Part V: A Thursday Passover meal - Obvious indications of a sunrise reckoning of the day in the gospels and Acts
In my last post I showed that John’s passion narrative is unmistakably describing the events from the Normative Jewish perspective. In this post I want to look at passages in the gospels and Acts that clearly indicate a sunrise reckoning (1), then consider other passages that might likewise do so (2), draw a first conclusion from these findings (3), and finally examine other Jewish groups that probably reckoned the day from sunrise (4).
1. Obvious indications for a reckoning of the day in the gospels and the book of Acts different from Normative Judaism
The first unmistakable example is in the gospel of John.
As already pointed out in my last post, despite the unmistakably Normative Jewish perspective in his passion account - doubtlessly taken in order to highlight Yeshua being the True Lamb of God - John is explicit of Yeshua rejecting “the Jews’ ” understanding of the law, including, presumably, calendrical issues. Not only in the resurrection narrative (see my last post) the reckoning of the day plainly does not correspond to the Jewish reckoning of the day from sunset, but also in John 6:16f,22, when Yeshua is walking on water:
“When evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was already dark,…” ”…The next day,….”
It is not clear whether Yeshua joins the apostles walking on water before or after midnight, but in any case the new day is certainly not starting at sunset as in Normative Judaism. (In Mark’s parallel account however He comes at the fourth watch of the night, i.e. after midnight.)
Let us now go to the book of Acts, written by the same author as the gospel of Luke.
In Acts 4:3, the priests and Sadducees, greatly disturbed by the teachings of Peter and John, have the temple guards seizing “… Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in custody until the next day.” . No doubt, the evening and night in this example are part of the previous day.
In Acts 20, when one of the believers sank into a deep sleep and ends up falling out of the window because of Paul’s protracted speech, we learn in verses 7 and 11 that “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Since Paul was ready to leave the next day, he talked to them and kept on speaking until midnight…And after speaking until daybreak, he departed.” Again, the new day does not start at sunset for Luke.
Likewise in Acts 23:31f the night is reckoned with the previous day: “So the soldiers followed their orders and brought Paul by night to Antipatris. The next day they returned to the barracks and let the horsemen go on with him.”
In his gospel, as in the book of Acts, Luke reckons the day from sunrise. After the crucifixion we read about the burial of Yeshua in a seemingly innocuous phrase, Luke 23:54: “It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was beginning.” In the Greek, however, the word for “was beginning” is actually “ἐπέφωσκεν, epephōsken”, from “ἐπιφώσκω, epiphóskó”, which means “to dawn”; it is a compound of “epi”, on, upon, and “phos”, light or source of light. Another Greek word likewise containing “phos” is “phósphoros”, the word for morning star.
There is no doubt, for Luke the Sabbath does not start at sunset as it does for Normative Judaism, but at sunrise.
There are attempts to discuss the natural meaning of the phrase away by laboriously expanding on the idea that it actually is referring to the full moon shining.
P.J. Heawood (Note 1) deals with early attempts of that kind. When I first found the tortuous idea in a paper I was honestly stunned. Let me quote Heawood, “It has been the custom to pause over the meaning of the words σάββατον ἐπέφωσκεν the Sabbath was dawning (Luke 23.54) and even to explain away any reference to daylight…” It follows a longer argument, then he concludes, “…we may perhaps be allowed to take St. Luke's ἐπέφωσκεν in its natural sense and not to quarrel….”
Especially considering the other instances in the book of Acts, I think we can safely assume that, in his gospel as well, Luke is reckoning the day from sunrise.
Morgenstern in his paper (Note 2) finds even further, however less convincing evidence for a sunrise reckoning in the gospel of Luke and Acts.
The same verb, epiphóskó, to dawn, is used in Matthew, 28:1, but in this case there is no room for any “creative” form of explaining away its plain meaning. Literally, it actually reads: “After/late on the sabbath, it being dawn toward [the] first [day] of [the] weeks,…”
In my view, there is no room for the slightest doubt, Matthew reckons the day from sunrise.
According to Roger Beckwith (Note 3) however, “it is equally possible to translate [Matthew’s] words ‘after the sabbath day, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week’". With this translation, the method of reckoning becomes unclear. Therefore, let us look closer at the original Greek:
The Greek word Beckwith wants to translate as “on” is “εἰς”, eis, which according to the definition in Strong’s dictionary means:
”into (unto) – literally, "motion into which" implying penetration ("unto," "union") to a particular purpose or result.”
The alternative translation proposed by Beckwith seems, therefore, hardly sustainable.
The uneasiness of Beckwith is understandable:
Matthew is stating that Yeshua had already risen before the first day of the week: “After/late on the sabbath, it being dawn TOWARD [the] first [day] of [the] week…”
In other words: According to Matthew’s own words, Yeshua did not rise on the third, but on the second day.
