THE LAMB PASSOVER CHRONOLOGY (STUDY)
The confusion over the Passover is not to recognize the fact that the Passover was a day, a feast, a season, a week, a lamb, a sacrifice, a meal, and a Person in the O.T as well as the N.T. as and that it lasted EIGHT DAYS (a feast of one day and a feast of seven days, called the Passover). These comments and passages are intended for your self study.
The first meal of unleavened bread, at the end of the 13th of Nisan or Abib, at sundown, and began the 14th, while the couple hundred thousand lambs were still being roasted. The next meal with unleavened bread occurred in the first day of the seven day feast of unleavened bread, at the end of the 14th, at sundown or the beginning of the 15th, which was a High Day Sabbath or Holy Day of Convocation as was the 21st and stood apart from the Passover Day sacrifice, which was distinct and apart from the seven day FEAST of lamb and unleavened bread. This week long "feast of unleavened bread" with lamb is also CALLED the "Passover" (Luke 22:1 and Ezek. 45:21) and scripturally referred to the “Passover” feast of seven days. These unleavened meals were a total of eight days of unleavened bread from the 14th to the 21st.
Here are the procedural and chronological facts of these passages of the first Passover:
1. Every man took a lamb on the 10th day, a lamb per household (except for small families).
2. The lamb was killed and roasted on the 14th, to be a memorial throughout Jewish generations.
3. The whole assembly partook in the killing of the lamb with the priests and Levites officiating.
4. The slain lamb’s blood was put on the doors.*
5. The Passover was the sacrifice of the Passover.
6. The lamb was eaten at the end of the 14th at NIGHT on the 15th at sundown.
7. The shoes were to be on, staff in hand, no doubt standing, and eating in haste.
8. This meal began the 15th, which was the first day of the feast, holy convocation, high day Sabbath.
9. The 15th followed the Passover 14th and began the Passover Week or Feast of unleavened bread.
10. Six more days were to follow of unleavened bread and roast lamb until the 21st.
11. In total, there were 8 days of eating unleavened bread.
12. The Passover Sacrifice Day of unleavened bread was to be kept, and the 7 Day Feast was to be kept of lamb and unleavened bread each and every meal of the seven day feast. A distinction was to be made between the two parts of the Passover. See note 1:
Note: 1. It may be noted that the observance of number 2 and number 5 were not recorded in the Gospels:
Note: 2: From the 14th to the 21st are EIGHT DAYS not seven. The Passover sacrifice day was a special day and the first day and seventh day of the seven day feast of unleavened bread and lamb were also special days (High Sabbaths or Holy Days of Convocation). (Ex. 12:16; Num. 28:16-18).
Note 3: There is no record of the Jews killing the Passover lamb in their homes, since a special place of God’s choosing was specified. The killing and roasting of the Passover Lambs was to be done on the Preparation Day (14th) among the congregation by the priests and Levites. If we hold the "Passover" as a one and one day only, the scriptures will not allow such a narrow, private interpretation. The MAIN feast day (John 18:28) of the first day of the feast unleavened bread (15th) was a High Day Sabbath, when the lamb was eaten during this entire seven day feast of unleavened bread is called the Passover and is synonymous with the Passover in both of the Testaments. The meal before on the 14th was also a day of unleavened bread.
Note 4: You could actually have two Passovers in two succeeding months, both on the 14th of each month. The second Passover was for those who had been defiled by a dead body or some other thing. This was the defilement fear of the Jews that caused them to not go into the Roman judgment hall (John 18:28)
Note 5: Pilate released Jesus to be crucified, and He was put on the cross and crucified at the third hour or 9:00 a.m. At high noon, the second Jewish sixth hour (High noon), darkness came over the whole land, for three hours until the ninth hour or three p.m. Jesus was crucified and gave up the ghost at the ninth hour or 3:00 p.m. on this same day of unleavened bread (Mark 15:33 - 38), around the same time as the killing of the lamb (Selah, think of that!). After the Crucifixion, Joseph and Nicodemus begged the body and entombed it before the High Day Sabbath arrived at sundown that began the 15th.
