In the Beginning.
God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And the evening (ereb), and the morning were the first day (Gen 1:1-5). God divided light from darkness by the lights in the expanse of the heavens (v14). The nighttime had no evening, nor morning. The sunset, as the divider of nights and days, is unnatural to and is insensible to suggest that each day unnaturally contains two daytimes and one nighttime: There is almost an hour of daylight after sunset; add the nighttime, and after the nighttime add another daytime divided by the daytime sunset, unlike Gen 1:14-18, where the end of Nautical Twilight, or starlight of heaven, divides night and day. The starlit night sky divided the night into four, three-hour watches; twelve hours. How can a sunset divide the days of Gen 1:14, or tell of God’s first day of the month? God’s evening (ereb), and morning were perimeters and part of the day, as the twilight of stars and planets divided night and day in Gen 1:14. Josephus tells us, “He divided the light from the darkness, calling the latter night and the former day and naming the morning and the evening the dawn of light and its cessation “ (Ant. 1.1.27-28). To understand a Bible change of days, at day’s end, it is not by sunset, nor by midnight, but by nightfall. Our answers must come from the Bible before giving way to Rabbis,
Teachers, and Pastors, many who long to tell us the Bible isn't really saying what it appears to say. The New Testament's last days of Jesus were spoken of and lived like those of Moses.
The Evening of the Egyptians
During the captivity of the Israelites by the Egyptians, they worked as slaves in brick and mortar, seven days a week, from sunup to sundown. At this time the Hebrew evening of twilight, ereb, was redefined as sunset, measuring day’s end by Egyptians, based on 12-hour shadows of sundials taskmasters used to govern the productivity of the Israelites. Sunset evenings are found in both the Old and New Testaments, but not as a divider of days. Both evenings began in Lev 23:5 and Ex 12:6 (Heb), which say, “And, you shall keep your lamb (or your goat) until the fourteenth day of the same month, [Abib—Nisan], and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” In the margin or the footnote of Ex 12:6, in Bibles translated from Hebrew, it reads, Hebrew: between the evenings, of Nisan 14, pointing to night of Ex 11:4, 12:6-12, 29-31 & v42.
Between the Evenings.
Between two evenings (sunset and twilight), the Passover (not a day—12:21), was killed in daylight on the 14th, ending the 14th (like v32 did in Lev 23:27-32). Then, the Passover lamb was roasted to be eaten after evening (12:8-18), the same night Pharaoh thrust Israel out, the 15th: When they baked unleavened cakes of the dough, which cakes they brought forth out of Egypt. They were not leavened, for they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither did they prepare food for themselves to take (12:18-19 & 39), because the people took their dough before leavening it, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes, up on their shoulders (12:8, 11-18, 34 & De 16:2-3).
On the first evening of sunset, the Passover was killed. The starlight of the second evening, as pictured above, began the feast of Passover and unleavened bread. Only one of these two evenings can be the evening of Gen 1:5 & v14-19, to end the day of Nisan 14 and begin the 15th: Ex 12:18. The first evening began with bleating sounds of the Passover being killed in the moonrise, at a sunset of the Egyptian evening (Lev 23:5 & Ex 12:6). From the second evening at starlight (12:18), thousands of fires roasting the sacrifices of Passover painted the moon and starlight of Rameses red in smoke, ending the 14th (Ex 12:8-18, Nm 28:16-17). Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night, saying, “Rise up, and get forth from among my people, both you and the children of Israel and go. Serve the Lord as you have said.” It was the same night they ate Passover Ex 12:31 & 41-51). It was the first night of unleavened bread. They left Rameses on the morrow (in the morning, Nm 33:3-4).
There was no between two evenings in Genesis, nor before the Israelite slavery. Nor did between two evenings survive Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. Joshua didn’t use them (Jos 5:9-11), nor those afterward (2 Chr 30:15-18 & 35:1-16). Toward evening, ereb, the Passover lambs were killed. After evening they ate the Passover, on the first night of unleavened bread (Ex 12:8-18, Lev 23:5-6 & De 16:2-8). Many say the evening started about 3-5 p.m., but a Biblical foundation cannot be found. Some say Josephus said Passover was killed in the evening. Josephus didn’t say the Passover was killed in the evening. He said it was killed between 3-5 p.m. Josephus was not only quoting what his generation of the Jews did, but also what his Greek LXX said in Ex 12:6, “Kill the Passover toward evening.” That isn’t evening, and Josephus didn’t say that was evening. He did say what the evening was: “They blew the horn at the beginning of the seventh day Sabbath, in the evening twilight, and also at the end of the Sabbath” (Wars 4.9.12): So as to say, “They blew the horn when the preparation day ended, in the dark of evening” (Ant. 1.1.27-28).
The Greek LXX Supports the Hebrew Texts.
Patience please. (Here are the Old Testament, Greek LXX words about evening): a. toward evening, πρός εσπέραν. b. between the evenings, άνάμέσον των έσπερινών. And, c. from evening, αφ΄ εσπέορας).
In Greek, evening was called late, or twilight, the end of daylight, οψε or οψια, εσπέρα (toward evening πρός εσπέραν, and after evening αφ΄ εσπέορας), NT οψιας—opsios. In Jn 20:1, early was still dark, implying his day’s end evening in 20:19 means dark. The gates of Jerusalem closed before Sabbath, as it began to be dark (Neh 13:19); as the priests lit their lamps (Ex 30:8, Lev 24:3-4, Heb. & LXX). The unclean washed but were unclean until evening εσπέοραςc—after the daylight of between two evenings (Lev 22:6c-7).
The Greek Septuagint may tell us how the Jews, or Hebrews, were keeping days, times, and Sabbaths, and this may show us a consistency with the Hebrew texts, and if so it may also tell us what and when our gospels meant on the days Passover was killed, and when Jesus died. In the Greek, the children of Israel killed their Passover lambs toward eveninga (Ex 12:6a)—toward the latter evening of the 14th, of Ex 12:18c, before the day's end of Ex 11:4. This latter eveningc began the home, night feast of Passover and unleavened bread. On the 14th day of the first month, between the eveningsb is the Lord’s Passover (the sacrifice). Both evenings were of the 14th in Lev 23:5 & Ex 12:18c), and consistent with toward the latter eveningc of the 14th in Ex 12:18c, and the Hebrew of between two evenings in Ex 12:6. The Lord’s Passover was a sacrifice at eveningb, (Ex 12:6 & 12:21), before the night of the 15th (Lev 23:5-7 & Ex 12:18). The second eveningc was Ex 12:8-18c, the sacrifice roasted at night, to be eaten on the first of seven days with unleavened bread (De 16:2-8). The latter evening is the Hebrew evening of Gen 1:5 & 1:14; that of Ex 12:18c, Lev 23:5b & Jos 5:10c. The Lord passed over Egypt on the 15th at midnight (Ex 11:4, 12:31 & 12:42). After the evening of the 14th, the night roast of 12:8 shows the 14th (11:4), divided into the 15th, after eveningc (12:8-18c), as a change of days. The Lord’s Passover was killed toward the latter eveningc of the 14th, or between the evenings (Lev 23:5b-7), to eat the Passover at night, on Nisan 15 (Ex 12:18, De 16:2-8 & Mt 26:19-20).
