Setup day

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The term arming day ( Gr. Παρασκευή paraskeuḗ " arming , fitting, arming day, Friday") is primarily known through its use in the Luther translation of the New Testament and is not used in Judaism . The death of Jesus Christ was made after the Gospels on the day before the Sabbath.

Erev ( Hebrew ערב; aram. aruvta ; both “evening” in the combination with feast days) is the term in Judaism for the eve of a Jewish feast or public holiday , because in the Jewish calendar the day lasts from the eve to the evening of the day - not from midnight to midnight. For example, Rosh Hashanah (September 19-20, 2020), the New Year festival, begins on September 18th in the evening (at the end of the 29th Elul evening). The eve is therefore called Erev Rosh Hashanah .

Concept history and meaning

The term “arming day” was probably introduced or at least made known with the translation of the New Testament into German by Martin Luther . Luther was looking for a suitable expression for the Greek παρασκευή ( paraskeuḗ ), which in the Greek New Testament means the preparation of a Jewish holiday the day before. The Greek term is also used in contemporary Jewish sources, e.g. B. by Flavius ​​Josephus ( Jewish antiquities 16,163), so that it is not a specifically Christian usage.

The language of the Jews in Galilee at the time of Jesus of Nazareth was Aramaic. In the Aramaic language there is the term aruvta . When combined with feast days, like the Hebrew word erev, it has the meaning of day of preparation.

Paraskeué (Παρασκευή) is the day before Sábbato ( Σάββατο "Saturday") and is still the common name for Friday in Greek.

Preparations for the Jewish feast days

Eve of the Sabbath

Main article: Sabbath

On Friday, the day of rest ( Gen 2.2f EU ), the Sabbath in Jewish households , which has been blessed and sanctified by God, is prepared until the evening begins  . The day before the Sabbath plays an important role in attuning the Sabbath. All things are done that are forbidden to do on the Sabbath. This includes, for example, cooking and keeping the festive dishes warm or cleaning the house, cleaning family members and putting on new, clean clothes. The festive table is solemnly prepared, the candles and the challot , the two loaves of bread and the kiddush wine are made available. When traveling, Jews make preparations for the upcoming Sabbath. As a sign that the Sabbath is approaching, signals will sound throughout the city on Friday afternoon in Jerusalem .

“The apartment is set up as if for a party, all equipment is cleaned and the table is set in white. You bathe and put on fresh clothes from head to toe if possible. You donate money and whatever else you have in your pockets and prepare yourself in every way for the Sabbath, which is not hurried and not worked, where there is no business and no everyday care. "

- Leo Hirsch

Eve of Passover

Main article: Passover

One day before Passover, all firstborns should fast and remember that the Israelite firstborns were saved while the Egyptian firstborns were killed ( Ex 12.29  EU ). The pre-Passover festival is a busy time in preparation for the festival days, of which only the first and last days of Passover are major holidays, when all weekday work is avoided. On Erev Pesach finds Seder instead. In Christianity, the Seder celebration at Passover is traditionally passed on in the New Testament as the last Lord 's or Lord's Supper .

Historical significance until the temple was destroyed

The Jerusalem temple before destruction

At the time of the Temple in Jerusalem , until its destruction in 70 , was Friday from 15.00 from the temple and outside the city in the synagogues with trumpets or horns blown. After the first signal the field work stopped, after the second the shops and workshops in the city were closed.

“But there is still something warmed up on the stove and saucepans on the stove. If he has started to blow the third horn signal, what is to be taken away is taken away, what is to be kept warm is placed in the warm and what is to be lit is lit. Then he pauses for as long as it takes to fry a small fish or as long as it takes to stick a piece of dough in the oven. Then he blows, then he trills, then he blows. Then one begins the Shabbat. "

- Talmud, Shabbat

After the sixth signal, all Sabbath arrangements had to be made. Each householder would now gather at the table with his family and begin the Sabbath with a prayer. On the day of preparation there was also the change of the so-called maternity leave in the temple, because the temple service of the priests was one week. All the priests on duty gathered here, the departing to clean and tidy everything, the new ones to bake the showbread.

One of the preparatory activities specifically for the Passover festival was to get the animals for slaughter for the Seder evening ( Ex 12.6  EU ).

The New Testament preparation day

On a set-up day he “breathed out”.

The term comes in the NT once with the Synoptics ( Mt 27.62  EU , Mk 15.42  EU , Lk 23.54  EU ) and three times with John ( Joh 19.14  EU , Joh 19.31  EU , Joh 19.42  EU ). According to all four Gospels , Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and died on the day of preparation for a Sabbath :

“But Jesus cried out loudly. Then he breathed out the ghost. [...] Since it was the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath, and it was already evening, Joseph of Arimathea , a distinguished councilor who was also waiting for the kingdom of God, went to Pilate and dared to take the body of Jesus ask."

- Mk 15.37-42  EU

According to the Synoptic Gospels , the Last Supper took place on a Seder evening ( Mk 14.12  EU ) and Jesus died on the 15th of Nisan. According to the Gospel of John , the last supper took place before the Passover ( John 13.1  EU ), and the day of Jesus' death was both the day of preparation for a Sabbath ( John 19.31  EU ) and the day of preparation for Passover and thus the 14th Nisan ( Joh 18.28  EU , Joh 19.14  EU ). That is why the day following the set-up day is referred to as a particularly high holiday:

“When Jesus had taken some of the vinegar, he said, It is finished! And he bowed his head and gave up his ghost. Because it was preparation day and the bodies should not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to break the legs of the crucified and then remove their bodies; because this Sabbath was a great holiday. "

- Joh 19,31  EU

The Greek version of the text literally means "when the day of that Sabbath was great". It is unclear whether the Gospel of John, with this appreciation of the following day as the Passover and Sabbath days, falls back on contemporary Jewish usage or coined the expression itself. In any case, there is no evidence from rabbinic Judaism .

In Christianity, the "Sabbatum magnum" or "Sabbatum sanctum" was later considered the day on which Jesus was in the grave. In medieval documents of the Lübeck council, the Sabbatum magnum is referred to as “in deme hl. avende der hochtyd tho Paschen ”(1380) and as“ up den avent des hl. Paschen “(1442). In the city books of the city of Zurich the phrase “on high Saturday” (1319) can be found for this. The term Holy Saturday was not in use then.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Dictionary of the German Language , eighth volume, Hirzel, Leipzig 1893, p. 1552.
  2. ↑ “Evening and morning” becomes the first day, 1. Mos. 1, 5.
  3. ↑ Berel Wine, Special Time. What Friday afternoon contributes to the atmosphere of Shabbat , in: Jüdische Allgemeine, May 22, 2008
  4. ^ Leo Hirsch, Jüdische Glaubenswelt , 1966, p. 86
  5. ↑ Shabbat 35b; Reinhold Mayer, The Babylonian Talmud , 1963, p. 569
  6. ↑ Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 14, p. 627
  7. ↑ οι ουν ιουδαιοι επει παρασκευη ην ινα μη μεινη επι του σταυρου τα σωματα εν τω σαββατω ην γαρ μεγαλη .eta ημερα εκεινου του σαββατου ηρωτησαν τον πιλατον ινα κατεαγωσιν αυτων τα σκελη και αρθωσιν.
  8. ↑ Bible text of the New Geneva Translation, footnote to John 19, verse 31
  9. ↑ Udo Schnelle: The Gospel according to Johannes = ThHK 4. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-374-01673-1 , p. 292.
  10. ↑ Hermann L. Strack, Paul Billerbeck: Commentary on the New Testament from Talmud and Midrash . Volume 2, CH Becksche Verlagbuchhandlung Munich 1924, p. 581
  11. ^ Pierer's Universal Lexikon, Volume 14, p. 643
  12. ↑ Peter Browe, The Communion on the Last Cartages , in: Peter Browe, Hubertus Lutterbach , Thomas Flammer, The Eucharist in the Middle Ages , Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, 2003, p. 323

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