Was the Last Supper a Passover meal?

Was the Last Supper a Passover meal?

© Christine Glover

In a previous [article] we saw that the resurrection of Jesus took place on a Sunday morning, on the Feast of Firstfruits. For the ‘sign of the prophet Jonah’ concerning three days and three nights to be at all meaningful, the crucifixion needed to have occurred both three days and three nights prior to the resurrection. Using what the Jews refer to as ‘inclusive counting’, where part of something represents the whole, we saw that the crucifixion took place on Thursday afternoon. The evening before this, Jesus had partaken of a meal with His disciples. The question before us, therefore, is was that meal a Passover meal, or an ordinary supper that Christ imbued with a special meaning when He broke the bread and shared the wine? Why is there any doubt or conflict about it anyway?

Simply put, the four Gospels appear not to agree on this subject. The three synoptic Gospels seem to state that it was indeed a Passover meal, while John clearly states that it was the day before the Passover. Can these seemingly conflicting accounts be reconciled? Or was John perhaps making a particular point about Christ being our Passover Lamb and the strict chronology was not important to him?

To find the answers to these questions, we need first to turn to Leviticus 23 to see the regulation of the annual festivals, as given by God to Moses. Bear with me as this background is important. God begins in this chapter by mentioning the regular weekly Sabbath, then, in verses 5-6 He states, “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s Passover, And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.”

If we compare this with Exodus 12, where the actual Passover they were commemorating took place, we see a little more detail: [Exodus 12:2-3, 14-16]

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you… In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb… a lamb for an house… And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening (literally: between the two evenings)… And this day shall be unto you for a memorial… Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses… And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.”

Putting these passages together, we see that the lamb for the offering was chosen on the tenth day of the first month. This month is variously called Aviv, Abib, or, later, Nisan, but these words all refer to the same month. On the fourteenth day of the month, the lamb was to be slain “in the evening” or, literally, “between the evenings”. As Jewish days began at evening on one day and ended at the start of evening the next day, this could simply mean the slaughter could begin as the fourteenth started and must be completed before the fifteenth started (evening to evening). However, traditionally, the Jews have taken a more complicated view of it. Taking the Scripture which speaks of ‘from the rising of the sun, to the going down of the same’, they divided the daylight portion of the day into sections. The sun began rising at sunrise (obviously), reached its zenith at noon, then began to go down after that. The afternoon was divided more or less equally, so that half way through it, ‘evening’ started – this was ‘the first evening’ and occurred around 3pm. ‘Second evening’ was from 3pm to 6pm, when the sun set. “Between the evenings” was therefore interpreted as being between 3pm and 5.30pm, the latter time to ensure that nothing was inadvertently carried over into the start of the next day. Thus traditionally the Passover lambs were killed between 3pm and 5.30pm on the fourteenth of Nisan/Aviv.

As evening fell, at 6pm on the fourteenth, the Passover meal was consumed, thus making it the start of the fifteenth of the month, when the Feast of Unleavened Bread began. They were to eat the roasted lamb with unleavened bread; thus the Feast of Passover (the Passover meal) coincided with the first day of Unleavened Bread. They were to eat unleavened bread for seven days and “the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses”. Now if they were to eat unleavened bread for seven days, beginning with the Passover meal at the start of the fifteenth day of the month, what can it mean that they were only to put away leaven from their homes “on the first day”? Surely the leaven needed to have been removed before the feast started. Well yes, it did, but just as the whole seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread could be referred to as ‘Passover’, so the whole of the preceding daytime, prior to the meal itself, could be referred to as ‘the first day’. To avoid confusion, later Jews began to refer to the fourteenth as “the day of preparation”. Thus as we shall see shortly, when the Gospel writers refer to “the day of preparation”, “the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread”, or “the day the Passover lambs must be slain” they are all referring to the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan/Aviv.

Thus, the timeline for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is as follows:

1^st Nisan/Aviv: the start of the Jewish new year, the beginning of the first month

10^th Nisan/Aviv: the choosing of a lamb, spotless and without blemish

14^th Nisan/Aviv: the slaughter of the lambs between 3pm and 5.30pm; the day all leaven was removed from their homes

15^th Nisan/Aviv: at the start of the day (ie at about 6pm in the evening) the Passover meal was eaten, along with unleavened bread; the Feast of Unleavened Bread began

21^st Nisan/Aviv: the last day of the seven days of Unleavened Bread.

Finally, a brief word on the ‘holy convocation’: “in it ye shall do no servile work”. God prescribed that every Israelite was to set aside Saturday as a day of rest. ‘Sabbath’ means ‘rest, cease’ and this refers to the regular weekly Sabbaths. The day was characterised by doing no work. God also prescribed seven annual Sabbaths. These were also characterised by doing no work. Two of these annual Sabbaths occur during the Feast of Unleavened Bread – one at the beginning (on the fifteenth day of the month) and one at the end (the twenty first day of the month). Just as in our Gregorian calendar, the fifteenth day of any month does not fall on the same day of the week each year, so too the 15^th Nisan/Aviv can fall on any day of the week. The feast is to be held from the fifteenth of the month and not from a Saturday 9regular Sabbath day), though of course, it may coincide from time to time, as it did in 2016.

So, with that in mind, let’s now look at the difficulties we find in the Gospels. In 30AD, the year we have previously seen was the most likely year for the crucifixion to have occurred, Nisan 14 began on a Wednesday evening at 6pm; the Passover lambs were slain from 3pm on the afternoon of the following daylight period of Nisan/Aviv 14 (our Thursday); and the Jews would have eaten the Passover meal as Nisan/Aviv 15 began on Thursday evening. If Jesus did not die when the Passover lambs were slain, this would call into question the whole possibility of a Thursday crucifixion. If however He was killed on Thursday afternoon when the lambs were being killed, then the meal He ate with His disciples could not have been the Passover meal, for that was not eaten until after He died. So the question is, have we got the timeline wrong? Did one or more of the Gospel writers make a mistake, or is there a way to reconcile these accounts?

Several theories have been put forward in an attempt to harmonise the accounts. All these theories relate to calendar differences. Some are better than others, but before we look at the Gospels themselves, it is worth noting some of these other theories:

It has been suggested that Jesus and His disciples celebrated the “Essene Passover”. The Essenes were a strict religious group who were attempting to return the traditional Judaism of their day to its scriptural basis. They lived in communities, were nearly all men, adopted boy children to train up, had very strict rules and, most importantly, they eschewed the sacrifices. They had nothing to do with the temple and its worship and sacrificial systems, as they believed them to have been ‘polluted’. It would appear that many of them were vegetarians. They also worked to a different calendar, based on a 364 day solar year, rather than the Jewish lunar calendar. As with the Jewish festivals, the Essene festival dates moved around the days of the week (although there are some who claim Passover always fell on a Tuesday). In 30AD, the Essene Passover fell the day before the Jewish Passover. However, Jesus would have been breaking Jewish law had He held Passover a day early, making this theory much less likely. The teachings of Jesus most closely aligned with that of the Pharisees, thus He would have been more likely to follow their calendar than that of the Essenes. Jesus also was not against the temple sacrifices. He participated annually in the Feast of Passover since being twelve years old – and always at the same time as all the other Jews. Therefore, although it is tempting to accept this theory, it must be rejected.

A second theory relates to an ancient Egyptian calendar. Humphreys claims that Jesus celebrated the last Supper on Wednesday evening because He was following a pre-exile lunar calendar, inherited by the Israelites from ancient Egypt and later used by Samaritans and possibly Galileans during the Second Temple period. For the reasons stated above (in the Essene paragraph), I do not believe this theory holds water either. There is no mention of such a calendar anywhere in Scripture; the Jews held to a calendar they believed stemmed from Moses at the time of the Exodus. Jesus followed the same calendar as the other Jews in Israel at that time. To have followed a different calendar would have necessitated slaughtering Passover lambs on a different day which could not have happened in the Temple and would not have been valid if performed elsewhere. God had said the sacrifices were to take place in “the place where I have set my Name” – that place was always taken to be Jerusalem and more specifically, in the Temple at Jerusalem. The Samaritans worshipped on Mount Gerizim. If Jesus had been following the calendar used by the Samaritans, He would not have been in Jeruslaem .

