Noon to Noon Madness, Part 2

In part one of this series on what I call “Noon To Noon Madness”, I got sidetracked onto the subject of the Passover. I say “sidetracked” because, when I started this composition, I only intended to address the falsity of the conjecture that the Biblical day starts at high noon. I was actually researching the topic of the “two evenings” of which Gene Heck knows little to nothing, and I found the best article I ever came across explaining the sequence of events leading up to the Crucifixion and through the Resurrection. I found this information in my Libronix Digital Library under Difficulties In The Bible by R. Torrey, 1998, c1996, Alleged errors and contradictions. Woodlawn Electronic Publishing: Willow Grove. Chapter 21: “Was Jesus Really Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth?” This passage from his book proves beyond all doubt (and you will notice I do not say “gives evidence”, but rather “proves beyond all doubt”) that the Passover meal was eaten by Christ and His disciples on the evening of the day of Preparation, the evening before Christ’s death. Anyone with some Holy Spirit given discernment should comprehend that Christ couldn’t have eaten the Passover meal and still be the Passover Lamb. It is simply impossible, even for Yahweh! I strongly advise the truth-seeker to read very carefully, though the author misuses words like “Jew/Jewish” and “Jesus” which I will not emend for the next 9 paragraphs:

“The first fact to be noticed in the proper solution is that the Bible nowhere says or implies that Jesus was crucified and died on Friday. It is said that Jesus was crucified on “the day before the sabbath” (Mark 15:42). As the Jewish weekly Sabbath came on Saturday, beginning at Sunset the evening before, the conclusion is naturally drawn that as Jesus was crucified the day before the Sabbath He must have been crucified on Friday. But it is a well-known fact, to which the Bible bears abundant testimony, that the Jews had other Sabbaths beside the weekly Sabbath which fell on Saturday. The first day of Passover week, no matter upon what day of the week it came, was always a Sabbath (Exodus 12:16; Leviticus 23:7; Numbers 28:16–18). The question therefore arises whether the Sabbath that followed Christ’s crucifixion was the weekly Sabbath (Saturday) or the Passover Sabbath, falling on the 15th of Nisan, which came that year on Thursday. Now the Bible does not leave us to speculate in regard to which Sabbath is meant in this instance, for John tells us in so many words, in John 19:14, that the day on which Jesus was tried and crucified was “the preparation of the Passover” (RV), that is, it was not the day before the weekly Sabbath (Friday) but it was the day before the Passover Sabbath, which came that year on Thursday. That is to say, the day on which Jesus Christ was crucified was Wednesday. John makes this as clear as day.

“The gospel of John was written later than the other gospels, and scholars have for a long time noticed that in various places there was an evident intention to correct false impressions that one might get from reading the other gospels. One of these false impressions was that Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples at the regular time of the Passover. To correct this false impression John clearly states that He ate it the evening before, and that He himself died on the cross at the very moment the Passover lambs were being slain “between the two evenings” on the 14th of Nisan (Exodus 12:6, Hebrew; cf. RV marg.). God’s real Paschal Lamb, Jesus, of whom all other Paschal lambs offered through the centuries were only types, was therefore slain at the very time appointed of God. [more on “two evenings” in future brochure, part 3]

“Everything about the Passover lamb was fulfilled in Jesus. (1) He was the Lamb without blemish and without spot (Exodus 12:5). (2) He was chosen on the 10th of Nisan (Exodus 12:3), for it was on the tenth day of the month, the preceding Saturday, that the triumphal entry into Jerusalem was made, since they came from Jericho to Bethany six days before the Passover (John 12:1—that would be six days before Thursday, which would be Friday); and it was on the next day that entry into Jerusalem was made (John 12:12 ff.), that is, on Saturday, the 10th of Nisan. It was also on this same day that Judas went to the chief priests and offered to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:6–16; Mark 14:3–11). As it was after the supper in the house of Simon the leper, and as the supper occurred late on Friday, that is, after sunset, or early on Saturday, “after” the supper would necessarily be on the 10th of Nisan. This being the price set on Him by the chief priests, it was the buying or taking to them of a lamb which according to law must occur on the 10th of Nisan. Furthermore, they put the exact value on the lamb that Old Testament prophecy predicted (Matthew 26:15; cf. Zechariah 11:12). (3) Not a bone of Him was broken when He was killed (John 19:36; cf. Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20). (4) And He was killed on the 14th of Nisan between the evenings, just before the beginning of the 15th of Nisan at sundown (Exodus 12:6, RV marg.).

