Those who hold to a Friday crucifixion have trouble with Wednesday of Holy Week. With a Friday crucifixion there are not enough events to populate Wednesday on a timeline. Therefore, they refer to it as Silent Wednesday. However, if you subscribe to a Thursday crucifixion, the timeline flows together beautifully. I submit to you that Wednesday is not so silent.
Think about it. This is Jesus' last week with His disciples, His last week in Jerusalem before He lays down His life. What sense would it make to simply "take a day off"? I acknowledge there are periods in which the Bible is "silent" as to this or that (Jesus' first 29 years, for example, for the most part). I don't see this day as being one of those.
If you recall from yesterday's post, Tuesday of Holy Week was a very busy day. We will find that Wednesday was equally busy.
Remember that Jewish "days" begin at sundown on what we would call "the day before". So, this Wednesday (like all Jewish calendar Wednesdays) began at sundown on what we would call Tuesday, So, Nisan 13's daylight hours were a "Wednesday" the year Jesus died.
Matthew 26:6-13 records that Jesus is anointed by "a woman" after sundown, the sundown which began the day we call Wednesday, He and the disciples were attending a dinner, held at the home of Simon the Leper, who lived in Bethany, where the entourage was staying with Mary, Martha and Lazarus. This brings us to some potential confusion.
In my initial post about Easter Week ( read it here: http://resplendentdaughter.blogspot.com/2016/03/10-days-that-changed-world.html ) I recorded that Jesus and the Twelve had a meal at the home of the three siblings, M, M&L, and that I believed it took place after the Friday night sundown which began Nisan 9. In that post I was focused on the timeline, not the actual events of the dinner. However, there was one very important event at that Sabbath dinner, detailed in John 12:1-4 (KJV).
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
2 There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Ok, so we have a "Mary" - - most likely the Mary who lived in the house, but the text is not explicit, who took a pound of expensive ointment with which she anointed Jesus' FEET and wiped them with her hair. Remember, this took place on either Nisan 9 (I think so) or Nisan 10.
The problem comes about because of Luke 7:36-50, Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:3-9, which also relate a woman doing something similar. I'm not going to reproduce them here. But, in the Luke passage we find a "sinful woman" (nameless) at the home of Simon the Pharisee (likely in the village of Nain) doing practically the same thing for Jesus as was recorded in John 12. It is clear, though, from Luke (who was a physician and a stickler for details) that this incident occurred in the first year of Jesus' ministry. So, not a huge problem there.
The incident recorded both in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 occurs at the beginning of Nisan 13, after the sunset that began what we would call "Wednesday" of Holy Week, at the home of Simon the LEPER in Bethany. This woman goes unnamed. (I would think she would have been named, had it been Mary of Bethany, as He and the three siblings were very close.) Regardless, she poured a FLASK of expensive OIL on Jesus' HEAD.
So, there are significant differences between the three different accounts. Warning: the headings in your Bible may mislead you to think that some of these three events were one and the same. I don't believe they were.
One other point: Jesus and the disciples would never have entered the home of an actual leper at this time of year, as this would have made them unclean and unable to participate in Passover. A Jewish scholar and friend of mine, Jennifer Scrivner of Beth HaShomer ministries, asserts that the Greek word in the moniker "Leper" is a mistranslation. The Hebrew word for "leper" is מְצוֹרָע which is similar to the word for "jar-maker" or "potter" (as in a maker of alabaster jars). Remember that Hebrew has no vowels. If a translator added vowels to make this word "gar-bah", then you'd have "leper". If vowels added produced "gar-ah-bar", you'd have "potter", or "jar-maker". In fact, the Aramaic Bible in Plain English translates Mark 14:3 like this:
And while he was in Bethany in the House of Shimeon the Potter, as he was reclining, a woman came who had with her an alabaster vase of ointment of the best spikenard, very expensive, and she opened it and poured it on Yeshua's head.
Another possible explanation, one that I've heard, is that Simon/Shimeon was a former leper which Jesus had healed during his ministry. People continued to refer to him as Simon the Leper, in the same way the mother of Boaz, wife of Salmon and great-grandmother of King David continued to be referred to as Rahab the Harlot, even after her conversion. Either of these explanations is plausible.
At any rate, during the daylight hours of Wednesday (Nisan 13) the disciples spent a lot of time preparing for where they would eat the next two evening meals (the latter being Passover) with Jesus (Matthew 26:17-19 and Mark 14:12). There was a lot of work to be done because a lot of food had to be prepared for these two feasts. All the leaven had to be removed from the chosen home, in preparation for this multi-day feast in which no leaven could be eaten.
