Wow...
So I post reliable resources and they are called basically insufficent/believeing anything/not reliable....
They're either not reliable, or not entirely relevant to the question at hand. I will go through them individually, so there can be no doubt as to what the problems are.
But those same people like posts that support their position that is simply ones own words, no resource nothing.....
It's hard to provide sources for something that doesn't exist. It's not my job to provide sources that say something did not happen. It's your job to provide sources saying they did.
"The term 'Easter' is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover and the Feast of Unleavens] was a continuation of the Jewish [that is, God's] feast....from this Pasch the pagan festival of 'Easter' was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity." (W.E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White, Jr., Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, article: Easter, p.192)
I've already discussed this in great detail with you, But this source is unreliable. The word Easter has nothing to do with Astarte - it is of German origin (English and German are the only two languages using something approximating Easter - most other languages refer to Easter using a word derived from the Hebrew for passover). Astarte is a Greek word that bears no etymological link to Easter or Eostre. Unger et al also provide no sources for their information, and it is impossible to verify their claims.
Ish·tar : Mythology The chief Babylonian and Assyrian goddess, associated with love, fertility, and war, being the counterpart to the Phoenician Astarte. (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000)
This source is mostly accurate (although the Phoenician would have been something more along the lines of Ashtert - the Phoenician name would have more in common with the Hebrew than the Greek, would have used a very different alphabet). But it's not really relevant to the question of the celebration, or even naming, of Easter.
Tammuz: ancient nature deity worshiped in Babylonia. A god of agriculture and flocks, he personified the creative powers of spring. He was loved by the fertility goddess Ishtar, who, according to one legend, was so grief-stricken at his death that she contrived to enter the underworld to get him back. According to another legend, she killed him and later restored him to life. These legends and his festival, commemorating the yearly death and rebirth of vegetation, corresponded to the festivals of the Phoenician and Greek Adonis and of the Phrygian Attis. The Sumerian name of Tammuz was Dumuzi. In the Bible his disappearance is mourned by the women of Jerusalem (Ezek. 8.14).(The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001)
Mostly accurate, although, again, there's nothing connecting any of this to to the celebration of Easter - certainly, the celebration of Adonia is non specific and did not fall on a particular day, while the celebration certainly does not correspond to the celebration of Tammuz, which was not celebrated at a specific time, and could fall anywhere between March and July, depending on where you lived (all I could find on this was in
Encylopaedia Britannica, so unless you have another source, it'll have to do). Besides that, most of the writing regarding the Adonis festival (particularly the resurrection part) is quite late, post-Christianity and almost certainly post Easter.
"The Adonis images laid out as in death, and the seed garden that never bear fruit, honour him once each year. After the Adonia, he will not make an appearance until the next celebration of the festival (i.e. his death is commemorated each year; only late sources mention a resurrection)." (p. 164, Dillon, M, 'Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion', 2002, Routledge Press, includes further footnotes)
"The term Easter was derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'Eostre,' the name of the goddess of spring. In her honor sacrifices were offered at the time of the vernal equinox. By the 8th cent. the term came to be applied to the anniversary of Christ's resurrection." (International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, edited by Geoffrey Bromiley, Vol 2 of 4, p.6, article: Easter)
Again, the source repeats claims made elsewhere, with no sourcing. There is NO evidence in ANY source from the relevant time period (around 8th century AD) of sacrifices being made to a goddess named Eostre. Bede is the only place this goddess is mentioned, and it is not clear that he is actually familiar with any contemporary worship of her. The ISBD is most likely wrong on this subject, unless they have access to information that no one else does, and conveniently neglect to cite it
In primitive agricultural societies natural phenomena, such as rainfall, the fecundity of the earth, and the regeneration of nature were frequently personified. One of the most important pagan myths was the search of the earth goddess for her lost (or dead) child or lover (e.g., Isis and Osiris, Ishtar and Tammuz, Demeter and Persephone). This myth, symbolizing the birth, death, and reappearance of vegetation, when acted out in a sacred drama, was the fertility rite par excellence.(The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001)
Don't see how this is relevant, because this is very different to the celebration of Easter.
