Our Pagan World : The Easter Myth Exposed! : Part 2

OUR PAGAN WORLD -- THE EASTER MYTH EXPOSED! : PART 2

Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Net

Last Updated : July 23, 2006

Easter, Ester, Eastre, Eostre, Estrus, Oestrus, Oistros,
Ostara, Eos, Easter A Sex Goddess, Easter Bunny And Colored
Eggs Legend Exposed, Work Of John Wycliffe, William Tyndale,
Erasmus, Johann Gutenberg's Printing Press, Roman Catholic
Persecution, Tyndale Burned At The Stake Tyndale's 'Ester'
And 'Easterlamb', Tyndale NT And KJV Side-By-Side, Why The
'Easter' Tyndale Translation?, Other Pre-KJV English Bibles,
Ostara + Aurora + Venus + Eos + Aphrodite All Equal Ishtar!

Returning to our main topic, I next consulted my American
Heritage Desk Dictionary, in order to see what it had to say
regarding the word 'Easter'. I was informed that 'Easter' is
derived from the Middle English word 'ester', which in turn
is derived from the Old English 'eastre'. From my previous
research regarding ancient gods and goddesses, I strongly
suspected that with some additional work, I would eventually
find a sexual link to this pagan goddess of the Saxons. It
was at this point that I recalled a word which I had come
across before: 'estrus'. Derived from the Latin 'oestrus',
(one meaning of which is 'frenzy'), and the Greek 'oistros',
the American Heritage Desk Dictionary states that 'estrus'
refers to 'a regularly recurrent period of ovulation and
sexual excitement in female mammals other than humans'. In
American English, we commonly refer to this as an animal
being 'in heat'.

The next step of my investigation took me online, where I
consulted the Encyclopedia Mythica. Upon putting the word
'Eastre' into the search engine, it provided me with the
following results which clarify the issue for us even
further:

----- Begin Quote -----

Ostara

In ancient Anglo-Saxon myth, Ostara is the personification
of the rising sun. In that capacity, she is associated with
the spring, and is considered to be a fertility goddess. She
is the friend of all children; and to amuse them, she
changed her pet bird into a rabbit. This rabbit brought
forth brightly colored eggs, which the goddess gave to the
children as gifts. From her name and rites the festival of
Easter is derived. Ostara is identical to the Greek Eos and
the Roman Aurora.

----- End Quote -----

In a side column, the search engine results also informed me
that alternative names for this pagan goddess are Eostre and
Eastre. It is plain to see then, that just as I suspected
all along, this false pagan goddess of the Anglo-Saxons is
associated with sex and fertility. She is a sex goddess,
plain and simple. A sex goddess has been associated with the
day of the Resurrection of our Lord. How does that make you
feel as a Christian? Does it make you want to continue using
such a word? With the above definition, we have also now
discovered the origin of the so-called 'Easter Bunny', as
well as the origin of the practice of presenting colorful
eggs to young children. Let us take a moment now to review
all of the words we have covered. Even if you are not a
master of ancient languages, it is still easy to see how
these words are all related to each other:

Easter
Eastre
Eos
Eostre
Ester
Estrus
Oestrus
Oistros
Ostara

At this point, I could probably conclude this article; and
based upon the evidence I have now presented, some of you
would be convinced that I have indeed told you the truth
about 'Easter', which I have. But, if I were to stop here, I
would only be giving you part of the story. That is because,
while the Saxons worshipped this false sex goddess 'Ostara',
also known as 'Easter', they were by no means the first ones
to do so. Allow me to draw your attention to part of the
definition provided by the Encyclopedia Mythica. It stated
that Ostara, or Easter, is the personification of the rising
sun. This is a very important point which creates a direct
link to the ancient past. You will also notice that she is
the equivalent of the Roman goddess Aurora.

If there is one thing I have learned about these false
deities during the course of my studies, it is that they
seem to have a tendency to pop up throughout human history.
In different cultures, they may appear under different names
and titles, but they are all the same deceptive demons which
have been tricking humankind for a very long time. In other
words, this demonic deception goes back thousands of years,
as you will see very shortly.

