Acts 12:4
KJV
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.
NIV
After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
“Passover” was still a new word in 1611, coined ~80 years earlier by William Tyndale. Instead of Passover, English speakers literally said “Easter” and phrases like “Easter lamb” and “the Jews’ Easter.” After Tyndale, Passover quickly replaced Easter in the O.T., but it was more of a gradual process in the N.T. (e.g. The 1568 Bishops’ Bible still said “the Jewes Easter” in John 11:55). But Passover never replaced “Easter” here in Acts 12:4 because Easter was (and still is) the feast of the resurrection. In Acts 12:4, Christ was already risen. Easter is the Christ-honoring translation, and it had nothing to do with a pagan festival in 1611 (the erroneous link to Ishtar appeared ~250 years later). In a 1611 sermon, KJV translator Lancelot Andrewes preached: “That Day, the destroying Angel, (I am sure) past over You, and so, it was truely the Feast of the Passeover… ‘This is the day’ of the Passeover, This is Easter-day, the day of the Resurrection.”
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