Attis, in Phrygian religion, vegetation god. ...Like Adonis, Attis came to be worshiped as a god of vegetation, responsible for the death and rebirth of plant life. Each year at the beginning of spring his resurrection was celebrated in a festival. In Roman religion he became a powerful celestial deity. (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001)
Again, don't see how this is relevant. How specifically is the celebration of the Attis festival (which, according to the incredibly unreliable and Christian mythicist Frazer in 'The Golden Bough', occurred in late March anyway.) like the celebration of Easter. Simply answering that they both occur in spring is not good enough - I live in the southern Hemisphere, and celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord in autumn.
"The name Easter comes from Eostre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor." (Compton's Encyclopedia and Fact-Index. Vol 7. Chicago: Compton's Learning Company, 1987, p.41)
Compton's is a school encyclopedia for children. They are clearly repeating what Bede writes in his 'De ratione temporum', but it is not clear from that source who this goddess was, what the festivals entailed, whether the month was named after the goddess or the goddess, such as she was, flowed from the name for the month, or even if these festivals were still being celebrated in the 8th century, which is quite a while after Christianity stablised anyway.
"Easter. [Gk. pascha, from Heb. pesah] The Passover ..., and so translated in every passage except the KJV: 'intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people' [Acts 12:4]. In the earlier English versions Easter had been frequently used as the translation of pascha. At the last revision [1611 A.V.] Passover was substituted in all passages but this...The word Easter is of Saxon origin, the name is eastra, the goddess of spring in whose honor sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ's resurrection." (New Unger's Bible Dictionary, article: "Easter")
We've already shown Unger is unreliable, but he is correct the word Easter is of Saxon (Germanic) origin, although he seems to have a different name for the goddess, and again refers to the sacrifices thing for which there is no evidence. The eight century bit is correct, as corroborated by Bede, which is clearly where Unger is getting at least some of his information from, even though he hasn't cited it (or perhaps he did, but you didn't provide the citation)
"It is called Easter in the English, from the goddess Eostre, worshipped by the Saxons with peculiar ceremonies in the month of April." (Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol II, Edinburgh: A. Bell & C. Macfarquhar, 1768, p.464)
What is peculiar about the ceremonies? In any case, nothing here that hasn't been refuted elsewhere, though I'm interested to read that you referenced an eighteenth century Encyclopedia...
"The name of a feast, according to the Venerable Bede, comes from Eostre, A Teutonic goddess whose festival was celebrated in the spring. The name was given to the Christian festival in celebration of the resurrected Eostre, it was who, according to the legend, opened portals of Valhalla to recieve Baldur, called the white god because of his purity and also the sun god because his brow supplied light to mankind. It was Baldur who, after he had been murdered by Utgard Loki, the enemy of goodness and truth, spent half the year in Valhalla and the other half with the pale goddess of the lower regions. As the festival of Eostre was a celebration of the renewal of life in the spring it was easy to make it a celebration of the resurrection from the dead of Jesus. There is no doubt that the church in its early days adopted the old pagan customs and gave a Christian meaning to them." (George William Douglas, The American Book of Days, article: Easter)
This is self evidently wrong - the Germanic gods worshipped at the time of Bede were not the same as the Norse Gods (although some carried over, under different names). Loki simply doesn't feature in Germanic writings, for instance. Eostre does not appear in the Norse pantheon. This article is clearly entirely erroneous, especially as it doesn't refer to any earlier writings.
"The English word Easter is derived from the names 'Eostre' - 'Eastre' - 'Astarte' or 'Ashtaroth'. ... (Richard Rives, Too Long in the Sun)
I shan't bother referring to the rest of this quote, because it's essentially a travesty of history. There is no relation between the words Astarte, Ashtaroth and Easter (the name), simply because, if so, the Greek word for Easter would presumably also be related to Astarte (the Greek work for Ashtaroth), not Pascha (related to the Passover). All languages except English and German use a word for 'Easter' that is derived from the Hebrew for Passover. There is no linguistic link to Astarte (Greek), Ashtaroth (transliterated Phoenician), and Eostre (West Germanic). The cultures were distinct from each other, as are their languages. The whole basis of Rives post is completely questionable.
If you have any better sources, or have the footnotes to the sources you quoted, please, let's keep going.
