The Gospel Passovers and Paul’s Confirmation
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and 1 Corinthians
The New Testament CANNOT solely be used to prove which day, the 14th or the 15th, that the Passover was on, as no numerical day is mentioned in the Passover passages in the New Testament. The foundation laid down in the Old Testament MUST be used to figure out which day each of the four gospel writers and Paul considered to be the correct day. As discussed in the previous section on the Intertestamental period, the Sadducees had been keeping a 14th Passover up until 7 C.E. until the Pharisees took over the leadership of the temple. So we have a clear possibility that the Gospel writers were unclear which day Yeshua was going to keep compared to when the Pharisees were keeping it, AND, when the symbols were changed that night, this was certainly new to them….”What else is He going to change?”, they might have been asking themselves.
Mt 26:17: “Now the first of the unleavened bread (leaving out the italicized words), the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?” V18: “…Go into the city to such a man…I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples.” Matthew says that they asked Him where toprepare for Him to eat the Passover…and He tells them how He has already arranged it.
Mk 14:1: “After two days was the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put to death. V2: But they said, Not on the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.” This first phrase “…After two days was the passover, and of unleavened bread:”could imply a 24 hour break between Passover and the keeping of the first holy day of the feast, which would have been the 15th, IF Mark was confused about which group they were following, the Sadducee time (14th) or the Pharisee time (15th). OR, Mark was relating exactly what the Pharisees did do (writing retroactively), even if he did know that the 14th was the proper holy day.But v2 gives a clue: Not on the feast…so this indicates that the Pharisee time reckoning was being used by Mark, as they took Him, crucified Him before their feast began at sunset on the 15th.
Now, notice this: Mark DID know (at least retroactively, later when he wrote these things down, possibly having learned them from Peter) that the first day of UB WAS the Passover…!
12: “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, (See Dt 16:4) his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover?” Notice that the highlighted passage HAS NO ITALICS, so there are no added words that translators added to enhance the meaning. The word “first” (G4413: protos…foremost (in time, place, order or importance): before, beginning, best, chief, first (of all), former). Now, by the question that the disciples asked, it’s clear that this was probably on the late afternoon of the 13th, before dusk, when the lamb had to be killed. Practically speaking, it could have been between 3 and 5 p.m., giving them (Peter and John) time enough to get to the house and follow His orders.
Note: If you are still of the opinion that the 15th is the first day of UB, then this phrase may not convince you. The lambs were being killed by the priests at the temple (following the example set hundreds of years earlier, of Hezekiah and Josiah), at about the same time that our Savior was being killed, taking all afternoon of the 14th because of the thousands of people there. This, then, can still mean probably late afternoon of the 14th, as the 15th Passover holy time was fast approaching. But, (as I will show in the parallels between the OT and the NT passages on the Passover at the end of this section) this doesn’t match with Viewpoint 2, but it does match with Viewpoint 3, that the 14th is the first day of unleavened bread, which is what Mk 14:12 clearly says.
And IF you believe Viewpoint 2, that the Passover that Yeshua kept on the beginning of the 14th, the nighttime, was the genuine Passover, then you have a major problem with this phrase in V 12 AND the OT passages we’ve elucidated earlier. If, however, you believe the Neo view (3), which we established in the Old Testament, then everything fits…the Passover is, indeed, the first day of UB, with the nighttime portion of the 14th being when the physical lamb was eaten by the disciples with our Messiah (at that point, He hadn’t died yet, so the OT laws still had to be followed [see Mt 5:17…the OT laws are to still be followed]. He changed the physical ordinance to spiritual symbols that night, and then the daylight portion was when our holy Lamb was slain, right about the time that the Levites were killing the lambs AND the bulls during the holy convocation portion of the Passover holy day. If you still believe in the unholy “time-gap” between the Passover service and the nighttime meal we have called “The Night To Be Much Observed” at the start of the 15th, it’s very hard to reconcile V 12 above.
Lk 22:1:“Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.”
