Later Christian tradition put Jesus' last meal with his disciples on Thursday evening and his crucifixion on what we call today "Skilful Friday." We now know that is ane 24-hour interval off. Jesus' last repast was Midweek dark, and he was crucified on Thursday, the 14th of the Hebrew month Nisan. The Passover repast itself was eaten Thursday dark, at sundown, every bit the 15th of Nisan began. Jesus never ate that Passover meal. He had died at iii p.thou. on Thursday afternoon.

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The reason it matters is that getting the chronology direct that weekend enables us to understand the early tradition that Jesus was in the tomb "iii days and three nights," as well equally the chronology of the "Concluding Supper" and the Passover and how the Sabbaths and festival days correlate together that year. This alternative chronology makes all our pieces fit from our diverse sources, including the Synoptic Gospels, John, and the Gospel of Peter.

The defoliation arose because all the gospels say that there was a rush to go his body off the cross and buried before sundown considering the "Sabbath" was near. Anybody assumed the reference to "the Sabbath" had to be Sat -- so the crucifixion must have been on a Fri. However, as Jews know, the day of Passover itself is besides a "Sabbath" or residue day -- no matter what weekday it falls on. In the year thirty AD Fri, the 15th of the Jewish month Nisan was likewise a Sabbath -- so two Sabbaths occurred dorsum to back -- Friday and Saturday. Matthew seems to know this as he says that the women who visited Jesus' tomb came early on Lord's day morning time "subsequently the Sabbaths" (Matthew 28:1).

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Every bit is often the case, the gospel of John preserves a more accurate chronology of what went on. John specifies that the Midweek dark "last supper" was "before the festival of Passover." He also notes that when Jesus' accusers delivered him to exist crucified on Th morning they would non enter Pilate's courtyard because they would be defiled and would not be able to eat the Passover that evening (John 18:28). John knows that the Jews would exist eating their traditional Seder repast Thursday evening.

Reading Mark, Matthew, and Luke i tin can get the impression that the "terminal supper" was the Passover meal. Some have even argued that Jesus might have eaten the Passover meal a solar day early -- knowing ahead of time that he would be dead. Merely the fact is, Jesus ate no Passover meal in 30 CE. When the Passover meal began at sundown on Thursday Jesus was dead. He had been hastily put in a tomb until later on the festival when proper and full Jewish burial rites could be carried out.

At that place are some hints outside of John's gospel that such was the case. In Luke for example, Jesus tells his followers at that last meal: "I earnestly wanted to eat this Passover with you earlier I suffer just I won't eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God" (Luke 22:14). A later on copyist of the manuscript inserted the give-and-take "again" to make it say "I won't eat it again," since the tradition had developed that Jesus did observe Passover that dark and inverse its observance to the Christian Eucharist or Mass. Some other indication that this is not a Passover meal is that all of our records report that Jesus shared "a loaf of bread" with his disciples, using the Greek word (artos) that refers to an ordinary loaf -- not to the unleavened apartment bread or matzos that Jews eat with their Passover meals. Also, when Paul refers to the "last supper" significantly he does not say "on the night of Passover," but rather "on the nighttime Jesus was betrayed," and he also mentions the "loaf of breadstuff" (1 Corinthians 11:23). If this meal had been the Passover Paul would have surely wanted to say that but he does non. For more background on this word see "The Concluding Supper and the Passover." We besides have a similar tradition in the Talmud which tells u.s., "They hung Yeshua the Nazarene on Erev Pesach"-which means on the "eve of Passover" (b. Sanhedrin 67a and 43a)