Passover Difficult Scriptures:

Old Testament & New Testament

Refuting false doctrine and mistranslations that bring confusion

Fred R. Coulter—April 6, 2019

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Greetings, everyone! This is the first Sabbath in April, and the second Sabbath is the Sabbath before the Passover and the Night to Be Much Observed.

Once again I'm going to advertise the booklet: The Night to Be Much Observed by Steven Greene and Wayne Stenhouse. The cover is by Randy Vild. That's a perfect depiction: a full moon and leaving the night after the Passover. It couldn't be the same night.

Again, if you don't have The Christian Passover book, you better write for it and you better read it, because we're going to talk about, today, some doctrine. Doctrine is the precise teaching of the beliefs that we are to have and follow!

I'm also going post online--which I should have done a long time ago—because this was the attack in the Church: The Passover in the Bible and the Church Today by Lester Grabbe and Robert L. Kuhn: infiltrators to destroy the Passover!

There are always infiltrators. What did Peter say? I've been editing the Greek in the book of Acts and guess what I discovered? How much has always been in the Bible, and yet, we didn't grasp it or we didn't understand it the way we should? A lot!

Here I'm editing along and doing the Greek and the English, and I came to one place where the English said 'we' and that wasn't right, it should have been 'he.' So, I looked up the tense of the verb that was singular, third person 'he.' There are always those who are trying the change or modify!

There was an excellent message on Go to Meeting last night by Roy Assanti. He made it very clear that Satan never comes to say, 'Try this sin.' He always comes to say, 'I've got a thought.' Oh, really, what is that? 'It will be a benefit to you. a real benefit. Don't you want a benefit?'

It's like the voice that came to the man and said, 'Bet on this race horse and you're going to win a lot of money.' He won $25,000! The voice came back again and said, 'Here's the next race, bet your money on it.' He tripled his money, $75,000. The voice came again and said, 'There a big raced coming up. Take all your money and bet on this horse.' He put it on and he lost! So, the voice came and said, 'Too bad!' I thought you told me we would always win. 'Well, you can win them all.'

Not all ideas are good ideas. And this paper that we're going to put online is from 1978. That's 41 years! When false teachers come, the don't say, 'I'm a false teacher.' Oh good, we'll hire you immediately! NO! Let's read what Peter says:

2-Peter 2:1: "But there were also false prophets among the people, as indeed there will be false teachers among you, who will stealthily… [sneakily] …introduce destructive heresies…"

They might not do it all at once, because they test the waters to see how it is. When is the most propitious time to bring in false doctrine? When everybody is relaxed, happy, satisfied, and thinking everything is all right!

"…personally denying the Lord who bought them, and bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many people will follow…" (vs 1-2). Where can you find the word many in Matt. 7? Few find the narrow ways, and many the broad way!

As we mentioned about the change from Sabbath to Sunday, how many of those people thought that when they had their first Sunday service, and it was all great and they had no problem with the Romans coming after them as Jews. They still used the name of Jesus and sang hymns to Him. They did all of these things. They preached about grace. They preached about the Eucharist. They changed everything! Once you can change one thing, you can change everything! Did that happen with WCG (Worldwide Church of God)? Yes, indeed!

Verse 2: "And many people will follow as authoritative their destructive ways; and because of them, the way of the Truth will be blasphemed."

In this paper by Grabbe and Kuhn: How many times have we covered if you want to destroy the faith of those who are true, true Christians:

• What do you come after first? The Passover!
• Why? Because if you can change any part of that, you start incrementally removing yourself from God!

You are not renewing the covenant of your baptism!

In this paper, guess what they say? We don't know where the name Passover was derived! What did God say? This is the Lord's Passover!

What was the key thing that was used to confuse which day to keep the Passover on? The 14th? or The 15th? And it's still a problem to this day! The Jews claim that it has always, from the beginning, been on the 15th. But that's not what the Bible says. We'll see why they claim that.

What are two important things that tell us how we can identify when the day begins and when the day ends? There's one important verse in Lev., the Day of Atonement!

