Commentary on Daniel, Chapter 9 · Doctrines 1 · Question 73
73. Quest. VponUpon what day of the weeke Christ suffered, and whether vponupon a festiuall day.
To know vponupon what day of the weeke Christ suffered, we must finde out when he did eate his Passeouer. 1. Epiphanius thinketh that he did eate it vponupon the third day of the weeke at euen, when the fourth day begunne with the Iewes, who reckon their ciuill day from the euening. But this can not be: for then if Christ are his Passeouer either vponupon the 3. or 4. day, he must hauehave suffered the 5. which was the day following, and then he must hauehave risen againe iust vponupon the Iewes Sabbath, not on the morrow after the Sabbath, as the historie of the Gospel sheweth. 2. Ios. Scaliger thinketh that Christ did eate the Passeouer in the eue of the 6. day, and the day following, which was part of the 6. day, he suffered. But this cannot be: for the Passeouer was to be killed vponupon the 14. day of the Moone betweene the two euenings: which was, as Scaliger well obserueth out of Iosephus, from the time of the euening sacrifice, which was about the ninth houre, to the going downe of the Sunne, which was the space of 3. houres: but the 15. day beganne not till after Sunne-set: therefore that space betweene the two euenings, was the ende of the 14. day, which was at this time, the fift day of the weeke, not the beginning of the 15. day, which was the sixt of the weeke.
Now further Iosephus Scaliger holdeth, that Christ and the Iewes did eate their Passeouer both at the same instant vponupon the 14. day at euen according to the law: and that the next day he suffered, which was the first day of vnleauened bread. And for the better maintenance of this assertion, he presseth these arguments: 1. Otherwise the Iewes should hauehave aduantage against vsus, who obiect, that Christ suffered not vponupon any festiuall day, wherein they kept the Passeouer, and so the type and the substance agreed not together. 2. the Grecians to vphold their opinion, that the Eucharist must be ministred with leauened bread, because Christ gaue vntounto his disciples leauened bread, do also affirme, that Christ did eate the Passeouer one day sooner, then the Iewes did eate it. 3. he vrgeth that place of S. Mark. 14. 12. the first day of vnleauened bread, when they sacrificed the Passeouer, his disciples said vntounto him: hence he inferreth, that at the same time, the Passeouer was generally eaten, when Christ also did eate it.
1. Ans. In this question Bellarmine with other Romanists, concurre with Ios. Scalig. but Bellarmine is answered els where,Synops. contr. 13. qu. 4. and therefore I will onelyonly examine Scaligers arguments.
1. If the Iewes vponupon a blind tradition deferred the Pasch to auoid the concurrence of two Sabbaths, which should hauehave bin this yeare, wherein Christ suffered, if the first solemne day of the Pasch had bin kept according to the law vponupon the 15. day, for their ordinarie Sabbath followed the next: & yet Christ kept it, as the law prescribed; & so suffered that day wherein the Pasch should hauehave bin solemnized: the typical lamb & the true lambe (this notwithstanding) agreed together, because Christ was sacrificed at that time, when the first day of the Passeouer should hauehave bin kept by the law, though the Iewes by a corrupt custome & vsage kept it not. 2. The Grecians may ground an error vponupon a true position: it followeth not, because Christ preuented the common eating of the Passeouer, that therefore he eate the Passeouer with leauened bread, for that had bin against the law, Exod. 12. 8. for although leauened bread were not yet put out of the Iewes houses, yet Christ sending his disciples before, might prouide vnleauened bread for his paschal supper: and as the Grecians hereupon ground their opinion, that the Eucharist is onelyonly to be ministred with leauened bread: so the Romanists on the otherside doe as stiffely maintaine their superstition, that vnleauened bread onelyonly must be vsed, holding that Christ at the same time did eate the Passeouer with the rest of the Iewes. 3. S. Marke respecteth the right time appointed by the law for the Passeouer, not the corrupt vsage which the Iewes had taken vp: so then that day was the first of vnleauened bread at euen by right of the institution, though it were not so in practise among the Iewes: and therefore S. Luke achap. 22. ….saith, then came the day of vnleauened bread, wherein the Passeouer ought to be sacrificed. But now the contrarie is euident out of the Gospel, that the Iewes receiued not the Passeouer generally vntill the eue after Christ was crucified. 1. It is said,bIoh. 18. 28. they themselues came not into the common hall, least they should be defiled, but that they might eate the Passeouer: They did not then eate the Passeouer till the euening after Christs passion. Iosephus Scaliger answereth, that the sacrifices which were offered in the feast of the Passeouer, were called the Passeouer, as well as the Paschal lambe: alleadging that place, Deut. 16. 2. Thou shalt offer the Passeouer to the Lord thy God, of sheepe, and bullocks, &c. But here the phrase is to sacrifice the Passeouer, which was as well referred to the offering of the other sacrifices, as the paschal lambe. Contr. Yet to eate the Passeouer is not otherwise vsed in the Gospel, then of the eating of the Paschal lambe.
