“When he had seized him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.” (Acts 12:4 NET)
“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)
I recently read an “explanation” from Samuel C. Gipp defending the King James Version’s rendering of pascha as “Easter” instead of “Passover,” clearly committing the anachronistic and historical fallacy.
The fact is the KJV translators mistranslated this term. Luke’s reference to the days of unleavened bread in the previous verse makes it unmistakeably connected to the Jewish passover, not to the pagan festival of Ishtar (Easter), for Herod was familiar with Jewish customs and possessed a political desire to “please the Jews” (v.3). White has some other remarks on this in The King James Only Controversy (pp. 233-4).
It is a lamentable sight to see such men defend an early 17th century English Anglican version of the Bible as inerrant. It is not a perfect translation, nor will there ever be one. God has indeed preserved his Word in the multiplicity of manuscripts, not in a single English translation. (Butler gives us his anecdote with G.A. Riplinger..)
