The NITPICKER'S GUIDE to COG Doctrinal Debate on ...

 Passover Timing

If this is your first visit to the Nitpicker's Guide, be sure to read THE KEYS before reading this article. It provides vital background material. See the menu button on the left.

---

All Bible quotations are taken from the New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise noted.

Disclaimer: This article is not offered as a comprehensive treatment of the topic. It is intended to be merely a helpful overview. Nor is it offered as a technically-detailed scholarly treatise, based on extensive first-hand expertise in Hebrew and Greek and the like. It is a summary of the most basic of the elements of the debates, intended for the average reader, and written on an informal level using basic reference works.

Note: This article does not address the contention within sabbatarian Church of God circles over the actual construction of the yearly calendar. Details on that can be found in the Nitpicker’s Guide section on The Biblical Calendar. References in this material to how groups use calendar dates, such as Nisan 14, should be assumed to refer to how they choose the date in reference to their own preferred calendar. That might be the standard calendar used by modern Jews, or one of a wide variety of alternative calendars that have been promoted in recent years.

---

Introduction

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever [KJV: “as often as”] you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. (I Cor 11:23-26)

Almost every group that labels itself Christian has some custom related to the admonition of this passage. Different words are used to describe it, and it is done with varying customs and varying frequency. The Roman Catholic Church calls its tradition, full of ceremony and ritual, the Mass, and makes it available to members daily (although only the most diligent Catholics would take part that often … most may do so weekly, and quite a few may only do it yearly, at Easter time.) Some Protestant churches call it communion, others call it The Lord’s Supper, and the various Protestant groups may do it weekly, monthly, or quarterly. The Jehovah’s Witnesses call it The Lord’s Evening Meal, and participate in it once a year on what they believe to be the anniversary of Jesus’ “Last Supper,” coinciding with the night beginning the 14th day of Nisan/Abib on the current calendar used by the Jews. The Witnesses are unique in that, although all members of the local congregation attend this annual observance, only a handful actually eat any bread or drink any wine at it, while the others merely observe. Those who do eat and drink are part the dwindling group of those believed to be part of “The 144,000,” a prophetic group spoken of in the book of Revelation. And most of those are old enough to have been alive in 1914, the date considered the beginning of the Last Days.

The customs among Sabbatarian groups are almost as varied. The Seventh Day Adventists do it quarterly, call it either communion or the Lord’s Supper, and include a foot-washing custom. The Church of God, Seventh Day (COG7) with headquarters in Denver also uses the terms communion and Lord’s Supper interchangeably, and its congregations also include a foot-washing with it. But they do it annually at the same time as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Among Hebrew Roots groups, some do it annually, some do it weekly. But even those who do it weekly usually have an annual observance connected in some way with the timing of Passover. The yearly observance may occur on the night beginning the 14th of Nisan, in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, or on the night beginning the 15th of Nisan. It may be combined on either night with a Passover celebration, complete with a Jewish-style Passover seder meal.

Sacred Name groups vary widely in their practice. Some call it Yashua’s Memorial and do it at the beginning of Nisan 14, reserving the next night as their annual Passover. Others combine the two observances on one of those nights in the same way that some Hebrew Roots groups do, and call it all The Passover, complete with a Jewish-style Passover seder.

Most larger denominational groups with roots in the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) call it The Passover or The New Testament Passover, combine it with a foot-washing service, and observe it on the night beginning the 14th of Nisan. However, quite a number of small independent groups made up of former members of the WCG have chosen in the past decade or more to shift the observance to the next night, beginning the 15th. Some still have a foot-washing service, but a number have also abandoned that practice.

Inescapable Irony

On that same night that He was betrayed, Jesus also had the following to say, in prayer to His Father:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

How utterly ironic it is that the small, simple memorial that He asked His disciples to do “in remembrance of” Him, instead of being part of binding His followers down through time in a unity of observance and fellowship, has become perhaps the single most divisive issue in all of “Christendom” for the past 2000 years … both inside and outside the sabbatarian Church of God movement!

 

It is not the purpose of this material, on the Passover timing debates within the COG movement, to add to that division. Nor is it the purpose to attempt to settle all the debatable factors to the satisfaction of all readers. In fact, the “positions” of many people on this topic are so entrenched that it is highly unlikely that most of those who have already settled on their doctrinal stances on this matter will concede even the possibility that they may be in error.

 It is, instead, the purpose of this material to provide, for the neutral person who may not even be aware of the depth of the contention that has raged for decades in COG circles, a broad overview of just what matters are in contention, and what reasoning is used to support the various points of view on these matters. And it is the purpose of this material to inject a calm voice of reason into the turmoil, and call for individuals to consider that it is possible to have strong opinions on this topic without the necessity for it to divide the spiritual Family of God.

It is often easier to consider a variety of options objectively before one is embroiled in an emotional debate within a fellowship group and is forced to perhaps choose sides among brethren. This topic is not going to go away. Virtually every single year for decades now, new groups of brothers and sisters in Christ seem to stumble across this area of debate. And within weeks or months, they may find that their loving fellowship group is ripped to shreds … over the simple memorial that was to symbolize unity within the Body.

---

Under Debate

In a nutshell

Jesus indicated in the night that He was betrayed that some procedure of drinking wine and eating bread was to be a memorial of His death for His disciples down through time. Was it His intention that this memorial be a frequent event, perhaps daily or weekly? Or was it to be an annual event? If it was to be annual, was it to be scheduled to coincide directly with the Levitical institution of sacrificing and eating a Passover lamb? Or was it to be observed on the anniversary of the night in which He was betrayed, regardless of whether or not that night was actually the anniversary of the Exodus events?

More than a nutshell

Jesus’ simple statement in the night He was betrayed, that His disciples should “do this” in remembrance of Him “as often as” or “whenever” they do it, leaves the door wide open for almost any interpretation regarding timing and frequency of the memorial. There is no New Testament commandment for or against having bread and wine as a memorial daily, weekly, monthly, or any other frequency. But most people who have been part of the COG movement have concluded that the most appropriate timing for this memorial is annually, connected in some way with the Spring Feast of Unleavened Bread.

 The primary debates in COG circles are thus not “whether” the memorial should be yearly, but at exactly what time, and for exactly what symbolic reasons.

 Last Supper Equals Passover

On the one hand are those who believe that it is necessary to determine exactly how and when the Old Testament Passover sacrifice of lambs occurred, and when they were eaten. Whatever they conclude about this, they impose this timing on the bread and wine ceremony, which they consider to be an exact substitute for the lamb of the Passover meal. In other words, they are convinced that Jesus intended His disciples to observe the Passover exactly as the Jews always had, but that He  “changed the emblems” of the meal from lamb and bitter herbs and unleavened bread to just wine and unleavened bread.

Those with this perspective are usually divided into two main factions:

 14th Passover Meal

The first believes that the lambs at the time of the Exodus were killed after the sunset ending the 13th of Nisan, just as the 14th of Nisan was beginning. They were then cooked and eaten that same night, the first born of Israel were spared from death that night, and the Israelites then began to leave Egypt either early the following morning, or some time within the subsequent 24 hours. Many who accept this scenario assume that the Jews of Jesus' time did kill their lambs at the same time as the crucifixion, but that they were in error to do so, and had somehow lost the proper timing for Passover. Thus Jesus’ last meal was a true Passover meal, and He intended his disciples down through time should “observe the Passover” on this same night. Many with this approach, however, are convinced He also intended that there be no meal with this Passover, and that instead it just be a formal bread and wine ceremony.

