Topic(s):  Jesus

Todd Clippard

The Scriptures teach that Jesus was crucified on Friday. Consider the crucifixion account in John 19:31-33 . . .

"Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs." NKJV

The Passover was observed on the 14th day of the first month, regardless of the day of the week. But the natural reading and understanding of the gospel accounts indicates the Passover was observed on Friday and the Feast of unleavened Bread (a high day) fell on the sabbath, a Saturday (cf John 19:31; Luke 23:54). John 19:31 in particular makes the point that the day was the sabbath day, but was also a high day. If any festival (high day) was considered a "sabbath," then John's statement is a redundancy. Thus, the text reveals the day following Jesus' crucifixion was the sabbath day, or Saturday. Therefore, Friday was the day of His crucifixion.

Some contend Jesus was crucified on Thursday and not on Friday, noting that Jewish holy days were also called sabbaths (cf Leviticus 16:31; 23:24, 32, 39). The contention is that the Passover fell on Thursday followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread (a high day) on Friday. If this is true, then every reference to the sabbath in the crucifixion accounts, (and there are seven of them) must refer to the Feast of Unleavened Bread as a "high day sabbath" and not the regular seventh day of the week sabbath. Additionally, this would necessitate two consecutive sabbath days, for the seventh day was always a sabbath day, and would have followed the high day sabbath.

However, there is absolutely no indication in the text that there were two consecutive sabbath days. In fact, Luke's account of Jesus' death strongly suggests otherwise. In Luke 23:53-54, Joseph of Arimathea secured Jesus' corpse and hurriedly prepared it for burial. Of the day of Joseph's work, the beloved physician writes, "that day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near" NKJV. John 19:42 says they laid it in a nearby new tomb, "because of the Jews' preparation day." Jesus died at 3 p.m. (Luke 23:44-46), and the sabbath would begin at sundown. Therefore time was of the essence to properly prepare and bury Jesus' body.

Also, Mark 16:1 says that the women went to anoint the body of Jesus "after the sabbath was past." Which sabbath is here spoken of? The "high day sabbath" or the seventh day sabbath? Jesus was crucified and buried outside the gates of Jerusalem (Hebrews 13:12; Matt 27:31-32; John 19:41-42). In His final public discourse prior to His death, Jesus spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs preceding it whereby Christians would know to evacuate the city. In Matthew 24:20, Jesus said, "pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the sabbath." Why not on the sabbath? Adam Clarke comments:
"on the Sabbath-days the Jews not only kept within doors, but the gates of all the cities and towns in every place were kept shut and barred . . ." Albert Barnes notes similarly concerning the closing of the gates on the sabbath. If the sabbath following Jesus' death was a high say sabbath, how then would the women have traveled outside the city on the seventh day sabbath? In addition to the gates being closed, they opened themselves to potential trouble at the hands of the Jewish leaders by exceeding a sabbath day's journey (cf Acts 1:12). This, of course, assumes the women resorted to Jerusalem following Jesus' death. (They may have retreated to Bethany, some two miles from Jerusalem, which still does not resolve the problem of the sabbath day's journey, generally considered to be around three-quarters of a mile.)

Some express concern about the need for Jesus to be in the tomb three days and three nights. In Matthew 12:40, Jesus said, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

Of note is the Jewish means of reckoning time. When the Jews counted days, they began counting with the day they were in. For example, if a Jew took an item for repair on Monday, and the repairman said it would be ready in three days, he would expect it on Wednesday. Begin counting on Monday and Wednesday makes three days. An example of this is seen in Esther 4:16 - 5:1 (emphasis mine - TC) . . .

"Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king's house, over against the king's house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house."

You see how Esther commanded a fast for three days, night and day, and said she would do the same. However, it says she went before the king on the third day. Therefore, it did not have reference to three complete 24 hour periods, but rather to the involvement of three different days. (Similar "after three days" accounts may be seen in 1 Kings 12:5, 12 and 2 Chronicles 10:5, 12.). The phrase "three days and three nights" is a Jewish idiom referring to three days.

There are more than a dozen passages in the New Testament, most of them recording the very words of Jesus, that note Jesus would be raised from the dead on the third day (emphasis mine - JTC):

Matthew 16:21 "From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day";

Matthew 17:23 "and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up";

Acts 10:39-40 "And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly";

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."

In Matthew 27:63-64, Jesus' enemies recalled Jesus' "three days" prophecy and pleaded with Pilate to set a watch at the tomb of Jesus "until the third day." They knew what Jesus had said concerning His resurrection, and knew how long to set the watch in an attempt to prevent Jesus' disciples from stealing the body and claiming He was risen from the dead.

It is much easier to reconcile the one idiom of Matthew 12:40 with the many passages which speak of the third day than it is to try to reconcile the many with the one. Any attempt to have Jesus crucified on Thursday and raised "on the third day" cannot be reconciled with Mark 16:9, which says Jesus was raised on the first day of the week: "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils."

Therefore, Jesus was crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday.