Easter/Pascha as Christian Passover

By Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Girzhel

Thank you for all you do!

In recent decades, many sincere Christians who truly value the Jewish roots of their faith have grown concerned about the celebration of Easter. Influenced by the “Hebrew Roots” movement (predominantly led and composed of people from non-Jewish, Gentile Christian backgrounds) and a desire to return to the biblical practices of the early Jewish believers, some have concluded that Easter represents a pagan corruption of the pure, scriptural observance of Passover. They point to the English name “Easter,” the symbols of eggs and rabbits, and the different date chosen by the later church as evidence that the early Gentile church abandoned the God-ordained Jewish/Biblical Passover for a pagan holiday called Easter.

These accusations and concerns deserve respectful attention. For believers who treasure the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, who see Jesus as the promised Messiah of Israel, and who long to honor the covenants God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, any suggestion of pagan intrusion into our worship is understandably troubling. The desire to remain faithful to the biblical pattern is commendable and reflects a healthy reverence for God’s Word.

However, even a brief analysis of history, language, and Scripture indicates that what most Christians have commemorated for centuries as Pascha (only later called Easter in English) is not a repudiation of the Biblical Passover of Israel but its divinely ordained fulfillment in the Jewish Christ, our King. This is precisely why, in many countries around the world, what English speakers call “Easter” is known instead as “Christian Passover” or “Pascha.”

The Name “Easter”

The strongest and most repeated objection to Easter often begins with the English word itself, with many claiming it derives from “Ishtar,” the Babylonian goddess of fertility. This idea has circulated widely, but it rests on a linguistic misunderstanding with no historical basis. The English name instead comes from the Old English Ēastre (or Ēostre), which Bede, an eighth-century English monk, linked to a month (Ēosturmōnaþ) and a possible pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon spring festival or goddess. While some scholars accept this as evidence of a local cult, others suggest Bede may have mistakenly inferred the goddess from the month’s name. This single monk remains our only substantial source, and scholars continue to debate the details—some tracing the name to a Proto-Germanic root for “east” or “dawn.” It is true that pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons held feasts in her honor during that month (roughly April), and as Christianity spread, missionaries often used cultural adaptation: they kept the familiar seasonal name but redirected its meaning to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection. Thus, in some Germanic languages, including English, the Aramaic “Pascha” gradually gave way to what we now call Easter.

But while the English name carries this cultural history, it remains a linguistic outlier. In nearly all other languages, and even in much early English usage, the feast has been called some form of Pascha (or Pasch), the direct Judeo-Greek form of the Hebrew “Pesach” (Passover). For the overwhelming majority of Christians throughout history—Greek (Πάσχα), Latin (Pascha), Slavic (Пасха), and Romance (e.g., French Pâques and Spanish Pascua)—the feast has always been called Pascha, which is simply the Judeo-Greek form of the Aramaic/Hebrew word “Pesach” (פֶּסַח), meaning “Passover.” The English name is a regional exception, not a universal Christian norm.

From the earliest centuries, the Church of both Jewish and Gentile believers referred to this celebration as Pascha (Πάσχα). The name itself carries the direct memory of the Jewish Passover. The global Christian observance was never a brand-new holiday invented by Gentiles; it was the ancient Passover optimized and recalibrated on its ultimate meaning (1 Cor 5:7).

Theological Continuity

For Christians who cherish the Jewish roots of the faith, the deepest question is whether Pascha remains deeply connected to the biblical Passover or if the connection to it has been irreversibly severed by superimposed ideas and time. The New Testament itself provides the bridge. The Apostle Paul, a devout Jew and Pharisee, wrote to a largely Gentile congregation in Corinth:

“Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Cor 5:7-8)

The early Jewish disciples of Jesus, including the apostles, did not see themselves as inventing a replacement for Passover. They understood the death and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua as the fulfillment of what the Passover had always pointed toward: deliverance from judgment through the blood of the Lamb.

As an aside, Polycarp (a disciple of Apostle John) followed the Quartodeciman practice—celebrating Pascha on the 14th of Nisan, the same date as the Jewish Passover. From early times, other churches with apostolic ties, including Rome, observed Pascha on the Sunday following the 14th of Nisan to emphasize the day of the resurrection; both streams, however, shared the core conviction that Pascha was the Christian Passover. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies (Eusebius, Church History 5.24))

The Dating of Pascha

A primary concern for many believers who cherish the Jewish roots of the faith is the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The worry is that this council deliberately severed the Christian celebration from its Jewish foundation, marking a decisive turn toward a “paganized” or supersessionist holiday. The council’s decisions and the surrounding rhetoric have caused deep historical pain, making this concern understandable.

