Transcript Slide 1

Passover 2008: Part 2
How Jesus Christ could Celebrate the
Passover, be Crucified on the
Passover, and be Buried before the
Passover.
The Early Christian Passover
• In the Judeo-Christian thinking of the first
Christians the events of the Last Supper
produced a new Passover, in remembrance of
Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 11:24), observed
annually at the end of the thirteenth day and into
the evening portion of the fourteenth day of
Nisan.
• That appears to be the unmistakable thinking of
the gospel writers (Matthew 26:17-18; Mark
14:12; Luke 22:8, 22:15) and it certainly was the
tradition of the ancient church.
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The Early Christian Passover
• Judeo-Christians, well into the fifth
century, continued to observe the
Christian Passover at the beginning of
Nisan 14, which according to Franciscan
biblical archaeologist Bellarmino Bagatti,
was due to "the common belief among the
[Christian] Jews that the date had been
fixed by the Lord and was, therefore,
unchangeable.
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The Early Christian Passover
• Many believed that this date was superior
even to the sabbath itself" (Bagatti
1971a:81).
• Bagatti knew that the Sabbath remained
important in Judeo-Christianity well into
Nicene times.
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The Early Christian Passover
• Every indication is that from that very night
early Christians continued this practice.
• Indeed, according to Bellarmino Bagatti
the practice was so much a part of JudeoChristian praxis that as late as the time of
Constantine the Great they continued to
argue that the traditional day of Nisan 14
for Christian Passover was not capable of
change (Bagatti 1971a:10).
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The Early Christian Passover
• For some reason the time of its observation from
apostolic times had shifted among many GrecoRoman Christian communities of Asia Minor,
from its celebration at the beginning of Nisan 14
to the beginning of Nisan 15.
• This apparently was in response to the language
of the synoptic gospels indicating that just prior
to his death Jesus kept the Passover with his
disciples (Matthew 26:18, Mark 14:14, Luke
22:8).
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The Early Christian Passover
• Amazingly, even the Emperor Constantine
understood that Passover was to be a
one-time, annual event when, according to
the fifth century historian Theodoret, he
declared:"For we could never tolerate
celebrating the Passover twice in one
year. But even if all these facts did not
exist, your own sagacity would prompt you
to watch with diligence and with prayer…
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The Early Christian Passover
• lest your pure minds should appear to share in
the customs of a people so utterly depraved. It
must also be borne in mind, that upon so
important a point as the celebration of a feast of
such sanctity, discord is wrong. One day has
our Saviour set apart for a commemoration
of our deliverance, namely, of His most holy
Passion"
•
(Theodoret of Cyrus. Ecclesiastical History (Book I), Chapter IX. Excerpted from Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 3. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace.
American Edition, 1892. Online Edition Copyright © 2005 by K. Knight).
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The Early Christian Passover
• It may be of interest to note that, even in
the 21st Century, the Roman Catholics still
teach that this Passover (which they call
the Last Supper) was kept by Jesus on a
Tuesday night and that He was betrayed
on a Wednesday (Zanchettin L, ed. Meditations, Tuesday, April 11,
Wednesday April 12. the WORD among us--The #1 Monthly Devotional for Catholics. 2006;
Volume 25, Number 4, pp. 63-64).
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The Early Christian Passover
• Although most who profess Christianity now
celebrate it, Easter-Sunday was not observed by
the second century Christians in Asia Minor.
• They observed Passover. However, beginning
with possibly Telesphorus or possibly Hyginus or
maybe even Sixtus (there are no
contemporaneous records, only an unclear
report 5-6 decades later written by Irenaeus),
what is now called Easter began to be observed
in Rome.
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The Early Christian Passover
• First, it was apparently a change in date of
Passover from the 14th of Nisan to a
Sunday.
• This is believed to have happened
because there was a rebellion by Jews
and that any distancing between Jews and
Christians seemed physically
advantageous (at least to some in Rome
and the Greeks in Jerusalem).
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The Early Christian Passover
• The fact that the Passover controversy arose
when Emperor Hadrian adopted new repressive
measures against Jewish religious practices
suggests that such measures influenced the new
Gentile hierarchy to change the date of
Passover from Nisan 14 to the following Sunday
(Easter-Sunday) in order to show separation and
differentiation from the Jews and the Jewish
Christians…
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The Early Christian Passover
• A whole body of Against the Jews literature was
produced by leading Fathers who defamed the
Jews as a people and emptied their religious
beliefs and practices of any historical value.
