The Last Seder: Unscrambling Its Baffling Chronology

Is there a solution to the chronology of the Passover of Jesus death as given in the gospels? Does harmonizing the gospel accounts produce a distortion of the events? When and where did The Last Supper occur?

by Michael P. Germano

Jesus ate his Last Supper, a Passover meal, in the "Upper Room" with his followers (Mark 14:15; Luke 22:12).^F1 Throughout the Apostolic Age the ancient Church of God^F2 [Hebrew: qehal'el], continued to celebrate this event from the perspective of the night of this Last Supper. For them, this new Passover ritual commemorated the realization of the New Covenant through Jesus� giving himself in suffering and death on their behalf. They kept the Christian Passover annually, at the beginning of the fourteenth day of the first month, called Abib anciently and Nisan in Jesus' day,^F3 determined by the priestly luni-solar calendar.

The Theory

Many attempts were made over the last century to harmonize the events recorded in the Bible describing Jesus' Last Supper, Crucifixion, and Resurrection and to reconcile them with the calendar. The solution has remained unclear. With each new explanation entrenched theological positions go on the offensive. For the most part serious scholars have given up on the idea that these matters can be reconciled. As we learn more from the archaeology of Jerusalem and as we recover more ancient texts from the time of the early church our collective should again focus on developing a fuller understanding of the chronology of these event. With this as the objective I propose in this paper that we examine the extant evidence to develop a new theory or model explaining these events and then put it to the test.

The Jewish Calendars of Jesus' Day

In the time of Jesus there were at least two, and possibly more, conflicting and opposing Jewish calendar systems at work. This should quickly become evident if you attempt to harmonize the gospel accounts of the events of the passion week. This should come as no great surprise. In Herodian times Judaism was not a unitary religion but a collection of sects reflecting a far greater range of cultural diversity than often recognized (Howlett 1957:171; Bowker 1969:7-8; Johnson 1976:14-15). In this sociocultural milieu the priests and the Sanhedrin followed a luni-solar calendar. The Essenes, on the other hand, adhered to a strictly solar calendar. This meant that for the most part the two groups kept the Passover at different times. In CE 30, however, the two calendars overlapped resulting in the two Passover celebrations occurring in the same week of April possibly resulting in two Nisan 14 Passover celebrations occurring one day apart.

In Jesus' time, the Pharisees and most Jews kept the Passover of the Jews, the Mosaic Passover, at the end of the fourteenth day and into the evening portion of the fifteenth. The celebration of the Passover of the Jews on the calendar of the priests and the Pharisees, the traditional Hebrew calendar, was always at the end of Nisan 14 into the evening of Nisan 15. There is some scholarly debate concerning whether or not the priests fixed the calendar for any given year by calculation, by observation, or a combination of the two. Also at issue is what the rules were for fixing liturgical time such as new moons and festivals. While ancient Hebrew priest-astronomers possessed sufficient technical knowledge to develop and use a calculated calendar the question of whether they did so and, if so, to what extent, remains unresolved. Strangely, the Hebrew Scriptures provide only limited information about the nature of the priestly Hebrew calendar. There is no clear indication of intercalation in the biblical texts "though it must have been done in some way at all times in Israel" (Morgan 1979:577).^F4

The Levitical priest-astronomers kept the rules and their methods for determination of the beginning of years, months, festivals, and annual Sabbaths a closely-held secret. In the Herodian period the Sadducees, who wanted complete political control, and the Pharisees who desired to dominate all aspects of Jewish religious life eroded the authority of the priests. Control over the calendar was legitimizing power and both groups sought it.

In the Herodian period the priest-astronomers retained the power and authority to determine the new year and the appointed times for the festivals and annual Sabbaths. Nevertheless, the Sanhedrin, given certain powers of civil and religious administration by the Romans, held sufficient power to independently verify and officially proclaim them. This they did with observers posted on mountain tops, sending confirmation of the first visible crescent of the new moon by signal fires, by huddling in open displays of deep deliberation ensuring the public that the priest-astronomers were truthful, and then by sounding the trumpet to proclaim the new moon. This focused the people on the authority of the Sanhedrin not the Levitical priests. The irony is that the Sanhedrin, in all probability, already new exactly when the first crescent would appear by priest-astronomer calculation but they put on this symbolic show to promote their own authority and agenda.

The Sadducees, supplemented by leading priests, dominated the Sanhedrin keeping the Pharisees at bay. The Pharisees, the minority faction, balked on how the priests determined the Feast of Weeks, known to Christians as the day of Pentecost, but were not able to do anything about that matter until after the collapse of the priesthood in CE 70. By priestly determine tw[Wbv (Shevuoth) always fell on the first day of the week (our Saturday night to Sunday night as they reckoned time).

The Pharisees argued that date of tw[Wbv (Shevuoth), that is the Feast of Weeks or Firstfruits, should be set by counting from a High Sabbath and not from the weekly Sabbath as reckoned by the priests.^F5 Following the destruction of the Second Temple, and the dissolution of the priesthood, Pharisaic Judaism proclaimed Sivan 6, a fixed day determined from the date of the High Sabbath, as tw[Wbv (Shevuoth), rather than the first day of the week. The Pharisees usurped the priestly authority in the matter resulting in rabbinic Jews failing to keep Shevuoth as set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures to our day.