• Isn't interesting how God buries certain things in the Bible in places that you wouldn't expect it?
• Why does He do it that way? To find out if you really want the truth!
• How many times does God have to say something in order for it to be true?
• What if there's only one verse that definitively tells us when the day begins and when the day ends? Lev. 23!
• Doesn't Gen. 1 say that 'evening and morning are day 1? Day 2? etc.

But the problem really gets very interesting. Lev. 23:32 has to do with the Day of Atonement. Why is this so important that it's written this way. Even though it's written this way and it's very specific. The Jews claim that the Sabbath doesn't begin until you can see three stars. That's not what the Bible says.

The first thing we need to understand is that the Jews—though they claim they're always right—are probably 90% wrong in what they believe. Tradition supersedes the Bible!

Leviticus 23:32 (KJV): "It… [the Day of Atonement] …shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath."

What does 'even' mean? Let's add another thing to the problem: Strong's Concordance is good to a point. It has 'erev' as evening or sunset, which is true. But it has nothing for the next segment of time: 'ben ha arbayim.' Why? Because 'ben ha arbayim' is a derivative of 'ba erev'! From 'even to even'; when does it begin? The Jews say that begins about 3 o'clock in the afternoon! But it really means from sunset!

Have you ever seen the sun set at 3 o'clock in the afternoon? "…from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath." So, this tells us definitely, with the Hebrew—from 'ba erev' to 'ba erev'—and the phrase is a little different in the Hebrew because it's a combined word.

Let's read it in Faithful Version, and this is why we did the Faithful Version. To get rid of all the errors of the King James and other translations.

Verse 32 (FV): "It shall be to you a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at sunset, from sunset to sunset, you shall keep your Sabbath.'

We've got in the Passover book how long sunset is: When the sun touches the horizon begins 'ba erev,' meaning the day is ending. When the sun goes down below the horizon—which takes about five minutes—the next day begins.

When I was coming back from Los Angeles one time, and it was just about sunset, I was coming up by the San Luis Dam, and it is flat, so I pulled off the side of the road and waited for the sun to go down. I timed it and it was just little less than five minutes.

Can every person—educated or not—know when the sun goes down. Yes, even your little kids. 'Look, daddy, the sun just went down.' That's how simple it is. But intellectuals have to complicate it.

Exo. 12—here's where the first Passover with Israel is located. Does that mean between the two evenings, from one evening to begin the day to the next evening to end the day. There are some people who believe that and they say that you can have the Passover anytime during that time-period.

I remember at my first Feast of Unleavened Bread—at that time I was living in Burlingame, CA., and I had my little ole Nash Rambler, and I would drive over to the East Bay and ride up to Sacramento with another couple. This was the first time I was keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Ron Kelly was the minister at the time and he was reading from Exo. 12.

Exodus 12:1 (KJV): "And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, 'This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, "In the tenth day…"'" (vs 1-3).

We find in John 12 that's when Christ was chosen with a voice from heaven to be the Passover Lamb.

"…In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls…" (vs 3-4).

You are a walking living soul; not that you have an immortal soul. Who ate the Passover, the people or the immortal soul?

"…every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats… [there are good goats] …And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same [1st] month…" (vs 4-6).

• What does until mean?
• The end of it?

Up to! That's what it means in the Hebrew.

"…and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening" (v 6).

I was there and we read down a little bit further, but Kelly said that this is as the beginning of the day, which was correct. But I'm looking at that and it says evening. A little bit later I'm reading evening, and he says that this is the end of the day.

My very first time I had a question: How do we know? I just figured it was right because he said so, and he was right.

This kill it in the evening is and entirely different Hebrew word. This is the one when I was writing the Passover book and going through it. Then Kelly after explaining about how we had the Passover the previous night and blah, blah, read:

Verse 18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even… [what is the difference between evening and even] …ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even."

How are we going to know?

Now, we've got this paper by Kuhn and Grabbe and they were saying that the Jews are right and the Passover was always on the 15th and they killed the lamb at the temple from 3 in the afternoon until whenever they got done with them, which had to be before sunset.

That's the way it is! No question! No Biblical proof! Here I am, I just recently finished the first edition of A Harmony of the Gospels and I said that if there's anything new concerning the Passover I'll be sure and let you know.

