John 18:28 - Two Passovers?

Post by **_Benjamin Ho** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 9:00 am

28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.

Hi Steve,

How do you understand about this Passover mentioned in John 18:28 since the Synoptic gospels say that the Last Supper was the Passover?

Post by **_mattrose** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:22 pm

I would like to bump this question back to the top of the list. I have spent a few hours of the past couple days trying to figure out what Jesus did each day in the week before His death. It's pretty easy to make a chronological chart with Matthew/Mark/Luke, but then John pretty much seems to blast that chart to pieces. Here's the 'sense' I get...

TRADITIONAL VIEW (MOSTLY FROM MATT/MARK/LUKE)
sunday
triumphal entry
monday
Curses fig tree
Clears the temple
tuesday
Teaches about fig tree and prayer (Matthew combines fig tree events into one)
Faces challenges to His authority
Tells some parables
Delivers Olivet Discourse
Annointed with perfume
wednesday
Nothing we know of
thursday
Passover day
Last Supper
Gethsemane
Betrayal/arrest
Jewish trials
friday
Preparation day
Pilate
Crucifixion
Death
Placed in tomb (quickly early evening b/c no work on Sabbath)
saturday
Sabbath
sunday
resurrection day

OTHER VIEW (COMING MOSTLY FROM JOHN'S ACCOUNT)
friday
Arrived in Bethany (six days before 'special sabbath -john 19:31-)
saturday
Passover lamb caught (according to exodus 12:3)
sunday
triumphal entry (john 12:13)
monday
curses fig tree
tuesday
challenged by jewish leaders
olivet discourse
Gethsemane
wednesday
Crucifixion
Death
Placed in tomb to avoid work on 'special sabbath'
thursday
Special Sabbath (john 19:31 + Lev. 23:7)
Day 1 of Jesus being dead
friday
Day 2 of Jesus being dead
saturday
Regular Sabbath
Day 3 of Jesus being dead
sunday
resurrection after 3 complete days

In my mind, I have no problem with Jesus only being dead Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning. I know Jews counted part of a day as a day, so I take no issue with as little as 24 hours and 2 seconds being counted as 3 days. I am, however, confused by the idea of a 'special sabbath' in John 19:31.

I guess I'm not even sure what question to ask to resolve these issues.

Post by **_mattrose** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:38 pm

Okay, I think I figured out what question I want to ask

Since, in John's Gospel, Jesus washes the disciples feet (13:1-20), shares the Last Supper with His disciples (13:21-30) delivers the Upper Room Discourse (13:31-17:26) and is arrested/sent to Pilat (18:1-27).......

Then how can the Jews say in 18:28 that they wanted to be able to eat the passover? How can it be the 'day of preparation of passover week' in 19:14? How can the next day be a special Sabbath in 19:31?

Was the last supper before the OFFICIAL passover so that Jesus' death could be the ACTUAL passover? If so, wouldn't the disciples have been confused as to why they were eating early? Is there any way to know what day of the week the OFFICIAL passover was that year?

Post by **_Damon** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:02 pm

This is where understanding the culture of first century Judaism can help. I also partially answered this in another thread, here.

What we have, as you deduced, are two Passover observances. The first one is a family-based observance taking place on the evening beginning Nisan 14th. The second one is a national observance with lambs being slaughtered at the Temple beginning on the afternoon portion of Nisan 14th, with the meal being eaten after sunset beginning Nisan 15th.

Originally, there was only a 14th Passover observance. That's what Exodus 12 et. al commanded. But in the time of King Hezekiah and also in the time of King Josiah, there were national Passover observances that were observed in lieu of a local, family based observance because the people were still steeped in idolatry at those times. This form of national Passover observance began to replace the local, family-based observance, although the two different observances coexisted in the time of Jesus.

I hope that makes sense.

Damon

Post by **_mattrose** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:36 pm

Thanks for the info

So.....

Thursday evening
Family-oriented observance of Passover (Last Supper)
Jesus arrested

Friday evening
Jesus dies (3pm)
National-oriented observance of Passover (John 18:28 )

Saturday
Jesus in tomb
Special Sabbath (John 19:31)

Is that right?

Another question, what made that Saturday Sabbath 'special' (John 18:28 )

Post by **_Damon** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 6:58 pm

Er, no, not quite.

Tuesday evening - Nisan 14th begins
Family-based Passover observance; Jesus eats the Passover with His disciples.

