


I have not seen this book, though I have had several people quote it in 
support of some tendentious assertions they were making, so I have become 
curious about it.

I don't want to malign this Hislop fellow, whoever he may be, as I have only 
heard the arguments at second hand, but both of the arguments seemed to turn 
on false etymology that SEEMED to be derived from Hislop.

I would be interested in knowing more about these things. 

The first one claimed that the word "church" was derived from the Greek 
"cyclos", and that it was therefore related to the worship of "Circe".

I don't know if Hislop is the source of this assertion, but it does seem to 
be based on false etymology.

The second claimed an etymological relationship between "Ishtar" and 
"Easter", which seemed to be even more fanciful and far-fetched than some 
of the wilder notions of the British Israelites.

Regarding the latter, as far as I have been able to find out, "Easter" is 
derived from the old English name for April - "Eosturmonath". The Venerable 
Bede mentioned that this was associated with a goddess called "Eostre", but 
apart from that reference I have not been able to find out anything more 
about her. It also seems that the term "Easter" is only used by the English 
and those they evangelized. The Germans, for example, also use the term 
"Ostern", but Germany was evangelized by English missionaries.

So I would be interested in any evidence of "Easter" being used for Pascha 
by people who do not have any kind of connection with the ancient Anglo-
Saxons and their offshoots. Such evidence might support the claims of those 
who appear to derive the theory from Hislop.