I came home from the conference and I started studying almost all day and all night. The proposition was that if there is no place in the Bible that clearly distinguishes between 'ba erev' and 'ben ha arbayim' that they are truly different, then the Jews are right!

We didn't have computers back then, so I had to get all the books, do all the studying I could do, and there is one place—'ba erev' beginning and ending…

Exodus 16:2 (KJV): "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, 'Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger'" (vs 2-3).

How's that for a converted attitude? After all that God did! All the plagues in Egypt! Walking through the Red Sea! Think of all the things that they saw and heard, and the passing over of the firstborn on Passover night and they were all spared.

What they should have done was gone to Moses and say, 'Moses, we're all really hungry. Could you please pray to God so that we can have some bread to eat. By the way, we'd like a little meat, too. That would be nice.'

Guess what would have happened. What a difference. Remember that when you pray. If you pray and complain, you'd better repent and come up with a better idea.

Verse 4: "Then said the LORD unto Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them…'"

• Why do we have difficulties? Because we need to choose!
• What will we choose?

"…whether they will walk in My law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, at even…" (vs 4-6)—which one? You can't tell from this!

"…then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning…"

Remember the day that this was spoken was a Sabbath Day. The morning begins day one, after the Sabbath.

Verse 7: "And in the morning then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? And Moses said, 'This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the eveningflesh to eat…[Which evening? Doesn't tell us!] …and in the morning bread to the full…'" (vs 7-8). What happened?

Verse 11: "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 'I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, "At even… [Which one?] …ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God."' And it came to pass, that at even… [Which one?] …the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host" (vs 11-13).

Now, let's read it in The Faithful Version, because it straightens it all out; Exodus 16:12: "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'Between the two evenings… [When is that? 'ben ha arbayim'] …you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.' And it came to pass, at sunset, that the quail came up and covered the camp…." (vs 12-13).

• Why didn't the quail come sooner? The Sabbath Day!
• Does God keep His own Sabbath? Yes!
• What if He sent it at three in the afternoon on the Sabbath Day?

One man wrote and said that all the people would understand that God was just trying to give them something. What's the difference of three hours?

Verse 13: "And it came to pass, at sunset, that the quails came up and covered the camp…. [v 12]: …'Between the two evenings you shall eat flesh…'" Can you eat flesh before it arrives? No! This is the key to answer the difference between 'ben ha arbayim' that it must come after 'ba erev'—sunset.

It has to come after sunset, because God sent the quail at sunset. He didn't want them out wandering around trying to find them scattered around. So, they came and they were all kind of in a daze themselves, so everyone just scooped up what they could, rung the necks, skinned them down and they could keep their fire going on the Sabbath. They probably threw a little wood on the fire right after the sun went down and getting ready to eat.

How long does it take to cook a quail breast? Probably not more than ten minutes! They had plenty. You do one and eat it, and do another one and eat it. This tells us that since God sent the quail at sunset, that their eating of it was after they got the quail and cooked it. This had to be between the two evenings, which is between sunset and dark! How long is that? We also answered that question in the Passover book, and answered it this way:

I was down in Texas with the Alexander's and we were in San Antonio and they had this big needle restaurant at the top. It was late on the Sabbath and they had it so it would turn. Here we are 200 feet in the air in the flat land of Texas. Perfect to understand how long 'ben ha arbayim' is. So, we watched the sun go down and set the timer. We were up so high we could look over to the east and see the darkness coming, and look to the west and still see some of the sun, little specks of light. It took an hour and 15 minutes! Perfect timing. That was about the same latitude, if you go backward over to the Middle East where the children of Israel were.

"…'Between the two evenings… ['ben ha arbayim'] …you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread….'" (v 12).

What happened when they wanted to store the extra bread during the week? It bred worms and stunk! Have you were cleaning something out that was really bad, and you stick your hand in it. What a terrible stinky mess! So, that was one miracle. What was the other miracle? They could gather twice as much on day six and it wouldn't breed worms and stink!

God said, 'Tell the children of Israel not to go out and look for bread on the Sabbath, because it won't be there.' Some of them went out and looked for bread and there wasn't any, and God got really angry! He said, 'How long refuse you to keep My laws and commandments!'