Lk 22:7: “Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must (G1163: it is/was necessary) be killed.” From our study of Passover in the OT, the day was the 14th when it had to be killed, at the beginning of the 14th, not the 15th.V8: …”And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat.” V 10: “…there shall a man meet you,…” This implies that this was a prearranged meeting set up by Yeshua. “bearing a pitcher of water;” Maybe Yeshua knew He needed to teach His disciples a lesson in humility, so He even planned ahead to wash their feet? Or, knowing that a lamb was going to be killed, water to wash away the blood? Both are certainly possible. V11: “And ye shall say unto the goodman(G3617: the head of the family: householder, master) of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber (G2646: dissolution (breaking up of a journey), that is,…a lodging place: guestchamber, inn) where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? V12:And he shall show you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.” This reminds me of renting a motel room at the Feast of Tabernacles in these times. The head of household reserves a room or lodging to keep the feast in. Upon arrival, the reservationist knows in advance which room you are to check into. i.e. arranged in advance. In this case, Yeshua sent a couple of his most trusted disciples, Peter and John (v8), possibly to oversee the killing and beginning of roasting the lamb, as Yeshua had already seen to it that the goodman of the house had prepared the upper room…?
So, was this just a goodbye meal that He was having with His disciples? It’s clear that He said it’s the Passover! (V8,11)
Next, the John passages are the only ones in the New Testament that use the phrase(s), “the feast of the Jews, etc….and also don’t give us a clear separation regarding the day in which the Passover fell.
Jn 12:1…6 days before the Passover,….v12…the next day”…5 days before WHICH Passover reckoning was being used, the 14th, or the15th? Can be researched later…
Jn 13:1,2:Now before the feast of the Passover…” (G1859: heorte: a festival-feast, holy day…in the New Testament, this single Greek word is used for “feast”, unlike the Old, which uses at least 4 different words to specify distinct meanings), Also, “before” (G4253: A primary preposition; “fore”, that is, in front of, prior (figuratively superior) to….above, ago, before, or ever. Continuing…v 1, “…when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.”
Notice the probable gap in time between verse 1 and verse 2…”And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon …to betray him;” Verse 1 can be referring to several hours or even a day before the night of the Passover…and verse 2 shows a complete neglect of mentioning the setup for that night, and starts with AFTER supper…John wrote his gospel later than the synoptic Gospels, or at least had the opportunity to edit his writings long after some of his fellow disciples had died.
While John doesn’t give us a clear numerical day, there are indications (See Part III) that he knew and kept the 14th as the first (holy)day of UB…John is the only Gospel writer that distinguishes what “feast” he’s talking about…
Verses in John that indicate the “Jews” feast vs. the synoptic gospels, indicating that John notes a difference between what Yeshua kept and what the Jews were keeping.
Mt 27:62 “Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,…”
Mk 15:42 “And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,…”
Lk 19:14 “And that day was the preparation of the Passover, and the sabbath drew on.”
Jn 19:31 “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
Jn 19:42 “There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day, for the sepulcher was night at hand.”
…the Jews preparation…
There are those who believe John’s chronology of the Passover that Yeshua kept with His disciples contradicts what the Synoptic Gospels say. Some of that misunderstanding centers around the misunderstanding or ignorance of the parenthetical statement in Jn 19:31: “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and…they might be taken away.” If they don’t understand about the 7 holy days of Lv 23, which can occur on any day of the week, instead of the regular 7th-day Sabbath day, they automatically assume that this “high day” was the weekly Sabbath. And then they generally assert that the Jews considered ANY part of a day as counting for a whole day. This way they can justify a Thursday or Friday crucifixion, Saturday in the tomb, and rising on a Sunday morning, parts of 3 days.
Yeshua gave only one sign ahead of time, not His disciples, but to the scribes and Pharisees, “an evil and adulterous generation”… the sign of Jonah
Mt 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s bell; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
(Notice, He knew the difference between night and day…
In Jn 11:9: “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyman walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”)
Jonah 1:17
But if He was in the tomb for a full 72-hour, 3 days and 3 nights, His burial had to have occurred on a Wednesday by sunset, and the resurrection would have occurred at sunset as the (weekly) Sabbath ended. Notice that an earthquake happened when He died, and also when He came back to life! Because He didn’t give a second sign (that He would be 3 days and 3 nights), we must dig into history to figure out which year this happened, so that we can have a Tuesday night Passover service, a Wednesday afternoon crucifixion, a Wednesday/Thursday dusk burial, and then 72 hours later, a resurrection at dusk as the weekly Sabbath came to a close.
