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The Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—indicate that Jesus reclined at the table to keep the Passover the evening before He died (Matthew 26:20, Mark 14:17-18; Luke 22:14). But John’s Gospel says the Last Supper occured “before the feast of the passover” (John 13:1). Further, at the time of Jesus’ arrest, John says the Passover still had not yet occurred, for the Jews would not enter Pilate’s hall of judgment, lest they be defiled and be unable to “eat the passover” (John 18:28). Indeed, Jesus’ arrest, trial and execution all occurred before the Passover sacrifice, for when Pilate reminds the Jews of his custom of releasing a prisoner “at the Passover” (John 18:39) it is still early in the morning. An enduring perception of inconsistency between the Synoptic Gospels and the Johannine Gospel has therefore persisted for many centuries, but there is a simple and elegant solution to which the Scriptures plainly attest.
The Attempt to Harmonize
Rev. Joseph S. Exell’s Pulpit Commentary states that the Gospels here “are apparently in hopeless variance,” the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says these are “questions which probably will never be entirely solved,” and the Cambridge Bible Commentary is unable, convincingly, to identify “the right solution of the difficulty.” In his 1991 article, “The Chronology of the Last Supper,” Barry D. Smith concedes that a “consensus seems to be forming that it is a lost labor of love to attempt to harmonize” the Gospel accounts (Westminster Theological Journal 53:1 (1991): 29-45). In his 1959 work, The Trial of Jesus, Dr. Josef Blinzler summarized the current state of affairs in the most lamentable terms:
“This notorious divergence has already set many learned pens in motion, but among the numerous and, in many cases, uncommonly ingenious efforts at reconciling the difference, there is not a single really satisfying one” (The Newman Press: Westminster, MD 1959 (75)).
Those “uncommonly ingenious efforts” include, but are not limited to solutions such as these: Two Passovers were celebrated during Holy Week: “one led by the priests at the Temple and the other observed by the people in their homes.” Smith proposed (WTJ 53:1) that Jesus’ Last Supper occurred on the 14th of Nisan according to the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 23:4), and that Jesus was crucified on the 15th of Nisan, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:5). The Catholic Encyclopedia allows the possibility that “the Last Supper was on the 13th of Nisan” (The Last Supper), Jesus being crucified on the 14th, the Day of Passover. Others propose that John’s testimony was based on the Roman Calendar, and the Synoptic accounts were based on the Jewish Calendar. Still others contend that by the time of Christ, the Feasts of Passover and of Unleavened Bread were no longer differentiated, and the apparent contradiction between the Synoptic and Johannine accounts owes largely to “an imprecision in first-century festival terminology” (Smith, 1991).
The Alleged “Imprecision”
Support for the latter of these “solutions” appears to come from the Gospel accounts as well as the works of first century Jewish historian, Josephus. The Gospel writers stated plainly that the Last Supper was a Passover meal, and just as plainly that it occurred on Nisan 14—the day the Law required the Passover lamb to be slain—and again as plainly that it was called the Feast of Unleavened Bread:
Matthew: “‘Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.’ … Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?” (Matthew 26:2, 17)
Mark: “After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: … And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?” (Mark 14:1, 12)
Luke: “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. .. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.” (Luke 22:1,7)
So, too with Josephus:
Josephus: “And on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come; it being the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan] [A.D. 70], when it is believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians” (Wars of the Jews, 5.3.1).
However, what at first glance appears to be “an imprecision” in festival terminology, is not only not imprecise, but is in fact precisely where the answer to the “notorious divergence” lies. There is, in fact, no inconsistency or divergence at all.
As is evident on inspection, the Gospel writers and Josephus relate a simple truth of which the Lord himself plainly attests: the 14th of Nisan is not only the day on which the Passover lamb is sacrificed (Exodus 12:6), but is also the day of unleavened bread and is expressly celebrated as such (Exodus 12:18) because, as Josephus related, it was celebrated on the day the Jews were freed from the Egyptians:
“Your lamb shall be without blemish … And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” (Exodus 12:5-6)
“And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.” (Exodus 12:18)
Clearly, neither the Gospel writers nor Josephus, were at all confused in their claim that the 14th of Nisan was both the day of Passover on which the Jews eat unleavened bread and at the same time the day on which they sacrifice the Passover lamb. There was no “imprecision,” but rather a strikingly rigorous precision in the description of the date. It is both a feast day of unleavened bread and the feast day on which they killed the Passover. These reflect neither confusion, imprecision nor inconsistency but rather strict adherence to the Law. As the Lord said through Moses, it is “an ordinance for ever,” and Jesus would not have wavered from it. He satisfied both Exodus 12:18 and Exodus 12:6.
