It’s sometimes claimed that the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) disagree with the Gospel of John about the day on which the Crucifixion occurred.
It is asserted that the Synoptics portray Jesus being crucified the day after Passover, while John portrays him crucified on Passover, when the lambs were being slaughtered at the temple.
This is not the case.
To see why, we will begin by looking at the events of the days of Holy Week, starting with the events of Easter Sunday and working our way backwards to the Last Supper.
Then we’ll look at how these days relate to the Jewish feast of Passover.
The First Day of the Week (Sunday): Resurrection & the Empty Tomb
All four Gospels indicate that Jesus rose on Sunday or the “first day of the week.” This was the day that the women visited the tomb and found it empty.
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- 28:1—“Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”
- Mark 16:2—“And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen.”
- Luke 24:1—“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared.”
- John 20:1—“Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.”
So, the tomb was found empty on Sunday, the first day of the week.
Confirmation of the Resurrection occurring on this day also is found in 1 Corinthians, where St. Paul indicates Christians gathered on this day, making it appropriate to take up money for church collections:
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- 1 Cor. 16:2—“On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come.”
See also Acts 20:7 for an example of Christians meeting on the first day of the week “to break bread”—a reference to the Eucharist and the “agape feasts” that Christians celebrated in connection with it (cf. Acts 2:42, Jude 12, 1 Cor. 11:17-34).
The Seventh Day of the Week (Saturday): The Weekly Sabbath Rest
The day before Sunday is the seventh day of the week, but in the New Testament it is regularly referred to as “the sabbath.”
The Gospels thus describe the previous day as the sabbath:
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- 28:1—“Now after the sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.”
- Mark 16:1—“And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.”
- Luke 23:56b-24:1—“On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb.”
- John 19:31—“Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away [and buried].”
The Gospels are thus in agreement that the day Jesus lay in the tomb—before it was found empty—was the sabbath.
Since it is the day before “the first day of the week,” this is the regular, weekly sabbath, or Saturday. (We will deal later on with the meaning of John’s statement that “that sabbath was a high day.”)
The Sixth Day of the Week (Friday): Jesus Crucified and Buried
We refer to the day before the weekly sabbath—the sixth day of the week—as Friday.
However, in first century Palestine it was referred to as the “day of preparation” (Greek, paraskeuê) because of the preparations that Jewish people needed to make in advance of the sabbath rest, such as procuring and cooking food ahead of time.
All four Gospels indicate that Jesus was crucified and buried on Friday, the day of preparation:
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- Matt 27:59-62—“Joseph took the body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb, and departed. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb. Next day, that is, after the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate.”
- Mark 15:42-43—“And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.”
- Luke 23:53-54—“Then [Joseph] took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud, and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was beginning.”
- John 19:31—“Since it was the day of preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
- John 19:42—“So because of the Jewish day of preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.”
The Gospels thus indicate that Jesus was crucified and buried on the day of preparation (Friday), before the weekly sabbath (Saturday), before “the first day of the week” (Sunday).
The Fifth Day of the Week (Thursday): The Last Supper
All four Gospels also indicate that—the night before he was crucified—Jesus held his last supper with the disciples.
This means that the supper was held on the fifth day of the week, or what we would call Thursday.
The Gospels do not specifically name this day of the week, but they do indicate that the supper was held the day before the Crucifixion.
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- Matthew records the supper from 26:20-35, he records Jesus’ arrest and his time before the Jewish authorities from 26:36-75, and then at 27:1-2 says, “When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death; and they bound him and led him away and delivered him to Pilate the governor.”
- Mark records the supper from 14:17-31, he records Jesus’ arrest and time with the Jewish authorities from 14:32-72, and then at 15:1 says, “And as soon as it was morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council held a consultation; and they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him to Pilate.”
- Luke records the supper from 22:14-38, he records Jesus’ arrest and time with the Jewish authorities from 22:39-65, and then in 22:66 and 23:1 says, “When day came, the assembly of the elders of the people gathered together, both chief priests and scribes. . . . Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate.”
- John records the supper from 13:2-17:26, he records Jesus’ arrest and time with the Jewish authorities from 18:1-27, and then at 18:28a says, “Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early.”
Since Jesus was brought before Pilate and crucified on the day of preparation (Friday), these passages indicate that the supper occurred on the evening of the preceding day—the fifth day of the week (Thursday).
Events by Days of the Week
From the foregoing, we see that all four of the Gospels are in agreement on the chronology of events as reckoned by the days of the week:
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- Fifth Day of the Week (Thursday): In the evening, Jesus holds the Last Supper. Afterward, he is arrested and spends time before the Jewish authorities (much of this likely happened after midnight).
- Sixth Day of the Week (“The Day of Preparation,” Friday): In the morning, Jesus is taken before Pilate. He is subsequently crucified and buried by his followers.
- Seventh Day of the Week (“The Sabbath,” Saturday): Jesus’ followers rest, and Jesus remains in the tomb. The Jewish authorities go to Pilate and arrange for a guard to be placed at the tomb (Matt. 27:62-66).
- “First Day of the Week” (Sunday): Jesus’ tomb found empty. Resurrection appearances begin.
With the days of the week determined, we are now in a position to look at the issue of which day was Passover.
Passover: The Day and the Week
The biblical authors understand Passover both as a single day and as a week-long festival.
Per Exodus 12:6, the day of Passover was celebrated on the 14th day of the month Abib (later called Nisan).
The day of Passover inaugurated a period of seven days in which the Israelites had to remove leaven from their houses and could eat only unleavened bread (Exod. 12:15; cf. 12:18). This period became known as the “feast of unleavened bread” (Exod. 23:15).
However, since this period was inaugurated by the day of Passover, the overall period of unleavened bread was also called “Passover,” and so Passover was also understood as a week-long festival.
Thus, in Luke 22:1 we read:
Now the feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called the Passover.
The same is found in Jewish sources of the period. Philo writes:
And there is another festival combined with the feast of the Passover, having a use of food different from the usual one, and not customary; the use, namely, of unleavened bread, from which it derives its name (The Special Laws 2:150).
And Josephus writes:
And, indeed, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was now at hand, and is by the Jews called the Passover, and used to be celebrated with a great number of sacrifices, an innumerable multitude of the people came out of the country to worship (Jewish War 2:1:3[10]).
In view of this, we have to consider whether a particular passage is using the term “Passover” to refer to the day of Passover or the week of Passover (or the Passover sacrifice or Passover meal, both of which are also possible).
The Synoptic Gospels on the Last Supper
The Synoptic Gospels indicate that the Last Supper was a Passover meal that occurred on the first day of Unleavened Bread (i.e., the day of Passover; 14 Nisan). This is seen from the way that they introduce their accounts of the supper:
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- Matthew 26:17 states: “Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?’”
- Mark 14:12 states: “And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, ‘Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’”
- Luke 22:7-8 states: “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.’”
Multiple other passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke also identify the Last Supper as a Passover meal (Matt. 26:18-19, Mark 14:14, 16, Luke 22:11, 13, 15).
John’s Gospel and the Synoptics
Before we look at the Last Supper in John’s Gospel, it is important to understand the nature of the fourth Gospel and what John is trying to do.
John is consciously supplementing the Synoptic tradition. He expects his readers to already know the Synoptic tradition. This is why, after describing the activities of John the Baptist, he suddenly says “For John had not yet been put in prison” (John 3:24).
The imprisonment of John the Baptist is mentioned nowhere else in the fourth Gospel. It is something John expects the audience to already know about.
John also displays awareness of the other Gospels when he states:
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe (John 20:30-31).
But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 21:25).
John thus expects his readers to know about events recorded in the Synoptic Gospels (like the imprisonment of John the Baptist), he indicates that he has been selective in what he has put in his own Gospel, and he indicates—hyperbolically and with a possible hint of exasperation—that a huge number of Gospels could be written, suggesting that he is aware of an supplementing the Synoptics but warning the readers that the task of describing everything Jesus did would be impossible.
This much can be discerned from a casual reading of John, but a closer reading makes it even clearer that John is deliberately supplementing the Synoptic Gospels.
In particular, he has structured his own Gospel to interlock with the Gospel of Mark. There also is evidence that he was consciously supplementing Luke’s Gospel. Whether he was aware of and supplementing Matthew is less clear.
However, it is clear that John expects his readers to know the Synoptic tradition and that he is supplementing it.
John’s Gospel and the Last Supper
John is not as explicit about the Last Supper as the Synoptics. However, a first century reader of John—like normal readers ever since—have naturally understood that the Last Supper is also a Passover meal in John.
Since the Synoptics record Jesus eating a very important Passover meal with the disciples on the night he was arrested, and John records Jesus eating a very important meal with the disciples on that night, the natural inference is that it was the same Passover meal described by the Synoptics.
That would have been the obvious inference for John, it would have been the obvious inference for his first century readers, and it has been the obvious inference for the vast majority of readers for two thousand years.
Only very compelling evidence could overturn this. John would have to do something pretty dramatic to block this inference.
Instead, as he is about to introduce the Last Supper, he says this:
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (John 13:1).
John thus introduces the subject of Passover and indicates that—before this it arrived—Jesus had done two things (1) he had realized that his hour to leave the world was coming and (2) he had loved his disciples (and continued to love them to the end).
Having raised the subject of Passover and indicated these things that occurred before it, John immediately proceeds to the Last Supper:
And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and tied a towel around himself.
Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him (John 13:2-5).
This strongly suggests that the supper in question was a Passover meal:
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- John has indicated Passover was approaching.
- The Passover festival begins with a special meal.
- John then records Jesus eating a special meal with the disciples before his arrest.
- John knows and is supplementing the Synoptic tradition, which he expects his readers to also know.
- The Synoptics also indicate that the special meal Jesus ate before his arrest was a Passover meal.
The logical inference is that John is telling us about that Passover meal!
And there are additional reasons to identify it as one. Andrew Steinmann writes:
There are several indications in John that it was a Passover meal:
It was held in Jerusalem, although Jesus was staying in Bethany for the festival (John 12:1). Jesus and his disciples did not return to Bethany that evening—it was required that the Passover night be spent within the ritual limits of the city.
Jesus’ statement that those who have washed need only their feet cleaned implies that the disciples had washed before the meal (John 13:10). This would have been a ceremonial cleansing to prepare for the Passover meal.
The disciples thought that Judas left the meal to buy (additional?) provisions for the feast or to donate money to the poor. It was customary to donate to the poor on Passover night.
Thus, there are good reasons to believe that John was depicting a Passover meal, and there is no compelling reason to believe that he was depicting any other type of supper [From Abraham to Paul].
In view of all this, the logical conclusion is that John understands the Last Supper to be a Passover meal—unless he does something very compelling in the text to indicate otherwise.
So: What have skeptics raised in that regard?
When the Lambs Were Being Slaughtered???
It is commonly claimed that John—who depicts Jesus as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36)—also depicts him as being sacrificed on the Cross at the same time the Passover lambs were being sacrificed at the temple.
As common and as poetic as this idea may be, it has absolutely no foundation in the text.
John may refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God, but he refers to Jesus as the Lamb “who takes away the sins of the world” (v. 29), but taking away sin was not the function of the Passover lamb.
The Passover lamb’s blood was to mark the doorposts of the Israelites as God’s people and to serve as a meal for the journey of Exodus they were about to undertake. It was not a sin offering.
The natural understanding of a lamb as taking away sin would be in connection with ordinary sin offerings—not Passover.
