Every Triduum, thousands of Catholics (including me) ask the following question: Why do the Synoptic Gospels (Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke) place the Passover on one date and it seems that St. John places it on a different date?
The answer I gave for several years was the calendar of the Pharisees was different from that of the Essenes. However, I discovered that that answer leads to more problems than solutions.
Before we look at the real answer, I want to remind you of a definition known to most traditional Catholics. Archaeologism is a modernist fad found in Church history and liturgical studies, often used by charismatics. One aspect of this error is to foist Medieval Jewish practices upon the Catholic sacraments. Of course, there is nothing wrong with the fact that God Himself used Old Testament rituals as the foreshadowing of the New Testament sacraments. But superimposing Medieval Jewish practices upon the Catholic sacraments is clearly bananas.
For example, the Offertory in the Novus Ordo Mass (NOM) includes the invented line: “Blessed are you Lord of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the bread we offer you: Fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life.”
Amazingly, that line is found no where in our Roman liturgical tradition. Where does it come from? The recently-deceased Fr. Cekada shows here that the “work of human hands” line is only a combination of a table-blessing from a Jewish Seder Meal and a New-Age line from the 20th century Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin. (Watch the link at the set time-stamp if you don’t believe me.)
The reason I mention archaeologism here is to show that real typology (the linking of Old Testament to the New Testament) has nothing to do with charismatic Judaizing. This will make sense a little later in the article.
Now we return to the main question: Why do the Synoptic Gospels (Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke) place the Passover on one date and it seems that St. John places it on a different date?
Let’s see the main examples from the DRB:
–On the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Where wilt Thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Pasch?’ (Mt. XXVI, 17);
–And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Pasch was being immolated, His disciples said to Him… (Mk. XIV, 12);
–Now came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Pasch had to be slain… (Lk. XXII, 7).
But then, “St John writes that the Pharisees and the Chief Priests, when they were bringing Jesus before Pilate, were unwilling to enter the Prætorium, lest they should contract a legal uncleanness that would prevent them from eating the Pasch, ut non contaminarentur, sed manducarent pascha (that they might not be defiled, but might eat the Pasch) (Jn. XVIII, 28). [So] many concluded that the Jews must that day have held the banquet of the Paschal Lamb, and therefore that our Lord had anticipated by one day the time of the legal Pasch.”
An article at WM Review reconciled these apparent contradictions quite perfectly. I shouldn’t be surprised at this since Mr. Sean Wright was quoting a 16th century source, Fray Luis de León. Notice he was not quoting a Protestant source, as many Catholic charismatics today do. Rather, his answer is very much based in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Mr. Wright’s article linked above is extremely long, so I asked him to summarize his findings, so he texted me this:
There is an apparent discrepancy between the Synoptic Gospels and that of St John. This discrepancy has led to confusion and competing ideas, suggesting either that Christ anticipated the Paschal meal by a day, or by denying that the Last Supper was indeed the ritual feast. Others still have suggested that the Jews postponed the date for some other reason.
Fray Luis’ reconciliation is as follows: The Jewish day is reckoned as beginning in the evening, and the discrepancy in ways of speaking has been the source of much confusion. For example, we are told that the paschal lamb was to be immolated on 14 Nissan, “at night”, which many have assumed to be “the end” of 14 Nissan; but in fact, it is at the beginning.
Further, “the great sabbath” of which St John speaks – the anniversary of the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt – falls on 15 Nissan, which began soon after Our Lord died on the Cross. This was the feast for which the priests needed to remain undefiled, and the reason why the crucified men needed to have their deaths accelerated. On this day, in accordance with the prescriptions of the Pentateuch and in keeping with the historical narrative of the Exodus, the Jewish religion offered a sacrifice of many animals in the Temple. This is reflected in the contemporary Jewish practice of holding two seder meals, in the evening at the start of 14 Nissan and 15 Nissan.
Thus the Gospels are perfectly harmonised with each other and the Church’s liturgy; Our Lord fulfilled the Law perfectly as given to Moses, without need for anticipations or postponements; he held the ritual supper and instituted the Blessed Sacrament on the same day (by Jewish reckoning) that he was crucified; and he rested in the tomb on “the great sabbath” of 15 Nissan.
It really is quite brilliant and yet so simple.
Another thing I learned from his article is that when Moses left Egypt with all of the Jews, we must remember that it was the previous night of 14 Nisan (what we as Catholics might call “First Vespers”) where the head of every family slaughtered the lambs and put the blood of the doorposts. But it took a day to get the belongings of half a million people before fleeing Egypt! Then, another sacrifice took place the next evening (the “First Vespers” of 15 Nisan) which then subsequently led them into the wilderness. Notice again there were two sacrifices. These two sacrifices are the basis of the two Seder meals for many Jewish communities even to this day.
Fray Luis de León writes: “The victim immolated on the fourteenth, and more commonly called Pasch, was a lamb or a kid; the other consisted of bullocks, sheep, etc.:”
This would also reconcile many of the approved private revelations in the Catholic Church. For example, Bl. Catherine Emmerich heard the bleating of animals after the scourging of Jesus. How could this be the case if lambs were sacrificed across Israel the previous night (Thursday night)? Because lambs were indeed sacrificed Thursday night, but another sacrifice was going to take place on Friday night, namely, that of the sheep or bullocks. That was the “pre-exodus” sacrifice, the second of two seders. Thus, Blessed Catherine heard the bleating of the second upcoming sacrifice as Christ was being tortured. This also explains why the Pharisees were able to attend to the Crucifixion before the Feast of 15 Nisan began at sundown.
As I wrote at the beginning, the answer I used to give in order to reconcile St. Mark with St. John was to say the calendar of the Pharisees was different from that of the Essenes. However, I discovered that that answer leads to more problems than solutions.
Finally, remember that the evening begins the next calendar day for the Jews. This means that on the evening of Good Friday, the Jews were already celebrating their forefathers’ Exodus from Egypt. But as far as Jesus—the true lamb, the one who was crucified—we might ask: What was He doing that Friday evening? The historical fact is this: Christ had just begun the exodus of the righteous Hebrews of the Old Testament from the limbo of the Fathers! Indeed, 15 Nisan is both the evening of Good Friday and all of Holy Saturday. The true exodus from limbo to heaven had just begun…