Okay, we’ve been absorbing a ton of information that we’re going to need to properly process if we’re ever going to understand the proper timing of Yeshua’s last supper, his arrest, crucifixion, burial and resurrection.
What I’d like to do today is organize all of the information pertaining to this topic in an easy-to-understand bullet-point manner and and then from tomorrow I’ll put all the pieces together to give you a clear timeline of the major events of the last hours in Yeshua’s life.
Let’s jump right into it.
Here are the key points you should thoroughly embed in your cranium before we start discussing the timeline of the final events of Yeshua’s life.
-In the month of Aviv which is the 1st month of the Jewish Religious calendar there are three springtime Biblical Feasts which are PESACH (Passover), MATZA (Unleavened Bread), and BIKKURIM (FirstFruits). After the Babylonian exile, the month of Aviv began to be called by its Babylonian name Nisan.
-After Israel settled in the Promised Land, although the Biblical Feasts began to revolve around an agricultural motif, the truth is neither Passover nor Unleavened Bread has anything at all do with farming or crop production.
-Passover was a commemoration of the day HASHEM crushed Egypt by killing all of Egypt’s firstborns. It was this singular event that finally forced Pharaoh to release his grip on the Israelites. On the other hand, those who TRUSTED God and sacrificed a yearling lamb and then painted its blood onto the doorposts of their homes were saved.
-The ONLY people in Egypt who were ever in danger of death were the firstborns.
-The Feast of Unleavened Bread (MATZA) is the 2nd feast of the 3 springtime festivals and it commemorates the day that the Israelites marched out of Egypt as a free people. MATZA is a 7-day observance as opposed to Passover which is only a 1-day observance.
-The reason the Israelites are ordered to eat MATZA for seven days is because they were in such a rush to hightail it out of Egypt that there was no time for the Hebrews to prepare what they usually ate, bread, in the usual manner by adding yeast, setting it aside for a time so it could rise and baking it. Instead they used zero yeast or leavening and cooked the unleavened mixture by cooking it on a griddle in the open air like how we make pancakes.
-The last festival of the 3 is called Bikkurim (Firstfruits) and occurs right after the 1st day of MATZAH. Hence, in rapid succession, PESACH, MATZAH, and BIKKURIM takes place one after another on AVIV 14, 15 and 16. The last day of the festival is the 21st of AVIV.
-Don’t confuse the 3 springtime festivals of PESACH (Passover), MATZAH (Unleavened Bread) and BIKKURIM (Firstfruits) with the 3 pilgrimage festivals of MATZA (Unleavened Bread), SHAVUOT (Feast of Weeks) and SUKKOT (Feast of Tabernacles). Of the springtime festivals, only Matzah is a pilgrimage festival. In order to highlight this point, I have highlighted MATZAH in red.
-Although the only springtime festival that also was a pilgrimage festival was MATZAH, because the springtime feasts were sandwiched together and were observed in immediate succession, the Israelites (especially those traveling from afar) would be present at the sanctuary for ALL 3 of the feasts.
-Another important attribute of the Biblical Festivals is that the Lord added special Sabbath days to them in order to give the people an uninterrupted block of time to prepare for the feasts. So remember, there are actually 2 kinds of Sabbaths in the Bible: the weekly 7th Day of rest that God established at the creation and the special Festival Sabbath days. Out of the spring feasts, the 1st and 7th day of the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread were considered special Sabbath days.
AND THERE IS A BRAND NEW POINT YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT I HAVEN’T YET TOLD YOU ABOUT AS FOLLOWS:
-Although the modern Hebrew calendar always shows Firstfruits as taking place on AVIV 16th, THAT IS NOT THE BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING NOR WAS IT TRADITION AS PRACTICED BY ISRAEL WHILE THE TEMPLE WAS STILL STANDING?
You’re probably thinking “WHAT?!”
Yet it’s true.
The Torah specifies Pesach as taking place on AVIV 14…
…and it specifies Matza as starting on AVIV 15…
…but it does NOT specify that AVIV 16 is when Firstfruits begins!
That’s right baby.
Here’s what the Torah actually says:
“Tell the people of Israel, ‘After you enter the land I am giving you and harvest its ripe crops, you are to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the cohen. He is to wave the sheaf before Adonai, so that you will be accepted; the cohen is to wave it on the day after the Shabbat.”-Leviticus 23:10-11
Well, there you have it.
Passover was observed on AVIV 14.
Matza was observed on AVIV 15.
And then the pause button was pushed until the 7th day Sabbath came around…
…AND THEN FIRSTFRUITS was celebrated.
Firstfruits was a ceremony that absolutely HAD TO BE OBSERVED AT THE TEMPLE AND PERFORMED BY THE PRIESTS.
In Yeshua’s time, it was the Sadducees who controlled the priesthood and everything that went on at the Temple.
So even though up until now, I’ve been telling you this…
AVIV 14th: Pesach (1-Day Event)
AVIV 15th: Matza (7-Day Event)
AVIV 16th: Bikkurim (1-Day Event)
The actual truth is this…
AVIV 14th: Pesach (1-Day Event)
AVIV 15th: Matza (7-Day Event)
The Day After the 7th Day Sabbath: Bikkurim (1-Day Event)
Again, I know this is a lot of detail to have to contend with but if we’re going to really understand what happened in Yeshua’s last days, this is just the stuff we’ve got to learn.
There’s just no getting around it.
The next time we meet, we’ll be getting into the nitty-gritty details of the events that took place in the final days of Yeshua’s life.
Here is an interesting thought: the commandment in Leviticus 23, which you quoted above, states that the Bikkurim celebration is not to be done until AFTER the Israelites enter the land. There is no direct correlation to Pesach, as far as I can see. Just because it is given after the Pesach and Hag haMatzot commandments don’t mean it is related to the Shabbat that comes directly after Pesach. In truth, that Shabbat is different depending on whether you use the Sadducee or the Pharisee interpretation, which differentiated the 7th day Shabbat from the special Shabbat that Hag HaMatzot was.
Here’s more- because the first fruits is a harvest festival, what if the crops haven’t matured yet? What dd they do if there were late rains, or early rains and the harvesting was not done just before the 14th of Abib?
This would also influence Shavuot since the Counting of the Omer doesn’t happen until after Bikkurim.
And, since Bikkurim is the starting point for Shavuot, and Bikurrim doesn’t begin until some 40 years after God gave the command not until they enter the land), then there was no Shavuot until after the people were in the land.
It seems that observance of haBikkurim, the Counting of the Omer, and Shavuot back in the days after Israel first entered the Land would have had to be done at different times each year., depending on when the fields were ready to be harvested.
Hi Steven, My understanding is that the day Bikkurim is set on the first 7th day Shabbat that follows after Matzah starts REGARDLESS of whether the crops have matured yet or not. It could still very well be an observance to celebrate crops that will be coming or celebrating the arrival of the crops (if they have matured). Shalom.