The Day of Debt
Friday or Wednesday?
by Chuck Missle
As for the Friday or Wednesday issue, there are many good scholars on each side of this controversy. I personally have become rather cynical toward any tradition that is not supported by Scripture.
Good Friday is the “traditional” view. The Wednesday crucifixion is known as the “reconstructed view.” This article is intended to stimulate study and constructive conversation during this precious season. One attempt to reconcile the chronology of the entire week is shown here:
Our Lord’s definitive statement is one of the problems:
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The mention of nights, as well as the number of days, makes it hard to render this as simply an idiomatic rhetorical device rather than a statement of fact.
Further, when Paul declares the resurrection of Christ to be “according to the Scriptures” in 1 Corinthians 15:4, if this isn’t an allusion to Jonah 1:17, then where else? (Perhaps, in Genesis 22, the three days between the “death” of Isaac — when the commandment came — and his “return” to Abraham may have been the macrocode, or typological allusion, that Paul might have had in mind.[1] )
Intensifying this controversy was the “three days” issue at the trial of Jesus.
Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, [yet] found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This [fellow] said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
What did Jesus really say?
Destroy this temple [of His body], and in three days I will raise it up.
The same phrase reoccurs in the gospels a dozen times.[2] It also seems to frequently reoccur in prophetic patterns.[3]
The Sabbaths
Nowhere in the Gospels does it assert that Christ was crucified on a Friday. In Mark 15:42, it refers to “…the day before the sabbath.” This may be the root of the misunderstanding.
The Jews had other sabbaths in addition to the weekly shabbat (Saturday). In addition to the weekly sabbaths, there were seven “high sabbaths” each year, and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Nisan, was one of them.[4]
Further, Matthew 28:1 should read, “At the end of the sabbaths,”[5] (which is plural in the Greek), implying there was a plurality of sabbaths that week.
If Passover, the 14th of Nisan, fell earlier in the week, the 15th could have been any day prior to Saturday, the weekly sabbath. “When the sabbaths were past” would, of course, be Sunday (actually, Saturday after sundown), in accordance to the Feast of First Fruits. (Some hold to a Thursday crucifixion on a similar basis.)
The 17th of Nisan
Jesus had declared that He would be in the grave three days, and yet was to be resurrected “on the morrow after the sabbath,” on the day of the Feast of First Fruits.[6]
It is interesting that the authorities, anxious to get the body off the cross before sundown, unknowingly were fulfilling God’s predetermined plan, “according to the Scriptures.”[7]
Noah’s flood ended on the 17th day of the 7th month.[8] This month becomes the 1st month at the institution of the Passover.[9] Our new beginning in Christ was on the anniversary of the Earth’s “new beginning” under Noah!
Israel’s new beginning, the crossing of the Red Sea, is believed to have been on the 17th of Nisan. Also, in their flight after Passover, Israel retrieved the body of Joseph from his tomb. After Passover, Jesus was retrieved from another Joseph’s tomb on this date.
The Jericho Journey
Another problem with a Friday crucifixion is John 12:1: “Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany…” (from Jericho). If the Friday view can be accepted, then six days earlier was the weekly shabbat, and on this day such a journey was legally out of the question for a devout Jew.
three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40)
after three days (Mark 8:31, 9:31)
the third day (Luke 24:46)
On the later Sabbath (Matthew 28:1a)
the first of the Sabbaths (Matthew 28:1b, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John 20:1, 19)
third day since (Luke 24:21)
high day Sabbath (John 19:31)
spices bought after the annual Sabbath (Mark 16:1)
Women rested on the annual Sabbath (Luke 23:56; Leviticus 23:7, 11)
It was still dark at the tomb (John 20:1)
The resurrection was when deep dawn appeared in the east (Hosea 6:3)
https://www.torahtimes.org/SabbathResurrection/The%20Sabbath%20Resurrection.htm
Objections:
Jesus said in Matthew 12:40,
“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.”
Friday crucifixion
Those who argue for a Friday crucifixion say that there is still a valid way in which He could have been considered in the grave for three days. In the Jewish mind of the First Century, a part of day was considered as a full day. Since Jesus was in the grave for part of Friday, all of Saturday, and part of Sunday—He could be considered to have been in the grave for three days. One of the principal arguments for Friday is found in Mark 15:42 that notes that Jesus was crucified “the day before the Sabbath.” If that was the weekly Sabbath, i.e. Saturday, then that fact leads to a Friday crucifixion. Another argument for Friday says that verses such as Matthew 16:21 and Luke 9:22 teach that Jesus would rise on the third day; therefore, He wouldn’t need to be in the grave a full three days and nights. But while some translations use “on the third day” for these verses, not all do and not everyone agrees that that is the best way to translate these verses. Furthermore, Mark 8:31 says that Jesus will be raised “after” three days.
Thursday argument
The Thursday argument expands on the Friday view and argues mainly that there are too many events (some count as many as twenty) happening between Christ’s burial and Sunday morning to occur from Friday evening to Sunday morning. They point out that this is especially a problem when the only full day between Friday and Sunday was Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. An extra day or two eliminates that problem. The Thursday advocates could reason:
Suppose you haven’t seen a friend since Monday evening. The next time you see him it is Thursday morning and you say, “I haven’t seen you in three days” even though it had technically only been 60 hours (2.5 days).
If Jesus was crucified on Thursday, this example shows how it could be considered three days.
Wednesday argument
The Wednesday opinion states that there were two Sabbaths that week. After the first one (the one that occurred on the evening of the crucifixion, Mark 15:42; Luke 23:52-54), the women purchased spices–note that they made their purchase after the Sabbath (Mark 16:1). The Wednesday view holds that this “Sabbath” was the Passover (see Lev 16:29-31; 23:24-32, 39 where high holy days that are not necessarily the seventh day of the week are referred to as the Sabbath). The second Sabbath that week was the normal weekly Saturday. Note that in Luke 23:56, the women who had purchased spices after the first Sabbath, returned and prepared the spices then “rested on the Sabbath” (Luke 23:56). The argument states that they could not purchase the spices after the Sabbath, yet prepare those spices before the Sabbath—unless there were two Sabbaths. With the two-Sabbath view, if Christ was crucified on Thursday, then the high holy Sabbath (the Passover) would have begun Thursday at sundown and ended at Friday sundown—at the beginning of the weekly Sabbath or Saturday. Purchasing the spices after the first Sabbath (Passover) would have meant they purchased them on Saturday and were breaking the Sabbath.
Therefore, this view states, the only explanation that does not violate the biblical account of the women and the spices and holds to a literal understanding of Matthew 12:40, is that Christ was crucified on Wednesday. The Sabbath that was a high holy day (Passover) occurred on Thursday, the women purchased spices (after that) on Friday and returned and prepared the spices on the same day, they rested on Saturday which was the weekly Sabbath, then brought the spices to the tomb early Sunday. He was buried near sundown on Wednesday, which began Thursday in the Jewish calendar. Using a Jewish calendar, you have Thursday night (night one), Thursday day (day one), Friday night (night two), Friday day (day two), Saturday night (night three), Saturday day (day three). We don’t know exactly when He rose, but we do know that it was before sunrise on Sunday (John 20:1, Mary Magdalene came “while it was still dark” and the stone was rolled away and she found Peter and told him that “they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb”), so He could have risen as early as just after sunset Saturday evening, which began the first day of the week to the Jews.
On what day was Jesus crucified?
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