Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!apple!sun-barr!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: drew@anucsd.anu.edu.au (Drew Corrigan) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Day Jesus Christ Died Message-ID: Date: 27 May 91 20:49:02 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 59 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu James Quilty writes: > John is not as clear as the others on the passover matter, but certainly, >the passover (14 Nissan) was held and celebrated by Jesus BEFORE his >crucifiction - remember, the last supper ? > >My concordance states: "The Passover lamb was slain at sunset closing the >fourteenth day of the month Abib (or, as it was afterwards called, Nisan), ..." Might I respectfully point out that your argument that Jesus ate the regular Passover in the year of his death is incorrect. He ate a meal which the synoptic writers term 'the Passover', but it was not the normal Passover which everyone else ate. If it were the regular Passover then we encounter two major problems. The first of these is that it would place the crucifixion on the following day, the 15th. But the 15th was an annual Holy Day, a "High Sabbath", on which crucifixions were not permitted. The idea of crucifying someone on a Holy Day, and particularly one which was to celebrate delivery from captivity in Egypt would have been absolutely outrageous. The very notion is absurd. (Remember they hurried to get the bodies down before the Sabbath came.) The second problem is that John tells us that the various priests and others involved in Jesus' arrest would not enter Pilate's hall of judgment lest they be defiled before eating the Passover. And this was sometime early in the morning of the day Jesus died (John 18:28). Yet the Passover was to be eaten in the evening of the 14th as the 15th (the annual Holy Day) began. The only way to reconcile all these issues is to acknowledge that Jesus ate a Passover meal, still on the 14th, but at the beginning of the 14th, not at the end. It was a Passover meal because he, Jesus, was present as the Passover Lamb. But it was a new institution even as the application of the bread and wine to his sacrifice were new symbols. There is also a great significance to the timing of the killing of Passover Lamb. At the time of the Exodus, the Passover Lamb was originally killed towards the end of the 14th as you state. By the time of Jesus, the practise had altered somewhat to permit Passover Lambs to be killed between 3pm and sunset (in order to allow for adequate preparation for the Passover meal). When Jesus died on the 14th, shortly after 3pm, he was clearly fulfilling the prophetic symbolism of the slaying of the literal Passover Lambs. (Some have speculated that Jesus died precisely at the moment the High Priest killed the first of the Passover Lambs in the Temple.) A couple of other data points that should be noted. For centuries after Jesus' death, a Wednesday crucifixion was taught by Christians of the Arian persuas- ion. Also, it is possible to demonstrate that according to the fixed rules of the Hebrew calendar, Nisan 14 fell on a Wednesday in both 30 and 31 AD. Not until 33 AD do we find Nisan 14, falling on a Friday. One last point, the issue is often raised of "three days and three nights" being equivalent to only parts of three days and three nights based on a Greek idiom. The trouble is that Jesus was using the example of Jonah who was in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. There is no such idiom in Hebrew - Jonah was in 'the grave' for a literal 72 hour period. And Jesus said he would be in the grave (not just dead), for 3 days and 3 nights just like Jonah. Friday sunset to Sunday morning yields 2 nights and 1 day. Drew Corrigan (drew@anucsd.anu.edu.au)