Featured KJVO: What Improvements Can Be Made...

Have you done enough research to know that there is historical evidence from the 1600's that indicates that the KJV translators themselves did not put "Easter" at Acts 12:4 in their text?

The KJV translators likely accepted or supported the 1560 Geneva Bible’s accurate rendering “Passover.” Just as the KJV translators changed the Bishops’ Bible’s two other uses of “Easter” at John 11:55 to “Passover,” they may have also changed this third use at Acts 12:4. While Tyndale and Coverdale had used the rendering “Easter” several times for the Jewish Passover, the later English translators had increasingly changed this rendering to “Passover.“

In 1671, Whiston indicated that a great prelate, the chief supervisor of the KJV, inserted “Easter” back into the text of the KJV at this verse as one of the 14 changes he was said to have made (Life, p. 49). In his 1648 sermon entitled “Truth and Love,“ Thomas Hill also noted that Acts 12:4 “was another place that was altered (as you have heard) to keep up that holy time of Easter, as they would think it” (Six Sermons, p. 25).

Was the goal of inserting the rendering “Easter” back into the text at this verse in order to present faithfully the meaning of the Greek word in English or was it intended to give the readers a different meaning?

 

Sam Gipp claimed that “no event following the 14th is ever referred to as the Passover” (Answer Book, p. 7). Gipp contended that “the days of unleavened bread are NEVER referred to as the Passover” (p. 7).

Is that accurate, good research?

Is Sam Gipp unaware of what Luke 22:1 states in the KJV? Is Sam Gipp unaware of what Ezekiel 45:21 states in the KJV?

Comparing Scripture with Scripture, Luke, who was also the human writer of the book of Acts, clearly used the Greek word pascha to refer to either the entire period--the one day of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread or as an acceptable name for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Luke wrote: “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover” (Luke 22:1). Along with Luke 22:1, Gipp's statements also ignore Ezekiel 45:21 where the Passover is referred to as “a feast of seven days.” In Ezekiel 45:21, the name “Passover” was clearly used for or used to include the feast of Unleavened Bread, which is a feast of seven days. In Matthew 26:17, the name “Passover” was used for a time described as “the first day of the feast of unleavened bread.” After Jesus and his disciples had already observed the feast of Passover (Luke 22:14-15; John 13:1), the same Greek word was still used for a time when the feast of unleavened bread was in progress (John 18:28).


In Acts 12:3, Luke stated: “Then were the days of unleavened bread.” In the context and considering Luke 22:1, there is no problem with understanding Luke to be using “pascha” in Acts 12:4 as a name for or including the feast of unleavened bread. Thus, Herod could have been waiting for the end of the days or feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover (Luke 22:1).

 

so Passover is the coorect way to translate that into English?

 

The Word "Pascha"....in Greek STILL means "Easter" to this day. There is an entirely different word used if they want to convey what they call the "Jewish Passover".
The word "Passover"...though not technically incorrect, is misleading to the modern reader who tends to think that it is refering to the "Jewish" Passover. It wasn't. Luke was not intending to convey that Herod was waiting until After April 14, that was already over.

Neither was Herod waiting until after some Pagan holiday he called "Easter".
That's not what Luke meant either. He was waiting until after what the early Christians called the "Christian Passover" which was the day they celebrated Christ's Resurrection.
He was waiting until after the same day you and I call "Easter" to this day.

So...to answer your question, it was intended to more excellently and relevantly describe the meaning of the Greek word into English. And to say "Easter" is more precise and frankly, more "modern" in it's meaning than the modern translations' rendering.

You are right....but in order to mean that basic day since "These were the days of un-leavened bread"...."passover" as a rendering requires us to believe that basically Herod captured Peter, AND made that decision within the same 24-hour period. That's an incredibly unlikely scenario, since Luke would have been MUCH better to simply say that "This was the 'Passover' ", rather than "The DAYS (plural) of un-leavened bread." This would be Luke meaning that the day was, in fact, the "Jewish Passover" and he was waiting until the next morning only, to kill Peter. That's VERY un-likely.

 

But NOT the word Luke would have chosen to use, for I doubt easter was in his mind in regards to the feast of that time!

That would be meaning well, but rading back into it a modern viewpoint on what it should have referenced, as a chrsitian would see it now!

 

The Greek word pascha used at Acts 12:4 is the exact same Greek word used in the Gospels that was translated Passover, referring to the Jewish Passover. There is no entirely different Greek word used where the KJV has "passover." The Greek word at Acts 12:4 is the same Greek word that Luke used at Luke 22:1.

Luke 22:1 does not assert that this Greek word refers only to one twenty-four hour day since it had came to be also used to refer to or to include the entire seven days of the feast of unleavened bread.

The pre-1611 English Bibles had used the rendering "Easter" as another name for the Jewish Passover. The 1535 Coverdale's Bible even as "Easter" as its rendering instead of passover in several Old Testament verses.

 

Here was one attempt to improve the KJV

http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=60560