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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Matthew 26:17 - 26:17
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To eat the passover (phagein to pascha). There were two feasts rolled into one, the passover feast and the feast of unleavened bread. Either name was employed. Here the passover meal is meant, though in Joh 18:28 it is probable that the passover feast is referred to as the passover meal (the last supper) had already been observed. There is a famous controversy on the apparent disagreement between the Synoptic Gospels and the Fourth Gospel on the date of this last passover meal. My view is that the five passages in John (Joh 13:1., Joh 13:27; Joh 18:28; Joh 19:14, Joh 19:31) rightly interpreted agree with the Synoptic Gospels (Mat 26:17, Mat 26:20; Mar 14:12, Mar 14:17; Luk 22:7, Luk 22:14) that Jesus ate the passover meal at the regular time about 6 p.m. beginning of 15 Nisan. The passover lamb was slain on the afternoon of 14 Nisan and the meal eaten at sunset the beginning of 15 Nisan. According to this view Jesus ate the passover meal at the regular time and died on the cross the afternoon of 15 Nisan. See my Harmony of the Gospels for Students of the Life of Christ, pp.279-284. The question of the disciples here assumes that they are to observe the regular passover meal. Note the deliberative subjunctive (hetoimasò„men) after theleis with hina. For the asyndeton see Robertson, Grammar, p. 935.