KEY DETAILS FOR TIMING THE EVENTS DURING CHRIST'S LAST PASSOVER
KEY DETAILS FOR TIMING THE EVENTS DURING CHRIST'S LAST PASSOVER
To fully understand the “Chronology of Jesus Christ’s Last Passover Week” it is an absolute MUST that a reading and study be made of the very first Passover that is recorded in the Book of Exodus 12:1-28. This passage of Scripture details what the Jewish people were required to do in preparation of the very first Passover.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 'THIS MONTH' shall be unto you the 'BEGINNING OF MONTHS': it shall be the 'FIRST MONTH OF THE YEAR' to you."
“And Moses said unto the people, “Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This day came ye out in THE MONTH OF ABIB.”
Now let us look when the Jewish day begins and ends. It is important to know that God’s day (and the present Jewish day) has always been from ‘SUNSET to SUNSET’ – This can be easily seen in the ‘Jewish Saturday Sabbath’ (Shabbat) which begins AFTER the Friday sunset and ENDS at the time the sun sets below the horizon on Saturday (about 6:00 pm). – So, a ‘NEW DAY’ for the Jewish people always begins at sunset and ends at sunset.
THE JEWISH EVENING
In Leviticus 23:32, we read the following about the celebration of the 'Day of Atonement' …
"It [the “Day of Atonement”] shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the [seventh] month [of Tishri] ‘’AT EVEN, FROM EVEN UNTO EVEN, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath."
So, when does “AT EVEN” begin in a 24-hour Jewish day?
“AT EVEN” is always the ‘ENDING PORTION’ of the Jewish daytime hours just BEFORE SUNSET. – For instance, In Exodus 12:5-6, we read…
“Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month [Nisan 14]: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it ‘IN THE EVEN’ [of Nisan 14].”
THE JEWISH NIGHT
Now, in the Jewish 24-hour day, ‘NIGHT’ always begins AFTER the sun has set below the horizon. And please know that ‘NIGHT TIME HOURS’ always come before ‘DAY TIME HOURS’ in the Jewish 24 hour day. – ‘NIGHT’ is always the beginning of the Jewish 24 hour day and therefore there is ‘NO EVENING’ after the sunset of any Jewish 24-hour day.
PASSOVER IS TWO SEPARATE FEASTS
In the Holy Scriptures, God clearly proclaims that ‘PASSOVER’ is composed of TWO SEPARATE FEASTS … the ‘FEAST OF PASSOVER’ and the ‘FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD’.
In Leviticus 23:5, we read…
“In the fourteenth day of the first month [Nisan 14] AT EVEN is the ‘LORD’S PASSOVER’.”
In Leviticus 23:6, we read…
”And on the fifteenth day of the same month [Nisan 15] is the ‘FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD’ unto the LORD.”
To be specific, the “Feast of Passover” occurs just BEFORE sunset of Nisan 14, and the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” begins just AFTER sunset of Nisan 14. -- In other words, the two feasts OVERLAP each other, and this is extremely important to remember when I begin sharing with you the TIMING of these two feast days during the Passover Week in which Jesus Christ was crucified.
JEWISH PREPARATION DAY
Now, Nisan 14 is mentioned numerous times in the Book of John, Chapters 11 and 12 as being the “day of preparation” for the Feast of Passover(before sunset of Nisan 14) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread(after sunset of Nisan 14). This means that Nisan 14 (“day of preparation”) was a day when work was allowed to be done by the Jewish people and that the stores could be open, so the Jewish people were able to purchase food items required for the ‘preparation’ of the “Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Seder) meal on Nisan 15.
Another “preparation” that had to be made on Nisan 14 (Passover) by the Jewish people was to rid their homes of all leaven (yeast). -- In Exodus 12:15 we read…
“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the FIRST DAY [Nisan 14] you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.”
This fact about there being a 'Jewish Preparation Day' in Jesus Christ's 'Last Passover Week' here upon the earth is also extremely important to remember when I begin sharing with you the TIMING of Jesus Christ's Crucifixion during His last Passover Week.
THE KILLING OF JEWISH PASSOVER LAMBS
On what day of the Jewish Sacred Calendar did the Jewish people kill their Passover lambs?
Well, according to Exodus 12:6, the Israelites ‘killed their Passover lambs’ in the late afternoon (“THE EVEN”) of Nisan 14 ("Preparation Day"). This has been historically proven in a book written by the Jewish historian, Josephus. He writes…
“The Passover, when they slay their [lamb] sacrifices, from the NINTH hour to the ELEVENTH hour but so that a company of not less than ten belong to every sacrifice the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty six thousand five hundred.” (Wars of the Jews, VI, 9, 3) “
From the "ninth hour to the eleventh hour” is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm Roman time.
JEWISH SABBATH DAYS
Now the reason there has been so much confusion concerning the ‘TIMING OF EVENTS’ during the Passover Week in which Jesus Christ was crucified, is the fact that there were ‘TWO’ Jewish Sabbath days (two non-workdays for the Jewish people) following one right after the other in the Passover Week of 32 AD when Jesus Christ was crucified.
The first Sabbath day was Friday, Nisan 15, the “Feast of Unleavened Bread”. The Scriptures tell us in John 19:31 that Nisan 15, the “Feast of Unleavened Bread”, was a “High Day” Sabbath [Feast Day] when NO WORK could be done by the Jewish people.
Now immediately following the Friday, Nisan 15 “Feast of Unleavened Bread” (which was a “High Day” Sabbath) came the Saturday, Nisan 16 regular weekly Sabbath Day (“Shabbat’) when NO WORK could be done by the Jewish people on that day either.