New Testament writings presume the rules of the priestly Hebrew calendar as they then existed for the determination of new years, festivals, and annual Sabbaths. Annual Sabbath and festival observances of the early church did not negate, but rather acknowledged the validity of the calendar rules as extant in the first century until CE 70. Confirmation was Jesus� and the apostles� normative example in observing annual Sabbaths and festivals on the same days and dates as the Jews kept them during the Second Temple Period and by not contesting them.^F6

As the peoples� party, the Pharisees were the best-equipped to survive the effects of the war with Rome. After the disaster of CE 70, with the remnant of the priesthood of little account and the Sadducees scattered, Pharisaic Judaism reestablished itself at Jamnia and continued to develop and evolve into the rabbinic Judaism of modern times. Through their reconstituted rabbinic Sanhedrin they seized the moment by taking responsibility for calendar determination. Not all Jews, however, recognized its authority and some did not at all cooperate.

The persecution of Byzantine emperor Theodosius I (379-395) in the aftermath of the First Council of Constantinople, held in 381, threatened the very existence of the revived Sanhedrin and rabbinic Judaism. Theodosius I, baptized in CE 380, shortly thereafter issued an edict proclaiming his belief in Christ and the Trinity, stating that all of his subjects were to share the same views, and holding that any people with differing views were "extravagant madmen" and heretical. By then the rabbinic Sanhedrin was the body responsible for officially proclaiming the molad of Tishri, thereby setting Tishri 1 in the Jewish calendar, for all rabbinic Jews. The molad, an astronomical new moon, is the Hebrew word for the conjunction of the earth, moon, and sun. This event is not observable upon the earth. This is the precise astronomical moment when the moon is exactly between the earth and the sun. The molad of Tishri was the astronomical event for fixing the first day of Tishri (the annual Sabbath known as the Feast of Trumpets) and as a result the following year.

Under these trying circumstances, the Patriarch Hillel II took an extraordinary step to preserve the fragile unity of rabbinic Judaism. In order to prevent rabbinic Jews, scattered all over the surface of the earth, from celebrating new moons, festivals, and annual Sabbaths at their own chosen times, he made public the rabbinic system of calendar calculation. He published the rules for the Rabbinic Calculated Calendar, also known as the Jewish Calendar and sometimes as the Hillel II Calendar, which up to then had been kept a closely-held secret.

Whether or not the methods of this calculated system, to pre-determine the dates for future new moons, annual Sabbaths, and festivals by determination of the molad of Tishri, preserved or followed those of the Levitical priest-astronomers of Jesus' day is unclear. It has been a matter of continual debate for centuries. This calculated calendar certainly reflects Pharistic thinking, setting Sivan 6 for the Feast of Weeks, but that by itself does not invalidate its basic methodology for pre-determination of future years or preserving the dates of those in the past.

The civil new year began with the month of Tishri and the sacred year with Abib (or Nisan). The first of Tishri, however, did not always occur on the day of the molad of Tishri because of dehioth (postponements). When the molad of Tishri occurred at a time unaffected by the postponement rules Tishri 1 was on the same day as the molad. Hillel II disclosed the rabbinic postponement rules as they existed in his day.

The observance of Passover night, by the rules of calculation as disclosed by Patriarch Hillel II, could occur on a Monday night, a Wednesday night, a Friday night, or a Saturday night but never on a Sunday night, a Tuesday night, or a Thursday night.^F7 The rabbinic calculated calendar, the Hillel II calendar, provides us with a means for determining an approximation of the priestly calendar that functioned in Temple times. Accordingly, by calculation the Passover Sabbath in CE 30 began, as it did in CE 31 as well, on Wednesday evening making Wednesday, at first glance, the most probable candidate for the day of the Crucifixion.^F8 However, some argue that in the year of the Crucifixion that a calendar fixed by observation could result in the Passover Sabbath occurring on a Thursday, a Friday, or a Saturday. That remains to be seen.^F9

The Essenes,^F10 on the other hand, who followed a solar calendar, always observed the Passover on a Tuesday night. The Essenes fixed Nisan 14 on their calendar as the third day of the week, sunset Monday night to sunset Tuesday night or simply Tuesday as we reckon time.^F11 In their community the Passover Sabbath, the annual Sabbath known as the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, always began at sunset Tuesday night and ended at sunset Wednesday night. This means of marking time differs from our Gregorian calendar wherein specific weekdays are not preset to exact dates. In the United States, for example, President's day always falls on a Monday in January but it can come on different days of the month. Nisan 15 was always a Wednesday on the Essene calendar. 

