Where will the Passover be? (Mt 26:17-26:17)

“On the first day

Of Unleavened Bread,

The disciples

Came to Jesus.

They said.

‘Where do you want us

To make the preparations

For you

To eat

The Passover?’”

 

Τῇ δὲ πρώτῃ τῶν ἀζύμων προσῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ λέγοντες Ποῦ θέλεις ἑτοιμάσωμέν σοι φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα;

 

This is similar to Mark, chapter 14:12, and Luke, chapter 22:7-9, but in Luke, Jesus was speaking to Peter and John explicitly.  All three synoptic gospel writers said that this was the 1^st day of the Unleavened Bread (Τῇ δὲ πρώτῃ τῶν ἀζύμων).  Mark and Luke explained that this was the Passover (τὸ πάσχα), but Matthew did not feel the need to explain that to his Jewish Christian readers.  Some unnamed disciples came to Jesus (προσῆλθον οἱ μαθηταὶ τῷ Ἰησοῦ).  They wanted to know where Jesus wished them to make preparations to eat the Passover (λέγοντες Ποῦ θέλεις ἑτοιμάσωμέν σοι φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα).  At that time, it was the custom to go to Jerusalem to eat the Passover (φαγεῖν τὸ πάσχα), not in their homes as later, after the destruction of the Temple.  The question of whether this was the Passover or the day before the Passover seems somewhat moot, since this was the 1^st day of the Unleavened Bread, when they ate the matzah bread, the Hebrew word for unleavened.  The Passover meal itself usually included a lamb.