Preparation

The preparation of the heart is the great subject of enquiry in a work of this kind, and to which therefore I would particularly direct the attention. To prepare any person or thing may be easily understood in fitting and qualifying, in disposing or making ready; but in Scripture language the whole of the work, both in fitting and qualifying, in disposing or making ready, is of the Lord. So Solomon was commissioned to teach the church; and so every individual of the church is made sensible. (Prov. 16. 1.) The word preparation seems to be taken from military maxims; and as soldiers are put in order under arms, and made ready for their service, so the Lord disposeth the frames and motions of his peoples hearts for his service. And it is very blessed when a child of God feels this predisposing grace, and is conscious of being led on and carried through every duty. From the first awakenings of grace until grace is consummated in glory, the whole preparations of the heart, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord. And when the soul of a poor sinner hath been first prepared of the Lord, by regenerating, illuminating, convincing, and converting grace, and is thus brought into an union with Christ, all the subsequent acts of grace, in the goings forth of the soul upon the person, blood and righteousness of Christ, sweet preparing and disposing work of God the Holy Ghost. It is most blessed to know this, and to enjoy it. The daily access to the throne of God in Christ is by the Spirit. (Eph. 2: 18.) It is that blessed, holy and eternal Spirit, in his own office - work, which prepares the soul, by calling off the mind from every object, and fixing the affections on the person of Jesus. It is he which awakens desire, creates a longing in the soul, points to the Lord Jesus as alone able to supply and satisfy the desires of the soul, and opens a communication between Christ and the soul. He that searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, " searcheth both the heart, and prepareth the heart for enjoyment. He spreads the rich table, and prepares both the spiritual food and the spiritual appetite to receive and enjoy it. In a word, it is the Holy Ghost that is the great Author and Giver of all that life and joy and peace in believing, when the souls of the redeemed are made to abound "in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." Hence, therefore, to him alone should believers be always looking for the preparations of the heart; for in this sweet office of the Spirit, God’s Christ and the redeemed soul are brought together; and the Lord the Spirit doth more in one moment to prepare our unprepared hearts than, without his influence, could be accomplished in ten thousand years by all our labours in prayers and tears. How blessedly the church sings to this note of praise, for the preparing and disposing grace of the Spirit, when she cried out: "Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib!" (Song vi. 12.) As if she had said, before I had the least apprehension of the mercy, my Lord my Husband made me willing, by the swift manifestations of his love, and the awakenings of his grace in my heart, as rapid as the chariot wheels of a princely people.

The day on which our Savior was crucified was called the "day of preparation," or "the preparation of the Passover," as preceding the Passover Sabbath, which commend at sunset, Mat 27:62 ; Joh 19:31 .\par

PREPARATION (παρασκευή, Mat 27:62, Mar 15:42, Luk 23:54, Joh 19:14; Joh 19:31; Joh 19:42).—1. Since the Sabbath was a day of holy rest, the food for it was cooked and all else needful got ready on the previous day, the προσάββατον (Mar 15:42);* [Note: Exo 16:5. See Lightfoot on. Mar 15:42. Curiously enough the Sabbath was the day for feasting, and the viands were specially sumptuous; but they had to be cooked the previous day and eaten cold. See Aug. de Cons. Ev. ii. § 151; Lightfoot and Wetstein on Luk 14:1.] and thus that day was designated by the Jews ‘the Preparation.’^{† [Note: Jos. Ant. xvi. vi. 2: ἐν σάββασεν ἢ τῇ πρὸ ταύτης παρασκευῇ; Wetstein on Mat 27:62.]} The Christians took over the term,^{‡ [Note: Didache, viii. 1.: ὑμεῖς δὲ νηστεύσατε τετράδα καὶ παρασκευήν; Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. § 75: τῶν ἡμερῶν τούτων, τῆς τετράδος καὶ παρασκευῆς λεγω. ἐπιθημίζονται γὰρ ἡ μἑν Ἑρμοῦ ἡ δὲ Ἀφροδίτης.]} and it remains to this day the regular name for Friday in the Greek Calendar.