“If we take just exactly what the Bible says, that Jesus was slain before the Passover Sabbath, the type is marvelously fulfilled in every detail; but if we accept the traditional theory that Jesus was crucified on Friday, the type fails at many points.

“Furthermore, if we accept the traditional view that Jesus was crucified on Friday and ate the Passover on the regular day of the Passover, then the journey from Jericho to Bethany, which occurred six days before the Passover (John 12:1), would fall on a Saturday, that is, the Jewish Sabbath. Such a journey on the Jewish Sabbath would be contrary to the Jewish law. Of course it was impossible for Jesus to take such a journey on the Jewish Sabbath. In reality His triumphal entry into Jerusalem was on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday. This was altogether possible, for the Bible elsewhere tells us that Bethany was a Sabbath day’s journey from Jerusalem (Acts 1:12; cf. Luke 24:50).

“It has been figured out by the astronomers that in the year 30 A.D[?]., which is the commonly accepted year of the crucifixion of our Lord, the Passover was kept on Thursday, April 6, the moon being full that day. The chronologists who have supposed that the crucifixion took place on Friday have been greatly perplexed by this fact that in the year 30 A.D., the Passover occurred on Thursday. One writer in seeking a solution of the difficulty suggests that the crucifixion may have been in the year 33 A.D [?]., for although the full moon was on a Thursday that year also, yet as it was within two and half hours of Friday, he thinks that perhaps the Jews may have kept it that day. But when we accept exactly what the Bible says, namely, that Jesus was not crucified on the Passover day but on “the preparation of the Passover,” and that He was to be three days and three nights in the grave, and as “the preparation of the Passover” that year would be Wednesday and His resurrection early on the first day of the week, this allows exactly three days and three nights in the grave. [?’s mine]

“To sum it all up, Jesus died about sunset on Wednesday. Seventy-two hours later, exactly three days and three nights, at the beginning of the first day of the week (Saturday at sunset), He arose again from the grave. When the women visited the tomb just before dawn the next morning, they found the grave already empty. So we are not driven to any such makeshift solution as that any small portion of a day is reckoned as a whole day and night, but we find that the statement of Jesus was literally true. Three days and three nights His body was dead and lay in the sepulcher. While His body lay dead, He Himself, being quickened in the spirit (1 Peter 3:18), went into the heart of the earth and preached to the spirits which were in prison (1 Peter 3:19).

“This supposed difficulty solves itself, as do so many other difficulties in the Bible, when we take the Bible as meaning exactly what it says.

“It is sometimes objected against the view here advanced that the two on the way to Emmaus early on the first day of the week (that is, Sunday) said to Jesus in speaking of the crucifixion and events accompanying it, ‘Besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done’ (Luke 24:21); and it is said that if the crucifixion took place on Wednesday, Sunday would be the fourth day since these things were done. But the answer is very simple. These things were done just as Thursday was beginning at sunset on Wednesday. They were therefore completed on Thursday, and the first day since Thursday would be Friday, the second day since Thursday would be Saturday, and ‘the third day since’ Thursday would be Sunday, the first day of the week. So the supposed objection in reality supports the theory. On the other hand, if the crucifixion took place on Friday, by no manner of reckoning could Sunday be made ‘the third day since’ these things were done.” [end of 9 paragraph quotation]

I would add to the author’s statement here that some people start counting at the beginning of the day while others begin counting after the completion of a day. When we were born, were we one year old? No. We were first one day old. After 7 days we were one week old. After 30 days we were one month (give or take a day) old. Then our parents counted by the month until 12 months passed at which time we became one year old. People are always looking for a lame excuse to discredit Scripture, Gene Heck included. I would strongly suggest that all those who can’t properly count to three, not open their mouth and expose their ignorance!

Luke 24:21 is absolute proof that a new day started at sundown. Had it been midmorning instead of early morning the men would still have said: “... besides all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.” Had it been high noon the men would still have said “Besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.” Had it been early afternoon the men would still have said, “Besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.” Had it been mid-afternoon, the men would still have said, “Besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.” Had it been late afternoon the men would still have said, “Besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done” Not until sundown would the men have said, “Besides all this, today is the fourth day since these things were done.” In their statement the men were not wrong and neither was Luke in recording it! Therefore, both the men and Luke understood thoroughly that a new day started at sundown in spite of all of today’s self-aggrandized wannabes. [precise Greek: “This is the third day which passes from when these things happened.” W.R.F ]

THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS

Of Pharisees and Sadducees seeking a sign from Christ, at Matthew 16:4 we read: “A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.” The Pharisees and Sadducees, being an adulterous generation meant that they were of mixed race, and therefore were only to receive one sign that Christ was who He said He was, and that sign was the sign of Jonah. The true dispersed Israelites of the twelve tribes received many signs through parables hidden from the “Jews”.