So, John’s depiction of Jesus as the Lamb of God is to be understood in terms of his serving as a sin offering, with paschal associations being secondary.
However, more fundamentally, John nowhere refers either to the Passover lambs or to their being slain. The only “lambs” he does refer to are Jesus’ disciples (John 21:15).
John simply does not say anything about Passover lambs, much less that they were being killed while Jesus was on the Cross.
You might infer that that was happening, but John does not claim this.
As a result, the inference is no stronger than the textual evidence that could be produced in its favor.
“The Day of Preparation of the Passover”
One verse that is sometimes appealed to is John 19:14, which states:
Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. He [Pilate] said to the Jews, “Here is your King!”
This identifies the day Jesus was taken before Pilate—and thus the day of the Crucifixion—as “the day of preparation of the Passover.”
Some have taken this to mean that it was the day before Passover, so that the lambs would be killed that afternoon, in preparation for the Passover meal after sundown.
This is an exegetical mistake. It erroneously assumes that the term “Passover” in this verse is referring to the day of Passover.
However, as we saw earlier, “Passover” also was used as the designation of a week-long feast and “the day of preparation” was an idiom for Friday.
The logical inference is that John 19:14 states Jesus appeared before Pilate on the Friday of Passover week—which is exactly what the Synoptics indicate.
Further, John twice uses the phrase “the day of preparation” in the same chapter, and in both cases, he is referring to Friday, the day before the sabbath:
Since it was the day of preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the sabbath (for that sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away (John 19:31).
Here the day of preparation is identified as the day before the sabbath, and while every sabbath was a high day, this particular sabbath was even more so, as it was the sabbath falling in Passover week.
John then says:
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid. So because of the Jewish day of preparation, as the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb (John 19:41-20:1).
This is the same pattern that we see in the Synoptics:
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- Jesus is crucified on Friday, “the day of preparation”
- But he is hurriedly buried, because the sabbath is about to begin at sunset
- And then he rises on “the first day of the week”
John even notes that he was hastily buried “because of the Jewish day of preparation” (i.e., because no work could be done the next day) and “the tomb was close at hand.” In other words, there would not have been time to take him to a more distant tomb before the sabbath began at sundown.
So, once again, these are the weekly day of preparation (Friday) and the weekly sabbath (Saturday) because they precede “the first day of the week.”
John’s use of the phrase “day of preparation” for Friday twice in the same chapter indicates that 19:14 means “the Friday of Passover week”—not “the day before Passover.”
“That They Might Eat the Passover”
An additional passage to which people have appealed to argue that John presents Jesus as being crucified on Passover. In John 18:28, we read:
Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was early. They themselves did not enter the praetorium, so that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.
From this, it is reasoned that—since the Jewish authorities had not yet eaten the Passover meal, the Passover festival must not have begun yet.
All of the rest of the data we have—including data from John—indicates that it had begun, so how should we understand this individual data point?
Multiple interpretations have been proposed.
Some Possibilities
Andrew Steinmann summarizes several proposals:
There have been many attempts to reconcile the Synoptics and John on this point.
[1] Perhaps the most radical was the suggestion that Jesus and his disciples followed the calendar of Jubilees, which always placed the Passover on Tuesday. Jesus’ accusers, however, followed the traditional calendar according to this theory.
[2] Another theory proposes that Jesus and his disciples reckoned days from sunup instead of sundown. However, Jesus’ accusers reckoned days from sundown. This would make for a half-day difference in the Passover and could be used to explain why Jesus and his disciples ate the Passover meal an evening earlier than Jesus’ accusers.
[3] Still another theory proposes that when Jesus’ accusers did not enter the Praetorium in order to be able to “eat the Passover” what was meant was that they wished to be able to eat the sacrifices offered during the Passover or the sacrifices for the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread on 15 Nisan (Num 28:18–23).
One problem with this theory is that Jesus’ accusers included not only priests, but also lay members of the Sanhedrin, and those laymen would not have been eligible to eat the sacrifices under any circumstances.
The first proposal does not succeed, for as we have seen, all four of the Gospels indicate that the Last Supper was held on a Thursday, not a Tuesday.
The second proposal is possible but unlikely. We do not have evidence that Jesus was using a different time reckoning system than the authorities, and it would only be necessary to propose this if we lack better explanations, and we don’t. There are better solutions.
The third proposal is possible. I don’t find the objection that Steinmann makes to it persuasive.
It does not matter if some of the Sanhedrin were laymen. Many members were priests—including the high priest himself—and if the group went as a body to Pilate’s praetorium and the high priest and other priests stopped outside, the laymen would have stopped also.
It thus is possible that the group—as a body—stopped outside the praetorium so that the priests would be ritually pure and able to eat the sacrifices that would be offered that day.
The Khagigah
The Hebrew term for a sacrifice offered during a feast is khagigah (sometimes spelled chagigah), and there is a tract in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud by that name which deals with festal sacrifices.
Numbers 28:16-19 explains that, on the day after Passover, a set of these sacrifices was to be offered:
On the fourteenth day of the first month [Abib/Nisan] is the Lord’s Passover.
And on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast; seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.
On the first day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no laborious work, but offer an offering by fire, a burnt offering to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old; see that they are without blemish . . .
These offerings were also referred to using the term Passover. Alfred Edersheim explains:
And here both the Old Testament and Jewish writings show, that the term Pesach, or ‘Passover,’ was applied not only to the Paschal Lamb, but to all the Passover sacrifices, especially to what was called the Chagigah, or festive offering (from Chag, or Chagag, to bring the festive sacrifice usual at each of the three Great Feasts).’
According to the express rule ([b.]Chag. 1.3) the Chagigah was brought on the first festive Paschal Day.
It was offered immediately after the morning-service and eaten on that day—probably sometime before the evening, when, as we shall by-and-by see, another ceremony claimed public attention.
We can therefore quite understand that, not on the eve of the Passover, but on the first Paschal day, the Sanhedrists would avoid incurring a defilement which, lasting till the evening, would not only have involved them in the inconvenience of Levitical defilement on the first festive day, but have actually prevented their offering on that day the Passover, festive sacrifice, or Chagigah (The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah 2:568).
It is thus quite possible that the Jewish authorities didn’t enter the praetorium because they wanted to be ritually pure to eat the sacrifices to be offered on the 15th of Nisan, which also were called “the Passover.”
Other Food of the Passover Festival
Indeed, the term Passover seems to have been used to refer to other food eaten during the days of unleavened bread. In Deuteronomy 16:1-3, we read:
Observe the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God; for in the month of Abib the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, from the flock or the herd, at the place which the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there.
You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction.
This tells us that the Passover sacrifice shall not be eaten with unleavened bread. But then the text says that “seven days you shall eat it with unleavened bread.”
This cannot refer to the lamb killed for the Passover meal itself, because it had to be consumed the night of the meal.
It was expressly prohibited to keep any of the Passover lamb until the next morning (Exod. 34:25, Num. 9:12), so “it” could not be eaten for seven days.
And yet the text does describe “it” being eaten for seven days with unleavened bread, indicating that food consumed during the week-long feast could also be referred to as “the Passover.”
It’s thus possible that the Jewish authorities did not want to enter the praetorium in order to be ritually clean and so able to eat some other kind of (special?) food that day, since it was the Passover season.
When Did They Have Time?
Another possibility emerges when we revisit the initial deduction that—since the authorities hadn’t yet eaten “the Passover”—the Passover had not yet begun.
But who says? If we take “the Passover” to refer to the Passover meal itself, all we can infer with certainty is that the authorities had not yet eaten this meal.
Why might that be?
Maybe because they simply hadn’t had time to do so.
Jesus’ Covert Arrangements
Twice as he is preparing for his passion, Jesus does something very strange.
As he is approaching Jerusalem, he tells two of his disciples:
Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it.
