| (Copyright 2017) by James Steinle (Swanville, Minnesota) |
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| The confusion of which day is the Passover arises when some think of the Passover as the meal of the Lamb. The meal is not the Passover; the Passover is the lamb itself. Let’s examine what the Scriptures say. Exodus 12:11, “And thus shall ye eat it [the lamb]; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it [the lamb] in haste: it [the lamb] is Yehovah’s passover.” Exodus 12:3, (10th day they select a lamb): “Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:” v 5 “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: v 6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it [the lamb] in the evening.” Then verse 6 above in part, should be rendered “…shall kill it between the evenings.” (i.e. within the 14th day). The English words ‘it in’ in Hebrew is beyn (bane) [H996] meaning ‘between’ or ‘between the evenings [H6153] (plural). A new day starts with sunset, so if the lamb was slain after sunset, it would then have been slain on the 15th, not the 14th. Two lambs in the Old Testament were offered each day, one in the morning and one in the evening (or between the evenings) according to Exodus 29:38-39 and Numbers 28:3-4; but we are concerned with just the 2nd lamb in this study. There is a difference of opinion of what this time frame is between the Karaites and the Samaritans on one hand and the Pharisees and Rabbinists on the other. The latter believe it is the time from when the sun begins to decline until sunset while the former believes it is after sunset and before deep twilight. Thankfully the gospel writer Mark in Mark 15:34-37 records for us that Yayshua, the real paschal Lamb, died according to how the Pharisees and Rabbinists understand the time; at about 3 pm in the afternoon. A confirmation that sunset is the end of any particular day is from Leviticus 22:6 “The soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even [h6153], and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his flesh with water. 7 And when the sun is down [be fallen, etc. H935], he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things; because it is his food.” In other words when the sun is down it is the start of a new day as Genesis 1:5 shows. Which ‘between the evenings’ was the lamb killed? As the 13th was coming to its end or was it when the 14th was coming to its end? Passover is observed on the 14th day as Numbers 28:16 requires, “And in the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of Yehovah.” So, if the Israelites killed the lamb before sunset of the 13th, then Passover happened on the 13th and not the 14th as required. Exodus 12:21 “Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover.” The lamb is the Passover. Exodus 12:7 [Regarding the Passover lamb] “And they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.” [from the above example this would be done late afternoon of the 14th] 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, [‘that night’ then would be the start of the 15th of the 1st month] roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” Exodus 12:15 says, “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses:” [from the start of the 15th after the 14th had ended at sundown through the 21st day] Ezra 6:19 says, “And the children of the captivity kept the passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. 20 For the priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. 21 And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek Yehovah Elohim of Israel, did eat, 22 And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for Yehovah had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of Elohim [God], the Elohim of Israel.” [killing of lamb/Passover and 7 days of unleavened are tied together. I.e. killed lamb on afternoon of 14th and ate it that night on the start of the 15th. It is also known as the night to be much observed from Exodus 12:42] The Book of John is generally regarded as being written after the other gospel writers had written theirs and kind of sums up what went on. The foreword of my Bible says John is believed to have written his book about the year A.D. 90. In Matthew, Mark and Luke the way the wording of the meal is written, it does make it sound like they were going to eat a Passover meal; however, a different intention is very likely according to what the Apostle John wrote which also confirms the timing of events from the Old Testament. John 13:1 “Now before the feast of the passover, when Yayshua knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. 2 And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him;” John 18:28 “Then led they Yayshua from Caiaphas [the Sanhedrin High Priest] unto the hall of judgment [a roman building]: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover [i.e., yet that evening coming up or the end of the 14th].” John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the Passover [during the 14th], and about the sixth hour [6am Roman time]: and he [Pilate] saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!” Mark 23:45 tells us that there was darkness until the ninth hour or 3 pm which was when Yayshua died. John 19:30 “When Yayshua therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.” [i.e. the preparation day was the 14th before the start of the 1st day of Unleavened bread and the Passover meal of the 15th.] In Summary: The start of the 14th day was when the Messiah taught his disciples the new symbols of the bread and wine representing His soon to be broken body and his shed blood and the New Covenant He was in the process of making. John calls it the Master’s supper. Then as the 15th day started and the Savior was now in the grave, the Passover meal by the people of Israel was eaten and the start of the seven days of unleavened bread began. This put our Savior in the grave for three days and three nights until He arose just when the regular weekly Sabbath was ending, and the 1st day of the week was starting. Sometime on Sunday during the day portion He presented Himself to His Father which fulfilled the wave sheaf ceremony of Leviticus 23:11. The apostle Paul confirms the timing when he said, “…for even Messiah our Passover is [i.e. was] sacrificed for us. Therefore [i.e. now] let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened of sincerity and truth.” [Using the example of the 7 days of unleavened bread, which starts on the 15th of the first month (Exo.12:15)] (1 Corin. 5:7-8). Paul is saying the lesson he wants to get across is that the Messiah was killed or sacrificed for us and we should do our part in honoring our Messiah’s sacrifice and stop sinning. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:20-34 (just like the apostle John did in John 13:2), called the meal our Messiah and his disciples had at the start of the 14th and prior to the crucifixion, the supper or evening meal. Paul did not say this was the Passover meal. From Scripture the Passover was killed between the evenings, which according to the daily sacrifices must be sometime in the afternoon; not at dark as some advocate. Therefore the Passover is the lamb and it was killed between noon and sunset sometime on the 14th and eaten on the 15th; not as some claim that it was killed between sunset and dark at the beginning of the 14th and eaten on the 14th as well. ——————————————————————————————————– See James Steinle’s other articles at: Steinle, James – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) ——————————————————————————————————– |
| Iron Sharpening Iron In regard to: What and When is the Passover Article by James Steinle Comments by Laura Lee (Bismarck, North Dakota) |
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| This is one of the most excellent articles in regard to the Passover that I have ever read, and the scriptures brought in as proof are awesome. And of course, if I am writing this, I probably do have a dispute, but it is a small one. In the article, James makes the following statement – Sometime on Sunday during the day portion He presented Himself to His Father which fulfilled the wave sheaf ceremony of Leviticus 23:11. Lev 23:11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. Please read Lev. 23:11 carefully. The wave sheaf offering does not represent Christ, it represents the ecclesia, the called out ones, the church. For more information in regard to the wave sheaf, read my article “Leviticus 23”. Also, the wave sheaf offering is not done after the weekly sabbath, it was always done on Nisan 16 the day after the Passover/1st Day of Unleavened Bread. Other wise this was an excellent article and I hope everyone who is sitting on the fence or keeping the wrong day will read this article and study the scriptures given as proof. |
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