Don’t Passover Easter

Just in time for "Easter 2021" I purchased this recent (2020) book -- Don’t Passover Easter: A New Defense of “Easter” in Acts 12:4 by Bryan C. Ross. Ross is a supporter of the King James translation, and also author of The King James Bible in America: An Orthographic, Historical, and Textual Investigation.

As much as we have blathered on about Easter and Acts 12:4 here on the BB, some members should find Ross’s Don’t Passover Easter quite interesting. Some of the most adamant KJV-detractors may not welcome it. However, some KJV-supporters might not either. Ross challenges the more common views that Easter in Acts 12:4 represents a pagan holiday (he interacts with Gipp on this) or a Christian holiday he interacts with an article at KJV Today on this). He sees it as a reference to the Jewish Passover and not a mistranslation. He further rejects

This work can probably be considered “A New Defense” in the sense that no one may have used this explanation in writing in the late 20th and 21st centuries. It is not new is the sense of being unheard of or not previously used. Through good research Ross shows that Easter meant Pascha before there was such a word as Passover in English -- and still meant that in 1611.

While studying Easter, Ross looks at etymology, as well as English Bible translations before the King James translation. One thing that surprised me, because I failed to even consider it, is that the 1557 Geneva New Testament, unlike its successor the 1560 Geneva Bible, uses some form of the word “Easter” 24 times (then Pascal Lambe twice, and Passover thrice).

Want to know more? Read the book. It is brief (78 pages, including appendices), well written, and a little larger than normal type that is easier on old eyes.