Another possible misunderstanding that would keep the truth obscured is understanding which year would have had a Wednesday crucifixion…I believe it was 30 C.E. (See Fred Coulter’s exposition on this topic in “The Holy Bible in its Original Order”); some believe it to be 31 C.E. Those two years, from what I understand, are the only possible years that match the criteria for a Wednesday crucifixion. Those who believe in a Friday crucifixion prefer 33 or 36 C.E.,…beyond the scope of this study.
There are a few options that can reconcile any misunderstandings between John’s account and the Synoptics:
Option 1) Jesus kept His own personal Passover with His disciples, a day earlier than what the Jews kept.
Option 2) The Qumran calendar places the Passover on Tuesday. Also, it could have been early if using the Sadducean calendar.
Option 3) the Last Supper was not a Passover meal. It was just a farewell meal for His disciples, not the Passover service spoken of in Ex 12.
But the Gospels indicate it was: Mk 14:12,14,16, 18, 22; (cpEx 12:8). The cumulative evidence supports the claims made in verses 12,14, and16, etc. that the disciples prepared a Passover meal and that the external forms of the Passover were observed at the meal itself. Verse 18 “And as they sat and did eat,…” V22, “And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brakeit, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.” (We’ll see Paul instructs the exact words from this passage and Lk 22:19, and in 1C 23:24)
In the OT, the “Passover “doesn’t always refer to the paschal or Passover lamb, but to the “chagigah, the paschal sacrifices (lambs, rams, goats and bulls) which were offered throughout the festival week. (Dt 16:2; 2Ch 35:7). We can assume that in Luke 22:1 it is used to refer to the entire feast-not just the meal…”the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching”).
Option 4) Two calendars, one of the Pharisees, who were in charge of the Temple; and the one of the Sadducees. Yeshua celebrated the Passover on the night before the Jews killed their lambs, which would have been the Sadducean calendar. John was using the Phariseean calendar, focusing on His enemies, which explains the differences.
Before we go to Paul’s input into what day was the true Passover,
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In 1 Corinthians, Paul refers to the Passover several times…IC 5, 7, 10,11…by the time he gets to chapter 11, he gives corrective instructions on how the Passover should be kept.
IC 11:23: …The verses that apply to Passover are generally verses 17 through 29, but I’ll concentrate on verses 23-26, as they identify which DAY that Paul was confirming that Yeshua kept as the real Passover: v23 “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the …night in which he was betrayedtook bread: (G740: artos; bread (as raised) or a loaf🙂 “…Some use this verse to “prove” that the Passover Yeshua kept with His disciples was NOT the “real” Passover because “artos” can mean “leavened” bread, never UNLEAVENED bread…but see other uses of the word “artos”…it can mean unleavened as well as leavened. (Cite those verses)
You can prove that this was indeed unleavened bread that Paul was talking about, (because Yeshua was keeping the OT laws/ordinances of the Passover properly, because He could NOT have broken any part of the Law, especially before His death). Protestants say that the Law was done away with AT His death. The Passover ordinance in Ex 12 required unleavened bread to be eaten WITH the Passover lamb…and , of course, a lamb. By this reasoning, He had to have killed a chosen lamb for His last supper.
1C 11:24:
1C 11:25:
1C 11:26: “For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come.”
The 8 dayers are taught that the New Testament Passover is based on neither the Jewish Passover Seder traditions NOR the old covenant practices (other than the date which is the 14th day, at even of the first month. Lv 23:5)… rather, that, in the New Testament Passover which Yeshua kept with His disciples, He replaced the sacrificed lamb with the bread and wine. From that point forward, the Passover would be a memorial of HIS death and our deliverance from sin rather than Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. As I have shown in this study and in the following parallels, the symbols in the OT are the foundation on which our Savior exemplified the new covenant, New Testament symbols, and are identical dates. The only significant changes are from a memorial on physical practices to spiritual symbols…He had to have the former, to show that He was replacing the symbols with the latter….the dates are the same.