Eyewitnesses to History: When Were the Passover Lambs Killed?

 Recently, we published a blog post entitled “‘Historical Context’ and the Word of God,” showing that we don’t have to rely on history books or reconstructions of ancient history to understand the Word of God. The Word of God is sufficient to teach us what God requires.

When it comes to Passover, the same holds true. We don’t need to rely on history books to know what day or what time of day God commanded for the Passover lambs to be killed; the Word of God is sufficient to teach us what God requires.

God commanded the Israelites to kill the Passover lambs on the 14th day of the first month (Ex. 12:6; Lev. 23:5; etc.). This month was first called Abib (Ex. 13:4; 34:18; Deut. 16:1), and later came to be called Nisan (Est. 3:7), as it still is to this day.

But what time of day on the 14th? God told the Israelites to kill the lambs “between the two evenings,” or bayn ha-arbayim in Hebrew. Simply by examining how God’s Word uses this phrase, we can see that it applies to the latter part of the afternoon, at the end of the day, as Kyle Bacher explained in a recent blog post. This was the same time of day that Jesus Christ died as our Passover Lamb. This is simple, though it does require study to put all the verses together.

So God’s instructions can be interpreted from Scripture, without cracking open a history book. But some folks (myself included) also love to read history, so why not take a look? When does history tell us that the Passover lambs were slain? Let’s find out!

The Proper Historical Method

Before we start, it’s vital to remember that the Bible is our truest source of history. There is nothing we can trust more than our God and His Word. The history we find in the Bible is inspired by God; it’s God Himself telling us what happened and how it happened! “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). No other man’s writings are truer than the Bible, and to trust any man more than our Creator would be just plain stupid.

But other sources of history do exist, and it isn’t wrong to read them, as long as we keep them in their proper place. Even God’s Word often referenced them. Many times in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, the Bible refers us to the chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah for more information, though these records have sadly been lost. And the Book of Esther refers us to the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia, though these, too, have been lost.

Not only does the Bible reference other historical records, it also tells us how to use them. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established” (Deut. 19:15; Mat. 18:16; 2 Cor. 13:1). Again, “The simple believes every word, but the prudent considers well his steps” (Prov. 14:15). And again, “The first one to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him” (Prov. 18:17).

How does this apply to examining history? Well, just as the Bible draws upon eyewitnesses and firsthand accounts, such as national records, so should we. And, to get the fullest picture, let us not believe every word, but use multiple witnesses and compare their testimony.

So, for Passover history, the Bible is the gold standard. After this comes eyewitness reports from men such as Josephus and Philo. In third place comes tradition handed down from eyewitnesses and recorded in writings such as the Mishnah. As a general rule, the further one is removed from events, the less solid his testimony becomes. But let us compare reports, and not cherry-pick one that says what we want to hear.

What does this mean for modern scholars’ writings, found in books, magazines, papers, and encyclopedias? If their claims agree with Scripture and are built on eyewitness testimony and solid evidence, then they’ve done their work well. But claims without solid evidence are simply the opinions of modern folks who weren’t there, and hold little value.

That’s the proper method for studying history. Many people, unfortunately, begin and end their research with an encyclopedia, or perhaps cherry-pick a few quotes from modern sources that affirm what they want to believe. Let us be careful to avoid that!

Eyewitness Reports

With this method in mind, let’s get started. As noted at the beginning, we’ve already seen from Scripture when the Passover lambs were killed: on Abib 14 “between the two evenings,” or about 3 PM. Now, we’ll see what the testimony of history says. We’ll examine the eyewitnesses, the later traditions, and some of the alternative traditions, and then compare this to Scripture and to Jesus Christ Himself.

The first eyewitness is Philo Judaeus, a Jewish philosopher from Alexandria, Egypt who lived from around 20 BC to about AD 50. Jesus’ birth, ministry, death, and resurrection all happened within Philo’s lifetime.

In Special Laws II, where he expounded on various feast days, Philo testified that the Passover lambs were slain in the afternoon: “And after the feast of the new moon comes the fourth festival, that of the passover, which the Hebrews call pascha, on which the whole people offer sacrifice, beginning at noonday and continuing till evening. … And this universal sacrifice of the whole people is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month…” (sect. 145, 149).

In the same passage, Philo added that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is combined with the Feast of the Passover: “And there is another festival combined with the feast of the passover, having a use of food different from the usual one, and not customary; the use, namely, of unleavened bread, from which it derives its name” (sect. 150).

