What Happened that Week?
What Happened that Week?
Six days before the Passover (the seder meal of 14 Aviv/Nisan), using inclusive counting (Acts 10), on Friday 9 Aviv, Yeshua came to Bethany (John 12:1). That evening, the eve of the Shabbat (Sabbath), Yeshua (Jesus) was anointed as the Lamb of God (John 12:2–8, Exodus 12:3–5). This was 10 Aviv by Shabbat sunset reckoning, the day the sacrificial lamb was selected in Egypt.
The next day (Matthew 21:1–11; Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:29–44; John 12:2–36), Shabbat 10 Aviv, was the triumphal entry into Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). At the end of the Shabbat, he went back to Bethany with the twelve (Mark 11:11).
The following day was Sunday, on which he cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:12–14). Arriving at the Temple, Yeshua cast out the money changers (Matthew 21:1–17; Mark 11:15–18; Luke 19:45–46). At the end of the day, Yeshua and the twelve passed by the fig tree in the dark, so it was not noticed.
Monday morning, they passed the fig tree again, and Peter noticed it and remarked on it (Mark 11:21). Yeshua then taught in the Temple and answered questions put to him. After this, he went to the Mount of Olives and prophesied the future of Yerushalayim and the Temple.
On Monday afternoon, 12 Aviv, Yeshua says, “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” (Matthew 26:2; Mark 14:1) After one day is Tuesday and after two days is Wednesday, the evening of which is the (first) Passover seder (meal), and the afternoon of which the lambs were slaughtered.
Monday evening, Yeshua ate supper at Simon’s house, and was anointed the second time (Mark 14:3–11).
The next day, Tuesday 13 Aviv, just after sunset, Yeshua’s disciples asked him about Passover preparations. This was the, “head day of Unleavened Bread” (Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7; Exodus 12:15). The “headmost day” referred to in Exodus 12:15 is 14 Aviv. (Note that the phrase itself, taken out of context, is ambiguous and can also refer to 15 Aviv.) The Galileans reckoned the headmost day from sunset to sunset.
That evening (Tuesday evening), Yeshua ate the last supper with his disciples. This was not the Passover seder. Yeshua himself was the Passover lamb. “I will by no means eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God,” (Luke 22:16) refers to the Passover meal.
After midnight, Yeshua and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives. He was arrested that night and put on trial in the morning. He was flogged later in the morning and crucified in the middle of the day (third and ninth hours—which are not necessarily exactly six hours apart, because of the inexact nature of these terms).
Darkness covered the land from noon until about 3 P.M. (Matthew 26:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44) at which time Yeshua died and there was an earthquake. The lintel stone over the outer Temple porch cracked, and tore the outer veil covering the doors of the Temple.
Joseph acquired the body and quickly placed it in the tomb before sunset on Wednesday 14 Aviv.
Thursday 15 Aviv was the annual Passover Shabbat beginning the days of unleavened bread.
Friday morning, 16 Aviv, the wave offering was made, and the offering was burned from the morning to the following sunrise, on the weekly Shabbat, 17 Aviv.
Yeshua rose from the dead before dawn on the Shabbat, 17 Aviv, at the last ascending of the First Fruits (Wave) offering. This Shabbat was the first of the seven Shabbats counted to Shavuot.
- Information sourced from Daniel Gregg, The Scroll of Biblical Chronology, Sixth Edition, 2014.
- Note: This is my summary and paraphrase of Daniel Gregg’s information. Any errors are mine.
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