The evening of Maundy Thursday marks the beginning of the Triduum — ‘three days’ in Latin — the most important days in the Church calendar, which conclude Easter evening.
Find out how Passover was celebrated in Jesus’s time and how important the Last Supper is to Christianity:
John MacArthur on Passover as celebrated at the Last Supper
Passover, the Last Supper and the New Covenant
It is important to know that some Jews held this supper on Thursday and others on Friday, according to John MacArthur (emphases mine):
There actually were two different evenings when the Passover was celebrated. I’ll just leave it at this. The northern people in Galilee celebrated it on Thursday evening while the Judeans, the Sadducees and the people in the south celebrated it on Friday evening. This is perfect, so that Jesus could celebrate the Passover with His friends in Galilee when they celebrated it on Thursday and still die as the Passover lamb on Friday at the time when the southern Judeans were slaughtering their lambs for their Passover. So there are actually two times; on Thursday for those in the north, and on Friday for those in the south. And that’s an important reckoning because there are texts in John’s gospel, in particular, that make it necessary to understand that.
This is because of the difference in the way the two groups of Jews calculated their days:
Study Josephus. Study the Mishnah, the codification of Jewish law and other historical sources. You find that the Jews in the north and the Jewish people in the south, the Galileans say as opposed to the Judeans, had different ways of calculating their days. These chronological aspects have been a wonderful study in anybody’s…anybody who makes an effort to studying this in the New Testament is greatly enriched by it. But in the north, they calculated days from sunrise to sunrise…sunrise to sunrise. That was a day. Whereas in the south, they calculated the day from sunset to sunset. So that’s a very clear distinction. In Galilee, where Jesus and all the disciples except Judas, had grown up, they calculated days from sunrise to sunrise. So the fourteenth of Nissan was sunrise on Thursday to sunrise on Friday. That puts the Passover Thursday night. For the Jews in the south, it was sunset to sunset, so that puts it in late Friday for the southern Jews. Same day calculated two different ways. And that worked well for the Jews.
By the way, the Pharisees tended to go with the northern approach. The Sadducees who were all around Jerusalem tended to go, of course, with the southern approach. What that did was solve a couple of problems. It split the number of animals to be killed into two different periods, Thursday night and Friday night. It also reduced what were called regional clashes cause the southern people didn’t think too highly of the northern people. So it just was easier to have them separated.
The posts below are resources for John’s Gospel, which provides the fullest description of the Last Supper and Jesus’s final discourses to the Apostles:
‘One of you will betray Me’ (John 13)
Maundy Thursday and the Last Supper: Jesus’s words of comfort (John 14)
John 17 — the High Priestly Prayer: parts 1, 2 and 3
These posts discuss the words of consecration, which Jesus used at the Last Supper and continue to be part of Christian liturgy today:
Forbidden Bible Verses — Matthew 26:26-29
Forbidden Bible Verses — Mark 14:22-25
Peter’s three denials of Jesus took place after His arrest. Jesus foretold this when He and the Apostles were at the Mount of Olives that night:
Forbidden Bible Verses — Mark 14:26-31
So much happened that day. The Apostles had no idea what would happen on Friday. But Jesus knew full well, which is why He spent hours in prayer while the Twelve slept nearby.
Churchmouse Campanologist 
17 comments
April 12, 2017 at 11:25 pm
TheBlockedDwarf
. …and other historical sources
I think he probably means the Dead Sea Scrolls; we know from their calendars that Qumran community kept to the ‘older’ system :
Moreover, they (Qumran) did not hesitate to accuse the established mainstream Jew-
ish community and its leaders of having abandoned the exclusively legitimate
solar calendar in favor of the heathen’s lunar calendar and with it the counting
of the day, including the Sabbath, from evening to evening, as one would
expect from keepers of the lunar calendar.-Yosef Green “When does a day begin?”
Which illustrates nicely the point I was trying to make the other day about studying texts outside the bible being vital to biblical understanding.
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April 13, 2017 at 12:17 am
churchmouse
Fine. I’ll let those better educated than I am in Scripture make those decisions, rather than the casual reader looking to find the contrarian view because they seek to be … contrary.
Don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather trust established sources rather than laymen who are seeking to pervert Scripture. None of us knows what you have to offer on this subject — and fair enough. It’s interesting that you only chose to comment here close to the end of Lent and just before Holy Week.
If you have something valuable to say on the use of ‘tree’ or ‘cross’ (from a previous comment), then say so. Don’t just drop a nugget of information then go off. Great, you know more than we do. What does it mean? If you have something useful, then, please contribute. Otherwise, people will think you are trolling.
You’ve had enough of a space to comment. Use it well.
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April 13, 2017 at 6:04 am
TheBlockedDwarf
CM, if you’d rather I not comment in future then simply say so and I will ‘leave’ without rancour, infact I will hold you in good memory as you’ve ‘taught’ me a couple of interesting things (I really very much doubt i know more than you…different maybe but not more).
I chose to start commenting on your blog because you posted some interesting stuff that’s all. (btw my earlier comment on this post was broadly supportive of your arguments , perhaps I should have made that clearer). The fact we are in Holy Week is just , from my side at lease, coincidence ( I don’t personally set much store by Easter as , for me, everyday is Easter and Xmas and Lent, that whole ‘some hold days’ ).
As to the ‘stake’ /Cross thing I’m pretty sure that would have been covered in your confirmation class (assuming you’re a confirmed Anglican which seems likely). I know it was in mine. My use of it as example was simply to illustrate my point- it was not intended to be a ‘nugget of information’ nor to seem like trolling. I had no idea it was in anyway ‘news’ to you. I would be very surprised if John McArthur hasn’t covered it somewhere, he seems that sort of writer.
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April 13, 2017 at 10:48 am
churchmouse
Thank you for your clearest comment yet. I got it in one reading. 🙂
Every Christian I know has had a different upbringing and religious training. Therefore, if we’re going to discuss theology, let’s spell things out and be clear instead of cryptic.
I have a variety of readers from around the world. Some go to church. Some do not. Some are Christians. Others are agnostic or atheist. For this reason, let’s keep the discussion open and explanatory.
It is good that you every day is equally important to you spiritually. The Church fathers gave us a seasonal calendar when certain feasts are celebrated. Personally, I find the Church calendar particularly useful. Easter has always been the greatest feast of the Church. For centuries, Christians had to go to church and receive Communion on that day. That week is not called Holy Week for nothing. I take it seriously as an opportunity to reflect more deeply on the Passion of Christ.
Re the cross as a stake. From my reading over the years, this appears to be a common tenet among certain fundamentalist churches. I have not encountered it in the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the US (into which I was ‘received’) nor in the Catholic faith in which I was raised.
That said, both Peter and Paul used ‘tree’. Peter (Acts 5:30):
30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
Paul (Acts 13:29):
29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.
Re John MacArthur, although he is also a fundamentalist, he believes there was an actual cross. This is how he describes the Crucifixion:
‘… The cross would be lying on the ground, the victim would be placed down on the cross and first His feet would be extended, His toes pulled down and then a large nail would be driven through the arch of one foot and then the arch of another foot. And then His hands would be extended allowing His knees to flex a little bit and there would be great nails driven through His wrists just below the bottom part of His hand, the heel of His hand because there is the place where it would hold. In the middle of the hand it wouldn’t hold, it would pull through the fingers.
‘Once the victim was nailed there, the cross would be picked up and dropped into a hole. And when it hit the bottom of the socket, of course, it would rip and tear the flesh and send the nerve impulses to make explosions in the brain in regard to pain. The victim is now crucified. Slowly He would begin to sag down more and more the weight being placed upon the nails running through His wrists, excruciating fiery pain would shoot up the arms and into the mind. Pressure put on the median nerves would be beyond almost the ability to endure.
‘The Lord then would try to push to relieve the pain and so He would push with His feet and be pushing on the two wounds in His feet. And the same thing would happen. And hour after hour this wrenching twisting torment of the body back and forth, trying to relieve one and then the other, the hands and the feet, it would become very impossible after a while to do any pushing upward because of the pain and the sagging would put the greatest weight upon the hands.
‘Dr. Truman, Davis writes, “At this point, another phenomenon occurred as the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles nodding them in deep relentless throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the inner costal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs but it can’t be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself to get even one short breath. Finally carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps subside. He would grasps short breaths of air, hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting joint‑rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He Moves up and down the rough timber. A deep crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with scorum (?) and begins to compress the heart. And this leads to death.”‘
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April 13, 2017 at 12:46 am
OIKOS™-Redaktion
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
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April 13, 2017 at 10:51 am
churchmouse
Thank you very much for the reblog. I am pleased that you and your readers liked it.
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April 13, 2017 at 5:55 pm
TheBlockedDwarf
Christians had to go to church and receive Communion on that day.
Indeed, for a long time Xmas was very secondary to Easter and (any Catholics reading should please correct me if I am wrong) attendance of Easter Mass is the only religious duty placed upon Catholics (I have a feeling that in the old days if one didn’t attend Easter Mass then one had auto-excommunicated oneself).
