The Judaism Behind Palm Sunday and Why Jesus Most Likely Did Not Enter Jerusalem During the Passover Week

As we are entering into Palm Sunday tomorrow, I wanted to reflect for a moment on this event as it occurred in the gospels. Christians have long been told that Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem coincided with Passover. The reason for this has profound theological implications; namely, Jesus would be the Passover sacrifice that would save men from their sins. While theologians like to place bets just on how much Jesus actually understood of his mission, more importantly, the question of whether he entered on Passover becomes important to how we can interpret a theology that for Christians relies heavily on this sequencing. But there is another explanation as well: Jesus triumphal entry had nothing to do with a hidden theology that would only be known to the faith community in its soteriological expression and was most likely a confusion of two separate Jewish holidays.

One thing everyone does agree on: Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was very much a messianic event. The prophecies attached to Jesus coming into the city are taken from the book of Zechariah. Depending on which account you read (Matthew or Mark), Jesus enters into the city on one or two donkeys (also an allusion to Zechariah). The Christian tradition prefers to understand the messianic prophecies with regard to Passover, so his crucifixion takes on an entirely new meaning. While his sacrifice takes the place of the temple animal sacrifice, the messianic king does not conquer kingdoms, he comes to conquer sins. He does not establish a physical kingdom on earth but a spiritual one. Passover is also associated with the return of Elijah as the messiah. So early Christians must have thought that this would have been the most appropriate time for Jesus’s return. Jesus himself is confronted with this important Jewish belief in a few places in the gospels, a charge which Jesus deflects.

Having said all this, the problem is the tradition of Palm Sunday is probably misplaced in the Jewish calendar and has nothing to do with Passover. Rather it was most likely Sukkoth when Jesus entered Jerusalem, a festival that happens months earlier and would mean that Jesus was not arrested and held for a week, but probably much longer. In fact, it would mean that the Last Supper too would have not been a Passover Seder but rather a common meal.

The textual evidence is as follows: The people who come to greet Jesus do so with shouts of Hosannah and with palm “branches.” Why would so many people have palm branches available to them, especially since this does not show up anywhere in the Passover ritualism or in the prophecies of Zechariah? Where the use of palm fronds DO show up is during Sukkoth (Leviticus 23:40). The lulavim (כפת) are made up of unopened palm fronds used in the construction of the Sukkoth (booths) along with the symbolism of the etrog (citron) as well as other types of wild growing vegetation like myrtle. The praises of Hosanna that Jesus is confronted by as he enters the city are important to Judaism primarily at Sukkoth when the Jewish liturgical prayer cycle called the "Hosanna service" is recited each morning of the festival. Another interesting note with regard to the Last Supper is that during the Passover Seder, matzot would have been eaten, but the gospels tell us that it was bread. While this is unspecific, it might suggest that this was not the unleavened bread eaten by Jews.

So as you prepare for Palm Sunday tomorrow and the traditional Lenten calendar prepares us to enter into the week before Jesus’ execution, by observing a week between Palm Sunday and Easter as well, remember that it might have been a number of months before Jesus was actually sentenced and executed from the time he entered Jerusalem.