Traditional Views of Jesus’ Last Supper as a Passover Meal
With his disciples gathered around him, Jesus partakes of his Last Supper. The meal, in this late-15th-century painting (now in a private collection) by the Spanish artist known only as the Master of Perea, consists of lamb, unleavened bread and wine—all elements of the Seder feast celebrated on the first night of the Jewish Passover festival. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke appear to present Jesus’ Last Supper as a Seder. In John, however, the seven-day Passover festival does not begin until after Jesus is crucified. Jonathan Klawans suggests that the Passover Seder as we know it developed only after the time of Jesus. Christie’s Images/Superstock
Many people assume that Jesus’ Last Supper was a Seder, a ritual meal held in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Passover. And indeed, according to the Gospel of Mark 14:12, Jesus prepared for the Last Supper on the “first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb.” If Jesus and his disciples gathered together to eat soon after the Passover lamb was sacrificed, what else could they possibly have eaten if not the Passover meal? And if they ate the Passover sacrifice, they must have held a Seder.
Three out of four of the canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) agree that the Last Supper was held only after the Jewish holiday had begun. Moreover, one of the best known and painstakingly detailed studies of the Last Supper—Joachim Jeremias’s book The Eucharistic Words of Jesus—lists no fewer than 14 distinct parallels between the Last Supper tradition and the Passover Seder.1
The Passover Seder and Sacrifice
The Jewish holiday of Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. The roots of the festival are found in Exodus 12, in which God instructs the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb at twilight on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, before the sun sets (Exodus 12:18). That night the Israelites are to eat the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. The lamb’s blood should be swabbed on their doorposts as a sign. God, seeing the sign, will then “pass over” the houses of the Israelites (Exodus 12:13), while smiting the Egyptians with the tenth plague, the killing of the first-born sons.
A San Francisco seder. California Rabbi Jack Frankel and his family lift the first glass of wine during a Seder meal, held on the first night of Passover (and the second night in the Diaspora). The Seder commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. Throughout the meal, the biblical story is retold; the food is linked symbolically with the Exodus. Photo by Rodger Ressmeyer, San Francisco/Corbis.
Exodus 12 commands the Israelites to repeat this practice every year, performing the sacrifice during the day and then consuming it after the sun has set. (According to Jewish tradition, the new day begins with the setting of the sun, so the sacrifice is made on the 14th but the beginning of Passover and the meal are actually on the 15th, although this sequence of dates is not specified in Exodus.) Exodus 12 further speaks of a seven-day festival, which begins when the sacrifice is consumed (Exodus 12:15).
Once the Israelites were settled in Israel, and once a Temple was built in Jerusalem, the original sacrifice described in Exodus 12 changed dramatically. Passover became one of the Jewish Pilgrimage festivals, and Israelites were expected to travel to Jerusalem to sacrifice a Passover lamb at the Temple during the afternoon of the 14th day, and then consume the Passover sacrifice once the sun had set, and the festival had formally begun on the 15th. This kind of celebration is described as having taken place during the reigns of Kings Hezekiah and Josiah (2 Chronicles 30 and 35).
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As time passed, the practice continued to evolve. Eventually, a number of customs, recorded in rabbinic literature, began to accumulate around the meal, which became so highly ritualized that it was called the Seder, from the Hebrew for “order”: Unleavened bread was broken, wine was served, the diners reclined and hymns were sung. Furthermore, during the meal, the Exodus story was retold and the significance of the unleavened bread, bitter herbs and wine was explained.
The bread and wine, the hymn, the reclining diners—many of these characteristic elements are shared by the Last Supper, as Jeremias pointed out. (Jeremias’s 14 parallels are given in full in endnote 1.) What is more, just as Jews at the Seder discuss the symbolism of the Passover meal, Jesus at his Last Supper discussed the symbolism of the wine and bread in light of his own coming death.
It is not only Jeremias’s long list of parallels that leads many modern Christians and Jews to describe the Last Supper as a Passover Seder. The recent popularity of interfaith Seders (where Christians and Jews celebrate aspects of Passover and the Last Supper together) points to an emotional impulse that is also at work here. The Christian celebration of the Eucharist (Communion)—the Last Supper—is the fundamental ritual for many Christians. And among Jews the Passover Seder is one of the most widely practiced of all observances. In these times of ecumenicism and general good feeling between Christians and Jews, many people seem to find it reassuring to think that Communion (the Eucharist) and the Passover Seder are historically related.
Historical Doubts about Jesus’ Last Supper as a Passover Seder
History, however, is often more complex and perhaps a little less comforting than we might hope. Although I welcome the current ecumenical climate, I believe we must be careful not to let our emotions get the better of us when we are searching for history. Indeed, even though the association of the Last Supper with a Passover Seder remains entrenched in the popular mind, a growing number of scholars are beginning to express serious doubts about this claim.
Of course a number of New Testament scholars—the Jesus Seminar comes to mind—tend to doubt that the Gospels accurately record very much at all about Jesus, with the exception of some of his sayings. Obviously if the Gospels cannot be trusted, then we have no reason to assume that there ever was a Last Supper at all. And if there was no Last Supper, then it could not have taken place on Passover.2
The sacrifice of the Passover lamb is conducted annually on Mt. Gerizim, in Nablus (ancient Shechem), in the West Bank, by the Samaritans, a religious group that split from Judaism by the second century B.C.E. The Samaritans retained the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) as their Scripture, although with some alterations. The Samaritan Bible refers to Mt. Gerizim, not Jerusalem, as the center of worship. David Harris.
Furthermore, several Judaic studies scholars—Jacob Neusner is a leading example—very much doubt that rabbinic texts can be used in historical reconstructions of the time of Jesus. But rabbinic literature is our main source of information about what Jews might have done during their Seder meal in ancient times. For reasons that are not entirely clear, other ancient Jewish sources, such as Josephus and Philo, focus on what Jews did in the Temple when the Passover sacrifice was offered, rather than on what they did afterward, when they actually ate the sacrifice. Again, if we cannot know how Jews celebrated Passover at the time of Jesus, then we have to plead ignorance, and we would therefore be unable to answer our question.
There is something to be said for these skeptical positions, but I am not such a skeptic. I want to operate here under the opposite assumptions: that the Gospels can tell us about the historical Jesus,3 and that rabbinic sources can be used—with caution—to reconstruct what Jews at the time of Jesus might have believed and practiced.4 Even so, I do not think the Last Supper was a Passover Seder.
