Full Moon

Passover celebration starts at twilight on the 14th of Nisan and carries over into 15th of Nisan. As soon as three stars are seen in the sky it becomes the 15th of Nisan. The 14th of Nisan is the time of the full moon for that month. Passover is a spring festival in Israel. So it starts with the full moon which is also the vernal equinox.

Background Reading:

23:5 “The LORD’s Passover is to begin on the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight.c 6 On the fifteenth day of that month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day that you hold the sacred assembly, you are to do no servile work. 8 Instead, you are to bring an offering made by fire to the LORD daily for seven days. On the seventh day, you are also to hold a sacred assembly during which you are to do no servile work.”
c 23:5 Literally. between evenings
Leviticus 23:5-8

Background Reading:

The Passover with the Disciples

(Matthew 26:17-25; Mark 14:12-21; Luke 22:7-13; John 13:21-30)

22:7 Then the day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed. 8 So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover meal.”

9 They asked him, “Where do you want us to prepare it?”

10 He told them, “Just after you go into the city, a man carrying a jug of water will meet you. Follow him into the house he enters 11 and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks you, “Where is the room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?”’ 12 Then he will show you a large upstairs room that is furnished. Get things ready for us there.” 13 So they went and found everything just as Jesus had told them, and they prepared the Passover meal.
Luke 22:7-13

The Jesus’s Last Passover

(Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-38)


Other slides in this module: