James Patrick explores difficult questions around the nature of Holy Week

In Part 4, we found that starting with Good Thursday (celebrated this very day), we can make sense of Jesus’ arrival in Bethany and triumphal entry into Jerusalem six days earlier on Palm Friday.  Not only that, but Mark’s observation that Jesus cleansed the temple a day later fits perfectly with the next day being a Sabbath.  This brings us to the remaining days of the passion week of Jesus.

So what about the 10th of Nisan?

To make sense of the argument that follows, we must familiarise ourselves with some of the other regulations surrounding the Feast of Passover in Exodus 12:3-6.

On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.  Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbour nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb.  Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.  You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.

If we start with ‘Good Friday’, and accept ‘Palm Sunday’ according to tradition, this means that the cleansing of the temple took place on the Monday, which would be the 10th of Nisan if the 14th was Friday.  In this case, there would be no apparent connection between the regulations for the 10th of Nisan in Exodus and the events of the 10th of Nisan during Jesus’ passion week.  However, if we start with Good Thursday and Palm Friday before that, the cleansing of the temple took place on the Saturday, the Sabbath, and the 10th of Nisan wasn’t until the Sunday of that week.  This unlocks the meaning of the Gospel accounts.

Confrontations with ‘every household’

Matthew’s Gospel clearly states that after cleansing the temple, Jesus “left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.”  He returned to Jerusalem the following day past the withered fig tree, and in the temple was challenged by the chief priests and elders of the people, the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the lawyers.  Mark’s Gospel similarly records after the cleansing of the temple that “When evening came, they would go out of the city.”  The next morning they passed the withered fig tree on their return to Jerusalem, after which Jesus was challenged by the chief priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, Herodians, Sadducees, and scribes again.  Luke also clearly separates Jesus’ cleansing of the temple from the confrontations between Him and the chief priests, scribes, elders and others “on one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple”.  The evidence seems to suggest quite directly that Jesus’ confrontations with the various groups happened particularly on the Sunday, which would be the 10th of Nisan.

Although the Gospel writers themselves do not emphasise this point, when we compare the regulations concerning the choice of the Passover lamb in Exodus with the details of Jesus’ passion week, as revealed through an understanding of Good Thursday, we discover just how perfectly Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures.  On the very day that lambs were being selected by every household in Jerusalem, Jesus was in the same temple courts being selected by every religious ‘household’ of the Jewish nation.  Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians (too small a ‘household’ to select the Lamb on their own), chief priests and elders of the people – each in turn came to Jesus with their hardest questions, and to each group Jesus demonstrated Himself ‘without blemish’, a perfect sacrificial lamb.

Chosen, but no place to stay

One further observation that confirms this understanding can be recognised when we consider Jesus’ accommodation arrangement during that final week.  Matthew and Mark both record a meal Jesus had at the house of Simon the leper, after which the Passover would be coming two days later.  This implies that this meal happened on the Monday evening, the start of the 12th of Nisan, four days after the meal at Lazarus’ house where Jesus was similarly anointed with costly perfume according to John.  Simon the leper lived in Bethany like Lazarus and his sisters, but we don’t have evidence that at this point Jesus was actually staying with Simon.

On the contrary, Luke very specifically records at the end of the ‘Olivet Discourse’, which concluded the dialogues on the 10th of Nisan, the following (21:37-38):  “Now during the day He was teaching in the temple, but at evening He would go out and spend the night on the mount that is called Olivet.  And all the people would get up early in the morning to come to Him in the temple to listen to Him.”  Prior to the 10th of Nisan, Jesus had been staying in Bethany, passing the fig tree on two different mornings on His way into Jerusalem.  However after being ‘chosen’ by ‘every household’ of the nation, He was to be looked after by those who had chosen Him.  He could no longer be looked after by friends, but when none of those religious ‘households’ offered Him accommodation, He simply spent the night in the olive groves nearest the temple.  This is precisely the reason why Judas knew where to find Him on the 14th, even though Judas had left the others before the meal had ended (John 13:27-30) – Jesus had been sleeping there for the previous three nights (Luke 22:39; John 18:2).