After the removal of the leaven during the daylight hours of Wednesday, what some call The First Passover or Yeshua's Seder Meal was eaten right after the sundown which began "Thursday" Nisan 14, Preparation Day. (We'll investigate Preparation Day tomorrow). But, the disciples had also prepared the donated home, "the upper room", for the main Passover meal which the disciples had planned to eat with Jesus the following evening (the beginning of Nisan 15). (This makes sense to resolve what looks to be an inconsistency in Mark 14:12. No Passover lamb was killed on Wednesday, but the disciples were preparing for Thursday when, according to Jewish law, the Passover lambs would be slaughtered the afternoon of Nisan 14.) They never ate that main Passover Meal with Jesus, because Jesus was in the tomb only an hour or so before the time for the High Feast of Passover, which began after right sundown on our "Thursday" (actually Nisan 15).
As we see recorded in Matthew 26, it is probable the men ate unleavened bread (which is why He "broke" it - - - it was more like a cracker) and drank wine. If they had any other foods, they are not mentioned, but I think it's likely they did. Jesus made it clear at this meal He was instituting a new sacrament for His church, one which commemorated the breaking of His body and the spilling of His blood for us, represented by the unleavened bread and the red wine. The Bread of Life was showing them what He would be doing in just a few short hours on the cusp of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover, which began at sunset at the close of Thursday, is the first day of that feast....), to redeem not only them, but to purchase redemption for all mankind by His bodily sacrifice on the cross. Bless those boys! They had no idea what He was doing! Not then...
So, this meal at the close of Wednesday was not The Passover Meal, the main one, which would occur the following night at the beginning of Nisan 15. This meal, The Last Supper, the one at which Jesus brought both Passover and First Fruits together to form a new sacramental meal, was the meal which birthed His Church. It began that night, with those Twelve men, the remainder of whose lives were spent spreading a gospel message that has changed the world! Some Jewish scholars see in this meal many parallels to the Jewish wedding feast. In the traditional betrothal feast, for example, once the price of the bride is agreed upon, that agreement is sealed with a cup of red wine. Do you see it? The Father and the Son agreed on the price for us, and that price was paid in Jesus' blood. He the Bridegroom and we, His Betrothed, His future Bride.
Let's look at the timeline/chart now.
Thursday sundown to
Friday sundown
|
Nisan 8
|
Jesus arrives at M,M&L's house in Bethany earlier in the day.
"Mary" (most likely Mary of Bethany) anoints Jesus' feet with costly ointment.
|
Friday sundown to
Saturday sundown
|
Nisan 9
|
Weekly Sabbath; no work or travel.
|
Saturday sundown to
Sunday sundown
|
Nisan 10
|
Palm Sunday; Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
Jesus presents Himself at Temple; Passover Lambs are Selected (Lamb Selection Day)
|
Sunday sundown to
Monday sundown
|
Nisan 11
|
Day 2 of lamb with family
Jesus curses the fig tree
Jesus cleanses the Temple
Jesus heals and teaches in the Temple
Jesus and the 12 return to Bethany.
|
Monday sundown to
Tuesday sundown
|
Nisan 12
|
Day 3 of lamb with family
Jesus teaches extensively in the Temple
Olivet Discourse (Mount of Olives) to disciples
Judas makes contact with Temple priests
|
Tuesday sundown to
Wednesday sundown
|
Nisan 13
| |
Wednesday sundown to
Thursday sundown
|
Nisan 14
|
"Preparation Day"
|
Thursday sundown to
Friday sundown
SABBATH (Sabbat) |
Nisan 15
| |
Friday sundown to
Saturday sundown
SABBATH (Sabbat) |
Nisan 16
| |
Saturday sundown to
Sunday sundown
|
Nisan 17
|
Hallelujah to the Lamb! We'll continue tomorrow. Are you getting excited yet?!
Father God, as I've prayed before over these posts, I ask Your forgiveness for any false interpretations given here. It's not my intent to sin or to cause sin by misstating something. Seeing the rich symbolism You reveal, the beauty of how Jesus united both the Old and the New Covenants, how He fulfilled the Old Testament. What glory! Thank you for Your precious Son, Your most Beloved One, given freely for us. In Jesus' name, amen.
Sources:
https://suscopts.org/resources/interesting-facts/13/which-woman-anointed-our-lord-jesus-christ-with-oi/
http://images.shulcloud.com/294/uploads/Passover_Flyers/bedikat-chametz-faq-5774.pdf
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shabbat_HaGadol/shabbat_hagadol.html
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Unleavened_Bread/Anavah/anavah.html
Beth HaShomer Ministries' Passover Bible Study, Woodstock, GA.
No comments:
Post a Comment