The Cause of the Confusion
The fulcrum of the chronic and notorious perception of inconsistency turns not on the Scriptural testimony but on two unbiblical assumptions through which the synoptic accounts of Jesus’ last meal are read: 1) that when He sat down with the Twelve, it was at the end of the day on the 14th of Nisan (in fact, it was the beginning) and 2) that when He sat down with the Twelve to “eat the Passover” He had sat down to eat the Passover lamb (He had not). Neither assumption can be found in the Scripture, and in truth, both assumptions are overturned by the Scripture itself.
The Beginning of the Day of Passover
We are reminded from Genesis that “evening” is the beginning of the day: “the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:5). We see this also in Judges 14:18 where a seven-day period ended when “the sun went down,” as well as the Gospel accounts which have Jesus’ taken down from the cross in the afternoon and buried before the Sabbath arrived at sunset (Luke 23:54-56).
This fact weighs significantly in our analysis because the Lord specified in His prescription of the Passover memorial that the first order of business on the 14th day of Nisan is not to slay and eat the Passover lamb, but to prepare for the Passover with a meal of unleavened bread. According to that precept, the Day of Passover starts—at evening—with a Passover meal consisting of unleavened bread:
“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even (בָּעֶ֔רֶב bā·‘e·reḇ), ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.” (Exodus 12:18)
Young’s Literal Translation renders this, “in the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening,” a significant and notable reading as we shall observe momentarily. On the Day of Passover, which for good reason was also called “the Day of Unleavened Bread,” the very first order of business at sunset was to begin the day of Passover “at even” with a meal consisting of unleavened bread.
The Geneva Study Bible correctly observes of Exodus 12:18 that “in ancient times they counted in this way, beginning the day at sunset till the next day at the same time.” It is remarkable, however, to observe the alacrity with which many commentaries rush to change the express meaning of the text to cause it say “on the fifteenth ye shall eat unleavened bread.” We provide several examples of this practice:
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
On Exodus 12:18: “The evening intended is not that with which the fourteenth day began, but that with which it closed, the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the fifteenth day.”
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
On Exodus 12:18: “that is, at the evening following, the fourteenth of Nisan, and which was the beginning of the fifteenth day.”
On Exodus 12:18: “the evening here intended is that at the close of the 14th of Abib, which began the 15th.”
The Trial of Jesus, Dr. Josef Blinzler
“The Law [Exodus 12:18] required this meal to be held on the evening of the fourteenth [of] Nisan, that is to say, the beginning of the fifteenth [of] Nisan.” (p. 75)
It is just such interpretations that lead to the confusion we observe by the “many learned pens” attempting to reconcile the imagined inconsistency between the Synoptics and John. In these four examples (there are many more), the commentators assumed that the Scriptures could not have prescribed eating unleavened bread until after the Passover lamb had already been killed. Thus they insist unreasonably that “the fourteenth day of the month at even” refers to the beginning of the 15th day when the Passover meal of the lamb would take place (Exodus 12:8). This, as we shall see, is the primary cause of the perception that the Gospel accounts need to be reconciled at all.
The Ending of the Day of Passover
We now turn to the same chapter of Exodus to discover that the Passover lamb was to be killed at the end of the day on the 14th of Nisan. The Israelites were commanded to select their Passover lamb on the 10th of the month of Nisan (Exodus 12:3) and then keep it until the 14th to be slaughtered:
“And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening (הָעַרְבָּֽיִם׃ hā·‘ar·bā·yim).” (Exodus 12:6)
The attentive reader will notice that while Exodus 12:18 and Exodus 12:6 specify that both the meal of unleavened bread and the Passover sacrifice itself were to take place at the evening of the 14th of Nisan, two very different Hebrew words were both infelicitously rendered as “evening” in English. In Exodus 12:18 the unleavened bread ritual Passover meal was to begin at bā·‘e·reḇ on the 14th, while lamb was not to be slain until hā·‘ar·bā·yim the same day. Thus, while Young’s Literal Translation renders Exodus 12:8, “on the fourteenth day of the month at even“, it renders Exodus 12:6, “in the fourteenth day of the month, between the evenings.” Here, when the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was first commanded, Moses recorded a Hebrew colloquialism that literally means “between the two settings,” referring to high noon when the sun begins it’s setting, and sundown, when the sun completes its setting. These “two settings” are the “two evenings” between which the lamb was to be sacrificed. It is clearly an afternoon offering, to which Christ Himself attests, as we shall see.
Midway between the two settings is 3 PM the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, and so the Rabbis interpreted it. Josephus, for example, attested that the priests began the slaughter of the Passover lambs at 3 PM, concluding at 5 PM, a full hour before sunset on the 14th:
“So these High-priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the passover, … they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh…” (Wars of the Jews 6.9.3).
