Ted’s Response:

First off, it is important for us to be consistent when referring to specific time periods. Otherwise, confusion will result. The time periods I reference in my Good Thursday commentary are from a Hebraic/Jewish standpoint, so each new 24-hour day begins and ends at sunset, not at midnight.

Therefore, during the week in question, 13 Nisan would have begun at sunset following Tuesday and continued to sunset Wednesday. 14 Nisan, Thursday, would have encompassed the period of time from sunset ending Wednesday to the following sunset. That is, evening/night was the first portion of each day, lasting for about 12 hours, followed by morning/daylight, also lasting about 12 hours.

What it seems that you are asking is how Jesus could have eaten a Passover meal near the beginning of Thursday, 14 Nisan, soon after sunset ending Wednesday, 13 Nisan. You also seem to lean toward thinking that a lamb was eaten during Jesus' last Passover / Lord's Supper.

There does appear to be some historical confirmation that some Jews ate the Passover meal on 14 Nisan, while others ate it on 15 Nisan. However, the last portion of John 18:28 indicates that the Jews who brought Jesus to Pilate did not enter the Roman governor's (Pilate's) palace, so as to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, since they wanted to eat the Passover the following evening (at the beginning of 15 Nisan). Eating the meal after sunset, when 15 Nisan began, would be consistent with Exodus 12:6-8.

Also, at the Last Supper when Satan entered Judas and Jesus told him to go quickly and do what he was about to do, no one else who was there knew why Jesus had said this (John 13:27,28). Some thought that since Judas had charge of the money, Jesus was telling him to go buy what would be needed for the Passover Feast. This is because the Last Supper was not the official Passover meal, which would be eaten by most of the Jews the following night, soon after 15 Nisan had begun.

Jesus ate the meal with His disciples on 14 Nisan (one night earlier than the majority of other Jews would eat the official Passover meal) simply because He would not be alive to eat it the following night. He really did not have a choice to do it at the regular time. Otherwise, He could not have been crucified at the same time as the other Passover lambs were slaughtered, at mid-afternoon on 14 Nisan. That is when Christ, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7b).

As to whether or not Jesus and His disciples ate lamb that night, I lean toward thinking that they did not. One of the main reasons I feel this way is that most, if not all, of the Passover lambs would be sacrificed several hours later, at mid-afternoon on 14 Nisan, which is the time specified as beyn ha’arbayim or "twilight" (Exodus 12:6). It would seem to me that the disciples, in making preparations for a Passover meal, would have been breaking a more significant regulation, by slaughtering a lamb almost a day early, than by eating a Passover meal a night earlier than most Jews did.

At any rate, I do not see the necessity for there to have been a lamb at the Last Supper. In fact, figuratively speaking, the disciples consumed the "body" and "blood" of the ultimate Passover Lamb, Jesus, when they ate the bread and drank the red wine. If anything, it would seem that a roasted lamb on the table would have been an unnecessary distraction from this process, since the supreme Lamb of God was reclining at the table with them. More details can be found in the lamb subsection of my overall Passover and crucifixion on Thursday section.