A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

This is the last posting of a Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover.

Draft IIj

Chapters 18 – 19

Before we go into the Passover issue it is important to start with John, the forerunner to the arrival of the Messiah. Note his prophecy:

Luke 3:3 And he (John the son of Zacharias) came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 Then said he to the multitude who came forth to be baptized by him, “O generation of vipers! Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say unto you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 9 And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees. Every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire (pyr g4442).”

And further down, John prophesied about the Messiah:

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 Greek word pŷr is “fire” literally or figuratively, especially lightning. A pyre in English is also known as a funeral pyre, which is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the pyre, which is then set on fire.

John was a voice crying in the wilderness, and he said to make the crooked paths straight, he needed to hewn some trees and cast them into the fire (verse 9). Then John said that the Messiah that come after him, will have a winnowing fan in His hand, and will thoroughly purge His floor by gathering the chaff together and burn them with fire (verse17). This story is so important that it is similarly recorded in Matthew 3:1-12.

Notice the consistency of “fire” is important. After the flood, God promised the world that whenever we see the rainbow it is a reminder of His promise not to similarly destroy the world by flood again. But about destroying by fire here are some of Jesus own warnings:

Matthew 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
Matthew 13:40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this world.
Matthew 13:50 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 25:41 “Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Mark 9:44 where ‘their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.’
Luke 12:49 “I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?
John 15:6 If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Acts 2:19 And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath — blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

And destruction it came in AD 70, roughly 40 years after Christ’s warning! The Romans, led by the future Emperor Titus, came and destroyed Jerusalem, killed more than 1.1 million, with another 97,000 enslaved. “Brood of vipers!” warned John the Baptist, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” From all the chaos that took place, only a few Jews escaped.

The foundation of Fred Coulter’s Passover on the early fourteenth of Nisan has been proven to be built on sand. Once this foundation is wacky, it shifts and moves and its consequence can be desperating. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall,” (Matthew 7:24-27). That’s right! The Worldwide Church of God was growing at some 30 percent each year for decades, but it was built on sand. Once its founder died, the organisation imploded, and it fell like a bang, and great was its noise, scattering many splinters as a result. Because Fred Coulter’s belief is similarly built on a shaky foundation it will with certainty comes with a desperating end. So we’ll proceed with him to the New Testament era.

But notice the following four verses during the New Testament time before we proceed. They show that the Feast of the Passover were well understood by the writers as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They were already well amalgamated.

Matthew 26:17 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?”
Mark 14:12 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?”
Luke 22:1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.
Luke 22:7 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread when the Passover lamb must be killed.

Now another quote from the Christian Passover:

When we examine the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last Passover, it is evident that Jesus and His disciples kept a domestic Passover at the beginning of the 14th, according to the commands of God in Exodus 12. On the other hand, the New Testament discloses that the Sadducees, scribes and Pharisees observed a 14/15 temple Passover, eating their Passover on the night of the 15th. This dichotomy makes it clear that the 14/15 controversy existed in New Testament times. We will have a better basis for understanding the observance of the Passover in the New Testament if we survey the terminology that is used in the Gospel accounts.

There are many errors in the above paragraph. The Sadducees didn’t subscribe to a 14/15 Passover, the Pharisees did. The Sadducees (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. Fred Coulter must be suffering from memory loss, for he wrote in Chapter 10: “The Sadducees, including some high priests and their families, continued to practice the domestic killing of the Passover lambs at the beginning of the 14th.” The oversight is glaring. And where are all his team?—Carl and Jean Franklin, Philip Neal, Albert and Mela Cataga John, Hiedi and Sasha Vogele—sleeping?

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.

Both Mark and Luke make a clear distinction between the Passover day and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in their accounts of the events leading to Jesus’ last Passover. On the other hand, in his narration of the early life of Jesus Christ, Luke includes the Feast of Unleavened Bread with the Passover day as a single feast called “the feast of Passover.” In this passage, Luke does not distinguish the Passover day from the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but records that Jesus and “… His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover….[And] they departed after completing the days…” (Luke 2:41, 43).

That’s right, the feast of the Passover involves several days. The gospel writers well understood that the feast of the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread were intertwined and the same. To argue otherwise is going against the spirit of the Scriptures, and the writings of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Unless, of course, Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh are holier than Ezra, Matthew, Mark and Luke.

The Gospel accounts make it clear that Jesus did not follow the traditions of men. Jesus strongly denounced the traditions of the Jews—ALL OF THEM!

All of them? Nar. Early in His life, Jesus went with his parents to keep the Passover, Luke 2:41. Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. If these Galileean were to keep a domestic Passover, as Fred Coulter alleges, they would stay back to keep a “domestic Passover” in Galilee. Bad traditions are already well documented, so I won’t reiterate them, but good traditions are seldom mentioned. Here there are, as 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.

“Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother who walketh disorderly and not according to the tradition which you received from us” II Thessalonians 3:6.

To say that Jesus rejects “ALL” the traditions of the Jews is a presumption that could only come from one with a devious mindset, and it will come with a serious consequence. “And the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest who standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die” Deuteronomy 17:12.

The Gospel of John shows how far the Jews had strayed from the worship that God desired. John records that the Jews were actually defiling the temple of God with their corrupt practices: “Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem . . .

Wasn’t a Jerusalem centred Passover from God? Jesus, setting the best example, went to Jerusalem to keep the Passover of the Jews. He didn’t stay back in Galilee, in their own homes, to keep a “domestic Passover” as occurred in the original Exodus. Neither did He kept a Passover of the Samaritans at Mount Gerizim.

Yet Fred moans over this “domestic Passover” all over his book. To the knowledgeable this is revolting. For in Deuteronomy 16:16 it commands “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.” God had provided a provision where He will choose a place in the future where the Israelites are to worship him.

And God’s prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Zechariah, they all say the same thing. In Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; Isaiah 24:23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously: Isaiah 28:14, Jeremiah 3:17, Joel 2:32, Joel 3:16, Amos 1:2, Micah 4:2, Zechariah 1:16,17, 2:12, 3:2, 8:3, 8:22, 12:10), and other follows identifying Jerusalem as God’s chosen city, but why is Fred Coulter still harping and whining about a “domestic Passover”?

And Jesus, at the age of twelve, readily went to Jerusalem to keep the Passover! “Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Deuteronomy 16:5) Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when Jesus was twelve years old, they similarly went up to Jerusalem “after the custom of the feast,” rather than staying back in Galilee. Was Jesus misled? “Custom of the Feast,” that means to say, Jesus went to Jerusalem every year for Passover! But Fred still groans about a “domestic Passover” all over. The Old Jeroboam stopped his subjects from going to Temple-based Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles; the New Jeroboam also teaches against keeping Passover in a Temple-based Jerusalem. Amazing parallels!

In later chapters, John uses similar terminology when referring to the Jews’ observance of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread: “Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near” (John 6:4). Again, John states, “Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from out of the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, so that they might purify themselves” (John 11:55). John’s repeated use of this terminology makes it clear that the Jews were not keeping these feast days as God intended them to be kept.

Nar, John lived the longest among the Gospel writers, and even among all the other apostles. And he was there when there arose a revolting movement by the Gentiles to get rid of anything that had to do with being Jewish. 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 tabernacles too in John 7:2 “Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.”

He emphasised their Jewishness simply because there was a real Samaritan counterfeit nearby: they practiced another version of the Passover, which were observed on a Samaritan calendar an early fourteenth of Nisan, at twilight, on Mount Gerizim. These rivalries were so intense and hence imbuled their perception that Samaritans were having a devil (John 8:48).

Being Galileans, John and the other disciples have to travel numerous times passing Samaritan territories, including Jacob’s well, 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.

However, John writes differently when he refers to Jesus’ last Passover, which was observed on the night of the 14th, the time that God commanded. Notice that John does not use the phrase “of the Jews” to describe this Passover: “Now six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany…” (John 12:1). Again, John records, “Now before the feast of the Passover, knowing that His time had come to depart from this world to the Father…” (John 13:1). As the subsequent verses in John 13 show, John is referring to Jesus’ last Passover, which He ate with His disciples on the 14th day of the first month, as commanded by God. The different terminology that John uses makes a clear distinction between Jesus’ observance of the Passover and the Jews’ observance of their feast.

“And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?” (Mark 14:12, KJV.)

Although the translators did not insert the words “feast of” before “unleavened bread,” this translation of Mark 14:12 gives the impression that the lambs were killed on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Such a statement would be contrary to all records of Scripture and history.

Mark rightly didn’t incorporate the “feast of” before unleavened bread and credit should be attributable to him, not attacking him. This is a typical case of Fred having a misconception of what the Scriptures say, and then he attacks his own misconception: “If these verses are actually stating that the lambs were killed on the 15th, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then we are confronted with gigantic problems.” And then he continues his attack.

Let’s recall what he wrote about sticking to the Scriptures on Chapter 1 — Fourteen Rules for Bible Study:
12) Do not allow your own personal assumptions or preconceived notions to influence your understanding and conclusions.
13) Do not form conclusions based on partial facts or insufficient information, or the opinions and speculations of others.
14) Opinions, regardless of how strongly you feel about them, don’t necessarily count. Scripture must be your standard and guide.

Amazing! He has been making presumptions all the time. Right at the second paragraph of this chapter “When we examine the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ last Passover, it is evident that Jesus and His disciples kept a domestic Passover at the beginning of the 14th, according to the commands of God in Exodus 12,” and the title for the next chapter, he already has his heading as, “Chapter Nineteen – Jesus’ Last Passover—When and How Was It Observed?” He has already concluded it was “Jesus’ Last Passover” before he began to prove it. Are these statements and headings not presumptuous? Are Fred’s devotees still adoring him? Are they correctly described as “wretched” and “naked”?

The wording in Mark’s account causes confusion because it appears to contradict these facts, as does the wording in Luke’s account: “Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed” (Luke 22:7, KJV).

If these verses are actually stating that the lambs were killed on the 15th, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, then we are confronted with gigantic problems:

No, it is not even a slight problem. Exodus 12 confirms the opposite. Verse 18 says “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (erev), ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at evening (erev).” Eating of unleavened bread starts BEFORE the beginning of the fifteenth. Unleavened bread is to be eaten “on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (erev),” (Exodus 12:18). As another testimony from Deuteronomy 16:1-8 shows, the full ordinances for Passover and the time for taking unleavened bread overlapped. The Targum translates and explains the Sacred Hebrew Text into the vernacular, in very simple language and is extremely clear: “And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan.”

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This chapter starts with a preconconception, that Jesus last supper was His last Passover. And Fred Coulter repeated his misconception again and again. Scriptures were cherry picked to support preexisting biases and other Biblical passages were reinterpreted and twisted to support his misconception. 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” rather than “on the night he was betrayed, He took bread.”

There is evidence in early historical works that at the time John was writing his Gospel, the 14/15 Passover controversy was already a major problem. That would explain why John describes Jesus’ last Passover and the subsequent events in greater detail than the other Gospel writers.

It is correct that John’s account differs from the other Gospels, but not for the reasons given. John had to keep on emphasizing the details of Jewish feasts as difference from a Samaritan counterfeit version that had been a threat for hundreds of years. John mentioned going through Samaria in details encountering with a Samaritan woman (John 4:4-40), eventually giving them the most important message: for “Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). For us living far and away in the twenty-first century, the threat from the Samaritans aren’t real, but for them, John and his countrymen from Galilee, they had to live with those threats, and they were real.

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 [6 AM]). And he [Pilate] said to the Jews, ‘Behold your King!’ But they cried aloud, ‘Away, away with Him! Crucify Him!’ ” (John 19:14-15).

It’s amazing. It’s like a red-hot murder suspect caught and being interviewed in a police station testifying with different alibi to suit different circumstances. Here, the sixth hour is “6 AM”, but in another of Fred’s own books, it’s 8.30 AM (pg 219, Harmony of the Gospels, 1974). If Fred Coulter have been honest, he would tell the truth that the “sixth hour” is the same as when Jesus met the Samaritan at the well. It was hot, and Jesus, being wearied and tired, asked for a drink. It was noon time, as the same time were listed elsewhere:

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

The truth is that all the Gospel writers were using Hebrew time and all the “sixth hour” means 12 noon, since the hour counting starts at daybreak, at 6 AM. I like Fred’s thirteenth rule on studying the Bible 13) Do not form conclusions based on partial facts or insufficient information, or the opinions and speculations of others.

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 a day before, on the thirteenth. Then they led Him away to be crucified, but first to be flogged, including mocking and scourging—the missing hours, or for the next 18 hours—then back at the praetorium. From John 14:16 to17, there is a time gap where there is no record of Him—from about noon on the thirteenth to daybreak on the fourteenth of Nisan. A mystery of mysteries. A secret among secrets.

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!

If Fred Coulter had put the timing of the “Last Supper” on the night of the thirteenth, he needs not twist the time “sixth hour” of John 19:14 into various alibis to suit different situations.

Bacchiocchi fails to consider that during Jesus’ day a majority of the Jews were observing the domestic Passover at the beginning of the 14th, as commanded by God in Exodus 12.

The Samaritans would keep their early fourteenth Passover at Mount Gerizim at sunset, but there is no record (at least I haven’t come across any) how the Sadduceans, the Boethusians and Herodians, would keep them, though there seems some scattered comments in the Mishnah. If they did, they would similarly have kept it on an early fourteenth. But they were a minority during Christ’s time, confined to Jerusalem and the Temple. When the Temple was destroyed by fire in AD 70, the Sadduceans, the Boethusians and Herodians were all consumed with it and disappeared from history.

A “domestic Passover” would have to be kept in their houses “as commanded by God in Exodus 12.” He emphasised in Chapter 6: “There is no question that the children of Israel were in their houses when they observed the Passover.” There has been no record of any Passover being kept back in Galilee. And if they have to move to keep it in Jerusalem in houses, tents, or inns it would be a fake domestic Passover. A true domestic Passover would have to be kept in where there own houses were, as in Egypt. In Exodus 12:13-14 it says, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live.” And they lived in Galilee.

