Subject: Passover Week
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 22:59:19 +0000
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
To: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com
From: Rob Hill
Subject: Getting the dates straight
Dear Eddie:
I've been preparing to teach on the Seder and the last week of Christ's
life. As I put it all down on paper I get a little confused. The whole
idea of the day ending and beginning at sundown seems to be throwing me off
a bit, and no matter how many times I diagram it out, it still seems a
little off.
Here is what I've got so far. Could you tell me where I'm off on this
chronology of events that make up the last week of Christ's life?
1.) Saturday Nisan 8, 33 A.D.:
Christ stops by Lazarus' house for a big dinner where a woman named Mary
(which one?) anointed Jesus' feet with perfume. (By the way, would this
meal have been at lunch on Saturday the 8th or supper on Monday the 9th -
after sundown?)
2.) Sunday Nisan 9, 33 A.D.:
Palm Sunday. This is the day that the lambs that will be used for the
Seders are lead into Jerusalem. Is this also the day that Jesus drove out
the money changers from the Court of the Gentiles?
3.) Monday Nisan 10, 33 A.D.:
This would be four (4) days before the Last Supper. Christ, like the lamb,
would be examined for four (4) days in the temple - from Monday, Nisan 10
through Thursday, Nisan 13.
4.) Tuesday Nisan 11, 33 A.D.:
Jesus says, "You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of
Man will be delivered up to be crucified" (Mat. 26:2)
5.) Wednesday Nisan 12, 33 A.D.:
Would this be the day when the Jewish women would clean the house of the
leaven?
6.) Thursday Nisan 13, 33 A.D.:
The day begins at sundown with the Bedikat HaMetz. The leaven would be
thrown into the fire at sun up. (Was this only done at the temple or would
a synagogue do?) For those who chose to celebrate the Passover Seder on
the 14th of Nisan, their lambs would be slaughtered at 3 o'clock this
afternoon. This is the day that the lamb for the Last Supper was to be
killed.
7.) Friday Nisan 14, 33 A.D.:
The disciples and Christ started the day with the Last Supper after
sundown. He was tried, convicted, executed and buried all before sundown
would come again.
8.) Saturday Nisan 15, 33 A.D.:
This is a "High Holy day" because it was the sabbath and the Feast of
Unleavened Bread. Caiaphas would have had his Seder on this day right
after Christ was buried. (Yikes! that must have been a real "bummer" when
he died and realized the irony there, huh?)
9.) Sunday Nisan 16, 33 A.D.:
This was the Feast of First Fruits and the day that Christ was resurrected.
Fifty days later, on Sivan the 6th, was Pentecost. The three (3) days of
Christ's death were: the last part of Friday, Nisan 14, all of Saturday,
Nisan 15, and then part of Sunday, Nisan 16. In this case, partial days
count as "days", right?
Okay, that is pretty much the best that I've been able to do on this one.
I sure do appreciate you letting me know where this is right and where it
is wrong. I'm sure that some will disagree on things like the year - and I
do want to explore that, too, but for now I really need to find out about
the days and dates within the next 10 days or so to prepare for the class.
Also, do the Messianic Jews still set a place for Elijah at the Seder?
Thanks so much for your help. You are a real blessing to more people than
you will ever know.
Rob Hill
President
The Historian's Gallery
>From Eddie:
**************
Rob,
Yeshua/Jesus was not crucified on "Good Friday". This is
Catholic tradition. He was crucified on 3PM on Passover Day
(Nisan 14). Also, you cannot get "three days and three nights", if
the crucifixion was on a Friday. Yeshua/Jesus said that He would be
three days and three night in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).