• Two major causalities of the anti-Jewish
campaign were Sabbath and Passover.
• The Sabbath was changed to Sunday and
Passover was transferred to Easter-Sunday.
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The Early Christian Passover
• They appeared, as Gentile Christians, to
be as confused about this Passover in the
gospels as are Christian scholars today.
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The Early Christian Passover
• Beginning with Constantine the Great, the social
policy of the Roman government, at least when
in the charge of orthodox emperors, was the
elimination of paganism and the bringing about
of unity in Byzantine Christianity.
• Its basis was establishing a common core of
fundamental orthodox beliefs which would work
to further the stability of the Roman state.
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The Early Christian Passover
• In Bagatti’s words: "In the 4th century, when
Christianity had already won the victory over
paganism, there was a reorganization of the
church for unitarian purposes.
• The Jewish usages and doctrines, unknown in
great part to the Christian world, in some regions
were looked upon as causes of division among
the faithful and were therefore fiercely opposed.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• Nevertheless, three centuries earlier, at
the beginning of the fourteenth day of
Nisan, on the evening before his death,
Jesus chose to reveal His fulfillment of the
unleavened bread and wine of the ancient
Passover service.
• These changes were consistent with the
New Covenant he brought into being.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• Jesus informed his disciples, on Nisan 13,
two days before the feast of the Passover
of the Jews (observed at the beginning of
Nisan 15 after sunset), that he would be
betrayed to be crucified (Matthew 26:1-2).
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The 1st Christian Passover
• Jesus instructed Peter and John, early
Nisan 14, just after sunset and a full 24
hours before the Passover of the Jews, to
make preparations to eat the Passover
Supper that very evening (Matthew 26:1719; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-13).
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The 1st Christian Passover
• Surprisingly, the Twelve appeared not to
be in any way shocked or taken aback that
they were going to eat the Passover with
Jesus at the beginning of Nisan 14, as set
forth on the traditional Hebrew calendar,
not at the end of Nisan 14.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• The disciples seemingly had
foreknowledge of Jesus' intent to keep the
Passover earlier than the official declared
time.
• We cannot suggest that the keeping of
Passover a day early was Jesus' normal
practice although some say that Galileans
kept the Passover a full day before the
Judeans.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• By this means they harmonize the gospel
accounts wherein Jesus kept the Passover
and yet died before the Passover.
• Back to back Passovers certainly do
resolve this problem.
• However, there is no literary or
archaeological evidence to suggest that
the Galileans ever kept the Passover at
any other time than that established by the
Levitical priests.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• The only extant evidence points to the
Essenes as always observing the
Passover on a Tuesday night thereby
providing hard evidence for the occasional
celebration in Jerusalem of two adjacent
days of Passover.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• A Tuesday night Essene Passover (the occasion
of the Last Supper at the Essene guesthouse in
Jerusalem) and Wednesday Crucifixion
preceding a Wednesday night Jewish Passover
reconciles Gospel discrepancies.
• The fact that the disciples seemed unaware of
the Essene guesthouse is evidence keeping
Passover early had not occurred there before.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• Apparently their only surprise came during
dinner when Jesus girded himself with a
towel and began to wash their feet (John
13:5).
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The 1st Christian Passover
• The principal events of the evening, the defining
elements of the new Passover included:
• a set time, a full 24 hours before the traditional
Jewish Passover celebration, at the beginning of
Nisan 14 (Matthew 26:20; Mark 14:17; Luke
22:14);
• a meatless Seder, the paschal meal, which the
apostle Paul referred to as the Lord's Supper (I
Corinthians 11:20; cf. Matthew 26:19, Mark
14:16, Luke 22:13)
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The 1st Christian Passover
• This had to be a meatless Seder because
it occurred a full twenty-four hours before
the Passover of the Jews.
• There was no Passover lamb to eat for the
lambs would not be killed until the
afternoon of Nisan 14.
• What is more the Essenes, as
vegetarians, kept a meatless Passover.