Wednesday - Day portion of Nisan 14th
Jesus is crucified. This is also the Preparation Day for the Holy Day on the following day. (The day before the Sabbath, whether that Sabbath is a weekly Sabbath or an annual Holy Day, is called the Preparation Day.) Lambs are slaughtered at the Temple during the afternoon in preparation for the national Passover observance. Jesus is put in the tomb just before sunset.

Wednesday evening - Nisan 15th begins
This is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a "High [Holy] Day" (see John 19:31) according to Leviticus 23. To this day, the Jews refer to the annual festivals as "High Holy Days." The whole, seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread was called "the Passover" in the time of Jesus (Luke 22:1).

Thursday - Nisan 15th
Day 1 in the tomb.

Friday - Nisan 16th
Day 2 in the tomb. The women buy spices before the weekly Sabbath on Nisan 17th (Luke 23:55-56) and after the annual Sabbath on Nisan 15th (Mark 16:1).

Saturday - Nisan 17th
Day 3 in the tomb. Jesus is resurrected right around sunset ending the day.

Sunday - Nisan 18th
The women discover the empty tomb early in the morning.

I hope that answers both of your questions.

Damon

Post by **_mattrose** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:32 pm

I disagree with yours (though I am not unfamiliar with the argument).

I think the Maundy-Thursday, Good-Friday, Easter-Sunday scale fits better with the historical evidence

But thanks for pointing out the 2 passover principle

Post by **_Damon** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:36 pm

Okay, I'm willing to agree to disagree. But just out of curiosity, what historical evidence are you referring to?

Damon

Post by **_mattrose** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:56 pm

Both views seem to put the triumphant entry on Sunday

Mark 11:11 shows us that Jesus simply looked around that day. He didn't clear the temple b/c it was already late. He simply went back to Bethany. Monday, then, he cleared the temple (Mark 11:15-17). Mark 11:20 tells us another morning (Tuesday) had arrived. On this day Jesus deals with Jewish leadership, tells some parables, and delivers the Olivet discourse (through Mark 13). Chapter 14 begins by saying, 'It was now 2 days before the Passover.' The 'now' is either at the end of the Olivet Discourse (see Matthew 26:2, 'after 2 days the passover is coming') or the 'now' is Wednesday morning. Both possible, it seems, since it could be referring to private or national observation of the Passover. But that makes the earliest possible 'last supper' Thursday night in my understanding. The purpose of the Gospels is not to give a chronological account, but that being said, the time stamps iit does give are accurate.

Historian Paul L. Maier points out that the most solid 'anchor' date in the Gospels is that John the Baptist began his ministry in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (28-29). That makes the year of the crucifixion 32-33. With the private observance Thursday night and the national observance Friday. We find that Nisan 14 fell on a Friday April 3rd, 33. This fits well with the rest so far as I can tell.

Placing the death of Christ on Wednesday seems to be in effort to have 3 full days of Jesus in the tomb, but many sources indicate that any part of a day could be counted as a day in Jewish idiom. Jesus seems to have died at 3pm Friday, April 3rd A.D. 33. He was dead part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday.

Post by **_Damon** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:57 pm

In my schema, the Triumphal Entry would fall on Saturday. The entry to Bethany fell on Friday. The cleansing of the Temple was on Sunday. The fig tree withered on Monday. This was the day which was "two days before the Passover" which was on Wednesday.

As far as the historical accounts go, there is still some debate on when "the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar" was, believe it or not. Also, remember that the lunar months of the Hebrew Calendar were not calculated in Jesus' day. Rather, they were observed. The Sanhedrin would send out two witnesses to look for the appearance of the first crescent of the New Moon. When they returned and their testimony concurred, the next day (assuming it wasn't really late in the day, in which case the announcement would be postponed) would be declared to be the New Moon.

The practical result of this is that the calculated calendar did not always coincide with the observed beginnings of months. They might be off by a day, sometimes two. Sometimes even off by a whole month, if the barley wasn't ripe enough when the Spring New Moon was observed.

As far as the reasoning behind placing Christ's death on Wednesday, as I illustrated, this was a natural result of there being two Sabbaths during Passion Week. That's why the women were seen to buy spices both before and after the Sabbath.

Anyway, I'm attempting to be as objective as possible with this whole scenario. I've put a tremendous amount of study into the timing of the Passover when Christ died, although my research isn't as definitive (note that I'm not saying thorough) when it comes to the year in which Christ died. There are still too many contradictions in the historical accounts, astronomical observances, etc., that I haven't sorted out yet in my own mind, so the year of Christ's death remains an open question for me.

Damon