The third theory suggests that the Sadducees and Pharisees held two different calendars, where Passover was held on two consecutive days. That of the Pharisees being held on 13^th to 14^th Nisan/Aviv, and that of the Sadducees being held on 14^th to 15^th of the month. This would have meant that Jesus ate the Pharisaical Passover one evening, and was killed along with the sacrifices for the Sadducean Passover the next day. This theory is plausible, especially given the fourth theory, which is something of a variation on the third.

After the Babylonian exile, the Jews were scattered. They became known as the Jews of the Diaspora (dispersion) and many lived far from Jerusalem. The Jewish calendar was not set in stone. The leaders of the Jews would determine the first day of each month from the lunar cycle and thus the dates for the feasts would be set. At first, flares were set off from Jerusalem to announce the beginning of the new month, but one year the Samaritans interfered with this system. Thereafter messengers were sent out to those living in further districts or countries. These journeys often took some time so the announcements might come later to some areas than others. You might be wondering how it was that they could not determine the beginning of the month for themselves. It was dependant on the phases of the lunar cycle. As a result sometimes the month would be 29 days long and in other years, the same month could be 30 days long. To add to the confusion, every few years there was a double month, Adar I and Adar II to balance the calendar with the seasons. Thus the start of the month was not as easy to determine as some might imagine.

Due to the late arrival of the announcement of the start of the month in some regions the religious leaders began doubling up the feast days so that on two consecutive days, the same feast was held. Thus, depending on whether it was a 29 days month or a 30 day month, Passover was celebrated on both 14^th and 15^th or 15^th and 16^th of the month. Added to this was the sheer logistics of slaughtering the lambs in the Temple all in one day in two and a half short hours. Josephus estimated that there were up to 3,000,000 people in Jerusalem for Passover in the early part of the first century and that around a quarter of a million lambs were slain. Later historians agree that this is undoubtedly an exaggeration, but even if there were only 150,000 people present that would still mean in the region of 15000 lambs being slain. Therefore, following the rule for the Jews of the Diaspora, it is possible that there were two consecutive Passover days. There is no mention of such a custom being observed in the Gospels but that does not mean it could not have happened.

Now let’s turn to the Gospels themselves. The synoptic Gospels all appear to agree on two things: first, that the Last Supper was the Passover meal and second, that the crucifixion was between the 6^th and 9^th hours of the day. John’s Gospel however, is quite clear that the Last Supper was not the Passover; and he has Jesus being taken to Pilate at the 6^th hour.

The second of these anomalies is easily dealt with. In Jewish calculation, the daylight portion of the day started at 6am, therefore the 6^th hour was noon and the 9^th hour was 3pm. If John was following the same time frame, Jesus did not appear before Pilate until noon, while the other Gospels clearly show it was early in the morning. The conclusion therefore to be drawn is that John was referring to the Roman time calculation, where starting from midnight, the 6^th hour would be 6 o’ clock in the morning, thus bringing the two timelines into harmony. The other anomaly is less easy to reconcile.

Much of what is written in the synoptic Gospels is the same or similar; only John gives information that is unique to his Gospel, with two exceptions, those being a verse in Matthew 27 and another in Luke 22. We shall deal with these in due course.

All four Gospels begin the last days of Jesus by giving us a time frame. Matthew and Mark both refer to the time being two days before the Passover [Matthew 26v2; Mark 14v1]. We have already seen that the Passover meal was to be eaten at the beginning of Nisan/Aviv 15^th and that more probably than not, this was Thursday after 6pm. So two days before Passover would be Tuesday Nisan/Aviv 13^th. Luke, writing primarily for a Gentile audience, adds a little more detail, “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover” (Luke 22v1), thus adding evidence to the view that ‘passover’ could be used as a generic term to refer to the whole feast. John 12v1 begins this period earlier, “six days before Passover”. We know that he is not referring to the same time as the other Gospel writers’ two days, because the events that occur after John’s timeframe occur before that of the synoptic writers.

The Jews had been seeking to get rid of Jesus for some time but now things were coming to a head. Both Matthew and Mark record that the elders of the people, that is, the religious leaders, were conspiring against Him, but although they wanted Him killed, they were sensitive to the fact of the Jewish festival approaching: “But they said, Not on the feast (day), lest there be an uproar among the people”. Mark’s wording is almost identical to Matthew’s [Matthew 26v5; Mark 14v2]. The word ‘day’ is not in the original and the verse is probably better translated as it is in the ESV, “not during the feast…”.

So the leaders were in a hurry to dispose of this ‘nuisance’ that was plaguing them, but they were not willing to disrupt the feast to achieve their aim. Had they failed in their endeavours before the feast, then it is more than likely they would have waited until the whole seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread had concluded.

As the feast drew closer, the disciples sought somewhere to prepare for the Passover meal. Matthew tells us:

          “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover” [Matthew 26v17].

From this verse it would seem clear we are speaking of Nisan/Aviv 15, which was the official first day of the feast of unleavened bread (see Exodus 12v ), however, both Mark and Luke add a further detail:

          “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover” [Mark 14v12]

          “then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must be killed” [Luke 22v7]

Well, the Passover lamb was killed on the 14^th, not the 15^th so we see that we are speaking of the day before the lambs were slain, the Day of Preparation. As it was a day to prepare for the seven day feast, it had been included in the generic term ‘unleavened bread’ even though it was not officially the first day. John simply says “now before the feast of the Passover”, suggesting that it was at least the day before, if not longer. The fact that it wasn’t ‘longer’ is borne out by Mark and Luke specifying that it was the day when the Passover lambs were slain. So we can now see that all four Gospels are referring to the day of preparation, Nisan/Aviv 14.

Now when did this incident occur (ie, the disciples coming to ask Jesus where they should make preparation)? Matthew and Mark both just say “the first day of unleavened bread”. Luke however says “then came the day…”. This is when it is important to remember that the Jews count their days as ‘evening and morning’ so the start of Nisan/Aviv 14 (Thursday) was at 6pm on Wednesday. There is a lot of preparation to be made for a Passover meal. For one thing, the house has to be cleared of all ‘leaven’, for another, the necessary supplies need to be purchased, the lambs slain and roasted, and the table set. If Luke’s phrase referred to the start of Nisan/Aviv 15, when the lamb was to be eaten, not only would they have missed the time (earlier that afternoon) for slaughtering the lamb, but they would not have had time to make all the necessary preparations. Not only that, but as soon as the slaughtering of the lambs began, all the shops closed, so they would have had nowhere to go to purchase the supplies. Thus it seems to confirm that this was at the start of Nisan 14, that is, Wednesday evening, before the lambs were killed in the Temple the following afternoon.

However, the next verse in the narratives appears to contradict this. Having asked where they were to prepare for the Passover meal on the following day, Jesus dispatches Peter and John (only Luke names those who went to prepare) with instructions to look for a man carrying a pitcher of water. This being ‘women’s work’, he would not have been difficult to spot. They were to follow him to a house and to say to the householder: where is the room where we can prepare, because “I will eat the Passover at thy house with my disciples” [Matthew 26v18]. Both Luke and Mark make similar statements. It certainly looks like Jesus was going to eat the Passover that night in this borrowed room. I admit I was stumped here for a while as this verse seemed to contradict everything I had just concluded. But does it? To find out, I needed to look at the original languages. In Matthew, the word for “I will” is poio . this is in the present tense, not the future and carries the meaning of “I want to” rather than “I am going to”. It is the “will” of desire, rather than of something future and definite.

The second thing I discovered was that the word “eat” should more properly be translated “keep”. So Matthew’s version should read: “I want to keep the Passover at your house.” Mark and Luke again seem to contradict this view. Mark says, “Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover” and Luke says, “Go and prepare us the Passover, that we may eat”. The words for “shall eat” and “may eat” are phago and phagomen respectively and they both mean “might” rather than “shall”. Luke is closer with “may”. Both verses therefore indicate “I would like to” rather than a definite intention.

Once again, we see that there is therefore no conflict and Jesus was not stating that He was going to eat the Passover, but that He wanted to or desired to keep the Passover – something we shall see more about later.

