EXAMPLE 1
| Day of the Week | Day of Nisan | Part of the Day | Events | |
| 5th | 14 | daytime | Preparation Day’ (Luke 23:54; Mark 15:42) for Passover Jesus died Thursday afternoon around 3.00p.m. at the same time that the sacrificial Passover lambs were sacrificed at the Temple, and He was buried before sunset.
|
|
| 6th | 15 | evening | The High Sabbath of Passover begins (actual seder night)
|
.5 day |
| 6th | 15 | daytime | The High Sabbath of Passover (Friday before sunset)
|
1 day |
| 7th | 16 | daytime | Weekly Sabbath, waving of the Omer (Saturday)
|
1 day |
| 1st | 17 | evening | Jesus was resurrected some time before sunrise on Sunday.
|
.5 day |
| 1st | 17 | daytime | Women bring spices to the tomb early in the morning |
| DAY OF WEEK | DAY OF NISAN | Gregorian Name | part of the day | events | |
| 5th | 14 | Wed
Thurs |
night
Day |
Memorial seder. Jesus is arrested
Passover lambs killed. Jesus is crucified and buried |
.5 of a day
1 day |
| 6th | 15 | Thurs | night | 1st day of Unleveaned Bread
High Sabbath of Passover |
|
| Friday | day | High Sabbath continues.
Stone of tomb sealed |
|||
| 7th | 16 | Friday
Saturday |
night
day |
Commencement of weekly sabbath
Weekly Sabbath (continues) Waving of the Omer (first fruits) |
1 day |
| 1st | 17 | Sat
Sunday |
night
morning |
Havdalah ceremony – end of sabbath
Jesus’ resurrection
Women visit the tomb |
.5 of a day |
EXAMPLE 2
****** Cf also MONTH 1 PESACH APPENDIX from “Romance of the Hebrew Calendar” for further details.
Jesus’ Last Passover – contradiction?
”There is a discrepancy concerning the Last Supper. John’s chronology of the final night of Jesus’ life is contradictory with the Synoptics.”
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Response
Let us commence by recognising a number of chronological points on which all four gospels agree:
Jesus prophesied that He would be raised on the third day (Mt. 16:21; Mk. 8:31; Lk. 9:22).
Jesus was laid in the tomb on Thursday—the day of preparation—before the High Sabbath commenced that same evening (Mt. 27:62; 28:1; Mk. 15:42; Lk. 23:54, 56; Jn. 19:31, 42).
The women rested on the weekly Sabbath on Saturday (Lk. 23:56), and they went to the tomb early on Sunday morning, the first day of the week and the third day following Jesus’ crucifixion (Mt. 28:1; Mk. 16:1-2; Lk. 24:1; Jn. 20:1).
Jesus met his disciples on the road to Emmaus the same day He rose from the dead, and they told Him, “It is the third day since these things happened” (Lk. 24:21).
All four gospels agree that Jesus ate the Last Supper a day before his crucifixion (Mt. 26:20; Mk. 14:17; Lk. 22:14; Jn. 13:2; c.f. 1 Cor. 11:23).
However, there is clearly an apparent contradiction between the Synoptics and John on whether or not the Last Supper was the same as the Passover meal. The Synoptics tell us that the disciples prepared the Passover meal “on the first day of Unleavened Bread” (Mk. 14:12; c.f. Mt. 26:17; Lk. 22:7-8) but the apostle John states that Jesus was crucified before the Passover meal.
John tells us that the Judeans didn’t enter the Praetorium (the governor’s headquarters) “because they did not want to become ritually defiled, and thus unable to eat the Passover meal” (Jn. 18:28). He also tells us that Jesus was tried in front of the people on “about noon on Preparation Day for the Passover” (Jn. 19:14). This puts His trial a day before Passover rather than after it. So, according to John, Jesus didn’t eat the Passover supper on Wednesday night, because Passover hadn’t happened yet.
In order to reconcile these two accounts, there are three common explanations:
1: The Last Supper was not the Passover meal. It was a different meal.
People who support this view claim that the gospels do not state that the disciples ate the Passover lamb, which was central to the Passover feast. This is, however, a contradiction to the Synoptics which explicitly state that they were celebrating the Passover meal. The disciples asked Jesus, “Where do You want us to prepare your Seder?” (Mt. 26:17) and scripture reinforces this point several times (Mt. 26:17, 18, 19; Mk. 14:1, 12, 14, 16; Lk. 22:1, 7, 8, 13, 15).
2: Jesus had his own personal Passover meal a day early.
Some people have suggested that Jesus had a personal Passover meal with his disciples early, celebrated at a different time from the Jewish calendar.
However, they fail to note that the Passover lamb had to be slaughtered in the Temple by the priest. Jesus couldn’t have obtained a lamb earlier than the other people but would have got it at the same time as everyone else.
3: There were two calendars for the Galileans and the Judeans.
This view is the most likely one. We know that the Passover was celebrated on two consecutive days. The Galileans celebrated the Passover known as ‘The Last Supper’ (Hebrew: ‘seudah maphsehket’) at sunset on the 14th Nisan while the Judeans waited until the next day on the evening of the 15th. Jesus celebrated the Passover on Wednesday night according to the Galileans calendar in line with the Synoptics. John’s account focused on the Judean calendar because he was focusing on Jesus’ enemies.
Since there were so many people, it would have been impossible for the priests to sacrifice enough lambs in a 24 hour period of up to 250,000. By spreading it out over two days would have helped the priests perform the sacrifices. Therefore, a custom arose whereby the Galileans slew their lambs on Nisan 13, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted eight days, whereas the Judeans celebrated it on Nisan 14 and it lasted seven days.
This means that the Synoptics marked their timing for the “first day” of the feast based on Exodus 12:17-18:
“17 You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your hosts [grouped according to tribal armies] out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an ordinance forever. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, [and continue] until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
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The apostle John, however, marked his timing from the actual feast day based on Leviticus 23:6:
“6 The Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord is on the fifteenth day of the same month; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.”
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John was right in placing the crucifixion on “the Preparation day of Passover” on Nisan 14, and the Synoptics are also right in acknowledging the Passover or Last Supper which was eaten the evening beforehand.
Raphael ben Levi
