This resource as well. Nehemia Gordon, Karaite Jew
Beginning or End of the 14th?
The Torah commands that the Passover sacrifice be brought "In the First Month on the Fourteenth Day of the Month between the two evenings" (Leviticus 23:5). It is unclear from this verse whether what is being referred to is the period of dusk at the beginning of the 14th or the period of dusk at the end of the 14th. Leviticus 23:6 continues that the Feast of Unleavened Bread is "on the Fifteenth Day of this month". From this verse it appears that the Passover Sacrifice is to be brought at sunset at the end of the 14th and eaten on the night of the 15th. This is confirmed by Deuteronomy 16:4, which commands us regarding the Passover Sacrifice: "and there shall not remain of the meat that you slaughter
at evening on the first day until the morning." We see that the entire Paschal lamb must be consumed on the following night it is slaughtered and none of it may be left over until the morning (see also Exodus 12:10, 22). For our purposes what is significant is that the verse describes the Passover sacrifice as being slaughtered "at evening on the first day".
http://www.nehemiaswall.com/passover
Hank I really like Nehemiah and think he has a lot of interesting things to say but I believe he is definitely missing it on this point. The Jewish writers of the Talmud were very clear that the legal time for the Passover sacrifice was on the 14th day, from noon until sunset. Here below is one of their quotes where they talk about the need for removing the leaven (Chometz) before the legal time for the Passover, which came at the sixth hour, noon:
The disciples of R. Ishmael taught: The reason that Chometz must be removed on the 14th (of Nissan) (the eve of Passover) is because that day is referred to as the first day (of the festival) in the passage [Exod. xii. 18]: “In the first, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening shall ye eat unleavened bread,” etc.
Rabha said: “The reason may be inferred from the passage [Exod. xxxiv. 25]: ‘Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall be left unto the morning the sacrifice of the feast of the passover,’ which signifies, that the Passover sacrifice must not be offered up as long as there is yet leaven.” If that be the case, then it might be said that the leaven should be burned by each man immediately before offering his passover sacrifice; why designate the sixth hour? The passage means to state, that when the
time for the Passover sacrifice arrives, there must no longer be any leaven on hand.
(End quote, and all these quotes with their footnotes can be found in my chapter “Between the Evenings”)
Eminent Jewish historian Josephus, who was born a few years after the Messiah’s death wrote a complete Jewish history, and he also says the Passovers were in the afternoon period, he writes:
So these High Priests, upon the coming of that feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour until the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves), and many of us are twenty in a company. (end quote)
In their idiom the 9th to the 11th hours was from 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon period. This historian would have looked very ignorant for what he wrote if In his day the Passovers were really sacrificed at sunset as the 14th day ends. The Jewish Encyclopedia also clearly agrees with the Talmud and Josephus, saying: "The time “between the two evenings” (“ben ha-’arbayim”) was construed to mean “after noon and until nightfall.”
The daily “evening” sacrifice were also commanded by God to be “between the evenings” and Josephus shows us that they understood this time in his day:
And any one may thus learn how very great piety we exercise towards God, and the observance of his laws, since the priests were not at all hindered from their sacred ministrations by their fear during this siege, but did still twice a day, in the morning
and about the ninth hour, offer their sacrifices on the altar (end quote)
And we see proof of this in the new testament scriptures as well, where Peter and John are going up to the Temple at the time of this evening sacrifice:
NAS Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth
hour, the hour of prayer.
The Greek actually says the hour of “the prayer” and this was the prayer time where they would all be gathered for at the Temple during the incense offering, which followed the daily “evening” sacrifice, and the “ninth hour” they speak of is exactly the same as what Josephus said. I think much of the confusion stems from our English word “evening”, which often refers to night time, the last hours of our day. But to the Jews the word they used also referred to the last few hours of their day, but their day ended at sunset, it for them the word they used was the afternoon period before the day ended. So the verse Nehemiah quotes (Deut 16:4) saying “and there shall not remain of the meat that you slaughter
at evening on the first day until the morning" needs to be understood with that same understanding. It was the “evening” (last several hours) of the 14th day, as the 15th day approached. And this is why they were also rushing to get Yeshua (our Passover) off the cross and in the tomb before the high Sabbath of the 15th day arrived.
