The Day of Preparation - John 19:14 and John 19:31

John 19:14  "It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour" (NIV).

John 19:31  "Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath.  Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down" (NIV).

   The Passover took place at twilight on the fourteenth day of Abib as is stated in Exodus 12:6 and Deuteronomy 16:1.  Now a new Jewish day began at sundown.  Thus the Passover was to be sacrificed there at the beginning of a day, since if it is twilight, then the sun must be down "under" the horizon.

   There are a huge number of current Bible scholars who advocate John is in conflict with the testimonies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke concerning what day Jesus celebrated the Passover, which I learned about in the course of my CCU studies.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke clearly note Jesus celebrated the Passover on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread [Matthew 26:17, Mark 14:12, and Luke 22:7].  But John states the day Jesus was crucified was the "day of Preparation of Passover Week."  Many scholars interpret this to mean that John states Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples a day early!  Then many of those scholars say John was trying to make the metaphorical point that Jesus was the Passover lamb.  But then the Passover lamb died before the Passover, because Jesus died before twilight!  He died at three o'clock in the afternoon.  There is a huge misinterpretation of John's witness.

   This is a golden example that Scriptures of the "New Testament" must be taken in the context of Scriptures of the "Old Testament."  From Exodus 12:16, we learn what the "day of Preparation" really is: "On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day.  Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat--that is all you may do" (NIV).  So we learn from Exodus 12:16 that in daylight hours following the night before when the Passover lambs were to be killed, blood was to be put on the doorposts, and the lambs roasted and eaten, there was to be a sacred assembly with only food preparation work allowed.  Thus the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the "day of preparation" are the same day.  This "preparation" is not in regards to preparing for the Passover meal.

   I admit the issue is not totally settled because reconciling John 18:28 is tough.  This verse states some Jewish people had yet to eat the Passover, but wanted to eat the Passover, at the time they took Jesus to Pilate.  My only suggestion is that maybe these folks had been so preoccupied with the arrest and trial of Jesus that they failed to eat the Passover at twilight.

   Thus I still say with confidence Jesus was crucified on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the day of Preparation, both of which were the first day of "Passover!"  Eating the Passover meal at twilight, the start of the day, Jesus then died within 24 hours.  He truly was the Lamb of God, as so identified by John the Baptist in John 1:29.  Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the sins.  "...For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (I Corinthians 5:7 NIV).
Hunter Irvine