 15th Passover Meal

The other faction has concluded instead that the lambs were killed on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, some time between noon and dusk. They were then prepared and eaten at a Passover meal in the night beginning the 15th of Nisan. Many who accept this scenario believe that Jesus’ last supper was what they term an “emergency Passover” that was not really at the right time. Jesus just created a one-time special dispensation to hold it early, because He was going to be killed before the proper time of the Passover meal the next evening. Thus those who hold to this interpretation believe that it was His intent that from then on, the timing should be shifted back to the original Passover timing. It is quite typical for those who hold this view to have a meal similar to a Jewish Passover seder on the night beginning Nisan 15, either before or after a symbolic bread and wine ceremony.

 Last Supper does Not Equal Passover

Those on the other side of the Passover debate typically consider that Jesus’ final meal happened on the night before the historical Passover. They are convinced that the Jews killed their lambs for their Passover meal at the Temple the next afternoon at the same time as Jesus’ death by crucifixion. And they do not accept the notion that the Jews of the time had somehow lost the proper timing for Passover. Nor do they accept the notion that Jesus intended for His comments about the bread and wine to apply only to a specific annual Passover memorial. Instead they view Jesus’ comments about the bread and wine to be a totally “new” thing which He instituted specifically for His disciples as part of a New Covenant in His blood. They thus hold an annual commemoration of His last supper on the night beginning the 14th of Nisan, and consider the celebration of the following night, the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, to be a memorial of the ancient Passover. However, since Jesus Himself was “our Passover sacrifice,” there is no longer need for a sacrificial lamb to be part of the meal.

There are numerous nuances to these varied positions, which will be addressed throughout this article.

---

History of the Debate in Sabbatarian COG Circles

Many Church of God groups attempt to trace their particular choices regarding when and how to commemorate the Lord’s death with bread and wine to an early movement of people called Quartodecimans that flourished in the second century AD. The word implies “Fourteenthers,” and is said to be an indication that they observed an annual memorial of the Lord’s death on the 14th of Nisan. The most famous name connected with the Quartodecimans is a bishop named Polycarp. He is reported to have been a direct student of the Apostle John, and thus his practices would have a certain amount of credibility among modern Sabbath-keepers not given to other leaders of the organized church at the time, including the bishop of Rome.

Historical documentation indicates that there was a debate in the early first and second century church on just when and how to commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus. The prevailing opinion in the second century (evidently before the later custom of Good Friday/Easter Sunday) was to do so on the Sunday after the Jews’ Passover celebration. The position of the Quartodecimans, on the other hand, was that it should be connected directly to the date of the Passover.

(From the writings of the historian Eusebius around 300 AD; Hist. Eccl., V, xxiii): A question of no small importance arose at that time [about AD 190]. The dioceses of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, on which day the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should always be observed as the feast of the life-giving pasch [epi tes tou soteriou Pascha heortes], contending that the fast ought to end on that day, whatever day of the week it might happen to be. However it was not the custom of the churches in the rest of the world to end it at this point, as they observed the practice, which from Apostolic tradition has prevailed to the present time, of terminating the fast on no other day than on that of the Resurrection of our Saviour. Synods and assemblies of bishops were held on this account, and all with one consent through mutual correspondence drew up an ecclesiastical decree that the mystery of the Resurrection of the Lord should be celebrated on no other day but the Sunday and that we should observe the close of the paschal fast on that day only.

Notice that at least in this description, the issue at debate was not really when to have an annual bread and wine ceremony. It was when to end a ritual fasting period that evidently led up to some type of commemoration of the death of Jesus. But we do not have a clear record of exactly what was done in that commemoration.

In any event, because Polycarp was on the Quartodeciman side of this disagreement, COG writers have enthusiastically endorsed him as someone who would have known, because of his intimate relationship with John the Apostle, what the apostolic custom regarding the bread and wine would have been. But consider this information about Polycarp:

(From: Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition, article “Polycarp”)Polycarp’s Visit to Rome.
It is one of the most interesting and important events in the church history of the 2nd century that Polycarp, shortly before his death, when he was considerably over eighty years old, undertook a journey to Rome in order to visit the bishop Anicetus. Irenaeus, to whom we are indebted for this information (Haer. iii. 3, 4; Epist. ad victorem, op. Euseb. V. 24), gives as the reason. for the journey the fact that differences existed between Asia and Rome with regard to certain things and especially about the time of the Easter festival. He might easily have told us what these certain things were and given us fuller details of the negotiations between the two great bishops, for in all probability he was himself in Rome at the time. But unfortunately all he says is that with regard to the certain things the two bishops speedily came to an understanding, while as to the time of Easter, each adhered to his own custom, without breaking off communion with the other. We learn further that Anicetus as a mark of special honor allowed Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist in the church, and that many Marcionites and Valentinians were converted by him during his stay in Rome.

In other words, whatever Polycarp’s position regarding the timing of an annual memorial, he still obviously was part of the standard practice of “celebrating the Eucharist” … what later became the regular Catholic Mass. In this instance, even in the midst of a dispute about “annual” timing, he was allowed to preside at such a celebration. In fact, we have absolutely no historical record indicating that Polycarp was even a Sabbatarian. It seems highly unlikely that he would have been able to cooperate with the bishop of Rome if he did, indeed, keep the seventh day Sabbath rather than the almost universal custom of Sunday observance by that time.

Thus we can’t find any definitive precedent for what Christian custom should be in modern times from these ancient historical tidbits.

1800s

The earliest organized Sabbatarian groups in the U.S. were congregations of the Seventh Day Baptist (SDB) movement that began forming as early as the 1660s in the New World. (SDB congregations in Europe had only begun forming a few decades earlier.) These people did not in any way attempt to trace their Sabbatarian custom historically through successive groups stretching back to the first century, but considered themselves to be part of a “restoration” of understanding about the Sabbath. Other than an acceptance of the need to worship on Saturday, their doctrines were typical of the Baptists who worshipped on Sunday. Although there is some scant historical evidence that some of them may have originally kept an annual bread and wine memorial around the time of the Passover, it is clear that by at least the early 1800s the custom among them was to have a Lord’s Supper service, including foot-washing, at various times throughout the year.

After the failure of the apocalyptic prophecies of William Miller, who had gathered a wide following by insisting that Christ’s second advent was to come in 1844, a number of adventist fellowship groups that had formed around his teachings were introduced to the seventh day Sabbath concept. And thus began the development of both the Seventh Day Adventist denomination and the rival Church of God, Seventh Day. Neither of these groups promoted observance of the annual Feasts of the Old Testament. So the notion that they needed to annually observe the Passover would have been foreign to them. The SDAs do not appear to have ever considered limiting the bread and wine memorial to once a year. It’s not clear exactly what the earliest COG7 people did about the custom, but by the early 1900s, their custom was an annual memorial on the 14th of Nisan—not because they considered that they were “keeping Passover” thereby, but because they believed the evening beginning the 14th to be the anniversary of the Last Supper.

1900s

Into this COG7 environment of the 1920s came Herbert Armstrong. Thus his first Sabbatarian experience of observing an annual memorial with bread and wine and foot-washing would have been the COG7 custom. It is unlikely that he thought he was thereby “keeping the Passover” at the time. Only later, when he embraced the idea that the annual Feasts and Holy Days should be kept, would he have had to find a way to sort out how this custom of an “early 14th” bread and wine ceremony should be incorporated into the yearly Feast cycle.

His conclusion was an unusual one among those who had related customs. Many commentators and many groups have operated under the assumption that Jesus was crucified at the same point in time that the annual Passover lambs were being sacrificed at the Temple. Historical records indicate that time would have begun around 3 PM in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan. The further assumption was that the Jews at that time in the first century would be eating their Passover meal at the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, and that this would be in line with the commandments regarding the observance in the Old Testament.

