January-March 2004
Volume 7 Number 1.2
The Last Seder: Unscrambling the Baffling Chronology of the First Christian Passover
There is a solution to the chronology of the Passover of Jesus death given in the gospels. The key is that there were two calendars leading too two contiguous Passovers in the year of the Crucifixion. This is the second of three installments of The Last Seder series.
PART II Restating the Theory in Testable Terms
When and where did The Last Supper occur? Can we know the precise day of the week that Jesus of Nazareth died? Some argue for Friday, others hold it was a Wednesday, and a few claim it was Thursday. No matter what evidence is put forth there are diehards who refuse to consider the evidence because it does not fit their religious paradigm.
In Part I of this article I set forth a theory that harmonizes the internal evidence of the New Testament including pertinent evidence gleaned from a review of the scholarly literature. It's a unique solution. This theory, a simple explanation to a complex problem, is the only one in a field of conflicting theories offered since the Reformation consistent with Occam's Razor and the details of the gospels.
In this article I develop a set of hypotheses based on the theory, which appears below in narrative form, in order to undertake an objective attempt to falsify it. I also set forth the criterion for falsification of each hypothesis. Putting the theory to the test by testing these hypotheses against the biblical, historical, and archeological record will appear in Part III. This methodology is the way that knowledge advances.
The Theory in Narrative |
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The vicinity of Jerusalem today identified as Mt. Zion (sometimes Christian Sion) was known in Jesus' day as the Upper City. It encompassed the city's western hill. Here lived its upper classes including priestly families and Sadducees. It was the location of Pilate's Praetorium and of the homes of the high priest Caiaphas, Jerusalem's Essene community, and Mary the mother of gospel writer John Mark. The Essenes, whose quarter was on the southern section of the western hill, had their own gate through the southern city wall at its southwest corner. At Passover time, when tens of thousands of pilgrims came to Jerusalem for the celebration, the flat rooftops of Jerusalem's houses provided a venue for hosting guests. Rooftops, complete with Torah required balustrades or parapets (Deuteronomy 22:8), served as a place to sleep and to dine. The Essenes likewise provided a place for hosting Passover pilgrims at their guesthouse in the Upper City. While the rooftop of the guesthouse may have afforded a large area for sleeping Passover guests the building presumably included one or more dining rooms where guests could take their meals. Since the climate of Jerusalem, unlike today, was more temperate two thousand years ago the region lent itself to outdoor living as can be seen in the design of the Roman Villas of the time. In the Herodian period, the calendar of the Essenes, a solar calendar wherein the Jewish festivals always occurred on the same day of the week, fixed the Nisan 14 Passover on third day of the week (sunset Tuesday to sunset Wednesday). The priests, on the other hand, followed a luni-solar calendar. For them the Nisan 14 Passover could fall on other week days such as Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday due to priestly postponement rules but never on Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday. From time to time the traditional Passover of the Jews on their luni-solar calendar, came the day after the Essene observance of their Nisan 14 Tuesday Passover (observed Tuesday night). In the year of the Crucifixion this occasional contiguous occurrence took place. The official Passover Seder of the Jews was kept Wednesday night after the high Sabbath (known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread) began (Wednesday night). Generally, in any nineteen year time cycle this adjacent Nisan Passover phenomenon would occur 5 or 6 times. The gospel writers record that Jesus kept the Passover even though his execution occurred before the Passover. This is not a contradiction for there were two contiguous Passovers in the year of the Crucifixion. First came the Essene Passover beginning Tuesday evening at sunset. Then came the traditional Passover of the Jews, as set by the priests, on Wednesday evening at sunset. The Gospel accounts require Jesus to observe the Passover, to die the afternoon of the priestly sacrifice of the Passover lambs, and to be in the tomb before Passover began. This necessitates the phenomenon of two contiguous Passovers in the year of his death. Moreover, as used in the Scriptures the word Passover has multiple meanings. The sense of the word expanded over time. The specific meaning must be discerned from the biblical context in which the word appears. In word Passover can refer to:
