Reconsidering the Last Supper: Gospel Calendar Conflictsand the Passover Seder
Was the Last Supper a Passover Seder? Was Jesus executed on a Friday, or is there something else between the lines that we've missed?
Interest in Passover seems to increase within many Christian circles every year—motivating some to explore the Jewish traditions of the Seder. This curiosity is well-founded.
Passover is a major theme throughout the New Testament. The Gospel of Matthew dedicates eight chapters to the festival, and the Gospel of John allots six chapters to the Seder [meal] alone. Many more allusions can be found throughout the Epistles that connect with the deeper Midrashic themes of Passover.
As always, with further study comes insight and more questions. Over the years, I have wondered if the Seder in the Gospels was something different.
The Last Seder?
For those familiar with Jewish traditions, Jesus's last meal–known as the "last supper"—seems straightforward as an early form of Passover Seder¹. Many are unaware of this because the customs are not found in the Biblical texts, but derive from the Jewish Oral Torah (tradition).
Numerous parallels exist within the Gospels, even though the Seder took place before the codification of Jewish law into the Mishnah².
But, some aspects seem more nuanced, leading us to ask, what if Jesus's last meal was not technically a Seder? What if it was something even deeper, an observance outside of the norm? This suggestion was made by the author of "Mishnat Rabbeinu Yeshua."³
This theory is compelling and might resolve significant discrepancies, and apparent halachic (Jewish legal) problems posed in the Gospels. We will briefly explore these ideas at a high level. From the outset, I highly recommend the book to read in more detail, along with many other topics.
Issues of Timing
On the Hebrew calendar, a new day begins at sundown. A Passover Seder in the first century would have been observed around sundown on the evening of the 14th of the month of Nisan.
One major issue with the Gospel accounts is the variance in timing as to when Jesus and his disciples ate their meal together. Was it on Passover, or before?
3 Days?
The highly polarized topic of the timing is one we'll try to avoid here. But we cannot ignore the prevailing tradition on this.
The church has long argued that the crucifixion occurred on a Friday afternoon with a Sunday morning resurrection. A few verses hint at 3-days in the grave, for example:
“...that the Son of Man must suffer many things...and be killed, and after three days rise again.” - Mark 8:31
As many have pointed out, Friday afternoon to Sunday does not equal three days, suggesting an earlier day in the week for the crucifixion.
