HOW PASSOVER became EASTER

By Rabbi Mike Short

Part Two

How do you think God feels about this, where we set up our own Sabbaths; let's look at His holy Word.

Isaiah 1:11
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

Isaiah 1:14
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

Jeremiah 5:19
19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Jeremiah 6:20
20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.

Ezekiel 6:3,4
3 And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

Ezekiel 6:6
6 In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

Ezekiel 20:39
39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

Hos 4:13
13They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

Amos 5:21,22
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.

Amos 5:26
26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

Amos 8:10
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.

But you say these are all scriptures from the Tanach, Yeshua (Jesus) never said anything like that. Ok let's go and see...

Matthew 15:3
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Matthew 15:6
6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Mark 7:13
13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.

Luke 16:15
15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Acts 7:43
43Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

So at this point we are about to close the Easter portion of this article and go on to the Passover, but before we go any further I have to ask you a VERY heavy question. Are you a Christian or are you a Constantinian? - There is no such word but the idea is valid!

Before you answer, Christian! We had better give the definition of Christian. The common definition is a follower of Christ (Messiah). Webster states that it means disciple, an adherent of Christianity.

The following definition comes from MSN Encarta:
"believer in Jesus Christ as saviour: somebody who believes that Jesus Christ was sent to the world by God to save humanity, and who tries to follow his teachings and example." The red highlight is mine.

So then are you a follower of the example that Yeshua (Jesus) set ? Or are you a follower of the example set by Constantine? If you say I am a Believer in Yeshus (Jesus) and do not follow the rest of the definition then please remember that even the demons believe in Yeshua (Jesus).

Matthew 8:28-29
28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. 29 And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? KJV

You might be saying, Mike that was a trick or loaded question. It was not meant to be a trick or loaded question I wanted you to think! If you believe in your heart that Yeshua (Jesus) is your Lord and Saviour and you do everything possible to live the Christian life; then I commend you. The question wasn't intended to heap down upon your head condemnation. The point of the question was to get you as I said earlier to think, to make you want to really study the Bible and see what it really says. Maybe even to take the Doctrines of your Church to see if they follow the Word of God or the traditions of man. There is however a warning here, before you study YOUR Bible maybe you should run a background reference on the history of how it came into being. There is also another reminder, the Tanach also known, as The Old Testament is over 5,000 years old. It traces its history back to the Exodus from Egypt! If your Bible does not contain this valuable Book then I would have suspicion that maybe you should look elsewhere. But you might have noticed that all the Bible references I use come from the KJV, and earlier I stated that the KJV was the only Bible that uses Easter and that was the wrong word. I love the KJV, I love the language of it, and it was the first Bible created for the masses. I have researched the background of the KJV and understand where the writers took liberties. I have numerous Bibles, I have the Jerusalem Bible, I have the Catholic Bible with the Apocrypha, the Tanach, the Chumash and some more. I also have almost all the translations used today in the Church. So when I go to look at a word I have the resources to find the correct meaning. Of course I have Strong's and a couple other dictionaries and encyclopedias. I even have the Talmud with Rashi's commentary and the Encyclopedia Judaica. This wasn't put here to try to impress you but to let you know that there are a ton of references available to you at the local Bible Bookstore and you also have available to you from the Jewish communities. You need only to ask the clerk behind the counter. Some of the Books used in this article are out of print, but most of those are available at your local College Library and of course on the Internet.

There is one more point from Rav Shaul (Apostle Paul) in Galations: Galatians 1:8-9
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. KJV

If you are still with me then we will go on to the Passover part of this article. In this portion we will be showing how the Messiah celebrated this feast, as well as others. But before I get to far into that I would like to take a little side journey and show just how the Jews feel about this feast. There is one reference from Babylon.. yes Babylon, on how some of the Babylonians dealt with the Jews on Passover. Well not necessarily the Babylonians, however the Jews were in Babylon/Persia because of the Babylonians but their (Babylonian) conquerors, the Persians. The information comes from "A
History of the Jewish People"; edited by H.H. Ben-Sasson, page 381, "Later during Kabad's reign Jewish life reverted to normal. Many Jews served as soldiers in the Persian Army. In one of the battles with the Byzantine general Belisarius, the Persian commander requested his adversary to halt the fighting during Passover, for the sake of the Jewish soldiers in his army."

