Numbers 28:16

PASSOVER AND UNLEAVENED BREAD

"And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, is Jehovah's Passover. And on the fifteenth day of this month shall be a feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten. In the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work; but ye shall offer an offering made by fire, a burnt-offering unto Jehovah: two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven he-lambs a year old; they shall be unto you without blemish; and their meal-offering, fine flour mingled with oil: three tenth parts shall ye offer for a bullock, and two tenth parts for the ram; a tenth part shalt thou offer for every lamb of the seven lambs; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you. Ye shall offer these besides the burnt-offering of the morning, which is for a continual burnt-offering. After this manner ye shall offer daily, for seven days, the food of the offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto Jehovah: it shall be offered besides the continual burnt-offering, and the drink-offering thereof. And on the seventh day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work."

It is clear that all of these sacrifices were supplementary to the ones already prescribed for Passover in Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23:4-8. Of particular interest is the fact that the seven days feast of Unleavened Bread that always began on the day after Passover required the observance of "a holy convocation" with abstinence from all "servile" work. In fact, these were simply additional sabbaths (rests), and were different from the weekly sabbaths in that they could come on any day of the week. This phenomenon resulted in the back-to-back sabbaths on Friday and Saturday the week our Lord was crucified. The Greek text of Matthew 28:1 refers to these back-to-back "sabbaths" (plural). Servile work here prohibited primarily meant that all "occupational" work, or work done for making a living was prohibited.[7]