JESUS DID NOT OBSERVE
THE PASSOVER - ACCORDING TO SOME by Keith Hunt Part One
Apparently the "House of Yahweh" church organization teaches that Jesus did not observe the Passover on the evening before His death. It would I guess to some other type of meal which He kept with His disciples. I am not sure what they think this meal was called, nor I am sure if they claim the NT tells us what this meal was called that Jesus observed that very special evening. But they certainly do not want to believe, nor you to believe, that Jesus was actually eating THE PASSOVER meal that night with His twelve inner circle disciples. They put forth a number of NT Scriptures that they claim back their theological position. We shall begin to look at each of them and see if those verses really teach what they want you to believe they teach. One important tool to understanding the Bible correctly is to read the context of any given scripture or verse, that anyone throws out to you as a proof text for their doctrinal stance on any particular subject. More false doctrine has been promulgated by people who take a verse out of context ( or who close their eyes to other verses either before or after their verse they try to use to prove they are correct ) than probably any other way that leads to error and false teaching. Another very often used form of study proof texting, is to use just certain so-called "scholars" and their slant on a word or phrase (which may be from their doctrinal bias, yes, as shocking as it sounds, that does happen within the circle of the "scholars"). Or they may quote only from the scholars of Greek and Hebrew, the part that suits their teaching only, and so once more making you think the scholars agree with them. Of course, they will not tell you that even "scholars" of Greek and Hebrew (and other skills also) DISAGREE among themselves at times. We all know how the "doctors" of the medical profession will disagree with each other. We see it all the time on the investigative TV shows such as "Dateline" - "60 Minutes" - "20/20" etc. Yet, some how we religious people quake in our boots if someone quotes a "scholar" who may have studied Greek or Hebrew. And if a "church" quotes such a fellow to back their teaching, well that seals the matter, so we think, not realizing other Greek and Hebrew scholars may completely disagree with the ideas and the theology of the first guy. We need to be aware of such tactics by some "religious" folk and church organizations. Let's get to the first verse presented to try and prove Jesus did not observe the Passover but some other kind of meal the night before He died. MATTHEW 26:18 You may first want to read this verse in the KJV, NKJV, NIV, or some other translation, maybe many translations. It is claimed that the literal word for word translation is: "....The time of Me near is before you sacrifice the passover in company with my disciples of Me." Then it is stated by Kevin Richardson, from whom this information comes: "correctly translated it should read: 'And He said; go into a city to a certain man, and say to him: My teacher says; My time is near at hand before you sacrifice the Passover with My disciples." I'm not sure where this supposed correct translation comes from, from which scholar I do not know, but I do have TWO Greek scholars and their NT books in my library. I shall give you their translation of the Greek in this verse, yet not only this verse, but the verses that proceed and follow this eighteenth verse of Matthew. HERE IS HOW GEORGE RICKER BERRY Ph.D. TRANSLATES
MATTHEW 26:17-19.
"Now on the first of unleavened came the disciples to
Jesus, saying to Him, Where wilt thou we should prepare for thee
to eat the PASSOVER? And He said, Go into the city unto such a
one, and say to him, The teacher says, My time near is, with thee
will keep the PASSOVER with my disciples. And did the disciples
as directed them Jesus, and PREPARED THE PASSOVER."
HERE'S HOW JAY P. GREEN Sr. TRANSLATED THE SAME VERSES.
"On the And first unleavened came the disciples to Jesus,
saying to Him, Where will You we mat prepare for You to eat THE
PASSOVER? And He said, Go into the city to such a one, and say to
him, The teachers says, The time of Me near is; towards you I
make the PASSOVER, with the disciples of Me. And did the
disciples as ordered them - Jesus, and PREPARED THE PASSOVER."
Now you may want to study the Greek words "TOWARDS" and
"MAKE" as given by Green. They are numbers 4314 and 4160 in
Strong's Concordance. You will also find them under those
numbers in the THAYER'S GREEK-ENGLISH LEXICON of the NT.
Thayer has MUCH to say about those two words, a very lengthy
discord and explanation, which I will leave for the reader to
investigate at his /her leisure, when they have a few hours of
spare time.
Regardless of the arguing that the House of Yahweh and some
others may want to get into with those two above Greek words, the
fact should be very plain and easy to see and understand from the
CONTEXT (verses before and after verse 18), that the preparation
Jesus sent the disciples to do, the request from the disciples
themselves to Jesus as to what to prepare for, WAS TO PREPARE FOR
THE PASSOVER!!!
