Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I’m Stumped

I always enjoy a rousing conversation about apparent contradictions in the Bible with inerrantists. Fun to watch the fur fly. (Useless in the end, yes I know, but such a predictable outcome to such predictable maneuvers—I can’t help myself, it seems.) And up until now, I figured there was a resolution of some sort (no matter how unreasonable—at least logically possible) to every contradiction.

Recently I came across a contradiction I have not seen a proposed resolution, and I cannot find one through the demi-god Google. I find people dance around it. I see people talk about other contradictions near it, but none on point. Any help would be appreciated. (I like to know what the resolutions are, at least. Doesn’t mean I buy ‘em, obviously.)

The issue is the old standby of what day did Jesus die—was it Passover or the Day before Passover?

The Problem as traditionally stated rests in the fact the Synoptic Gospels place the Last Supper as a Passover Meal (See Mark 14:12-17, Matt. 26:17-20, Luke 22:7-16). Remember the Jewish day runs from sunset to sunset, so Thursday sunset to Friday sunset would be one day. If Jesus ate Passover Thursday evening, this means the rest of the events unfolding on Friday would still be Passover.

Therefore, Jesus would have been betrayed, tried, convicted, crucified and buried on Passover according to the Synoptic Gospels.

However, John 13:1 implies this Last Supper was before Passover and John 18:28 indicates the Jews did not want to enter Pilate’s house on Friday Morning, so they can eat Passover. John 19:14 states this was the day of Preparation for Passover, John 19:31 indicates the next day was a “high Sabbath” (Some authors indicate the First day of the feast of Unleavened bread was considered a Sabbath. If this fell on Sabbath, it may have been considered a “high Sabbath.”)

According to John, Jesus would have been betrayed, tried, convicted, crucified and buried on the day before Passover.

And if one looks up the traditional responses, we see two primary resolutions:

1) If one wants to align John to the Synoptics (i.e. claim Jesus died on Passover) it is claimed the term “Passover” means the entire week, so the meal the Priests were talking about in John 18:28 was another meal during the week of Passover after the Seder normally eaten on Thursday night OR the Priests simply had been too busy to get to the Passover meal, what with trying and convicting Jesus.

2) If one wants to align the Syoptics to John (i.e. claim Jesus died on the day before Passover), it is claimed Jesus ate Passover early (‘cause he would be too busy being dead on the actual Passover on Saturday), so the Last Supper was not the actual Passover meal, but a meal conveniently eaten near the Passover. Like eating Christmas Dinner on the 23rd ‘cause that is the day the whole family can get together.

While these are fun and all, the problem I have not seen specifically addressed, is the conflict of days between Mark 14:12 and John 19:14. Some brief background information:

Jews celebrated Passover beginning with a special meal called “Seder” which commences at Sundown and necessarily consists of lamb. The lamb was killed and prepared during the day, prior to sunset. After the Passover, was seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There could be no yeast (leaven) in the house for the entire seven days, which means prior to the Passover, a ritualistic house-cleaning was performed, to guarantee everything in the house was kosher, and no yeast was present.

Our order of days would be:

A – Day before Preparation day or Two days before Passover
B – Preparation Day for Passover (Lamb killed)
C – Passover
D – First day of feast of Unleavened Bread
E – Second day of feast of Unleavened Bread, and so on…

There are some references in Josephus “C” and “D” were considered the same day, so the First day of the feast of Unleavened Bread was also Passover. This doesn’t help the problem. Again, remember Jewish days went from sunset to sunset.

Look at Mark 14:12. It starts off, “On the first day of Unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover Lamb…” You might notice Mark appears to be saying “B – Preparation Day” and “D - First Day of Feast” (or possibly “C - Passover”) are the same day—they are not! This, in itself, is a problem. But for the moment, I will set it aside, and presume Mark was saying it was “B – Preparation day.” (In a moment we will see why.)

If we keep reading through Mark 14, Jesus informs his disciples to make arrangements for Passover in the Upper Room. Then Evening comes. Mark 14:17. Under the Jewish calendar we just switched days. We went from “B – Preparation day for Passover” to “C – Passover.” And as we continue through Mark (as well as the other Synoptic Gospels) the events unfold on this Friday/Passover.

But now look at John 19:13-15, specifically vs. 14. “It was preparation day for the Passover.” John could not be clearer Jesus’ trial, death and burial was happening on “B – Day of Preparation.” Whether one wants to argue John 18:28 was the Priests referring to one day, or the whole week is irrelevant—John 19:14 makes it patently obvious this was the Day before Passover.

How do we possibly align these two passages? Start with John’s claim Jesus was killed on “B – Preparation day.” This day would have started Thursday at sunset. Meaning the day before must be “A – Day before Preparation” This would be during the day, Thursday, before the sun set, when Jesus told his disciples to arrange the Upper Room for the Last Supper. But look what day Mark claims this to be in Mark 14:12 – either “B – Day of Preparation” (by saying the lamb was killed) or “D – First day of Unleavened bread.” Neither is “A - Day before Preparation.”

Worse, we note Mark 14:1 actually refers to “A – Two days before Passover” recounting how the anointing of Bethany happened on that day. To align John to Mark, we would have to say Mark was claiming “A – Two days before Passover” and “B – Day of Preparation” and “D – First day of Unleavened bread” were all the same day! This may remove the contradiction of John, but it leaves us with a tremendous contradiction within a few verses of Mark. (and Matthew as well.)

Starting with John’s claim of Jesus dying on the day before Passover leaves us in a horrible muddle in Mark. So let’s start with Mark. Again, putting Thursday during the day as “B- Preparation day” this would mean Thursday night and all the events on Friday prior to sunset would necessarily fall on “C – Passover.” (and possibly “D – First day of unleavened Bread as well.) But this directly conflicts with John 19:14 which states these events happened on “B – Preparation day.”

I started looking at this contradiction, and proposed resolutions, but all I have seen addressed the problem of when the Priests ate. Note the direct problem of John 19:14 as compared to Mark 14:12.

Does anyone have a proposed resolution? No matter how unlikely—at least one that is remotely plausible?

20 comments:

  1. The only person I knew that tackled any of this is Chuck Swindoll (Christian author/preacher.) I had a tape of his that talked about this (if my memory serves me correctly.)

    If I find the tape I'll have a listen to refresh my memory.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Okay I got this from Timothy at Gracehead - and it might hold some water?

    **Jesus fulfilled the 3 days and 3 nights as He, Himself, spoke of it in Matthew 12:40 saying, "...the Son of Man will be 3 days and 3 nights in the heart of the earth". Friday to early Sunday morning is not 3 days and 3 nights. It is about 1-1/2 days.

    The Biblical Chronology of Jesus Christ's Crucifixion and Resurrection

    Tuesday:
    Jesus Christ ate an evening Passover meal with His disciples (at the beginning of Nisan 14*, biblical reckoning) and instituted the New Covenant symbols (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus was then betrayed by Judas, arrested and during the night brought before the high priest.

    Wednesday:
    Jesus was crucified and died around 3 p.m. (Matthew 27:46-50). This was the preparation day for the annual, not weekly, Sabbath, which began at sunset (Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31). Jesus' body was placed in the tomb just before sunset (Matthew 27:57-60).

    Thursday:
    This was the high-day Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread (John 19:31; Leviticus 23:4-7). It is described as the day after the "Day of Preparation" (Matthew 27:62).

    Friday:
    The high-day Sabbath now past, the women bought and prepared spices for anointing Jesus' body before resting on the weekly Sabbath day, which began at Friday sunset (Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56).

    Saturday:
    The women rested on the weekly Sabbath, according to the Fourth Commandment (Luke 23:56; Exodus 20:8-11). **Jesus rose near sunset, exactly three days and three nights after burial, fulfilling the sign of Jonah and authenticating the sign He gave of His messiah-ship (Matthew 12:39-40).

    Sunday:
    The women brought the prepared spices early in the morning while it was still dark (Luke 24:1; John 20:1), finding that Jesus had already risen (Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:2-3; John 20:1). He did not rise on Sunday morning, but near sunset the day before.

    * Nisan is the first month of the civil year and the seventh month (eighth, in leap year) of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar.

    I got this from Timothy at Gracehead - maybe this will answer the conundrum?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, SocietyVs and Menopausal Agnostic.

    SocietyVs,

    The resolution you found fails to address John 19:14. Which clearly says Jesus died on the day of Preparation for Passover. This is what I have typically seen—they dance around it or attempt to resolve other contradictions (this one is the problem of the “three days; three nights” thing).

