The Easter - Ostern Connection

If you study the origins of the English word Easter and the German word Oster(n), you will find that the roots are the same.  I have an interest in linguistics, so this concept fascinates me, and I have found that there are several theories of the origin of these words:

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In 7th-Century England, a monk named Bede (the Venerable) was a scholar who studied and wrote about many subjects to include science, literature and astrology; he also wrote about the topic of celebrating Easter.  He suggested that an Anglo-Saxon goddess named Eostre, who represented spring and fertility, was who Easter represented.  Her celebrated month was Eosturmonath, which corresponds to what we now call April.

Another theory is that the word Easter derives from an older German word meaning east, which comes from an older Latin word meaning dawn.

As Merriam-Webster Editor-at-Large Peter Sokolowski sums it up..., “The basic logic seems to have been: ‘Spring > sun > dawn > east.'”
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There is no doubt that Ester and oster, the early English and German words, both have their root in aus, which means east, shine, and dawn in various forms, according to An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed., s.v. “Easter.” (Walter W. Skeat, 1893).  So, East - sun rising, brighter days, longer days, earlier dawns ... Ester, oster, Spring-time!  Makes sense.

And lastly, some suggest that Easter has its roots in the German word for resurrection Auferstehung.  The older Teutonic version of the German word is a combination of 2 words:  Ester (which meant first) and stehen, the verb that means to stand.  These words combined into erstehen, which in modern German is now auferstehen = to resurrect.

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When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in 1522, he chose to use the word Oster to refer to the Passover as it was celebrated before and after Jesus' resurrection.    English Bible translator William Tyndale used the word ester to refer to the Passover in 1525.  The "a" was added to ester later to make it Easter.

In translations of I Corinthians 5:7, Luther & Tyndale refer to Jesus as the "Easter Lamb":

Luther— . . . Denn wir haben auch ein Osterlamm, das ist Christus, für uns geopfert.

Tyndale— . . . For Christ oure esterlambe is offered up for us

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And that, my friends, is a short (?) study of the connection between Easter & Ostern... You're welcome!  :)