Many Christians believe that I or other Pagans cannot possibly understand the meaning of Easter. I can assure you that we DO understand the Christian story, just as much as we understand the Pagan roots. I thought that, this year, I would give a bit of insight into just how much I DO understand the Christian way of worshipping Easter, even if I do not follow the same path.

I was raised in the Old Methodist faith. My grandfather was a fire-and-brimstone preacher, and my dad very nearly also took up the calling, as well. I went to the yearly Easter egg hunts I went to the Sunday school classes. The pastor of one of the churches I attended had a son in my kindergarten class. Although the pastor has now passed on, my kindergarten friend, who is now as old as I am, is still a friend whom I keep in contact with monthly. He and his wife are of a different political party than I and they are devout Christians. We all lived in the same small town, went to the same high school and even lived in the same apartment complex when we were in our early twenties. Our lives seemed to have always touched each others' through the years.

My friend and I keep in touch a few times per month these days, and have had many lively discussions about religion as well as children and any other topic you could possibly think of. He is probably the only person I can freely express my views to without fear of being judged, even when his views differ from mine, and I believe he feels the same way. So, let's get into how I feel about the Christian way of looking at things

I believe Jesus lived. I believe he was a real guy. There is absolutely no question in my mind about this fact. I do not believe he was a God. I believe that Jesus died at about 3:00 PM on a Wednesday in the early spring in AD 31. A few hours later, as sunset was drawing on, He was laid in the newly hewn tomb of his stepfather, Joseph.

How can we be so precise about these times? It would be foolish to make such astounding claims without proof. How can we know when these momentous events occurred?

They are written very plainly in the historical accounts of Jesus' death. All historical accounts are either passed down by word-of-mouth, or written in some form. This tale had the benefit of both., For our purposes today, we are going to go with the written account; the account written by man.

We look to the four gospels in the Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These men recorded the words and deeds of Jesus for the benefit of all humanity. All the clues, all the indicators of the dates and times of these events, are scattered throughout the gospels. Other significant tidbits are strewn among other books of the Bible, somewhat like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. When the various pieces are put together with the remarkably complementary (notice I used the word complementary not complimentary ... there is a difference in the meaning of the words ...you may want to look that up) accounts of the gospel writers, the resulting time frame is conclusive.

Is it really important to be able to determine these events so accurately? Christians have lived and died for nearly two millennia. How important was this knowledge to their perceived salvation? Is it even necessary for their perceived salvation? Probably.

In themselves, these dates would be mere trivia if they had no connection to deeper spiritual truths. But this world's Christianity has based two of its most celebrated holidays on its reckoning of the events that occurred during that pivotal week. Good Friday and Easter Sunday, purporting to commemorate Jesus' death and resurrection. They are founded on the assumption that Jesus was crucified on Friday and rose from the dead at dawn on the following Sunday.

Now, the Christian God does not not care to be mocked. He makes it quite clear that he is a jealous God—He will not be worshiped like any other God. When God told his chosen people of Israel how to worship him, He warned them neither to add to what He had given them, nor take away from it, that they were to do exactly as he had told them. They didn't listen, did they?

When they tried to worship Him through the Golden Calf, for example, he was NOT a happy camper. He was tempted to kill everyone, but due to Moses' intervention, he settled for killing only a miniscule portion of his beloved children. He was sending a message, I suppose. The compassion of killing only SOME of his own children is truly wondrous, isn't it? If his children chose to kill themselves through war, that is one thing, but for him to willingly kill them ... well, I see that quite differently.

I don't like it and I do not respect any God who would do such a thing, just because he was irritated. And even today Christians cannot understand why some do not give their God the love they are convinced he deserves. They want that God to be worshiped and for the world to give their lives over to him. With his track record? I think not. That act and others have caused extreme distrust and we have other Gods and Goddesses to worship who are kind and fair when recognizing human failings..

This is not the love of any God I, personally, want in my life ... one who rules by using intimidation & terror. No, I prefer my Gods and Goddesses who rule with common sense and true love. Then again, that is the Pagan in me speaking ...

The story further progresses that Jesus rose from His tomb Sunday morning after being interred Friday evening, There are all kinds of writings within the Bible that I'm not going to even quote, although I'm willing to discuss them if anyone cares to comment about them, but, I just see no point in going through it all. I do not believe in zombies and I do not believe in vampires, hence the eating of the flesh and the drinking of the blood seem rather odd to me.

I have never been the recipient of any explanation that has made sense to me, and so my life goes on..I do not believe that a human body, once dead, can rise to a living state, with all respect to Mary Shelley... Or a form that looks living but is still dead, with all respect to Bram Stoker. Or even the utmost respect to my beloved Anne Rice.

Can we fit three days between Friday evening and Sunday morning? The general belief among Christians is that Jesus meant parts of three days: part of Friday, all of Saturday, part of Sunday. But is that what He said?

One of the most important rules of biblical interpretation is to allow the Bible to interpret itself. The Bible often explains its symbols and defines its terms. Is there a Biblical definition of what constitutes a "day" and a "night"? Study the Bible for these definitions. Ask your pastors. See what they say about it.

Jesus, himself, recognized the twelve hours of daylight to form a "day," and the corresponding twelve hours of darkness He called "night." Thus three days and three nights would be made up of six twelve-hour periods or 72 hours.

This is the same method God uses in the Old Testament—in fact, in the very first chapter of the Bible, "God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. . . . So the evening and the morning were the second day. . . So the evening and the morning were the third day" Here are three days and three nights so clearly defined anyone can understand!

Very handy for reference for the writers of the New Testament which is Jesus' book But ... if God has already been ambivilent about the definition of a day and a night, did he not teach his son? Or did the writers forget to look it all up? I mean, it was right there in the front.

What about the sign of Jonah? Was the prophet in the great fish's belly for a complete 72 hours? The Bible does say Jonah was in the belly of the beast for three days and three nights. We already know "three days and three nights" refers to a 72-hour period. What about the other phrases? Do they mean the same?

So, my Pagan brain comes up with this: Jesus said He would rise on the third day. This narrows that period to on less than 48 hours and no more than 72 hours from His burial. he also said in three days He would rise. The outer limit for the duration of His stay in the heart of the earth could be no more than 72 hours. Two other times it is said that He would rise after three days, neaning he must be in the grave at least 72 hours and not a second less.

Now that we know that Jesus remained dead in the tomb for 72 hours, we can discard the traditional Good Friday—Easter Sunday scenario. It is simply not possible to fit three 24-hour days between them, especially if we are to believe He rose from the dead at dawn on Sunday!

Does this tradition—a dawn resurrection—have any basis in fact? If not, what time of day was Jesus raised?

Matthew, Mark and Luke are very specific about when Jesus died. John records only the time of the crucifixion Luke gives the most succinct report:

"And it was about the sixth hour (when He was crucified) and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.' And having said this, He breathed His last.'

Jesus remained on the cross for three hours before He died "at the ninth hour" Since they were using the Hebrew method of counting the hours of the day from sunrise, the gospel writers indicate that Jesus was crucified around noon and died about 3 PM. They are remarkably unanimous on this point.

Mark continues the account:

'Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus ... And ... he granted the body to Joseph. Then he bought fine linen, took Him down and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.'

Several points stand out in this passage:

'Evening was beginning - at best Joseph had only about three hours before sunset, when the Sabbath would begin. The task of prepariing and applying the spices for burial required work which is expressly forbidden on the Sabbath. Additionally, demands that an executed criminal be buried before nightfall,, and the Jewish law of the time required all dead bodies to be buried before a Sabbath or a feast day. Before he could take the body down, Joseph had to go before Pilate and receive permission. At first, Pilate did not believe Jesus had died so quickly, so he called the centurion of the crucifixion detail to verify it. This delay must have taken at least a half hour. After being granted the body, Joseph went to a local shop and bought several yards of fine linen in which to wrap Jesus. With the help of Nicodemus he then took the body down, wrapped it in the linen - along with about a hundred pounds of spices - and paced it in the tomb.'

With all this activity and work between the various locations, Joseph and Nicodemus must have had very little daylight left when they finally rolled the stone over the entrance to the tomb. On this point all the accounts again concur; sunset was very near.

No one disputes that Jesus was laid to rest at sunset. He was buried for exactly 72 hours.

All four gospel writers mention that Jesus was tried, convicted, crucified and buried on a preparation day. Without any further clarification, one would assume that they meant a Friday, the weekly Preparation day before the Sabbath. But can other days be considered Preparation days as well?

In the Bible, God Himself gave the instructions about the use of the Preparation day to the Israelites before they reached Mount Sinai. The Jews later considered this to be so important that they made sure each of the Holy days, which are also Sabbaths, was preceded by a Preparation day. Since the Holy days can fall on any day of the week, the Preparation day can fall on any day of the week as well.

This is very relevant to the Passover (celebrated on Friday in modern days). Not only is the Passover a festival in its own right, it also functions as the Preparation day for a Holy day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. According to the calculated Hebrew Calendar, Passover can fall on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sabbath.

Just another concept to confuse the issue.

Now, Jesus was crucified on a Passover day. Thus, it was on one of these days of the week that Jesus was killed and buried.

But was the Sabbath in question the weekly Sabbath or an annual, holy day Sabbath? I suppose it depends on who you talk to and their interpretation of the Bible.

John writes, "Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover" The word "Passover" in this context requires some explanation, and again it will depend on who you talk to ... a Jew or a Christian. Or a Pagan. At some time before Christ's day, the Jews had begun calling the day of Passover and the following seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread by the single name "Passover." This has caused great confusion for non-Jews, especially when they read the account of this particular Passover. But John's writing in the Bible should clear up any confusion: John writes that, "Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath." Again, they were pretty strict about bodies hanging on the cross on the Sabbath ... whenever they decided that would be.

Every year as Easter approaches, churches often proclaim on banners, marquees, signs, billboards and television, "He is risen!" It would probably be a good bet to wager that most of the members of these churches have really never studied the section of Scripture from which this quotation comes and its corresponding sections in the other three accounts.

We should not accept the traditional view so easily, and to find the truth, we must return to the story flow. The three synoptic writers (Matthew, Mark and Luke) record that Joseph and Nicodemus had an audience as they prepared Jesus' body. Let us not forget the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was put into the tomb.

If we continue in Luke's account, we get the impression that the women hurried to a spice shop, bought the spices and oils, prepared them and then rested on the Sabbath. I don't know ... did they?

If we are to believe the book written by man, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salomé bought the spices, that they might come and anoint Jesus. Logistically, the sequence of events cannot be otherwise. If Joseph barely had time to bury Jesus' body before sundown, how much less time would the women have had to do all that they needed to do? True, women get things DONE, but still, they can only work so fast.

So the harmonized accounts show that when Joseph took Jesus down from the cross, the women followed him to see where he would place the body. They then returned to their lodging and observed the holy day Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread. The day after the holy day, they went to a shop, bought spices and oil, took them back to their lodging, prepared them for use on the body and then they kicked back and took a rest on the Sabbath. Wait a minute ... another Sabbath?

Now, I'm thinking there were obviously TWO Sabbaths within that 72-hour period. Hmm. curiouser and curiouser ... they rested once on a 'high' day and once on the weekly Sabbath two days later.

This can mean only one thing! Jesus was crucified and buried on a Wednesday, the holy day fell on Thursday, the women prepared spices on Friday and Jesus was, according to the Christian belief, resurrected at sunset on the Sabbath as the day ended! The events cannot be worked out any other way with the plain evidence provided in the Holy Scriptures!

I found the proof of all of this in the two Sabbaths occurring that week However, the Bible's translators, confused by the Greek wording of this verse, have consistently mistranslated it. Of course, it could simply have not been true at all. Perhaps, just perhaps, when Jesus died, he stayed dead, and some very creative writing went into the 66 books of the Bible, and the 450 translations. There may even be more translations of which I am not aware. I believe the Catholic Bible has six more books that the King James version does not have.

The gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke & John, when taken alone, can seem to contradict the conclusions I have reached, because they all seem to have small, yet glaring differences in their telling of Jesus' death and subsequent 'rising.' But when all the available evidence is gathered and considered, they fit in quite well with a Wednesday crucifixion and Sabbath (the actual day is optional) resurrection, not a Friday crucifixion and a Sunday resurrection.. interpretation into them.

The authors of these gospels we have discussed gave us all the pieces of the puzzle we need to construct a clear, precise picture of the timeline of Passover to Easter. And when we have them in the correct order, they tightly interlock like a jigsaw puzzle. Everything fits perfectly when the puzzle is solved. This picture we have reconstructed is only a detail of a larger puzzle tome call 'the truth." Were I a Christian, I would call it "the truth" because it makes sense.

I have purposely left out all except a few of the book, chapter and verses on these specific sources from the Bible. I think it is good to read the Bible, even for those who do not follow its teachings. Although I've read it from cover-to-cover a few times, I have discovered that it is one of those books that is written (probably intentionally) in such a way that it should be consulted for specific reasons. It is important to read it and determine for yourself what it is saying. You may even convert to Christianity if you are not already there.

Read through these four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John and see if you get the same picture I did. I will gladly provide the actual chapter and verse of anything you wish if you feel you need it, just request it in the comments below. Know that asking for one may actually get you several, because this requires putting together a 'picture.' I actually left out some of the wording and concepts that I considered meaningless for my purposes in this blog post, the specific purpose which is to understand why the three days, Friday to Sunday, are of such importance in the Easter weekend holiday.

Or you may see it as more of a book of 'rules' for your life. OR you may realize that there is no true ruler for our lives except nature herself, which is why I am a Pagan. I worship nothing but nature, and I choose to see that nature through the Goddess Hecate, who for me represents the All, the Architect of the Universe. Everyone sees that Ruler differently, but this Bible, this 'book of rules.' just makes no sense ... not to me. There is little consistency.

It all comes down very nicely to the very same concept as Christmas, for me. Christmas is celebrated on December 25th, and the Christians KNOW that Jesus was not born on this day. They consciously KNOW it! Yet, they insist on a ridiculous day to celebrate it? There is no snow, yet scenes of beautiful family snow-covered gatherings are around many of us each year ... well, unless you live in Florida. Even in California, you can get to the snow on December 25th if you want.

So, frankly, my final analysis of all this is that the Easter tale concerning Jesus is as odd as the Christmas one. It just all doesn't make sense. Yet it has carried on for years. Granted there are many Pagan traditions which have also been celebrated down through the ages that may not make sense, but the core value still remains ... Pagans worship something tangible, something we can see each day and watch flourish and grow ... nature. We cannot see a man who died thousands of years ago do the same.

Jesus is dead and he is gone, however wise he may have been. I'm sorry he died, he had a lot left to contribute to his fellow human beings. I believe he had children, and my hope is that he still has descendants even today. But there is ample proof that he was not killed on a Friday and 'rose' a few days later on a Sunday. What I CAN accept is that a wise man's philosophy and teachings lived on through the teachings of a book ... the Bible. But, please, people, don't make him into something he was not and never could have been. Talk about pressure ...!

So ... I'd say color those eggs and let the kiddos run free. Have fun. Scarf the chocolate, saving some for Darkmum, of course.

Worship in any way that gives you the warm and fuzzies, but please do not pretend that Easter is a day of resurrection ... especially that it had to be on a Sunday and could be no other. The point of this blog post was to point out just one of the many inconsistencies in the Holy Bible. Last year I blogged about Easter, sex and Pagans. Perhaps that was more interesting, I'll know after (and if) a few comments come in.

It could be that the sex article held more interest than the Bible, but there actually is plenty of sex in the Bible for me to write about ...

Darkmum

THANK YOU FOR READING DARKMUM'S MUSINGS!