WHY DID YESHUA (JESUS) EAT THE PASSOVER ONE DAY BEFORE?

Dear brothers.

Shalom aleikhem.

The Gospel say that Yeshua haNetsari (Jesus the Nazarene) and his disciples ate the Passover one day before than the majority of the Jews.

The reason for this fact is this:

In the Jewish Calendar, the months begin in the New Moon, when the Moon becomes visible again for the first time after it becomes invisible, being in conjunction with the Sun.

In our days, we have calculations made by the astronomers, so we can know exactly when the Moon will become visible again, after it becomes invisible.

But in the First Century, at the time when Yeshua haNetsari (Jesus the Nazarene) was preaching, they had to observe the sky, and when they saw the first crescent after the disappearance of the Moon, they announced the beginning of a new month (Rosh Chodesh).

At that time, there were many sects, such as the Pharisees, the Sadducees, etc., and each sect had their own sky observers, and their job was hindered by the fact that in some nights the sky is cloudy, so they could not verify with certainty if the Moon appeared again or not, and sometimes the sky was cloudy in a city and was not cloudy in another city, and so a sky observer of a sect saw the New Moon before than the sky observers of another sect, and so, sometimes a sect declared the beginning of a new month (Rosh Chodesh) in a certain day, and other sect declared the beginning of the new month (Rosh Chodesh) in the next day.

Furthermore, some sects made adjustments in the calendar, adding or taking off one day to some months, to avoid to have a holiday next to a Sabbath (as the Rabbinist Jews do today, to avoid that Yom Kippur fall in Friday or in Sunday), and other sects did not do such adjustments.

Because of these things, sometimes one sect celebrated some festivals one day before or one day after other sects did it.

That's why even today the Orthodox Jews celebrate the festivals for two days.

So, the priests (cohanim) in the Temple of God slaughtered the Passover lambs at both days, when the different sects were celebrating the Passover at different days.

So, Yeshua haNetsari (Jesus the Nazarene) and his disciples celebrated the Passover in the first day, and the majority of the Jews did it in the following day.

For example: The Rabbinist Jews celebrated the Passover in April 17, 2003, and the Karaite Jews celebrated it in April 18, 2003, as you can see in the website of the Karaite Jews, that is http://www.karaite-korner.org/

See this website: www.servosdejave.org.br

Yahveh bless you.

João Paulo Fernandes Pontes.

Published in December 30, 2003.

Updated in October 8, 2009.

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