The second eyewitness is Flavius Josephus, a Pharisee of priestly lineage who was born about AD 37, probably in Jerusalem, where he wrote that his father Matthias “was in great reputation” (The Life of Flavius Josephus, sect. 1-2). He was born about 7 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, was intimately familiar with the temple services, and witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Josephus testified that the Passover lambs were killed in the afternoon: “So these high priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh… found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred” (Wars of the Jews, bk. 6, ch. 9, sect. 3). The 9th hour, of course, is about 3 PM by modern time.

So two witnesses from the second temple period, Philo and Josephus, both affirmed that the Passover lambs were killed on the afternoon of Abib 14. Josephus, the witness most intimately familiar with the temple itself, placed that sacrifice from the 9th hour to the 11th hour, or from 3 to 5 PM.

Aside from this, there don’t appear to be any other eyewitness accounts, outside of Scripture, that tell us what time of day the Passover lambs were killed at the temple. There are traditions handed down from eyewitnesses, though, so let’s look at those next.

Later Tradition

The oldest work of rabbinic literature is the Mishnah, a collection of Jewish oral traditions that were committed to writing around AD 200, roughly 130 years after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in AD 70. It features centuries of rabbinic debates and opinions about God’s law, and also preserves traditions of how things were done during the Second Temple period — during the life of Jesus Christ Himself. Both the Mishnah and later rabbinic writings reflect the views of the Pharisees. In a moment, we’ll take a look at other traditions, too.

As for when the Passover sacrifice happened, the Mishnah gives us a few puzzle pieces, but it’s easy to put them together.

First, it states that the evening sacrifice of each day, commanded by God in Ex. 29:38-41 and Num. 28:1-8, typically happened between 8 ½ hours and 9 ½ hours of the day, or between 2:30 and 3:30 PM (Pesachim 5.1). Josephus agreed, writing that this was done at the 9th hour (Antiquities of the Jews, bk. 14, ch. 4, sect. 3).

Secondly, the Mishnah says that on the day they slew the Passover lambs (Abib 14), the priests moved the evening sacrifice an hour earlier, to 1:30-2:30 PM, to avoid delaying the Passover sacrifice. If the 14th fell on a Friday, then they moved the evening sacrifice yet an hour earlier and began the Passover sacrifice afterward, an hour early, presumably so that all preparations would be done before Sabbath (Pesachim 5.1).

Finally, the Mishnah says no Passover lambs could be slaughtered before noon, or else they would be disqualified, because God said to kill them between the two evenings (Pesachim 5.3). It also states that the evening sacrifice needed to be offered first, and then the Passover sacrifice.

Putting all this together, the Mishnah agrees with Josephus and Philo: the Passover lambs were killed on the afternoon of Abib 14. This usually meant, just as Josephus said, that they began slaughtering the lambs about the 9th hour and continued until close to sunset.

The Talmud is a still later collection of rabbinic commentaries and debates, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. There are two versions: the Babylonian Talmud (compiled in Babylonia) and the Jerusalem Talmud (compiled in Judea).

Remember, the Talmud appeared centuries after the Second Temple period. Its testimony holds less weight than the Mishnah, Josephus, or Philo. Nevertheless, its testimony agrees with theirs.

The Babylonian Talmud defined “between the two evenings” as mid-afternoon. After reaching its zenith at noon, the sun begins to descend until it sets. Though they disagreed on some finer points of interpretation, the rabbis agreed that “between the two evenings” meant “afternoon” (Pesachim 58a.1-5).

In the Jerusalem Talmud, the rabbis argued that God’s instructions for killing the Passover lambs pinpointed the time of day and eliminated all other options. First, the lambs must be killed on Abib 14, not on any other day. But could they be killed on the 14th night? No, they must be killed on the 14th day (Ex. 12:6). Could they then be killed on the morning of the 14th day? No, they must be killed in the evening of the 14th day. (There’s no Hebrew word for “afternoon” in the Old Testament; there's only morning and evening.) And finally, they must be killed on the 14th day between the evenings, which must therefore be halfway between noon (when the sun first begins to decline) and sunset (Pesachim 5.1.3).

So Philo, Josephus, the Mishnah, and later rabbinic writings all testify that the Passover lambs were slaughtered on the afternoon of Abib 14, as the day drew to a close and the First Day of Unleavened Bread approached. More specifically, the Passover lambs began to be slain about the 9th hour on Abib 14, or about 3 PM.

Multiple witnesses therefore agree that, during Jesus Christ’s lifetime, the Passover lambs were killed at the temple from mid-afternoon until close to sunset on Abib 14. Did any other Jewish sects do it differently?

Other Traditions

The Sadducees. You’ll often hear someone say that the Sadducees killed the Passover lambs in twilight at the beginning of Abib 14, unlike the Pharisees, who killed the lambs on the afternoon of the 14th. But interestingly, you’ll never hear anyone who says so offer any proof that the Sadducees actually did that. He’ll simply say it, hope you believe it, and then move on. Why? Because there is no evidence!

Not one eyewitness said the Sadducees sacrificed the Passover lambs at any time other than when the Pharisees did. Not one witness! Nor do any later traditions, for many centuries, mention any difference between the Sadducees and Pharisees on this point. The Sadducees and Pharisees disagreed about other things, such as the resurrection (Acts 23:8), but there is no evidence that they disagreed about when to kill the Passover lambs.

If anyone claims otherwise, then let him present witnesses and proof. If he cannot, then such claims must be dismissed as modern imagination and not ancient reality.

The Karaites. Centuries after Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, a new sect called the Karaites emerged from the teachings of Anan ben David in the 8th century AD. Since some claim the Karaites had roots going back to Bible days, though, we’ll look at their view as well.

The Karaites do interpret “between the two evenings” as twilight or dusk. However, they place it at the end of the day, not the beginning! They affirm that the Passover lambs were killed as the 14th of Abib gave way to the 15th.

Karaite-Korner.org defines Passover as, “A sacrifice brought during twilight at the end of the 14th of the First Month (Nissan). In modern usage, the holiday which the Bible calls Hag HaMatzot [Feast of Unleavened Bread].”

Karaites.org offers “an English-Language summary of Adderet Eliyahu, one of the classical Karaite” law compilations, entitled Mikdash Me’at. In section 4, about Passover, we find, “The sacrifice was slaughtered on the 14th of the 1st month at bein ha’arbaim (Deuteronomy 16:6), that is twilight.” It then adds, “The Passover was eaten throughout the night of the 15th of the month. None of it could be left until the morning of the 15th (Exodus 34:25) and any leftovers were burned (Exodus 12:10).”

Finally, Dr. Nehemia Gordon, perhaps the most well-known of modern-day Karaites, writes:

When we look at Leviticus 23:5-6 and Deuteronomy 16:4 together it becomes clear that the Passover Sacrifice is brought at the end of the 14th of the First Month between the two evenings and eaten that same evening on the 15th of the First Month. The period of "between the two evenings" is reckoned as both the end of the 14th (Leviticus 23:5) and the beginning of the 15th (Deuteronomy 16:4)!

So it becomes clear that, even though the Karaites place the Passover sacrifice at twilight on Abib 14, they say it’s twilight the end of Abib 14, not the beginning. They, too, believe that the Passover lambs were eaten on the night of Abib 15.

The Qumran Community. During Jesus’ day, there were a number of fringe Jewish sects that separated themselves from the temple and from society as a whole. Josephus wrote about the Essenes, who lived in the region of the Dead Sea. In this same area, the Dead Sea Scrolls were later discovered in the Qumran Caves from 1946 to 1956.

Based on the documents recovered, there appears to have been multiple sects in this area. At the very least, there was a diversity of doctrine, including a number of different calendars. These sects and their beliefs had little to no impact on the temple or on society in Jesus’ day, and they didn’t go up to the temple to worship at the Holy Days as He and His disciples did.

And yet, even among these groups, there seems to be no record of killing the Passover lambs at any other time than the end of the 14th, or of eating them at any other time than the night of the 15th. One Qumran document, the book of Jubilees, states, “Remember the commandment which the Lord commanded thee concerning the passover, that thou shouldst celebrate it in its season on the fourteenth of the first month, that thou shouldst kill it before it is evening, and that they should eat it by night on the evening of the fifteenth from the time of the setting of the sun” (Jubilees 49:1).

The Samaritans. Let’s wrap up with the Samaritans, whom the Bible mentions several times and with whom Jesus interacted. Like the Karaites, the Samaritans interpret “between the two evenings” as twilight. Like the Karaites, the Samaritans place the Passover sacrifice during twilight at the end of the 14th, not the beginning. But unlike the Karaites or any other Jewish sect, the Samaritans continue to sacrifice lambs for Passover to this day, giving many witnesses the opportunity to observe them!

Ya’aqov Ben Uzzi, the Samaritan “high priest” from 1984-1987, wrote a short article titled “The Celebration of Passover by the Samaritans,” which you can find at TheSamaritanUpdate.com and other sites. In it, he described the timeline. Ya’aqov wrote, “On the last day prior to the ceremony, the 14th of Nissan [or Abib], the Samaritans rise early to obtain and store enough water for the coming sacrifice.” Later that day, about 3:00 PM, the Samaritans light fires under the water and make other preparations. About sunset, they kill the lambs, skin them, roast them in ovens for about three hours, and eat them near midnight.

In the same article, Ya’aqov added that, when Abib/Nisan 14 falls on a Friday, the Samaritans kill the Passover lambs at noon instead of twilight, so they can roast and eat them before Sabbath. All this, mind you, is the Samaritans’ own testimony, from their own high priest!

But there are other eyewitnesses, too.

In recent years, the photographer Menachem Kuchar documented several Samaritan Passover sacrifices. He noted that, in 2012, Nisan 14 fell on Friday by the Samaritan calendar, so they killed the Passover lambs “at 1:00 p.m. (corresponding to true midday), rather than just before sunset, so as to allow all the work and cooking to be completed before shabbat.”

Another witness, Zeev H. Ehrlich, writes in Segula Magazine, “At midday on the fourteenth by Samaritan reckoning, the ritual begins. Fires are lit in ‘paschal ovens’ – large pits lined with stones. The fires will burn for several hours, heating the stones so the slaughtered lambs will roast to perfection.” This is a couple hours earlier than Ya’aqov Ben Uzzi described, but again, these are only the initial preparations. All this happens during the day of Abib 14.

Ehrlich then says that the Samaritans assemble at their altar “about an hour before sunset,” where they slaughter the lambs (apparently about sunset). Then, “The Feast of Matza begins at sunset, as the fourteenth of the month becomes the fifteenth.” The Samaritans eat the lambs that night, beginning close to midnight and continuing into the wee hours of the morning.

A final eyewitness, John D. Whiting, described the Samaritan Passover in “The Last Israelitish Blood Sacrifice,” an article in the January 1920 issue of National Geographic. Like the other witnesses, Mr. Whiting noted that the Samaritans killed the Passover lambs about sunset (p. 34), then roasted them that night and began eating around midnight (pp. 41, 44-45). Whiting then recorded that the next morning was “observed as a Sabbath; the first day of the feast of unleavened bread” (p. 45).

So, many witnesses establish the Samaritans’ timing. Around midday or mid-afternoon on Abib 14, they begin lighting fires for their evening sacrifice. They kill the lambs about sunset and skin them at dusk, then roast them for several hours and begin eating around midnight. By this time, the 14th has given way to the 15th and it is now the First Day of Unleavened Bread. However, if Abib 14 falls on a Friday, then the Samaritans kill the lambs about noon instead.

Summary of Passover Observance

What are we to take away from all this? Simply that every eyewitness account and every known tradition places the Passover sacrifice near the end of Abib 14.

Eyewitness accounts from the Second Temple period say that the Passover lambs began to be slain about mid-afternoon on the 14th. Josephus pinpoints it and says it happened from the 9th hour to the 11th hour, or from 3 to 5 PM. Later rabbinic traditions recorded in the Mishnah and Talmud agree with the eyewitnesses.

There is no tradition or account of any different practice at the temple during Jesus’ life! There is no record of any disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducees about when to kill the Passover lambs.

Two sects do interpret “between the two evenings” as twilight: the Karaites and the Samaritans. Yet they both place the killing the Passover lambs at the end of the 14th, as the day transitions to the 15th. They simply believe the Passover lambs should be killed later in the day than they were in the Second Temple period!

So if anyone claims that history ever recorded the Passover lambs being killed at the beginning of Abib 14, let him present witnesses and evidence to prove it. If he cannot, then let us dismiss such claims as the product of a modern imagination. As Dr. Gordon, the prominent Karaite Jew we quoted earlier, described the concept of an early-14th Passover, “No Jewish group ever observed the Passover sacrifice this way.”

Jesus: The True Passover Lamb

Now, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is our Passover Lamb: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). He is the Lamb of God, a Lamb without spot or blemish (1 Pet. 1:19), fulfilling the instructions for the Passover lambs (Ex. 12:5). None of His bones were broken (John 19:36), fulfilling the instructions for the Passover lambs (Ex. 12:46). So when was our Passover Lamb sacrificed?

First, the Book of John tells us that Jesus Christ was crucified on “the Preparation Day of the Passover” (John 19:14), and that the next day was a Sabbath, a high day (John 19:31). That means Jesus was crucified on the 14th of Abib.

Next, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all affirm that Jesus died about the ninth hour (Mat. 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46). Putting this together with John, it becomes clear that Jesus died on the 14th of Abib at the ninth hour, or about 3 PM.

This is exactly when the Jews killed the Passover lambs at the temple, as we’ve seen many witnesses affirm. These were Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah, yet they all testified that the Passover lambs were slain at the same time the Gospels tell us He was!

Our Passover Lamb died on Abib 14 at the 9th hour, as the Jews began to kill the lambs. He remained on the cross as they continued to slaughter those lambs. He was taken down from the cross and buried as the day drew to a close (Luke 23:54) and the Passover sacrifices concluded. And that, brothers and sisters, ought to resolve any question of when the Passover lambs were slain!

History testifies that the Bible is true.