Thus did the Jews understand that the Passover sacrifice was to occur on the afternoon of the 14th, “between the evenings”, in fact, in the “midst” of those “evenings,” which is precisely 3 PM, in the midst of the Sun’s “going down” motion (see Deuteronomy 16:6 which specifies “thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even”, adding “at the going down of the sun,” being understood to refer to the afternoon of the 14th, when the arc of the sun turns downward.)
Jesus’ Last Day
With this information we can now reconstruct the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life before the Resurrection, and we immediately discover that there is no inconsistency, no excessive labor necessary to reconcile the Synoptic Gospels with the Johannine. The Law lays out an order of events from which Christ did not waver, and the New Testament writers recorded it faithfully.
The Evening of Nisan 14
The writers plainly attest to the date of His Last Supper, which took place on the day “when they killed the passover” (Mark 14:1, 12) and “when the passover must be killed” (Luke 22:1,7). That day is the 14th of Nisan. Matthew has Jesus sitting down with the Twelve “when the even was come” (Matthew 26:20) and Mark has Jesus arriving with the Twelve “in the evening” (Mark 14:17). And thus in accordance with the Scripture (Exodus 12:18) “on the fourteenth day of the month at even” Jesus sat down with His disciples to “eat unleavened bread.” It is precisely what the Law prescribed in Exodus 12:18. For this reason, the Gospel writers correctly call this “the first day of the feast of unleavened bread” (Matthew 26:17), “the first day of unleavened bread” (Mark 14:12) and “the day of unleavened bread” (Luke 22:7)—because the Law describes it as such.
And Jesus calls this His Passover meal because it was the very feast prescribed in the Law to be eaten at the beginning of Passover:
“My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy house” (Matthew 26:18)
“I shall eat the passover with my disciples.” (Mark 14:14).
“Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat” (Luke 22:8)
“I shall eat the passover with my disciples” (Luke 22:11)
“With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:” (Luke 22:15)
This of course is a ritual meal that occurs prior to the sacrifice of the Lamb, as Exodus 12 attests. Thus, at no point does any disciple procure a lamb, nor does Jesus indicate that He will consume a lamb with the Twelve that evening. Rather the Apostles prepared for the Passover exactly has the Law prescribed, and Jesus obeyed the requirements of the Law, sitting down to a meal of unleavened bread at the beginning of Passover. His meal that night was the unleavened bread Passover meal of Exodus 12:18. All four Gospels describe it in a manner consistent with that.
John, for His part, is consistent throughout His Gospel in referring only to a Passover supper that is described in Exodus 12:6-8 — “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it” — a meal in which the roasted lamb, rather than unleavened bread, is the main course. Thus, when he describes Jesus’ Last Supper, he correctly says that it occurred before the Passover, as it obviously did in his vernacular. The Passover meal he had in mind when he described the Last Supper was that which follows the Sacrifice of the Lamb on the afternoon of the 14th, and thus he says Jesus sat down for His Last Supper before the Passover:
“Now before the feast of the passover … And supper being ended … He riseth from supper…” (John 13:1,2,4)
John has described the same meal of unleavened bread that the Synoptic Gospels described, for there would have been no lamb at a Supper that occurred “before the Passover,” but there would have been unleavened bread. And thus, when Jesus identifies His betrayer, He uses the only food that is available to Him: “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18). Judas could not have eaten a lamb with Him, for there was no lamb on the table, nor had the law prescribed one for this meal.
The Morning of Nisan 14
Shortly after Jesus’ unleavened bread Passover meal of Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and John 13, He proceeded to the Garden of Gethsemane, at which point He was arrested and tried. Notably, John maintains his position that the Passover Supper had not yet occurred, for it was not yet even the afternoon of the 14th. It was still morning.
Jesus’ accusers brought Him to the judgment hall of Pontius Pilate, but refused to go in “lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover” (John 18:28). By the Synoptic Gospels’ reckoning, it was still only “morning” on the 14th of Nisan, the very feast day when Pilate traditionally released one prisoner (Matthew 27:1, 15; Mark 15:1, 6; Luke 22:17). John continues consistently in this vein, indicating that the feast on which Pilate displayed his magnanimity, was indeed “the Passover,” recording Pilate’s very words:
“Ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the Passover.” (John 18:39).
Thus we may say, with the the Synoptic writers, that the Lord’s Passover Supper of unleavened bread occurred at evening on the 14th day of Nisan as prescribed by Exodus 12:18. And we say with John that Jesus’ Last Supper was “before the Passover” (John 13:1), because the Passover lamb had not yet been slain. Both are correct. And importantly, all four describe the same meal of unleavened bread taking place on the “evening” of the Day of Passover, the first day of unleavened bread. All writers thus attest to His Last Supper occurring at the beginning of the Day of Passover. That was the Passover supper the disciples had prepared for Him. It was the only one the Law allowed that early in the feast.