So, the Nisan/Aviv 14, day of preparation has begun at 6pm on Wednesday evening. Two of the disciples have set off to get the room ready for the Passover meal the following evening, just as Nisan/Aviv 15 would be starting. They make the room as ready as possible – maybe they laid the table, certainly they would have cleaned it thoroughly to remove any trace of ‘leaven’ from the room. The rest of the preparation would need to be made the following day – buying fresh herbs for the “bitter herbs”, buying the wine for the meal, slaughtering the lamb between 3pm and 5.30pm and roasting it ready to eat. Roasting the lamb would itself take several hours as it was to be roasted whole. Coming to ask Jesus where they were to prepare as the preparation day began (6pm Wednesday evening) would not allow for the entire Passover meal to be prepared and eaten before midnight.

There are those who have suggested that they killed their own lamb and ate that a day before everyone else had theirs, but Jesus kept the law completely. Not one jot or tittle did He break. And the law commanded specifically that they were not to kill the lamb at home (“within [their] gates”) but only at the place where “God had placed [His] Name”, the Temple in Jerusalem, [Deuteronomy 16v5-6 with v2].

In addition, there is no mention of the disciples eating lamb. With the enormous symbolism attached to Christ as “the Lamb of God”, it is impossible to conceive of them eating lamb and Jesus not drawing out some teaching about its significance.

So, as already stated, the day of preparation had begun, 6pm on Wednesday; the apostles had prepared the room, but not the Passover meal and then we read: “And when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve” [Matthew 26v20], “And in the evening, he cometh with the twelve” [Mark 14v17]. It was still the evening at the start of Nisan/Aviv 14 and, as soon as it was dark (“when even was come”), Jesus and His disciples gathered together in the room that had been prepared and ate a last meal together. Of course, the disciples at this point were not aware that it was going to be their last meal together before Jesus was crucified.

After the meal was eaten (“And supper being ended”, John 13v2), Jesus washed His disciples’ feet before returning to the table and announcing that one of those seated with Him would betray Him. Concerned, but recognising that Jesus understood their hearts better than they knew them themselves, they started asking, not “who will it be?” but “Is it I?” It appears that they had started eating again, for Jesus dipped a piece of bread into the dip on the table and passed it to Judas, telling him, “What thou doest, do quickly” [John 13v27]. The other disciples overheard Him, but thought nothing of it, because Judas was in charge of the group’s money bag:
          “For some of them thought… that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things we have need of against the feast…” [John 13v29].

This is an interesting point – they thought Jesus was telling Judas to go and buy what they might need for the feast. Why would He do that if they had just finished eating that feast? Where could Judas have gone if this was indeed Passover night; all the shops would have been closed because it was a special Sabbath?

After Judas had left, Jesus instituted what we call ‘communion’, ‘the Lord’s supper’, or ‘the breaking of bread’, amongst other titles. He took bread and wine, gave thanks, and imbued them with a significance beyond mere bread and wine. Now another interesting point here is the bread Jesus used. Those who say this was the Passover meal have to assume that the bread was unleavened bread. When the Israelites were instructed to eat the very first Passover meal, God said: “In the first month on the fourteenth day of the month, at even [ie, as the fifteenth was beginning], ye shall eat unleavened bread” [Exodus 12v18]

There were dire consequences for anyone who ate leavened bread: “Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel” [v19]

In Greek there is a word that is translated ‘unleavened bread’; it is azumos. But that is not the word used in the Gospels for the bread at the last supper. That word is ‘artos’ which is ordinary bread. In fact, in relation to the last supper, the word for bread is always ‘artos’, regular bread; not one of the Gospel writers uses the word ‘azumos’, unleavened bread. Paul also speaks of communion in 1 Corinthians 11v23ff. he says at the start, “I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.” In other words, this was a direct revelation from Jesus to Paul. In the several occasions in this passage where Paul refers to ‘bread’, he always uses the word ‘artos’. Now while it is possible that ‘artos’ can be used to refer to any kind of bread, including unleavened bread, it seems unlikely that in the ten or so occasions bread is referred to in relation to the last supper, or the communion in the New Testament, there is not one reference to it being ‘azumos’, unleavened bread. Why would God not direct the use of the word ‘azumos’ if indeed they were eating unleavened bread? This again points to the conclusion that the last supper could not have been the Passover meal.

The next reference we need to examine is unique to Luke’s Gospel:
          “And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God” [Luke 22v15-16].

