Exodus 12:15-20

12:15 For seven days ¹  you must eat ²  bread made without yeast. ³  Surely ⁴  on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast ⁵  from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off ⁶  from Israel.

12:16 On the first day there will be a holy convocation, ⁷  and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you. You must do no work of any kind ⁸  on them, only what every person will eat – that alone may be prepared for you. 12:17 So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very ⁹  day I brought your regiments ¹⁰  out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance. ¹¹  12:18 In the first month, ¹²  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. 12:19 For seven days ¹³  yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast – that person ¹⁴  will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner ¹⁵  or one born in the land. 12:20 You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.’”

Exodus 13:4

13:4 On this day, ¹⁶  in the month of Abib, ¹⁷  you are going out. ¹⁸ 

Exodus 13:6-7

13:6 For seven days ¹⁹  you must eat ²⁰  bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there is to be ²¹  a festival to the Lord. 13:7 Bread made without yeast must be eaten ²²  for seven days; ²³  no bread made with yeast shall be seen ²⁴  among you, and you must have no yeast among you within any of your borders.

Exodus 23:15

23:15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days ²⁵  you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time ²⁶  you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before ²⁷  me empty-handed.

Leviticus 23:6

23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month ²⁸  will be the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

Deuteronomy 16:1-4

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ²⁹  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ³⁰  he ³¹  brought you out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal ³²  (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he ³³  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 ³⁴  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ³⁵ 

Mark 14:1

The Plot Against Jesus

14:1 Two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and the experts in the law ³⁶  were trying to find a way ³⁷  to arrest Jesus ³⁸  by stealth and kill him.

Luke 22:1

Judas’ Decision to Betray Jesus

22:1 Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, ³⁹  which is called the Passover, was approaching.

Acts 12:3

12:3 When he saw that this pleased the Jews, ⁴⁰  he proceeded to arrest Peter too. (This took place during the feast of Unleavened Bread.) ⁴¹ 

[12:15]  ¹ tn This expression is an adverbial accusative of time. The feast was to last from the 15th to the 21st of the month.

[12:15]  ² tn Or “you will eat.” The statement stresses their obligation – they must eat unleavened bread and avoid all leaven.

[12:15]  ³ tn The etymology of מַצּוֹת (matsot, “unleavened bread,” i.e., “bread made without yeast”) is uncertain. Suggested connections to known verbs include “to squeeze, press,” “to depart, go out,” “to ransom,” or to an Egyptian word “food, cake, evening meal.” For a more detailed study of “unleavened bread” and related matters such as “yeast” or “leaven,” see A. P. Ross, NIDOTTE 4:448-53.

[12:15]  ⁴ tn The particle serves to emphasize, not restrict here (B. S. Childs, Exodus [OTL], 183, n. 15).

[12:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “every eater of leavened bread.” The participial phrase stands at the beginning of the clause as a casus pendens, that is, it stands grammatically separate from the sentence. It names a condition, the contingent occurrences of which involve a further consequence (GKC 361 §116.w).

[12:15]  ⁶ tn The verb וְנִכְרְתָה (vÿnikhrÿtah) is the Niphal perfect with the vav (ו) consecutive; it is a common formula in the Law for divine punishment. Here, in sequence to the idea that someone might eat bread made with yeast, the result would be that “that soul [the verb is feminine] will be cut off.” The verb is the equivalent of the imperfect tense due to the consecutive; a translation with a nuance of the imperfect of possibility (“may be cut off”) fits better perhaps than a specific future. There is the real danger of being cut off, for while the punishment might include excommunication from the community, the greater danger was in the possibility of divine intervention to root out the evildoer (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 94). Gesenius lists this as the use of a perfect with a vav consecutive after a participle (a casus pendens) to introduce the apodosis (GKC 337 §112.mm).

[12:16]  ⁷ sn This refers to an assembly of the people at the sanctuary for religious purposes. The word “convocation” implies that the people were called together, and Num 10:2 indicates they were called together by trumpets.

[12:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “all/every work will not be done.” The word refers primarily to the work of one’s occupation. B. Jacob (Exodus, 322) explains that since this comes prior to the fuller description of laws for Sabbaths and festivals, the passage simply restricts all work except for the preparation of food. Once the laws are added, this qualification is no longer needed. Gesenius translates this as “no manner of work shall be done” (GKC 478-79 §152.b).

[12:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “on the bone of this day.” The expression means “the substance of the day,” the day itself, the very day (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 95).

[12:17]  ¹⁰ tn The word is “armies” or “divisions” (see Exod 6:26 and the note there; cf. also 7:4). The narrative will continue to portray Israel as a mighty army, marching forth in its divisions.

[12:17]  ¹¹ tn See Exod 12:14.

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

[12:19]  ¹³ tn “Seven days” is an adverbial accusative of time (see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 12, §56).

[12:19]  ¹⁴ tn The term is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh), often translated “soul.” It refers to the whole person, the soul within the body. The noun is feminine, agreeing with the feminine verb “be cut off.”

[12:19]  ¹⁵ tn Or “alien”; or “stranger.”

[13:4]  ¹⁶ tn The word הַיּוֹם (hayyom) means literally “the day, today, this day.” In this sentence it functions as an adverbial accusative explaining when the event took place.

[13:4]  ¹⁷ sn Abib appears to be an old name for the month, meaning something like “[month of] fresh young ears” (Lev 2:14 [Heb]) (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 106). B. Jacob (Exodus, 364) explains that these names were not precise designations, but general seasons based on the lunar year in the agricultural setting.

[13:4]  ¹⁸ tn The form is the active participle, functioning verbally.

[13:6]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Seven days.”

[13:6]  ²⁰ tn The imperfect tense functions with the nuance of instruction or injunction. It could also be given an obligatory nuance: “you must eat” or “you are to eat.” Some versions have simply made it an imperative.

[13:6]  ²¹ tn The phrase “there is to be” has been supplied.

[13:7]  ²² tn The imperfect has the nuance of instruction or injunction again, but it could also be given an obligatory nuance.

[13:7]  ²³ tn The construction is an adverbial accusative of time, answering how long the routine should be followed (see GKC 374 §118.k).

[13:7]  ²⁴ tn Or “visible to you” (B. Jacob, Exodus, 366).

[23:15]  ²⁵ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[23:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in it.”

[23:15]  ²⁷ tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here – no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).

[23:6]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to this month.”

[16:1]  ²⁹ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[16:2]  ³² tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ³³ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[16:4]  ³⁴ tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”

[16:4]  ³⁵ tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:1]  ³⁶ tn Or “the chief priests and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.

[14:1]  ³⁷ tn Grk “were seeking how.”

[14:1]  ³⁸ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:1]  ³⁹ sn The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a week long celebration that followed the day of Passover, so one name was used for both feasts (Exod 12:1-20; 23:15; 34:18; Deut 16:1-8).

[12:3]  ⁴⁰ tn This could be a reference to the Jewish people (so CEV) or to the Jewish leaders (so NLT). The statement in v. 4 that Herod intended to bring Peter “out to the people” (i.e., for a public trial) may suggest the former is somewhat more likely.

[12:3]  ⁴¹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.