The next, a poem written for the Passover service by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1069), comes from "A History of the Jews"; by Solomon Grayzel page 295

"Look up to thy Maker, O soul of mine,
Thy Creator remember whilst thou art young;
Cry morning and night to His grace divine,
And in all thy songs let His name be sung.
On earth the Lord is thy portion and cup,
And when from thy body thou goest lone,
A place for thy rest He hath builded up
And made thee a nest underneath His throne.
Wherefore morning and night I will bless my Lord,
And from all that hath breath let His praise be poured."

Ibn has the same meaning a Ben, that is Son of, it is the Aramaic version of the Hebrew and was used when The Jews were in Spain under Moslem Rule.

I wanted to show that over history Passover has meant a great deal to the Jewish people and that some of their poetry is very beautiful. Now let us continue with the Messiah and Passover. When Yeshua (Jesus) performed the act to what has become the Lord's Supper, we now know that it was the third cup of the Passover Seder, one of the things that He did not do was to take the fourth cup. This cup is considered as the "cup of consummation" based on the promise that God will take his own people to be with him. By not taking this cup He pointed out a future event, the messianic banquet found in Revelation, lets look at some scriptures

Matthew 26:29
29But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

Revelation 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Revelation 19:6-9
6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

But starting here is like putting the cart before the horse; we need to digress a little. Yeshua is a Jew, He was a Jewish Rabbi, with the Jewish name of Yeshua (which means salvation), who had good Jewish Parents and kept the Torah. His mothers name was Miriam (Mary) a virgin to whom Yeshua was born. Her espoused husband, Yosef (Joseph) was a descendant of King David's. Miriam and Yosef were Observant Jews. Miriam was also related to the Priests though Her cousin Elizabeth, the Mother of John the Baptist. Yeshua (Jesus) was circumcised on the eighth day as prescribed in the Law of Moses and Miriam also followed the purification Laws.

Lets look in Luke Chapter 2

Luke 2:21-22
21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

Taking him to present him to the Lord is also from Jewish Law, that the first born must be presented and redeemed from the Lord. Some state that in Luke 2:42 that this Yeshuas bar mitzvah, meaning "son of the Commandment".

Luke 2:42
42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

Another Jewish Law to be fulfilled was the Mikvah or baptism for cleansing during the period of Teshuva (repentance), which is forty days before Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the following is from Doctor Snidecor's Thesis:
"The Scripture supports the baptism (Mikvah) as we find Yeshua at the Jordan to be baptized when he was 30 years of age. It was the custom to be Mikvahed during the 10 days of repentance. Yeshua was mikvahed on the ninth day of Rosh Hashanah for in scripture we find:

John 1:29-32 The next day John seeth Yeshua coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 30) This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. 31) And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. 32) And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

The references to "the next day" along with the "Lamb of God" is clear evidence that the Mikvah was the day before the Day of Atonement."

From New Testament scriptures we know that Yeshua was also an Observant Jew, as some of the scriptures above show. We know that he attended synagogue and the Temple; lets now look at scripture:

Matthew 12:9
9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue:

Matthew 13:54
54 And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works?

Mark 1:21
21 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.

Mark 1:29
29 And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

Mark 6:2
2 And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Luke 4:16
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Luke 6:6
6 And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.

Luke 7:5
5For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.

John 6:59
59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.

John 18:20
20 Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing.
KJV

Before I go any further I need to ask some questions; have you ever attended a synagogue? Were you invited to teach? That Yeshua was allowed to teach shows that the Jewish people recognized him as a Jewish Rabbi!

From the above scriptures we know that He faithfully observed the Sabbath and attended synagogue. Yeshua was a Pharisee; we know this also from scriptures. But not only that I have talked to Jewish Rabbi's that where schooled in Jerusalem and they have said, "Jesus studied under Hillel, but he wasn't a good student so they kicked him out of the Yeshiva." To that I replied, "So Einstein flunked Math, because he knew more than the teacher!" He was also in the company of Pharisee's on numerous occasions, as we see from scriptures. His main bone of contention with the Pharisee's was the oral Law, as opposed to the written Law.

