On What Day of the Week Was Christ Crucified?

KHouse.Org | Chuck Missler

[week 71]

Provocative question for the Easter season.

[Dog Gone]

Under this theory, Jesus wouldn't have risen on Sunday, so changing the day of worship to Sunday would be in error, right?

[steve-b]

Anything that bad probably happened on a Monday.

[Michael_S]

There have been several documentaries addressing this question. They brought to light some discrepancies in the calendar and the holiday / holyday Jesus and the Apostles were celebrating at the Last Supper. Most of it was very interesting and informative.

The point is, however, is not what day of the week Jesus was killed or rose up. The important issue is that the event took place at all. and Easter is the celebration of the event.

I hope most of you don't really think that Jesus was born on the exact date of December 25. The days / dates of the holidays are twofold, 1. A reference for us, 2. A connections from the older holidays (Jewish, Roman, etc.) to the new Christian holidays.

[Zorobabel]

If the passover sabbath had been on a thursday, as it is this year then Jesus could have been crucified on wednesday afternoon. He would have been buried before sundown and spent thursday, friday, and saturday in the tomb and risen sometime early sunday morning. There would have been two sabbaths that week, the passover and the weekly sabbath, and that's where the "good friday "confusion comes from.

[AppyPappy]

Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Three days.

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

So he actually rose on monday?

[Library Lady]

Under this theory, Jesus wouldn't have risen on Sunday, so changing the day of worship to Sunday would be in error, right?

Actually, no. Their day ended at 6:00 p.m. The ladies found the empty tomb after that time and before dark on the first day of the week.

[Library Lady]

Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Three days.

But only two nights.

[The Old Hoosier]

Sorry, Charlie. Doesn't work. The old tradition is there for a reason. First, the scripture says--in every Gospel, I think--that Jesus rose on the first day of the week--Sunday. Then you have the problem of scriptural references:

Jn 19:31 The Jews, therefore, since it was the preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a solemn day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken...

Mark 15:42 Immediately after the account of Jesus' death: "Now when it was evening, as it was the Day of Preparation, that is, the eve of the Sabbath, there came Joseph of Arimathea..." to bury Jesus.

Luke 23:55 After seeing Jesus buried, the women "went back and prepared spices and ointments. And on the sabbath day they rested, in accordance with the commandment. But on the first day..."
So unless it took them a half-week to make ointments, this was on Friday afternoon, and the Sabbath prevented them from going back to annoint the body. Jesus would have been buried around 3 pm, not six, since six would probably have been getting too close to dark, which is when the Jewish Sabbath begins.

[Library Lady]

I agree with your timing. Since their days began and ended at 6 p.m., Sunday would have begun at 6 p.m. on what we call Saturday.

[Orual]

One explantion offered here.

[Library Lady]

since it was the preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath

I don't have my Bibile with me just now, but one of the Gospels refers to this Sabbath as a "high day Sabbath" meaning it is a special feast day, not just a Saturday.

[Dog Gone]

Where do you get the 6 pm reference? I wasn't aware that the Jews had clocks during this era.

[Zorobabel]

"I don't have my Bibile with me just now, but one of the Gospels refers to this Sabbath as a "high day Sabbath" meaning it is a special feast day, not just a Saturday. "

That's exactly correct. There were two sabbaths that week, one a "high holy day," one the ordinary weekly sabbath. Just as it is this year. Tonight at sundown starts the sabbath of passover, and today is the day of preparation.

[foolish-one]

Sunset.

[David]

I don't understand the problem. Thursday, 13 Nissan ended at sunset; Passover supper at the beginning of 14 Nissan, evening after Thursday, 13 Nissan; taken during the night after Thursday and killed and placed in the tomb during the sunlight hours Friday, 14 Nissan, Day One; Day Two, Sabbath, Saturday, 15 Nissan until sunset; Day Three, Sunday, 16 Nissan, starting at sunset after Saturday; in the grave the dark half of the day; risen after sunrise on day three, Sunday. Three days in the tomb; risen on the third day all the way the words read on the paper.

[The Old Hoosier]

It looks clearly like it's both a sabbath (Saturday) and a special day. They didn't call other days "sabbath."

[AppyPappy]

Sunday. The third day.

[BibChr]

It isn't heretical to believe that Jesus was crucified on Thursday, or even Wednesday. But as far as I know, Chuck Missler has never studied NT Greek, and is one of these guys like Zola Levitt who was something else and then carried that respect over into being regarded as a Biblical authority, without necessarily "paying his dues."

The article makes some erroneous statements. Here are the ones I can answer off the top of my head, at work:

He says "Nowhere in the Gospels does it assert that Christ was crucified on a Friday." That isn't fully true. We read in Matthew 27:62, Mark 15:42, and Luke 23:54 that Jesus was crucified on a day called "preparation." The Greek word paraskeue means preparation for the Sabbath, which is Friday. In fact, in modern Greek that is the word for Friday.

Then he says this:

Further, Matthew 28:1 should read, "At the end of the sabbaths," (which is plural in the Greek), implying there was a plurality of sabbaths that week.

This illustrates why you really shouldn't comment on Greek without actually studying it. It is common in the NT to use the plural form to denote a week. That is the more natural reading here.

The Friday position is actually the better grounded.

Dan
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