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The 1st Christian Passover
• Hence, with the discovery of the Essene
Passover we have:
– Jesus celebrating Passover,
– Dying on Preparation Day, and
– Buried before the Passover!
• Exactly as the Scriptures report!
• And, we see how He instituted a meatless
Passover, because He Himself is the Lamb.
• This prefigures the centuries of meatless Jewish
Passovers after the fall of Jerusalem and the
end of the Temple sacrifices in 70 CE.
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Bethany
• Therefore, when John wrote that "Jesus six days before
the passover came to Bethany," he was using the term
"Passover" as it was used at that time.
• He had in view the high Sabbath of the Passover
celebration, which was Nisan fifteenth.
• So we can identify the day on which our Lord arrived in
Bethany.
• That was Friday, Nisan the ninth. It was on this day that
our Lord arrived at the home of Simon who was also
hosting Martha, Mary and Lazarus, in the little village of
Bethany, which was fifteen furlongs (1 7/8 miles) from
Jerusalem.
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Friday Day Nisan 9
• The Lord Jesus Christ arrived in Bethany sufficiently
early on Friday afternoon to permit Martha and Mary to
prepare a supper for Him.
• We can be sure that the preparation of the food was
finished before sunset.
• However, the supper was not eaten until after the sun
had set and a new day had begun.
• When Mary took the pound of ointment of spikenard and
poured it on Jesus' feet and then wiped them with her
hair, the evening of the tenth of Nisan, a seventh-day
Sabbath, had already begun.
• This act of Mary's was the first phase of the selection of
the Paschal Lamb, which God's law said must be done
on the tenth day of the month.
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Saturday, the Tenth of Nisan
• "On the next day much people that were come to the
feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to
Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees and went forth
to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of
Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." John 12:1213. This was the next day, the day following that evening
on which our Lord Jesus Christ was anointed by Mary for
His burial.
• It was Saturday, Nisan tenth, a seventh-day Sabbath,
and the day on which God's law said that the acceptable
"lamb without blemish" must be selected and set apart.
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Saturday, the Tenth of Nisan
• And what did the Lord of the Sabbath do when
He reached the temple? Mark tells us that
"Jesus entered into Jerusalem and into the
temple: and when he had looked round about
upon all things, and now the eventide was come,
he went out unto Bethany with the twelve." Mark
11:11.
• It was the Sabbath. All was quiet. There were no
money-changers or merchants at work in the
temple. The Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh,
simply inspected His house. "He looked round
about on all things."
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Saturday, the Tenth of Nisan
• Herod's temple was a beautiful structure. But
despite the beauty of this magnificent edifice,
our Lord saw a great deal of ugliness, too. The
evidence of a sinful and disobedient people was
all around. But on this particular day, Nisan the
tenth, the temple area was quiet, for it was a
Sabbath. Thus our Lord simply inspected His
Father's house and then withdrew Himself to
Bethany as the sun began to sink in the west,
closing the day on which the true Passover
Lamb had been selected.
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• "And on the morrow, when they were come from
Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off
having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing
thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but
leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus
answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee
hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it." Mark
11:12-14.
• This day was Sunday, Nisan the eleventh, the first day of
the week.
• It was just one week prior to that time when our Lord
would come forth from the tomb in resurrection life, "the
firstfruits of them that slept."
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• It is most appropriate that the incident of the cursing of
the fig tree took place on this day.
• This incident is a living parable which predicts the setting
aside of the nation Israel during the present inter-advent
age.
• The fig tree is a figure used in Judges 9 in Jothan's
"parable of the four trees," but it has continued
throughout the Old Testament record.
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• On the first day of the week, Sunday, the
temple area was a beehive of activity once
again.
• Only two days remained until the
fourteenth of Nisan which ushered in the
eight-day celebration that the Jews
referred to interchangeably as the "Feast
of Passover" and the "Feast of
Unleavened Bread."
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• To the temple merchants, Nisan fourteenth was
a time of business--big business. There were
many thousands of pilgrims present in
Jerusalem. They had come from all over the
Roman Empire. Many of then had only Roman
money or money from their homeland, and this
money had to be exchanged for the "shekels" of
the temple in order to be useful for the buying of
sacrifices and for giving in offerings. Those who
had traveled far were unable to bring animals for
sacrifice; so these had to be purchased.