But God kept His promise, because, v 35: "And the children of Israel ate manna forty years until they came to a habitable land. They ate manna until they came into the borders of the land of Canaan. And an omer is the tenth part of an ephah" (vs 35-36).

Exo. 12 combined with Lev. 23:32 will make it abundantly clear. Exodus 12:18: "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at sunset… [that ends the 14th] …you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at sunset"—ends the 21st.

But when you end the 14th, that begins the 15th. So, the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the 15th through the 21st. Always remember that counting is different than adding and subtracting!

The other day I had four checks in the checkbook, and the last number was 40. How many checks did we have? 37, 38, 39, 40; four checks! If you subtract you're short; if you subtract 7 from 10, you have 3. It's different than adding and subtracting, and this is where people get all mixed up. It's not clear in the translation; the King James is almost hopelessly lost in trying to figure it out. For people who don't study and apply themselves, they can be easily deceived. That's why this paper was written to deceive!

(go to the next track)

Num. 11—let's see that this is an entirely separate sending of the quail. Here they had a great argument with Moses again, so Moses says:

Numbers 11:30: "And Moses went into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. And a wind went forth from the LORD. And it brought quail from the sea and let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side..." (vs 30-31).

This was in the daytime and He sent it "…a day's journey…" You want flesh; you go get it!

In the case in Exo, 16, He sent it in the camp, because they were all in the camp on the Sabbath. He sent it as soon as the Sabbath ended, BAM!, here are the quail. They ate the quail. Now, I don't know if they had so much that the people would stay up and glut until one or two in the morning. I couldn't tell you. But they had plenty!

"…and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits high upon the face of the earth" (v 31).

Be careful what you ask for! Two cubits. Okay, now that's about one yard high. Can you imagine that many?

Verse 32: "And the people rose up all that day and all night, and all the next day..." So, they were going to and fro even at night! It must have been a full moon night.

"...and they gathered the quail. And he that gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague. And he called the name of that place Graves of Lust because there they buried the people that lusted. And the people set out from the Graves of Lust to Hazeroth and stayed at Hazeroth" (vs 32-35). That's entirely different! I've even read where some people conflate the two; doesn't work!

Let's look at Deut. 16; I remember trying to figure this out. Let's come to Num. 9 first, because this is important. It was said, and I don't know if it's in that paper, that it was changed from the domestic to the tabernacle or temple sacrifice by God, and the only domestic Passover they had was in Egypt.

Numbers 9:1: "And the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year... [this is their second Passover] ...after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Let the children of Israel also keep the Passover at its appointed time. In the fourteenth day of this month, between the two evenings... [identical with Lev. 23:4-5), which is after sunset]  ...you shall keep it in its appointed time. You shall keep it according to all its statutes, and according to all the ceremonies of it'" (vs 1-3)—everything you find in the book of Exodus!

Verse 4: "And Moses spoke to the children of Israel to keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month between the two evenings in the wilderness of Sinai. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, the children of Israel did" (vs 4-5).

The point was made, a very good point: In the 14th day of the 1st month between the two evenings is very specific. Then it says in v 5 that they kept the Passover on the 14th day, of the 1st month between the two evenings. That's a double-check. That is almost like double-entry bookkeeping. Double-entry bookkeeping says you paid out $20 to this person. The check comes in that was paid out, now where does it go in bookkeeping? It goes into a certain account! Double-entry bookkeeping.

Verse 5: "…According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, the children of Israel did…. [problem]: …And there were certain men who were defiled by the dead body of a man, so that they could not keep the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day. And those men said to them, 'We are defiled by the dead body of a man. Why are we kept back that we may not offer an offering of the LORD in its appointed time among the children of Israel?' And Moses said to them, 'You wait here, and I will hear what the LORD will command about you'" (vs 5-8).

Very interesting! What do we do? How important was the Passover? Very important! Because if they didn't keep the Passover right, they were not in right standing with God! If we don't keep the Passover right, we're not in right standing with God!

Verse 9: "And the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, saying, "If any man of you or of your generations... [that's on into the future] ...shall be unclean because of a dead body, or in a journey afar off, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD"'" (vs 9-10).

This is a little ambiguous here, but it means that you can't keep the Passover if you're not in the land of Israel. This is on the supposition if he's on a journey and gets back in time for the 14th day of the 2nd month he can keep the Passover.

