Despite the ample historical and Scriptural evidence to the contrary, the Council of Nicea in 325 CE officially endorsed the pagan practice of observing the period around the Vernal Equinox as the period for observing the death, burial, and resurrection of our Master and Savior, Yahushua.
Although the timing of the pagan festival of Easter was "close enough" to the Passover for the purposes of the council, Yahushua was actually killed as the Passover Lamb so that His shed blood could protect His people from the wrath of Yahuwah just as the blood of the original passover lambs protected the Yisra'eliy from the Destroyer just prior to the exodus from Mitsrayim (Egypt).
They then presumptuously assigned the name of a pagan female deity, Easter, to their pagan celebration and called it Christianity.
Easter is one of the many names for the "Queen of Heaven" of Babel (Babylon) who is also known as Semiramis, or Sin, and is the wife (and also styled as the mother) of Nimrowd, who was their "Savior and God."
Ishtar, Isis, Astarte, Ashtarte, Diana, Venus, and Eostre are more of her names. She is also the model for Madonna (my lady), the Virgin Mary of the Catholic Church, who is also called "The Queen of Heaven." This Mary of the Roman Catholic Church bears little or no resemblance to the Miryam of the scriptures who is really the mother of Yahushua.
The pagan goddess Easter symbolizes the renewal that occurs in the Spring, as all things start to grow again, and her name has come to be wrongly associated with the resurrection of our Master and Savior, Yahushua The Anointed. In the King James Version of the word of Yahuwah, the word translated as Easter in Acts 12:4 is wrongly translated from the Greek word pascha, which they in turn rendered from the Ibriy (Hebrew) word, pesach, which really does mean Passover. Everywhere else the word pascha appears in the Greek it is correctly translated as Passover.
The entire Easter spectacle is based on the pagan worship of this pagan goddess and of the star that we call Sol. Ever wonder why there are "Easter Sunrise Services"?
Also keep in mind that the modern day is from midnight to midnight while the day in scripture is from sundown to sundown. This fact is an important consideration in determining the truth of this issue also, as the Roman calendar week is based on pagan ideas and the one in scripture is based on the declaration of Yahuwah. I think I will stick with the system devised by our Creator and let the Romans keep theirs to themselves.
Below you will find scriptural and historical evidence of when His death actually occurred, how long He actually was buried, and on what day He was actually resurrected.
A. The day He died
Due to the uncertainty of modern Yahudiyth calendars and the calculations for years of ancient times, I have found no way to firmly prove one year or another as the year of Yahushua's death and resurrection. But the year in which it occurred is not nearly as important as on which day it occurred. The year has to be one where the Passover occurred on the fifth day of the week (Thursday [day of Thor] on the pagan calendar).
The seven days of the Festival of the Booths (Leviticus 23:34) ended the day before the regular shabbath for the week recorded in Yahuchanan 7-10. According to Yahuchanan (John) 9:14, on that specific shabbath, the day after the last day of the Festival of the Tabernacles, Yahushua healed a blind man. The very next Passover Yahushua was killed. If we could find a really trustworthy Ibriy calendar, we could use this test to determine the actual year.
In order for Yahushua to be seen before dawn after his resurrection and for Him to fulfill the word He spoke concerning the "sign of Yonah," the "Last Supper" had to take place right at sundown after the third day of the week and therefore as the fourth day began. He was tried and convicted on that fourth day (pagan "day of Woden" or Wednesday). Modern scholars and theologians dismiss this by saying that if the meal was eaten on "a Tuesday night" then "sixty hours had to elapse before Yahushua was arrested, and the time frame is too long" because they all "know" that He was "crucified" on "Good Friday" (pagan day of Frigga)
Since Yahushua is the Passover Lamb, then the meal commonly referred to as "The Last Supper" could not have been the Seder or Passover meal either. Remember that He would be killed as the Passover Lamb, which means that He had to be killed just before sundown Nisan (Abib) 14, just as the sacrificial lambs were slain every year in commemoration of the original Passover event.
As related in MattiythYahuw (Matthew) 26:1-5, Yahushua was taken, tried, and killed on the day the Passover was to be killed. (This had to be as Yahushua is the Passover Lamb killed once for all, as the final blood sacrifice that would ever be needed.) The "Last Supper" was NOT the Passover meal, for the next day would have been the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread and a high shabbath so the actual Passover meal was to be eaten that very night He was killed. The Yahudiym (Jews) would not have arrested and killed Him on a shabbath, for then they would have been guilty of the very thing of which they were accusing Him.
In MattiythYahuw 27:57-60 it is related how Yowseph (Joseph) obtained the body in the evening, did the things he could in the time he had, and hurriedly placed the body of Yahushua in the tomb. That His burial occurred in the evening, just prior to sundown in accordance with Law of Mosheh, is the thing to remember.
Conclusion:
Yahushua was killed on the day of the Passover as the Passover Lamb, on the fourth day of the week, which was the 14th day of the month of Nisan (Abib), and buried just before sundown the same day. This event fits with the prophecy of being "cut off in the middle of the week" even though it is understood that the middle of the week also means 3 1/2 years into the final sabbatical period (seven years) of Daniye’l's (Daniel) prophecy (9:27). This particular day also was the preparation day for the high shabbath that followed the Passover (First day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread).
