Easter's Rabbit Hole, Part 2 (Of 2)

 

The Easter Egg has similar origins to the hot cross buns. In the mysteries of Bacchus celebrated in Athens there consisted a ceremony that consecrated an egg, (Davies’s, Druids). Hindoo, Japanese and Chinese dyed, golden or brazen eggs were also used in their celebrations. Hyginus the Egyptian, keeper of the Palatine library in Rome, related this tale: An egg of wondrous size was said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterward was called the Syrian Goddess, (Hyginus, Fable). Venus, of course, is another name for Ishtar, Astarte, or Ashteroth of the Canaanites, daughter of El the chief god. In another such fable Ishtar was said to have washed up from the sea in a great egg only to have a serpent coil about the egg she resided within and, like the doves, hatched her to dispense wisdom, being hailed as the civilizer and benefactress of the world. Like the rabbit, the egg is an old symbol of fertility, and Ashteroth/Astarte/Ishtar was a goddess of (sensual) love and fertility, as well as war.

The pomegranate likewise is connected to Ishtar in pagan mythology. While the pomegranate is said to represent the germ of new life or resurrection life in the Roman Church, ancient paganism held its own meaning in regards to it. Astarte was also known in Phrygia as Cybele or Idaia Mater. The sacred mountain of worship, Mount Ida, in Chaldean means the Mount of Knowledge, (Dymock’s Classical Dictionary). Being associated with love and fertility, it seems the goddess in all her forms was hailed as the mother of mankind, or our benefactress. The pomegranate then seems to have taken the symbolic form of the primeval fruit from which our first parents gained knowledge. Easter oranges, more popular in Norway than America, seem to follow suit to the pomegranate. In Hyslop’s The Two Babylons he relates the myth of the garden of Hesperides and the golden fruit within. This fabled garden was supposed to be situated in the isles of the Atlantic by the coast of Africa. In the old mythology a serpent guarded the fruit, which were apparently oranges. In this mythology the Grecian Hercules pitied humanity’s unhappy estate and slew the serpent to win the fruit that would bring mankind wisdom. Though roles are sorely jumbled, we find the serpent a perversion of the serpent of Genesis prohibiting access to divine knowledge and Hercules as a champion that won humanity a blessing, rather than eliciting a curse from an act of disobedience.

 

Ishtar in her many names across numerous cultures, appears to be a corrupted recollection of Eve, our first mother, whose choice to eat of the forbidden fruit of knowledge helped to foster the curse of sin upon mankind. The Bible records that Adam gave his wife the name Eve because, “she was the mother of all living,” Genesis 3:20. Here name when translated from the Hebrew simply means, “life.” Yet we find in the Roman Catholic Church that championed the peculiar and biblically bankrupt holiday, in the Canon of the Mass, a service in the Roman Missal, “Oh blessed fault, which didst procure such a Redeemer!” quoted from Merle D’ Aubigne’s Reformation.

 

Ishtar, Jeremiah’s “queen of heaven” is also known as Astarte (the Greek form of Ashteroth), and is the Baylonian consort of Bel. Bel, mentioned in Jeremiah 50:2 and Isaiah 46:1, was a patron deity of Nippur. Later his name became linked to Marduk, the chief deity of Babylon and one of the principle characters of the Enuma Elish. Bel, or Marduk, was directly involved with Babylon’s creation account and is the son of Ea. In Canaan Ishtar or Astartate was known as Ashtaroth, consort of Baal the storm god, as well as a god of the harvest and fertility, whose name translates into “lord or master.” The Moabites also referred to her as Astarte, the consort of Chemosh. In Babylonia and Assyria she was known as Ashtar. The Greeks referred to her as Aphrodite-Venus, associated with the planet Venus. In every instance Ishtar is the goddess of fertility and sensual love, and sometimes of war. In Canaaanite mythology Ashteroth was the daughter of El, chief god of the proto-Semitic people. El simply translates into “god”., unlike the Hebrew use of the word God, rendered “Elohim” in Scripture, meaning, “Gods.” As Ishtar she was a Mesopotamian goddess, and the consort of the god Tammuz. Tammuz was said to have been betrayed by his lover, symbolized death and rebirth with the autumn and spring equinoxes, and was closely associated with fertility, like Baal. Tammuz, Baal and others can likewise be traced to Bacchus, or the Greek Dionysius, god of rebirth, intoxication, fertility, and pleasure, who likewise enjoys a festival in his honor come mid-March.

 

It seems that there is a strange pattern; a corollary that may be reached when one looks at Easter’s origins. Beyond the Christian veneer lay something entirely pagan and far older than the Roman Church that championed Easter’s entry. The ancient history of our first parents, carried in the memory of Noah and his family, pervaded the world and every culture with the dispersion of people at Babel. Adam and Eve appear to be corrupted and deified, and perhaps more newly purposed in Nimrod and his wife Semiramis, first king and queen of Babylon. Ammianus Marcellinius, along with Justinius’s Historia and Eusebius’s Chronicle make mention of Nimrod’s wife’s identity. Though Eusebius says of this couple, “Ninus [Nimrod] and Semiramis reigned in the time of Abraham.” Since Semiramis is not mentioned in Scripture I will not argue the matter further as to her identity, save to point out that numerous authors from antiquity seem to find agreement on this point. The crux of the matter is that the symbolism back of Easter is completely grounded in paganism. From it’s shifting dates to its 40-day abstinence, and to is myriad symbolisms that have nothing to do with Christ or Scripture. While I’ve hardly scratched the surface regarding this matter, I wanted to share my own thoughts and research into Easter and its bizarre and anti-Christian foundations.

 

Finally, in light of the pagan nature of the queen of heaven, whose name is Ishtar, Astarte, Cybele, Ashteroth, etc. we arrive at the Roman Catholic Mary. The word "Queen" when describing her was common during and after the sixth century. Hymns of the 11th to 13th centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail, Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven”. The Dominican rosary and the Franciscan crown, as well as numerous invocations in Mary's litany, celebrate her queenship. Babylonian icons predating Christianity, as well as similar icons across Asia and Europe bear an eerie similarity to our current depictions of the mother and child we see in so many Roman cathedrals. Venerating Mary as “queen of heaven” is unbiblical. Noting the pantheon of gods touched upon we see pairings, i.e. Baal and Ashteroth, etc. Yahweh, Israel’s covenant God, has no consort, is self-existent, and forbade imagery to be made in His likeness, much less as tools of worship or veneration. This unbiblical (or anti-biblical) Mary is a Trojan Horse, a carryover from pagan mythology that birthed goddess worship. It would appear that reference to Mary, connecting her to the title “queen of heaven” was incipient in the 4^th century AD, working through the Roman Church until it garnered acceptance by the 6^th century onward. Though the genuine Mary mothered Jesus the Man, God has no mother, and Heaven has no queen according to Scripture.

 

These are just a few facts about the origins of Easter, Lent, and the symbolism back of it. When all is said and done, however, every individual saint is called to freedom in Christ. Paul wrote that the saint, steadfast in his or her faith, is at liberty to eat meat from the market, though it was sacrificed idols. Likewise must we consider the observance of specific days. “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind,” Romans 14:5. Rather than a denouncement of the holiday, I seek to inform and equip the saints, so each of us may make a decision that does not offend our Lord or our conscience. Whether you call it Pasch or Easter, I pray the Lord for each of my brothers and sisters in Christ that you have a blessed day remembering the triumphant death of Jesus, and how our Lord conquered sin and death through His offering upon the cross. Amen.