Exodus 12:17/18

Exodus 12:17/18


Today, 19 November 2015, it dawned on me there are only seven unleavened bread eaten days of feast in these verses actually mentioned.


Exodus 10:21 Let there be darkness over the land of Egypt—darkness that may be felt … 22 there was darkness very black, even a storm over all the land of Egypt three days. 23 For three days no man saw his brother and no man rose up from his bed for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

Exodus 12:30 Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up and get thee forth from among my people.

37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses …

17 In this Selfsame Day have I brought your armies out. …

42 It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt : THIS IS THAT NIGHT OF THE LORD.

51 And it came to pass in the Selfsame Day that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Darkness – Egypt.

Exodus 13:3 Remember This Day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage [and darkness]. 4 This day came ye out in the month of Abib.

8 Thou shalt show thy son in That Day, saying, Because of that which the LORD did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.

15 And it came to pass WHEN Pharaoh would not let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 14:5 And it was TOLD the king of Egypt that the people fled : and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people …

9 And the Egyptians pursued after them … and overtook them encamping by the sea.

13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and see the Salvation of the LORD which He will shew to you THIS DAY.

19 And the angel of the LORD … removed the pillar of cloud … 20 and it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and DARKNESS to the Egyptians but it gave LIGHT to the children of Israel : so that the one came not near the other [10:23] ALL THE NIGHT.

21 And the LORD caused the sea to go back by a STRONG WIND ALL THAT NIGHT [10:22] and made the SEA, dry land; and the waters, were divided. [All natural order was confused.]

27 And the sea returned to his strength [order] when the morning appeared. [For the first time in three days, days could be distinguished again.]

30 Thus the LORD saved Israel THAT DAY : “in THIS THE SELFSAME WHOLE DAY BONE DAY on the fourteenth day of the First Month” 12:17,18,41,51= 12:6.


Deuteronomy 31:22 “Moses therefore wrote THIS SONG THE SAME DAY and taught it to the children of Israel” : in Exodus chapter 15!


Now in later Scriptures it is written unambiguously: Numbers 33:3, “They departed from Rameses in the First Month on the fifteenth day of the First Month ; on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out with an High Hand in the sight of all the Egyptians” [by the Light of the Pillar-of-Cloud] 28:16,17. In the fourteenth day of the First Month is the passover of the LORD 17 and in the fifteenth day of this month is the Feast : seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten.


Joshua recorded the actual transition in passover observance.

Joshua 3 and 4 are virtually the passover story found in the book of Exodus. Verse 19 in Joshua 4 dated the passover through the Jordan “on the tenth day of the First Month”. “The tenth day in the beginning of the year” (the tenth day of the First Month in other words), is mentioned in Ezekiel, “the selfsame Whole-Day Bone-Day”. Palm trees are associated with it in verses 16, 22, 26, 31, 34, 37, and in 41:18, 19, 19, 20, 25, 26. (2 x 6 times.) Jesus entered Jerusalem on Bone-day of the Passover of Yahweh. John 12:12-19 Mark 11:1-11 Matthew 21:1-11 Luke 19:28-44. He entered Jerusalem through “the gate that looketh towards the east. Behold, the Glory of the God of Israel [Jesus Christ] came from the way of the east [towards Mount of Olives]. And the Glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is towards the east” where He was crucified.

Ezekiel 45:21 In the First Month in the fourteenth day of the month ye shall have the passover; a feast of seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. And upon THAT DAY shall the Prince prepare for Himself and for all the people.”


Josua and Ezekiel, like Exodus, virtually identify all days of the Passover Month—the First Month in the beginning of the year” with “the fourteenth day of the First Month” or “tenth day of the First Month”, both being identified and specified, “That Selfsame Day Whole-Day Bone-Day”.

Joshua 5:9 “THIS DAY have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt off you. … And the children of Israel kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month late in the day … and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the day after the passover (“when they killed the passover”) : unleavened cakes … IN THE SELFSAME WHOLE-DAY BONE-DAY”—therefore : they ate unleavened cakes ON THE FIFTEENTH, here defined and identified as having been : “THE SELFSAME WHOLE-DAY BONE-DAY” of the Passover of Yahweh.


It was “the day AFTER … the fourteenth day of the month … the day AFTER the passover”, “when they KILLED the passover”. Now since it was “SEVEN days unleavened bread was eaten”, “the first day no leavened bread was eaten” was the day immediately “after the fourteenth day of the First Month” which was “on the fifteenth day of the First Month”. So the second day unleavened bread was eaten was the sixteenth, the third was on the seventeenth, the fourth day was on the eighteenth, the fifth on the nineteenth, the sixth on the twentieth and the seventh day unleavened bread was eaten was on “the one and twentieth day” in its evening start-of-day—Exodus 12:18.


Here is the problem now.

Exodus 12:18 reads: “In the First Month on the FOURTEENTH day of the month in the evening ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month in the evening.”

Evening begins days; so unleavened bread was eaten in the first hours of night of every of the seven days. If also it was the case on the fourteenth day of the month, then we have eight days that unleavened bread was eaten. But it is written only seven days.

So how do we solve the ‘enigma’?


I have always argued the reckoning of days in Egypt was sunrise to sunrise, and as soon as the passover got institutionalised in the Promised Land, reckoning of days changed to sunset to sunset.

This explanation I believe is still valid.


Nevertheless, something else caught my attention just today (19 November 2015). And if I am not mistaken, it offers a simple and obvious explanation which removes every semblance of an ‘enigma’ or ‘predicament’ or ‘perplexity’. Because the passover feast of unleavened bread eaten, had always enhanced just “seven days” and at no stage ever eight days of unleavened bread eaten feast.


Then what is the explanation? Purely the Greek text explains everything there is to explain, just get the punctuation right; viz., divide the sentences correctly. And just ignore the wrong text division.


15 “Seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread … from the first day until the seventh day … 17/18 Ye shall make This Day a perpetual ordinance for you throughout your generations beginning the fourteenth day of the First Month. Ye shall eat unleavened bread from evening till the twenty-first day of the month.” It is without saying, “Ye shall eat unleavened bread from evening (after the fourteenth day) till (evening) the twenty-first day of the month.”


Yes, really, as simple as that.

“17/18 Poiéhsete tehn hehméran taútehn eis geneás humóhn nómimon aióhnion enarchómenoi tessareskaidekátehi hehmérai tou mehnós tou próhtou. Aph’ hespéras édesthe ádzuma héohs hehméras mías kai eikádos tou mehnós héohs hespéras.”