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NOTE: This article or series has not been updated recently. As such, it may possibly contain some outdated information, and/or ideas and beliefs which I no longer embrace, or which have changed to some degree.



Following are some additional verses that are found in the Old Testament which again reveal that, truly, our Christian God is the God of gods:

"Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods . . . For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods."


"For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods."


"O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever."


"The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret."


"Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else."


"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,"


So as you can see, whether we are talking about the names of the months, or the days of the week, or the names of the planets, moons and other celestial phenomena, even though we are Christians, we are forced to indirectly pay tribute to these false gods and goddesses of the past, every time we mention one of their names. It is inescapable. How could we even communicate, or make schedules and appointments without referring to the antichristian names of these deities? In a word, we can't. Thus, whether we like it or not, at least for the time being, we Christians are trapped in a pagan world with no way out. Truly, we live in worldwide spiritual Babylon; and as we continue our discussion, you will come to understand exactly how true this really is.

Returning to our main topic, I next consulted my American Heritage Desk Dictionary, in order to see what it had to say regarding the word "Easter". I was informed that "Easter" is derived from the Middle English word "ester", which in turn is derived from the Old English "eastre". From my previous research regarding ancient gods and goddesses, I strongly suspected that with some additional work, I would eventually find a sexual link to this pagan goddess of the Saxons. It was at this point that I recalled a word which I had come across before: "estrus". Derived from the Latin "oestrus" -- one meaning of which is "frenzy" -- and the Greek "oistros", the American Heritage Desk Dictionary states that "estrus" refers to "a regularly recurrent period of ovulation and sexual excitement in female mammals other than humans". In American English, we commonly refer to this as an animal being "in heat".

The next step of my investigation took me online, where I consulted the Encyclopedia Mythica. Upon putting the word "Eastre" into the search engine, it provided me with the following results which clarify the issue for us even further:

----- Begin Quote -----

Ostara

In ancient Anglo-Saxon myth, Ostara is the personification of the rising sun. In that capacity, she is associated with the spring, and is considered to be a fertility goddess. She is the friend of all children; and to amuse them, she changed her pet bird into a rabbit. This rabbit brought forth brightly colored eggs, which the goddess gave to the children as gifts. From her name and rites the festival of Easter is derived. Ostara is identical to the Greek Eos and the Roman Aurora.

----- End Quote -----

In a side column, the search engine results also informed me that alternative names for this pagan goddess are Eostre and Eastre. It is plain to see then, that just as I suspected all along, this false pagan goddess of the Anglo-Saxons is associated with sex and fertility. Ostara is a sex goddess, plain and simple. A sex goddess has been associated with the day of the Resurrection of our Lord. How does that make you feel as a Christian? Does it make you want to continue using such a word? With the above definition, we have also now discovered the origin of the so-called "Easter Bunny", as well as the origin of the practice of presenting colorful eggs to young children. Let us take a moment now to review all of the words that we have covered. Even if you are not a master of ancient languages, it is still rather easy to see how these words are all related to each other:

Easter
Eastre
Eos
Eostre
Ester
Estrus
Oestrus
Oistros
Ostara

At this point, I could probably conclude this series; and based upon the evidence that I have now presented, some of you would be convinced that I have indeed told you the truth about "Easter", which I have. But, if I were to stop here, I would only be giving you part of the story. That is because, while the Saxons worshipped this false sex goddess "Ostara", also known as "Easter", they were by no means the first ones to do so. Allow me to draw your attention to part of the definition provided by the Encyclopedia Mythica. It stated that Ostara, or Easter, is the personification of the rising sun. This is a very important point which creates a direct link to the ancient past. You will also notice that she is the equivalent of the Roman goddess Aurora.

If there is one thing that I have learned about these false deities during the course of my studies, it is that they seem to have a tendency to pop up throughout human history. In different cultures, they may appear under different names and titles, but they are all the same deceptive demons which have been deceiving humankind for a very long time. In other words, this demonic deception can be traced back thousands of years, as you will see very shortly.

As we saw in part one, according to the explanation that is provided by Easton's Bible Dictionary, the word "Easter" was frequently used as a substitution for the Greek word "pascha" in some early versions of the Bible, before it was correctly replaced with the more accurate word, "Passover". As we also saw just a moment ago, the American Heritage Desk Dictionary informs us that the word "Easter" is derived from the Middle English word "ester". With these facts in hand, I continued my research. At this point, we are going to discuss some of the history of the English Bible, as it will help us to confirm what is stated in Easton's Bible Dictionary.