As we saw in part one, according to the explanation given in
Easton's Bible Dictionary, the word 'Easter' was frequently
used as the translation for the Greek word 'pascha' in early
versions of the Bible, before it was correctly replaced with
the word, 'Passover'. As we also saw just a moment ago, the
American Heritage Desk Dictionary informs us that the word
'Easter' is derived from the Middle English word 'ester'.
With these facts in hand, I continued my research. At this
point, we are going to discuss some of the history of the
English Bible, as it will help us to confirm what is stated
in Easton's Bible Dictionary.

As I point out in my article 'History Of The Authorized King
James Bible', the AKJV was not the very first English Bible.
There were in fact a number of versions which were published
before it. Being as I go into considerable detail regarding
this topic in the aforementioned article, I will not discuss
it at length here. The first of these earlier versions was
the hand-written Wycliffe Bible, which resulted from the work
of noted fourteenth century Oxford theologian and philosopher,
John Wycliffe, and his team of companions who became known as
the Lollards. While I would have liked to have seen how John
Wycliffe translated the Greek word 'pascha' in Acts 12:4, that
isn't possible, due to the rarity of the remaining manuscripts.
In fact, it is so rare, that other than an image of the first
page from the Gospel of John, I was unable to find anything
on the Internet during the course of doing my research.

Following the publication of the Wycliffe Bible, another one
hundred and fifty years passed before God's Word once again
became available in English, on a large scale, to the people
of Great Britain. This was a result of the work of sixteenth
century Reformer and martyr, William Tyndale. Like Wycliffe
before him, Tyndale was a Catholic who abandoned his religion
upon realizing the depth of its corruption. Tyndale was an
extremely gifted man. He was fluent in eight languages; and
was a key driving force behind our modern English language.
Similar to Wycliffe, William Tyndale's life-long desire was
to see the Holy Scriptures made available in simple English
to the common man; in this particular case, the Greek New
Testament.

As a result of the work of Dutch scholar and theologian
Dessiderius Erasmus, also known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, who
in 1516, published the very first non-Latin Vulgate text of
the Bible, later to become known as the 'Textus Receptus',
or 'Received Text', as well as the invention of the first
printing press with moveable type by German inventor, Johann
Gutenberg, during the mid-fifteenth century, William Tyndale
was able to fulfill his dream; but it came at a very great
price: persecution, exile, and eventually, martyrdom. In
spite of serious threats from Roman Catholic inquisitors and
bounty hunters alike, working along side of noted fellow
Reformer, Martin Luther, in the German towns of Cologne and
Worms, Tyndale succeeded in printing the first English New
Testament in 1525-26. Please notice that whereas the work
which had been performed by John Wycliffe and his colleagues
was all hand-written, Tyndale's work was the first printed
version of the New Testament.

Given the hatred and arrogance of the Roman Catholic Church
leaders, it should not surprise us that the Bishop of London
sought to confiscate and burn all of the New Testaments which
were arriving from Germany; however, in spite of the bishop's
best efforts, the wonderful flow of God's Word into England
could not be fully stopped. Bishop Tunstal was infuriated by
this. He argued that the Tyndale New Testament was full of
thousands of errors, as they burned hundreds of them which
had been confiscated by the clergy.

The campaign of hatred which was launched against Tyndale
was quite effective. Only two complete copies of the first
printing of his New Testament are known to have survived the
wrath of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. As a result of the
constant persecution Tyndale suffered at the hands of the
Roman inquisitors, he was unable to finish his translation
of the Old Testament. After eleven years of being hunted by
his enemies, Tyndale was finally caught; betrayed by an
Englishman whom he had befriended. He was forced to endure
five hundred days of incarceration, before he was publicly
strangled, and burned at the stake, in 1536. According to
historical records, his last words were to the effect of
'Lord, open the eyes of the King of England'.

