What is the meaning of Easter? What does Easter mean?
Answered from the commentary of Hamilton Smith, A. J. Pollock, The Bible Treasury and 6 others
Easter means that Christ died for our sins and rose again the third day; His resurrection is God’s witness that the work is complete and redemption accepted.
Risen as the firstfruits, Christ is the pledge that those who are His will also be raised, and that death will be swallowed up in victory. The risen Christ gives believers a living hope and life beyond death, so they may have confidence and comfort. The passages do not agree on keeping Easter as a festival: one says there is nothing in the New Testament about its observance, while another says those who keep it as unto the Lord may do so.
Verses: 1 Corinthians 15:3, 1 Corinthians 15:4, Matthew 28:5, Matthew 28:6, John 11:25, Romans 6:4, 1 Peter 1:3
The above is AI generated summary based on the writers below.
What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
The word "Easter" occurs once in the Authorised Version (Acts 12:4), where the word is pascha, which is elsewhere translated "Passover," and is so translated here in the Revised Version. This shews that in the translators' minds Easter and the Passover corresponded. But the Passover is associated with the crucifixion: "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7); and the Passover fell on the 14th day of Nisan, and might occur on any day of the week; whereas Easter is generally accepted to refer to the resurrection, and commences on a Sunday. The former mode of reckoning was mostly adopted in the east, and the latter in the west. At the council of Nice it was settled for the latter.
πάσχα. Simply 'the Passover,' Acts 12:4, as the word is elsewhere translated.
East’er - The passover
There is nothing in the New Testament respecting the keeping of Easter. Acts 12:4 simply refers to the Passover as a suitable time for Herod to deliver up Peter to destruction. Of course the Passover was observed by the Jews, and probably by the Jewish converts. The words sent out from the council were "that all the brethren in the east, who formerly celebrated Easter with the Jews, will henceforth keep it agreeably with the Romans and ourselves, and all who from ancient time have kept Easter as we." The crucifixion was observed on what is called Good Friday by fasting, etc.; the following Sunday commenced Easter as a festival.
Easter
Ques.—Why not observe Easter (Acts 12:4)?
Easter
Easter.
“THE MORROW AFTER THE SABBATH”
Then came the eventful day, the third day after the crucifixion, the day our Lord prophesied He would rise from the dead. Would His words prove to be true?
We have the type of it in Leviticus 23. We read there of the Feast of the First Fruits on the morrow after the sabbath, that is the first day of the week, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:23, we read of “Christ the Firstfruits.”
Verses
- 1 Corinthians 15:3–43For I delivered to you, in the first place, what also I had received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; 4and that he was buried; and that he was raised the third day, according to the scriptures;
- Matthew 28:5–65And the angel answering said to the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus the crucified one. 6He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
- John 11:25Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live;
- Romans 6:4We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among [the] dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.
- 1 Peter 1:3Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through [the] resurrection of Jesus Christ from among [the] dead,