2. The term was also used of the day of preparation, whatever day of the week it might be, for any of the sacred festivals, especially the Passover. The Paschal Supper was eaten on the evening which, since the Jewish day began at 6 p.m., ushered in the fifteenth day of the month Nisan; and the fourteenth day, when all was got ready for the celebration, was called the Preparation.

The term occurs thrice in the Synoptics (Mat 27:62, Mar 15:42, Luk 23:54), and in each instance it means Friday. In the Fourth Gospel also it occurs thrice (19:14, 31, 42), and there would be no doubt that here also it means Friday^{§ [Note: 19:14 παρασκευὴ τοῦ πάσχα, ‘Friday of the Passover-season,’ not ‘the Preparation for the Passover,’ which would require ἡ παρασκευή.]} were it not for two other passages. (1) At Joh 13:1 St. John seems to put the Last Supper ‘before the feast of the passover.’ (2) At Joh 18:28 he says that, when on the morning after the Last Supper the rulers brought Jesus before Pilate, ‘they did not themselves enter into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover’; whence it would seem that the Paschal Supper had not been celebrated the previous evening, but was to be celebrated that evening. It thus appears as though there were a glaring discrepancy between the Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel. They all agree that Jesus was crucified on Friday; but whereas according to the Synoptists that Friday was the 15th Nisan, and on the previous evening which ushered it in Jesus had eaten the regular Paschal Supper with His disciples (cf. Luk 22:7), according to St. John it was the 14th Nisan, and the Supper in the upper room on the previous evening was either not the Passover at all,^{|| [Note: | So Clem. Alex. (fragm. in Chron. Pasch. See Dindorf’s Clem. Alex. Op. iii. p. 498): In previous years Jesus had kept the Passover and eaten the lamb, but on the day before He suffered as the true Paschal Lamb, He taught His disciples the mystery of the type.]} or was eaten a day too soon.* [Note: Jesus anticipated the Passover, knowing that at the proper time He would be lying in His grave. St. Chrysostom (in Joan. lxxxii.) gives this as an alternative explanation of Joh 18:28; Calvin: Since the Passover-day, falling that year on Friday, was reckoned a Sabbath (Lev 23:6-7; Lev 23:11; Lev 23:15), the Jews, to avoid the inconvenience of two successive Sabbaths, postponed the Passover by a day: Jesus adhered to the regular day.] In the Synoptics παρασκευή means simply Friday; in the Fourth Gospel it means the Preparation Day, being also, as it chanced, Friday.

The problem has been discussed from the earliest times, and nowhere has harmonistic ingenuity been more lavishly expended. In our day the harmonistic method is out of fashion, and the tendency of some critics is to pronounce the Johannine representation unhistorical, and to explain how it originated. Appeal is made to the idea, suggested, it is alleged, by St. Paul (1Co 5:7), and definitely enunciated by Clement of Alexandria,^{† [Note: Also, according to Chron. Pasch., by Apollinaris, Hippolytus, and Peter of Alexandria.]} that Jesus, being the true Paschal Lamb, must have been slain on the Preparation Day, 14th Nisan. It is pointed out that, by way of proving Him the true Paschal Lamb, St. John (1) throws back the anointing at Bethany to 10th Nisan (Joh 12:1), the day on which the Paschal lamb was chosen (Exo 12:3); (2) represents Jesus as still before Pilate at the sixth hour, i.e. noon, in order, it is alleged, to make the Crucifixion synchronize with the sacrifice of the Paschal lambs, which were slain between 3 and 5 p.m.;^{‡ [Note: BJ vi. ix. 3.]} (3) shows how the Law’s prescription that the lamb’s bones should not be broken (Exo 12:46, Num 9:12), was fulfilled in the case of Jesus (Joh 19:36).^{§ [Note: Strauss, Keim, Schmiedel (Encycl. Bibl., art. ‘John, son of Zebedee’).]}

