A Critique of Fred Coulter’s Passover (f)
A Critique of Fred Coulter’s Passover (f)
Passover on the 14th or 15th?
Fred R. Coulter
Christian Biblical Church of God
Post Office Box 1442
Hollister California 95024-1442
Chapters 10
This is a continuing Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover. The main issue is whether the Passover Lamb was to be killed on the early or late fourteenth of Nisan. Quoted are Fred Coulter’s book, from an internet online PDF version. Most of his quotes are in block form, in PINK and indented so as to differentiate his from other comments. The Scriptures, in RED, must, foremost, be our primary focus and guide.
Chapter 10 started with the issue of how to interprete the time for slaying the lambs—Hebrew ben ha arbayim, “between the two evenings.”
There is no question that the Passover commands in Exodus 12 have been misinterpreted and given different meanings than the true scriptural meaning of God’s ordinances and statutes delivered to Moses. False interpretations of key Hebrew terms that are used in the Scriptural commands have caused great confusion as to which day God designated for the Passover observance, the 14th or the 15th. (The Christian Passover, Pg 115)
This is very true, even an understatement, especially to people who thought they are better than those having Hebrew as their first language.
If ba·erev is followed by ben ha arbayim then two lambs would be needed, one at ba·erev to fulfil Deuteronomy 16:6 and another at ben ha arbayim to fulfil Exodus 12:6. It is not just “great confusion,” it is magic—the type of Magic that Simon Magus had mastered that mesmerised many of his followers.
And then the issue is whether the Passover ordinances were seven or eight days, and whether the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were originally observed as two separate and distinct feasts. Fred Coulter wrote:
Contrary to God’s commands in Exodus 12, the traditional Jewish Passover combines the Passover meal with the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, dropping an entire day from the Scriptural chronology. (Pg 115) — an opinionated statement, but no proof given.
Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread Originally Were Two Separate Feasts—Not One Combined Feast (Pg 116) — again, an opinionated headline, no proof given as usual.
The commands of God in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23 make it undeniably clear that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were to be observed as two separate feasts, one following the other. (Pg 116) — the writing in Leviticus 23 may appear to be two separate feasts but in Exodus 12 the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are surely a composite Feast. Just prove it for yourself by reading the chapter.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia reveals that many of the Sadducees—which included the high priests’ families—retained the practice of the domestic Passover at the beginning of the 14th. This fact is quite surprising. We would expect the high priests to observe the temple sacrifice of the Passover on the afternoon of the 14th, since they were in charge of the temple. But such was not the case. (Pg 118) — the Sadducees (like most CoG Communities today) kept their Passover at the beginning of the fourteenth is an absolute truth.
And Fred Coulter isn’t alone; there are many modern “Jewish authorities” to support him:
(1) The Jewish Encyclopedia states, “Comparison of the successive strata of the Pentateuchal laws bearing on the festival makes it plain that the institution, as developed, is really of composite character. TWO FESTIVALS ORIGINALLY DISTINCT HAVE BECOME MERGED…” (Vol. IX, “Passover,” emphasis added). (Pg 116)
(2) The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible . . . Amid all the uncertainty about the Passover and Unleavened Bread in Israel there is general agreement on two points: the feast contains two originally separate components” (Vol. III, s. v. “Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread,” emphasis added). (Pg 117)
(3) The Encyclopedia Judaica: “The Feast of Passover consists of two parts: The Passover ceremony and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Originally both parts existed separately, but at the beginning of the Exile [in Babylon 603-585 BC] they were combined. (Pg 120)
And this is picked up by Fred Coulter, admitting that the Samaritans were the first to start this observation:
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible points out this marked change in the observance of the Passover: “In many respects the observance [of the Passover at the beginning of the 14th by the Jewish Samaritans] corresponds more closely to the scriptural prescriptions, notably those of Exod. 12, than the true observance in Jerusalem in the days of Jesus—a reminder, among other things, that in its three thousand years or more of history as an Israelite observance, Passover has never ceased to change, however imperceptibly. (Pg 118) — In fact, the Passover observed at the beginning of the fourteenth originated with the Samaritans! More on this later.
The “authorities” quoted above are from The Jewish Encyclopedia, The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible and The Encyclopedia Judaica. But who are they? What were their motivation behind their work?
