"Easter" or... Passover

[aka]

"Easter" or Jewish Passover

 

This festival among the pagans has always been held late in the month of Nisan (c.April). 

Originally, it was a commemoration of the earth's "regenerating" itself after the "death of winter." 

It involved a celebration of reproduction and fertility, hence the symbols of the festival
were the rabbit and the egg - both being well known for their reproductive abilities.  Pagans worshipped at sunrise their religious holy day that the whole pagan world honored at that time which is the ancient festival of Astarte, a fertility goddess, also known in other languages as "Ishtar" pronounced  "Easter".  Remember….Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs are pagan cult symbols.

 

Passover, on the other hand, was thoroughly Jewish and  was celebrated in the evening of Nisan 14 (Deu. 16:6).    

 On that date they were led out of Egypt by Moses.

 

At three o’clock in the afternoon people brought lambs to the Temple to be sacrificed.  The dead lambs were then taken home and roasted on spits made of pomegranate wood ready for the evening meal.

The earliest Christian believers in the church of Asia Minor wished to keep the observance of Christ’s death and resurrection in correlation to the Jewish Passover. And, since the Jewish holiday calendar is based on solar and lunar cycles, each feast day is movable, with dates shifting from year to year.

 

As Jesus laid in the tomb, a violent earthquake took place as an angel from heaven rolled back the stone. The guards shook in fear as the angel, dressed in bright white, sat upon the stone. The angel announced to the women that Jesus who was crucified was no longer in the tomb, "He is risen, just as he said." Then he instructed the women to inspect the tomb and see for themselves. Next he told them to go inform the disciples. With a mixture of fear and joy they ran to obey the angel's command, but suddenly Jesus met them on their way. They fell at his feet and worshiped him. Jesus then said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see me."

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the women near the tomb and later at least twice to the disciples while they were gathered at a house in prayer. He visited two of the disciples on the road to
Emmaus and he also appeared at the Sea of Galilee while several of the disciples were fishing.

In all counts He appeared to 500 persons.
 

Jesus' resurrected body was different from his physical body. It was no longer subject to the same laws of nature. He could transcend locked doors like in the upper room, and yet he could still be touched and he could eat.  He was not held captive with the stone before the tomb' entrance. He could have walked right through that. But it was  needful for the women and disciples and anyone else to view inside for themselves that He was really gone from the dead and was walking around.

 

          

 

          

 

           

 

          
 

[Liz]

When my kids were little we did "Resurrection Eggs", they come in an egg carton and each egg contains something from Passion Week. We would open one or two each day starting Palm Sunday, we would have a short devotional about what Jesus did that day.

[Kevin H]

A couple of other things about Easter and the pagans. Each year the king would dress in a linen loincloth. The priests would carry the idol that they saw as their king god on their shoulders from outside of the city into the city and place it in the most holy place of their temples. The priests would carry it six paces and stop and would offer a young bull and fattened sheep as sacrifices.  The king would dance and sing a head of this precession. The watchmen on the walls would blow the trumpets and burst into song as the precession approached. The city would join in with the singing. Once the god was in place there were burnt offerings and peace offerings sacrificed to the gods. Then the king would bless the people and give them a cake of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins (hot crossed buns) and the people would go home rejoicing, and home to reproduce. The king would try to get the queen pregnant that night. If he was successful and had a baby born 9 months later, that baby would be the child of promise and the next king. If he did not conceive a baby that night then the other children would fight over the throne.

 

Also, the king would sleep in the temple hoping for a dream telling the future of his kingdom.
 

David bringing the Ark into Jerusalem, while we are not told was on an Easter Sunday, was at best doing the same ceremony on a different day, but could have well have been on Easter Sunday since everything else was the traditional Easter Sunday, and when Michal refused him that evening (she loved him but had been so hurt that the hurt finally caught up) we find the next section of Second Samuel leading into the story of the succession for David.
 

Also, Daniel 2 appears to fit in the ancient Easter celebration.

 

[aka]

I find it all very remarkable what Liz and Kevin added to the discussion.

 

I learn from different views I never knew about.

[aka]

 

(The following is an apologetic defence message in another Forum.

I don’t know the name of author, sorry. But the content is food for thought.)

 

1 Peter 3:19 “……by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison”

He "went to the spirits in prison to preach" (in conjunction of the rest on Sabbath before resurrection as many believed)  wasn't talking about the person nor the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of God's anointing upon Noah.

 

The words "He went" is wrongly translated, and should more properly be translated "having gone" with no reference to a personal pronoun, because the personal pronoun "autos" is NOT in the passage.

It was God's anointing upon Noah that preached to those spiritually in prison, who eventually died because of their unbelief.

 

1 Peter3:18
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:”

The verse previously ...where Christ died to the flesh but was quickend to the spirit -- (literal Greek) wasn't talking about "Calvary"....but his daily cross, which he exhorted us to pick up and follow him in.

As far as "Today you will be with me in Paradise"  the Hebrews never ever believed "Paradise" was "heaven"...but the Garden of God upon earth...and in Rev it is used as a figure of intimate fellowship with God while on earth (rev 2-3...will grant you to eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God).

He said to the thief "This day I say; You shall be with me in Paradise" -- ie, the Garden of God in the resurrection, the restored earth (probably a special segement, as the Garden of Eden did not cover the whole earth).

What Paul said was "whether we are present with the Lord (in the resurrection) or absent from the Lord ( being in the state of mortality here on earth, rather than immortality, and walking by faith rather than by sight)...we will serve him.

Gnostics and pagan religions taught that the body was evil and/or restrictive, and that it was preferable to die. However, if that was the case, then Jesus' physical resurrection was in vain and totally needless. His physical resurrection is what destroys death.

Paul said "I would to present your whole body, soul and spirit blameless at the presence of the Lord" -- not just a bodiless spirit/soul.

I believe this to be true, accurate and scriptural...and agrees with the general tenor of the whole...and aligns with how Solomon, Job, David, Abraham, and the rest viewed death

 

[aka]

From: talmidim@aol.com
Subject: Articles on The Crucifixion of Yahshua William D. Edwards, MD; Wesley J. Gabel, M Div; Floyd E. Hosmer,MS

 

Jesus of Nazareth underwent Jewish and Roman trials, was flogged, and was sentenced to death by crucification. The scourging produced deep stripe-like lacerations and appreciable blood loss, and it probably set the stage for hypovolemic shock, as evidenced by the fact that Jesus was too weakened to carry the crossbar (patibulum) to Golgotha.

 

At the site of crucifixion, his wrists were nailed to the patibulum and, after the patibulum was lifted onto
the upright post (stipes), his feet were nailed to the stipes. The major pathophysiologic effect of crucifixion was an interference with normal respiration. Accordingly, death resulted primarily from hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia. Jesus' death was ensured by the thrust of a soldier's spear into his side. Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross. 

 

Continue reading the article from the web page: http://holytrinity.ok.goarch.org/Interesting%20Stuff/Special%20Communication%20Plus%20Picture.html

 

2) Medical Aspects of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ John3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

 

Heb 12:2 -
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

 

In the last few hours of Jesus' life what did He endure, and what shame did He suffer?

EXCRUCIATE: to cause great agony, torment Latin : ex : out of, from cruciate : cross "from the
cross" The tone of this presentation can best be summarized in the word "excruciate", (the root of the word "excruciating") which refers to something which causes great agony or torment.

The Latin roots of the  word are :"ex", meaning from or out of, and "cruciate", meaning cross.

 

The word "excruciate" comes from the Latin for "from, or out of, the cross".(Websters)

 

Continue reading the article from the web page: http://www.cleancarpets.com/jesus/medical.html
M. Basner

[aka]

             

 

 

             

 

 

            

[Kevin H]

Thank you for those posts!

