A Day by Day Account of the Passion Week
Some of the most cherished institutions of Christendom are based upon a commonly assumed chronology which is in great need of revision. I remember the cheery bright crisp spring mornings when, as a child, I accompanied my parents on their annual visit to the local Easter service. More liturgy and psalm has been created for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday than for Christmas. For most of Church history, Easter has been far more important to the Church in every respect than the celebration of the birth of Christ. There were disputes over when to remember Christ’s death and celebrate His resurrection, not over when He was born. I argue elsewhere in this book that Church authorities squelched any texts or interpretations that might throw into doubt a Sunday resurrection. Many devotees, even into the 4th Century, felt that Passover and the remembrance of the day of Christ’s death was far more important than the day of the resurrection, which came to be known as Easter. Jerome records a custom of the early apostolic Church whereby the Paschal meal was not eaten until early dawn, so that the full impact of Christ’s suffering might be driven home.[1] After all, the wisest man who ever lived (Solomon) said (Ecclesiastes. 7:2-4):
“It is better to go into the house of mourning, than to go to a house of feasting. Because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning.
I would further argue that the Church’s unwillingness to be buried in the likeness of His death ensures she will not be raised in the likeness of His resurrection (Ro. 6:5). Instead, the Church kills socially or literally those who would keep an appropriate Passover and choose to go into the house of mourning to proclaim the Lord’s death til He comes (I Cor. 11:26). Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy Ps. 126:5). The suppression of Passover together with the exclusive exaltation of the resurrection is the Church’s attempt at circumventing the Biblical emphasis on self-mortification and dying to self as commemorated in the Passover without which there will be no personal celebration of the resurrection in the end. Giving the glory of the resurrection to the name Easter–the Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar—at the expense of Passover is a crime against apostolic tradition whose perpetrators will be judged.
But in the end, who cares what happened on which day? Does it really matter? As long as we all believe in the atoning death and factual resurrection of Christ, why sweat the details?
Not so fast, folks. Every fact presented in this book indirectly or directly goes to the core of how Christianity got off track in the Second through the Fourth Centuries. Most people still are clueless as to what is fundamentally wrong with mainstream Christianity. But it is a fact that the non-Jewish elements in the early Gentile churches pushed through an ‘orthodox’ agenda to have the Sabbath, the holy days, Passover, and the rest of the excellent precepts in the Old Testament relegated to heretical status. The chief cornerstone in justifying this antinomian, anti-Moses, anti-Jew, Neo-Platonist theology was the misguided notion that Yeshua arose on a Sunday morning, thus giving excuse for the celebration of the so-called ‘Easter[2] event’ every Sunday.
Inattention to detail in the Gospel accounts, not to mention misrepresentation of the actual Greek words mia twn sabbatwn (mia ton sabbatown)—translated in the King James as “first day of the week”–has allowed this grand deception to masquerade as Christianity since the time of Constantine. Mia twn sabbatwn literally means “one of the Sabbaths.”[3] This chapter, and this book, prove that it is Saturday that commemorates the resurrection, not Sunday. The subject matter in this book cannot be presented without painstaking attention to detail. What are the odds that a modern audience, with today’s “give it to me in a nutshell” mindset, will have the patience to study and comprehend this material? Frankly, not many will have either the time or the inclination. But as our increasingly lawless Church world gets hammered with joblessness from the New World Order, or once the Day of Yahweh finally arrives, there is going to be more time for sober reflection on the nature of the Christianity we practice. Yahweh willing, the truth and the facts will emerge triumphant as this material finally finds its way into the hands of pastors who will actually feed their flocks with knowledge. Remember, the western world lived for almost fourteen centuries under the hegemony of a very powerful Catholic Church, and later the Church of England, which did not even permit their members to read the Bible! But the idea, carried over into many churches, was to let the Church spoon feed whatever knowledge and doctrine they wanted the people to have. To this day, even in the most independent of churches, it is the individual who has been the most diligent in acquiring knowledge and understanding that church leadership feels the most threatened by! This sad spiritual state of affairs does not bode well for the Church.
Revelation 22:15 says that Yahweh will refuse entry into the holy city to all those who love and make a lie, along with whoremongers, sorcerers, murderers, and idolaters. This book exposes the plethora of lies associated with the Friday-Sunday scenario that make the Gospel accounts unnecessarily contradictory, thus casting doubt upon the veracity of these scriptures. This chapter validates every verse having to do with the where, when, and why of what happened during the days leading up to the crucifixion. This revised narrative will prove that Christ came out of the tomb on a late Friday afternoon, three days after His death on the cross on Tuesday March 27th 31 A.D., and was encountered by Mary Magdalene the following Sabbath morn.[4] It is necessary that the Savior arose at the start of the Sabbath to symbolize the fact that He will return from heaven at the end of the 6000 year period we are now living in, and will be alive and endowed with power to commence His reign over the earth during the seventh millennium. This metaphor is lost even with the Wednesday-Saturday scenario of Wm. Graham Scroggie, E.W. Bullinger, the Church of God Seventh Day, and the H. W. Armstrong movement, since this version of events has Yeshua sleeping in the grave all the way through the Sabbath. Prepare your heart to receive a presentation of the events of Passion Week as you’ve never understood them before.
Passion Week Narrative: Background and Explanations
Scholars old and new are fond of stating that the Gospel writers weren’t much interested in providing chronological information. And while it is agreed that this is not their primary focus, it is wrong to assume that the Holy Spirit has not provided us enough data in the Gospel accounts to know when everything happened during the Passion Week. This book dispels the notion held by some scholars that the Gospel accounts are hopelessly confused. Hence, I would like to provide a day by day account that demonstrates the complementary nature of the four Gospels. This effort is aided greatly by the fact that the four Evangelists go into far more detail about the final week than any other time of Christ’s ministry. In fact, because the Gospel writers use a diary format during the final week, we should not expect any events to be out of sequence. In the topical format used by Luke prior to the Passion Week, it is not necessary events be in the same order as the other Gospels.
We begin with Yeshua entering the city of Jericho one full week prior to the Passover. It is only March 20th, three days before the end of winter,[5] but thankfully the Jericho valley sports a subtropical climate and is one of the warmest areas in Palestine. Herod the Great built one of his palaces and a hippodrome in Jericho for the purpose of passing his winters under more ideal conditions. Yeshua healed several blind men He passed by the wayside there, including Bartimaeus. Great crowds accompanied Him. While passing through the city, a Jewish man named Zacchaeus, who was the chief tax collector, climbed up into a sycamore tree to get a better view of the Master (Luke 19:1-4). Being a tax collector, especially a Jewish tax collector, was a rather dangerous occupation, given the attitude of the Zealots and some Pharisees; hence, it is very likely that Zaccheaus lived in the midst of the city of Jericho in order to avail himself of the protection of the Roman garrison stationed there. It is clear from Luke’s account that Yeshua encountered Zacchaeus near his house as He was passing through Jericho, and that Zacchaeus hurried down from the tree and welcomed Yeshua into his house. All who saw it began to grumble and said to the Lord, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” In any case, Yeshua no doubt spent Tuesday night March 20th at the house of a fellow Jew[6] who had grown very rich doing the bidding of the Roman government. It was also at this point that Yeshua told the parable of the pounds.
