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Joh 18:28. Αὐτοὶ) they themselves.-ἳνα μὴ μιανθῶσιν, lest they should be defiled) as Pilate’s house was not cleared out of leaven: Deu 16:4, “There shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven days.”-φάγωσι τὸ πάσχα, that they might eat the Passover) So 2Ch 30:22, ויאכלו המועד, “They ate the feast seven days.”[385] [This observation of John is not opposed to that view whereby we have shown that the Jews ate the Passover on the evening which formed the commencement of the Friday; i.e. at the close or evening of Thursday. (See note of the Gnom. on Mat 26:17.) In fact, the word Πάσχα, in the strict sense, means only the Passover lamb, not a bull, etc.[386] But when the Passover in general is mentioned, by the Passover lamb, as being the principal part (Deu 16:1, “Keep the Passover,” with which comp. Joh 18:2, “sacrifice the Passover of the flock and the herd”), the whole feast is meant by Synecdoche (a part for the whole); namely, on the same principle as Σάββατον, the Sabbath, means both the seventh day of the week in the strict sense, and by consequence the whole week. To these considerations Lightfoot (Hor. on this passage) adds, that the defilement by entering the Pretorium or judgment-hall would last only up to evening, and that therefore would not prevent them, after being cleansed, from eating the Paschal lamb. Since, then, in this passage, the Evangelist is speaking of such an eating of the Passover as the Jews would have been excluded from before the evening by any defilement, no doubt a different part of the feast from the actual feast of the Passover lamb is indicated.-Harm., p. 544, et seqq.] Τὸ πάσχα cannot be the Accusative of time, during the Feast. For though defiled, they might eat common food. [Therefore it could not be ordinary eating, but eating the Passover, which this passage implies that defilement would have excluded them from.]
[385] But Engl. Vers. “They did eat throughout the feast.-E. and T.
[386] No other animal but a lamb would be expressed by Πάσχα, even though two young bullocks were sacrificed on the first day: Num 28:19.-E. and T.