This is ingenious rather than convincing. (1) The anointing at Bethany actually took place, as St. John represents, six days before the Passover; and St. Matthew and St. Mark, with that disregard of chronological sequence which is characteristic of the Synoptic editors of the Apostolic tradition, have brought it into connexion with the Betrayal (Mat 26:6-16 = Mar 14:3-11); their idea being, apparently, that the traitor was angered by the Lord’s rebuke (Mat 26:10 = Mar 14:6 = Joh 12:7). His foul deed was a stroke of revenge.^{|| [Note: | Cf. Aug. de Cons. Ev. ii. § 153.]} (2) If, as is possible, St. John computed the hours of the day, not, like the Synoptists, from 6 to 6, but, according to the method which probably obtained in Asia Minor, from 12 to 12,^{¶ [Note: Plin. HN ii. 79. Polycarp was martyred in the stadium at Smyrna ‘at the 8th hour’ (Mart. Polyc. xxi.), i.e., since public spectacles began early (cf. Becker, Charicles, p. 409), at 8 a.m.]} then by ‘the sixth hour’ he means, not noon, but 6 a.m., thus agreeing with the Synoptists (cf. Mat 27:1-2 = Mar 15:1). (3) Jesus was none the less the true Paschal Lamb, though He was not crucified between 3 and 5 p.m. on the 14th of Nisan, but at 9 a.m. on the 15th. St. Paul spoke of Him as ‘our passover’ (1Co 5:7); yet he regarded the Last Supper as the regular Passover, calling the communion cup ‘the cup of blessing’ (1Co 10:16),^{** [Note: * τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας (בּו֙ם הֵבְּרָכָה).]} which was the name given in the Paschal rubric to the third cup at the Passover feast.

In the opinion of the present writer the difficulty is due to a misunderstanding of Joh 13:1; Joh 18:28. When these two passages are rightly considered, the position seems to be established that παρασκευή means Friday alike in the Fourth Gospel and in the Synoptics. Joh 13:1 should be read as a separate paragraph. As the end approached, says the Evangelist, there was a marked access of tenderness in the Lord’s deportment towards His disciples. He demonstrated His affection as He had never done before. It was the pathetic tenderness of imminent farewell. ‘Before the feast of the passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them to the uttermost,’ i.e. demonstrated His affection as He had never done before.* [Note: εἰς τὲλος, not ‘to the end,’ but ‘to the uttermost.’ Chrysost. in Joan. lxix.: οὐδὲν ἐνέλιπεν ὧν τον σφόδρα ἁγατῶντα εἰκὸς ἦντοιη̄σαι. Cf. Euth. Zig.: ἀγαπᾱν of tokens of affection; Mar 10:21 ἠγάπησεν αὐτόν, kissed his forehead. See Lightfoot on Mar 10:21, Joh 13:23.] Then begins a new paragraph, which recounts the story of the Supper (Joh 13:2 ff.), assuming an acquaintance on the reader’s part with the Synoptic details of time and arrangement. It was St. John’s wont to correct his predecessors wherever they had erred; and had they put the Last Supper a day too late, he would have stated expressly when it took place, and would not have said vaguely ‘before the feast.’

And what of Joh 18:28? It does not imply that they were looking forward to the Paschal Supper in the evening, and that therefore that day, when Jesus was tried and crucified, was the Preparation-day, 14th Nisan. They would indeed have been defiled by entering a heathen house, but the defilement would have remained only until the evening (cf. Lev 11:24-25; Lev 11:27-28; Lev 11:31; Lev 11:39-40; Lev 14:46; Lev 15:5-7; Lev 17:15; Lev 22:6, Num 19:7-8; Num 19:10; Num 19:21-22, Deu 23:11), and they could then, after due ablution, have eaten the Paschal Supper.^{† [Note: Strauss argues that they ‘would still have disqualified themselves from participating in the preparatory proceedings, which fell on the afternoon of 14th Nisan; as, e.g., the slaving of the lamb in the outer court of the Temple.’ But they might legally have deputed the business of preparation to their servants, as Jesus deputed it to Peter and John. Cf. Lightfoot on Mar 10:26.]} The truth is that it was not the Paschal Supper that they would have been precluded from, but the Chagigah or thank-offering, which was presented in the Temple on 15th Nisan, and had to be presented by each worshipper in propriâ personâ.^{‡ [Note: See Lightfoot on Joh 18:28, Mar 15:25.]} The phrase ‘eat the Passover’ comprehended more than participation in the Paschal Supper. Alike in the Scripture and in the Talmud it denotes the celebration of the entire feast, including the Chagigah.^{§ [Note: Deu 16:2, 2Ch 30:1; 2Ch 30:23-24; 2Ch 35:1; 2Ch 35:8-19, Eze 45:21-24. Lightfoot on Joh 18:28.]} In the Fourth Gospel ‘the passover’ invariably signifies not the Supper but the whole feast, τὴν ἑορτὴν πᾶσαν,^{|| [Note: | Cf. Joh 2:13; Joh 2:23, Joh 6:4, Joh 11:55, Joh 12:1, Joh 13:1. Contrast Mat 26:17 = Mar 14:12 = Luk 22:7-8]} and it is unreasonable to suppose that in this solitary instance St. John has departed from his usus loquendi.