The following day was Wednesday, March 21, the sixth day before the Passover of March 27, 31 A.D.[7] Before this day was through, Yeshua arrived at Bethany (John 12:1) after a long, uphill, difficult thirteen mile hike from Jericho.[8] Take notice that if the crucifixion was on Friday, this trip would then have taken place on Saturday. The following misguided statement is typical of what is found in most Bible commentaries:
Since the Passover, according to [John’s] Gospel, took place on Friday [supposedly], Jesus apparently arrived on Saturday (the Sabbath)…[9]
Since the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem took place the very next day, it becomes apparent how people arrived at the popular notion of Palm Sunday. All scholars realize that the synoptic accounts of Yeshua’s activities at Jericho directly precede his arrival at Bethany (John 12:1), where He ate a meal at Lazarus’ house. But the trip from Jericho could not have been on a Sabbath, because Yeshua kept the law, observing the requirements of Sabbath rest (Exod. 20:8; Luke 4:16). The resultant Palm Sunday is thus a figment of men’s imaginations divorced from the Biblical account, as our first two chapters amply illustrate. It is a natural outgrowth of the Church’s anti-Torah theology that their Passion Week scenario should picture the Savior breaking the holy Sabbath.[10] We choose here, however, to rescue the true Messiah from such a dilemma. The Lord of the Sabbath has left us an example, that we should walk even as He walked (I Peter 2:21). The thirteen mile hike from Jericho never happened on Saturday, as we shall soon see.
The Progression of Days in the Passion Week
In establishing a chronology for the Passion Week, it is important to realize that 1) moneychangers did not do business at the temple on Saturday, and 2) there were two days in a row when Yeshua drove out commercial activity there, and 3) the day following these two cleansings was indeed a weekly Sabbath. When these truths are established, then it becomes easy to see when everything transpired.
Significance of the Meal at Lazarus’ House for the Passion Week Chronology
We know by a number of facts that Christ arrived at Lazarus’ house in Bethany near Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon and ate this meal on Wednesday night. The main one is that when we harmonize the parallel accounts in the synoptic gospels, we find that on BOTH of the next two days, Yeshua cleansed the Temple of its moneychangers.[11] Since these moneychangers would not be operational on the Sabbath, these successive days of cleansing must have been on Thursday and Friday. It is noteworthy that the third day after His arrival in Bethany there is no mention of cleansing the Temple, simply because there was no need to do so; it was the Sabbath and there would have been no business as usual in the Court of the Gentiles where the moneychangers operated (six days a week).
The well-known friendship and love between Yeshua and Lazarus (John 11:36) and his two sisters tells us that 1) they would have made Him their guest at their house Wednesday night, and 2) Martha’s diligence at serving (Luke 10:40), would not have allowed her very special guest to leave for Jerusalem the next morning hungry. This little detail (together with the fig tree incident) is what distinguishes the morning of the Triumphal Entry (no hunger, no fig tree) from the following one (fig tree reminds Him He is hungry[12]). The cursing of the fig tree takes place on the latter, but there is no fig tree on the former. This hunger on Friday morning suggests to astute observers like Alfred Plummer that Yeshua was “not under the roof of friends [at Bethany]; they would have provided Him with food in the morning.”[13] All of this suggests a logical story flow. He is not hungry Thursday morning because He just had a terrific meal the night before courtesy of Mary and Martha. He is hungry Friday morning because He has not had the benefit of local hospitality in Bethany. After all, it would have been an imposition to have returned to Lazarus’ house with the twelve, a disregard for the Biblical precept “Enter sparingly into thy friend’s house.”[14]
The Day of the Triumphal Entry
All four Gospels mention the Triumphal entry, which was on Thursday morning.[15] Yeshua left Lazarus’ house with the twelve, directing two of them to go into the village ahead to procure a donkey and her yearling.[16] John 12:12-13 is critical to the sequence here:
The next day [after the meal at Lazarus’ house] a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of YHWH, the king of Israel!’
When the crowd began throwing their garments and shouting the Messianic Psalm 118—“Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yahweh,”—this violation of rabbinic taboos against pronouncing the name must have rankled the Pharisees. Luke 19:40 says that some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” But Yeshua answered, ’I tell you that if these were to hold their peace, the stones would cry out.’” This all took place on the outskirts of the city.
When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. Many in the crowd who had seen Yeshua call Lazarus from the tomb kept testifying about him (John 12:17). On account of this the multitude went out to meet their Messiah, because they had heard that He had done this miracle (John 12:18). The huge crowds followed Him as He made a beeline for the Temple. The road in from the Mount of Olives provided a view into the outer court of the Temple itself. Christ knew what He was going to do before He got there. The Jewish authorities two years earlier had refused to hearken to his challenge “Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” This time Yeshua would again cleanse the Temple of all commercial activity in order to make it a house of prayer for the crowds intent on hearing Him. Yeshua walked stridently through the outer gate and into the Temple courtyard and drove out all who were buying and selling (Matt.21:12). Matthew, being one of the twelve, was there and saw and heard everything. He quotes Yeshua—“It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it (poieite = present active indi-dicative, 2nd person pl.) a den of thieves.” (NAS, CJB, NIV[17]) Yeshua at this point still holds out hope that they might accept His correction and leave things quiet enough for prayer and teaching. But the transformation of the Temple which Yeshua brought about was only temporary. By the following day, Friday, Yeshua will have taken a much stronger attitude, as is reflected in the difference in language between Mark’s account and Matthew’s.
Mark intersperses an evening not found in Matthew’s account to show that he is describing a cleansing of the Temple that is subsequent to the day of the Triumphal Entry. On this day, Friday, Mark uses the pluperfect tense to show that Yeshua now feels that the Jewish authorities at the Temple have irreversibly turned the place into a den of thieves, fait accomplit. Mark quotes the Savior: “You have made it (pepoihkate) a den of thieves.” (Mark 11:17) Let us imagine what Yeshua may have been thinking at this point:
Your refusal to hearken unto my words of correction, stubbornly insisting on undoing my work of cleansing this courtyard each and every time, has now turned this place (past perfect tense) completely into a den of robbers. I have now dug about this fig tree on three separate occasions over three years running (compare Luke 13:6-7), but you stubbornly refuse to repent and reserve the outer court for its intended glory and original purpose—as a house of prayer for all the nations (Mark 11:17). The judgment upon this house is now sealed, as it was in Jeremiah’s day (Jer. 7:11-15), for similar reasons. You commit iniquity and then come back in here and use Yahweh’s Temple as a ‘refuge for robbers’, saying to yourselves ‘we are delivered to commit all these abominations.’