Understanding such calendar distinctions is important when considering which specific weekday Jesus consumed his last Passover meal with his disciples and for ascertaining the explicit weekday of his execution. There have been many attempts to harmonize the events surrounding Jesus' crucifixion into a coherent timetable.^F12 All have their failings, nevertheless passionate arguments exist for a Wednesday crucifixion, a Thursday crucifixion and a Friday crucifixion as well as some for other days of the week. There remain serious obvious flaws in each argument and some biblical scholars have come to shun any attempt at harmonization of the gospel accounts of the Crucifixion week.^F13

At BibArch� we understand the Bible, consisting of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, to be the Word of God written and therefore inerrant in the autographs. We also adhere to the logic, philosophy, and principles of science as they apply in the social sciences. This means that we look at various solutions to the chronology of Jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection as hypotheses for testing against the biblical record as well as against archaeological and historical data.

Scientific research involves testing theoretical models and modifying theories. Further articulation of a theory results from the testing of research hypotheses against data and developing new explanations for observed results. The adjustment of a theoretical model occurs with a shift of theory based upon testing of hypotheses against data resulting in a new theory replacing an old one. In this type of research an investigator has a continuing ethical duty of stating the strongest possible case for any theory in question before attempting to falsify it. Failing to do so not only invalidates the research but it is intellectually dishonest. There is no place in scientific research for proving theories as the process proceeds by falsification of hypotheses not by formal proof nor by proof texts.

With this in mind, I do not advance at this point any specific scheme or theory about which evening of the week Jesus ate his last supper. In this article I do not advocate any particular point of view nor suggest any implication for Christian praxis in the contemporary world regarding the observance of Hebrew festivals and annual Sabbaths. The objective of this analysis is scholarly in an effort to detect and resolve the chronological issues. The explanations developed here remain tentative. I encourage readers not to lift this material out of context nor attempt to use it as a weapon to change praxis in their fellowships. Its purpose is to heighten awareness and to promote understanding.

Festivals and Annual Sabbaths

Sorting out the chronology of the Passion week requires some understanding of the festivals and the seven annual Sabbaths observed by biblical Israel and how the very early Church dealt with them. As set out in the Hebrew Scriptures the annual Sabbaths, sometimes called high Sabbaths (John 19:31), were sacred assemblies, that is, holy convocations (Leviticus 23:2). For biblical Israel, functioning under the terms and conditions of the Siniatic covenant, they were periods of holy time belonging to God.

While the weekly Sabbath memorialized God's seventh day rest in God's Creation activity, the set of seven annual Sabbaths commemorated the story of Israel's deliverance from Egypt and coming to rest in the Land (Eretz Israel). The writer of Hebrews plays off this theme by pointing out in antitype (fulfillment of the symbolism foreshadowed in the original event) that there yet remains a rest, the Kingdom of God and life eternal, for the people of God. The writer of Hebrews explains that "one who has entered His rest has himself also, rested from his works, as God did from His" (Hebrews 4:10 NASB).

For first-century Jews the weekly Sabbath, the tBv (Shabbat), was the single most important religious event each week. Sabbath observance, whether weekly or annual, following the Hebrew convention of beginning the day at sundown rather than at midnight, began at the setting of the sun on Friday night and continued until sunset the following evening. The annual Sabbaths, linked to the harvest seasons in seven religious festivals, occurred only in the spring and the fall.

In the spring Israel celebrated the festivals of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits (or Weeks). The Feast of Unleavened Bread marked the beginning of the barley harvest. The first and last days of this six-day festival were annual Sabbaths. The Feast of Firstfruits, known as tw[Wbv (Shavuoth), was the third annual Sabbath coming fifty days later. Its association was with the early wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22) not the barley harvest.

The fall festivals consisted of the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day. Except for the Feast of Tabernacles, where only the first day of the feast was an annual Sabbath, each fall festival was also an annual Sabbath. The Great Day of the Feast (John 7:37), immediately followed the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

Occasionally, an annual Sabbath would fall on a weekly Sabbath thereby making the day a double Sabbath. For example, it appears that the annual Sabbath at Luke 6:1, presumably the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, fell on the weekly Sabbath (Mark 2:23; Matthew 12:1). Moreover, the weekly Sabbath of John 9:14, 9:16, on which Jesus healed the blind man, appears to be the annual Sabbath called the Last Great Day (John 7:37).^F14

The adult men of Israel customarily assembled before God at the central sanctuary to celebrate the three major pilgrim festivals. The central sanctuary was at first the tabernacle, or tent of meeting, and later the temple (Exodus 23:17; 34:23 et al.). The pilgrimage festivals were Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread [March/April], the Feast of Weeks [May/June], and the Feast of Booths [September/October] (see Exodus 23:14�17; 34:23�24; Deuteronomy 16:16).

Those who presented themselves at the central sanctuary were to be there with an offering. Although many commentators state that Deuteronomy 16:16 stipulates a duty of every Jew to appear in Jerusalem three times a year for the three pilgrim festivals this was not the case. The Jews of Jesus' day generally understood there to be no requirement in the Torah demanding that all adult male Jews present themselves at the Temple for every pilgrim festival. Their sense of the matter was that pilgrims, during these three festival seasons, if and when they came before God to worship at the central sanctuary, were to present themselves with an offering. No male was to worship at the central sanctuary without an offering.

