When is the Passover, and why have
Christians been at war with each other for 1800 years?
Christians everywhere keep the "Passover" in some form or another, yet everywhere they are at war over the issue of how and when to observe it. They are at war over both the chronology and the theological meaning. Why does such massive confusion and heresy exist? The reason there is so much confusion is that the Passover Feast, like many other biblical truths, is something that was revealed by God, and like all other things revealed by God, the ENEMY seeks to destroy it, pervert it, and to lie about it. In fact the enemy lied about the very first instruction God gave to man concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent was in the business of contradicting everything God said. As a result, man sinned, and the rest is history. Adam was sinless when he was told the lie, so we must be aware that the serpent is still lying to, and deceiving innocent people.
Christians everywhere recognize some connectedness between their observance of Passover and Jesus (Yeshua's) observance, even if they do not call it Passover, and even if it is bizarrely changed around, and can hardly be recognized as the biblical Passover. On Easter, Roman Catholics make a Eucharistic Sacrifice of bread and wine and call it the blood and body of Jesus. They also do this every Sunday, yet they would claim they are fulfilling the biblical Passover. Lutheran's do similarly, but have dropped the bit about the wine changing into the blood of Christ. They only say that Christ is mystically present in the wine. Other Christians call it "communion" and insist that that is a valid Passover observance. Or they call it the Lord's Super and would claim they are fulfilling the Passover. Some say you should partake quarterly, others every Sunday. Some say it is symbolic only, and others try to put some spirit transforming power into their ritual. Do you want to start a new cult? Just come up with a new way to observe Passover by which you can brainwash Christians into thinking they have to do it your way, and then use it to keep them under your thumb and make enemies out of everyone else. Yes, that's the divisive division causing story of the Passover.
Yet, the truth exists. God said to do it one way and not another. Many Torah observant Christians, or Christians who want to keep the Sabbaths and festivals think they have jumped over the hurdle to a true knowledge of the matter. But have they? Evidently not, because they are just as divided, and just as exploited. Some recognizable conformity to Torah does not make them experts in all truth, or even disciples of Yeshua. Christians who learned from Jewish believers with a Rabbinical background follow a traditional Rabbinic Calendar. Other Christians argued that the Jews made various mistakes. They made some mistakes, but how many mistakes did they really make? Where do you discover the cultists among them, and distinguish the true seekers who are just confused by the cultists? Who is just shearing the sheep and raking in the money without feeding them, and who is really teaching the truth? (Just for the record, this ministry is operated on a shoestring, and we do not solicit donations. Any gifts are totally voluntary. We just accept what God provides, and it gets spent for the truth.)
Of course we cannot address all the Christian interpretations of this issue. I am called first to deal with those who are well on the road to truth or who are nearer the answer. So the topic we will take up is what divides the most Torah observant Christians. There are two poles of Passover observance in the Messianic community. One side simply follows the traditional Jewish format. This includes most Messianic Jews. At the other extreme are those Gentile Christians who have been duped into some version of the Torah imitating World Wide Church of God, or one of its splinter groups. I say Torah imitating because a lot of these groups deny the deity of Messiah, (who is the LORD, YHWH in human form) or they suggest that Christians are supposed to become gods by joining what they call the "Family of God". Clearly, in its worst forms, it is a religion that tries to look Torah observant, while taking as extreme a position against the Jewish point of view as they can get away with, while mixing it with heresies that will DEFINITELY cause you to LOSE your salvation. I can think of some top internet ministries right now that are leading tens of thousands straight to HELL by pretending to be more biblical than their local Church, but only succeed in that on the outside, and not on the inside.
Because they follow the traditional format, most Messianic Jewish groups have no chronological axe to grind, and no cultic appeal to make on the observance of Passover, other than just being Jewish or being non controversially biblical. They just do it the Rabbinic way, because they were taught the Rabbinic way. On the other hand tradition always has parts of it that have departed from strict biblical teaching, so the truly thoughtful, and the true seekers find the missing truth elsewhere. Some unstable people don't just seek the missing truth, however — they slide right into the trap of the ex-World Wide Church of God, and similar cults. Also, it must be stated that while many Messianic Jews still go by the traditional calendar, they admit that it is traditional and that things were done differently in biblical times on certain points.
