John (Part 46): Last Supper (ch 13)

As a reminder, here is the Passion week chart we reviewed last time:

As mentioned last time, Mark 14:12 seems to indicate that the first day of Unleavened Bread had arrived. Leviticus 23:6 states, “The Festival of Unleavened Bread to the Lord is on the fifteenth day of the same month.” Obviously, we have a serious problem—not just in our calculation but with Mark’s account. In Mark 14:12, the disciples are asking (during the day) where they should prepare the Passover. If this is the 15^th during the day, the Passover would be eaten that evening, which would be the start of the 16^th; the arrest would take place that night; and the crucifixion would take place during the day on Saturday. This just can’t be so. Mark’s timing must be off. He must have made a mistake.

Ah, but some scholars say the reference to Unleavened Bread is not to the actual prescribed date but rather to the general festival period encompassing the 14^th of Nisan through the 21^st. Thus, the 14^th, being the preparation day—and technically the day of Passover when the lamb was killed—was lumped in with the Unleavened Bread festival. Thus, Mark’s reference was to Passover and not technically the first day of Unleavened Bread.

But this explanation still doesn’t satisfy. According to Mark’s timeline, we are on Wednesday, Nisan 13, during this episode, not the 14^th. If we understand the activity of this verse to take place on Thursday the 14^th, we lose all timing connection with the original Passover in Egypt. Further, and importantly, it does not solve the chronological conflict within Mark. If 14:12 takes place during the day on the 14^th, it means it is the day of Preparation and all Jerusalem eats the Passover that evening. But Mark 15:42 states that the crucifixion day was the day of preparation for the Passover, not the previous day when the Lord’s Supper was eaten. So, whether we decide Mark 14:12 means Friday (the 15^th) or Thursday (the 14^th), we still have a serious problem with the text.

Perhaps it is not Mark who made the mistake in writing his Gospel but rather the translators who made the mistake. Mark 14:12 starts, “On the first day of Unleavened Bread…” That word translated “first” is the Greek word protos. John used that word several times in his Gospel, but not always with the same intent. For example, in John 1:15, we read, “(John testified concerning Him and exclaimed, ‘This was the One of whom I said, “The One coming after me has surpassed me, because He existed before me.”’)” Protos here is translated as before. Similarly, in John 15:18, Jesus said, “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.” Again, the connotation of protos here means “prior to.” Can we incorporate this idea in our passage in Mark 14:12? Using before instead of first, we could come up with this: “Before the day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrifice the Passover Lamb…” At first glance, this seems to make more sense. It is before the feast of Unleavened Bread when they have the day of preparation as they sacrifice the Passover Lamb. But this understanding still has the problem of placing the events of Mark 14:12 on Preparation day—daytime of Nisan 14 or Thursday.

But let’s look even more closely. We seem to assume in this verse that the phrase “when they sacrifice the Passover lamb” is the “day” in question. In other words, we read it as if it says, “During the day when they sacrifice the Passover lamb, this day before the feast of Unleavened Bread…” So, we link the current day we’re talking about with the day of sacrifice.

However, I believe the text is not linking those two. Follow carefully here. There was a day that was part of the upcoming feast on which they sacrificed the Passover lamb. So Mark mentions the day before the day of the feast on which they sacrifice the Passover lamb. In other words, they eat the Passover lamb on Nisan 15. The day prior to that, they sacrifice the lamb. But on the day before that day on which they sacrifice the lamb, the events of Mark 14:12 take place. In other words, Mark is saying, two days before the day of Unleavened Bread when they actually eat the Passover meal, and one before the day of Unleavened Bread when they sacrifice the lamb, the disciples ask about preparation. This fits our Passion Week timing, and it is consistent with Mark 15:42.

Luke adds one other element to the story that helps solidify the timing. As they recline at supper, Jesus says, in Luke 22:15-16, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” If this were simply the normal time to eat Passover, we would imagine that Jesus says this to indicate that he won’t be around the next year when Passover rolls around again.

However, his intent is more specific and more potent than that. The disciples had come into this upper room and were reclining at a table of roasted lamb and unleavened bread. This was a Passover meal. But they all knew that the rest of Jerusalem and all the tens of thousands of pilgrims that had come to Jerusalem would be eating this meal the following night (John 18:28; Luke 23:54; Mark 15:42; Matthew 27:62a). They are no doubt puzzled as to why they are eating Passover a day early. Jesus answers their question in Luke 22:15-16. They are eating it the night before because Jesus had “fervently desired to eat this Passover” with them before he suffered on the very next day. He would not have a chance to eat the Passover with them this year at the normal time because he was going to become the Passover lamb. Thus, rather than skip the communion and necessary instruction associated with the Passover that he had to give them at this meal, Jesus decided (no doubt based on the Spirit’s direction) to celebrate with the disciples a day early.

The conflict, then, between the Synoptics and John is not one of timing error but rather of resolution as to how Jesus—at this one festival—would both spend his last Passover with the disciples and become the Passover lamb for the Passover celebration. He did so by privately celebrating the meal with his disciples a day early and publicly becoming the Passover lamb to be killed during the Preparation Day when all the lambs were killed in Jerusalem for this feast. With this understanding, all conflict is removed; all passages fit into the scenario presented.

The traditional site of Golgotha is only a quarter of a mile away (as the crow flies) from the center of the temple. We can well imagine that the bleating of tens of thousands of sheep as they were being slaughtered for Passover created the background noise for the crucifixion scene such a short distance away as the Passover lamb for the world was put to death.

Besides the timing of the Passover, we also need to make sure we understand the timing of the activity during that Last Supper evening as the disciples and Jesus came to eat the meal and discuss the ramifications of his death. John mentions footwashing, but none of the other Gospel writers does. The others mention the institution of communion, but John ignores it. Certain other activity is mentioned in one place or the other. It is important to sort this out because at one point Judas leaves the dinner to betray Jesus. What had he taken part in before he left? What was he left out of? For this we need an order of events for the washing, eating, communion, and discussion.

Washing was a normal part of a visit to a home both as a matter of courtesy and ritual. Normally, although a person may have bathed, walking about on the dusty streets in sandals would dirty the feet. Upon entry at a guest’s home (depending on the class status of the homeowner), sandals would be left at the door and either a bowl and pitcher of water would be offered or a servant would perform this courtesy of washing the feet. The house where Jesus and the disciples came to eat the Last Supper appears to have been the house of a person of a relatively high status. In the Synoptics we’re told that Peter and John are told to follow a man to a house and then talk to the master about arrangements to dine. The word for “master” or “owner” here is one that indicates someone who has control over others in the household. So the owner likely had servants. However, on this particular night, no servants seem to be present. No one washes the feet of the disciples as they enter.

The text doesn’t mention hand washing but it could possibly have been done. Normally, ritual purification of the hands was performed before a meal. In Luke 11, Jesus did not perform this ceremony and a Pharisee was shocked. Did Jesus do so on the Last Supper evening? We have no record of it. But it would seem, based on Jesus’s earlier discussion, that hand washing before a meal would have been a matter of hygiene for Jesus and not ritual. If he needed cleansing, he would do it. But if his hands were clean, he would not do it simply for the sake of ritual.

The disciples reclined to eat. This was a Greek custom adopted over the years as Jerusalem was Hellenized. The usual arrangement was to have three low sofa couches arranged around three sides of a low table. One side was left open for servants to have access in bringing food. The dinner guests would lie on the couches with heads toward the table and feet away from the table. They would lean on one arm while eating mostly with the other. I’m not sure why this was more attractive than sitting in chairs around a table, but apparently they kept the custom going for some reason.