T. H. Brown 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, [in 1382] 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. ... [Then in 1526 when] Tyndale applied his talents to the translation of the New Testament from Greek into English, he was not satisfied with the use of a completely foreign word, and decided to take into account the fact that the season of the passover was known generally to English people as 'Easter', notwithstanding the lack of any actual connection between the meanings of the two words. The Greek word occurs twenty-nine times in the New Testament, and Tyndale has ester or easter fourteen times, esterlambe eleven times, esterfest once, and paschall lambe three times. ... 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." [2]
Brown erroneously states, "... it seems probable that [Easter] was left inadvertently rather than intentionally, in Acts 12.4." [2] Even humanly speaking, it would have been extremely unlikely that "Easter" in Acts 12:4 would have been an inadvertent mistake, let alone the divine providence of God superintending His Word. This is true because the translators diligently compared their translation of the Greek with the former English translations. The title page of the New Testament of 1611 says: "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, who met respectively at Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford. Eight of the fifteen men in the Oxford group worked on Acts. There were fifteen general rules that 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 instances (John 11:55 and Acts 12:4) of the many places where the Tyndale and Great bibles had retained the word "Easter." The KJV translators further eliminated John 11:55, but retained it in 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 by eight men and the translation agreed upon by the eight and then sent to be checked by the other 39 translators from all six translation groups. Therefore, it would have been next to impossible to have "inadvertently" left "Easter" in Acts 12:4, and with God's providential hand guiding in the translation it was totally impossible (John 16:13-14; 1 Cor 2:12).
