Admitting the discrepancy, but without determining which is correct, Smith’s “Bible Dictionary” says: “The crowning application of the Paschal rites to the truths of which they were the shadowy promises appears to be that which is afforded by the fact that our Lord’s death occurred during the festival. According to the Divine purpose, the true Lamb of God was slain at nearly the same time as ‘the Lord’s Passover,’ in obedience to the letter of the law.”
It was not “according to the Divine purpose” that Jesus was slain at the Passover, but it was according to a human invention that he is declared to have been slain at this time. These attempts to connect the crucifixion with the Passover afford the strongest proof that it is a myth.
396
What led to the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus?
John: His miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead. On learning of it the Jewish council met, and “from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death” ([xi, 47, 53]).
This is more difficult to believe than the miracle itself. It is the most improbable statement ever penned—the one that does most violence to human reason. The crudest savages on earth would not have slain nor even harmed a man who had proved himself the Conqueror and King of Death.
397
What did Christ say during his ministry concerning the cross?