Jesus’ Last Supper in the Gospels
While three of the four canonical Gospels strongly suggest that the Last Supper did occur on Passover, we should not get too comfortable based on that. The three Gospels that support this view are the three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke. As anyone who has studied these three Gospels knows, they are closely related. In fact, the name synoptic refers to the fact that these three texts can be studied most effectively when “seen together” (as implied in the Greek etymology of synoptic). Thus, in fact we don’t really have three independent sources here at all. What we have, rather, is one testimony (probably Mark), which was then copied twice (by Matthew and Luke).
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Against the “single” testimony of the synoptics that the Last Supper was a Passover meal stands the lone Gospel of John, which dates the crucifixion to the “day of Preparation for the Passover” (John 19:14). According to John, Jesus died just when the Passover sacrifice was being offered and before the festival began at sundown (see the sidebar to this article). Any last meal—which John does not record—would have taken place the night before, or even earlier than that. But it certainly could not have been a Passover meal, for Jesus died before the holiday had formally begun.
So are we to follow John or the synoptics?5 There are a number of problems with the synoptic account. First, if the Last Supper had been a Seder held on the first night of Passover, then that would mean Jesus’ trial and crucifixion took place during the week-long holiday. If indeed Jewish authorities were at all involved in Jesus’ trial and death, then according to the synoptics those authorities would have engaged in activities—holding trials and carrying out executions—that were either forbidden or certainly unseemly to perform on the holiday. This is not the place to consider whether Jewish authorities were involved in Jesus’ death.6 Nor is it the place to consider whether such authorities would have been devout practitioners of Jewish law. But this is the place to point out that if ancient Jewish authorities had been involved in something that could possibly be construed as a violation of Jewish law, the Gospels—with their hatred of the Jewish authorities—would probably have made the most of it. The synoptic account stretches credulity, not just because it depicts something unlikely, but because it fails to recognize the unlikely and problematic nature of what it depicts. It is almost as if the synoptic tradition has lost all familiarity with contemporary Jewish practice. And if they have lost familiarity with that, they have probably lost familiarity with reliable historical information as well.
There are, of course, some reasons to doubt John’s account too. He may well have had theological motivations for claiming that Jesus was executed on the day of preparation when the Passover sacrifice was being offered but before Passover began at sundown. John’s timing of events supports the Christian claim that Jesus himself was a sacrifice and that his death heralds a new redemption, just as the Passover offering recalls an old one. Even so, John’s claim that Jesus was killed just before Passover began is more plausible than the synoptics’ claim that Jesus was killed on Passover. And if Jesus wasn’t killed on Passover, but before it (as John claims), then the Last Supper could not in fact have been a Passover Seder.
A Jewish Last Supper Celebration
What then of Jeremias’s long list of parallels? It turns out that under greater scrutiny the parallels are too general to be decisive. That Jesus ate a meal in Jerusalem, at night, with his disciples is not so surprising. It is also no great coincidence that during this meal the disciples reclined, ate both bread and wine, and sang a hymn. While such behavior may have been characteristic of the Passover meal, it is equally characteristic of practically any Jewish meal.
A number of scholars now believe that the ritual context for the Last Supper was not a Seder but a standard Jewish meal. That Christians celebrated the Eucharist on a daily or weekly basis (see Acts 2:46–47) underscores the fact that it was not viewed exclusively in a Passover context (otherwise, it would have been performed, like the Passover meal, on an annual basis).
An ancient Christian church manual called the Didache also suggests that the Last Supper may have been an ordinary Jewish meal. In Chapters 9 and 10 of the Didache, the eucharistic prayers are remarkably close to the Jewish Grace After Meals (Birkat ha-Mazon).7 While these prayers are recited after the Passover meal, they would in fact be recited at any meal at which bread was eaten, holiday or not. Thus, this too underscores the likelihood that the Last Supper was an everyday Jewish meal.
Moreover, while the narrative in the synoptics situates the Last Supper during Passover, the fact remains that the only foods we are told the disciples ate are bread and wine—the basic elements of any formal Jewish meal. If this was a Passover meal, where is the Passover lamb? Where are the bitter herbs? Where are the four cups of wine?a
The Symbolic Explanation of the Bread and Wine at Passover and Jesus’ Last Supper
We are left with only one important parallel (Jeremias’s 14th) that can be explained in terms of a Seder: the surprising fact that Jesus at his Last Supper engaged in symbolic explanation of the bread and wine, just as Jews at the Seder engage in symbolic explanations, interpreting aspects of the Passover meal in light of the Exodus from Egypt: “Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant’” (Matthew 26:26–28=Mark 14:22; see also Luke 22:19–20). Is this not a striking parallel to the ways in which Jews celebrating the Seder interpret, for example, the bitter herbs eaten with the Passover sacrifice as representing the bitter life the Israelites experienced as slaves in Egypt?
However, this last parallel between the Last Supper and the Passover Seder assumes that the Seder ritual we know today was celebrated in Jesus’ day. But this is hardly the case.
The Development of the Modern Passover Seder
When Jews today sit down to celebrate the Passover Seder, they use a book known as the Haggadah. The Hebrew word haggadah literally means “telling”; the title refers to the book’s purpose: to provide the ordered framework through which the story of Passover is told at the Seder. Telling the story of Passover is, of course, one of the fundamental purposes of the celebration, as stated in Exodus 13:8: “And you shall tell your child on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went forth from Egypt.’”
The text on this particular page from an illuminated Haggadah created by Zeev Raban (1890–1970) provides rabbinic commentary on a Biblical passage relating to Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. After discussing Jacob’s journey to Egypt, the text continues, “‘And he lived there’—this teaches that our father Jacob did not go to Egypt to settle there permanently, just temporarily, as it is written: ‘And the sons of Jacob said to Pharaoh: “We have come to live in this land temporarily, for there is no pasture for the flocks that belong to your servants, for the famine is harsh in the land of Canaan”’” (quoting Genesis 47:4). From the Raban Haggadah/Courtesy of Mali Doron.