Those Jews who lived outside of the land of Israel did not travel to Jerusalem three times a year to worship God in the Temple. For some to attend a festival at the Temple as a pilgrim was a once in a lifetime event if that. See Shmuel Safrai, "Pilgrimage in the Time of Jesus" (Safrai 1989:3). It was customary for Jews living in Eretz Israel, the Land, to attend the pilgrim festivals as a matter of course. Jesus and his family are found so doing in the New Testament. In the Torah there is an expectation that adult males residing in the land of Israel should, if they could financially, come to Jerusalem for the festivals and to make their offering at the Temple. Making these trips financially possible was the festival tithe. The people, however, were obligated to keep the high days, the annual Sabbaths, as holy no matter where they resided or whether or not they traveled to Jerusalem for the events.

The seven annual Sabbaths of the Siniatic Covenant celebrated God freeing the people of Israel from the bondage and slavery of Egypt and bringing them to rest in the Land. Similarly, in the context of apostolic Christianity, their symbolism foreshadowed specific key events in the divine plan of salvation, that is, God freeing humanity from the bondage and slavery of sin and bringing humanity to rest in the Kingdom of God. The apostle Paul describes the prophetic significance of the annual Sabbaths, and the associated festivals, as a "shadow of what is to come" (Colossians 2:17 NASB). These days, in antitype, represented God freeing the new people of God through a process of personal, ecclesial, worldwide, and ages-encompassing redemption, from sin and its consequences and brining them into the eternal rest of the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 4:8-11). Note the parallelism between the type and the antitype in the chart below entitled "Annual Festival Calendar and its Symbolism" (see chart).

The parallelism, in type and antitype, between Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits are openly laid out in the New Testament. More obscure is the antitype of the fall festivals and their four annual Sabbaths. A common attribution of meaning is that Jesus Christ will return at the sounding of the last trumpet (Feast of Trumpets), his binding Satan for 1,000 years (Day of Atonement), the 1,000 years of rest of the millennial reign of Christ (Feast of Tabernacles), and final judgment (the Last Great Day). While, under the terms and conditions of the New Covenant, God no longer mandated holy time to rest and assemble, these annual Sabbaths retained, along with the weekly Sabbath, special significance in apostolic Christianity.

Significantly, when one examines the practices of Sabbath, annual Sabbath, and festival observance there are numerous differences between the praxis commanded in the Torah and that followed in the Judaism of Jesus' day. By that time the religious periods of Israel had become cluttered with added symbolism, myth, and superstition. Even terminology had shifted. For example, at that time the Passover and the whole week of the Days of Unleavened Bread were known collectively as Passover (Acts 12:3-4, cf. John 19:14). Similarly, first-century Jews saw the festivals and annual Sabbaths in a vastly different way than do the Jews of today's world. Barry Smith, in his The Last Passover, explains:

     The Torah's regulations concerning the Passover celebration were the ultimate authority for all first-century Jews regardless of their secondary allegiances. A literary-critical analysis of the biblical sources on the Passover is not necessary, since the first-century Jew read the Torah synchronically. The modern notion that the emergence of Israel's full self-definition as summarized by the Torah was tied to a long social and religious development was completely foreign to the understanding of the first-century Jew. Any development in the ritual or meaning of Passover is irrelevant to an understanding of Jewish views at the time of Jesus. (Smith 1993:12.)

Fastening on the Pharistic Judaism of the Talmud, many Christian fellowships have adopted Hebrew words and contemporary Jewish customs thinking that this somehow makes their praxis more biblical. It doesn't. More often than not, it results in erroneous and misleading achronistic readings of the New Testament, unbiblical legalism, and self-righteousness.^F15

Moreover, Jews now observe the Feast of Trumpets as the beginning of their new year, Rosh Hashanah, but anciently this was not the case. The Hebrew Scriptures nowhere refer to the Feast of Trumpets as Rosh Hashanah (head of the year). The phrase occurs only once in the Hebrew Scriptures at Ezekiel 40:1 where used for the "beginning of the year" (NIV). The biblical new year began in the spring. R. Laird Harris, writing in The Expositor's Bible Commentary, points out that in the Hebrew Scriptures it "is interesting that this ancient fall feast was not given the extra emphasis that its equivalent, the New Year (Rosh Hashanah), is given among Jews today" (Harris 1990:627).

The Last Supper

Now then, Jesus of Nazareth, the evening before his execution, instituted a memorial^F16 for his followers to observe. Today, in Protestantism, we call this event the Lord's Supper based on an early Reformation anachronistic reading of I Corinthians 11:20.^F17 The Reformers, still caught in the sociocultural paradigm of sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism, brought into early Protestantism some of the customs and traditions associated with the mass. The practice of celebrating Eucharist at anytime, however, was not that of the very early Church (CE 30-70).

In the Judeo-Christian thinking of the first Christians the events of the Last Supper produced a new Passover, in remembrance of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 11:24), observed annually at the end of the thirteenth day and into the evening portion of the fourteenth day of Nisan. That appears to be the unmistakable thinking of the gospel writers (Matthew 26:17-18; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:8, 22:15) and it certainly was the tradition of the ancient church.^F18

Judeo-Christians, well into the fifth century, continued to observe the Christian Passover at the beginning of Nisan 14, which according to Franciscan biblical archaeologist Bellarmino Bagatti, was due to "the common belief among the [Christian] Jews that the date had been fixed by the Lord and was, therefore, unchangeable. Many believed that this date was superior even to the sabbath itself" (Bagatti 1971a:81). Bagatti knew that the Sabbath remained important in Judeo-Christianity well into Nicene times.

