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But weren't there two Sabbaths in a row?
Yes, luv (peace to you!)
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Didn't the annual Sabbath start Thursday at sundown?
No... and yes. Not Thursday by how WE count days (12am to 11:59pm)... but Thursday as to how JEWS counted days (6pm to 5:59pm). SO... (and PLEASE overlook my caps - my computer is acting up again and it's not wanting to highlight (so as to italicize), so caps are just earlier for me, right now)...
My Lord, the Sacrificial Lamb, was slaughtered (and so died at 3pm) on Nisan
14... which was STILL WEDNESDAY
by the JEWISH days.
"SUNDOWN" (or 6pm/the 12 hour), a NEW day (Nisan 1
5... which was a THURSDAY by the Jewish days) started...
as did the Festival of Unfermented Cakes (because that's when the lamb was EATEN, along with bitter greens and unleavened bread... because it took that long AFTER it had died to bleed, prep, and roast it)... which was a HIGH Holy... or SABBATH... WEEK.
Exodus 12:16; Levitcus 23:2, 7Then, the NEXT day... at the NEXT
"SUNDOWN" (or 6pm/the 12 hour), another NEW day (Nisan
16... which was a FRIDAY by the Jewish days) started... as did the REGULAR Sabbath.
And so, you had a "High Holy" Sabbath start one day (and run 7 days, for a Sabbath WEEK), with a REGULAR Sabbath starting the day AFTER the High Holy Sabbath started. Thus, you had a (High Holy) Sabbath (week) start on THURSDAY, followed by a REGULAR Sabbath starting the very date after, on FRIDAY.
Because you had TWO Sabbaths starting back to BACK... you had a "great" Sabbath. On the years when the Feast of Unfermented Cakes started on, say, a Monday, or Tuesday... or any day EXCEPT a Thursday, you did NOT have a "great" Sabbath. Because the High HOLY Sabbath wasn't DIRECTLY followed... the VERY NEXT DAY... by a REGULAR Sabbath.
So THIS year, 30 CE... you had:
- End of Nisan 13, lamb slaughtered and prepared for Christ's Passover meal with his friends, to be eaten after sundown;
- Beginning of Nisan 14 (once sun has set), Christ eats HIS meal with his friends;
- End of Nisan 14 (but before sundown and start of Nisan 15), CHRIST slaughtered and prepared as Lamb for JEW's Passover meal;
- Beginning of Nisan 15 (once sun has set), Jews eat THEIR Passover meal, with unleavened bread, which starts "Festival of Unfermented Cakes", a High Holy day and thus, a Sabbath
- Beginning of Nisan 16 (24 hours after LAST sunset), is Friday evening and the start of a "regular" Sabbath
- Because there were TWO Sabbaths in a row (back to back - the High Holy Sabbath on Thursday, Nisan 15, followed by the Regular Sabbath on Friday, Nisan 16), it was a "GREAT"... or Double... Sabbath.
To get this, one needs to be able to SEE the JEWISH "day (sunset to sunset) AS WELL AS our days (midnight to 11:59pm). Because it is the overlapping that caused so much confusion. In THIS case, and what many DON'T understand... is that the it was not just the LAST day of the festival a week LATER that was a Sabbath, but the FIRST day, as well. And that first day started before a day of REGULAR Sabbath. So, they had TWO Sabbath days in a row!
I hope this helps!
Peace!
YSSFS of Christ,
Shellamar