"Easter" in Acts 12 - a mistake?
John Henry, Th.D. claims to have asked and answered the question, "is the word 'Easter' in Acts 12:4 a mistake?" he waxes eloquently in his article at the end of this document claiming it is not a mistake, but let's further filter his primary assertions though the Word of God.
the translation in question, is the word "pascha" and is of Aramaic origin, adopted by Hebrew and remained the same word even in the Greek text of the New Testament! the Thayer concordance, i believe also backed up by the Strong's Concordance, defines "pascha":
pascha -
1) the paschal sacrifice (which was accustomed to be offered for the people's deliverance of old from Egypt)
2) the paschal lamb, i.e. the lamb the Israelites were accustomed to slay and eat on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan (the first month of their year) in memory of the day on which their fathers, preparing to depart from Egypt, were bidden by God to slay and eat a lamb, and to sprinkle their door posts with its blood, that the destroying angel, seeing the blood, might pass over their dwellings; Christ crucified is likened to the slain paschal lamb
3) the paschal supper
4) the paschal feast, the feast of the Passover, extending from the 14th to the 20th day of the month Nisan
in the Acts 12:4 verse, Pascha is mistranslated to "Easter" in the KJV, was later corrected in the New King James version to "Passover". if the word "Easter" was a correct translation, the original word would have been "Ishtar" or "Astarte", but it isn't. the original word used here is "Pascha" which has only meant "Passover" since the time Exodus was written. remember, God does not change.
one other reason for John Henry's confusion is that he is not taking into account that the statement in verse 3, "(Then were the days of unleavened bread.)", in context is a parenthetical statement rather than a chronological data point. he states:
"Therefore, it is clear that the Easter of Acts 12:4 cannot be the Jewish Passover, because it comes after rather that before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Herod was waiting for his pagan "pascha" (1 Sam. 7:3; 1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings. 23:13; Jer. 7:18; 44:18), rather than the Lord's "pascha" (Ex 12:27; Lev 23:5)."
"Even though some would say that the Jews use the terms "passover" and "the days of unleavened bread" interchangeability, this argument does not hold Scriptural water. The Jews may, but the Bible does not."
but the fact is, the "Jews" still do often inaccurately refer to the Days of Unleavened Bread as the "Passover" in conversation till this day! even John used an inaccurate reference in the BIble when referring to God's Holy days on one occasion that comes to mind:
John 6:4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
however, John knew that the Passover, and all of God's Sabbaths, are Feasts of the Lord, not Feasts of the Jews:
Exodus 12:14 and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
Leviticus 23:4-5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD'S Passover.
regardless, if the writer of Acts was speaking of Herod's "pagan Passover" as John Henry suggests (if there were such a thing), the original word in Acts 12:4 would have been "Ashtaroth", rather than "Pascha", which can only mean the Lord's Passover.
addressing his section labeled, "PETER'S ESCAPE AND HEROD'S RESULTING ANGER", we need to remember that the Pascha (Passover) and the First Day of Unleavened Bread (which is a Holy Sabbath where no labor is performed) fall consecutively.
so if Herod was going to bring Peter forth after the Passover to the people, he would have to wait until after the Days of ULB began, as the "Jews" would not assemble on a Holy High Sabbath.
therefore, Herod would have to had waited until at least the second day of ULB, thus bringing Peter forth after the Passover, and during the Days of ULB.
conclusion: the translation of "Easter" in Acts 12:4 is DEFINITELY a mistake, which was later fixed in the NKJV Bible.
8-)
bernard baruch carman
www.SeedsOfTruth.org
4/2005
•••
i did not make a note of my specific source, but if one does a simple online search it is easy to discover the history of "Ashtaroth", or "Ishtar":
"Asherah" the Greek form of this word from the Septuagint is "Astarte", who is the Babylonian goddess of the sea, sea being symbolic of people, and consort of the god El. She was the mother of several gods, including Ba'al, the Babylonian god of the sun. These deities were soon adopted by the Canaanites when they named these female deities the Ashereh or Asherim.