Note 6: Jesus was taken captive in the garden, after He ate the first Passover meal and the Lord’s Supper and after a series of events, which included a foot washing, a long sermon, at least an hour of prayer in the garden, and then He was taken to the judgment hall early after Jesus had eaten the first feast day, Passover meal with His disciples at EVEN after sundown of the 14th, after the day that the lamb was killed and roasted (14th). At the judgment hall, Jesus was judged before Pilate at the sixth hour, namely, 12:00 p.m., the sixth hour after sundown, on the preparation day (John 19:13, 14), BEFORE the Jews ate the lamb in the second Passover meal (John 18:28), to be eaten on the 15th after sundown. It was possible to be INTO the Passover and not be IN the Feast Day of the SEDER. Did Jesus and the apostles eat the Passover ALAMB," during their meal, since that supper was ENDED BEFORE the temple Passover lambs were killed the next following afternoon and was also BEFORE the first LAMB FEAST DAY of the PASSOVER?
Jesus ate this Passover meal with His disciples without lamb, the meal consisting of unleavened bread and a dish (probably with bitter herbs or horseradish) for the SOP. They were sitting down, probably with their shoes removed (remember the foot washing to follow), rather than being shod with a staff in hand and standing. What they did not do here is curious, since it hardly resembles the instructions of Exodus 12:11. They did not even strike blood on the door. The next day, the Jews would eat the lamb at the first part of the 15th after the sundown of the 14th. Jesus had been killed and entombed by that meal. This second Passover meal after sundown of the 15th would begin the first meal with lamb and unleavened bread, twenty four hours after the first Passover meal of only unleavened bread eaten by Jesus and the disciples after the sundown of the first part of the 14th. Still, the remaining seven Passover meals were eaten each and every day of the rest of the Passover week.
Note 7: What did Jesus' parents fulfill? They fulfilled the DAYS (Plural)? The days of what? They fulfilled the DAYS of the FEAST. What FEAST? The FEAST DAYS of the PASSOVER (Luke 2:41-43)! The Passover Sacrifice day of the 14th is a special FEAST day of unleavened bread, followed by seven days of unleavened bread, a total of eight days of unleavened bread. The first and seventh days of the seven day feast of unleavened bread were also special days, Sabbath days. The failure to understand that the Jewish day began at around sundown and ended at sundown the next day (the evening and the morning were the first day) is often a reason for misinterpretation. Jesus told us that there were 12 hours in a day (it also follows that there are 12 hours in a night or evening). The failure to recognize the Passover FEAST week as the Passover and to distinguish it from the Passover FEAST day is also reason for error. The feast of unleavened bread is called the Passover (Luke 22:1). The Passover is a feast, feast meal, a feast day, a feast week, a feast season, a lamb, a sacrifice, and a Person.
Note 8: The question is, “Did Jesus lie about eating the Passover with His disciples in that loaned guest chamber? The disciples could have asked this question of Jesus at the end of the 13th when the sun was going down or even after the 14th started after sundown. The disciples were preparing for the Passover meal that was not among the seven and were going to eat it with the Lord and finally did eat with Him. Prior to the meal, the disciples prepared and made ready the guest chamber to eat the lamb-less Passover meal with Jesus after sundown the 13th, which began the 14th, the day in which Passover would be sacrificed, when the lamb was killed the following afternoon of the 14th. The scripture leaves no doubt as to the fact that the 14th was the day that the Passover was killed and roasted and was also a first day of unleavened bread. Their preparation here is not of the lamb’s preparation but of the place where the disciples would eat their first Passover meal. The scriptures say that it is on the Preparation Day that the lamb is killed and roasted (the 14th). Jesus and his disciples ate a Passover meal, after sundown of the 14th, before the seven days feast of unleavened bread started or ever took place (Luke 22:15), on the 15th, after sundown, the first day of the seven day feast of unleavened bread and roast lamb. Now, we have established that there are seven feast days of the feast of unleavened bread technically. But the Passover day is also a feast day of unleavened bread and the scripture says that they were to eat unleavened bread from the 14th to the 21st (eight days). So, depending on your reference point, you can speak of the first day the first day unleavened bread to be the 14th as well as the 15th, since the 14th is the first day of the eight day feast from the 14th to the 21st. The 15th is the first day of the seven day feast from the 15th to the 21st. In other words, there are two first days of unleavened bread in that it is in reality an 8 day feast split into two parts, namely, the Passover DAY feast (14th) in which only unleavened bread is eaten before the Passover is killed and also the First Day of the Passover week or seven day feast of unleavened bread, lamb being eaten each and every meal of the seven days, which was CALLED THE PASSOVER. Luke makes it very easy for us to reconcile the problem passages of Mark and Matthew by terming it the FIRST DAY of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed. We know that to be the 14th from both Testaments. The difficulty here is for those, who think that the 14th was when the Lord ate the lamb after sundown of the 14th and point to the first day of unleavened bread in Mark 14:12 and the first day of the feast of unleavened bread in Matthew 26:17-19 for such confirmation, it would make the first day of the seven days of unleavened bread to come before the lamb was killed and roasted on the 14th and would make the first day of unleavened bread/Passover to be on the 13th instead of the 14th.
