p. 5 | Date of Christ's Crucifixion by O. A. Johnson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 5, 1914

Date of Christ's Crucifixion

By O. A. Johnson

Annual Feasts and Annual Sabbaths—No. 4

Date of Christ's Crucifixion

O. A. JOHNSON

IN the last article it was briefly shown that Thursday of the Passion Week was the day on which the paschal lamb "must be killed." Further evidence will now be given to prove that this lamb was killed and all leaven was put out of the houses on this Thursday, and that this very day was the fourteenth day of Abib.

"Now 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?" The disciples followed his directions, "and they made ready the Passover. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve." Matt. 26: 17, 20, 21. Mark's testimony reads as follows: "And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover?" "And in the evening he cometh with the twelve," and they "did eat." Mark 14: 12, 17, 18. Luke's testimony reads thus: "Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed." "And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Luke 22: 7, 14, 15.

The three evangelists just quoted agree that this day on which the Passover lamb was killed, was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, or of the Passover. It has also been proved that this particular day fell in this year on Thursday. (See previous article.)

Now the Scriptures teach definitely that "fourteenth day" of the "first month" is the Passover of the Lord" (Num. 28: 16); and that "the children of Israel . . . kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho." Joshua 5: 10. All leaven was put out of their houses on this same day; for we read, "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." Ex. 12: 18.

Concerning the killing of the Passover lamb we read as follows: "Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening ['between the two evenings,' margin]." Ex. 12: 6. In the time of Christ the lamb was slain between the ninth and the eleventh hour, or between three and five o'clock in the afternoon. See Josephus's "Wars," book 6, chap. 9, sec. 3; "The Temple," by Edersheim, pages 211, 222, 223; "Practical Lessons," by Gilbert, page 234.

Some claim that Christ "held the paschal supper a day in advance of that observed by the rest of the Jewish world—a supposition not only inconsistent with the plain language of the synoptics [the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke], but impossible, since the paschal lamb could not have been offered in the temple, and, therefore, no paschal supper held, out of regular time."—"Life and Times of Jesus," by Edersheim, Vol. II, page 482. The following on this subject is to the point:—

"On the fourteenth day of the first Jewish month, the very day and month on which, for fifteen long centuries, the Passover lamb had been slain, Christ, having eaten the Passover with his disciples, instituted the feast which was to commemorate his own death."—"Great Controversy," page 399.

From the above testimony it is evident that the first day of the feast, when the Passover lamb was slain, in the year of Christ's crucifixion fell on

Thursday, the Fourteenth Day

of the first month, Abib, or Nisan.

After the lamb had been slain, flayed, etc., it was to be roasted with fire, and thereafter eaten in the "night." Ex. 12: 6-8. "The Pascha is not eaten but during the night, nor yet later than the middle of the night."—"Life and Times of Jesus," Vol. II, page 482. We read that in "the same night in which he was betrayed," Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, after having eaten the Passover; and this proves that Jesus ate his last Passover with his disciples on the night following the day, Thursday, on which the lamb was slain. Luke 22: 7, 14-20; 1 Cor. 11: 23. See also "Spirit of Prophecy," Vol. III, page 89.

But since day begins and ends in the evening, at sunset, according to the Bible (Lev. 23: 32; Deut. 16: 6) the Passover lamb must have been eaten on the night preceding the fifteenth, hence really on the fifteenth day of this month; for the fourteenth day ended at sunset. Now since Christ was crucified on the day following the night in which he ate the Passover, and since that night was the first part of the fifteenth day of Abib, therefore Christ was crucified on the fifteenth day of the first month. "He himself was the true paschal lamb, and on the day the Passover was eaten, he was to be sacrificed."—"Desire of Ages," page 642.

No other conclusion can be drawn from the above than that Jesus was crucified on

Friday, the Fifteenth Day of Abib

For fear of "an uproar among the people" on the feast day, the Jews postponed the arrest of Christ until night, and proceeded immediately to try him; and before the multitude was aware of it, they had secured his condemnation. He was crucified about nine o'clock Friday morning, and died about three o'clock in the afternoon, at the time of the evening sacrifice. Matt. 26: 5, 46-48, 57-59; 27: 1, 2, 24-26; Mark 15: 34-37.