Verse 11: "They shall keep it the fourteenth day of the second month between the two evenings, eating it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it until the morning, nor break any bone of it. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it. But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and holds back from keeping the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people…." (vs 11-13).

That means that God is not going to give him any blessings. The blessings that come to the people is not going to come to him. That's different from being destroyed, cutoff! You could you could look at it this way. All the people in the world are cutoff from God, blinded! Then it talks about the stranger keeping, it one law for both of them.

Deut.16[transcriber's correction] is difficult in the King James. In the Passover book I have Deut. 16 in the King James, the Jewish Bible, the Interlinear, and I have the correct translation spread across two pages so you can compare all of them.

When you read this it does sound like God did indeed change the killing of the Passover lamb from domestic to tabernacle or temple. So, you have to read it very, very carefully.

When they selected the lamb on the 10th day of the 1st month, where was it to be taken from? A lamb or a kid! Very important!

Deuteronomy 16:1 (KJV): "Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the LORD thy God… [full stop] ...for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night." Two different things!

The Jews today in a 15th Passover never talk about the firstborn being spared as a fantastic thing on the Passover night. They say this is in celebration of coming out of Egypt. Well, they couldn't have come out of Egypt until they had the Passover first. How long were they to stay in their homes? Until morning or sunrise! Even a little kid can figure sunrise! 'Daddy look the sun is coming up.' Not hard to figure.

Verse 2: "Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd…."

When I read that in the Hebrew Interlinear—the flock and the herd—I said that there can never be a Passover calf! You talk about a hard thing to do. What if it's the first Passover and someone had a little calf? Well, that's about three times the size of a little kid. Can you imagine eating all the flesh of that, and burning all those bones before they left in the morning?

I remember I was lying in bed reading this, and I leapt out of bed and I said, 'That's it!' That's it! This cannot be for the Passover. This has got to be something else. We'll see it in a minute when we read it in the Faithful Version.

"…in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there" (v 2).

That's where the tabernacle would be. So, if you don't read other parts and come to here, you would have to conclude that the Passover was indeed on the 15th. Now notice carefully, you have to read it:

Verse 3: "Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith…"

What was the real Passover to be observed in? One night? or Seven? ONE!

"…even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning" (vs 3-4). The flesh; it doesn't say anything about the bones!

Verse 5: "You mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee." That sounds pretty conclusive—doesn't it? But that's not a correct translation!

Verse 6: "But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even… ['ba erev'] …at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents" (vs 6-7).

What does this tell us? They stayed up all night, on The Night to be Much Observed! Think how much flesh and wine would be consumed? What a wonderful time!

Comment regarding Strong's Concordance saying that it can be ether roasted or boiled. What does Exo. 12 say? Roasted with fire, not boiled in water. The Jews are so particular, I read in the Mishnah that when they were roasting the lamb on a grate over a fire, if some of the juice came off, they cut it out. That's how particular they were that it wouldn't boil. Juice up against the flesh would be boiling it. So, as particular as they were, that's what they did.

Verse 8[transcriber's correction]: "Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread..." The only place in the Bible it says six days you shall eat unleavened bread! Do we eat it six days? or seven days? Seven days! Passover is a separate unleavened bread day. If you have one day with a Night to be Much Observed. How many days do you have left of Unleavened Bread? Six!

"...and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein" (v 8).

Deuteronomy 16:1 (FV): "Keep the month of Abib, and observe the Passover to the LORD your God. For in the month of Abib, the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night."

We will see that in just a minute. We will see what this Passover offering was. When they killed the Passover for a domestic Passover, it was the Passover sacrifice. Keep that in mind, not Passover offering. We will see what it was that they were doing with the lambs and with the calves there at the temple area. We'll find out a in a little bit.

Verse 2: "And you shall, therefore, sacrifice the Passover offering…" That's what it should read! That's why the King James does nothing but destroy the details of the Passover, and it's hard for anyone to come to the true knowledge of the Truth, and really be able to hold back all the lies of the pretenders.

