Misinformation about Easter - Dr John Conrad

​Abba Eban reputedly said, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but everyone is not entitled to their own facts." This year the church will celebrate Easter (Resurrection Sunday) nearly a month before traditional Judaism celebrates Pesach (Passover) and the internet has already gone into overdrive on posts linking Easter to Ishtar and various other pagan entities.
First early Christianity does appear to have celebrated the Resurrection on the Passover week also observed by Judaism. Within less than a couple of hundred years a controversy developed over whether the Resurrection should be celebrated on the 14th day of Nisan (traditional night of the Passover Seder) or on the Sunday occurring during the week of Unleavened Bread. The famous martyr Polycarp was one of those pushing for the 14th of Nisan. This controversy never was really resolved but more and more Christians moved to the Sunday celebration.
By the Council of Nicaea convened by the emperor Constantine in 325 AD the decision was made that the Resurrection should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring after the Spring Equinox. Two major reasons for their decision was to produce uniformity of observance and completely separate Christian observance of the Resurrection from the Jewish calendar. Sadly while there is no evidence of paganism influencing this choice it is plain that Antisemitism was a major force in the change.
All through church history and still today in the ancient churches of Rome, Istanbul, etc. the name of the Resurrection observance is some form of "pascha" taken from the Hebrew "pesach." In the Dutch, German and English churches the term for the Resurrection became some variant of Easter. This appears to have occurred some time in the 600s AD. In Tyndale's English translation of the Bible in the late 1300s he didn't want to use the Christian term "Easter" for the Hebrew pesach found all through the Tanach (Old Testament.) So he coined the word "Passover" to be the English equivalent of the Hebrew "pesach." Thus in terms of chronological age the term Easter is older than Passover.
However much you like or don't like the silly Easter egg hunts or Easter bunnies they have nothing to do with the name Easter and it is not at all related to the Semitic Ishtar. Eggs are associated with the Resurrection celebration through most of Christianity and most of them have never used or had the word Easter in their vocabulary. They are clearly extraBiblical.
You are all entitled to your opinion but for the sake of peace try to ascertain the facts of the situation. There are plenty of places you can do the research but I would suggest you don't pay much attention to FB memes. We can all make our choices without castigating those we disagree with. It also makes sense to develop a sound case for why you believe in the practice you follow but perhaps we could be a little less severe with those who haven't seen our light as of yet.