The prevailing practice in the East, where seemingly the majority of Christians were of Jewish descent during the first and second centuries, was observation of the Christian Passover in the Greek assemblies at the precise time of the Jewish Passover at the beginning of Nisan 15. For some reason the time of its observation from apostolic times had shifted, among many Greco-Roman Christian communities of Asia Minor, from its celebration at the beginning of Nisan 14 to the beginning of Nisan 15. This apparently was in response to the language of the synoptic gospels indicating that just prior to his death Jesus kept the Passover with his disciples (Matthew 26:18, Mark 14:14, Luke 22:8). They appeared, as Gentile Christians, to be as confused about this Passover in the gospels as are Christian scholars today.

Beginning with Constantine the Great, the social policy of the Roman government, at least when in the charge of orthodox emperors, was the elimination of paganism and the bringing about of unity in Byzantine Christianity. Its basis was establishing a common core of fundamental orthodox beliefs which would work to further the stability of the Roman state. In Bagatti�s words: "In the 4th century, when Christianity had already won the victory over paganism, there was a reorganization of the church for unitarian purposes. The Jewish usages and doctrines, unknown in great part to the Christian world, in some regions were looked upon as causes of division among the faithful and were therefore fiercely opposed. Bishops and savants united their efforts on this programme and they acted through the councils" (Bagatti 1971a:86).

Nevertheless, three centuries earlier, at the beginning of the fourteenth day of Nisan, on the evening before his death, Jesus chose to assign new meaning to the unleavened bread and wine of the ancient Passover service. These changes were consistent with the New Covenant he brought into being. There is no indication in the New Testament that the Twelve, Jesus' key disciples, knew beforehand of his intention to change the significance of these symbols during a Pascal meal. He, however, had previously made the following points:

• Jesus informed his disciples, two days before the feast of the Passover of the Jews (observed at the beginning of Nisan 15 after sunset), that he would be betrayed to be crucified (Matthew 26:1-2).

• Jesus instructed Peter and John, early Nisan 14 after sunset and a full 24 hours before the Passover of the Jews, to make preparations to eat the Passover Supper that very evening (Matthew 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:7-13).

Surprisingly, the Twelve appeared not to be in any way shocked or taken aback that they were going to eat the Passover with Jesus at the beginning of Nisan 14, as set forth on the traditional Hebrew calendar, not at the end of Nisan 14.^F19 Apparently their only surprise came during dinner when Jesus girded himself with a towel and began to wash their feet (John 13:5). The principal events of the evening, the defining elements of the new Passover included:

1. a set time, a full 24 hours before the traditional Jewish Passover celebration, at the beginning of Nisan 14 (Matthew 26:20; Mark 14:17; Luke 22:14);

2. a meatless Seder, the paschal meal, which the apostle Paul referred to as the Lord's Supper (I Corinthians 11:20; cf. Matthew 26:19, Mark 14:16, Luke 22:13);^F20

3. the foot-washing ritual during the meal involving Jesus and the Twelve (John 13:5-16);

4. during the meal Jesus took bread (unleavened not leavened bread) and asked a prayer over it, giving thanks and seeking a blessing, before braking it into pieces and distributing it to the disciples (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:23-24);^F21

5. he then took a cup of wine (not grape juice), gave thanks, and gave it to the disciples which they each drank from the single cup (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-20; I Corinthians 11:23-25), and

6. a hymn (Mark 14:26).^F22

Thereafter, Jesus' followers, all Jews, abandoned the Mosaic Passover and its animal sacrifice as they saw Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, "our Passover" (I Corinthians 5:7), as the supreme sacrifice once and for all (Hebrews 10:10-14, 18). In the theology of the ancient Church the observance of the new Christian Passover constituted the reaffirmation of a believer�s baptismal commitment to God. The bread represented Jesus Christ giving himself as a sacrifice once to take away the sins of many (I Corinthians 10:16-17; I Peter 2:20-24; Luke 22:19) and the wine symbolized the New Covenant in his blood, shed for the remission of sin (Matthew 26:27-28; Hebrews 9:11-15; Colossians 1:19-22). The symbols taken together demonstrate that the New Covenant came into being through his death. In various passages of the New Testament appear echoes of this event, although far from certain, in the meals of Judeo-Christians (Luke 24:30, 24:35; John 21:9, 21:13; Acts 2:42, 2:46, 20:7, 20:11).

The Christian Passover in Judeo-Christianity became an annual event, at the beginning of the fourteenth of Nisan, observed, in accordance with the traditional Hebrew calendar on the evening and in the manner set by Jesus. As ancient Christianity fragmented into many independent groups multiple forms of this event came into being. The question of when these matters occurred and what comprised the precise practice of the early Church in regard to this memorial continues to invite scholarly debate and Christian passion.

