WAS JESUS CRUCIFIED ON FRIDAY?
About one billion Protestants and another billion Catholics believe that Jesus Christ was crucified and entombed on a Friday afternoon—"Good Friday"—and raised to life again at daybreak on Easter Sunday morning, a day and a half later.
Yet when we compare this to what Jesus Himself said about how long He would be entombed, we find a major contradiction. How long did Jesus say He would be in the grave? “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:40)
The context in which Jesus Christ said these words is important. The scribes and Pharisees were demanding a miraculous sign from Him to prove that He was indeed the long-awaited Messiah. “But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:” (John 12:39).
This was the only sign Jesus gave that He was the promised Messiah:? “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:40)
So many Christians believe that Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead just in time for a sunrise Easter church service on Sunday morning. That would mean He was buried during what we’d call Friday evening, remained in the grave all day Saturday, and Saturday night, for a inaccurate total of one day and two nights – which means uh uh, no no, that can not be right..
I want to show you how unmistakably the Scriptures prove a Wednesday crucifixion, a sunset burial, and a resurrection after sundown at the end of Saturday, the beginning of Sunday. I’m also going to show you how powerful tradition is and how unbelieving, deceitful, and blindly loyal to their denominations Christians can be.
The Lord Jesus Christ clearly prophesied that He would rise again after being in the ground three days and three nights “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt 12:40).
He was without question nailed to the cross at about nine o’clock in the morning, died on the cross at about three o’clock in the afternoon (Mark 15:25-37), and was buried at sunset. The Lord was discovered to have already risen before sunrise on Sunday, the first day of the week (Matt 28:1; John 20:1). That means the resurrection did not happen at sunrise; it happened sometime before sunrise.
The Jews end a day and begin another right at sunset – not at
midnight. For them the two halves of a day are made up of night and day – in
that order – because darkness preceded light when God created the world (Gen.
1:1-5).
Sunset played an important part in the crucifixion because the day following the
crucifixion was a Sabbath “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation,
that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that
sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken,
and that they might be taken away.” (John 19:31).
The Jews had to be careful not to violate the Law of the Sabbath by still being involved with the crucifying, anointing, and burial of their three crucified brethren after sunset. Therefore, because death by crucifixion could be a slow process, the Jews needed to speed up the deaths of the three men on the crosses by breaking their legs (John 19:31). Then, without the support of their legs, the men would hang more on their arms and suffocate faster.
The soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves, but when they went to break Christ’s legs they found He was already dead. In order to verify His death one of them shoved a spear into His side, thus fulfilling two things in Scripture (John 19:32-37).
The Good Friday tradition started because people saw that the day after the crucifixion was a Sabbath (Mark 15:42) and assumed that meant Saturday the seventh day of the week because most Sabbaths were Saturdays.
So let’s look at the Good Friday theory by being as generous as possible in seeing how many days and nights we can come up with for Christ to be buried. If the disciples were able to bury Christ before sunset, that would allow us to count the “day part” of Friday. Then at sunset it became the “night part” of Saturday. At sunrise it became the “day part” of Saturday. At sundown it became the “night part” of Sunday. And that’s the most we can get because the women got to the tomb shortly before sunrise when it was yet dark.
Adding all of that up we get a maximum number of two days and two nights. Since that is not what Jesus said, (three days and three nights) we would have to admit that as good as the Good Friday theory seemed, it was proven Scripturelly false after a few seconds of examination.
The confusion over what “sabbath” occurred the day after the Passover crucifixion, can be cleared up by looking at Lev. 23:5-7, which says the Passover was followed by the holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. That means the day after the crucifixion wasn’t a Saturday Sabbath – it was the Feast Day of Unleavened Bread, which could occur on any day of the week.
Now, we could back up one day from Good Friday (a Thursday crucifixion) and that would add another day and night which would make three days and three nights (if we used the same earlier generous assumptions), I’m going to save myself a lot of time and just say that Thursday won’t fit the Scriptures any better than Friday.