Now, once this all-important detail is recognized (that there were two sabbath days in a row in the 32 AD Passover Week), the TIMING OF THE EVENTS in the Passover Week in which Jesus Christ was crucified begin to fit together perfectly.
Let us now look at some details about the Nisan 15 “Feast of Unleavened Bread". – In Exodus 12:18, we read…
“In the first month, on the FOURTEENTH DAY of the month [Nisan 14 – “Passover”] AT EVEN, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month [Nisan 21] AT EVEN.
Exodus 12:18 reveals that at “EVEN” [dusk – just before the sun sets over horizon] of Nisan 14, the Jewish people were commanded to eat “unleavened bread” for seven days straight [from the “EVEN” of Nisan 14 to the EVEN of Nisan 21].
The Jews today begin eating ‘matzo’ (unleavened bread) in the evening hour of Nisan 14 (just BEFORE the sun begins to fully set…technically still Nisan 14), and then AFTER the sun has set and become the ‘night’ of Nisan 15 (the Feast of Unleavened Bread), they eat their ‘Seder’ meal with matzo and bitter herbs.
The modern day Jews no longer include the ‘Passover lamb’ in the ‘Seder meal’ today because the Jewish Temple where the lambs were slain for Passover in 32 A.D. NO LONGER EXISTS. -- While the temple was still standing, it was usual for the people of Israel to descend upon the city of Jerusalem, and bring a lamb or goat for each family to be slaughtered. The priests would ritually sacrifice the animals and take a bowl of the blood to pour on the Temple altar, before giving the meat back to the family to be roasted. But after the fall of the temple in 70 A.D., Jewish practice was changed forever – how could they follow the commands of the Jewish Torah [Book of Jewish Law] without a temple?
There was a Rabbinic dispute about how to proceed on the matter of the Passover lamb. Opinion was divided about whether to have each family sacrifice and eat their lamb or goat at home, or to avoid the lamb issue altogether, since only priests could carry out Passover lamb sacrifices in the temple according to Jewish law. – For that to happen, they would have to wait for the Messiah to come, and for the rebuilding of a new temple. – So, from that time on ‘lamb’ was pretty much off the menu for the Jewish ‘Seder’ (“Feast of Unleavened Bread”) meal on the night of Nisan 15. – However, beginning at dusk of Nisan 14, the Jewish people still eat ‘matzo’ (unleavened bread) for seven days straight until the evening of Nisan 21.
It is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that you remember that the Nisan 14 ‘Feast of Passover’, the Nisan 15 ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’, and the Nisan 16 Saturday, ‘Shabbat’ (the regular weekly Saturday Sabbath Day) fell in IMMEDIATE SEQUENCE in the 32 AD Passover Week in which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is also important to remember that both the ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’ (Friday, Nisan 15), and Shabbat (Saturday, Nisan 16) were SABBATH days and that NO WORK could be done by the Jewish people on either Friday, or Saturday in that 32 AD Passover Week.
JESUS CHRIST IS OUR PASSOVER LAMB!
In Exodus 12:3, God said to Moses…
“Speak ye unto ‘all the congregation’ of Israel…”
Israel was ‘God’s congregation’ and here in Exodus 12:3 it is the very first time that the word ‘congregation’ is used in the Bible. God is commanding His servant Moses to speak to God’s ‘entire congregation’ and to command them to do the following. In Exodus 12:3-4, we read…
“. . . In the tenth day of this month [Nisan] they [God’s congregation of Israelites] shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.”
In Exodus Chapter 12, God told Moses that He was to instruct the Israelites to choose out a one-year-old male lamb (a “ram”) from either the sheep or the goats “IN THE 10TH DAY OF NISAN”. This “ram” chosen by the Israelites as their Passover lamb is a representation of our Lord Jesus Christ and this representation has been pointed out to us by John the Baptist, Apostle Paul, and Apostle John. -- In John 1:29, we read…
“The next day John [the Baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the ‘LAMB OF GOD’, which taketh away the sin of the world. “
Apostle Paul has revealed to us that the true ‘Passover Lamb’ in all Jewish Passovers is actually the crucified Jesus Christ. – In 1 Corinthians 5:7, we read…
“For even Christ our PASSOVER [Lamb] is sacrificed for us.”
Apostle John wrote the following about Jesus Christ in Revelation 5:6…
“And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, STOOD A LAMB [Jesus Christ] AS IT HAD BEEN SLAIN . . .”
From the above verses of Scripture, it is clear to see that the “Passover lambs” killed at the very first Passover were a representation (typology) of Jesus Christ, and that He came to earth to become our “PASSOVER LAMB” during the Passover Week of 32 AD in which He was crucified. His ‘Perfect Blood Sacrifice’ as the “Lamb of God” has ALREADY redeemed all of mankind of all their sins forever … providing that mankind is willing to “REPENT” and to “BELIEVE” this truth. –
In 1 John 1:7, we read…
“. . . and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son CLEANSETH US from ALL SIN”.
In Exodus 12, God promised the Israelites that He would “Pass Over” all the houses of the Israelites who had the blood of the Passover lamb painted on their door posts and lentils. The typology of Christ in this “Pass Over” of the blood on the door posts and lentils of doorways is that of God “Passing Over” the sins of all of us true Christians who have “by faith” applied the shed blood of Jesus Christ’s “Perfect Blood Sacrifice” on the Cross to our own sins.
– In other words, we true Christians are trusting that Christ’s “Perfect Blood Sacrifice” on the Cross was a full pardon and complete cleansing of all of our sins forever. Because of our trust in Christ’s “Perfect Blood Sacrifice” as being a full pardon and cleansing of all of our sins forever, when God the Father looks down from Heaven He no longer sees our sins…He passes over them because He sees the blood of His Son Jesus Christ covering our sins for all of eternity.