Luke uses a rather odd turn of phrase here: “with desire I have desired”. Other translations say “with fervent desire I have desired”, or “longingly I have desired”. It is difficult to get the full sense of the phrase in translation. The Greek phrase used here is ‘epithumia epithumisa’, which is two variations of the same word, meaning ‘desire’ or ‘longing’. According to Luke’s account, Jesus says these words immediately before the ‘breaking of bread’ is instituted. Some have taken the words “to eat this Passover” to mean “to eat this meal that we are eating right now”, but it need not necessarily mean that; Jesus could just as easily be referring to the season that had just started with the day of preparation – thus “I have been longing for this Passover season”. So that of itself is not definitive. If this was not in fact the Passover meal, what could Luke have meant? The first of the two words in the Greek phrase, ‘epithumia’ does mean ‘with desire’, but it also carries with it the notion of something forbidden. In other words, Jesus wanted more than anything else to share this coming Passover with His disciples, but He knew that was never going to happen, as He would already be in the grave by the time the Passover meal was eaten. Or, as one person put it: “I really wanted to eat this Passover with you, but God had other ideas”!

This is confirmed in the following verse: “I will not any more eat thereof”. Once again, the translation seems to suggest that, having already eaten the Passover meal, He would not eat another Passover meal until the Kingdom of God was established. However, that is not the whole story. The NASB, widely acclaimed as one of the most literal, yet easy to read, translations available, renders this verse: “I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God” [Luke 22v16 NASB]. This translation is supported by Ferrar Fenton’s translation and the English Revised and English Standard versions. In summary then, these two verses, paraphrased, read:

          “I really wanted to eat/keep this season of Passover with you and eat the Passover meal, but I knew I could not. In fact, I shall not eat it until the Kingdom of God is established.”

After the communion is instituted, Jesus and the eleven remaining disciples left the room and went to the garden of Gethsemane. There, Jesus was betrayed with a kiss from Judas, He was arrested and taken for trial before the Jewish religious leaders, who condemned Him and pronounced Him worthy of death. However, while they did have certain freedoms under their Roman rulers, they did not have the authority to execute anyone. So in order to be finally rid of Him, they led Him to Pilate, very early in the morning, probably around 6am. This was still the preparation day, Nisan/Aviv 14 (which you remember started at 6pm the evening before), and still the day when the Passover lambs were to be slain for the feast later that same day as Nisan/Aviv 14 gave way to Nisan/Aviv 15. This is only recorded in John’s Gospel:

          “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment [Pilate’s official residence]: 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” [John 18v28].

Who are ‘they’ in this verse? These were the Jewish leaders who had arrested and tried Jesus; it might have included the whole of the Sanhedrin, together with the High Priest, chief priests, elders, Pharisees and others who had been called as [false] witnesses against Him. Also present were Peter (though ‘afar off’) and John who was an eye witness of these things. In short ‘they’ were all Jews. And John tells us that those who had condemned Jesus did not want to enter Pilate’s judgment hall, because they did not want to defile themselves and so ensure that they could partake of the Passover meal that was still to come. If the Passover had been the previous evening, their defilement would already have occurred by arresting Jesus and holding a trial in the manner in which they did, as these things would have taken place during a High Holy Sabbath. In fact, they were already in breach of the law, because they should not have held a trial at night. But that did not matter to them – they were in haste to dispose of Jesus before the feast. Now, they did not want to become ‘contaminated’ by associating with a Gentile, Pilate, which would render them unable to partake of the feast. As an interesting aside, they were content to break God’s law about trials at night, but they were concerned about breaking man’s law about not associating with Gentiles; nowhere were they told in the books of Moses that they would be ‘unclean’ if they associated with Gentiles.

And for good measure, John adds the little detail: “And it was the preparation of the Passover” [John 19v14] so there can be no doubt about which day it was. More about this shortly.

Without going into details, Jesus was tried, condemned and executed in quick succession. He was tried by Pilate at around 6am, hung on the cross from 9am to 3pm when He “gave up the ghost” and died. After this, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus removed His body from the cross and buried Him quickly. Why the haste?

          “Now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath” [Mark 15v42]

          “[And this man begged the body of Jesus] and that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on” [Luke 23v54]

“Now when the even was come”: remember that ‘evening’ could be anywhere between 3pm and sunset (6pm), so if Jesus died at 3pm, it would still be ‘evening’ until it got dark. However, the day would have changed at about 6pm from Nisan/Aviv 14 to Nisan/Aviv 15. The time for the Passover meal had arrived.