Re the cross as a stake
is in my opinion a bit of a theological storm in one of those horrible pale green tea cups used in the Church Halls of my childhood. At least on the devotional side of things I really can’t see it make any difference whether Christ was nailed to a ‘classic’ cross,a ‘T’, an ‘X’…or Y or Z . Surely? He died for us, the ‘how’ is of little import beyond it was a particularly nasty form of execution, which is why the Peter’s humility in requesting to be crucified upside down was probably rewarded by a far quicker death. (in the interests of clarity, I should explain that church tradition teaches that at his execution St.Peter begged to be crucified head downwards because he felt he was unworthy to die in the same manner Christ had).
It becomes of theological interest when one trys to go deeper into the Gospel narrative which as you highlighted is a bit complicated. Personally it has always bothered me, as it did the soldiers, that Christ died so quickly. The Romans were the absolute masters of Crucifixion and prided themselves on keeping the poor unfortunates on the cross alive for days and days.
But yes again you’re right, the only Christians for whom it seems to matter are usually (perhaps overly) concerned about being ‘faithful in all things’…however inconsequential it might appear to everyone on the outside. By these things….
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April 13, 2017 at 6:16 pm
TheBlockedDwarf
Hmm I posted that last comment and then went downstairs for a smoke (I don’t smoke in the flat) . I live on the main street of my small Norfolk market town. Suddenly I heard the sound of ‘life vest’ whistles being blown and into view came, what I assume, is the local Catholic youth group all clad in the highly traditional ceremonial hi-res safety jackets (oh for some ‘Mediterranean flair’ and funny KKK style pointy hats ) carrying a large wooden cross and reciting the Rosary.
It’s not often i’m surprised but I am impressed that the local Catholic church has not only a youth Group but managed to get 20 of them out doing something which must be fairly embarrassing to a teenager. Shame modern health and safety laws rather spoil the ‘magic’ of it. Give me torches, give me Latin , give me robed altar boys swinging incense burners.
Shorts, crocs and cags just don’t convey the wonder iMO.
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April 13, 2017 at 11:28 pm
churchmouse
‘I don’t smoke in the flat’. Would your neighbours complain? What do you do on a day with hard rain?
Pointy hats and robes in a religious context come from a Spanish tradition: Capirote. Pictures at the link.
‘I am impressed that the local Catholic church has not only a youth Group but managed to get 20 of them out doing something which must be fairly embarrassing to a teenager.’ So am I. Give thanks.
‘Give me torches, give me Latin , give me robed altar boys swinging incense burners.’ Agree 100%, any day of the week.
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April 14, 2017 at 6:49 am
TheBlockedDwarf
Would your neighbours complain? What do you do on a day with hard rain?
Back 27 years ago when I first met The Prettiest Girl In The German Village who became The Bestes Frau In The Whole Widest World, she had been raised an ultra strict Baptist. My Then-to-be-Mother-in-Law had, herself, been raised in an Ultra Orthodox Exclusive Brethren faith For your readers I’ll explain. ‘Exclusive Brethern’ make the Amish look like wishy washy liberals. Men and women are separated in the congregation, the women all wear headcoverings and skirts, men boots and beards. All forms of ‘fun’ are of course SIN writ large. They have, in the past, schismed over such issues as whether men must wear full beards or are moustaches suffice. My wife’s granddad was a famous Street Missionary who wrote cheerful little tracts entitles “It is more godly to cry than laugh” and “TV sets are a direct doorway to Hell”. (your German readers may recall his Bible stand in the middle of Heilbronn and other southern German towns).
My wife was raised to believe that smoking is not only a SIN but a ‘burnt offering to Satan’ and to smoke was to invite demons into your soul. I may have been able to corrupt her to the point that she was happy to go to bed with me before being married but it took years for her to accept the fact I smoke, that smoking is a ‘middle thing’ (ie something neither of itself ‘good’ nor ‘bad’) So from the start of our life together i have always smoked outside.
Fortunately where I live atm my front door is under an archway over the entrance to a yard- very medieval street plan, so hard rain isn’t an issue.
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April 14, 2017 at 11:09 am
churchmouse
Glad you have shelter out there.
What a great story. It’s ironic that from a country that is known for its Catholics and Lutherans you happened across a Baptist with an Exclusive Brethren mother.
Maybe my German reader will be familiar with your grandfather-in-law’s tracts.
Delighted to read that an interesting pairing worked out into a long and happy marriage. An Episcopal minister once told me, ‘We marry our unfinished business’.
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April 14, 2017 at 12:20 pm
TheBlockedDwarf
An Episcopal minister once told me, ‘We marry our unfinished business’.
