Bible class on Easter

The Bible does not mention an Easter celebration. The word “Easter” appears only once in the Bible, in the KJV translation of Acts 12:41, but this Greek word (pascha) appears twenty-nine times in the New Testament and always refers to the Jewish Passover1. The term “Easter” as we know it today is a post-biblical development.

Instead, the biblical foundation for Easter lies in the Passover festival. The early church likely celebrated Christ’s resurrection as a parallel to the Jewish Passover, since the gospels relate that Christ died and rose during the Passover season2. This connection gave rise to another ancient name for Easter—Pascha, derived from the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Passover2.

The formalized “Easter” celebration emerged centuries after the New Testament was written. The name “Easter” itself doesn’t appear until AD 725, when the Venerable Bede traced it to the Old English name for April, “Eosturmonath,” which derived from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre1. The Council of Nicea in 325 established that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the vernal equinox2, standardizing what had been an evolving practice in the early church.

So while the Bible emphasizes Christ’s resurrection as theologically central—the event that early Christians commemorated in connection with Passover—it contains no explicit Easter observance. The holiday as a distinct Christian celebration developed gradually in the post-biblical church, blending Christian theology with cultural traditions.

Early Jewish Christians transformed their Passover observance into a celebration of Christ’s passion and resurrection, since these events coincided with the Jewish festival1. The annual observance was initially called “pascha,” the Greek term for Passover, and centered on Christ as the paschal Lamb1. While the New Testament contains no explicit account of Easter observance, evidence suggests celebrations were well-established in most churches by around A.D. 1001.

The festival’s structure evolved significantly over time. The earliest form likely consisted of a vigil from Saturday evening through Sunday morning, commemorating both the crucifixion and resurrection1. By the early 200s, this vigil climaxed with baptisms and the Lord’s Supper1, and by around A.D. 300, most churches had separated the observance, dedicating Good Friday to the crucifixion and Easter Sunday to the resurrection1.

A crucial institutional shift occurred when fourth-century Church fathers decreed that Easter would fall on a Sunday to separate themselves completely from Judaism2. Since around A.D. 300, Easter’s date has been calculated using the lunar calendar—generally the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox1.

The holiday also absorbed pre-Christian elements. Because Easter occurs during spring, many non-Christian springtime symbols of nature’s renewal became attached to the Christian celebration, with some attempts made to Christianize them1. The English word “Easter” itself derives from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn1. Over centuries, Christians reinterpreted the egg as a symbol of resurrection1, transforming pagan fertility symbols into Christian theological expressions.