The Scriptures distinguish between Passover (Exodus 12:1-51), the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6 cf Ezra 6:22), and the Days of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:10-14; cf Acts 12:23; 20:6). In the Torah the word Passover refers to the day on which the priests sacrificed the lambs for the Passover Seder (always done on Nisan 14). The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Nisan 15, was the high Sabbath on which the people feasted by eating the flesh of the lamb and the bitter herbs (Exodus 12:8; Numbers 9:11). Jesus, while not an Essene, chose to observe the Passover with his followers, the first Christian Passover, on Tuesday night. This occurred a full twenty-four hours before the celebration of the traditional Passover by the rest of the Jews. The only known place where the Passover was available for pilgrims that Tuesday night was the Essene guesthouse situated in the southwestern section of the Upper City of Jerusalem. Jesus knew he would be killed (see Psalms 22-23). On Monday, Nisan 13, apparently at Bethany, Jesus informed his disciples, two days before the traditional feast of the Passover of the Jews (observed after sunset at the beginning of Nisan 15), that he would be betrayed to be crucified (Matthew 26:1-2). That night he dined at the house of Simon the Leper where Mary of Bethany anointed him with expensive alabaster ointment. When some of his disciples complained about the frivolity of the expense Jesus said she anointed him before hand for burial (Matthew 26:12, Mark 14:8-9). That same day the small Council composed of the Jewish religious leadership�the high priest Caiaphas, chief priests, scribes (elders of the people)�conspired to take Jesus subtlety and murder him before the feast (the high Sabbath known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread) began (Matthew 26:3-5, Mark 14:1-2, Luke 22:2). The small Council, also referred to as the Council of the Elders, was an elite group of Sadducees functioning as an executive committee of the Sanhedrin. Moreover, as Jesus of Nazareth was to become the symbolic passover lamb his death would have occurred on the traditional Passover of the Jews at the time the high priest killed the first lamb. The parallelism and symbolism had to be complete. Early evening the next day, on Nisan 14, just after sunset, Jesus instructed Peter and John, to make preparations to eat the Passover meal (the Seder) that very night. When he gave these instructions Nisan 14 on the Essene calendar had already begun. The sun had already set and dark would come quickly. Jesus said "He will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there" (Mark 14:15; cf Luke 22:12). The sense is that Peter and John were unfamiliar with the location. This Upper Room was a second story room wherein Jesus and his disciples dined together the evening of his arrest on the 14th of Nisan (Luke 22:8�10 and Mark 14:13). They entered Jerusalem, it would seem through the Gate of the Essenes located at the southwestern corner of Jerusalem, and looked for a man carrying a pitcher of water (Luke 22:8-10, Mark 14:13). Spotting him they followed him a short distance to where he entered a house (the Essene guesthouse). |
There they inquired of the housemaster (Greek: oikodespore) about the room where Jesus would eat the Passover meal with his followers. The two made final arrangements for the Passover supper. Presumably they were shown the room and they informed their hosts of the number of guests to expect and arranged seating. When it was late (Greek: opsios), that is, at nightfall, Jesus came with the Twelve (Mark 14:16-17). Then with others they consumed a meatless Passover Seder. It would have been meatless as the Essenes, as vegetarians, observed a meatless Passover, and would have served such in their guesthouse. Moreover, the sacrifice of Passover lambs did not occur until the next afternoon when the high priest initiated the required Temple ceremony. There is no extant textual evidence showing that women travelers in Jesus' party would not have been welcome at the Essene guesthouse. His mother and other women were likely present along with Matthias, Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justice) and other less prominent disciples (such as Cleopas and his companion, presumably his wife, of Luke 24:13-35). In order to eat the Passover meal Jesus and his party would all have to have been ritually clean (meaning they were physically clean as well for they had bathed to be ritually clean), presumably using a ritual bath, or miqveh, before entering the guesthouse, and adhering strictly to the Mosaic code on ritual cleanness. They had to do so for the Essenes adhered to purity laws far stricter than those followed by the priests and the Pharisees. Without being ritually clean they would not be admitted to the Essene guesthouse for Passover. During Seder Jesus began to wash the feet of the Twelve (John 13:5). Peter protested. When rebuked by Jesus he asked that his hands and head be washed as well. Jesus told him that one who is clean does not need to bathe (John 13:10). During dinner Jesus identified Judas as the betrayer to John. Judas abruptly