JESUS' LAST PASSOVER SEDER
HOW HISTORY & MODERN ASTRONOMY IDENTIFIED ONLY TWO POSSIBLE DATES
In the West, the next day / date begins immediately after midnight, but in Israel it begins a lot earlier, i.e immediately after twilight, at nightfall. (This is the way it has been since Genesis 1:5).
So in Israel, immediately after sunset / twilight when it becomes dark, the next day begins. Jesus was crucified during the Jewish Passover festival, and the Passover festival always begins on the night of a full moon.
The first few hours of the 15th of Nisan, (after it had become dark on the 14th Nisan) - was the evening that the Jews ate the Passover lamb, which had been slaughtered at twilight on the 14th of Nisan.
In the days of Jesus, this entire period (including the 7-day feast) was called "Passover". We can see this if we trace it in the law and the gospels:-
Luke 22
1 And the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, drew near.
2 And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.
3 And Satan entered into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the Twelve.
4 And going, he talked with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.
THE DAY OF THE PREPARATION OF THE PASSOVER LAMB
7 And the day of the Unleavened Bread came, when the Passover must be killed.
8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat.
9 And they said to Him. Where do You desire that we prepare?
Mark 14:12-13 tells us,
"And the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the passover, His disciples said to Him, Where do You desire that we go and prepare that You may eat the passover?
And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, Go into the city, and there you shall meet a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him."
Matthew 26:17 tells us,
17 And on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, Where do You desire that we prepare for You to eat the Passover?
The first day of Unleavened Bread is the 15th of Nisan (always). The Passover meal is eaten on the 15th of Nisan, after nightfall of the 14th.
Modern astronomy is able to trace the phases of the moon and the positions of the sun, moon and stars, going back thousands of years with great accuracy:
Between A.D 26 and A.D 36 (the years during which Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea), a full moon occurred on:
- April 7th, A.D 30 | 15 Nisan (biblical calendar); and on
- April 3rd, A.D 33 | 14 Nisan.
Nisan 15th was the first day of Unleavened Bread in A.D 30 (7 April A.D 30).
JOHN'S GOSPEL:
John 12
1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was (who had died, whom He raised from the dead).
2 Then they made a supper there for Him. And Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him.
12 On the next day, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, a great crowd who had come to the Feast
13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him. And they cried, Hosanna! "Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord!"
14 And finding an ass colt, Jesus sat on it; as it is written, 15 "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King comes sitting on the foal of an ass."
John 13
1 And before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come when He should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own in the world, He loved them to the end.
2 And when supper had ended, the Devil now having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon to betray Him.
John tells us further down below in the same chapter which supper he is talking about:
18 I do not speak of you all; I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me."
19 From now I tell you before it comes, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.
25 And lying on Jesus' breast, he said to him, Lord, who is it?
26 Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give the morsel when I have dipped it. And dipping the morsel, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
27 And after the morsel, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, What you do, do quickly.
28 But no one reclining knew for what reason He spoke this to him.
29 For some thought, because Judas had the moneybag, that Jesus had said to him, Buy what we have need of for the feast; or that he should give something to the poor.
30 He then, having received the morsel, went out immediately. And it was night.
.. And when supper had ended, the Devil now having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon to betray Him (John 13:2).
31 Then when he had left, Jesus said, Now the Son of man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.
32 If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall immediately glorify Him.
Then, from John Chapter 13 through 16, Jesus is giving his disciples final instructions, and final teaching. Then, in Chapter 16, we read that He says,
John 16
32 Behold, the hour comes, yea, has now come, that you will be scattered, each man to his own things, and you will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
John 17
1 Jesus spoke these words and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that Your Son also may glorify You.
John 18
1 Having spoken these words, Jesus went out with His disciples over the winter stream Kidron, where there was a garden. He and His disciples entered into it.
2 And Judas who betrayed Him also knew the place. For Jesus oftentimes went there with His disciples.
3 Then Judas, having received a band and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
4 Then Jesus, knowing all things that were coming upon Him, went out and said to them, Whom do you seek?
5 They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I AM! And Judas who betrayed Him also stood with them.
These things occurred after the last Passover meal that Jesus ate with His disciples, the same night. He ate the Passover after the lamb had been slaughtered (after twilight of 14 Nisan, as the law required - so it was the 15th).
