Full Question
Can you please tell me whether the Passover Lamb was eaten on the 14th or the 15th Nisan, and how did this work out when Jesus was crucified?
Answer
We find there is much confusion on this subject, so let us state certain basic facts.
The record in Exod. 12:6 says with regard to the lamb “Ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month (Nisan) and the whole assembly of the congregation shall kill it in the evening …”. The margin says “… between the two evenings”. Other authorities give it “between sunset and dusk”. This really means as soon as the 14th Nisan commences at six o’clock the lamb had to be slain, roasted, and eaten later in the evening.
“Preparation” was every Friday, and Mark tells us “… the Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath”. When it occurred in Passover week, while it had nothing to do with preparing the Passover, it was called “The Preparation of the Passover”. It is evident, therefore, that the day Jesus was crucified 14th Nisan fell on a Friday, at the beginning of that day (6 o’clock in the evening) the lamb was killed, and at 9 o’clock the following morning Jesus was crucified-15 hours after the slaying of the Passover lamb.
It is also necessary to recognize that there were seven days on which only unleavened bread was allowed to be eaten. All leaven must be diligently sought out and banished. The 1st day (the 14th Nisan) was the Passover. The remaining six days constituted the Feast of the Passover. Hence Paul says “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Let us therefore keep the feast …”. Often the word “Passover” was used to cover the whole seven days of unleavened bread. That explains why the Jewish authorities would not enter Pilate’s judgement hall, lest they should be defiled and prevented from eating the remainder of the seven days of unleavened bread.
“Jesus shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The Jews spoke of any part of the 24 hours, however small, as “a day and a night”. Repeatedly Jesus told his disciples that on the third day he would rise again. Comparable illustrations are when the tribes came to Rehoboam “on the third day”, and when Esther went in to Ahasuerus on the third day. On the way to Emmaus, on that resurrection day, the two disciples said “this is the third day since these things were done”.
Why was that sabbath day a “high day”? For a very simple reason. In connection with the Passover rites, on the morrow after the sabbath the first wave sheaf had to be waved before the Lord. For some unknown reason, when the Jews came back from Babylon they offered the first wave sheaf not on the morrow after the sabbath, as they should have done, but they offered it on the sabbath itself. The wave sheaf represented Jesus being offered to the Lord, but when the Jews offered the wave sheaf the one it represented lay dead in the tomb, but that was the reason why it was a “high day”.
Summarising all the facts, the sequence of events emerges thus:
At 6 o’clock (on our Thursday evening, but 6 o’clock was the beginning of the Jewish Friday) the lamb was slain and later eaten after being “roast with fire”. This was the 14th Nisan. Jesus partook of the Passover, and converted the last portion into the memorial supper. After singing the Hallel the eleven (Judas having departed to betray Christ) and Jesus went to Gethsemane. After the threefold prayer, Jesus was arrested and taken before Annas. All this before the cock crew the first time, which “cock-crowing” was at midnight.
He was taken before Caiaphas and then before the Sanhedrin (the second cock-crowing was at 3 o’clock). At 6 o’clock he was taken before Pilate, then Herod, then back to Pilate and sentenced to crucifixion, although Pilate could find no fault in him. He was crucified at 9 o’clock, daylight till 12 o’clock, darkness till 3 o’clock (mid Friday afternoon), and died at 3 o’clock. Joseph begged the body, wrapped it in linen and spices, and placed it in the tomb. All before 6 o’clock, when the sabbath (Saturday) began.
Jesus was in the tomb all that sabbath day, and then very early the morrow after the sabbath (our Sunday morning) God called His son and Jesus joyfully answered, awaking to life and light again. It was still dark when Jesus was raised from the dead. From the foregoing we do not think Jesus would be in the tomb for more than 26 hours if, indeed, for so long—
- Say half-hour of Friday afternoon;
- All of Saturday (6 p.m. to 6 p.m.);
- A small portion (one hour?) of Sunday while still dark.
Conclusions
Jesus ate the ordinary Passover on the 14th Nisan (NOT the 15th).
He was crucified at 9 o’clock on the morning of the 14th Nisan (our Friday).
He was in the tomb the 15th Nisan, which was the first day of the remaining six days of unleavened bread.
He was raised from the dead very early on the 16th Nisan. The darkness from 12 till 3 p.m. while he was on the cross was very appropriate, seeing the Light of the World was being extinguished! By his death he accomplished a far greater deliverance than did the original Passover in Egypt, and we can fully appreciate Paul’s words “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; let us therefore keep the feast, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”.
“The Valley of the Shadow”