The traditional text of the Haggadah as it exists today incorporates a variety of material, starting with the Bible, and running through medieval songs and poems. For many Jews (especially non-Orthodox Jews), the process of development continues, and many modern editions of the Haggadah contain contemporary readings of one sort or another. Even many traditional Jews have, for instance, adapted the Haggadah so that mention can be made of the Holocaust.8
How much of the Haggadah goes back to ancient times? In the 1930s and 1940s, the American Talmud scholar Louis Finkelstein (1895–1991) famously claimed that various parts of the Passover Haggadah were very early, stemming in part from the third century B.C.E.9 In 1960, Israeli scholar Daniel Goldschmidt (1895–1972) effectively rebutted practically all of Finkelstein’s claims. It is unfortunate that Goldschmidt’s Hebrew article has not been translated, because it remains, to my mind, the classic work on the early history of the Passover Haggadah.10 Fortunately, a number of brief and up-to-date treatments of the history of the Haggadah are now available.11 A full generation later, the Goldschmidt-Finkelstein debate seems to have been settled, and in Goldschmidt’s favor. Almost everyone doing serious work on the early history of Passover traditions, including Joseph Tabory, Israel Yuval, Lawrence Hoffman, and the father-son team of Shmuel and Ze’ev Safrai, has rejected Finkelstein’s claims for the great antiquity of the bulk of the Passover Haggadah. What is particularly significant about this consensus is that these scholars are not radical skeptics. These scholars believe that, generally speaking, we can extract historically reliable information from rabbinic sources. But as demonstrated by the late Baruch Bokser in his book The Origins of the Seder, practically everything preserved in the early rabbinic traditions concerning the Passover Seder brings us back to the time immediately following the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.12 It’s not that rabbinic literature cannot be trusted to tell us about history in the first century of the Common Era. It’s that rabbinic literature—in the case of the Seder—does not even claim to be telling us how the Seder was performed before the destruction of the Temple.b
Let me elaborate on this proposition by examining the Haggadah’s requirement of explaining the Passover symbols:
Rabban Gamaliel used to say: Whoever does not make mention of the following three things on Passover has not fulfilled his obligation: namely, the Passover sacrifice, unleavened bread (matzah) and bitter herbs.
(1) The Passover sacrifice, which our ancestors used to eat at the time when the Holy Temple stood—what is the reason? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt. As it is said, “It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover…” (Exodus 12:27).
(2) The unleavened bread, which we eat—what is the reason? Because the dough of our ancestors had not yet leavened when the King of Kings, the Holy One Blessed be He revealed Himself to them and redeemed them. As it is said, “And they baked unleavened cakes…” (Exodus 12:39).
(3) These bitter herbs, which we eat—what is the reason? Because the Egyptians made the lives of our ancestors bitter in Egypt. As it is said, “And they made their lives bitter…” (Exodus 1:14).
Rabban Gamaliel instructs his students in this illumination from the Sarajevo Haggadah. The Haggadah credits Gamaliel with introducing the requirement that the symbolic significance of the food served during the Seder be explained during the meal. Some scholars who assume the Last Supper was a Seder have suggested that Jesus deliberately explained the significance of the bread and wine in fulfillment of this requirement. But the requirement may not have even been in place in the time of Jesus. There were two leaders of the rabbinic academy called Gamaliel: One lived around the time of Jesus; the other, after the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. Sarajevo National Museum.
On first reading, Jeremias might appear to be correct: Jesus’ explanation of the bread and the wine does seem similar to Rabban Gamaliel’s explanation of the Passover symbols. Might not Jesus be presenting a competing interpretation of these symbols? Possibly. But it really depends on when this Rabban Gamaliel lived. If he lived later than Jesus, then it would make no sense to view Jesus’ words as based on Rabban Gamaliel’s.
Unfortunately for the contemporary historian, there were two rabbis named Gamaliel, both of whom bore the title “rabban” (which means “our master” and was usually applied to the head of the rabbinic academy). The first lived decadesbefore the destruction of the Temple, according to rabbinic tradition.13 It is this Gamaliel who is referred to in Acts 22:3, in which Paul is said to have claimed that he was educated “at the feet of Gamaliel.” The second Rabban Gamaliel was, according to rabbinic tradition, the grandson of the elder Gamaliel. This Gamaliel served as head of the rabbinic academy sometime after the destruction of the Temple. Virtually all scholars working today believe that the Haggadah tradition attributing the words quoted above to Gamaliel refers to the grandson, Rabban Gamaliel the Younger, who lived long after Jesus had died.14 One piece of evidence for this appears in the text quoted above, in which Rabban Gamaliel is said to have spoken of the time “when the Temple was still standing”—as if that time had already passed. Furthermore, as Baruch Bokser has shown, the bulk of early rabbinic material pertaining to the Passover Haggadah is attributed in the Haggadah itself to figures who lived immediately following the destruction of the Temple (and were therefore contemporaries of Gamaliel the Younger). Finally, a tradition preserved in the Tosefta (a rabbinic companion volume to the earliest rabbinic lawbook, the Mishnah, edited perhaps in the third or fourth century) suggests that Gamaliel the Younger played some role in Passover celebrations soon after the Temple was destroyed, when animal sacrifices could for this reason no longer be offered.15
Thus, the Passover Seder as we know it developed after 70 C.E. I wish we could know more about how the Passover meal was celebrated before the Temple was destroyed. But unfortunately, our sources do not answer this question with any certainty. Presumably, Jesus and his disciples would have visited the Temple to slaughter their Passover sacrifice. Then they would have consumed it along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, as required by the Book of Exodus. And presumably they would have engaged in conversation pertinent to the occasion. But we cannot know for sure.
Why the Synoptic Gospels Portray the Last Supper as a Passover Meal
Having determined that the Last Supper was not a Seder and that it probably did not take place on Passover, I must try to account for why the synoptic Gospels portray the Last Supper as a Passover meal. Of course, the temporal proximity of Jesus’ crucifixion (and with it, the Last Supper) to the Jewish Passover provides one motive: Surely this historical coincidence could not be dismissed as just that.
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Another motive relates to a rather practical question: Within a few years after Jesus’ death, Christian communities (which at first consisted primarily of Jews) began to ask when, how and even whether they should celebrate or commemorate the Jewish Passover.16 This was a question not only early on, but throughout the time of the so-called Quartodeciman controversy. The Quartodecimans (the 14-ers) were Christians who believed that the date of Easter should be calculated so as to coincide with the Jewish celebration of Passover, whether or not that date fell on a Sunday. The Jewish calendar was (and is) lunar, and therefore there is always a full moon on the night of the Passover Seder, that is, the night following the 14th of Nisan. But that night is not always a Saturday night. The Quartodeciman custom of celebrating Easter beginning on the evening following the 14th day apparently began relatively early in Christian history and persisted at least into the fifth century C.E. The alternate view—that Easter must be on a Sunday, regardless of the day on which the Jewish Passover falls—ultimately prevailed. Possibly the Gospels’ disagreements about the timing of the Last Supper were the result of these early Christian disputes about when Easter should be celebrated. After all, if you wanted to encourage Christians to celebrate Easter on Passover, would it not make sense to emphasize the fact that Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples just before he died?
