Is the Date of Easter of Pagan Origin?

This article shares the title of an article written on the AIG (Answers in Genesis) website. While most of their articles have to do with the biblical and scientific evidence for a young earth, Noah's flood, and a literal interpretation of the early chapters of Genesis, this article was written to defend the Easter holiday.

You see, there are many in the Christian community who do not celebrate Easter or Christmas for the simple reason that we are not taught to do so in the Scriptures. Not only are these popular Christian holidays not found in the pages of the New Testament, many of the elements of these holidays have pagan origins. The AIG article, however, attempts to disprove some of these claims.

In this brief article, I want to respond to a few of the points made in the aforementioned AIG article which, again, was written to defend the observance of Easter. I will quote the article (in italics) and then offer a response.

Here is the first quote...

Christ’s death and Resurrection are absolutely necessary elements of the faith. These truths should bring joy to the heart of everyone who has received God’s forgiveness through Christ, giving great cause to celebrate.

I want to make it clear that I absolutely agree with this statement. Just read 1 Corinthians 15 and you will see how pivotal the resurrection is to the Christian faith. For example, Paul wrote, "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" (vs. 17).

The AIG article goes on to make the point that because the resurrection is so pivotal, there is reason to believe that God wants us to commemorate it annually.

Throughout Scripture, God directs His children to mark His accomplishments on their behalf with feasts and celebrations.

This was true in the Old Testament (see Leviticus 23). God gave the Jewish nation of old very specific instructions regarding the observance of certain holidays throughout the year. They were told when and how to observe these holidays. But here's the thing: not a word is said to Christians in the New Testament about holidays that we are to observe, period! If God wanted us to celebrate Easter or Christmas, wouldn't He have said so? The fact that we have zero information about Easter in the Scriptures is very revealing.

The most prominent Old Testament festival related to the celebration of Easter is the Passover. This term was used to refer to the Christian feasts and commemoration of the Resurrection in the early church and continues today.

This just isn't right! There is no connection made between the Passover and an annual Christian holiday called "Easter" in the New Testament. Now, there is a connection between the Passover and Christ's resurrection. Jesus was crucified and resurrected at the time of the Jewish Passover (John 19:14). Jesus is even called "our Passover" in 1 Corinthians 5:7, but only because He is the sacrificial lamb of God whose blood, when applied to us, exempts us from God's wrath. I would go so far as to say that the Passover feast of the Old Testament was a foreshadowing of Christ Himself! But this doesn't mean that we are to take the Jewish holiday and turn it into a Christian holiday commemorating Christ's death and resurrection. Again, if God wanted us to do so, He would have said something about it.

After attempting to provide a biblical basis for Easter, the author of the AIG article goes on to provide the historical basis for Easter. This is the main point of the article. For the sake of brevity, I will only quote a portion of the article.

It appears clear from the earliest writings of the church fathers that the Resurrection was almost universally celebrated by the church. There were, however, differences in the manner and date of the celebrations. Fasting and feasting accompanied the remembrance of the date, but when to stop the fasting and begin the feasting was disputed. The date question fell into two camps: should the celebration be held on the day of the Resurrection or the date of the Jewish Passover?

Various writings of early "church fathers" are cited to prove that there were early Christians who commemorated Christ's death and resurrection on an annual basis...and that they were NOT influenced to do so because of concurrent pagan feasts or traditions. 

I can grant that the date of Easter may not have pagan origins, and that some early Christians were sincere in their attempt to align Easter with the Jewish Passover. But there are two points I'd like to make in response.

First of all, the fact that some early Christians observed Easter doesn't mean that the Scriptures authorize the observance of Easter. There are still no commands to celebrate it, no scriptural examples of its celebration, and no inferences that it is to be celebrated. I can just as easily show that some early Christians denied the humanity of the Son of God. Others believed that Satan will be saved in the end (contrary to the teachings of Revelation 20:10). In fact, there is a long list of false doctrines that some early Christians held. Of course, this by no means proves that God authorized such doctrines. The fact that some early Christians observed Easter doesn't prove that God wanted them to do so.

This brings me to my second point. Even if there were some Christians in the latter part of the first century who were celebrating Easter annually around the time of the Jewish Passover, this shouldn't surprise us. A simple reading of Galatians and Colossians will make it abundantly clear that there were some in the first century who were blending elements of pagan and Jewish religious practices with their faith. But this was discouraged and even condemned by God! 

In Galatians 4:9-11, Paul wrote, "But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain."

Paul made a similar point in Colossians 2:20-22 when he wrote, "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations - 'Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,' which all concern things which perish with the using - according to the commandments and doctrines of men." The AIG article points out that these early observances of Easter involved fasting - "Do not taste." Such imposed regulations were not commended, but condemned!

So perhaps it is true that some early Christians chose to incorporate the observance of Easter into their Christian faith using the Jewish Passover feast as their model. This is actually in line with what the apostle Paul said was happening in the first century. But again, this wasn't a good thing. The early Christians were warned by Paul NOT to add such observances and regulations to their faith.

Now an admission from the author of the AIG article...

For those who claim the celebration of Easter was assigned by Constantine as an accommodation of pagan practices, they must contend with the records of Irenaeus and others. However, at the Council of Nicaea in 325, the issue was finally settled by the church as a whole.

Maybe it is true that the date of Easter wasn't chosen to accommodate pagan practices, but this quote from the AIG article makes it clear that the Easter holiday itself was something that was infused into Christianity, not by the apostles in the Scriptures, but by early Christian traditions. As we have seen, such traditions were discouraged by the apostles in Galatians and Colossians.

And finally, the author of the AIG article makes an admission in his closing remarks...

Although they didn’t have an explicit command from Scripture, various traditions arose to commemorate the risen Savior.

The author of the AIG article finally admits that there is no scriptural precedent for the observance of Easter. How, then, can we treat Easter as a necessary part of biblical Christianity? And why is it that those of us who do not celebrate Easter as a religious holiday are branded as loons, even heretics by some? And why are some Christians so eager to defend it?

I'm not writing this article to discourage your family's Easter traditions. Feel free to paint eggs, shower your children with candy, decorate your home with cute little white bunnies, and host family gatherings and Easter dinners. But the observance of Easter as a religious holiday is far from a biblical practice. If anything, as we have seen, God is pleading with us to abandon such practices and regulations and to return to the simplicity of His revealed will.