As I point out in my series "History Of The Authorized King James Bible", the AKJV was not the very first English Bible. There were in fact a number of versions which were published before it. Being as I go into considerable detail regarding this topic in the aforementioned series, I will not discuss it at length here. The first of these earlier versions of the Bible was the hand-written Wycliffe Bible. This Bible resulted from the work of noted Fourteenth Century Oxford theologian and philosopher, John Wycliffe, and his team of companions who became known as the Lollards. While I would have liked to have seen how John Wycliffe translated the Greek word "pascha" in Acts 12:4, lamentably, that isn't possible, due to the rarity of the remaining manuscripts. In fact, it is so rare, that other than an image of the first page from the Gospel of John, I was unable to find anything on the Internet during the course of conducting my research.

Following the publication of the Wycliffe Bible, another one hundred and fifty years passed before God's Word once again became available in English, on a large scale, to the people of Great Britain. This was a result of the work of Sixteenth Century Reformer and Martyr, William Tyndale. Like Wycliffe before him, William Tyndale was a Catholic who abandoned his religion upon realizing the depth of its corruption. Tyndale was an extremely gifted man. Not only was he fluent in eight languages, but he was likewise a key driving force behind the development of our modern English language. Similar to Wycliffe, William Tyndale's lifelong desire was to see the Scriptures made available in simple English to the common man; in this particular case, the Greek New Testament.

As a result of the work of Dutch scholar and theologian Desiderius Erasmus -- also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam -- who in 1516 published the very first non-Latin Vulgate text of the Holy Bible -- later known as the "Textus Receptus", or "Received Text" -- as well as the invention of the first printing press with moveable type by German inventor, Johann Gutenberg, during the mid-fifteenth century, William Tyndale was able to fulfill his dream. However, Tyndale's dream was realized at a tremendous price; that being persecution, exile and eventually, martyrdom. In spite of serious threats from Roman Catholic inquisitors and bounty hunters alike, working along side of noted fellow Reformer, Martin Luther, in the German towns of Cologne and Worms, William Tyndale succeeded in printing the first English New Testament during 1525-26. Please note that whereas the translation work which had been performed by John Wycliffe and his colleagues, the Lollards, was handwritten, Tyndale's work was the first printed version of the New Testament.

Given the hatred and arrogance of the Roman Catholic Church leaders, it should not surprise us that the Bishop of London, Bishop Tunstal, sought to confiscate and burn all of the New Testaments which were arriving from Germany; however, despite the bishop's best efforts, the wonderful flow of God's Word into England could not be fully stopped. Naturally, Bishop Tunstal was infuriated by this. He argued that the Tyndale New Testament was full of thousands of errors, as he and his cohorts burned hundreds of them which had been confiscated by the Roman Catholic clergy.

The campaign of hatred which was launched against Tyndale was quite effective. Only two complete copies of the first printing of his New Testament are known to have survived the wrath of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. As a result of the constant persecution which William Tyndale suffered at the hands of the Roman inquisitors, he was unable to finish his translation of the Old Testament. Sadly, after eleven years of being hunted by his enemies, Tyndale was finally caught; betrayed by an Englishman whom he had befriended. Tyndale was forced to endure five hundred days of incarceration, before he was publicly strangled, and burned at the stake, in 1536. According to historical records, his last words were to the effect of "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England".

Now, in spite of the mighty work that Tyndale did for the Lord -- and it was indeed mighty -- and the many lost souls which were undoubtedly reached as a result of his years of personal labor and sacrifice, nevertheless, I feel compelled to take issue with his translation of the New Testament; or to be more precise, I question his translation of the Greek word "pascha". While I am not in possession of a copy of John Wycliffe's work, I do have in my possession what is claimed to be a true, unaltered copy of Tyndale's New Testament; and in it, Acts 12:4 -- the verse where we find "Easter" in the AKJV -- is translated as follows:

"And when he had caught him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four *quaternions of soldiers to be kept, intending after ester to bring him forth to the people."


