Easter in Tyndale's Bible Before KJV

Some problems with the link you posted:
1. Herod is not the one saying the word. The Word of God is what is saying the word.
2. The Greek word translated "Easter" is translated "passover" in the KJV every single other time it occurs in the NT.
3. The article is anonymous. So how can we check out the author? Could be a JW, or some other cult member.
4. The author doesn't give any sources. So how can we know he is right?
5. The author claims that Paul wrote Acts. Could be a liberal. Conservative authors agree about Luke. "What we can say positivly is that the tradition that Luke wrote the third Gospel and Acts goes back at least to the early second century, that it was unanimously accepted within the church, and that it would be very strange were it not true" (The Expositor's Bible Commentary, "Luke," by Richard Longenecker, p. 240).

I'm not saying I disagree with you, but only that your source is quite questionable.

 

These appear to be the two people behind the website, with one claiming to have “the mantle of responsibility for writing the content.” People Behind Bible Theology Ministries

A brief sketch of some study I have made in the past.

Englishmen had no word for the Old Testament feast of Passover, and identified the New Testament Passover with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what they called Ester or Easter. The English translator Wycliffe used “paske” here, basically transliterating it over from the Greek or Latin. On the other hand, nearly 200 years later when Tyndale translated the New Testament, he chose “ester,”* a word that was in common usage at that time. The word “Passover,” which is current in most modern translations, did not exist at that time. Tyndale himself coined the word “Passover” when he translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into English. Possibly (just a guess and an opinion), he felt that using “Easter/Ester” was taking something back from the New Testament and transposing it on the old. Regardless, he is the source of the word “Passover.”

As translation and language progressed, the use of “Easter” for Passover in the New Testament dwindled. By the time of the 1568 Bishops’ Bible “Easter” is used only twice (Acts 12:4 and John 11:55). With the coming of the King James, “Easter” was left with this one solitary use.

* my count using StudyLight.org is 24 times in 23 verses in the New Testament. If I remember correctly, I included all the related words, such as “esterlambe.”

 

If I am following the gist of this thread, the King James Bible translators did not introduce the mistranslation of the Greek "pesah" as "Easter," that distinction belongs to Tyndale. However, Tyndale also should be credited with inventing the word "passover" currently used to translate "Pesah" and its Hebrew root (H6452).

 

We're in a conference, so I don't have time to write much, but ISBE vol. 2 (rev. 1982) says, "The term Easter was derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'Eostre,' the name of the goddess of Spring." In the 8th century, it began to be applied to the resurrection of Christ (article by D. W. Burdick). Doesn't sound like passover at all to me.

 

William Tyndale translated the New Testament before he translated the Old Testament. William Tyndale had used "Easter" or "ester" in translating the Greek NT, likely from influence of Luther's German Bible. Easter was used by Tyndale as a rendering to refer to the Jewish Passover.

Because this rendering "Easter" was used to refer to the Jewish Passover would not be proof that a Christian celebration called "Easter" existed in the time of the New Testament. It has not been claimed that the KJV pulled the word "Easter" "out of thin air." It is acknowledged to be fact that Tyndale had earlier used "Easter" for the Jewish Passover.

William Tyndale is said to have coined or invented the word "passover" when he later translated the Old Testament. This word may not have been invented in English when he first translated the New Testament or at least this word had not been used as the English name for this certain Jewish feast.
The 1535 Coverdale's Bible had even used "Easter" for the Jewish Passover in a few Old Testament verses.

Ezekiel 45:21 in the 1535 Coverdale's Bible
Upon ye xiiii day of the first month ye shal kepe Easter. Seven days shal the feast contynue, wherin there shal no sower ner leveded bred be eat.

After this rendering "passover" was used in the English Old Testament, the early English Bible translators would soon begin to use it also in the New Testament for the Jewish Passover, replacing the earlier uses of "Easter" to refer to the Jewish Passover.

The 1560 Geneva Bible had replaced all the English NT uses of "Easter" with "Passover" while the 1568 Bishops' Bible replaced most of them, leaving three uses unchanged or uncorrected [two uses at John 11:55 and one at Acts 12:4].

There is some historical evidence from the 1600's that the KJV translators had likely followed the Geneva Bible's rendering "the passover" at Acts 12:4, and that a Church of England prelate or prelates inserted "Easter" back into this verse.

Edward 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 and Death of Mr. Henry Jessey, 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).

 

Oops, right there in the 1560 Geneva Bible:

note at Matt 27:15, "It was a tradition of the Jews to deliver a prisoner at Easter."

 

It should be obvious that my statement was referring to what is in the text of the Geneva Bible, and not to any marginal notes.

 

Just seems that Kjvo is just straining to make sure that easter was not a mistake in translation!

 

treated as a synonym, in 1610 edition of the Geneva Bible:


source

 

Did not the Kjv itself translate is as Passover ever time except this one mistake?

 

So the Kjv team had it correctly rendered as Passover, but got overriden into the mistaken Easter in final revision?

 

There was no Easter at the time of Acts though!

 

Interesting, they also used it in their heading on Deuteronomy 16:1. "Of Easter."

 

A copy can also be found HERE, though not nearly so easily searchable!

John, I am not sure the point you are intending to make. Tyndale was using a similar word they had for a word they did not have. He was not connecting passover to pagan worship.

Though the "pagan origin of Easter" is a common phrase I have heard almost all my life, there are alternative understandings of the history of the word "Easter," such as that posited by Hans J. Hillerbrand (Professor Emeritus of History and Religion, Duke University) at Brittanica.