These deities were made of wood carved from a type of evergreen tree, or often they were set up in Canaanite homes as full trees cut down from a forest (see Jeriamiah 10). The Asherim normally were highly acknowledged during two specific occasions. First and foremost, they were the fertility gods of the spring equinox, when the days and nights were approximately the same in length, signifying the beginning of living things growing for the summer season.
A very common practice in the Canaanite religion was performed on the first Sunday of the equinox. The families would face east to await the rising of the sun, which was the chief symbol of the sun god, Ba'al. Later on during the day, the children of the Canaanite parents would often go and hunt for eggs, which were symbolic of sex, fertility and new life. It was believed that these eggs came from rabbits, which in the pagan world were symbolic of lust, sexual prowess and reproduction.
The Canaanites, however, were not the only ones who worshipped rabbits as deities. The Egyptians and the Persians (Babylon) also held rabbits in high esteem because they believed that rabbits first came from the divine Phoenix birds, who once ruled the ancient skies until they were attacked by other gods in a power struggle. When they were struck down, they reincarnated into rabbits, but kept the ability to produce eggs like the ancient birds to show their origins.
Other stories concerning the egg rose later in the Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, where they believed the origin of the Universe had the earth being hatched out of an enormous egg. Decorating eggs came about to honor their pagan gods and were often presented as gifts to other families to bring them fertility and sexual success during the coming year.
And secondly, they were highly worshipped and celebrated during the winter solstice. As according to Jer. 10:1-5; Is. 40:19-20; 41:7 and 44:9-20, the pagans would go out into the forest and do one of two things. Either they chopped down a tree and carved a female deity out of it, or they would simply bring the tree into the house and decorate it with gold and silver ornaments symbolizing the sun and the moon while nailing a stand on the bottom so it would not totter or tip over.
Out of this practice came many other variations of these pagan festivals until the Roman Catholic Church adopted the Asherah worship and named it EASTER around 155 A.D. According to the CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, Easter was named after a pagan goddess of the Anglo-Saxons named Eostre, the goddess of the dawn.
***
"Easter" in Acts 12:4: Is it a mistake?
By John Henry, Th.D.
INTRODUCTION:
"Modern observance of Easter represents a convergence of three traditions: 1) The Hebrew Passover, celebrated during Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew lunar calendar; 2) The Christian commemoration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, which took place at the feast of the Passover; and 3) the Norse 'Ostara' or 'Eostra' (from which the name 'Easter' is derived), a pagan festival of spring which fell at the vernal equinox, March 21. Prominent symbols in this celebration of the resurrection of nature after the winter were rabbits, signifying fecundity, and eggs, colored like the ray of the returning sun and the northern lights, or aurora borealis." (The Layman's Bible Encyclopedia, Nashville: The Southwestern Company, 1964, p. 204). Clearly these pagan symbols and likewise the pagan goddest Easter (Ishtar or Ostara) should have no part in the celebration of resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
T. H. Brown of the Trinitarian Bible Society erroneously says, "... it seems probable that [Easter] was left inadvertently rather than intentionally, in Acts 12.4." Even humanly speaking, the use of the word "Easter" could not have been an oversight on the part of the KJV translators because they diligently compared it with the former translations. It says this on the title page of the New Testament of 1611: "The Newe Testament of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. Newly Translated out of the Originall Greeke: and with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by his Majesties speciall Commandment." They compared their KJV translation with the translations that had the word "Easter" in Acts 12:4: i.e Tyndale's Bible (1534) the Great Bible (1539) and the Bishop's Bible (1568); and to those which did not have it: i.e Wycliffe's Bible (1382) and the Geneva Bible (1560). There were 47 translators of the KJV organized into six groups, and met respectively at Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford. Eight of the 15 men in the Oxford group worked on Acts. Fifteen general rules were advanced for the guidance of the translators. One of the rules was: "The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the Truth of the original will permit." The Bishops Bible had already eliminated all but 2 of the many places (John 11:55 and Acts 12:4) where the Tyndale and Great bibles had retained the word "Easter." The KJV translators further eliminated John 11:55, but retained Acts 12:4. Other rules of translation stated, "Every particular Man of each Company, to take the same Chapter or Chapters, and having translated or amended them severally by himself, where he thinketh good, all to meet together, confer what they have done, and agree for their Parts what shall stand. ... As any one Company hath dispatched any one Book in this Manner they shall send it to the rest, to be considered of seriously and judiciously, for His Majesty is very careful in this Point." So the word "Easter" in Acts 12:4 was translated and then checked by the other 46 translators from all six translation groups. Therefore, even humanly speaking it would have been next to impossible to have "inadvertently" left "Easter" in Acts 12:4, and we have not yet even mentioned that God's providential hand was guiding in the translation (John 16:13-14; 1 Cor 2:12)
The Greek word for "Passover" is used in about 27 places in the New Testament . In the King James Bible it is translated "Passover" every time, except in Acts 12:4 where it is correctly translated, "Easter". "Easter" is correct in Acts 12.4 because it is not referring to the Jewish Passover, but rather to a pagan passover.