NOTHING COULD BE PLAINER!
The CONTEXT is very clear on the matter, The day had
arrived when the Jews STARTED to unleaven their homes, it was
the very start of the 14th, just as the sun had set, and the
disciples were now very concerned. Jesus had not yet said
anything about the preparing for the Passover that evening. They
voiced their concern and Jesus told them where to go to prepare
the PASSOVER. They did as He said and went to PREPARE THE
PASSOVER.
I mean to say, how many more time does God have to inspire
Matthew to use the word Passover (Greek is Pascha) to tell us
that it was the PASSOVER they were going to PREPARE for Jesus and
the twelve disciples?
Oh, the depths of the un-believing hearts of some. No wonder
Jesus got upset at times with the Jews and their religious
leaders and quoted the Scripture "Even though it be told you,
still you will not believe."
It would seem times have not changed that much today from
yesterday when Christ walked this earth.
Some may wonder about this "first of the unleavened" and
think it was already the 15th of the first month, already the
beginning of the feast of Unleavened Bread. No it was not! It
was the custom of the Pharisees and their followers to started to
remove the leaven from their homes on the 14th. By the late
morning of the 14th it was to be out, and they were not to eat
any leaven from that time forth until the end of the feast of UB.
It was a Jewish custom (part of the Jews, not all) of the day
ONLY, not a part of the law of God. Nowhere does the law require
the 14th of Nisan to be a complete day of unleavened bread. Only
the Passover meal was to be eaten with unleavened bread as
given in Exodus 12. The feast of UB did not start until the
beginning of the 15th. The 14th was a preparation day leading up
to the 15th, just as the apostle John tells us in his
Gospel.
Matthew was just using an historical Jewish custom of the
day when he stated "Now on the first of unleavened came the
disciples." He was then in fact telling us it was the beginning
of the 14th day of Nisan, it was sunset and they were very
concerned that Jesus had not yet told them where to go to prepare
the PASSOVER! This He then proceeded to inform them and they did
go forth to PREPARE THE PASSOVER.
More Scriptural arguments from the House of Yahweh I will
answer in part two.
.............................JESUS DID NOT OBSERVE THE PASSOVER - ACCORDING TO SOME Part Two The second Scripture given by the House of Yahweh (as presented to us by Kevin Richardson) is: MARK 14:14 "And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?" Then we are told: "The literal word for word translation for this scripture is: '.....Says to you the Teacher: Where is the guest room in which the Passover together the disciples of Me may eat?' Or, correctly translated: 'And wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house: The Teacher says, Where is the guest room in which My disciples may eat the Passover together?' " Once more the reader may want to look at this verse in various translations, the more the better. Please remember to read the CONTEXT - before and after. I presume the argument is that this verse does not SPECIFICALLY say Jesus will PARTAKE WITH the disciples of the Passover, hence He did not (according to the House of Yahweh) partake of the Passover that night. Let them so argue and let them so delude themselves. Other verses in the Gospels show Jesus did partake with His disciples of the Passover that night. And even if we go along with the idea that He did not, we can still clearly see from the NT that Jesus DID PARTAKE of the NT Passover symbols - the bread and cup. He introduced to them that NT ordinance - established it - explained to them what the NT Covenant symbols of the bread and fruit of the vine represented. And further, this verse is as clear as a sunny day in the Canadian Rockies, that it WAS the PASSOVER the disciples would observe and partake of. HERE IS THE CONTEXT OF THE PASSAGE AS TRANSLATED BY JAY P.GREEN Sr. "And on the first of the unleavened, when the Passover they killed (this is all explained in another study of mine), say to Him the disciples Where do you wish going we may prepare that You eat the Passover? And He sends two of the disciples of Him, and says to them, Go into the city, and will meet you a man a pitcherof water carrying; follow him. And where ever he enters, tell the housemaster, The Teacher says, Where is the guestroom where the PASSOVER with the disciples of Me may eat? And he you will show an upper room large, being spread ready. There you PREPARE FOR US. And went forth the disciples of Him, and came into the city, and found as He told them, and they PREPARED THE PASSOVER " (Mark 14:12-16). HERE IS HOW GEORGE RICKER BERRY TRANSLATED FROM THE
GREEK THIS SECTION OF SCRIPTURE.
"And on the first day of unleavened, when the Passover they
killed, (Fred Coulter also explains this fully in his book on the
Passover), say to him his disciples, Where desirest
thou going we should prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover?
And he sends forth two of his disciples, and says to them, Go
into the city, and will meet you a man a pitcher of water
carrying; follow him; and wherever he may enter, say to the
master of the house, The teachers says, Where is the
guest-chamber where the PASSOVER with my disciples may eat? and
he you will show an upper room large, furnished ready. There
PREPARE FOR US. And went away his disciples, and came into
the city, and found as he had said to them, and they PREPARED THE
PASSOVER. And EVENING being come he comes with the twelve. And as
were reclining they and WERE EATING said Jesus.......AND AS THEY
WERE EATING, having taken Jesus a loaf, having blessed he brake,
and gave to them, and said........And having taken the cup,
having given thanks he gave to them.....And he said to
them......." (verses 12-24).
I submit to you that any young child reading this passage
will see and understand from the words written that Jesus DID
PARTAKE with His disciples of the PASSOVER that evening (of the
14th of Nisan).
Is it PLAINLY STATED a number of times, so we would GET THE
POINT, that it was the PASSOVER the disciples went forth to the
upper room to PREPARE, for the rest of the disciples and Jesus to
come a little later and observe. It is clearly stated that while
and during the eating of that Passover, Jesus instituted the NT
Passover symbols and their meaning, of the bread and cup.
There it is in CONTEXT. Now you have the "rest of the
story" as one well known fellow is famous for saying.
To think and believe that Jesus sat around NOT EATING AND
NOT DRINKING of this Passover while His disciples were so doing,
is deceptive mind folly to the utter outer limits. But people
will believe what they want to believe in order to hold to false
doctrines. They fulfil the prophecy of Paul who wrote that in
the last days some would turn away from the truth, turn to men
with itching ears, ever learning but never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth, yet their folly he said would be manifest
unto all.
One more verse is given, that of Luke 21:11. I shall look
at that next time, in part three.
......................................
by
Keith Hunt
JESUS DID NOT OBSERVE THE PASSOVER - ACCORDING TO SOME Part Three We are told by the House of Yahweh that the literal translation of LUKE 22:11 is: " ....Says to you the Teacher: Where is the guest room in which the Passover together the disciples of Me to eat?" Or, as they go on to say, correctly translated : "Then you will say to the owner of that house: The Teacher says to you; Where is the guest room where My disciples may eat the passover together?" We need to use the rule of CONTEXT reading any verse before jumping to technical conclusions based upon so-called grammar rules, for the grammar MAY be technically correct but the context proves (and other verses elsewhere) another story altogether. HERE IS THE CONTEXT READING AS TRANSLATED BY GEORGE
RICKER BERRY FROM HIS GREEK/ENGLISH INTERLINEAR.
"And came the day of unleavened in which was needful to be
killed the passover (fully explained by myself and Fred Coulter
in other studies - Keith Hunt), And He sent Peter and John,
saying, Having gone prepare FOR US the PASSOVER, that WE may
EAT. But they said to Him, Where wilest thou we should prepare?
And He said to them, Lo, on your having entered into the city
will meet you a man, a pitcher of water carrying; follow him into
the house where he enters; and you shall say to the master of the
house, Says to thee the teacher, Where is the guest-chamber where
the PASSOVER with my disciples may eat? And he you will show
upper room a large furnished, there prepare. And having gone they
found as He had said to them; and they PREPARED THE PASSOVER. And
when was come the hour, He reclined , and the twelve apostles
with him. And He said to them, With DESIRE I desired THIS
PASSOVER to eat WITH YOU before I suffer, For I say to you, that
no more not at all WILL EAT of it UNTIL it be fulfilled in the
Kingdom of God....."
THE TRANSLATION FROM THE GREEK BY GREEN Sr. is almost the exact same as above, but he used none of the "thee" and "thou" words, but more modern English.
Regardless of some technical Greek grammar rule in some part
of some verse, Luke was inspired by what he wrote in the CONTEXT
with other Greek words to make it very clear to us that, Jesus
DID EAT AND PARTAKE OF AND OBSERVE THE PASSOVER with His
disciples that evening of the 14th, the day when they killed the
Passover lambs.