Now, despite the mighty work that this man did for the Lord,
and the many lost souls which were undoubtedly reached as a
result of his years of personal labor and sacrifice, due to
what I have now discovered, I must take issue with Tyndale's
translation of the New Testament; or to be more precise,
with his translation of the Greek word 'pascha'. While I am
not in possession of a copy of Wycliffe's work, I do have
what is claimed to be a true, unaltered copy of Tyndale's
New Testament; and in it, Acts 12:4, (the verse where we
find 'Easter' in the AKJV), is translated as follows:

"And when he had caught him, he put him in prison, and
delivered him to four *quaternions of soldiers to be kept,
intending after ester to bring him forth to the people."
Acts 12:4, Tyndale New Testament

As you can plainly see, there is that pagan goddess 'ester',
or 'Easter' if you prefer. Was the usage of this word simply
an honest mistake on Tyndale's part? Was it perhaps just a
one-time slip during a moment of brief distraction? Sadly,
it appears that it wasn't. In fact, I suspect, but cannot
prove, that using 'ester' may have possibly been a result of
the Anglo-Saxon influence in Tyndale's life. Please don't
forget that Tyndale translated the Bible into English in the
German towns of Cologne and Worms, and that Germany was the
home of the Angles and the Saxons, who worshipped the sex
goddess 'Easter', as we saw earlier. In short, Tyndale was
basically in the stronghold of that pagan goddess when he
translated the New Testament, as well as part of the Old
Testament. While I don't know his ancestry, perhaps Tyndale
was even of Anglo-Saxon descent, as are many English and
American people even today. This would easily explain how
the words 'ester' and 'easter' could became a normal part of
the Old English language, and even survive, along with the
pagan traditions associated with them, to our current day.

As I mentioned in part one, the Greek word 'pascha' is used
twenty-nine times in the New Testament. Only one time is it
translated as 'Easter' in the AKJV; all of the other times,
it is translated as 'Passover'. On the other hand, to my
dismay, and in agreement with Easton's Bible Dictionary, I
discovered that Tyndale used 'ester', as well as 'easter',
almost every time, and not just in the verse above. If we
accept Tyndale's translation as being accurate, then the
Jews did not observe the Passover; they observed 'Easter',
or 'Ester'; a word which would have been totally foreign to
them. Similarly, in William Tyndale's New Testament, Jesus
is no longer our Passover Lamb; He is our 'esterlamb', or
our 'easterlamb'.

Following are all of the New Testament verses where Tyndale
translates 'pascha' in this manner. Please note that in his
translation, there are no verse numbers, but only chapter
headings. As I point out in 'History of The Authorized King
James Bible', verse numbers were not introduced until the
Geneva Bible, which appeared twenty-four years after William
Tyndale's death. At any rate, I have added verse references
for the sake of easy comparison with the AKJV. You will also
notice that some verses are followed by a commentary. It is
my impression that these may have been added by the editor
of the document in my possession, for the simple purpose of
clarification, although I could be mistaken:

"Ye know that after two days shall be easter, and the son of
man shall be delivered to be crucified."
Matthew 26:2, Tyndale New Testament

"The first day of sweet bread the disciples came to Jesus
saying unto him: where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to
eat the *paschal lamb? And he said: Go into the city, unto
such a man, and say to him, the master saith, my time is at
hand, I will keep mine easter at thy house with my
disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed
them, and made ready the easterlamb."
Matthew 26:17-19, Tyndale New Testament

*paschal lamb: the lamb sacrificed at the first passover.

"After two days followed *ester, and the days of sweet
bread. And the high Priests and the Scribes sought means how
they might take him by craft and put him to death. But they
said: not in the feast day, least any business arise among
the people." Mark 14:1-2, Tyndale New Testament

*ester: exact spelling; may be Easter

"And the first day of sweet bread, when men offer the
*paschal lamb, his disciples said unto him: where wilt thou
that we go and prepare, that thou mayest eat the ester lamb?
And he sent forth two of his disciples, and said unto them:
Go ye into the city, and there shall a man meet you bearing
a pitcher of water, follow him. And whither soever he goeth
in, say ye to the good man of the house, the master asketh
where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the *ester
lamb with my disciples? And he will show you a great
parlour, paved and prepared: there make ready for us. And
his disciples went forth and came to the city and found as
he had said unto them: and made ready the ester lamb."
Mark 12:12-16, Tyndale New Testament

*paschal lamb: lamb of the first passover in Egypt.
*ester is the exact spelling of Easter?