BACKGROUND OF THE WORD PASSOVER:
John Wycliffe produced a hand written English translation of the New Testament from the Latin Vulgate. The Trinitarian Bible Society explains the difficulty involved in the translation of the Hebrew word "pesach" (Passover) into Greek, Latin and then into English:
"This single occurrence of Easter in the Authorised Version as a translation of the Greek pascha, "passover", is an interesting reminder of the problems which have confronted translators of the Holy Scriptures for many centuries. When the scholars ... translated the Hebrew into Greek ... they could find in the Greek language no precise equivalent for the Hebrew pesach, and they decided to adopt the Hebrew word in a Greek form. When the Bible was first translated into Latin the same course was followed, and the Greek pascha was adopted without translation. Centuries later, when Wycliffe translated the Bible into English from the Latin version, he could find in the English language no satisfactory equivalent, so he just gave the Latin word an English form -- pask or paske. ... When Tyndale began his translation of the Pentateuch he was again faced with the problem in Exodus 12.11 and twenty-one other places, and no doubt recognising that easter in this context would be an anachronism he coined a new word, passover, and used it consistently in all twenty-two places. It is therefore to Tyndale that our language is indebted for this meaningful and appropriate word. His labours on the Old Testament left little time for revision of the New Testament, with the result that while passover is found in his 1530 Pentateuch, ester remained in the N.T. of 1534, having been used in his first edition several years before he coined the new word passover."
BACKGROUND OF THE WORD EASTER:
The New Unger's Bible Dictionary defines Easter thusly: "Easter [Gk. pascha, from Heb. pesah]. The Passover ..., and so translated in every passage except the KJV: 'intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people' [Acts 12:4]. In the earlier English versions Easter had been frequently used as the translation of pascha. At the last revision [1611 A.V.] Passover was substituted in all passages but this. ... The word Easter is of Saxon origin, the name is eastra, the goddess of spring in whose honor sacrifices were offered about Passover time each year. By the eighth century Anglo-Saxons had adopted the name to designate the celebration of Christ's resurrection."
The word seems to have originally been used because it identified the general time of year of the Lord's Passover (Ex 12:27; Lev 23:5) which coincided with a pagan festival. The Lord's Passover pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection. Herods pagan passover pointed to an ancient pagan goddess.
There are festivals all over the world, even in Buddhist Thailand, all having to do with fertility that are perversions of the Lord's Passover. They all have their origins in ancient Babel.