 

In the Jewish trial of Jesus: The Sanhedren consisted of 3 groups of 23 individuals with the high priest made 70 elders. They could have a quorum at 23 plus the high priest. They were not allowed to crucify people which was a civil penalty.  however they could stone people to death for religious reasons. Too often we think that they could not put people to death. That was not true.

 

The Sadducees were corrupt puppets of Rome. The Pharisees tried to be fair. But there were so many schools of Pharisees that often you could get off by causing them to argue among themselves. For example the conservative schools ordained women. The liberal schools opposed the ordination of women and wanted women to do hospitality tasks when a Rabbi sat and taught. The story of Jesus and the disciples walking through the grain field and picking and eating the grain on the Sabbath, for some schools of the Pharisees that was fine others considered it Sabbath breaking. The Sadducees were concerned about their wealth and position. The money earned by the money changers at the temple went to Pilate as bribes from the house of Caiaphas to maintain the high priest office.  Therefore frequently there were trials with 23 Sadducee priest and the high Priest for 24 Elders (the Hebrew name for Sanhedrin) where they would have a mockery of a trial. Purposely have witnesses that contradicted each other and took the poor victim out to stone them to death.

 

The Sadducees worked closely with the Roman Governor to keep the peace. If someone was popular among the people they would decide wither it would be better to have a civil or a religious trial and the would be leader would be taken to which ever and their punishment. Now sometimes even if they could stone someone for religious reasons, the Sadducees would want them to be taken for a civil trial and be crucified. The people at the time understood the text in Deuteronomy about cursed is anyone who dies on a tree as meaning that God will never let his servants die on the tree. Thus if someone died on a tree it ruined their reputation as surely as if they were caught in adultery or embezzling the church funds  or anything else that would ruin someone's reputation so that you would distance yourself from them. If the person was stoned to death they could be seen by his followers as a faithful martyr. Dying on the tree meant that God saw them as an evil person in their thinking and interpretation  of their proof text. (Might we have proof texts that we are equally misinterpreting?)

 

Since Jesus was a popular teacher they wanted him to die on the tree, not being stoned, so they could ruin his reputation. I hope later to point out some things about Pilate. However when we read about the "Multitudes" saying "Crucify him and we think of a large crowed. Actually the word "Multitudes" was misspelled in the Greek. It was a confusing misspelling because all gospels sometimes spell the word correctly and other times misspell it. And it was the same misspelling. Linguists and archaeologist have discovered that the misspelled version was a correctly spelled Hebrew word that meant "Those at hand" or those who happened to be there." So it was NOT a crowed yelling "Crucify Him" but 23 or 24 Sadducees.

 

Pilate ended up being incredibly cruel to Jesus. Usually people were either flogged or crucified. Jesus is one of only two people who history records being flogged then crucified. Not to say that there were not others but it was so rare that we so far only find records of two.

 

On the way to the cross the daughters of Jerusalem were crying. Daughters of a person is their female child. Daughters of a City means the common people. So it was not a crowd yelling "Crucify Him"  and a couple of women crying, but 23 or 24 Sadducee priests yelling "Crucify Him" and the crowd, the common people, those who sang "Hosanna" in the triumphal entry who were now crying.

[aka]

Nice to have a partner for joint endeavor in the passion week of the Christ, Kevin. Good contribution.

I like learning about the details.

[aka]

 

Now we come to the pivotal point of the plan of salvation for all mankind.

That holy divine plan to redeem back to God, our Creator, what rightfully belongs to Him.

 

The Christ of our need stood in for us legally in our stead.

 

The sins of every human were imputed to him.

 

The law of God demands retribution of sin.

Sin is all or any rebellion against the law of God.

The law mirrors the guilt and the guilty is cursed.

 

No one can be delivered from the curse of the law by human effort.

 

No, we can’t do good deeds or fulfil the demands of the Law to gain freedom from the curse.