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• This was like "Christmas" for the temple
merchants. The business that they did
during the Passover season often
determined whether their fiscal years were
successes or failures. In the same way,
many businesses of our day have to
depend on their volume of Christmas
business for financial "success."
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• So on this first day of the week, the moneychangers and merchants were in their booths
early.
• No doubt they were calling out to the pilgrims
who passed into the temple courts, hawking their
merchandise and services.
• It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ, in
righteous anger, said to them, "Is it not written,
My house shall be called of all nations the house
of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."
Mark 11:17.
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Sunday, the Eleventh of Nisan
• And in this we see the fulfillment of the
prophecy of Malachi 3:1. "And the Lord,
whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his
temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he
shall come, saith the LORD of hosts." And
as we have seen, this occurred on
Sunday, Nisan the eleventh.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• The Lord and His disciples entered again
into Jerusalem, and went into the temple
court. Here there were a long series of
encounters with those who sought to
discredit our Lord's testimony.
• The chief priests and the scribes attacked
Him in an effort to entrap Him in His own
words.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• They first asked Him the source of His
authority to do "these things." And by this,
they doubtlessly referred to His cleansing
of the temple the day before.
• Immediately the Lord brought out clearly
His source of authority when He asked,
"The baptism of John, was it from heaven,
or of men? answer me." Mark 11:30.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• That ended that line of questioning, but it did not
end the encounter. The Lord then related the
parable of the hedged vineyard and the wicked
husbandmen, in which the chief priests and
scribes clearly saw themselves portrayed in the
roles of the wicked husbandmen. They were
humiliated in front of the people, and they were
put into confusion. "And they sought to lay hold
on him, but feared the people: for they knew that
he had spoken the parable against them: and
they left him, and went their way." Mark 12:12.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• Next it was the Pharisees' turn, and they joined forces
with their old enemies, the Herodians--which was a
strange combination indeed.
• They concocted a brilliant scheme to place the Lord
Jesus Christ at odds with the Roman authorities and
thus remove Him from the scene.
• But the little coin with Caesar's image on it sent them
crashing down in defeat. T
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• Then the Sadducees came and tried their hand. The
result was the same.
• The day finally drew on toward sunset after all had their
turn to try to entrap Christ.
• All comers had been silenced.
• But their hatred had now crystallized. The Lord's hour
was approaching.
• Things were moving rapidly toward that rendezvous with
the cross.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• Evening, the closing of that fateful Monday and the
dawning of Tuesday, was rapidly drawing near.
• "And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples
saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and
what buildings are here!" Mark 13:1.
• This enthusiastic remark set the stage for that great
prophetic revelation that Bible scholars call the "Olivet
Discourse."
• While they were there, the Master had delivered His
discourse, which included the prophecy of the coming
destruction of the temple and the city. The sun had set
on Nisan twelfth, and the evening of the thirteenth day of
Nisan had just dawned. And apparently, after the
discourse, they went back to Bethany for the night.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• "And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they
might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they
said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the
people." Mark 14:1-2. Notice that the word "feast" is not
used in Mark 14:1. The verse literally says, "After two
days was the passover, and of unleavened bread." The
King James Version inserts the words "the feast of" in
italics, but there is nothing in the Greek text
corresponding to these words. The expression in Mark
14:1 refers to Nisan fifteenth. And the expression "on the
feast day" in Mark 14:2 apparently refers to the same
day, that is, the high day of the Passover celebration,
Nisan fifteenth.
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Monday, the Twelfth of Nisan
• So the plot began to take form. The Lord
Jesus Christ was to be apprehended and
slain before Nisan fifteenth.
• God used the modifications of the Jews to
take the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross on
Nisan fourteenth, God's Passover.
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Tuesday, the Thirteenth of Nisan
• "And the first day of unleavened bread,
when they killed the passover, his
disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou
that we go and prepare that thou mayest
eat the passover?" Mark 14:12.
• This brings us to the day of Tuesday,
Nisan thirteenth. This was our Lord's last
day of freedom before His arrest and
crucifixion.
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Next Week
• The 1st Passover celebration
• Our Passover Seder
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