Why “Easter” in Acts 12:4?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: So I came across this. Can everybody see? Okay, this is not going to be real long, but I came across this video. It's one of these. What's one of the popular kind of videos that are going around the Internet these days on social media are these reaction videos where they'll play a video and somebody's reacting to it and will kind of give a rebuttal or answer it or something like that? Well, I don't care about what he says, although Brother Tim Perry knows him, as I found out, but I don't know him, so I don't care about what he says. It's probably right, but that's not what I want to show it for. What I want to show you is this gentleman on the left is an Orthodox Jew, and he's in Jerusalem, as you can tell, with the dome of the rock in the background. But he's apparently grew up in America because he speaks English like we do. So here's the thing I want you to is you'll hear what this man says, and he criticizes Christians. But what I'll do is I'll play it and we'll pause it at certain times because I want to show you what he says. And hopefully some things that you know from the scripture will come out pretty quickly once you hear him. You ready, Phil? All right. [00:01:17] Speaker B: The other day, I was walking out of the Old city here in Yushalayam through Jaffa Gate, and there were four or five American tourists that were not Jews. They were Christians, and they were handing out brochures to Jews, trying to convert the Jews to their religion. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Well, I would say that's awesome. I don't actually know if that's legal in Israel. But anyway, they were doing what we try to do, right? Passing out gospel tracks. All right, remember, this guy's a Pharisee. Just more nice than they used to be. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Why don't Jews want to convert to Christianity? For 2000 years, Christians have been trying to convert us, and we've refused. They've even expelled us from their countries if we didn't convert. They threatened to kill us if we wouldn't convert. But Jews did not want to convert. They become Christians. [00:02:10] Speaker A: All right, he says we didn't want to convert. AnD when we didn't convert, they would expel us out of their countries or they would try to kill us. Does anybody know what he's talking about? Exactly. Throughout the Dark Ages, Roman Catholicism constantly persecuted the Jews, and the Protestants Constantly persecuted the Jews. To them, the Jews are responsible for killing Jesus. And so they persecute the Jews. Now the reality is, as we've seen Peter himself repeatedly, Stephen says, you are guilty of Jesus'blood, but that doesn't mean you persecute them. Right? And that goes back to what our Lord said personally about the matter. But what he's referring to though is Christian history. You see how that Roman Catholicism and other erroneous teaching has now stood in the place of Biblical Christianity. So these people that are passing out gospel tracks in Jerusalem are not that, but he's associating them. That's what we're dealing with. You see what I'm trying to say here? We, especially as Christians, Bible believing people. But even more, or I should say, and additionally as Baptists, one of the key characteristics of Baptist doctrine is freedom of conscience, which means we don't persecute people because they don't believe like we believe. Right? And that includes the Jews. But see, our name is being tarnished by what non Christians that parade around as Christians have done throughout the years. Okay, that's what he's talking about. [00:03:57] Speaker B: Why? What's so wrong with their religion? They point into the Bible many places and say, you see, this is pointing to them. But what does the Bible really say? What is the main point of their religion? A Jewish man was killed hanging on a cross, hanging on a Pole. And because of his death, they believe their sins are forgiven. [00:04:21] Speaker A: Right? [00:04:22] Speaker B: But what does the Torah say? The Torah clearly says no man will die for another man's sins. The Fathers will not die for the sins of the Sons, and the Sons will not die for the sins of the Fathers. Every man will die for his own sins. [00:04:38] Speaker A: You see here, all right, the Torah is the first, the pitotuch, the first five books of the Bible, okay? Now what he's saying is right. All that he says, he says it correctly. He says a Jewish man died on a Pole on a cross. Okay, that's true. But if Jesus was only a man, then the Torah is right. Of course the Torah is right because it's God's word. But if Jesus is but a man and nothing more, he certainly couldn't die for your sins. But Ari or James'sins or my sins. That's why the Savior had to be God also. He had to be both. If he was not a man, he could not die. He could not stand in the place of a man. But if he was not God, he could not rightly take the place in God's economy of justice to take the place and die in the place of sinners. In other words, the one who renders the Judgment is the One who must die. In other words, it is right. That's what the Torah, what the Old