What the Bible says about Christ Kept Passover at Beginning of 14th of Abib
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Leviticus 23:4-5, Numbers 9:2-5, and Joshua 5:10 all show that Passover is on the fourteenth day. Many say Nisan 15 is the right day to keep Passover. Not only do these verses tell us what day to observe Passover, but also what part of the day—at "twilight" (NKJV) or "even" (KVJ). (Some versions may also use a variation of the more literal "between the evenings." This changes nothing because in all of the Old Testament verses thus far quoted, it is the same Hebrew word, ben ha arbayim.) Which part of the day, then, is "even"?
Rather than look to human explanations, notice what the One who created it says: "God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:5). God reveals that His days begin with the evening (the night portion) followed by the morning (the daylight portion).
The same Hebrew word translated "at twilight" in Leviticus 23:5; Numbers 9:3; and Joshua 5:10 appears for the first time in Genesis 1:5, where it is translated as "the evening." So Genesis proves that the "at twilight" in the three Passover verses is the time that begins Nisan 14 and comes before the daylight portion. But when does evening start?
. . . but at the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, at the going down of the sun. . . . (Deuteronomy 16:6; see also Mark 1:32)
So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. (Nehemiah 13:19)
These verses establish that sunset starts the evening, the start of a day in God's eyes. For anyone who observes the Sabbath, these facts should be clear, yet some who observe the Sabbath—believing their complex and convoluted explanations, and in other cases, preferring tradition over Scripture—reject the Bible's clear teaching.
Additionally, Numbers 28:16-17 requires Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread to be on separate days: "On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the LORD. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days" (see also Leviticus 23:5-6). Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are distinct observances; God assigns each a separate day. One spilling over into the other, the result of a Nisan 15 Passover observance, contradicts this verse.
There is one final nail to hammer into the coffin of a Nisan 15 Passover, found in Exodus 12:5-6: "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight." According to Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, the Hebrew word translated "until" is ad, which means, "up to a specific point in time"—not through, nor beyond. It signifies "the limit of time itself."
This means that the Passover lamb was to be kept up to Nisan 14, which, we say, begins at sunset. This creates a line not to be crossed. What always immediately follows sunset? The twilight or evening—the time between sunset and the dark. This is when the Israelites killed the lamb: in the evening of Nisan 14.
Exodus 12:8 identifies when we are to partake of the Passover: "They shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it." Verse 10 then pins down when the observance should be complete: "You shall let none of it remain until morning; and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire."
Exodus 12:6, 8, and 10 lay out a timeline for Passover observance. It begins at the sunset that begins Nisan 14 with the lamb killed in the evening or twilight that immediately follows (verse 6). The Passover is eaten that night (verse 8), and all is to be completed by the morning, the daylight portion of Nisan 14 (verse 10). All this happens on Nisan 14, just as the Bible requires.
Pat Higgins
When Is Passover?Related Topics: | Ben Ha Arbayim | Christ Kept Passover at Beginning of 14th of Abib | Passover | Passover Lamb Killed at Twilight
This translation introduces an impossibility due to the fact that God's instructions to Israel plainly state that Passover is the day before the Feast of Unleavened Bread—and we can be sure that Christ and the disciples were not late! That the disciples inquired about making preparations—and later that night assumed Judas would be purchasing something "for the feast" (John 13:29)—shows that the time in question could not have been the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Why? That day is a holy convocation on which no customary work is to be done (Leviticus 23:7), if God's instructions are to remain unbroken.
So how are we to understand this verse? First, notice that the words "day of the Feast of" are italicized, showing that the translators added them to the text. The Greek literally reads, "And on the first unleavened. . . ." The word translated as "first," protos, typically signifies a thing that is first in a sequence or first in prominence. However, it can also indicate an order of events, as well as whether an event occurs before or concurrently with another.
For example, in John 1:15 John the Baptist acknowledges Christ's pre-existence, saying, "He who comes after me is preferred before [above] me, for He was before [protos] me" (see also verse 30). Also, in II Peter 2:20, Peter says of those who become entangled in the world again, "the latter end is worse for them than the beginning [protos]," again showing an order of events.
Matthew 26:17, then, can more accurately be translated, "Now before [the Feast of] Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, 'Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?'" In other words, this incident happened before the Feast of Unleavened Bread had begun. Since they were inquiring about preparing the Passover, this could have taken place either late in the day on Abib 13 or possibly just after sunset on Abib 14 (since the Passover lamb was to be killed between sunset and dark as the 14th began).
David C. Grabbe
Is Passover on the First Day of Unleavened Bread? (Part One)
Whereas Matthew's account has Jesus saying, “I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples” (Matthew 26:18), Mark's clarifies the phrase “keep the Passover” with “eat the Passover.” This is an essential detail because some have tried to explain His words away by claiming He merely mentions preparing for the Passover. But Mark brings out the fact that on this same occasion He meant He would eat the Passover with His disciples, not simply make preparations.
We again see His intention to use the guest (or upper) room of that certain man's house. Did our Messiah mean what He said? Are any words of God untrustworthy? If He did not mean what He said here, it means that either the sovereign God's will was thwarted, or else Jesus duplicitously said one thing while intending to do another. As Paul says, God forbid!
David C. Grabbe
Why Was Jesus Not Crucified as Passover Began? (Part One)
As with Mark, Luke's account emphasizes that Jesus would eat the Passover with His disciples, not merely prepare for it. In verse 15, He declares how great His desire had been to eat that Passover with them. His focus that evening as He sat with His disciples was on eating the Passover, not on being the Passover. He spoke of what He was doing then, not on what He would be doing later on the 14th.
His words also reveal that the eating of the Passover was to be before He suffered (verse 15). His crucifixion began at “the third hour” (Mark 15:25), about nine o'clock the following morning, and ended after “the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus obviously knew when Passover was to be observed, and “with fervent desire [He had] desired” to eat it with His disciples before He suffered. There is no indication He said this in reference to a meal the following afternoon or that He longed wistfully for the crucifixion to be put off until He could eat a late Abib 14 Passover.
The only conclusion is that He did in fact eat the Passover with His disciples that evening after the 14th had begun, prior to His arrest later that night and His appalling suffering, which began the next morning. These three accounts should leave no doubt that Jesus intended to, and in fact did, eat the Passover with His disciples at the beginning of the 14th day.
David C. Grabbe
Why Was Jesus Not Crucified as Passover Began? (Part One)