The name "Easter" comes from the pagan goddess Ishtar of the Chaldeans and Babylonians. She was introduced into the British Isles by the Druids as Eastre. She is the Biblical Ashtoreth and Diana (Artemis). In other cultures she was known as Astarte, Eostre, Ostera, Isis, Venus, etc., the fertility goddess, the moon goddess. Writing around 1910 Alexander Hislop says this about Easter: "Easter is nothing else than Astarte, ... , the queen of heaven (Jeremiah 7:18, 44:17-19, 25)., whose name, as pronounced by the people of Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country [Britain]. That name as found ... on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into Britain, along with the Druids, 'the priests of the groves' [1 Kings 18:19] ... From Bel, the 1st of May is still called Beltane in the Almanac [Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanac, 1860], and we have customs still lingering ... which prove how exactly the worship of Bel or Moloch (for both ... [are] the same god) [Jer 19:5] ... had been observed [including burnt human sacrifices] ..." If Baal was thus worshipped in Britain, it will not be difficult to believe that his consort Astarte was also adorned by our ancestors ... [April being called by] our Pagan ancestors ... Easter monath. ... The forty days' of abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, 'in the spring ...' is still observed by ... Pagan Devil- worshippers of Koordistan, who inherited it from ... the Babylonians. ... About the end of the sixth century, the first decisive attempt was made to enforce the observance of [a forty day Easter Lent by Rome] ... [In Britain] the attempt met with vigorous resistance. The difference ... as observed in Britain by the native Christians, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome ... was a whole month; and it was only by violence and bloodshed ... that the Festival of the Anglo-Saxon or Chaldean goddess came to supercede that which had been held in honor of Christ. Such is the history of Easter." (Hislop, The Two Babylons, pp. 103 - 105, 107)
Dr. William C. Martin writes: "Modern observance of Easter represents a convergence of three traditions: (1) The Hebrew Passover, celebrated during Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew lunar calendar; (2) The Christian commemoration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, which took place at the feast of the Passover; and (3) the Norse "Ostara" or "Eostra" (from which the name 'Easter' is derived), a pagan festival of spring which fell at the vernal equinox, March 21. Prominent symbols in this celebration of the resurrection of nature after the winter were rabbits, signifying fecundity, and eggs, colored like the ray of the returning sun and the northern lights, or aurora borealis. (The Layman's Bible Encyclopedia, Nashville: The Southwestern Company, 1964, p. 204).
HEROD'S BACKGROUND AND EASTER:
The Herods of the Bible were Edomites, not Israelites. The Herod of Acts 12 was Herod Agrippa I. He was half brother of Herodias, who had her daughter asked for John the Baptist's head (Mark 6:22-25). Agrippa was educated in Rome with Claudius and Tiberius' son. He was politically minded and sought alliances in Rome to undermine Herod the tetrarch. He gained the favor of Gaius (later known as Caligula), and when he became emperor, he made Agrippa king of the provinces of Syria, and Abilene in 37 AD, and in 39 AD he gained Galilee, and later Judaea and Samaria in 41 AD. He died in 44 AD at Caesarea at age 44, being "eaten of worms" after accepting divine acclamation and honor from the people (Acts 12:21-23; Josephus, Antiq. xix 8, 2) (cf. Davis Dictionary of the Bible).
As a politician Agrippa please the Jews using the pretense of their religion, while at the same time taking part in pagan festivities in the Gentile areas of his realm. It was his political expertizes, not Judaism, that led him to "... vex certain of the church ... [and] to take Peter..." (Acts 12:1-3). It was "because he saw it pleased the Jews" (Acts 12:3).
Herod Agrippa could not have been waiting till after "the LORD'S Passover" (Ex 12:11, 27; Lev 23:5) to "bring [Peter] forth to the people" (Acts 12:4), because Passover had already passed and they were already in "the days of unleavened bread" (Acts 12:3). No, Herod was waiting till after the pagan "Easter to bring him forth to the people" (Acts 12:4).
As Edomites the Herods and their people had long associated with the false gods of the Babylonian mystery religions (2 Chron 25:14; 20). But peradventure Agrippa, as an Edomite, did not know the gods of his land then surely his education in Rome would have acquainted him with Astarte, the Roman name for Ishtar or the Biblical Ashtoreth (Jud 2:13; 10:6, 1 Sam. 7:3-4). It is interesting to note that "Ashtoreth" (meaning: star) is "the goddess of the Zidonians" (1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings. 23:13). It was to Caesarea that Herod retreated after the Angel freed Peter. Caesarea is only about 80 miles from Sidon or Zidon, and less than 20 miles from Mount Carmel where Elijah defeated 450 "prophets of Baal" and 400 "prophets of the groves" in the days of King Ahab and Jezebel in a contest to see whose God was greatest. Note where Jezebel was from and what gods she served:
1 Kings 16:30-32, 18:19: "... Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him. And it came to pass ... that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. ... the prophets of Baal ... and the prophets of the groves ... eat at Jezebel's table."
