JACQUES GAUVIN, RELIGION
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The Passover Lamb and Evening

Your boasting is not good. Don^t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. 1 Corinthians 5:6 to 8 The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

Verse 7 above clearly states that Christ is our Passover Lamb. He was prophesied to have been sacrificed thousands of years beforehand, probably since the first sacrificial lamb to provide skins for Adam and Eve. Christ died in mid afternoon on the fourteenth of the first month, put to death chiefly due to the efforts of the Pharisees. Notice also that Paul is promoting the observance of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. 1 Chronicals 35:1 The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

Notice that in the old testament the lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth. Some believe that it was probably in mid afternoon coinciding with the time of Christ^s death. Others believe that it was at the onset of the fourteenth, the evening before.

5 ^Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 ^And 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. 7 ^Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 ^And they shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Exodus 12:5 to 8 The New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1977.

Notice above that the lamb is slain on the fourteenth and is to be eaten with unleavened bread. There is some debate as to the meaning of twilight. 14 ^Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance. 15 ^Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 ^And on the first day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the seventh day; no work at all shall be done on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared by you. 17 ^You shall also observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent ordinance. 18 ^In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty~first day of the month at evening. 19 ^Seven days there shall be no leaven found in your houses; for whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is an alien or a native of the land. 20 ^You shall not eat anything leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.^ Exodus 12:14 to 20 The New American Standard Bible, (La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation) 1977.

Again above notice that unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days, from the end of the fourteenth to the end of the twenty first. We traditionally observe the fifteenth and the twenty first days of the first month as Holy days and I believe that is correct. The fifteenth through to and including the twenty first makes seven days of unleavened bread, which is correct. This makes the Feast last until the evening of the twenty first day, the end of the day, and therefore includes the twenty first day.

27 On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you... 32 It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath. Leviticus 23:27 and 32 The New American Standard Bible

In the New Testament when Jesus ate the Last Supper with his apostles he took bread (artos) which means ordinary bread but must have been unleavened bread, since we saw earlier that the Passover was to be eaten with unleavened bread. See Matthew 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:23. In all these passages the word for bread is artos, ordinary bread. Therefore the argument arises; Jesus did not eat the Passover that night. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the following night. That day, the fourteenth of the first month, Jesus became our Passover sacrifice, the Lamb of God. But this unjust death I have heard it explained was in part due to some Jews slaughtering their lambs at the wrong time, i.e.. in mid afternoon rather than the previous evening.

And on the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the passover, his disciples say unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and make ready that thou mayest eat the passover? Mark 14:12

This statement was made on the day before the last supper. Did some sects of the Jews observe the Passover and the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread one day earlier than other sects? We know that the First Day of Unleavened Bread followed Christ^s death and that He was our Passover Lamb. I have come across the explanation that the Jews considered the Passover celebration to include all the days from the tenth of the first month when the lamb was chosen, to the end of the 21st day, the last day of Unleavened Bread, see Luke 22:1. This however does not adequately explain Mark 14:12 to 14 and Luke 22:1 to 13. Obviously these passages show that many prepared the Passover lamb at the end of the thirteenth, at the onset of the fourteenth. Jesus and His apostles did the same so the custom must have been right.

The following verses imply that Jesus did not eat the passover that final year.

And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Luke 22:15 to 16 (1901 American Standard Version)

For quite a while I understood this verse to imply that the Passover was the following night and that Jesus becoming the Passover Lamb would not be there to eat it. I do highly suspect that I was in error. I also thought that since there were only seven days of unleavened bread that the Passover was among them. Again I suspect that I was in error. Here is the same verse from the New American Standard Bible:

I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Luke 22:15 and 16

The injection of the word again in this apparently difficult passage to translate clearly indicates that Jesus did eat the Passover as previous verses state. The passage becomes clear and sensible. This is a perfect example of what makes some Bibles superior to others. No translation is free of errors but some have fewer than others. It is always good to check other sources when the scriptures seem confusing.

My intention is not to confuse you the reader but only to explain things the way I see them. The important thing is to not let the leaven of malice or the leaven of boasting get the better of you. You cannot gain knowledge unless God first gives you the capacity to do so. There is no reason to boast.

2007 Jacques Gauvin

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