The Between the Evenings of Nisan 14
After Jesus’ sham trial and arrest, He was beaten, flogged, mocked and finally crucified, hanging on the cross and ultimately offering Himself as the Passover Lamb at exactly 3 PM on the afternoon of Nisan 14, the same day of His trial:
“And about the ninth hour Jesus … cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Matthew 27:46-50)
“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice … and gave up the ghost.” (Mark 15:34-39)
“…the ninth hour … when Jesus had cried with a loud voice … he gave up the ghost.” (Luke 23:44-46)
Thus was the true Passover Lamb sacrificed on Nisan 14 “between the evenings,” a longstanding colloquialism referring to the offering the sacrifice of the Passover lamb at 3 PM in the afternoon, as prescribed by Exodus 12:6.
A Single Satisfying Solution
In light of the testimony of Scripture we may say that there were not “two passovers” that week, and there were not two different calendar systems in play, and the festivals were not inappropriately conflated by the inspired authors or even by contemporary historians. Their understanding was based on, and consistent with, the Passover precepts dictated to Moses in Exodus.
We also need not move Jesus’ Last Supper to the evening of the 13th in order to make room for Him to be crucified on the afternoon of the 14th. Nor need we place His Last Supper after the Passover Sacrifice on the 14th, thereby moving His crucifixion to the 15th. Neither solution would be lawful. The former would place His unleavened bread Passover meal on the evening of the 13th, out of accordance with the Law, and the latter would place His Passover Sacrifice on the 15th, which the Law also does not prescribe. All these “solutions” drive us to hopelessly contradictory timelines that leave Jesus in violation of the Law and unable to fulfill it. Those are not good solutions.
Nor, indeed, need we accept the opinions of frustrated scholars who have surmised that the Gospels are “apparently in hopeless variance,” or that the puzzle may “never be entirely solved,” or that it is futile to “attempt to harmonize” the inspired accounts.
But there is, as it turns out, a rather simple solution: the Scriptures explicitly prescribe an unleavened Passover meal of unleavened bread to occur early on the 14th, nearly 21 hours before the offering of the Passover Lamb. To this Exodus 12 attests, and to its New Testament fulfillment, the inspired writers also attest. It is what Ezekiel described:
In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten. (Ezekiel 45:21)
The solution is to understand that both the Law and the Prophets prescribe a ritual Passover meal of unleavened bread at the beginning of Passover—that is in the evening of the 14th of Nisan—and prescribe a ritual Passover sacrifice of a Spotless Lamb on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan. Both occurred on the same calendar day, a day very properly called both the Day of Unleavened Bread and the Day of Passover. The Gospels are most certainly not in “hopeless variance” and when Exodus 12:18 is read as written, the apparent “difficulty” disappears.
Tim,
What do you make of Craig Truglia’s claim that leavened bread was used universally until around the sixth century (or, possibly, as late as the ninth century)?
I understand that the alternative views rely on the various harmonization methods, but setting aside that for sake of argument, let’s focus on the historical question. What kind of bread do the writers in the first three centuries describe being used in the Last Supper or during their celebration of the Lord’s Supper?
Also, I noticed that he cited a source the said that Nisan 14 was “Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening.” What day of the week do you assert Jesus was crucified?
Peace,
DR
Derek, I will look at the ancient data on the use of leavened bread. It was interesting to me that the article you provided only cited late 4th century sources as proof of “universal practice” for the first six centuries. That bears some looking into. I believe the ancients used unleavened bread, but let me look more closely.
As to your other question: from the Triumphal Entry through the Crucifixion, Jesus fulfilled the rite of the Passover Feast. Exodus 12:3 says the lamb must be spotless and is to be selected on the 10th of Nisan and Exodus 12:6 says it is to be sacrificed the afternoon of the 14th. Here the trial before Pilate, and his judgment of His innocence is important (“I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man” (Luke 23:14). It was important that the lamb be spotless.
That said, I believe the Triumphal entry occurred on the 10th, and the Last supper on the evening of the 14th, followed by the Crucifixion at 3 PM on the afternoon of the 14th. Assuming of course that the Triumphal entry occurred on the 10th, then a Tuesday night Passover doesn’t leave enough room between Sunday the 10th and Tuesday the 14th. Tuesday night would have been the beginning of the 13th rather than the beginning of the 14th.