Every indication is that from that very night early Christians continued this practice. Indeed, according to Bellarmino Bagatti the practice was so much a part of Judeo-Christian praxis that as late as the time of Constantine the Great they continued to argue that the traditional day of Nisan 14 for Christian Passover was not capable of change (Bagatti 1971a:10).

The Essene Guesthouse

A quite unlikely source, archaeologist Bargil Pixner, a Benedictine, who lives on Mt. Sion in the Dormition Abby, holds that this Last Supper occurred on a Tuesday night in the guesthouse of the Essene community on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem. What? The Essene guesthouse? "To my mind" writes Pixner "this took place in the Essene guesthouse on Mount Zion on the Tuesday night" (Pixner 1992:64; see also Pixner 1976, 1990, 1997).

Richard Mackowski, concurring, held that this "must have been a very simple dining hall in keeping with the simple life of the Essenes" (Mackowski 1980:141). In his thinking, the "site, therefore, must be secure, for it has been the only candidate for the Cenacle (Coenaculum or dining hall) from primitive Christianity until today" (Mackowski 1980:145).

Mackowski concluded, from his topographical study of the site of the Upper Room, that the Last Supper did indeed take place in the Essene dining hall on Mt. Sion from where Jesus and his followers "walked down from the Upper City�s Essene quarter, using the steps still visible beside the Chapel of Peter-in-Gallicantu on the eastern slope of Mt. Zion (Mackowski 1980:164). Moreover, he stated that:

Mackowski, independently of Bargil Pixner�s study of the area (Pixner 1976), concluded that the material evidence on Mt. Zion, in the light of textual analysis, was not only the mahaneh (the camp) of the Essenes during the time of Jesus but also the birthplace of this sect in Jerusalem (Mackowski 1980:63).

In terms of the Last Supper, and the Judeo-Christian traditions regarding the observation of the Christian Passover, Mackowski argued that Jesus instituted it on a Tuesday night. According to Mackowski, Jesus would not have been an Essene but he celebrated his last Passover supper in the Essene quarter on Mt. Sion.

Lest he be misunderstood, Mackowski used the word Seder in reference to the solemn ritual meal of the Christian Eucharist not the Jewish Seder (Mackowski 1980:164). He also held that Jesus� Crucifixion occurred on Friday. Bargil Pixner disclosed in a video interview with me, conducted in the course of this research, that he also understood the time of the Last Supper to be a Tuesday night leading up to the Crucifixion on Friday afternoon (Pixner 1993). Both scholars suggested that there were simply too many events concerning Jesus� arrest and trial to collapse into a single 24-hour period and therefore suggest that the biblical authors probably telescoped these events (Mackowski 1980:165; Pixner 1993).

Raymond E. Brown in his commentary, The Death of Jesus, states that some commentators believe that the events between Jesus' arrest and his crucifixion are too crowded to have happened in one night but he dismisses it outright. Why? He asks, "does not rearranging that material over a longer period of time undo the intention of the evangelists to describe the whole procedure as hasty and crowded because the authorities wanted to have Jesus executed without any chance that the people would react and thus cause a disturbance?" (Brown 1994:8-9).

The paradigm of both Brown and Pixner, distinguished Roman Catholic scholars, is that Jesus died on a Friday but they are at variance over the length of time between the Last Supper and the Crucifixion.^F23 Pixner, based on historical and archaeological evidence, holds that the Last Supper occurred on a Tuesday night with Jesus' execution taking place the following Friday. Brown, based upon his analysis of the Gospels, holds that Jesus died on a Friday the day necessarily following the Last Supper.

If Pixner is correct that Jesus ate his last Passover in the Essene guesthouse on Tuesday night, and, if Brown is correct that the events concerning Jesus' Last Supper, arrest, trial, and execution all occurred within a single 24-hour period, then neither Thursday nor Friday can possibly be the day of the Crucifixion. By eliminating Friday as the day of the Crucifixion the two propositions come together into a strong presumption that the Last Supper occurred on Tuesday night (as Pixner and Mackowski claim) and that Jesus died the afternoon following the Last Supper since both events took place within a single 24-hour period (as Brown claims). This requires the Sabbath immediately following the day of Jesus death to start at sunset Wednesday night, an annual Sabbath, not a weekly Sabbath.

Brown writes that "the vast majority of scholars have accepted that the crucified Jesus died on Friday as his burial was before the Sabbath, and indeed sometime in the afternoon" (Brown 1994:1351). With this Jack Finegan, in his Handbook of Biblical Chronology agrees. Finegan contends that:

All four Gospels indicate that the day of the crucifixion of Jesus was a Friday (in our terminology), because they describe the following day as the Sabbath (Mark 15:42; Matt 28:1; Luke 23:56; John 19:31), our Saturday, and because they state that the visit of the women to the tomb on the next day was on the first day of the week (Mark 16:2; Matt 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), our Sunday. (Finegan 1998:354.)

