Around this time of the year there are many opponents of the “Perfect Word of God” that say that there is no perfect word because every version has some mistranslations in it. Well, in one point they are correct! Every version (except one) has tremendous amounts of mistranslations. There is only one Bible that does not have one mistranslation in it and that is the “Authorized King James Version 1611.” Though the critics of the “Perfect Word of God” try to double talk a few passages in the Holy Bible, they don’t have a leg to stand on.
One such falsely called “error” is seen in Acts 12:4: “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.” This is the only time in the whole Bible that the word ”Easter? is used. The Greek word here is “pascha” which appears twenty-nine times in the New Testament, and 28 of those time it is translated as “Passover” so the critics start shouting: “Why did the translators of the AKJV mistranslate “pascha” as “Easter?” The answer is simpler then just about anything. They didn’t!
The reason the translators of today say that this should be Passover is because they themselves do not know the Word of God. Now to fully understand why this verse should not read: “intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people” (as it is in all modern versions) we must go back to the first “Passover” when God destroyed all the first born of Egypt in Exodus 12. Here we find that the Passover was one particular day; the 14th day of the month of Abib (our month of April). Then came a week long feast know as the “Days of Unleavened Bread.” This can also be read in Num. 28:16-18 and in Deut. 16:1-8. Here we begin to see the facts start coming together. We read in Acts 12:3 that Peter was taken captive during “the days of unleavened bread.” We know from the verses earlier that the “Days of Unleavened Bread” were a week long event, which followed the day of the “Passover.” Also Easter, as we celebrate, was not know to the early church. The Christian holiday did not come about until after the apostles deaths. However, there was a pagan holiday called “Ishtar” or “Eostre;” thus named for the pagan goddess “Ishtar” (pronounced “Easter”). This was a festival held every year late in the month of April. It was a feast to celebrate the arrival of spring and involved a celebration of reproduction. The pagans would use such things as dyed eggs and rabbits to symbolize the goddess of fertility (sound familiar). If you don’t believe me look it up. In The Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition one reads: “”The name Easter (Ger. Ostern), like the names of the days of the week, is a survival from the old Teutonic mythology[and] is derived from Eostre, or Ostara, the Anglo Saxon goddess of spring, to whom the month answering to our April, and called the 'Eostur-monath,' was dedicated.” It is really important to note that the eleventh edition was the last edition of the Britannica to include theological history.
This is a subject that could be discussed for hours but in just these few words it is obvious that the rendering of ”Easter? in the KJV is not a mistranslation, but rather it is the only logical translation that could have been made. Once again the Holy Pure Word of God stands while all the other versions and all the critics fall. Praise be to Christ Jesus our Great God and only Savior. |