"...the Passover offering to the LORD your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place, which the LORD shall choose to place His name there. You shall eat no leavened bread with it. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction, for you came forth out of the land of Egypt in haste… [or trepidation] …so that you may remember the day that you came forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. And there shall be no leaven seen with you in all your borders for seven days. Nor shall any of the flesh, which you sacrificed in the first day at sunset remain all night until the morning" (vs 2-4).

Are there other sacrifices that tell you that you can't leave the flesh until morning? Yes! Peace offering! A thank offering you can also have a leavened small loaf; that's the only one.

Verse 5: "You may not sacrifice the Passover offering within any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you."

Why? That can't be the domestic, because that is to be sacrificed at your house! Why does it say this?

Verse 6: "But at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place His name in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover offering at sunset, at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came out of Egypt." Key, mark that timing!

• Did they come out of Egypt on Passover night at the going down of the sun?

or

• The next night?
• What would have happened if they would have gone out of their house?

God said don't go out of your house until sunrise!

Verse 7: "And you shall boil and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose. And in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents."

Let's see what we're talking about here, and what sacrifices these sacrifices were that were required to be at the tabernacle or the temple, not eaten at home.

Exodus 12:37: "And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, the men being about six hundred thousand on foot, apart from little ones."

Think about this! In the Passover book I compared the New Year's Day Parade to the children of Israel leaving. But remember when all the refugees were coming out of Syria and coming into Europe? A long massive column of people coming! You add to that all the animals and things that were with it. This was a big deal! This wasn't just a little trickle of people coming out, and they didn't go through the Red 'Reed' Sea barefooted, splash, splash. That's the way they portray it.

Verse 38: "And also a mixed multitude went up with them... [a mixed multitude was always a pain in the flesh] …and flocks and herds, very much livestock."

Now, the whole geographical and botanical arrangement of Mount Sinai was very different than today. To support all those cattle and everything and all the sheep and goats:

• What do they need? Grass!
• Is there much grass out there today? No!

I was reading a botanical book about that area. It was more like what England and Northern France are like today, completely different.

Verse 39: "And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not stay, neither had they prepared any food for themselves for the journey. Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years" (vs 39-40).

Remember that Gen, 15 says 400 years. How do you reconcile 400 with 430? Abraham was 75 when the promise was given (Gen. 15)! He had the covenant then, and in Gen. 17 where they had the circumcision, he was 85. Now then, how old was he when Isaac was born; the promise given? 100!

So, from the time that it was confirmed with circumcision, until Isaac was born is 15 years. What are the other 15? When he took Isaac to be sacrificed; he was a lad! That means he was not an adult, so he had to be 15-years-old. That's how you reconcile 430 and 400, 15 on each side.

Verse 42: "It is a night to be much observed to the LORD..."

No, no, no! People say this was invented by HWA, that it's not in the Bible. Well, I just read it, it's the Bible! I can't find HWA there at anytime.

"...for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations" (v 42). I don't think anything could be clearer!

• When did they leave their homes? In the morning!
• Where did they go to assemble to leave? Ramses!

There are those who say that the children of Israel kept the Passover in Ramses in their tents. How could you be in your houses? Makes no sense! What did you do, sacrifice the lamb, run back your house and put the blood on it and come back to your tent? I mean, there are some people come up with the craziest things.

So they assembled on the day portion of the Passover. What was the single thing that was important for them? All their firstborn were spared! That had to be commemorated as well. So, there they assembled. Can you imagine what it was with all the families there, and all the firstborn talking to each other.

All those Egyptians, the men and women and all the animals, the firstborn all died, and look at the mess we saw coming into Ramses here to get out of out of here. They were giving us gold and silver and clothes and everything like that; they spoiled them.

Verse 51: "And it came to pass the very same day, when the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies."

Exodus 13:1: "Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Sanctify all the firstborn to Me...'" (vs 1-2). When was that spoken? On the day portion of the Passover Day, before they started going out by night!

"'...whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, of man and of beast. It is Mine.' And Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for the LORD brought you out from this place by the strength of His hand. There shall be no leavened bread eaten'" (vs 2-3).

Then it says, v 6: "You shall eat unleavened bread seven days…"

Verse 11: "And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and shall give it to you, you shall set apart to the LORD all that opens the womb... [this was the command on the day before they left that night]... and every firstborn that comes of any animal which you have; the males shall be the LORD'S" (vs 11-12).

