With the spring festivities coming up, I just have to say this.  I am sure many of you have heard someone say that the word “Easter” in Acts 12:4 in the King James Bible was an “unfortunate rendering” of the original Greek word for “Passover”, and that the word “Easter” really doesn’t belong in the Bible.  Any time someone corrects the Bible, beware.  It means one of two things.  Either they don’t believe it, or they don’t read it.

Many Bible critics say the word “Easter” should have been translated “Passover”.  The word “Easter” is correct, and I will show you why. The key is Acts 12:3, “(Then were the days of unleavened bread.)”  That seems like a trivial point, but if you regularly read the whole Bible from cover to cover you can’t miss this. Leviticus 23:4-8 gives instructions concerning the Passover celebration and the days of unleavened bread. Read it. The fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar is the Passover.  That day is immediately followed by seven “days of unleavened bread”. Acts 12:3 said, “Then were the days of unleavened bread.”  That means the first day, the Passover, had already taken place!

Acts 12:1-4 tells us that at this time Herod the king had already killed James, and that he intended to have Peter killed also. What was Herod waiting for?  He was waiting for the Easter festival, not the Passover, to take place! The Passover was gone. Easter had been a tradition for him and his religion for many centuries. Easter is and always has been a pagan fertility festival and comes from the word “Ishtar”.  Ishtar comes from the worship of Ashtoreth (1 Kings 11:5 and others), a female deity who was also called Diana in some cultures, ie. Ephesus (Acts 19:28). Easter was (and is) a big celebration and a big deal.  Herod was waiting for Easter to pass, because HE was going to observe it as a heathen GENTILE.  So does Easter belong in the Bible? Yes.  Is it Christian? No.

Easter is not about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It never has been.  It is about rabbits and chicks and eggs, all symbols of fertility. As a pagan festival, it has been mixed with the resurrection. God desires us to worship him in truth. As Christians, we observe the joy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ daily, for without his resurrection we are lost. The next time someone tells you “Easter” doesn’t belong in the Bible, you will be armed with the truth and ready to correct their lazy scholarship.

 “For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (…) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  But now is Christ risen from the dead…” 1 Corinthians 15:16-20 . Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!