If the day that the Passover was killed and eaten was ontheFIRST day of unleavened bread, then it follows that it was a day of unleavened bread apart from among other seven days of unleavened bread, which also had a first day, despite attempts of some to divorce the first day of unleavened bread from the other seven unleavened bread days. The only difference was that the FIRST day of unleavened bread of the seven day feast in which the Passover lamb was eatenon the 15th was a special day, a High day Sabbath. Still, the first Passover meal was that was eaten on the 14th at sun down of the same day that the lamb was killed and roasted was also a special day; it was the day that the sacrifice was kept. The one day Passover theory creates all sorts of confusion.
Note 9: After being whipped and after the dialogue and questioning between Jesus and Pilate and Pilate and the Jews back and forth, and Jesus is brought forth to the judgment seat and at one time standing before Pilate at the 6th hour from sundown or midnight, Since we Gentiles are allowed two six o’clocks, we think it only fair for the Jews to be allowed two sixth hours. Jesus was crucified the third hour after sun up or 9:00 p.m., and darkness was at the sixth hour (high Noon) to the ninth hour after sun up, when He died. He was entombed before the 14th at even or sundown.
Well, the problem many have noted is that if Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples, then what Passover were these Jews planning on eating? This problem has caused some to say that Jesus only intended to eat the Passover with his disciples but did not. Others say that there were two Passovers, a temple Passover and a Passover in the individual homes. Others imagine Jews of different regions having the Passover on two different succeeding days. Yet others say that some Jews observed sunup to sun up and others sundown to sundown.
Still, Jesus and His disciples as well as the Jews had eaten the first Passover meal with unleavened bread on the sundown of the 14th, after the Passover was killed. The Jews at the judgment hall were expecting to eat the second meal, the main Passover meal or what is called the Seder with the lamb and the unleavened bread after the *14th after sundown on the *15th, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. It is only ONE Passover but two different Passover days and Passover meals. The Jews would not go into the judgment hall during this day of unleavened bread when the lamb was killed because of Roman defilement (no doubt idols in the hall) “THAT THEY MIGHT EAT THE PASSOVER” (which is now called the Seder).
Remember, after sundown, Jesus ate the Passover meal with his disciples, instituted the Lord’s Supper, did a foot washing service, preached a long message, prayed in the garden for at least an hour, and then was taken captive by Judas’ gang, and was marched to the High priest and then to Pilate then to Herod and back to Pilate. This all took some time. So, to us, it seems this was about 12:00 p.m. or the sixth hour, after sundown, when Pilate is getting this thing over.
Note 10: Passover - It begins on the 15th day of Nisan (on the Hebrew calendar). Passover commemorates the Exodus and freedom of the Israelites from ancient Egypt. . . . The two names for the holiday are a coalescence of two related celebrations. The name Passover (Pesakh, meaning "skipping" or passing over) derives from the night of the Tenth Plague, when the Angel of Death saw the blood of the Passover lamb on the door posts of the houses of Israel and "skipped over" them and did not kill their firstborn. The meal of the Passover Seder commemorates this event. The name Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag Ha'Matsot) refers to the week-long period when leaven has been removed, and unleavened bread or matzo ("flat bread") is eaten. – Wikilpedia