41. When Is Passover? - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

Q. Did the 1st Century Jews keep Passover on the 14th or the 15th of Abib? Was unleavened bread 7 or 8 days long?

A. There is a fair amount of confusion behind your question. I've often heard it stated that the 1st Century Jews of Messiah's day kept Passover on the evening of the 15th of Abib. This often stated position is clearly not correct. In fact, the 1st Century Jews kept Passover on the evening of the 14th of Abib/Nisan and then kept the feast of unleavened bread over the 7 days following Passover, from the 15th-21st. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread together continued for eight days and were kept in that fashion until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. We know this is true from the testimony of the Jewish priest, Josephus. Notice what he said about this:

"In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries, (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians,) the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days" (Antiquities 3.10.5, Lev.23) .

(Courtesy of Tsiyon Radio)

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