Brown and Finegan, erudite scholars as they are, would have us believe that the Sabbath that began after Jesus' burial was a weekly Sabbath. What they knew and chose to not disclose, or what they should have known and did not, was that in the Torah Nisan 15 was always a Sabbath, preceded by the Nisan 14 preparation day,^F24 whether or not it fell on a Saturday for it was an annual Sabbath (Leviticus 23:6-7). Barry Smith in Jesus' Last Passover errs as well by claiming that Mark 15:42, Matthew 27:62, Luke 23:54, and John 19:42 show that Jesus died on a Friday (Smith 1993:215, 218). The problem is that their claim is wholly conjectural. Evidence that this had to be a weekly Sabbath rather than an annual Sabbath is conspicuously lacking.

In the priestly Hebrew calendar this annual Sabbath, the Passover Sabbath, could have occurred on a Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, and far less likely Friday, depending on the postponement rules then used by the priests. This is consistent with the foregoing presumption that Jesus ate his Last Supper on Tuesday night and died the following afternoon. There would have been ample opportunity between the annual Sabbath (Thursday) and the weekly Sabbath (Saturday) for the women to buy spices (on Friday). As the authorities sealed the tomb and set a guard until the three days were past, the women did not have access to the body until after the weekly Sabbath. The logical time for them to anoint the body with spices would have been in the daylight of Sunday morning after the authorities lifted the guard.

Moreover, the idea of Jesus observing his final Passover on the Essene calendar is not unique to Pixner and Mackowski. In the fifties Annie Jaubert, who argued that Jesus kept the Essene calendar, held that he ate his Last Supper on the Passover date of the Essene calendar, a Tuesday evening, rather than a Thursday evening as commonly assumed (Jaubert 1957, Jaubert 1965, Finegan 1992:242).^F25 Eugen Ruckstuhl continued this line of thought contending that the evidence further supports a period of three whole days for Jesus' arrest, trial, and execution (Ruckstuhl 1963). While an Essene calendar connection is a relatively new development in identifying the weekday of the Last Supper, the Tuesday night Last Supper hypothesis is not. This view, for the most part based on Matthew 12:40, echoed in Matthew 27:63, was also that of A. Davidson, E. William Bullinger, and William G. Scroggie.

Davidson in his 1906 "The Crucifixion, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus" argues for a Wednesday crucifixion holding that the Sabbath mentioned in the gospels as following the daytime of the crucifixion was an annual Sabbath not a weekly Sabbath (Davidson 1906:124-129).

Bullinger in the Companion Bible, his classic, one-volume study Bible on the King James Version, also argued that in the year of the Crucifixion the annual Sabbath (Passover Sabbath) began Wednesday night and that the Last Supper occurred Tuesday night (Bullinger 1990:179-182).

Considering the evidence William Scroggie, author of A Guide to the Gospels, states that on "Wednesday, Nisan 14th, before 6.0 p.m., Jesus' body was taken from the Cross, wrapped in a linen sheet, and hastily buried" (Scroggie 1995:576). He concludes that it has been well said that those who love the Lord, "are compelled by the Spirit of truth (John xiv. 17) to abandon the tradition of Good Friday being the day on which our Saviour was crucified" (Scroggie 1995:577)

Jesus of Nazareth was not an Essene.^F26 What is more, there is no hard evidence suggesting that he followed the Essene calendar. If by necessity the first Christian Passover occurred, however, in this Essene community, then it would explain the persisting tradition that the first Lord�s Supper occurred in an upper room on Mt. Sion (see Cenacle) and how Jesus and his followers were able to eat the Passover a full day before the priests and Pharisees did so. The task is now to construct a chronological model based upon the proposition that the Last Supper occurred on a Tuesday night in the guesthouse of the Essene community located in the Upper City of Jerusalem (now known as Mt. Sion or Christian Sion) and in terms of the available evidence endeavor to falsify it.

The literary evidence is found in the gospels of Luke and Mark. Both state that on the day of the slaughtering of the Passover lambs, or possibly slightly before, which would necessarily places the moment after sunset early Nisan 14 or about an hour or so before, Jesus instructed Peter and John to enter Jerusalem, presumably through the Gate of the Essenes^F27, and to look for a man carrying a pitcher of water (Luke 22:8-10, Mark 14:13). They were to follow him to where he entered a house and there to inquire of the housemaster (Greek: oikodespore) about the guest room where Jesus was to eat the Passover with his disciples (Mark 14:14; Luke 22:11).

Jesus said "He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there" (Mark 14:15; cf., Matthew 26:19; Luke 22:12). The Passover had to be eaten within the city of Jerusalem. In this ancient culture, the carrying of water in jars to homes was the chore of children and women, not Jewish men. However, an Essene man, typically a celibate monastic, would carry water as a chore since an Essene enclave would have been absent children and women to perform this menial task. The two took care of last minute details for the Passover Supper made available for money to Jerusalem Passover pilgrims at the Essene guesthouse on Mt. Sion. The quality and amount of food served would have depended on what they were willing to pay. We are not told who served the meal and cleaned-up afterward but presumably it was by their Essene hosts.

