Easter v Passover

Acts 12:4 is the only place in the KJV Bible that Easter is mistranslated ... in the Greek Manuscripts it is pascha which is to say Passover.  Pascha is properly translated passover in every other place in the KJV Bible (roughly 28 other passages in just the New Testament).  Pascha is referenced in The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible as the Greek (from the New Testament) number 3957 (in the Old Testament, the Hebrew 6453 pecach)

"Easter" comes from ishtar and was a pagan goddess (queen) and as the tale goes: was from heaven and fell in an egg that the fish rolled to the earth and she hatched.  The queen of fertility = venus.  The practice is pagan; idolatry practice.  The practice was for a woman at least once to participate in an orgy in this fertility ritual and the "easter egg" was symbolized in this spring festival years before Christ.  Quick like a bunny, another fertility ritual/reference. 

Jeremiah 7:17-20 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?  The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.  Do they provoke Me to anger?  saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?  Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched."

The "queen of heaven" referenced in verse 18 was the goddess to whom the worship was offered, Ishtar / Ashtoreth.  (compare II Kings 21:3; 23:12-13 as well as Appendix 42 below and all Scripture references offered therein)

Ashtoreth / Ashtaroth / Ashteroth / Astoreth / Ashterathite / Beeshterah is a god of the Philistines, Phoenicians, and Zidonians and Hebrew number 6252 Ashtarowth derived from 6251 Ashtaroth also 6253 Ashtoreth in The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible meaning the name of a Sidonian deity, the Phoenician goddess of love.

Webster's New World College Dictionary:
"Astarte ... a Semitic goddess of fertility and sexual love, worshiped by the Phoenicians and others: see also ASHTORETH, ISHTAR."
"Ashtoreth ... the ancient Phoenician and Syrian goddess of love and fertility: identified with ASTARTE."
"Ishtar ... see ASHTORETH ... the goddess of love, fertility, and war."


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From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishtar:
Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex.^[1] In the Babylonian pantheon, she "was the divine personification of the planet Venus".^[2]

Ishtar was above all associated with sexuality: her cult involved sacred prostitution; her holy city Erech was called the "town of the sacred courtesans"; and she herself was the "courtesan of the gods".^[2] Ishtar had many lovers; however, as Guirand notes,

woe to him whom Ishtar had honoured! The fickle goddess treated her passing lovers cruelly, and the unhappy wretches usually paid dearly for the favours heaped on them. Animals, enslaved by love, lost their native vigour: they fell into traps laid by men or were domesticated by them. 'Thou has loved the lion, mighty in strength', says the hero Gilgamesh to Ishtar, 'and thou hast dug for him seven and seven pits! Thou hast loved the steed, proud in battle, and destined him for the halter, the goad and the whip.'

Even for the gods Ishtar's love was fatal. In her youth the goddess had loved Tammuz, god of the harvest, and — if one is to believe Gilgamesh — this love caused the death of Tammuz.^[2]

Ishtar was the daughter of Sin or Anu.^[2] She was particularly worshiped at Nineveh and Arbela (Erbil).^[2]

Her symbol is an eight pointed star.^[3]

&

From www.ishtartemple.org/history.htm:
The two principal deities of ancient Babylon were Baal and Ishtar. Baal was the god of war and the elements and Ishtar the goddess of fertility - both human and agricultural. These two deities have roots going back before Babylon to Nimrod at Babel and to Assyria. Through the ages they were imported into other nations and under different names but always retaining the same basic characteristics. Baal was also called Bel, Baalat, Molech, Merodach, Mars and Jupiter, and was frequently represented as a bull. Ishtar was also called Aphrodite, Astarte, Ashtoreth, Cybele or Sybil, Diana, Europa, Isis, Semiramis and Venus. The two main elements in the worship of Baal were fire and human sacrifice, usually children.

Ishtar was worshipped via offerings of produce and money as well as though fornication with temple prostitutes. It is this last characteristic that helps make the tie between religious Babylon and kings and merchants. In his book The Secret of Crete, H.G. Wunderlich reports that before marriage, every woman in Babylon was required to go to the temple of Ishtar and lie with a stranger. We have a similar report from Gerhard Herm in his book, The Phoenicians (1) , where women in the Canaanite cities of Tyre, Sidon and Byblos were required to become prostitutes for a day and give themselves to foreign guests during the spring festival. This festival survives today in the name of "Easter", which is derived from the word "Ishtar". Note that the women were to prostitute themselves with strangers or foreigners. In ancient times, the foreigners in these cities were mostly composed of traveling merchants and political dignitaries. In the third century A.D. the historian Eusebius described the patrons of these temples in this way: "It was a school of godlessness for those dissipated men, who had ruined their bodies in the pursuit of luxuriousness. The men were soft and effeminate, were no longer men; they had betrayed the honor of their sex; they believed they must worship their god with impure lust."

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Ezekiel 8:15-18 Then said He unto me, "Hast thou seen this, O son of man?  turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these."  And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.  Then He said unto me, "Hast thou seen this, O son of man?  Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?  for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke Me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.  Therefore will I also deal in fury: Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them."

"with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east."  Having their "backs to the temple of the Lord" speaks for itself.  They had their backs toward the Lord and their faces toward the east toward the sun rising.  Worship of the sun is a form of idolatry seen as early as Job 31:26-27 and in Deuteronomy 4:19; adopted as early as King Asa (II Chronicles 14:2-5); abolished by King Josiah (II Kings 23:5, 11).

"the branch to their nose"; the branch is the Asherah, represented by a branch cut to a certain shape as referenced in Appendix 42 below.

How many early morning "Easter Sunrise Church Services" or egg hunts have you attended?  Once you know better, do better as God holds you accountable differently once you know the difference.  Once knowledge is revealed and you have understanding, it is a reality that you are then held accountable for and not hope or faith.  (Ezekiel 18:30-32; Romans 8:24-26)

Appendix 42 of the Bullinger KJV Companion Bible explaining the origin and progression (as it were) of 'Asherah:

Since the "Nephilim" were mentioned in Appendix 42, below is Appendix 25 from the Bullinger KJV Companion Bible explaining what they are:

Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.  [More on the fallen angels and their offspring in a future post......]