In my last post I have shown that in my view John is giving the real events - Yeshua rising before sunrise - a specific interpretation, different from Matthew: John’s account only makes sense if the day in his narration starts at midnight. Therefore, for John, even though the resurrection took place before sunrise, it was nevertheless on the first day of the week. (For Luke’s and Mark’s account: see Note 4)
In view of John’s interpretation of the resurrection events pointing to a calendrical change to a starting of the day at midnight with the resurrection, I want to point out the parable of the ten virgins found only in Matthew: The bridegroom arrives at midnight. “But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.”, Mt 25:6.
In the book of Acts, Paul and Silas are liberated from prison around midnight. “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. At once all the doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose.”, Acts 16:25.
In another passage, Mt 27:19, one could argue that Matthew is reckoning the day differently, either from midnight or from sunset:
“While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: ‘Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered terribly in a dream today because of Him.’”
However, as Morgenstein points out correctly (Note 5), this scene has Pilate’s wife speaking. Whether the reckoning is from midnight according to the Julian calendar (cf. my last post) or according to Normative Judaism from sunset: in any case it is her perspective of reckoning the day, either according to the Roman or the Judean calendrical custom.
Rather, it demonstrates again a very important point: The writers of the gospels chose their words very carefully when it came to calendrical issues, as these issues constituted a hotly disputed topic at the time. To quote Stéphane Saulnier about calendrical Variations in Second Temple Judaism (Note 6) “…textual evidence from the last centuries of the second Temple period supports further the conclusion reached by others before: calendrical issues were at the epicenter of Judaism…”
2. Further passages in which a sunrise reckoning of the day can be argued
In Mark’s gospel, Mk 4:35 could indicate that the evening is part of the previous day: “On THAT day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” The same is true for Mark 15:42, describing the burial of Yeshua on crucifixion Friday: “When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath,…” as well as Mat 27:57, 62, describing the same scene: “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph,…The next day, the one after Preparation Day,..”
However, “evening” in Greek here is “ὀψίας”, “opsias”, which might mean the period from sunset, but could also mean, according to the Greek dictionary, the period from three to six o’clock p.m.
There is no doubt, opsios can designate two different periods of time, which becomes obvious in the gospel of Matthew 14:15 and 14:23. However, the word is not used as a substantive, by secular authors. Therefore, for the correct interpretation we have to rely on the usage in the New Testament, or more precisely in the gospels and in Acts (it is not used in the other NT books). This usage of the same word for two different points in time is obviously derived from the OT Hebrew expression הָעַרְבָּֽיִם׃, “between the two evenings”, for example in Ex 12:6.
I want to be honest: I do have my doubts if the gospel writers really used the word “opsios” to designate the afternoon from three o’clock to sunset, which was not the original interpretation for הָעַרְבָּֽיִם׃, “between the two evenings”, but rather an interpretation given later only for ritual considerations as Walter Maunders pointed out (Note 7). Originally, the first point in time was referring to sunset or the period right before sunset, the second to nightfall.
Furthermore, even if the gospel writers really did use it in this way: Especially Mat 27:57 is obviously not referring to the period from three o’clock to six o’clock, as can be seen when looking at the Greek wording and the context. Not being a Bible scholar, I am well aware that I am leaning very far out of the window here. Nevertheless, I do think my doubts are legitimate.
It seems obvious that the interpretation of “opsios” in the passages has been chosen to fit into the preconceived paradigm of a sunset reckoning. If, however, you look at the other passages which clearly indicate that the gospel writers didn’t reckon the day from sunset, you cannot help but wondering if this assumption based on the prefixed idea of a sunset reckoning is really how the writers used the word. As I want to make a more elaborate argument better explaining my doubts and the passages in question, I will do this in another post.
3. A first conclusion
There is clear evidence that Yeshua reckoned the day from sunrise. Passages that might show otherwise, i.e. a sunset reckoning, are probably those in which the word “opsios” has to be interpreted in a way to make it fit into the paradigm of sunset reckoning.
(Concerning Mark 1:32 see Note 8)
Reckoning the day from sunrise is the convincing explanation for the seemingly contradicting accounts between the synoptic gospels and John:
For Yeshua and His followers, the evening of the 14th of Nissan was on Thursday, as the 14th had started at sunrise according to their reckoning.
For Normative Judaism, the 14th of Nissan started only Thursday evening. Therefore the disciples were having a Passover meal as described in the Synoptic gospels, whereas for Normative Judaism the correct date for celebrating Passover was the next day, Friday, when at the temple the passover lambs were being slaughtered. John is adopting this Normative Jewish perspective to show that Yeshua is the true “Lamb of God”, being crucified at the same time the Passover lambs were slaughtered at the temple.
