabbaths" with the word "first" added. As "day of the sabbaths" (τη ημερα των σαββατων) always means the seventh day, the word "first" simply specifies which Sabbath, i.e. "the first". The phrase is actually a Hebraism for  אחת השבתות. which absolves the Greek of a gender conflict. One might suggest the term ראש השבתות or השבת הראשון for the first Sabbath, but these designations are too easily confused with the annual Sabbath, which actually is the head Sabbath for the seven Sabbath counting. (2) "First day to the Sabbath". This is indeed the format of the pious usage in the Mishnah and Talmud corresponding to  אחד בשבת, which is the same in meaning as   אחד לשבת. However, this is late Hebrew pious usage. The original non-pious usage is reflected in the Talmud an other ancient sources by an Aramaic equivalent of "one in the seven": חד בשבא, which in pre-Mishnaic Hebrew is אחד בשבע. The Greek text in the gospels does not allow this late usage. First, the Greek would have to be in the dative case to allow it, and second, the second objection stated under point one above applies. comment2: Less serious suggestions have been made, which are as follows: (1) The word חדש can mean "new moon" or "month". So we say "first of the month" (Gen. 8:5: אחד לחדש), or we can say "day of the new moon" (Ezek. 46:1, 6: יום החדש). Could the meaning of σαββατων switch between "sabbath" and "week" like this? No, because σαββατων is plural. It is like adding a "s" to month: "head of the months" (Exodos 12:2: ראש חדשים), or "three months" (Gen. 38:24: שלש חדשים). The pluralization forces us to enumerate months rather than days of the month. Likewise, the plural σαββατων suggests we should enumerate sabbaths rather than days of one week. (2) It has also been argued that some how the Greek σαββατων looses its normal plural sense when used for the sabbaths, i.e. ημερα των σαββατων means just one Sabbath day. However, the literal translation is day of the sabbaths in the Jewish Greek mind, and the mind always makes the easiest sense it can make upon hearing something. The plural is naturally given an internal sense to the sabbath. It is conceived of as a day on which sabbaths take place, i.e. sabbaticals or restings. In English we might call it a day of sabbatisms. Because of this the plural is still significant. And for the same reason supposing that sabbath ever meant "week", the only sense that can be gotten is with a plural, "first day of the weeks", for which discussion see point 3 below. The term σαββατων was undoubtedly coined from the Hebrew term שבתון which is pronounced as close as can be to the Greek. The Hebrew term means "sabbatism" or "resting". The LXX in Lev. 23:32 translates it with σαββατων. In Exodus 16:23 and other places it is translated αναπαυσις, which means "resting". The only really significant difference in meaning is that the coined Greek word is plural, and it is explained how the Greek Jews would have thought about it above. The Greek term σαββατα is also plural. The LXX reads in Lev. 23:32, "You shall shall sabbath your sabbaths". Again "sabbaths" (τα σαββατα) is viewed as sabbatisms—restings on the Sabbath. This plural form was also chosen for its uncanny equivalence to the Aramaic שבתא. (3) Bullinger suggests "first day of the weeks". It was shown above that the the normal idiom for the sabbath: ημερα των σαββατων = day of the sabbatisms, and likewise τα σαββατα = the sabbtisms on just one sabbath when it is used for one sabbath. Bullinger retains the plural in The Companion Bible. But his interpretation and translation are faulty since he rolls over the implied idiom: μια ημερα των σαββατων, which is simply the term day of the sabbtisms with μια added to the front, such that we get "first day of the sabbatisms" ≈ "first Sabbath", however, now the idiom opens up to "first of the sabbaths" pertaining to Lev. 23:15 since the plural now makes additional sense over seven Sabbaths. The Hebrew term is אחת השבתות. Daniel's Literal Translation and Commentary: (http://www.torahtimes.org/translation/joh2001.html)

[olger]

The answer to the thread question is

"Well of course,"

oG

[Woody]

NOT.

There is nothing pagan about the resurrection of Christ.

And I know of NO pagans who celebrate it.

[olger]

"Well of course,"

oG

[Kountzer]

The biblical, spiritual, and historic reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Easter are not joined at the hip, so to speak.

DB