Crucifixion Day

[Webers_Home]

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● Matt 12:40 . . As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a
huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.

If we reckon Sunday to be the third day; then:

Saturday would've been the second day, and Friday the first.

Saturday night would've been the third night, Friday night the second, and
Thursday night the first.

The so-called last supper would've taken place Wednesday night.

Jesus' interview with Pilate would've taken place Thursday morning and he
would've been executed that afternoon.

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[Webers_Home]

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Jesus and his men ate their Passover dinner the night of his arrest. (Matt
26:17-20, Mark 14:12-17, and Luke 22:7-15)

The Jews ate their Passover after he was dead and buried. (John 13:1-2,
John 18:28-29, John 19:13-14, and John 19:31)

The Jews were somehow unaware that their religious calendar was tardy the
year that Christ was crucified. He, being a prophet in direct contact with
God, would of course have known the precise moment that Passover that
year was supposed to begin; which is no doubt at least one of the reasons
why Christ ate his own Passover before the Jews ate theirs.

Ironically, the Jews were careful to avoid going after Jesus during Passover.

● Matt 26:3-5 . .Then the chief priests and the elders of the people
assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and
they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. But not during the
feast-- they said --or there may be a riot among the people.

Due to their religious calendar's error, the Jews inadvertently crucified Jesus
during the very season they wanted to avoid.

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[Webers_Home]

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I've participated on several Good Friday forums in the last 21 years and it
never fails that somebody comes along to muddy the waters with 24-hour
civil time and/or Nisan dating; thus making it virtually impossible for curious
visitors to make any sense out of the chronology of Christ's crucifixion and
resurrection.

Jesus Christ-- whom John 1:1-3 and John 1:14 testify is God --was a citizen
in the land of Israel 2,000 years ago; so I think that he, as both God and
citizen, would know better than anybody alive today how to count and/or
define days and nights back then.

According to Jesus Christ's understanding-- as both God and citizen --days
were when the sun is up and nights were when the sun is down.

"Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does
not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in
the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." (John 11:9-10)

This world's light is of course the sun as per Gen 1:14-18. So then, "day" is
when the sun is up rather than when the sun is not up; i.e. day is daytime
and night is nighttime; viz: the three days and three nights of Matt 12:40
indicate three times when the sun was up, and three times when the sun
was down; i.e. relative to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection: days begin
with sunrise and nights begin with sundown.

NOTE: Days divided into twelve equal periods of sunlight were regulated by
what's known as temporal hours; which vary in length in accordance with
the time of year. There are times of the year at Jerusalem's latitude when
this world's light consists of less than 12 normal hours of sun, and
sometimes more; but when Jesus was here; the official number of hours was
always twelve regardless.

I don't exactly know why the Jews of that era divided their days into twelve
equal periods of sunlight regardless of the seasons, but I suspect it was just
a convenient way to operate the government and conduct civil affairs;
including the Temple's activities (e.g. the daily morning and evening
sacrifices)

Anyway; I trust God's intelligence; and I believe in His son Jesus Christ. I
don't think either one of them are ever wrong about anything, especially
something as elementary as the properties of day and night.

"God called the light day, and the darkness He called night." (Gen 1:5)

In order to avoid confusion over the meanings of day and night relative to
Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, I highly recommend that we avoid
thinking in terms of 24-hour civil time and/or creation's evening and
morning criteria. I suggest that we fall in line with Christ's definition because
who better than anyone else is qualified to tell us how to understand the
beginning and the ending of days and nights as they were understood during
the years when he himself was living in Israel.

It's not too difficult to appreciate just how serious this is relative to the
outside world. If they can be persuaded to mock Easter week's sequence of
events, then they can be just as easily persuaded that Jesus' resurrection
never happened.

As a result they will miss the opportunity to be exonerated per Rom 4:25. A
record of their sins will remain on the books, hanging over their heads like a
sword of Damocles. Out ahead, at the great white throne event depicted at
Rev 20:11-15, those books will be opened for review and used as an
indictment to justify sentencing them to a mode of death akin to a foundry
worker falling into a kettle of molten iron.

