Bible Questions and Answers

Exodus 12:3 "Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth day of this month (Abib / Nisan) every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 ‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 ‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 ‘Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 ‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 ‘Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 ‘Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 ‘You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 ‘On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 ‘So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

Leviticus 23:5 ‘On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover.

Numbers 9:5 And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, in the Wilderness of Sinai; according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did.

Joshua 5:10 Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho.

The instructions are clear - the lamb must be slain on the 14th day of Nisan at dusk, and eaten in the beginning of the 15th day. As I am sure you are well aware that the difficulties arise as follows:

• The first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread arrives (the 14th?) Matthew 26:17-19 Now on the first day of the Feast of the Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"18 And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, "My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.19 So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.
• They prepared the Passover: Mark 14:12 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb (the 14th?), His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"… So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.
• They ate the Passover: Luke 22:7,8,11-15 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed (the 14th?). 8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat."… 11 "Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" 13 So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. 14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. 15 Then He said to them, "With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
  Compare this with John’s record: John 13:1-4 Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. 2 And supper being ended (the supper Jesus called the Passover according to Matthew, Mark and Luke), the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
  John 18:28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.
  John 19:14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!"
• Preparation Day is not the day that the Passover is prepared it is the day before the Sabbath in the Passover week. Preparation is necessary before every Sabbath, because there are many things, food preparation etc. which cannot be done on the Sabbath.
• The week following the Passover was a week of feasting with unleavened bread. It is possible that this was the Passover that the Jews didn't want to be debarred from.
• Conclusion: We have to decide whether Matthew, Mark and Luke are wrong when they record that the disciples prepared the Passover and ate it with Jesus, which means that Jesus died on the 15th of Nisan. Or that they ate it a day early in order for him to die on the 14th of Nisan. It is a mystery that I cannot resolve.

Certainly the death of the Passover lamb foreshadowed the death of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 5:7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

So as you say, it seems reasonable that Jesus would die on the 14th of Nisan, but we can only insist on it by disregarding the seemlingly clear statements in the synoptic gospels. It's a bit of a conundrum.

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn