The Mystery of Ephraim

A Congregation of the Church of God
Darryl Henson

Passover
Days of Unleavened Bread
Night to be Much Observed

Passover is a Feast and a Holy Convocation
(17-02-2008, 35 pages)

This is a Critique of Darryl Henson’s Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread and Night to be Much Observed. The Passover is an extremely interesting subject and we’ll follow it in every aspect discussed. Besides the main issue as to whether Passover is on the early or late fourteenth of Nisan, we now have a question whether the Night to be Much Observed is actually the Passover night.

Quoted are Darryl’s work from an internet version from his website, “Passover is a Feast and a Holy Convocation.” They are indented and in block form so as to differentiate his from my comments. The Scriptures must be our primary focus and guide, and sometimes the Scriptures say things very different from what we think!

And so with that in mind, we’ll begin:

Passover — 14th or 15th? Night to be Much Remembered or Observed — night of the 14th or 15th?

The argument that the “evening sacrifice” occurred around 3:00 P.M. and therefore we should kill the lamb on the afternoon of the 14th and eat it on the 15th holds no water. Consider that there was no morning or evening sacrifice in Exodus 12! Those sacrifices were instituted later (Jer. 7:22). The Passover sacrifice stands on its own and it occurred on the 14th, continuing on into the evening from the beginning of the 14th. Nowhere does scripture give any indication the Passover observance should cover parts of two days – a 14th and 15th Passover. It is always stated as being the 14th. We shall see Christ kept it that way in the New Testament, contrary to the tradition of some Jews – and it wasn’t a “pre-Passover meal” as we shall see proved in scripture.

Once we establish the Passover was killed at the beginning of the 14th, the rest is easy if we pay attention to what Exodus 12 and 13 actually say.
They were to eat the flesh “in that night,” the 14th, and with unleavened bread. It was all to be eaten that night and burned if not all eaten by morning.

The Targum translates and explains the eating of the Passover from the Hebrew in Exodus 12 into the vernacular, in a very simple language, and is extremely clear: “And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan . . .”

The full text from Exodus 12:5-8

5 The lamb shall be perfect, a male, the son of a year he shall be to you; from the sheep or from the young goats ye may take. 6 And it shall be bound and reserved for you until the fourteenth day of this month, that you may not know the fear of the Mizraee when they see it; and ye shall kill him according to the rite of all to congregation of the assembly of Israel, between the suns. 7 And you shall take of the blood and set it upon the two posts and upon the upper board outside of the houses in which you eat and sleep. 8 And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan, until the dividing of the night roasted [midnight] with fire . . . (Targum)

NIGHT TO BE MUCH OBSERVED

Exodus 12:41 says they left Egypt on the “selfsame day” they had come in 430 years earlier. Verse 42 says THAT night is a night to be much observed.

Ex 12:41-42
And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the LORD to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.

This verse says the NBMO is the same night they came out of Egypt. . . The Night to be Much Observed can ONLY be Passover night, by the rules of grammar in any language!

This is an excellent observance. It is correct, it makes sense and it agrees with the Targum translation.

VERSE 3 IN THE CLINCHER! “Moses said to the people, remember THIS day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.” . . . The day they left Egypt was the same day the firstborn were sanctified and the same day He smote the firstborn of Egypt! THAT was Passover night/day! The 14th.

But this was on the fifteenth as the Targum testifies, not fourteenth!

Numbers shows us there were sacrifices throughout the seven days and offerings on every one of them. Since Passover day is the FIRST day of unleavened bread, members of flocks AND herd were sacrificed on that day and leavening excluded. Ezekiel 45:21 tells us God Himself calls the entire seven days “Passover.”

If the fourteenth is included, there would be 8 days — 14(1) 15(2) 16(3) 17(4) 18(5) 19(6) 20(7) 21(8 days)

Deut 16:6 But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
This one is that “even” here is “ba erev” instead of “ben ha arbayim” of Exodus 12:6. This is no problem. Ben ha arbayim has been shown to be between the evenings – between sundown and dark. Ba erev is at sundown. The two coincide. If you wait until sundown, you have entered dusk. Shall we war over words, or do both refer essentially to the same period of time, beginning at sundown? Deut. 16:6 is specific at even, at the going down of the sun – end of one day, beginning of another as God divides time.

Everybody says there are differences between “ba erev” and “ben ha arbayim” but you say “no”– so why no? We need to see more evidence.

If we are to kill it on the 14th and eat it on the 15th, how could they “keep” it on the 14th? “Keep” has to mean the observance, the meaning of the day and they “kept” the 14th UPON the 14th, not the 15th!

The killing of the Lamb has a required primary action, and this action of killing of the lamb is the keeping of it. That night is only the eating of it, only of secondary importance. Likewise we keep the day of Atonement, by congregating in a synagogue by fasting, there is nothing to eat!

Notice they “did eat” (the Passover), “And kept” the feast of unleavened bread seven days… There appears to be no separation between Passover and unleavened bread. Ezra lumps them together.

The lumping were already done in Deuteronomy 16, in fact it goes earlier, right in Exodus 12, where the main subject is about the Passover, the eating of unleavened bread is only secondary.

Now. Since Passover itself is a Feast and holy convocation on the 14th, what about the 15th? Lev. 23: 6 indicates the fifteenth is the feast of unleavened bread. Notice that it DOES NOT SAY it is the FIRST day of unleavened bread. It only says “the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast.

Verse 7 follows verse 6, it describes the first day (a holy convocation) of the seven days that we must eat unleavened bread.

Here is where Deuteronomy 16 helps us understand. Deut. 16:4 designates Passover as the “first day.” Deut.16:8 picks up after the discussion of the Passover itself in the preceding verses: “Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assemble to the Lord thy God…”

KJ21 says: And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy borders seven days, neither shall there anything of the flesh, which thou sacrificed the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning.

Chabad Bible says: And no leaven shall be seen with you within all your border for seven days; neither shall any of the flesh you slaughter on the preceding day in the afternoon, remain all night until the morning. —”First” in Hebrew could be translated as “preceding”

It states that SIX days shall you eat unleavened bread. That is, Passover is the first day and then you keep six more for a total of seven. It further stipulates keeping the seventh day as a solemn assembly. We have already seen in Exodus and Leviticus that Passover is a holy convocation, Feast and also the first day of unleavened bread as confirmed here in Deut. 16:4. So, Deuteronomy 16 is saying the first day is the day you killed the Passover, keep six more and the last or seventh is also a solemn assembly or holy convocation.

If so, what is the name of the seventh day? A Holy Convocation Day? The Jews have no such knowledge, so this must be a new discovery? A Holy Day of No Name?

That is why Leviticus 23:6 does not say the 15th is the first day of unleavened bread, but only that it is unleavened. Perhaps God left this a little obscure that we might be taken, snared and deceived until He was ready to reveal it. Leviticus 23:6 could easily have said “the fifteenth is the first day of unleavened bread” is that had been true. That would have cleared any chance for misunderstanding. It does not say that because it has to agree with Exodus 12-13 and Deuteronomy 16 or the scripture would be broken!

Sound like God even didn’t want Moses to know this!

The “Passover” can be a reference to the ceremony and all that followed it that day. It can also be a reference to the whole seven days. The whole season can also be referred to as “the feast of unleavened bread” – and that includes Passover day as the first day. These are not just Jewish names for them, as the Bible itself uses Passover or the feast of unleavened bread interchangeably. This will be seen clearly in the New Testament as well.

So do you agree they were already merged? That’s great.

Separating the Passover service by one day from the seven days of coming out of sin would separate us by one day from the One who made it possible to come out! Should we wait a while to be forgiven of our sins? Should we not be able to have them immediately forgiven once His mighty arm has made it possible? In times past, we kept the Passover service and went back to daily living, watching TV, working and eating leavening for the remainder of that night until sunset of the next day. Is it good symbolism to “put Christ on the shelf” for a day after all He did for us? Especially since that day is the day He was doing the delivering!

It was a strange passover, isn’t it? Actually if you dig deep enough, it is a Samaritan type of passover.

THE NEW TESTAMENT
Could we possibly have been keeping the first day of unleavened bread on the wrong day and the Night to be Much Observed on the wrong night? COULD WE HAVE BEEN UNWITTINGLY TRAMPLING ON THE MOST HOLY DAY OF THE YEAR? We were eating leavening and working on the day our Savior fulfilled incredible prophecies, made salvation for us and ultimately the world possible and suffered more than any human has ever suffered? All this happened on a day we have deemed relatively unimportant except for an hour or two at sunset beginning the 14th.

More importantly is to ask why even Moses didn’t know that Passover was a holy day and a holy convocation. He had full access in the most holy place, between the cherubim, entitled to ask God whatever question needed to understand the full extend of Torah observance. What happened? Did Moses kept it the way you believe? Did Ezra also kept it the way you believe? Nobody understands this secret until the end of the six thousand years when a man named Darryl Henson came along and discover this truth?

Matthew 26:17 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?
Jesus declared to His disciples that the feast of the Passover would be in two days, 26:1. The Jews sought to kill Him but wanted to be sure it was not on “the feast day” (26:5). Historically, the Jews kept Passover as a Feast day, just a day late, on the 15th. In this case they proceeded to take Christ on the night of the 14th and were sure to have Him killed before their high day, the 15th. They looked on the 14th as the preparation day as we shall see in scripture.

What does Matthew 26:17 actually say? As written, it says the first day of the feast of unleavened bread… So far, we have agreement with Exodus 12:14 which calls Passover day a feast.

The Translation of Matthew 26:17 is faulty. (1) The word “day” isn’t in the original (2) the word “first” is protos (G4413). The word “protos” means the beginning, the period before, or former.

The OJB translates it as “the onset.” It isn’t an exact term like “the First Day of Unleavened Bread” as translated.

Elsewhere in Rev 21:4 it is translated as a “former” — And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things G4413 are passed away.

The verse could be translated as “Now days before [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?” — or “Now before [the Feast of] Unleavened Bread . . .

Bear in mind that Passover and Unleavened Bread had been well amalgamated and used interchangeably throughout Jewish history.

It also confirms that the Passover is on the first day of unleavened bread. We have always argued this cannot be what is being stated.

“Day” and “feast of” are in italics, so were supplied by the translators. “Bread” may also not have been in the original text. Without these words, it reads “Now the first of the unleavened…” Does that really change anything? The first of the unleavened can only be referring to either the first day of unleavened bread or to the Passover service itself which is unleavened.

Which is it? Mark 14:12 is a parallel account and Mark does not stutter or equivocate, leaving no room for Greek translation problems. He says “AND THE FIRST DAY OF UNLEAVENED BREAD , WHEN THEY KILLED THE PASSOVER…” There are no italics! Mark says the Passover was killed on the first day of unleavened bread! This agrees with Exodus 12-13, Deuteronomy 16:4 and Ezekiel 45:21, among others we saw in the Old Testament.

Same thing with Mark 14:12 although it has the word day “hemera”(G2250) there — And on the first (protos, G4413) day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said unto Him, “Where wilt Thou have us go and prepare, that Thou mayest eat the Passover?” As said above “protos” could mean the beginning, the period before, or former. The OJB translates it as “the onset.”

G4413 protos could be translated as ‘a time before’ as in John 1:15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before G4413 me.

John 1:30 This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before G4413 me.

Mark 14:12 could be translated as “And before the day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said unto Him, “Where wilt Thou have us go and prepare, that Thou mayest eat the Passover?” — or “Before the day of Unleavened Bread . . .

Luke 22:7, 8, 11, 13, 15
Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.

Same thing with Luke 22:7 Then came (G2064 erchomai) the day (G2250 hemera) of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lambs had to be sacrificed. 8 Jesus said to Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us to eat.”

G2064 erchomai could be translated “to come” or “to go” as in Matthew 2:2, 8. In Matthew 14:29 And he said, Come. G2064 And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go G2064 to Jesus.

Luke 22:7 could be translated as “As the Days of Unleavened Bread were approaching when the Passover lambs had to be sacrificed, 8 Jesus said to Peter and John, “Go and prepare the Passover meal for us to eat.””

Be that as it may, this is clearly the beginning of the 14th as the Jews kept the 15th and Christ died on the 14th before their Passover arrived. This fact is why the “15ers” try to hide that this was the actual Passover as instituted in Exodus 12. Exodus 12 was obviously at sundown since the firstborn were killed at midnight that same night. We need not argue the exact meanings of “ba erev” and “ben ha arbayim” since the context shows the original Passover was held at the beginning of the 14th.

Finding the true meaning of “ba erev” and “ben ha arbayim” and its differences are extremely important. The Sadducees, the Boethusians (and also the Samaritans), kept an early fourteenth Passover, because they also define erev as twilight, and ben ha arbayim (between the two evenings) as between sunset and dark. But the Pharisees (and later the Rabbinics) considered the time when the sun began to descend from its zenith to be called the First Evening and the Second Evening when the sun disappears from sight over the horizon. The time in between is “between the two evenings.” Only the Pharisees kept a late fourteenth Passover.

First, it was night. Secondly, it had to be the beginning of the 14th since the Jews wanted to have Him dead and buried before the 15th began. Thirdly, it had to be the actual Passover service since Paul continues in the context to mention the bread and wine and how taking them properly is a life and death issue. The original Passover was a LIFE AND DEATH ISSUE in Egypt at the beginning of the 14th. So was what Jesus Christ did with His disciples the same night – and Paul received this directly from the mouth of the Savior!

I fully agree it is a life and death issue. The Sadducees and the Boethusians faced death when they were exterminated during the AD 70 inferno; the Pharisees, despite their hypocrisy and other faults, survived. Earlier John the Baptist’s warning was recorded by Luke:

Luke 3:16 John answered, saying unto them all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I cometh, the straps of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire (pyr g4442). 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire (pyr g4442) unquenchable.”

The AD 70 inferno were only a microcosm, just a foretaste. How would the CoG Communities escape John’s warning during the Last Days?

Let’s move to Luke 22:1 “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.”

13 And they went, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

Christ said in verse 15 He desired to eat “this Passover” with you before I suffer. They killed and ate the Passover and He changed the symbols to Himself before He suffered and died!

The word for “desire” is an unusual word, epithumia in the Greek, and means “a longing, especially for something forbidden” (epithumia G1937)—a strong desire for something denied. Other examples are:

Matthew 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after G1937 her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Acts 20:33 I have coveted G1937 no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel.

1 Corinthians 10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. G1937

Revelation 9:6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire G1937 to die, but death shall flee from them.

Some have tried to explain away Luke 22:15 by saying “this Passover” meant “the beginning of the Passover season” and that He “desired to eat it, but did not.” He sat down to the Passover meal in verse 14, explaining He would not do so again until the Kingdom and then proceeded to eat it with them according to this and the other gospel accounts. Verse 20 says “after supper.” I Cor. 11:25 says “when He had supped?” That one should remove any doubt. He did eat that Passover.

If His last supper was a Passover, there were no words or a phase to confirm that, such as “when they finished Passover, they sang a hymn”, “during Passover, He poured wine and break bread,” or “during Jesus last Passover, He took bread.” And even when Paul was referring back to that night, he wrote, “the night He was betrayed” (1 Corinthians 11:23), rather than just “Passover.” Why? Strange, isn’t it?

John gives us another reason to do it when Christ did it rather than later in the day on the 14th or even the 15th. “He that saith he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked (I John 2:6).” We are to do it as Christ did it, not according to our own best idea. Paul got the right message about the night of the 14th and kept it accordingly.

And that evening, the evening where Jesus and His disciples were taking supper, were indeed just a supper. There is no evidence of a Passover—no lamb, no bitter herbs, no mention of any blood on the doorposts and lintel—it was not even a Samaritan or a Sadducean Passover, where it would be on an early fourteenth of Nisan. Jesus and His disciples were eating a meal, called a supper by the Gospel writers, is ON THE EVENING OF THE THIRTEENTH!

John shows that the Passover they were preparing to eat was recognized as the official observance of the Jews: “(Now it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour [NOON]). And he [Pilate] said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ But they cried aloud, ‘Away, away with Him! Crucify Him!’ ” (John 19:14-15).

And that noon time, the sixth hour, is the same in the other Gospels.
Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the land until the ninth hour. — NOON TO 3 PM

Mark 15:33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. — NOON TO 3 PM

Luke 23:44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. — NOON TO 3 PM

The truth then, is, since Matthew, Mark and Luke testifies that Christ was on the cross at the sixth hour, Jesus couldn’t be at the judgement Hall at the same time. And since the crucifixion was on the fourteenth, the time at the Judgement Hall had to be on the day before, ON THE THIRTEENTH.

Do we do anything “because that’s the way the Jews did it?” Christ frequently condemned Judaism – very vehemently (Matthew 23). So did Paul (Romans 3). We are to live by every word of God (Matthew 4:4), not the Jews. Am I now anti-Semitic? No, my favorite person who ever lived on earth is Jesus Christ, born a Jew. There are righteous Jews and unrighteous Jews. Jesus was a righteous Jew who kept His Father’s commandments. Those who practiced Judaism did not keep God’s doctrines – “beware the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They have not improved since that time when Christ called them sons of snakes, whited sepulchers, hypocrites, fools, blind and children of hell. What a ringing endorsement! Should we now put their traditions ahead of scripture?

This hatred sounds like a deluded Martin Luther, who also says he loves Jesus Christ. But one who displayed with so much bitterness about the Jews:

“First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools … This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians …”
“Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed.”
“Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught . . .

So the CoG Communities thought they are lily whites but they are like Martin Luther. Matthew 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Luke 6:42 Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck in your brother’s eye. Are you ignorant of WCG’s evangelists engaging in adultries, deflowering young Ambassadors, wife swapping in HQ, And INCEST, or are you turning a blind eye? Are CoG Communities not also “the sons of snakes, whited sepulchers, hypocrites, fools, blind and children of hell?”

Some of their traditions are bad, but some are great. Here is what Paul says:

“I profited in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers” Galatians 1:14.
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold to the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle” II Thessalonians 2:15.

THE JEWS PASSOVER
To fully understand the whole New Testament account, we must understand that Jesus and the disciples kept THE Passover on the 14th and the Jews kept the Passover a day later, the 15th.

You didn’t prove anything. You just ask your faithfuls to follow you. Maybe they will, after your personality, perhaps. Where did you prove that Jesus last meal was a passover?

John uses the expression Jewish feast or feast of the Jews several times. Yet we saw in John 2:23 that he sometimes used THE Passover. Is this happenstance or did he see a difference in the two? Did he use common slang for the “Jew’s feast” or did he recognize a difference between GOD’S feasts and feasts of the Jews?

John emphasised their Jewishness simply because there was a Samaritan counterfeit nearby: they practiced another version of the Passover, which were observed on a Samaritan calendar an early fourteenth of Nisan on Mount Gerizim. These rivalries were so intense and hence imbuled their perception that Samaritans were having a devil (John 8:48). The animosity was well understood, as Samaritans would often light bon-fires in order to deceive the Jews as to the tidings of the announcement of a new moon in Jerusalem. John lived the longest among the Gospel writers, and even among all the other apostles. With that in mind, John emphasized the Jewishness of those feasts by reiterating “Passover of the Jews” or “feast of the Jews.” He also mentioned a Jewish feast of tabernacle too in John 7:2 — Was John using “Jew’s feast” a slang to attack himself? How come you only offer your speculation as the reason why John included the feast as a Jewish feast? What have disputing their doctrines anything to do with the Jewishness of the feast of tabernacle?

John 13:1 “Now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew His hour was come…” This is both THE feast and it is the FEAST of the Passover. Did John know the truth? Why did he refer to the Passover as a Feast? He did not make the mistake of calling it a Jewish feast either! The timing in John 13:1 is just as they were preparing to eat the Passover at the beginning of the 14th. Jesus knew that the hour to begin the process of establishing the New Covenant at the Passover and then to actually become the Passover was at hand – the time, the hour had come. Jesus was about to keep the Feast of the Passover!! In his written account, John was fully aware Passover was a Feast.

You’re right. The amalgamation of the Passover with the Days of Unleavened Bread started way back to Moses. In Exodus 12, Passover was intertwined with the Days of Unleavened Bread! In Exodus 12:18 it says In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (ba-erev), ye shall eat unleavened bread. The time to start Passover is also the time to start eating unleavened bread. And Moses was revealing its composite character when he described the law in his own words in the Book of Deuteronomy. “These are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness,” Deuteronomy 1:1. In Deuteronomy 16:6 ba·erev is also the time to start the Passover.

John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour…” By this time, Jesus was about to be crucified on the 14th, having already observed the true Passover, but the Jews were in their preparation day for their Passover. That’s the context, the Jews’ preparation day and Passover.

The sixth hour is 12 NOON!

John 4:6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus by the well; and it was about the sixth hour. — NOON

And that noon time, the sixth hour, is the same in the other Gospels.

Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. — NOON TO 3 PM

Mark 15:33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. — NOON TO 3 PM

Luke 23:44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. — NOON TO 3 PM

John 19:14 And it was the Preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour, and Pilate said unto the Jews, “Behold your king!” — NOON. And since the crucifixion was on the fourteenth, the time at the Judgement Hall had to be on a day before, ON THE THIRTEENTH.

In Luke 23:54:56, Luke refers to the preparation and the Sabbath straight up, not mentioning them as Jewish. Also, the women who followed Jesus rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Is there a contradiction? John is the one who introduced the “Jewish feast” and “Jewish preparation” thought. He wrote much later than the other gospel writers. The others wrote according to the Jewish practice of many years which included the 15th Passover. To them it was the usual custom. Perhaps Christ had not yet explained the difference to them and to the women who followed. There are many things He reserved until later, even much later, circumcision being a good example. John made it clear in his gospel account that there was a difference between Jewish and Biblical practice.

Being Galileans, John and the other disciples have to travel numerous times passing Samaritan territories to come to Jerusalem to keep the three annual feasts. So bad and threatening to these Jewish faith and practises since Ezra’s time that eventually the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, (John 4:9). So when John was writing, he emphasized “of the Jews.” And to put a sting to their Jewishness, John even recorded Jesus in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), which all the other Gospel writers ignored, for it says in John 10:22 “And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of Dedication,” where Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s Porch.

Often, when people want to follow a particular doctrine, they will fall back on “Jesus never made an issue with the Jews about…” Or “Surely He would have if it had been a problem.” Not necessarily. He was not trying to convert the Jews or make them holy at that time. He protested primarily their hypocrisy and selfish disregard for the commandments.

How could the Son of God fulfil His duty as a Messiah if he were to acquiesce a sin He knew without protest. Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. CSB Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.

If you have worked under GTA and he went fooling around deflowering lilies and roses, you won’t report him, just doing your job sermoning and get your monthly stipend?

Luke 2:41-41 says: “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast” Again, we have Passover designated as a Feast. As an aside, if the Jews were doing it wrong, did Christ also do it wrong? Do we know for a fact what custom Jesus’ parents kept? There were several sects of the Jews. Might they have affiliated with a small one that did it right? We can only speculate as to what Joseph and Mary did. Was the Passover one of the things Christ argued with the rabbis at age 12?

If Jesus was arguing with the rabbi about the Passover at age 12, that argument would have continued in His three-and-a-half year ministry, but there wasn’t any. Though there is no hard evidence, it is likely they were arguing about the messiahship — who, what, how?

We know little of His life from childhood until He began His ministry. Even had He and his parents done it wrong, it would not have been accounted as sin to Him until He was 20. He might have straightened it out at age 12? Or 20? It must not be an important issue to God or it would be addressed. We know Christ never sinned, so what He did as a youth was either not sin at all or whatever he did as a child under parental control was not imputed as sin.

So when soldiers were ordered to kill, like the Nazis, they were faultless at the Nuremberg trials, since the order was from the Commander-in-chief? So you reckon if a teenager were to do a mass-shooting in a teenage concert, he is faultless?

The night He was betrayed was not a night the disciples “much observed” much to their later chagrin. They kept going to sleep and later in the night denied Him even as He was stripped of flesh and brutalized worse than any man. Yet it was the most important night in the history of the world! They should have “watched” or observed but did not.

Have we also been denying Him? Asleep at the switch? Not realizing we were out pounding nails, driving trucks, managing offices and eating pizza and donuts while profaning the holy day, the memorial, the solemn Feast day and holy convocation on which our Savior was suffering and dying? Have we kept the Passover unworthily for 70 years in the end-time church?

True, the end-time Church has the descriptions as being “ten virgins,” and yet “wretched” and “naked.” (I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing,” and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked . . . “)

Lastly, the article (or your sermon) doesn’t address a few serious issues:

(1) why Moses (and Ezra) wasn’t aware of this “new truth”;
(2) everybody says there are differences between “ba erev” and “ben ha arbayim” but you say “no”– so why no?
(3) the timeframe to kill, roast and eat a lamb that feed 13 adults in the NT from sunset and to allocate all the events in the Gospels toward dawn;
(4) how to fix in all the events from dawn in (3) to the time of His burial.

When the Exiles returned from Babylon after 70 years, most Jews had lost the Hebrew language and knew only Aramaic. Ezra had to read the Scriptures in Hebrew, translate it and explain in the Aramaic so that the common Jews could understand. In due time, this process was written down and gave birth to the Targum, another source of the Scriptures that we should refer from time to time.

Nehemiah 8:8 So they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading. — the Torah were written only in Hebrew then.

Nehemiah 8:8 implied not only the reading of the Law, but also made interpretation of its Hebraic meaning—its translation and interpretation—were simplifies from Hebrew to Aramaic, so that the common people in the streets could understand, and this practice was broadened and spread to all the synagogues in Judea. Before long the Targum was written in Aramaic, and today, translated—including some explanations—in the English language.

Let’s have another look at the original Passover, during the Exodus:

Exodus 12:6 And 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 (ben ha arbayim).
7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it.
8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, the fifteenth of Nisan  — THE TARGUM IDENTIFIES THAT NIGHT AS THE FIFTEENTH OF NISAN!

( CRITIQUE OF DARRYL HENSON PASSOVER )

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~ by Joel Huan on September 18, 2019.

Posted in Passover