Thank you for that one, hadn’t heard that before!! Excellent and so so true!
Oh and btw it got even ‘worse’ with regards to my parents in law. Mother-in-law was considered by her family (well mainly by her dad- the tract guy) to be just below an ‘apostate’ from the true faith because not only had she married a pentecostal but had opted to become a Baptist. Not only that but sometimes she visited the Reformed Church (ie founded by Zwingli’s side of the Reformation) because the Pastor was one of those rare preachers who -to use your quote I think- ‘made Christ the star of his sermon’. That, in her Dad’s eyes was almost akin to praying to the devil…all ‘organised religion/churches’ being an anathema to the free worshipping, fun loving Brethren.
The family were refugees from East Prussia so that explains why I picked the only girl in the village who wasn’t a Catholic (your readers may not know that the wars following the Reformation ended up with each village being either a Catholic or Lutheran village, according to their over lord’s faith) . My wife’s village was staunchly Catholic, the village on the other side of the woods was Protestant and there was still a slight ‘Northern Ireland’ feeling about some things. People from one didn’t marry into the other… that kind of thing.
Family breakfasts were often, very Germanically, the place where we all discussed religion. A few years after I had met my wife we were all seated around the breakfast table. My pentecostal father-in-law, my ‘apostate to the Brethren’ Ultra Baptist Mother-in-Law, My Mormon wife, my 7th Day Adventist Sister-in-Law, her Muslim husband and me (the only one who had any ‘historical critical’ training, and not much at that). I think that was the point I finally learnt that sometimes just getting on with enjoying my ham and cheese breakfast roll is the better theological option.
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April 13, 2017 at 11:23 pm
churchmouse
Thanks for this. I’ll comment by topic.
Tree or cross?
The Beach Mission guy was mistaken. Maybe he was masquerading as a Low Church Anglican but was probably a non-con literalist? (For my readers who aren’t British, non-con — non-conformist — means any Protestant who is not Anglican.) Maybe the career opportunities as an Anglican were better than those as a non-con? 😉
I’ll try to remember to elaborate on this more next year. It is interesting.
These were my search terms: Christ crucified on a tree a literalist belief
Anyone can check it out.
There is more information at the links below. I’ve only excerpted them.
1/ http://www.cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Library.sr/CT/BQA/k/175/Was-Jesus-Crucified-on-Cross-Stake-Matthew-2735.htm
‘The word “cross” in the New Testament comes from the Greek word stauros. The study of word origins shows that stauros simply means “stake” or “pole.” This word was used in literature in reference to pieces of wood of various shapes, including those with crosspieces …
‘Whether the use of this term is more descriptive than literal cannot be determined, but under time restraints as occurred during Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, the Romans are known to have used living trees as stauron for crucifixions.
‘There is no description in the Bible of the specific stauros on which Christ died. If it were important for us to know its shape, God would have provided us with additional information.’
2/ https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/13726/did-jesus-die-on-the-cross-or-on-the-tree
Refer to Doubting Thomas in John 20.
‘In John 20:25, it is written,
‘Therefore, the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I shall see the print of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
‘The word “nails” is plural. Jesus had the print of nails in his hands. If Jesus were crucified on an upright stake in which both hands were affixed to the stake (see image below) with a singular nail, then we wouldn’t see the word “nails” — but “nail” — to describe the print in Jesus’ hands.
‘As for the word “tree” — which is equivalent to the Hebrew word עֵץ (etz), this Hebrew word was used for the “gallow” that Haman and his sons were hanged on in the Book of Esther (Est. 9:25), so it has a wide semantic range.’
3/ https://www.gotquestions.org/cross-pole-stake.html
‘Certain cults, most notably the Jehovah’s Witnesses, are adamant that Jesus did not die on a cross and that the cross is in fact a pagan symbol. Their insistence on this point is curious, given the ambiguity of the Greek word. But they have worded their New World Translation to say that Jesus died on a “torture stake” rather than a cross. Given that the Jehovah’s Witnesses also deny the deity of Christ and His bodily resurrection, it stands to reason that they should object to other details of traditional Christianity.
‘Arguing against the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teaching that Jesus died on a “torture stake” are some indirect clues in the New Testament. One of these is found in John 21. Jesus gives Peter a glimpse of the manner of his death: “‘When you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God” (verses 18–19). The fact that Peter (who tradition says was crucified) would “stretch out” his hands indicates that Roman crucifixion usually involved outspread arms such as would be positioned on a crosspiece.’
