No my friend, it is not I who has erred. The Jews reckoned time differently than we do. The "seventh," "eighth," and "ninth" hours do not refer to 7:00, 8:00, and 9:00 a.m. They refer to the 7th, 8th, and 9th hours of the day which began at sunrise, or 6:00 a.m. Thus, 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. was the first hour, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. the second hour, and so forth.
By Jewish reckoning, the "eighth hour" was actually 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. and half past the eighth hour would be 2:30 p.m. So on regular days the Tamid, the evening sacrifice, was
slaughtered at 2:30 p.m.(8 1/2 hours after sunrise) and
offered at 3:30 p.m. (9 1/2 hours after sunrise)
. On Nisan 14, when multiplied thousands of Passover lambs had to be slaughtered, the evening daily sacrifice was moved up an hour, slaughtered at 1:30 p.m. and offered at 2:30 p.m. And if Nisan 14 fell on a Friday, the Preparation Day, it was moved up another hour, 12:30 and 1:30 respectively.
In the year of the Lord's Passion, the Passover sacrifice (Nisan 14) did not occur on the Preparation Day (a Friday) but on a Thursday. Jesus was crucified the next day, on the Preparation (Friday) of this Passover week. This week-long festival would always have at least one Saturday (the weekly Sabbath) and one Friday (the Preparation Day) that would fall on one of the days of this festival. That particular year, the Passover sacrifice on the afternoon of Nisan 14 fell on a Thursday, the Passover and Unleavened Bread were eaten that evening (still Thursday but now Nisan 15) and Jesus was crucified the next day (Friday, the Preparation, still Nisan 15)
And it has been pointed out to you time and time and time again, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all bear eyewitness testimony in the Gospels that Jesus and his disciples "
ate the Passover." The Passover lambs were slain on the afternoon of Nisan 14, and they were eaten that evening, at the close of Nisan 14 and the beginning of Nisan 15, which was the first day of Unleavened Bread. Many students make the mistake of assuming that the Passover was eaten on Nisan 14 and the first meal of Unleavened Bread was eaten on Nisan 15. But that's not the case. The Passover was
slaughtered on the afternoon of Nisan 14, and was
eaten that evening, which was the beginning of Nisan 15, along with the first meal of unleavened bread. The Passover meal and the first meal of unleavened bread was the same meal. They were not two separate meals.
The next day, after eating the Passover and Unleavened Bread on the evening that was the beginning of Nisan 15, the next day, still Nisan 15, Jesus was crucified.
To verify the hours when the sacrifice was offered, here is a snip from the Mishnah and a link so you can verify this information for yourself. You will notice that the hours are the afternoon hours, which according to Jewish reckoning was the 7th - 12th hours of the day, or 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
View attachment 347049
And another snip of how the Jews understood the term "between the evenings." They divided the afternoon into two, the first evening was 2 1/2 hours (from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.) and the second half was 2 1/2 hours (from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.). That left one hour, from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. available for the regular evening sacrifice. This rule also held true for the red heifer and two goats for the Atonement sacrifice, which likewise was sacrificed "between the evenings," that is, from 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
View attachment 347050
As I have pointed out, it really doesn't matter when or how we think the Passover
should have been observed based on how we interpret the Law or some prophecy (which could be theologically correct, maybe the Jews got it wrong, maybe not, that's another whole subject). What matters when investigating the history of how these things played out in these last hours is how did the Jews actually interpret all this and
how did they historically observe the Passover.
Mishnah Tractate "Pesachim" There are tractates that concern each of the Seder Moed (holidays or festivals) and the one that concerns the Passover is "Pesachim." Please scroll down to 58a of this tractate.
In Christ,
Deborah