According to the booklet by the House of Yahweh the pronoun
"I" has been added as the subject of each of the verses we have
looked at, when it does not appear in the Greek, the verb not
being in the nominative case (the only case where "I" is
understood to be the subject of the verb) in each.
So they want to get technical. Sounds pretty good to those
scared stiff by Greek technicalities. But you need to ask
yourself: From where do they get this Greek technicality? Did
it come from MODERN Greek? Did it come from CLASSICAL Greek?
Well if it did, the NT was not written in either modern or
classical Greek, but it was written in COMMON Greek, the STREET
Greek of the first century.
Then it may be proved this rule of grammar was within the
Common Greek of the time Luke and the others wrote their Gospels.
SO WHAT I ASK ! The writers may have stayed within a certain
rule of grammar in a certain section of a certain verse, just to
be technical, but that does not mean they were trying to prove to
you that Jesus did not eat the Passover that night while His
disciples did. OTHER VERSE THEY USED IN THE CONTEXT PROVES THEY HAD NO SUCH TEACHING IN THEIR MINDS!! Other words in the context show they understood that Jesus DID EAT the Passover that nightalong with His disciples, and that He said He would NOT EAT of itagain UNTIL it was fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.
Some Greek scholars want to make a big thing about, claim it
proves as a doctrine, the Holy Spirit is a PERSON (as much as the
Father and Christ are Spirit persons) because some NT writers
(such as John) called the Spirit "HE" and not "it" in some
verses. They also were writing technically, from a rule of the
Greek grammar (explained in my studies on the Holy Spirit, and by
the old WCG in their past literature).
It did not mean they were trying to prove from this rule of
Greek grammar that the Holy Spirit was a MALE PERSON. Many other
verses must be brought to bear on that subject as to whether the
Holy Spirit is a third member of the literal personal Godhead,
not just a figure of speech grammar, that is also found in a
number of other languages, such as Spanish.
The Greek NT can be at times strange and somewhat
bewildering to us English writing people. First, if we want to
talk about "rules" - the Hebrew and Greek of the OT and NT had no
punctuation! It had no sentencing, just one letter after another
in the original manuscripts. Enough to make the average English
reader and writer go "bug- eyed" and pull his hair out in
disconcerting bewilderment. What "rules" of grammar were
they using for such a way to write?
And besides all that, who was to say that writers of the
Bible HAD to OBEY whatever is claimed today was the rule of
grammar? How do they know it was the rule of grammar back then?
Has a text book on B.C. Hebrew grammar or first century NT
Greek grammar been preserved for us? I have never heard there is
such an old book in some library. But suppose there is, does that
mean people HAD to obey it in every instant of every phrase and
sentence they wrote? OF COURSE NOT! Not any more than I have to
obey the English rules of grammar. There is no one standing over
me to FORCE me to keep and obey the so-called English rules of
grammar, if I so choose not to. Looking at Greek grammar can be
educational at times IF kept in balance and if it does not become
an island unto itself to establish doctrine upon.
Most English grammar teachers would have thrown their book
and their desk and chair at HWA for the way he wrote booklets,
with CAPITALIZED words and "-" all over the place. When I first
got some of his booklets and gave them to a friend, his first
statement to me on seeing them was: "He writes just like he
preaches."
The Internet, I discovered when I first came on line, some
two years ago, has some rule that says CAPITALIZATION of letters
is "Shouting." Some guy or gal somewhere at some time decided,
in the corner of their dark and dusty room, to make this a rule
for talking in Internet space. Are we FORCED to obey that rule?
Not on your life, and many of us on this forum do not! We write
with CAPITALS not to shout but for EMPHASIS, as did old HWA.
So rules can be okay in grammar, but they are not the Laws
of God, and to take some grammar rule in some part of some
sentence and close your eyes to the context and other verses on
the subject, will sooner or later lead you down the garden path
into the thorn bushes of false ideas and doctrines. Such has
been done by the House of Yahweh in their teaching that Jesus did
not partake of the Passover with His disciples on that last day
of His physical life on this earth. Such an idea is contrary to
the context of the Gospels and to other verses using other words
within the Gospels.
The PLAIN TRUTH is there to see on this subject if your eyes
are open to see it, and you remember to read the context.
.................................
by
Keith Hunt
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