Exodus 12:6

12:6 You must care for it ¹  until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community ²  of Israel will kill it around sundown. ³ 

Exodus 12:8

12:8 They will eat the meat the same night; ⁴  they will eat it roasted over the fire with bread made without yeast ⁵  and with bitter herbs.

Exodus 12:18

12:18 In the first month, ⁶  from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.

Exodus 13:3

13:3 Moses said to the people, “Remember ⁷  this day on which you came out from Egypt, from the place where you were enslaved, ⁸  for the Lord brought you out of there ⁹  with a mighty hand – and no bread made with yeast may be eaten. ¹⁰ 

Leviticus 23:5-6

23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, ¹¹  is a Passover offering to the Lord. 23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month ¹²  will be the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Numbers 28:16-18

Passover and Unleavened Bread

28:16 “‘On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover. 28:17 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the festival. For seven days bread made without yeast must be eaten. 28:18 And on the first day there is to be a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work ¹³  on it.

Deuteronomy 16:1-4

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ¹⁴  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ¹⁵  he ¹⁶  brought you out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal ¹⁷  (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he ¹⁸  chooses to locate his name. 16:3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your life the day you came out of the land of Egypt. 16:4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land ¹⁹  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ²⁰ 

Matthew 26:17

The Passover

26:17 Now on the first day of the feast of ²¹  Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and said, ²²  “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” ²³ 

Luke 22:7

The Passover

22:7 Then the day for the feast ²⁴  of Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. ²⁵ 

[12:6]  ¹ tn The text has וְהָיָה לָכֶם לְמִשְׁמֶרֶת (vÿhaya lakem lÿmishmeret, “and it will be for you for a keeping”). This noun stresses the activity of watching over or caring for something, probably to keep it in its proper condition for its designated use (see 16:23, 32-34).

[12:6]  ² tn Heb “all the assembly of the community.” This expression is a pleonasm. The verse means that everyone will kill the lamb, i.e., each family unit among the Israelites will kill its animal.

[12:6]  ³ tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5 p.m. The Mishnah (m. Pesahim 5:1) indicates the lamb was killed about 2:30 p.m. – anything before noon was not valid. S. R. Driver concludes from this survey that the first view is probably the best, although the last view was the traditionally accepted one (Exodus, 89-90). Late afternoon or early evening seems to be intended, the time of twilight perhaps.

[12:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “this night.”

[12:8]  ⁵ sn Bread made without yeast could be baked quickly, not requiring time for the use of a leavening ingredient to make the dough rise. In Deut 16:3 the unleavened cakes are called “the bread of affliction,” which alludes to the alarm and haste of the Israelites. In later Judaism and in the writings of Paul, leaven came to be a symbol of evil or corruption, and so “unleavened bread” – bread made without yeast – was interpreted to be a picture of purity or freedom from corruption or defilement (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 90-91).

[12:18]  ⁶ tn “month” has been supplied.

[13:3]  ⁷ tn The form is the infinitive absolute of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”). The use of this form in place of the imperative (also found in the Decalogue with the Sabbath instruction) stresses the basic meaning of the root word, everything involved with remembering (emphatic imperative, according to GKC 346 §113.bb). The verb usually implies that there will be proper action based on what was remembered.

[13:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “from a house of slaves.” “House” is obviously not meant to be literal; it indicates a location characterized by slavery, a land of slaves, as if they were in a slave house. Egypt is also called an “iron-smelting furnace” (Deut 4:20).

[13:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “from this” [place].

[13:3]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; it could be rendered “must not be eaten” in the nuance of the instruction or injunction category, but permission fits this sermonic presentation very well – nothing with yeast may be eaten.

[23:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “between the two evenings,” perhaps designating the time between the setting of the sun and the true darkness of night. Cf. KJV, ASV “at even”; NAB “at the evening twilight.”

[23:6]  ¹² tn Heb “to this month.”

[28:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “any work [of] service”; this means any occupational work, that is, the ordinary service.

[16:1]  ¹⁴ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[16:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[16:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”

[16:4]  ²⁰ tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:17]  ²¹ tn The words “the feast of” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied for clarity.

[26:17]  ²² tn Grk “the disciples came to Jesus, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) has been translated as a finite verb to make the sequence of events clear in English.

[26:17]  ²³ sn This required getting a suitable lamb and finding lodging in Jerusalem where the meal could be eaten. The population of the city swelled during the feast, so lodging could be difficult to find. The Passover was celebrated each year in commemoration of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt; thus it was a feast celebrating redemption (see Exod 12). The Passover lamb was roasted and eaten after sunset in a family group of at least ten people (m. Pesahim 7.13). People ate the meal while reclining (see the note on table in 26:20). It included, besides the lamb, unleavened bread and bitter herbs as a reminder of Israel’s bitter affliction at the hands of the Egyptians. Four cups of wine mixed with water were also used for the meal. For a further description of the meal and the significance of the wine cups, see E. Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 523-24.

[22:7]  ²⁴ tn The words “for the feast” are not in the Greek text, but have been supplied for clarity.

[22:7]  ²⁵ sn Generally the feast of Unleavened Bread would refer to Nisan 15 (Friday), but the following reference to the sacrifice of the Passover lamb indicates that Nisan 14 (Thursday) was what Luke had in mind (Nisan = March 27 to April 25). The celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted eight days, beginning with the Passover meal. The celebrations were so close together that at times the names of both were used interchangeably.