    Within this resolution, according to John 19:14, Jesus died on Monday. (Or Tuesday during the day prior to Tuesday evening’s Passover meal. Sometimes this can be confusing, as to day the author is claiming is Nisan 14.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Jesus died on the day of Preparation for Passover." (Dagoods)

    I am utterly confused - I have no clue what any of this means after reading Matthew. Could Jesus of have had an early passover meal? I mean, in Timothy's details I am not sure which day is Passover? We need someone Jewish to lay down a time-line or something.

    SocietyVs

    ReplyDelete
  5. I don't know if you came across this site when you googled but it looks like he used mainly Mark to show the time line. http://www.direct.ca/trinity/crucified.html

    I'll look more later

    ReplyDelete
  6. This issue has always confused me a bit.

    William Lane Craig argues here here that there are two "Days of Preparation." Jesus celebrated the Passover meal a day early knowing that he would be killed on the real "Day of Preparation." I'm not sure if this gets the job done or not.

    I found an extremely helpful chart outlining which day was which here which I discussed at my own blog here.

    ReplyDelete
  7. SocietyVs,

    This gets extremely muddled indeed. If we hold the Synpotics claim Jesus was killed on Passover, whereas John contradicts this claim by stating Jesus was killed on the Day of Preparation, then all the pieces fall together. Except the obvious problem the Gospels contradict as to the day (and consequently year) of Jesus’ death.

    What I keep looking for is a simple comparison of the verses of Mark 14, which state the lambs were killed on the day before Jesus died, and John 19:14 which states the lambs were killed on the same day Jesus died. I haven’t seen (yet) a website addressing the interaction between Mark 14:12 with John 19:14.

    If you are interested in a series of articles with in depth citations to Jewish documents, you can review:

    Chap1
    Chap2
    Chap3
    Chap4

    WARNING! These are not short. I printed them off and continue to peruse them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. richdurrant,

    Thank you for the website. Unlike the previous one provided by SocietyVS, this one fails to address Mark 14:12 and the fact the Preparation day (the day the lamb was killed) was the day prior to Jesus’ death.

    Although it raised (yet another) interesting issue. For those who claim a Friday Passover/Death (in keeping with the Synoptic Gospels) there is another problem aligning John. John 12:1 says Jesus traveled to Bethany “six days before Passover.” If Passover was on a Friday, “six days before” would have been the previous Sabbath. Traveling that far on a Sabbath was a no-no. The website dismisses a Friday Passover for this reason.

    Many of the websites I am seeing, including these two proffered, and two more I am looking at, deal with the “3-day, 3-night” dilemma. Jesus dying on Friday, staying in Tomb Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday only give us 3 days/2 nights. So people add Sabbaths (which are not warranted) or move Jesus’ death back to Wednesday.

    While all that is interesting and problematic at the same time, this simple comparison seems to elude attention. Regardless of whether Jesus was killed on Tuesday, or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday—was he killed on Passover like Mark 14:12 says or on the day before Passover like John 19:14 says? If Passover was considered one day, two days or one week—was Jesus killed prior to this one day, two day, one week (John 19:14) or on the first day of it? (Mark 14:12)

    Oh, and the website horribly mangles the idea of “Roman time” in John, by claiming Pilate convicted Jesus at 6 a.m. There simply was not enough time for Pilate to do so this early.

    Yet another problem…sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Menopausal Agnostic,

    Thank you for the websites and notes. Here are some comments as to the websites:

    http://ad2004.com/prophecytruths/Articles/Prophecy/3dayspt2.html

    Good luck. Wednesday Crucifixion. Puts Jesus death on Passover, but fails to address John 19:14 which says Preparation for Passover (NOT first day of Unleavened Bread.) Fails to address Mark 14:12 saying the day before Last Supper was First day of Unleavened Bread. Not to mention it has the lamb slaughtered on Passover, NOT the day of Preparation, which is incorrect.

    http://www.bible.ca/d-3-days-and-3-nights.htm#VI

    Interesting article. Fails to note Mark 14:12 is the day previous to the Last Supper. Claims Jesus using term “Passover” meant the entire 8-day feast. Merely seems to note they would not have killed the lambs this early (true) yet fails to explain how Mark got it wrong. Also fails to address the fact Mark and Luke indicate the day before the Last Supper was the day the lambs were killed.

    As to Swindoll, I see he “found” another Sabbath to move the crucifixion back to Wednesday. Good on him! Find one—find a dozen. Can he find a Preparation day AND a Passover day occurring at the same time?