Thus, that puts the Last Supper on what we would call Wednesday night, after sundown and the crucifixion taking place Thursday afternoon. The approaching sabbath to which the crucifixion narratives refer, is talking about the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a high sabbath) that immediately followed Passover. It occurs on the 15th of Nisan (Leviticus 23:6), and would have begun at sunset. Thus the urgency of taking Jesus down from the Cross and burying Him before Thursday night (the 15th of the month of Nisan being a Sabbath, beginning at sundown).
Although I have also thought for a long time, as you do, that Thursday was the day of the crucifixion, your point here confuses me. Perhaps you’ve left something unsaid?
What information am I missing that leads you to conclude that there is not enough room with a 6ish pm Roman Tuesday / Jewish Wednesday Passover meal of unleavened bread? I can’t find it. Let’s consider that alternative hypothesis. By Hebrew reckoning (the new day starts in the evening of the Roman reckoning for the previous day still in progress):
10th: Saturday — Sabbath; Lamb is Selected; Triumphal Entry
11th: Sunday
12th: Monday
13th: Tuesday
14th: Wednesday — Passover; Day of Preparation; Last supper (evening) and crucifixion and death (afternoon)
15th: Thursday — (Feast of) Passover (with lamb); High Sabbath; Day 1 of Feast of Unleavened Bread
16th: Friday — Women buy spices
17th: Saturday — Sabbath
18th: Sunday — Easter; Women bring spices
19th: Monday
20th: Tuesday
21st: Wednesday — High Sabbath; Day 7 of Feast of Unleavened Bread
Perhaps you are taking the new Jewish day as starting after that same day starts in Roman reckoning, rather than before?
Under the Thursday view, how could the women have purchased (Mark 16:1) and prepared (Luke 23:56) the spices from the burial at the end of the day of the crucifixion until sunday morning if there were only two days, both sabbaths, in between? I suppose you believe that Jesus died at 3pm, was in the tomb shortly thereafter, and that there was enough time to buy the spices and return home before 6pm?
The Triumphal Entry is assumed to have been on Palm Sunday by tradition, but like Good Friday the day of week is not explicitly stated in the text. You seem to have copied this assumption.
John 12:1 states that they arrived in Bethany six days before “Passover” (which may mean the 14th or the 15th), and that the Triumphal Entry was the following day. So the Triumphal Entry was five days before Passover, either five days before the 14th or five days before the 15th. That’s the 9th or the 10th.
So a Wednesday hypothesis allows a Triumphal Entry on Saturday or Sunday, while a Thursday hypothesis allows a Triumphal Entry on Friday or Saturday.
With regards to the Thursday hypothesis. If the Triumphal Entry is on Sunday (five days before a Friday Passover) and he arrived at Bethany from Jericho the day before (six days before a Friday Passover), then he was traveling roughly 15 miles on Saturday: the Sabbath day.
One of my (until now) unspoken assumptions is that a Triumphal entry on the 10th if Nisan would not have occurred on the seventh day, the Sabbath, because beasts, too, were prohibited from doing servile work on that day. For this I refer to Exodus and Jeremiah, which prohibit even a donkey from carrying a burden, or bringing it into Jerusalem, on the Sabbath:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: (Exodus 20:10)
Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 17:21)
This, I think, would rule out a Sabbath triumphal entry. So (it seems to me) it would have been either Friday or Sunday. Assuming the Triumphal Entry occurred on the 10th, a Friday Triumphal entry would have Jesus sitting down to eat with His disciples just after Monday’s (the 13th) sunset, with Jesus beginning the Passover Passover unleavened bread meal at the beginning of the 14th “at evening”, the Crucifixion itself taking place the afternoon of the Tuesday the 14th. This, to me, appears to leave too many days between the crucifixion and the resurrection.
But a Triumphal entry on Sunday the 10th, surely would not allow for a Tuesday evening Passover meal, for there would not be enough days for His last Supper to begin on the 14th. Does that makes sense?
One of us appears to have miscounted?
It all hinges on what John meant by “Passover”. Did he mean the start of the “Day of Preparation” for the Passover (evening or start of day on Nisan 14), the sacrifice of the Passover lamb (3pm on Nisan 14), or the Feast of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lamb was eaten (Nisan 15).
Rather than decide which one it is, here is the table with all the options:
John says that the Triumphal Entry took place the day after he traveled from Jericho to Bethany, so Jesus could neither travel on the Sabbath, nor have the Triumphal Entry on the Sabbath. I’ve marked every Sabbath in the charge in bold type.
By my count, only one option works. I could be missing something, but after I ran the numbers, I had ChatGPT generate them independently, and it came up with the same numbers I did. So perhaps you have an assumption that I’m missing.
I’m probably typing too fast and thinking too slow. Where did I miscount?
There is a missing day, I think, unaccounted for in the table.
John says Jesus traveled to Bethany “six days before the passover” (John 12:1). Because traveling to purify oneself 6 days before passover was a widespread practice and was measured from the 14th of Nisan, I take Jesus’ journey to comport with that. Josephus, for example, says this happens “when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month [Nisan,]”. That’s 6 days before the 14th.
Suppose Jesus travels all day to Bethany on the 8th of Nisan from Ephraim “a region near the wilderness” (John 11:54), which is not a short trip. In Bethany they made a supper for Him, supper here being typically an evening meal. This suggests that it was a long trip, and the dinner that had been prepared was an evening meal. So the meal would have begun after sundown. He’s there long enough that news spreads and many people begin to come to see Jesus and Lazarus (John 12:9).
If the 8th was a Friday, and the supper had been prepared that afternoon, the evening meal is a Sabbath meal—which is interesting because the whole ensuing conversation is about caring for the poor, and the sabbath was a day for considering the needs of the poor (Isaiah 58). Mary worships Jesus with expensive ointment, Judas feigns concern for the poor, wishing that money had been placed in the moneybag, and Jesus says there will always be poor, and Mary is doing nothing wrong.
The timeline could go thus like this:
Friday 8th of Nisan, six days before the 14th: Jesus journeys from Ephraim to Bethany, and Mary prepares a sabbath meal on Friday afternoon
Saturday 9th of Nisan: they sit eat a sabbath meal at evening during which Mary adores Christ and Judas feigns care for the poor, and the crowds hear of his presence and come to see Lazarus. There is a day of rest.
Sunday 10th of Nisan: “The next day” is not Saturday the 9th, the day after He traveled from Ephraim, but rather Sunday the 10th, the day after he had sat for a sabbath supper at the beginning of the day on the 9th, a supper than had been prepared the afternoon of the 8th.
I think that is a reasonable reading of the passage, which (under that reading) would mean that the date table perhaps is missing a day between Jesus’ journey from Ephraim on Friday and His Triumphal Entry on Sunday.
Thoughts?
Eh, your site didn’t let me insert an image into my comment. Let me try again with a link to the table here. I’d rather post the image directly, but I guess this will have to do.
Tim,
You are correct, there was an error with regards to the date numbers I gave you, but not with the days of week. I have the corrected table here.
What, exactly, is the Passover? According to John…
…the Last Supper occurred before the Feast of the Passover on Nisan 14. Presumably John 13:1 refers to the “Feast of the Passover” as the meal on Nisan 15, not the meal on Nisan 14.
So what “Passover” is John speaking of in John 12:1?
Was this the “Feast of the Passover” (Nisan 15) or is it referring to the entire festival beginning with Nisan 14? In my chart, I included both options because it’s not clear whether John means one or two things by “Passover” and “Feast of the Passover.”
Now you said…
..which means you treat Nisan 14 as the “Passover” spoken by John 12:1. That’s almost the third line in my chart, although you’ve modified your narrative somewhat.
John 12:1 says that Jesus came—traveled—to Bethany from Ephraim six days before Passover on the 8th. That’s a Friday. It then says in John 12:12:
Is the next day the 9th or is it the 10th? Here is what you said:
There is no explicit mention of a day of rest, though there is a mention of an evening meal (an with it the implication of a “next day”).
If Jesus arrived in afternoon on the 8th (6 days before the Passover on the 14th), had dinner on that evening on the 9th, and then went into Jerusalem the following morning still on the 9th for the Triumphal entry. That would still be the next day after the 6 days before the Passover.
It’s not clear to me why the “next day” in John 12:12 isn’t relative to the six days before Passover (the only other explicit reference to time). I admit that I’ve not done a Greek word study or grammatical analysis, so maybe the text demands that it be relative to the evening meal?
When did the large crowd in John 12:9 gather? Was it in the late afternoon on the 8th or was it on the Sabbath on the 9th? If the crowd gathered on the 8th (possibly into the 9th), then the “next day” could be the 9th.
Must John’s “Passover” (in John 12) be Nisan 14 instead of 15 (as in John 13)? Why?
That would certainly be thematic! But, if you move the crucifixion from Thursday to Wednesday (and leave the other assumptions the same), then the cleansing of the temple could have occurred on a Sabbath. That seems thematic as well.
Tim, so the unleavened bread meal was eaten before the passover sacrifice was made, but the same evening. Iow 2 events in a few hours. Jesus only ate the unleavened bread? This is what i understood from the article the scriptures are consistent. What conclusions should we draw from this truth? Thx K
Tim, correct me if im wrong, but you said Jesus did not eat the passover lamb, but Mark 14:12 the disciples asked him where you want us to go to prepare to eat the passover. Forvive me im a bit confused. I think you are saying that the feast of the unleavened bread was in the same evening as the passover meal but Jesus ate the bread? but not the lamb.
It’s a subtle but definite attribute of the Lord’s calendar that the day begins at sunset and ends the following afternoon at sunset. So the “evening” of Nisan 14 is the beginning of the day, and the day ends at the conclusion of the afternoon of the next day. The Passover meal begins “in the evening” of the 14th with unleavened bread, then the Passover lamb is sacrificed on the afternoon of the 14th (21 hours later), roasted with fire and eaten on the “evening” of the 15th. The beginning and end of the Passover feast are 24 hours apart.
Exodus 12:18 says Passover begins with a feast of unleavened bread in the evening of the 14th: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread.” That’s the beginning of the day. It is commemorated with a feast of unleavened bread. This is why the synoptic gospels all say it was both the Passover AND the day of unleavened bread because that is how Exodus 12 describes the 14th of Nisan. And notice that they sit down to eat the Last Supper “when evening had come.” It is the beginning of the 14th:
The day they killed the Passover is the 14th (at the end), but it is also the say they sat down “at even” and ate unleavened bread (at the beginning).
So, after that meal of unleavened bread on the 14th at evening, there is a Passover sacrifice on the 14th in the afternoon at 3 PM (21 hours later) at the end of Passover day. According to Exodus 12:6-8, that lamb is roasted and eaten “that night,” which is the evening of the 15th: “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening [lit. between the evenings, which is the afternoon of the 14th, 21 hours after the day is begun. “And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire.
Because the Scriptures prescribe Passover meal: one of the evening of the 14th (the beginning of the day) with unleavened bread alone, and one after the lamb has been sacrificed on the afternoon of the 14th (21 hours later) and is eaten on the evening of the 15th, that means when Jesus sat down with His disciples on the day of passover at evening, they hadsat down to eat the first Passover meal, which was only unleavened bread. This is why all four Last Supper accounts only mention unleavened bread—no lamb. Then afterward Jesus is arrested, and by morning is on trial before Pilate, and then is crucified and gives up the ghost on the afternoon of the 14th, between the evenings, at “the ninth hour”, which translates to 3 PM. So He began His passover meal on the evening of the 14th, and completed His passover sacrifice on the afternoon of the 14th, right on time.
The reason there was ever a “contradiction” in the gospel accounts, is that people have either assumed that Jesus’ lamb was sacrificed on the 13th, and he sat down to eat the Passover on the evening of the 14th with His disciples, and then was crucified on the afternoon of the 14th (but that would mean the lamb was sacrificed on the 13th which was not in accordance with the Law), or they have assumed Jesus’ lamb was sacrificed on the 14th, in accordance with the Law and then Jesus sat down with the 12 on the evening of the 15th, and afterward was arrested and crucified on the afternoon of the 15th (but in that case, although Jesus’ lamb would have been slaughtered on the afternoon of the 14th in accordance with the Law, the True Passover Lamb would be sacrificed on the afternoon of the 15th, a violation of the law).
What to do? The answer lies in the plain language of Exodus 12 which prescribes a Passover meal at the beginning of the 14th at evening (the Passover meal the apostles prepared, and which Jesus ate as His last meal), PLUS a slaughter of a lamb on the 14th in the afternoon (when Jesus offered Himself), THEN a meal of a Passover Lamb on the evening of the 15th, which if course Jesus would miss because He was already buried. That eliminates the contradiction, assuming when John says they sat down for His Last Supper before the passover feast, he’s referring to the Passover feast that includes the lamb on the 15th.
Ok, so the BIG question you asked was “What conclusions should we draw from this truth?” And THAT is the right question.
Roman Catholicism has built a religion on the assumption that Jesus was eating His Passover Lamb Feast when He took the bread and cup, but no lamb is mentioned because Jesus turned the bread into His flesh. He’s the Lamb. But all that is undone if Jesus was only eating the meal prescribed for the evening of the 14th: unleavened bread. It was not yet time to eat the Lamb.
And that means Roman Catholicism has assumed all this time that Jesus turned the bread into His flesh so that there would be a Lamb to sacrifice at the Passover, and that He did so at a moment when the scriptures only prescribe the eating of unleavened bread. This, I think, is the fulcrum of the matter. It would have been unlawful for Jesus to serve Lamb at Passover before the time for sacrifice had come, and therefore there was no cause for Him to change the bread into His flesh. Thus, His words were purely figurative, absolutely symbolic, without a hint of “real presence” the bread. He would have never violated His Father’s commandments like that.
I hope that makes sense. In sum, harmonizing the Gospel accounts yields epistemic proof that His words at the Last Supper, “This is My body” were purely symbolic. It just wasn’t time to eat the Lamb yet. Our task, of course, is to determine what the bread symbolizes, but it cannot be His literal flesh, for that would have been a violation of the Law. It wasn’t time to eat the lamb yet.
