EASTER? FEAST? or PASSOVER?
IT is apparent from Christian literature at Easter and also the News Media that few people have any true understanding of the time, purpose and sequence of events occurring at the crucifixion of Jesus. The Gospel accounts, as translated in our popular Bibles, also make it difficult for students to identify one event relative to another. But most things in Scripture are simple and straightforward if we only pay strict attention to all the details already written there for us.
The Israelites of Jesus’ day were all familiar with the normal course of events – including The Passover – comprising the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread. We, however, must pay careful attention to the Law the Israelites were observing in order to establish the correct order of events, any one of which is called ‘The Passover’ in Scripture when referred to in general terms.
Leviticus 23 lists all the ‘Feasts’ to Jehovah which Israelites are to keep and the names by which we are to recognise them. It also details the times when they are to be observed:
a. Verse 3: every Sabbath Day is to be observed as a Holy Day; a Feast Day to Jehovah.
b. Verse 5: at Even on the 14th day (Thursday) of Abib/ Nisan is The Passover to Jehovah.
c. Verse 6: the 15th day (Friday) of Abib/Nisan is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
As Even on the 14th day also marks the beginning of the 15th day, it follows that the very first event of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is The Passover (Supper/Feast) to Jehovah.
The title, Passover, is often applied to the whole period covered by the preparation commencing on the tenth day (Sunday) through to the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, 12 days later (Deut. 16:1, 2 Ch. 35:17-19, Ezek. 45:21, Luke 22-1, John 2:23). The Passover Supper was the culmination of the five days of preparation as recorded in Exodus12, where the events are first described:
a. Selection of the unblemished, sacrificial lambs on Sunday, the 10th day of Abib/Nisan
b. Holding the selected lambs separate till Thursday, the 14th day, when the following events occurred:
(i) slaughter of the lambs between Noon and Sunset of Thursday, the 14th day
(ii) All leaven and things made with leaven taken out of the houses by sunset of Thursday, the 14th day
(iii) Eating of the roasted lamb by the members of each family,Â
* at The Passover Supper (to Jehovah), in each house,
* after Sunset on Thursdays the 14th day (the day of slaughter),
* which is just after the beginning of Friday, the 15th day, the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Exodus 12:24 commanded all Israelites to observe the foregoing instructions as an ordinance for the Age – the Age during which the Old Covenant would remain in force. This is not necessarily ‘for ever’ as in the AV(1)
Hence, when John said (John 19:14) It was the preparation (day) OF The Passover – not FOR The Passover – he was simply saying (in our language) it was Friday. The Greek preposition translated of tells us he was not referring to The Passover Supper of the Thursday evening, nor to the last preparations for it on Thursday afternoon, the 14th day. This is confirmed, beyond question, by Mark 15:42 and Matthew 27:62. The name of preparation day refers to every Friday as the preparation day for the Jewish Sabbath the next day – Saturday. This is confirmed by Josephus in Antiquities, xvi, 6, para 2 which quotes a Greco-Roman Decree which applies this name to that day of the week we know as Friday.
Section 2 of this Decree states Caesar Augustus, high priest and tribune of the people, ordains thus … and that they (the Jews) be not obliged to go before any judge on the Sabbath-day, nor on the day of the preparation to it; after the ninth hour,….. This Decree proves that the Jews, in the days of Augustus, began to prepare for their Sabbath day (Saturday) at the ninth hour (3pm) on every Friday of the year – as well as the Friday of The Passover (week).
Furthermore, there is no specific ‘preparation day’ for The Passover Supper itself for, as noted above, preparation for The Passover Supper required five days of preparation – not one!
Luke 22:8 states Jesus told two Apostles to go and prepare The Passover (lamb). It had to be killed by the Temple priest, on Thursday afternoon, the 14th day, (not by the Apostles themselves). In verse 11 He said He would eat The Passover with His Disciples and in verse 13 the two Apostles prepared The Passover. In verse 14 when the hour had arrived, Jesus reclined with the twelve Apostles and He said to them (in the Greek text of verse 15): With longing 1 have looked forward to eating This The Passover with you before 1 suffer… Jesus used the Demonstrative Pronoun, this, with the Definite Article, the, to emphasise the FACT that it was this very Passover Supper they were eating, right then and there, which He had earnestly desired to eat with them (not any other meal).
Verse 19 states … This (bread) is my body which is in the process of being offered in sacrifice, (Present Participle) for you … and verse 20 states In like manner, after having supped(2) (He took) the cup saying; This The Cup (IS) the New Covenant in My blood. The (blood) (which is) in the process of being shed for you.