4. Other Jewish groups probably reckoning the day from sunrise
Reckoning the day from sunrise seems maybe surprising considering Jewish religious culture today, but certainly not considering the time of Yeshua’s ministry.
In Biblical times, before the Babylonian exile, the Jewish day was reckoned from sunrise (Note 9; more about it in another post).
The community at Qumran, as Stéphane Saulnier argues from their calendrical documents in the Dead Sea Scrolls, did likewise. (Note 10)
The Pharisees of the times of Yeshua’s ministry too might have done so. When I first saw this mentioned as an aside in papers I was surprised; observing the lunar calendar certainly is a strong indication for a sunset reckoning. I have not looked further into it, but there is one indication I stumbled over: Josephus, although of priestly descent on his father’s side, is believed by historians to have either had “an internal conversion to Pharisaism”, or rather “deferring to the philosophical school of the Pharisees” for political reasons. Either way, he most probably described the customs of early first century Judaism from their perspective. His description of Passover in “Antiquities of the Jews” 3.248ff clearly indicates a sunrise reckoning:
“…on the fourteenth day [of Nisan]…we do celebrate this passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days”
Furthermore, the Pharisees are conspicuously absent when Yeshua had been led before the high priest the night before His crucifixion, as well as later, in the morning, when “the chief priests, elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin” handed Yeshua over to Pilate (Mark 15:1). Only those Pharisees who were members of the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:6) seem to have been present. If they reckoned the day from sunrise and kept the feast as the passage from Josephus suggests, they kept the Passover like Yeshua on Thursday evening until morning (cf. also Ex 12:22, Deut 16:7). Friday was the high holiday for them, therefore probably they did not want to get entangled with these matters on this holy day (whereas for Yeshua and His disciples the Passover and the high holiday had been on Thursday in my view, cf. part III).
Quintessence: The gospels and the book of Acts show strong evidence that Yeshua did not reckon the day from sunset as Normative Judaism did; this is not surprising at all, as it corresponds to the the First Temple period, and because there are indications of other groups reckoning the day from sunrise.
Therefore, Yeshua indeed had a Passover meal on Thursday with His disciples as described by the synoptic gospels, whereas Normative Judaism celebrated Passover on Friday.
(1) Heawood: “The beginning of the Jewish day” in: The Jewish Quarterly Review 36 (1945-46), p. 400
(2) Julian Morgenstern, “The reckoning of the day in the gospels and acts”, in: CROZER QUARTERIY, Vol, XXVI, No, 3, July, 1949, p. 232 ff;
(3) Roger T. Beckwith, “THE DAY, ITS DIVISIONS AND ITS LIMITS, IN BIBLICAL THOUGHT”, in: The Evangelical Quarterly XLIII, 1971, p. 226
(4) The resurrection account according to Luke 24:1 is unspecific: “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning…” Given his reckoning the day from sunrise in other passages, however, his words “on the first day of the week” can only mean that the sun had already risen. Mark on the other hand explicitly states that the women find the empty tomb after sunrise:”Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise” 16:2 As already mentioned repeatedly, I personally follow John’s resurrection account because I have been told in a dream, even before being aware that the accounts cannot be reconciled with each other, that John’s is the one to rely on.
(5) Morgenstern, Op.cit., p. 235
(6) Stéphane Saulnier, Calendrical Variations in Second Temple Judaism, Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2012, p. 241
(7) E. W. Maunder, The Astronomy of the Bible, third edition, Hodder and Stoughton, London 1909, p. 279
(8) Mark 1:32 does not stand against Yeshua Himself reckoning the day from sunrise: “That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.” In this verse, talking about a Sabbath, Mark is rather indicating that, at the beginning of Yeshua’s ministry, the Sabbath had ended on sunset for the people in Galilee, more precisely Capernaum and surrounding areas.
(9) Arguing for a sunrise reckoning: Solomon Zeitlin, “The beginning of the Jewish day during the Second Commonwealth”, in: Jewish Quarterly Review 36 (1945-46), p. 410; Heawood, op.cit.; Julian Morgenstein,”SUPPLEMENTARY STUDIES IN THE CALENDARS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL”, in: Hebrew Union College Annual, 1935, Vol. 10 (1935), pp. 1-148; Roland de Vaux: ancient Israel McGraw-Hill paperback edition 1965; p. 180 ff; Saulnier, op.cit., p. 175 simply states the sunrise reckoning in Biblical times as a fact; arguing against a sunrise reckoning: Harold W. Hoehner in “Chronological aspects of the Life of Christ”, Zondervan cooperation, 1977, p.85f
(10) Saulnier, op.cit. p. 205 ff