Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 68:271 (Jul 1911)
Article: Did Jesus Eat The Passover?
Author: William Fredrick

BSac 68:271 (July 1911) p. 503

Did Jesus Eat The Passover?

William Fredrick

Clyde, Ohio.

If the teaching that our Lord ate the Passover the night in which he was betrayed is not a delusion that blinds the eye and perverts the judgment, so that the fulfilment of the Passover “sign” (Ex. 13:9) cannot be seen, then why is it that they who believe this delusion cannot see the fulfilment of the “sign,” and how will we answer the following seven scriptural teachings, which clearly show that Jesus did not eat the Passover?

1. The Mosaic law forbade any change in the time and ceremonies of the Passover: “Ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it” (Num. 9:3). They were required to eat it with “shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand” (Ex. 12:11), and not “go out of the door of his house until the morning” (Ex. 12:22).

The night in which Jesus was betrayed, when it is claimed he ate the Passover, the disciples were shoeless when Jesus washed their feet, and Jesus and his disciples, and many other Jews, were out of their houses. This was done in violation of the law, if they ate the Passover that night; and all who did so were guilty of death (Num. 9:13).

It is evident that either Jesus and his disciples had no respect for the law, or they did not eat the Passover the night in which he was betrayed.

2. While they were eating the “supper” (John 13:2) in the “upper room.” during the night preceding the Passover, Jesus said to Judas: “That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.

BSac 68:271 (July 1911) p. 504

For some of them thought, because Judas had the [money] bag, that Jesus had said to him, Buy what things we have need of for the feast” (ver. 27–29).

In the second verse of this chapter John calls the meal they were then eating a “supper,” and in verse 29 he speaks of the “feast,” which was still in the future, because what they surmised Judas was to do, shows that they had not yet bought what they needed for the “feast,” when they ate the “supper.”

Besides, the Passover is never called a “supper.” A supper is an evening meal and the “feast of the Passover” was an ...