To understand what occurred, we must first recognize the context. Before Nicaea, there was no universal practice for dating the Christian Pascha. A significant controversy existed between two ancient traditions. One, known as the Quartodeciman practice (from the Latin for “fourteenth”), was rooted in the churches of Asia Minor, following the Apostle John. They celebrated Pascha on the 14th of Nisan, the day of the Jewish Passover, regardless of the day of the week, focusing on Christ as the true Passover Lamb who was sacrificed. The other tradition, held by churches like that of Rome and Alexandria, celebrated Pascha on the Sunday following the 14th of Nisan, emphasizing the day of the Resurrection.

The Council of Nicaea was convened in part to settle this dispute and bring uniformity to the Church. The council ultimately decreed that Pascha should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox, a method that allowed it to be calculated independently of the Jewish calendar.

This decision is a point of genuine sorrow for those who value the Church’s continuity with Israel. The language used by some at the time, particularly in a letter from Emperor Constantine following the council, included regrettable anti-Judaic rhetoric, framing the move as a way to have “nothing in common with the most hostile crowd of the Jews.” The council was a tragic reflection of the supersessionist attitudes that had begun to grow in the post-apostolic era, and it is appropriate to grieve this rupture and the centuries of alienation it represented and fueled.

However, it is also important to recognize what the council did not do. The council did not change the fundamental identity of the feast. It was not renamed, nor was its meaning redefined. Whether a church followed the Quartodeciman practice or the Sunday practice, both traditions understood the celebration as Pascha—the Christian Passover. The debate was over the calendar, not the content. Even with its new, independent dating system, Pascha continued to be understood theologically as the fulfillment of the Exodus narrative. The entire liturgy, the readings, and the theology of the feast remained anchored in the story of Israel’s deliverance, now brought to its ultimate fulfillment in the resurrection of Israel’s Messiah, Jesus.

Eggs, Rabbits, and Seasonal Traditions

Many Christians who value biblical simplicity and are wary of extra-biblical additions feel understandably uncomfortable with eggs, rabbits, baskets, and other springtime customs associated with Easter in Western culture. This discomfort is more than justifiable. These elements are indeed later cultural developments, not part of the original Christian Pascha rooted in the Word of the Living God. As the faith spread into formerly pagan regions of Europe, some local springtime symbols were gradually given Christian interpretations and accepted as harmless cultural traditions of the locals.

Red-dyed eggs, for example, became a tradition in the Eastern churches during the medieval period, symbolizing the blood of Christ and the new life of the resurrection—the empty tomb “cracked open.”

The Easter bunny and egg hunts are much later Western folk practices, largely from Germanic and Protestant contexts in the last few centuries. Historical evidence linking them directly to ancient pagan goddesses is weak and overstated.

For Christians who prefer to avoid these customs altogether, there is no biblical requirement to include them. Many believers today, especially those who treasure the Jewish heritage of the faith, choose to focus solely on the biblical and liturgical heart of Pascha: the reading of the Passion and Resurrection accounts, the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, or taking part in the “Christ in the Passover” celebration. It is perfectly faithful (and I would say advisable!) to observe the resurrection of the Messiah with simplicity, Scripture, prayer, and Biblical traditions—without any added cultural layers that feel foreign or distracting. The core of the feast depends on the historic reality that Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah, rose bodily from the dead. His tomb is now empty! The judgment of God passed over us.

Conclusion

The tension itself is a sign of fidelity. But thankfully you are not forced to choose between the rich soil of your Jewish heritage and the joyful celebration of your Messiah’s victory. In Pascha, they are one.

Let the debate over names and dates fade before the empty tomb. What remains is not a relic of pagan adaptation but the heartbeat of biblical faith: the Lamb who was slain, now standing alive. This is not a departure from the Passover; it is the Passover’s glorious destination.

Regardless of whether you refer to this day as Pascha, Christian Passover, Resurrection Sunday, or even the less correct Easter; regardless of whether you observe it in close alignment with the Jewish calendar or on the traditional Sunday: Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us, and then He rose from the dead to declare our forgiveness and justification.

The Jewish Messiah, the Seed of Abraham, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, has conquered death. In Him, the ancient promises to Israel receive their “Yes” and “Amen.” In Him, believing Jews and grafted-in Gentiles become one new man, celebrating the fulfillment of what began at the Red Sea and Sinai but ended with heavenly Zion and Jerusalem.

The Jewish Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!