Testament is saying is true. We can't punish Ben for what his dad has done, or vice versa. That wouldn't be right. Ben has his own sins, et cetera. That's why the judge must come down and die himself. And so he himself stands in the place of sinners. That's why it is Imperative not that Jesus is just the Son of God or something like that, but that he is very God. He is Jehovah of the Torah that he's Referring to. You see, he doesn't understand that because he doesn't believe in Jesus divinity. And so because he doesn't believe in Jesus'Divinity, all his other Understanding of Christianity is false. You see that the Western Wall by. [00:06:40] Speaker B: The entrance to the men's side? There's a guard standing there. His job is it to see to the women go to the women's side. The men go to the men's side. Men are to cover their heads with a covering that's provided there. And if anybody is wearing a Cross, they have to hide it put in their pocket. What's so offensive about the Cross? It's the very symbol of their belief. Torah says if a man is executed, he's to be hung on a Pole for everyone to see that he was executed. But before nightfall, his body must be taken down from that Pole. [00:07:14] Speaker A: That sound familiar? Why? [00:07:15] Speaker B: Because a man hanging on a pole is a curse to God. This is what the Bible says. The very symbol of their religion is a symbol of a curse to God. Now do you see why Jews don't want to convert to their religion? [00:07:33] Speaker A: I don't think I could have preached the gospel better than this man has done ignorantly. How many of you have heard that verse that he quoted about he that is hanged on a tree is cursed of God? That's an Old Testament verse, but that's not the only place it's found Jesus. In Galatians, he became a curse for us. We say, yeah, the cross. I'm not a big. I don't wear crosses and stuff like that. But he says, this is why we don't like Jesus, because Jesus, him hanging on a cross to us, he's cursed of God. And we're like, exactly. That's what we're saying. He was in our place. You see, I sent this to a friend today, and I told him, I said, I don't think that I could have given the gospel better than this ignorant Jew, he thinks he's debunking Christianity, but he's actually doing the opposite. So I just wanted to share that with you because I thought it was. You can turn on the lights because it was a blessing. Sometimes I stand up here, Brother Stewart. Pastor Craig, we stand up here and we represent to you what other people believe. And we say, this is what they believe. This is what they say. That's not what that is. That is the man himself saying what he believes as an Orthodox Jew. And sometimes it's really good to just get it from the horse's mouth so you can see it plainly. All right, we're going to look at Acts, chapter twelve. Acts, chapter twelve. We'll start reading in verse one. And we'll read verse one through verse number five tonight. Acts, chapter twelve, verse one. The Bible says now about this, about that time, Herod the king. This is now, just for historical purposes, Herod the king is Herod Agrippa. I mentioned. I'm not trying to bore you, but I have been looking at some of this information. Herod Agrippa. I was actually mentioned by Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived contemporarily with Jesus. All right. Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church. And he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And because he saw it please the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers. That's simply four. A quaternion is four soldiers. So this is four fours. This is 16. To keep him intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him. All right, let's pray together. Lord, thank you for your word that has so clearly been given to us. Thank you for your people. Thank you for the grace of God shown forth in their lives. Thank you, Lord, that you've given us an understanding. Lord, we don't have anything to glory of. Lord, we were in darkness, ignorant, just groping, sinning, alienated from you. But, Lord, you came to where we were to save us. Even like this gentleman quoted, you became a curse for us. Thank you for that, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you would bless this time. As we look at acts and these couple of themes here, I pray for your blessing upon it. Help us all to learn and grow. In Jesus name. Amen you know what strikes me as really sad as I read this, is how to politicians, which I don't think Herod is really a politician, but if we can kind of use that term, how God's people and people in general are just so are used by politicians, used by people in power, and that's what Herod's doing. He's using the power he has for his own popularity. In fact, that's what he was known for historically. He was known for doing whatever he would use his wealth to bribe the Jews to like him to be popular. Of course, the Herods were not. They were vile and ungodly people, but they were kind of a mixed breed of Jew and Gentile, and they were loyal to the Roman government, which is why they were put in these places of power. And yet he just like it's know, harms God's people. And