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[Webers_Home]

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● Matt 12:40 . . For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of
a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth.

Any child able to do simple arithmetic on the fingers of one hand can
instantly deduce that Good Friday doesn't fit Matt 12:40 because there just
isn't enough nights between Friday and Sunday-- there's only two; Jesus'
prediction calls for three. The Good Friday model comes up short because it
omits one of the two sabbaths during the week that Jesus was crucified.

There are more sabbaths in the Bible besides the usual seventh day. For
example:

Yom Kippur (Lev 23:32)
Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:23-25)
Feast of Unleavened Bread; a,k.a. Passover. (Ex 12:16, Lev 23:5-8)

Passover sabbath is interesting. The usual sabbath always falls on the very
same day of the week every time. But Passover sabbath floats because the
feast of Unleavened Bread is keyed to the lunar cycle; hence Passover
sabbath can, and it does, occur on any given day of the week; sometimes
even coincident with the usual sabbath; for example 2018, and sometimes
consecutive with the usual sabbath; for example 2008.

● John 19:31 . . Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies
might not remain on the cross on the sabbath-- for the sabbath day of that
week was a solemn one --the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken
and they be taken down.

The solemn sabbath that John mentioned is the Passover sabbath. It was
consecutive with the regular sabbath that year. As a result the Jews had to
observe two sabbaths in a row.

Weaving the Passover sabbath into the chronology of Matt 12:40 in order to
obtain a third night is actually fairly easy once you're made aware of it. But
be forewarned; there are a number of Good Friday's resolute defenders who
refuse to allow the solemn sabbath to be other than the usual sabbath; and
they've concocted some very convincing sophistry to support their view; by
doing so they've chained themselves to a model that cannot, by any sensible
stretch of the imagination, produce a third night.

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[Webers_Home]

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While discussing Good Friday with one of its defenders, my opponent
suggested that the darkness that took place while Jesus was nailed to the
cross was one of the three nights that he predicted at Matt 12:40.

Well; of course that doesn't work because Jesus was alive during those
hours of darkness on the cross. The three nights he predicted at Matt 12:40
were to take place while he was deceased and tucked away in the heart of
the earth.

Now when you think about it; Jesus' corpse was never in the heart of the
earth. It wasn't even in the earth's soil. His corpse was laid to rest on the
surface of the earth in a rock-hewn tomb.

Jesus compared his experience with Jonah's nautical adventure. A careful
examination of the finer points of the second chapter of his prophecy reveals
that although Jonah was alive while in the fish, he wasn't alive the whole
time. No, at some point in his ordeal, Jonah went to a place called sheol,
which he sited at the bottoms of the mountains.

Well; even a school kid with an elementary knowledge of science knows that
the bottoms of the mountains aren't in the tummy of a fish; nor are the
bottoms of the mountains in the sea. No; the bottoms of the mountains are
many, many, miles below both the fish and the sea.

If what I'm saying here is true, then at some point in his adventure; Jonah
was quite dead.

"To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in
forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Yhvh my God." (Jonah
2:6)

The Hebrew word translated "pit" sometimes refers to putrefaction. In other
words "brought up my life" speaks of Jonah's resurrection.

According to Ps 16:8-10 and Acts 2:25-31 Jesus too was spared putrefaction
by means of his resurrection.

According to Matt 10:28, the body and the soul are perishable. However;
though the body is perishable by any means, the soul is perishable only by
divine means; i.e. the deaths of body and soul aren't simultaneous, which
readily indicates that once the body and the soul are separated, it becomes
possible to relocate the soul. In the cases of Jonah and Jesus; their souls
were transferred to the bottoms of the mountains.

Thus it all came to pass just as predicted: "as Jonah . . . so the Son of Man."

Both underwent death, both were buried, both spent some time in the
netherworld, and both their bodies were raised from the dead within the
space of three days and three nights.