Armstrong decided, instead, that Jesus’ last meal was indeed the annual Passover meal, and that all those Jews had somehow lost the understanding of the correct time for the observance. And he further decided that it was incorrect to refer to the bread and wine ceremony as either communion or The Lord’s Supper. It was, rather, the Passover. The notion was that Jesus, in giving the bread and the wine to His disciples, was “changing the emblems” of the Passover from lamb and bitter herbs and unleavened bread to just wine and unleavened bread. The traditional family/home setting of the Passover meal was to be totally eliminated, and replaced by a formal ritual with just bread and wine, carried out in a church setting under the leadership of an ordained clergy.

Seeing that the Old Testament did seem to indicate that the next night, the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, was when the Israelites had started out of Egypt, he added the custom of referring to that night as The Night To Be Much Observed (or Remembered). In the early decades of the Radio Church of God/Worldwide Church of God, it was often celebrated by each congregation gathering all together for a banquet. By the 1970s, this custom had shifted to encouraging smaller groups of people to gather in restaurants or homes for the same purpose.

Stirrings of Dissension

During the heyday of the WCG in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the authority of Armstrong within the organization was still virtually total, there was never any public dissension within the organization about this approach to the bread and wine memorial. Anyone who would have dared openly to question any part of the tradition would have promptly been put out of the organization as a troublemaker.

But conflict within the organization began spawning major break-off groups in the mid-1970s. This included, in particular, the period of turmoil beginning in 1978 that led to the formation of the Church of God, International by Armstrong’s son, Garner Ted Armstrong. At this point in time, a variety of individuals began widely promoting their own new theories on how the old traditions were in error. And they aggressively publicized what they believed should be done to remedy the error. At first, material promoting these various new approaches was mostly distributed among disaffected former WCG members who were now out on their own. But it wasn’t long before ministers and members within various spin-off groups began lobbying for changes right within their organizations.

The advent of the Internet in the mid-1990s contributed significantly to the spread of information about all the alleged problems with the “old” WCG understanding on these matters. And thus “Passover timing” became an extremely hot topic year around on Internet forums frequented by exWCG people. The issue eventually became one of the most significant causes of turmoil within independent Sabbatarian fellowship groups and congregations. Group after group has suffered break-up over the topic throughout the 1990s and on into the new millennium. And the hubbub doesn’t appear to be ready to subside any time soon.

---

Personal from the Webauthor

My husband George and I were members of the Worldwide Church of God from 1968-1978. During most of that time I accepted the assumptions of Herbert Armstrong about when and how—and why—the Church should observe the bread and wine (and foot-washing) memorial. Toward the end I did have some nagging questions about some of the logic regarding the Old Testament events surrounding the Exodus, but didn’t express them to anyone.

After we became affiliated with the Church of God, International in 1978, I found that Garner Ted Armstrong and others in the organization had come to some of the same conclusions as I regarding “Passover timing.” These conclusions didn’t really change the timing and practice of the Church, but changed the reasoning for why we did what we did. We still had a bread and wine and foot-washing service on the night beginning the 14th of Nisan, the night before modern Jews have their Passover seder. And we still had a festive meal during the night beginning the 15th of Nisan, referring to it as the Night to be Much Remembered, just as the WCG had done. But the conclusion within the organization was that the Passover meal of the time of the Exodus really was eaten in the night beginning Nisan 15.

In the early 1980s, within the CGI, a certain number of people, led at first by one particular minister, began to seriously question how and when the organization observed the memorial. The main emphasis seemed to be to want to shift the observance to the same night as the Jewish seder, and perhaps even have a formal seder meal preceding the bread and wine and foot-washing. From that point on, questions on Passover timing perpetually circled the fringes of the organization.

We left the CGI in 1988, and observed the annual memorial with a small group, and eventually with just our own family, for the next eight years. During that period, we had little contact with anyone still affiliated with the Church of God movement. Shortly after getting back in contact with the “COG world” through the Internet in 1996, we began fellowshipping with some small independent COG groups.

I was not aware of just how widespread the Passover debates had become, until the spring of 1997 when we planned to participate at our first gathering in years with a group. Weeks before the Spring Feast, rumblings of debate started among the 16-20 or so people with whom we were meeting. And thus the little group split four different ways on the subject. A central few, including George and I, chose that year to keep the observance in the traditional COG way. One extended family decided to keep it at home at the beginning of the 15th of Nisan, without a meal. Another branch of that same family kept it at home on that same date, but insisted it must be with a seder-like meal preceding the bread and wine and foot-washing. And one couple had bought into a “new calendar,” which placed their Nisan 15 later than ours. They showed up at the Night to be Much Remembered with a big loaf of leavened bread, since their Days of Unleavened Bread hadn’t started yet, and made a big to-do about eating it in front of everyone, evidently as a testimony to us all about our error.

For the next two years, there were some people in the congregation who were so adamant about the topic of Passover timing that they seemed able to turn any group discussion year around, no matter the topic, into a contentious rant about their favorite topic. It became very disheartening and very wearying, and was part of the reason we eventually felt we could no longer meet in peace with that group.

I have no quibble with those who wish to deeply investigate issues of Passover timing and practices, and who feel that they are better pleasing God thereby with their carefully-constructed customs. In my work in research and writing for various COG ministries I have probably read far more Passover timing dissertations than the average COG person interested in the topic. Thus I understand (even if I don’t agree with) many of the reasonings put forth continually in favor of changes to the “old ways” of the WCG. But it has grieved me for many years that so few are able to pursue the topic without becoming unpleasant, aggressive, and contentious over their conclusions. In far too many cases, the realization that the purpose of taking the bread and wine is to “show forth the Lord’s death” until He returns, and thus to focus on our redemption through the blood of the ultimate Passover Lamb, has been turned into an intellectual exercise in … nitpicking.

---

Biblical and Linguistic Background of the Controversies

 

Old Testament Passages Regarding the timing of Passover

In spite of the heat and roar of the Passover timing arguments of the past few decades in the COG world, the amount of scriptural detail that is the basis for the debates is amazingly scant. We first learn about the timing of Passover in Exodus 12:

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. [KJV, “in the evening”; Young’s Literal Translation: “between the evenings”] Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts. Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.

 On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. (NIV)

There are three things to notice in this passage that will be relevant to the COG doctrinal debates on the matter.

• The lambs are to be kept “until” the 14th day of the first month (called Nisan or Abib on the Jewish calendar).
   

• The lambs are to be killed at a time indicated by the Literal translation “between the evenings.”
   

• It is the lamb itself that is called “The Passover,” not the 24 hour period: “Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.” In other words, the concept is not “celebrate the Day of the Passover,” but “eat the meat of the Passover sacrifice.”

The timing part of this command is reiterated in Leviticus 23:5 :

The LORD's Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. (NIV)

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover. (KJV)

And again, in the Literal translation:

…in the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, [is] the passover to Jehovah;

A reiteration of the commands regarding the timing of the Passover is made in Numbers 9:1-4:

The LORD spoke to Moses in the Desert of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. He said, "Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the appointed time. Celebrate it at the appointed time, at twilight (KJV: “at even”; Literal: “between the evenings”) on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with all its rules and regulations." So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight (KJV: “at even”; Literal: “between the evenings”) on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses.

In both Leviticus and Numbers, note that the phrase for the time of the sacrifice of the lambs is rendered in the Literal translation as “between the evenings.” In each case in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, the KJV renders the same term “at even,” and the NIV translators chose “at twilight.”