    And I should note to all, there is indication the Essenes practiced Passover on a day unlike the Temple Jews—Tuesday evening. I have seen claims Jesus was practicing Essene Passover, but this would still cause problems with Mark 14:12, because there is no explanation why the Temple Jews would have killed their lambs on Tuesday (during the day), for a Passover not to happen until two (2) or more days later.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm working on it DagoodS. I just threw those sites in with my notes from Chuck's Easter Message for your benefit, hoping you'd do the reading, because I know you aren't busy. LOL!

    Me, I'm just at my kitchen table with notes & Bible and trying to wrap my brain around this mess. ;-)

    Keep pouring through it, I'm sure you'll figure it out before the rest of us.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well, Jon, I would have to admit Lane’s apologetic would qualify as a “technical” logical possibility. If anyone is interested, it would be beneficial to click on the link Jon provided.

    Basically, Dr. Lane claims Galileans and Judeans utilized different days. The Galileans went from sunrise to sunrise (6 a.m. to the following 6 a.m.) whereas Judeans went from sunset to sunset (6 p.m. to 6 p.m.). Essentially, the Judeans were 6 hours behind the Galileans.

    Of course there is absolutely no evidence of this, but why should that stop an apologetic? Sure, it would be terribly confusing to be in proximity with people who used three (3) different methods of when days began and started. (the Romans went from midnight to midnight.)

    But we can resolve this problem by stating the Synoptics utilized the Galilean calendar, thus Nisan 14 ran from 6 a.m. on Thursday to 6 a.m. on Friday. When Mark 14:12 refers to the day being the same day the lambs were slaughtered, and moved to the evening, no new day started. Granted, Jesus ate Passover on the day of Preparation (Galilean time) yet this apologetic claims he ate it early ‘cause he was going to be busy the next day.

    When John 19:14 refers to Friday morning/afternoon as “Day of Preparation,” that is because their “day of preparation” had started at 6 p.m. on Thursday night, and was still on-going until 6 p.m. Friday.

    I would note, of course, that the Gospel of John refers to Mary Magdelene going to the tomb on the “first day of the week, while it was still dark” which would technically be the next day after the Synoptics, (due to the 12 hour time lapse) so apparently the author of John must have switched back to Galilean time by John 20:1. Further, the Jews went to Pilate apparently 12 hours before nightfall to break the legs, or else the author of John switch back to Galilean time in John 19:31.

    While logically possible, this apologetic (in order to conform the rest of John to the Synoptics) would have to say, during this crucifixion account, the author switched back and forth between Galilean and Judean days, depending on which would be necessary for our apologist to align with the Synpotic. Oh, with an occasional Roman time thrown in for good measure.

    I don’t find that very plausible but…*shrug*…I am an infidel.

    However, in my research, I did come across This pdf file which claims to resolve the problem by re-translating John 19:14. Instead of saying, “Now it was Preparation Day of the Passover…” apparently if you squint real hard, and smash some original Greek, all those translators have been wrong, and the real translation is “Now it was the Preparation Day of the Sabbath within the Passover week-long celebration…”

    ‘Course we still have the problem of John 12:1, if the Passover was on Friday…but maybe there is a different calendar in Bethany!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Whoops! I see an error. I should have said, "The Judeans were 12 hours behind the Galileans." Not "6"

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well I'll have to trust you if you say this does count as a logically possible solution (however implausible it may be). This is somewhat difficult for me to get my head around.

    I have a question for you, DagoodS. I had read that Mk mistakenly asserts that the killing of the lambs occurs on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, while Mt, who is more familiar with Jewish customs, changes his wording slightly to correct Mark's error. Is that how you understand it? Here are the texts:

    Mk 14:12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples asked him, "Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

    Mt 26:17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do you want us to make preparations for you to eat the Passover?"

    Like Mt's correction of Mk's claims regarding who the high priest was when David was fleeing Saul (Mk 2:25 and Mt 12:3) Mt basically omits the erroneous statement from Mk. Is that how you see it, or is it true that the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the day the lambs are killed?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Jon,

    All I was looking for was what an inerrantist would claim is a resolution, no matter how unreasonable, implausible, or unbelievable. I find the claim Quirinius was Governor twice, even thought there is absolutely no evidence directly linking this event to be equally “made up.”

    This one, though, of two different Jewish days, and the linking of Galilee with Pharisees, and Judea with Sadducees is probably a mite bit more fantastic.

    The holy grail; the $64,000 question is how to show an inerrantist what they would never accept as a proposed resolution in any other field, or if a Mormon made an equal claim in their defense of the Book of Mormon—what the inerrantist would never allow any other, they enthusiastically embrace in their own belief.

    As to Matthew/Mark…

    As I read the links I provided to SocietyVS, I began to realize how little we know of First Century Judaism. We don’t know the exact days they celebrated their holidays. We can only speculate, based upon lunar extrapolation, as to when Nisan 14 or Nisan 15 are. (And from what I have seen, due to the variances, most respected scholars recognize the closest we can get is within two days, so the correct statement would be something like, “Nisan 12 fell on either Tuesday or Wednesday in the year 22 CE.”)

    I don’t think many Christians recognize how little we know. Anyway, within those links there are multiple possibilities as to when the Jews cleaned out the leaven in their house. Some may have done it on Passover itself, some may have done it on the Day of Preparation prior to Passover. There is lack of clarity as to whether the first day of the feast of unleavened bread was on Passover or the day after Passover.

    And, there is indication the vernacular may have called the day of Preparation (since it was removing the leavened bread) “the day of unleavened bread.” True—Mark adds “feast” which would seem to be inaccurate under any proposal.

    Part of our problem is attempting to put the language of the time in such black/white boxes. Think of our own use of terms when it comes to holidays:

    “I went Christmas shopping.”
    ”Are you going to the Christmas party?”
    “I hate Christmas already.”
    “Our family is having Christmas dinner early.”

    Because we live it, you and I can understand how “Christmas” is different in each of those sentences, and none of them are on the 25th of December. We are likewise attempting to understand a society which may have used the terms as loosely as we do.

    I would agree Matthew is correcting Mark. Matthew is a puzzler to me (like most of this study. *grin*) We would probably all agree Matthew is the most “Jewish” of the Gospels, yet he biffs the idiom of riding two animals, and puts Jeconiah in Jesus’ genealogy. How would a Jew miss those two simple concepts?

    The worst part of being an atheist: not having a heaven to clear up all these questions about the start of Christianity. I will never know.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dagood: This is the sort of thing I've been talking about. Introduce enough premises, bend enough meanings, and you can make an what appears to be an absolutely blatant contradiction logically possible.

    To be (just a little) fair to the inerrant apologists, solid, scientific physics requires some mind-bending assumptions: particle-wave duality, quantum superposition, the measurement problem, abiogenesis... and those are just today's "implausibilities". Go back to the 20th century and you have the absolute velocity of light; the 19th century gave us the germ theory of disease and the molecular theory of heat; the 17th had gravity acting at a distance.

    The difference is not in the plausibility or implausibility of the assumptions, it's in the evidentiary foundation: All of the implausibilities of physics are justified by the fact that they are the simplest way of explaining the actual experimental results; the experimental results are undeniable facts of perception.

    Inerrantist apologetics are "justified" by taking the Bible as an evidentiary foundation: It is true by definition in the same sense that perceptual experimental results are true by definition for physics.

    Of course, by a perceptual foundation, the simplest explanation for the Bible is that it is a work of entirely human literature. It has undeniable rhetorical appeal, but so do many other works of literature whose entirely human origin is disputed only by the fringe.

    Like I said, once you abandoned the notion that the Bible was true by definition, that its truth could be ascertained by some rational process, you put your feet on the road that leads the philosopher inevitably to atheism.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sorry about coming late to this discussion, but it's one I've addressed from time to time on my own blog (under the topic of chronology).

    DagoodS wrote:
    "The worst part of being an atheist: not having a heaven to clear up all these questions about the start of Christianity. I will never know."

    Exactly. I AM comforted by the knowledge that while I may not figure this out in the next 100 years, I WILL know the answer eventually. That comfort is not available to you, so you are all the more commended for worrying your head about the question anyway.

    I can't debate this topic with you, because I'm still trying to figure it out myself. There are several unresolved questions that really should be answered before getting to the one you posed, such as:

    -Did the Judeans and the Galileans follow the same calendar?
    -If not, in what ways might they have differed?
    -Was the beginning of The Feast of Unleavened Bread based on a calculated, or observed date for the previous New Moon?
    -Did the evangelists follow the same calendar in recording what happened on which date?

    I can answer two questions with a fair degree of certainty.

    1. Six days before Friday was not Saturday. Saturday was seven days before Friday:
    Saturday
    Sunday
    Monday
    Tuesday
    Wednesday
    Thursday
    Friday

    2. It's been pretty well established that Judeans counted days inclusively. Thus 3 days in the tomb only had to include parts of the first and third days in addition to all of the second day.

    ReplyDelete
  17. First let's get the facts straight. All four Gospels say that Jesus died on the day of preparation.

    Matt. 27:62 "Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate,"

    This is a bit of a circumlocution, but Matthew says the day after the crucifixion was the day after the preparation. Ergo, the crucifixion was on the day of preparation.

    Mark 15:42-43 "When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus."

    Luke 23:54-55 "It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid."

    John 19:31 "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away."

    The issue, then, is not whether it was the day of preparation (the day before the Sabbath, or Friday) that Jesus died, it was whether that particular Friday was 14 Nisan (the day before the Passover seder) or 15 Nisan (the day of).

    This DOES relate to John 18:28 as you have said, but the question is what "eat the Pascha (Passover)" mean? Does it mean eat the Passover seder, or does it refer to the entire 7-day Paschal festival, including the feast of unleavened bread? When John uses Pascha, he usually is referring to the entire festival, not just the seder meal itself. So many scholars take John to mean the entire festival, not the seder, in which case John's chronology is no different than the Synoptics.

    ReplyDelete
  18. As I said, John Fraser…it is of little value discussing with inerrantists. The “day of preparation” for Passover Sedar was the day they killed all the lambs. The day clearly referred to in Mark 14:12 prior to the Passover Meal, commonly referred to as “the Last Supper.” They ALSO had a day of preparation for Sabbath (which in this case, the day of preparation for Sabbath fell on Passover.)

    In light of the clear chronology of Mark 14, and Jewish custom and law, Mark has Jesus killed the day before Passover.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DagoodS,

      You said, "The “day of preparation” for Passover Sedar was the day they killed all the lambs."

      What's your source for that? You just decided it because of the word "preparation"? The day of preparation is Friday, the day before the Sabbath. Mark even says so explicitly in 15:42, and the Greek word for preparation (paraskeue) is still the modern Greek name for Friday. You're just getting confused because of the word "preparation," which you erroneously think means preparing for the Passover. No, it was preparation for the Sabbath, not the Passover. It was the name for Friday. The word preparation had nothing to do with the Passover. This has nothing to do with being an inerrantist, that's just what the word means.

      Delete
  19. John Fraser,

    Perhaps I have been unclear. The chronology of Mark (and therefore the Synoptics):

    1) Thursday: Day of Passover Preparation, Lambs killed, (Mark 14:12-16)
    2) Thursday Evening (Jewish new day at sunset): Seder, Passover, Last Supper, (Mark 14:17-31)
    3) Friday: Passover, day of Sabbath Preparation, (Mark 15:42), day Jesus is tried, killed and buried.
    4) Saturday: Sabbath.

    John’s chronology:

    1) Thursday: Just Thursday.
    2) Thursday Evening: Thursday Supper, nothing special. (John 13:1)
    3) Friday: Day of Passover Preparation (John 19:14; 18:28), Day of Sabbath Preparation (John 19:31)
    4) Saturday: Passover & Sabbath. (John 19:31)

    Mark (and Synoptics) puts the Day of Passover Preparation on Thursday; the day of Sabbath Preparation on Friday. John puts Day of Passover Preparation and day of Sabbath preparation both on Friday. Mark (and Synoptics) put Passover on Friday; John puts Passover on Saturday.

    John Fraser: What's your source for that? [Day of Passover Preparation was the day they killed the lambs] You just decided it because of the word "preparation"?

    No, unlike Christian apologists, I do not “just decide” based upon English translations of Greek works. I look to historical sources as to the culture of the time. You might look here, for example. I would note I gave this cite in the comment above.

    Further, the above link to Dr. Craig’s site indicates he also agrees the lambs were killed the day before Passover (in case you don’t trust those Jews to know what they are talking about regarding their own religious beliefs; here is a Christian apologist to safely rely upon.) Although Dr. Craig’s resolution to the problem is…unique…to say the least.

    To be straightforward, John Fraser, it is inquiries like this causing me to wonder why I should ”trust” you are familiar with these issues. If you do not even understand the basic process of Passover, how can we trust you are familiar with the discrepancy regarding whether Jesus was killed on Passover or not?

    ReplyDelete