Because Bacchiocchi recognizes no other Passover than the traditional Nisan 15 observance, he concludes that Jesus’ observance of the 14th was “a special paschal meal” kept a day early in anticipation of His crucifixion. Notice: “An Early Passover Meal. A plausible resolution of the discrepancy is to assume that the last Supper was a special paschal meal eaten the evening before the official Passover meal. The anticipation of the paschal meal could have been motivated by the fact that Jesus knew He would suffer death at Passover in fulfillment of the type provided by the slaying of the paschal lamb on Nisan 14. He knew He could not possibly eat of the paschal lamb at the usual time [assuming that Jesus kept the traditional Nisan 15 Passover] and Himself be sacrificed as the true Paschal Lamb when the lambs were slain [referring to the afternoon of Nisan 14]. It was more important that Christ’s death should synchronize with the death of the Passover lambs [at the temple] than that His eating of the Passover meal synchronize with the official time of the Passover meal” (Ibid., p. 56, emphasis added).

Although Bacchiocchi was a Seventh-day Adventist, and Adventists normally don’t keep the annual feasts, he was right in observing how Christ’s last supper wasn’t a Passover, but he wasn’t right to describe it as an “early Passover” either. To fine-tune further it should be more accurate to call it a pre-paschal meal. That night, there were no evidence of a Passover—no lamb, no bitter herbs. If lamb have been eaten at that last supper, it is inconceivable that the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world would not have been mentioned.There were no reminder of John the Baptist’s words, “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29,36).

There were no mention of bunches of hyssop brushing blood on the doorposts and lintel either, neither did they burnt any of the remains at daybreak, nor remained in the house till SUNRISE, OR DAYBREAK, but they scurried off to the Garden of Gethsemane against all the ordinances needed to keep a “domestic Passover”—so it shouldn’t be a surprise that it wasn’t a Passover of whatever kind at all, unless it is a Simon Magus Passover, taking on a false hope with a wafer of bread and a goblet of wine.

It is important to note what Fred Coulter wrote in Chapter 6:

The children of Israel kept the Passover in their houses, just as the Bible records for us . . . The inspired record in Exodus 12 makes it clear that the children of Israel were not dwelling in tents at Rameses when they kept the Passover. The Hebrew word bayith, which is translated “house” or “houses” in Exodus 12, does not refer to a tent or a temporary dwelling.

Amazing stuff! Even if Jesus and His disciples were eating that last supper in a house, it still doesn’t qualify keeping it “in their houses” as Fred Coulter alleges in Chapter 6, because bayith does not refer to a tent or a temporary dwelling. “It is important to read with an open mind, carefully examining each Scripture as it is presented,” he warned in the introduction, “and drawing conclusions only after considering all the facts.” And the “facts” he presented are all either self-contradictory or against a “domestic Passover.” A better question to ask is why is the end-time Church has the descriptions as being “ten virgins, waiting, waiting and waiting,” and yet “wretched” and “naked”? And where are his team—Carl and Jean Franklin, Philip Neal, Albert and Mela Cataga John, Hiedi and Sasha Vogele—ten virgins sleeping?

The word “they” in Mark 14:12 refers to those who were killing the Passover lambs at houses, tents, or inns where the domestic Passover would be kept. Mark’s record of the killing of the lambs at the time that Jesus sent His disciples to prepare the Passover confirms that many Jews in New Testament times were observing the domestic Passover. Clearly, Jesus and His disciples did not observe a “special paschal meal” at a different time from other Jews in Jerusalem. Mark’s testimony exposes this teaching as a false doctrine of men.

Okay, let’s see what Mark says in Mark 14:12; and it’s getting a bit technical:

Mark 14:12 KJV And the first (G4413 protos) day (G2250 hemera) of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?

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.

G2250 hemera could be translated as ‘a period of time or days’ as in Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days G2250 of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.

Matthew 3:1 In those days G2250 came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
Matthew 11:12 And from the days G2250 of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Mat 23:30 And say, If we had been in the days G2250 of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Matthew 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! G2250
Matthew 24:22 And except those days G2250 should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days G2250 shall be shortened.
Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days G2250 shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Matthew 24:37 But as the days G2250 of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. During those 120 years Noah preached a warning message (1 Peter 3:20).
Matthew 24:38 For as in the days G2250 that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day G2250 that Noah entered into the ark,
Mark 2:20 But the days G2250 will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. G2250
Mark 8:1 In those days G2250 the multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them,

So Mark 14:12 could or should be translated as “Now before the Days of Unleavened Bread arrived, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, Where do You want us to go and prepare that You may eat the Passover?

Matthew 26:17 Now the first day (G4413 protos) 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 could be translated as: “Now before the Days of Unleavened Bread have arrived, the disciples came to Jesus, asking, Where shall we prepare for thee to eat the Passover?”

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.”

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.””

—It is possible that Peter and John killed the lamb themselves.However, since the guest chamber was furnished and ready, it is more likely that the master of the house had already killed the lamb by the time Peter and John arrived.
—It is probable that the lamb for Jesus’ last Passover was a very small lamb,
—If the lamb was very small, the Passover meal could have been ready as early as 7:30 PM.
—The subsequent events of that night indicate that the Passover meal began early and probably ended by 9 or 9:30 PM.

Typical of Fred Coulter’s analysis. A possibility becomes a probability and then it becomes a fact. And so in his Harmony of the Gospels, his passover started at 7.30 PM and everything ended by 9.30 PM when they Jesus and His disciples sped off to the Garden of Gethsemane well before daybreak. They were to keep all the ordinances of a “domestic Passover,” shouldn’t they? “And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning [sunrise]” (Ex. 12:21-22),” Fred wrote in Chapter 6, and reaffirmed again in Chapter 7:

“…And none of you shall go out of the door of his house UNTIL SUNRISE….And the children of Israel went away and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, SO THEY DID” (Ex. 12:22, 28).

“If any of the children of Israel had left their houses before morning, it would be recorded in the Scriptures that some of the people had disobeyed the command of God and had left their houses too soon, and therefore they had died in the plague of the firstborn.”

The killing and roasting took only one and a half hours, he says. Anticipated to feed 13 adults, Fred wrote that they only planned to have a tiny 8-day old lamb, weights only 10-12 pounds. Have any of you roasted a leg of lambs, folks? I would love to hear from your experiences. More so if you have even killed a lamb, drained off the blood, skinned, cleaned and have it roasted, expected to feed thirteen adults after nightfall. If not, try it, it is an opportunity to prove the truth!

Nevermind, Fred Coulter provided his own analysis. Surely he had in mind a household during the time of the Exodus of around ten: women and children among them; here he analysed he needed close to 6 hours to roast a lamb, so back to Chapter 6:

To roast a whole lamb or kid weighing 20-30 pounds until the meat was thoroughly done would take approximately 4-5 hours. The total time needed to have the meal ready is estimated to be from 4 and 1/2 hours at the earliest, to 5 and 3/4 hours at the latest, which includes 30-45 minutes to prepare the lamb and 4-5 hours to roast it.

At the end of the Chapter 6 he concluded from an earlier question: Element # 4) How long did it take to kill, roast and eat the lambs, and to burn the bones and remains?

The Answer for Element # 4: To kill, roast and eat the lambs, and to burn the bones and remains, took from approximately 6 PM on the night of the fourteenth until 2-3 hours before sunrise, a total of 8-10 hours.

See, Fred Coulter keeps on wiggling his alibi to suit different circumstances. Or is this a doublespeak? “Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words.” But this case his distortion is everywhere. Can we trust his “analysis”? He wrote in Chapter 1: “Unfortunately, the landscape of religious history is filled with the bodies of people who have taught false doctrines, and the bodies of people who have embraced such teachings.” So true with Fred’s remarkable insight, when he starts describing himself!

Luke records Jesus’ words at the beginning of the Passover meal: “Now when the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. And He said to them, ‘With earnest desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you that I will not eat of it again until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God’ ” (Luke 22:14-16).

Did Jesus eat the Passover? If not, what was He talking when he said about “this Passover”?

Let’s study this; there could only be two possibilities:

1) He meant the upcoming Passover that very season, which was approaching, as this statement was made “before the feast of the Passover” (John 13:1).
2) He meant that very meal that evening which they were partaking of – even though it was served with leavened bread (artos G740), makes no mention of the lamb, or bitter herbs, which were required for a Passover meal.

What did Jesus mean when He said, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer?” Note that earlier it was the disciples, not Christ, who mentioned about eating the Passover, and that Christ referred later only His desire to eat it: “Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with My disciples?” But did Christ the Passover? This difference is critical. The word for “desire” is an unusual word, epithumia in the Greek, and means “a longing, especially for something forbidden” (Strong’s 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.
Matthew 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired G1937 to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
Luke 17:22 And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire G1937 to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
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
James 4:2 Ye lust, G1937 and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
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.
Mark 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts G1939 of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

The word for “desire” in Luke 22:15 is a “desire, craving, longing—specifically for what is forbidden,” says the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown Critical-Experimental Commentary. This is the “strongest expression of intense desire,” whether good or bad. The New Testament Greek Lexicon says epithumia is, “desire, craving, longing, desiring for something forbidden.”

In other words, Jesus desired to eat the true Biblical Passover with His disciples that year, but He knew that such a thing would be impossible—that it was forbidden; it was denied—that for Him to fulfill God’s plan that He must fulfilled that Special Sacrificial Paschal, that “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Jesus knew He was to fulfil John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. So Christ knew He would be denied, forbidden and impossible for Him to eat that forthcoming Passover with His disciples.

With all these in mind, perhaps Luke 22:15 could be translated as: “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; but I’m saying to you now, I am forbidden and denied this privilege, and I will no longer eat with you until we’re all in the kingdom of God.”

As we continue reading the account, it is clear that the context supports this translation, and is consistent with the Greek. We are told that Jesus rose from supper (verse 4). After washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus sat down again (Greek “reclined”) to eat (verse 12). Jesus said, “The one who is eating bread with Me…” (verse 18), shows that the meal was in progress. Jesus dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas, who ate it (verse 26).

Obviously Jesus and His disciples didn’t keep a “domestic Passover” back in their houses in Galilee. Here they didn’t eat “with loins girded, shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands,” they didn’t take a bunch of hyssop, dipped it in the blood and strike the lintel and the two side posts, and to eat “in haste,” ready to flee.

And then they left though they were supposed to remain in their house that entire night! Instead they sang a hymn where the Israelties didn’t sing any in the original Passover in Egypt. Then Fred Coulter admitted, “Jesus sat down again (Greek “reclined”) to eat.” What an admission! What a difference between the original Passover and the one Jesus and His disciples took. Just referring back to Chapter One, this is how Fred Coulter put a mirror in front of himself, and wrote about what he saw:

“False doctrines and misinterpretations are continually being spread because ministers and teachers use the Word of God deceitfully. How diabolical it is to take the Word of God, which is the truth, and misapply it to create a lie!”

“False doctrines and misinterpretations are continually being spread because ministers and teachers use the Word of God deceitfully. How diabolical it is to take the Word of God, which is the truth, and misapply it to create a lie! Such deceptive use of God’s Word has existed from the time of the apostles.”

“Anyone who twists and distorts the Scriptures is “using the law unlawfully,” as Paul said, and will end up believing false, satanic doctrines, which subvert the souls of men. Unfortunately, the landscape of religious history is filled with the bodies of people who have taught false doctrines, and the bodies of people who have embraced such teachings.”

And just in case we have forgotten Haman in the Persian Court, here is what Fred Coulter reminded us of himself when he wrote in Chapter 6:

WHAT FOLLY! What foolishness to accept a traditional belief that directly conflicts with the truth of God’s Word, and to use interpretations of Scripture that promote the false ideas of men! No wonder God says that He entraps the intelligent in the foolishness of their own human wisdom.

((((CRITIQUE OF FRED COULTER’S THE CHRISTIAN PASSOVER))))

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Posted in Passover

This is a continuing Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover. The main issue is whether the Passover is on the early or late fourteenth of Nisan. Quoted are his work, from an internet online version.

Draft IIi

Chapters 16 – 17

Chapter 16 from Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover starts with the issue of how Deuteronomy 16 was different from other text, that why and how Passover and Unleavened Bread are a composite festival which, he alleges, should be distinct and separate.

The advocates of a 15th Passover claim that the commands of God in Deuteronomy 16 support the temple sacrifice of the Passover lambs. On the surface, it appears that these commands required the sacrificing of the Passover at the temple, and that the Passover and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread were combined into one feast.

Why do the commands in Deuteronomy 16 appear to be in conflict with all other commands of God for keeping the Passover?

Why does Deuteronomy 16:1 use the term “Passover” in the context of commemorating the Exodus? What is the reason for this apparent discrepancy between Deuteronomy 16:1 and other Scriptural references to leaving Egypt in the month Abib?

Remember, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers were mainly the words of God to His subjects—to Adam, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Moses—but in Deuteronomy it was Moses speaking to the Israelites. Moses uses words and terms different from God’s so that the people could understand in a language the Israelites could understand. Deuteronomy 1:1 says “These are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness . . . Yes, Moses combined Passover and Unleavened Bread into one festival as the two festivals were used interchangeably in this chapter. Moses wasn’t writing anything in conflict with the Words of God—surely he won’t dare to—he was making sure in clearer language so that the Israelites didn’t miss this amalgamated feast. This composite character was already inherent in the original Exodus but Moses combined these two feasts explicitly here to ensure that those with a thicker head can also catch up.

One heading and its explanation in this chapter:

The Exiles Could Not Keep the Passover

Moreover, during the entire seventy-year captivity, the Passover could not be kept. The word of God makes it absolutely clear that when the people were not in the land of Israel, they could not keep the Passover on the 14th day of the first month. Notice the instructions that God gave to Moses when the children of Israel were in the wilderness: “And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings [ben ha arbayim] in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, the children of Israel did.

If the Passover was home-centered, and not Temple- centered, the Jews shouldn’t have any inhibition about keeping the Passover at wherever they lived, as were the case with the original Exodus. They kept it in their homes, wherever they lived. Yet, Fred Coulter says, “The word of God makes it absolutely clear that when the people were not in the land of Israel, they could not keep the Passover.”

Why, why didn’t he provide any Scriptures to back up his claim? Actually the Scriptures say the opposite—Goshen wasn’t in Israel, neither the Sinai Desert in Israel while wandering in the wilderness for the next forty years, yet they kept the Passover. Are his devotees still sleeping? Why such wretched writing and none of his devotees are thinking?

“And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity kept the dedication of this house of God with joy….And the children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. The priests and the Levites were purified together, all of them pure. And they killed the Passover lamb for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. And the children of Israel ate the Passover lamb, all who had come again out of exile, and all such as had separated themselves to them from the uncleanness of the nations of the land in order to seek the LORD God of Israel. And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the LORD had made them joyful…” (Ezra 6:15-16, 19-22).

The part that Fred deleted were actually the most significant (verses 17 and 18), simply because it includes “a hundred bullocks” in keeping Passover. This means that Passover extended into the Days of Unleavened Bread. Let’s have Ezra’s text in full:

Ezra 6:15 And this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. 16 And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy, 17 and offered at the dedication of this house of God a hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their courses for the service of God, which is at Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses. 19 And the children of the captivity kept the Passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. 20 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. 21 And the children of Israel, who had come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek the Lord God of Israel, ate, 22 and kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

The Scriptures above reaffirm the followings about keeping the Passover:

(1) the duties of the priests and Levites were reestablished at the Temple, “as it is written in the Book of Moses” (verse 18). After the Sanctuary was instituted, there is no such a thing about a “domestic” passover.
(2) the priests and Levites “killed the Passover lamb for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for themselves.” — contrary to what Fred thought about this, the common people didn’t do the killing, the Priests and Levites did.

Below are further quotes from Fred Coulter:

That the Jews in exile could not observe the Passover is acknowledged by the Karaite Jews and recorded by Samuel Al-Magribi in 1484: “Today, however, by reason of our many sins, we are scattered over the four corners of the earth, we are dispersed in the lands of the Gentiles, we are soiled with their ritual uncleanness and unable to reach the House of the Lord, and our status is equivalent to that of persons ritually unclean or traveling far away. That is why this ordinance of the Passover sacrifice no longer applies to us, and the reason for this is our fathers’ exceeding disobedience to God and our own following in their sinful footsteps” (Nemoy, Karaite Anthology, p. 206)

The reason correctly given above was that the Jews were “unable to reach the House of the Lord.” This quote above confirms that the Karaites understand that Passover couldn’t be kept other than at the Temple.

When the Jews were in exile during the Babylonian captivity, they could not keep the Passover. This prohibition led to the replacement of the Passover with the Seder meal on the 15th day of the first month, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. To make their false substitute appear Scriptural, the Jews changed the name of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread to “Passover.” By changing the name of this feast, the Seder meal on the night of the 15th became the “Passover” for those who were living in exile.

Typical of Fred Coulter’s writing, he doesn’t provide any evidence why this “prohibition led to the replacement of the Passover with the Seder meal on the 15th day of the first month.” He could just whip up something from nothing. Magic. A touch of Simon Magus again.

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It takes blood to cover sin. Blood represents life. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). Only the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can pay for the sins of all mankind. Then why wasn’t His blood acknowledged to be sprinkled at the alter? Why were all the other sacrificial blood offered at the alter, but not that of the Son of God. All the blood of all the other sacrifices could never pay for the sins of anyone, yet they were offered and sprinkled at the alter. But not that of the Son of God?

The book of Ezra records the first Passover to be observed after the dedication of the second temple. Although the Passover was centered at the temple, the lambs were slain at the beginning of the 14th and were eaten on the night of the 14th (Ezra 6:19-21).

No, the verses in Ezra 6:19-21 quoted above only says the Passover was kept at the Temple, by the purified priests and Levites, but nothing about the timing of the Passover. This is a presumptuous way of ascertaining “truth.”

In later temple-centered observances, the lambs were slain late on the 14th and were not eaten until the night of the 15th. Although the temple sacrifice in the afternoon of the 14th became a widespread tradition, it did not wholly replace the domestic sacrifice of the lambs at the beginning of the 14th.

It is important to understand that Ezra’s decree did not change the time for killing the Passover lambs. His Passover law did not in any way alter or contradict the Passover ordinances of God, as recorded in Scripture. The measures that Ezra enforced were aimed at protecting the true worship of God and upholding His laws—not changing or replacing them. His restriction of the Passover to the area of Jerusalem promoted a templecentered observance, but it did not replace or prohibit the domestic killing of the Passover within that area.

There is much double-talk above. And just in case: “double-talk” is “a language that appears to be earnest and meaningful but in fact is a mixture of sense and nonsense.” If the law and ordinances for a “domestic Passover” was still in force, then changing it to a temple-centered observance would be a violation, a sin, nor matter what the intention was. Second, if the law and ordinances were for the lamb to be slain at the beginning of the fourteenth, then moving it to the late fourteenth would also be a violation and a sin. The presentation is “a mixture of sense and nonsense.” Ezra was a righteous scribe and a righteous high priest. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. He was regarded as the second Moses, who “tenaciously studied, practiced, and taught the Eternal’s law to Israel.”

Ezra was accredited with the beginning of the synagogues, where after the Babylonian captivity, the men of the Great Assembly formalized and standardized the language of the Jewish prayers and worship.

After the return of the Exile, the Jews were back in Jerusalem that the law was explained in the Aramaic language where they could understand that were originally written in Hebrew, since most of the people, after 70 years of Exile, had lost the knowledge of the ancient language to such a degree that they need the Word of God, not only translated, but explained in the vernacular.

In Nehemiah 8:6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. . . . 7 . . . .and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law; and the people stood in their place. 8 So they read in the book, in the law of God, distinctly, and gave the sense and caused them to understand the reading.

In order to give “the sense and caused them to understand the reading,” they need to understand the Scriptures in Aramaic, hence this gave rise to the origin of the Targum version of our modern Bible.

And the Targum says of the original Passover in Exodus 12: And it (the lamb) shall be bound and reserved for you until the fourteenth day of this month, that you may not know the fear of the Mizraee (Egyptians) 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. 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. And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan . . .”

The Targum says the instruction was to eat the flesh of the lamb on the fifteenth of Nisan. It is clear and simple.

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The rest of the chapter Fred Coulter went to quote or misquote from many non-biblical sources. From experiences cited in previous critiques, his misquoting is obvious, blatant and a constant irritant that it’s not worth following him to—Dr. Lauterbach, Wilkinson, Philo, Josephus, Joachim Jeremias, etc. Besides, he is so spiteful of the Rabbinic interpretation that everything he quoted had to be twisted to suit his early misconception of a fourteenth passover.

I will, instead, go back to a critical point about Deuteronomy being edited. Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh have all agreed the text, especially chapter 16:1-8 have been edited. They all meant it in the negative sense, of course, otherwise we should all accept it as the Sacred Text.

So back to chapter 15. There were lots of more to say in this chapter:

Under Sanballat’s jurisdiction, a temple was built on Mount Gerizim, which was originally the Mount of Blessing for the children of Israel (Deut. 27:12). Now Samaria had a temple similar to the one in Jerusalem. Manasseh, a descendant of Aaron, was high priest, and he had a whole corps of Levites as assistant priests. They were setting up a “Moses-like religion” that would compete with the true worship of God. For their Scriptural authority, they claimed and used the books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah. (See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11, Chapters 7 and 8.) They offered the commanded sacrifices, observed the Sabbath, festivals and holy days, and fulfilled all the requirements of the Torah—with the exception of the law against intermarriage. Because they had their own temple and their own priesthood, they did not have to comply with the law against intermarriage. They were now under Sanballat’s jurisdiction, where they were safe from any interference by Ezra and Nehemiah. Through their counterfeit religion, they could begin to influence Jews everywhere in the empire.

What an alarming turn of events! What an absolute disaster this could bring! Only sixty miles north of Jerusalem was a competing religion, a new Jewish/Samaritan religion, with authentic copies of the books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. Because the founders of this religion had rebelled against the law of God, it was obvious that they did not respect His Word. They would not hesitate to alter the text to suit their own purposes. The Scriptures were in great danger of being corrupted.

If Ezra had edited the Scriptures, a comparison would show the difference with the Samaritans’ version: “with authentic copies of the books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible.” The Samaritan religion was established earlier, but close to Jerusalem, just some sixty miles to the north, around 720 BC. They should have the true version, and any editing by Ezra, if any, will show.

Shortly after the Exile, in II Kings 17:

24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
26 Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the God of the land; therefore He hath sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them because they know not the manner of the God of the land.”
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.”
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 However every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
32 So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves from the lowest of them priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.

So “one of the priests whom ye brought from thence,” (verse 27) had been brought from among the northern Exile to teach the new settlers. It is likely he had some scrolls of the Torah with him, otherwise how could he teach the new settlers? By the time Ezra arrived, (around 440-480 BC), the Samaritan religion would have been around for some 250 years.

But evidence shows otherwise—Deuteronomy 16:1-8—for both versions, especially in verse 2: “of the flock and the herd,” are exactly the same.

Deuteronomy 16 (KJ21)

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 and the herd, in the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name there.
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;
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, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.
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.

The Samaritan Pentateuch (by Aleksandr Sigalov)
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 and the herd, in the place which the LORD God of you shall choose to place his name there. 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 coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day between the even, remain all night until the morning. 5 And thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee: 6 But in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there, 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. 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 celebration to the LORD thy God: thou shalt not do any work of service therein.

Even though the Samaritans consider the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as two distinct festivals, their Pentateuch remains much the same as the Masoretic Text in Deuteronomy 16:1-8. The difference, if any, is no more than the difference between the KJ21 and the NKJV, or between the KJV and the RSV.

Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh—these are Blind Guides! All the cries about editing are nothing but hogwash.

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Posted in Passover

This is a continuing Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover. The main issue is whether the Passover is on the early or late fourteenth of Nisan.

Draft IIh

Chapters 14 – 15

Ezra was a righteous scribe. He was also a righteous high priest. His priestly lineage could be traced all the way back to Aaron, the first high priest established under Moses (Ezra 7:1-5). Ezra returned to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile and faithfully reintroduced the Torah to all those who followed him (Ezra 7–10 and Nehemiah 8). For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. He was so righteous that he was regarded as the second Moses in the Voice Translation of Ezra 7:10 He was a second Moses, and tenaciously studied, practiced, and taught the Eternal’s law to Israel.

With the above in mind, we’ll continue with our critique:

Although Deuteronomy 16 contains instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the two other holy days seasons, the fact that the word “Passover” appears in Verse 1 has caused great confusion in the minds of many Bible students and scholars. They are not aware that these verses were edited by Ezra long after the book of Deuteronomy was originally written, and that in Ezra’s time the entire eight-day observance of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was called “Passover.” When we understand that the term “Passover” was used for the Feast of Unleavened bread, the seeming discrepancy between Deuteronomy 16 and other Scriptural passages is eliminated.

When we place all the jigsaw pieces together and they fix nicely, there isn’t any confusion. If the puzzle doesn’t fit, our understanding is obviously wrong, and so there is confusion.

The books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers were mainly the words of God to His subjects—to Adam, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Moses—but in the book of Deuteronomy it was Moses speaking to the Israelites. Deuteronomy 1:1 says “These are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel on this side of the Jordan in the wilderness . . . 3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke unto the children of Israel according unto all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them.”

So when Moses spoke, he spoke “according unto all that the Lord had given him.” He uses terms that were slightly different from what God spoke as expressed in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. In Deuteronomy Moses couldn’t be just repeating the same line, word for word, that God used. Moses would sometimes clarify seemingly confusing issues, or to elucidate complex subjects as the wordings in Deuteronomy 16 show.

If Moses had any doubt, he had full access to God at the Holy of Holies at the Sanctuary to ask and seek clarification. One example is found in Numbers 9 when some Israelites had came in contact with the dead, and thought they couldn’t keep the Passover. Moses said to them, “Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you” (verse 8). Moses had never being denied access to God to seek clarification on any issue or for any reason.

The book of Deuteronomy is composed entirely of the words of Moses, spoken from his heart to his people Israel. And since Moses was a righteous man, he spoke in a language that we can understand, yet it’s the Word of God. Years later Ezra used the same methodology for those who returned from the Exile and who had lost the Hebrew language, and who knew only the Aramaic language, and this same process 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.

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 the 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, roasted with fire; and with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it (The Targum identified this night as the fifteenth of Nisan).
9 Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire — his head with his legs and with the viscera thereof.
10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
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 (h6453).
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over (h6452) you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.
14 “‘And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
16 And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.
17 And ye shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.
18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (erev), ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at evening (erev).
19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.
20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.’”

Note in verse 8 that the Targum identified that night as “the night of the fifteenth.” Along with the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, the Targum is also an important source of our Bible and ignoring it could only led to our own inadequacy and paucity.

It was Ezra whose work gave rise to the Targum, translating the Hebrew Text to Aramaic so that the rank and file could understand. He was a priest and “a scribe skilled in the law.” Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. The Voice translated this same verse as “He (Ezra) was a second Moses, and tenaciously studied, practiced, and taught the Eternal’s law to Israel.”

Let’s have another look; let’s accept that the Pharisees sat on Moses’ seat as Christ said, instead of stigmatizing them:

Verse 6 says to keep the Passover, where the lamb was sacrificed at even—”after noon and until nightfall.” From verse 7 to 11, it is describing the night as the Passover, ending by saying “it is the Lord’S Passover.” So the Passover stretched into the Days of Unleavened Bread. Eating of unleavened bread also starts from the fourteenth of Nisan, at even (erev).

Further, commenting on the beginning verse 8, “And they shall eat the flesh in that night,” the Targum translates this as the night of the fifteenth (of Nisan).

That same night was what the Lord (not the Death Angel) would do, to “execute judgment.” That night, when the Lord execute His judgment, was meant to be a memorial, and it was “a feast to the Lord.” The Targum says further, “And it was in the dividing of the night of the fifteenth, that the Word of the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Mizraim (Egypt), from the firstborn son of Pharoh, who would have sat upon the throne of his kingdom, unto the firstborn sons of the kings who were captives in the dungeon as hostages under Pharoh’s hand.”

The subject was still the Passover—about how Passover was to be kept. What happened on the Passover night. And how we should be keeping Passover by having seven days of eating unleavened bread—observed Passover by eating unleavened bread for seven days. And this amalgamation is confirmed in the Mishnah.

What is the difference between the pesah [which was offered] in Egypt and the pesah of [subsequent] generations?The pesah in Egypt was taken on the tenth [of Nisan], And it required sprinkling with a bunch of hyssop on the lintel and on the two door-posts, And it was eaten in haste on one night, whereas the pesah of [subsequent] generations is kept the whole seven [days]. (Mishnah Pesachim 9)

Only by verse 17 was phrase “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” appears. And how should we keep it? The answer is found in verse 18, we are to keep it by eating unleavened bread from the fourteenth, at even. So the Days of Unleavened Bread starts a few hours before the fifteenth, it overlaps with Passover which is to start the fourteenth, at even. The Scriptures were a bit vague on casual reading, but on closer scrutiny, it is extremely clear. The two feasts are a composite, and this Exodus 12 account shows that the original distinction between the two feasts were well interweaved right from the start. Moses knew he would not be crossing the Jordan with the Israelites. So, he took the opportunity to point the Israelites toward the LORD and impress on this new generation the importance of heeding His Commandments. For God it is His glory to conceal a mystery, sometimes to hide a truth and to hook out those having a contemptuous attitude. And Moses warned those found to be guilty of persisting with this contemptuous spirit, a serious charge, would be put to death:

Deuteronomy 16:18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.

Deuteronomy 17:11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 And the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest who standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die.

Moses knew he would die soon and his understanding had been conveyed to judges, Levites and priests where the true interpretation of the law were taught. So in the book of Deuteronomy Moses spoke and explained unto all Israel “according unto all that the Lord had given him” as to how to keep them, the blessing they would have if they obey, or cursing if they disobey, in a language they could understand. Men may have good intentions, but may do things seen as presumptuously? What is presumptuous or presumptuously?

Synonyms: arrogant, bumptious, cavalier, chesty, haughty, high-and-mighty, high-handed, high-hat, huffish, huffy, imperious, important, lofty, lordly, masterful, overweening, peremptory, pompous, presuming, pretentious, self-asserting, self-assertive, sniffy, supercilious, superior, uppish, uppity

And those judgement has the force of law, and the Force of God. In Deuteronomy 19:17 Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges. When we stand before a judge, we stand before God. “Then his master shall bring him unto the judges [H430 elohim]” (Exodus 21:6). In the Septuagint, it is translated as the judgment-seat of God.

On another note, the word “pesach” has a few timeframes. Just like the word “yowm” could be a 24-hour day or a 12-hour day, both concepts are contained within such a verse like Genesis 1:5. But pesach could be any one of four timeframes:

(a) An approximately 6-hour period—”after noon and until nightfall” erev or ben ha arbayim, when the lamb was killed.
(b) A one day concept, as in Numbers 28:16 “‘And on the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the Lord.
(c) A seven-day festival as in Exodus 12:4-15, Deuteronomy 16:1-8, and as in Ezekiel 45:21 where it is explicitly described, “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.
(d) An 8-day period when the 7-days Days of Unleavened Bread is added to the 14th day Passover. The whole period is also known as the Passover. Another reason is given below: Back when the months of the Jewish calendar were determined by observations of the new moon, eyewitnesses would bring their testimony to the rabbinical court in Jerusalem, and the court would sanctify the new month based on this testimony. But faraway communities such as Babylonia couldn’t get the message in time, and didn’t know when the new month had begun, though they could narrow the possibilities to two days. So to play it safe, they observed another day, so Pesach became an eight-day festival.

Deuteronomy 16 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 misplacement.
(ii) For purposes of the timing of the sacrificing of pesach, the time is erev (Deuteronomy 16:6), the same time as ben ha arbayim (Exodus 12:6). Thus erev, for this purpose, is also “after noon and until nightfall” (Exodus 12:6).
(iii) Erev (Deuteronomy 16:6) is being defined as “at the going down of the sun.” It’s 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 eating of unleavened bread started earlier than eating of the pesach by some 6 or more hours.
(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). It clarifies Exodus 23:14,17; 34:23.
We should study the Scriptures in great details and scrutinised what it actually says. Sometimes, it’s pretty different from what we thought it says. Start eating unleavened bread from the fourteenth onward, at even, erev, don’t wait until the fifteenth. And just as a reminder of what Fred Coulter wrote, back to Chapter One: “False doctrines and misinterpretations are continually being spread because ministers and teachers use the Word of God deceitfully. How diabolical it is to take the Word of God, which is the truth, and misapply it to create a lie!”

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While Ezra was responsible for centralizing the Passover, it is important to remember that his action was intended to protect the true worship of God. He was not acting in opposition to God’s ordinances and therefore was NOT ACTING AGAINST THE AUTHORITY OF GOD.

Why such doublespeak above? If centralizing the Passover in Jerusalem is not against God, then it is for God. Plain and simple. Why so much grumbling? Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Lord and to teach in Israel His laws, statutes and judgments. He was so highly regarded that he was appraised as the second Moses.

To this day, the members of this Samaritan religion keep their Passover at the beginning of the 14th, in the same manner as their ancestors. The fact that this Jewish/Samaritan sect has always observed a domestic Passover indicates that the temple sacrifice of the Passover lambs was not the practice in Jerusalem when their religion was founded. The following description of their Passover confirms that it has not changed from the original domestic observance:

No, they don’t. Even Samaritans kept their passover outdoors at Mount Gerizim, under the light of the full moon, near today’s city of Nablus in the West Bank, and this mountain isn’t at their homes, so it isn’t a “domestic” passover. Yes, they kept it at the beginning of the fourteenth in the same manner as the Church of God communities today.

“They, therefore, observe Pesach exactly as it was observed two or three thousand years ago [emphasis added]….Modern historical research has proved that the Samaritans are not descendants of the heathen colonists settled in the northern kingdom by the conquerors of Samaria, as was once assumed….Actually the Samaritans of today are a small and poor remnant of an old and great Jewish sect….The only religious books that they possess, however, are the Pentateuch and Joshua….these two hundred [remnant] Samaritans observe Pesach to this day on Mount Gerizim, in a manner that other Jews ceased practising thousands of years ago. The custom of offering sacrifices has died out with the Samaritans, except on the fourteenth day of Nisan, when they offer the ceremonial Pesach sacrifice” (Schluss, The Jewish Festivals, pp. 60-61).

The background of the Samaritans is recorded in II Kings 17:20 And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of despoilers until He had cast them out of His sight. 21 For He rent Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin. 22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them, 23 until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. 24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof.

Samaritans occupied the country formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh and the other Lost Tribes where most of today’s Church of God communities comes from. The capital of the country was Samaria, formerly a large and splendid city. When the ten tribes were carried away into captivity to Assyria, the king of Assyria sent people from Cutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim to inhabit Samaria (II Kings 17:24). So for simplicity sake, Jews assert that the Samaritans are “Cutheans.”

In order to preserve the true worship of God, it was essential to differentiate the Scriptures of the Jerusalem Jews from the Scriptures of the Jewish/Samaritan religion. The first step was to set the Scriptures in order and canonize each book as the authentic Word of God. When this work was completed, accurate copies of the entire text had to be made and distributed to Jewish synagogues throughout the empire. Once canonized, the Word of God could be preserved for all time.

As part of the canonization of the Scriptures, Ezra also edited the books which became the Old Testament. This editing included the substitution of current terminology for ancient names that were no longer in use.

Ezra edited Deuteronomy 16 from the then old Samaritan version, so Fred Coulter alleged, as the Samaritan version must be the authentic version. Quoting his own work, “The Original Bible Restored,” he says, “Although a few alterations were made in the text of the Old Testament after its canonization, there is no question that Ezra was the one who compiled the books, edited them and canonized them.” But of course, he was mainly referring to the vandalisation of Deuteronomy 16 (mainly verses 1-8).

“Whatever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it (Deuteronomy 12:32). Vandalising the Bible is a serious charge, risking eternal life (Revelation 22:18-19).

Fred Coulter’s charge isn’t alone. He has a few colleagues who share his view.

From Frank W. Nelte, referring to Deuteronomy 16:1, 2, 4, 5, 6

These verses give the impression that the Passover is being spoken about. But the word “Passover” was deviously inserted into these verses by some dishonest scribe. The motivation for these devious changes was to justify the Jewish custom of referring to the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread as “Passover”.

The evidence for the fraudulent changes in this section of Scripture is not found in preserved manuscripts but in the pages of the Bible itself. We are dealing with a passage that is absolutely vital to upholding a Jewish belief, which belief is clearly unbiblical according to all the other Scriptures in the entire Old Testament. And these fraudulent changes have been accepted in every preserved manuscript, because they endorse a specific Jewish custom.

In addition, there is also a mistranslation in verse 6.
The only evidence for these alterations consists of exposing incompatible, contradictory and illogical statements in the changed text, when compared to other biblical passages. The person who altered this text overlooked some things which expose his fraudulent tampering.

Here are the changes that were made:
In these verses some scribe REMOVED the expression “the Feast of Unleavened Bread” from verse 1, and then REPLACED IT with the word “Passover”. In addition, this scribe also simply INSERTED the word “Passover” into the text of verses 2, 5 and 6.

From John W. Ritenbaugh:

In the context of Deuteronomy 16, the word “Passover” is beginning to look clearly out of place. As we continue to look further, we are going to see that verses 1-8 have nothing to do at all with instructions for the Passover lamb, but rather for Unleavened Bread, and specifically the Night To Be Much Observed, which is of course the first night after the Passover, not the same night as the Passover.

How did the name “Passover” get in there? God certainly did not inspire it to be in there. It had to have been edited into Deuteronomy 16 at a much later time (when the entire eight days of the spring festival were commonly called Passover) than from when it was originally written. You will see this very clearly in the New Testament that the entire spring feast was commonly called Passover by the Jews. Somebody, in copying, must have deliberately removed the name “Unleavened Bread” and placed the name “Passover” into Deuteronomy 16 in order to give support to a 15th Passover—to a Temple-centered 15th Passover (Passover transcript, Part 9).

“Who would have the authority to make such a change from Unleavened Bread to Passover in Deuteronomy 16? The finger of history points to someone during or after the time of Ezra. Ezra came along in the period roughly between 530 BC and about 515 BC. When Ezra came on the scene, the Jews, who had just come out of captivity, were again starting down the same path that originally took them into captivity” (Passover transcript, Part 10).

Tampering and vandalising God’s Word are serious charges, whose penalty is death (Revelation 22:18-19). Zechariah 11:8 is one of the most intriguing verse in the Scriptures. It says, “Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me.” Who are these three shepherds? Could they be Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh?

My nerves stand on end when I think about this. I hope it isn’t, of course.

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Posted in Passover

This is a Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover.

Draft IIg

Chapters 12 – 13

II Chronicles 29:2 says “And he (Hezekiah) did that which was right in the sight of the Lord” and this, of course, includes sanctifying the house of the Lord cleaning the altar, all the vessels, and the table for the shewbread (verses 17-18). It was reemphasized in verse 15 that the commandment “were by the king,” as well as “by the words of the Lord.” The burnt offerings and peace offerings were accompanied by much rejoicing, enhanced by having music, songs, accompanied by various instruments—cymbals, psalteries, harps and trumpets—which were commandments of King David and other prophets, and they performed with praises and gladness.

In his account of Hezekiah’s Passover, Ezra records that “the runners went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah…according to the commandment of the king…” (II Chron. 30:6).

After taking counsel, the decree was to invite the other tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh— to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beersheba even to Dan—and the running and sending out letters to inform the other tribes, were the king’s command to keep the Passover in the second month. “So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them” (II Chronicles 30:10).

In response to Hezekiah’s command to come to Jerusalem for the Passover, Ezra records that “…many people gathered at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month…” (verse 13). This is the first Scriptural record in which the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover are used interchangeably in referring to the spring festival season (verses 1-2, 13).

No, not the first record. Earlier in Deuteronomy 16:1-8, when Moses wrote it in his last days (39 years after the original Exodus) the two feasts were already a composite, and the name used interchangeably.

Second, Hezekiah was a good king, who was righteous before God. The Scriptures speaks well of him: II Kings 18:3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. 4 He removed the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the Asherah poles, and broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any who were before him. 6 For he cleaved to the Lord and departed not from following Him, but kept His commandments which the Lord commanded Moses. 7 And the Lord was with him, and he prospered whithersoever he went forth; and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him not.

Fred Coulter continues:

This is also the first Scriptural record of killing the Passover at the temple and dashing the blood of the lamb against the altar instead of applying the blood to the door posts at home, as was done with the domestic sacrifice of the lamb. Why did Hezekiah institute these changes in the observance of the Passover?

In summary, Leviticus 17 says if one were to make a sacrifice, in the camp or out of the camp, the blood must be brought to the tabernacle, and the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle (verse 6).

In verse 8, it says, “And thou shalt say unto them: ‘Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice. In the Good News Translation, it says “who offer a burnt offering or any other sacrifice.” Referring to the phase “that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,” John Gill says “any other sacrifice besides a burnt offering.” All indications are that the sacrifice mentioned would inevitably include the Passover sacrifice, only that the GNT made it clearer.

The Targum gave the reason why this is so important in God’s sight: “In order that the sons of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they have [heretofore] killed on the face of the field, they may [henceforth] bring them before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, unto the priest, and sacrifice their consecrated victims before the Lord.”

The critical performance of any sacrifice is that “the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle.” Since memorial time, the priests had sprinkled the blood upon the alter evidently from the time of Moses, down to Ezra, and then during the time of Christ. If Moses had any doubt, he had all the opportunity and time to ask God who dwelt between the cherubim in the Sanctuary for any further details.

The lambs that were killed at the temple were slain by the Levites, not by “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel,” as in Exodus 12.

The Levitical duties of the tribe of Levites and the Sanctuary were not instituted at the time of the Exodus. Once instituted, “Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Deuteronomy 16:5) and in Jerusalem this Holy City was chosen. Hence most of the Exodus 12 requirements were a one-off situation, otherwise every Israelites would still be eating with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, staff in their hands; and they were to eat in haste, pretending to flee from a non-existing Pharaoh and his non-existing armies in an re-enactment of the Exodus.

Ezra’s account in II Chronicles 30 shows that God accepted this temple-centered Passover, although it was contrary to the ordinances that He had established, because of the prayers of Hezekiah and the repentance of the people. But God’s acceptance of this Passover does not mean that He intended this type of Passover to replace the domestic Passover. The commands for the domestic observance of the Passover, as recorded in Exodus 12, were still in effect. Consider this: If the ordinances of the Passover were not in effect at that time, there would have been no need for Hezekiah to pray for forgiveness for those who ate the Passover contrary to God’s requirements.

During the Exodus the command to kill the lamb in their houses (a domestic passover) were obvious in a one-off situation. Later, other laws and ordinances were established, like the command to commence a holy assembly on the first and last days of Unleavened Bread, which wasn’t in the original Exodus.

Hezekiah’s prayers were for the fact that they were late for the Passover, which should be on the first month, but they celebrated it on the second month, which is contrary to the law. But the main reason was stated in II Chronicles 30:18 For a multitude of the people, even many from Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “The good Lord pardon every one 19 who prepareth his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” 20 And the Lord hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

We should refer back to Chapter One, this is what Fred Coulter wrote: “Anyone who twists and distorts the Scriptures is “using the law unlawfully,” as Paul said, and will end up believing false, satanic doctrines, which subvert the souls of men.” Has any of his sleepy sheep awaken by now? Can this be brought to Fred’s attention?

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II Chronicles 34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right nor to the left. Adam Clarke comments further, “He never swerved from God and truth; he never omitted what he knew to be his duty to God.”

The description of the sacrificing does not fit the ordinances that God established for the domestic observance of the Passover. There is no mention of the lambs being killed by “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel,” as in Exodus 12. Rather, the account gives a detailed description of the slaying of the lambs at the temple by the Levites, and the sprinkling of the lamb’s blood against the altar by the priests.

The sacrificing that was performed by the priests and Levites in this account was not conducted according to the ordinances that God gave to Moses for the observance of the Passover.

And there were no mention of the lambs being killed by “the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel,” was because the Exodus 12 experience was a one-time incident. The Levites and priesthood were instituted so there was also a change in the practice of killing the lamb as the Scriptures say: “And they (the Levites) killed the Passover lamb, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands (at the alter), and the Levites flayed them, (II Chronicles 35:11). Josiah was a good king, but Fred Coulter is trying to make him a bad one, one whose conduct: He alleges the Josiah’s Passover “was not conducted according to the ordinances that God gave to Moses for the observance of the Passover.” But this is what the Scripture says: “And like unto him was there no king (referring to Josiah) before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him” II Kings 23:25.

Notice the four “ALL”

(1) with ALL his heart;
(2) with ALL his soul;
(3) with ALL his might,
(4) according to ALL the Law of Moses;

Can we say any one of our religious leaders today has all these qualities today?

The phrase “as it is written in the book of Moses” is not referring to the ordinances for the Passover, but to the ordinances that God established for peace offerings, which required that the blood of the sacrificial animal be sprinkled against the altar, and the fat and certain organs be burnt on the altar (Lev. 3).

No, II Chronicles 35:6 says “So kill the Passover lamb (not the peace offering) . . . that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.” So much twistings of God’s word! The verse actually reaffirms that the blood of the sacrificial animal should be sprinkled against the altar. Josiah was a righteous king.” And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” II Kings 22:2. Fred Coulter has so much problems reading the Scriptures or has he got memory lapses. Instead of sending tithes to Fred, his sleepy sheep should send him to the nearest hospital for a thorough clinical checkout.

Bashal is never used to signify the act of roasting. The use of the word “roasted” in II Chronicles 35:13 is a blatant mistranslation of the Hebrew text. Bashal is first used in this verse to indicate that the sacrifices were cooked over fire, and then to specify that the cooking was done by boiling the flesh of the animals in pots and pans. None of these sacrifices were roasted, as God had commanded for the sacrifice of the Passover lambs (Ex. 12:9).

The KJV translates Strong’s H1310 (bashal) in the following manner (and times): seethe (10x), boil (6x), sod (6x), bake (2x), ripe (2x), roast (2x). The KJV and most translations translate the verse “roasted” correctly: ”And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the ordinance.” The Bible says they did the roasting “according to the ordinance.” The same word bashal is used in Deuteronomy 16:7 “And thou shalt roast (H1310 bashal) and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose.” Only “A Faithful Version” by a “not-sure-what-his-level-of-Hebrew-is” author translates it as “boil.”

Bear with me that I should dive deeper into this leather bound Faithful Version. II Chronicles 35:13 is translated as “And they boiled the Passover offerings over fire according to the law.”

If it is “according to law” it is correct to translate it as “roast.” But what this translator means is that what they did is contrary to the law. In which case it should be translated, “And they boiled the Passover offerings over fire contrary to the law” if he insists bashal should be translated as “boil.” Hope one of his sleepy devotees will finally wake up, do a favor, and inform the author of this paradox, or at least to ask for clarity how boiling is “according to law?

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Posted in Passover

This is a Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover. The main issue is whether the Passover is on the early or late fourteenth of Nisan. Quoted are his work, from an internet online version, which I presume, is his latest. Most of his quotes are in block form and indented so as to differentiate his from my comments. The Scriptures must, foremost, be our primary focus and guide.

Draft IIf

Chapters 10 – 11

The chapter 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.

This is a very true, even an understatement. 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:

Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread Originally Were Two Separate Feasts—Not One Combined Feast.

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.

And there are many modern authorities to support him:

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).

The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible: “the feast contains two originally separate components.”(Vol. III, s. v. “Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.”

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.

These are statements by mainly Protestants with a Jewish background but strong critics against the Rabbinic Orthodoxy, 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 stated the idea that the two festivals were distinct from the beginning: “The Samaritans consider the Feast of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as two distinct festivals.”

“You shall know them by their fruits,” Matthew 7:16. The originator of these feasts as distinct originated from the Samaritans, and had penetrated the Sadducees, who died out during the AD 70 inferno, but resurfaced in the tenth century with the Karaites, modern experts quoted above who were mainly Protestants from a Jewish background, and during the last century and today, the CoG Communities. “You shall know them by their fruits.”

Briefly:

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,” 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 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), and at the City University of New York (1966–1969).

Anti-Jewish sentiments and rhetoric 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,” he 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, always been stigmatized upon, both spoken and in writing: antisemitism had been around since the ancient time of old, resurfaces time and time again in various forms . . . and today very prominent among the CoG Communities.

No, no, 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;

This is a departure from the original Passover in Egypt where they were to stay in their houses. In fact the command is exactly the opposite! That they should “not sacrifice the Passover within any of they gate.”

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 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.

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, and this interlacing characteristic was reaffirmed by Ezekiel, a prophet sent to the northern stiffnecked Israelites; the Jews, also stiffnecked, knew this all along.

“Erev” is the evening time, at around 3 PM, where 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 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 much earlier, 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:

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.

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. Fred’s quote gave a wrong impression that the changes started only at Josiah’s initiative “at the time of Josiah’s reform.” Schauss says the reform took place after the Exodus but he issued a caveat, “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” (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: 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, 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 start the Passover.

In Deuteronomy 16:6 ba·erev is also the time to start 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 have already taken a composite character and well entwined right at the beginning, at the time of the original Exodus. This is plainly what the Scriptures say. “Ephraim [as head of the Northern Ten Tribes] 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.

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While reiterating the story of Israel in Chapter 11 of his book from the time of Joshua, the judges and then Samuel, King David and Solomon, and so on, Fred Coulter seems to avoid one critical sin of King Jeroboam. Jeroboam not only moved the Feast of Tabernacles to the eight month, he also set up Bethel and Dan as houses of worship.

“Then the king [Jeroboam, now king of the northern ten tribes of Israel] took counsel, and made two calves of gold and said to them, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ And he set the one in Bethel, and he put the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan. And he made houses of worship on the high places [pagan temples to Baal], and made priests of the lowest of the people, who were not the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordered a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah. And he offered upon the altar. So he did in Bethel [meaning “house of God”], sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

“And he offered unto the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised out of his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel. And he offered upon the altar and burned incense” (I Kings 12:28-33).

But why didn’t Fred Coulter bold the emphasis of Jerusalem as God’s designated holy place to keep the Feast? Or has he deemed it wasn’t a sin? That Jeroboam’s sin were only moving the Feast from the seventh to the eight month and worshipping the two golden calves?

Notice he also didn’t bold the other cities—Bethel and Dan—neither cities authorised by God as a place of worship. This run parallel with his thought that the Israelites were wrong to keep the Passover in Jerusalem, that they should keep a “domestic” Passover—for it is too hard to keep the Feast in Jerusalem!

Later the Samaritans came along and said Mount Gerizim is the holy place to worship. But the truth is that Jerusalem is a very important city to God, one close to His heart:

And many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Micah 4:2

“Thus saith the Lord: ‘I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’ Zechariah 8:3

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and I will write upon him My new name. Revelation 3:12

And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:2

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In a previous post, we went through Conservative Judaism, a spinoff of Reform Judaism. Here, we’ll dive deeper into how the Movement started.

The origins of Reform Judaism lay in 19th-century Germany, where its early principles were formulated by Rabbi Abraham Geiger (1810-1874) and his associates (Samuel Holdheim, Israel Jacobson and Leopold Zunz). Since the 1970s, the Movement adopted a policy of inclusiveness and acceptance, inviting as many as possible to partake in its communities, rather than “strict theoretical clarity.”

The Movement is in “a process of constant evolution” and it “rejects any fixed, permanent set of beliefs, laws or practices.” They stated that the old mechanisms of religious interpretation were obsolete. Geiger sought a more coherent ideological framework to justify innovations in the liturgy and religious practice. While Reform Judaism initially developed as lay Jews simply lost interest in the strict observances required of Orthodoxy, with many seeking shorter services, more frequent sermons, and organ music, modeled after Protestant churches. In Germany, one characteristic of their progressive revelation was the institution of a “Second Sabbath” on Sunday, modeled on the Second Passover, as most people desecrated the day of rest. “If you cannot keep the Sabbath on its appointed time, you keep it on the next available day,” and so the Sabbath was shifted from Saturday to Sunday. “God would accept it,” they encouraged each other.

Discrimination and persecution against Jews in Germany were rampant for the next hundred years. Work were hard to come by and such new interpretation made sense in a community struggling to survive. America was opening up to immigrants and in a new Land of the Free, the five-day workweek soon made the Sunday Sabbath redundant. But nevertheless, the Movement had already has its momentum and today the Reform Movement’s largest center is in North America.

Reform Judaism encourage adherents to seek their own means of engaging a new Judaism, enhancing “individualism.” Tolerance for LGBT and ordination of LGBT rabbis were also pioneered by the Movement. It started slowly then gathered speed. Intercourse between consenting adults was declared as legitimate by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1977, and openly gay clergy were admitted by the end of the 1980s. Same-sex marriage were sanctioned by the end of the following decade. In 2015 the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) adopted a Resolution on the Rights of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People, urging clergy and synagogue attendants to actively promote tolerance and inclusion of such individuals.

Today, Reform Judaism has two main objectives:

(1) Reform Jews are committed to the absolute equality of women in all areas of Jewish life. “We were the first movement to ordain women rabbis, invest women cantors, and elect women presidents of our synagogues,” they claim.

(2) Reform Jews are also committed to the full participation of gays and lesbians in synagogue life as well as society at large.

As of 2013, the Pew Research Center survey calculated Reform Judaism represented about 35% of all 5.3 million Jews in the US, making it the single most numerous Jewish religious group in the country. Based on these, the URJ claims to represent 2.2 million people. It has 846 congregations in the US and 27 in Canada, the vast majority of the 1,170 affiliated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) that are not Reconstructionist. Its rabbinical arm is the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), with some 2,300 rabbis as members, mainly trained in Hebrew Union College. As of 2015, the URJ was led by President Rabbi Richard Jacobs, and the CCAR headed by Rabbi Denise Eger.

The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. Today, the CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization in the world. Its current president, and its first openly gay president, is Rabbi Denise Eger.

Denise Eger became the first openly gay president in 2015. The Reform Movement acknowledged that Jews and their rabbis “have long been part of the struggle for gay rights, and that includes advocacy for marriage equality.”

Rabbi Denise Eger was also the founding President of the Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Interfaith Clergy Association. In the summer of 2010 she was named one of the fifty most influential women rabbis.

Other Reform rabbis have other objectives in the Land of the Free. In 1888, the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America (JPSA), was founded by reform Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf among others in Philadelphia. It claimed to be the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English. As the years rolled on, JPS became well known for its English translation of the Hebrew Bible, the JPS Tanakh. As JPS moved into the 20th, its popularity grew rapidly. After years of meetings, deliberations and revisions, the entire translation of the Bible was finally completed in 1917.

In 1985, the newly translated three parts of the Bible (the Torah, Prophets, and Writings) were compiled into what is now known as the JPS Tanakh (or NJPS, New JPS translation, to distinguish it from the OJPS, or Old JPS translation of 1917). Hence the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) is credited as both Publisher of the TANAKH 1917 and 1985 editions.

The JPS followed a central tenet, to adopt “a policy of inclusiveness and acceptance, inviting as many as possible to partake in its communities, rather than strict theoretical clarity.” It is strongly identified with progressive political and social agendas, mainly under the traditional Jewish rubric Tikkun Olam, or “Repairing of the World”. In their endeavour to avoid the “bondage of Judaism,” a new policy of inclusiveness and acceptance was established. And a new Tikkun Olam became a central motto of Reform Judaism—to “express wholeheartedly the idea of universal equality, freedom, and peace for all,” and to “forge a common bond in true harmony to banish all hatred and bigotry.”

The results:

Exodus 12:6 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats; 6 and ye shall keep it unto the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at dusk.

The 1988 edition (hard copy) says “at twilight,” published by the New JPS Translation. And as a result it has overwhelming influence in every major English translation:

NKJV: Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. The NAS, NIV, NKJV and NRSV all render this as “twilight”. “The Message Bible”, produced by Eugene Peterson in 2002, and CJB by David Stern, translate this as “dusk” like the JPS. *

Besides Fred Coulter there are others yielding great influence among the CoG Communities:

After discussing the meaning of Exodus 12:6, Frank W. Nelte of South Africa, an ex-WCG minister, states: “The JPS translation of “between the two evenings” is AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT that dusk is bounded by “the two evening.” Frank emphasized further, “Now “dusk” is NEVER before sunset. Dusk is ALWAYS AFTER SUNSET!”

And John W. Ritenbaugh wrote: “Ba erev means sunset. It is very specific. It includes no time before sunset. It is a period that begins whenever the edge of the sun hits the edge of the horizon. If you stood and watched how long ba erev takes, it takes about three to five minutes of time. It is very specific” (Passover, Part 3).

As of this writing, a new “gender-sensitive version of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) translation” is on promotion in their endeavour to adapt to the needs of the day. It’s a “largely gender-neutral God language” and a completely fresh translation of the Torah. This new translation will prove exceedingly useful not only for clergy and synagogue professionals, but also for anyone interested in Biblical learning, so they claimed.

The next challenge for Fred R. Coulter, Frank W. Nelte and John W. Ritenbaugh is to continue cutting off from the “bondage of Judaism” to attain their next level of spirituality.

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Posted in Passover

Draft IIe

Chapters 8 – 9

The critique continues:

Coulter accurately translates ba erev as “at sunset,” showing that the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins immediately after the Passover day ends: “And you shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for in this same day [the 15th, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread] I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall keep this day in your generations as a law forever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset [ending the Passover day and beginning the 15th], you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at sunset [ending the 21st day]” (Ex. 12:17-18).

In Chapter 8 Fred Coulter’s analysis is all over the place. Can anybody sees the self-contraction above? If unleavened were to be eaten AFTER “the Passover day” which he zealously identifies as the fourteenth, then the day after would be the fifteenth, but the Scriptures say to eat it on ”the fourteenth day.”

If Fred Coulter is honest and he didn’t come to study the Bible with an already makeup mindset, he would admit that when the moment the Passover lamb was killed it is also the same time unleavened bread is to be eaten. In both instances, in Deuteronomy 16:6 and Exodus 12:18 the same expression ba-erev is used. In Deuteronomy 16:6 ba·erev is the commence the Passover on the fourteenth; and in Exodus 12:18 ba·erev is also to commence eating unleavened bread on the fourteenth. Passover and Unleavened Bread were well amalgamated right at the beginning, at the time of the original Exodus. They were well interlaced right from the beginning of the Exodus. This is plainly 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.

And they are throwing diatribes and lying against the Jews. Below is another verse great for reflection:

Isaiah 9:21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

Again, Fred Coulter spent a lot of time whinging consistently, contradicting himself about travelling in the darkness of the night.

He wrote:

Imagine the difficulties the children of Israel would have encountered if they had attempted to travel to Rameses by night with no light to guide them. Some families might have ended up in the wrong city and missed the Exodus! And how could they have kept their sheep and goats from being scattered along the way? It is no easy task to keep stragglers from wandering off during the daylight hours; it would have been an impossible task in the dark hours after midnight.

And a few paragraphs later he whines about travelling in the dark:

When the 14th day ended at sunset, or ba erev, the entire nation was ready to march, and the Exodus began. . . The first column would have begun to march out at about 6 PM, as the sun was setting, and the end of the last column would have left the city at about eleven o’clock on the night of the 15th.

And then further down:

“The Scriptures clearly record that the Exodus began at the going down of the sun, and continued on into the night: “…the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt BY NIGHT…. at sunset [ba erev, the beginning of the 15th], at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came out of Egypt” (Deut. 16:1, 6).”

Where are all the members of his team—Carl and Jean Franklin, Philip Neal, Albert and Mela Cataga John, Hiedi and Sasha Vogele—where are they? Or is this a case of the Emperor having no clothes?

That night, of course, was on the fifteenth, under a full moon, and there shouldn’t be any difficulties seeing the Egyptians burying their dead, either later that night, or early morning. Neither would the Egyptians have any difficulties seeing the children of Israel going out with a high hand.

Traditions could be bad, but it could also be good. To say all are bad are just too simplistic.

Paul wrote in Galatians 1:14 “I profited in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.”

And in 2 Thessalonians 2:15 “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold to the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle.”

We should learn how to distinguish good traditions from bad ones. We should be learning how to judge, how to be good judges. A good judge has to filter through all sort of “evidence” and “testimonies” to arrive at a correct final decision. This means our rationale, logic, and emotions must be shielded from the illogically absurd, ridiculous, unfounded, and unbalanced thoughts that tried to muddle our filtering process. Which tradition is Biblical, which tradition is shaky and without foundation. Without a sound filtering process we would fail to be good judges.

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In Chapter 9, Fred Coulter asked in a paragraph a series of questions:

Is there any Biblical evidence that God altered the Passover ordinances that He had given to Moses?

Of course, He did. If not, during each Passover thereafter, every Israelites would still be eating with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, staff in their hands; and they were to eat in haste. Then they would also need to pretend fleeing from Pharaoh and his armies in an re-enactment of the Exodus.

Did God Himself end the domestic sacrifice of the Passover lambs?

Of course, He did. Otherwise we wouldn’t read of a 12-year old Messiah going to Jerusalem to keep the Passover with His parents.

After Israel’s first Passover, did He institute a mandatory tabernacle sacrifice of the Passover lambs?

Of course, He did. Otherwise what’s the point of God setting aside a whole tribe of Levi and establishing the Priesthood for a special purpose and then having the ordinances of the sanctuary and Temple instituted. Note on Rashi’s comment on Leviticus 17:4, Rashi: “Who slaughters an ox, a lamb, [or a goat]: Scripture is speaking of [slaughtering] holy sacrifices [not of slaughtering ordinary animals], for Scripture continues, “to offer up as a sacrifice” (next verse). – [Torath Kohanim 17:91]”

Also the Targum 17 comments (first part) below makes this very clear:

XVII. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with Aharon and with his sons, and with the sons of Israel, and tell them: This is the word which the Lord hath commanded, saying: A man of the house of Israel, young or old, who shall kill as a sacrifice a bullock, or lamb, or goat in the camp, or who killeth it without the camp, and bringeth it not to the door of the tabernacle of ordinance to offer it an oblation before the Lord, before the tabernacle of the Lord, the blood of slaughter shall be reckoned to that man, and it shall be to him as if he had shed innocent blood, and that man shall be destroyed from his people. In order that the sons of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they have [heretofore] killed on the face of the field, they may [henceforth] bring them before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, unto the priest, and sacrifice their consecrated victims before the Lord. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, and burn the fat, to be received with acceptance before the Lord. Neither shall they offer any more their sacrifices unto idols which are like unto demons, after which they have wandered. This shall be an everlasting statute to them, unto their generations.

And thou shalt tell them: A man, whether young or old, of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who shall sacrifice a burnt offering, or consecrated oblation, and bring it not to the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, to be made an oblation before the Lord, that man shall be destroyed from his people.

A Passover is a sacrifice. Its blood is to be brought to the tabernacle before the Lord. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar, at the door of the tabernacle.

Note also that the text says about those not obeying, “that man shall be destroyed from his people.”

Did God require that the blood of the Passover lambs be sprinkled on the altar?

Of course, He did. Otherwise righteous King Hezekiah and King Josiah would have commanded during their Passover celebrations they should instead be taking the blood and striking it at both sides of the doorposts and lintels of their houses.

Fred Coulter further alleges:

In accordance with God’s command, the morning offering was originally offered at sunrise, when the morning begins, and the evening offering was originally offered between sunset and dark. Every day of the year, there was an offering at the beginning of daylight and at the beginning of darkness. Later records of the temple service show that a change was instituted in the time of the evening offering. Instead of an offering immediately after sunset, as God had commanded, the offering was moved to the late afternoon.

Conveniently, Fred Coulter offered no record or evidence of when the change took place. If he did, he would be a Biblical genius, worthy of a Nobel Prize, if not he must be trying out a new magic or just displaying a figment of his own imagination.

Throughout Fred’s writings, he wrote a lot about observing a “domestic Passover” but he never define it. Okay maybe the case in Egypt should serve as the best example, since he advocates the Passover ordinances were never changed. Should this be the case Israelites would be observing Passover in their houses, just as they did in the land of Goshen. Should that be the case, Galileans needed not come to Jerusalem and yet Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem in numerous times to observe Passover. Were they gallivanting in Jerusalem? Were they disobedient? They were supposed to keep their Passover in their houses, back in Galilee, shouldn’t they? This is a serious charge, a travesty and bothering blasphemy!

God’s commandment is clear in Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which He shall choose: in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles. And “Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Deuteronomy 16:5). A “domestic Passover” wasn’t sanctified by God. It wasn’t allowed.

That place chosen by God is Jerusalem as affirmed in II Chronicles 6:6, “I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name might be there.”

There is not a single word in Numbers 28 concerning a Passover sacrifice at the tabernacle. The Hebrew word for “sacrifice” is not used in Numbers 28:16, which is the only verse that speaks of the Passover.

And further down in Chapter 9, Fred Coulter wrote a headline:

All Sacrifices except the Passover
Were to be Brought to the Tabernacle

I read his argument in the whole chapter but couldn’t find any statement in Leviticus 17 that alluded to his allegation. In fact Leviticus 17 is more inclined to refer to any and all sacrifice and especially the blood that needed to be brought to the tabernacle. In verse 8, it says, “And thou shalt say unto them: ‘Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice (h2077 zebach)

It is the same word zebach in Hebrew as in the original Exodus 12:27 That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice H2077 of the LORD’S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.

In the Hebrew the word Pesach is implicitly a sacrifice. The Hebrew Pesach is also inherently a sacrifice. These implicit and inherent characteristics aren’t clear in English, but in Hebrew they are obvious. Hence the phase to “kill the Pesach” or “eat the Peach” make sense in Hebrew. You couldn’t kill a day, the fourteenth, neither can you eat a day, if Pesach doesn’t have these implicit and inherent characteristics of a sacrifice.

The two characteristics—implicit and inherent—in Hebrew but not in English, compelled some translators to insert the word “sacrifice” in Numbers 28:16 so as to make its meaning clearer in English: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, there shall be a Passover sacrifice to the Lord,” Numbers 28:16. It is a Sacrifice to the Lord. Clear and simple.

In the Good News Translation of Leviticus 17:8, it says “who offer a burnt offering or any other sacrifice.” Other translations may not insert the phrase “any other,” but by inserting it, the GNT has made it clearer—that any sacrifice includes the Pesach, the LORD’S passover. The critical performance of any sacrifice is that “the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle.” The priests had sprinkled the blood upon the alter since memorial time, evidently from the time of Moses, down to Ezra, and then during the time of Christ. If Moses had any doubt, he had all the time to ask God who dwelt between the cherubim in the Temple for any further details.

And if Ron Wyatt’s story is true, that at the moment when Jesus Christ died at 3 PM that fourteenth afternoon, an earthquake occurred, cracking the rocks underneath. His blood then dripped through the rocks onto the Mercy Seat on top of the Ark of the Covenant under Golgotha, otherwise also referred to in Scripture as the “place of the skull.”

At the same movement, while the Jews were killing their lambs for the Passover, and the priests splinking the blood on the altar, Christ’s blood dripped into the Mercy Seat for the sin of the whole world! The biblical narratives indicate that the crucifixion took place outside the city walls—“outside the camp,” and His blood was miraculously brought “into the camp,” revealing why the blood could be killed outside the camp but only its blood brought into the camp for the priest to sprinkle on the altar. If Ron’s attestation is true, the story of Christ’s death and sacrifice would reveal how the Lamb was ordained in details with so much forethoughts right from the foundation of the world. Well planned and well thought-out by our Great God. Are you amazed? I’m stunned. It is the mystery of mysteries.

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Posted in Passover

Draft IId

Chapter 6 – 7

“At sunset, or ba erev,” according to Fred Coulter, “is a very short period of time. It begins when the sun appears to touch the horizon, and ends when the sun drops below the horizon. The total duration of its setting is no more than 3-5 minutes.” He added further. “The Hebrew phrase ba erev, or “at sunset,” designates the end of one day and the beginning of the next day.” (Chapter 4).

For the length of time for ben ha arbayim, he says, it varies depending on the season of the year. In the winter, ben ha arbayim is approximately 30-40 minutes. In the spring or fall, ben ha arbayim lasts from approximately one hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

According to Fred, “there can be no doubt whatsoever that ben ha arbayim comes after ba erev, or sunset.” And he kept on harping his conviction, “we have found irrefutable proof that ben ha arbayim— “between the two evenings,” or “between the setting-times”—begins immediately after the day has ended at sunset, or ba erev.”

If that is the case two lamb would be needed to be killed for the Passover, one for Exodus 12:6 ben ha arbayim and the other to satisfy Deuteronomy 16:6 ba erev.

But four days earlier, Israelites were asked to choose only one Lamb. Exodus 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month they shall take for themselves every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. Now four days later, they have to sacrifice two. It’s a slight of hand to whip out another lamb which they didn’t have, another touch of Simon Magus! The Samaritans, together with most of today’s Churches of God (CoGs) communities today, also believe the same magic. It’s no surprise they came from the same homeland. They may fervently consider themselves as virgins, waiting, waiting, but they don’t realize they are being described elsewhere as “wretched” and “naked.”

Now on the subject of the true timing of when the quail arrived in the evening, the Rabbinic understanding is that the quail arrived in the afternoon, anytime when the sun moved passed its zenith, until sunset, which is the first phase of erev—this same period could be described as ben ha arbayim— “between the two evenings,” or “after noon and until nightfall.” During this time, it is daytime and the Israelites wouldn’t have any problem catching the quail, killing them, skinning and cleaning them, cooking and have them for food. There wouldn’t be any problem at all about keeping the Sabbath when it arrived a few hours later.
Besides flouting and stigmatizing the Rabbinic understanding of evening (erev), Fred Coulter analysis also redefines morning (bôqer) in Genesis 1:5 And the evening (erev) and the morning (bôqer) were the first day. Such a day is a full 24-hours day. And this 24-hour day are divided into evening (erev) and morning(bôqer), each could only be a 12-hour period. The full extend of time for evening (erev) is from noon to midnight; and the full extend of time for morning (bôqer) is another 12-hour period, from midnight to noon.

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Up to Chapter 7 of Fred Coulter’s the Christian Passover, we can see Fred had quoted a lot from Everett Fox’s translation. So who is Everett Fox? And who are behind the Schocken Bible? Since Fred had quoted principally from Fox’s translation and the Schocken Bible we’ll take a deeper dive to find out more. Aren’t you curious? I am sure we all do.

Everett Fox spent years at Brandeis University as a college student, majoring in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. A husband of Jewish educator, Rabbi Cherie Koller-Fox (a Jewish feminist), he was described, at best, as a conservative Jewish scholar. Although he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) of America in New York for only one and a half years at the Seminary, the influence from the reform-minded Seminary had a deep impact on him, as evidence showed in his translation of the Bible, published by Schocken Books. And they all teamed up to publish the Schocken Bible (described as an offshoot of the Buber-Rosenzweig translation), from which Fred Coulter quoted extensively.

The JTS seminary was started by Rabbi Zecharias Frankel (1801—1875) who was a leading figure in mid-19th Century German Jew. Known both for his traditionalist views and the esteem he held for scientific study of Judaism. Frankel was, ironically, at first considered a conservative within the nascent Reform Movement.

The Reform Movement advocates that Jewish law is not static, but rather has always developed in response to changing conditions. In his endeavour, Frankel amassed scholarly support which showed one must be open to a changing environment and developing Judaism in the same evolving fashion that the law should be reinterpreted, and as a way of restoring meaning to modern life.

Although the Jewish Theological Seminary of America was alleged to be a product of the Reform Movement, it claimed to be “a new rabbinical school” in New York City. There were power struggles between the two, but eventually the Reform Movement gained ground as the Seminary developed a new movement known as Conservative Judaism. This conservatism may not sound conservative—traditionalist, orthodox, conventional—but their Reform Movement were just only taking at a slower pace. Nevertheless the Jewish Theological Seminary became the primary educational and religious center of Conservative Judaism.

The central theme for the Conservative Movement is that Jewish Law shouldn’t be regarded as static, but “to reignite a fresh religious insight,” that Rabbinic Judaism be regarded as non-binding and that individual Jew should be regarded as autonomous, and that our perception of Judaism “should incorporate openness to external influences and progressive values” as the years unfold. Concurrently, examining Jewish history and rabbinic literature through the lens of academic criticism, it maintained that these laws were “always subject to considerable evolution, and must continue to do so.”

So from the beginning in the 1970s, the topic of women’s ordination was regularly discussed at JTS. A special commission (which consisted of 11 men and three women) was established by the chancellor of the Seminary to study the issue of ordaining women as rabbis. After years of discussion, the JTS faculty voted to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors in 1983. The first female rabbi to graduate from the school (and the first female Conservative Jewish rabbi in the world) was Amy Eilberg, who graduated and was ordained as a rabbi in 1985. The first class of female rabbis that was admitted to JTS in 1984 included Rabbi Naomi Levy, who later became a best-selling author and Nina Beth Cardin, who became an author and environmental activist. Erica Lippitz and Marla Rosenfeld Barugel were the first women ordained as cantors by JTS (and the first female Conservative Jewish cantors in the world). They were both ordained in 1987.

Since March 2007, JTS has accepted openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual students into their rabbinical and cantorial programs. This is to uphold the Seminary’s non-discrimination policies for their new founded admission policy, without taking a stance on same-sex unions. JTS marked the first anniversary of the change with a special program. Since then, special programs were established to recognize the pluralism in the student body. In April 2011, JTS held a Yom Iyyun, or day of learning, about LGBTQ issues, and their intersection with Judaism. Joy Ladin, a transgender woman who teaches English at Yeshiva University, gave a talk about her life. Other programs included creating welcoming communities, and inclusive prayer, among others. It was sponsored by other Jewish social action groups to ensure that all other queer individuals are included in all sectors of Jewish life.

Joy Ladin has described her girlhood intuiting at a young age, viewing her assigned male identity as “false” as a child. At age eight, she began calling herself a “pacifist” in order to avoid combative play and athletics.
She received her PhD from Princeton University in 2000, her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995 and her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1982. In 2007, Ladin received tenure at Yeshiva University, and thereafter announced her gender transition. In consternation, the Yeshiva could only place her on 18 month paid leave, but with the aid of lawyers from Lambda Legal, Ladin returned to work at Yeshiva University in 2008.

Since its birth, Reform Judaism had given themselves a new challenge. In an effort to avoid what they perceived as “bondage to Judaism” the Bible has to be reinterpreted in a different way from what the Rabbinic Jews believe. Thus the Hebrew term ben ha arbayim is reinterpreted as between the setting-times and erev as dusk. And bôqer, which Rabbinic Jews defined broadly as the time after midnight to noon, is redefined and restricted to daybreak or sunrise. So Passover and the Exodus were redefined to recapture the spirit of the ancient Samaritans, a spirit that of persistently looking at Jewish laws and issues not from a static viewpoint, but from an evolving angle.

Biblical and non-Biblical history has recorded a couple of evolving reinterpretations at various times to suit a new social and political environment, each has its own axe to grind:

(1) King Jeroboam — Being anointed King of the Northern Kingdom he quickly felt he needed a new place of worship, least his subjects could be influenced to pledge their allegiance back to the Kingdom of Judah based Jerusalem. For the convenience of his subjects, he chose two places: Bethel and Dan. And to differentiate from Jerusalem’s feasts, he moved the Feast of Tabernacles to the eighth month. Also, he made himself the high priest, whose action drove most of the Levites and others in the priesthood south to the Kingdom of Judah.

(2) The Samaritans — After Shalmaneser king of Assyria had taken the Ten Tribes into Exile, he took the surrounding heathens to resettle the land. But lions plagued the new settlers, so they needed a priest from the previous populace to come and teach them how to worship the God of the land. Having secured a returning priest, the new settlers “feared the Lord, but served their own gods, after the manner of the nations who carried them away from thence” (II Kings 17:33).

(3) Sanballat the Horonite — He was a Samaritan governor and was a chief opponent of Nehemiah and Ezra, and who, with some Jewish allies, constantly fought against Jerusalem and the teaching of Ezra. Failing to infiltrate Jerusalem in the rebuilding Temple activities, he sought consent from the Persian Court to build a similar temple on Mount Gerizim as Nehemiah had done in Jerusalem. And he had one of the grandsons of Eliashib, the high priest in Jerusalem, made an high priest in Mount Gerizim. He was Manasseh, who married a daughter of Sanballat, and was dispelled from Jerusalem for not keeping his lineage pure (Nehemiah 13:28). The Mountain Gerizim was inserted into the Pentateuch to make the new mountain under their control as God’s sacred mountain.

(4) The Sadducees — the Sadducaic sect claimed they drew their name from Zadok, the first high priest of Israel to serve in the First Temple, with further claims they were the “sons of Zadok,” descendants of Eleazar, son of Aaron. Many of the Pharisees were also priests and both participated in the Temple and in the Sanhedrin, so there were intense rivalries battling each other for centuries. The Boethusians and the Herodias had strong blood ties and were close compatriots of the Sadducees.

(5) The Karaites — Anan ben David (715 – 795 or 811?), a nasi, a prince, from a family of exilarchs, the leaders of Babylonian Jewry, was the founder of the Karaite movement. His followers were, at first, called Ananites, but adopted Karaism as their movement. They rejected the Oral law as divinely inspired and because many of their other beliefs were similar to the Sadducees, some claimed they were descendents from them. Nehemia Gordon is a prominent Karaite today among English-speaking audience.

(6) Reform Judaism — Abraham Geiger (1810 – 1874) was a rabbi in Germany, considered the founding father of the Reform Movement. Emphasizing Judaism’s constant development along history and universalist traits, Geiger sought to reformulate a new form of Judaism in what he regarded as a religion compliant with modern times. And so he did, splitting Judaism further in varied forms: Reform, Conservatiive, Progressive, Liberal, Humanistic and Reconstructionist.

The Orthodox or Rabbinic life faced many challenges since the Industrial Revolution and were subjected to numerous scrutiny among the majority of Jews living in the diaspora at large. And soon their claim as sole traditional theological authority to Torah Law and practice were not sustainable over time. This gave rise to demand for changes and reforms in various guises, adding sin to sin. In Isaiah 30:1 the Sacred Text says, “Woe to the rebellious children,” saith the Lord, “that take counsel, but not of Me, and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin . . . 9 that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord.

And in Exodus 32:9 And the Lord said unto Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people.10 Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.”

And in Deuteronomy 9:3, “Understand therefore this day that the Lord thy God is He who goeth over before thee as a consuming fire.”

Could this wrath of “a consuming fire” that were destined for other people in ancient times turned around for His people by the same Lord in our modern era?

Posted in Passover

Draft IIc

Chapter 5

Exodus 16 begins with an account of the journeying of the children of Israel from Elim to the Wilderness of Sin, where they murmured for want of bread, Exodus 16:1, when the Lord told Moses that he would rain bread from heaven for them.

The issues in this chapter is mainly about God providing food for the israelites while they were travelling to the Promised Land. The issues were the sixth day, where they were to gather twice the amount needed for that day and the following Sabbath where no food would be provided.

Problems arose, of course, hence the story. Those that gathered too much, except on the Preparation day, found their collection bred with worms or rotted. And those that went out on the Sabbath didn’t find any. The issue was never about how to define what evening (erev or ben ha arbayim) was, as Fred Coulter alleges.

Exodus 16:2 records the Lord took notice of their murmurings, which promise the Lord fulfilled in verse 4; and a description of the bread, and the name of it, are given, Exodus 16:13, and some instructions are delivered out concerning the quantity of it to be gathered, Exodus 16:16, the time of gathering and keeping it, Exodus 16:19, the gathering a double quantity on the sixth day for that day and the seventh day.

Go promised in Exodus 16:11 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, ‘At evening (ben ha arbayim) ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”

The evening in verse 12 is ben ha arbayim and according to Fred Coulter, is a very short period of time, “between sundown and dark, a period of about an hour or so.”

And Fred wrote: “Now it was AT SUNSET [Hebrew ba erev] a horde-of-quail came up and covered the camp…” (Ex. 16:13) Fred advocates erev is a transition of 3 to 5 minutes of one day to the next, perhaps half in the new day and the other half in the previous day.

The truth is, at “evening” (ben ha arbayim) ye shall eat flesh. At ben ha arbayim, the flesh arrived during the first evening, or during the time “after noon” but before nightfall. The bread arrived earlier, in the morning.The Hebrew phase ben ha arbayim has been used 11 times in the Bible but it has never been used for the beginning of a Sabbath, weekly or annual, or a beginning of a day in which case erev (which would be the second evening) is used. Actually “between the two evenings” is an idiom meaning “between the beginnings of the two evenings.” It is always right “after noon . . .til nightfall.”

The question is how could the Israelites eat the quails within the hour and a half after it had just arrived after dark? And here is Fred’s definition:“Between the time that the sun is below the horizon, no longer visible, and total darkness.” Yes, all the killing, cleaning and cooking within such a time constraint after dark?

The Scriptures cannot be broken, and It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the honor of kings is to search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2). “Between the two evenings” is a period of time between the first phase of erev when the sun had passed noon at its zenith to the next phase of erev following sunset.

Chapter 16 had the timeline of what happened during the sixth day, but Fred Coulter had misinterpreted as the time, the evening after sunset. He wrote:

The account in Exodus 16 explicitly tells us that God promised to provide meat for the people at sunset. In Verse 13, we read that God fulfilled His promise at that exact time: “And it came to pass AT SUNSET [Hebrew ba erev, the sunset ending that Sabbath], that the quails came up and covered the camp…” Chapter 5

On a full moon night, it might be easy to catch a couple of quails, but what if there is no moonlight, cloudy and the sun had set, dark? Remember this catching were to be done six days a week for some 40 years in the wilderness. Fires were not easy to light and there were no torches in those days. They would be globbing in the dark. Many might get injuries bitten by desert snakes, kicking rocks or even fallen off cliffs chasing after these quails. In modern days we would need a lot of paramedics and ambulance ready. Such scenario just doesn’t make sense. But Fred Coulter has an amazing theory to prove. He is forcing his preconceived image into the Bible.

The story of the quail in Exodus 16 is that the Scriptures use erev and ben ha arbayim interchangeability. Everything makes sense when this is deemed as the daylight portion of erev for the Israelites to capture, cook and eat the quails.

Exodus 16:8 And Moses said, “This shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening (erev) flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full,
11 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, 12 “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, ‘At evening (ben ha arbayim) ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.’” 13 And it came to pass that at evening (ba-erev) the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

The gathering were to be done on the sixth day, Exodus 16:5 And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” This same phase was used during the creation of man in Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening (erev) and the morning were the sixth day.

A full day as a 24-hour period. In Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. So the full evening (which makes up of two phases of erevs) is a 12-hour period. On the sixth day, the preparation, the first phase of erev starts at around 6 pm Thursday for 6-hour period until midnight. Then from midnight until noon is another 12-hour period which we call morning (boqer). The sixth day continues with the second phase of erev, from noon to sunset, which is another 6-hour of daylight evening. Altogether they totaled a 24-hour day.

The truth is so easy to understand if we use the Jewish definition of technical words. It’s their language, it’s their Sacred Text, it’s written within the Jewish culture. They are the custodians of God’s oracles, we shouldn’t make a habit of stigmatizing them. What if they don’t believe? Nar, let every man be a liar and God be true, the Jews would still be the custodians (Roman 3:1-4). Ben ha arbayim is the time “after noon and until nightfall.”

Fred wrote further: “And our study of the account in Exodus 16 has demonstrated that the 15th day of the second month was the weekly Sabbath.” This is another sweeping statement; where could he prove that? Time could have passed as indicated in Exodus 16:5 And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day . . .

This is an exemplar of his analysis throughout. Fred wrote:

And since God Himself said that they would eat flesh during the time known as ben ha arbayim— ”between the two evenings,” or “between the setting-times”—we know without a doubt that ben ha arbayim IS THE TIME PERIOD THAT IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS SUNSET.

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.

Wow! If this is the case where two lamb would be needed to be killed for the Passover during the Exodus; one, within the first 3-5 minutes at sunset for Deuteronomy 16:6 (ba erev) and the other within the next hour or so to satisfy Exodus 12:6 (ben ha arbayim).

But only one lamb were selected on the tenth of the first month (Exodus 12:3-5) for Passover. For these Israelites to sudden sacrifice two lambs, one during erev and the other during ben ha arbayim they would need to perform miracles.

Nar, let me remind Fred of what he wrote earlier in Chapter One: “In order to justify doctrinal beliefs that are not taught in the Bible, many writers and preachers have twisted and distorted the Scriptures to fit their own private interpretations. Whole churches have been subverted by arguments and disputes over words which have not been profitable but have been damaging to faith!”

It’s Fred Coulter who has “twisted and distorted the Scriptures to fit their own private interpretations.”

Posted in Passover

Draft IIb

Chapter 3 – 4

In Chapter 3 and 4, Fred Coulter takes issue of the word evening (h6153 ba·erev), which according to him, a time period of 3 to 5 minutes, is correctly translated as “dusk” or elsewhere by other English translations as “twilight.” By quoting JPS translation, Fred felt he was right to have a Jewish Publication Society on his side, but he didn’t know that publications from JPS was from a movement by Reform Jews, and not by the Rabbinic Jews. More on this later, but in the meantime, we’ll consider the term ba·erev ’ which is translated as “at evening” or in some other places ben ha arbayim, translated as “between the two evenings.” Since Strong Concordance locates both terms as h6153, it indicates both words came from the same root.

Both word or phase are used in Exodus 12 to describe the timing of the Passover.

(1) 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 (h6153 ben ha arbayim).

(2) 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 even (erev). Or Exodus 12:18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even (ba·erev, same root word as ben ha arbayim), ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even (ba·erev).

The Jewish definition of ben ha’arbayim “between the two evenings” makes more sense. It is in between the first phase of erev when the sun had passed noon to the next phase of erev after sunset. Or as another way of expressing it, “after noon and until nightfall.” Note that “after noon” is a 2-word phase.

Fred Coulter wrote:

In all eleven passages where ben ha arbayim is used in the Scriptures, Strong’s concordance numbers and defines it as #6153, including it with ereb.

This is correct, ben (h996) ha arbayim (h6153) occur 11 times, so let’s study them in details:

(1) 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.
(2) Exodus 16:12 “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, ‘At evening ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
(3) Exodus 29:39 The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening.
(4) Exodus 29:41 And the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
(5) Exodus 30:8 And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at evening, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.
(6) Leviticus 23:5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’S Passover.
(7) Numbers 9:3 In the fourteenth day of this month at evening ye shall keep it in his appointed season. According to all the rites of it and according to all the ceremonies thereof shall ye keep it.”
(8) Numbers 9:5 And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at evening in the Wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.
(9) Numbers 9:11 The fourteenth day of the second month at evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
(10) Numbers 28:4 The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at evening,
(11) Numbers 28:8 8 And the other lamb shalt thou offer at evening; as the meat offering of the morning and as the drink offering thereof thou shalt offer it, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

When the real Jewish definition of ben ha’arbayim “between the two evenings” is interpreted as “after noon and until nightfall,” all the pieces from the Passover puzzles fall into place. From the study of eleven cases above, there are five observations:
(1) The commandment to sacrifice daily a lamb in the morning and one in the evening: normally at 3 PM, “after noon and until nightfall” (3,4,10,11).
(2) The Passover lamb to be killed on the fourteenth at around 3 PM: (1,6,7,8,9).
(3) Lighting of the Sanctuary before nightfall (5).
(4) Quails arriving as food for the Israelites (2).
(5) None of the above were to start a Sabbath, or a new day, which would be around 6 PM: sunset, dusk, twilight or nightfall.

When ben ha’arbayim is interpreted as “after noon and until nightfall,” there are sensible amble time for killing, cleaning and roasting of daily sacrifice and Passover lamb before nightfall arrives. And Aaron wouldn’t stumble lighting the Sanctuary after dark, neither with the Israelites catching quails among nocturnal snakes in the Sinai desert.

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Fred Coulter wrote in Chapter 4:

“At sunset,” or ba erev, is a very short period of time. It begins when the sun appears to touch the horizon, and ends when the sun drops below the horizon. The total duration of its setting is no more than 3-5 minutes.”
— “phrase ba erev, or “at sunset,” designates the end of one day and the beginning of the next day.”

In Chapter 3 earlier, Fred defines ben ha arbayim as the time between sunset and dark.“Between the two evenings’ is usually taken to mean between sundown and dark, a period of about an hour or so….”

The difference in the two definitions creates clarity on some issues but confusion on others since Fred Coulter says ba·erev could mean the ending or beginning of a day. If the lamb were killed early during the five minute period it could be designated as the previous day, and therefore it would be an invalid sacrifice. If the lamb is killed slightly late after the five minutes allowed, it could also be an invalid sacrifice. Within a five minute period has a very narrow margin for error. Second, if the lamb have to be killed within the five minute period then why it is also allowed within the one and a half hour period ben ha arbayim?

Also do the two periods ba·erev followed by ben ha arbayim? If so, then two lambs would be needed, one at ben ha arbayim to fulfil Exodus 12:6 and another at ba·erev to fulfil Deuteronomy 16:6. One lamb definitely couldn’t fulfil two sacrifices. Fred Coulter’s analysis can only adds to more confusion. His definition for ba·erev and ben ha arbayim is a slight of hand! Magic! It is definitely a touch of Simon Magus. His devotees would admire his skill with admiration!

His devotees are not thinking. If they did, they wouldn’t be following him.

The Talmud tells the story of a Gentile who went to Hillel the Elder and said to him, “I want to convert, but I want to accept only the Written Torah, and not the Oral Torah. I don’t wish to accept the words of the Rabbis. So teach me only the Written Torah.”

But Hillel knew that the man wanted to do the right thing, but he didn’t understand the purpose of the Oral Torah. So Hillel began to teach him the Aleph Bet (Hebrew alphabet). The first day, Hillel taught him the first two letters, aleph and bet.

The next day, Hillel taught him the same two letters in reverse. He showed him the letter aleph, but called it “bet.”

The man objected, “but yesterday you taught it the other way!”

“Well, then, you need me, a Rabbi, to teach you the Aleph Bet? So you have to trust my knowledge of the tradition of the letters. What I tell you is the Oral Tradition. You can’t read the alphabet if no one tells you how they are pronounced. And you think you don’t need the Rabbis’ knowledge of Jewish Tradition in order to understand the words of the Torah? Those are much more difficult! Without an Oral Tradition you will never be able to learn the Torah.”

So it is clear that an Oral Tradition is needed, and that one exists.

For over three thousand years ago until the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the Jews and Levites had been killing the daily sacrifice at 9 am in the morning and 3 pm in the afternoon. “Between the two evenings” is an idiom meaning “between the beginnings of the two evenings,” or “after noon and until nightfall.”

Once this concept is used, all the rest of the Bible jigsaw puzzles will fall nicely into place.

Posted in Passover

This is a Critique of Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover. The Passover is an extremely interesting Bible Study and we’ll follow it in details. The main issue is whether the Passover is on the early or late fourteenth of Nisan. Quoted are his work, from an internet online version, which I presume, is his latest. Most are in block form and indented so as to differentiate his from my comments. The Scriptures must be our primary focus and guide. God’s concept may not match man’s concept. And sometimes the Scriptures say things very different from what we think! And so with that in mind, we’ll begin:

Draft IIa

Chapter 1- 2

Critiquing this Passover book is hard; it’s a pain. I wonder if any of his devotees have read every word and chapter of this book. I pretty much doubt it. The bulk of the book gives the impression of a “book is the result and accumulation of studies done by the author over the past fifty years.” And there is another great claim, “the first book ever written and published that thoroughly explains all aspects of the Passover as recorded in the Bible.” It is an important subject, all right, ever since Malachi Message was written. And no doubt, we should not only read it through, but really study it. It has expanded from under 300 pages in his first edition to over 500 now, and it’s the most comprehensive book ever written on the Passover, “covering every aspects and questions ever raised.” But I doubt many of his devotees have really study it through. If they have they would have numerous questions like I did in this critique. Otherwise his devotees aren’t thinking, as confirmed by a saying of Dr Hoeh: “if you believe everything we say you are not thinking.” And there are many questions raised in this critique. So let’s move on.

This chapter started with some excellent statements, but I’m afraid Fred Coulter would soon lose his focus and wrote something contrary to what he wrote:

Jesus said that He is the “Beginning and the Ending.” The New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is the true Passover Lamb of God for all time by the one perfect sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 7:27; 10:10). Paul declared of Jesus, “For Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us” (I Cor. 5:7). This was the plan of God from the beginning. Jesus was “…the Lamb [of God] slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ there is no remission of sins, no forgiveness of sins before God the Father. John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He is the Beginning! (Chapter 1, The Christian Passover. Internet Online Edition).

False doctrines and misinterpretations are continually being spread because ministers and teachers use the Word of God deceitfully.

Anyone who twists and distorts the Scriptures is “using the law unlawfully,” as Paul said, and will end up believing false, satanic doctrines, which subvert the souls of men.

Fred Coulter rightly says that the true Lamb of God is the perfect sacrifice for all mankind, slain from the foundation of the world. Hence the SACRIFICE OF THE LAMB is the primary focus. But he soon went off track by saying: “The Passover received its name from the night in which God passed over the houses of the children of Israel and spared their firstborn from the plague of death, while they were still in their houses in the land of Egypt, before the Exodus took place—not while the Exodus was taking place! The Lord passed over the houses of the children of Israel and saw the blood of the Passover lambs on the side posts and lintels of their doors, and He did not kill their firstborn.” Chapter 2, The Christian Passover.

The Scriptures define the meaning of the word “passover.” The Passover is named for an event which was executed by God: “…It is the LORD’S Passover, for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. And the blood shall be a sign to you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I WILL PASS OVER YOU. And the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:11-13).

The “pass over” is also important, but is of secondary focus in relation to Christ’s sacrifice, which should be the primary focus. Without that shed blood, that protection from the Death Angel “passing over” wouldn’t happen. Slain from the foundation of the world, it’s of supreme importance. But the Lamb’s sacrifice was to be remembered every year since the Exodus. And today we still remember it yearly. A source of confusion in translation: consonants are the same for both words, pacach and pecach in Strong’s Concordance, but vowels in the original Hebrew are different.

Exodus 12:23 פָּסַח H6452 pacach pass over (the LORD will pass over)
23 For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

Outline of Biblical Usage for H6452 pacach

to pass over, spring over
(Qal) to pass over
(Piel) to skip, pass over
to limp
(Qal) to limp
(Niphal) to be lame
(Piel) to limp

Exodus 12:21 פֶּסַח h6453 pecach passover (to kill or eat the Passover)
21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover H6453

Outline of Biblical Usage h6453 pecach

passover
sacrifice of passover
animal victim of the passover
festival of the passover

Leviticus 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover H6453
Numbers 9:2 Let the children of Israel also keep the passover H6453 at his appointed season.

Ezekiel 45:21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, H6453 a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Whenever the real Passover was referred to later, we can ascertain which is the real Passover. So says Leviticus 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover H6453
The word to commemorates the Exodus is Pecach (H6453) and not Pacach (H6452) in Strong’s Concordance.

A variation of a single vowel could make a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. Consider “h slps n th hll” in our English language. It could be read as

(1) He sleeps in the hill
(2) He slips in the hall
(3) He sleeps in the hall
(4) He slips in the hill

If H6452 pacach (as in sense of the Lord passed over) is intended in much of the reference in the rest of the Bible, it just doesn’t make sense if we were to “kill the Passover,” or to “eat the Passover.”

And in Exodus 12:25 And it shall come to pass, when ye come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. 26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, ‘What mean ye by this service?’ 27 that ye shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’S Passover (h6453), who passed over (H6452) the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.’”

This specific term “the Lord’S Passover (h6453),” mentioned exactly word-for-word in Leviticus 23:5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’S Passover (h6453).

The emphasis is on “the Lord’S Passover” as a Sacrifice—On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’S Passover, (Levitcus 23:5). The emphasis is on the Lord’S Sacrifice, hence later on it makes greater sense in other Scriptures, especially in the New Testament period, to read about to “kill the Passover,” or to “eat the Passover.”

The sacrifice of the LORD’s LAMB is of primary importance. The Death Angel’s “pass over” is also important, but only secondary. Cause and effect, or cause and consequence. Fred Coulter’s analysis is, unfortunately, too way off and greatly mistaken.

At their next Passover, the first one in the wilderness after the tabernacle was set up and dedicated, the nine rules for “keeping” the Passover are called statutes and ordinances: “Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at its appointed time. In the fourteenth day of this month, between the two evenings, you shall keep it in its appointed time. You shall keep it according to ALL ITS STATUTES, and according to ALL THE ORDINANCES of it” (Num. 9:2-3).

Here Fred Coulter analysis is all over the place. He listed 9 rules or requirements for keeping the Passover. He then harps about “ALL THE ORDINANCES” must be kept within the one-day period. Then he foolishly includes requirement number one: 1) Select an unblemished male lamb less than one year old on the 10th day of the first month (Ex. 12:3).

How careless! Can we trust him further? And he doesn’t understand there are three zooms in reading Exodus 12 regarding the Passover question.

The three zooms are:

(1) One month, the month of Abib: “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you (Exodus 12:2);
(2) One day: “And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month,” (Exodus 12:6);
(3) One to one-and-a-half hour (between the evenings): “and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening (Exodus 12:6).
The question is why did Fred Coulter choose only the second zoom, and not the others. He didn’t explain. Another person could confine “ALL THE ORDINANCES” within the first month and then set up his own church with this flagship doctrine, while yet another would insist that Fred Coulter should confine “ALL THE ORDINANCES” within one to one-and-a-half hour as how he defines ben ha arbayim.

How could Fred Coulter confine all the ordinances within the 24-hour period, where he specifically list No 1 among the 9 rules?

Just a reminder regarding the first step, or rule, in case no one notices:

1) Select an unblemished male lamb less than one year old on the 10th day of the first month (Ex. 12:3).

I can imagine all the others, with all the editing and proofreading, in the work—Carl and Jean Franklin, Philip Neal, Albert and Mela Cataga John, Hiedi and Sasha Vogele—must be very comfortable with this masterpiece. Or are they sleeping?

Posted in Passover