B. How long He was buried. Yahushua said He would be buried for three days and three nights, a period of seventy-two hours. He said that the only sign given would be the sign of Yonah (Jonas - Jonah). Many passages in the four Gospels corroborate this statement.
Yonah (Jonah) 1:17 Now Yahuwah had prepared a great fish to swallow up Yonah and Yonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Pay particular attention to the fact that the time Yonah was in the belly of the fish was directly stated as THREE DAYS and THREE NIGHTS. The word translated as days is yom, which in this context literally means the twelve hour period of daylight. The word translated as nights is layil and it literally means the period of darkness between the daylight periods (a twist away from the light). There can be no word twisting here to say that each of the mentioned day/night periods were not typical twenty-four hour days.
Here's what Yahushua said about the sign of Yonah.
MattiythYahuw 12:39-40 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Yonah. For as Yonah was three days and three nights in the fish's belly so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Also see MattiythYahuw 26:61; 27:40; 27:63, Mark 8:31; 14:58; 15:29, John 2:19; 2:20
The same thing is true of this statement by our Savior. Even if a semantic argument could make the case that in the Greek these periods could be construed as something other than a seventy-two hour period of time, that argument is precluded by the times set forth in Yonah 1:17.
Conclusion:
Yahushua was buried (in the heart of the earth) for exactly seventy-two hours, the period starting around sundown on the fourth day (pagan calendar - Wednesday), and ending around sundown on the seventh day (pagan Saturday).
C. The day He arose
On the fourth day of the week, Miryam (Mary) of Migdal and Miryam the mother of Yowseph watched to see where they placed Yahushua's body, and after the high shabbath on the fifth day was past, they bought and prepared spices on the sixth day (which they could not do the day before because it was a shabbath) to anoint His body. Then they rested according to the Law on the seventh day (the regular shabbath), and then they went to the tomb early in the morning (before sunrise) after the regular shabbath was over.
The day after the Passover is a high day, referred to in Yahuchanan (John) 19:13 as a high shabbath. The rules that apply to work etc., on the regular shabbath also apply here, so the women could not even buy the ointments to dress the body of Yahushua on this day. The next day was the sixth day of the week (preparation day) and there were no restrictions on working. So the women used this day to find and prepare the things necessary for the treating of a dead body. The next day was the regular shabbath, and they rested as they were required. They came to the tomb around daybreak the day after the regular shabbath, and Yahushua was already risen.
Conclusion:
Yahushua was bodily resurrected just before sundown on the shabbath, exactly seventy-two hours after He was buried, and just as He said He would be and was seen by the women a few hours later at sunrise on the first day (pagan Sunday).
How Yahushua reckoned the length of the daylight hours.
Yahuchanan 11:9:10 - Yahushua answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him."
Consider this:
An easy way to determine what day and time He was resurrected is to read about when the women went to the tomb where He had been buried. All four gospels are in agreement that it was at or just before dawn (very early or dark) when they got there, yet Yahushua was already risen when they arrived. (See MattiythYahuw 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, and Yahuchanan 20:1.)
If He had risen just before they got there (at dawn), and remembering what He said about how long He would be in the heart of the earth (three days and three nights), go back seventy two hours in time and see when He HAD to be buried in order for Him to rise at dawn.
Doesn't work, does it! Seventy-two hours from dawn in either direction in time is ANOTHER dawn!
We all know from all of the gospel accounts that in fact He was entombed prior to sundown on the same day He was killed. So if scripture is correct, and we know it is, He was buried at or just before sundown and so had to arise at or just before sundown seventy-two hours after His burial. He could NOT have been resurrected AT dawn and scripture still be true. In fact, when the women arrived at the tomb, as scripture says, "He IS risen!" (See MattiythYahuw 28:6, Mark 16:6, and Luke 24:6.) And so He was!
If Yahushua had been killed on "Good Friday" and then resurrected early (just before dawn) on "Easter Sunday," He would have been in the heart of the earth for a period of less than thirty-six hours (one and a half days) instead of the seventy-two that He stated. If the "Friday to Sunday" scenario was correct, we are missing two of the days and one of the nights that He spoke of in MattiythYahuw 12:39-40. This would mean that He did not tell the truth about His burial period, and we know that it is impossible for our Savior to lie.
More to consider:
Nowhere in the scripture are we told to observe anything about His death, burial, and resurrection as a "religious" event such as is done today with all of the pagan symbology and rites. We partake of His death, burial, and resurrection in the believer's immersion, and remember His death in the communion. These are the scriptural observations we are told to do. None else.
Anyway, can you think of any way that a boiled, dyed, and decorated chicken egg, delivered and hidden by a bunny rabbit, has anything to do with our Master and Savior, Yahushua the Anointed? Kind of nonsensical, isn't it, and it certainly is not supported in the written word of Yahuwah. The egg as a symbol of the renewal of the earth and as a sign of spring, however, is a fixture in various pagan religions. Especially those based on the religion of Babel. The rabbit is one of their pagan symbols of fertility.
Our Sovereign has told us in too many places to avoid the works of the heathen (pagans). Easter observation is just one more of the works of the heathen and a pagan holiday that we must avoid.
More pagan holiday articles:
Christmas
Halloween
Valentine's Day
C.F. Castleberry
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