Edg.ar Daplyn.
PREPARATION (wapaffKtv^, Mt 27''-, Mk 15^-, Lk 23•■^^ Jn lO'^-^'--*-).— 1. Since tiie Sabbath was a day of holy rest, the food for it was cooked and all else needful got ready on the previous d,ay, the. ■Kpo(jd§^aTov (Mk 15'*'-) ; * and thus that day was designated by the Jews 'the Preparation. 'f The Christians took over the term,i and it remains to this day the regular name for Friday in the Greek Calendiir.
2. Tiie term was also used of the day of prepara- tion, whatever day of the week it might be, for any of the sacred festivals, especially the Passover. The Paschal Supper was eaten on the evening which, since the Jewish day began at 6 p.m., ushered in the tifteenth day of the month Nisan ; and the fourteentli day, when all was got ready for the celebration, was called the Prejiaration.
The term occurs thrice in the Synoptics (Mt27^^ Mk IS"*-, Lk 28^^), sind in each instance it means Friday. In tlie Fourth Gospel also it occurs thrice (lyi-t. 31.42)^ and there would be no doubt that here also it means Friday § were it not for two other passages. (1) At 13' St. John seems to put the Last Supper ' before the feast of the passover.' (2) At 18"* he says that, when on the morning after the Last Supper the rulers brought Jesus before Pilate, ' they did not themselves enter into the Prtetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover' ; whence it would seem tiiat the Paschal Supper had not been celebrated the previous even- ing, but was to be celebrated that evening. It thus appears as thoirgh there were a glaring discrep- ancy between the Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel. They all agree that Jesus was crucified on Friday ; but whereas according to the Synoptists that Friday was the 15th Nisan, and on tlie previous evening which ushered it in Josus had eaten the regular Paschal Supjjer with His disciples (cf. Lk 22'), according to St. John it was the 14th Nisan, and the Supper in the upper room on the previous evening was either not the Passover at all,|| or was
* Ex 16^. See Li^htfoot on Mk 15-*-. Curiously enough the Sabbath was the daj- for feasting, and the viands were specially sumptuous ; but they had to be cooked the previous day and eaten cold. See Aug. dc Cons. Ev. ii. § 151 ; Lightfoot and Wetstein on Lk 14'.
t Cf. Jos. Ant. XVI. vi. 2 : iv crot^i^ocfftv yi t^ t^« Ttt,uTr,i iretptta-xn/^ ; Wetstein on Mt 27t)2.
t DidacliC, viii. 1. : u,af(< Si vyiirTiurccrt 'ritpuici. xeu rxpecrxtv^v ; Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. 5 75: tuJv y,fx.ipuv Toiitu^, t^s rtrpxio; xai rTot.pa,(rxtvvi? Xiyttt. iTi^y^^i^ovrxi yocp r; ^'iv' V.puov y) hi ^ A^poZirr,?.
§ 191-* TOLptnirxiw, Tou rarxix, ' Friday of the Passover-season,' not 'the Preparation for the Passover,' which would require
r] vetpocffxivr,.
II So Clem. Alex, (fragm. in Chron. Pasch. See Dindorf's Gem- 4 /ex. Op. iii. p. 498) : In previous years Jesus had kept the Passover and eaten the Iamb, but on the day before He suffered as the true Paschal Lamb, He taught His disciples the mystery of the type.
\:
eaten a day too soon.* In the Synoptics TrapaaKevr) means simjjly Friday ; in the Fourth Gospel it means the Preparation Day, being also, as it chanced, Friday.
The problem lias been discussed from the earliest times, and nowhere has harmonistic ingenuity been more lavishly expended. In our day the harmonistic method is out of fashion, and the tendency of some critics is to pronounce the Johaiuiine representa- tion unhistorical, and to explain how it originated. Appeal is made to tlie idea, suggested, it is alleged, by St. Paul (1 Co 5"), and detinitely enunciated by Clement of Alexandria,! that Jesus, being the true Paschal Lamb, must have been slain on the Pre- aration Day, 14tli Nisan. It is pointed out that, y way of proving Him the true Paschal Lamb, St. John (1) throws back the anointing at Bethany to 10th Nisan (12'), the day on which the Paschal lamb was chosen (Ex 12^) ; (2) rejjresents Jesus as still before Pilate at the sixth hour, i.e. noon, in order, it is alleged, to make the Crucifixion synchronize with the sacrifice of the Paschal lambs, which were slain between 3 and 5 p.m. ;:J: (3) shows how tiie Law's prescription that the lamb's bones should not be broken (Ex 12^«, Nu 9'-), was fulfilled in the case of Jesus (19^'').§
This is ingenious rather than convincing. (1) The anointing at Bethany actually took place, as St. John represents, six dajys before the Passover ; and St. Matthew and St. Mark, witli tliat disregard of chronological sequence which is characteristic of the Sj'noptic editors of the Apostolic tradition, have brought it into connexion witii the Betrayal (Mt26"-'« = Mk 143-11) . ^i,ejj. j^i^.^^ being, apparently, that tiie traitor was angered by the Lord's rebuke (Mt 26'«=Mk 146 = Jn 12"). His foul deed was a stroke of revenge. || (2) If, as is possible, St. Joiin computed tlie hours of the day, not, like tiie Syn- optists, from 6 to 6, but, according to the metliod wiiich probably obtained in Asia Minor, from 12 to 12,11 then by ' tiie .sixtli hour ' he means, not noon, but 6 a.m., thus agreeing M'ith tiie Synoptists (cf. Mt 27'-- = Mk 15'). (3) Jesus was none tiie less the true Pasclial Lamb, tiiougii He was not crucified between 3 and 5 p.m. on the 14tli of Nisan, but at 9 a.m. on the 15th. St. Paul spoke of Him as 'our passover,' (1 Co 5"); yet he re- garded tiie Last Supper as the regular Passover, calling the communion cup 'the cup of blessing' (IQi**),** which was tiie name given in the Paschal rubric to the tiiird cup at tlie Passover feast.