left causing some of the disciples to speculate about the reason for Judas' departure. As that Tuesday night was not actually the high Sabbath, but rather, part of an ordinary day. Jerusalem's shops were open for business that night. Knowing that Jesus' followers assumed Judas left to buy things needed for the feast (John 13:29). Rather than shopping for festival supplies, Judas went to meet with the Jewish high priest and the Sanhedrin. Together they conspired to take Jesus in custody. This was a nearly full 24 hours before the celebration of the traditional Passover ritual of the Jews. In that year conventional Jews observed the annual Passover Sabbath, or Feast of Unleavened Bread, from Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset. This feast day began the seven-day festival of Unleavened Bread commemorating Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage with redemption through the blood of the slain lamb. Seder, or supper, being ended Jesus took unleavened bread and ascribed ritual symbolic meaning to it. The ceremonial eating of unleavened bread preceded the drinking of wine, not grape juice, from Jesus' cup. These taken together Jesus made symbolic of his soon to be broken body and shed blood. These symbols, now called the Eucharist), Jesus shared among those at his table (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-20; I Corinthians 11:23-25). Jesus then took considerable time to speak to his followers. They then departed the guesthouse. Jesus withdrew with the Twelve (John 14:31) and perhaps others such as Joseph and Matthias. The party 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). If the observance was a catered one as appears to be the case, then the women and other disciples presumably dispersed as it was getting late. Jesus and those with him sang a hymn as they descended from the upper city (Mark 14:26). His execution on Wednesday afternoon occurred before the traditional Seder of the Jews. On the day the Passover lambs were slain Jesus was arrested, convicted, and executed. Very late Wednesday afternoon, as the annual "Sabbath was about to begin" (Luke 23:54) Joseph of Arimathea, with the help of Nicodemus, placed Jesus' body hastily in his own new tomb sometime shortly before the beginning of the Passover Sabbath (Luke 23:50-54). The women observed where and how they laid Jesus' body in the tomb (Luke 23:55). The first of the three days, a Thursday, was an annual Sabbath (the Jewish holyday). On Thursday morning the chief priests and Pharisees requested placement of a guard at the tomb (Matthew 27:62-65, cf. Luke 24:21). Pilate ordered the tomb to made secure. Authorities placed a seal on the stone and posted guard at the site to secure it until the third day was past (Matthew 27:66). On the second day, Friday, the women procured and prepared spices to anoint Jesus' body (Luke 23:56). The third day was the weekly Sabbath. The women rested according to the commandment (Luke 23:56), Leviticus 23:7). Jesus arose from the dead on the third day (late Saturday afternoon most likely at sunset at the moment the third day came to an end, so that he was unmistakably in the Tomb for three full days and three full nights). The disciples resided in an upper room while they remained in Jerusalem for Pentecost (Acts 1:13). There is no hint in the accounts by Luke and Mark that the Upper Room of the Last Supper was the place they lodged. When Jesus and his disciples visited Jerusalem during his public ministry they stayed outside the city usually on the Mount of Olives. The Passover of his Crucifixion was no exception. Some time after the Resurrection the disciples were found in the city staying in an upper room. To reach this facility, probably the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, they had to enter the city and go up implying they put up in the Upper City (Acts 1:13). The third day ended sunset Saturday night. The following morning, Sunday, before sunrise an angel moved the stone from the tomb entrance and sat on it, implying it was a square stone not a round one, causing the guards to faint (Matthew 28:2-4) and then to flee into the city (Matthew 28:11-15). While it was still dark, at the dawn of "the first day of the week", the women came to the tomb bringing the spices to anoint the body but Jesus had already risen the previous night (see Matthew 28:1, Mark 15:47, Luke 24:1, John 20:1). Early that morning, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mark 16:9). That after-noon travelers, walking to Emmanus from Jerusalem explained that from the perspective of Sunday morning, the fourth day, the time of Jesus spending the three days in the tomb had already passed (Luke 24:21).
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The Theory
In short, the theory is that in the year of the Crucifixion, most probably C.E. 30, the traditional Passover of the Jewish people immediately followed the Passover of the Jewish Essene sect, such that the latter kept a meatless Passover Seder on Tuesday night and the former a full Passover Seder on Wednesday night.