Related to the question of when Christians should recall Jesus’ last days was a question of how they should be recalled. Early on, a number of Christians—Quartodecimans and others—felt that the appropriate way to mark the Jewish Passover was not with celebration, but with fasting. On the one hand, this custom reflected an ancient Jewish tradition of fasting during the time immediately preceding the Passover meal (as related in Mishnah Pesachim 10:1). On the other hand, distinctively Christian motives for this fast can also be identified, from recalling Jesus’ suffering on the cross to praying for the eventual conversion of the Jews.17
Jesus is the Paschal lamb in the Gospel of John, which associates the crucifixion, rather than the Last Supper, with the Passover festival. According to John, Jesus died on the “day of Preparation for the Passover” (John 19:14), when the Passover sacrifice was being offered but before the festival began at sundown.
In Matthias Gruenewald’s altarpiece (1510–1516) for the monastery of Isenheim, Germany (but now in the Unterlinden Museum, in Colmar), the crucified Jesus is explicitly linked with the Paschal sacrifice. To the right of the cross stands a wounded lamb, which carries a cross and bleeds into a chalice. The disciple whom Jesus loved comforts Jesus’ mother at left. Mary Magdalene kneels at the foot of the cross, her alabaster ointment jar beside her. At right, John the Baptist points to Jesus. His prediction that Jesus will overtake him (“He must increase, but I must decrease,” John 3:30) is inscribed beside him in Latin. Giraudon/Art Resource, NY.
The German New Testament scholar Karl Georg Kuhn has argued that the Gospel of Luke places the Last Supper in a Passover context in order to convince Christians not to celebrate Passover. He notes that the synoptic Last Supper tradition attributes to Jesus a rather curious statement of abstinence: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Paschal lamb with you before I suffer, for I tell you that I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God…[and] I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes” (Luke 22:15–18; cf. Mark 14:25 [“I shall not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God”]=Matthew 26:29). The synoptics’ placement of the Last Supper in a Passover context should be read along with Jesus’ statement on abstinence; in this view, the tradition that the Last Supper was a Passover meal argues that Christians should mark the Passover not by celebrating, but by fasting, because Jesus has already celebrated his last Passover.18 Thus, until Jesus’ kingdom is fulfilled, Christians should not celebrate at all during Passover.
New Testament scholar Bruce Chilton recently presented an alternate theory. He argues that the identification of the Last Supper with a Passover Seder originated among Jewish Christians who were attempting to maintain the Jewish character of early Easter celebrations.19 By calling the Last Supper a Passover meal, these Jewish-Christians were trying to limit Christian practice in three ways. Like the Passover sacrifice, the recollection of the Last Supper could only be celebrated in Jerusalem, at Passover time, and by Jews.c
Without deciding between these two contradictory alternatives (though Kuhn’s is in my mind more convincing), we can at least agree that there are various reasons why the early church would have tried to “Passoverize” the Last Supper tradition.20 Placing the Last Supper in the context of Passover was a literary tool in early Christian debates about whether or not and how Christians should celebrate Passover.
Other examples of Passoverization can be identified. The Gospel of John, as previously noted, and Paul (1 Corinthians 5:7–8) equate Jesus’ crucifixion with the Passover sacrifice: “Our Paschal lamb, Christ has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” This too is a Passoverization of the Jesus tradition, but it is one that contradicts the identification of the Last Supper with the Seder or Passover meal.
Both of these Passoverizations can be placed in the broader context of Exodus typology in general. W.D. Davies and N.T. Wright have argued that various New Testament sources depict the events of Jesus’ life as a new Exodus. Early Christians interpreted Jesus’ life and death in light of the ancient Jewish narrative of redemption par excellence, the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Surely the depiction of the Last Supper as a Passover observance could play a part in this larger effort of arguing that Jesus’ death echoes the Exodus from Egypt.21
This process of Passoverization did not end with the New Testament. The second-century bishop Melito of Sardis (in Asia Minor) once delivered a widely popular Paschal sermon, which could well be called a “Christian Haggadah,” reflecting at great length on the various connections between the Exodus story and the life of Jesus.22
Passoverization can even be found in the Middle Ages. Contrary to popular belief, the Catholic custom of using unleavened wafers in the Mass is medieval in origin. The Orthodox churches preserve the earlier custom of using leavened bread.23 Is it not possible to see the switch from using leavened to unleavened bread as a “Passoverization” of sorts?
Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder? Most likely, it was not.
Interested in Jesus’ Judaism? The Bible History Daily post Was Jesus a Jew? includes the full article “What Price the Uniqueness of Jesus?: To wrench Jesus out of his Jewish world destroys Jesus and destroys Christianity.” by Anthony J. Saldarini as it originally appeared in Bible Review.
When Passover Begins: The Synoptics versus John
| 14th of Nisan (Ending at Sundown) |
15th of Nisan (Beginning at Sundown) |
|
| Day of Preparation for Passover. Passover lamb sacrificed in late afternoon. |
Passover holiday begins and a festive Seder meal is held at night. Passover lamb is consumed. |
|
| Matthew 26–27, Mark 14–15 and Luke 22–23 |
Jesus and his disciples prepare for Passover. |
Jesus and his disciples hold a Last Supper at the time of the Passover Seder. Jesus is arrested that night. He is killed the next morning, which is the day of the 15th of Nisan. |
| John 19 | Jesus crucified while the Passover lambs are being sacrificed. (The Last Supper is not mentioned by John, but it would have taken place the night before the crucifixion or even earlier.) |
Reference for this article:
Klawans, Jonathan. “Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?.” Bible Review, Oct 2001, 24-33, 47.
Notes
1. The book first appeared in 1935 and was revised and translated various times after that. The 14 parallels are listed in the 1960 third edition, which was translated into English in 1966. See Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, 3rd ed. (London: SCM Press, 1966), esp. pp. 42–61. His 14 parallels may be summarized as follows: (1) The Last Supper took place in Jerusalem, (2) in a room made available to pilgrims for that purpose, and (3) it was held during the night. (4) Jesus celebrated that meal with his “family” of disciples; and (5) while they ate, they reclined. (6) This meal was eaten in a state of ritual purity. (7) Bread was broken during the meal and not just at the beginning. (8) Wine was consumed and (9) this wine was red. (10) There were last-minute preparations for the meal, after which (11) alms were given, and (12) a hymn was sung. (13) Jesus and his disciples then remained in Jerusalem. Finally, (14) Jesus discussed the symbolic significance of the meal, just as Jews do during the Passover Seder. For brief surveys summarizing the question see Robert F. O’Toole, “Last Supper,” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1992), vol. 4, pp. 235–236 and Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), pp. 423–427.
2. For a representative statement denying the historicity of the Last Supper traditions, see Robert W. Funk and The Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), p. 139.
3. For an excellent treatment of what we can and cannot know of the historical Jesus, see the recent book by my colleague Paula Fredriksen, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).
