Passover, The Last Supper & The Day of Crucifixion
Passover, The Last Supper & The Day of Crucifixion
Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder? Do the Gospels agree on the day of Jesus crucifixion?
Some scholars claim that the Gospels present conflicting information concerning the day of Jesus’ crucifixion. The crucial issue at the heart of this debate relates to the question of whether the Last Supper was a Passover Seder, along with the interpretation of texts related to the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
In light of the information provided in the above chart, how are we to make sense of the following passages from the Gospels?
Mt 26:17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?” This verse seems to indicate that the Last Supper was celebrated during the early hours of Nisan 15. Here it’s helpful to remember that in the Jewish reckoning, sundown marks the end of each day, and the beginning of the next. Therefore, if the Last Supper was celebrated in the first few hours (evening) of Nisan 15, Jesus would then have been crucified later that same day (after sunrise), rather than on Nisan 16.
Mk 14:12 And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?” Here’s where we run into our first difficulty. Mark agrees with Matthew that the Last Supper took place on the first day of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15), but he goes on to say this took place at the time the Passover lambs were sacrificed (Nisan 14). Perhaps, however, the problem is with our chronological precision. Though technically, these events took place on two different dates, Mark may have simply been speaking more generally, since the slaying of the Passover lambs (twilight of Nisan 14) precedes the Feast of Unleavened Bread only by a few hours. Therefore, perhaps we could suggest that Mark’s language simply means that the Last Supper took place during the early hours of Nisan 15, “[around the time] they sacrificed the Passover lamb.”
Lk 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.” Luke’s language appears to be slightly more concrete than Mark’s. The first day of Unleavened Bread was the day Passover lambs were slain, which doesn’t appear to fit with the Old Testament instructions about Passover (Nisan 14) and the start of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15). In verse 8, Jesus states clearly that the Last Supper was a Passover meal (cf. Lk 22:15), therefore Luke’s account seems to agree with Matthew and Mark, and we should place it on Nisan 15.
Jn 19:14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. [Pilate] said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” Whereas the Synoptic Gospels indicate that the Last Supper took place in the early hours of Nisan 15 (which means Jesus would be crucified later that same day, after sunrise), John’s language makes clear that all this took place a day earlier, on “the day of Preparation of the Passover” (i.e., Nisan 14). In light of this, some New Testament scholars have argued that John may have relied on an entirely different calendar, such as the one found at Qumran which differed by a single day. But does it make sense to suggest that John used a completely different calendar? Is this the best way to explain the apparent contradiction?
Nisan 15 was a Festival Sabbath
One frequently overlooked fact is that Nisan 15 also happened to be a special ceremonial Sabbath as outlined in Leviticus 23. As we think about the implications of this special Sabbath, it becomes increasingly clear that the crucifixion could NOT have taken place on this particular day.
Lev 23:5-7 “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’S Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.” According to the Talmud, Rabbis made a distinction between the Sabbath that commemorated creation and those that commemorated a given festival1. In the above passage, the people of Israel were clearly instructed “not [to] do any ordinary work” on Nisan 15, indicating that, regardless of which day of the week it fell on, it was to be treated as an additional ceremonial Sabbath. Notice how this information affects the interpretation of the following New Testament passages:
Jn 13:29 Some thought Judas left because Jesus told him, “Buy what we need for the feast…” If the Last Supper took place on Nisan 15, this verse wouldn’t make any sense, since the festival sabbath would already be in effect, and all buying and selling would therefore be prohibited.
Jn 19:31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken…” John refers to this Sabbath as a “high day” (μεγάλη ἡ ἡμέρα) which is the same language he used in Jn 7:37 (ἡμέρᾳ τῇ μεγάλῃ) for another festival Sabbath. This matches the language we find in the Greek version of Isaiah 1:13 (ἡμέραν μεγάλην) which the ESV renders “solemn assemblies.” In other words, John makes clear that Jesus was crucified on the eve of Passover2 (Nisan 14), the day before the festival Sabbath that was associated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:5-7). At twilight on the day of preparation, the Passover lambs were slain, and at sundown, the festival Sabbath (Nisan 15) officially began.
Unfortunately, commentators often overlook the implications of the additional festival Sabbath, particularly as it relates to the dating of the crucifixion. For example, conservative New Testament scholar, Andreas Kostenberger writes, “According to the Synoptics…Jesus and his disciples celebrated the Passover during the early hours of 15 Nisan.”3 But this would mean Jesus was crucified later that same day (after sunrise on the 15th), which as we have seen was a festival Sabbath. The Synoptics make clear that Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath (Mt 27:62, Mk 15:42, Lk 23:54), and John’s account explicitly says that the Jews asked Pilate to break the legs of the criminals since the Sabbath was approaching (Jn 19:31). In other words, a close reading of all four Gospels indicates that Jesus could not have been crucified on Nisan 15.
Now, Matthew, Mark, and Luke do indicate that Jesus was crucified on “the day of preparation” (Mt 27:62, Mk 15:42, Lk 23:54), but most readers typically assume this to be a reference to the ordinary weekly Sabbath. But what if the Synoptic references to this preparation day were seen as a reference to Passover and the festival Sabbath of Nisan 15, just as John himself states in 19:14.4 If so, perhaps it is possible to sync them up with John’s timeline after all. Mark and Luke did report that the Last Supper took place on the day the Passover lambs were sacrificed (Mk 14:12, Lk 22:7), which is another correspondence with John. The only remaining question to sort out is why the Synoptics indicate that the Last Supper took place on the “first day of Unleavened Bread.”
