Reflections on the Trials of Jesus find in earlier or contemporary Jewish writing expressions relating to fitness
for Passover which might reflect a general awareness of the need for extra
caution.^14 So for instance Ezra :–:
The children of the captivity kept the Pascha upon the fourteenth (day)
of the first month. For the priests and the Levites had purified them-
selves together; all of them were pure: and they killed thepaschafor all
the children of the captivity, and for their brethren the priests, and for
themselves. And the children of Israel, which were come again out of
the captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from
the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the Lord, the God of
Israel, did eat, and kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with
joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and had turned the heart of
the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work
of the house of God, the God of Israel.The notion of the need for purity as extending to all, not only to priests, is
also expressed very clearly in a source directly contemporary with the cru-
cifixion, Philo’sde specialibus legibus:–:
After the New Moon comes the fourth feast called the Crossing-feast,
which the Hebrews in their native tongue call Pascha. In this festival
many myriads of victims from noon till eventide are offered by the
whole people, old and young alike, raised for that particular day to the
dignity of priesthood. For at other times the priests according to ordi-
nances of the law carry out both the public sacrifices and those offered
by private individuals. But on this occasion the whole nation performs
the sacred rites and acts as priest with pure hands and complete im-
munity. The reason for this is as follows: the festival is a reminder and
thank offering for that migration from Egypt...Moreover, as J. A. T. Robinson pointed out,^15 the Mishnah seems to offer
a conception of a possible context for the incurring, or non-incurring, of
impurity which fits precisely with the presuppositions of John . For the
tractateOholothstates categorically (:) that ‘‘the dwelling places of gen-
tiles are unclean.’’ We can reasonably conclude that the notions embodied in
John’s narrative are at least not provably inapplicable to this period.
However, far more significance than thatmayattach to the much discussed
exchange between Pilate and the Jewish leaders, in which he says to them,
. The quotations are borrowed from Segal (n. ), and .
. Robinson (n. ), –.