The same activities are covered again in Deuteronomy 16:1-7:

Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night. Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning. (KJV: “neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.” Literal: “at even”)

You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. (Literal: “…sacrifice the passover in the evening, at the going in of the sun, the season of thy coming out of Egypt;) Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents.

In this passage, note these items:

• Once again, the term “Passover” does not indicate a period of time, but the sacrifice itself.
   

• Although the first Passover lambs, at the time of the Exodus, were evidently sacrificed by each family at its own home, in the future in the Promised Land, when they have their own towns, they are not to sacrifice the Passover in those towns. They are to do it only where the Lord chooses as a “dwelling for His name.” That would be, by the time of Solomon and later in the time of Christ, at the Temple in Jerusalem. In other words, for the sacrifice of the Passover lambs, and the Days of Unleavened Bread, they are to have a national pilgrimage to the central sanctuary in Jerusalem.
   

• This time, instead of the term “between the evenings,” the terms “at even” or “in the evening” are used.

Much later in the history of Israel, we get a glimpse of how the Passover was kept in the times of the Kings of the House of Judah. The following is a description of a revival of proper observance of the customs related to the killing and eating of the Passover lambs in the time of King Hezekiah, recorded in 2 Chronicles 30:1-5, 13-20:

Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month. They had not been able to celebrate it at the regular time because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not assembled in Jerusalem. The plan seemed right both to the king and to the whole assembly. They decided to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, calling the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the LORD, the God of Israel. It had not been celebrated in large numbers according to what was written.

 …A very large crowd of people assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. They removed the altars in Jerusalem and cleared away the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley. They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the temple of the LORD. Then they took up their regular positions as prescribed in the Law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood handed to them by the Levites. Since many in the crowd had not consecrated themselves, the Levites had to kill the Passover lambs for all those who were not ceremonially clean and could not consecrate their lambs to the LORD. Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

And here is another revival of these observances in the time of King Josiah, described in 2 Chronicles 35:1-14:

Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the LORD's temple. He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the LORD : "Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and his people Israel. Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the directions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon. "Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of your fellow countrymen, the lay people. Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fellow countrymen, doing what the LORD commanded through Moses."

Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand sheep and goats for the Passover offerings, and also three thousand cattle—all from the king's own possessions. His officials also contributed voluntarily to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the administrators of God's temple, gave the priests twenty-six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle. 9 Also Conaniah along with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, provided five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites.

The service was arranged and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions as the king had ordered. The Passover lambs were slaughtered, and the priests sprinkled the blood handed to them, while the Levites skinned the animals. They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the subdivisions of the families of the people to offer to the LORD, as is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. They roasted the Passover animals over the fire as prescribed, and boiled the holy offerings in pots, caldrons and pans and served them quickly to all the people. After this, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions until nightfall. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests.

Note the following points in the passages above from Chronicles:

• The Law had made a provision (Num 19:11-12) for people to kill and eat the Passover in the second month of the year if they were ceremonially unclean at the time prescribed in the first month. In this case, it seems that virtually the whole nation was thus unclean. So in Chronicles 30, King Hezekiah proclaimed the observance for the second month.
   

• In both of these instances, the whole nation brought their lambs to the Temple area, to either kill them themselves, or to allow a Levite to do so. This would indicate a very large amount of slaughtering to be done. If each person was killing a lamb at their own home, all at the same time, perhaps the process could have been done in a very short time. But with many thousands at the Temple, and a certain amount of ceremony to be followed (sprinkling the blood of each lamb on the altar), it would seem that it would take an extended period for this process.
   

• In 2 Chronicles 35, it is clear that the Levites were involved in the sacrifices of thousands of Passover lambs, and then roasting them, and then doing other service for the priests, right up until nightfall. This is a description of an extended time period, not something that could have been accomplished in a few minutes at the beginning of an evening.

Hebrew Idioms Concerning Passover Timing

The most significant phrases in all the passages above which are elements of the debates over Passover timing in the Churches of God have to do with the terms “at even,” “at twilight,” “in the evening,” and “between the evenings.” The singular Hebrew word translated even or twilight or evening is ereb. The Hebrew phrase in the passages which is rendered “between the evenings” in the Literal translation is beyn ha’arbayim. The importance of these terms will be covered in the section “Factors of Greatest Concern” below.

New Testament Passages Regarding the Passover

By the time of the first century, it seems clear that it had become the custom among Jews to refer to the whole seven day period of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as “The Passover,” as seen in Luke 22:1:

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching ...

Although it is useful to know this, it is equally important to realize that this does not appear to have been the case in Old Testament times. In the Old Testament the term Passover is almost always used in a phrase such as “kill the Passover” and “eat the Passover,” which makes it clear that the primary reference was to the animal itself and the sacrifice of it. English terms such as that the Israelites “kept” the Passover on the 14th of Nisan thus seem to mean that they performed the necessary sacrifice and prepared the lamb at that time. It does not necessarily indicate when they ate the meal that included this Passover lamb.

Leviticus 23:5-6 makes the distinction between the Days of Unleavened Bread and the killing of the Passover very clear.

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

And 2 Chronicles 35:17 also shows the clear delineation between the two:

And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. (KJV)

To try to read the ancient limited meaning of the term into the New Testament account may thus confuse some of the issues.

In the incident from Jesus’ youth recorded in Luke 2:41-43, it is again obvious that the custom at the time was to refer to the whole Spring Feast as Passover.

Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. 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. (KJV)

It is in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ Last Supper that we encounter the apparent discrepancies that have led to the lion’s share of the never-ending Passover debates.

Matthew 26:17-19

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?" He replied, "Go into the city to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your house.' " So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared the Passover.

When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."

There are two significant issues that this passage brings up.

• The Old Testament clearly states that the killing of the Passover lambs, and the preparations to eat the meal that featured the lamb, was before the seven days of Unleavened Bread Yet Matthew seems to state that the disciples were going to “make preparations” on the first Day of Unleavened Bread for eating the Passover. Perhaps it was also the custom of the time to refer to the 14th of Nisan, when the lambs were to be killed, as part of a period of unleavened bread. Historical records seems to indicate that most people removed the leaven from their homes on the night beginning the 14th of Nisan. More details on this issue will be covered in the next section.
   

• The first three verses of this passage describe the disciples asking about and preparing for eating the Passover meal. Is the “when evening came” to be an indication that this evening was immediately the time they were to eat the Passover, or were their preparations for the following night, perhaps involving removing the leaven from the place where they planned to eat the Passover meal? The debate about this matter will also be covered in the section below.

The Gospels of Mark and Luke describe the same events in the same way. Luke adds in Luke 22:14-16:

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."

This passage seems to clearly be stating that Jesus was eating the Passover meal with His disciples at this point. And yet, the Gospel of John throws the Bible reader a curve in John 13:1-5:

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

This is the same night in which He was betrayed. And yet John notes that it was before the Passover. And to clarify the timing even further, he later notes in John 18:28 regarding Jesus’ appearance before Pilate:

Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.

There is no simple way to harmonize John’s comments about the timing of Passover in the year of Jesus’ crucifixion with those of the other Gospel writers. The other Gospels (called the “Synoptic" Gospels because they all share a “common view” of events of Jesus’ life) seem to indicate He did eat a Passover meal with his disciples the night before He died. And yet the Gospel of John is clear that the Jews did not plan to eat the Passover meal until the next night. This would clarify Paul’s comment in 1Corinthians 5:7, connecting Jesus’ death with the death of the Passover lambs.

Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

If this is to be taken literally, it would make sense that Christ’s death would have occurred at the same time the Passover lambs were being killed at the Temple, making His death the “ultimate fulfillment” of the significance of the lambs killed in ancient Egypt and during all the time since then. More on the various attempts to reconcile the Synoptic Gospels and John is in the following section.

---

Factors of Greatest Concern

When were the original Passover lambs killed?

Leviticus 23:5-6

In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

As noted above, “the Lord’s Passover” does not refer to a 24-hour (or even a 12-hour) period. It refers to the killing of the Passover sacrifice. You then “eat the Passover,” i.e., the Passover lamb, that night.

As Exodus 12 puts it regarding the lambs for the households:

Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. [KJV, “in the evening”; Young’s Literal Translation: “between the evenings”] Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.

This is reiterated in Deuteronomy 16:

There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. (Literal: “…sacrifice the passover in the evening, at the going in of the sun, the season of thy coming out of Egypt;) Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents.

The primary issue in dispute is whether the lambs were killed at some indistinct period between sunset and dark, considered the beginning of the 14th of Nisan, or killed late in the day on the 14th. And the keys to the solution of this issue are the Hebrew terms ereb (translated evening) and beyn ha ar’bayim (translated sometimes as “twilight,” but literally rendered “between the evenings.” )

It is obvious from the two passages above that the same event can be described as occurring “in the evening” and “between the evenings.”

We have no outside source, separate from the Bible, to tell us what these terms meant in ancient Israel. There is no lexicon of Hebrew words and phrases written in 1500 BC that will clarify them for us. So we have to examine their use in other Bible passages to look for clues to how they are used.

 Ereb

The first question therefore is, what does “the 14th day of the month at even (ereb)” mean? It is understood by most Bible students that “days” in the Bible begin not at sunrise but after sunset, and thus go from sunset to sunset. What is not so clear is what is meant when an evening of an actual date on the calendar is mentioned. Does the “14th at even” mean the beginning of that date, or the end. Those who propose that the lambs were killed at the beginning of the 14th assume that the ereb belongs to the day coming up. Thus the ereb of the 14th would be its beginning.

But this is not supported by other passages in the Bible. The following three passages make it abundantly clear that the ereb belongs to the day just ending.

Leviticus 23:27,32

The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. … It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.

The Day of Atonement, which is clearly the 10th day of the month, is said to begin from the “evening of the ninth day.” That means that the ereb of the ninth day is at the end of that ninth day.

We saw above in Leviticus 23 that the 15th of Nisan begins the seven days of unleavened bread, which are clearly after the day of the killing of the Passover, which was on the 14th of Nisan. We read this in Exodus 12:14-20:

This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.

Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

This clearly states that the first day of Unleavened Bread, said to be on Nisan 15, is considered as beginning right after the “evening of the fourteenth day,” and to continue for seven days until the evening of the 21st day. The ereb of the 14th is thus clearly the end of that day, and the ereb of the 21st is clearly the end of that day. Otherwise, we would not have seven days of unleavened bread.

Beyn Ha’arbayim

So what about “between the evenings”? Is this a period at the beginning of a date, some short time between sunset and dark?

Consider the command related to the two daily sacrifices at the Tabernacle or Temple:

 Exodus 29:38-41

This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight [Literal: between the evenings]. With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight [Literal: between the evenings] with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.

These sacrifices are both said to belong to “each day.” The first is in the morning of that day, the second is offered “between the evenings” of that same day. In other words, the beyn ha’arbayim of the day is a period at the end of that day.

For those who insist, in spite of all of the scriptural and linguistic evidence, that the lambs were killed at the beginning of the 14th of Nisan, there are even just plain old logical questions regarding that scenario:

What would be the point of having to kill the lambs in a tiny time frame between sunset and dark? Particularly in an age without electric lighting, wouldn’t it make more sense to kill them and prepare them for cooking during daylight? And since it really does say that eventually they are to kill them specifically only at the “place where He shall choose to place His name” … which is eventually at the Temple in Jerusalem ... how difficult would it be to get everybody there and complete the whole process during that very small window of time? And again … to what purpose?

When were the original Passover lambs eaten?

Since the lambs were commanded to be killed near the end of the 14th day of Nisan, and eaten immediately after, in the night coming up, it is obvious that they were eaten at the beginning of the 15th of Nisan.

When were the Passover lambs killed in the time of Jesus?

Although we don’t have any specific statement in the New Testament regarding the time that the lambs were killed in those days, we do have the record of the historian Josephus, who died around 100 BC. He writes in his Wars of the Jews of the Passover custom of the time of Nero:

Cestius, desiring to inform Nero, who was inclined to condemn the nation, of the power of the city, requested the high priests to take a count, if possible, of the entire population. So these high priests did so upon the arrival of their feast which is called the Passover. On this day they slay their sacrifices from the ninth hour until the eleventh [about 3 PM to 5 PM], with a company of not less than ten belonging to every sacrifice -- for it is not lawful for them to have the feast singly by themselves -- and many of us are twenty in a company.

As noted above, with many thousands of lambs to kill and then prepare for eating, they couldn’t possibly accomplish the task in a short time right after sunset. So it is not unreasonable that the custom would have arisen of starting late in the afternoon. In fact, many Jewish commentaries conclude that the term beyn ha’arbayim indicates a period between two facets of the sun declining toward the end of the day. The “first evening” they believe may be a reference to noon, when the sun begins to go down after rising all morning. And the “second evening” would be the actual sunset of the day. Thus “between the evenings” would indicate the time around 3-5 PM. This is, of course, not “definitive” to prove the exact meaning of the term as intended in the Old Testament. But the preponderance of evidence, as documented above, certainly indicates that the term cannot mean a short period after sunset at the beginning of a day of the week.

When were the Passover lambs eaten in the time of Jesus?

If, as indicated by the evidence above, the lambs were killed late in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, they would have been eaten that night, at the beginning of Nisan 15.

Was the Last Supper a True Passover meal?

The 15th of Nisan is the first Holy Day of the Days of Unleavened Bread, a “commanded assembly.” In order to prepare a Passover meal, the disciples of Jesus would have had to sacrifice a lamb before sunset on Nisan 14, and it would be eaten in the night beginning the 15th of Nisan. If this was the same time that the rest of the Jews were eating their Passover, the following morning would be the daylight part of the first Day of Unleavened Bread. This would be a solemn day of “commanded assembly,” where priests and Levites and observers would be at the Temple celebrating the rituals of this Feast Day. And it would be a day of no work.

Yet this was the day of the trial of Jesus and His crucifixion and burial. It even notes in Luke 23:50-54 that Joseph of Arimathea hurried to bury Jesus’ body because “the Sabbath was about to begin.” If this had been the first day of Unleavened Bread, it would already have been a day on which no work should have been done, and the fact that the Sabbath (if it was a weekly Sabbath) was about to begin would have been irrelevant.

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

So it is extremely difficult to allow for any way that Jesus’ Last Supper could have been eaten on the beginning of the 15th of Nisan. The only possibility would be if the Jews had somehow totally “lost” the correct observance of the killing of the Passover and the dates for the Days of Unleavened Bread. Some COG teachers have, indeed, postulated that this was the case. And, of course, other teachers, including Herbert Armstrong, have insisted that the “proper timing” for the killing of the lambs would have been early on the evening beginning the 14th, and that the Jews misunderstood somehow, and incorrectly killed theirs the next afternoon … at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. This is a strange inversion of the symbolism of Jesus being “our Passover” … it would indicate that He wasn’t even killed at the right time to fulfill the shadow!