"And his father and mother went to Herusalem (Jerusalem)
every year at the feast of *ester."
Luke 2:41, Tyndale New Testament

"The feast of sweet bread drew nigh which is called
*ester...Then came the day of sweet bread, when of necessity
the esterlamb must be offered. And he sent Peter and John
saying: Go and prepare us the esterlamb, that we may eat.
...and say unto the good man of the house. The master sayeth
unto thee: where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat
mine esterlamb with my disciples?...And they went and found
as he had said unto them: and made ready the esterlamb...
And he said unto them: I have inwardly desired to eat this
esterlamb with you before that I suffer."
Luke 22:1, 7-8, 11, 13, 15, Tyndale New Testament

"And the Jewes *ester was even at hand, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem...When he was at Jerusalem at ester in the feast,
many believed on his name, when they saw his miracles which
he did." John 2:13, 23 Tyndale New Testament

"And *ester, a feast of the Jewes, was nigh."
John 6:4, Tyndale New Testament

*ester: exact spelling, feast of sweet bread

"And the Jewes *ester was nigh at hand and many went out of
the country up to Jerusalem before the *ester, to purify
themselves." John 11:55, Tyndale New Testament

"Then Jesus six days before *ester, came to Bethany where
Lazarus was, which was dead and whom Jesus raised from
death." John 12:1, Tyndale New Testament

"Before the feast of ester when Jesus knew that his hour was
come, that he should depart out of this world unto the
father: When he loved his which were in the world, unto the
end he loved them." John 13:1, Tyndale New Testament

"Then led they Jesus from Caiphas into the hall of
judgement. It was in the morning, and they themselves went
not into the judgement hall lest they should be defiled, but
that they might eat the paschal lamb...Ye have a custom,
that I should deliver you one loose at *ester. Will ye that
I loose unto you the king of the Jewes?"
John 18:28, 39, Tyndale New Testament

"It was the Saboth even which falleth in the *ester feast,
and about the sixth hour. And he said unto the Jewes: behold
your king." John 19:14, Tyndale New Testament

"Purge therefore the old leaven, that ye may be new dough,
as ye are sweet bread. For Christ our *ester lamb is offered
up for us. Therefore let us keep holy day, not with old
leaven, neither with the leaven of maliciousness and
wickedness: but with the sweet bread of pureness and truth."
1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Tyndale New Testament

*ester lamb: exactly as it appears; this is the Hebrew feast
of sweet bread, and this lamb was offered at the first
passover in Egypt.

"Through faith he ordained the *ester lamb, and the effusion
of blood, lest he that destroyed the first born, should
touch them." Hebrews 11:28, Tyndale New Testament

*ester lamb: this is the lamb offered at the first passover.

Here now are all of the very same verses as they are found
in the Authorized King James Version of the Bible, or AKJV.
As I have been saying all along, the word 'Easter' was only
used one time; and I suspect, but cannot prove, that this
may be simply because the translators accidentally missed
it, and simply forgot to remove it, as they did in all of
the other places:

"Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover,
and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified."
Matthew 26:2, KJV

"Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the
disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou
that we prepare for thee to eat the passover? And he said,
Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master
saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy
house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had
appointed them; and they made ready the passover."
Matthew 26:17-19, KJV

"After two days was the feast of the passover, and of
unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes
sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to
death." Mark 14:1, KJV

"And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the
passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that
we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?...And
wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the
house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I
shall eat the passover with my disciples?...And his
disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as
he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover."
Mark 14:12, 14, 16, KJV

"Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is
called the Passover." Luke 22:1, KJV

"Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover
must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and
prepare us the passover, that we may eat...And ye shall say
unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee,
Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover
with my disciples?...And they went, and found as he had said
unto them: and they made ready the passover...And he said
unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover
with you before I suffer:" Luke 22:1, 7-8, 11, 13, 15, KJV

"And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem...Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in
the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the
miracles which he did." John 2:13, 23, KJV