A lot of confusion has arisen because of the words of these verses: “it was the preparation…the day before the Sabbath”; “the Sabbath drew on”. Many have read this to mean the regular weekly Sabbath, but we nowhere read in the Scriptures that there was a day of preparation for the weekly Sabbath. We do however have copious amounts of evidence that the day before the Passover meal was a day of preparation.

John dispels any lingering doubt about which day it was:

          “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath was an high day), besought Pilate…” [John 19v31]

Matthew confirms this, for after the Passover meal had been eaten:

“The next day, that followed the day of preparation” the Jews asked Pilate that he should set a guard on the tomb [Matthew 27v62]. So the day after Jesus was crucified and buried is referred to here as “the day that followed the day of preparation”.

John informs us that this was not the regular weekly Sabbath, but one of God’s special annual Sabbaths, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Nisan/Aviv 15.

Conclusion

Having ascertained in a previous [article] that the crucifixion occurred on Thursday afternoon, we have now looked at whether the last supper was, or could have been, the Passover meal. It appears there are anomalies between the synoptic Gospel writers and the Gospel of John. John is clear that the last supper was not the Passover meal; the other three writes seem to suggest that it was. However, these anomalies are only superficial and there is no conflict between the Gospel writers when studied closely.

The Jews were determined to kill Jesus, but they did not want to do so during the feast. Matthew then suggests that the disciples were to get a room ready for the Passover on the “first day of Unleavened Bread”, which would be Nisan/Aviv 15. However, Mark and Luke indicate that this was in fact the preparation day, “when the Passover lamb was to be killed”. After dark, Jesus sat down with His disciples to eat a meal. There is no mention of them eating lamb (a significant omission), or bitter herbs, and the bread they ate was ordinary bread (artos) not unleavened bread (azumos).

After Jesus was crucified, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus asked to bury Jesus quickly “because it was the preparation day…before the Sabbath” (Mark and Luke); this is corroborated by Matthew, who speaks of the next day being “the day that followed the day of preparation”. John explains that it was the preparation before the special annual Sabbath of unleavened bread and not the weekly Sabbath: “that Sabbath was an high day”.

From this we can conclude that Jesus and His disciples did not in fact eat the Passover meal, but ate a different meal the day before, at the start of the preparation day, Nisan/Aviv 14 (Wednesday evening).

So if the last supper was not the Passover meal, what was it? Was it a special meal at all, other than it being the last meal Jesus and His disciples would eat together – a point none of them was aware of except Jesus himself?

It is possible that it was just an ordinary meal. However, this is unlikely given that Jesus and the disciples went to a special room and spent the entire evening there, eating and drinking. In addition, the word translated ‘sat’ in Matthew 26v2 and Mark 14v17 is ‘reclined’ indicating that this was in fact a formal meal.

Another possibility is that the blessing of the bread and the wine at the end of the meal (after Judas had departed) was a simple ‘kiddush’ – a ceremony usually performed by the head of the household to usher in the Sabbath or other holy day. However, this is usually performed at the start of the meal and the Gospels clearly tell us that when Jesus prayed a blessing over the cup, it was after the meal was concluded. Also, as this in fact was not the start of a holy day meal (the holy day, high Sabbath, did not commence until the following evening), it would be inappropriate to perform a Kiddush at this time.

Some people say that a Kiddush can be performed at any meal for any purpose, or no special purpose. Bread and wine were available at every meal, especially at formal meals, and a blessing was (and still is) prayed over each before they are distributed. This lends credence to the first possibility, that this was just an ordinary meal.

However, David Stern gives another alternative. He suggests that this meal could have been a ‘se’udat mitzvah’. When a Rabbi ended a tractate (section/unit of teaching) of the Talmud with his disciples, they would celebrate with a special meal, known as ‘a banquet of completion’. In modern terminology, we might see it as a ‘graduation ceremony’. Jesus had spent three and a half years teaching His disciples. He knew (although the disciples seemed oblivious to the fact at this stage) that He would not be teaching them in the same way any longer; His ministry was complete, the training over. A ‘celebration of completion’ seems particularly appropriate.

© Christine Glover