Try as you might, it is impossible to fit three days and three nights between a late Friday burial and a Sunday morning resurrection. The Good Friday -Easter Sunday tradition simply isn’t true or biblical.
About one billion Protestants and another billion Catholics believe that Jesus the Messiah 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.
Note: 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 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” (Matthew 12:40).
The context in which Jesus the Messiah 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 to them:
‘An evil and adulterous generation seek after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah’” (verse 39).
This was the only sign Jesus gave that he was the promised Messiah:
“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” (emphasis added throughout).
Traditional timing
doesn’t add up
The Gospels are clear that Jesus died and his body was hurriedly
placed in the tomb late in the afternoon, just before sundown when a Sabbath
began (John
The traditional “Good Friday-Easter Sunday” timing is from
Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is one night and one day. Saturday night to
Sunday daybreak is another night, giving us two nights and one day.
So where do we get another night and two days to equal the three
days and three nights Jesus said He would be in the tomb?
This is definitely a problem
Most theologians and religious
scholars try to work around it by arguing that any part of a day or night
counts as a day or night. Thus, they say, the final few minutes of that Friday
afternoon were the first day, all day Saturday was the second day, and the
first few minutes of Sunday morning were the third day.
The trouble is, it doesn’t work. This only adds up to three days
and two nights, not
three days and three nights.
Note: John 20:1 tells us that “on the first day of the week
Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while
it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away
from the tomb.”
Did you catch the problem here? John tells us it was still dark when Mary went to
the tomb on the first day of the week t[hat for Jews began at sundown], and found it empty. Jesus was already resurrected well before daybreak, in fact just before the weekly Sabbath sundown. Thus
he wasn’t in the tomb any of
the daylight portions of Sunday, so daytime Sunday cannot be counted as a day.
That leaves us with, at most, part of a day on Friday, all of
Friday night, a whole daylight portion on Saturday, and Saturday night.
That totals one full day and part of another, and one full night and most of
another; still a full day and a full night short of the time Jesus said He would be in the
tomb.
Clearly, something doesn’t add up
Either Jesus misspoke about the length of time He would be in
the tomb, or the “Good Friday–Easter Sunday” timing is wrong according to the
scriptures.
Obviously, both cannot be true. So which one is right?
The key to understanding the timing of Jesus' crucifixion and
resurrection lies in understanding God’s timetable for counting when days begin
and end, as well as the timing of His biblical festivals during the spring of
the year when these events took place.
We first need to realize that God doesn’t begin and end days at
In Leviticus 23, where God lists all of His holy Sabbaths and
festivals, He makes it clear that they are to be observed “from evening to
evening” (Leviticus 23:32); in other words, from sunset to sunset, when the sun
went down and the evening began.
This is why Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, followers of
Jesus, hurriedly placed his body in Joseph’s nearby tomb just before sundown
(John
Two kinds of Sabbaths cause confusion
As John tells us in John 19:31: “Therefore, because it was
the Preparation Day, that the bodies [of those crucified] 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 [to hasten death], and that they might
be taken away.”
In the Jewish culture of that time, the chores of cooking and
housecleaning were done on the day before a Sabbath to avoid working on God’s
designated day of rest. Thus the day before the Sabbath was commonly called
“the preparation day.” Clearly, the day on which the Messiah Jesus was crucified
and his body placed in the tomb was the day immediately preceding a
Sabbath.
The question is, which Sabbath,
weekly or annual?
Most people assume John is speaking of the regular weekly
Sabbath day, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. From John’s clear
statement here, most people assume Jesus died and was buried on a Friday; thus
the traditional belief is that Jesus was crucified and died on “Good Friday.”
Most people have no idea that the Bible talks about two kinds of Sabbath days; the normal weekly Sabbath day that falls on the seventh day of the week, and seven annual Sabbaths days, listed in Leviticus 23 and mentioned in various passages throughout the Bible, that could fall on any day of the week.
Because traditional Christianity does not keep the annual or
weekly Sabbaths they have failed to recognize what the Gospels plainly tell us
about when Jesus the Messiah was crucified and resurrected.
Most people fail to note that John explicitly tells us that the
Sabbath that began at sundown immediately before Jesus was buried in the tomb was one of
those annual Sabbath days. Notice in John
So what was this “high day” that immediately followed Jesus
Christ’s hurried entombment?