But as the scriptures above clarify, there is no way that the “eve of the 14th of Nisan” can be the beginning of that date anyway. Therefore any reasoning that is based on that assumption is invalid.

The Major Discrepancy

Where does this leave us regarding the accounts in the Synoptic Gospels that indicate that the disciples actually did “prepare the Passover”? And if we conclude that the impression given by those passages is correct, then where does that leave us regarding the account in John that indicates clearly that the Priests were concerned about not being able to eat the Passover?

The reality is … there is no easy way around the lack of harmony between the two accounts. If there was, the confusion about this matter that has raged (in almost all Christian theological circles, not just within and among sabbatarian COG groups) for the past 2000 years would not have existed.

We essentially have two choices.

Choice 1: Take the preponderance of evidence of all of the Old and New Testament scriptures as well as the account in John to be definitive, and conclude that we need to somehow harmonize the Synoptic accounts with that evidence. Numerous possibilities have been suggested by Bible scholars, commentaries, and amateur theologians regarding how this might be done. None of these are totally water-tight, but then again, neither is the alternative. Here are some of the solutions that have been proposed.

• Perhaps the disciples actually went to prepare the Upper Room by making sure it was clean of leaven, that all of the necessary items for the upcoming Passover (bitter herbs and so on) were purchased, to arrange for someone to cook the Passover meal the next day, and so on. They would then, if Jesus had not been killed the next day, have sacrificed a lamb the next afternoon and held their Passover meal with Jesus that night.
   

• Perhaps when Jesus said “With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you,” He was meaning, “I had hoped dearly to eat this (upcoming) Passover with you,” but He knew at the time that He really wouldn’t be able to. And thus He would have to wait until He could “eat it with them when it was fulfilled in the Kingdom.” It appears that this actually could be a valid way to translate Luke 22:15-16. The verbs and conjunctions in the passage are vague, and the translators have had to make assumptions about exactly what was meant. For instance, the Authorized Standard Version has: "And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
  
  And the Greek conjunction could just as easily be rendered "but I say unto you" rather than "for." Again, there is no way to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt what the original intent was.

   

• Perhaps when the disciples asked Him where He wanted them to prepare for the upcoming Passover, He was unwilling to clearly state to them that He would be dead the next day—they obviously were not anticipating the betrayal of Judas. So He allowed them to believe He was sending them on a mission to actually prepare for that meal. Thus when they sat down to the pre-Passover meal of the early 14th, He spoke to them of the Passover in wistful terms, noting that He surely wished He could eat it with them. They would not have understood the import of what He had to say until the next day.
   

• Perhaps there was a custom that we are unaware of in the first century that was a “pre-Passover” meal that was informally referred to as “The Passover” also, and this is what they ate that night. Obviously the whole Feast of Unleavened Bread had acquired the label “Passover” by this time, so it is not unreasonable to think that we may be missing more nuances of the term.

Choice #2: The alternative choice is to completely ignore all of the other evidence covered above, and insist that the surface meaning of the Synoptic Gospels is definitive. This would require assuming that Jesus ate a “true” Passover, and the Jews, if they were actually killing Passover lambs the next afternoon, had lost the timing of the Passover. If they actually had eaten it the same night as Jesus, we’d have to assume John was just plain mistaken about the Priests worrying about the Passover, or he didn’t mean THE Passover, but some other meal of the Days of Unleavened Bread.

The problems with this scenario, however, are as great, if not greater, than with option number 1 above.

• Jesus had been in Jerusalem for days, and there was no reason to think that He would leave before the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. If, as some COG Bible students postulate, the Jews were eating the Passover at the same time as the Last Supper, why on Earth would the scrupulous Jews choose to have Him arrested and put themselves through needing to drag Him before the authorities on one of the holiest nights of the year, when they should be involved with  the Passover meal?
   

• If the last supper was a true Passover, then the day of the crucifixion would have had to be the first Day of Unleavened Bread, a day of commanded assembly and a day of no servile labor. Yet John 19:31 makes no mention of this annual Holy Day. John (who was there and would have known, not just a historian after the fact) calls it rather “the day of Preparation,” obviously the preparation for a Sabbath. In fact, he notes that the Sabbath in question was to be “a high day.” The Jews therefore asked that the legs of Jesus and the other two being crucified be broken. That way they would die quickly, and could be taken down and buried. It was against Jewish custom for bodies to be left exposed during the Sabbath. But since most COG people are convinced that the crucifixion was not on Friday, this would mean that the “Sabbath” in question had to be the annual Holy Day. Again, that would be the 15th of Nisan.
   

• Herbert Armstrong attempted to get around this anomaly by insisting that the Passover meal should be at the beginning of the 14th of Nisan; that the Israelites didn’t leave Egypt until a whole 24 hours after the death of the firstborn in Egypt; and thus that Nisan 15 was still the first day of Unleavened Bread and memorialized their Exodus. He also assumed that the Jews had lost the proper timing for the Passover. But the scriptures and explanations above regarding the meaning of ereb and beyn ha’arbayim contradict Armstrong’s assumptions.

For those who insist that the Bible absolutely must yield up to them definitive answers on every question they have, the choices above are no doubt frustrating. Members of the WCG under Herbert Armstrong were used to having iron-clad, dogmatic statements about everything that they were expected to believe and practice. Many COG authors who write on this topic of Passover timing tend to follow Armstrong’s pattern, and state their conclusions dogmatically, as if they really do have water-tight answers for every anomaly. The reality, however, is that they do not. In order to make every assumption fit … they must ignore, leave out, or gloss over any contrary information. This style of exegesis is comforting to those who believe that they need “perfect doctrine” on all matters. But it is not intellectually honest.

---

Secondary Considerations

What kind of bread was eaten at the Last Supper?

In recent years it has become common—shortly before the Days of Unleavened Bread—for writers of posts on COG-related Internet forums, and authors of articles aimed at COG audiences, and composers of letters to the editors of independent COG periodicals to make the excited assertion that they have discovered an Astounding New Truth. This amazing New Understanding is that the bread distributed by Jesus to His disciples at the Last Supper was actually leavened bread. And the conclusion that they draw from this is that Christians are somehow obligated to also specifically use leavened bread for their annual memorial. A side deduction from this, of course, is that it would “prove” that the Last Supper was not a Passover meal, which would definitely have been eaten with unleavened bread.

Is this true? Does the Bible clearly state that Jesus took a big, puffy loaf of leavened bread and tore pieces off from it to pass around to the disciples?

No, not really. The passages in the Synoptic Gospels that describe the Last Supper are very succinct, and provide little detail. Luke’s brief statement in 22:19 is typical:

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

Why would this simple statement lead someone to conclude that the bread referred to here absolutely must be leavened bread?

Artos

The Greek word translated “bread” in the passages regarding the Last Supper is artos. Here is the relevant portion of the Strong’s Greek Lexicon definition of this word, which is the source of most of the agitation about this topic:

artos

From G142; bread (as raised) or a loaf …

The entry for G142 notes in part:

airo

A primary verb; to lift; by implication to take up or away …

Since there is, indeed, a Greek word, azumos, that is translated consistently throughout the New Testament as “unleavened bread,” the reasoning is that the use of artos here surely must mean that this was a “raised loaf.” The primary assumption is, in fact, that artos must always refer to a loaf of leavened bread. For, of course, Strong’s notes that the root word from which it comes means “lift.”

Is this assumption valid? Evidently not, for consider these three passages:

John 6:31

Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread [artos] from heaven to eat.'"

