“28 Then they led Jesus from Caʹia·phas to the governor’s palace. It was now early in the day. But they themselves did not enter into the governor’s palace, that they might not get defiled but might eat the passover.” (Joh 18:28)
“. . .Now it was preparation of the passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he [Pilate] said to the Jews: “See! YOUR king!”” (Joh 19:14)
If you’ve been following the articles on the memorial of Christ’s death published on www.meletivivlon.com (the original Beroean Pickets site), you will be aware that we commemorate the memorial one day prior to the date Jehovah’s Witnesses do. JWs align their commemoration with the date of the Jewish Passover.[i] As can be plainly seen by these verses, the Passover was not yet eaten when Jesus was handed over to Pilate to be killed. Jesus and his disciples had eaten their final meal together the evening before. Likewise, if we are trying to approximate the commemoration of the Lord’s Evening Meal as closely as possible to the original, we will hold it the evening before Passover.
This meal is not a replacement for the Passover. Jesus’ sacrifice as the Passover Lamb fulfilled the Passover, making it unnecessary for Christian to keep. The Jews continue to observe it because they have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah. As Christians, we recognize that the Lord’s evening meal is not our version of the Passover, but our acknowledgement that we are in a New Covenant sealed by the blood and flesh of the Lamb of God.
One cannot help but wonder how those to whom Jehovah’s Witnesses attribute so much knowledge and discernment could miss something as obvious as this.
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[i] This year they didn’t because they use a different starting year for the realignment of the lunar calendar with the solar one that that used by the Jews, but if the pattern continues, next year the Jewish Passover and the JW Memorial dates will again coincide.
Archived Comments
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Comment by Em on 2016-05-28 10:25:04
I can't believe I never noticed that before! I was always taught Jesus was Jewish and faithfully followed the Jewish laws. Why wouldn't he choose to observe Passover? Is it possible the Jews at that time we're observing it on a different date due to some tradition?
Reply by Meleti Vivlon on 2016-05-28 12:22:14
Jesus always observed the passover, but that particular year, he was the passover. :)
Comment by Apollos on 2016-05-28 12:17:13
This is viewed by many as a discrepancy between John and the synoptic gospels. My wife and I researched this in conjunction with the exact timing of Jesus' death and resurrection a few years back. Unfortunately I haven't got a clue where I stored that research. I do recall that it's quite complex. We were able to find a reasonable harmonization based in part on the fact that the sabbath was a "great one / high day" (John 19:31), and the dates for the festivals overlapped in some unusual way.
It was a great study project and if I can't find my notes I'd do it over again. There was insufficient information in the Watchtower publications to provide a complete explanation, so a lot of digging was required.
I expect that others have done similar research and may be able to post something more substantial here.Reply by Andere Stimme on 2016-05-28 16:52:37
I researched this not too long ago, and what I got from the research was that there is no 100% satisfactory way to harmonize the view that they celebrated the Passover on the Passover, and the view above that they celebrated it a day early. My conclusion was that if it were so important, God's inspired word would have left no doubt. For me it was a weight off my shoulders to not have to go to great lengths to ascertain the exact date. This year we chose a convenient date that was close to the Jewish Passover.
Reply by Apollos on 2016-05-29 16:22:10
I agree Andere. We just found the research interesting, but it wasn't for the purpose of establishing when to partake of the Lord's meal. We got into it primarily by trying to determine how long Jesus was actually in the grave in harmonization with Matt 12:40, but it led us onto this other issue of the timing of the Passover too.
Reply by amoreomeara on 2016-06-01 07:58:32
Hi, I have been having a regular bible study with a JW couple for the past year and a bit, so I stumbled onto your site by trying to research one of the WT articles they had given me. I love this site! I too have looked into the Lord's Evening Meal / Passover issue in the past, when I came across this site: http://www.new2torah.com/2014/04/was-the-last-supper-passover/ which was very informative regarding things such as the word used for the bread used at the Lord's Evening Meal was actually leavened bread, so this couldn't have been Passover. Hope this helps, keep up the good work! :-)