Help from External Sources
As we’ve seen, all four Gospels make clear that Jesus was crucified on “the Day of Preparation,” the day preceding the Sabbath. Whether this refers to an ordinary Sabbath, the special festival Sabbath, or possibly both, it’s clear that Jesus could not have been crucified on Nisan 15, since that day was a festival Sabbath. In light of this, how then are we to understand the language of the Synoptic Gospels which state that Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples on the first day of Unleavened Bread? Here are some relevant passages from a few external sources that may help to clear up the confusion:
Josephus: “We keep a feast for eight days, which is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread” (Antiquities 2:317). According to Numbers, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to be celebrated as a seven-day feast, but here Josephus states that Jews in Jesus’ day ended up celebrating this feast for eight days. Could this be relevant? I believe it is, particularly when combined with the information below provided by Philo.
Philo: “Another festival [is] combined with the feast of the Passover, using a food different than the usual one…namely, of unleavened bread” (Laws 2:150). In this passage, Philo says that first-century Jews combined the celebration of Passover (Nisan 14) with the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Nisan 15-21), which fits perfectly with the information provided by Josephus. In light of this additional information, let’s take another look at Mk 14:12: “And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, [Jesus’] disciples said to him, ‘Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’” Earlier we discussed the fact that this verse (along with Lk 22:7) is difficult to interpret, since the first day of Unleavened Bread officially began on Nisan 15, whereas the Passover lamb was sacrificed on Nisan 14. In other words, either Mark and Luke were speaking in an imprecise way, or they got their days confused. With this new information, we can see that they were right on target. In Jesus’ day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was combined with Passover to become an eight-day celebration, which means it officially began in the early hours of Nisan 14.
Philo makes clear that, though these two festivals were combined, on Nisan 15 they switched from ordinary to unleavened bread. This fact is confirmed by information we also find in the Talmud, “They eat leaven throughout the 5th hour on the 14th of Nisan, and they burn it at the beginning of the 6th hour” (Pesahim 1:4). In fact, one of the tasks on the day of preparation of the Passover included getting rid of all the leaven (Ex 12:15-19, Dt 16:4), and the way this was done by first-century Jews was by baking and consuming until around noon on Nisan 14.
This particular solution ends up resolving the conflict that was thought to exist between John and the Synoptics. Jesus really did celebrate Passover with his disciples on the first day of Unleavened Bread, and this took place on Nisan 14, during which Jews of the period baked normal bread and consumed it together—in fact, they made a feast of it! This theory also fits nicely with the specific language recorded in all the accounts of the Lord’s Supper mentioned throughout the New Testament. According to Mt 26:26, Jesus took ordinary bread (artos / ἄρτος) and after blessing it broke it and gave it to his disciples (cf. Mk 14:22, Lk 22:19, Jn 6:35, Acts 2:42, 1Cor 10-11. As it turns out, the Greek word for unleavened bread (azumas / ἄζυμος) is never used anywhere in the New Testament to refer to the Lord’s Supper.
After wading through all the relevant texts (including extrabiblical sources that help us to understand the first-century context), it appears that in the early hours of Nisan 14 (just after sunset), Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover with his disciples (Mt 26:17, Mk 14:14, Lk 22:15). Though this feast was typically associated with Nisan 15, Jews in the first-century began their celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 14.5 Because these two feasts were combined, it was treated as an eight-day feast. This solution solves all the conflicts related to the date of Jesus’ crucifixion. The evidence makes clear that it took place on the afternoon of Nisan 14, “when they sacrificed the Passover lamb” (Mk 14:12, Lk 22:7), which also ties in with Paul’s amazing declaration that “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1Cor 5:7).6
Shane Rosenthal is the founder and host of The Humble Skeptic podcast and the author of Is Faith Blind? (due in 2024). Shane was one of the creators of the White Horse Inn radio broadcast which he also hosted from 2019-2021, and has written numerous articles for various sites and publications, including TableTalk, Core Christianity, Modern Reformation, and others.
For Further Reading
Where Was Jesus Crucified?, Shane Rosenthal
Did Palm Trees Grow in Jerusalem at the Time of Jesus?, Shane Rosenthal
Sprinkled Nations & Speechless Kings, Shane Rosenthal
Considering Alternatives to the Resurrection, Shane Rosenthal
Outside the Gospels, What Can We Really Know About Jesus?, Shane Rosenthal
Scribes of the New Covenant, Shane Rosenthal
Finding Christ in All of Scripture (PDF), Shane Rosenthal
The Virtue of Doubt, Shane Rosenthal
Water into Wine?, Shane Rosenthal
“Yosé the Galilean says, ‘Reference is made in particular to the set feasts, but not to the Sabbath that commemorates creation.’” Babylonian Talmud, translated by Jacob Neusner (Nedarim 10:8, I.13).
This language of “the eve of Passover” is also confirmed by language found in the Talmud, “On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged…because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 6:1 II.1).
Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G.K. Beale & D.A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans, 2007), p. 485
This would fit with multiple references in the Synoptic Gospels to the effect that the disciples “prepared the Passover.”
On this point, the language of Josephus matches that which we find in the Gospels: “On the feast of unleavened bread, which was come, it being the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan…” (War 5.99; 5.3.1, cf. Mt 26:18, Mk 14:12, Lk 22:7, Jn 19:14).
John the Baptist also highlighted this theme when he pointed to Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), which was likely an allusion to Is 53:7.