Most years, the Greco-Roman calendar and the Biblical calendar run close enough that the observance of Passover and the celebration of Easter seem to be at the same time. Other years, like this year, there is almost a month between Passover and Easter. Yet, if you talk with your average Christian, they will tell you something like Easter is the Christian celebration of the Passover story.
Also, Christians understand this because the Bible explicitly says Yeshua (Jesus) participated in the “Last Supper” (the Passover meal) on the night before His execution, as we read in Luke 22:7:
Luke 22:7 Then came the day of matzah when the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed 8 Now Yeshua sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, so we may eat.”
Then, He was crucified on Passover afternoon at the same time the Passover lambs were sacrificed. It is also clear from Scripture that Yeshua’s resurrection took place during the week of Unleavened Bread, three days and three nights after His death on Passover on First Fruits.
If all of the above is true, and according to the Bible it is, then why is Easter being celebrated a month before Passover, and why is it called Easter instead of Passover? In the Bible, when the crucifixion and the resurrection are discussed by the apostles and disciples, they always call it Passover (the Greek word used is Pascha. Yes, even in Acts 12:4).
For the why Easter is a month before Passover, check out this article by my friend Dr Michael Brown:
For why it began to be called Easter, there are many different thoughts about this change - some historically accurate, some based on faulty history, and some are simply internet fantasy. You can spend many hours digging through all of the different opinions and options where people explain why many Christians call this time Easter, instead of Passover.
However, no matter what reason you accept as the “real reason,” the truth is that there isn’t a good reason, nor a Biblical reason, to call the time of the death, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua Easter, instead of Passover. After all, G-D named the day Yeshua died Passover, and He was buried before the days G-D named Unleavened Bread began, and Yeshua rose again during the time G-D named First Fruits.
These days were called appointed times by G-D and held within them prophetic significance. It was not coincidence that caused the timing of the death, burial, and resurrection to take place at the same dates on the Biblical calendar that the Exodus from Egypt took place. It wasn’t a coincidence that Yeshua died at the same time the Passover lamb died. It wasn’t a coincidence that Yeshua rose again as the first fruit of the resurrection on First Fruits.
Yet, by changing the name and time of these events, the seeds of division between the early believers (both Jewish and non-Jewish and the Church) were planted. By changing the name and dates of the death, burial, and resurrection from Passover, a G-D given Holy Day within the framework of Israel and Judaism, to a new Christian replacement holiday, the body of believers was divided into two separate bodies. One body made up of Jewish believers and those who aligned with the Biblical calendar, and one made up of non-Jewish believers, following a newly established Christian calendar. If the Bible says there is only One Body of believers, why would that singular body divide into two separate groups when remembering and celebrating a single event, especially since there is zero controversy about when the actual event being remembered took place?
It was G-D’s plan that first Jewish people and also non-Jewish people would be able to look at Yeshua’s Passover experience and the redemption provided by the Blood of The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and see directly back to the lambs slain and the blood that was shed to redeem Israel from slavery.
Instead, by changing the name and date of these important events, Christians today have created a celebration entirely disconnected from G-D’s appointed times. The demonstration of arrogance involved in believing it was acceptable to change the name of events that G-D specifically gave in His Word is not the worst thing about separating the death, burial, and resurrection from Passover.
The worst thing is that by changing the name and date and severing the death, burial, and resurrection from G-D’s calendar, much of Christianity had also severed what was clearly intended to be an observance for Israel and the Jewish from its Jewish roots, and made it a stumbling block for the Jewish people to accept their Messiah. G-D intended these events to be an on-ramp to their acceptance of Yeshua.
You see, it isn’t bunnies and eggs that blind Jewish people to Yeshua’s resurrection; it’s the transitioning of a biblical Holy Day into a Christian holiday.
But, we can change this. We, both Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Yeshua, can join together to observe Passover together. Together, we can remember the lambs and The Lamb. Together, we can observe Unleavened Bread and remember the One who was pierced, bruised, and striped, while being without yeast, a symbol of sin. And together, we can rejoice in The First Fruits of the resurrection and our promised future resurrection. Together, we can follow the example of the disciples and observe these events at times G-D appointed, and together, we can call these days what G-D called them. Because according to Romans 11, we are all branches of the same tree, no matter if we are Jewish or non-Jewish believers in Yeshua.
According to Paul, one of the reasons we eat matzah, or unleavened bread, to show symbolically the removal of sin from our homes and hearts. The Bible also tells us that adding to or taking away from G-D’s Word is a sin. Changing a G-D given name and date for a biblical event is changing G-D’s Word. It is adding leaven to the unleavened. This is why, as a believer in Yeshua, I choose to remember and honor Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection during Passover, and why I Passover Easter.