Sidebar: They couldn't eat the firstborn of the male. You read Deut. 14 that they ate the firstborn at the Feast. That had to be the firstborn that was female. He says specifically male. You can't eat it; it's the Lord's.

Verse 13: "And every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem."

• How did they redeem? With a sacrifice!
• What does Deut. 16 tell us? Of a lamb or of the herd!

That's what that's talking about. The Passover offering is not the sacrifice of the Passover. It is the Passover offering redeeming the firstborn. That's what it did.

Verse 14: "And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'The LORD brought us out of Egypt by the strength of His hand, from the house of bondage.'" That is different than the Passover!

Concerning the Passover Day; Exodus 12:24: "And you shall observe this thing as a law to you and to your children forever. And it shall be when you have come to the land, which the LORD will give you, according as He has promised that you shall keep this service. And it will be, when your children shall say to you..." (vs 24-26). Where would the children be? At home!

Verse 27: "…'What does this service mean to you?' Then you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S Passover, Who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our houses.' And the people bowed their heads and worshiped. And the children of Israel went away and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron; so they did" (vs 27-28).

What happened? All the firstborn is in Egypt died! Here on the day portion of the Passover Day, they were all assembled there. Before they left, God said to remember this day. And He specifically said, 'You shall redeem all your firstborn,' because He redeemed all the firstborn of your children in Egypt. That's what Deut. 16 is about.

Those Passover offerings are redemption offerings of the firstborn. Not the killing of the Passover lamb for the Passover service. But it's so easy to confuse. Nowhere does it say that God spared their firstborn in Deut. 16! But that's what He did in Exo. 12.

We're going to read the first couple of verses in Matt. 26, Mark 14 and Luke 22. Let me read it here in the King James Version, because this also adds confusion. It's awfully hard to get away from confusion, if you don't understand all the facts of the Old Testament. But what is traditional with the Protestants? The Old Testament was all fulfilled! Now when they did the King James Version, they had very little knowledge of the Feast Days. And in reading the Old Testament, Deut. 16 conflates it.

If they were to ask a rabbi of his day, what is it? He would tell you the wrong thing! He would say Passover commemorates leaving Egypt! NO! Passover commemorates sparing of the firstborn! Two different things; back to back days though.

Matthew 26:1 (KJV): "And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover... [the feast of, is not in the Greek] …and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified" (vs 1-2).

Mark 14:1 (KJV): "After two days was the feast of the Passover and of Unleavened Bread..." Conflating the two of them together!

Luke 22:1 (KJV): "Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover."

Now, let's read them in the Faithful Version. Where they say, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, that's exactly what the Jews would tell you today, and they call the whole thing, the Passover. They were doing it back there as well.

Mathew 26:1 (FV): "Now, it came to pass that when Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said to His disciples, 'You know that after two days the Passover takes place...'" Quite a bit of difference! "…the feast of…"  is not there!

"...and the Son of man is delivered up to be crucified" (v 1).

Mark 14:1: "Now, after two days was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread..."

Luke 22:1: "Now, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was approaching."

Let's look at one more Scripture, which is a blatant mistranslation—Acts 12—showing their ignorance or deliberate misunderstanding, or complete lack of knowledge.

Acts 12:1 (KJV): "Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter... [the Greek there is 'paschal' Passover! They have got to get it in there!] ...to bring him forth to the people" (vs 1-4).

Now then, let's read it in the Faithful Version; Acts 12:4: "And after arresting him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four sets of four soldiers to guard him with the intent of bringing him out to the people after the Passover season."

If it were already the Days of Unleavened Bread, it was the Days of Unleavened Bread they called Passover. That how things get all mixed up. No wonder that WCG was set up for a fall. Here I was as a minister at that time, when they came out with this paper by Lester Grabbe and Robert Kuhn.

I didn't know any of the things at that time as a minister, that I should have known, until I was forced to have to prove what was the Truth. Because we were at the point that you either believe that Jesus kept a pre-Passover Passover: Lord's supper, and the Jews kept the regular Passover on the 15th That's what it was down to.