The first hours after nightfall was the biblical calendar date of Nisan the 15th.
Leviticus 23:6-7:
"Then on the fifteenth day of the same month will be the festival of unleavened bread to the LORD; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day there will be a holy assembly for you; you must not do any regular work."
John 18
26 One of the servants of the high priest, being kinsman to him whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did I not see you in the garden with him?
27 Peter then denied again. And immediately a cock crowed.
28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the praetorium. And it was early.
THE SABBATH
The first day of Unleavened Bread was a sabbath. It begins at nightfall of the 14th of Nisan, and the hours following nightfall begins the 15th. The first hours of the 15th of Nisan is the night on which the Passover meal is prepared, after having been slaughtered at twilight of the 14th.
John 18:28 closes with:
"And they did not go into the praetorium, that they should not be defiled, and that they might eat the Passover."
John 18:29-30 & 38-40:
"Then Pilate went out to them and said, What charge do you bring against this man? They answered and said to him, If he were not an evildoer, then we would not have delivered him up to you."
"Pilate said to Him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, I find no fault in him.
But you have a custom that I should release one to you at the Passover. Then do you desire that I release to you the king of the Jews? Then they all cried again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas! But Barabbas was a robber."
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The words "preparation" and "they did not go into the praetorium, that they should not be defiled, and that they might eat the Passover." throws us off and as a result most have believed that the things John is describing took place before the Passover meal had been prepared, and the day before the sabbath which marked the 15th.
- but the first day of Unleavened Bread was a sabbath. It begins at nightfall of the 14th of Nisan, and the hours following nightfall begins the 15th. The first hours of the 15th of Nisan is the night on which the Passover meal is prepared, after having been slaughtered at twilight of the 14th.
Most of us have always assumed when we read the text, that the reason why the Jews wanted the bodies to be taken off the crosses was because they wanted them to have been removed before the sabbath,
but if Jesus was crucified on the 15th, it means He was on the cross on the Passover-sabbath.
Is this why the Jews did not want the dead bodies of those who had been crucified to remain on the crosses - because it was on the sabbath of the first day of Unleavened Bread (not because the sabbath was still to follow)?
John's gospel says:
John 19:30-31:
"Then when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up the spirit. Then the Jews, because it was Preparation, begged Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away, so that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the sabbath. For that sabbath was a high day.
Going back some hours, John's gospel states:
John 19:13-14:
"Then when Pilate heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat at a place called the Pavement (but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha). And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, Behold your king!"
But the entire week's feast was called "Passover". Luke's gospel states:
"And the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, drew near. " (Luke 22:1).
So we know that the feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th and lasts a full week, and we know that the Passover Lamb was only slaughtered at twilight of the 14th and prepared for consumption during the first hours of the 15th. If it was a Friday, the following day would have been the weekly sabbath, in which case the women who went to embalm His body waited until the day after the weekly sabbath (which, if Jesus was indeed crucified on a Friday, would have been the second sabbath-day following the 15th), but when they arrived, the tomb was empty. He had risen!
If Jesus was crucified after eating the Passover meal with His disciples, then it means He was crucified on the 15th - which was a sabbath-day, it being the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread:
"And the day of the Unleavened Bread came, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare the Passover for us, so that we may eat. And they said to Him. Where do You desire that we prepare?" (Luke 22:7-9).
So it's highly possible that the reason why the Jews did not want bodies remaining on the Romans' crucifixion crosses on the sabbath was because it was already a sabbath-day (the first day of Unleavened Bread) and (possibly) there was a second sabbath-day (the weekly sabbath) to follow. Pilate would not have been bothered about whether or not the Jews wanted people to be crucified on their sabbath day, any more than he was bothered about their protest over the title Pilate had ordered be placed above Christ's head on the cross, where the crime of the person being crucified, was normally written.
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