Keluaran 12:18-20

12:18 In the first month, ¹  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 ²  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person ³  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner ⁴  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.’”

Ulangan 16:5-8

16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages ⁵  that the Lord your God is giving you, 16:6 but you must sacrifice it ⁶  in the evening in ⁷  the place where he ⁸  chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt. 16:7 You must cook ⁹  and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses; you may return the next morning to your tents. 16:8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. ¹⁰ 

Markus 14:12

The Passover

14:12 Now ¹¹  on the first day of the feast of ¹²  Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, ¹³  Jesus’ ¹⁴  disciples said to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ¹⁵ 

[12:18]  ¹ tn “month” has been supplied.

[12:19]  ² tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12, §56).

[12:19]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “alien”; or “stranger.”

[16:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “gates.”

[16:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “the Passover.” The translation uses a pronoun to avoid redundancy in English.

[16:6]  ⁷ tc The MT reading אֶל (’el, “unto”) before “the place” should, following Smr, Syriac, Targums, and Vulgate, be omitted in favor of ב (bet; בַּמָּקוֹם, bammaqom), “in the place.”

[16:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:7]  ⁹ tn The rules that governed the Passover meal are found in Exod 12:1-51, and Deut 16:1-8. The word translated “cook” (בָּשַׁל, bashal) here is translated “boil” in other places (e.g. Exod 23:19, 1 Sam 2:13-15). This would seem to contradict Exod 12:9 where the Israelites are told not to eat the Passover sacrifice raw or boiled. However, 2 Chr 35:13 recounts the celebration of a Passover feast during the reign of Josiah, and explains that the people “cooked (בָּשַׁל, bashal) the Passover sacrifices over the open fire.” The use of בָּשַׁל (bashal) with “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) suggests that the word could be used to speak of boiling or roasting.

[16:8]  ¹⁰ tn The words “on that day” are not in the Hebrew text; they are supplied in the translation for clarification (cf. TEV, NLT).

[14:12]  ¹¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

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

[14:12]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:12]  ¹⁵ 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.