Saturday, April 21, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
What Is The Origin of the Name, 'Easter?'
A common teaching exists, that Easter is named after a Teutonic pagan goddess, Eastre or Eostre. This idea originated with the eighth-century, English monk, Bede. Alexander Hislop's, The Two Babylons, mistakenly equated the goddess Eostre with the Babylonian-Assyrian fertility goddess Ishtar, and with the Phoenician fertility goddess Astarte.
"...The annual spring celebration of the resurrection of Jesus was not even called Easter until centuries after Christians began celebrating it, and etymological authorities (those who study word origins) have cast doubt on Bede's accuracy.
* In a footnote in a circa 1850 edition of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, the translator, Isaac Boyle, suggested that "our word, Easter, is of Saxon origin, and of precisely the same import with its German cognate Ostern. The latter is derived from the old Teutonic form of auferstehn, auferstehung, i.e. resurrection."
* The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Books, 1984) article on Easter, after mentioning Bede's account, says it is "more likely" that the word Easter "came from a German root for dawn or east (the time and place of the rising sun)."
The Oxford English Dictionary relates Easter and the east to a common root meaning dawn or morning.
If these are accurate, Easter did not derive from the name of a spring goddess Eastre. Rather, both words came from a root that means "dawn," or "morning/rising/new light," or by extension, "resurrection."
More likely than Bede's explanation, it seems possible that the resurrection celebration was named Easter because the word described the promise of new light and new life brought to humankind by the new-risen Son" (Don Mears, Celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, Copyright © 1997 Worldwide Church of God, Both Author and bibliography cited).
"...The annual spring celebration of the resurrection of Jesus was not even called Easter until centuries after Christians began celebrating it, and etymological authorities (those who study word origins) have cast doubt on Bede's accuracy.
* In a footnote in a circa 1850 edition of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, the translator, Isaac Boyle, suggested that "our word, Easter, is of Saxon origin, and of precisely the same import with its German cognate Ostern. The latter is derived from the old Teutonic form of auferstehn, auferstehung, i.e. resurrection."
* The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Baker Books, 1984) article on Easter, after mentioning Bede's account, says it is "more likely" that the word Easter "came from a German root for dawn or east (the time and place of the rising sun)."
The Oxford English Dictionary relates Easter and the east to a common root meaning dawn or morning.
If these are accurate, Easter did not derive from the name of a spring goddess Eastre. Rather, both words came from a root that means "dawn," or "morning/rising/new light," or by extension, "resurrection."
More likely than Bede's explanation, it seems possible that the resurrection celebration was named Easter because the word described the promise of new light and new life brought to humankind by the new-risen Son" (Don Mears, Celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, Copyright © 1997 Worldwide Church of God, Both Author and bibliography cited).
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Jesus Died for You!
Being this is Holy Week, I would like to present the following:
THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.
At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrist. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.
Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.
Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds.
From common images, we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side... But do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even large nail
hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.
But before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.
He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.
Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest.
All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where His hands were nailed).
Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you can have free access to God.
So that your sins could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation.
JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!
THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.
At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the cross by His hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into His wrist. Not into His palms as is commonly portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself so that He could breathe.
Both of His feet were nailed together. Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could not support himself with His legs because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back then using his legs just to continue to breathe. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.
Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.
Yes, over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds.
From common images, we see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound to His side... But do we realize His wounds were actually made in his body. A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped and an even large nail
hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.
But before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not have survived this torture.
He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.
Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His chest.
All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying His own cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where His hands were nailed).
Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you can have free access to God.
So that your sins could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation.
JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!
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