As you can plainly see, there is that pagan goddess "ester", or "Easter" if you prefer. Was the usage of this word simply an honest mistake on Tyndale's part? Was it perhaps just a one-time slip during a moment of brief distraction? Sadly, it appears that it wasn't. In fact, I suspect, but cannot prove, that using "ester" may have possibly been a result of the Anglo-Saxon influence in Tyndale's life. Please don't forget that Tyndale translated the Bible into English in the German towns of Cologne and Worms, and that Germany was the home of the Angles and the Saxons, who worshipped the sex goddess "Easter", as we saw earlier. In short, Tyndale was basically in the stronghold of that pagan goddess when he translated the New Testament, as well as part of the Old Testament. While I don't know his ancestry, perhaps Tyndale was even of Anglo-Saxon descent, as are many English and American people even today. This would easily explain how the words "ester" and "easter" could become a normal part of the Old English language, and even survive, along with the pagan traditions that are associated with them, to our current day.

As I mentioned in part one, the Greek word "pascha" is used twenty-nine times in the New Testament. Only one time is it translated as "Easter" in the AKJV; all of the other times, it is translated as "Passover". On the other hand, to my dismay, and in agreement with Easton's Bible Dictionary, I discovered that Tyndale used "ester", as well as "easter", almost every time, and not just in the verse above. If we accept Tyndale's translation as being accurate, then the Jews did not observe the Passover; they observed "Easter", or "Ester"; a word which would have been totally foreign to them. Similarly, in William Tyndale's New Testament, Jesus is no longer our Passover Lamb; He is our "esterlamb", or our "easterlamb".

Following are all of the New Testament verses where Tyndale translates "pascha" in this manner. Please note that in his translation, there are no verse numbers, but only chapter headings. As I point out in "History of The Authorized King James Bible", verse numbers were not introduced until the Geneva Bible, which appeared twenty-four years after William Tyndale's death. At any rate, I have added verse references for the sake of easy comparison with the AKJV. You will also notice that some verses are followed by a commentary which has a leading asterisk next to it. It is my impression that these comments may have possibly been added by the editor of the document which I have in my possession, for the simple purpose of clarification, although I could be mistaken:

"Ye know that after two days shall be easter, and the son of man shall be delivered to be crucified."


"The first day of sweet bread the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him: where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the *paschal lamb? And he said: Go into the city, unto such a man, and say to him, the master saith, my time is at hand, I will keep mine easter at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them, and made ready the easterlamb."


* paschal lamb: the lamb sacrificed at the first passover.

"After two days followed *ester, and the days of sweet bread. And the high Priests and the Scribes sought means how they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they said: not in the feast day, least any business arise among the people."


* ester: exact spelling; may be Easter

"And the first day of sweet bread, when men offer the *paschal lamb, his disciples said unto him: where wilt thou that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the ester lamb? And he sent forth two of his disciples, and said unto them: Go ye into the city, and there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water, follow him. And whither soever he goeth in, say ye to the good man of the house, the master asketh where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the *ester lamb with my disciples? And he will show you a great parlour, paved and prepared: there make ready for us. And his disciples went forth and came to the city and found as he had said unto them: and made ready the ester lamb."


* paschal lamb: lamb of the first passover in Egypt.
* ester is the exact spelling of Easter?

"And his father and mother went to Herusalem (Jerusalem) every year at the feast of *ester."


"The feast of sweet bread drew nigh which is called *ester . . . Then came the day of sweet bread, when of necessity the esterlamb must be offered. And he sent Peter and John saying: Go and prepare us the esterlamb, that we may eat . . . and say unto the good man of the house. The master sayeth unto thee: where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat mine esterlamb with my disciples? . . . And they went and found as he had said unto them: and made ready the esterlamb . . . And he said unto them: I have inwardly desired to eat this esterlamb with you before that I suffer."


"And the Jewes *ester was even at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem . . . When he was at Jerusalem at ester in the feast, many believed on his name, when they saw his miracles which he did."


"And *ester, a feast of the Jewes, was nigh."


* ester: exact spelling, feast of sweet bread

"And the Jewes *ester was nigh at hand and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the *ester, to purify themselves."


"Then Jesus six days before *ester, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which was dead and whom Jesus raised from death."


"Before the feast of ester when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the father: When he loved his which were in the world, unto the end he loved them."


"Then led they Jesus from Caiphas into the hall of judgement. It was in the morning, and they themselves went not into the judgement hall lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the paschal lamb . . . Ye have a custom, that I should deliver you one loose at *ester. Will ye that I loose unto you the king of the Jewes?"


