Easter or Resurrection Sunday? Further Thoughts!

Easter or Resurrection Sunday? 

Is Easter in the Bible?

A better question: Should Easter be in the Bible?

Yes it is in the King James Version, but no, the King James translators made the mistake using the exiting name of the pagan festival instead of translating the Greek properly.  I have been on a personal crusade to stop using “Easter” and promote replacement of it with “Resurrection Sunday.”  In studying the crucifixion timeline, I learned the King James translators took the original Greek word pascha and mistranslated it with the word Easter in Acts 12.

CHAPTER 12

¹ Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. ² And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. ³ And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) ⁴ 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^a to bring him forth to the people. ^[1]

Here is Strong’s Concordance description of the word.  Of the 29 occurrences, 28 times “Passover” is used.  In newer translations, ESV and NKJV, “Passover” or “Feast of Unleavened Bread” is used.

3957 πάσχα [pascha /pas·khah/] n n. Of Aramaic origin cf 6453; TDNT 5:896; TDNTA 797; GK 4247; 29 occurrences; AV translates as “Passover” 28 times, and “Easter” once. 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. ^[2]

So, what of my crusade?  I am continuing with it.  To me and mine it will be “Resurrection Sunday”

We will not refer to the resurrection of our Lord by a pagan title.  Who could that please?

We will not think on bunnies and eggs.

We will not awake to see the sun rise on the spring solstice.

We will worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus with honor, humility, and truth!

Praise the Lord that the tomb is empty!

---

^a Easter: Gr. Passover

^[1] The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S. Ac 12:1-4

n n: noun or neuter

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament

TDNTA Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume

GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger

AV Authorized Version

^[2]Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario : Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996, S. G3957