Not only does it make sense Tim, you layed it out so clearly. THANK YOU!! Thats sorta what i was thinking was the conclusion. What runs through my mind is what looks like , on the surface, the whole misunderstanding of these truths by Rome, is really no different than the jews worshiping the golden calf, in that these are idolators looking to worship an idol, something physical ( crust of bread as if it were the God of the Universe), instead of worshipping God in Spirit and in truth as we are comanded, understanding the bread is symbolic and figurative. And this is why Roman Catholicism is a front for the Kingdom of Satan, the lie that God hasnt called his elect to a spiritual relationship with him, but a physical one. He incorporated us into his body thru the Spirit, not the flesh. The one thing that stands out to me about Roman Catholicism is how the Spirit of God is utterly non existent, totally usurped by the actions of men, a false priesthood. I continue to tell you in the anals of church history how important your work is for the future of the truth. Thank you for taking the time on this article and this post. The best to you and your family brother enjoy your holidays! K
” And that means Roman Catholicism has assumed all this time that Jesus turned the bread into his flesh so that there would be a lamb to be sacrificed at passover, and he did so at a moment when the scriptures only prescribe the eating of the unleavened bread” the key point. And if he didnt turn the bread into his flesh then it cant be the sacrifice for their sins, and the cross was necessary. The question that always presented itself to me is why the cross was necessary if the the Lord set up his sacrifice for our sins at the Supper. If God set up an ongoing sacrifice of Christ for sins at the Supper then the cross was unnecessary and the words it is finished are a lie.
The Pope declares a jubilee and pilgrimage for the LGBTQ and gay ( homosexual) commuity this weekend. Dont be fooled this is not God’s representative in anyway, but the very Antichrist of Scripture. No true believer can see what this man has declared this week and say he is the leader of Christ’s church. The scripture says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The pope is doing the devil’s wotk, no doubt he has spoken.
Happy New Year Tim. Forever greatful for what lve learned at Out of His mouth!!
Thank you, Kevin! Happy new year to you, too.
you are very intelligent, please write about Sola Scriptura in the Church Fathers and all the Catholic objections on this topic.
Tim, I am intrigued by your analysis. Would you say that Jesus’ disciples asked him where they should eat the passover when it was already sundown? Mark seems to say that they asked him on the first day of Unleavened Bread. I ask because, superficially read, Mark seems to say they asked sometime during the day, were sent, found the room, and then once it was evening (the next day by Jewish reckoning), Jesus arrived with all of them.
Thank you.
Tim,
Thank you for your analysis; this has given me a lot to think about.
I am curious about Mark’s wording in his telling. He seems to be saying, on superficial reading, that the disciples asked Jesus, some time on the first day of Unleavened Bread, where they were to eat the Passover. On this same superficial reading, Jesus arrived at the furnished room “at evening,” which, according to Jewish reckoning, would be the beginning of the following day.
Would you say that the question arose when it was already evening, the beginning of 14, and sometime later that evening Jesus arrived at the room with the twelve?
Thank you.
Thank you, Aaron. I appreciate your comment and question.
I believe the disciples’ question arose when it was already evening, that is after sundown. An interesting narrative in Matthew and Mark may shed some light.
At the feeding of the 5,000, “when it was evening” the disciples observe that “the day is now over,” so it is a good time to send the crowds into town to purchase food (as Jesus instructed the disciples on the day of unleavened bread). But instead of sending the crowds away, Jesus feeds them, dismisses them and then, “when the evening was come” He went up on a mountain to pray. (Matthew 14:15-23).
And then in Mark’s telling of it, after the feeding of the 5,000 “when it was evening” (per Matthew) and after Jesus had gone up to the mountain to pray “when evening was come” (per Matthew), Jesus was alone on land and saw them struggling to make headway against the wind “when evening came” (Mark 6:47-48).
This is significant for its linguistic procession, because it parallels the events of the day of unleavened bread in the Last Supper narratives. The multiplication narrative has the apostles suggesting people be sent into town to buy food because it is evening and the day is over, and then Jesus going up to pray when evening was come, and then again, after praying, standing on the shore “when evening came.” Obviously “when evening came” is after sunset, but does not mean only “at sunset.” It can mean as the evening progressed…
I offer this not as definitive proof that the disciples asked the question after sundown (though I believe they did), but rather as evidence that Mark’s wording in Mark 14:17, “when it was evening” does not necessarily indicate to us that the disciples had been sent into town before sunset, and then Jesus sat down with them for Supper after sunset.
Certainly a superficial reading may suggest it, but the text itself does not demand it.