9. According to Exodus 12:6, when was the Passover lamb to be slaughtered? (See also the box “What Part of the Day?”)

⁹ The Pentateuch and Haftorahs points out that Exodus 12:6 says that the lamb was to be slaughtered “between the two evenings.” Some Bible versions use exactly that expression. Others, including the Jewish Tanakh, translate it “at twilight.” Still others, “at dusk,” “during the evening twilight,” or “around sundown.” So the lamb was to be slaughtered after the sun had set but while there was still light, at the start of Nisan 14.

10. According to some, when was the lamb slaughtered, but what question does that raise?

¹⁰ In later times, some Jews thought that it would have taken hours to slaughter all the lambs brought to the temple. So Exodus 12:6 was understood to refer to the end of Nisan 14, between the time when the sun started to decline (after noon) and the end of the day at sunset. But if that were the meaning, when would the meal have been eaten? Professor Jonathan Klawans, a specialist in ancient Judaism, noted: “The new day begins with the setting of the sun, so the sacrifice is made on the 14th but the beginning of Passover and the meal are actually on the 15th, although this sequence of dates is not specified in Exodus.” He also wrote: “Rabbinic literature . . . does not even claim to be telling us how the Seder [Passover meal] was performed before the destruction of the Temple” in 70 C.E.​—Italics ours.

11. (a) What did Jesus go through on the day of Passover 33 C.E.? (b) Why was Nisan 15 in 33 C.E. called “a great” Sabbath? (See footnote.)

¹¹ We thus have reason to ask, What of the Passover in 33 C.E.? Well, on Nisan 13, as the day drew near ‘on which the passover victim was to be sacrificed,’ Christ told Peter and John: “Go and get the passover ready for us to eat.” (Luke 22:7, 8) “At length . . . the hour came” for the Passover meal, after sunset on Nisan 14, which would be Thursday evening. Jesus ate that meal with his apostles, and then he instituted the Lord’s Evening Meal. (Luke 22:14, 15) That night he was arrested and tried. Jesus was impaled close to noon on Nisan 14, and that afternoon he died. (John 19:14) Thus, “Christ our passover [was] sacrificed” on the same day as the Passover lamb was slaughtered. (1 Cor. 5:7; 11:23; Matt. 26:2)