a question might be asked, why James and not Peter? Because of course we know James is killed. And we read about how they prayed for Peter, but we don't read about how they prayed for James. They probably did, but that's just not written. Why one and not the other? We don't really know the answer to that. But one thing we do see is that we see a distinction growing. And we've been seeing, as we've looked through the Book of Acts, we've seen this distinction growing, that even though most of the Christians at this time still are Jewish, they're Jews. Even this gentleman that this Orthodox Jew was talking about, how he recognizes that Jesus was a Jew who died on a cross. So the Christians are Jews at this point, right? They're almost all Jewish Christians, and yet a division is growing. At first, the Christians were meeting in the Temple, and of course, after the persecution started, of course that couldn't happen because they couldn't be out in public like that. And so the Christians could no longer openly go as Christians to the Temple. And so this division starts to grow between the Jew who practices Judaism and the Jew who is a believer in Christ. And it's growing. And that's what you see in verse three. It pleased the Jews. So it wasn't enough that Herod wanted to kill the Christians for some minor political gain. Basically, he's doing it to overtly please the Jews. Now, that means the Jews in this case and I talked about a minute ago, the Jews themselves. The fact that they are pleased with what Herod is doing shows that they are also guilty of James's blood. They are guilty. Now, here's the thing. We talk about, especially with all that's going on in the world, there is a lot of anti Semitism that's happening. That in the media is being totally excused. How many of you have seen this? I mean, people carrying around Palestinian flags saying, from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free. And the question that must be asked in answer to this is, well, what about all the people that live in that space, all the Jews that live between the river and the sea, the Jordan and the Mediterranean? You know what it means for them, right? Annihilation. That's what that term means. Here's the thing. Nobody says anything about that. They're given a pass, all right? So at this time in our world, anti Semitism is high, and it is excused, okay? But the reality is the Jews are, from God's perspective, were. Remember, Jesus was a Jew. Peter, James, John, all of our apostles were Jews, right? All of the early church were Jews. So it's not a racial thing. But they themselves said that they were guilty of the blood of Christ, most prominently, if I can put it like that. And sometimes in Christian circles, people will, in an effort to kind of fit in politically or whatever the prevailing winds are socially or whatever, they'll say, oh, well, we're all guilty of Jesus dying on the cross. And of course, that's true in a way, but it's just because we say that, because we're unwilling to say that the Jews bear responsibility. But they do. They did, right? They said, and it's not just the Jews of that time. What do I mean? They said, his blood be upon us and upon our children. The Lord God Jehovah, the God of the Jews, did not look lightly upon what they did to their Messiah, and he destroyed their nation as a result of it. Now we know that's not the end. And of course, the Jews are not our enemy, just like the Gentiles aren't. As a Christian, how could a Christian be an enemy with a Jew? Our Savior is a Jew, right? Our Bible is written almost entirely by Jews, but this is just a matter of truth. Okay, I'm losing my way here. You got me all distracted. All right. So Herod wanted to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. Note that, verse four. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church and God. For him. We'll look at verse five in a minute. Now, four quaternions, four sets of four. In our day, we would say there were four fire teams. That's what a group of four would be probably called. All right, there were four divisions of the night Watch. As the Romans divided it, there were four. And so, basically, they had four guys at each watch. Two stood by the door. This is just the way people figure. It was probably divided. Two stood by the door, and there was one chained on one side, one chained on the other. And that got me thinking, Peter's in jail, but there's two other guys in jail, too. I just thought that was like, I wouldn't want to be that soldier. You had to stay in jail with the prisoner. That doesn't sound like a good deal, but that's the way it was. Now, what I want to look at, though, is in verse number four. There's two things I want to look at, but the first one's in verse four. But I need some help. I need some help. James, do you have your Bible with you? I know you just came from work. Can you look up one Corinthians, chapter five, verse seven. And Brother Ari, can you look up Matthew 26, verse 18? We're coming to that in a minute, so just hold your place there, if you would. And what I want to look at is, in verse number four, this little pesky word, Easter. This is the only time this word is found in the Bible. Here's what Albert Barnes and I like. Albert Barnes. He's a well known commentary. He's not a commentary. He's a man who wrote a commentary for Brother Mark. Family laughing at me because I called a man a commentary. Here's what he says about this word, Easter. In our Bible, there was never a more absurd or unhappy translation than this. Okay, if you went on the Internet. Don't do this. But if you went on the Internet and you looked up errors in the King James Bible, this is going to be probably in the top five, if not the first, okay? So I want to examine this now. Just put a few things out of the way just to clarify it. Okay? I'm going to read verse four again. 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. Now, we know our Bible was not written originally written in English, okay? So that means it's translated. It was taken out of its original language. In this case, it was Greek for the New Testament and was put into English. Okay? Now, the word underneath our English word Easter is the word that is a Greek word that is found 29 times in the New Testament, okay? 29 times in our New Testament. In our Bible, that word, 28 times out of the 29 occurrences, that word is translated Passover. Okay? It's the word Pasca. Okay? This is the only time in the whole Bible, in the New Testament that this word is translated Easter. Okay? So that's just a matter of fact. That's not disputed. And listen, this has nothing to do with Bible translations. That's just a fact. That's what the Greek word says. And this is what our Bible says, okay? Now, when you deal with Bible translation issues, which I know since I've been the pastor, I haven't touched on this hardly at all. When you deal with Bible translation issues, almost all issues can be boiled down to two issues. Number one is an issue of the text. That is the Greek and Hebrew underneath our English translation. That's the text, or it's an issue of the translation. So one has to do with the text is different, or the other has to do with the quality or choices in the translation. Okay? In this case, number two is what this is referring to. Okay? This is an issue dealing with the translation. Now, here's how it this. All right, first of all, let's make this clear. The word Easter used here. Of course, usually people say Easter in modern meaning. Easter means two things. First of all, in our modern day, we would say Easter Sunday is a reference to a holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Now, I don't think Herod is doing anything based upon a celebration of the resurrection of Christ, right? HE's not planning his schedule to execute Peter around that. So this is definitely not referring to that. That's clear enough. Right? So when he says Easter, it's not that. The other thing that some people say this refers to is a pagan holiday, a pagan holiday that references, like, a fertility God, a fertility holiday. Okay? I have it written in my notes here. It is spelled, wow, put it somewhere. Where'd it go? Oh, I can't find it now. Anyway, I have to get it to you after. So people say it's either the resurrection of Christ, which is definitely not that, or it's a pagan holiday. Now, you got to realize, though, Herod, although he gave kind of lip service to paganism because he's a Roman king, but he's not really Roman, he also gave lip service to Judaism, okay? Now, besides all that, this pagan holiday that sometimes people say, well, this is referring to the pagan holiday, because, after all, why would Herod do anything related to Jesus? Well, the thing is, the pagan holiday doesn't have anything to do with Rome. This is something like from the Celts or something in know, in the British Isles or not. It has no relationship to the Romans at all. So here's what I'm trying to say, is that the meanings that we use for Easter don't fit this at all. It can't be. It just can't be in either one of those cases. So here's the way this usually goes. Some people explain this, and I'm talking about people who use and believe the King James Bible. They'll say something. Thus. All right, they'll say, all right, the translators came to this word, which is the word Passover, but they knew. Now I'm quoting them now. They knew that if they translated this word as Passover like the other 28 times, then it would create a contradiction. Why? Because of verse number three. Verse three says then were the days of unleavened bread. How many of you know the way the Passover and days of unleavened bread happened? Can anybody tell me that roughly? All right, here's what happened. On the 14th day of the first month of the Jewish calendaR, 14th day of the first month, the Jews would go and would get out, all of the leaven out of their house, and they would select the lamb that would be used for the Passover meal. And at sundown, they would kill the lamb, right? You remember? They killed the lamb and put the blood back on the original Passover. Right. In Egypt. And then they would have a meal as their memorial celebration. They would have a meal in that evening, which, after sundown became the 15th day of the first month. Okay, so at that first day, that 15th day, which started at sundown on our 