Christ said at Matt. 12:40: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” This was the only sign given to the bad-fig “Jews”. Thus, today, those who do not believe this sign are greater infidels than the “Jews” themselves (Gene Heck without exception).

WAS CHRIST’S LAST PASSOVER MEAL ANTICIPATORY

The following evidence is from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary by C. F. Pfeiffer, 1962. “Probably no harmonistic problem in the Gospels has been as perplexing as the one presented here. Was this final meal the Jewish Passover? The Synoptics imply that it was. Yet John seems equally clear that the Passover was yet future at the time of the feet-washing (Jn 13:1), meal (13:29), trials (18:28), and crucifixion (19:14, 31). Some scholars are content to admit an irreconcilable conflict. Others insist that one account must be wrong. It has also been argued that Jesus ate an anticipatory Passover one day in advance of the legal observance. Reinforcement of this view has recently come to light at Qumran, where discoveries have shown that the Qumran sect always observed Passover on Tuesday night. Thus it is suggested that Jesus ate a Passover on Tuesday (as the Synoptics imply), while orthodox Judaism observed Passover on Friday ...” This evidence, though imperfect, adds extra support for the Last Supper with His disciples to have happened prior to the actual Passover celebration.

Adam Clarke’s Commentary, vol. 1, page 350 observes of Exodus 12:6: “Verse 6. Ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day. The lamb or kid was to be taken from the flock on the tenth day, and kept up and fed by itself till the fourteenth day, when it was to be sacrificed. This was never commanded nor practised afterwards. The rabbins mark four things that were required in the first passover that were never required afterwards: 1. The eating of the lamb in their houses dispersed through Goshen. 2. The taking the lamb on the tenth day. 3. The striking of its blood on the door posts and lintels of their houses. And, 4. Their eating it in haste. These things were not required of the succeeding generations.”

I believe the exception was the timing of the slaughtering of the lamb, as that would be as critical as breaking a bone. If the above is true, the Last Supper was in no sense the Passover meal; rather, Yahshua died at the very hour the Passover lambs were being slain at the Temple (cf. I Cor 5:7). Nevertheless, Yahshua gave directions to his disciples to make the usual arrangements for the feast, for two reasons: (1) the disciples would eat it; (2) Yahshua did not wish to foretell at that time the exact moment of his death. Had Yahshua and His disciples eaten the animal sacrificial lamb, it would have nullified the true sacrifice of Himself, for all along, the animal sacrifice was only a shadow. With Yahshua-Christ as the sacrificial Lamb, the shadow sacrificial lamb ceased forever.

On the other hand, however, the bad fig “Jews” ate of the shadow sacrificial lamb, and their sins were never atoned, nor will they ever be. For the “Jew” it is tantamount to a prisoner receiving his last meal just before his execution. They’ve already received it, and the meal is all they’ll ever get!

Was it more important for Christ to die when the paschal lambs were slaughtered than to eat a meal that would no longer have any significance since the True Paschal Lamb was sacrificed? There is no way we can get a handle on this unless we go back to the beginning. A lamb first came into the picture when Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac on the altar. Just as Abraham was ready to plunge in the knife, an angel stayed Abraham’s hand. Then a ram was found in some nearby bushes to serve as a lamb for sacrifice, which represented Yahshua-Christ. Then, again, in Egypt the blood of a lamb was used as protection for the first born of Israel from being killed, just as Isaac (the first born) was spared. And again at the Passion of Christ, Yahweh in the flesh became the True Paschal Lamb to be sacrificed in Israel’s stead.

1 Cor. 5:7 reads: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us ...” (not for the Jew).

“Old leaven” equals false teachings, and we are seeing more of it each day. All the various subsidiaries of the media are delivering more and more of it continually. It comes in all colors, shapes, sizes and flavors. Gene Heck has a brand of “old leaven” peculiar to himself!

Clifton A. Emahiser’s Teaching Ministries