On the Rabbis Forgetting What to Do When Passover fell on a Sabbath

On one occasion the fourteen of Nisan fell on a sabbath. The Benei Bathyra forgot and did not know whether or not the Passover overrides the Sabbath. They said 'is there anyone who knows whether or not the Passover overrides the Sabbath?' They were told, 'there is a certain man who has come up from Babylonia, Hillel the Babylonian by name, who has studied with the two greatest men of the age, and he knows whether or not the Passover overtakes the Sabbath." [Tosefta Pes. 4:13]

Critical things to see here.

The Benei Bathyra were intimately associated with the Herodians and Agrippa in particular. The Jewish Encyclopedia writes that Bathyra was a:

fortress and city founded by Zamaris, a distinguished Jew of Babylon, who about the year 20 crossed the Euphrates with 500 mounted archers, and requested a dwelling-place from the Roman governor of Syria, Cn. Sentius Saturninus. When Herod the Great learned of this expedition, he assigned to the troop a piece of land in the toparchy of Batanea, and in this way Zamaris founded the city of Bathyra, which he garrisoned. As freedom from taxation was granted to the colony, many people immediately settled there. The fort not only protected the Jews living in Trachonitis, but at the same time safeguarded the pilgrims going from Babylon to Jerusalem against the attacks of the Trachonites. When the Romans got possession of the land, they respected the authority of the regent, but taxed the people.

The brave Zamaris left an equally distinguished son, Jacimus; and the latter's son Philip formed a friendship with Agrippa the younger, and held a command in his army ("Ant." xvii. 2, § 3). When the revolution in Jerusalem threatened to break out, Agrippa sent the hipparchus Darius and the strategus Philip with 2,000 horse, among whom were some Batanians, to restrain the people ("B. J." ii. 17, § 4). The Zealots carried the day, and Philip was glad to escape in disguise (Josephus, in his "Vita," xi., has a more correct and detailed account than in "B. J." ii. 18, § 6). Fortunately for him, he was seized with a fever in a village under his control near Gamala, probably in territory belonging to Bathyra. Had he proceeded to Cæsarea Philippi, over which Varus had been appointed governor by Agrippa when the latter went to Berytus (not to Antiochia), Varus (not Noares, as in "B. J."), who had designs upon the kingdom, would certainly have put Philip to death as a faithful adherent of Agrippa.

Varus, however, entrapped Philip's countrymen, the Babylonians of Bathyra (the editions have "Ekbatana"), killing seventy of them. The inhabitants of Bathyra took up arms, and went with their wives and children to Gamala, a little further north,where Philip joined them and persuaded them to remain faithful to Agrippa and the Romans ("Vita," l.c.). During the absence of Philip the Gamalites threatened the Babylonians, killed Chares, and maltreated his brother Jesus, because they were relations of Philip. King Agrippa quickly despatched Philip with some horse to Gamala, with instructions to take his relations away and resettle the Babylonians in Batanea (l.c. xxxv., xxxvi.).

Hillel is obviously a mythical figure but the point here is that somewhere in the rabbinical remembrance there was a 'forgetting of the Torah' associated with the official orthodoxy of Agrippa and the Herodians.

It’s impossible to believe the bit in the Talmud about the Passover occurring on the Sabbath and the Rabbinic authorities not knowing what to do if you’re expected to believe at the same time that they hadn’t suddenly made it up. See Search for the Origins of Judaism by Etienne Nodet (a very uneven work, but accurate on this bit). By saying “made it up” I mean “taken it over from some other group as a replacement of previous practice”.

We even can't count the numbers of fourteenth of Nisan's that fell on a Sabbath in the Second Temple period. The whole premise is so idiotic there has to be something deeper beneath the surface - i.e. a general 'forgetting' of the Torah during the later rule of Agrippa by the Jews themselves.

It is impossible to imagine a new invention at this period. The argument in Boid's book, which I still think valid, is that all four methods of calculation of when to start counting up to Pentecost are older than the final editing of the Torah. Taking the word “Shabbat” in this passage in Leviticus to mean the first Mikra Kodesh, regardless of the day of the week, might seem impossible when this verse is looked at in isolation, but verses elsewhere in the Torah make such an interpretation possible and even plausible here. This is cross-referencing across the whole Torah, done in the final stage of editing. Boid argued in his book that this cross-referencing was purposeful. It follows that the different ways of calculating were all in use at the time of final editing.