The gospel accounts detail various events occurring on these two contiguous Passovers. Jesus observed a Tuesday night Passover meal with his disciples, his Last Supper, in the Upper City of Jerusalem (the southwestern hill). Following that event Jewish authorities arrested him leading to his hasty trial and Crucifixion that very same day. Therefore, he and his disciples could not have eaten of the Passover lamb as the sacrifice of the lambs for the Passover ritual did not begin until the afternoon of the preparation day, several hours after Jesus' impalement on the cross. As a result, within a single 24 hour period Jesus kept a meatless Seder with his disciples and died before traditional Jews took a Passover meal. Jesus� interment in a temporary tomb near the Crucifixion site occurred just as the day, Wednesday, ended at sunset. There he remained in the tomb, or in the heart of the earth, for a full three days and three nights, beginning Wednesday night as the annual Passover Sabbath began on Nisan 15 and ending with the setting of the sun Saturday night when the weekly Sabbath concluded on Nisan18.
The chronological task at hand is the investigation of the day of the week of the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. When one begins the determination of the year of Jesus death then astronomical phenomena and other chronological issues begin to obfuscate what the gospel writers understood as the weekday of the Passion. The underlying assumption is that the four gospel writers understood these events, i.e., the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and entombment of Jesus of Nazareth to have occurred within the single twenty-four hour weekday they recognized as the preparation day for the high sabbath (the Feast of Unleavened Bread).
The contention that these four events occurred on a Wednesday is not a new one. Neither is the proposition that there were two contiguous Passovers in the year of Jesus� execution. What is unique is the chronological solution resulting from an analysis based upon the occurrence of two contiguous Passovers that year where the first (the Essene Passover based on their solar calendar) was identical to the preparation day for the traditional Passover of the Jews (based on a luni-solar calendar).
The scholarly literature abounds with explanations of the gospel details setting forth the chronology of these events. A number of these argue that the Last Supper occurred on a Tuesday night. Ethelbert W. Bullinger, over a century ago, included Appendix 156 in The Companion Bible wherein he set forth the chronology of the Passion week holding that the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and entombment of Jesus of Nazareth occurred on a Wednesday preparation day (Bullinger 1990:179-182). Andrew B. Davidson, writing in the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1906, held that the Crucifixion occurred on a Wednesday because the gospels refer to the Crucifixion as taking place before an annual Sabbath not a weekly Sabbath (Davidson 1906; Brown 1994:135). W. Graham Scroggie argued in his 1948 A Guide to the Gospels that the Crucifixion occurred on Wednesday based on Matthew 12:40 and "the number and nature of the happenings between the death of Jesus and his burial" (Scroggie 1995:569, 576).
James A. Walther, in an article entitled "The Chronology of the Passion Week" published in the Journal of Biblical Literature, mentions that numerous Catholic writers for centuries maintained that Jesus ate the Passover Tuesday night. He writes: "References in the Didascalia, in Epiphanius, in Victorinus of Pettau, and in the Book of Adam and Eve support the Tuesday [night] Passover dating and the subsequent arrest of Jesus in the morning hours of Wednesday" (Walther 1958:118).
Perhaps the most vocal proponents of the Wednesday Crucifixion theory in the late twentieth century were televangelists Herbert W. Armstrong and his son Garner Ted Armstrong. In their literature, radio programs, and telecasts, they vigorously advocated a Wednesday Crucifixion understanding. Various claimants to their spiritual legacy continue to expound this theory.
In Appendix II of his The Death of the Messiah Raymond E. Brown acknowledges that such theories exist. He points out that attempts by scholars to deal with the discrepancies between the Synoptics and John include explanations which require the rearranging of scriptural sequences to reach the intended result or call for two Passover celebrations one day apart. He addresses the idea, now denigrated, that the Galileans may have �celebrated Passover one day earlier than was customary in Jerusalem� as well as the failed proposition that the Pharisees may have followed one calculation and the Sadducees another (Brown 1994:1363). He also describes the flawed idea, often promulgated, that the Last Supper was not a paschal meal.
In a separate discussion of the Essene calendar Brown reports that for the Essene Jews �the 15th of Nisan (the date of the pascal meal) always began Tuesday night and continued through Wednesday daytime� (Brown 1994:1366) referring to Annie Jaubert (Jaubert 1965) and Eugen Ruckstuhl (Ruckstuhl 1963). Both advocated a Tuesday night Last Supper claiming Jesus followed the Essene calendar in the matter. 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. The Essene headquarters was the Essene quarter on the southern section of the western hill. The Essenes had their own small gate in the Herodian wall exiting on the Valley of Jezebel. Jesus was no Essene but that does not preclude him from observing the Last Supper as a meatless Pascal meal at the Essene guesthouse in Jerusalem.