One such point that is readily conceded is that the new moon was determined by actual observation in Israel during ancient times. Such is the calendar that we use. With regular new moon reports from Israel, and the ability to predict with almost 100% accuracy when the observers will see the new moon, it is little problem to use. This truth is taught and maintained by Nehemiah Gordon. On the other hand Nehemiah Gordon is a Karaite Jew, and denies Yeshua is the Messiah. So the trap is that one will see the truth he teaches, and thereby fall into the errors he teaches, which are many.
Messianic Jews who use the Rabbinic calendar really have little or no dispute with the historical facts or the choice of others to go by them. Their traditional observance is more a matter of practicality, especially if they are in the middle of a Jewish community. So there is really no theological war on that front. The theological war lies on the side where Gentile Christians have adopted the ancient calendar, but then they have put in their own innovations, and then have tried to justify them from Scripture twisting. Gordon has plenty of that to offer carefully packaged up with the new moon truth. This sort of danger occurs everywhere an in every possible form.
Probably the most significant change dividing Messianic Passover observance is that of observing the Passover Seder a night earlier than the Biblical timing. This is supposed to be because either Yeshua changed it by having the Last Super a night early, or because somehow they think the Jews are incorrect in their observance. So is the Passover supposed to be eaten in the night before the 14th daylight of Nisan, or in the night after the 14th daylight of Nisan? Note, the term 'daylight' means dawn to dusk, and excludes the night (see Gen. 1:5). Here is the question in graphical format:
To answer this question we must understand something about tradition. Tradition tends to preserve the way of doing something without preserving the reasons for doing it a certain way. So while the Rabbis may teach the correct practice, they lack all the biblical reasons needed to show that the practice is actually valid. And while the rabbis may know the correct timing of Shavuot (Pentecost) they may not have all the tools necessary in their traditional tool kit. I will bring Shavuot in because it is related to the Passover question, but first let's discuss the Passover. So one cannot expect to rely on the Rabbis or even Messianic Jews for a full and proper biblical defense of the tradition. The reader may suspect I am speaking from hindsight here. I am.
I am speaking from the position of having first solved significant known problems in biblical chronology. You can read about this in the free online book, The Scroll of Biblical Chronology and Prophecy: Mapping the Times and Seasons of the Holy Scriptures, or you can buy it at Amazon. It is very complete and very technical. In this paper, I will present an easier to understand version, and will simply focus on the Passover. However, to understand my arguments and conclusions, it will help to know that I am speaking in the context of that book.
First I will show the biblical definition of "Evening". And it must be understood, when I say biblical definition, I mean what the Hebrew word means, and not what we think the English word used to translate the Hebrew word means. The word in Hebrew is Erev. It DOES NOT mean sunset. The word was used in Genesis 1:5 when there was no "sun" to set. The sun had not been created. Further, it does not mean just the point of time when the light dips below the horizon. That's what we might mean by "set" in English. The word erev means "setting" or "going down" in the broadest terms. Any time the light is declining or going down is erev. Erev can mean any time from the point when the light begins to descend from the highest point (noon) till it disappears completely at the end of dusk.
One can prove this in two ways. First one can look up the word in a full unabridged Hebrew dictionary of Biblical Hebrew. See the online book for sources. Second, we can prove it from definitive contexts, like Numbers 2:1-4. I will use Young's Literal Translation:
YLT Numbers 28:1 And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying, 2 'Command the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, My offering, My bread for My fire-offerings, My sweet fragrance, ye take heed to bring near to Me in its appointed season. 3 'And thou hast said to them, This {is} the fire-offering which ye bring near to Jehovah: two lambs, sons of a year, perfect ones, daily [to the day], a continual burnt-offering; 4 the one lamb thou preparest in the morning, and the second lamb thou preparest between the evenings [settings];
"Two lambs" are offered "to the day" which is what the literal Hebrew says. The first lamb is not offered on one day in the morning, and then the second lamb on the next day after sunset. No. The two lambs are offered the same day to meet the requirement that "two lambs" are offered "to the day", or "daily" YLT has it. The order of the lambs is also numbered, "one ... in the morning", "and the second ... between the settings". Both have to be offered the same day. Further, the order of the lambs shows that the first lamb is offered first in the first half of the day, and the second in the second half of the day. There is no dispute that morning means sometime between dawn and noon. The traditional time of the morning sacrifice was at the midpoint, which was the 3rd hour after dawn.
