** Chronology of the Passion

The Chronology of the Passion as seen through the Exodus

There are numerous writings on the connection between the crucifixion of Y’shua and the Passover. They are for the most part all well-thought out and well-intentioned writings given by sincere believers (and sincere detractors). However, one thing that has always annoyed me about these writings is that believers gloss over the Feast of Firstfruits with one sentence or two, saying that it was given to symbolize the resurrection. Well, as far as Judaism goes, yes and no. But that’s not the point. The Feast of Firstfruits is not a footnote on Elohim’s calendar. It is a full fledged festival itself with scripture and traditions of its own, which would have to have been followed EXACTLY in order for the people of Jerusalem to understand whether or not Y’shua fulfilled this role as firstfruits of the harvest to come. As a consequence, I believe a closer examination of the Feast of Firstfruits will enable us to clear up some of the controversy surrounding the various theories of on exactly what day the crucifixion took place. We will therefore end our journey at Passover, instead of beginning there.

Scripture regarding Firstfruits

Leviticus 23:9-14

YHWH spoke to Moshe and said: Speak to the Israelites and say: When you enter the country which I am giving you and reap the harvest there, you will bring the first sheaf of your harvest, and he will present it to YHWH with the gesture of offering, for you to be acceptable. The priest will make this offering on the day after the Sabbath, and on the same day as you make this offering, you will offer YHWH an unblemished lamb one year old as a burnt offering. The cereal offering for that day will be 2/10 of wheaten flour mixed with [olive] oil, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to YHWH. The libation will be a quarter of a hin of wine. You will eat no bread, roasted ears of wheat or fresh produce before this day, before making the offering to your Elohim. This is a perpetual law for all your descendants, wherever you live.

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

When you have entered the country which YHWH your Elohim is giving you as heritage, when you have taken possession of it and are living in it, you must set aside the first-fruits of all the produce of the soil raised by you in your country, given you by YHWH your Elohim. You must put these in a basket and go to the place where YHWH your Elohim chooses to give his name a home. You will go to the priest then in office and say to him, “Today I declare to YHWH my Elohim that I have reached the country which YHWH swore to our ancestors that He would give us.” The priest will then take the basket from your hand and lay it before the altar of YHWH your Elohim. In the presence of YHWH your Elohim, you will then pronounce these words. “My father was a wandering Aramaean, who went down to Mitsrayim with a small group of men and stayed there until he there became a great, powerful and numerous nation. The Mitsrayim ill-treated us, they oppressed us and inflicted harsh slavery on us. But we called on YHWH, Elohim of our ancestors. YHWH heard our voice and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression, and YHWH brought us out of Mitsrayim with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. He brought us here and has given us this country, a country flowing with milk and honey. Hence, I now bring the first-fruits of the soil that you, YHWH, have given me.” You will then lay them before YHWH your Elohim, and prostrate yourself in the presence of YHWH your Elohim. You must then rejoice in all the good things that YHWH your Elohim has bestowed on you and your family – you, the Levite and the foreigner living among you.

Leviticus 23:15-16

From the day after the Sabbath, the day on which you bring the sheaf of offering,

you will count seven full weeks. You will count 50 days, to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then you will offer YHWH a new cereal offering…On the same day, you will hold an assembly, for you this will be a sacred assembly. You will do no heavy work. This is a perpetual law for your descendants, wherever you live.

Deuteronomy 16:9-10

You must count seven weeks, counting these seven seeks from the time you begin to put your sickle into the standing grain. You will then celebrate the Feast of Weeks for YHWH your Elohim with the gift of a voluntary offering proportionate to the degree in which YHWH has blessed you.

Joshua 5:10-12

And the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and performed the Passover on the 14^th day of the month, at evening, on the desert plains of Yericho. And they ate of the stored grain of the land on the morrow after the Passover, unleavened bread and roasted grain on this same day. And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the stored grain of the land. And the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Kena’an that year.

The Firstfruits controversy

Most students of the Bible realize that there has been a debate concerning the counting of the Omer, which begins on the Feast of Firstfruits and leads to the Feast of Weeks. The problem phrase is “on the day after the Sabbath.” As we read on to the laws concerning the Festival of Shavu’ot (Pentecost) we see that starting on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, we are to begin counting days, and count 50 days to know when to celebrate Pentecost. This counting is supposed to start the day after the Sabbath.

Rabbinic Judaism chooses to fix the date as Nisan 16^th, the day after the 15^th, the first day of Unleavened Bread, since the first day of Unleavened Bread is a holy convocation on which no regular work can be done. So technically, it is “a” Sabbath. I cannot agree with this fixed date for the simple fact that Elohim is not shy about pronouncing the exact day (and sometimes even the exact time) of all His other festivals. What is the purpose of all that counting if Feast of Firstfruits and Pentecost have fixed dates? And if they have fixed dates, why doesn’t the Torah say so?

