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Originally Posted by victorbravo  Quote:
Originally Posted by C. Matthew McMahon I'll fix the typo on Socrates. That was my fault. Yes, should be "BC."
No, I wasn't kidding. Easter, or Ishtar, or Astarte is definitely not Christian.
Yes, you can copy it.
Your welcome! | Wait Matt! That quote was from the 5th century AD Socrates! The church historian referenced above. |
Matt, I have had enough problems keeping my sources straight (particularly when they have the same name), that your mental hiccup is quite understandable and pardonable (particularly after all of the good stuff you have researched and provided on your web site). Victor is correct. Socrates Scholasticus (aka Socrates of Constantinople), a fifth century A.D. person, wrote
The Ecclesiastical History, in seven books. His work is contained in Schaff, P. (1997).
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series Vol. II. Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories.
Actually, Socrates mentioned Easter 56 times in his history. His bottom line on the subject is as follows:
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Neither the apostles, therefore, nor the Gospels, have anywhere imposed the ‘yoke of servitude’ on those who have embraced the truth; but have left Easter and every other feast to be honored by the gratitude of the recipients of grace. Wherefore, inasmuch as men love festivals, because they afford them cessation from labor: each individual in every place, according to his own pleasure, has by a prevalent custom celebrated the memory of the saving passion. The Saviour and his apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast: nor do the Gospels and apostles threaten us with any penalty, punishment, or curse for the neglect of it, as the Mosaic law does the Jews. It is merely for the sake of historical accuracy, and for the reproach of the Jews, because they polluted themselves with blood on their very feasts, that it is recorded in the Gospels that our Saviour suffered in the days of ‘unleavened bread.’ The aim of the apostles was not to appoint festival days, but to teach a righteous life and piety. And it seems to me that just as many other customs have been established in individual localities according to usage. So also the feast of Easter came to be observed in each place according to the individual peculiarities of the peoples inasmuch as none of the apostles legislated on the matter. And that the observance originated not by legislation, but as a custom the facts themselves indicate.
Schaff, P. (1997). The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series Vol. II. Socrates, Sozomenus: Church Histories. (130).
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