There remains a final consideration. After the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathaea visited Pilate, and petitioned for the body of Jesus (Joh 19:38 = Mat 27:57-58 = Mar 15:42-43 = Luk 23:50-52). He was a Sanhedrist, and had no less reason than his colleagues to shun pollution; yet he went without scruple to the governor’s house. The explanation is that, when they refused to enter the Praetorium, it was the morning, and they must offer the Chagigah in the afternoon; when he waited upon Pilate, it was the evening (ὀψίας γενομένης), and he had already offered it.

On the above theory there is no discrepancy between St. John and the Synoptists. Both he and they represent Jesus as celebrating the Paschal Supper with His disciples on the evening which ushered in 15th Nisan; and both he and they use παρασκευή in the sense not of the Preparation-day, but of Friday. St. John says that ‘that Sabbath-day was a great one’ (Joh 19:31), not because, being at once the weekly Sabbath and Passover-day, it was Sabbath in a double sense, but because, as Light-foot puts it, (1) it was a Sabbath, (2) it was the day on which the people appeared before the Lord in the Temple (Exo 23:17), and (3) it was the day on which the sheaf of the firstfruits was reaped (Lev 23:11). See also, for different views, artt. Dates, Last Supper, Passover (II.).

Literature.—Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. (see references in footnotes); Strauss, Leb. Jes. iii. ii. § 121, and New Life of Jesus, ii. § 85; Keim, Jesus of Nazara, vi. pp. 195–219; Caspari, Chron. and Geog. Introd. §§ 151–164; Farrar, Life of Christ, Exc. x.; Andrews, Life of our Lord, pp. 457–481; Westcott, Study of the Gospels, p. 43; Du Bose, The Gospel in the Gospels, p. 28. For the contrary view that παρασκενή does not mean Friday in both the Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel, see Sanday in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible , ii. 634; Godet in his Comm. on Lk. and Jn.; Lobstein, La doctrine de la sainte cène, p. 51 f.; Zöckler in PRE [Note: RE Real-Encyklopädie fur protest. Theologic und Kirche.] ^{3 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred]} , ix. pp. 32, 42; Chwolson, Das letzte Passamahl Christi.

David Smith.

PREPARATION (Gr. paraskeuç).—A term applied by the Jews to the day preceding the Sabbath, or any of the sacred festivals, especially the Passover.

prep-a-rā´shun: The concordances indicate that the word “preparation” occurs only twice in the Old Testament, once in 1Ch 22:5, where it is used in the ordinary sense “to make preparation,” and once in Nah 2:3, “in the day of his preparation,” both of them translating the same Hebrew root and requiring no special elucidation. In Eph 6:15 the apostle speaks of the equipment of the Christian as including the “feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace,” which means, according to Thayer, “with the promptitude and alacrity which the gospel produces.”

The word occurs with technical significance (“the Preparation”) in the gospel narratives of the crucifixion, translating the Greek παρασκευή, paraskeuḗ (Mat 27:62; Mar 15:42; Luk 23:54; Joh 19:14, Joh 19:31, Joh 19:42). It is used as a technical term indicating the day of the preparation for the Sabbath, that is, the evening of Friday. This is its use in Josephus, Ant., XVI, vi, 2, and presumably in the Synoptics. Later its use seems to have been extended to denote regularly the 6th day (Friday) of each week. So in the Didache, viii and the Martyrdom of Polycarp, vii.