The fact is, the first day of Unleavened Bread is “a” sabbath, but it is not “the” Sabbath. Torah does not refer to any of the feasts as “Sabbaths.” They are always referred to as “appointed times” (moedim) or “holy convocations” or just “feasts.” The only appointed time that is referred to as a sabbath is a FAST day – Yom Kippur. More importantly, however, the counting has to END on the day after the Sabbath as well. And, even if the word “sabbaton” can be inferred to mean “festival,” in the first part of the verse, there is no festival proclaimed on the 49^th day of the Omer that the 50^th day can be “after.” Therefore, there is only a regular weekly Shabbat at that time. This is the position that is currently espoused by modern Karaite Jews and there is ample documentation of their reasoning for this conclusion on their website, for those who wish to study further. To summarize, “The” Sabbath is always the 7^th day of the week – the regular weekly Sabbath. You have to stretch reason awfully thin to arrive at any reasonable answer to this question other than the obvious one – the dates are not fixed, and the counting of the omer starts on the first day of the week following “the” sabbath.

Therefore the counting of the Omer always starts on a “Sunday,” the first day of the week. Likewise, the Feast of Weeks always falls on the first day of the week, regardless of the date. The passage from Joshua proves the point. In that year, they ate the grain of the land the day immediately following Passover. That would have been Nisan 15^th, the first day of Chag Matzah. How did they do this, when previously they had been told they could not eat the grain until after it had been offered as a firstfruits offering? Simple – Passover fell on a Sabbath that year. Therefore, the day after the Sabbath was also the first day of Chag Matzah. Apparently, Elohim has demonstrated by this example that Firstfruits and the first convocation of Chag Matzah can be on the same day. We should keep this in mind, because many people assume that if Nisan 14^th falls on Shabbat, that the counting of the Omer should begin the 21^st day of Nisan instead of the 15^th. I myself used to think this, but realized the example given in the opening chapters of Joshua shows otherwise.

Therefore we must ignore the Rabbinical calendars that many of us use today to observe Elohim’s appointed times when it comes to the Feast of Firstfruits and Shavu’ot. The Firstfruits does not always occur on Nisan 16^th, and Pentecost is not always the 6^th of Sivan. The dates change every year. They CAN be these days, but they are not ALWAYS these days.

However, different sects of Judaism at the time of Y’shua and even now disagree on which interpretation is the correct one. Rabbinical Orthodox Judaism, a direct descendant of the Pharisees, insists on the Nisan 16^th date, hence the incorrectness of modern rabbinic calendars. At the time of Y’shua, however, there were 3 major sects of Judaism (and many small ones). Not only did they differ on the interpretation of the Feast of Firstfruits, but they also differed on the interpretation of the Passover. We will address that issue later in this lesson. For now, let us hypothesize that Y’shua followed Torah, not the Pharisees, and therefore the correct date of the Feast of Firstfruits is the Sunday following Passover.

Traditions related to Firstfruits

I searched many webpages and other sources to find out various traditions that are associated with the Feast of Firstfruits both historically and in modern times. I was amazed at the lack of even lip-service observance within regular Judaism. The position of the Messianics was summed up nicely in a site offered by the Baruch Hashem Messianic Congregation, which reads: “The Feast of First Fruits of the Barley Harvest (Bikkurim) is observed during the week of Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMatzah). It will always be the day following the weekly Sabbath, the first day of the week (Yom Rishon), which we call Sunday (Leviticus [Vayikra] 23:9-11). Anciently, on this day, sheaves of barley were waved before the L-rd in a prescribed ceremony. Today, this festival is not observed in traditional Judaism.”

There doesn’t seem to be any explanation as to why Judaism has decided to ignore one of Elohim’s appointed times. I suspect it is simply a neurotic aversion to anything that might be construed as being related to “easter” which is usually (but not always) celebrated on the same day. Modern Rabbinic Judaism, of course, would rather have an apoplexy than observe something on the same day as “Christians,” so it’s easy to see why they don’t observe it now. But in the past, it was observed, and we have some of the traditions associated with it. [I should add, at this point, that in my opinion, just because there is no Temple in Jerusalem does not mean we should ignore Elohim’s appointed times. They are put there for a reason, as markers for us to see and recognize elements of His plan that have occurred in the past, are occurring now, and/or will occur in the future. True, we cannot take our offering to the Temple, and many people no longer garden themselves. I think, though, for those of us who do garden, there are many herbs and winter crops that are available for harvest on the early spring morning of Firstfruits, and these can be given to our Rabbi or worship leader. The same can be said for Shavu’ot.]

Now, we know that traditions are not Torah, but let us examine them for a brief moment, to see how they relate to The Feast of Firstfruits. I found one Parashat written by a Jewish Rabbi on the web that I thought was very interesting for the Messianic point of view. The process went basically like this:

First, they would identify the first fruits to blossom, and would designate some of them, as much as 1/60^th of the field, as “first fruits.”

So, well prior to the week of Unleavened Bread, the farmers and priests would note which parts of their fields had sprouted and bloomed first, and mark it. Then, right before the Feast of Firstfruits, they would select some of those sheaves to be bundled together with cords.

