The ordinary reckoning of the events of Passion- week places this event, as its name imports, on Sunday ; but a more careful examination of the Gospel narratives inclines us to locate it on Monday. The indications of date are most explicit in the Gospel of John, which states (xii, 1) that the tinal arrival of Jesus at Bethany was "six days before the Passover." That this term is inclusive of both extremes is clear not only from the usual method of reckoning such intervals among the Jews (comp. especially John xx, 2G ; Matt, xxvi, 1), but also from the fact that as Jericho was about one day's journey distant, Jesus would otherwise have been obliged to travel the entire Sabbath, instead of spend- ing that sacred day, as he naturally would and actually seems to have done, at Zacchieus's house (Luke xix, 5). The Passover-day that year was Friday — as all admit — the 15th of Nisan (Xumb. xxxiii, 3) : the Paschal lamb was slain on the afternoon of the 14th (Exod. xii, 6), and it was eaten in the evening immediately after (Lev. xxiii, 5), i. e. Thursday. (Andrews, in his Life of our Lord, p. 397, misstates this position, as " making the 14th fall on Friday," and j'et " including both extremes" in the six days referred to; which would not "make the arrival on Sunday, the 10th," but on the 9th, which we compute to have been Saturday.) But it is most natu- ral to regard the evening only when the Passover-meal was eaten — in this case Thursday evening, or that begin- ning the 15th — as the included terminus ad quern, or the sixth day, and the afternoon of the day when our Lord arrived at Bethany as the included terminus a quo, or the first day of the series. This leaves only four whole daj'S in the interval (preciseh^ as the " three days — and three nights" of Christ's remaining in the tomb. Matt, xii, 40, are known to have been but one whole day and fractions of the preceding and following days), and brings the arrival at Betliany on Sunday. The tri- umphal entrj- into Jerusalem certainly took place the very next morning (John xii, 12), i. e. on Monday.
Those who place this last event on Sunday must not onh' reckon the Passover as having fallen that year on Thursday, but they must also exclude both extremes in the computation of the six days in question ; or else they will bring— as in fact they do— the arrival at Bethany on either Saturday or Friday afternoon. Ei- ther of these days is extremely improbable; Saturday, as requiring the whole Sabbath to have been spent in travelling, and Friday as bringing the feast— narrated by John as occurring the same evening (xii, 2 sq.) — with all its bustle and special preparation, on the begin- ning of the same sacred day (i.e. from siuiset; for the StlTTvov cannot have been any other than an evening "supper").
This view is confirmed almost to certainty by the order of subsequent events during Passion-week as nar- rated by each of the evangelists. Thej' allow a space of five da3's onh' for all these transactions, beginning with the entry into Jerusalem, and ending with the cru-
cifixion. As the latter is almost universally conceded to have taken place on Friday, the former must have occurred on IMonday. Thus Matthew assigns the first day to the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the Temple (xxi, 1-17, ending witli the lodging at Beth- any) ; jNIark has the same arrangement (xi, 1-11) ; Luke also, but not so explicitly (xix, 29-46) ; and John like- wise, but still less definitely (xii, 12-19). The second day was occupied with cursing the barren fig-tree ("in the morning as he returned from Bethany," Matt, xxi, 18; ^Mark xi, 12), and various teachings, closing again at Bethany (Mark xi, 19), and the third with witnessing the withering of the tree ("in the morning" again, Mark xi, 20), and still other teachings. Luke vaguely joins both these two days' proceedings together ("daily," xix, 47 ; " on one of those days," xx, 1) ; while John passes them over with but one intimation of time ("at the feast," xii, 20), although we know from all the evan- gelists that they embraced an extensive series of dis- courses to various classes, concluding with the remark- able prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, etc. That this closed Christ's public teachings is directly stated (Matt, xxiv, 1 ; Mark xiii, 1 ; John xii, 36). But there is not an intimation that more than three days were consumed up to this time. It was now tico days prior to the Passover (Matt, xxvi, 1, 2; Mark xiv, 1). These " two days" at the utmost can only make five, when added to the preceding three. Thej' are to be computed of course as before, i. e. inclusively of both ex- tremes, namely, one day for that immediately following the previous discourses, or, on our reckoning, from Wednesday afternoon to Tluirsday afternoon, and the other from Thursday afternoon onward into the ensu- ing evening of the Paschal meal with which the Pass- over was introduced. In this way every note of time is consistently observed. The single intermediate or ap- parently vacant day (Thursday) was spent by our Lord in private preparation for the coming solemnities, and by Judas in bargaining for the betrayal of his Master. To take two entire days for these purposes is opposed to the requirements of the case, as well as the whole tenor of the Scripture narrative. It was in fact but Thursday morning that remained unoccupied, for in the afternoon the disciples were despatched to prepare the Passover meal (Matt, xxvi, 17; Mark xiv, 12; Luke xxii, 7). The phrase " after two daj's," used by both evangelists here, can only mean, as we would say, day after to-morrow ; for it obviously cannot be the same as simply " to-morrow," nor yet " the second day after to-morrow." And that it dates from Wednesday is cer- tain from IMatthew's expression, " When (ort) Jesus had finished all these sayings.'' That its terminus ad quern, " the feast of the Passover" (to Traaxa yi'j'froi), includes the proper Passover-day on Friday, seems clear from the added clause, " AVhen the Son of ]Man is betraj-ed to be crucified." The betrayal itself must have occurred con- siderably past midnight or on Friday morning. It is only by neglecting or violating some element of the evangelical history that Palm-day can be brought on Sunda}-. Even the accurate Dr. Robinson acknowl- edges in his later edition of his Harmony that he was misled in the days of Passion-week by following too im- plicitly the autliority of the learned Lightfoot.