In Blogs 25 and 32, we studied how Hezekiah, Josiah, and Ezra led Israel away from idolatry when the people failed to shema (hear and obey) the divine Word. Israel’s leaders had to re-educate the people on how to approach YHWH safely and properly, forcefully turning them away from the Canaanites’ deceptive religion, whose practices sometimes closely resembled some parts of the Torah. These three men used their authority to redirect Israel toward YHWH by involving the priesthood in the Passover lamb slaughter, rather than each head of household exercising the right as initially commanded. In this section, we will see the downstream effects of their good intentions more clearly.

When Israel’s leadership took control of Passover, many lambs had to be slaughtered. The heavy workload caused Passover’s slaughtering to overlap with the beginning of the first day of the Unleavened Bread festival. Although the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month and observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, Abib 15-21, as written (Ezra 6:19), Deuteronomy 16 refers to both the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread as “Passover.” This terminology continued into Yeshua’s time. Often, the gospel writers use the term “Passover” to refer to both the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And since unleavened bread was eaten during the Passover meal, it was sometimes called “the first of the unleaveneds,” followed by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exo. 12:18).

Moreover on the first of the unleaveneds the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?” Mat. 26:17, Interlinear 

Now on the first day of unleaveneds Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, “Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?” Mar. 14:12, Interlinear 

Then came the day of unleaveneds, when the Passover must be killed. 8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.” Luk. 22:7-8, Interlinear 

Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he [Pilot] said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” Jhn. 19:14, Interlinear [Passover daylight was a preparation day for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.]

However, it is Luke who explained that the Jews called the Feast of Unleavened Bread the Passover, “Moreover, the Feast of Unleaveneds drew near, which is called Passover” (Luke 22:1, Interlinear). Mark distinguished between the two feasts, stating, “Moreover, it would be the Passover and the Unleavened Bread after two days” (Mark 14:1, Interlinear). As a boy, Yeshua went to Jerusalem with His parents every year to keep the Feast of Passover. When He was twelve, they went up to Jerusalem according to the customary observance of the feast. After the days ended, as they were returning, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem” (Luke 2:41-43). Since Passover lasts only one day, we know they traveled to Jerusalem annually to observe the days of Unleavened Bread as written. From these gospel accounts, we see that the Jews used “the Passover” to refer to both the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Even when Luke writes The Acts, he uses the cultural term “Passover” for the days of Unleavened Bread.

Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover. Act. 12:2-4

The Gospel of John mentions “Passover” ten times, but in three instances, he writes, “Passover, a feast of the Jews” (John 2:13, 6:4, 11:55). This contrasts with Exodus 12, where the name of YHWH is connected to Passover nineteen times, identifying Him as Israel’s Deliverer. Why does he say, “a feast of the Jews” instead of “Passover of YHWH”? At that point in history, Israel’s ruling elite had become the Pharaoh-like oppressor, filled with the spirit of the snake. They misappropriated the Abib 14 domestic Passover and turned it into an altered temple ritual on Abib 15, reserved only for the elite. After Yeshua’s last Abib 14 Passover and His arrest that night, John notes, “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover” (John 18:28). The Jews slaughtered the Passover lambs in the afternoon of Abib 14, and they ate it that night on Abib 15. Ironically, to them, Passover was no longer a feast unto YHWH, but a feast of the ruling Jews, who justified their murderous hearts, eating their Passover while condemning an innocent Man.

Because Yeshua observed the Passover according to all its ordinances, Paul recognizes He was “our Passover, sacrificed for us,” so that we could become a new, truly unleavened lump (1 Cor. 5:7). He died at the exact moment that coincided with YHWH establishing the covenant with Abram (Gen. 15).

Takeaway:

Scripture does not record God shifting the Passover from Abib 14 to Abib 15. Instead, Israel’s leaders, trying to control the people’s idolatry, inadvertently merged Passover with Unleavened Bread, turning Passover into a temple sacrifice. Yeshua observed the Abib 14 Passover of YHWH (Lev. 23:5) for the last time, a day before “the Passover, a feast of the Jews. In the Gospels, the Passover is sometimes called “the first of the unleaveneds” and is a term that often includes the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Fun Factors:
During the Passover season, the population of Jerusalem and its vicinity swelled to three million or more. Even with all 24 courses of Levites in session, the sheer number of lambs slaughtered for this population was impossible within a 24-hour day, much less the two-hour window (from the 9^th hour to the 11^th hour) that Josephus mentions. Indeed, if all the Passover lambs were killed within the temple space, it would take two weeks at least. Josephus gives the number of lambs sacrificed for Passover as 256,500 and calculated ten persons per lamb (Wars of the Jews, Bk. VI, Ch. IX, Sec. 3). Consequently, the domestic Passover remained in effect in conjunction with the elite’s temple Passover.