5 Easy Steps to See When Passover Is

God's Word says much about Passover and when to observe it. Assembling all the Passover scriptures in both Old and New Testaments, "line upon line, here a little, there a little" (Isa. 28:10, 13), is like assembling a puzzle that shows a breathtaking picture when completed.

It can also be very simple, however. Here are 5 easy steps to see when Passover ought to be observed.

Step 1: We know that Jesus died on the preparation day for the high holy day (John 19:31), the First Day of Unleavened Bread, and that He was buried shortly before sunset (Luke 23:54), when the First Day of Unleavened Bread officially began. Mark 15:42 also confirms that the preparation day was the day before this high holy day.

Ex. 12:18 and Lev. 23:6, among other passages, tell us that the First Day of Unleavened Bread always fell on Abib 15, or Nisan 15 by later terminology. Therefore, Jesus was crucified on the previous day, Nisan 14.

Step 2: The accounts in all four gospels confirm that Jesus ate His last supper with His disciples the previous night at the beginning of Nisan 14.

Step 3: John 13:1-2 tells us explicitly that Jesus and His disciples ate the Last Supper "before the Feast of the Passover." God's Word defines "the Feast of the Passover" as including the sacrificing and eating of the Passover lambs (Ex. 34:25 combined with Ex. 12:10 and Deut. 16:4). It also tells us that the Feast of the Passover lasts all seven days of unleavened bread (Ezek. 45:21; Ex. 12:18; Luke 2:41-43; Luke 22:1).

Lest anyone misunderstand John's statement that the Last Supper on the night of Nisan 14 was before Passover, he added later that the Jewish rulers who handed Jesus over to Pontius Pilate on the morning of Nisan 14 "did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover" (John 18:28). The Gospel of John is unmistakably clear that the Last Supper was before Passover.

If the Last Supper on the night/beginning of Nisan 14 was before Passover, as John tells us it was, then Passover cannot be at the beginning of Nisan 14!

Step 4: As established in Step 1, Jesus died on Nisan 14. So did the Passover lambs in the Old Testament, as we see in Ex. 12:6 and many other places. Jesus died at the 9th hour (about 3:00 PM) on the afternoon of Nisan 14, as we are told in Mat. 27:46-50, Mark 15:34-37, and Luke 23:44-46. Furthermore, He died as our Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7; John 19:36; Ex. 12:46), "a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. 1:19; Ex. 12:5).

Jesus died as our Passover Lamb, once and for all, on the afternoon of Nisan 14 at the 9th hour. Our Passover sacrifice happened on the afternoon of the 14th, not the beginning of the 14th! Of course, it is impossible to have Passover without a sacrifice, as Num. 9:13 tells us. So John's account that the Last Supper was before Passover makes perfect sense, for Jesus' Passover sacrifice had not yet happened!

Step 5: Knowing that Jesus died as our Passover Lamb on the afternoon of Nisan 14 ought to tell us that the Passover lambs in the Old Testament also died on the afternoon of the 14th. If someone isn't convinced, we can simply refer to Ex. 12:18 and Ezek. 45:21, which tell us that the First Day of Unleavened Bread, like Passover, started on the evening of the 14th, while Lev. 23:6 and Num. 28:17 tell us it is on the 15th. For there to be no contradiction, the evening of the 14th has to be the end of the 14th, leading into the 15th.

In other words, the Passover sacrifices always happened mid- to late-afternoon on the 14th, the preparation day for the First Day of Unleavened Bread. God's people ate the lambs that night (Ex. 12:8) on the 15th, the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Lest there be any doubt, Mark 14:1 tells us that Passover and Unleavened Bread happened at roughly the same time.

To put it all together, then, Jesus ate the Last Supper with His disciples on the night of Nisan 14th, before Passover, and was arrested that night. In the morning, the Jewish rulers brought Him before Pontius Pilate, and Passover had still not yet happened. That afternoon, the afternoon of the 14th, He died on the cross as our Passover Lamb, at the same time the Passover sacrifices had always happened. That night, the night of the 15th, is when the Passover lambs had always been eaten. Today, we partake of the bread and wine instead, the symbols of Jesus' body, for He is our Passover Lamb.

Remember, it is impossible to have a Passover meal without the Lamb, and also impossible to partake of that Lamb on the night before the sacrifice!

Some will object that Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus and His disciples kept Passover with His disciples before His death. This would appear to contradict John's account of the Last Supper being before Passover, and the Word of God cannot contradict itself, so what's the answer?

This is a great topic for study. For now, it will suffice to say that nowhere does the Bible explicitly call the Last Supper a Passover meal. Matthew, Mark, and Luke say that the disciples prepared for the Passover and then sat down for supper with their Master, but they do not say this was Passover.

Remember, Passover/Unleavened Bread was a pilgrimage feast in Jerusalem (Ex. 23:14-17; Deut. 16:16), and Jesus Himself had kept it as such since He was a boy (Luke 2:41-43). The disciples needed somewhere to stay for the whole seven-day feast, not just one night. Likewise, they needed to prepare for the whole feast, not just one night. It was undoubtedly in this same room that Jesus appeared to them during the Days of Unleavened Bread, after His resurrection, and ate a meal with them (Luke 24:36-43).

Furthermore, John says the Last Supper was before Passover, and merely calls it supper (John 21:20). Paul calls it "the night in which He was betrayed" (1 Cor. 11:23), but not Passover.

The Last Supper was Jesus' last meal with His disciples before His death. It was then that He explained He would be their (and our) Passover Lamb from then on, and it was then that He explained to them how to keep Passover in the future. However, it wasn't Passover; Passover was the following night after His sacrifice.

As stated at the beginning, this can be a large and fascinating study. All this information and much more has been assembled into a book, The Lord's Passover. If you'd like to read it, it's available for free in PDF format or in paperback or e-book from Amazon. Just click here: https://wccongregationofgod.org/the-lords-passover.html