The Final Week of Jesus' Life, a Chronology

NewTheologicalMovement.blogspot.com ^ | Mach 2012 | Father Ryan Erlenbush

[Salvation]

The final week of Jesus' life, a chronology

Father Ryan Erlenbush

Mach 2012

 

As the Church prepares to enter into Holy Week, we do well to consider the final week of Jesus’ life, from Friday to Friday. In a later post, we will look at the last twenty-four hours (from the Last Supper to the death of Jesus on the Cross) in greater detail.

It will be helpful to review the Gospel accounts given by Sts. Mark and John, the two who offer the most explicit chronology of Holy Week. See Mark 11:1 – 15:37 and also John 11:54 – 19:30.

 

The Friday before the Passion

Jesus was in the city of Ephraim, in hiding since the Jewish authorities desired to kill him. On this day (before evening), Jesus and his disciples went up to Jerusalem, before the pasch to purify themselves (John 11:55).

They spent the night in Bethany, which is very close to Jerusalem.

Saturday before the Passion

Jesus therefore, six days before the pasch, came to Bethania, where Lazarus had been dead, whom Jesus raised to life. And they made him a supper there: and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that were at table with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. (John 12:1-3)

The pasch (i.e. Passover) was on a Thursday that year (beginning Thursday eve with the Passover Meal), and so six days before, that is, on Friday, Jesus came to Bethany.

The next day, which is to say, Saturday, Jesus came to the feast there and was anointed by Mary of Bethany (that is, Mary Magdalene [here]). In this first anointing, Mary pours the oil over the Savior’s feet.

This meal and anointing occurred, most probably, at the house of Lazarus known as the Lazarium.

Our Savior spent the night in Bethany.

Palm Sunday

And on the next day, Sunday (John 12:12), Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. This was the first Palm Sunday, when the children of the Hebrews bearing olive branches went forth to meet the Lord, crying out and saying, “Hosanna in the highest!”

Our Lord returned to Bethany for the night.

Monday of Holy Week

On the way into Jerusalem, Jesus sees a fig tree which has born no fruit – which tree he curses in the presence of his disciples.

Upon entering the city, our Lord goes up and cleanses the Temple for the second time (he had cleansed it once already, two years ago – cf. John 2:13ff [see our article, here]).

That eve, Jesus returned to Bethany (cf. Mark 11:19).

Tuesday of Holy Week

On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples notice that the fig tree which he had cursed the morning before has now withered. They are amazed.

Entering the Temple area, Jesus preaches extensively and answers the questions of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

It is on this day that our Lord tells the parable of the vineyard workers who kill the owner’s son who is the heir to the vineyard. Also, on this occasion, the Lord answers the questions regarding the tribute to Caesar, the resurrection of the body, the greatest commandment, and whether the Christ will be the son of David.

Further, while in the Temple, our Lord sees a widow offer two small coins and declares her gift to be greater than those of the others.

Finally, Jesus foretells the destruction of the Temple and speaks of the final judgment.

He returns that night to Bethany.

Spy Wednesday

Now the feast of pasch and of the Azymes [i.e. Unleavened Bread] was after two days [i.e. in two days' time] ... and when [Jesus] was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, and was at meal, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of precious spikenard: and breaking the alabaster box, she poured it out upon his head. (Mark 14:1,3)

Spending the day in retirement, our Lord attends a feast at the house of a certain Pharisee, Simon the Leper. During this meal, Mary of Bethany (i.e. the Magdalene [here]) again anoints our Lord, but this time upon his head.

Update: I am aware of the fact that there is a good deal of diversity among the Church Fathers on whether Mary anointed Jesus on Spy Wednesday. I side partially with Origen, Chrysostom, and Theophylus (against Augustine and Gregory) in affirming that there were two anointings, one on Saturday and another on Wednesday; but then agree with Augustine and Gregory (against Origen and Chrysostom) insofar as I claim that there was one and the same woman, Mary of Bethany who is the Magdalene. St. Thomas Aquinas did not come down on one side or the other of the question, so there is clearly room for doubt.

Update II: As I consider this further, I am beginning to lean more toward the side of Sts. Augustine and Gregory. Perhaps there was only one anointing (which would then be on Saturday) and Sts. Matthew and Mark mention it here as a way of connecting the betrayal of Judas more clearly with the incident.

Judas is now set against our Savior, and so goes to the priests to betray Jesus. And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests, to betray him to them. (Mark 14:10)

Because it was this evening that Judas conspired against Jesus, the day is called “Spy Wednesday”.