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To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
From: Lori Eldridge
Subject: Passover Week
Hi All,
Several months ago, while researching what day of the week Christ
died, I came to realize that understanding the difference between the
Jewish method of keeping time (a day starts at sunset) and the Roman
method of keeping time (a day starts at midnight) was the key to
reconciling the Gospels. Following are portions from that article
where they relate to determining the time of day and explaining the
term "between the evenings":
JEWISH vs ROMAN RECKONING OF TIME
Most of the confusion relating to the crucifixion can be traced to the
way a Jewish person interprets time as compared to someone from the
west. The Jewish "day" starts at Sunset (which changes slightly
depending on the season). Therefore, their day is getting dark when it
begins. During the time of Christ they adopted the Roman practice of
counting 4 "watches" during the night. Each watch started
approximately 9:30, 12:00 midnight, 2:30 (called the cockcrow watch),
and 5 am. From sunrise they divided the day in sections into what they
termed "hours". Thus when they said that something happened at the 6th
hour it was about noon or 6 hours after sunrise, not 6 A.M like we
would reckon time.
A Roman "day", however, started at midnight (as does most of the
western world) so when their day began it would be dark and would soon
be getting light--just the opposite of the Jewish day. Most scholars
agree that John wrote the Gospel of John late in the first century. He
often used Greek terms in his writing which indicates he was heavily
influenced by Greek culture. Further evidence is seen in that he would
often interpret the meaning of Hebrew words which would have been
unnecessary if he had been writing for a Jewish audience. Also,
Irenaeus stated that John published his Gospel during his residence at
Ephesus--the capital of the Roman province of Asia. Therefore he was
obviously writing to the Gentiles and would have used terminology
related to the time of day that Gentiles would have understood.
An example of this confusion of different terminologys involves when
Christ was nailed to the cross. According to Mark it was the third
hour (third hour since sunrise or 9 am) (Mark 15:25). However John
says it was "about the sixth hour" when he was still being sentenced
by Pilate and before he was led to the cross (John 19:14). The
difference lies in the fact that John is thinking Roman time which
starts at midnight and thus it was about 6 am. It probably took a few
more hours for Christ to make his way to the cross and not hard to
imagine that it was accomplished by 9 AM.
TIME of EVENING SACRIFICE
" . . . on the 10th day of this month [Nisan/March or April] each man
is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. . . . The
animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may
take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the
fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of
Israel must slaughter them at twilight" (Exodus 12:3-6). Other
versions say "between the evenings."
The daylight part of the Jewish day was divided into two parts: from
sunrise to noon and was considered "the morning" part of the day. From
noon to sunset was the "evening" part of the day and therefore when
scripture indicates the lamb was to be crucified "between the
evenings" it meant half-way between noon and sunset, i.e., about 3 PM.
According to Gesenius' Hebrew Lexicon of O.T. the word used in Ex.
12:6, # 6153 called "ereb" means:
"evening . . . in the phrase 'between the two evenings' Ex 16:12;
30:8; used as marking the space of time during which the Paschal lamb
was slain, Ex 12:6; Lev 23:5; Num 9:3; and the evening sacrifice was
offered, Ex 29:39, 41; Num 28:4; i.e., according to the opinion of the
Karaites and Samaritans (which is favoured by the words of Deut.
16:6), the time between sunset and deep twilight. The Pharisees,
however, and the Rabbinists considered the time when the sun began to
descend [similar to an Arabian word which means 'little evening' for
when it begins to draw towards evening] to be called the first evening
and the second evening to be the real sunset." Therefore the time
between when the sun began to descend [early afternoon] and sunset,
i.e., the 9th hour according to Jewish time or 3 PM Roman time.
This is corroborated by the Mishnah in Tractate Pesahim by Danby, p.
144, where it says the Passover lamb was to be killed "Bain ehrev" . .
. between the evening in its appointed time." And The Chumash by
ArtScroll, p 351, Exodus 12:6 says, "the entire congregation of the
assembly of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon". Josephus
further corroborates the time of day of the sacrifices during a
Passover feast in his "Wars of the Jews", Ch. IX: "So these high
priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the Passover,
when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour to the eleventh
[3-5 PM],. . ."
This is the same time of day that Yeshua died on the cross according
to Matt. 27:45-50, on the 9th hour, or about 3 PM. - - - -
I came to the conclusion that Christ had to have died on a Thursday.
If anyone is interested in reading the rest of the article here is the
URL:
WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK WAS CHRIST CRUCIFIED?
http://www.yfiles.com/crucified.html
Shalom and God Bless,
Lori Eldrige
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