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[rstrats]

Webers_Home,
re: "If we reckon Sunday to be the third day; then:...Saturday night would've been the third night..."


Which would make Sunday night the fourth night.

 

[Webers_Home]

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Which would make Sunday night the fourth night.

According to Christ's sayings; the properties of night and day are distinctly
different.

● John 11:9-10 . . Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If
any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of
this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him.

The light of this world is the sun.

● Gen 1:14 . . And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven to divide the day from the night

● Gen 1:16 . . And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the
day, and the lesser light to rule the night

So then; when Christ spoke of three days and three nights per Matt 12:40,
he was speaking of three distinct time frames when the sun was up, and
three distinct time frames when the sun was down; which obviously rules
out Friday for crucifixion day seeing as how it is impossible to produce a
third night between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.

It's not too difficult to appreciate just how serious this is relative to the
outside world. Good Friday's unworkable chronology has earned Christianity
too much mockery and ridicule. Well; if the outside world can be persuaded
to mock Easter week's sequence of events, then they can be just as easily
persuaded that Jesus' resurrection never happened. As a result they will
miss the opportunity to be exonerated per Rom 4:25. A record of their sins
will remain on the books, hanging over their heads like a sword of Damocles.
Out ahead, at the great white throne event depicted at Rev 20:11-15, those
books will be opened for review.

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[rstrats]

Webers_Home,

I guess I misunderstood what you meant in your OP because I'm afraid I don't see where your post #7 addresses my comment to you in post #6.

 

[Webers_Home]

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● Luke 23:50-54 . . And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a
counseller; and he was a good man, and a just: (The same had not
consented to the counsel and deed of them) he was of Arimathaea, a city of
the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.

. . .This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it
down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in
stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the
preparation, and the sabbath drew on.

NOTE: For the benefit of those looking in who may not be familiar with the
ancient Jews' religion: the day of preparation is set aside for the Jews to rid
their homes of leaven; plus slaughter and roast lambs with fire ready to eat
for that night's Passover dinner. (Exodus chapter 12)

The sabbath mentioned in Luke's passage was very special.

● John 19:31 . .The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the
bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that
sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be
broken, and that they might be taken away.

"high" is translated from the koiné Greek word megas (meg'-as) which
essentially means big, i.e. great.

Regular sabbaths are neither high, nor, big, nor great days; they're same-o,
same-o days; i.e. just routine. There's nothing all that special about a
regular sabbath like there is the first day of the feast of unleavened bread
because that sabbath's night is the Passover lamb dinner.

● John 18:28 . .Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of
judgment: and it was early; and they themselves went not into the
judgment hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the
passover.

● John 19:14 . . And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the
sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

There are more sabbaths in the Bible besides the usual seventh day. For
example:

Yom Kippur (Lev 23:32)
Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:23-25)
Feast of Unleavened Bread; a,k.a. Passover. (Ex 12:16, Lev 23:5-8)

Passover sabbath is interesting. The usual sabbath always falls on the very
same day of the week every time. But Passover sabbath floats; hence it can,
and it does, occur on any given day of the week; sometimes even coincident
with the usual sabbath; for example 2018, and sometimes consecutive with
the usual sabbath; for example 2008.

Factoring the Passover sabbath into the chronology of Matt 12:40 in order to
obtain a third night is actually fairly easy once you're aware of it. But be
forewarned; there are a number of Good Friday's resolute defenders who
refuse to allow John's high day to be other than the routine sabbath; and
they've concocted some very convincing sophistry to support their view.

It's sometimes objected that whereas Yom Kippur and the Feast of Trumpets
are specifically called sabbaths; the first day of the feast of unleavened
bread isn't. It's set aside for an holy convocation which just simply means a
sacred assembly. But it's also added that no manner of work shall be done
on that day; which is exactly what a sabbath is all about (Gen 2:2-3). In
reality, the objection is just semantic nit picking.