"It was the Saboth even which falleth in the *ester feast, and about the sixth hour. And he said unto the Jewes: behold your king."


"Purge therefore the old leaven, that ye may be new dough, as ye are sweet bread. For Christ our *ester lamb is offered up for us. Therefore let us keep holy day, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of maliciousness and wickedness: but with the sweet bread of pureness and truth."


* ester lamb: exactly as it appears; this is the Hebrew feast of sweet bread, and this lamb was offered at the first passover in Egypt.

"Through faith he ordained the *ester lamb, and the effusion of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born, should touch them."


* ester lamb: this is the lamb offered at the first passover.

Here now are all of the very same verses as they are found in the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, or AKJV. As I have been saying all along, the word "Easter" was only used one time; and I suspect -- but cannot prove -- that this one occurrence may have possibly been a result of the translators accidentally missing it, and simply forgetting to remove it, as they did in all of the other places in the New Testament:

"Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified."


"Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover."


"After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death."


"And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover? . . . And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? . . . And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover."


"Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover."


"Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat . . . And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? . . . And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover . . . And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:"


"And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem . . . Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did."


"And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh."


"And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves."


"Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead."


"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end."


"Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover."


"But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?"


"And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!"


"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."


"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"


"Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them."


It just doesn't make sense to me, that William Tyndale, who was a man who obviously loved the Lord; who was completely dedicated to winning souls to Christ; who was even martyred for the sake of the Gospel; and who was obviously familiar with the pagan origin of the words "ester" and "Easter"; would purposely choose to use the name of this false goddess in the previous verses; yet that seems to be precisely what he did. So the question which arises in my mind is this: Why did Tyndale do this? Is it, as I theorized earlier, a result of his possible Anglo-Saxon heritage?

We know from his life story, that Tyndale's earnest desire was to reach the common English people with the Gospel. Is it possible that he felt that they could better relate to the word "Easter", as opposed to the word "Passover"? Is it possible that he may even have had anti-Jewish sentiments, such as Martin Luther clearly had, and thus chose to use the pagan, and more familiar, "Easter", over "Passover"? It is no secret that for many years, the Catholics have had a deep animosity towards the Jews, and Luther and Tyndale were both former Catholics. While we can all speculate regarding what truly motivated William Tyndale's decision to use these words, I personally must admit that I honestly do not know the answer to this question with any degree of certainty. However, I do feel that exchanging the word "Easter" for "Passover" is a serious alteration which merits being questioned by all sincere seekers of Scriptural truth.

The only other possibility which comes to my mind -- which I confess has less merit and plausibility -- is that perhaps Tyndale really did use the correct word, "Passover" in all of the previous verses, but then someone else, either by mistake, or possibly even intentionally, exchanged it for "ester" and "Easter", in order to promote the pagan worship of the false Saxon goddess, Ostara, or "Easter". Can I prove any of this? Of course not. I am forced to admit that it is merely speculation on my part. As I already said, I honestly do not know the answer to this mystery; but regardless, this seemingly small change has affected us Christians for the past four hundred plus years, by seriously altering how the presumed day of Christ's Resurrection is celebrated amongst Western Christians.

As I mentioned earlier, there were several publications of the Holy Scriptures in the English language prior to the appearance of the 1611 Authorized King James Version. In addition to the Wycliffe Bible and Tyndale's New Testament, there was also the Coverdale Bible, Matthew's Bible, Great Bible, Geneva Bible and Bishop's Bible. Again, I discuss these versions more at length in the series "History Of The Authorized King James Bible".

While I have not been able to examine any of these other early versions of our English Bible, other than the 1599 Geneva Bible Notes, if we take into consideration the fact that they were all a continuation of the work which had been initiated by John Wycliffe, and then by William Tyndale, and also the fact that these later versions contain up to ninety per cent of Tyndale's original work, then even without seeing them, I propose that, given the note that's found in Easton's Bible Dictionary, it is relatively safe to assume that they likewise may have possibly used "ester" and "Easter", instead of the correct word "Passover". Yet it is equally interesting to note that, while my search has not been exhaustive, I have not come across any version of the Bible which was published after the AKJV, where the word "Easter" is used in Acts 12:4; so apparently the mistake was caught, and the correction was made.

Please go to part three for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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