14th day, but it would be 15th for them. That was the first day of unleavened bread. Okay? Then they would have. Counting that day, they would have seven days of unleavened bread. That first day would be a Sabbath, and then the last day, the 7th day, would also be a Sabbath. They couldn't eat any leaven during that whole week. That is the feast of unleavened bread. Jesus died on that day, the preparation day, the 14th day of the first month, right? It pictures the sacrifice perfectly, preparing the lamb, the lamb slain. His blood applied. All of those things match exactly. So Jesus was put in the tomb, and they went home. Remember? They went home and had to rest according to the commandment. Because that day when at sundown it became a Sabbath, the first day of unleavened bread. Does everybody follow? So here's the thing which happens first, the Passover or the feast of unleavened bread? The feast of unleavened bread. Okay, so here's the way it goes. This word Easter cannot be the Passover, even though the Greek word is Passover, because if that were the case, then it would put it out of order because it says the days of unleavened bread were already happening. And so they say, see, now I'm just telling you what people say. So the translators, God led them. I'm quoting now, God led them, then to translate the word, this is Passover to a different word, Easter, referring to a pagan holiday, and by doing so, corrected the text. Okay, that's how the argument goes. Everybody follow me. Does anybody have, anybody see an issue with that? There is an issue with that, just so you know. All right, so I'm just telling you what people say. Now, let's look at it. So if you look up the word Easter in the dictionary, all right, it, of course, has all the definitions we're familiar with the Christian holiday and all that. But here's one of the definitions. Number two, it says this equal. It has the equal sign, Passover. Now, only in the term Jewish Easter or with other contextual indication. And then a quotation in the dictionary I use, they give quotations. Here's the quotation. St. John and St. Philip. This is from the 16 hundreds. Now, St. John and St. Philip, finding it useful to observe the Christian Easter on the same day with the Jewish Easter. Jewish Easter. That was a quotation. So here's what I'm trying to show you is in the dictionary, there are citations in which the word Easter means Passover. That's the definition. I can just state this plainly. So when the translators put Easter, they were putting Passover. That's what the word means. Okay, that's what I want to show you. Now. I'm going to show you this. Brother James, you have first Corinthians five seven, right? Okay, can you read First Corinthians five seven, nice and loud for us? First Corinthians five seven. Purge out there for the old leaven, that you may be a new law as you are unleavened for even Christ our Passover, sacrifice for us. You see it? That's. That same word in this verse is translated Easter. Okay, now I'm going to read you what Tyndale wrote. Now, William Tyndale translated the Bible in English. He was the first Bible translated into English from the Greek text. Okay, here's what that same verse says. Purge therefore. Now, of course, the spelling is all different. I'm not even going to try to make the spelling make sense, but purge therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new dough, as ye are sweet bread for Christ, our Esther Lamb is offered up for us. E-S-T-E-R. Esther, the word EasteR. And that is the word Passover. And he put Easter. All right, Miles Coverdale, who in the line of Bibles that led to the King James Coverdale, was another example. He says, this purge out there for the old leaven that ye may be a new dough. Dough as in, you know, dough, not a deer. Brother Vernon, we're not talking about deer, okay? He was like, where? Like, as ye are sweet bread. For we also have an Easter lamb, which is Christ, that is offered for us. All right, Brother Ari, he's going to look at Matthew 20 618. Read it for us, please, sir. And he said, go into the city to such a man and say unto him, the Master saith, my time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. Pretty plain, right? The word Passover. This is what Tyndale wrote. Now, Tyndale was a Greek scholar. Okay, look, let's get crying out loud. Let's give our translators the benefit of the doubt that they knew what in the world they were doing, right? I mean, please, can we just at least do that? That's what all these lists and stuff, errors in the King James. It's like, come on, man. Like, first year Greek students know what this word means. This is not complicated. They knew exactly what it meant. They weren't just arbitrarily changing it. Okay, all right, here's what Tyndale said in Matthew 20 618. And he said, go into the city unto such a man and say to him, the Master saith, my time is at hand. I will keep mine, Esther at thy house with my disciples. So here's what I'm trying to show you. In the Bibles that led up to the King James Bible, in the line of sound, accurate English Bibles that led up to what we have, it was in common use. In fact, Tyndale almost always used the word Easter