Manna was not a "loaf of bread,” but rather small bits of "something" that could be ground or boiled or prepared however desired. One can certainly not prove the matter, but it is also doubtful, whatever it was, that it had "gluten" in it either ... which is necessary for "raising" a loaf of bread. Many grains beside wheat, such as barley, have little or no gluten, and thus are usually used to make flat "griddle cakes" rather than puffy loaves of bread.

The second use of artos that cannot be indicating a "leavened loaf" is the incident of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Whatever anyone thinks about the timing of the Last Supper as compared to the beginning of the Days of Unleavened Bread, it is highly unlikely anyone would argue that this incident was "outside" those days. For it happened after His crucifixion and resurrection, but before that week was out.

 Luke 24:13-16, 28-31

Now that same day [the day that Jesus first appeared to the disciples after His resurrection] two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.

… As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread [artos] gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

This was during the Days of Unleavened Bread, when all Jewish households would have the leaven put away, and would not be serving leavened bread at a meal. And they would not have been eating at the table of gentiles at this point ... before Peter saw his later vision of the unclean animals. Thus these disciples surely would have been puzzled if there was leavened bread sitting on this table.

Yet it says clearly that Jesus took artos and broke it and began to give it to them. Thus the only logical explanation for this is that the word artos, no matter the root word from which it had developed, had taken on a generic meaning for any kind of baked loaf of a grain product, leavened or unleavened.

And here is a third use of artos that confirms it could be used for unleavened bread.

Hebrews 9:1-2

Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread [KJV: shewbread; Greek: artos] ; this was called the Holy Place.

The shewbread in the Tabernacle and later the Temple consisted of twelve “loaves” of bread that were unleavened. Yet here they are called artos. Again there is no question that the term artos is being used in a generic way to describe a baked loaf of a grain product, leavened or unleavened.

It would seem that some Bible students attempt to establish way too much in the way of doctrine via "word derivations." Even our English word "bread" comes from a word implying rising from fermentation also. Yet we use the term "unleavened bread." Thus we use "bread" in ways other than its original derivation too. In modern English, it has even taken on the slang meaning of "money."

In other words (pun intended) words are under no obligation to keep some sort of "purity of origin" throughout history. All languages (even Latin) were originally living languages. That is, the words in them accumulate nuances of meanings over the years that may be in addition to—or even contrary to—their "original" meanings.

For instance, in English ... look at the weird changes in some words as they are used in the King James Bible. The word "conversation" means to us today "talking." Back then it meant almost the exact opposite ... it meant "conduct." And the term "suffer," which now means "endure trials and pain,” back then meant "permit," as in "suffer (permit) the little children to come unto me."

Many within the COG tradition have had a tendency to wish that the Bible authors would have "scientifically" picked their words to meet all our needs to pick them apart to the nth degree in debates. In the case of the bread, because of our twenty-first century arguments about the Passover season, many wish the Bible authors would have used excruciatingly precise words that leave no ambiguity. In fact, some insist that they did.

But just because some seem to want artos to mean only "puffy bread" doesn't mean that is so. There is no reason to think that the writers of the Bible were all that different from us today. When we are describing events in letters or Internet forum posts or other writings, we don't usually pick our words for scientific, lexicographical precision. Most of the time, we pick them to communicate a general concept.

Just as we call "bread without yeast" bread in our day, even though we usually mean puffy loaves when we say "bread," the New Testament writers evidently did the same. I know that I for one never even heard of the word "unleavened" before coming into the Worldwide Church of God. And I hadn't a clue what "leaven" was. The word just isn't in common conversation these days. About the only place you see it is on packaged food ingredient labels! Thus when someone said "bread" to me, I always thought of a big loaf of puffy white Wonder Bread ("builds strong bodies twelve ways" …I'd never even eaten whole grain bread until I joined up with the WCG.) In fact, when I heard as a young person about a Bible story that told about manna being "bread from heaven," I literally pictured loaves of white puffy bread scattered on the ground!

Yet later when I learned that all bread isn't leavened, I still chose to use the word "bread" to cover both leavened and unleavened bread. Why should we think the Bible writers were any different?

Azumos

Some may still wonder why the Gospel writers did not choose to use the Greek word azumos when speaking of the Last Supper if it truly was unleavened bread that was being eaten. Luke writes, for instance, in Acts 20:6:

But we sailed from Philippi after the Feast of Unleavened [azumos] Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

Could he not have used this term in his Gospel when describing the Last Supper bread, in the passage in 22:12?

And he took bread [artos], gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

Perhaps he could have. But the reality is that the word azumos is never used in the Bible to describe a loaf or a piece of bread. It is only used in the phrases “Days of Unleavened Bread” or “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” And actually, there is no Greek word for “bread” in the passages at all. Azumos doesn’t mean a type of bread. It is a word that means “no leaven.” In other words, the literal statement is that it was the “Feast of No Leaven.” The implication, of course, is no leavened bread, since it is bread which is created with leavening. But the word bread isn’t actually present in the Greek.

Sop

Some Bible students have tried to “read into” the account of the Last Supper a description of leavened bread because of the use of the English term “sop” in the King James Version translation of the following verse:

John 13:26

Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

The verb “to sop” in English means to soak or saturate something in a liquid. The noun “a sop” means a piece of food soaked in a liquid. Some time back a participant on a COG-related Internet forum was attempting to establish that the Last Supper couldn’t have been a Passover meal, and that the bread used could not have been unleavened, but not because of any Old Testament usage of term like ereb and beyn ha’arbayim. Instead, he was focused on the term “sop.” He wrote:

"… the meal appears to be some kind of large bowl of "dip," rather than a lamb dinner, for Jesus was using soft bread to dip and scoop the bowl with and then He handed the disciples this bread soaked dip."

I offered the following comments about his assertions:

There is nothing in the text that indicates that the bread was "soft," nor that the bread became "soaked." The Greek word psomion, translated "sop" in the KJV, does not represent any particular quality of hardness or softness, nor something that "soaks" up liquid. And thus most other translations including the NKJV use the term "morsel" or "piece" of bread instead of sop, for the English term sop is misleading in this instance.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia notes regarding psomion:

A thin, wafer-like piece of bread dipped in the common dish as a sort of improvised spoon.

Thus the implication that our English word sop has taken on ... of "soaking up" a liquid ... is evidently inaccurate in referring to psomion. Rather than being related to dunking a donut in coffee or soaking a biscuit in gravy, it was more like what we do when dipping/scooping tortilla chips in salsa.

Also, according to some sources, all meals (including Passover) would have been served via a central bowl or platter, with guests dipping their psomion into it to get food. They did not use utensils such as we do. Thus the implication of the writer above that a "lamb dinner" would be more like one of our formal meals—with various dishes passed around with serving utensils, unlike this particular meal of the Last Supper—does not seem to be supported by historical evidence.

 

Leavened or Unleavened?

So then, just what sort of bread did Jesus offer the disciples at His Last Supper? If that meal was, indeed, a bonafide Passover meal, it would undoubtedly have been unleavened. But even if it was not the historical Passover meal, the chances are very high that it would still have been unleavened … for at least two reasons.

Historical records seem to indicate that the Jews of the time of Christ, just as they do today, had a home ritual the night beginning the 14th of Nisan. In this custom, they removed all of the leaven from the home, searching in nooks and crannies with a candle to make sure none was missed. The following day everyone would be busy with the preparations for the Passover meal and for the upcoming first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and thus it would be too late to worry about house cleaning. So even if the disciples would have been merely preparing the eating room for an anticipated Passover meal the next night (that never came because Jesus was crucified and they went into hiding), chances are good that they would not have wanted to have leavened bread with the meal and risk leaving crumbs.

And in addition to this practical reality, there is a symbolic reason that Jesus would likely have chosen to offer His disciples unleavened bread.

