The Last Supper accounts in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

[gustavocordobah]

What do the synoptic gospels say regarding The Last Supper?.

Matthew 26:17

Τῇ δὲ πρώτῃ τῶν ἀζύμων προσῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ λέγοντες· ποῦ θέλεις ἑτοιμάσωμέν σοι φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα;

Translation: "Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Where will you that we prepare for you to eat the Passover?'"

Mark 14:12

Καὶ τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν ἀζύμων, ὅτε τὸ πάσχα ἔθυον, λέγουσιν αὐτῷ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ· ποῦ θέλεις ἀπελθόντες ἑτοιμάσωμεν ἵνα φάγῃς τὸ πάσχα;

Translation: "And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him,
'Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?'"

Luke 22:7

Ἦλθεν δὲ ἡ ἡμέρα τῶν ἀζύμων, [ἐν] ᾗ ἔδει θύεσθαι τὸ πάσχα·

Translation: "Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be sacrificed."

John 13:1

Πρὸ δὲ τῆς ἑορτῆς τοῦ πάσχα εἰδὼς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ἦλθεν αὐτοῦ ἡ ὥρα ἵνα μεταβῇ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα,
ἀγαπήσας τοὺς ἰδίους τοὺς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, εἰς τέλος ἠγάπησεν αὐτούς. καὶ δείπνου γινομένου, τοῦ διαβόλου ἤδη βεβληκότος
εἰς τὴν καρδίαν ἵνα παραδοῖ αὐτὸν Ἰούδας Σίμωνος Ἰσκαριώτου

Translation: "Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father,
having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the
heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him

2. Some weeks ago, after years of reading my Bible I realized what the Matthew, Mark and Luke were saying, and it deeply disturbed me.
How is that I have never noticed this incongruence with Exodus 12, Leviticus 23 amd Numbers 28 before?
I suddenly realized that the instructions from God to Moises about choosing a lamb or goat one year old on the 10th of Nissan
and keeping it until the 14th (hence 4 full days) when it should be sacrificed, which I understood was a rehearsal of what Jesus had
performed during his last week, were in conflict with these gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke seem to express that Jesus had His Last Supper
the first day of The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is obviously one day after passover. Not only not on passover, but one day after!,
which made his sacrifice impossible even on the first day on Unleavened Bread and placed it in the second day of Unleavened Bread at the earliest,
two complete days of in the best case!!!!

How is this possible? I thought.

When I checked John account I felt a sense of relief. John account seem to be ok and aligned with the OT instructions.

So, what happened with Matthew, Luke and John? The Word of God is perfect and so His Plans. If so, there shall be a reason
for this that lays out of the original writings, I thought. The translations? So here we go.

2.a) Are the translations correct?

πρώτη (prōtē—the feminine form of prōtos) can be understood or translated as "before" or "prior to" in specific Greek contexts, although its
primary meaning is "first".

In certain cases, nevertheless, particularly when comparing two things or indicating the beginning of a sequence, it functions closely to "before."
In fact I am not the first who argue that in Matthew 26:17, Tē de prōtē tōn azymōn could be understood as "Now prior to the feast of unleavened
bread" rather than just "On the first day...".

Similar explanation can be made for Mark gospel as the wording in greek is similar.

But what about Luke? Supossing it is a translation mistake why Luke, which uses a different greek language structure, seem to rpopose the same
incongruence?

Then, it came to my mind the possibility of the writer of Luke having in view Matthew or Mark account at the moment of writing.
Is it possible that the writer of Luke account missinterpreted the greek word "πρώτη" and hence we have it proposing the same incongruence?

2b) While doing this research and searching about it I then remembered that somewhere, in different opportunities I have stumbled with
videos and writings that allude to the spring feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits as a single feast and confused me.
It seem to exist the habit of referring to the complete period of eight days (Passover plus seven days of UB) of continuous festivities with just
one name, sometimes with the word Passover, sometimes with the words UB.
So I thought, what if, just what if this cultural habit which I catalogue as religious language lazyness was already present in the hebrew
culture by the time of the gospels being written and even when Jesus was here on Earth?
I found that, Yes, it was a habit already present during The Second Temple Period.

Why is that important?

Because it might explain why Matthew and Mark seem to say that Jesus celebrated The Last Supper on UB when it really happened
on Passover! Passover is The First Day of the eight days period when invoking these eight days period with one name.

Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and First Fruits were originally separate events—Passover on Nisan 14 and the Feast of UB on Nisan 15–21
but began to be used interchangeably during the Second Temple period with just one name, either Passover or UB.
The proximity of the events (back-to-back) caused the entire eight-day period of festivities to be commonly referred to as
"Passover" or "Unleavened Bread".

Both points combined might explain, if confirmed, why a bad translation and a lazy religious language can produce this conundrum:
If Matthew, Mark and Luke (and I believe Matthew was the first gospel and Luke and Mark were written with the Matthew document at sight)
refers not to the Feast of Unleavened Bread specifically but to the complete eight days period, now we can understand that they
were pointing that Jesus and the disciples had the Last Supper exactly the day of Passover (the first day of the eight Unleavened Bread days).
If the correct translation is not "In The First Day" but "Before The First Day" now the issue is completely fixed: They had The Last Supper
according to the Instructions from Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, this is The Day before Passover and not on Passover as Jesus was to be
The Passover Lamb to be killed on Passover, the day after The Last Supper.

This is exactly what John wrote and seem to be in apparent contradiction with Matthew, Luke and Mark, due to religious language lazyness and
bad translation if confirmed.

Notes:

1. Irenaeus says Matthew was written first.

“So Matthew brought out a written gospel among the Jews in their own style, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome
and founding the church. But after their demise Mark himself, the disciple and recorder of Peter, has also handed on to us in writing
what had been proclaimed by Peter. "

It might well have been the influence of Papias and Irenaeus that caused people to put Matthew first.
The assumption that Matthew was written first was never really questioned by the patristic writers.
This assumption was closely tied to the belief that Matthew was written in Hebrew, which we know was not correct.
In fact, whether Papias was even talking about the same text is uncertain.

 

[David]

It might well have been the influence of Papias and Irenaeus that caused people to put Matthew first.
The assumption that Matthew was written first was never really questioned by the patristic writers.
This assumption was closely tied to the belief that Matthew was written in Hebrew, which we know was not correct.
In fact, whether Papias was even talking about the same text is uncertain.

gustavocordobah, this is not acceptable handling of Scripture on BTF.

You claimed Matthew, Mark, and Luke create an incongruence with Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and then suggested the problem may be “bad translation,” “lazy religious language,” or even Luke misunderstanding Matthew or Mark. That is not careful Bible study. That is putting suspicion on Scripture when the text itself gives the answer.

Mark says plainly, “And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover...” ~Mark 14:12. Luke says, “Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed” ~Luke 22:7. They are not saying Jesus ate the Last Supper one day after Passover. You are forcing that problem onto the text.

Luke also says, “Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover” ~Luke 22:1. So Scripture itself shows the terms can overlap. That is not “lazy religious language.” That is biblical wording.

Do not accuse Scripture of confusion because your timeline assumption created a problem. Do not suggest Luke misunderstood the matter. Luke says he wrote “having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first” ~Luke 1:3.

On BTF, we do not twist Scripture, accuse the biblical writers of confusion, or use speculation to fix problems Scripture itself does not create. That will not be tolerated.

You are off to a bad start. Keep your claims under Scripture, or do not make them.