It was on this Friday, as well as the next day (the Sabbath), that Yeshua was prepared, with deep pathos, to foretell the destruction of the Temple (Luke 19:41-45; Matt.23:38; 24:2; Mark 13:1-4). The desecration of the Temple in the First Century helps us understand why Yeshua was able to prophesy so succinctly “not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.” (Matt. 24:2) But to say this is to get ahead of our story.
Matthew understood that there was no intervening night between the entry into Jerusalem on a colt and the initial cleansing of the Temple on Thursday. Mark mentions an intervening nightfall and retreat to Bethany (Mark 11:11), because his cleansing of the Temple is on Friday. On Thursday afternoon, certain Hellenist Jews wanted to see Yeshua. He sent word back to them: “Anyone who loves his own life shall lose it; and anyone who hates his life in this world, shall keep it into eternal life.” Yeshua epitomized this attitude when taking total control of the situation in the outer court, knowing full well that His actions and words there would bring about the successful conspiracy against Himself.
It was Thursday afternoon when the people heard a thundering voice come from heaven which confirmed the Father’s was being glorified through Yeshua (John 12:28). He foretold the demise of the ruler of this world, Satan, and the manner of His own death (John 12:32). Having preached these things, He “departed and hid Himself from them” (John 12:36). Matthew says the same thing, “He left them, went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there (Matt. 21:17 NRSV).” Mark, after giving an account of the Triumphal entry, parallels Matt. 21:17 at Mark 11:11:
Then He entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple, and when He had looked around at everything (as it was now already evening), He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
When one sees the Holy Spirit as directing the narrative in each Gospel to make them complementary, one has no problem with Mark’s omission of the cleansing on Thursday. Mark, whom Church history tells us traveled with Peter and collected his teachings[18], is basically thought to have written the Gospel of Mark from Peter’s perspective. It is also very possible Mark may have been in Jerusalem witnessing these events.[19] Mark also mentions the Triumphal entry on Thursday, but simply says Yeshua late that afternoon looked around at all things at the Temple, and retired to Bethany for the night, not mentioning any cleansing of the Temple (until the next day). To argue that Yeshua could not have cleansed the Temple earlier that day is an argument from silence, as nothing in Mark’s accounts prevents that. Mark also fails to mention Yeshua teaching in the Temple that same day, yet we know from Luke 19:47 “every day He was teaching at the Temple.” When Yeshua looked around at everything in Temple at the end of that Thursday, He was seeing the Court of the Gentiles as it should be, totally rid of commercial tables, chairs, pens, manure and traffickers. And yet He knew the transgression would resume once again the very next day, a Friday. The love of money is a root of all evil (I Tim. 6:10). The chief priests, instead of accepting Yeshua’s righteous indignation and rooting covetousness out of their practices, chose instead to allow their sins to force Yahweh’s hand in uprooting them and their Temple.
If there is only one cleansing here, then it is impossible to reconcile these accounts without cutting and pasting verses to fit our pre-conceived notions of what actually happened.[20] Most people begin with the premise that there had to be only one cleansing, and that any suggestion of successive cleansings is ludicrous. However, Throckmorton’s Parallel Gospels[21] for these two days illustrates clearly the points we are trying to make. We wish at this point to establish the background for the necessity of consecutive cleansings of the Court of the Gentiles.
A Prophetic Perspective on Yeshua’s Cleansing of the Second Temple
Yeshua fulfilled a number of prophecies when He boldly and courageously cleansed the Temple in Jerusalem. Christ’s zeal for His Father’s house literally and figuratively ate Him up. Yeshua literally fulfilled Psalm 69:9.[22] These cleansings were pivotal events. His actions so threatened the authority and profits of the High Priests, that it is clear from Mark and Luke[23] that it was from that point on that they “kept looking for a way to kill Him, for they were afraid of Him.” (Mark 11:18)
Malachi 3:1 is another prophecy that directly refers to Yeshua’s entrance into Jerusalem and the Temple on Thursday, March 22, 31 A.D.
The Lord[24] you are seeking shall suddenly come to His Temple; the messenger of the Covenant,[25] whom you delight in, behold, He will come, says Yahweh of Hosts.
Finally, at this juncture it behooves us to bring to the fore the prophet Haggai, who prophesied in the 5th Century B.C., at the very time when the Second Temple was being constructed. He boldly asserted, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that:
The Desire of all Nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says Yahweh Sabaōth…the glory of this latter house will be greater than the glory of the former (Solomon’s Temple).” (Haggai 2:7, 9)
With this prophecy, Haggai provided great encouragement to the Jews of his day who had returned from Babylon, but who were dismayed at the dimensions and lack of gold, detail and splendor in this, the Second Temple. But the latter Prophets and the Writings leave us in suspense not telling us how Haggai’s bold assertion was to come to pass. The reader is left to wonder how such a physically diminutive Temple could possibly ever rival the glory of the Solomonic Temple. It is the resolution of this anomaly that links both Old and New Testament together into an indissoluble whole, and provides one of the great proofs that Yahweh is the author of such interlocking thematics.
The original order of the Old Testament ended at II Chronicles. This book has the concluding words of the Old Testament. Oddly enough, they are the words of a Gentile, Cyrus, King of Persia, who was appointed by Yahweh to decree the building of the Second Temple: “Any one of His people among you, may Yahweh his God be with him, and let him go up.” These are the same words used in the book of Joshua for those who went up to do battle against the peoples of Canaan. But the answer to “Who will go up to this Second Temple to do battle?” is found in the very next book of the Bible—Matthew! And why did the Temple need to be the scene of battle? Because Yahweh knew in advance the Jews would dishonor Him in the sight of the nations by turning it into a house of merchandise. The ties between the Old Testament/ II Chronicles and the book of Matthew have been the subject of cutting edge theological inquiry in recent years. Yeshua is the thread that links the two testaments. He alone is the fulfillment of these amazing prophecies concerning the Second Temple.
Why Was It So Necessary To Cleanse the Second Temple?
It was absolutely necessary for Yeshua to come and cleanse His Father’s house, not only to fulfill the prophecies, but in order to restore it to its original purpose. The Tosefta in the Talmud pronounces Woes on the High Priests of Herod the Great’s day down thru the fall of the Temple, chiefly for their greedy practices.[26] Josephus speaks of the brutality of the Sadducees (who were in control of the Temple) in collecting tithes[27]. Many went hungry due to this brutality, as well as their failure to distribute Temple moneys on behalf of the poor, even retired priests. According to a second century tract of the Mishna (Kritut 1:7), the high priests allowed their monopoly on sacrificial animals to drive even the cost of doves to five times the market value. Because of their greed, the market for birds rose so high that even the poorer women of the community could not afford them. As Lev. 12:6-8 and Luke 2:24 show, the law of Yahweh required, at the very least, a pair of doves or pigeons to be sacrificed on behalf of every male that opened the womb, because such were holy to the Lord. Yeshua’s repeated interdiction of these practices led the high priests to realize that Yeshua was a problem that needed to be “dealt with.” Saturday was the last day spent teaching the public in Jerusalem. By Sunday the Paschal meal was less than two days away. It only speaks of Him being in Bethany for a meal at Simon the leper’s house. There He was anointed ‘for His burial’ with very costly ointment; but we have no indication He went into the city that day. From that anointing forward all His focus was on preparing for the Passover with His disciples.