Now, my hypothesis is that the year Y’shua was sacrificed, immediately before the Feast of Firstfruits (Sunday) there were two back to back holy days – the regular weekly Sabbath of Nisan 16^th (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday) and the first convocation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on Nisan 15^th (sundown Thursday to sundown Friday). I think we can all agree that the Torah does not allow work in the fields on any regular Sabbath. And unless the first convocation of Chag Matzah itself falls on the Feast of Firstfruits, I think we can all agree that no work in the fields can be done on the days of “holy convocations.” So, when would the farmers be “tying the sheaves for offering with cords” on this particular week?

The answer is controversial by everyone’s reckoning: Thurdsay, Nisan 14^th, later afternoon, the day of Passover, which is not a Sabbath. This was their last opportunity. It was also, if my hypothesis is correct, the exact same time that Y’shua would have been bound with the gravecloths and “set aside” in his tomb. More on this later.

To continue with the traditions associated with Firstfruits, we know that the Sabbath officially ends, according to Rabinnic Judaism, when the first three stars can be seen, or if it is cloudy, when it is too dark to see your hand. So after Shabbat (sundown Saturday night), they all went to the fields and spent the night, keeping vigil. This is to fulfill Exodus 12:42, which says, “Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Mitsrayim, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.” (more on this later)

According to the Encyclopedia Judaica: The Entire town camped out.

Then, very early in the morning, before the sun was actually up, they would inspect the sheaves one last time, because as we all know, a sacrifice has to be without blemish. They had to make sure that no brown spots, insect damage, or wilting had occurred, and had to make sure one last time that there were no malformed pieces on their offerings. They had to grind up a small amount of grain to fill the omer offering, after they were sure everything was clean and pure.

If my hypothesis is correct, this is why the two witnesses would have been at the tomb of Y’shua before dawn on Sunday morning – not to help Y’shua get out of the tomb, because if He was really resurrected He didn’t need any help. And not, as some have suggested, simply to talk to the women who came. The witnesses were there to inspect the offering, to make sure that it was fulfilled that the Messiah would not see corruption. He had to still be a sacrifice without blemish.

Next, according to tradition, the townspeople would place the selected sheaves into baskets. The Parashat says that they would “put them in baskets and decorate the baskets with doves.”

Now it gets really interesting, because they take the baskets to the Temple to be offered at dawn. And along with the liturgy given in Scripture, they also traditionally recited/sang Psalm 30. I loved reading the Rabbi’s comments in the Parashat:

Why did they recite this verse at the First Fruits ceremony? At first glance there seems to be no obvious connection…No explanation is given in the Mishnah for the connection between this psalm and the first fruits.

From the Messianic point of view, this is a very interesting point. Let me show you Psalm 30:

I praise you to the heights, YHWH, for you have raised me up!

You have not let my foes make merry over me!

YHWH, my Elohim, I cried to you for help and you healed me.

YHWH, you have lifted me up out of Shoel [the grave]

From among those who sink into oblivion, you have given me life!

Make music for YHWH, all you who are faithful to him,

Praise His unforgettable holiness. His anger lasts but a moment,

His favor through life. In the evening come tears,

But with dawn, cries of joy!

Carefree, I used to think, “Nothing can ever shake me!”

Your favor, YHWH, set me on unassailable heights,

But you turned away your face, and I was terrified!

To you, YHWH, I call – to my Elohim I cry for mercy!

What point is there in my death, going down to the abyss?

Can the dust praise you or proclaim your faithfulness?

Listen, YHWH, take pity on me! YHWH, be my help!

You have turned my mourning into dancing.

You have stripped off my sackcloth and covered me with joy.

So my heart will sing to you unceasingly.

YHWH my Elohim, I shall praise you for ever!

So, to summarize my hypothesis, in fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits, Y’shua would have to be harvested immediately before dawn, after a final inspection by the two witnesses to assure no corruption, and then promptly presented in the Temple of Heaven with His accompanying dove (which according to the Greek writings had alighted upon Him at his baptism, if you recall), was found to be unblemished and was accepted as the Firstfruits sacrifice, upon which pronouncement He sings the above Psalm of praise to Elohim for overthrowing the grave.

So, what happened at the Tomb on the morning of the Feast of Firstfruits?

Luke 24

After the Sabbaths (mia ton sabbaton), at the first sign of dawn [before the sun actually rose], they went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but upon entering, they could not find the body of the Lord Y’shua. As they stood there puzzled about this, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side [the two witnesses]. Terrified, the women bowed their heads to the ground. But the two said to them, “Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here, he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee? That the son of man was destined to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day?” And they remembered his words.

Notice carefully what this says: ON the third day. In Jewish reckoning, part of a day counts toward the whole. (See “The Jewish Book of Why,” page 69, etc. “In Jewish tradition, part of a day is considered equal to a whole day. If a mourner sits Shiva for as little as one hour on the day of the funeral, that is considered as one full day of Shiva. The same is true if a mourner sits Shiva for only an hour on the seventh day – it is considered a full day.”)