"And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh."
John 6:4, KJV

"And the Jews' passover was nigh at hand: and many went out
of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to
purify themselves." John 11:55, KJV

"Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from
the dead." John 12:1, KJV

"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that
his hour was come that he should depart out of this world
unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the
world, he loved them unto the end." John 13:1, KJV

"Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of
judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not
into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but
that they might eat the passover." John 18:28, KJV

"But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at
the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the
King of the Jews?" John 18:39, KJV

"And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the
sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!"
John 19:14, KJV

"And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and
delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him;
intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."
Acts 12:4, KJV

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new
lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is
sacrificed for us:" 1 Corinthians 5:7, KJV

"Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of
blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch
them." Hebrews 11:28, KJV

It just doesn't make sense to me, that Tyndale, a man who
obviously loved the Lord; who was completely dedicated to
winning souls to Christ; who was even martyred for the sake
of the Gospel; and who was obviously familiar with the pagan
origin of the words 'ester' and 'easter'; would purposely
choose to use the name of this false goddess in the previous
verses; yet that seems to be precisely what he did. So the
question which arises in my mind is this: Why did Tyndale do
this? Is it, as I said earlier, a result of his possible
Anglo-Saxon heritage?

We know from his life story, that Tyndale's earnest desire
was to reach the common English people with the Gospel. Is
it possible that he felt that they could better relate to
the word 'Easter', as opposed to the word 'Passover'? Is it
possible that he may even have had anti-Jewish sentiments,
such as Martin Luther clearly had, and thus chose to use the
pagan, and more familiar, 'Easter', over 'Passover'? It is
no secret that for many years, the Catholics have had a deep
animosity towards the Jews, and Luther and Tyndale were both
former Catholics. While we can speculate regarding what was
the true motivation behind Tyndale's decision to use these
words, I personally must admit that I honestly do not know
the answer to this question; however, I do feel that
exchanging the word 'Easter' for 'Passover' is a serious
alteration which merits being questioned.

The only other possibility which comes to my mind, (which I
confess has less merit and plausibility), is that perhaps
Tyndale really did use the correct word, 'Passover' in all
of the previous verses, but then someone else, either by
mistake, or possibly even intentionally, exchanged it for
'ester' and 'easter', in order to promote the pagan worship
of the false Saxon goddess, Ostara, or 'Easter'. Can I prove
any of this? Of course not. I am forced to admit that it is
merely speculation on my part. As I already said, I honestly
do not know the answer to this mystery; but regardless, this
seemingly small change has affected us Christians for the
past four hundred plus years, by seriously altering how the
presumed day of Christ's Resurrection is celebrated amongst
Western Christians.

As I mentioned earlier, there were several publications of
the Holy Scriptures in the English language prior to the
appearance of the 1611 Authorized King James Version. In
addition to the Wycliffe Bible and Tyndale's New Testament,
there was also the Coverdale Bible, Matthew's Bible, Great
Bible, Geneva Bible and Bishop's Bible. Again, I discuss
these versions more at length in 'History Of The Authorized
King James Bible'. While I have not been able to look at any
of these other versions, other than the 1599 Geneva Bible
Notes, if we take into consideration the fact that they were
all a continuation of the work begun by John Wycliffe and
William Tyndale, and in fact contain up to ninety per cent
of Tyndale's original work, even without seeing them, I
think that, given the note contained in Easton's Bible
Dictionary, it is relatively safe to assume that they too
may have used 'ester' and 'easter', instead of the correct
word 'passover'. Yet it is equally interesting to note that,
while my search has not been exhaustive, I have not come
across any version of the Bible which was published after
the AKJV, where the word 'easter' is used in Acts 12:4; so
apparently the mistake was caught, and the correction made.

