Today is Maundy Thursday – celebration of the Last Supper of Jesus and his disciples eating the Passover meal (Seder) on the eve of the crucifixion. Passover, one of the most significant Jewish holidays, celebrates God’s deliverance of Israel from the slavery and bondage of Egypt. In a demonstration of His power before both Israel and Egypt, death struck the first born child of each household, except for those who had chosen in faith to slay an unblemished lamb and brush the doorpost of the house with its blood (Matthew 12:1-27).
The Feast of Unleavened Bread took place on Nissan 15 of the Jewish calendar. The 14th was “the day of Preparation” in which an unblemished lamb would be slain at the temple for each family in the afternoon between 3:00 and 5:00 PM and eaten that night as part of the Passover Seder dinner. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) all record the Last Supper as being the Passover meal (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-8; Luke 22:13-15). But there is a problem in John’s Gospel. John clearly states that Jesus crucified on the “day of Preparation” (John 19:14) and that the Jews asked Pilate to remove the bodies from the cross that afternoon so as to violate the holy day (John 19:31). Matthew 27:46-50 tells us that Jesus died about 3:00 PM (the ninth hour), interestingly at the same time that the lambs would be sacrificed for the Passover that night. Jesus was the ultimate Paschal Lamb! Here is the problem . . . How could Jesus celebrate the Passover on Thursday, when John clearly states that the Passover was Friday? Is the Bible incorrect?
The issue can be resolved when one considers the definition of a day. The Sadducees (including the High Priest) defined a day from sunset to sunset. The Sabbath for instance is celebrated from sunset to sunset, as are many of the festival including the Feast of Unleavened Bread, commencing with the Passover. The phrase “night and day” occurs many place throughout Scripture indicating such a definition – that the night precedes the day (Mark 4:27; Luke 2:37; I Thessalonians 2:9; and II Timothy 1:3 to name a few). But elsewhere, Scripture also uses the phrase “day and night” (more so in the Old Testament, but also in Acts 9:24 and Revelation 7:4). In our culture we define a “day” from midnight to midnight. But in Jesus’ day there were two different views. Dr. Harold Hoehner writes “It is thought that the Galileans used a different method of reckoning the Passover than the Judeans. The Galileans and Pharisees used the sunrise to sunrise reckoning whereas the Judeans and Sadducees used the sunset to sunset reckoning.” * The chart below reveals how this can explain the discrepancy and how Jesus the Galilean could have celebrated the Passover with his disciples on Thursday and yet still been slain as the Paschal Lamb on Friday.
Click the thumbnail for a larger view.
So the Gospel authors are each correct in their eyewitness accounts, and Jesus could both legitimately celebrate the Passover with His disciples the night before His death AND die at the exact time that the priests were sacrificing the paschal lambs in the Temple before the Passover! Perhaps this explains why Jesus was born a Galilean and not a Judean as well.
* Hoehner, H. (1974). Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ. Bibliotheca Sacra (A quarterly publication of Dallas Theological Seminary) Volume 131, Issue 523.
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