4. For an excellent summary of Judaism in Jesus’ time—one which makes judicious use of rabbinic evidence—see E.P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 B.C.E.–66 C.E. (London: SCM Press, 1992). For more on the use of rabbinic sources, see Sanders’s Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1977), esp. pp. 59–84.
5. There are those who attempt to harmonize John and the synoptics by supposing that they disagreed not about when the Last Supper occurred, but about whether the date of Passover was supposed to be calculated by following a solar calendar or a lunar one. Annie Jaubert presents this theory in her book, The Date of the Last Supper (Staten Island: Alba House, 1965). This view cannot be accepted, however. It is too difficult to conceive of Passover having been celebrated twice in the same place without any contemporary or even later writer referring to such an event. Surely it would have been remarkable if two Passovers were held in the same week! Moreover, while we do know of solar calendars from the Book of Jubilees and the Temple Scroll, we do not know how any of these calendars really worked. Jubilees’s calendar, for instance, explicitly prohibits any form of intercalation (the adding of extra days in a leap year). And without intercalation, by Jesus’ time, Jubilees’s 364-day solar calendar would be off not just by days, but by months. It is only by hypothesizing some manner of intercalation that we can even come up with the possibility that in Jesus’ time the two calendars were both functioning, but off by just a few days. Thus in the end, Jaubert’s book presents a good theory, but it remains just that, a theory. For more on these questions, see James C. VanderKam, Calendars in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Measuring Time (London: Routledge, 1998).
6. On the question of Jewish authorities and their role in Jesus’ death, see John Dominic Crossan, Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995).
7. For more on the parallels between the Didache and the Jewish Birkat ha-Mazon, see Enrico Mazza, The Celebration of the Eucharist: The Origin of the Rite and the Development of Its Interpretation (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999), esp. pp. 19–26 (where he discusses these parallels) and pp. 307–309 (where he provides translations of the texts).
8. A useful version of the traditional text of the Haggadah, with introduction and translation, can be found in the widely available edition of Nahum N. Glatzer, The Passover Haggadah (New York: Schocken Books, 1981). Those interested in appreciating how the Haggadah brings together material from various historical periods might look at Jacob Freedman, Polychrome Historical Haggadah for Passover (Springfield, MA: Jacob Freedman Liturgy Research Foundation, 1974).
9. Finkelstein published his theories in three articles: “The Oldest Midrash: Pre-Rabbinic Ideals and Teachings in the Passover Haggadah,” Harvard Theological Review (HTR) 31 (1938), pp. 291–317; “Pre-Maccabean Documents in the Passover Haggadah (Part 1),” HTR 35 (1942), pp. 291–332; and “Pre-Maccabean Documents in the Passover Haggadah (Part 2),” HTR 36 (1943), pp. 1–38. Glatzer summarizes some of Finkelstein’s claims in The Passover Haggadah, pp. 39–42.
10. Goldschmidt, The Passover Haggadah: Its Sources and History (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1960). Glatzer’s edition of the Haggadah (cited above) is based in part on Goldschmidt’s research, but the first edition of Glatzer’s Haggadah was published in 1953, years before Goldschmidt’s final 1960 version of his article.
11. See especially the collection of essays, Passover and Easter: Origin and History to Modern Times, ed. Paul F. Bradshaw and Lawrence A. Hoffman (Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1999). Those who read Hebrew will want to consult Shmuel Safrai and Ze’ev Safrai, Haggadah of the Sages: The Passover Haggadah (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem: Carta, 1998).
12. Baruch Bokser, The Origins of the Seder (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1984).
13. Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sabbath, 15a.
14. This view can be traced back well into the middle ages—it is advocated in a 14th-century Haggadah commentary by Rabbi Simeon ben Zemach Duran. This view has also been advocated more recently by, among others, Daniel Goldschmidt, Joseph Tabory, Israel Yuval and Baruch Bokser. Bokser, Origins of the Seder, pp. 41–43, 79–80, and 119 n. 13; Goldschmidt, Passover Haggadah, pp. 51–53. See also the articles by Joseph Tabory and Israel Yuval in Passover and Easter, esp. pp. 68–69 (Tabory) and pp. 106–107 (Yuval). Goldschmidt, Tabory and Yuval go even one step further, suggesting that Jeremias had it backwards. It was not that Jesus was reinterpreting a prior Jewish tradition. Rather, Rabban Gamaliel the Younger required the explanation of the Passover symbols as a way of countering Christian manipulation of these symbols.
15. Tosefta Pesahim 10:12; see Bokser, Origins of the Seder, pp. 41–43, 79–80.
16. Jeremias, Eucharistic Words, pp. 66 and 122–125.
17. On the Quartodecimans and on fasting before Easter, see Bradshaw, “The Origins of Easter” in Bradshaw and Hoffman, Passover and Easter, pp. 81–97.
18. See Karl Georg Kuhn, “The Lord’s Supper and the Communal Meal at Qumran,” in The Scrolls and the New Testament, Krister Stendahl, ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1957), pp. 65–93. Kuhn builds here on work of B. Lohse, published in German (and cited in his article). See also Jeremias, Eucharistic Words, pp. 216–218.
19. Bruce Chilton, A Feast of Meanings: Eucharistic Theologies from Jesus Through Johannine Circles (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), esp. pp. 93–108.
20. The term “Passoverize” is used by Mazza, in his brief treatment of the issue; see Celebration of the Eucharist, pp. 24–26.
21. See especially W.D. Davies, Setting of the Sermon on the Mount (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1964), pp. 25–92.
22. Commonly entitled “On the Passover,” the sermon survives in numerous copies and fragments in Coptic, Greek, Syriac, Latin and Georgian. The oldest copy, from the third or early fourth century, is in Coptic. See James E. Goehring and William W. Willis, “On the Passover by Melito of Sardis,” in The Crosby-Schoyen Codex MS 193, James E. Goehring, ed. (Leuven [Louvain]: Peeters, 1999).
23. On the medieval debate between the Catholic and Orthodox churches on this matter, see Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, vol. 2, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600–1700) (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1971), pp. 177–178. On the archaeological evidence pertaining to this dispute, see George Galavaris, Bread and the Liturgy: The Symbolism of Early Christian and Byzantine Bread Stamps (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1970).
a. Some may also ask, where is the unleavened bread? The Gospels do not specify that Jesus fed his disciples unleavened bread, which is what Jews would eat at Passover. This however does not preclude the possibility that Jesus used unleavened bread at the Last Supper, as Jews commonly refer to unleavened bread (called in Hebrew, matzah) as simply “bread.” See, for example, Deuteronomy 16:3 and Nahum N. Glatzer, The Passover Haggadah (New York: Schocken Books, 1981), pp. 24, 64.
b. See Baruch Bokser, “Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder?” BR 03:02.
c. See Bruce Chilton, “The Eucharist—Exploring Its Origins,” BR 10:06.