We know from scriptures that Yeshua observed the Feast of Hanukkah: John 10:22-23 (KJV) And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. 23) And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Here we have Yeshua the Messiah in the temple as a Jew observing the traditional Hanukkah.

We also know from scriptures that observed the Feast of Sukkoth look at John 7:
John 7:37-38
37In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The last day of Sukkoth is known as "Hosanna Rabbah" and it is the day that the Priest's have a ceremony known as "Mayim Hayim" which means living waters. It was during this ceremony that Yeshua declared Himself to be the "Living Water". So far we have looked at several Feast of the Lord that Yeshua observed. Now let's get on to the one we have been talking about, Passover. (I hope by now that you understand that our Messiah did not celebrate "Easter" or "Christmas" and that He was VERY JEWISH)

Let's now turn our attention to that subject, in case you want to know what subject, Passover.
Matthew 26:2 Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.

Matthew 26:17-19
17 Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? 18 And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples. 19 And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them; and they made ready the passover.

Mark 14:1 After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.

Mark 14:12
12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?

Mark 14:14
14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?

Mark 14:16
16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

Luke 22:1
1 Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.

Luke 22:7
7 Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.

Luke 22:8
8 And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat.

Luke 22:11
11 And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
KJV
Luke 22:13
13 And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

Luke 22:15
15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

Here we need to stop and look at the word "desire" NT:1937 epithumeo (ep-ee-thoo-meh'-o); from NT:1909 and NT:2372; to set the heart upon, i.e. long for (rightfully or otherwise): KJV-covet, desire, would fain, lust (after). 1) to turn upon a thing 2) to have a desire for, to long for, to desire 3) to lust after, to covet; used of those who seek things forbidden

As you can see these are strong words! Messiah knew that the next day would be His last but He wanted to spend the Last Passover showing His Talmidim (Disciples) how it pointed to Him.

John 2:13
13 And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,

John 2:23
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

John 11:55
55 And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves.

John 12:1
1 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

John 13:1
1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

John 18:28
28 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover.

John 18:39
39 But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?

John 19:14
14 And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

1 Corinthians 5:7
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
KJV

In the Book Of John we learn that Yeshua even observed the Jewish Feast of Simcha Torah or as is called rejoicing in the Torah, this follows the last day of Succoth.
John 8:2
2And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
KJV

Earlier in this article I asked the question. Are you a Christian or are you a Constantinian?
In other words are you a follower of Yeshua(Jesus) or are you a follower of Constantine.

From the Bible, the New Testament, which Christians are supposed to follow, comes evidence that the Messiah followed all of the Commands and Feasts of God. Now lets compare that to Constantine. Constantine was a Pagan, He worshipped the sun god, He worshipped idols and He didn't want to have anything to do with what God had Commanded. There is one thing that He did that was good; He stopped the killing of Christians and Jews, at least for a while for the Jews. Before Constantine united the State and the Church, if you were a believer in the Jewish Messiah, or as we say a Christian and you were caught, then you were shipped to Rome and made lion food for sport. If you were a Jew and was caught teaching Torah, you were hung on a stake and burned. Remember Nero? Do you know who was blamed for burning Rome? The Christians!

