Bread of Affliction
‘The Days of Unleavened Bread’
by the Watchman Dana G Smith
Easter in the Original KJV!
Acts 12:2 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 to bring him forth to the people.
Simply put, living in the Roman Empire had its advantages and its disadvantages. If you belonged to a new group of the ‘Way’ which followed a Jewish Rabbi called Yeshua, there were problems. The main problem was the Jews themselves who saw that this young Rabbi Yeshua was put to death on a Roman Cross. Then they persecuted his followers who claimed he had risen from the dead. This group became known as the ‘way’. It was this same group a Pharisee name Saul, later known as Paul persecuted the ‘way’ as well. It would be later on this converted Paul followed the ‘way’ as did those he persecuted in his ignorance of it.
Acts 19:23 And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.
Acts 22:4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
Acts 24:14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
In the verse above [Acts 12:4] we find that during the days of ‘unleavened bread’, Peter was taken by King Herod. It is interesting to note here that the only occurrence of Easter in the bible is found in this translation which is the KJV. The word Easter here is a mistranslation because it is the greek, pascha. It is used 29 times in the New Testament. Twenty eight of those times, count it 28, the word pascha is translated ‘Passover’ in the English. But for the translation of the King James, at least for this original version of the KJV, it was translated ‘Easter’. Now in looking at this, I reviewed other translations of the bible: Darby, Young’s literal translation, Webster Bible 1833, and the New King James version, which all had properly translated the greek word ‘pascha’, strongs 3957, as ‘passover’. After all, it was the ‘days of unleavened bread’, which follow Passover. If they mentioned ‘Days of unleavened bread’, they would also use ‘Passover’. The trouble in this translation was the ‘anti-Jewish’ sentiment that ran deep since the time of Constantine. As the church removed all vestiges of the Jewish feasts and celebrations, including sabbath and put in their own. As with most celebrations, the church incorporated, some pagan symbols and practices in the process as well. But that is for another time. It is here that we need to understand the early church and the fact that they kept the feasts, shabbat, and related celebrations commanded by God in the Torah. They were simply following what their Lord had done. Afterall, Yeshua [Jesus] kept all of them, so did the Apostles, and the early church.