Ever wonder...
Why ham for dinner on "Easter"?
In Genesis, the Bible tells us of a man named Nimrod.
Genesis 10:1 - This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.
Genesis 10:6 - The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.
Cush married a woman named Semiramis. Cush and Semiramis had a son, which they named Nimrod.
After the death of his father, Nimrod married his own mother and he became a powerful King. Nimrod was the ruler and father of Babylon.
It is important to note that the word mighty in Genesis 10:8 can be translated from Hebrew as tyrant. And, the meaning of the word before (as in before the Lord) in Strong’s Hebrew-Greek Dictionary says, "From the Hebrew, ‘paniym,’ the face (as the part that turns); against, anger, battle, forefront, impudent, untoward, upside down." This indicates something more than Nimrod being a skillful hunter. Rather, it portrays him as blatantly obstinate against God. Nimrod waged battle against God for the loyalty of men.
Nimrod became a "god-man" to the people and Semiramis [his wife and mother] became the powerful Queen of ancient Babylon.
Nimrod was killed, and his wife [Semiramis] claimed that Nimrod had ascended to the sun and was to be called "Baal" - the sun god.
Semiramis also claimed that she had become a goddess, and changed her name to Ishtar, which is pronounced "Easter".
Ishtar became pregnant and claimed it was the rays of the sun-god Baal that caused her to conceive. She gave birth to a son who she named Tammuz. Tammuz (like his supposed father) became a great hunter. When Tammuz was 40 years old, he was killed in a hunting accident by a wild pig.
Ishtar proclaimed a forty day period of mourning each year prior to the anniversary of the death of Tammuz - this was called the 40 Days of Weeping for Tammuz.
For 40 days, all of Babylon gave up luxuries of life and refrained from eating meat.
Every year, after the 40 days, on the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox, a celebration was made. It was Ishtar's Sunday and was celebrated by killing a pig (because Tammuz was killed by a pig) and eating the pig on that Sunday.
Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox.
Ishtar's Sunday ham... Easter Sunday ham dinner.
And you may not eat the pig... Deuteronomy 14:8
http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html
http://www.apostolic.edu/biblestudy/files/nimrod.htm
This was really interesting! I did not know this back story at all. I never eat ham, but it was neat to learn the history behind the ritual. Please forgive my ignorance here...but, I know that when the Catholic church came into power, they absorbed many pagan holidays and related them to Christ, to gain their allegiance. I thought that the Lenten period was to represent the 40 days and nights Jesus spent in the desert. Based on the history in the post, it sounds like Lent is one of the "made-up" things of early Christianity? Also, do you know if there is evidence that the Resurrection occurred at a different time of year?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found this post interesting! Yes, Jesus was crucified on Passover, and rose on the 3rd day following Passover - I'm actually in the process of writing about it & will post in the next week or so :)
ReplyDeleteAnd he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer."
Luke 22:15
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival...
1 Corinthians 5:7-8
Jesus was crucified on Passover, and on the third day He rose. Therefore, the "anniversary" of his Resurrection would fall on the third day following Passover... the day He actually rose was the Feast of Fruitfruits, but I will get into that more in my blog post in a week or so :)
Easter Sunday follows the Gregorian Solar Calendar and can fall anytime between March 22 and April 25. The First Council of Nicaea established Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox (the same day as Ishtar). However, Passover follows the Hebrew calendar [which is a lunisolar calendar], and always begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan. Nisan usually falls in March or April on the Gregorian Calendar... that is why some years Easter & Passover can be weeks apart from each other.
Oh, to answer your Lent question... Ezekiel 8:14 says "He brought me to the north gate of the LORD’s Temple, and some women were sitting there, WEEPING FOR THE god TAMMUZ. “Have you seen this?” he asked. “But I will show you even more detestable sins than these!”
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “the real aim of Lent is, above all else, to prepare men for the celebration of the death and Resurrection of Christ… the better the preparation the more effective the celebration will be. One can effectively relive the mystery only with purified mind and heart. *** The purpose of Lent is to provide that purification *** by weaning men from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts.”
Spiritual discipline is certainly a good thing, but no amount of self-denial can make us clean or purify us before God. The Bible tells us that we are purified - cleansed, set apart and made pure in God's sight - by faith in the shed blood of Christ (Heb 9:11-14, Acts15:9)
Matthew 28:19-20 also says "Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations... [20] teach them to obey all the commands I have given you.” Jesus never commanded us to observe Lent, or "Ishtar" :)