This leaves only the period between noon and the end of that day for the second sacrifice, which the text calls "between the settings". It is not too hard to figure out that "between" means the midpoint between noon and the end of the day, making the second sacrifice exactly symmetrical to the first. Accordingly, the word "settings" is taken to refer to the point when the sun begins to decline, up to the point when its decline is no longer observed at the end of daylight, a period of time corresponding to "afternoon" in English. We only need to take one teaching away from this text. The period of time, "between the settings" must come after the "morning" sacrifice on any given day.
Numbers 28:1-4 teaches that "between the evenings" must come after morning of the same day.
Now we get to apply this principle to the Passover offering. The regulation is given in Exodus 12:6:
'And it hath become a charge to you, as far as the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembly of the company of Israel have slaughtered it between the evenings;
So, the phrase "between the evenings" in this text must come after the morning sacrifice. And "evening" in Hebrew means, "setting". In the idiom "between the settings" is refers to the time from which the sun begins to set at noon until that time the sun is observed no more toward the end of the day. The midpoint of this time is the 3rd hour of the afternoon. Traditionally, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. was considered a legal "between".
Further proof of this conclusion is found in the Apostolic writings, and in another part of the Torah. First the hour of prayer is given as the 9th hour of the day in Acts 3:1. This corresponds to 3 p.m. in the afternoon. Second the "hour of prayer" is equated with the "hour of incense" in Luke 1:10, and finally, Exodus 30:8.
Exodus 30:8 And when Aaron lighteth the lamps between the evenings, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
The "hour of incense" is "between the evenings [settings]". So 9th = HP, HP = HI, HI = between the settings (Acts 3:1; Luke 1:10; Exodus 30:8). Therefore, 9th hour = between the settings, which is 3 p.m. in the afternoon. So we have two witnesses to the fact that the Passover was to be offered in the middle of the afternoon on the 14th day of the month.
The Passover is supposed to be sacrificed "between the evenings". This literally means between noon and the end of the daylight, about 3 p.m. Now we may confirm this a third way by the fact that Yeshua is the "lamb of God" (Gen. 22:8; John 1:29). Paul says, "For even Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us" (1Cor. 5:7). Yeshua was put on the cross at the 3rd hour of the day (9 a.m.), and he died at the 9th hour of the day (3 p.m.). This is when he was slain, exactly at the hour the other Passover lambs were being killed in the Temple. It was only proper that the "lamb of God" be slain at the correct time for Passover lambs.
Let us go back to the Exodus 12:6 text:
Exodus 12:6 'And ye shall keep it as far as the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it between the evenings.'
Notice that it says, "And ye shall keep it as far as the fourteenth day of the same month". The rendering "as far as" is more literal than "until". The Hebrew word actually means at least up to a certain point, but does not define how far past that point. The English word "until" implies only up to the point indicated. But the Hebrew does not. This may be a fine distinction, but it is critical to understand. Genesis 28:15 provides a definitive context of "until". The LORD says to Jacob, "for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of" (Gen. 28:15). Now if "until" had the English connotation of only up to the fulfillment of the promise, but not beyond, then it would imply that God would leave Israel after that. However, the Hebrew does not carry that connotation. It only means that the promise will be kept at least as far as the point indicated, leaving any additional time to be assumed.