Luke 24, continued.

Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Y’shua himself came up and walked by their side, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He said to them, “What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along? They stopped, their faces downcast. Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him. “You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days!” He asked, “What things?” They answered, “All about Y’shua of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before Elohim and the whole people. And, how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have gone by since it all happened, and some women from our group have astounded us. They went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive!” (New Jerusalem Bible)

So we see in this translation that on Sunday, two full days had already passed, and it was the third day since the crucifixion. Most people, however, know the passage better from the King James version of the Bible, which says plainly, “And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.” (Luke 24:21b) This does some fairly serious damage to those who don’t understand that in Jewish reckoning, part of a day counts as a whole day, so “three days and three nights” is not necessarily an exactly 72 hour period of time. The story of Jonah was well known to the 1^st century followers of Y’shua, and the figure of speech used is simply not meant the way modern people interpret it. [Of course, even if it was meant to be that way, you still can’t get 72 hours out of Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.]

Anyway, so according to the accounts of the Talmidim, Y’shua rose ON the third day, Sunday, the Feast of Firstfruits. The two witnesses came to inspect and verify his spotless condition, after which he left the grave.

How all this relates to Passover

So, in order to arrive at the time of the Passover sacrifice, we need to now look backwards. Sunday during daylight was during the 3^rd day, but in Judaism, days start the night before. So from sundown Saturday night until sundown Sunday night would have been the full 3^rd day (Nisan 17^th, the Feast of Firstfruits that year). Therefore from sundown Friday night until sundown Saturday night would have been the second full day (Nisan 16^th, the regular weekly Sabbath). And from sundown Thursday night until sundown Friday night would have been the 1^st full day (Nisan 15^th, the first convocation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a sabbath).

That puts the crucifixion on Nisan 14^th, during the daylight hours on Thursday. Y’shua was being crucified at the exact same time that the Pharisees (the majority sect) were sacrificing their Passover lambs, at the sundown ending Nisan 14^th. This means that Y’shua celebrated his own personal Passover seder with his disciples on Wednesday night, the sundown beginning Nisan 14^th. This is an interesting point. According to the writings of the Talmidim, Y’shua actually observed BOTH times, one using a sacrificed lamb in the upper room with his followers, and one AS the sacrificial lamb Himself for the nation of Israel and the world.

As was mentioned before, there are different sects of Judaism and they disagree over whether Passover is to be celebrated on the sundown beginning Nisan 14^th or the sundown ending Nisan 14^th. We know that the Pharisees observed the sundown ending Nisan 14^th from historical records, and this is shown today on modern Jewish calendars, where Passover and the First Convocation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread have merged into a single observance, contrary to the Torah. It is a point of theology that Y’shua would have had to have lived a perfectly obedient life in order to qualify to be the Messiah. So the question now becomes, when is the Passover seder supposed to be?

The Exodus

We know that on the 10^th of Nisan every household was commanded to select an unblemished lamb and care for it tenderly until the 14^th, when it was slaughtered as the Passover sacrifice. We know that part of the commandments Moshe gave to the people of Israel was to “take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and with the blood from the basin tough the lintel and both door-posts, then let none of you venture out of the house until morning.” (Ex. 12:22-23) So it seems clear that at the sundown beginning Nisan 14^th, Israel slaughtered the Passover, then, stayed in their homes overnight, plundered the Mistrayim the next morning, packed, and in the afternoon they probably set off on their journey. They again celebrated the first night they camped, which would have been the beginning of Nisan 15^th, which Elohim has commanded in Torah be observed as the First Day of Unleavened Bread, because the bread hadn’t had time to rise, since they left Mitsrayim in such haste. In cool temperatures, such as in the evening and at night in the spring, bread does not rise very quickly, but it does still rise somewhat. So we know they at least traveled several hours before stopping to eat their unleavened bread, and it would have been fully dark – Nisan 15^th. Deuteronomy confirms this in chapter 16 when it says “Elohim brought you out of Mitsrayim by night.” We are clearly a full 24 hours away from the Passover observance at this point, showing that the modern Rabbinical practice of combining Passover and Unleavened Bread into one celebration is certainly wrong. The Passover was sacrificed at the sundown beginning Nisan 14^th, they stayed in their homes overnight, and then the Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated 24 hours later, at the beginning of Nisan 15^th.

Are Passover and the First Convocation of Chag Matzah the same meal?

Aside from the Exodus chronology, there is other evidence for us to determine that the Passover sacrifice and the meal celebrating the first night of Chag Matzah are not the same. In Elohim’s instructions on who should and should not celebrate Passover, Torah clearly indicates that only the circumcised can eat the Passover, but everyone in the land is required to keep Chag Matzah – every house.

The uncircumcised believers can do, and must do, the Chag Matsot, eating no leaven for seven days, and having no leaven on his house on those seven days, because on Exodus 12:19, Elohim said: “19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, that soul shall

be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a sojourner, or one that is born in the land.” No other requirement is given.

