Discrepancy between Leviticus 23:6 and Matthew 26:17?

[rstrats]

Or, alternatively, the disciples simply have got it wrong themselves because that was never a Passover meal but a last meal.
Passover Meals were eaten in the Temple refectories immediately after the sacrificial ceremony. Yes? No?

It certainly seems like someone got something wrong.

[rstrats]

Exodus 12:18 "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even."

When is even - a period of time before the 14th ends or a period of time on the 15th?

[eider]

It certainly seems like someone got something wrong.

For sure.......

[eider]

Leviticus 23:6 says : “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread...”

However, Matthew 26:17 says: “Now on 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?”

Any thoughts on the seeming discrepancy?

The fifteenth day of the month is the FIRST day of the feast of unleavened bread.

[rstrats]

The fifteenth day of the month is the FIRST day of the feast of unleavened bread.

So you're saying that it was the 15th when the disciples asked the Messiah where He wanted to eat the passover?

[tabibito]

So you're saying that it was the 15th when the disciples asked the Messiah where He wanted to eat the passover?

The problem arises because there were variant celebrations of Passover, and neither the Jerusalem temple rite nor the Gerizim rite use terms fully in accord with those of the Torah.

Gerizim - 14th day of the first month = first day of unleavened bread = the day the Passover must be sacrificed = the day of Passover.
Torah - 14th day of the first month is Passover (Gerizim but not Jerusalem). The first day of Unleavened Bread is the 15th (Jerusalem but not Gerizim).
Jerusalem - 14th day of the first month = the day of Preparation (now Passover Eve) = the day that the Passover must be sacrificed

Torah: ambiguous (so tis said) - Passover eaten on the night of the 14th, Gerizim interpretation; on the night of the 15th, Jerusalem interpretation.

In the Gerizim rite, Passover is sacrificed in the evening immediately following the end of the 13th, In 2022, the first month (Abib) of the Samaritan calendar began at sunset on April 1, so April 14 at sunset was the "dawn' of 14 Abib. At that time, the Passover sacrifice was made, with the meal eaten a few hours later.

With regard to the day of crucifixion, no conflict in the gospel records exists. Luke declares that it was the 14th (the day that the Passover must be sacrificed) before the Last Supper, and that it was still the 14th (the day of Preparation) when Jesus was buried. Matthew and Mark do not conflict with Luke or John.

The conflicts that do exist arise from the unfounded supposition that there was only one accepted rite for Passover; there were at least three.

[tabibito]

http://www.thesamaritanupdate.com/
passover_unleavened.jpg
ETA: the url for the relevant PDF

[Faber]

Or multiple calendars?

Among the thousands of fragments found in the caves around Qumran, one fragment in particular, given the designation 4Q321, gives more information on the calendar used by the Essenes. It contains twelve months, unnamed but referred to as the first month, the second month, etc. The third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months have 31 days; the other months have 30 days. 364 days total; 52 weeks. The first month corresponds roughly with Nisan, the first month of the Lunar Calendar. It begins every year on a Tuesday evening at sunset. The first day of the first month thus falls on Wednesday every year. Passover is on the 15th day of the first month, also beginning on Tuesday at sunset and continuing to Wednesday at sunset. Waiving of the barley sheaves, instead of being the Sunday immediately after Passover, is on Sunday, the 26th day of the first month, eleven days after Passover. The Festival of the First Fruits is on Sunday, the 15th day of the third month, sixty days after Passover. The Feast of Trumpets is on Wednesday, the first day of the seventh month. The Day of Atonement is on Friday, the 10th day of the seventh month. The Feast of Tabernacles is eight days, beginning on Wednesday, the 15 day of the seventh month, and continuing to the following Wednesday. It was intended to be a perpetual calendar, with none of the feasts days (except the fourth day of Tabernacles) falling on the Sabbath.

Other documents from the caves made reference to the Jubilee calendar. 4Q320 and 4Q328 give the schedule for the several orders of priests for their weekly service in the temple in accordance with the Jubilee calendar. 4Q326 lists the days of the Sabbaths, Passover and other feast days.

Annie Jaubert (1912-1980) was a French Bible scholar known for her research on the calendrical teachings of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Hebrew literature. She offered a solution to the conflicting chronologies of the Passover in the four Gospels.

"In conclusion: it is certain that, at the beginning of the first century, A.D., there existed two liturgical calendars. In one of these the feasts were assigned to days of the lunar month; this was the official calendar, about which we can find information in later rabbinical Judaism. In the second, the feasts always fell on fixed days of the week. The character of this calendar may now be discovered in contemporary Jewish sources. It is witnessed only in its Jubilees-Qumran type; but it is probable that it also existed in modified forms which could have either preserved an intermediary stage of the calendar's development or attempted a certain compromise with the official reckoning." (Annie Jaubert; The Date of the Last Supper. Trans. by Isaac Rafferty. (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1965) 52.)

[tabibito]

Or multiple calendars?

Among the thousands of fragments found in the caves around Qumran, one fragment in particular, given the designation 4Q321, gives more information on the calendar used by the Essenes. It contains twelve months, unnamed but referred to as the first month, the second month, etc. The third, sixth, ninth and twelfth months have 31 days; the other months have 30 days. 364 days total; 52 weeks. The first month corresponds roughly with Nisan, the first month of the Lunar Calendar. It begins every year on a Tuesday evening at sunset. The first day of the first month thus falls on Wednesday every year. Passover is on the 15th day of the first month, also beginning on Tuesday at sunset and continuing to Wednesday at sunset. Waiving of the barley sheaves, instead of being the Sunday immediately after Passover, is on Sunday, the 26th day of the first month, eleven days after Passover. The Festival of the First Fruits is on Sunday, the 15th day of the third month, sixty days after Passover. The Feast of Trumpets is on Wednesday, the first day of the seventh month. The Day of Atonement is on Friday, the 10th day of the seventh month. The Feast of Tabernacles is eight days, beginning on Wednesday, the 15 day of the seventh month, and continuing to the following Wednesday. It was intended to be a perpetual calendar, with none of the feasts days (except the fourth day of Tabernacles) falling on the Sabbath.

Other documents from the caves made reference to the Jubilee calendar. 4Q320 and 4Q328 give the schedule for the several orders of priests for their weekly service in the temple in accordance with the Jubilee calendar. 4Q326 lists the days of the Sabbaths, Passover and other feast days.

Annie Jaubert (1912-1980) was a French Bible scholar known for her research on the calendrical teachings of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Hebrew literature. She offered a solution to the conflicting chronologies of the Passover in the four Gospels.

John makes it clear that the events play out against the backdrop the temple calendar: each of his mentions of the Passover identify it as the Jewish Passover festival, and the day of the trial before Pilate is identified as the Jewish Day of Preparation. The features of the Passover rite in the gospels, however, do not conform with the temple celebration.

In the temple rite, the sacrifice is conducted in the late afternoon of the fourteenth and the meal is eaten on the fifteenth, the First Day of Unleaveneds.
The gospels show the whole rite of Passover being conducted on the fourteenth, the First Day of Unleaveneds. The basics of the rite as conducted by Jesus conform with the Samaritan rite, though there are some differences in the finer detail.

First Day of Unleaveneds
Temple Rite: 15th
Samaritan Rite: 14th
Gospels: 14th

The Day that the Passover must be sacrificed
All: 14th

Day that the meal is eaten
Temple Rite: 15th
Samaritan Rite: 14th
Gospels: 14th

14th Designated as
Temple Rite: Day of Preparation
Samaritan Rite: Passover
Gospels: Day of Preparation (John: of the Jews)

[Faber]

Agreed, definitely.

Some speculation on my part: Maybe some clues from Paul's letter to the Colossians. Paul appears to be hitting on two different heresies, one being a legalism with observation of feast days, circumcision, and the other being a mysticism concerning philosophy, worship of angels, visions, doubts about the supremacy of Christ, knowledge (gnosis). Bishop J.B. Lightfoot, in his classical work, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (London: MacMillan And Co., 1879), identifies these two heresies as a single heresy, being the roots of what would later become known as Gnosticism.

On the other hand a closer examination of its language shows that these Judaic features do not exhaust the portraiture of the heresy or heresies against which the epistle is directed. We discern an element of theosophic speculation, which is alien to the spirit of Judaism proper. We are confronted with a shadowy mysticism, which loses itself in the contemplation of the unseen world. We discover a tendency to interpose certain spiritual agencies, intermediate beings, between God and man, as the instruments of communication and the objects of worship (Colossians 2:4,8,18,23). Anticipating the result which will appear more clearly hereafter, we may say that along with its Judaism there was a GNOSTIC element in the false teaching which prevailed at Colossae. (Epistles, p. 73-4)

More specifically, Docetism. It was prevalent among the Essenes, not only in their dwellings near Qumran, but in a particular sector of Jerusalem, in Alexandria (where they were known as Therapeutae; Philo of Alexandria, De Vita, chapter III), and in the cities of Asia Minor. Paul deals with them elsewhere, in 1 Timothy 4:1, 3 for example. John, writing to the same communities in Asia Minor, also deals with them, calling them antichrists (1 John 2:18; 4:3), and points out that Jesus came in the flesh (John 1:14).

If Jesus and the disciples had observed the Passover on a different date, possibly even on a Tuesday as did the Essenes who followed the Jubilee calendar, perhaps John wished to avoid making an apparent connection by making no reference to the Last Supper as a Passover seder.