With this in mind, we are now ready to understand "until the fourteenth day" as "as far as the fourteenth day":
The 14th day CANNOT be reckoned as any time before sunset ending the 13th day. So "as far as" means at least to this point. But how far after this point do we go? The text tells us to go until we reach that time "between the evenings", a period of time which is proven to come AFTER the morning sacrifice of that same day. The lamb must be slain "between the evenings" for the 14th day, a time which must come AFTER the morning sacrifice for the 14th day. Again, this is equal to the 9th hour of the day, or 3 p.m. in the afternoon. The menorah represents the tree that Yeshua was hanged on. The cross represents the cross beam that was affixed to the tree.
When the Scripture speaks of a "day" one can only be certain about one thing in regards to the definition of "day". It always includes some portion of daylight hours from dawn to dusk. And if one includes the left over light between sunset and dusk, then that light is always part of the day that is just ending. Genesis 1:5 defines the "day" as "light", and excludes "night" from the definition, because "darkness" is the opposite of light. Also, when the scripture speaks of a day, it is the highest probability that it means to speak of just the daylight portion. Twenty-four hour days, or extended legal definitions of "day" are less probable. For this reason, the ancient reader considered "as far as the 14th day" to mean at least to dawn on the 14th before considering any other definition. The other definitions of day do occur, but we must never let our prejudice get in the way of a scientific approach to interpretation. We must make decisions based on context and absolute probability, not what we assume "day" to mean.
The solid arrow represents the absolute time that the lamb must be kept with respect to the meaning of "until" and all definitions of day. The long dashes represent what "until" means with respect to the most probable meaning of 14th day, i.e. that it begins at dawn. And the short dashed line indicates the actual duration of keeping the lamb based on the additional context we are given, "between the evenings" which must occur AFTER the morning sacrifice of that same day.
The Scripture says:
"And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it" (JV Exodus 12:8 ).
It says they must eat it "that night". There can only be one night that can be "that night" and that is the night after the day part of the 14th. This was the Passover night:
The Scripture further confirms this:
"And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire" (KJV Exodus 12:10), and "and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning" (vs. 22).
The time for consuming the Passover lamb was up to the morning, but not as far as the morning. It had to be consumed or burnt before dawn. Further, they could not even leave their houses until dawn (Exodus 12:22). The same regulations are given for the "peace offering" in Leviticus 7:15. Messiah Yeshua was our "peace" offering (Ephesians 2:14). The Leviticus passage reads:
"And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning" (KJV Leviticus 7:15 ).
Notice that the "peace offerings" must be "eaten the same day that it is offered"? Notice also that the time limit for eating it is, "until the morning". So let's see what the same day means for a peace offering, or a Temple offering:
The legal ritual day at the Tabernacle, and later in the First and Second Temples, began at dawn and ended before the day dawn of the next day. The Rabbis placed the limit for eating the peace offering on the "same day" at midnight. However, they admit that this was merely a "fence" to prevent anyone from transgressing the dawn limit and eating the offering in the morning. Since Yeshua is our peace offering, this is one way to count days till the "third day" when he was raised. For more on this, you should see the article: When Was the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Yeshua? The point here is that the Passover offering was reckoned to be eaten on the "same day" that it was offered according to Levitical regulations, because the "same day" was extended till the beginning of the next day in the morning.
The Exodus did not occur on "that night". It was the night of the "Passover" but not the night of the Exodus (Deut. 16:1). This is proved in Numbers 33:3:
"And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians" (KJV Numbers 33:3).
They could not leave their house until dawn of the 15th day. They were commanded to remain in their houses "until the morning". In the morning, the Egyptians were burying their dead (Numbers 33:4). Also Israel plundered Egypt, each one asking their neighbor for silver and gold (Exodus 12:35). They assembled at Rameses on the 15th day of the first month, and then departed from the city. The Exodus continued at the "going down of the sun" (Deut. 16:6) and on into the night after the 15th day (Deut. 16:1) because Israel came out of Egypt "by night". This was the night of the "vigil" or "watches".
Did Yeshua eat the official Passover?
There are many who assume that the Last Super was the proper time of the Passover, and that it disagreed with the way the Temple and the other Jews celebrated it. It is claimed that while official Judaism killed the Passover on the afternoon of the 14th and ate it in that night that Yeshua held the Passover 24 hours earlier. This view only results in an UNSOLVABLE contradiction between the gospel of John and the other three gospels. Here is what John says:
"Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. 2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him;" (KJV John 13:1-2).