A few years ago, Frank Sinatra, sang a song "I did it my way". Whenever I hear that song it puts knots in my stomach. It always makes me think of Cain and Abel. Abel did it God's way and it was accepted, but Cain did it his way and God was very displeased. Of course Cain in His anger and jealousy killed Abel. Over the years Jews have been killed for doing it God's way by christians who chose to do it man's way, by following the Pagan Constantine and some of the Early Church Fathers. They of course said that they were doing god's work or in the name of god. However it is hard for me to believe that it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that they were following. Please understand how I have capitalized were it should be and not capitalized were it should. In other words I don't believe Christians (followers of Messiah) and God are the same as christians that follow gods of man. I said some of the Early Church Fathers, we also had some of the Early Church Fathers that were very good men and they had constant discourses with the others, stating that their ideas were wrong. But enough of the anti-Semitic's teaching prevailed over the year to cause untold damage to God's people the Jews. I could turn this article into a book if I listed all the terrible things that have taken place against the Jews. I will include one of the things as it pertains to Passover; that is "blood Libel", I will be quoting from a least two historical books. The first is "A History of the Jewish People"; edited by H.H. Ben-Sasson, page 482; "In 1144 the Jews of Norwich in England were accused of having murdered a Christian child. From that time on the charges of this kind were leveled against Jews all over Europe. The explanation and logic of those who believed the accusations were that, once the Jews had crucified Jesus, they thirsted for pure and innocent blood. Since the formally incarnate God was now in heaven, the Jews aspired to the most innocent of the believers, i.e., the children, the tender Christians. As a result of this reasoning, the season of the blood libels or charges of ritual murder was that of the Passover festival, which was close in time to the Passion of Jesus." End quote.

The Jews were supposed to drink this blood at Passover, which is why White Wine was developed so that it could be seen that the wine was not blood.

The next quote comes from "A History of the Jews"; by Solomon Grayzel page 314 "For the first time the accusation was made in the twelfth century that Jews used blood of Christians for ritual purposes. Long before, while Christianity was still being persecuted by paganism, Christians had been accused for exactly the same crime. Near the time of the Second Crusade the charge reappeared with the Jews as the guilty party. The story was told in a variety of forms, but its essential elements were the following: A Christian would disappear. The Jews would be accused of having kidnapped, tortured and crucified him in memory of the crucifixion of Jesus. They were said to have drawn off his blood and distributed it among the neighboring Jewish communities, where it was used in the preparation of matzot for Passover." End of quote

If you would like to see this from a Christian Author, you can get "A History of the Jews" by Paul Johnson at your local Christian bookstore.

I hope this article has made you think, and that you truly want to study your Bible to find out what it says. I also hope when you color your eggs you will think of this article!

I will leave you now with a thought I received from Dwight Pryor, the Director of the Center of Judaic-Christian Study in Dayton, Ohio. "And it is why those of us recapturing our Jewish inheritance in Messiah so look forward to the Passover season of our redemption. The Pesach meal powerfully reminds us of the mighty deeds wrought on our behalf, and it binds us together as families and part of the people of God. For your consideration, may I suggest that a Lamb, not a bunny, should be the image imprinted on our children’s minds during this Passover/Resurrection season. They can celebrate something (Someone!) far more significant than rapidly multiplying Easter bunnies and fertile colored eggs."

And I say thank you Dwight for that marvelous thought! And now the last question that I have for you, are you doing it Gods way or are you doing it man's way?

B'Seder

If you would like to write Rabbi Mike Short with your comments, click the Torah Scroll to email him:

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I would very much like to thank Rabbi Mike Short for this insightful article. If your a lover of TRUTH, and I am, you will agree Rabbis timely article leaves us with only one real choice, but you alone can make that choice.

Some 10 years ago, I made that choice not to do Easter any more, I wanted nothing more to do it or what came out of the church founded by Constantine. What I wanted was to it all God's way! The Passover has been one of the greatest blessing to me. Really in more ways then I can ever tell express, doing the Feast's of the LORD (Lev. 23) are such a delight to me.

Oh ya, but I hear some of you saying, "but God's looks at the heart." Yes beloved of God, that is true. Nevertheless, His Word tells us what is God's Heart Truth, and it is His WORD that is TRUTH. Gentile's (Stranger) who have been grafted-into Israel by the work of Messiah, should be doing Jewish Festival Days as did the first Jewish Believers. These Festivals all point to Messiah, Easter does not. Also the Sabbath is of God Himself, it was made for Himself, given to mankind our of His kindness. Remember, Yeshua is the Lord of the Sabbath day, a day to rest in the Lord finished work on our behalf.

Stranger, I beg you to read Isaiah, chapter 56 and 58 - see if God is not speaking to you beloved about how you might please your Lord and your God by delighting in His Hoy days.

Shalom,
Rev. Barbara A. Di Gilio <><

Mayim's Endnote