The first thing in the Bible that alerts us to the fact that the crucifixion was not on a Friday is John 19:31; “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
Did you catch it? If the Crucifixion had happen on Friday the verse would not contain the parenthetical information because it would be irrelevant whether the following Saturday was a regular Sabbath or a high Sabbath because both still required a day of rest.
The Scripture says “high day” but I said high Sabbath. And that will help you find one of the flaws in the Good Friday theory: Its Good Friday supporters often refer to that Saturday as a “high Sabbath” even though they have no Scriptural support to do so – the day after the crucifixion was “an high day”, not a high Sabbath.
Every Saturday was a Sabbath. But there were also annual feasts days that could fall on any day of the week that were also called Sabbaths. If the feast fell on a regular day of the week, that Sabbath was called an high day to differentiate it from a regular day. And if the feast fell on a Saturday, that seventh-day Sabbath was called an high Sabbath to differentiate it from a regular Saturday Sabbath.
John 19:31 tells us the Sabbath day after the crucifixion was
not a seventh-day Sabbath (because then the Bible would have called it an high
Sabbath), but that it was a week day (because it is called an high day).
If Christ was crucified on Wednesday (the Passover), buried at sunset, and
remained in the ground all of Thursday (the holy day of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread), Friday, and Saturday (a regular Sabbath), that means we’re dealing with
three special days here; the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the
Saturday Sabbath.
This is correct because Christ would be buried all of Thursday, all of Friday, and all of Saturday and we would obviously have three days and three nights, but, as much as we might like to declare victory, quit our Bible study, and go play golf or go fishing, we still have something bothering us:
The exactness of Matt. 12:40 loses its exactness if Christ was buried slightly before sunset because that would add part of another day (Wednesday). And if He rose from the dead sometime after sunset at the end of Saturday and before sunrise Sunday, that would add at least part of another night (Sunday). According to Jewish calculations.
THE CRUCIFIXION. Wednesday was the Passover, the 14th day of the month (Lev. 23:5), which began in the evening at sundown (Deut 16:6). It was a busy day for the Lord because the Jews wanted to kill Him before the big holy day, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Mark 14:1,2): “After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.”
He sat down “when even was come” (six o’clock the night part of Wednesday) to eat the Passover meal (Matt 26:20; Mark 14:17,18). Then He went to Gethsemane; was arrested and “tried” by the Jews; delivered to Pontius Pilate in the morning (Matt 27:1,2) – which was still Wednesday; was crucified (as the real Passover Lamb) at about nine in the morning; and died at three in the afternoon. By the way the Passover lambs were slain at three o'clock in the afternoon.
Because sundown was approaching so rapidly that the disciples weren’t sure they could get Christ in the ground in time to avoid violating the approaching Sabbath....high day (the 15th day, the holy Feast Day of Unleavened Bread – Lev. 23:6,7), they all decided to accept Joseph of Arimathaea’s time-saving offer to use his tomb because it was close to the crucifixion site (Matt 27:57-60; John 19:42).
In addition to getting permission to take the body and bury it, and finding a nearby tomb, the men hurriedly bought linen and quickly wrapped the body (Mark 15:46; John 19:39,40). All of this was done Wednesday afternoon when the linen stores were still open; all the stores would close by sundown because of the Sabbath ...high day and because of darkness.
The women watched all of these events. They witnessed the crucifixion (John 19:25), the death (Matt 27:55,56; Mark 15:40,41; Luke 23:49), and the burial (Matt 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55). They saw how hastily the men wrapped the body with one eye on the corpse and another on the sun – which was just about to touch the horizon. The body was placed in the tomb and the stone was rolled in place as the sun set in the west.
THURSDAY: THE FIRST DAY. This day was a Sabbath because it was an high day because it was the Feast Day of Unleavened Bread. All the stores were closed. But behind the scenes the Jewish preachers were busy with politics arranging with Pilate to have Roman soldiers guard the tomb (Matt. 27:62-66).
