The Feasts of the LORD

An almanac of Israel's year

The Hebrew year as a wheel: months, harvests, the feasts of Leviticus 23, and where the New Testament meets them.

These are the set feasts of Jehovah, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season.

Positions are schematic: each month is drawn as 30 days. Hebrew months are lunar (29 or 30 days) and drift against our calendar from year to year; the modern-month equivalents and the seasons are approximate.

Wheel of the Hebrew year

Starts at Nisan at the top and runs clockwise. From the center out: months, a ring of moon phases, rains, the farming year, then the feasts. Tab to a feast and press Enter to open it; the arrow keys move between items of the same ring.

Spring feasts

A spring feast of Leviticus 23

Autumn feasts

An autumn feast of Leviticus 23

Later feasts

Firstfruits: date disputed (hatched)

Weeks: counted, not fixed (dashed)

Moon phase: each month begins at the new moon

FullMoonItems

• passover
• unleavened
• booths

Nisan

Called Abib before the exile and Nisan after it. Exodus 12:2 makes it 'the beginning of months'.

Iyyar

Scripture uses only 'Ziv'; 'Iyyar' is the later Babylonian-Jewish name.

Sivan

Tammuz

Not named as a month in Scripture; the post-exilic name for the fourth month (cf. Jeremiah 39:2, 'the fourth month').

Av

Not named in Scripture; the post-exilic name for the fifth month (2 Kings 25:8, 'the fifth month').

Elul

Tishri

Scripture uses 'Ethanim'; 'Tishri' is the later name. The civil new year later began here.

Marcheshvan

Scripture uses 'Bul'; 'Marcheshvan' (Cheshvan) is the later name.

Chislev

Tebeth

Shebat

Adar

In the later fixed calendar a 13th month (Adar II) is added in 7 of every 19 years to keep Nisan in spring. Scripture does not describe intercalation.

Latter (spring) rain

Easton's Bible Dictionary: the latter rains 'fall in March and April'; Smith: rain continues in March but is 'very rare in April'. (In Joel 2:23 the word 'month' is supplied in translation; the Hebrew may mean 'as before'.)

Dry summer

ISBE (1915): summer is 'very hot and rainless'.

Early (former) rain

Easton: the early rains begin 'in the latter part of October or beginning of November' and last about two months; Smith: late October through November and December. Plowing and sowing follow.

Winter rains

Easton's Bible Dictionary: the heavy 'winter rains' fall 'from the middle of December to March'. ISBE (1915) counts the whole rainy season, winter, as 'lasting from November to May'.

Barley harvest

Barley ripens first: the sheaf of firstfruits (Leviticus 23:10). Encyclopedia of the Bible, 'Seasons': 'in April the harvest began, the first ripe crop being barley'.

Wheat harvest

Weeks is 'the first-fruits of wheat harvest' (Exodus 34:22). Encyclopedia of the Bible, 'Seasons': 'In June the main harvest occurred'.

Summer fruit, grapes, olives

Booths comes 'after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress' (Deuteronomy 16:13): the ingathering at the turn of the year (Exodus 23:16).

Plowing & sowing

Encyclopedia of the Bible, 'Seasons': the farming year began with the early rains in October, when the ground became workable for plowing and sowing.

Grain growing

Passover

Biblical form, Leviticus 23:5.

Kept with Unleavened Bread

14th of the first month, 'at even' (Leviticus 23:5).

A lamb chosen on the 10th (Exodus 12:3) is killed at evening; its blood marks the doorposts in Egypt; it is eaten roasted that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. No bone is broken (Exodus 12:46). After the settlement it is sacrificed only at the place the LORD would choose (Deuteronomy 16:2, 6).

And Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household: and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man’s eating ye shall make your count for the lamb. …

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, is Jehovah’s passover.

And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Jehovah’s passover.

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto Jehovah thy God; for in the month of Abib Jehovah thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. And thou shalt sacrifice the passover unto Jehovah thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Jehovah shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there. …

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be on a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto Jehovah. In the second month on the fourteenth day at even they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs:

A 'second Passover' on 2/14 for those unclean or far away.

Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ:

Paul calls Christ 'our passover'.

For these things came to pass, that the scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.

John applies 'a bone of him shall not be broken' (Exodus 12:46).

On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!

'Lamb of God' — John does not name Passover here.

Unleavened Bread

Biblical form, Leviticus 23:6.