When they put it as Easter, were they implying that the Jews were keeping Easter? Yes! How blatant can you get? See how trouble spreads? Now you know why the church is a few. They don't want to give up their paganism. They want to keep it the way that it is.

Now, let's come to another terrible translation in John 13. All of this had to be sorted out in trying to get everything correct for the Passover.

John 13:1: "Now, before the Feast of the Passover, knowing that His time had come to depart from this world to the Father, Jesus, having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end."

How long before the Passover was this? It was before the Passover, but how long before? It doesn't tell us! You can't put a chronology on this. When did He not love them? What it means is that up to the Passover time He was still loving them.

You see in John 15 that Jesus said that He loved them and that if they kept His commandments, He would love them as the Father has also loved Him. All right. This is the bad, bad verse:

Verse 2: "And supper being ended..." There's some people who say foot-washing is after Passover, not before. Since they don't know any Greek, they can't study the Greek to find out what his was. It should be during supper—close to the beginning—because the Greek verb is 'gennao.' And it's spelled a little differently in the Greek because it is it is a participle, middle voice present tense.

This was saying that this was right at the first of supper. When we're feet washed when they would come into a house? When they got there! Remember Luke 7 when Jesus went to eat with this Pharisee, He walked in and sat down. Then this woman who was a 'sinner', a woman in Jerusalem came and was washing His feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair!

Can you imagine this right with the Pharisee 'august' lunch and they have this stranger Jesus. So, Jesus said, 'Simon (the Pharisee, I want to ask you a question.' Simon was sitting there saying, 'If this man were a prophet, He would have known who and what this woman was.' Jesus knew what He was thinking so He said, 'Simon, I want to ask a question.' Oh, say on Lord.

Jesus said, 'There were two debtors. One owed just a little bit. The other owed 500. He forgave them both. Simon, tell me which one would love him the most.' Oh, that's easy. The one who forgave the most! He says, 'Simon, you see that woman, she has loved and wash my feet. Her sins of many have been forgiven.' Everyone around saying, 'Who can forgive sin but God!'

So, you have the same thing here with this one. It means during, or right as supper began, because they just got there.

When did disciples keep the Passover? Jesus sent them to prepare the Passover, follow the man with a pitcher of water, they went in and everything was ready.

Matthew 26:20 (KJV): "Now when the even was come..."

Remember what we covered Mark 14, because He didn't want Judas Iscariot to know where they were going to have the Passover. That's why He didn't tell anybody. John and Peter came and said, Lord, where are we going to keep the Passover? Why? Because they could see the domestic lamb starting to being slain where they were on the Mount of Olives! They had their tents and everything all around the Mount of Olives.

So, the Passover was beginning. They said, 'Lord, where do You want to keep the Passover? He said, 'Go into the city, follow this man with a picture water into the house and tell the master that the teacher wants to have the Passover with His disciples. So:

Verse 20 (FV): "And after evening had come... [two evenings—sunset—getting dark; that's when He came] …He sat down with the twelve."

If you have any other questions, get the Passover book, because it contains all of that, and a whole lot more. But this one you can keep to refresh your memory when someone comes along with a question about the Passover.

• Which sunset?
• Which day?
• How was it done?

Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• 2 Peter 2:1-2
• Leviticus 23:32
• Exodus 12:1-6, 18
• Exodus 16:2-8, 11-13, 35
• Exodus 12:18
• Numbers 11:30-35
• Numbers 9:1-13
• Deuteronomy 16:1-8
• Exodus 12:37-42, 51
• Exodus 13:1-2, 6, 11-14
• Exodus 12:24-28
• Matthew 26:1-2
• Mark 14:1
• Luke 22:1
• Acts 12:1-4
• John 13:1-2
• Matthew 26:20

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 7
• Genesis 1
• John 12
• Leviticus 23:4-5
• Genesis 15; 17
• Deuteronomy 14
• John 15
• Luke 7

Also referenced:
Booklet: The Night to Be Much Observed by Steven Greene & Wayne Stenhouse
Article: The Passover in the Bible and the Church Today by Lester Grabbe and Robert L. Kuhn {truthofGod.org}
Books:

• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• A Harmony of the Gospels by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:po/bo
Transcribed: 4/11/19

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