A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Concerning erev, or even, evening, there so much confusion.

This is because erev can refer to any one of three timeframes: (1) from noon or midday to sunset, (2) from sunset to midnight, or (3) from noon or midday to midnight.

(1) erev: from noon to sunset; only this timeframe coinsides with the term ben ha’arbayim;

(2) erev: from sunset to midnight: this timeframe is to start a day, or the Sabbath; also the time to eat the Passover;

(3) erev: from noon to midnight; this is a 12-hour evening, or for today’s readers, better known as the whole 6-hour afternoon and the first 6-hour night; and when combined with the other 12-hour morning, from midnight, it completes a full 24-hour day. This concept is key to understanding the Genesis creation: “And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

Just as translating from one language into another can be confusing, the numerous idiosyncrasies of the Hebrew language have definitely add to further confusions. When inspiring the writings of the Scriptures, God reveals many things, but he also incorpoates conplexities that could confuse those he long foresaw as stubborn and stiff-necked.

When ben ha’arbayim is interpreted as “after noon and until nightfall,” which is the first erev, there are ample time of 6 hours for the preparation and killing, cleaning and roasting of the Passover lamb before nightfall arrives. And Aaron wouldn’t stumble lighting the Sanctuary after darkness had fallen, neither with the Israelites catching quails among nocturnal snakes in the Sinai desert.

The English language, too, has its own idiosyncrasies. For example, words could serve as their own direct opposites depending on how they are used:

(a) Sanction: to approve something (“The committee sanctioned the project”) Or to penalize something (“Economic sanctions were imposed”).
(b) Dust: to add fine particles (“Dust the cake with sugar”) Or to remove fine particles (“Dust the shelves”).
(c) Cleave: to stick closely together (“Cleave to your principles”) Or to split apart (“Cleave the wood in two”).
(d) Oversight: careful supervision (“Due to strong regulatory oversight”) Or an accidental omission (“It was a complete oversight on my part”).

The English language has numerous idiosyncrasies. For another example, the words “America” and “American” carry a unique set of linguistic and global confusion.

For English speakers, “America” refers to a single country—the United States of America. However, geographically and historically, it refers to two entire continents (North America and South America) comprising 35 sovereign nations.

If someone says “I’m traveling across America,” an English speaker assumes they are visiting the US, whereas someone from Brazil, Mexico or Argentina would view “America” as the entire Western Hemisphere stretching from Canada to Chile.

In Spanish and Portuguese, the Western Hemisphere is a single continent called América. Referring solely to US citizens as americanos is seen as exclusionary or even hubristic, as anyone from Canada down to Tierra del Fuego is also an “American.”

During the 1500s–1600s: “American” referred exclusively to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Only after the post 1776 ‘American’ Revolution, did it morphed into its modern political definition solely for the self-absorbing citizens of the United States.

That’s how the word “even” or “evening,” once referred to a roughly six-hour span from afternoon to nightfall, ended up being restricted to just those fleeting moments of dusk or twilight, much to our modern-day confusion, adding yet to an impulsive life-and-death urge why such a compelling 508-paged book, The Christian Passover, should be written.

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And on a closely related subject: observance and understanding of Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread.

On the term “Passover” there are three levels of time zooms or periods in reading Exodus 12 regarding this Passover question.

The three levels of zooming at Passover are:

(1) Passover “Between the evenings” or ben ha arbayim: “and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening” (Exodus 12:6). “Ba·erev” “thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even” (Deuteronomy 16:6). This scenario is limited to “killing the Passover,” but depending on the context, it could extend into the night to include eating “the Passover.”

(2) Passover, a feast of seven days (Ezekiel 45:21); Passover is described here as a feast of seven days. That’s right. Passover is a composite festival. Deuteronomy 16 refers to Passover as the Days of Unleavened Bread, and uses the terms interchangeably throughout the chapter. Same with Exodus 12, especially from v15: Passover on the Nisan 14th must be observed with unleavened bread; they are NOT distinct separate feasts;

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Exodus 12:18

(3) Passover as a season, or the Passover season, which includes identifying the lamb on the tenth of Nisan, the killing of the Passover lamb, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and before that, requiring much preparation preparing offerings and planning the journey to Jerusalem. One month generally: “Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season” (Numbers 9:2, Exodus 12).

The concept of Passover has either a limited meaning or a broader meaning. One could define Passover to include all related ordinances while another could be limited such as just to “kill the Passover,” or just to “eat the Passover.”

After the Jews returned from Babylon, they continued to keep the Passover under Ezra:

“And the children of the captivity kept the Passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month.
“For the priests and the Levites were purified together; all of them were pure, and killed the Passover lamb for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves” Ezra 6:19-20.

During the New Testament era, much of the record focuses only on the eating of the Passover: Mark 14:12,14; Luke 22:8,11,15; John 18:28. Only Luke 22:7 speaks of the Passover being killed.

But in 1 Corinthians 5:7, it spelt out clearly the central theme of Passover:

“For even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us” 1 Corinthians 5:7

Christ is our true Passover, the Lamb who was sacrificed at 3 PM on the fourteenth of Nisan, at even. Therefore, the meal would take place on the fifteenth.

Finally, during the New Testament era, there were much evidence that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are a composite Festival:

Now on 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?” Matthew 26:17

And on the first 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?” Mark 14:12

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. Luke 22:1

Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lamb must be killed. Luke 22:7

The four verses quoted are clear and self evident: Passover is a composite Festival. Anyone with a self-absorbing mindset trying to understand these passages could only be confused.

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The picture above shows two contrasting birds. Imagine that at every ten minutes interval, these two birds combined and morphed into a single dancing hybrid for one minute. How would a snapshot picture from an iPhone look like?

Imagine that such a bird attracting so much attention that busloads of school kids were brought in to study the hybrid and write reports on their observations. What would those reports be like?

Answer: It would be like what Moses wrote about the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Deuteronomy 16, and what the New Testament writers describing the composite Passover Festival in the four verses quoted above.

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God’s inspiration of the Scriptures is a double-edged sword: it unveils truth to the receptive, while embedding complexities that veil it from those foreknown to be self-absorbing and stiff-necked. Deuteronomy 16, however, clarifies some earlier Scriptures as to how to keep the Passover:

(i) Passover was to be offered in the place which the Lord shall choose, not within any of their gates (Deuteronomy 16:2,5). It was no longer in their houses as was during the Exodus, hence a “domestic passover” for later observances is a misconception.

(ii) For purposes of the timing of the sacrifice of Pesach, the time is erev (Deuteronomy 16:6), the same time as ben ha arbayim (Exodus 12:6). Thus erev, the first erev for this purpose, is defined as “after noon until nightfall” (Exodus 12:6).

(iii) Erev (Deuteronomy 16:6) is being defined as “at the going down of the sun.” It’s again the first erev, from the first moment when the sun starts to go down when it passes its zenith. It is also the same time to start eating unleavened bread (Exodus 12:18). So the eating of unleavened bread started earlier than eating Pesach by some 6 or more hours.

Now on 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?” Matthew 26:17

And on the first 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?” Mark 14:12

Isn’t it amazing: the disciples were only concern about the eating part of the Festival!

(iv) God specifies that three times a year all males should appear before Him in the place which He shall choose, which were later identified by God to be in Jerusalem (II Chronicles 6:6): in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 16:16, which clarifies Exodus 23:14,17; 34:23).

We should study the Scriptures in great detail and scrutinise microscopically what it actually says, not presuming what we thought it says. Start eating unleavened bread from the fourteenth onward, at even, ba–erev, don’t wait until the fifteenth: “Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread” reaffirms Exodus 23:18.

~ by Joel on August 1, 2026.

Posted in Passover, Passover - Fred Coulter