Pilgrimage feast (Deuteronomy 16:16)

15th–21st of the first month; holy convocations on the 1st and 7th days (Leviticus 23:6–8).

Seven days without leaven, remembering the haste of the Exodus — 'the bread of affliction' (Deuteronomy 16:3). Daily offerings of two bullocks, a ram, seven lambs and a goat (Numbers 28:19–24).

Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you. …

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep: seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt); and none shall appear before me empty:

And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto Jehovah: seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work.

And on the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. In the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work; but ye shall offer an offering made by fire, a burnt-offering unto Jehovah: two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven he-lambs a year old; they shall be unto you without blemish; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil: three tenth parts shall ye offer for a bullock, and two tenth parts for the ram; a tenth part shalt thou offer for every lamb of the seven lambs; …

Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. And there shall be no leaven seen with thee in all thy borders seven days; neither shall any of the flesh, which thou sacrificest the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which Jehovah thy God giveth thee; …

wherefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

'Let us keep the feast … with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.'

And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. And those were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had taken him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him; intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people.

Peter arrested during 'the days of unleavened bread' (Herod meant to bring him out 'after the Passover').

And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we tarried seven days.

Paul sails from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread.

Firstfruits (the sheaf)

Biblical word, 'the sheaf', Leviticus 23:11; Scripture gives the day no feast name.

'On the morrow after the sabbath' (Leviticus 23:11) — which sabbath is disputed (see below). The chart shades the range rather than fixing a day.

The first sheaf of the barley harvest is waved before the LORD, with a lamb, grain and wine offering. No new grain may be eaten before it (Leviticus 23:14). The 50-day count to Weeks starts here.

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And in the day when ye wave the sheaf, ye shall offer a he-lamb without blemish a year old for a burnt-offering unto Jehovah. …

Which sabbath?

Second Temple Jews disagreed over 'the sabbath' in Leviticus 23:11, 15. The Talmud (Menachot 65a) records the Boethusians reading it as the weekly sabbath, so the sheaf — and Shavuot fifty days later — always fall on a Sunday; the Sages read it as the festival rest-day (15 Nisan), putting the sheaf on 16 Nisan. Either way it falls within the days of Unleavened Bread.

But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep.

Paul calls the risen Christ 'the firstfruits of them that are asleep'.

But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s, at his coming.

And very early on the first day of the week, they come to the tomb when the sun was risen.

Resurrection found on 'the first day of the week'. Whether that coincided with the sheaf-waving depends on which reckoning was followed that year — the NT does not say.

Weeks / Pentecost

Biblical form, Deuteronomy 16:10 (Exodus 34:22 spells it without the vav).

Pilgrimage feast (Deuteronomy 16:16)

Fifty days counted from the sheaf (Leviticus 23:15–16); no calendar date is given. On the Sages' reckoning (sheaf on 16 Nisan) the 50th day is about the 6th of the third month; on the Boethusian reckoning it is always a Sunday.

Two leavened loaves of new wheat are waved as firstfruits (Leviticus 23:17), with burnt, sin and peace offerings. Gleanings are left for the poor and the stranger (Leviticus 23:22). Rejoicing that includes servants, Levites, strangers, orphans and widows (Deuteronomy 16:11).

and the feast of harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors, which thou sowest in the field: and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labors out of the field.

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven sabbaths shall there be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meal-offering unto Jehovah. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave-loaves of two tenth parts of an ephah: they shall be of fine flour, they shall be baken with leaven, for first-fruits unto Jehovah. …

Also in the day of the first-fruits, when ye offer a new meal-offering unto Jehovah in your feast of weeks, ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work; but ye shall offer a burnt-offering for a sweet savor unto Jehovah: two young bullocks, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for each bullock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs; one he-goat, to make atonement for you. …

Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: from the time thou beginnest to put the sickle to the standing grain shalt thou begin to number seven weeks. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto Jehovah thy God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as Jehovah thy God blesseth thee: …

And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.

The Spirit poured out 'when the day of Pentecost was now come'.

They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.

About 3,000 added — sometimes linked to the firstfruits theme; Luke does not draw the link.

For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.

But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost;

Trumpets

Biblical form, Numbers 29:1.

1st of the seventh month (Leviticus 23:24).

'A memorial of blowing of trumpets', a holy convocation and a solemn rest, with its own burnt offering besides the new-moon offering (Numbers 29:1–6). Later Judaism keeps it as Rosh Hashanah, the civil new year.

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, shall be a solemn rest unto you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. Ye shall do no servile work; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah.

And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing of trumpets unto you. And ye shall offer a burnt-offering for a sweet savor unto Jehovah: one young bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old without blemish; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth parts for the ram, and one tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you; …

Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow the trumpets over your burnt-offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace-offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God: I am Jehovah your God.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first;

Often linked by later interpreters; the NT itself never connects the 'trump of God' with this feast.

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Same caution: an association, not an NT statement.

Day of Atonement

Biblical form, Leviticus 23:27.

10th of the seventh month, 'from even unto even' (Leviticus 23:27, 32).

The one day the high priest enters the Most Holy Place, with incense and blood sprinkled on the mercy seat; the second goat is sent into the wilderness bearing the people's iniquities (Leviticus 16). A fast: 'ye shall afflict your souls'.

And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home-born, or the stranger that sojourneth among you: for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before Jehovah. It is a sabbath of solemn rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; it is a statute for ever. …

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Howbeit on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah. And ye shall do no manner of work in that same day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Jehovah your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day; he shall be cut off from his people. …

And on the tenth day of this seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall do no manner of work; but ye shall offer a burnt-offering unto Jehovah for a sweet savor: one young bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old; they shall be unto you without blemish; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs: …

And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Jehovah, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: and he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat on the east; and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. …

and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man that is in readiness into the wilderness: and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of the people:

But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.

Hebrews reads the Day of Atonement as fulfilled in Christ's entry 'through his own blood'.

For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. Else would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

And when much time was spent, and the voyage was now dangerous, because the Fast was now already gone by, Paul admonished them,

'The Fast was now already gone by': commonly identified with the Day of Atonement (the only fast the Law commands); Luke does not name it.

Booths / Tabernacles

Biblical form, Leviticus 23:34.

Pilgrimage feast (Deuteronomy 16:16)

15th–21st of the seventh month, 'when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land' (Leviticus 23:39).

Seven days living in booths of branches to remember the wilderness (Leviticus 23:42–43); palm, willow and leafy boughs; the largest offerings of the year — 13 bullocks on day one, one fewer each day to 7 (Numbers 29:13–32). Rebuilt in Nehemiah's day (Nehemiah 8:14–17).

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto Jehovah. On the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah: it is a solemn assembly; ye shall do no servile work. …

And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto Jehovah seven days: and ye shall offer a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah; thirteen young bullocks, two rams, fourteen he-lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for every bullock of the thirteen bullocks, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams, and a tenth part for every lamb of the fourteen lambs; …

Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress: and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah shall choose; because Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be altogether joyful.

And they found written in the law, how that Jehovah had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month; and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and branches of wild olive, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. …

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believed on him were to receive: for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.

On 'the last day, the great day of the feast' Jesus offers living water, which John explains as the Spirit.

took the branches of the palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried out, Hosanna: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

Palm branches — at Passover, not Booths; the link to Leviticus 23:40 is an association.

Background

Mishnah Sukkah 4:9 describes a later Temple rite at this feast: water drawn from Siloam in a golden flask and poured at the altar. Many read John 7:37–38 against it; John does not mention the rite.

The Eighth Day

Later Jewish name, from Numbers 29:35, 'on the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly'; Scripture calls it 'the eighth day'.

22nd of the seventh month, the day after Booths (Leviticus 23:36, 39).

'A solemn assembly' with no servile work and its own single bullock, ram and seven lambs (Numbers 29:35–38).

Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah: it is a solemn assembly; ye shall do no servile work.

On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work; but ye shall offer a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah: one bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old without blemish; their meal-offering and their drink-offerings for the bullock, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the ordinance: and one he-goat for a sin-offering, besides the continual burnt-offering, and the meal-offering thereof, and the drink-offering thereof.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

Whether John's 'last day, the great day' is the 7th day or this 8th day is debated.

Dedication

Later Jewish name; Scripture has the word only as 'the dedication of' (Numbers 7:10).

From the 25th of the ninth month (Chislev), for eight days (1 Maccabees 4:52, 56, 59).

Commemorates the cleansing and rededication of the altar by Judas Maccabeus after its profanation under Antiochus IV. 1 Maccabees says it was kept eight days and ordered it kept every year. Outside the Hebrew Bible (in the Apocrypha).

And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: it was winter; and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

'It was winter.' Jesus walks in Solomon's porch.

Purim

Biblical name, Esther 9:26.

14th of Adar in the villages, 15th in Shushan (Esther 9:17–19, 21).

Feasting, gladness and sending portions, remembering the deliverance from Haman's plot; named after the 'pur' (lot) Haman cast (Esther 3:7; 9:26). Instituted by Mordecai and Esther, not by the Law of Moses.

And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far, to enjoin them that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly, as the days wherein the Jews had rest from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to gladness, and from mourning into a good day; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor. …

In the first month, which is the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.

Last Supper as a Passover meal (Synoptics)

Mark, Matthew and Luke place the meal on 'the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the passover' — the meal at the start of 15 Nisan (days begin at evening). On this reading the crucifixion is on 15 Nisan.

Crucifixion on 'the Preparation of the passover' (John)

In John the priests have not yet eaten the Passover on the morning of the trial (18:28) and it is 'the Preparation of the passover' (19:14): on the plain reading Jesus dies on 14 Nisan, as the lambs were killed.

Resurrection, 'the first day of the week'

Placed here only to show it falls within the days of Unleavened Bread. Its exact date depends on the Passover question and the year.

The Spirit poured out at Pentecost

Jesus at twelve, at the Passover

Peter imprisoned during Unleavened Bread

'The Fast was now already gone by'

Commonly identified with the Day of Atonement; Luke does not name it.

When was the Last Supper?

OpensFrom

• passover
• unleavened

The Synoptic Gospels present the Last Supper as a Passover meal (crucifixion on 15 Nisan); John's plain wording places the crucifixion on the day of preparation (14 Nisan). Both agree it was a Friday: 'the Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath' (Mark 15:42; John 19:31).

The Synoptic reading: 15 Nisan

John's reading: 14 Nisan

John's 'preparation of the passover' means a day of Passover week

Carson argues that 'the preparation of the passover' (John 19:14) can mean a day within Passover week, not the eve of Passover. Read with Mark 15:42 ('the Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath'), it is the Friday of that week, and John agrees with the Synoptics.

Two calendars

Jesus followed a different calendar from the temple authorities. Jaubert proposed the Qumran solar calendar, with the meal on the Tuesday evening. Humphreys proposed an older lunar reckoning (the one the Samaritans still use), with the meal on Wednesday evening, two days before the crucifixion.

The Synoptics' meal was not the regular Passover

A meal held ahead of Passover with Passover features, while the official Passover followed (John's timing).

Different day reckonings

Differences in when the day began explain the wording: for Jesus and his disciples the Passover began at dawn, or John counted days from midnight in the Roman way. Against the second, the Roman midnight reckoning was used only for dating contracts and leases. Raymond E. Brown, reviewing such proposals, concluded the accounts cannot easily be reconciled.

Jesus in John

John hangs his Gospel on the feasts. Three Passovers are named; John 5:1 is an unnamed feast. With three Passovers the ministry spans at least about two years (the commonly cited 'three years' counts the start); if 5:1 were a fourth Passover it would add a year. The Synoptics alone require only about one year.

Went up to Jerusalem; cleansed the temple

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, during the feast, many believed on his name, beholding his signs which he did.

Went up to Jerusalem; healed at Bethesda

Many manuscripts read heortē tōn Ioudaiōn, 'a feast of the Jews', with no article (so SBLGNT): among them the papyri P66 and P75, Alexandrinus (A), Vaticanus (B) and Bezae (D). Sinaiticus (א), C, L, Δ, Ψ, family 1 and others read 'the feast'. The NET Bible note judges the shorter reading somewhat better supported, since scribes tended to make the text more explicit. What 'the feast' would mean is itself disputed: the NET note says Passover, J. H. Bernard (ICC) Tabernacles. Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles are the usual suggestions; Westcott proposed Trumpets, and Godet, Meyer and others Purim. The Pulpit Commentary notes it has been matched with 'every feast in the calendar'. The chart does not place it.

Candidates

• passover
• weeks
• booths
• trumpets
• purim

Did not go up — feeding of the 5,000 by the Sea of Galilee

After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

Went up 'not publicly'; taught in the midst of the feast; 'rivers of living water' on the last day

But when his brethren were gone up unto the feast, then went he also up, not publicly, but as it were in secret.