[tabibito]

If Jesus and the disciples had observed the Passover on a different date, possibly even on a Tuesday as did the Essenes who followed the Jubilee calendar, perhaps John wished to avoid making an apparent connection by making no reference to the Last Supper as a Passover seder.

Impossible if the gospel accounts regarding the timing are to be considered accurate. Only a Thursday or Friday crucifixion would account for delaying the completion of the interment rites until the Sunday. For a Friday crucifixion, Palm Sunday would have to have been Palm Monday. John records Jesus' arrival in Bethany as six days prior to the Passover (of the Jews) and Jesus' execution as the day before that Passover, which puts his arrival in Bethany at five days before his execution. Luke records the day of resurrection, a Sunday, as three days after Jesus' execution. Accepting Palm Sunday as accurate then:
.

Saturday	Arrive Bethany	5 days before execution
Sunday	Palm Sunday	4
Monday		3
Tuesday		2
Wednesday		1
Thursday	Execution (14th... Day of Preparation)	0
Friday	1st day of Passover Festival (15th. … deutero Sabbath)	1 day since execution
Saturday	(16th … weekly Sabbath)	2
Sunday	Resurrection	3

.
Had the execution been conducted on (say) Wednesday, Thursday would have been a Sabbath, but Friday would have been an ordinary day and available to complete the funeral rites.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

So you're saying that it was the 15th when the disciples asked the Messiah where He wanted to eat the passover?

tabibito has suggested Jesus might have been a Samaritan!

The simple fact is that these four separate accounts were written at different times for different Christian communities and contradict one another - Jewish festivals not being something their authors were probably overly familiar with.

But you try explaining that to our friend. viel Glück!

[tabibito]

tabibito has suggested Jesus might have been a Samaritan!

Just another ludicrous claim on your part. I have suggested nothing of the sort: simply pointed out that there were and are variations in the conduct of the Passover rite demonstrating that a sacrifice at the start of the fourteenth was and is well within the range of legitimate observance.

The simple fact is that these four separate accounts ... contradict one another

You have failed thoroughly to demonstrate that any contradiction regarding the day of crucifixion exists - each of the four accounts states that Jesus was interred on the same day, the Day of Preparation. Your claim amounts to a wilful denial that those accounts exist. The claim that the Synoptics state Jesus was crucified on the fifteenth is a claim that the Synoptics claim he was crucified the day after he was interred.

Jewish festivals not being something their authors were probably overly familiar with.

Pointless drivel on your part.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

Just another ludicrous claim on your part. I have suggested nothing of the sort: simply pointed out that there were and are variations in the conduct of the Passover rite demonstrating that a sacrifice at the start of the fourteenth was and is well within the range of legitimate observance.



You have failed thoroughly to demonstrate that any contradiction regarding the day of crucifixion exists - each of the four accounts states that Jesus was interred on the same day, the Day of Preparation. Your claim amounts to a wilful denial that those accounts exist. The claim that the Synoptics state Jesus was crucified on the fifteenth is a claim that the Synoptics claim he was crucified the day after he was interred.



Pointless drivel on your part.

You cannot admit that the four canonical gospels are in error - as was demonstrated some time ago concerning the discrepancies in the birth narratives found in Matthew and Luke and the census carried out under Quirinius.

In the case of the four Passion narratives you have offered wild speculations [all of which are totally unsupported by any textual evidence ] in order to reconcile those four narratives. You even tried the same trick in another thread concerning the text from a Roman writer .

Hence I offered rstrats good luck.

[tabibito]

You cannot admit that the four canonical gospels are in error - as was demonstrated some time ago concerning the discrepancies in the birth narratives found in Matthew and Luke and the census carried out under Quirinius.

As to that, there isn't enough data to form a firm conclusion - Luke is possibly incorrect on that count, but not certainly. I'll check actually reliable sources about the matter when opportunity permits. The possibility that Luke got some or all details wrong won't be decided on the basis of the information to hand. At this stage, I consider it unlikely that Luke was wrong, but cannot assert the he wasn't.

In the case of the four Passion narratives you have offered wild speculations [all of which are totally unsupported by any textual evidence ] in order to reconcile those four narratives. You even tried the same trick in another thread concerning the text from a Roman writer

There is no wild speculation involved in assessing the records of the four gospels regarding the day that Jesus was interred - the authors explicitly nominate the same day. There is no wild speculation involved in assessing Luke's record that the meal was eaten after the sacrifice on the proper day, the same day that Jesus was interred - the record is tantamount to explicit. My comments are, in fact, wholly derived from the textual evidence, as opposed to being derived from claims by secondary sources.
(Just as a BTW - a written account is a record: it may be an accurate record or inaccurate, but it is a record either way.)