Apostles’ deaths
‘St.Peter begged to be crucified head downwards because he felt he was unworthy to die in the same manner Christ had.’ Agree.
St Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross.
“At least on the devotional side of things I really can’t see it make any difference whether Christ was nailed to a ‘classic’ cross,a ‘T’, an ‘X’…or Y or Z . Surely? He died for us, the ‘how’ is of little import beyond it was a particularly nasty form of execution …” Yes, agree.
The notional rapidity of Jesus’s death
Well, considering He bore the sins of the whole world, God had mercy on Him.
My Good Friday post explains more. You read some of it in the comments here, but there’s more from MacArthur’s sermon.
One wonders whether every criminal crucified was also practically scourged to death. The post gives MacArthur’s description. He preached that sermon in 1985. Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, which accurately depicted that fateful day, was made in 2004. Yes, some of the agnostics and atheists converted during and after making it. A lot of weird things happened during the filming. (Search online.)
Be glad that Jesus died so quickly. Surely, you could not have been on the side of the Roman soldiers, who were disappointed. God poured out His wrath on His Son for all the sins of the world: past, present and future. Think about it.
Death after crucifixion varied
The Guardian had an informative article in 2004. An excerpts follows:
‘Crucifixion was invented by the Persians in 300-400BC and developed, during Roman times, into a punishment for the most serious of criminals. The upright wooden cross was the most common technique, and the time victims took to die would depend on how they were crucified.
‘Those accused of robbery were often tied to the crucifix and, because they could better support their weight with their arms, might survive for several days. One of the most severe methods of crucifixion put the arms straight above the victim. “That can [kill in] 10 minutes to half an hour – it’s just impossible to breathe under those conditions,” Ward says.
‘Someone nailed to a crucifix with their arms stretched out on either side could expect to live for no more than 24 hours …’
The journalist did not say anything about scourging. One can only imagine that Jesus’s ordeal was unlike any other, as many theologians and clergy have said through the ages. Be thankful that He didn’t last longer. It is difficult to comprehend exactly what He endured — for us.
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April 14, 2017 at 6:32 am
TheBlockedDwarf
Be glad that Jesus died so quickly. Surely, you could not have been on the side of the Roman soldiers, who were disappointed… Think about it. Oh I have, a lot, and of course I wouldn’t have wished Christ a moment’s more suffering . BUT and it is important, especially when talking with Non-believers, the fact Christ died far quicker than his guards expected does fuel the whole ” ‘e weren’t dead, ‘e woz inna coma’ ” theory. Now you and i will of course know why that particular bit of atheist nonsense is just so much theological dingos kidneys and I will not explain further for your readers because i’m sure you’ll be touching on it very soon (and probably have several times over the years).
Maybe he was masquerading as a Low Church Anglican but was probably a non-con literalist? I have no idea, I don’t even recall his name. I wish I did I’d like to tracknhim down and thank him. I shall always be grateful to him for teaching me a valuable lesson and to this day I try very hard never to say someone is ‘WRONG’ on matters of faith. His admonishment also reminds me to seek the truth behind even the most ‘weird’ sounding ideas of the various forms of Christianity because Scully, the Truth is out there…everywhere.
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April 14, 2017 at 11:05 am
churchmouse
With regard to atheists, nothing will convince them. They’re like the religious leaders of Jesus’s day. Both groups had all the answers, none of them correct.
Re the man from Beach Mission. The JWs are heretics. Their beliefs are wrong! You were right. He was in error.
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April 14, 2017 at 12:36 pm
TheBlockedDwarf
You were right
Maybe, that’s beyond my ken and IMO rightly so (no, not a ‘nugget’ but the explanation doesn’t help anyone’s understanding of the Gospels/The Passion and the explanation would use up your blog’s bandwidth for a week ).
I was wrong however to make fun of their beliefs and to assume that there was no good reason for those beliefs, that they were ‘crazy’. No one, AFAIK, disputes the word on the page means ‘stake’. Personally I believe it meant more than just a simple palisade stake in this instance but that is as much a ‘feeling’ as provable historical fact and , as said, devotionally speaking it makes very little difference. And a ‘torture stake’, to use the JW’s own words, at least hasn’t been ‘romanticised’ into tweeness as has the cross for many Christians (yes I skimmed through your latest post first thing this morning and ‘Mel Gibson’ paragraphs rang so true with my own experiences but I’ll reply to it there).
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April 14, 2017 at 12:41 pm
churchmouse
‘I was wrong however to make fun of their beliefs and to assume that there was no good reason for those beliefs, that they were ‘crazy’.’
True, when expressed like that.
Look forward to your comment on the Good Friday post.
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