Holy Thursday

Now on the first day of the unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the pasch, the disciples say to him: Whither wilt thou that we go, and prepare for thee to eat the pasch? (Mark 14:12)

Because the Passover meal would be consumed Thursday evening, Jesus sent his disciples to make the preparations for the pasch. They went from Bethany to Jerusalem and prepared the upper room.

On this evening, Jesus offered the Last Supper in which he instituted both the Eucharist and the Priesthood. Upon finishing the meal, our Lord and his apostles (excepting Judas, who left early) sang a hymn and then went forth to the Mount of Olives.

On this night, our Lord suffered the agony in the garden and was arrested. Jesus spends the night locked in the dungeon of the house of Caiaphas, after undergoing a secret night-trial by the Sanhedrin.

Good Friday

It was on Friday that our Lord suffered and died. Condemned to death at 10am, nailed to the Cross at noon, and dying at 3pm.

Christ was buried before 5pm and, the stone being rolled across the entrance, all departed.

 

[Errant]

Should have pinged you on the discussion considering your background, and I'm not sure if delchinate and I are talking about the same "wobble". He may be referring to the earth's precession. I'm talking about what's referred to as the Chandler wobble. According to Wikipedia, it varies by about 9 meters (but we seem to have exceeded that now). I was correct about the 14 month cycle.

[roamer_1]

please tell me on what day of “aviv” Yeshua was crucified, died and was buried on ( that has to be the same day and it will count as day one ), then please tell on what day of “aviv” did Yeshua rise from the dead on ( this will be the third day )

Sorry, but I wasn't around to give you your answer - But the answer you got from Errant is one with which I concur:

Yeshua died Wednesday afternoon, was buried at dusk, and arose at dusk upon the following Sabbath.

[roamer_1]

Luke 13:32 - and he said to them, go and tell that fox “behold, i cast out demons and perform cures TODAY and TOMORROW and THE THIRD DAY i finish my course.

You should read just a touch before that where he likens the Kingdom of YHWH to a bit of leaven in three measures of flour - Not a half-measure, a measure, and a tiny bit more.... Three full measures.

today - Friday - day one - Jesus Crucified, Dies and is buried. Tomorrow - Sabbath - day two - Jesus rests in the grave The Third Day - Sunday - day three - Jesus rises from the dead.

Three days and three nights IN THE BELLY OF THE EARTH.

Try again.

[boatbums]

Yeshua died Wednesday afternoon, was buried at dusk, and arose at dusk upon the following Sabbath.

I agree. There is no other way that Jesus' OWN foretelling of his death, burial and resurrection can fit in the timeline. To insist that He died and was buried on "Good Friday" and raised early Sunday morning may sound like three days, but certainly not three days and three nights that Jesus specifically said he would be in the "heart of the earth". It is too bad that some people are so driven to defend something their church says that they throw logic AND God-revealed Scripture out the door.

[winodog]

Great post. It has become obvious to me that Satan is god of this world in ways I cannot imagine.
Here is an explanation of the 13th month by the Rood fella
http://aroodawakening.tv/the-month-of-the-aviv/

[winodog]

http://www.karaite-korner.org/abib.shtml
http://www.nazareneisrael.org/aviv-barley-basics/

These are better links and the second one answers your questions about farming. I did not know untill I read the link that barley is a winter crop that comes ripe in spring

[one Lord one faith one baptism]

1 Cor 15:1-5

Now i would remind you brethern, in what terms i preached to the THE GOSPEL, which you received , in which you stand, by which YOU ARE SAVED, IF you hold fast to it, unless you believed in vain. For i delivered to you as of FIRST IMPORTANCE, which i also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY, in accordance to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve.

Why does this matter? Paul says it’s a Gospel issue, Jesus had to rise ON THE THIRD DAY. The Scriptures over and over tell us Jesus would rise ON THE THIRD DAY - Luke 9:22, Matthew 16:21, Matthew 17:23, Matthew 20:19, Mark 9:31, Mark 10:34, Luke 18:33 and John 2:19.

If Jesus rose on the 4th or 5th day, he would be a false prophet and we would all still be dead in our sins.

I start this post since there were some comments earlier in thread about “what’s the big deal”, you say tomato, i sat tomateo, who cares?

Now i will specifically address Errant and his answer to my question to those denying what Christians have believed for 2,000 years of Jesus dying on what has become known as Good Friday and rising early Sunday morning.

First let me congratulate Errant for answering my question of what day did Jesus die and what day did he rise. Roamer seems to concur with Errant, but Errant had the courage of his convictions to actually state what he believes. some talk a good game, but pinning them down on specifics is like trying to nail down jello.

here is what Errant answered:

14th of Aviv - Jesus died and is buried ( wed ) (1)
15th of Aviv - sabbath ( thurs ) (2)
16th of Aviv - ( fri ) (3)
17th of Aviv - 7th day sabbath (4) Jesus Rises
18TH OF Aviv - 1st day of week (5) feast of first fruits
19th of Aviv - mon (6)
20th of Aviv - tues (7)
21st of Aviv - wed (8)

you will notice i extended the days and it will be clear shortly why i did that. i track the days by the Hebrew calandar days, the corresponding days of our week and i numbered them as well for easy reference.

my challenge was that whatever answer given to when Jesus died and was risen HAD TO AGREE WITH THE SCRIPTURES, and we can see immediately that Errant’s answer doesn’t agree with the Scriptures as follows:

1. Errant has Jesus rising on the 4th day, I provided nine different verses telling us Jesus had to rise ON THE THIRD DAY.
We must count days as the Scriptures do, not as we like or what method will fit our pet theory. Exodus 19:10-11, Luke 13:32 and Acts 10:1-30 all show us when counting days:
today is day one
tomorrow is day two
the day after tomorrow is day three
so if Jesus died on the 14th of aviv, he would have had to rise on the 16th of aviv for the third day prophecy to be true.

2. Errant has Jesus rising on the 7th day sabbath. Luke 24:21 specifically says the first day of the week ( sunday ) was THE THIRD DAY since Jesus died, therfore we know Jesus rose on the first day of the week. The first day of the week was also the feast of first fruits and Paul tells us in 1 Cor 15:20 “but in fact Jesus has been risen from the dead, the FIRST FRUITS of those who have fallen asleep.

3. Errant assumes there were two sabbath days that week, but all four Gospels only indicate one sabbath day. the feast of unleavened bread fell on the 7th day sabbath. there is only ONE day of preparation mentioned in all four gospels, there is only ONE sabbath day mentioned in all four gospels and it says the women rested ONE day, not two.

4. God has laid down a principal in Scripture, that any fact MUST be attested to by two or three witnesses. see Deuteronomy 19:15, Matthew 18:16 and 2 Cor 13:1. Jesus loudly proclaimed that he would rise ON THE THIRD DAY. If Errant is correct and Jesus rose on the 7th day sabbath, WHERE ARE THE WITNESSES FOR THIS DAY? No one saw Jesus on the 7th day sabbath, therefore this fact can not be established according to the Scriptural test of every fact being established by two or three witnesses. But, of course He rose on the first day of the week, and there were many more than two witnesses for that day.

5. back to counting days, suppose a baby boy was born on the 14th day of aviv at 3:00pm, on what day would he be circumcised on? we know Genesis 17:12 says it MUST occur on the eighth day, which would be the 21st of aviv. check this out from any Jewish rabbi or website, a baby born on a wed is circumcised on the following wed, the 8th day. if the 21st day of aviv is the 8th day, the 17th of aviv is the 4th day, which we know can not be the day Jesus rose.

but, but, i can hear the cries of what about Matthew 12:40 and the “three days and three nights”. Jesus absolutely was in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, the historical and orthodox Christian Faith has always affirmed this. the question is - what does the expression “three days and three nights” mean? does it mean 72 hours as some 21st century americans believe? what would this expression mean to a first century Jew? the answer is, it means simply three days. you see, to a first century Jew, any part of a day was the same as a whole 24 hour day. it is an idiomatic expression. so Jesus was in the heart of the earth three days and three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - simply three days.

we have to ask ourselves, why is there this attack on what Christians have believed from the time of the Apostles?
i think several reasons can be given:

Satan wants to plant seeds of doubt on what the Church teaches.
Satan wants to plant seeds of doubt on the Scriptures.
the Muslims, Mormons, non-trinitarian cults, sabbath keepers, false prophets like rood all have a stake in saying Christians are stupid and Constantine paganized the Church so listen to our “new” understanding of the Scriptures.

there is after all ONLY ONE FAITH and that faith teaches Jesus died on the 6th day of the week, what we in the west call Friday and ROSE ON THE THIRD DAY, the first day of the week, on the feast of first fruits or what we call Sunday.

[Biggirl]

Thank-you for making my day and Easter weekend. God Bless.

[delchiante]

I had not heard anything called the Chandler Wobble . I was still on the nursery school level of the stars moving in our sky compared to where they used to be...

I didnt even think of a wobble ushering in earthquakes and volcanic activity... from a quick look see, I saw one person noted that weather extremes seem to have picked up since 2006 because the chandler wobble slowed down slightly, but they are noting the southern hemisphere are bearing the brunt of it?

The writer noted harsher winters regardless of what hemisphere we live in..
I did see an ice age reference..

But I did see a chart on one site where we may have been in a cycle with longer springs, summers and falls and shorter winters compared to what they had 5000 years ago..

Simply amazing how ‘brilliant’ people were before computers and um, smart phones! It seems like their theories are being confirmed as our technology catches up...

Some of the predictions reads like Revelation...which shouldn’t surprise us...

The education continues...thanks!

[Errant]

14th of Aviv - Jesus died and is buried ( wed ) (1) (Buried at dusk beginning the first night - not day - in the tomb)
15th of Aviv - sabbath ( thurs ) (2) (Day 1, Night 2)
16th of Aviv - ( fri ) (3) (Day 2, Night 3)
17th of Aviv - 7th day sabbath (4) Jesus Rises (Day 3 - he rose at dusk fulfulling his own prophecy (3 days, 3 nights)

3. Errant assumes there were two sabbath days that week, but all four Gospels only indicate one sabbath day. the feast of unleavened bread fell on the 7th day sabbath. there is only ONE day of preparation mentioned in all four gospels, there is only ONE sabbath day mentioned in all four gospels and it says the women rested ONE day, not two.

Please list the scriptures from the four Gospels you feel supports your claim that there was only one Sabbath that week.

[editor-surveyor]

Do not fear an ‘ice age.’

The ice age was the direct result of the hot oceans that remained after the Genesis flood. Warm water generates high precipitation, and the warmer the water, the higher the evaporation rises into the upper atmosphere, resulting in more cold storms reaching into the temperate zones.

James Nienhuis has written considerably on this.

Ice Age Civilizations

.

[Errant]

It all goes back to what you said in your post above, “we were told the end from the beginning that we may know there is a God”. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important that we keep HIS days/seasons correctly - that we will see the fulfillment of that promise each time it occurs.

[delchiante]

One flaw-
‘first fruits’, the 16th day of the month and the day the Messiah was raised according to scripture, was not a Sunsday this year, but a Gregorian Wodensday this month (April 16th)

This is one time the world’s calendar of April meshed with God’s calendar month and it doesn’t happen a lot.
Now the Jews may or may not have celebrated passover correctly, but the numbered days were accurate.

So it wasnt a ‘ Sunsday’.and it isn’t a Sunsday every year. ..the sunsday coming up this year is the 20th day of the month, not the 16th as scripture says and you detail.

Just more traditions from men accepting the false premise of Satan’s timekeeping instead of the commandments.

Us ‘Christians’ have a lot of apologizing to do for taking the Israel and Torah (like the feasts) out of the Messiah of Israel and replacing Him with doctrines and traditions of men of greco roman latin lineage..

I am apologizing to any Jew who reads this,. If you know a Jew, tell them I am sorry... I suggest others find the Jews in your circle and apologize.. us christians are the main cause they don’t see the Messiah of Israel in the greco roman latinized churches of ‘Christianity’...

Foreign holy days. Foreign sabbaths. foreign name..the scripture warns them not to have anything to do with foreigners..

And we wonder how Jews can’t see Him?

How does one ever see Him through our meddling? A miracle...

We ought to be ashamed...

..

[one Lord one faith one baptism]

Jesus was buried on the same day as he died. He had to be buried the same day or else Joseph and Nicodemus would have violated the Sabbath if they buried him after sunset. John 19:38-42 makes this clear, he was hastily buried so as to avoid violating the Sabbath.
so if Jesus died on the 14th of Aviv, that is day one. you can’t ignore the day he died when counting days, that has to be your starting point.

verses from the Gospels supporting one sabbath:
Matthew 28:1
Mark 15:42
Luke 23:54-56
John 19:31

i would ask for verses supporting two sabbaths that week, but since i know there aren’t any, i won’t bother.

[one Lord one faith one baptism]

the feast of first fruits always falls on the first day of the week after the passover sabbath. ALWAYS.

[one Lord one faith one baptism]

Please list any witnesses who saw Jesus alive on the 17th of aviv.

[editor-surveyor]

.

Ice Age Hydrology

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[delchiante]

And the first day of the week was April 16th, Wodensday.. the 15th was the Sabbath..
Next sabbath will be the 22nd, which is Tiw’s day..
The 22nd, just like it was for Moses and Israel in exodus 16:23.

[delchiante]

Living in the northeast like I do now, there is always an ice age for six months....then six months of road construction.

:)

[editor-surveyor]

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Earth Measure
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