2. If the Iewes had eaten the Paschal lambe the same night with Christ, then the next day should hauehave beene a solemne festiuall day, wherein they should hauehave done no seruile worke, as is appointed Exod. 12. 16. But they did much seruile worke vponupon this day, as in carrying the crosse, pitching of it into the ground, raising of it vp, nayling Christ vntounto it: And indeede they themselues also resolued not to put Christ to death vponupon the feast day, Mark. 14. 2. Ioseph. Scaliger here answereth, that the day wherein Christ suffered was the first day of vnleauened bread, but not of the paschal solemnitie: But this distinction is contrarie to the place before alleadged out of Exodus, where the 15. day, which was the first of vnleauened bread, as likewise the seauenth and last, are named to be daies of solemne assemblies wherein no seruile worke should be done, sauing about that which they did eate.
3. The day wherein Christ suffered is called the preparation of the Passeouer, Ioh. 19. 14. it was not then the day of the Passeouer it selfe. Ioseph. Scaliger answereth, that the preparation was not the whole day, but onelyonly after the ninth houre: as he alleadgeth out of a certaine Edict of Augustus. But 1. it appeareth, that the preparation was the whole day, at the least from the sixt houre: as in the same place the Euangelist saith, it was the preparation of the Passeouer, and about the sixt houre. 2. If then it were the preparation of the Passeouer, then was not that day the first of the Passeouer.
4. Paulus Burgens. somewhat to helpe out this tradition of the Iewes his countreymen, who deferred the Pasch, if it fell out vponupon the 6. day of the weeke, to auoid the concurrence of two festiuall daies, saith there was a double account of the 14. day of the Moone, vna vera & legitima secundum veram computationem Christi, &c. one was the true and lawfull day according to the true computation of Christ, who knew all the mysteries of the law: the other was legitima secundum communem & assuetam computationem aliorum, lawfull also according to the common and accustomed computation of others, &c. M. Lydyat also sheweth that the difference betweene the obseruation of the Pasch betweene our blessed Sauiour, and the Iewes, did arise hereupon; because Christ reckoned the daies according to the computation of the naturall years, but the Iewes followed the Syro-Grecian account, found out by Callippus, beginning the moneths, not as the Hebrewes, at the new Moone, but as the Grecians beganne their moneths: so that the Iewes began their monethmonth Nisan, as the Grecians did their monethmonth Xanthicus, which that yere beganne one day after the new Moone. Lyd. de emend. temp. p. 179. Both these might very well concurre together, that the Iewes did keepe another day of the Passeouer, then Christ and his disciples, both vponupon a blind tradition, to auoide the concurrence of two Sabbaths, and because they followed a strange computation. But it is euident hereby, that they did not eate the Passeouer the same day with Christ, and that they did breake the law of Moses in receiuing a forren computation of their moneths, which was not lawfull, howsoeuer Burgensis, in fauour of his countreymen, excuse it by the vsuall custome.