in place of Passover in the whole New Testament. Here's what I'm trying to show you. The word Easter means Passover. That's what I'm trying to show you. It's not a pagan festival. It's talking about Passover. Now, when you read that, sometimes people are like, come on now. I mean, I know what the word Easter means. That's why you have to stop and you have to define it based upon its usage in the Bible. Right. And thankfully, we have good dictionaries that point these things out. Okay, so when they got to verse four, again, just as a reminder, I hope I'm not boring everybody. But just as a reminder, any list of Bible errors of the King James Bible, this is going to be one of the top, probably three, okay? If not number one, this is why I'm covering it. Okay? When they came to the word in verse four, Pasca, which means Passover, and they translated Easter, they meant Passover. That's what the word meant in 1600. Okay, now, but that leads to some problems. If that word means Passover, then what do you do about the problem with the feast of unleavened bread? Because remember, the Passover comes before the feast of unleavened bread. But apparently in verse three, the feast of unleavened bread is already in progress. So he's waiting on something that's going to happen, what, next year? No. Okay, so here's the answer to that. In Luke, Chapter 22, who wrote Luke? Somebody tell me. Come on now. Luke, who wrote acts? Luke wrote acts too, right? The same writer, biblical writer. In Luke, chapter 22, if you want to look at it, verse one, Luke, chapter 22, verse one says this. Now, the Feast of Unleavened bread drew nigh. That's familiar. Which is called the Passover. So what did he do there? He just equated the two. Luke, the same writer. Now, why? Here's why. Because the Passover happened at the actual meal, happens at the feast of unleavened bread. It's all one meal. In fact, if you read Exodus, which I've been going through in my Bible, when you read Exodus, the Lord describes those two holidays together. It's like one holiday. It starts the Passover event, starts the holiday, the memorial. But it's one big holiday, and Luke uses the word Passover to refer to it all. So back in Acts chapter twelve, it was already the feast of unleavened bread. And Herod was merely waiting until the holidays were over. That was it. So there's no contradiction at all. He refers to the days of unleavened bread as the Passover. Okay, which is Easter. Okay? So the final thing I want to touch on with this is this. If this one little word in acts twelve four causes so much trouble. Why didn't they just put Passover and be done with it? Why didn't they just put Passover and avoid all these 400 years later, all these people that want to pick at the Bible as a result of this word? Well, they didn't know, but, you know, what I'm saying to them is perfectly normal. All right, now we're going to nerd out a minute, but we're almost done, so just try to stay awake a minute. Okay? I'll tell you why. Because there is an answer. How many of you know what the translators to the reader is? Okay, I'm not going to ask my follow up question. I was gonna ask who's read the translators to the reader? In the King James Bible, the first edition, in addition to the Bible, they also translated the apocrypha, which we know is not scripture, but they translate it, and they put it between the Old and New Testament. But as a part of their translation, they wrote something called the translators to the reader. It was a letter from the translators to all of us to explain why they did what they did. I've read the translators to the reader, and I want to tell you, if there's anybody out here that nerds out, you ought to nerd out on that for a little bit. It's really interesting, but I want to read you one part. Why did they put Easter when they could have put Passover? All right, now listen in. The translators to the reader under the section that says reasons inducing us not to stand curiously upon an identity of phrasing. Here's what it says. Another thing. We think good to admonish thee of general Reader, that we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing or to an identity of words, as some per adventure would wish that we had done. Because they observe that some learned men somewhere have been as exact as they could that way, truly that we might not vary from the sense of that which had been translated before if the word signified the same thing in both places. For there be some words that be not of the same sense everywhere. In other words, there are some words that mean one thing in one place and one thing in another. We were especially careful and made a conscience according to our duty, but that we should express the same notion in the same particular word as, for example, if we translate the word Hebrew or the Hebrew or Greek word once by purpose, never to call it intent, if one were journeying, never traveling, if one were to think, never suppose, if one were one where pain never ache, if one were joy, never gladness. In other words, they're saying, these two words are the same words. They mean the same thing. And thus, to mince the matter, we thought to savor more of