Notice they only wanted the tomb guarded three days, not four or five days. That’s because if Christ were to be in the ground more than three days, His three days and three nights prophecy would be false, thereby making Him neither a prophet (Deut 18:22) nor the Christ. They understood the importance of exactness when it comes to Scriptures and prophecy.
FRIDAY: THE SECOND DAY. The women got together after the Thursday sabbath as they had planned and bought spices and ointments so they could anoint the body properly. “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.” (Mark 16:1). This verse doesn’t fit with the Good Friday theory because it says the women bought the stuff after the sabbath, which would mean the stores would have had to open for business sometime after the Saturday-Sabbath sundown.
Having bought their supplies, the women, not knowing a military guard had been posted at the tomb the day before, went to anoint the body. When they arrived at the tomb the soldiers stopped them. The women showed their spices and ointments and said all they wanted to do was anoint the body. The soldiers said they were sorry but orders were orders and nobody could go near the body until Sunday – the fourth day.
The women then realized that created a problem: After that
much time the body would begin stinking (John 11:39). Therefore they agreed to
get up before dawn Sunday, get to the tomb “dark and early”, and anoint the body
as soon as there was enough light before it began stinking too much.
With that in mind look at Luke 23:55,56: “And the women also, which came with
him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was
laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the
sabbath day according to the commandment.”
Remembering that verse 55 happened on Wednesday, verse 56 can be read this way:
“[The women rested during the Thursday Unleavened Bread high day] And they
returned [on Friday to the tomb to anoint the body."
But because the guards would not let them enter the tomb on Friday they agreed to meet again before dawn Sunday and prepared spices and ointments [to speed up their work on Sunday, and then went home] and rested on Saturday the Saturday Sabbath day according to the commandment.
Notice in Luke 23:56 God adds “according to the commandment.” If the Good Friday theory were true that addition would be unnecessary because there would be but one Sabbath under consideration. And that Sabbath would be a high Sabbath because it would be two Sabbaths in one, Saturday and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Therefore, this verse, by clearing up any confusion as to which type of Sabbath it is referring to, proves another Sabbath is involved with these events. Earlier we saw how the “that Sabbath was an high day” in John 19:31 proves one of the Sabbaths was a weekday, and now in Luke 23:56 the “the Sabbath day according to the commandment” shows this other Sabbath was a Saturday in accordance with the commandment in Exod. 20:8-11.
SATURDAY: THE THIRD DAY. This was the seventh-day Sabbath. It was the Sabbath according to the Fourth Commandment. It was not a high day, and it was not a high Sabbath; it was a regular Sabbath. It was a day of rest.
SUNDAY: THE FOURTH DAY. The women went to the tomb before sunrise on Sunday: “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the Sepulchre.” (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:1,2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). (That doesn’t necessarily mean they got there before there was any predawn light from the about-to-rise sun; it is probably a reference to the fact that until the sun appeared it was still Sunday night – the “dark part” of Sunday.)
An angel caused a great earthquake and rolled back the stone from the entrance to the tomb and casually sat on it (Matt 28:2). The soldiers guarding the tomb fainted from fright (Matt 28:4). The angel showed the women the empty tomb and said, “He is not here: for he is risen, as he said” (Matt. 28:6). In other words, Christ rose in accordance with what He said about His resurrection. That means He did not rise after only 1.5 days as the Good Friday theory maintains.
Now that we have familiarized ourselves with the events and seen that the Scriptures fit a Wednesday crucifixion, let’s see how exactly the amazing word of God establishes the time of the burial and the resurrection, and how exact the Lord was when He said He’d be “in the ground 3.00 days and 3.00 nights.” Sit up and take notice, When God says something in His Book, it’s exact!
We already know the burial happened pretty close to sunset Wednesday. All we can say at this point is that they were cutting it close, but I believe they got Jesus berried at as near sunset as possible. Thursday was a high day because it was Unleavened Bread, and God was so careful about Christ keeping the law.