The Gospels tell us that on the evening before Jesus was
crucified, he kept the Passover with his disciples (Matthew 26:19-20; Mark
14:16-17; Luke 22:13-15).
Leviticus 23, which lists God’s festivals, tells us that on the
day after the 14th of Nisan, a separate festival, the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
begins (Leviticus 23:5-6). The first day of this Feast is “a holy convocation”
on the 15th of Nisan on which “no customary work” is to be done (Leviticus 23:7).
This day is the first of God’s annual Sabbaths. This is the
“high day” of which John wrote. Several Bible commentaries, encyclopedias, and
dictionaries note that John is referring to an annual Sabbath here rather than
the regular weekly Sabbath day.
Passover [the 14th day of Nisan] begins at sundown and ends the following day at sundown when this annual Sabbath began. Jesus kept the Passover with His disciples, then was arrested later that night. After daybreak the next day He was questioned before Pontius Pilate, crucified on the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, then hurriedly entombed just before the sunset when the “high day [the 15th of Nisan],” the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, began.
Leviticus 23 tells us the order and timing of these days, and
the Gospels confirm the order of events as they unfolded.
Jesus
was crucified on Wednesday afternoon [the 14th of Nisan in 31 A.D.].
Several computer software programs exist that enable us to calculate when the Passover and God’s other festivals fall in any given year. Those programs show that in A.D. 31, the year of these events, the Passover meal was eaten on our Tuesday night and Wednesday sundown marked the beginning of the high day – the 15th of Nisan,” the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Jesus,
then, was crucified on Wednesday morning around 9 A.M. and died around
Try as
you might, it is impossible to fit three days and three nights between a late
Friday burial and a Sunday morning resurrection. The Good Friday -Easter Sunday
tradition simply cannot be proved from the scriptures.
Can we
find further proof of this in the Gospels? Yes, indeed we can!
Let’s
turn to a seldom-noticed detail in Mark 16:1: “Now when the Sabbath was
past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that
they might come and anoint Him.”
In that
time, if the body of a loved one was placed in a tomb rather than being buried
directly in the ground, friends and family would commonly place aromatic spices
in the tomb alongside the body to reduce the smell as the remains decayed.
Since
Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb just before that high-day Sabbath began, the
women had no time to buy those spices before the Sabbath. Also, they could not
have purchased them on the Sabbath day, as shops were closed. Thus, Mark says,
they bought the spices after
the “high day Sabbath” had passed.
But
notice another revealing detail in Luke 23:55-56: “And the women who had
come with the Messiah from
Do you see a problem here?
Mark clearly states that the women bought the spices after the Sabbath
[the 15th of Nisan] - “when the Sabbath was past.” Luke tells us
that the women prepared the spices and fragrant oils, after which “they rested on the Sabbath
according to the commandment.”
So they
bought the spices after the
Sabbath, and then they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath. This
is a clear contradiction between these two Gospel accounts - unless two Sabbaths were
involved!
Indeed
when we understand that two different Sabbaths are mentioned, the problem goes
away
Mark
tells us that after the “high day” Sabbath, which began Wednesday evening at
sundown and ended Thursday evening at sundown, the women bought the spices to
anoint Jesus’ body. Luke then tells us that the women prepared the spices; activity
which would have taken place on Friday; and that afterward “they rested on the Sabbath [the
normal weekly Sabbath day, observed Friday sunset to Saturday sunset] according to the commandment.”
By
comparing details in both accounts, we can clearly see that two different
Sabbaths are mentioned along with a workday in between.
The first
Sabbath was a “high day”; the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which
fell on a Thursday. The second was the weekly seventh-day Sabbath.
The
original Greek in which the Gospels were written also plainly tells us that two
Sabbath days were involved in these accounts.
In Matthew
28:1, where Matthew writes that the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath,”
the word Sabbath here
is actually plural and
should be translated “Sabbaths.” Bible
versions such as Alfred Marshall’s Interlinear Greek-English New Testament,
Green’s Literal Translation Young’s Literal Translation, and Ferrar Fenton’s
Translation make this clear.
When
was Jesus resurrected?
We have
seen, then, that Jesus the Messiah was crucified and entombed on a Wednesday,
just before an annual Sabbath
[15th of Nisan] began; not the weekly Sabbath.
So
when was He resurrected?
John
20:1, as noted earlier, tells us that “on the first day of the week Mary
Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the
stone had been taken away from the tomb.” The sun had not yet risen; “it was dark,” John
tells us when Mary found the tomb empty.
