The Statement: First, lets make one thing clear right up front; Easter is NOT the LORD's Passover. Easter has nothing to do with God or anything Holy. Easter is a disgusting pagan festival associated with fertility and false god worship which came down from the ancient times, long before the Christian or Messianic era. Easter, it just so-happens, it was celebrated in the Spring close enough to the LORD's real Passover that the enemy of God was able to use the ole "bait and switch" on many who now think they are honoring the resurrection of our Lord when in actuality they participating in one of the most un-holy holidays of the year.

The Question: Why then did the KJV translators use the pagan term "Easter" in Acts 12:4? Were the translators confused or did they make a mistake or is there some reason why they intent ally chose to use the word "Easter" or “East-err” that is associated with false god worship? The translators did not use the word "Easter" any where else except in Acts 12:4; but why here? 

Easter is NOT the Lord's Passover. Easter is a pagan festival which came down from ancient times, long before the Christian era. Why then did the KJV translators use the pagan "Easter" word in Acts 12:4? Were the translators confused or is there a reason why they chose to use the word Easter in this one and only place?

The Greek word which is translated "Easter" in Acts 12:4 is the word "pascha". Pascha appears twenty-nine times in the New Testament. Twenty-eight of those times the word is translated as "Passover" in reference to the night when the Lord passed over Egypt and killed all the firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12:12), thus setting Israel free from four hundred years of bondage.

Many claim that the King James Version has serious 'errors' in it. The most quoted 'error' concerns the use of the word Easter in Acts 12:1-4. The original word, these believers maintain, should have been translated as Passover - not Easter! No scholar doubts the fact that Easter is a pagan festival which came down from ancient times, long before the Christian era.

Some say the word should only be translated as Passover and not Easter and the KJV is in error. Did you know, the KJV is not alone in translating this word as Easter? The Tyndale 1525, Bishop’s Bible 1568, Coverdale 1535, Matthew’s, Cranmer, the Great Bible (which preceeded the KJB), Mace's New Testament 1729, and Martin Luther also translated this word as Easter, and The Geneva New Testament (the Pilgrims Bible) first published in 1557 all read "Easter" in Acts 12:4.

Acts 12:1-4 Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) 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.

Noticing above that Peter was apprehended with-in the days of unleavened bread meaning that the LORD’S Passover has already been observed, the Passover has come and gone, it is over.   The proper sequence of events during Passover explains some facts.

• The first Passover event occurred in ancient Egypt beginning with the killing of the lamb in the evening as the 14th day of Abib (Nisan) began. The Passover, which is on this same evening of the same Hebrew calendar date each year is well known and is recorded in Exodus chapters 11 and 12. When Passover is past, then begins the days of unleavened bread.              
• After the Passover is over begins the seven days of Unleavened Bread. The seven-day feast (described in Lev. 23) begins at the close of the 14th of Abib (after Passover), on that evening that begins the 15th (the 1st day of unleaven) and finishes on the evening as the 21st of Abib ends (the 7th day).

• This whole week is sometimes referred to as the Passover week: but, strictly speaking, its proper name is Week of Unleavened Bread as described in the Torah and also witnessed in Ezra

Ezra 6:19-22: "And the children of the captivity kept the Passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel."

The events, as recorded in Acts 12:3-4, were said to have occurred during the days of unleavened bread and it is even “parenthesized.” According to the word of God, if you are in the days of unleavened bread, then the Passover in that particular year is passed: it is history: it is over. Why, then, would Herod wait for an event that had already passed? Surely Herod knew when the Jews observed the Passover and that it had passed since the days of unleavened bread were in progress.

What, then, was Herod waiting for before releasing Peter? Herod was Roman. Would he pay more attention to one of his own feasts or a “Jewish” feast? It is well known that Romans worshiped many gods trying to cover all the bases to keep the gods happy. One of their major pagan god worship was the days of lent (Tammuz worship) that ended with Easter which is really Astarte or Ishtar worship, the Queen of Heaven (Jer. 7:18 and Jer. 44:18-25).

This is a brief description of the sequence for this Babylonian origin abomination that was observed centuries before the events recorded in Acts.

The pagan holiday Lent: The weeping for Tammuz is an ancient Babylonian pagan holiday called Lenten. Palm Sunday, started what they called "Holy Week." This so called “Holy Week” was the final week of Lenten (weeping for Tammuz). On Palm Sunday the priests of Cybele (goddess) would carry pine or palm trees through the streets. This holiday was originally known as the "Festival of the Entry of the Tree" (later renamed Palm Sunday). Good Friday (originally called the “Day of Blood”) at the end of the final week of Lent and is 2 days before the pagan Easter Holiday. The 40 days of Lenten (weeping for Tammuz) finally ends at the close of Saturday (the day after Good Friday). The next morning at sunrise is the Babylonian Easter Sunday.

Was this what Herod was waiting for, the Roman Easter holiday to come and go - just as the King James Version says? The KJV translators combined knowledge of Hebrew and Greek and the vast amounts of manuscript evidence were all used to arrive at every word in the King James Version, not to mention all their previous counter parts who also used the same “Easter” word in the same verse. Are we, whose knowledge of these languages is microscopic by comparison, challenging everyone’s judgment? The fact is, if they were in the days of unleavened bread, and the scriptures record they were, Passover had then come and gone: he was waiting for Easter just as the KJV says. We can be confident that the translators of the KJV knew full well (as did the Tyndale, the Bishop’s Bible, the Coverdale, Matthew’s, Cranmer, the Great Bible, Mace's New Testament, and the Geneva Bible), why in this passage they rendered the word 'Pesah' as 'Easter' and not 'Passover' as at the other twenty eight times.

Conclusion: "Easter" is Not a Mistranslation in the KJV. The word, "Easter" has rather been incorrectly translated as "Passover" in all Bible versions except for the authorized King James Version. In the passage Acts 12:1-4, King Herod killed James and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he took Peter DURING the DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD AFTER PASSOVER and was going to bring him forth to the people AFTER Easter.