Sorry, does not compute…
So sundown was 6PM and not later? The offical start of Passover? (would that have made it Breakfast not Supper?) No wonder it’s still a mystery.
Not sure where you see breakfast. The passover celebrated with His disciples was at 6 in the evening, on that Thursday. Things were happening in the order of scripture.
Peter
JennyLynne,
OK, so your links seem to be saying that the Supper took place during the night time of the first half of Thursday.
So, you’re saying it was during the night time of the first half of Thursday?
This is what I found. “|6:00 PM|The Passover Meal Begins|Jesus gathers with the Twelve in the Upper Room (traditionally the Cenacle).” Yes that would be Thurday evening.
Peter
Just trying to nail down if it was offically sundown at 6pm wednesday on that date, time and location.
My understanding so far: (please correct where wrong)
The official jewish day starts at sundown, right? … Then the passover started at 6pm Wednesday and would have been in reality Thursday by jewish standards, and would have been the start of a new day to the jewish celebrants, correct? (This in the “(…)” is not really important to the rest, just a sidebar comment/question → and therfore was it breakfast time for the jewish people? Not sure how that works.)
But you answered it, so I guess it’s moot. lol
You are spot on about the transition of the day, though the “breakfast” part has some nuance to it. In the Hebrew calendar, the day does indeed begin at sunset, or rather than exactly 6:00 pm, though 6:00 pm is often used as a fixed proxy in some traditions. This is based on the biblical narrative in Genesis: “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”
However, whether they would call that first meal “breakfast” is where it gets interesting
Even though the “legal” or liturgical day changed at sunset, the Last Supper, the Passover Seder, or a pre-Passover meal was a dinner. In ancient Mediterranean and Jewish cultures, people generally followed a two-meal-a-day pattern:
A light morning snack/meal: Eaten after starting work. The main meal: Eaten in the late afternoon or early evening.
If we define breakfast literally as “breaking the fast” from the previous night’s sleep, then the Last Supper wouldn’t fit. Even though it was technically the first meal of a new calendar day, the participants had already eaten earlier that “afternoon,” which belonged to the previous calendar day. Think of it like this. The Calendar Day: Changes at sunset. / The Biological Day: Changes when you wake up.
So, while the Last Supper happened at the very start of a new date, it was the culmination of that day’s labor and activity, making it a “supper” in every functional sense.
Peter
This does make better sense, lol.
Thank you for explaining it in depth.
PeterC,
re: “Yes that would be Thursday evening.”
And Thursday evening, then, would be during the night time of the first half of Thursday.