Is Easter Pagan?

[Rose of Shushan]

Thanks for pasting those quotes.They do show that the feast of Our Lord's Passover was seperate from the sacrificing of the lamb although done on the same date by the asian churches.

The last supper seems to have the focus on the New Covenant whereas the Passover meal was the focus of the Mosaic one.

Mar 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
Mar 14:23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it.
Mar 14:24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.
Mar 14:25 Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.
Mar 14:26 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
Mar 14:27 And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.


If it had been a Passover meal they would not have been able to go out of their dwellings.And the Passover meal was eaten as a family yet the accounts say it was a meal full of men and their wives etc were not present.

Exo 24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 24:5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD.
Exo 24:6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Exo 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Exo 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
Exo 24:9 Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel:
Exo 24:10 And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.
Exo 24:11 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.

Note that there we have the blood of the covenant which is sprinkled on the people.Then the people ate and drank thus celebrating with a meal.

In the NT we have

Mar 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
Mar 14:23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it.
Mar 14:24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many.

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

1Co 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.



When Moses sprinkled the blood on the people thatw as to symbolize what the true Lamb of God was to do to procure our salvation.
Isa 52:15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider

When Isaiah begins to speak about the Servant and what He would do he starts of by referring back to the original Passover but then says that this time it would not be like the last.
Isa 52:10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Isa 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Isa 52:12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
As in the original Passover God would be in front and behind them but this time they did not have to leave in haste.

God did not abandon His people.After the destruction of the Temple the people were now unable to fulfil the obligations of the Mosaic Covenant.Yet God established the New one in order to save His people.As the prophet Isaiah kept warning the people were so lost in sin that they could not save themselves.The People repeatedly broke the Covenant and incurred all the curses that Moses had warned them about if they were to break God's law.What was God to do? In His everlasting and boundless mercy He provided a way out through the New Covenant that He promised.

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.


God says there that the people broke the covenant but He promises them a new one that they will keep.The Scripture is clear it is a different one to the old.
To get back to the original topic what we celebrate at Easter/Pascha is this new covenant.
We don’t need to do a seder or kill a lamb because we are living in a new and better covenant.The ceremonial aspects of the thanksgiving meal that replaced the Temple Passover meal are now contained within the bread and wine meal that Jesus introduced at the Last Supper and that the apostles continued to celebrate and call the eucharist.The word eucharist supposedly comes from the greek for thanksgiving.