Easter

Abstract

Abstract It is not known exactly when Christians began commemorating Christ's bodily resurrection, today called Easter in English. Some evidence exists that they commemorated his resurrection already during the first two centuries, and that they called the commemoration Pascha , a Greek term derived from the Hebrew Pesah , meaning “Passover.” The church historian Eusebius in the 4th century states that in about ad 154 Bishop Polycarp from Asia Minor met with Bishop Anicetus of Rome regarding the dispute that existed in the church with respect to when Pascha , as they called it, was to be celebrated. But whether Pascha in the 2nd century included celebrating Christ's resurrection, or just his passion, cannot be determined definitively. However, by the 4th century the term Pascha definitely referred to both the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, the Council of Arles in 314 and the Council of Carthage in 397 both used the term Pascha to commemorate Christ's resurrection.