The prophets of the "groves" (asherah) were prophets of Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians and consort of Baal whose idol was worshipped in the groves. Notwithstanding, the Jews also had their star god called "Chiun" (Amos 5:26) and "Remphan" (Acts 7:43) who was associate with Moloch to whom babies were sacrificed by fire, a perversion of the sacrifice of Christ for our salvation. It is very interesting that Ishtar, Easter or Astarte is called "Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians" in the Bible (1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings 23:13). The name "Easter" originally comes from this same pagan star goddess. She was introduced into the British Isles by the Druids as Eastre. In other cultures she was known as Astarte, Eostre, Ostera, Isis, Venus, etc., the fertility goddess, the queen of heaven.
There little doubt that Herod was familiar with the false goddess called variously, Ashtoreth by the Zidonians, Ishtar by the Babylonians, Astarte by the Romans, and the Remphan of the Jews. All these names mean star.
Just as the time of the false goddess Easter's annual festival once represented the general time period of the Passover in England, so likewise the "paskhah" (passover) in Acts 12:4 represented the general time of this pagan festival. In many parts of the world there are similar fertility festivals dedicated to bring in good crops and to the fertility of man and beast with the help of the queen of heaven that fall in this general time period. The context of Herod's Easter in Acts 12:3-4 demands that this is not the Jewish feast of the passover, because it says, "Then were the days of unleavened bread" (Acts 12:3). Therefore it must have been a pagan corruption which came some days later. Note: Almost all false religious teachings are corruptions of the truth.
THE TEXT AND THE CONTEXT:
Note the passage of Scripture in question in context: "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." (Acts 12:1-4)
Now, "the days [plural] of unleavened bread" (Acts 12:3) come after "the day [singular] of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed" (Luke 22:7; cf. Ex 12:5-8). The day of unleavened bread or "Passover" is observed on the 14th day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar (Lev 23:5), whereas the seven days of the "Feast of Unleavened Bread" are observed from the15th to the 21st of the first month of the Hebrew calendar (Lev 23:6). Passover is a feast distinct from and before the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and Passover in the context of our text had already passed.
Therefore, it is clear that the Easter of Acts 12:4 cannot be the Jewish Passover, because it comes after rather that before the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Herod was waiting for his pagan "pascha" (1 Sam. 7:3; 1 Kings 11:5, 33; 2 Kings. 23:13; Jer. 7:18; 44:18), rather than the Lord's "pascha" (Ex 12:27; Lev 23:5).
Even though some would say that the Jews use the terms "passover" and "the days of unleavened bread" interchangeability, this argument does not hold Scriptural water. The Jews may, but the Bible does not. The Bible is precise in this passage and else where for a reason. It is to show that it is not the Jewish Passover. I do find where the Passover is called unleavened bread (Matt 26:17; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:1, 22:7; Ex 12:18), but no where in Scripture is the Feast of Unleavened Bread is called Passover. Passover is a feast distinct from the feast of unleavened bread . Passover is only a one day feast that is held on the fourteenth of the first Jewish month (Ex 12:5-6; Lev 23:5; Num 9:5, 28:16). The feast of unleavened bread is a seven day feast that begins the next day on the fifteenth (Lev 23:6; Num 28:17) Although modern Jews do call the whole eight days passover, this terminology is not Scriptural.
"Even though the Jewish passover was held in mid April (the fourteenth) and the pagan festival Easter was held later the same month, how do we know that Herod was referring to Easter in Acts 12:4 and not the Jewish passover? If he was referring to the passover, the translation of 'pascha' as 'Easter' is incorrect. If he was indeed referring to the pagan holyday (holiday) Easter, then the King James Bible (1611) must truly be the very word and words of God for it is the only Bible in print today which has the correct reading." (Samuel Gipp, The Answer Book, Shelbyville, TN: Bible and Literature Missionary Foundation, 1989)
To this Dr. Thomas Holland agrees where he says, "the context [of Acts 12] would confirm such a conclusion. Verse three of this chapter states that Peter was taken during, 'the days of unleavened bread.' The next verse then speaks of 'Easter' in the King James Version. If the word is translated as "Passover," we have a problem because the Days of Unleavened Bread come before the Passover. In the Biblical use of the term, Passover came before the Days of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:1-8, 15, 19; 13:7; Leviticus 2:11; and Deuteronomy 16:4). We have a problem with these verses if Passover follows the Days of Unleavened Bread. However, the problem is solved when we see that "pascha" means more than "Passover" as has been shown above. Peter was held under Roman guard by a king who was appointed by Roman law and influenced by Roman customs. Contextually, it would seem that this "pascha" which followed the Days of Unleavened Bread was not the "pascha" (Passover) which preceded the capture of Peter. Instead, it ... refer[s] to the Roman celebration of Ostara, hence called "Easter."
