(iii.) Those who fail to discover traces of a Pass- over meal in the accounts of the Last Supper, Avho point to the absence of allusion to a lamb, and gener- ally to the weakness of the evidence adduced, may reasonably claim an argument c sUentio for what that is worth. It may be added that the supposi- tion of the disciples, that the preparations for the feast were not complete (Jn 13-), seems strange indeed if they were already keeping the feast. Preparation for the Passover m as so important in the eyes of the Jews, that the day preceding had derived its appellation of para^skeue from their scrupulous care ; see Mt 27®-.
4. We can no^v tabulate the order of the sacred days in accordance Avitli the conclusions at whitli we have arrived. It will be convenient to use the modern names for the days. In the early morning of Sunday our Lord rose. This tradition is uni- versally accepted, and further discussion would be superfluous. The Saturday was the ' first daj- of un- leavened bread ' (for the eating of unleavened bread began legally with the Paschal meal),t and was Xisan 15. Friday, Nisan 14, was the official Pre- paration Day. Between it and the commencement of Xisan 15 the lamb was slain and eaten. Thurs- day evening was the beginning of the paraskette, and some hours before that the exclusion of leaven commenced, from which custom, as we have sug- gested, the day had acquired the popular appella- tion of 'first day of Azuma.' This was the 13th
consumed before morning light. But it was already morning (5It 271- 2) when the Jews objected to enter the Judgment Hall (Jn 192S) lest they should be debarred from eating the Passover. Therefore they could not have contemplated eating of a lamb slain the afternoon before. They must have anticipated a Pass- over in the hours to follow. Every scrap of evidence tends to confirm the view for which we contend.
* Its nature is described in Bu.xtorf, Lex. Talmud, col. 831.
t Ex 121S ; b>it in later practice, for greater strictness, leav«ii was excluded earlier. See note *, p. 61" above.
LAST SUPPER
LAST SUPPER
of Nisan, and began witli sunset on Wednesday evening. During the 24 liours which followed Wednesday afternoon, the disciples began to make ready for the Passover. On Thursday evening (Mt 26-0, Mk I41") Jesus sat down with them for the Last Sujjper ; and this, according to St. John (13^), Avas before the Passover.
5. But our Lord called that Thursday evening meal a 'passover' — tovto to Trdcrxa, Lk 22^^. As we have s1ioa\ti that the meal preceded the legal Passover by some 24 hours, there are but two explanations of the words recorded by St. Luke — (i. ) an anticipatory celebration was held, or (ii.) Trdcrxa is used in a mystical sense.
(i. ) An anticipation of the Passover might have been either {a) from a desire to keep with the disciples a rite which, on the legal and customary day, would be precluded by the crucifixion ; or (?>) W'ibh the intention of reverting to a more exact date, and correcting an error in time which had crept into the Jewish calculations.* Tlie im- possibility of procuring the sacrifice of a lamb except on the day commonly observed, Avould have been fatal to any such plan. (1) Our Lord was not a householder, but a guest. It would be usual, perhaps, in such a case, to share in the lamb offered by the householder. This Avould require the assent of the householder to an abnormal, and apparentlj' illegal, arrangement. Or if (2) Ave suppose that the thirteen were to constitute a family, and have their lamb to themselves, there would still be, as there would be in the former case also, the insuperable difficulty of getting the lamb killed by the priests before the legal day. (3) It has been supposed that there Avas a difference of opinion betAveen JeAvish schools as to the date of the Passover ; but this argument, if it has, Avhich is doubtful, any foundation, is of no value in the present inquiry. One party only Avas paramount at a time : there is no proof that there Avas a choice of dates for the celebration, t If, hoAvever, by an 'anticipatory Passover' is meant an imi- tative meal, with herbs and unleavened bread and Avine, but Avithout a lamb,t this is not forbidden by the second explanation of our Lord's words ; yet Ave doubt Avhetlier such an imitation of the reality Avould iia\-e been contemplated. It seems so utterly alien to JeAvish sentinient,§ as to be inconceivable for the deliberate act of One AA'ho held the LaAv in honour. Moreover, the act could hardly haA^e been kept secret, even if the 'good- man of the house' liad respectfully submitted to Avhat Avould have greatly shocked his religious sentiments. Some rumour must have reached the ears of those Avho Avere willing to bear Avitness
* The Rev. Matthew Power, S.J., in his learned and elaborate essay, Anglo-Jexcish Calendar for every dau in the Gospels, sa\s, 'Our Lord, keeping to the lunar-legal computation, partook of His last supper on Thursday evening, Nisan 14. . . . The Jews, in obedience to the popular reckoning, had their Paschal Supper on Friday evening. . . . The S^^loptists adopt, like our Lord, the strict lunar-legal mode of reckoning; the Fourth Gospel elects to follow the popular stvle.' Even if the rule of badhu was already in force, as Father Matthew supposes, there remains the difficulty, which writers shirk, of anv one obtaining the sacrifice of the lamb before the hour appointed bv the priests. Stapfer is one of the few who recognize the difficulty ; but he overcomes it by rejecting the Johannine account and accepting the others. See Palestine in the time of Christ, p. 323f. Cf. ./£' ix. 553.