Ok...I have read before that the JWs celebrate the memorial on the wrong day. Can someone explain this to me in a dummyproof way? Do the JWs celebrate the Memorial on the 13th day after sundown (which is Nisan 14) or do they do it on the 14th days after sundown (Nisan 15)?? Thanks
Memorial on wrong day
by isaacaustin 18 Replies latest jw friends
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NeonMadman
As I understand it, they start the count of 14 days from the new moon as seen in Jerusalem, not at the local venue. This would often result in a day's discrepancy in our part of the world.
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Phizzy
JW's celebrate at the start of what they believe to be Nisan 14, which starts at 6pm. They calculate Nisan1st, they claim, as did the Jews in the 1st centuary.
This cannot be literally true, as they publish the date for next years Mem. which could not be known that far in advance if observation of the New Moon was required.
The Jews celebrate Passover at the start of Nisan 15 in this time, and many believe they did so in the first century, at least the Temple jews, there may have been some sects with a different practise.
To claim that Jesus observed a different day for celebrating Passover is to claim his whole Holy Year was out by a day, as all festivals were fixed from Nisan 1st.
To claim that jews celebrated Passover on Nisan14 is fraught with problems.
Sorry Isaac, this is not asimple subject, so a "Nisan for dummies" or whatever is not easy to write !
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St George of England
I think the Jews must have read Numbers 33:3, which evidently the WTS has not.
George
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Phizzy
Well done Georgie boy ! I was scratching my head for a simple way to show they had it wrong, are you a Rabbi by any chance, or better still a Rabboni ?
A Rabbi would probably simply point to the totally non-ambiguous "on the day after Passover" which the verse identifies as the day part of the 15th.
For the JW thing to work, the Israelites would have to wait all through the daylight of the 14th and the dark of the 15th before moving out of Egypt, I think if that were true, the Egyptians would have asked for their gold back and started their revenge attacks before the Israelites had moved a step !
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Leolaia
To make it simple, the Torah states that 1) the lambs were to be slaughtered on Nisan 14, 2) the Israelites left Egypt in haste the same night as the Passover meal, 3) The Israelites left Egypt on Nisan 15. If the lambs were slaughtered on Nisan 14, when on that day were they slaughtered? Were they slaughtered at the beginning of the day after sundown with the meal following it on Nisan 14, or were they slaughtered at the end of the day in the afternoon with the meal following it on Nisan 15? All the historical evidence, including Josephus, indicates that they were slaughtered in the afternoon.
"So these high-priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh [i.e. between 3 and 5pm], 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, found the number of sacrifices was 256,500, which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to 2,700,200 persons that were pure and holy, for those who have leprosy or gonorrhea or menstruating women, or those otherwise polluted cannot lawfully partake in the sacrifice, nor indeed any foreigners either who come here to worship" (Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, 6.423-425)
More here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/bible/209120/1/Why-the-Memorial-Is-Held-on-the-Wrong-Day
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james_woods
It is ironic that if the JWs did not make such a big deal of doing this only on passover day (a non-scriptural specification they thought up all by themselves) - then it would not matter whether they calculated the day correctly or not.
Jewish tradition gone twice wrong.
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Phizzy
Thanks Leo. So JW's would have us believethat in 1st century Jerusalem a quarter of a million lambs or goats were slaughtered in a very short time then cooked and eaten all before the midnight time of the Angels having passed over comes.
They got it wrong again !
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Leolaia
And in fact, the Society typically schedules the Memorial in the 6 o'clock hour right? There is hardly any time to even slaughter and cook and serve one lamb in the time between sunset and the Memorial.
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james_woods
And in fact, the Society typically schedules the Memorial in the 6 o'clock hour right? There is hardly any time to even slaughter and cook and serve one lamb in the time between sunset and the Memorial.
Yes. And they ironically are so adamant about following Jewish Passover Law/Tradition that they decree that if any annointed miss the Nisan 14 memorial, a "makeup" memorial can be held exactly one lunar month later (next full moon)...why not just wait until next year, if you only hold this once a year anyway? No reasonable explanation of "as often as you do this, do so in remembrance of me" is ever given...