Research shows that these publications are mainly by either (a) Protestants with a Jewish background or (b) Jewish Reformists having strong aversion or hostility against the Rabbinic Orthodoxy — both are critics of the “Bondage of Judaism” claiming that their predecessors had somehow amalgamated the Passover with the Days of Unleavened Bread and call that the Passover or the Jewish Passover.
Being dissatisfied with the strict Orthodoxy, they left their original faith and craved an alternate explanation rather than remained with a “static religion.” The Jewish Encyclopedia digged deeper into this phenomenon by stating the concept that the two festivals as distinct was promoted by the Samaritans: “The Samaritans consider the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as two distinct festivals.” Of course the Samaritans were the first to promote this distinct concept.
“You shall know them by their fruits.” The originator of these feasts as distinct originated from the Samaritans and then penetrated the Sadducees, who died out during the AD 70 inferno, but resurfaced in the ninth and tenth century with the Karaites. And since the last two centuries, by the Jewish Reform Movement and modern experts who were mainly Protestants from a Jewish background.
And at the tail end by the Worldwide Church of God and today its splinters: the CoG Communities. “You shall know them by their fruits” Matthew 7:16. And they all bear the same fruits.
In more details, the following “Jewish authorities” are largely the works of (a) Protestants with a Jewish background and (b) the Jewish Reform Movement:
The Jewish Encyclopedia — Its managing editor was Isidore Singer (1859–1939) and the editorial board was chaired by Isaac Funk and Frank Vizetelly. Singer was born Austria and studied at the University of Vienna and the Humboldt University of Berlin, receiving his PhD in 1884. One who held “extremely liberal views” and one who had described the Sabbath as “heavy burdens,” and annual holy days as “mere ceremonies.” Singer moved to New York in 1895 where he started work which resulted in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible — Its chief editor was feminist Katharine Sakenfeld (b 1940). She is Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis Emerita at Princeton Theological Seminary, having previously been William Albright Eisenberger Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis. Sakenfeld studied at the University of Rhode Island and Harvard Divinity School before obtaining her PhD at Harvard University. She was ordained as a Presbyterian teaching elder in 1970, and has served as the moderator of the Presbytery of New Brunswick in the PCUSA.
The Encyclopedia Judaica — Its first chief editor was Cecil Roth (1899–1970). He was educated at Merton College, Oxford (PhD, 1924) and later returned to Oxford as Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies from 1939 to 1964. Thereafter he was visiting professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel (1964–1965), where he found his position unattainable when he’d shown sympathy to those “arguing that Moses never existed.” Unable to redeem his reputation in Israel, Roth went to teach at the City University of New York (1966–1969), worked as general editor of the Encyclopaedia Judaica and ended his career there.
Anti-Jewish sentiments were ranpant throughtout Europe through the second millennium. These hostilities have contributed significantly to the development of antisemitism in Germany, and in the 1930s and 1940s provided an “ideal underpinning” for the Nazis’ attacks on Jews.
In Martin Luther’s work, “The Jews & Their Lies,” Luther advocates (1) the burning of Jewish synagogues; (2) that their houses also be razed and destroyed; (3) that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings be destroyed; (4) that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb . . .
Jews have persistently been painted in a negative light, stigmatized upon, both spoken and in writing: antisemitism had been around since the ancient time of old, resurfaces its urgy head time and time again in various forms . . . and today very prominent among the CoG Communities.
No, it wasn’t the Jews who amalgamated the Passover with the Days of Unleavened Bread. It was Moses who did that. For in Deuteronomy 1:1 These are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel . . .
And jumping to:
Deuteronomy 16:1 “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God; for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. 2 Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the Lord thy God, “of the flock” (of sheep and goats) “and the herd” (bulls or bullocks), in the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name there.
The Passover and the days of unleavened bread are well interlaced during the Exodus that it is a composite festival. This is what Moses explained to the children of Israelites in more details.
In Exodus 12:5, it says, “You may take it either from the sheep or from the goats” but in Deuteronomy 16:2 above it includes from “the herd,” which is from cattles or oxens.
To include cattles or oxens can only mean to include the Festival of the Days of Unleavened Bread where among other animals, two young bulls were sacrificed. Therefore the idea that the Passover was restricted solely to the fourteenth day is unattainable.
Also the composite festival was hinted at earlier in Numbers 28:16 “‘And on the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the Lord. 17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. 18 On the first day shall be a holy convocation. Ye shall do no manner of servile work therein, 19 but ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord: two young bulls, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year. They shall be unto you without blemish.
The verses above should be read to describe the seven-day feast of the Passover, including eating of unleavened bread. Also, below it continues to describe how eating unleavened bread is part of observing the Passover:
Deuteronomy 16:3 Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste, that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.
4 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.
5 Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
And this composite festival is confirmed by prophet Ezekiel:
“‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten” Ezekiel 45:21.
Later practice of keeping this composite feast in Jerusalem was a departure from the original Passover in Egypt where they were to stay in their houses. In fact the command is exactly the opposite of the idea of a “domestic passover.” That they should “NOT sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gate.”
The Israelites should keep this composite feast in Jerusalem!
Deuteronomy 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 evening (erev), at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
This evening (erev), is the same time where they kill the daily sacrifice.
Exodus 29:38 Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. 39 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even (erev). — It is also the time (ba erev) when they were to start eating unleavened bread Exodus 12:18.
This amalgamation was reaffirmed in Ezekiel 45:21 where it describes the Passover as a seven-day festival! “‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Septuagint: And in the first [month], on the fourteenth [day] of the month, ye shall have the feast of the passover; seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread.
And again in Luke 2:41 Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. 42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast. 43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and His mother knew not of it. (Feast of the Passover – same expression as used in Exodus 34:25)
Deuteronomy 16:7 And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose, and thou shalt turn in the morning and go unto thy tents.
8 Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord thy God. Thou shalt do no work therein.
So the amalgamation of the Passover with the Days of Unleavened Bread started way back to Moses at the time of the Exodus, and this interlacing characteristic was reaffirmed by Ezekiel, a prophet sent to the northern stiffnecked Israelites; the Jews, also stiffnecked, knew this all along.
“Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit” (Hosea 11:12). Only the stiff-necked and blind couldn’t see this. The house of Judah operates with hypocrisy but the house of Ephraim operates with lies and deceit!
Below are some classic examples of lying and deceit in the house of Ephraim for reflection:
“But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never,” Bill Clinton testified before the nation, Jan. 26, 1998. For his deceit, Clinton became the second president in American history impeached by the House of Representatives.
In an August 2002 speech that kicked off the Bush White House administration’s campaign for war against Iraq, Cheney asserted, “Simply stated, there’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.”
In October 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed he had “bullet-proof” evidence that Saddam was tied to Osama bin Laden. And a National Intelligence Estimate said Iraq had “continued its weapons of mass destruction program.”
“However, there is no doubt at all that the development of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam Hussein poses a severe threat not just to the region, but to the wider world.” – Tony Blair, House of Commons, 10 April 2002
Prime Minister Tony Blair defended himself in 2005: “I have never told a lie. No. I don’t intend to go telling lies to people. I did not lie over Iraq.”
“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole,” former CIA director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 15, 2019 at a forum at Texas A&M University, TX. “It was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.” Interestingly, a Christian religious news broadcaster was the only media that seemed to pick up on Pompeo’s words and described it as follows: “that’s not the resume of the Secretary of State… that’s the resume of Satan.”
“The Bible nowhere sanctions the use of intoxicating wine. The wine that Christ made from water at the marriage feast of Cana was the pure juice of the grape” (Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing p.333).
“I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision–the precious rays of light shining from the throne” (Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p.67).
“The chronological events that are recorded in Exodus 16 clearly define ben ha arbayim— “between the two evenings,” or “between the setting times”— as the time period that immediately FOLLOWS sunset, or ba erev” (Fred R. Coulter, The Christian Passover, p 48).
“There is no question that the Passover commands in Exodus 12 have been misinterpreted and given different meanings than the true scriptural meaning of God’s ordinances and statutes delivered to Moses” (ibid, p 115).
Gerry Flurry’s chronic lying claim of a Mighty Angel that had handed Malachi’s Message to him must be confused and not very articulated because Flurry in later years has to make revisions after revisions to get the messages right for his so-called Philadelphia Church of God. Flurry also prophesied that Donald Trump would serve his second term to fulfill Jeroboam II revival, “BECAUSE A BIDEN PRESIDENCY IS CONTRARY TO BIBLE PROPHECY.”(Pg 1, The Philadelphia Trumpet, January, 2021). — Full of Flurry’s BULLSHIT!
“It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!” 29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan . . . 31 And he made a house of high places . . . 32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah. (King Jeroboam: I King 12)
A day will come when all the people of the earth will wake up and say: “Surely our fathers have inherited lies,” and we, too, have been deceived.
“Erev” is the evening time, and at around 3 PM, the Jews killed the evening lamb since the time of Moses. If Moses had any doubt about its timing, he had full access to ask God who speaks to Him from between the cherubim!
No, it was God working through Moses who intertwined the Passover with the Days of Unleavened Bread! For it is said that the glory of God is to conceal a thing, (Proverbs 25:2), 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.
To make this clear enough: the Passover amalgamation occurred right at Exodus 12, the original Passover in Egypt: Moses only made it clearer in the Book of Deuteronomy.
The first time “Passover” was mentioned is in Exodus 12:11, not at verse 6, even though verse six was describing the process of the Passover, the killing of the lamb. Verse 11 described the same continuing process of the Passover; i.e. the process of Passover runs into the Days of Unleavened Bread! The two feasts overlap right at the beginning.
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. . .
11 And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord’S Passover.
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 . . .”
And here is a description of the CoG Communities: It says in Revelation 3:13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches!’ 14 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write . . .15 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 . . . ”
And Fred Coulter quoted another “authority”:
In his book The Jewish Festivals—From Their Beginnings to Our Own Day, Hayyim Schauss explains the changes in the observance of the Passover that were instituted at the time of Josiah’s reform: “It was in this way that Pesach [Passover] and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were joined, and the two distinct spring festivals became one historical holiday. (Pg 121)
No, Fred is now getting desperate: Schauss didn’t say the amalgamation of Passover with Days of Unleavened Bread took place during Josiah’s time. With deception in mind, Fred Coulter lies that the changes started at Josiah’s initiative “at the time of Josiah’s reform.” Schauss says the reform took place after the Exodus but he wasn’t sure when:
“We cannot be certain how long a time passed before the Jews accepted these reforms in practice and eased to offer the Pesach sacrifice in their own homes. Nor can we be certain how long it took for Pesach and the Feast of Unleavened Bread to become as one festival” (The Jewish Festivals, pg 46).
And just in case we didn’t dive deeper for more details: “The Jewish Festivals” is written by Hayyim Schauss, most probably a Conservative Jew, part of the Reform Movement where modern Jews found “the old ceremonies lack meaning,” and new interpretations are needed to be relevant to our modern era. Hence the terms that Schauss changed in his book are not surprising: the annual solemn convocations or “holy days” as were perceived in Biblical times become a vacation or “holidays” in a character change.
The most solemn Passover and Unleavened Bread festival became “the greatest Jewish national holidays.” In modernity, Jesus and His disciples must be seen as taking their annual vacation in Jerusalem. This is a character change. This is real heresy! Second, the book is published by Schocken Books, it is the same publisher Everett Fox and the Schocken Bible that Fred Coulter quotes for his authority throughout. So the saying goes: foxes and wolves, wolves and foxes of the same colours.
To be sure, where the two feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread were intertwined, they were intertwined right in the original 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). This ben ha arbayim is the time to kill the Passover (lamb).
In Deuteronomy 16:6 ba·erev is also the time to kill the Passover.
The above time is also the time to start eating unleavened bread: Exodus 12:18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (ba–erev), ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at evening (ba-erev).
Compare this to Leviticus 23:5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening (ben ha arbayim) is the Lord’S Passover.
In Leviticus 23:5 and Exodus 12:6 where the same expression ben ha arbayim is used it is when the Passover was killed on the fourteenth.
In Deuteronomy 16:6 ba·erev is to commence the Passover; and in Exodus 12:18 ba·erev is also to commence eating unleavened bread. Passover and Unleavened Bread. Hence the festival has already taken a composite character and is well entwined right at the beginning, at the time of the original Exodus.
This is plainly and simple as to what the Scriptures say. “Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit” (Hosea 11:12). Only the stiff-necked couldn’t see this. Plain and simple. Simple and plain.
~~~~~
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 