The addition of the phrase τοῦ πάσχα, tou páscha, “of the passover,” in Joh 19:14, and of the phrase “for the day of that sabbath was a high day,” in Joh 19:31, seems to indicate that the author of the Fourth Gospel regarded the Passover as occurring on the Sabbath in the year of the crucifixion. This is clearly the natural interpretation of the words of John’s Gospel, and if it were not for the seeming contradiction to the narrative of the Synoptics it is very doubtful whether any other interpretation would ever have been put upon them. This question is discussed in the articles on the date of the crucifixion and the Lord’s Supper, and it will be necessary only to allude to it here.

It is possible that the phrase the “Preparation of the passover” in Joh 19:14 may mean it was the preparation day (Friday) of the Passover week (see Andrews, Life of Our Lord, 451 ff; and most recently Zahn, Das Evangelium des Johannes, 1908, 637 ff). This method of harmonizing seems to the present writer to be forced, and it therefore seems wiser to give to the words of Joh 19:14 their natural interpretation, and to maintain that, according to the author of the Fourth Gospel, the Passover had not been celebrated at the time of the crucifixion. There seems to be reason to believe that the ordinary view that the Lord’s Supper was instituted in connection with the Passover, based upon the narrative in Mark (Mar 14:12 ff), does not have the unanimous support of the Synoptic Gospels.

Literature.

In addition to references in the body of the article, the commentaries, especially Plummer, Cambridge Bible, “St. John,” Appendix A; Allen, ICC, “St. Matthew,” 270-74; Godet, Commentary on the New Testament; Gospel of John, English translation, New York, 1886, II, 378, 379; and the significant articles on the interpretation of Luk 22:15, Luk 22:16 by Burkitt and Brooke, Journal of Theological Studies, IX, 569 ff, and by Box, ib, X, 106.

In the NT Epistles the word appears only in Eph_6:15 : ‘having shod your feet with the preparation (ἑôïéìáóßá) of the gospel of peace.’ The exhortation was suggested by the sandals (caligCE) of the Roman soldier. They were very heavy, thickly studded with hobnails, and strongly laced. The purpose which they served in the equipment of the Roman soldier is to be served by the ἑôïéìáóßá provided by the gospel of peace. The sandals gave the soldier firm footing, and fitted him for fighting or marching through any kind of country. The word has two meanings: in general, that of ‘preparation,’ ‘preparedness,’ or ‘readiness,’ and in particular, ‘firm foundation’ or ‘firm footing.’ Illustrations of the latter meaning are found in Psa_89:14 (15) ‘Righteousness and judgement are the foundation of thy throne’ (RV_), also in Zec_5:11, Ezr (LXX_ 2 Es) ezr Ezr_2:68. The verb ‘to prepare’ (ἑôïéìÜæåéí) in the sense of ‘firmly fix’ or ‘establish’ is found in Psa_24:2, ‘and established it upon the floods,’ also Psa_99:4, Pro_3:19; Proverbs 3 :2Sa_5:12. In the NT it has the sense of ‘destined’ in Mat_20:23 (‘for whom it hath been prepared of my Father’) Mat_25:34; Mat_25:41, 1Co_2:9, Heb_11:16. The common translation of ἑôïéìáóßá in Eph_6:15 is ‘preparation’ (EV_, Erasmus, Hodge, Eadie, etc.), but ‘foundation’ or ‘firm footing’ is strongly supported (Chrysostom, Bengel, Hatch). The weakness of the translation ‘preparation’ is that it does not indicate the kind of equipment which is referred to. It translates the word but not the idea. The more restricted meaning of ‘firm footing,’ with its suggestions of confidence or assurance, brings out more clearly what the gospel of peace provides. This ‘firm confidence’ is not only necessary for ‘standing’ in ‘the evil day,’ but for the general warfare of the Christian at all times.

Literature.-The principal Commentaries in loco; E. Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek, 1889, pp. 51-55; A. F. Buscarlet, ExpT_ ix. [1897-98] 38-40, where there is also a fine illustration of the foot-gear of a Roman soldier.

John Reid.