But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

In Solomon's porch; 'it was winter'

Final Passover: Bethany six days before (12:1), triumphal entry, the cross

Jesus therefore six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead.

Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto his Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

Now it was the Preparation of the passover: it was about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold, your King!

Sources

• SBLGNT (morphgnt/sblgnt on GitHub) for the Greek of John 5:1.
• NET Bible note on John 5:1 (copy at wd.bible/jhn.5.net) for the manuscripts with and without the article.
• J. H. Bernard, John (ICC, 1928), on John 5:1 (biblehub.com/commentaries/icc/john/5.htm).
• Pulpit Commentary on John 5:1 (biblehub.com/commentaries/pulpit/john/5.htm), for Westcott (Trumpets), the Purim proposal and 'every feast'.
• Translation commentary on John 5:1, translation.bible (TIPS).

Which month does Exodus 12:2 make 'the beginning of months'?

On what day of the first month is the LORD's Passover?

Which three feasts required all males to appear before the LORD?

Unleavened Bread, Weeks, Tabernacles

Which feast was 'the first-fruits of wheat harvest'?

On which day was atonement made for all Israel's sins 'once in the year'?

During which feast did Israel live in booths for seven days?

Which feast does John 10:22 mention, noting 'it was winter'?

At which Passover in John did Jesus stay in Galilee and feed the 5,000?

What does John 5:1 call the feast Jesus went up to?

'A feast of the Jews' (unnamed)

Paul calls the risen Christ 'the firstfruits of them that are asleep'. Where?

What day does Leviticus 23:11 give for waving the sheaf?

'The morrow after the sabbath'

On which day of the seventh month was the Day of Atonement?

Who established Purim?

Where did the Spirit come at Pentecost, according to Acts 2:1?

On the disciples, 'all together in one place'

Sources

• Scripture quotations: American Standard Version (1901, public domain), from the site's own ASV text.
• Hebrew names: checked against the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible) and Sefaria's Masoretic text. Biblical forms are shown where Scripture names the feast; Shemini Atzeret and Chanukkah are later Jewish names. Transliterations are simplified.
• Greek NT: SBL Greek New Testament via MorphGNT (CC BY-SA).
• Month equivalents: 'Hebrew calendar', Wikipedia, table of the range of possible Gregorian dates (modern fixed calendar).
• Rains: Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries, 'Rain', and ISBE (1915), 'Seasons' (via biblehub.com topical); farming year: Encyclopedia of the Bible, 'Seasons' (BibleGateway).
• Firstfruits dispute: Babylonian Talmud, Menachot 65a (Sefaria, William Davidson translation).
• Water libation: Mishnah Sukkah 4:9 (Sefaria).
• Weeks on 6 Sivan (Sages) or a Sunday (Boethusians): Menachot 65a; 'Shavuot', Wikipedia.
• Dedication: 1 Maccabees 4:52–59 (RSV, on BibleGateway).
• Passover chronology: 'Chronology of Jesus' and 'Last Supper', Wikipedia.
• John 5:1: NET Bible note; J. H. Bernard (ICC); Pulpit Commentary; TIPS translation commentary.
• Moon ring: schematic. A month began at the new moon (Psalm 81:3, Numbers 10:10), so the 15th fell near the full moon.

The Trial, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus

The Passover and the Firstborn

Jesus's Time on Earth

A map of his journeys, including the trips up to Jerusalem

The year God gave Israel

Paras

• “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2). The wheel starts at Nisan (Abib) at the top and runs clockwise through the year.
• Each month began at the new moon, so the two great week-long feasts, Unleavened Bread from 15 Nisan and Booths from 15 Tishri, open under a full moon. Follow the thin ring of moons around the months to see it.
• The feasts follow the harvest: Passover and the sheaf with the barley, Weeks with the wheat, and Booths at the ingathering of grapes and olives. The three pilgrimage feasts were the ones all Israel's males went up for (Deuteronomy 16:16).

Tips

• Click or tab to a feast, month or season.
• Turn on NT events to see the Passion and Pentecost on the wheel. Both ways of dating the Last Supper are shown.
• Switch to Jesus in John to follow the feasts John uses to frame the ministry of Jesus.

Hub

• Nisan
• the beginning of months
• Exodus 12:2

More illuminations · Harbinger's Lamp