Jeff's Random Bible Thoughts

(c) Jeff Cummings

Why do Matthew, Mark and Luke appear to disagree with John about the Passover meal? (Matthew 26:17-18, Mark 14:12 and Luke 22:7 vs. John 18:28).

How could Jesus have spent three days and three nights in the tomb if He died on Good Friday? (Matthew 12:40).

Was the Sabbath that took place the day after the crucifixion a regular Saturday, or a “special” Sabbath (John 19:31).

Here are my thoughts about this:

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Here is background on the Passover:

14^th day of Nisan at twilight: Passover began. Jesus’ Last Supper would have started after sundown on the 14^th of Nisan, with his arrest following. Jesus’ crucifixion would have been still on the day of Passover, as the 15^th would not have started until the following evening. Matthew, Mark and Luke say that Jesus was going to eat a Passover meal for the Last Supper, but John’s account disagrees (13:1 and 18:28).

John 13:1: “It was just before the Passover Festival.” The Last Supper begins. This was before the Passover meal was traditionally eaten, as shown below.

Note from Exodus regarding the killing of the lamb for Passover, from Exodus 12:6: “Take care of them [the lambs] until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them [the lambs] at twilight.” [lit. “between the evenings”, as “at” is Strong’s #996: “an interval”, “a space between”, e.g. “between twilights”].

When was Passover eaten? Hurriedly after the lambs were slain, before the 14^th had ended. Exodus 12:8: “That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or boiled in water, but roast it over a fire—with the head, legs and internal organs. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover.”

John 18:28: “Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.”

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Here is background on the Feast of Unleavened Bread:

Leviticus 23:4-8:“These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.”

15^th day of Nisan: Feast of Unleavened Bread. The feast of Unleavened Bread is a 7-day feast that begins and ends with a holy convocation, or a special Sabbath.

John 19:31: “Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.”

Is it that John more closely follows the Leviticus 23 timeline of Passover (13:1 and 18:28) followed by the first day of Unleavened Bread (the “special sabbath” of 19:31), whereas the others get it wrong? No, the issue seems to be how Matthew, Mark and Luke are translated from the Greek; not a problem with the Bible itself.

A literal translation of Matthew 26:17 reads “now on the first of the unleaven…”. It appears that the translator added “day” and “bread”. As Passover involved unleavened bread, this meal could be considered “the first of the unleavens”, i.e. the first in a series of unleavens (8 straight days), and not necessarily the official first day of the festival. Mark 14:12 and Luke 22:7 in the Greek adds “day”, but “bread” is not in the Greek, so it can be the same concept: 8 sequential days of unleavens.

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So what does this all mean? Here is my timeline of Jesus’ death and resurrection:

Jesus claims in Matthew 12:40 that He would spend “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. Tradition says that Jesus died on Good Friday, but that would mean Jesus made a serious rounding error. This would appear to be fully related to a sabbath that would begin at sundown on the day of crucifixion. Tradition appears to ignore the nugget John threw in at 19:31.

When Did Jesus rise? We don’t know, but we do know that when the women came to the tomb in John’s account when it was still dark, the tomb was empty (John 20:1). Jesus could have risen over night or even before nightfall on Saturday.

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My Conclusions:

• Jesus might have celebrated the Passover seder, but following the commands of Exodus 12:8, it  was ~18 hours early (John 19:31). Maybe this is why the room was available.
• Jesus probably died at the same time the priests were slaying the lambs for Passover (Exodus 12:6), based in the timeline of the day.
• Jesus died the day before a special (or high) Sabbath, not a standard Saturday Sabbath (Leviticus 23:7, John 19:31).
• Jesus either died on a Wednesday (with the nights of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the tomb) or Thursday (with the nights of Thursday, Friday and Saturday); either way, in my opinion probably not on a Friday.

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Sources:

Hebrew/Greek helps:

• Interlinear Old Testament: Biblehub.com
• Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance
• Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by George Ricker Berry (c) 1987 by Hinds & Noble, Reprinted by Baker Book House

Scriptures:

• Biblegateway.com
• YouVersion Bible app
• An actual paper Bible, NKJV

Jewish Festivals:

• https://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/leviticus/lev-23_06-08_feast-unleavened.htm
• Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, General Editor Ronald F. Youngblood (c) 1995 Thomas Nelson Publishers