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Fred R. Coulter—April 30, 2016
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I want to cover something that is a little more of a detailed study to try and get the chronology correct. First of all let's come to the Gospel of Mark.
I was sitting down there by Jonathan and he's got his speed up on his 'smart-Bible' and he beat me to every passage. If you don't have the apps on your smart device, check afaithfulversion.org and you can load it down on your smart device.
If you don't have A Harmony of the Gospels, which I'm sure everybody here has, but for those out in video-land, be sure and write for it. What you're going to find with the different books that we have, they all sooner or later come around to the Passover.
For a detailed study on the Passover, we have this book, The Christian Passover. Plus it's on audio. So, if your eyes are not as strong as they used to be and if you're seeing double—as long as you're not hearing double—we will send you the audio.
We want to have all of our books on audio. However, there's one thing that you can't really study unless you get to the physical word. Remember Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday, in the grave and raised toward the end of the Sabbath. Then He ascended to the Father on the first day of the count to Pentecost. That's a type of the Wave Sheaf Offering.
The King James Version translators in translating this did not understand the Greek, which they should have. The correct translation is The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version.
Mark 16:2: "And very early on the first day of the weeks…" Why would that be plural? It's not the first day of the week.
They believe in keeping Sunday, yet, they rejected the Catholic Church, but they still followed it. How's that for a bifurcated thought?
Remember John Kerry running for President. He said, 'I voted against it before I voted for it.' That's the way the Protestants are. 'We're against the Catholic Church, but we'll keep their Sunday,' and their Christmas and all of this sort of thing.
In the Greek it is clear; this is plural. It's plural in Matthew, Luke, and also in John: "…first day of the weeks…" Why? Because this is the first day of counting how many weeks: seven!
Let's come to some problem Scriptures in Acts 20. When does the first day of the weeks come? What day of the week is it on? It is on the first day of the week, because the command in Lev. 23 is that on the day after the Sabbath—I've got this explained in a letter for May—the priest was to wave the premier sheaf, the first of the firstfruits. That was a ritual of a type of Christ ascending to the Father as the firstborn from the dead.
That happened during the Feast of Unleavened Bread and it's the first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Most of the time it is after the Sabbath. Once in a while, the Passover Day is on a Sabbath and the next day is the Wave Sheaf Offering Day.
Why is that? Because you have to deal in whole weeks! I explain that in the letter for May. Most of the time you have the Passover, then you have the Sabbath during Unleavened Bread, then you have the first day of the weeks being the first day of a week, but the first day of a count of fifty days.
How do we understand the problems here in chronology? Acts 20:6: "But we sailed away from Philippi… [Philippi is over in Macedonia in Greece] …after the Days of Unleavened Bread…"—which means Passover was completed, first day of the weeks was completed and counted, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was finished.
"…and in five days we came to them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days" (v 6). That's a total of twelve days right there.
Verse 7 is where the complication comes in. This is why the King James has it wrong. They want Paul preaching on a Sunday, so they can turn to there, and say, 'Paul did away with the Sabbath, because he's preaching on Sunday.' It appears to be totally disconnected from the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Verse 7: "Now, on the first day of the weeks…" Why is that after, how many days? Twelve days plus eight, counting the Passover; so that's twenty days. Why is that there?
Verse 7: "Now on the first day of the weeks, when the disciples had assembled to break bread, Paul preached to them; and because he was going to leave in the morning, he continued speaking until midnight."
So therefore, if you don't know the calendar of God, and if you don't know the sequence of events here, and you're thinking in terms of straight-line chronology, you'll never understand this.
If you read the King James Version of the Bible, you will miss it completely. So, let's apply some of the Fourteen Rules for Bible Study (Appendix A in The Holy Bible in Its Original Order and cbcg.org): read the verses before, read the verses after.
- What does it say?
- What does it not say?
- Who wrote it?
- To whom was it written?
If we apply the rules of Bible study correctly, we will understand that there is absolutely no contradiction here and the chronology is absolutely correct when you piece it together properly.
Verse 1: "When the tumult was over, Paul called the disciples to him and embraced them; then he… [none were with him] …left to go into Macedonia."
Paul was at Ephesus when the tumult occurred, so he got out of the country and went over to Macedonia. He got in a ship and sailed from what would be the west coast of northern Turkey over to the east coast of Macedonia.
Verse 2: "And after passing through those parts and exhorting them with much speaking, he came to Greece." That means he came down to Corinth and Athens. That's quite a little journey in itself.
When you go back over your notes, you look at a map and try and figure out where these things are.
Verse 3: "Now after he had been there for three months… [look at all the time that was involved] …he was going to sail to Syria…." Who wrote this? Paul? No! It's in the third person—he. Who is doing the writing? We'll see that it's Luke!
"…But when he learned that the Jews were lying in wait for him…" (v 3). He could have gone right across from Corinth over to Asia, right across the Aegean Sea.