Jonathan Klawans is an assistant professor of religion at Boston University. He is the author of Impurity and Sin in Ancient Judaism (Oxford Univ. Press, 2000), which recently received the Salo Wittmayer Baron Prize for the best first book in Jewish studies.
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Biblical day is Evening to Evening.
Here is one more evidence to prove that a Biblical day starts at evening!
I got it while I was preparing the above Sabbath comment.
“And it happened, when the gates of Jerusalem ***BEGAN TO BE DARK*** BEFORE THE SABBATH, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, so that there should be no burden brought in on the Sabbath day.” (Nehemiah 13:19)………… (From LITV = Literal Translation of the Holy Bible).
Wow! So Sabbath starts at evening when it begins to be dark!
Wow! So a day starts at evening when it begins to be dark!!
The Hebrew word that is translated as “began to be darK” is “H6751: tsalal”.
Here is the Strong’s definition of the word:
“A primitive root (rather identical with H6749 through the idea of hovering over (compare H6754)); to SHADE, as twilight or an opaque object: – BEGIN TO BE DARK, SHADOWING.”
From post #22:
Genesis 1 is the first evidence that a day begins at sunrise, not sunset. Look at each day of creation week chronologically. We are given the creation events of each day, then we are told that evening has arrived, then we are told that morning has arrived, then we are are told that a day has ended. It is very straightforward. I am mystified how anyone can come up with any other answer.
Le 23:32 is perhaps the most convincing of all proofs in the Bible that a day start is sunrise. If a day started at sunset (and it does not) then there would be no need to mention the 9th day. Because the 9th day at sunset would not be the 9th anymore, it would be the 10th. But these special instructions show that the Day of Atonement begins half a day early on the 9th and ends half a day early at sundown on the 10th. These instructions apply only to this particular day, it is not a rule that can be applied to any other.
Those whose god is a sundown day start have another agenda. That agenda is opposed to the Bible.
Just below this comment section, there is a prompt “<< Previous 1" in blue color. Click on it and see my posts # 49 and # 50, while I study Gen 1 and Le 23:32. Thanks.
//”We are given the creation events of each day, then we are told that evening has arrived, then we are told that morning has arrived, then we are are told that a day has ended.” – Rick//
That is wrong!
The Scripture does NOT say that at morning the “day has ended”!! it does not even imply that!!!
You give the wrong picture of a god who works only in the daytime when things are “visible” and “sleeps”(?) in the night!!!!!!!!!!! A god who sits idle in the night waiting for the daytime to come so that he can “see” and work!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But, on the contrary, the Bible projects an all-powerful God who works in the night also!
Yes, the Bible shows a God who started His creation work in the night when it was “darkness” everywhere!! (God called darkness, Night (Gen 1:5))
It was in utter darkness/night that “God said, Let there be light. And there was light”! (Gen 1:3). This clearly shows that God was already working in the night!
Hence, since God started His creation in the night when darkness was there, logically a 24 hour day also starts with night when it gets “dark” at EVENING!!!
And the time span of whole creation of night and day is given as “And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
“And God called the LIGHT, DAY. And He called the DARKNESS, NIGHT. And the EVENING and the MORNING were the first day.” (Gen 1:5).
Please see the correspondence of MORNING, DAY, LIGHT on one hand and EVENING, NIGHT, DARKNESS on the other. Here, clearly the morning included the light part of the day and evening included the darkness part of the night.
If the morning does not include the daytime, then definitely evening does not include the night time. Simple logic. But then the Biblical phrase of “evening and morning were the first day” becomes meaningless because just evening and just morning do not make one day!!!
God rested on the seventh full day (night+day) as a model for us because He was working in the previous nights!
This fact becomes clear when we see what happened on the fourth day! Here, God was appointing Sun to rule the day and the Moon and stars to rule the ***”NIGHT”***.
See, God was still working in the night on the 4th day!!!
And what was the time span of fourth day?
“And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” (Gen 1:19).
Clearly, Genesis shows that a day starts at EVENING!
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I would like to look at Genesis Day from one more angle!
1. Creation starts when “darkness” was already there.
2. So starting point of God’s activity is in the “darkness” when He said let there be light.
3. It is precisely this “previous” darkness God called “Night”.
4. God did not wait till the next night after the light/day to call it night! No!
5. So clearly a day started with “darkness” followed by “light”.
A careful reading from Gen 1:2 to Gen 1:5 will clarify this.
So the Bible says:
Darkness 1 + Light 1 = First Day.
Darkness 2 + Light 2 = Second Day.
But you say:
Light 1 + Darkness 2 = First Day.
Light 2 + Darkness 3 = Second Day.
Obviously your definition of the day is against Scripture. I am sorry to say that.
Regarding Leviticus 23:32
Let us refrain from unnecessarily complicating the issue. The instructions and the descriptions in the Bible are very clear.
“And it shall be for a never ending statute, in the seventh month, in the ***TENTH*** of the month, you shall humble yourself and do no work” (Lev 16:29).
“Also, on the ***TENTH*** of this seventh month, this is A DAY of atonement.” (Lev 23:27).
“And you shall let a ram’s horn resound, a signal in the seventh month, in the ***TENTH*** of the month; in the day of atonement, let a ram’s horn pass throughout all your land;” (Lev 25:9).
“And on the ***TENTH*** of this seventh month you shall have a holy gathering; you shall do no work of service” (Num 29:7).
Question : – When is the day of Atonement?
Answer : – On the 10th day!
Note : – There is no confusion here. The day of Atonement is precisely on the TENTH day of the seventh month. There is no mention of preponing/postponing of the day by half or quarter etc.
“In the ninth of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your sabbath.” (Lev 23:32).
Question : – When is the 10th day STARTING?
Answer : – At EVENING on the 9th!!!
Note : – On the 9th day AT EVENING, the 10th day starts! There is no contradiction here. It goes well with other Scriptures regarding the beginning of a day.
This is not any special case where God is tampering with the duration of a day unnecessarily. Why does He want to “prepone” the day of Atonement; for what? No reason at all!
There is not even a single mention in the Bible that the day of Atonement is preponed by half day. And what about the remaining half day after the atonement? Where will one account it? In the next day? But then that day will be more than 24 hours! Is there any mention of such in history?
“For God is not the author of confusion” (1 Cor 14:33).
You are engaging in paralogism. Your only purpose here is to overload this comments section in hopes of obscuring the truth. But you have none.
Well, I respect your freedom of “opinion”!
Peace.