The Outer Court: A Place of Petition and Prayer for the Gentiles
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Isaiah 56 addresses lofty promises to the Gentiles who take hold of Yahweh’s Covenant by keeping the Sabbath, etc. It is this very prophecy that Yeshua quotes from to justify His bold actions at the Temple:
Even these strangers will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. (Isaiah 56:7)
Only on Mark’s day of cleansing does Yeshua quote Isaiah 56 in full: “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? (Mark 11:17) The word nations is ‘Gentiles.’ Where were the tables of the moneychangers set up? Where was the market place for animals destined for sacrifice? It was in the Court of the Gentiles.[28] This in spite of the fact that when Solomon dedicated the Temple, he did so with these words:
As for the foreigner who comes from a distant land to pray at this Temple, hear from heaven, and do whatever the foreigner asks of You, so that all the earth may know your Name [Yahweh]. (I Kg. 8:41)
Description of the Scene in the Court of the Gentiles
This Court of the Gentiles—which was called The Bazaar of [Joseph] Caiaphas[29] and later The marketplace of the family of Annas[30]–lay just inside the outer gates of the Temple. Instead of creating a quiet, contemplative atmosphere where people from all nations could come and make their petitions to Yahweh, the High Priests had turned the huge area into “a mart of petty bankers who were intent on money business and rates of exchange.”[31] The smell of dung from bullocks, lambs, goats, and doves, permeated the air, not to mention the cacophony of distraught livestock and Jews dickering over prices:
Cattle and doves were a necessity for the prescribed sacrifices but a poor excuse for making this great court of the Temple into a stockyard…the necessity [for a money exchange] again was no excuse for making the Temple itself a mart of petty bankers…this outrageous sight was always the first that greeted the visitor when he was passing thru the outer gates…The Temple authorities themselves controlled this volume of trade and in typical Jewish fashion operated what amounted to a grand, lucrative monopoly. If one bought his animals in the Temple, these animals would be accepted; otherwise he might have trouble on that score….[32]
…this great court of the Gentiles…was greater than all the other courts into which all Gentiles were freely admitted. In the very structure of the Temple the universality of the true religion was expressed. Yet right here in this important court what a sight met the eyes of any visiting Gentiles—and there were always many! What must they think of a Temple whose greatest court was thus desecrated and of the God to whom such a temple belonged?[33]
Perhaps the Sadducees, due to the love of money, thought they could get away with turning the Gentile court into a flea market. When one reads these accounts of temple cleansing and the leaders’ responses, one gets the impression that they knew it was wrong. They knew they were polluting Yahweh’s house. The fear Christ evoked in them stemmed from realization that they were being exposed before the people, being shown to be unholy hypocrites, peddlers of that which is sacred. Yahweh would graciously allow this license to go on another 39 years, giving ample signs over that span indicating that He was about to abandon His house. In 70 A.D. the Sadducees and the priesthood faded into historical oblivion. Yahweh’s judgments are sure. Yahweh now desires to live in temples made without hands—you and me. The lesson of this is that if Yahweh spared not the Jews and His own Temple, neither will He spare us if we disobey the strictures of the Gospel (Jude 5, I Cor. 10:6-9). Curiously enough, the Thursday and Friday of Passion Week correspond to the 5th and 6th Millennium (29-2029 A.D.), during which we see Yeshua, the Church’s High Priest, cleansing his Church with the washing of the Word, so He might present her to Himself in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle, that she should be holy and blameless (Eph. 5:26-27).
Winston Churchill once said that “courage is the mother of all virtue.” It is certainly remarkable that no one in Israel had mustered the courage to do what Yeshua eventually did. Yeshua’s manliness and boldness in asserting His right to drive out the money changers brought on questions the next day, a Sabbath, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people about where Yeshua derived His authority, “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things?” (Luke 20:2) Perhaps they knew that Yeshua’s boldness and courage stemmed from a higher authority. It is plain to the believer that since it was His Father’s house, then He was doing it on behalf of His Father, in His Father’s name. This truth was borne out when Peter was asked whether his Master paid the Temple tax (Matt. 17:24). Peter spoke (out of place) on Yeshua’s behalf, and told the collectors of the two-drachma tax, “Yes, He does.” But Yeshua said, in effect, that since He was the Son of the One who owned the Temple, that He was tax-exempt. Nevertheless, so as not to offend the Jews, He sent Peter fishing (literally) for the coin with which to pay the tax.
The overturning of the tables of the moneychangers and the driving out of those who were selling and purchasing offends the tender sensibilities of those who know only of a “gentle Jesus,” and not also of the holy indignation that prompted Him to act as He does here. But in so doing He cleared out space for the great multitudes which followed Him to the Temple each morning to hear Him. At this very point in the narrative, Luke, referring to the Friday cleansing, makes a summary statement (Luke 19:47-48, NRSV):
Every day He was teaching in the Temple. The chief priests and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill Him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.
Yeshua looked on the multitudes as sheep having no shepherd. They were enthralled by His teaching, and the authority with which He spoke. Yet there is no way the crowds would have been spellbound had Yeshua NOT cleared out the courtyard of all commercial activity. He had no intention of trying to teach over the noise and ruckus of the Bazaar of Caiaphas:
Yeshua seems to have taken complete command of the situation in the court of the Gentiles. After he is rid of all the traffic he was not letting anyone carry as much as a vessel or utensil thru the court [only Mark mentions this detail]. This cannot be restricted to carrying things for lucrative purposes. To make a mere convenience of the court was already to desecrate it. Jesus must have remained in this outer court for some time in order to enforce this regulation. No Temple police and no Sanhedrinists hurry up to him to stop him or to question his authority as they did [in John 2]. Did they know his authority by this time? The change wrought by Jesus must have been astounding: all the turmoil was gone, no one was even carrying things across the court; everything was quiet and decorous as it should be in God’s House.[34]
Yeshua then proceeded to use this court for the purpose intended—“he engaged in teaching” (Mark 11:17 uses the durative imperfect). Hundreds of people must have rushed into the space vacated by Yeshua’s demands. We see then that Yeshua of Nazareth, the very Son of the Most High God, came and filled the courtyards of the Second Temple with the glory, the presence and the authority of Almighty Yahweh in a way that Solomon’s temple never had. The first was the epitome of physical splendor and wealth; the latter enjoyed the presence of God’s own Son. Very few of us, if given the choice, would choose the former over the latter if we had our chance to go back in time. Yeshua, in short, was the fulfillment of Haggai’s remarkable prophecy.
The question we are asking is whether this happened more than once during the final week. If so, then the Passover must have fallen on a Tuesday in the year of the crucifixion.
How Many Times Did Yeshua Cleanse His Father’s Temple?
This question is of the utmost importance to the chronological affairs here addressed. We are not so much concerned with the cleansing of the Temple that took place at the first Passover near the beginning of Yeshua’s ministry in 29 A.D. (John 2:13-17). With the thought that Mark’s account of the cleansing in 31 A.D. was very likely on the day after the accounts in Matthew and Luke, which place their cleansings on the same day as the Triumphal entry, I would like to quote some pertinent remarks by Lenski[35]:
The cleansing of the Temple reported in John 2:13 is not the same as the one reported by the synoptists. To assert that what they placed at the very end of Christ’s ministry John placed at its very beginning is to undermine the credibility of the Gospels. If these books contain such contradictions or take such liberties, who can be certain of anything they state? The thesis that John corrects the synoptists is untenable, for if these needed such correction they should be discarded.
To be sure, the effect of the first cleansing did not endure. Is anything needed to explain that fact beyond the hostility of the Sanhedrin to Jesus? So Jesus cleanses the Temple again. Both are Temple cleansings and thus resemble each other. But why overlook the differences? In John 2:13ff] Jesus is at once confronted by the authorities, and his reply is made to them; in the second, no one dares to confront him and challenge his act, and the word he utters is addressed only to the mob which he throws out…In the first, Jesus uses words of his own; in the second, he quotes (even “robber’s den” is a quotation from Jer. 7:11).
The point we wish to make is that if it is wrong to confuse the John 2 cleansing with the later one(s), then it is equally damaging to the veracity of the scriptures to confuse the cleansing which took place on the day of Triumphal entry (described by Matt. 21:12-13 and Luke 19:45-46) with the one described in Mark 11:15-19, which was a day later. Again, “Why overlook the differences?” On the former morning Yeshua was not hungry, and saw no fig tree full of leaves. On the latter, He was hungry and did see a fig tree in the distance by the dawn’s early light. Mark alone has “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.” Mark alone distinguishes his account by stating that Yeshua “would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple.” Any attempt to edit the verses and make them come out on the same day is presumptuous, and assumes that neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke had enough knowledge to edit and put things in their proper sequence, on their proper days. Worse yet, “experts” living 2000 years later presume to edit and “harmonize” the accounts to make them more accurate!
On both Thursday and Friday, Yeshua basically took the attitude, “I am not going to compete with this mess and try to teach at the same time. I will use violent means to prevent any trafficking of any kind while I am here, and for the time being I can count on the loyalty of the crowds to shield me from the authorities while I give out my most important teaching. I am going to die for this; but this is what I have come for.”
If there was a need to cleanse the Temple on one day, then nothing diminished that need on the next day. Christ was consistent. It just so happened that the necessity of making the outer court a suitable place for teaching the multitudes and cleansing the Temple went hand in hand. There simply was no way, while He was there, that the One who was greater than the Temple was not going to have it His way. It was a means to an end. It was an issue for which He was willing to die. (Are we willing to sacrifice for the purity of ourselves and the Churches we attend?) It is no exaggeration to say Yeshua lost His life asserting what should and should not be going on at the Temple. Yeshua prevailed largely because of the popular adulation of the crowds which swarmed Him inside the city. The Temple authorities “could not find anything they could do (Luke 19:46 NRSV),” because “all the people regarded Him as a prophet” (Matthew 21:46 NRSV). Judas provided the only solution to the Sanhedrin’s problem—a way to apprehend Yeshua privately while the crowds were gone.
It has now been established that Yeshua cleansed His Father’s house, not once, not twice, but three times—once at the beginning of His ministry, and on two consecutive days at the end of His ministry.
Third Temple Cleansing Tied to the Cursing of the Fig Tree
Thursday night Yeshua retired to Bethany. There was no meal, nor friendly hospitality like the night before at Lazarus’ house. Sunrise the next (Friday) morning, March 23, was around 5:45 AM, and Matt 21:18 says that is about when Yeshua returned to the city.[36] The sight of a fig tree in the distance made Him think of food and the fact that He had had none the night before. We share the opinion of some scholars that the fig tree was used by Christ as a metaphor for the Jewish nation, and for the Jewish leadership in particular. The next day, on the Sabbath, Yeshua warned the chief priests and the Pharisees to their face: “I am saying to you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits.” (Matt. 21:43)
Baskets of very good and very bad figs had already been used by Yahweh to show the prophet Jeremiah the difference between those who were obedient to Yahweh and those who were not. So there was already biblical precedent for comparing the tribe of Judah to a fig tree. The parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6-8 seems to be saying that Christ came looking for fruit on the fig tree of Israel/Judah, but found none three years running, and that God was running out of patience and getting ready to cut it down.
The withering of this fig tree outside of Bethany is the only miracle of judgment Yeshua ever performed during His ministry, and almost surely was used as a metaphor for the curse that was about to befall the Jewish people for tolerating and partaking of the wickedness of their spiritual leaders.[37]
Once Yeshua passed by the fig tree, nothing is said about how He satisfied His hunger that day. “My meat is to do the will of Him Who sent me.” (John 4:34) We only know a few things about this Friday: that Yeshua came to Jerusalem, entered the temple, and ‘cleaned house’ again. As already mentioned, He taught the people, saying that the Court of the Gentiles was meant to be “a house of prayer for all of the nations.” When Yeshua indicted the priesthood, together with all the buyers and sellers, for having turned Yahweh’s house into “a den of robbers”, the chief priests and scribes began looking for a way to kill Him. Yeshua also took the additional step of prohibiting anyone from carrying anything thru the courtyard that day. Mark gives us just enough details to let us know that it is not the same cleansing as the day before. Because of the foregoing contextual and linguistic differences noted above, E.W. Bullinger,[38] could see that Mark’s cleansing of the temple occurred subsequent to Matthew’s.[39]
The temple cleansings had to be on Thursday and Friday, forcing the objective analyst to conclude that the Passover fell on Tuesday in the year of the crucifixion. If two non-Sabbath days are needed to accommodate both cleansings of the Temple, then the arrival at Lazarus’ house from Jericho six days before the Passover (John 12:1)–is forced to be no later than Wednesday. The arithmetic goes something like this: one day for the trip in from Jericho, two days of encounters with the moneychangers, one Sabbath day upon which the lion’s share of His teaching takes place. Saturday night He states it will be “after two days” when the Passover arrives, which was held on Monday night. [1 + 2 + 1 + 2 = 6] This is the basic outline of the six-day period John 12:1 is talking about.
