DID YOU KNOW?

In John, Jesus's accusers stay outside the Roman governor Pilate's headquarters on the morning of the trial. They are staying clean under their religious rules. What does John say it is for?

The answer

Eat the Passover, a Jewish festival meal. John 18:28 says they stayed outside "so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover." In John the meal is still ahead of them on the morning Jesus is tried. The supper he ate the night before began "before the festival of the Passover" (John 13:1).

Why it’s interesting

Mark, Matthew and Luke tell it the other way. There the disciples prepare the Passover meal and eat it with Jesus that evening (Mark 14:12-17). In John, Jesus is sentenced at about noon on "the day of Preparation for the Passover" (John 19:14), the day the lambs for the meal were slaughtered.

Scholarly consensus

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