When you go to search into Biblical History FIRST you need an ACCURATE Bible Translation from the Original Hebrew, and Greek Scriptures. Out of 55 Bibles that Hebrew and Greek Scholars read They found The New World Translation was number 1 out of 55 translations. The King James Version which MOST favor is number 53 out of 55. Google the Most accurate Bible. March 26 on the Hebrew Calendar it is Nisan 14. That date is when Jesus Christ died for our sins. Jesus told his disciples to “keep doing this ( Commerating his death) in Rememberance of me until HE comes back” Luke 22:19. This memorial is observed Annually. People confuse it with the Israelites PASSOVER. There is ONLY ONE celebration in the Whole Bible and that is Jesus death. We will commerate Jesus Death March 26 at Sundown which is when Jesus died.
Thanks all for details. I know absolutely the term “three days” in OT in Hebrew means “very fast, shortly” (now I cannot find probably in prophets this “term”), therefore, it does not really very much matter the precise numberic value of the day(s) of resurrection. Keep in mind that all NT was written 10′s-years after the crucifixion (50.A.D to 100 A.D)and resurrection, therefore all such narrative is always a story (theological) and not a history. It will help to resolve contradictions both in NT writers and in the interpreting it today.
Josephgpal, thanks for indepth explanations of God’s DAY. I would like to read more from you if you don’t mind contacting me. Don’t mind Rick. We’re all brothers after all, only sometimes men are too fixed to their opinions and don’t want to be challenged. But the Spirit of Christ wants us to accept challenges, to better our understanding. The Lord be praised.
In the three synoptic Gospels, and in both John and Paul (who, although he did not attend the Last Supper himself, certainly spoke to some who did), the Greek word used for the bread is ‘artos’ – which is common or garden leavened risen bread. Had it been the Passover Seder, the Greek word used would have been ‘azymos’ – which is unleavened bread and which, outside of the Roman barracks, would have been the only bread available in Jerusalem that day. That is why to this day the Orthodox Church uses leavened risen bread in the Eucharist – because that is what Christ and the disciples ate on that day. We do what they did.
You guy(s) are quite transparent. So we are to believe that suddenly out of nowhere and all on the same day a Jehovah Witness (Stephania); a gnostic (Krzysztof); an ecumenical (Ntube); and an Orthodox Christian (Brian) just happened to be browsing the internet and found this comment section and found it worthwhile to leave a comment. Oh, there is nothing new under the sun. The hyenas are gathering and plotting: “if we increase our numbers enough and circle enough and yap enough we can confuse our enemy (truth)”. And in John 14:6, Christ said He is truth. He is not confused by your antics and neither am I. But not to worry, as you do so much, how many are really out there looking for that which you are so desperately trying to obscure? And add to that, the editing done by BAR. Tisk, tisk.
@Rick
I produced a historical argument. You produced abuse.
What is the point of you?
I thought calendar studies showed that there was likely a double Shabbat, a weekly Shabbat and Passover back to back. I have taken Messiah’s words at this last supper to be a Shabbat kiddush and kin to Christian Communion, which is celebrated weekly at our home.
Thank for the thought provoking words.
Shalom
To Brian,
Your point about artos and azumos has been covered here quite thoroughly by me, but it has been edited out by BAR. You are quite correct. However, your eucharist (golden cup) is an abomination. Christians have communion. Repent and be delivered. Revelation 17:4 KJV, “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication[.]“
“What is the point of me?” you ask. What is the point of having a discussion of Christ and the crucifixion and the Last Supper, if one is unwilling to recognize the Self-existing One and the eternal life He holds out to those who will come to Him in humility and servitude?
You must be born again. John 3:3 KJV, “[Yahoshua] answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
To Faye,
You are correct. Friday Passover and Saturday (weekly sabbath) are back to back. This Saturday is also the annual sabbath of the first day of the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. However, please be aware that the Last Supper occurred on Wednesday of this week. One cannot get there by inserting the current Jewish calendar into time and plugging it into crucifixion week, nor can they plug in the Gregorian calendar. Neither of these calendars were in existence at that time in history.
Dear Ntube,
Thanks for the appreciation. You are right, I don’t have any ill feelings toward Rick because my discussions are ‘issue’ based and not ‘person’ based. Have a good day.
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//”Had it been the Passover Seder, the Greek word used would have been ‘azymos’ – which is unleavened bread and which, outside of the Roman barracks, would have been the only bread available in Jerusalem that day………….. because that is what Christ and the disciples ate on that day.” – Brian//
Oh, so you mean to say that Jesus Christ and His disciples WENT TO A ROMAN BARRACK to celebrate the Last Supper because “artos” was available ONLY in Roman barracks and “azymos” was the ONLY bread available in Jerusalem on that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the ever newer and newer information!
//”I thought calendar studies showed that there was likely a double Shabbat, a weekly Shabbat and Passover back to back.” – faye//
While it is true that there were TWO Sabbaths – one annual and one weekly – between the Crucifixion and Resurrection, the belief that these two were “back to back” is NOT historically correct!
The Bible says that after the annual Sabbath, the ladies went to the market and bought spices and prepared it.
“And the SABBATH PASSING, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, **BOUGHT** spices, so that coming they might anoint Him.” (Mark 16:1).
Note it carefully! Mark says “AFTER” the Sabbath, the ladies went to the market, bought spices and prepared it ready for use.
The Bible also says that after preparing the spices the ladies rested on the weekly Sabbath according to the commandment.
“Then they went back and prepared spices and perfumes, and on the SABBATH they RESTED according to the commandment.” (Luke 23:56).
Note again carefully! Luke says AFTER preparing the spices and ointments, there was another sabbath “according to the commandment!!! (it is the weekly Saturday sabbath that is mentioned in the 10 commandments!).
The above two Scriptures show clearly that there was an annual Sabbath BEFORE the spice-preparation and a weekly Sabbath AFTER it!
So the two Sabbaths were NOT “back to back”!
If you want to re-write the Bible you can make it say anything you want. However for me, it is utter non-sense to suggest that the “last supper” had nothing to do with the celebration of Passover. What a ridiculous and naive article. Do your homework! Learn the history of Jewish customs and then come back with your “A-game”.
Please notice again the heretical rantings of Josephgpal, he states: “Note it carefully! Mark says “AFTER” the Sabbath, the ladies went to the market, bought spices and prepared it ready for use.”
Here is what Mark 16:1 KJV, ” really says: “…Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”
Where is this addition to Scripture that J has inserted: “the ladies went to the market”. Amazing, it is not in Mark 16:1. There is no time reference in Mark 16:1 that tells when the spices were bought.