After they had eaten the Passover Supper on the Thursday evening (and before the ceremony of the bread and wine), the Apostles thought Judas Iscariot (who held the money bag, John 13:28,29) was going out to organise the unleavened cakes they would need for the Chagigah feast which was held about midday on the Friday. This was a festive meal to celebrate that first meal (of Israel’s deliverance from slavery) which the Israelites had eaten in haste at Succoth – the first stop of their Exodus after departing from Rameses on the morning of Friday the15th day of Abib/Nisan. There was no problem about shops being open for Judas to buy goods on Friday morning because as noted above, the Jews themselves did not observe it as a ‘holy day’ until 3pm.
None of the above conflicts with John 18:28 which states the Priests would not enter the Hall of Judgement lest they be defiled and so be prevented from eating The Passover Supper. The priests would not have finished killing the 200,000-odd lambs required until sunset of the 14th day and would not have been able to eat their own Passover Supper after sunset that evening until after they had cleansed the Temple area (and themselves) from the defilement and blood of their labours. Furthermore, the Passover Supper could be extended until dawn, if necessary.
The priests were desperately eager to condemn Jesus and execute Him before the general population started arriving in the city, for Friday’s festive Chagigah feast – for they feared the people’s reaction to arresting and trying Him in broad daylight. They were obviously quite determined to postpone their own Passover Supper in order to try Jesus, contrary to their own laws, during the hours of darkness – in the hope of getting the trial all over and done with before daylight.
Pilate had sent out a Roman guard to oversee the Temple guard in their arrest of Jesus and was expecting its return at any time. After the arrest, the priests held a trial and condemned Jesus to death. They expected Pilate simply to confirm their decision and send Him to be executed. When Jesus was taken into the Judgement Hall, it was still very early on the morning of the 15th day (Friday) – around cock-crow (after 3am). They still had time to go to their homes and eat their Passover quite ‘legally’, even if somewhat delayed. It was Pilate who came out to them and demanded to know, as required by Roman law, the charges they had against Jesus. Pilate then carried out his own trial. Whether this was in provocation or simply to show his contempt for the priests – or both, we don’t know. The fact remains The Passover Supper, in the homes and tents of the rest of the Judean people and visiting Israelites (from the Dispersion), had long since finished. It was only the priests’ participation in their own family Suppers which had been inordinately delayed by their own wilful actions.
There should be no doubt from all the above that Jesus did eat The Passover Supper with the Apostles – at the correct time after sunset on Thursday, the 14th day – which was before He was arrested. To deny this is to reject Jesus’ very own words. Since God’s Word never contradicts itself then all other statements concerning the Passover of His crucifixion must be translated/ interpreted to harmonise with the Law and the timing and meaning of Jesus’ own unambiguous statement in the Greek text in which they are written.
Thus, at this Passover Supper, Jesus instituted the New Covenant. The Bread and the Wine were to be the tokens for it and for its remembrance. It has no formal or direct reference to His exodus from His human life or to any other Exodus. The Covenants simply express the relationship between God and His People – for an Age. His name is Emmanuel meaning with US The God. And here, at this Passover Supper, we have the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23 with the institution of the New Covenant by our Saviour God Himself, physically present with His fellow Israelites – the appointed leaders of His People. This was the whole purpose of His First Advent and of His death. It was to demonstrate to all Israelites their new status of reconciliation and fellowship with God if they will but choose to believe the Son’s Words and believe in the efficacy of His death to save us from eternal death.
By contrast, when the Old Covenant was instituted, we saw (Exodus 24:1-11) Moses, Aaron and the 70 appointed Elders, of that same Israel people, going up Mount Sinai and eating a meal and drinking wine in the ‘presence’ of The Creator of Israel, whom they could ‘see’ (on another level) but not converse with. Both Covenants involved the shedding of blood and the death of the ‘sacrifice’. The Old Covenant raised the Israelites from being a mob to the status of a kingdom – with all its advantages – with God as their King, if they would but believe God and obey His Laws.
There are no more Covenants and no more sacrifices to come, hence the New Covenant IS to be commemorated – at least annually – by the breaking of unleavened bread and the drinking of wine. This action exactly and precisely symbolises both the killing of the animals and the sprinkling of their blood at the institution of the Old Covenant, and the killing of Jesus and the shedding of His blood at the institution of the New Covenant – and NOTHING ELSE but those things. Hence both Covenants concern Israel only.
(The subject of the Passover is discussed also in the paper The Sign of The Sabbath, pages four to eight and briefly in The Stone Seal of the Garden Tomb).
(1) See Ex 21:6 where the same word is also inappropriately translated as ‘for ever’ in the AV. As no human being can live for ever, the Hebrew word ‘olam’ should always be translated as age, era or life, as required by the context in which it is used.
(2) Or, In like manner He took the after-Supper cup (the 3rd cup of the meal) saying …