If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately’ (Mark 11:2-3).
Tied up in the street is not the normal place to leave an unridden colt, suggesting it has been put there on purpose for the disciples to find.
This is confirmed by the message he says to give them: “The Lord has need of it.” A random colt owner (cf. Luke 19:33) would not know who this refers to and wouldn’t have reason to trust whoever this “Lord” was.
It appears as if Jesus—without informing the core disciples—has sent word ahead and arranged for the colt to be left in the street for his use and the owners already know who he is and are expecting the disciples to collect it.
The reason Jesus would engage in this subterfuge is straightforward: He’s planning to ride the colt during the Triumphal Entry by which he publicly fulfills Messianic prophecy (Matt. 21:4-5).
This would reveal him as the Messiah of Israel—a seditious act that the authorities (Jewish and Roman) might interfere with, and so he keeps the arrangements secret.
Jesus does something similar a few days later:
And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the householder, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room, where I am to eat the Passover with my disciples?”
“‘And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us” (Mark 14:12-15).
Again, we see evidence of Jesus having made secret arrangements in advance. The upper room will be “furnished and ready”—indicating that the householder has advance knowledge that Jesus will be using it.
And fetching water was considered women’s work rather than men’s, so it would be unusual to see a man carrying a jar of water—making it a usable sign for the disciples to identify who they need to follow.
Why would Jesus make these arrangements without telling the disciples in advance? Why not just say, “We’ll be eating the Passover meal at the house of John son of Simon”?
The logical answer is because Jesus knows Judas is going to betray him. He plans to use the Passover meal in a very special way (including instituting the Eucharist), and he very much wants to eat it with his disciples (Luke 22:15).
He thus does not want Judas letting the authorities know where he could be found for the Passover meal, and so he keeps Judas—and the other disciples—in the dark about the location until the very last minute, giving Judas no time to betray him.
Once the supper was underway, Judas learned that—as he had previously—Jesus would be going to the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:29, John 18:1-2), and so he left the Last Supper and let the authorities know where they could intercept Jesus and arrest him.
From the Viewpoint of the Authorities
Now let’s look at this situation from the viewpoint of the Jewish authorities.
They’ve hired Judas to betray Jesus, and they’re waiting for Judas to inform them about where he will be.
The Passover lambs have been slaughtered, and the authorities go home to wait for word from Judas.
But the Passover meal involves drinking multiple cups of wine, and it could be difficult to stay awake after the meal—as the disciples themselves discovered (Matt. 26:40-45, Mark 14:37-41, Luke 22:45-46).
And the authorities needed to organize a crowd, including soldiers and the high priest’s servants, to go and arrest Jesus and to have this arresting party ready to act as soon as word from Judas came. That also couldn’t be done in the middle of a meal.
So, the authorities decide to wait to eat the Passover meal until Jesus has been taken into custody. (Or perhaps they began it but were interrupted by the arrival of Judas, so they were unable to complete the ritual.)
When Judas arrives, he says they need to intercept Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, and they send the arresting party out—late in the evening.
When Jesus is brought before them, they conduct a lengthy set of interrogations in the early morning hours. The rest of their households have gone to sleep. And they’re planning to take Jesus before the Roman governor first thing in the morning.
It’s thus quite possible that the Jewish authorities—or at least key individuals among them, such as the high priest—had not yet eaten the Passover meal and hoped to do so after a quick meeting with Pilate to authorize the execution, which could still leave them time to eat (or complete) the meal before dawn.
Andrew Steinmann’s Elaboration
Andrew Steinmann provides further discussion of this scenario:
Note that two of the three Synoptic Gospels as well as John state that Jesus was brought to Pilate early in the morning at the end of the fourth watch of the night, that is, after about 4:30 am.
Jesus’ accusers had been busy all night long. They had gathered a crowd to arrest Jesus, had put him on trial during the night, and confined him while they contemplated their next move—taking him to Pilate.