The Sabbath before the Passover
The weekly Sabbath before Passover and after the temple cleansings was an important day. More is recorded about this day’s events than any other in Christ’s ministry–except perhaps the crucifixion day—and yet there is not one word about buying and selling at the Temple. There was no need to cleanse the Temple this day as on the previous two, because it was Saturday, the one day of the week when they refrained from making the Father’s house a “house of merchandise” (John 2:16). A great deal of teaching, prophetic and otherwise, took place on this Sabbath—the lesson from the withered fig tree, the question about Yeshua’s authority, the parable of the two sons, the parable of the wicked tenants, the parable of the wedding banquet, the question of paying taxes to Caesar, the question about the resurrection posed by the Sadducees, the Great Commandment, about Messiah being the Son of David, denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 23), His lament over Jerusalem, His prophecies at the temple (Luke 21) and later on the Mount of Olives (Matt. 24:3, Mark 13:3) which included His predictions concerning the destruction of the temple and the persecution that was sure to come upon His disciples, lessons on watchfulness, being faithful and wise, the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids, parable of the talents, the Last Judgment, and then finally Luke’s summary of the days spent in Jerusalem:
Every day He was teaching in the temple, and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of Olives…and all the people would get up very early to hear Him in the temple. (Luke 21:37, 38 NAS)
There is absolutely no indication that Christ retired for the evening in between any of these teachings. Such an omission, given the nature of the narrative over the last six days, indicates that it all took place on one day, that day being a Sabbath. To those of us who have made a habit of keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, it makes a lot of sense that it should work out in this manner.
Turning Alms-Giving Into an Exhibition on the Sabbath Day
The Synoptic Gospels provide us with further evidence that this day was indeed a Sabbath. We pick up the story in Mark 12:41. Before Yeshua left the temple precincts that Sabbath He “sat down opposite the treasury and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury.” Many rich people were casting in large sums also (Luke 21:1). One poor widow came and put in two small copper coins worth a penny. The fact that rich and poor alike in very large numbers had chosen this particular day to bring their gifts to the treasury is notable. We know from Matt. 6:1-2 that the hypocrites of the day preferred to bring their alms at times when they could “be gazed at by men…so they that could be glorified by men.”[40] Maximum exposure was attainable on the Sabbath before Passover, due to the large influx of feast-goers arriving early. Besides, Sabbath was the usual time for bringing tithes and offerings, whatever season of the year it was.
The Pharisee’s school of Shammai, who were arch-conservatives, did prohibit collections for the poor on the Sabbath.[41] Such a consideration should not dissuade us from believing that Temple donations were encouraged on the Sabbath. After all, the Pharisees did not control the Temple, the Sadducean high priests did. Does anyone seriously think, given what we have learned about their ability to turn the Temple into a money-machine, that they would have entertained any serious compunction about collecting tithes and offerings on the Sabbath day at the Temple? The Pharisaic school of Hillel did not prohibit collections for the poor at their synagogues. Both Pharisaic schools were far more conservative than the Sadducees, whose philosophy was, “Don’t make any more rules than are enumerated in the Torah.” Nothing in the Law supports Shammai’s view. His only reason for not collecting money for the poor on the Sabbath was that “they conflicted with the future material abundance which the day symbolized.”[42] I’m sure the poor, and they were legion in that day, appreciated such a magnanimous policy. After all, the less money you allow to go to the poor, leaves that much more for the school of Shammai and their synagogues. No such thinking applied at the Temple. We have every reason to believe that the high priests took advantage of the increased visitation to the Temple on the Sabbath to enlarge their coffers.
Before leaving the Temple, Yeshua predicted that not one stone of the Temple buildings would be left upon another.[43] The prophecy of Luke 21 was given at the Temple in direct reply to people’s questions about the impressive Temple structures. This prophecy was intended for the masses and speaks of vengeance and “wrath upon this people.” Matt. 24:29-31 speaks of the gathering of the Elect at the end of the Age, and was given privately to the apostles later that evening on the Mount of Olives. All the teachings of Matthew 25 were given on the Mount of Olives Saturday night. Matt. 26:1:
When Yeshua had finished saying all these things [which began with the Olivet discourse], He said to His disciples, ‘As you know, the Passover is two days away–and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’ (NIV)
Yeshua spoke this on Saturday night. Monday night March 26, 31 A.D. was the night of the Passover meal. Around midnight, Judas betrayed Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. Yeshua, just as He said, was handed over to evil men two days after the Saturday night of the Olivet discourse.
At the same time Yeshua was speaking the words of Matt. 26:1 to His disciples, the elders of the people, the chief priests and the scribes were gathered at the palace of the high priest. It is natural to suppose that they waited until after sundown on the Sabbath to hold this secret council. Hence, Mark 14:1 narrates here with the same words Yeshua uses in Matt. 26:1, i.e. “Now the Passover [is] only two days away.” This coincidence leads us to believe that Yeshua spoke these words to His disciples at the same time the Sanhedrin was plotting His arrest. This is another example of how Mark complements Matthew.
Sometime on Sunday (probably Sunday evening)[44] in Bethany Yeshua was anointed with precious oil by an unnamed woman at Simon the leper’s house (Matt. 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9). The oil was poured on His head as He sat down to eat. Some of the women disciples apparently understood, better than the men, what was about to befall their Master. This anonymous woman, just like Mary of Bethany four days earlier at Lazarus’ house, did her good deed in preparation for His burial. In fact, in John 12:7 Yeshua says to “allow her, for she has kept the ointment for the day of my burying.” This shows that Mary was paying attention to what Yeshua was saying. It would be wrong, as some scholars do, to confound and conflate these accounts, when the Gospels are so clear that the events were on separate days. Besides, other features show disparity between the two accounts. No other activity is mentioned for this Sunday. After Saturday, the people had gone back to their jobs, their fields and their preparations for the feast which was now less than 36 hours away.
The next day was Monday, and the Gospels tell us very little about this day, except to say that Yeshua sent two of His disciples, probably Peter and John, into the city to prepare for the Passover meal that night. Of critical importance is the fact that the disciples knew that the meal was going to be that night, at the end of the 13th of Nisan (at the beginning of Nisan 14).[45] Here is how Matthew, writing to potential Jewish believers in the Messiah, described this episode (Matt. 26:17):
Now on the first of the unleaveneds, the disciples came to Yeshua, saying to Him, ‘Where do you desire that we prepare for You to eat the Passover?’