When it was late (Greek: opsios), that is, later at nightfall when the stars were visible, Jesus and the Twelve came (Mark 14:16-17).^F28 Along with others they consumed a meatless Passover Seder. It would have been meatless since the Essenes, as strict vegetarians, observed a meatless Passover, and would have served such in their guesthouse. In any case they could not serve Passover lamb as the Levitical priests did not sacrifice Passover lambs until the afternoon of Nisan 14 when the high priest ritually slaughtered the first animal. Jesus' meal, his meatless Passover Seder eaten in an upper room in the Essene guesthouse, became known as the Last Supper.^F29 In context, this room was the place where they dined that evening not where they resided while in Jerusalem.^F30 They resided in Bethany (John 12:1).

Moreover, to eat the Passover Jesus and his party would all have to have been ritually clean, presumably using the ritual baths before entering the guesthouse, and adhering strictly to the Mosaic code on ritual cleanness (II Chronicles 30:18-20). This is consistent with Jesus' statement to Peter about footwashing, he who is clean does not need to bathe (John 13:10).^F31 

The gospels show that Jesus' disciples included more people than the Twelve. At the very least the disciples included Joseph (called Barsabbas and Justus) and Matthias (Acts 1:21-26). At the Last Supper his party, a haburah (a voluntary association of adults for taking Passover, normally families), likely included them as well as his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and others. There is no evidence that women travelers in Jesus' party would not have been welcome at the Essene guesthouse. The absence of specific evidence of their presence is not evidence of their absence. Why would he exclude Joseph and Matthias from such a watershed event?

Barry Smith, in his Jesus Last Passover Meal, tells us that:

If there had been more than one room in an upper room of a house, it probably would have been used by another haburah, given the crowded conditions in Jerusalem at Passover. There could even have been another haburah sharing the room with Jesus and his disciples. (Smith 1993:149.)

Conditioned by centuries of religious ceremony and tradition, based upon ideas originating in the Middle Ages, nearly all Christians, however, believe that only the Twelve and Jesus were in attendance at the Last Supper. Nevertheless, Mark 14:18�21 records that the "disciples," disturbed to hear from Jesus that one of them was a betrayer, continued to ask Jesus "Is it I?" Luke states that there was speculation among the disciples about who the betrayer was (Luke 22:23 cf. John 13:22). Which disciples?

Jesus' response, according to Mark�s gospel, was "It is one of the Twelve..." (Mark 14:20 NASB). He did not say "It is one of you." He made it clear that it was one of his immediate associates. John's gospel records that Jesus disclosed quietly to one or more at his table who the individual was (John 13:23�26, cf., Matthew 26:23). Taken together, the four gospel accounts suggest a larger group in attendance than the Twelve, reclining at two or more tables in the room. In this context, Jesus statement "It is one of the Twelve..." is quite enlightening.

After the Pascal meal, the introduction of the footwashing ritual, and altering the symbolism of the unleavened bread and wine, Jesus withdrew with the Twelve (John 14:31) and perhaps with others such as Joseph and Matthias. If the meal was catered, as appears to be the case, then the women and other disciples presumably dispersed as it was getting quite late. According to Barry Smith it "was permissible after midnight to leave the place where one did the Passover, and since the meal was now complete" (Smith 1993:151).

Jesus' party would have descended into the Valley of Hinnom exiting Jerusalem at the Gate of the Essenes, then traveling east they would have crossed the Kidron, and proceeded on toward the Mount of Olives to a garden called Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36; Mark 14:32, cf., Luke 22:40 and John 18:1). It is unlikely that they would have sought to travel to Bethany that evening but rather remain within the ritual limits of Jerusalem to fulfill Torah.

So far we have considered an incredible series of related circumstances, when taken together, imply a Tuesday night Last Supper and a Wednesday afternoon Crucifixion. Jesus kept his Last Supper, which the gospel writers state was a Passover, 24 hours before the Jewish observance of the Passover. The Jewish calendar, by calculation according to the rules given by Hillel II, places the Passover Sabbath (Nisan 15) in CE 30, as it did in CE 31, beginning on a Wednesday evening. CE 30 and CE 31 are the two most probable years for the Crucifixion. The Essenes, as religious vegetarians, consistently observed their meatless Passover on Tuesday evenings, and provided opportunity for others to observe it in their Mount Sion guesthouse in the Upper City of Jerusalem. Jesus' execution was on the afternoon of Nisan 14 and his interment occurred only moments before the Passover began. Moreover, there is a discernable pattern in the Bible between the biblical annual Sabbaths and the associated festivals and the death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ, the giving of the Holy Spirit, the millennial reign of the Messiah, and eternal judgment.

Prejudice and doctrinal stances aside, the inescapable conclusion is that Jesus and his followers likely observed a Tuesday night Last Supper at the Essene Guesthouse, which requires, in context, the Jews in the year of the Crucifixion to have kept their traditional Passover early Wednesday evening, Nisan 15, as the new day began (see The Crucifixion Week. This theory, a simple explanation to a complex problem based upon available evidence, is the only one in a field of conflicting theories offered since the Reformation consistent with Occam's Razor. Is this actually the solution to the vexing chronology of the Passion Week? Is this theory consistent with other data?

Our task is now to put this incredible theory to the test. That will come in time.

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