However, Luke 23:55-56 does give us a time reference. They went to the sepulchre (following Joseph and Nicodemus) to learn where His body was going to be laid. Then they returned and prepared spices. This all occurred on Thursday, crucifixion day, also known as the last preparation day before the single day of Passover. So, prior to preparing the spices, they must have obtained those spices. So, they obtained the spices on Thursday. Not only that, but it was already sundown when they left the tomb, so they most likely obtained the spices prior to going to the tomb.
So Luke gives us clues as to when the spices were bought and Mark tells us when those prepared spices were brought to the sepulchre. J engages in paralogism either because he is confused, or because he wants to confuse others, or both.
I have destroyed J’s credibility continuously during this discussion, but BAR has edited out most of those entries, because they too engage in paralogism and are burying the evidence. I could re-post those entries. But if anyone sincerely wants to learn the truth, then email me rickdmauck@gmail.com. That way you can learn without the interference of the hyenas who desire to consume your flesh.
So, Faye was correct and I am correct. There were two back to back sabbaths at the end of crucifixion week.
To Daniel. I’m not sure exactly what you mean by your remarks or who they are directed to. However, the Last Supper was on Wednesday and it was not a Passover meal. Christ taught us communion at the Last Supper. Passover, according to the Scriptures, was two days later on Friday of that week. In fact, at the Last Supper, in Luke 22:15-16, our Messiah tells his disciples (and us) that He will not be eating the Passover this year. That year He was going to be our Passover sacrifice.
//”Please notice again the heretical rantings of Josephgpal,” – Rick//
Let the great God make the judgement of heresy in me. Judgement is His prerogative. I don’t want to usurp His right!
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//”Here is what Mark 16:1 KJV, ” really says” – Rick//
Surprising that all of a sudden you switched to KJV! Why don’t you look in the YLT (Young’s Literal Translation), your most favourate version?!!!
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//”Where is this addition to Scripture that J has inserted: “the ladies went to the market”.” – Rick//
First of all I was not quoting directly from the Bible. I was explaining something. I use quotation marks when I take a direct verse from the Bible.
I explained that because the Scripture says they “***BOUGHT***” (I had highlighted this already in my previous post) the spices.
Now it is obvious that usually one goes to the market to BUY something or the market comes to one’s home to SELL something. Both needs time in the daylight.
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//”There is no time reference in Mark 16:1 that tells when the spices were bought.” – Rick//
There **”IS”** the time reference in Mark!
It starts at Mark 15:42!
And it becomING evening already Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and asked permission to remove Jesus’ body from the cross and by the time he buried Jesus in the new sepulchre, it was already late in the evening. (Mark 15:42-46).
And Mary Magdalene and Mary of Joses observed where Jesus’ body was laid. (Mark 15:47).
Thus the crucifixion day ENDED and the ladies could not buy any spices in the night because the high Sabbath had already started!
So, ……….. “And the SABBATH HAVING PAST, Mary the Magdalene, and Mary of James, and Salome, *****”BOUGHT”*****spices, that having come, they may anoint him” (Mark 16:1).
(The above direct quote is taken from YLT – Young’s Literal Translation, your most favoured Bible version!!!).
So it is crystal clear that they bought spices after the next day high Sabbath!!!
So spices acctivity cannot be on the crucifixion day. Sorry!
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//”J engages in paralogism either because he is confused, or because he wants to confuse others, or both.” – Rick//
I am not a preacher / teacher to be confused and to confuse others.
Anyone can reject my position outright. But I like to be “proven” wrong “logically”!
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//”I have destroyed J’s credibility continuously during this discussion” – Rick//
Yes. You are absolutely right!
Instead of refuting my **points** logically one by one, all you have tried until now is only to discredit me by saying I am not “born again”, I cannot “grasp” spiritual things, I am “heretic”, I am “unteachable”, I am not spiritually “hungry” etc etc.
And that is a wrong attitude in a public discussion. We need to concentrate on the topic NOT on the person!
SUMMARY
I again say that the Scripture is emphatic that – Jewish Seder or no Jewish Seder – Jesus DID eat the Passover meal as per the Torah on Nissan 14th night. He was crucified in the afternoon of Passover, still Nissan 14th making Him our Passover Lamb.
The next high day Sabbath was the first day of Unleavened Bread when no work was allowed to be done, followed by a working holyday and then by a weekly Sabbath!
I too wrestled with this issue for years. Then I realized that the modern Jewish timing of the celebration of Passover has them celebrating it on 15 Nisan. Yet God clearly commanded them in the Bible to celebrate it on the evening of the 14th (which the way Jewish people count day would be the beginning of the 14th)? What happened?
Since by the time of Jesus’ passion (30 AD) the Jews were already doing Passover on the 15 – merging it with the first day of the week long First Fruits festival. This must have been changed at an early date. Many people point to the Babylonian captivity period for this change. We know the Jews came out with different names for their months, a different starting time for the their year and evidently also a messed up dating of the Passover.
So Jesus celebrated God’s Passover with His apostles starting right after the beginning of the day (at about 6 PM) on 14 Nisan. Is there any surprise that Jesus would not be confused about the right date? After all later that same day He was to become the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world in the ultimate fulfillment of this Holy Day of God! So, this last supper WAS the Passover meal. It was also evidently celebrated at that time by the Sadducees so they were not the only group observing the correct date.
However, it is clear to see that the worldly Passover group – led by the Pharisees (who also dominated the Sanhedrin at that time) – celebrated the Passover on the 15th. This is in perfect agreement with the synoptic gospels. With their later time of observance, they also sacrificed their Passover lambs at 3 PM on the “day of preparation”. John says Jesus died on the cross at 3 PM on the day of preparation. The perfect fulfillment of God’s Passover! His later followers – the Quartodecimans confirmed this timing of the crucifixion as being on the 14th by being resistant to the Roman Catholic Church about the timing of “Easter” for centuries afterwards.
All of these factors have me respectfully disagreeing with Jonathan Klawas by saying: “Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder? Most likely, it was!”
Josephgpal–I am in total agreement that the Scriptures are clear that a day is from sunset to sunset. Your understanding of the Sabbaths and High Sabbaths is Scripturally correct.
Also, as we know, Yeshua would NEVER break the law, either before or after the resurrection-He is NOT like the worldly leaders of this age or ages past who believe they are above the law–the state of this world is a testament to that fact .
Thank you Roberta for your post.
//”Yeshua would NEVER break the law, either before or after the resurrection-He is NOT like the worldly leaders of this age or ages past who believe they are above the law” – Roberta//
Truth cannot be clearer than the above!
Also Fount’s comment makes much sense to me.
I for one, agree that it was not a Seder meal for reasons stated. Jesus inaugurated a New Covenant; the Seder was under the Old Covenant. The Seder meal controversy is a tough one. That’s for sure.