Unlike Jesus and his disciples, they had not yet had time to eat the Passover meal, which had to be eaten before dawn (Exod. 12:10; 34:25; Deut. 16:4; cp. Exod. 23:18; 29:34; Lev 7:15).
They were hoping to remain undefiled so that they could eat it after Pilate gave them permission to crucify Jesus.
Jesus’ accusers apparently expected a quick ruling from Pilate.
However, their refusal to enter the Praetorium may have actually delayed Pilate’s ruling, as a close reading of John’s portrayal of the events suggests.
At first, Pilate did not see a capital offense in their accusations but told Jesus’ captors to judge him by their laws (John 18:29–31).
They insisted, however, that Jesus had committed a capital crime, so Pilate took Jesus into the Praetorium and interviewed him.
Although Jesus claimed a kingship, Jesus’ responses denied that he was an insurrectionist (John 18:33–36).
Moreover, Pilate appears to be convinced that Jesus was some type of philosopher whose concern was for truth, hardly making him a threat to Roman interests (John 18:37–38).
Hoping that flogging Jesus would mollify the crowd, Pilate presented him as innocent (John 19:1–5).
They were not mollified, but demanded Jesus be executed (John 19:6).
When the chief priests and Sanhedrin accused Jesus of making himself the Son of God, Pilate again interviewed Jesus in the Praetorium (John 19:7–11).
Jesus’ ultimate answer that acknowledged Pilate’s authority convinced the Roman prefect of Jesus’ innocence, and he tried to find a way to release him (John 19:12a).
Only when the crowd played their trump card—that if Pilate released Jesus, the prefect would not be a friend of Caesar’s—did Pilate hand Jesus over to be crucified.
Thus, Jesus’ accusers did not enter the Praetorium, hoping for a quick decision from Pilate so that they could eat the Passover meal before sunrise.
However, they would end up missing the Passover meal, since the cautious and thorough Pilate did not give them permission until sometime around dawn (John 19:14).
John is subtle—but very effective—in showing that Jesus’ captors were not in charge of the flow of events.
By a comparison of John 18:28 and John 19:14 the reader is led to conclude that Jesus’ life is not being taken from him, but he is laying it down willingly (John 10:17–18).
Moreover, John is also using irony to demonstrate that by rejecting Jesus, his accusers were placing themselves in a position of bearing the guilt of their own sin instead of having Jesus bear it for them.
Had they entered the Praetorium and become defiled, they could have eaten the Passover meal one month later than usual (Num 9:6–12).
However, if a person was clean, but did not eat the Passover meal, that person was to be excluded from God’s people and would bear his own sin (Num 9:13) (op. cit.).
Conclusions
Despite the claim that John’s understanding of the chronology of Holy Week is in conflict with the Synoptic Gospels, this is not what we find.
All four of the Gospels are in agreement on the days of the week and what happened on them:
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- On the fifth day of the week (Thursday), Jesus held the Last Supper with the disciples
- On the sixth day of the week (“the day of preparation”/Friday): Jesus was brought before Pilate, was crucified, and was buried
- On the seventh day of the week (“the sabbath”/Saturday): the disciples rested, Jesus laid in the tomb, and guards were set to watch it
- On “the first day of the week” (Sunday): Jesus rose from the dead, and his tomb was found empty
Neither do we find any conflict between the Synoptic Gospels and John with regard to when Passover occurred:
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- The Synoptics make it abundantly clear that the Last Supper was a Passover meal eaten on the evening of the fifth day of the week (Thursday)
- John—who is supplementing the Synoptics—implies that the Last Supper was a Passover meal
- And the statement that on Friday morning the Jewish authorities wished to remain pure to “eat the Passover” may refer to (1) the sacrifices offered that day which were also referred to as eating “the Passover,” (2) to other food eaten in Passover season, or (3) to the fact that they simply hadn’t had time to eat the Passover meal, given the late word from Judas and everything that had been going on.
