Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 28:111 (Jul 1871)
Article: The Date Of The Passion Of Our Lord
Author: Anonymous

BSac 28:111 (July 1871) p. 469

The Date Of The Passion Of Our Lord1

§ I. The right understanding of the history of the passion, even in a chronological respect, depends greatly on a proper view being taken of the order of the Jewish Passover. In 1–18 we read: “Let the month Abib (Nisan) be for you the first month. On the tenth of this month let every one take a lamb for a house,….without blemish, a male of the first year. On the fourteenth of this month shall they slaughter it, the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel, between the two evenings (בין הערבים), and ye shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and ye shall eat mazzoth (unleavened bread) in [something] bitter…..Seven days shall ye eat mazzoth; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses…..On the first day and on the seventh day there shall be holy convocation; no work shall be done, save the preparation of what is to be eaten. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even (בערב), ye shall eat mazzoth, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.” With slight variations, this order is repeated in Lev. 23:5–14; Num. 28:16–25; Deut. 16:1–8. Taken as a whole, it is clear; and as our design is simply to see how it was understood and observed by the Jews at the time of Christ, we may here pass over the exegetical and harmonistic difficulties presented by the various accounts just alluded to.

The current designation of the fourteenth of Nisan in the

BSac 28:111 (July 1871) p. 470

Talmud is ערב הפסת, “evening of the Passover”; in the same sense in which עתר בתשבת denotes the sixth Jewish Feria preceding the Sabbath. In the New Testament the fourteenth of Nisan is termed παρασχευή τοῦπάσχα, “preparation of the Passover.” On the evening of this fourteenth, that is, at its commencement, — for the Jewish day begins with the evening, and “evening and morning” constitute a day (Gen. 1:5), — they began to eat mazzoth (Ex. 12:18). Nor could it be otherwise; for in the night of the fourteenth of Nisan all leaven had to be put away by light.2 This day of preparation, the fourteenth of Nisan, like the day of ...