 

Only meeting the requirement of penalty that the curse entails frees us.

Requirement of God doesn’t lie in the human race.

 

Only the purity of the Son of God fulfilled the requirement.

Death is the penalty of the law by the guilty party.

 

“The soul that sinneth it shall die.”

 

A pure sacrifice of one innocent from ever breaking the law could be the only substitute.

Christ was  not in vain crucified.

 

He was without any sin against the law of God.

He took our guilt of the curse upon himself on that crucifixion cross.

He fulfilled the penalty requirement of God’s law for sinners because all sin-guilt from mankind was put on Him.

Christ became a curse before the eyes of God as the sins of humankind was laid upon him as he hung on the cross.

He was covered with the curse of the law for our sins.

 

The taking down of Jesus from the cross on the same day he died was significant.

The phase of removing our curse from Him as he was put into the tomb for burial preparation began.

If he stayed on the cross God could not accept him because he would still have the stigma of being accursed.

Prophecy was fulfilled in
Deut. 21:22………

“And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any
wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance."

 

[JoeMo]

The 2nd verse of an old hymn "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" personalizes how I feel about what Jesus has done for me :

 

What Thou my Lord has suffered was for the sinner's gain.

Mine, mine was the transgression; but Thine the deadly pain!

Lo, here I fall my Savior; 'tis I deserve Thy place.

Look on me with Thy favor; vouchsafe me with Thy grace.

[aka]

Joe, I like the expression of the verse.

This stanza you shared made me pause to meditate on those of the past who saw themselves as the sinner for whom Jesus substituted himself for on the cross. There must be thousands and thousands over the 2K years who came to realize the enormous sacrifice involved. Each of us bound for eternity must have that special moment of seeing the Christ dying for oneself personally. Otherwise, we may be counted as ones admiring Jesus but not being committed with a circumcized heart to the Son of God.

[Kevin H]

A couple things about Pilate: Pilate loved the gods but hated the Jews. When he first came as governor he put images up all over. A group of Jews came to Cesserea to ask him to take them down. He was at the hippodrome watching chariot races. They came on the field and made his request. He commanded them to go or he would start the race. They laid down saying that they were willing to die for their faith. Pilate then backed down but never forgave them. He was a typical corrupt Roman leader and for most people he would be no better or worst than the typical corrupt leader. However when judging Jews he loved to give them hope that he might side with them but then go against them.

 

In his trials with Jesus he started out his typical way with Jews. As time went on he came to realize that Jesus was God. Even thought it was through idolatry,  the Holy Spirit had been working with him in feeling that there was something out there that he was reaching out for. Maybe if he did not allow himself to become a typical corrupt politician but more fair he may have been better prepared for this issue. Had he been respectful of the Jewish delegation to remove the images, he may have been better prepared for this situation. Instead he found himself facing the fact that while he loved the gods but hated the Jews, he has finally met God, but God happened to be a Jew. He either needed to give up his pet sin, the hatred for the Jews; or else had to give up his love for God.  

 

He tried to not make a decision and tried to let Jesus go or to have the 23-24 Sadducee elders take Jesus, but they reminded him that they could not crucify him (if he was stoned by them he could be seen as a martyr.  But if they could hang him on the tree that would ruin his reputation among his followers). He sent Jesus to Herrod, who sent him back.

 

He could not get rid of the decision as to yield to the Holy Spirit and accept Jesus as God and to give up his hatred for the Jews, or to hold on to his hatred of the Jews and give up his connection to the divine. He finally decided to let go of God and to hold on to  his hatred for the Jews. He turned into a monster. There are a few verses indicating that even the Sadducees who brought Jesus to him were appalled as to how cruel he became. While they wanted Jesus to be taken out of the way to maintain the peace, and wanted him to hang on the tree to ruin his reputation; they did not want him to only have minimal suffering.

 

As I mentioned above: while there may have been others, Jesus is one of only two people who history records as both flogged and crucified. And when Pilate gave those who were there the choice between Jesus and Barnabas. Barnabas was Aramaic for Son of the Father and was connected to the name of Jesus. Pilate was asking them who they wanted to release, Jesus or Jesus. When the Sadducees said Jesus Pilate released the Jesus he wanted to release.

[Liz]

That is very interesting Keven H. Just curious who is the other that was flogged and crucified?

[Kevin H]

A couple of sources include: http://www.adventistbookcenter.com/drinking-at-the-sources.html Drinking at the Sources by Dr. Jacques B. Doukhan and http://www.biblicalresources.net/product.cfm?product=54

 

The other person who we know of that was both flogged and crucified was Rabbi Akiva due to his support of the Bar Kochba rebellion. Besides being flogged and crucified, on the cross they tied sponges to him and had a fire to boil the water in the sponges.

[aka]

 Exodus 12:1-14

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.

 

"Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.

 

                

 

"That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it.

 

"This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.

 

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

 

“This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.

[phkrause]

Great post Yentyl. Those were our ancestors, for those of us that were born Jews and also those that consider themselves Spiritual Jews

[phkrause]

Both events have much meaning to all, at least to me, they do.

[aka]

And the events have for me as well a very big importance. 

Exodus out of Egypt as my walk away from the bondage to Evil>One.

Wilderness wandering as my early sanctification experiences.

Entering the promised land as my condition of full soul-spirit-mind commitment to Christ.

The Sedar Passover meal is more meaningful than our simplistic communion table rite 4x a year at church.

Nonetheless, the power in the blood of Christ I have applied and am still applying in faith for all my sins.

The Evil>One has tried to kill me on four different occassions but failed because the lentels of the door frames around my life are painted with the blood of Jesus. Only by God's will is my life's spirit going back to God at the right time of His choosing.

[phkrause]

The Sedar Passover meal is more meaningful than our simplistic communion table rite 4x a year at church.

 

On this statement alone, I would not go that far. I could never figure why we do this 4x a year instead of just once a year, at least at the passover time and not at Easter. Have gotten over that, but I do wish that, even if we do the communion 4x a year, we should at least at passover do the meal and the communion at the same time. Didn't Jesus do that with his disciples? They had the Passover Meal and than Jesus added the communion at the end. But if I remember correctly, Jesus did say to do this as often as you can?

[Tom Wetmore]

I am inclined to read Jesus' statement to mean, as often as you break bread together do it in remembrance of Him. That seems to imply at least daily when you share a meal with someone.

[aka]

I like the substance of your thought, Tom. Certainly our Lord wishes us to be as pragmatic as possible with loving each other. So eating together and remembering Him in our table conversation brings a closeness of purpose one with another.

 

PeterK said "They had the Passover Meal and than Jesus added the communion at the end."

Hey, you're right on that.

 

Luke 21

 Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you."

 

I had forgotten this point of communion being the part of the last Supper as tacked on at the very end.

As Tom rightly viewed it the communion ought to be our eating with one another, breaking pieces off the loaf of bread and drinking a glas of wine (which I don't do because of church indoctrination and knowing I have worries about addiction).

 

The wordings of Jesus "the new covenant in my blood" is essentially important to talk about in discussion. We are not to use the Old Testament Covenant as our guideline. The resurrection and ascention of the Christ instated the N.Testament. Therefore is the New Testament Covenant is to be our established spiritual guidelines.

[phkrause]

Happy "Resurrection Day" all

[aka]

Actually it would be a fine new SDA custom if we would greet one another as the Greek Othodox do at Easter time.

 

" Christ is risen"!

 

the answer to that is always.....

 

"Truly, indeed He is risen"!

 

Khristós Anésti!

 

Alithós Anésti!

 

Then they do a 3x cheek kiss 

 

I can imagine the bacteria phobics among us would have a hard time to overcome with the kiss part.

 

          

[aka]