Both Jaubert and Ruckstuhl, however, as did Bargil Pixner (Pixner 1990), advocated a Tuesday night Last Supper consistent with the Essene calendar but held nevertheless that the Crucifixion occurred on a Friday. Brown charts out this twist on a Friday Crucifixion, with a rearrangement of scriptural sequence, but does not readdress a Wednesday Crucifixion in the context of the Wednesday Essene Passover. He previously rejected the idea of �two adjacent days as Passover� and did not reconsider the proposition in light of these data (Brown 1994:1364). The worldviews of Pixner, Brown, Jaubert, and Ruckstuhl called for a Friday Crucifixion and a Sunday Resurrection. Due to their cultural bias they simply could not conceive of the veracity of the alternative. The problem is that the alternative they failed to address is the very solution to the harmonization of the Synoptics and John. Of course they would have to abandon the Good Friday-Easter tradition.
The Hypotheses
In this analysis it is incumbent to test the major hypotheses of this theory against challenges from the biblical record. So what are the hypotheses that could result in its falsification? These appear as testable expressions in the table below.
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Hypothesis |
Criterion to Falsify Hypothesis |
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1. The Seventy Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9:25 is not a messianic prophecy pointing to Jesus of Nazareth but rather to ONIAS III, a "messiah" or an "anointed one" (a high priest) killed for resisting the Hellenization of Judea during the Maccabean period. |
The Seventy Week Prophecy is a messianic prophecy which points to the appearance of Jesus Christ. |
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2. Computer software astronomy models are mathematical simulations which do not precisely calculate the Molad of Tishri for the year of Jesus' death. |
The mathematical simulations in computer software astronomy models are sufficiently precise to accurately calculate the Molad of Tishri for the year of Jesus' death. |
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3. The Calculated Hebrew Calendar, the mathematical calendar based on astronomical phenomena and a set of rules, provides the most probable weekday for the Crucifixion. |
There was no calculated calendar in use in Jesus' time requiring the molad of Tishri to be set on the basis of agricultural conditions and observation. |
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4. In the time of Jesus of Nazareth a community of Essenes lived in their own section of the Upper City of Jerusalem complete with its own gate in the city wall known as the the gate of the Essenes. |
There was no Essene community in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus of Nazareth. |
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5. The Essene Calendar and the Jewish Calendar align with conjoining Wednesday-Thursday Passovers in the period 28-33 CE. |
The Essene Calendar and the Jewish Calendar do not align with conjoining Wednesday-Thursday Passovers in the period 28-33 CE. |
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6. The Last Supper occurred on a preparation day, an ordinary weekday, when merchants could buy and sell that very night. |
The Last Supper did not occur on a preparation day. |
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7. The Last Supper was a Passover Seder. |
The Last Supper was not a Passover Seder but rather an ordinary or common meal. |
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8. Matthew's gospel records that Jesus said he would be entombed, not dead, for a full three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40), that is for 72 hours. |
The phrase "three days and three nights" does not mean literally three twenty-four hour days. |
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9. Whenever the expression "day and night" or "night and day" appear together in the Hebrew Scriptures the period is never less than a full 24-hour day. This Hebrew idiom, appearing throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament, never meant anything less than a full day. |
The Scriptures confirm that the expression "day and night" or "night can be less than a full 24-hour day. |
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10. The phrase "after three days" (Mark 8:31; 9:31 KJV; 10:34 KJV; Matthew 27:63) means the same as "the third day" (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; 27:64; Luke 9:22; 18;33; 24:6, 24:7, 24:21, 24:46; Acts 10:40; I Corinthians 16:4). |
The phrase "after three days" and "the third day" refer to different events.
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11. Luke 24:21 states unequivocally that the "three days" had already passed from the perspective of Sunday, that is three twenty-four hour days had gone by�Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. |
Luke 24:21 requires Sunday to be the third day. |
Undoubtedly there are other challenges as well and each can be considered in its own order as opportunity permits. For now these challenges to the theory must be considered. Our task is now to put this incredible theory to the test.
To be continued
Page last edited: 02/28/06 08:02 PM
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