Keluaran 12:6

12:6 You must care for it ¹  until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community ²  of Israel will kill it around sundown. ³ 

Keluaran 12:18-20

12:18 In the first month, ⁴  from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 12:19 For seven days ⁵  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person ⁶  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner ⁷  or one born in the land. 12:20 You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.’”

Keluaran 13:6-8

13:6 For seven days ⁸  you must eat ⁹  bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there is to be ¹⁰  a festival to the Lord. 13:7 Bread made without yeast must be eaten ¹¹  for seven days; ¹²  no bread made with yeast shall be seen ¹³  among you, and you must have no yeast among you within any of your borders.

13:8 You are to tell your son ¹⁴  on that day, ¹⁵  ‘It is ¹⁶  because of what ¹⁷  the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’

Imamat 23:5-6

23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, ¹⁸  is a Passover offering to the Lord. 23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month ¹⁹  will be the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Bilangan 28:16-17

Passover and Unleavened Bread

28:16 “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover. 28:17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival. For seven days bread made without yeast must be eaten.

Ulangan 16:1-4

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ²⁰  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ²¹  he ²²  brought you out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal ²³  (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he ²⁴  chooses to locate his name. 16:3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your life the day you came out of the land of Egypt. 16:4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land ²⁵  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ²⁶ 

Markus 14:12

The Passover

14:12 Now ²⁷  on the first day of the feast of ²⁸  Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, ²⁹  Jesus’ ³⁰  disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ³¹ 

Lukas 22:7

The Passover

22:7 Then the day for the feast ³²  of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ³³ 

[12:6]  ¹ tn The text has וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת (vÿhaya lakem lÿmishmeret, “and it will be for you for a keeping”). This noun stresses the activity of watching over or caring for something, probably to keep it in its proper condition for its designated use (see 16:23, 32-34).

[12:6]  ² tn Heb “all the assembly of the community.” This expression is a pleonasm. The verse means that everyone will kill the lamb, i.e., each family unit among the Israelites will kill its animal.

[12:6]  ³ tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5 p.m. The Mishnah (m. Pesahim 5:1) indicates the lamb was killed about 2:30 p.m. – anything before noon was not valid. S. R. Driver concludes from this survey that the first view is probably the best, although the last view was the traditionally accepted one (Exodus, 89-90). Late afternoon or early evening seems to be intended, the time of twilight perhaps.

[12:18]  ⁴ tn “month” has been supplied.

[12:19]  ⁵ tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12, §56).

[12:19]  ⁶ tn The term is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), often translated “soul.” It refers to the whole person, the soul within the body. The noun is feminine, agreeing with the feminine verb “be cut off.”

[12:19]  ⁷ tn Or “alien”; or “stranger.”

[13:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “Seven days.”

[13:6]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense functions with the nuance of instruction or injunction. It could also be given an obligatory nuance: “you must eat” or “you are to eat.” Some versions have simply made it an imperative.

[13:6]  ¹⁰ tn The phrase “there is to be” has been supplied.

[13:7]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect has the nuance of instruction or injunction again, but it could also be given an obligatory nuance.

[13:7]  ¹² tn The construction is an adverbial accusative of time, answering how long the routine should be followed (see GKC 374 §118.k).

[13:7]  ¹³ tn Or “visible to you” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 366).

[13:8]  ¹⁴ tn The form is the Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence forward: “and you will declare to your son.”

[13:8]  sn A very important part of the teaching here is the manner in which the memory of the deliverance will be retained in Israel – they were to teach their children the reasons for the feast, as a binding law forever. This will remind the nation of its duties to Yahweh in gratitude for the great deliverance.

[13:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “day, saying.” “Tell…saying” is redundant, so “saying” has not been included in the translation here.

[13:8]  ¹⁶ tn “it is” has been supplied.

[13:8]  ¹⁷ tn The text uses זֶה (zeh), which Gesenius classifies as the use of the pronoun to introduce a relative clause after the preposition (GKC 447 §138.h) – but he thinks the form is corrupt. B. S. Childs, however, sees no reason to posit a corruption in this form (Exodus [OTL], 184).

[23:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “between the two evenings,” perhaps designating the time between the setting of the sun and the true darkness of night. Cf. KJV, ASV “at even”; NAB “at the evening twilight.”

[23:5]  sn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 156, for a full discussion of the issues raised in this verse. The rabbinic tradition places the slaughter of Passover offerings between approximately 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., not precisely at twilight. Moreover, the term פֶּסַח (pesakh) may mean “protective offering” rather than “Passover offering,” although they amount to about the same thing in the historical context of the exodus from Egypt (see Exod 11-12).

[23:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to this month.”

[16:1]  ²⁰ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ²² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[16:2]  ²³ tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[16:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”

[16:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:12]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[14:12]  ²⁸ tn The words “the feast of” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied for clarity.

[14:12]  ²⁹ sn Generally the feast of Unleavened Bread would refer to Nisan 15 (Friday), but the following reference to the sacrifice of the Passover lamb indicates that Nisan 14 (Thursday) was what Mark had in mind (Nisan = March 27 to April 25). The celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted eight days, beginning with the Passover meal. The celebrations were so close together that at times the names of both were used interchangeably.

[14:12]  ³⁰ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:12]  ³¹ sn This required getting a suitable lamb and finding lodging in Jerusalem where the meal could be eaten. The population of the city swelled during the feast, so lodging could be difficult to find. The Passover was celebrated each year in commemoration of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt; thus it was a feast celebrating redemption (see Exod 12). The Passover lamb was roasted and eaten after sunset in a family group of at least ten people (m. Pesahim 7.13). People ate the meal while reclining (see the note on table in 14:18). It included, besides the lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs as a reminder of Israel’s bitter affliction at the hands of the Egyptians. Four cups of wine mixed with water were also used for the meal. For a further description of the meal and the significance of the wine cups, see E. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 523-24.

[22:7]  ³² tn The words “for the feast” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied for clarity.

[22:7]  ³³ sn Generally the feast of Unleavened Bread would refer to Nisan 15 (Friday), but the following reference to the sacrifice of the Passover lamb indicates that Nisan 14 (Thursday) was what Luke had in mind (Nisan = March 27 to April 25). The celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted eight days, beginning with the Passover meal. The celebrations were so close together that at times the names of both were used interchangeably.