curiosity than wisdom, and that the rather it would breed scorn in the atheist than to bring profit to the godly reader. For is the kingdom of God become words or syllables? Why should we be in bondage to them if we may be free? Use one precisely when we may use another no less fit as commodiously. Now, here's what he's trying to say. Here's what he's trying to say. We use different words on purpose. That's all they're saying. Now, Brother Eric speaks Korean, right? I'm not going to make you speak Korean in front of everybody, don't worry. But if you were putting something from English into Korean, there are words in English that don't exactly match, right? And there are words in English that if you put in Korean, you could use two or three different words and be right. Is that correct? I know that's true in Cambodia, that's true in Khmer. There are words where if you were translating from Khmer into English, you might say the word, somebody help me. Somebody help me. Oh, there's all kinds, okay, contra, contra, contra is a basket, okay? But they have a contrine. It's also a basket, and a contrying is a shallow basket, and a contra is a deep basket, like you would see on, like a bicycle or something. Okay? If I said basket, you could put it in either one of those words, and it's exactly right. You see what I'm saying? And the reverse is true. That's the way languages work. And what the translators are saying is we're not stuck on one. So in this one example, they used a different word that means the same thing, Passover, because they wanted to preserve what had been used in previous Bibles, because they're following that godly tradition. Right. That's one thing that makes our Bible so good, is that it's building on itself. Here's what they say. I'm almost finished. We might also be charged by scoffers with some unequal dealings dealing towards a great number of good English words, as it is written of a certain great philosopher, that he should say that those logs were happy, that were made images to be worshiped for their fellows as good as they lay for blocks behind the fire. In other words, you see what he's saying? He's saying, you got two logs and one's made an idol and one's used for wood. And they're like, well, man, they're both good for idols. He says, stand up higher and have a place in the Bible always. And to others of like quality, get ye hints, be banished forever. We might be tax preadventure with St. James of his words, namely to be partial in ourselves and judges of evil thoughts. So he goes, here's what I'm trying to say. I won't read the rest for time, but here's what I'm trying to say. He's saying the reason why we have this characteristic in our Bible, in acts, acts, chapter twelve, they intentionally, in different places, used a variety of various words to say the same thing. You know what the benefit was is that when we see two different words used in different contexts like that, we come to understand what they mean. When you speak in parallel and you say one word one time and one word another time, it helps you to understand the meaning of the words, because you might not know both, but you might know one of the words, and you set that over against the other, and all of a sudden you understand, like, if I were to say. [00:41:34] Speaker B: Those. [00:41:34] Speaker A: That sleep in Jesus shall not prevent them which are alive and remain shall not prevent them which are asleep, right? The word prevent, prevent, in our English language, that means to hinder, right? But in the Bible, it doesn't mean that, you know what? As you read along in your Bible, you'll come across some place in the Bible where it obviously doesn't mean hinder. And it means to go before precede. And so when you see that, you're like, oh, okay, I make sense. But if they had gotten stuck on the Word precede or something like that, you would never know that. So they intentionally used different words. So here's the thing. And the same is true with names as well. You ever noticed that names in the Bible spell different? But that's not just true in English, it's also true in Hebrew and Greek. Joshua. Joshua is Joshua and Jehoshua, right? His name is spelled Two, three different ways. So here's the thing. When we look at Acts twelve four, and we look at the pinnacle verse, the top of the list that says, see, this is what's wrong with the Bible. This is what's wrong with the King James Bible. By looking into it a little more closely, we realize it was done intentionally and it's not incorrect. Now, you might not like it, but it's not wrong. It might not scratch the itch that whatever. But you know what? The translators themselves says there are people that want all the words to be exactly the same. They recognize that and they chose not to do it. That is one of the things that gives our Bible its breadth and its character, that has made it in history the most influential single book that's been written or translated. That's one of the reasons. Does that make sense? Did I explain that? Explain that. Okay. All right. I hope it helped to clarify something. Maybe you didn't even know it was an issue. Didn't even know it was a thing. All right, let's pray.