Pagan Roots of Easter

A dear sister in the Lord sent me a paper about Easter which she had written after extensive research.  She did a great job.  Following is an excerpt:

I know that you teach against the pagan rituals that plague this upcoming holiday as I do.  Perhaps you already know how and why these rituals originated and found their way into the early Christian church; but perhaps some of the facts I dug up are unknown to you and would like to share them with you.

When Constantine, a Roman ruler, rescued the early Christian church at the hand of the pagans in the early fourth century, he also allowed the pagan faction to work their pagan rituals into Christianity…

That is true.  In order to keep peace Constantine decided to take the pagan holiday of Easter and blend it with Christianity and then they could all celebrate.

Acts 12:4  KJV

And when he [Herod the king] had apprehended him [Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter [that pagan holiday Herod observed] to bring him forth to the people.

…desiring the material wealth that they would offer the new church…

Easter is a very lucrative holiday, isn’t it?  My wife is into clothes and she told me that there will be women in churches on Easter just so they can wear their new clothes.  That is what those people were doing.

…Queen Samaras [or Semeramis] of ancient Babylon continued to live on even after her death and reached a goddess status that she still enjoys today.  She is also known as Mother Nature and the Spring goddess.  During her reign as queen her fame spread far and wide, depending upon the time and place.  She became known by many names after her death when she had been proclaimed a pagan goddess.  Her name is also Isis (the fertility goddess); Artemis [Diana is the Roman equivalent] (goddess of the hunt);…

I will show you what this hunt is shortly. 

Acts 19:24

For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;

Acts 19:27-28

So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.  And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Acts 19:34-35

But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.  And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?

…and Ishtar.

Now look hard at that name.* It was originally given to her in Babylon after her demise.

As Spring approached each year it was believed that Ishtar floated down to earth in a giant multi-colored egg to land in the River Euphrates [in Babylon] and to eventually come to rest along the river bank in a bed of wicker reeds [used to make baskets].

Exodus 2:3

And when she could not longer hide him [Moses], she took for him an ark of bulrushes [wicker basket], and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags [reeds] by the river's brink.

The hunt was on for the Ishtar egg.

So the pagans would go out to the banks of the Euphrates and look for the Ishtar egg.

Whoever found it first would witness Ishtar breaking out of the egg and be blessed by her in the upcoming year with good fortune.  The sunrise service was practiced in Babylon and Egypt after Samaras’ death.  The pagan priest and priestesses would go to the temple at sunrise…

Isn’t that interesting?  Have you ever heard of Easter sunrise service?

…dressed in new white robes the priestesses also wore new head coverings, also called bonnets [Easter bonnets].  Ishtar/Isis, the Spring goddess, would be welcomed and all would disperse for the Ishtar egg hunt.

They would invite the goddess in a service and then they would all go and have the egg hunt. 

Tammuz was the son of Queen Samaras and King Nimrod.

Genesis 10:8-9

And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.  He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.

At age 40 Tammuz was out hunting wild boar and was killed by one.  The people wept and wailed for 40 days, one day for each year of his life, and gave something up in homage to Tammuz for those 40 days.

The people who were mourning Tammuz were supposed to give something up for 40 days.

This became a yearly ritual on the anniversary of Tammuz’s death, later becoming part of the early Christian church and labeled Lent.  Also integrated into the annual ritual was the killing and eating of a wild boar...

They had a nice ham from that boar which is in the pig family – a swine.

…as a form of paying back the boar for killing Tammuz who also, along with King Nimrod, reached god status.

They would kill a boar every Easter and eat the boar as a payback for killing a god.  That is where you get your Easter ham.  Getting back to Ishtar the fertility goddess:

The rabbit is the oldest symbol of fertility, as rabbits are the fastest creatures of procreation.

What’s the old saying?  “They’re multiplying like rabbits.”?  This is the Easter bunny.

In closing, as I am sure you already know, Satan has seen to it that the most significant day the followers of Jesus Christ celebrate (the resurrection from death after paying for our sins) has been inundated with a glut of ritual that has zero to do with Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross for our sins.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures

*“What means the term Easter itself?  It is not a Christian name.  It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead.  Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country.  That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar…..the religious solemnities of April, as now practiced, are called by the name of Easter – that month, among our pagan ancestors, having been called Easter-monath.”  

Excerpt from “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop, pages 103 and 104.

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Pagan Roots of Easter

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