We are now going to look at the Scriptures that address the resurrection. We’ll see as we zero in on the fact that all of these descriptions of the time of the resurrection have in common a single, exact point in time. And they reveal that Christ’s resurrection happened at exactly sunset at the end of Saturday/the beginning of Sunday.
Remember, we already know the burial was at sunset at the end of Wednesday/the beginning of Thursday. Adding three days and three nights to that would take us to sunset at the end of Saturday/the beginning of Sunday. Watch as the Scriptures take the approximately out of the timing of the resurrection:
1) John 2:19 “in three days”: This definition taken alone can be very broad. However broad it may be, the very end of “in three days” would still be sunset at the end of the third day – Saturday.
2) Matt 27:63; Mark 8:31 “after three days”: sunset is not only the end of Saturday the third day, it is also simultaneously the beginning of Sunday the fourth day. That definitely qualifies as after three days and still puts the resurrection at exactly sunset Saturday/Sunday.
3) Luke 24:7 “the third day”: Here again we find that sunset at the end of Saturday meets this literal, Scriptural definition and also those of the other literal, Scriptural definitions.
4) Mark 16:9 “early the first day of the week”: The first day of the week is Sunday. That is the fourth day, Are the Scriptures wrong? Do they contradict? Not at sunset they don’t! That’s right, only sunset Saturday/Sunday – not a second before and not a second after – can properly be called both the third day and the fourth day. Sunset Saturday/Sunday is the only time that fulfills all of the Scriptures.
5) Matt 12:40 “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”: This verse is despised by the Good Friday crowd because if Good Friday were true this verse means the women would have discovered the resurrection at dawn Tuesday. But, obviously, three days and three nights fits very nicely – indeed, exactly – with the sunset Saturday/Sunday resurrection revealed by the above Scriptures.
The above exactness, however, means we can safely use this latest verse to pinpoint the burial time. Knowing the resurrection was at exactly sunset Saturday/Sunday, and now knowing how exact God is, we can confidently say “three days and three nights” means exactly what it says. So if we backtrack exactly seventy-two hours from exactly sunset Saturday/Sunday when Christ rose from the dead, we find that He was buried at exactly sunset Wednesday/Thursday.
One of the nice things about Bible study is the more you learn the more things start to fall into place: Remember the expression “when it was yet dark” in John 20:1. The predawn light just before sunrise is not what you and I would call “dark.” But to the Jews it was “dark” because it was night all the way up until sunrise. And that method of looking at time was also true regarding sunset; the instant the sun set it was dark, it was night, it was the next day.
Therefore, since Christ was buried at exactly sunset guess
what happened one second later? It became night. It became Thursday. That means
when the disciples gathered up the burial materials, said some prayers over the
body, stood and took a final look at their Lord lying there, bent over and
lovingly tucked in a loose corner of His linen wrapping, stepped out of the
tomb, had a discussion about the possibility that they might be the next to be
arrested, tried, and crucified (John 20:19), spoke with the women about
returning to the tomb on Friday to do a better job of anointing the body, and
then walked home, all of those things happened on Thursday – the Feast Day of
Unleavened Bread.
Some people reject the Wednesday crucifixion and the literal exactness of “in
the ground three days and three nights” because that means Christ rose from the
dead at sunset Saturday/Sunday – about twelve hours before the angels rolled
back the stone and let Him out! But the resurrected Christ didn’t need people to
open doors for Him (John 20:19,26). And the angels didn’t open the tomb to let
Christ out; they opened it to let the women in.
SUMMARY:
Nisan 14 (Apr) — Passover Supper — arrest, trial, Crucifixion and Burial at
Sunset
Nisan 15 — The Feast of Unleavened Bread – a High Day
Nisan 16 — Friday – normal day
-- The women purchased the spices.
Nisan 17 — Weekly Sabbath– a day of rest
Nisan 18 — The Feast of First Fruits —Christ rose at Sundown the end of the day
side of Saturday the beginning of and dark side of Sunday.