John 20:1 ¶ The first day of the week came Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and sees the stone taken away from the sepulcher. Then she runs, and comes to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and says unto them, They have taken away the lord out of the sepulcher, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter, therefore, went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulcher. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then comes Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulcher, and sees the linen clothes lie, and the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
But Mary stood [didn't go but stayed after Peter and John had gone] next to the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher, and sees two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself around and saw Jesus standing, and didn't know that it was Jesus [because it was dark]. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? who are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said unto him, Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned herself, and said unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus said unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
Obviously, then, Jesus was not resurrected at sunrise on Sunday morning. Actually, he had risen just before sundown on Saturday.
So when
did this take place? The answer is plain if we simply read the Gospels, and Jesus the Messiah’s own words, and accept them for what they say.
“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,” said Jesus
(Matthew 12:40).
As we
have proven, Jesus was entombed; placed “in the heart of the earth” just before
sundown on a Wednesday [the 14th of Nisan]. All we have to do is
count forward. One day and one night bring us to Thursday at sundown. Another
day and night bring us to Friday at sundown. A third day and night bring us
to Saturday toward sundown.
According
to Jesus Christ’s own words, He would have been resurrected three days and
nights after He was entombed, at around the same time; close to sunset.
Does
this fit with the Scriptures?
Yes, as
we have seen, he had already risen and the tomb was empty when Mary arrived “while
it was still dark” [probably an hour or two after Saturday sundown] on what the
Jews refer to as the first day of the week, which begins at sundown or what we call Saturday night.
While no
one was around to witness His resurrection (which took place inside a sealed
tomb watched over by armed guards), Jesus the Messiah’s own words and the
details recorded in the Gospels show that it had to have happened three days
and three nights after His burial, near sunset toward the end of the weekly
Sabbath.
Try as
you might, it is impossible to fit three days and three nights between a late
Friday burial and a Sunday morning resurrection. The Good Friday - Easter Sunday
tradition simply cannot be proved from the scriptural record.
However, when we look at all the details recorded
in the Gospels and compare them with Jesus’ own words, we can understand the
truth; and it matches perfectly.
The words
of the angel of God, who so startled the women at the empty tomb are proven
true: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was
crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said” (Matthew 28:5-6, New
International Version).
Let’s not cling to the traditions of men and ideas that aren’t supported by the word of God.
Addition and Subtraction: Passover dates 26 A.D to 34 A.D.
| 26 A.D. | Fri. Mar. 22, 0* | Sat. Apr. 6, 7 a.m. | Sun. Apr. 7 | Mon. Apr. 8 | Sun. Apr. 21 |
| 27 A.D. | Sun. Mar. 23, 6 a.m. | Wed. Mar. 26, 7 p.m.** | Fri. Mar. 28 | Sat. Mar. 29 | Fri. Apr. 11 |
| 28 A.D. | Mon. Mar. 22, noon | Tues. Apr. 13, 2 p.m. | Wed. Apr. 14 | Thurs. Apr.15 | Wed. Apr. 28 |
| 29 A.D. | Tues. Mar. 22, 6 p.m. | Sat. Apr. 2, 7 p.m.** | Mon. Apr. 4 | Tues. Apr. 5 | Mon. Apr. 18 |
| 30 A.D. | Wed. Mar. 22, 0* | Wed. Mar. 22, 8 p.m.*** | Fri. Mar. 24 | Sat. Mar. 25 | Fri. Apr. 7 |
| 31 A.D. | Fri. Mar. 23, 5 a.m. | Tues. Apr. 10, 2 p.m. | Wed. Apr. 11 | Thurs. Apr.12 | Wed. Apr. 25 |
| 32 A.D. | Sat. Mar. 22, 11 a.m. | Sat. Mar. 29, 10 p.m.** | Mon. Mar. 31 | Tues. Apr. 1 | Mon. Apr. 14 |
| 33 A.D. | Sun. Mar. 22, 5 p.m. | Fri. Apr. 17, 9 p.m.** | Sun. Apr. 19 | Mon. Apr. 20 | Sun. May 3 |
| 34 A.D. | Mon. Mar. 22,11 p.m. | Wed. Apr. 7, 2 p.m. | Thurs. Apr. 8 | Fri. Apr. 9 | Thurs. Apr. 22 |
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