Here is a link to A Calendar for the Holy Land for the year 27 a.d. You can change the year and month yourself to see which day Passover, the 14th of Nisan fell on. In year 30 a.d. it also fell on a Wednesday and in year 33 a.d. it fell on a Friday. Between the years 27 a.d. and 33 a.d. Passover fell on a Saturday once, a Wednesday twice, a Monday thrice and a Friday once.
Your Easter story say Christ was crucified on Good Friday at about 3:00 p.m. and was buried shortly before the Sabbath began at sunset. (Year 33 a.d.) It goes on to say He arose at sunrise on Sunday morning and this is one of the reasons for sunrise services throughout Christendom. It is also your rational for the celebration of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath as this was the day of resurrection. This is the gist of the celebration. I won't even get into the other traditions of Easter that we are all familiar with. Mark 16:2 indicates the women arrive at sunrise finding our Saviour arisen and I believe this is where most of the tradition began.
We know that Jesus began his ministry at age 30 because Luke 3:23 says so and Numbers 4:3,23,and 30 verify this. We know that his ministry lasted about 3 1/2 years because John indicates three separate Passover celebrations attended by The Lord in 2:13; 6:4; and 13:1. It is doubtful that Jesus was born in "Anno Domini one". Most historical sources now agree that it was anywhere from 3 to 6 b.c. The calendar we use today is based upon a 33 a.d. crucifixion. It is wrong.
More than likely it was the year 27 or 30 a.d. The reason for this is simple. The crucifixion, burial and resurrection took place over a three day (72 hour) period of time. Matthew 12:40 indicates the time Jesus himself prophesied that he would be in the tomb and we know that the Hebrew idiom that counts part of one day as a full day does not apply in this case. Both days and nights are mentioned eliminating this possibility. Scripture also verifies in four different places how long the entombment would be. Mark 8:31 says "after three days" (at least 72 hours). Matthew 27:63 says the same. Mark 9:31 says "the third day" (at least 48....no more than 72 hours). John 2:19-21 says "in three days" (not more than 72 hours). Scripture therefore says, without a question, the entombment had to have been exactly 72 hours.
In your scenario Jesus would have been in the tomb 36 hours....more or less.
Let's now get back to Mark 16. The first verse indicates the Sabbath is now over and the women are going to purchase some spices to anoint our Lord's body. Mark was not an eyewitness to the events and only wrote down what he had learned from Peter. Please see Papias, section VI for further clarification. When the scriptures were written there were no chapters and verses so the Sabbath spoken of in Mark 16:1 is actually the Sabbath you saw on the calendar earlier indicating the first Sabbath of unleavened Bread....Wednesday evening/Thursday......the Hebrews beginning their days at sunset. The reason we know this is because the women after purchasing these spices go home and prepare them and rest again for another Sabbath [Luke 23:56] this time the weekly Sabbath. The women had purchased and prepared the spices on the non Sabbath day of Thursday evening/Friday and the weekly Sabbath was Friday evening/Saturday.
Now, who are these women in Mark 16:2 that visit the tomb at sunrise? Contrary to popular belief, they are not Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James, and Salome spoken of in Mark 16:1. Mark 16:1 should actually be Mark 15:48....a continuation of the thought process where Joseph of Arimathia was attempting to get the body buried before "that" Sabbath began [John 19:31] and of course this verse is the verification that the Sabbath here was a special Sabbath....not the weekly one. These women after finding the tomb empty run away, frightened....and tell no one (verse 8). In Matthew 28 Mary Magdalene and friends, filled with joy, run and tell the disciples! In Luke 24:9 they tell the disciples! In John 20:2 they tell the disciples!
This brings me to Matthew 28:1. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, The Douay-Rheims and the King James all say "Late on Sabbath....or in the End of the Sabbath." The Greek word "Epiphosko" translated "Dawn" in many translations can also mean "to begin" or "to draw on" like it does the only other place it is used in scripture [Luke 23:54] and the Sabbath was drawing on as Joseph was hurriedly trying to get the body in the tomb. This was taking place just before sunset on Wednesday evening and since we know our Lord would be entombed for 72 hours he would have resurrected Late on Sabbath. In Matthew, Luke and John it is easily verified that the resurrection took place on the Sabbath. Mark 16:2 simply says the tomb was empty Sunday morning.
There is no command anywhere in scripture to celebrate Sunday as the day of resurrection. There is no command anywhere in scripture to do away with Passover. The Apostles celebrated Passover as did our Saviour. The last living Apostle, John, saw to it that his disciples were instructed in the correct manner and all of the early churches in the "East" celebrated the Passover on the 14th. The doctrinal error emanated from Rome and it continues.........
There is no Scriptural command NOT TO celebrate Sunday as the day of Resurrection either. And as for doing away with Passover, for the 100th time, we *do* celebrate Passover--only this is the Passover of the fulfillment, not the Passover of the promise. Our Savior celebrated Passover in the Jewish way because He was not risen yet. Once He rose, what Moses prefigured became a fuller reality.
And I say again, it was *not* all of the early Churches in the East which had Easter on 14 Nisan. It was the bishops of Asia, i.e. Asia Minor--what we would now consider Turkey.
And you still haven't answered why, when John's disciples dealt with the Easter Sunday people, they agreed to disagree *without condemning the practice. They did not say it was unscriptural or wrong or apostate. Yet you somehow feel free to condemn the Easter Sunday as total apostasy. You are lording more authority over Christendom than St. John's disciples did--and I need hardly had that you have incomparably less authority to do so.
***Here is a link to A Calendar for the Holy Land for the year 27 a.d.***
I have two separate calenders for that date figured by two diferent groups. They show different days of the week for those dates.