He said that the bread was a symbol of His "body," that was going to be sacrificed. And we understand that ultimately that sacrifice was the fulfillment of all sacrifices for sin prescribed in the Old Testament. The Law stipulated that all of those sacrifices were to be offered with unleavened bread, not just at Passover time, but daily, the year around.

If we believe that the memorial we are doing is to "show forth the Lord's death (as the One sacrifice for sin that eliminated the need for all others) until He come," it would seem that unleavened bread would be the most appropriate symbol.

There are a few instances when people in the Old Testament offered bread as food to a divine representative. This would include the meal Abraham offered to the three "men" near Sodom; the food Lot offered to those same beings; and the food Gideon offered to the angel in Judges 6. In each case, it is clearly stated that the bread offered was unleavened bread, just as only unleavened bread was to be offered to God in most Temple ceremonies. The symbolic significance of this is quite evident, with nothing allowed that was “corrupt” (leaven is related to the process of decay.)

There seem to be a number of reasons why unleavened bread would be an appropriate symbol for the annual memorial of the bread and wine, and no persuasive reason to use leavened bread. In fact, even quite a few Protestant denominations which have historically used little cubes of leavened bread for their communion services have, in recent years, actually begun buying Matzo for the purpose! The symbolism is obvious, even to those who do not directly observe the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread.

 

Would It Be Wrong to Call Eating the Bread and Drinking the Wine either Communion or The Lords' Supper?

Communion

Many COG people seem unaware that the term communion was not invented by the Roman Catholics or some Protestant theologian.

I Corinthians 10:16

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of [NIV: "a participation in"] the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of [NIV: "a participation in"] the body of Christ?

This is the origin of the custom of calling this symbolic act communion. In COG circles it is understandable that many would prefer not to use the term because of its connections to flawed theological and doctrinal understandings. However, even for those who consider the bread and wine to be "The New Testament Passover," it would not be incorrect or unbiblical to say that they "take communion once a year."

The Lord's Supper

Likewise The Lord's Supper is not a term invented by Catholics or Protestants.

I Corinthians 11:20-

When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!

... So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. If anyone is hungry [Greek peniao: Literally, "famished"], he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment.

I have always found it odd that Herbert Armstrong interpreted this passage to be saying that the Corinthians were holding a meal that they called The Lord's Supper, connected with the bread and wine--and that Paul is telling them that they shouldn't have a meal, should only have bread and wine, and shouldn't consider it The Lord's Supper,

That isn't what this is saying at all! Paul is saying, in essence, that what they were doing was not "imitating the Lord's last supper" ... FOR they were greedy and drunken and selfish. And the solution for this problem would not be to quit having a meal together, nor to find a new label for what they were doing. The answer would be to quit being greedy and selfish and drunken!

If that means that someone needs to "fill up" ahead of time at home if he is unusually hungry--famished--and might be tempted to continue this bad behavior, then that is what he should do. It certainly seems that if the Corinthians had not been behaving so badly during the meal, Paul would have seen nothing wrong with their custom of combining the bread and wine memorial with an actual meal. And, in fact, there is no reason just from this passage to assume he was ordering them to abandon the meal. He was ordering them to quit being greedy, selfish, and drunken. Nor does this passage command modern Christians not to have a meal with their "communion." It commands them also to avoid being greedy, selfish, and drunken! Of course, it is amazing that this even needs to be an issue. Christians should never be greedy, selfish, or drunken no matter what the circumstances!

Was the phrase "The Lord's Supper" actually a technical term at the time for the bread and wine (with or without combining that with a fellowship meal), or merely an informal label Paul is using to make his point in this letter? We have no way to determine that conclusively. But it would seem that the term caught on very early. Various versions (e.g., Lord's Evening Meal, Yashua's Supper and more) are still used by many groups to  designate their bread and wine ceremony. And some do, indeed, hold a "fellowship meal/potluck" that leads up to the taking of "communion," whether it is done at the time of the Passover or at other times of the year.

The Church of God, Seventh Day with headquarters in Denver has always used the term The Lord's Supper for their annual memorial. The COG7 with headquarters in Meridian, Idaho, which has many members who observe the annual Holy Days, also uses the term Lord's Supper.

In the earliest period of the Church of God, International, Garner Ted Armstrong and other church leaders began calling the Nisan 14 ceremony with the bread, wine, and foot-washing The Lord's Supper for a short time. Armstrong had concluded that the actual historical Passover meal had always been on the night beginning Nisan 15, so it seemed awkward to call the early Nisan 14 activity The Passover. However, there was a backlash from people leaving the WCG and affiliating with the CGI. They were uncomfortable with a term that seemed so "Protestant." So the decision was made to refer to it from then on as "The New Testament Passover."

It should be clear from this information that the term The Lord's Supper is neither incorrect or unbiblical. It is unfortunate that so many in COG circles will even look down on one another because of the choice of label they put on the memorial--even when they observe it at the exact same time with virtually the same customs!

---

What are Christians Commanded to Do Regarding the Passover?

All of the Old Testament commands regarding the Passover have to do with details of how and when to kill the lambs, and how and when to eat them in a meal. The New Testament does not give any instructions at all for how these commands and customs should or even can be applied to the life of Christians.

Most Church of God people are very uncomfortable with facing the fact that most of what they think they are doing to “obey the commandments about the Passover and Holy Days” has very little to do with the actual commandments of the scriptures. They are very free adaptations, with almost no “Thus Sayeth The Lord” behind them. This does not mean that these adaptations are wrong to practice. But it is being intellectually dishonest to claim divine mandate for them when no such mandate appears in the scriptures.

What are Christians commanded to do regarding the Passover? Nothing specific. What can they do regarding the Passover? They can study the scriptures with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and attempt to understand the spiritual significance of the Passover and the other annual observances commanded in Leviticus 23. They can seek guidance from the Lord on how He would have them commemorate the observances, including Passover, that point to salvation through Jesus Christ. They can seek people of like mind and heart who agree with them on their chosen methods of observance, and fellowship with them at these special times.

And they can cut each other a whole lot more slack--on just how these details should be worked out--than many have been willing to do for decades.

---

Personal from the Webauthor:

What I Do and Why I Do It

For the past 38 years I have gathered with others on the night beginning the 14th of Nisan to remember the last night our Savior spent with His disciples before His crucifixion. I examine my heart, and then I eat some unleavened bread, drink a bit of wine, wash someone’s feet, and let someone wash my feet. I read or listen to someone else read some of the final exhortations that Jesus shared with His disciples, and which still apply to me today. I thank the Father for giving His only begotten Son that I might have life. And I thank my Elder Brother for His incredible sacrifice, for the blood on the doorposts of my heart that cleanses me from all my sins and covers me with the righteousness of my Savior so that the wrath of God will never fall on me.

I have found no persuasive reasons to change this custom.

For the past 38 years, I have gathered with others on the night beginning the 15th of Nisan to remember the mighty acts of God when He brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and the mighty acts of God in which He rescues us from our bondage to sin. I eat good food and enjoy good fellowship and rejoice before the Lord.

I have found no persuasive reasons to change this custom, either.

 

Clear back in 1998, a “Passover timing” thread was raging on an Internet forum of exWCG people. At the end of a particularly long and dry post, the author of the post ended with a question to other forum participants …

“What think ye?”

Here was my answer. Some of it reiterates material mentioned above. Some of it expands on those things. It still rings true to me today.

 

What do I think? I think I just read eight computer screens of material about "the Passover"—and the name of Jesus wasn't mentioned once. :-)

Which is what I find most di