John says it was "before the feast of the Passover". The next day, he confirms this in John 19:14, "it was the preparation of the Passover"; Also, an incidental detail confirms that it was not the feast day. John 13:29 tells us that some of the disciples assumed that Judas was commanded to "Buy those things that we have need of against the feast;". If it already was the feast day (Exodus 12:14), then why would they think that? Finally, they were to eat unleavened bread with the Passover. But there are seven days of unleavened bread:
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. (KJV Exodus 12:18)
And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. (KJV Leviticus 23:6)
According to Exodus 12:18 the seven days begin at sunset at the END of the 14th day, and the seven days END at sunset on the 21st day. According to Leviticus 23:6, the first of those seven days is called "the fifteenth day". There is one, and only one way to count these seven days:
If the Passover is moved back one day, and it be
required to eat unleavened bread with it, then they will eat unleavened bread
for 8 days and not 7. Therefore, the Last Super must not have been
the official Passover. Why then are there references to Passover or the
first day of unleavened bread in Matthew, Mark, and Luke? And why in
conjunction with the Last Super?
The references to the first day of unleavened bread are Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12, and Luke 22:7. While the disciples are bidden to prepare for the Passover at the upper room, never once when at the Last Super do they call it the Passover! Further, Yeshua tells them he cannot eat it in Luke 22:16, "I will by no means eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God". He says this because he will be in the grave when they are supposed to eat it, and right then they were NOT eating it. Yeshua was telling them they would be disappointed that Passover. He could not eat it with them. They would have no cause for being disappointed if he went away on a journey the next year and could not eat it. The translators try to soften this by adding words that are not in the text, "I will not any more". They add the words "any more" to try to imply that he was already eating it, but this is not legitimate, because "any more" is not in the best and earliest MSS. It was added later by errant scribes and translators.
The solution to the synoptic "problem" was explained in the Anchor Bible, Matthew, by W.F. Albright and C.S. Mann. The authors consulted Jewish Scholars in the course of their work, and took a freshly historical approach, and not one based on theological dogmatisms. On page 319, they explain the solution:
It is possible to translate the Greek by "With reference to the first day of Unleavened Bread ..." —i.e., the disciples were asking Jesus for guidance as to the procedures to be followed.
I explain this in The Scroll of Biblical Chronology and Prophecy: Mapping the Times and Seasons of the Holy Scriptures, on page 46, and also show how it makes the same sense when you reverse translate the text into Hebrew. None of the texts say, "On" the first day of unleavened bread! The Greek word "on" is not in them. It is an interpretation of translators who misunderstood the text because they did not understand the Torah, or they did not understand what sense Greek makes when put back into the original Hebrew that was actually used on that occasion. Further, the disciples would not ask such a question on a day when they should already be done preparing. That would be a tardy question. No, they were asking before the first day of unleavened bread. "And [they] came regarding the first day of unleavened bread (when they [the priests] had killed the Passover)" (A synopsis of Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12, and Luke 22:7). It was all plans and requests for plans, not an actual statement that it was the first day of the feast! Of course, while making preparations for the Passover, the disciples also planned for the other meals they would need to eat before the official Seder. They were asking about "that night" at the end of the 14th day, when the lamb had been killed. Where and how were they going to eat it? Also Yeshua never says he "will eat it" but he says "may eat it"; such is the sense of the Greek text.
So we see that the Passover is supposed to be killed on the afternoon of the 14th of the month, and eaten in "that night". Yeshua gave them an example of how he would have them understand the fruit of the vine and the unleavened bread at super before the feast of the Passover. But he told them plainly he would not eat it. Never during the meal is their mention of lamb. At the very best, the meal is only a demonstration Seder, or double Seder as done in the dispersion.
For this reason those Christians which do not observe the Seder in "that night" after the day part of the 14th— these Christians are not observing the Passover in the manner prescribed by the Torah. It does them no good to determine the beginning of the month correctly by the new moon, and then to observe the Passover on the wrong day.