"When the loud cry, 'It is finished,' came from the lips of Christ, the priests were officiating in the temple. It was the hour of the evening sacrifice. The lamb representing Christ had been brought to be slain. . . . With intense interest the people were looking on. But the earth trembles and quakes; for the Lord himself draws near. With a rending noise the inner veil of the temple is torn from top to bottom by an unseen hand, throwing open to the gaze of the multitude a place once filled with the presence of God. In this place the Shekinah had dwelt. . . . All is terror and confusion. The priest is about to slay the victim; but the knife drops from his nerveless hand, and the lamb escapes. Type has met antitype in the death of God's Son."—Id., page 736.

This lamb, which escaped, was to have been offered at the regular daily evening sacrifice; but it was not the paschal lamb, for that had been killed on the previous afternoon. Num. 28: 23. Each "Israelite," not the priest, "slew for himself" his own paschal lamb. See Ex. 12: 6; "The Temple," page 223.

From certain expressions in the Gospel according to John, some have thought that Jesus ate his last paschal lamb one day before the time, that is, on the thirteenth instead of the fourteenth of Abib. But there is no real ground for such a theory. On this point Edersheim remarks as follows: "At the outset we may dismiss as unworthy of serious discussion the theory, either that our Lord had observed the paschal supper at another than the regular time for it, or that St. John meant to intimate that he had partaken of it on the thirteenth instead of the fourteenth of Nisan. To such violent hypotheses, which are wholly uncalled for, there is this one conclusive answer, that, except on the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan, no paschal lamb could have been offered in the temple, and therefore no paschal supper celebrated in Jerusalem."—"The Temple," page 245.

In John 18: 28 we read that those who brought Jesus "early" Friday morning "unto the hall of judgment" "went not into the judgment hall lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the Passover." Some claim that "the Passover" here mentioned must mean the Passover lamb. But this cannot refer to the eating of the Passover lamb; for it had been eaten on the night previous. Again, the defilement here spoken of would not have prevented them from eating the Passover lamb on the night following, Friday; for that uncleanness would end at sunset. Lev. 22: 6, 7.

From Num. 28: 16-23 we learn that there were special offerings to be presented on the fifteenth day of Nisan after the Passover had been eaten on the previous night. See also Deut. 16: 2. Compare 2 Chron. 30: 24; 35: 8, 9.

There was a special "festive offering" called Chagigah, and this "Chagigah for the fifteenth of Nisan was obligatory;" but it "might not be offered by any person who had contracted Levitical defilement. It was on this ground that, when the Jews led 'Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment,' they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might 'eat the Passover,' Chagigah."—Id., pages 218, 219, 252. For a full discussion on this subject, read the Appendix to "The Temple," by Edersheim, pages 395-399.

The feast of the Passover lasted seven days. The first day of this feast fell on the fifteenth day of the first month, and it was a day for "an holy convocation," on which no "servile work" might be done. Lev. 23: 5-7. Nevertheless that "which every man must eat, that only may be done." Ex. 12: 16. "It was permitted to prepare the necessary articles of food on the fifteenth of Nisan."—"The Temple," page 226. So while this Passover sabbath fell on Friday, yet that day could be called the preparation before the weekly Sabbath. Luke 23: 54-56.

From the fact that the Sabbath that followed the crucifixion of Christ is called "an high day" (John 19: 31), it has been thought by some that it must have been so called because the first Passover sabbath and the weekly Sabbath came together. But while the weekly Sabbath might be called "an high day" for that reason, yet it was evidently in this case called "an high day" because of the offering of the special wave sheaf on the day following the first Passover sabbath. The wave sheaf was always offered on the sixteenth of Nisan, which fell in this year on the weekly Sabbath. "The Sabbath about to open was a 'high day'—it was both a Sabbath and the second paschal day, which was regarded as in every respect equally sacred with the first,—nay, more so, since the so-called wave sheaf was then offered to the Lord."—"Life and Times of Jesus," Vol. II, page 613.

Adam Clarke, in his comment on John 19: 31, says: "That Sabbath day was an high day" "because that was the day on

which the sheaf of the first fruits was offered according to the command." See Lev. 23: 10, 11.

Now no other conclusion can be drawn from the evidence thus far presented than that Christ was crucified on

Friday, the Fifteenth Day of the First Month, Abib, or Nisan

and that this Friday was the first sabbath in the feast of the Passover.

When we consider the time and the manner in which Christ was tried, condemned, and crucified, it can truly be said that "the Sanhedrin violated not only the law of God, but grossly outraged every ordinance of their own traditions."—"The Temple," page 254.

Since the above proves positively that Christ was crucified on Friday, the hypothesis, held by some, that he was crucified on Wednesday or on Thursday, must be forever dismissed from our minds as untenable.

Walla Walla (Wash.) College.