Jesus ate the Paschal lamb before he was crucified

[TonyChanYT]

Roman calendar day went from midnight to midnight. Jewish calendar day went from sunset to sunset. Here, I will stick to the Jewish tradition.

On Thursday Nisan 14, there were Passover preparations (or setup). Good News Translation, Matt 26:

17 On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Where do you want us to get the Passover meal ready for you?"

The term Festival of the Unleavened Bread is a bit confusing. A parallel account in Mark 14:

12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus' disciples asked Him, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"

It was Nisan 14, the beginning of an 8-day Feast/Festival.

Matt 26:

18 He said, “Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near. I will observe the Passover with my disciples at your house.”’” 19 So the disciples did as Jesus had instructed them, and they prepared the Passover.

Technically speaking, the preparation (the sacrifice of the lamb) was done before the sun had completely set and the eating of the lamb and unleavened bread happened after the sunset (on Nisan 15).

Parallel account, Luke 22:

7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesusa sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”

John 13:

1 Just before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end.

They sacrificed the Passover lamb before sunset and ate the Passover meal after sunset.

Matt 26:

20 When it was evening, he took his place at the table with the 12.

At this point, they ate the Passover lamb.

John 13:

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray Jesus.

They arrested Jesus. The Sanhedrin tried Jesus. Peter denied him. The rooster crowed.

Early on Friday morning, they took Jesus to Pilate. John 18:

28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover

i.e., the general 8-day feast, not specifically the Passover lamb which they ate already.

Pilate sent Jesus to Herod. Herod sent him back to Pilate. Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified.

They crucified Jesus at Golgotha. Luke 23:

44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

English Standard Version John 19:

31 Since it was the day of Preparation,

i.e., the Friday before the Sabbath, not the preparation of the paschal lamb which occurred on Thursday

and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Gill:

for that sabbath day was an high day; it was not only a sabbath, and a sabbath in the passover week.

They buried Jesus before sunset (before Sabbath, Saturday).

After Jesus was buried, Matthew 27:

62 The next day [Saturday], the one after Preparation Day [Friday], the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.

Again "Preparation Day" was a technical term meaning the day before the Sabbath Saturday.

65“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

The chronological sequence of events:

1. Nisan 14, Thursday: Prepare or set up the meal for the paschal lamb.
2. The sun set.
3. Nisan 15: Jesus ate Paschal lamb in the evening. Confusingly, this was sometimes referred to as Nisan 14 evening.
4. Friday/Preparation Day/the day before a weekly Sabbath
5. They crucified Jesus in the afternoon and buried him before sunset.
6. Full moon
7. Nisan 16: Saturday/Sabbath
8. The chief priests put a seal and posted a guard at the tomb.

 

[Grailhunter]

Significant dates of Christ
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************The Mystery of the Last Supper************

Thursday
The Last supper
Matthew 26:17---
Mark 14:12---
Luke 22:7---
John 13:1---

Friday
Passover---The Feast of Unleavened Bread----Hag Ha-Matzot.
Passover is one 24 hour period in the seven day Feast of Unleavened bread. The Jewish Passover occurs each year on the evening of the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

One thing we know for sure, Christ was not crucified on the day He ate the His Last Supper. But the Jews would have normally been eating the Passover meal on the day Christ was crucified, that would be Friday before dusk.

Over the centuries there have been some confusion on which day the Last Supper occurred, and the circumstances of its occurrence. So before we go on let me explain. Traditionally in this time period, on the eve before the Passover the sacrificial lamb was slain and butchered ritually. The blood was collected ritually and applied to the doorways. (This is the Passover part of the ritual of the plaque of the first born, but this changed…Deuteronomy 16:2-6 The change was that the sacrificial lamb was slain at the doorway of the tabernacle….and then the Temple….This means that in the biblical era the Passover was a gathering of Jews at the Temple…

Then the entire lamb was cooked over a fire and eaten entirely, with unleavened bread. (The sacrifice could be either an unblemished goat or lamb. You can read about this ritual in Exodus chapter 12.) This is not exactly what happened during the evening of the Last Supper. But the Gospels use the term Passover meal to refer to the Last Supper and also reference the Passover lamb being sacrificed on Thursday evening, from there, confusion ensued.

The Jewish Passover which lasts around 7 days, that year occurred on Saturday April 8th 30 AD, and started at dusk (As the Full Moon rose) on April 7th. The Jewish Sabbath and the beginning of Passover occurring on the same day, that year. Computerized astronomical calculations (NASA) shows a full Moon on the evening of April 7th when the Passover began. So the Passover for that year occurred on the Jewish Sabbath...Saturday. Two Holy events occurring on the same day. Some refer to this as a High Holy Day, High Day, or High Sabbath for the Jews. John 19:31 The Lambs would have been killed on Friday, the afternoon of the 7th of April. But Christ would not be alive Friday evening. So in this instance there was an honorary Passover meal for Christ. As I said, we know that Christ did not eat the Last Supper on the day He was crucified. If we look at Matthew 16:21-25 and Yeshua's disagreement with Peter, we can see that He knew what was going to happen and when.

He was the symbolic and divine sacrificial lamb and He was slain around 3:00 pm on the 7th of April, around the time that the actual sacrificial lambs were being slain. The Passover dinner for Him was held on the evening of the 6th of April...Thursday and they had a sacrificial lamb. The next day, the actual Passover lambs would be slaughtered and eaten on Friday before dusk for the Passover dinners. Christ was the sacrificial lamb for the New Covenant and He was crucified during the day on Friday, about the time the sacrificial lambs for Passover were being killed. So Christ would not be observing the normal processes of the Passover and the Passover meal, and as it turned out, the same was true for the Apostles because they would be in hiding, not sacrificing lambs at the Temple. They may have arranged for food to be brought to them, but they probably were not sacrificing lambs while Christ was being crucified.

The meal that Christ attended was a meal that the Gospels refer to as the Passover meal, a Seder meal, put it was not the actual Jewish Passover meal. As I explained, the next day was the Jewish day of preparation for the Passover...Friday...and the Jewish Passover meal would occur then. This was the day that Christ was slain. Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54, John 19:14, 31, and 42, all confirm that the day that Christ was crucified was on the Day of Preparation, which was Friday, April 7th 30 AD. John 18:28 also proves that early Friday morning, the day of Christ’s crucifixion, when Christ was taken to the Praetorium the Apostles had not eaten the actual Passover meal yet. The morning cock had crowed for Peter John 18:27 So when Christ was before Pilate in the Praetorium the Apostles did not enter because they did not want to be defiled because they wanted to participate in the actual Passover meal before the start of Passover. John 18:28 Another mystery solved....

Why April 7th 30 AD?
The death of Herod is well documented, so is the date of his successors. So in order to include the story of the Herod, the Magi, the Star, and death of the innocences, Christ's birth has to happen before Herod's death. March 12th 4 BC. Now if you go to add this up from Christ's birth to the day of his Crucifixion, keep in mind that you lose 2 years between 1 BC and 1 AD. No year zero, so one year passes between April 1 BC and April 1 AD. So in 30 AD Christ would have been 33 years old, give or take a few months.

We can consider April 3rd 33 AD, but Christ would be 36 years old and since it was said that Christ started Him ministry when He was 30 years old, that would make His ministry 6 years long. So odds are, it is 30 AD.

Now the calculation for Passover is based on the cycle of the moon. And goes like this...Passover will occur on the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Most of the time that is in April on our calendar. Then Easter is the next Sunday after that.

So Christ is crucified on Friday April 7th 30 AD and then the Passover starts that evening at dusk along with the Jewish Sabbath. That night has a Full Moon. And this goes along with the double Sabbath tradition, ie Passover falling on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday. Keep in mind that the Hebrew month always started on the New Moon, so the Passover would “always” occur 15 days later….that does not mean that the Passover would always occur on the Sabbath Saturday, because the new month did not reset the days of the week. (Jewish Sabbath Saturday…different than the Christian Sunday.) Hebrew days of the month vs Gregorian days of the month, there is a confusion factor there, but I will try to explain.

The Lunar Calculator below, shows the Full Moon on the evening of April 7th, 30 AD. This chart is based on our Gregorian calendar, but the first day of the Hebrew month started as usual on the preceding New Moon…which was on March 24th, then 15 days later on Friday, the evening of the 7th ….the Full Moon rises.