"The NASV gives the impossible and therefore inaccurate rendering 'Passover' in Acts 12:4. According to Scripture, Herod killed the Apostle James and intended to kill Peter, whom he had captured during the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. After the pasca (NASV 'Passover;' KJB 'Easter') Herod planned to kill Peter. The OT declared the order of events for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, requiring that the Passover fell on the 14th day of Nisan and the Feast of Unleavened Bread followed on the 15th through 21st days of Nisan (Lev. 23:5-6; cf. Ex. 12:3 ff.). Luke could not possibly be referring to the Passover following the Feast of Unleavened Bread, contrary to the dictates of the OT and context, but must be referring to Herod's 'Easter' (Ishtar worship) holy day. Passover is a translational error in the NASV, NIV, RSV, and NKJV." (Dr. Thomas Strouse, Sound Words from New England, Vol. 2., Issue 1, June-August 2001, Emmanuel Baptist Theological Seminary, Newington, CT)
PETER'S ESCAPE AND HEROD'S RESULTING ANGER:
One last item of evidence from Acts 12:19-20: "And when Herod had sought for him [Peter], and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode. And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king's country.
After Herod had "killed James the brother of John with the sword .... because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also .... intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." (Acts 12:2-4)
However, after the angel of the Lord helped Peter to escape (Acts 12:6-11), and he missed a great political opportunity to please the Jews. It is abundantly clear that Herod was very upset at this, because he had Peter's guards executed and "was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon."
Why did those of Tyre and Sidon come with one accord to Herod desiring peace? Why did they fear loosing Herod's support for their country? Why was Herod so "highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon"? Could the reason for Herod's sore displeasure with them of Tyre and Sidon have been because "Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians" (1 Kings 11:5) had failed to keep Peter till after Easter so he could fulfill his political goal of pleasing the Jews? Did the Sidonians fear loosing the support of Herod because their goddess, Ashtoreth (cf. Astarte, Eostre, Ostera, Isis, Venus, Easter) had let him down?
CONCLUSION:
Passover is a feast of unleavened bread just as the seven day feast that follows it is, but the feast of unleavened bread is never called Passover. Scripturally Passover may be called "unleavened bread" but "the Feast of Unleavened Bread" is never called Passover.
Originally the occurrence of pagan Easter was used as general time reference so the people could relate to Passover. This is reflected in English Bibles prior to the KJV that used the Catholic / Druidic term "Easter" to refer to the Passover / Resurrection.
In 1525 William Tyndale translated "pascha" into English by using the word "Ester," because it had been associated with the resurrection of Christ since the 500's. Almost a thousand years before 1525 the Druid term had been adopted by the Catholics and forced on the believers of Britain. Nonetheless it was a term accepted in Tyndale's time for Passover. Tyndale clearly differentiated the Easter of the Druids from the Lord's Passover in his translation with phrases like "esterlambe" (Matt 26:19), and "the Jewes Ester" (John 11:55), etc. However, he later coined a new word, "passover," most likely because he saw the pagan connotation the word Easter. In Tyndale's time he could legitimately use "Ester" while God was preparing the English language for the 1611 translators, and then the word was expunged everywhere except the proper place, Acts 12:4.
The Greek New Testament transliterates the Hebrew word now known in English as Passover 29 times. In the KJV it is translated "passover" every time except at Acts 12:4. That is the only place, I believe, that it does not speak of the Lord's Passover, but rather of Pagan Easter, and is therefore correct.
***