Earlier in this series, I explained to you that these false
gods and goddesses of the past appear throughout the annals
of human history, under different names, and in different
guises. Thus, while the English may have borrowed the Easter
goddess from the Germans, the Germans were by no means the
originators of the same. As we saw in part one, the northern
Europeans, such as the British and the Germans, (who were an
important part of the Holy Roman Empire), merely adapted the
ancient Roman gods and goddesses to their own culture, by
renaming them. In Roman culture, as noted earlier, Ostara,
or Easter, was known as Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, or
sunrise if you prefer. Ostara's attributes were also closely
related to Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In
the Greek culture, Ostara was known as Eos; likewise the
goddess of the dawn; and she was also closely associated
with the Greek Aphrodite, who similar to the Roman Venus,
was also the goddess of love and beauty. In short, all of
these false goddesses, Ostara/Easter, Aurora, Venus, Eos and
Aphrodite, were associated with love, sex, fertility, beauty
and the rising of the sun. Doesn't that seem to suggest that
they were all one and the same deceptive demon posing as
different deities down through history?

Thus far we have traced the origin of the false sex goddess
'Easter' as far back as the Roman Empire, but is that truly
the end of the trail? Quite frankly, no it isn't; so let us
continue with our amazing story.

We've just seen that the Anglo-Saxons of Germany adopted the
fertility goddess Ostara, or 'Easter', from the Roman and
Greek cultures, and that these Germanic peoples viewed her
as the personification of the rising sun. As I mentioned
earlier, this is a rather significant point. If we travel
back hundreds of years in time before the Greeks, we make a
very startling discovery. Within the pantheon of Babylonian
false gods and goddesses, there was a chief goddess known as
Ishtar. Who was Ishtar? To answer this question, let us
consider some excerpts from a few reputable sources. Under
the heading 'Gods, Pagan', the 1986 edition of Nelson's
Illustrated Bible Dictionary has the following to say about
Ishtar. Please note that just as the Germanic, Roman and
Greek deity was viewed as a goddess of love and fertility,
and was closely associated with the sun, so likewise was the
Assyrian/Babylonian goddess Ishtar:

----- Begin Quote -----

The ancient Babylonian and Assyrian goddess Ishtar
symbolized Mother Earth in the natural cycles of fertility
on earth. Many myths grew up around this female deity. She
was the goddess of love, so the practice of ritual
prostitution became widespread in the fertility cult
dedicated to her name. Temples to Ishtar had many
priestesses, or sacred prostitutes, who symbolically acted
out the fertility rites of the cycle of nature. Ishtar has
been identified with the Phoenician Astarte, the Semitic
Ashtoreth, and the Sumerian Inanna. Strong similarities also
exist between Ishtar and the Egyptian Isis, the Greek
Aphrodite, and the Roman Venus.

Associated with Ishtar was the young god Tammuz, considered
both divine and mortal [Ezek. 8:14]. In Babylonian mythology
Tammuz died annually and was reborn year after year,
representing the yearly cycle of the seasons and the crops.
This pagan belief later was identified with the pagan gods
Baal and Anat in Canaan.

----- End Quote -----

The Encarta Encyclopedia likewise has this to say regarding
the sex and fertility goddess, Ishtar, who was associated
with the sun god, Tammuz:

----- Begin Quote -----

Ishtar, chief goddess of the Babylonians and the Assyrians
and the counterpart of Astarte, a Phoenician goddess. The
name appeared in different forms in every part of the
ancient Semitic world; thus it was Athtar in Arabia, Astar
in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), and Ashtart in Canaan and
Israel. The sex of the divinity also varied: Athtar and
Astar were male deities. Ishtar of Erech (in Babylonia) was
a goddess worshiped in connection with the evening star, but
Ishtar of Akkad (also in Babylonia) was a god identified
with the morning star. As a goddess, Ishtar was the Great
Mother, the goddess of fertility and the queen of heaven.

----- End Quote -----

As we continue this series in part three, we will take a
further look at the false goddess Ostara/Easter/Ishtar, as
well as discuss the pagan worship of the Israelites. This
will include explaining the meaning of the Biblical groves;
touching on the topic of pregnancy and childbirth as a sign
of divine blessing; reviewing the symbols of the sex goddess
Ishtar/Easter; looking at the 'star gods' and the host of
heaven; warning of the danger of worshipping the Creation
more than the Creator; remembering obedient King Josiah; and
examining Osiris and Isis, the false gods of the Egyptians.
I trust that you will join me.

Go To Part Three . . .