"…he decided to return through Macedonia" (v 3). Instead of going east by sailing across the Aegean Sea, he went north to avoid the Jews and went back to Macedonia. When Paul got to Macedonia, something happened. Look at the change here:
Verse 4: "And these accompanied him as far as Asia…" Then we have Paul, singular, now we have Paul with these additional companions:
"…Sopater, a Berean; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and of Derbe, Gaius and Timothy; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus" (v 4).
Now then, pay very special attention: they accompanied him as far as Asia; v 5: "These went on ahead and waited for us in Troas"—meaning the ones who temporarily joined Paul when he went across from Macedonia to northeastern Asia, and then Troas is up closer to the Dardanelles. They went up there and waited for Luke and whoever was with him.
Verse 6: "But we… [Luke and his group] …sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread; and in five days we came to them at Troas, where were stayed for seven days." That's Luke's group, those who left Paul and went over to Troas.
What did Paul do? Because he wasn't with them over in Troas! You cannot have the first day of the weeks take place, nearly three weeks after the first day of the weeks occurred, if you have a straight-line chronology.
Verses 7-12 is a section that is inset, not in the chronology. I want you to go from v 6 down to v 13, because the chronology at the end of v 6 picks up again in v 13. Then we'll go back and read the rest.
Verse 13: "Then we went on ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, there intending to take in Paul; for he had so appointed since he himself was going on foot."
The group that traveled with Paul, from Macedonia to Asia, went on ahead to Troas. Paul walked down to wherever the brethren were. He got down there probably before Passover. Kept Passover and the first part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread with them.
Normally the first day of the weeks is not a Holy Day. On occasions it is. This must not have been a Holy Day, first day of the weeks.
There's all this missing time that Paul had to get there, to be with the brethren. It took all the time for them to come across after Unleavened Bread, and then they stayed there. Took five days to get there and then they stayed seven days. Paul went down to Assos, right after this section here, v 7-12. He left and went on down to Assos and waited for them until they came.
How long was that? We're not told! But he said, 'I'll meet you in Assos.' This was the notable thing that occurred while he was with the brethren before he got to Assos.
Verse 7: "Now on the first day of the weeks, when the disciples had assembled to break bread, Paul preached to them; and because he was going to leave in the morning…" This is in the evening. This was ending Sabbath services. You end Sabbath services and then the first day of the weeks begins. He's going to leave in the morning.
"…he continued speaking until midnight. And there were many lamps in the upper room… [Aren't we spoiled with electricity?] …where they were assembled. And there sat in the window a certain youth named Eutychus, who was over-powered by deep sleep after Paul had been speaking for a long time…" (vs 7-9).
We don't know how long that was, but if they broke bread about 5-6 o'clock, how long was Paul speaking? Six hours! You need a long attention span. The young man should have been sitting in a chair instead of up on the edge there.
"…and he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. But Paul went down and laid himself on him, and embraced him, and said, 'Do not be anxious for his life is in him.' And after he got up again, and had broken bread and eaten…" (vs 9-11). They had a midnight snack. You ever do that?
With all this going on, look we have food left. Dolores and I plan our meals with leftovers. The reason we do that is because that saves extra working and preparing every meal. So, I have a meatloaf, what do you have? Meal for two days, unless you eat more!
Yesterday we had more food than we could handle so we have leftovers today. If there are leftovers of the leftovers, we'll have some of the bachelors take it home so they can have something to eat when they get home. Even if you're not a bachelor, go ahead and take some.
So after they "…had broken break and eaten, and talked for a long time, even until daybreak…." (v 11). Have you ever been to services where you start right after you have dinner? You go to midnight, an accident happens, a miracle takes place, you're all excited, you have all this adrenal in you; you eat some more food and then Paul says, 'I have something else to tell you.'
Verse 13: "Then we went on ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos…" This was an extended period of time. We don't know how long it was. We don't know what was taking place through all of that. Paul was anxious to get on down to Jerusalem. We don't even know what year. If we knew what year this was, we could run the calculations from the Calculated Hebrew Calendar and get the set of days on it.
This is why when you read different things you have to read carefully. If it doesn't make sense, it's not there is something wrong with the Bible.
One Church of God group says that this is proof that you can have the Wave Sheaf Offering after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How can that be? It cannot be! So, when the Passover falls on the Sabbath, the first Holy Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls on a Sunday. That Sunday is the first day of the weeks counting to Pentecost!
This year it was a little different. We had Passover Friday, which then was Thursday night. Then we had the Night to be Much Observed Friday night. Then we had the Sabbath, which started Friday night. The first day of the weeks was Sunday.
We are finishing today the first week in the count of seven weeks toward Pentecost. Every week has to end in a Sabbath.
Now, I know that's a little technical, but we do have to approach some of those things so they can get an understanding of it.
Scriptural References:
- Mark 16:2
- Acts 20:6-7, 1-6, 13, 7-11, 13
Scripture referenced, not quoted: Leviticus 23
Also referenced:
Books:
- A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter
- The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order: Appendix A: Fourteen Rules for Bible Study (also cbcg.org)
FRC:lp
Transcribed: 5-9-16
Formatted: bo—5/10/16
Copyright 2016—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.