The underlined phrase, prw,th| tw/n avzumwn,) is most assuredly not referring to the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, as the KJV seems to indicate. The KJV supplies “day of the feast,” but this is unwarranted. The First Day of Unleavened Bread begins after, not before, the Passover.[46] The 13th of Nisan was the first day that tradition authorized for deleavening one’s house. Luke, who uses dawn to dawn reckoning for daily activity, calls it “the day of unleavened bread, in which the Passover must be sacrificed.” (Luke 22:7, Concordant Literal NT). They removed leaven from their houses on the 13th because they were commanded to eat unleavened bread with the Passover lamb which was killed at the end of Nisan 13 at sunset, even though the feast of Unleavened Bread began twenty four hours later at the end of Nisan 14, at the beginning of Nisan 15. Some scholars, realizing that the language of the Synoptic Gospels is abundantly clear that Yeshua and His disciples “ate the Passover,”[47] have erroneously concluded that they ate the meal on the early part of the 15th of Nisan so that they could avail themselves of a lamb from the Temple Passover sacrifices. But this view presumes too much: i.e. that no one was killing lambs in their homes on the early part of Nisan 14. We prove in the appendix entitled “Were the Passover Lambs Killed at Home in the First Century?” that the majority of the people obeyed Yahweh’s ordinances in Exodus 12 and kept the domestic Passover in their homes at the beginning of the 14th day of Nisan.[48] The Pharisees and Sadducees ate the Passover one day later, on Nisan 15, as do modern Jews. That is why John 18:28 says that,
The Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor (praetorium)…They themselves did not enter the praetorium (Ft. Antonia), so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
This took place during the wee hours of the night of the 14th. Christ was nailed to a cross only a few hours later at 9 AM. (Mark 15:25). The date was Tuesday, March 27, 31 A.D. All four Gospels say that the day of the crucifixion was the preparation day for the annual Sabbath, the First Day of Unleavened Bread.[49] Since this High Day fell on the 15th of Nisan, then the crucifixion occurred the day before, on Passover Day, Nisan 14. Confusion has arisen because the Jews conflated Passover observance with the First Day of Unleavened Bread, even referring to Passover as the first day of the Feast. It is hard for some people to realize that Passover Day itself is not a High Day or Sabbath until they have studied and begun to keep Yahweh’s appointed times. “A good understanding have all they that do His commandments.” (Ps. 111:10) The truth is apparent to all who observe the Passover unfettered by rabbinic obfuscation. Yeshua and his disciples ate the Passover a night before the Jewish leaders ate it (John 18:28). Still, there are many in the holyday-keeping and Messianic Jewish movements who prefer to side with the rabbis and Pharisaic Judaism on this subject. But there is an abundance of evidence in this book and many other sources[50] to disprove the keeping of a Nisan 15 Passover.
Returning to the first question posed by the disciples, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that You might eat The Passover?” Yeshua had already made arrangements to rent a well-appointed–furnished and carpeted—spacious room from one of His followers. Yeshua told His disciples that they would meet a man bearing a water pitcher, who would lead them to his house where they were to observe Yahweh’s feast.
It might be of interest to some that we are now entering the Age of Aquarius. This means that the sun will be in Aquarius during the spring equinox during the next 2000 years. The precession of the equinoxes will accomplish these phenomena by 2020 A.D. Since Aquarius is a man bearing a water pitcher, I feel strongly that one of the Passovers after 2020 will escort us to the Upper Room for the Lord’s Marriage Supper. The Bible expects a lot of its readers, and subtle hints are there for those that have eyes to see them.
Last, but not least, is the matter of the preparation of the Passover meal. As any woman will tell you who has prepared a meal for thirteen, it takes up the better part of a day. This is perhaps the best reason little else is said about Monday, the day prior to Passover. Peter and John attended to the lamb and it’s roasting, provided the bread and other food items, and had everything ready for the celebration that evening.[51] This left Yeshua free to prepare spiritually for the important things He would need to share with His disciples that night, knowing all the while He was about to face the greatest ordeal any human has ever endured.
When evening came[52], He sat down with the twelve and ate the[53] Passover. John focused in on the foot washing as well as the teaching that took place after the meal (John 14-17); the Synoptics focus in on the emblems of communion, the bread and wine. If Protestant scholars and Christian theologians would keep Yahweh’s holy days, as Paul’s churches did,[54] they would not indulge in idle doubts about whether John placed this event on the same night as the synoptic gospels. They would also know that Yeshua kept the correct night, the scribes and Jewish leaders taught and kept the wrong night, the 15th of Nisan (John 18:28).
At approximately midnight on Monday evening, in the garden of Gethsemane, Yeshua was arrested and taken to the palace of the High Priest. Peter followed Him from a distance and was found warming himself by an open fire there in the courtyard of Joseph Caiaphas (Mark 14:67, John 18:18, 25). This is surely indicative of a late March Passover rather than a late April one. We will raise this issue again in the chapter which shows the shortcomings of the Wednesday Passover which most Church of God, sacred name and sabbatarian groups espouse. The only Wednesday Passover possible during the reign of Pontius Pilate is April 25, 31 A.D., the same year supported by this thesis, but one lunar month too late.
Summary of Events Leading up to the Crucifixion of Christ
The sequence of events of the Passion Week shows how deliberately our Lord “set His face to go to Jerusalem” to be sacrificed. Yeshua arrived in Bethany on the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem on Wednesday, March 21, 31 A.D. That evening, a dinner was held in His honor at Lazarus’ house. The next day, Thursday, He made His triumphal entry on the colt, the foal of an ass, accompanied by crowds shouting hosannas in adoration. He straightway cleansed the Temple outer court and after teaching there all day, retired to Bethany. On Friday morning, Christ returned to Jerusalem, cursing the fig tree as He passed it en route. He again cleansed the Temple, taught all day, and returned to the Mount of Olives that night. On Saturday, the Sabbath, Yeshua returned to the city, passing the withered fig tree He had cursed the previous day. He taught in the Temple all day, concluding with the prophecy of Luke 21, a prophecy of His Second Coming. At sunset, He retired to the Mount of Olives with His disciples, and delivered the Olivet discourse, concluding with the words: “You know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered to be crucified.” (Matt. 26: 2) At this same time, on Saturday night, two days before Passover, the Sanhedrin was plotting to kill Him. On Sunday, Yeshua dined at Simon the leper’s house in Bethany, where a woman anointed Him with precious oil anticipating His imminent burial. Monday was dedicated to preparation for the Last Supper, the Passover meal, after which Yeshua would be betrayed in the garden of Gethsemane and handed over to the Temple guard. Christ was crucified by the Romans on the day portion of Nisan 14, which, according to modern reckoning, was Tuesday, March 27, 31 A.D. Three days and three nights later, on Friday evening, at the beginning of the Sabbath, Yeshua arose from the dead in fulfillment of the sign of Jonah 1:17 and Matt. 12:40.
The Messiah is the ‘Lord of the Sabbath.’ It was necessary that He be alive at the beginning of the Sabbath, which is a type of the seventh Millennium, in order to picture the fact that He will return to earth at the end of man’s allotted 6000 years and rule as Lord of Lords over the earth during the seventh 1000-year period. Christ is Lord over all things created “whether in heaven or on earth” and all things were created by Him, through Him and for Him (John 1:3, Eph. 3:9, Col. 1:16, Rev. 4:11). Yahweh chose the seventh-day Sabbath to commemorate His creative genius at the beginning of the world. The time has now come for the Church to realize that the Sabbath is the symbol of New Creation and the resurrection of his Son. It also points to Yeshua as having been the Son of Elohim, the Agent used to speak the universe into existence. The act of calling forth life from the dead is in itself an act of creation, and just as Yeshua called Lazarus from the tomb, He will also call the Church from her grave in the near future.
