The Bible

Thought for Today
Dec. 24

ERRORS IN THE KING JAMES VERSION NO. 1 - EASTER

The Word of God is perfect, and if the Bible is the Word of God, then it, too, must be perfect. If errors exist in any translation of the Bible, then that translation of the Bible cannot be the Word of God, for the Word of God is without error. After considering this example of mistranslation in the King James Version of the Bible (KJV), ask yourself whether it or any other version of the Bible is the perfect Word of God.

When Herod saw how much it pleased the Jewish rulers that he had executed James, the brother of Jesus, he decided to be even more aggressive in his cruelty toward those who worshiped the Lord Jesus. A prime target of his wrath was Peter, whom the cunning king arrested. Herod knew how much the community of saints loved Peter, but he did not understand that they would never attack his soldiers at the prison to rescue Peter, and so, to make certain that no one would do so, he commanded that Peter be guarded by sixteen Roman soldiers.

It was in the spring of the year, and there were many Jews crowded into Jerusalem for the Passover. Just a couple of years before, the political leaders of Israel had decided not to arrest Jesus until after the Passover Feast "lest there be an uproar among the people". They knew that Jesus was popular with "the common people" and wanted to wait until most of them had gone home before they took him. And now, Herod, in a calculated political move, decided to bring Peter out of prison into public view only after the Jews had completed their Easter celebration, lest . . . Wait a minute. Easter? Herod was waiting until after Easter? Why, the Christian "holy day" of "Easter" did not exist for hundreds of years after this time, and even then, it took hundreds of years more for Christians to agree as to which day was the right holy one! Herod couldn't have been waiting for Easter; he knew nothing about it, and neither did anybody else on earth.

I had better check my King James Bible again, just to see if I read it incorrectly. hmmm. . . . No, there it is: "And when Herod apprehended Peter, he put him in prison . . . intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people."

The Greek word translated as "Easter" in this verse is the word for Passover; it cannot possibly have been misread as meaning "Easter" by the translators. They intentionally mistranslated a word in this verse to legitimatize their false religion and to make it appear as if the Christian "holy day" called Easter was endorsed by the Bible. This is the only place the word "Easter" occurs in the King James Version, and it should not even be here. God never gave that day, or any other day, to His people to celebrate, as He had given Israel her holy days under Moses. God never gave any holy days to believers in Jesus; this New Testament is in spirit not in the flesh. The Old Testament holy days were used by God under the Law to foreshadow this holy life Jesus made possible for us. There are no holy days in this New Covenant, only holy people.

Paul told the Gentile believers at Colossae not to allow anyone to condemn them for not observing the yearly, monthly, and weekly holy days of the Law of Moses (Col. 2:16-17), saying that they were but "shadows of things to come" in Christ. But in time, when the apostles were gone, Christianity, the "Church", emerged, and with it came "holy days" such as Easter and Christmas. For the translators of the King James Version of the Bible to intentionally mistranslate the word "Passover" as "Easter" was sinful. That wrong translation was inspired by Satan in an attempt to legitimize in the eyes of the readers the "holy days" that he had devised out of his own heart. Unfortunately, with his lovely ceremonies and his flattery of Jesus, Satan persuaded many, even among the children of God, to embrace Christianity as the household of God on earth.

Easter is a not a holy day, and just like the religion of Christianity as a whole, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus. Men just think that it does. And for the translators of the KJV to purposefully mistranslate a verse in the holy Book of God to make it appear that God ordained Christianity and her unholy "holy days" was a wicked thing for men to do.

As I have said, the King James Version of the Bible is the best translation of all translations that I have read. But it is not the Word of God. The Word of God has creative power in it. Whatever it says, is. If the KJV were the Word of God, then when it called a holy day "Easter", then Easter would be a holy day. But it isn't the Word, and it cannot make anything holy. Before you celebrate any day as holy, above all other days, you should find out from God whether He has ever ordained any day as holy in this New Covenant.

The error of Acts 12:4 is an intentional error in translation that was made because the translators were Christians who wanted to make it seem as if their religion of Christianity is in the Bible. The Christian translators of the KJV were translating the text in such a way as to make "Easter" seem to be a sacred thing. That way, when people read that part of the Bible, they would be more inclined to honor Christianity, and the translators' positions would then be more secure.

You can trust your souls to the Word of God. But when it comes to trusting the Bible, as with trusting any product of man's labor, you had best know the truth first. The only way to know the truth is to get in touch with God, so that you can understand the fundamental difference between the symbolic Old Covenant and the New Covenant of real spiritual life.