Commentaria in Exodum
Thirdly, Oleaster, Aben Ezra and others think that the first evening is the setting of the sun, the second the beginning of night or darkness; for between these comes the twilight, namely some space of time in which some light of the sun after its setting still appears in the air, just as it happens in the morning before sunrise (which is accordingly called the morning twilight). But at this time the lamb was not to be immolated but to be eaten: for, as is plain from Leviticus chap. 23, verse 5, and Numbers chap. 28, verse 16, the lamb was to be immolated on the fourteenth day at evening, but to be eaten with unleavened bread on the fifteenth, which began at the setting of the sun, by which the fourteenth ended: the same is plain here.
I say, therefore, that the first evening is when the sun now declines toward its setting, the second is the sunset itself; and this the Chaldee meant when he rendered, between two suns, namely the declining and the setting. The same Josephus plainly teaches, who in book 7 On the Jewish War, chap. 17, and book 16 of the Antiquities, chap. 10, teaches that the Hebrews were wont to immolate the paschal victims from the ninth hour to the eleventh: the ninth, however, answers to our third hour after noon; and Cajetan: “Between the two evenings,” he says, “that is, between the setting of the sun, which is one evening, and the declination of the sun toward its setting, which is the former evening: so that this time would comprise about two hours before sunset.” So also Masius on Josue chap. 5, verse 10, Jansenius on chap. 145 of the Concordance, Pererius, Ribera and others. About two hours, therefore, before sunset the lamb was immolated and roasted; but after sunset, at night, when the fifteenth day was already beginning, it was eaten, so that before midnight the eating of the lamb and the whole supper was finished.
You will ask secondly, whether the lamb ought to have been immolated at the former evening of the fourteenth day, or at the latter? Some moderns in Spain, whom Ribera, book 5 On the Temple, chap. 3, and Suarez in his tract On the Eucharist to be consecrated in unleavened bread, refute at length, hold that the lamb ought to have been immolated at the former evening of the fourteenth day (which was the latter evening of the thirteenth day, or of the thirteenth moon at its first evening), and not at the latter, which was the eve or beginning of the fifteenth day, namely of the feast of unleavened bread: so that between the evening of the Pasch and the first day of unleavened bread an entire day intervened, on which the Hebrews went out of Egypt, on which it is uncertain whether they ate unleavened bread, and consequently uncertain also whether Christ, following them, supped on the lamb in unleavened bread and instituted the Eucharist in unleavened bread, or in leavened, as the Greeks hold.
Refutation. But this opinion is plainly false. It is proved first, because “at evening” signifies the end of the day, not the beginning; therefore the fourteenth moon at evening is to be understood of the fourteenth ending in the second evening, not beginning from the former evening. The antecedent is plain from Genesis 30, 16, Exodus 16.
Secondly, in Numbers 33, 3, the Hebrews are said to have set out from Ramesse, that is, to have gone out of Egypt, on the fifteenth day, and on the morrow of the Pasch; therefore the Pasch fell on the preceding evening, namely the second evening of the fourteenth day: for otherwise they would have set out from Ramesse and Egypt not on the morrow of the Pasch, but on the third day from the Pasch.
Thirdly, the very context of the history in this chapter altogether proves that the Hebrews went out of Egypt on the same night on which they ate the lamb, and that no day could intervene: for immediately after the eating of the lamb, the firstborn being slain, the Egyptians forced the Hebrews to go out, so that they were not allowed to bake bread. Whence Moses adds: “This is the observable night.”
Fourthly, Scripture numbers only seven days of unleavened bread, and these entire, namely from the fifteenth day to the twenty-first at evening, so that the first day was that on which the paschal lamb was immolated. For so says St. Mark, chap. 14, verse 1: “Now the feast of the pasch, and of the Azymes was after two days.” And Matthew, chap. 26, and Luke 22: “On the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch”; and this is expressly said in this chapter, verses 17 and 19. Nay, as the Talmudists relate in the tractate Pesachim (On the Pasch), on the night of the lamb’s immolation the Hebrews searched for leaven by the light of a lamp, lest any of it should remain in the house. But according to the former opinion of those moderns there would be not seven but eight days of unleavened bread, and the immolation of the lamb would not fall on the first day of unleavened bread, but would precede it by one day; and this is repugnant to Scripture.
You will say: Josephus numbers eight days of unleavened bread.
I answer: Josephus begins the day from the morning, so that the evening of the fifteenth day, festal, alone and by itself, is reckoned in place of one day; thence the fifteenth immediately begins, and after it the sixteenth; and so on in order: and then there are eight.
Fifthly, Christ the Lord suffered on the fifteenth day, at the full moon, that is, on the first feast day of unleavened bread, as the common opinion of the Fathers holds: but it is certain from the Gospel that Christ on the eve of His passion celebrated the last pasch and in its place instituted the Eucharist: therefore He did this on the fourteenth day at the latter, or second, evening; but Christ kept the time prescribed by the law; therefore the law prescribed that the phase was to be immolated at the second evening, not the first.
Sixthly, the same can be proved from Pentecost: for this was celebrated on the fiftieth day from the second day and feast both of the Pasch and of the unleavened bread; Ribera and Suarez, above, prove this at greater length.
Objection. You will say: Scripture numbers the feast days beginning from the first evening, as is plain from Leviticus 23, 32; and so it numbers also the days of the creation of the world, when it says, Genesis 1: “And the evening and morning were the first day”: therefore likewise here the first evening, not the second, ought to be understood.
Solution. I answer first, I deny the antecedent. For although the feast days after the law given in Leviticus were celebrated from evening to evening, yet Scripture numbers even the feast days, and indeed from the beginning of the world, from morning to morning, and the first day of the world is so understood that, the evening ending the daylight and the morning ending the preceding night, the first day was made, as I said on Genesis 1. You see, therefore, that there also evening is taken not as the beginning but as the end of the day. I answer secondly, even if the preceding evening were there to be taken, yet you would not thence conclude that the same ought to be taken here; for it is one thing to say that feasts begin from the evening, another that the phase begins on the fourteenth day at evening.
Objection. You will say secondly: Josephus here says that, the fourteenth moon being at hand, or, as Gelenius renders it, dawning, the Hebrews sacrificed the lamb: therefore they did this not at the end but at the beginning, namely at the first evening of the day.
Solution. I answer: the Greek in Josephus is in the aorist, not in the present, and therefore it is to be rendered: The fourteenth day being present, or after the fourteenth day was come. Next, even if you rendered it: The fourteenth day being at hand, this must be understood according to the law, of the second evening already mentioned; for as to the mind of Josephus there can be no doubt to one who reads book 3, chap. 10. Another objection I shall solve at verse 42.
I say, therefore, that this evening was the latter evening of the fourteenth moon, or of the fourteenth day now ending and the fifteenth beginning, so that this rite of the lamb was performed partly on the fourteenth, partly on the fifteenth day; for the immolation of the lamb was done on the fourteenth, but the eating precisely on the fifteenth day. For this evening was the border of the fourteenth and the fifteenth day, and by one part of itself belonged to the fourteenth, by the other to the fifteenth. Hence the Jews and Christ are said to have immolated the pasch now on the fourteenth, now on the fifteenth day, as I shall presently say.
Where note: although the other feasts were celebrated from evening to evening for an entire day, the pasch was celebrated only at the end, namely at the evening of the fourteenth day, and not when the fourteenth day was beginning. Therefore the fourteenth day was not sacred, nor a feast, but only its second evening, or end.