We are led, then, inexorably to the realization that the Sabbath is one of the great unifying themes of the entire Bible. It unites the idea of Creation in the beginning with the renewal of that Creation via the Sons of Elohim/God, which will commence with their resurrection from the dead (Rom. 8:20-22, RSV & NIV):
For the earnest expectation of the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God/Elohim…the creation will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit do also groan within ourselves, eagerly expecting our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies [at the resurrection!].
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[1] Epistle of the Apostles, cited in Bacchiochi’s God’s Festivals in History & Scripture, Vol. I.
[2] The fact that the Church fathers could even countenance the use of the term ‘Easter,’ which is derived from the Babylonian goddess of fertility, and had nothing whatsoever to do with the apostles or Christ, speaks volumes about their blindness.
[3] See Concordant Literal NT, Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:2.
[4] What did Yeshua do during those intervening hours? See appendix, “Leading Captivity Captive.”
[5] The equinox fell on March 23 in 31 A.D.
[6] Luke. 19:9 Yeshua says “he too is a son of Abraham.”
[7] J. K. Fotheringham, “Astronomical Data Limiting the Year of the Crucifixion” gives March 27th as the only possible date of the Passover in 31 A.D., based on visibility of the crescent 14 days earlier and the criteria that Passover cannot fall more than one month after the equinox, which was March 23.
[8] Jericho is about 1000 feet below the Mediterranean, and Jerusalem is about 2600 feet above it.
[9] Drummelow’s One-Volume Bible Commentary, p. 795. Note this commentators prejudice against the sabbath, which he fails to capitalize, and yet does capitalize Saturday.
[10] That the Seventh Day Adventist Church and S. Bacchiochi would promote such a scenario is almost inexcusable.
[11] Burton H. Throckmorton, Jr., Gospel Parallels, Thomas Nelson Pub., p. 154-156.
[12] Matt. 21:18, Mark. 11:12.
[13] Alfred Plummer, The Gospel of St. Mark, p. 260.
[14] Proverbs 25:17, LXX.
[15] Wm. Scroggie, though correct in identifying three full days and nights as the sign of Christ’s messianic claims, incorrectly places the Triumphal entry on the Sabbath [Guide to the Gospels, 574). It is unlikely, however, that Yeshua would have offended Sabbath law (Ex. 20:10) by riding a beast of burden on that day. Similarly, many people broke limbs from various trees and strawed them in His path as He entered the city.
[16] Matt. 21:2-4.
[17] New American Standard Bible and the Complete Jewish Bible by David Stern. These translations are based on the earliest and most well-attested reading of this text. The Textus Receptus/KJV reading here is best understood as a recension where the copyist sought to harmonize Matthew’s verb with the aorist tense found in Luke 19:46.
[18] Papias around 95 A.D. is an early, credible witness to Mark using Peter as his source. Most scholars believe that Peter had Mark write his Gospel.
[19] Some scholars believe that Mark’s father was the owner of the house where Yeshua ate the Passover. Mark. 15:51-52 is almost surely a reference to Mark himself at the garden of Gethsemane during Yeshua’s arrest.
[20] Many ‘Harmony of the Gospels’ and Bible exegetes indulge in re-editing these ‘cleansing of the temple’ passages for no other reason than they cannot fathom how Yeshua would do it two days in a row.
[21] Pages 154-156.
[22] Ps. 69:9–“zeal for Your House consumes Me, and the insults of those that insult You fall on Me.”
[23] Luke 19:47.
[24] Hebrew Ha Adon. This refers to Messiah. See Bullinger’s Companion Bible, p. 1299.
[25] An entire study could be presented proving that Yeshua was the Malach-Yahweh of the Old Testament, as He is here in Malachi 3.
[26] Menachoth 13.21.
[27] Temple officers would forcibly collect tithes of grain at the site of threshing floors, no matter how poor the people were who came there to thresh.
[28] Alfred Plummer, The Gospel According to St. Mark, p. 264.
[29] Caiaphas the high priest was the man most responsible for the murder of Christ.
[30] The high priest who murdered James, the brother of Yeshua, in 62 A.D.
[31] Lenski, Interpretation of Mark, p. 486.
[32] Ibid. p. 486.
[33] Ibid. p. 489.
[34] Ibid. p. 488.
[35] Ibid. p. 486.
[36] According to Friberg’s Analytical Lexicon, Prwiav in Matt. 21:18 is between 3 and 6 AM.
[37] Those who have studied the views of the Karaite Jews will realize that they blamed the teachings of Pharisaic Judaism, the rabbis, for the curses that had come upon the Jews during the first millennium.
[38] Bullinger is one of the greatest, most prolific Biblical scholars of all time, and almost alone with Scroggie in defending the three days and nights of Christ’s burial.
[39] Bullinger, Companion Bible, App. 156.
[40] Concordant Literal New Testament, Matt. 6:1-2.
[41] Samuele Bacchiochi, From Sabbath to Sunday, p. 91-92.
[42] Ibid. p. 91.
[43] Josephus’ description of what was left in 70 A.D. graphically shows how Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled.
[44] It is possible that Yeshua fasted from late Thursday until this meal at Simon the leper’s house.
[45] For proof of early 14th Passover, read “Between the Two Evenings” at www.americaspropheticdestiny.com
[46] Lev. 23:5-6, Num. 33:3.
[47] Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, 312-318; Matt. 26:17-19, Mark 14:12-17, Luke 22:7-15.
[48] Fred Coulter, The NT in Its Original Order, York Pub., (2003), p. 392.
[49] Matt. 27:62; Mark. 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31.
[50] Fred Coulter’s The Christian Passover is the best, most comprehensive scholarly work proving that the Passover lambs were to be killed at dusk early on the 14th of Nisan.
[51] Lenski, Interpretation of Mark, p. 613
[52] Ibid. Mark. 14:17—“The genitive absolute with the aorist genomenhv means evening had fully come.”
[53] The Last Passover accounts in the Synoptics put the definite article in front of “Passover” nine times!
[54] I Cor. 5:7-8 (“Let us keep the Festival”), 11:26, 16:2 (correctly translated=“every one of the Sabbaths”); book of Acts; Col. 2:16; II Thes. 2:15.
where our Lord was crucified (as well as other Israelite lands). The fact that John, projected forward in time by the Spirit into the yet future Day of the Lord (Revelation 1:10), calls Jerusalem “Sodom and Egypt”, certainly marks it for destruction. This, together with the parable of the fig tree (Lk. 13) and Yeshua’s cursing of the fig tree (Matt. 21:29, Mk. 11:14), when rightly understood, is a plain indictment of anyone attempting to establish Jerusalem as the focal point of worship or a rallying point for the end-time believer.