However, only the circumcised believers are allowed to eat the Passover, because

it is written on Exodus 12:43-49: “43 And YHWH said unto Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: there shall no foreigner eat thereof; 44 but every man’s servant that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof.

46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the Passover to YHWH, let all his males be circumcised,

and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: but no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 49 One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.”

Clearly, in the matter of Passover alone, Elohim makes a distinction between those who are his people and those who are not. Just as He did at the Passover itself, sparing the obedient and killing the firstborn of those who did not obey. Those that are obedient in obtaining circumcision and following Torah are welcome to the Passover. Those who refuse are not welcome. But leaven must be purged from the land. Leaven represents sin. Sin must not be tolerated in the land, whether it is by Israelites or foreigners. Anyone who wants to live in YHWH’s kingdom must be without sin. So, for seven days, all leaven must be purged from the houses – all the houses, not just the circumcised, but everyone.

Is there more evidence? Yes, there is. Look at Leviticus 9:6-14. It says, “When any male of your or your generations is unclean, or is far away on a journey, he shall still perform the Passover of YHWH on the 14^th day of the 2^nd month [Iyar]. Between the evenings they shall perform it. With unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. They do not leave of it until morning, and they do not break a bone of it. According to all the laws of the Passover they shall perform it. But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and has failed to perform the Passover, that same shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of YHWH at its appointed time. That man bears his sin.”

Passover is the only festival on Elohim’s calendar that is so important to Him that He allows a makeup test. But notice what is missing from this commandment, though – the seven days of unleavened bread! There is NO commandment to make up the days of unleavened bread – only the Passover seder itself. They must kill the lamb and eat it according to all the previous commandments, but are NOT required to eat unleavened bread for seven days afterward.

This demonstrates clearly that even aside from the Exodus chronology, Elohim makes a distinction between Passover and Chag Matzah. So, we have to ask ourselves, when did Y’shua have his Passover seder with his disciples? If he obeyed Torah flawlessly, he would have had to have observed his Passover seder at sundown beginning Nisan 14^th, which is also the time that the Saduccees and the Essenes celebrated their seders. [As an aside: We know, because Elohim said so Himself, that “the evening and the morning were the first day.” Evening is at the beginning of the day, not the end. And “evening” existed three days before the sun was even created – so “evening” cannot be tied directly to sundown.]

Then, to pick up the story of the Greek writings, Y’shua was arrested, beaten, tried and finally crucified all on Nisan 14^th ( Wednesday nighttime to Thursday afternoon), because his sacrifice would have been invalid at any other time. This is an important point that needs to be stated again – BOTH his personal seder with his disciples AND his crucifixion all had to take place on Nisan 14^th to be valid. Otherwise, he would have been disobeying any and every nuance of Torah and therefore could not qualify as the Messiah.

On a somewhat related note, I believe that the reason Elohim made the commandment vague about the Nisan 14^th is for the simple expedient that at the height of the 2^nd Temple period and later in the middle and latter half of the millennial kingdom, there will be so many people coming to observe the appointed times that it will be impossible for it all to be done in one afternoon. It all still occurs between the evenings of Nisan 14^th, satisfying the Word of the Torah. The fact that Y’shua ate his personal Passover on the first evening and was then the Passover sacrifice for everyone on the next evening gives legitimacy to both, as long as the Passover is eaten BEFORE sundown beginning the 15^th. (After sundown beginning the 15^th, it is no longer Passover. It is the first day of Chag Matzah.) I would presume that immediately after the second evening group eats the Passover at home, they would wait until it is fully dark and then celebrate the first convocation of Unleavened Bread at the Temple – along with the first group who had eaten the Passover the evening before and with the uncircumcised who were not permitted to observe Passover itself, but may observe Unleavened Bread. All would be celebrating Unleavened Bread together at the Temple after dark at the beginning of Nisan 15th when, according to the Exodus account, Israel observed their first night of freedom after hastily leaving Egypt with no time to properly make bread.

So, to return to the hypothesis, Y’shua would have had his Passover Seder with his disciples in accordance with the Torah account, at the sundown beginning Nisan 14^th (what we would call Wednesday night), at the same time as the Essenes, Sadducees, and other small sects. Here, He instituted the bread and wine ceremony by which His sacrifice is to be commemorated. In the afternoon on Nisan 14^th, (Thursday, which was NOT a shabbat) the last possible day, the farmers were binding their sheaves for harvest Sunday morning. Among the Pharisees and the other small sects who followed them, the Passover lambs were being slaughtered, and, Y’shua was being bundled into his graveclothes and set aside as the Firstfruits sacrifice. Therefore both Passover and the Feast of Firstfruits could have been fulfilled flawlessly, both in Y’shua’s personal life with His disciples and for the nation of Israel (and the world) as a whole.

Now, we get to the most important point – is there evidence in the writings that this hypothesis could be valid? Yes, I believe there is. It rests in the Greek. Of course, I have to mention a disclaimer here – namely that single word exegesis of non-definitive texts in a non-original language is problematic at best. There is clear and compelling evidence that the authentic writings of Yeshua’s original talmidim were in Hebrew, not Greek, but that is a topic for another day.

To continue, how do we know that on this particular year, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the weekly Shabbat were back to back? Because of a nasty little stunt the Roman Catholics have pulled on the world in their authorized translations of the writings, which most protestant sects have blindly followed.

The phrase that is repeatedly translated in the Greek writings as “the first day of the week,” (see Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1, Matthew 28:1) reads in Greek: mia ton sabbaton.

Notice the form of the Greek word “sabbaton.” It is the plural form of the word. The correct translation of this phrase is probably “after the Sabbaths.”

[I looked also in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. I looked up the word “week” since that is the way it appears in the King James Version, and was directed to entry number 4521. When I turned back to 4521, there it was, plainly given, as sabbaton, with the final note of the definition being “the plural in all the above applications.” So even Strong’s concordance shows that the word is the plural form, and is used in all the above applications.] Also, the word mia, according to Strong’s, is an irregular form.

Let me quote a passage from the book “Signs in the Heavens” by Avi Ben Mordechai, page 388. It shows the inherent problems with the currently accepted theory about Y’shua’s resurrection. “Since Unleavened Bread always begins on Nisan 15, this means that Y’shua rose on Nisan 16^th. And in 30 CE, Nisan 16^th also coincided with the regular weekly Shabbat, which explains why the Brit Chadshah resurrection narratives use the plural form of Shabbat – shabbaton, in addition to the Greek phrase mia ton sabbaton, or literally, on one of the Sabbaths. Simply put, the Greek phrase mia ton sabbaton is a reference to the first of seven Sabbath in the 50 day counting of the Omer according to Vayikrah 23:15. In addition, the reason for the use of “Sabbaths” in the plural – sabbaton, is because the first of the seven Sabbaths in the count to Shavuot also fell on the regular weekly Sabbath – Saturday, hence, use of the word “sabbaths” in the text.”

[Mordechai is possibly correct in his hypothesis that the crucifixion was in 30 CE, because starting that fall and for 40 years thereafter (according to Josephus) the strap did not turn white at Yom Kippur. If Y’shua was the only acceptable sacrifice, and because since Y’shua was then the new High Priest in the Temple of Heaven that year at Yom Kippur, the earthly priests were no longer qualified to perform the ceremony. Only the true High Priest can do it. This is an interesting theological point that deserves further analysus, but is outside the scope of this lesson. Perhaps I can get to it some other time.]

The problem with Mordechai’s theory is simply that the real Firstfruits was not on the 16^th, it was on the 17^th, on Sunday. Mordechai has let his point of view of modern Rabbinic Judaism cloud his scholarship. At the time of first century Judaism, there were several sects and they did not all agree. As a reformer, in whatever sense of the word, Y’shua would have observed Torah, not the (to His point of view) incorrect traditions of any particular sect of Judaism, then or now. Mordechai’s explanation for the term “Sabbaths” is therefore wrong.

And it’s not just because that the weekly Shabbat and the Feast of Firstfruits weren’t really on the same day. Firstfruits is not actually a Shabbat at all! Torah says that no “servile” work can be done, but there is much physical labor that must be performed on this date. “Servile” in any dictionary means work for another, work for your livelihood, or work for pay. It does not encompass the entire range of “work” listed for the regular weekly Sabbath. It is a festival day, a feast day, and preparatory work was done and carrying the baskets from the fields to the Temple was done [which would, of course, not be acceptable on an actual Shabbat]. So his theory doesn’t hold water on that point alone. Again, the only solution that actually works is for there to be two holy days – back to back.

[Interestingly, on page 389, Mordechai actually goes on to confirm that the Passover is supposed to be at the sundown beginning the 14^th, and a full 24 hours later, the first convocation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is then supposed to be observed. I’m amazed that he can’t see the implication of his own words, both for Judaism and for Christian observance.]

Mordechai confirms that Nisan 14^th began at sundown on Wednesday that year, and then in order to support his position for a Wednesday afternoon crucifixion, he actually goes on to suggest that it was done on the wrong day! If that were true, the sacrifice would have been completely invalid, it would have violated Torah, and Y’shua is therefore not the messiah. But that might not be the right answer. The correct answer could be that there were two back-to-back holy days, exactly as Mordechai noted, but the Feast of Firstfruits (which is NOT a Shabbat) was actually on Sunday, Nisan 17^th, in accordance with Torah, and not on Saturday the 16^th, as the Pharisees interpreted.

This even allows for the women to buy spices, because in Mordechai’s own words, at the time of 2^nd Temple Rabbinic Judaism, they did not change the calendar like they do now to avoid having two “Sabbaths” back to back. Instead, they had a different rule. In his book “Messiah, Volume 2” Mordechai tells us on page 82 that “based on a technical term in Jewish Oral Law, it was possible for Israel’s shopkeepers to open for a few short hours between the END of the “great Shabbat” [Unleavened Bread] and the BEGINNING of the regular weekly Shabbat on Friday. This would have given people an opportunity to buy necessary goods for the regular day of rest. The Talmudic term is me’et le’et, or “from time to time.” [Ketubot 37a, 50a; Shabbat 15a; Nedarim 76b] If this was the case, then the women in the Greek writings would have found merchants open after the “great Shabbat” so that they could go out and purchase spices and perfumes according to Mark 16:1.”

So by Mordechai’s own reckoning, when two “Sabbaths” occurred back to back, there were a couple of hours “between the evenings” where shops were permitted to be open and work could be quickly done to prepare for the second holy day. So neither he nor anyone else needs to contort the chronology to put Y’shua’s seder with his talmidim or his crucifixion on the “wrong” day, nor do we need to distort the meaning of the words “mia ton sabbaton” to try and make it appear to be the first Shabbat of the counting of the omer, when it obviously wasn’t. The chronology actually works perfectly well when you put it all together correctly – with Y’shua’s crucifixion on Thursday afternoon, Nisan 14^th.

The main problem with the currently accepted interpretation becomes immediately apparent upon reading Mordechai’s explanation, because neither Shavuot nor the Feast of Firstfruits can ever occur on a regular weekly Shabbat, according to Torah. The counting of the omer starts on the day AFTER the Sabbath, which is always the first day of the week, as we previously discussed.

Also, as I previously noted, “Mia” is an irregular form of Strong’s 1520. It’s definition is listed in 3391 as: Mia, irreg. Fem. Of 1520; one or first: – a certain, +agree, first, one, x other. When we look at 1520 we read: heis, a prim. Numeral; one: -a, + abundantly, man one(another), only, other, some. See also 1527, 3367, 3391, 3762. What does all that mean? It means the correct interpretation of “mia ton sabbaton” should be, in English, “after the sabbaths,” or “after the other Sabbath,” or possibly “after certain Sabbaths,” or most likely even “after another Sabbath.” But it certainly does not mean “on the first day of the week” as it is constantly rendered in English Bibles. The idea inherent in the term “mia ton sabbaton” is two Sabbaths back to back, a set of Sabbaths together. Strong’s 1527 sums it up perfectly – “one by one” which we would read as “one after the other,” or as I prefer to put it, “back to back.” Both the wording and the traditions of 1^st century Judaism support the hypothesis that Thursday, Nisan 14^th would have been the date of the crucifixion, and the resurrection would therefore have taken place on the third day, Sunday, Nisan 17^th. The two days in between, the 15^th and 16^th, were both Sabbaths.

On a related note, we have to ask ourselves: why did the Roman Catholics and those who followed them change the phrase “after the Sabbaths” to the phrase “first day of the week?” Why purposefully mistranslate the passage in the first place?

I can offer several guesses. 1) To empower their claim that the Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. 2) To remove any connection between the resurrection and the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits. 3) To try and bolster their claim of “good Friday” being the day of the crucifixion. If there were two Sabbaths, and Friday was one of them, it couldn’t have been Passover and the crucifixion could not have taken place then. Passover is not a Sabbath. 4) To continue the flawed tradition of blending Passover with the first day of the feast of unleavened bread into one ceremony, to be less burdensome for Romans to observe. (Of course, in the 4^th century, they gave up observing it all together!)

Now to return to the last point, “back to back.” To illustrate the point, we have to see what happens when the two Sabbaths are not back to back. When we do this, we see the entire chronology of Passover, Unleavened, Firstfruits, and the Last Supper, crucifixion and resurrection of Y’shua are hopelessly messed up. In other words, if this was not so, then Y’shua was not the messiah.

First alternate scenario: What if the crucifixion took place during the daylight hours on Wednesday, as many Messianics believe?

Well, we know that the true Feast of Firstfruits is Sunday, and that the unblemished harvest is made at dawn after being inspected, and then taken to the Temple. We know that several sects of Judaism follow this schedule. We know that Sunday was the third day since the crucifixion, from the road to Emmaus dialog. So, what happens to the chronology if the crucifixion was on Wednesday?

Well, that would mean that Y’shua had his personal Passover seder with his disciples on Tuesday evening. So either he performed an invalid seder or we have to call that Nisan 14^th. He would supposedly have been crucified on Wednesday afternoon and bundled in his graveclothes and buried Wednesday afternoon. Does this coincide with the bundling of the offering for the Feast of Firstfruits? No, it does not. If sundown Tuesday to sundown Wednesday was Nisan 14^th, it was Passover. From sundown Wednesday to sundown Thursday would have been Nisan 15^th, which would have been a holy day, the first convocation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then, from sundown Thursday to sundown Friday would have been a regular weekday and certainly not a Sabbath. In this scenario, THIS is the time, the last opportunity, when the farmers would have been bundling their sheaves for the Feast of Firstfruits. But Y’shua would have already been bundled two days before, and worse, had his seder with his talmidim three days before. The timing doesn’t match at all. Then, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday would have been Nisan 17^th, the regular weekly Sabbath. Next, from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday would have been the real Feast of Firstfruits, Nisan the 18^th in this scenario.

Obviously, in this scenario, from the 14^th of Nisan to the 18^th of Nisan is FOUR days – one day too many! (And worse, five days from his seder with his talmidim.) If Y’shua had been crucified on Wednesday afternoon, the two men on the road to Emmaus could never have said that “two whole days” had passed, or that it was “the third day” since the crucifixion of Y’shua had taken place, because under this scenario Sunday during the daylight hours was FOUR days since the crucifixion. And trying to say that he was resurrected right at sundown Saturday night doesn’t work, either, because that is NOT the time when the offering for the Feast of Firstfruits is given its final inspection and taken to the Temple to be offered. Y’shua had to still be in his grave right up until the few hours before dawn on Sunday morning in order to perfectly fulfill the Feast of Firstfruits. He had to be inspected while still bundled in his graveclothes in the pre-dawn light in order to be carried up to the heavenly Temple and offered at dawn.

In the Wednesday crucifixion scenario, there are way too many days in there, and Y’shua’s “bundling” does not coincide with the bundling of the sheaves for Firstfruits. If Y’shua was crucified on Wednesday afternoon, then he was in the grave Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday making four days and four nights, or else he resurrected at sundown on Saturday (making it four days and three nights), and as I mentioned above, making his resurrection inconsistent with the procedure for the Feast of Firstfruits and rendering the Emmaus dialog false.

Second alternate scenario: What if the crucifixion was on Friday, as many Christians believe? From Friday afternoon to Sunday morning is certainly not three days and nights. If Friday was Nisan 14^th, then Saturday was Nisan 15^th – the first convocation of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. I don’t believe having two Sabbaths on the same day gives us a firm basis for the greek phrase “mia ton sabbaton.” Possible, but not probable. The women would have had no time whatsoever to go on the Markian shopping trip. I have serious doubts that this could have been done on Friday evening. There simply wasn’t enough time to get everything done before sundown and go shopping when the Greek writings give the hour of Y’shua’s death as late afternoon. It would have taken time for them to convey this information to Pilate and even get permission to bury the body. Before Joseph went to see Pilate, they couldn’t even be sure they would have any opportunity to bury or anoint the body. Sundown comes fairly fast following the afternoon in early spring. By the time they got permission to get the body and transported it to the tomb, it would have been too late to go shopping. And it is clear from the text that the followers of Y’shua observed the Sabbath faithfully. They would not even have gone to gentile shop keepers who might have stayed open late. (I should also point out that if the women had handled the corpse before the first convocation of Chag Matzah, they would have been ritually unclean and could not have observed it. They would have had to go outside the city for seven days, and therefore also could not have been there on Sunday morning to anoint the body.) But the main point is the “sign of Jonah.” Even if one speculates that the disciples stole the body and the whole story is a hoax, they would have ruined their own credibility by doing so before the prophetic “three days” was up in a manner that was acceptable to 1^st century Jews. If the tomb was empty on Sunday, the crucifixion had to have taken place on Thursday.

In order for the Feast of Firstfruits, like all other appointed times, to be an ACCURATE shadow of things to come, Y’shua’s actions had to occur at the same times as the events were occurring (on earth and in heaven) for the real Feast of Firstfruits, AS WELL AS the events of Passover, both his own personal seder with his disciples and his sacrifice as the lamb of Elohim. We know from Moses and the Exodus that the people’s Passover lambs were sacrificed at sundown beginning Nisan 14^th, and that they were to stay in their homes until morning. We know that they celebrated their first night of freedom after dark beginning Nisan 15^th, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And we know that Y’shua’s sacrifice had to occur on Nisan 14^th in order to be valid. We know Sunday, the day after “the” Sabbath, the Feast of Firstfruits, had to be the third day since he was crucified, and that he had to be inspected before dawn while still in his graveclothes to be declared an acceptable unblemished and uncorrupted offering. The only way to reconcile all of these events is if the crucifixion took place on Thursday afternoon, Nisan 14^th.

There is one interesting footnote I would like to make. In the Parashat for Ki Tivo, the Rabbi wrote that after the Firstfruits ceremony, “the farmer was obligated to sleep over in Jerusalem for the night.” So the people were supposed to stay in Jerusalem until at least Monday morning the year of the crucifixion. Again, the Rabbi didn’t understand why. But suppose it was all arranged that way hundreds of years in advance, so they could hear the “good news” of the resurrection! And even better, the perplexed rabbi offered an explanation for using Psalm 30 based on the writings of Melechet Shlomo: “Because this [ceremony] was done in the presence of a large number of people…many would gather together and it would be similar to the occasion of the dedication of the Temple. [The superscription in Psalm 30:1 is “A Psalm, a song at the dedication of the house, of David.”] Since according to the Greek writings Y’shua is the living Temple, his dedication at this time would have been most appropriate.

This, then, is my theory – my hypothesis I would like to put forth for your consideration. Shalom! [This paper was revised in June of 2003]