Anyway; John calls that day a sabbath, which pretty much settles it for me.
But it's a sneaky sabbath that usually escapes people's notice so they end up
counting only one of the sabbaths related to Christ's crucifixion and
resurrection. Without that sneaky sabbath, they're pretty much stuck with
the Good Friday model; which of course is unworkable.

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[Davy]

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● Matt 12:40 . . As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a
huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.

If we reckon Sunday to be the third day; then:

Saturday would've been the second day, and Friday the first.

Saturday night would've been the third night, Friday night the second, and
Thursday night the first.

The so-called last supper would've taken place Wednesday night.

Jesus' interview with Pilate would've taken place Thursday morning and he
would've been executed that afternoon.

/

Doesn't work that way. You must use the Hebrew day/night reckoning, for that is what aligns with the events in Scripture.

The Hebrew day began at sunset (roughly 6 PM). Per John 11:9, Jesus showed there are 12 hours in a day (i.e., daytime with the sun shining, dawn to sunset). There's 12 hours in the night also (6 P.M. to 6 A.M., sunset to dawn).

The Last Supper took place after sunset that began Wednesday, Nisan 14th. That night in the garden of Gethsesame He prayed and was then delivered up to Pilate and tried. Then in the morning He was led to Golgatha and crucified. At the 6th hour of the day (our noon), darkness came upon the land and lasted to the 9th hour (3 P.M.) when He died on the cross. They then rushed to bury His body because at sunset (6 P.M. Wednesday) would began Thursday, Nisan 15th, a "high day", to be observed as a sabbath (but was not the regular weekly sabbath). So the count begins at sunset on Thursday, Nisan 15th, a high day per Lev.23.

1st night = Thursday Nisan 15th, sunset to dawn
1st day = Thursday Nisan 15th, dawn to sunset
2nd night = Friday Nisan 16th, sunset to dawn
2nd day = Friday Nisan 16th, dawn to sunset
3rd night = Saturday Nisan 17th, sunset to dawn
3rd day = Saturday Nisan 17th, dawn to sunset
Sometime after sunset, but before morning, on Sunday Nisan 18th, Jesus rose.

 

[Webers_Home]

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● Luke 23:54-56 . . And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew
on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after,
and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned,
and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to
the commandment.

● Mark 16:1-2 . . And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they
might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of
the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

This is precisely where a good many of Good Friday's defenders drop the
ball. They're unaware, either innocently or by design, that the sabbath
spoken of in Luke 23:54-56 commences the feast of unleavened bread;
beginning that night with the Passover lamb dinner. That particular sabbath
is one of the most sacred holy days in Judaism; I'd say probably even more
sacred than Yom Kippur.

The sabbath in Mark 16:1-2 is the regular weekly sabbath. It's always
followed by the first day of the week; which, in our day and age, is Sunday.

So then; Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Salome,
observed two sabbaths in a row that year: Passover's sabbath followed by
the regular weekly sabbath.

NOTE: There's quite a bit of debate going around related to the time of the
women's arrival at the cemetery.

The Greek word that speaks of the women's journey is somewhat
ambiguous. It can not only mean came, but also went, i.e. it can indicate
travel as well as arrival and/or coming as well as going.

Seeing as how there are no less than seven verses that clearly, conclusively,
and without ambiguity testify that Jesus' dead body revived on the third day
rather than during the third night-- viz: his body revived when the sun was
up rather than when the sun was not yet up, --then it's safe to conclude that
in the women's case "went" is the appropriate translation of the Greek word
erchomai, i.e. the women left their homes during morning twilight; and by
the time they met together and journeyed to the cemetery, the sun was fully
up. (I cannot imagine any woman of good sense walking around a graveyard
in the dark; especially when back in that day nobody as yet had access to
electric lighting of any kind, not even a flashlight.)

NOTE: The original languages of the Bible contain numerous ambiguous
words that translators are not always sure how best to interpret; so
sometimes the onus is upon Bible students to do a little research of their own.
Caveat Lector.

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