Three feasts in three (or four?) days

The final aspect of our discussion of the Jewish background to Jesus’ death and resurrection involves that very resurrection on the first day of the week.  Regulations about the Passover are spoken of in Exodus 12, Leviticus 23, Numbers 28 and Deuteronomy 16, but only the Leviticus passage specifically mentions one further feast held at that time in addition to Passover and Unleavened Bread.  This is the Feast of Firstfruits.

Exodus mentions nothing of this feast, Numbers speaks of “the day of the firstfruits” in connection with the Feast of Weeks, Deuteronomy clarifies that the Feast of Weeks is calculated as exactly seven weeks “from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain” (16:9), but Leviticus explains further.

When the grain first begins to be harvested, no bread nor fresh or roasted grain is to be eaten from it until a sheaf of the ‘firstfruits’ is brought to the priest who will wave it before the LORD.  Clearly the harvest must have been started for the first sheaf to be able to be offered, and being work this must take place on “the day after the Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:11, 15).  In Jewish tradition the ‘Omer’ is therefore counted from the special Sabbath that begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Nisan.  Seven complete sabbaths are counted, or fifty days, until the Feast of Weeks is celebrated, also known as Pentecost.

We might then say that the Feast of Firstfruits must always be celebrated on the 16th of Nisan, the day after the special Sabbath starting the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 15th, which itself is the day after the Day of Preparation, or the Feast of Passover, on the 14th.  However this is not quite correct.  As the Feast of Firstfruits must signify the start of the grain harvest, it cannot be held on a Sabbath, so on those very rare years when a normal Sabbath follows the special Sabbath of the 15th, the Feast must be delayed an extra day to the 17th.  This must be what happened on the year that Jesus died.

Christ our firstfruits

Although the Gospel writers do not emphasise the fulfilment of the Feast of Firstfruits, it was a widely known concept in the Early Church.  In 1 Corinthians, Paul mentions not only the Passover and Unleavened Bread in 5:6-8, but also the Feast of Firstfruits in 15:20-23.  Here Paul says, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who are asleep”, and again, “Christ the firstfruits”.  Paul recognised that in Jesus’ bodily resurrection was the ‘firstfruits’ promise that we too will receive resurrection bodies just like His.  Equally, the grain that features in the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, is first prefigured in the Feast of Firstfruits, much as the Holy Spirit who was poured out at Pentecost the year Jesus rose again, was first prefigured on the Feast of Firstfruits, the first day of the week when Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on His disciples (John 20:19-22).

However only on particular years would Jesus be able to die as a Passover lamb, unleavened with sin, and rise again after ‘three days and three nights’ like Jonah, as the Firstfruits of the resurrection from the dead.  Only on a year when a special and normal Sabbath were consecutive could Jesus spend the required length of time in the grave, delaying the Feast of Firstfruits for one extra day.  Jesus would have been able to calculate exactly which year He needed to die, quite a time beforehand.  No wonder that year He “set His face towards Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51), knowing that this was the year He was to die.

Women waiting through a double Sabbath

Thus the women were made to wait a whole two Sabbaths “according to the commandment” (Luke 23:56) before going out to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body.  None of the Gospel writers say “the Sabbaths” plural: John avoids mentioning the Sabbath in connection with Jesus’ resurrection, Luke says that “on the Sabbath [the women] rested”, Mark says that “When the Sabbath was over [the women] brought spices”, and Matthew says that “after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first of the week…”.  None of these are evidence against a double Sabbath that year, but at best they are simply silent about this fact.

However, in Matthew’s Gospel we do find some evidence toward a longer period than one day separating the day of Jesus’ death from that of His resurrection.  Matthew 27:62-66 records a fascinating scene in which the chief priests and Pharisees approached Pilate on the 15th of Nisan, the day after Jesus’ death, and recalled Jesus’ promise to rise again “after three days”.  They therefore requested that the grave be made secure “until the third day”.  If it had been the following day they had been assuming, they should rather have said, “until tomorrow”, but as it is, it appears they were speaking of a day two days hence, and must therefore have been talking to Pilate on the Friday rather than the Saturday.

In the concluding post we will summarise the various arguments and also suggest a resolution to the ancient Easter controversy.

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Dr James E. Patrick is a Bible scholar, theologian, and author, with a particular interest in Jewish-gentile relations in biblical times and throughout history. For example, see https://grovebooks.co.uk/products/e-187-british-christian-history-and-the-jewish-people-recovering-an-ancient-spiritual-legacy.