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Day of the Week
Five arguments prove that Jesus died on a Friday.
Good Friday observance dates from antiquity. There is no evidence that Christians ever placed Jesus' death on another day. If Jesus did not die on Friday, how likely is it that the church could have forgotten the real day, allowing church leaders to substitute another and gain universal acceptance for it?
A central theme of the New Testament is that Jesus rose on the third day. Jesus' own prediction that He would rise on the third day is noted eight times in the Gospels (Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Mark 9:31; 10:34; Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7). Fearful of what this prediction might provoke, the authorities resolved to set a guard at His tomb until the third day (Matt. 27:64). That He in fact rose on the third day is asserted once in the Gospels (Luke 24:46), once in Acts (Acts 10:40), and once in the Epistles (1 Cor. 15:4).
The Jews used inclusive reckoning. When measuring the number of days between two events, they counted the day at the beginning of the interval as the first day. For example, in fulfillment of the law mandating circumcision of a male child when he is eight days old (Gen. 17:12), the Jews have always performed the rite one week after the day of birth. The day a week later is the eighth if the day of birth is the first (1).
Biblical references to the third day also assume inclusive reckoning. If the interval starts when someone is speaking, today is considered the first day, tomorrow the second, and the day after tomorrow, the third.
10 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,
11 And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.
Exodus 19:10-11
And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.
Luke 13:32 (1)
In both cases, we would have said "two days from now," or "after two days," counting tomorrow as the first. But the Bible says "the third day." It counts today as the first because today frames the beginning of the interval. Other texts exhibiting the same way of reckoning the third day include Leviticus 7:15-17, Leviticus 19:6, and Acts 27:14-19.
The Gospel writers affirm that Jesus rose on a Sunday, the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Mark says,
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.
Mark 16:9
Because it was the day of the Resurrection, Sunday became known as the Lord's day (Rev. 1:10). Among the Jews, the first day of the week extended from Saturday evening to Sunday evening. Therefore, in its proclamation that Jesus rose on the third day, the early church was placing the beginning of the interval on the day extending from Thursday evening to Friday evening. Saturday-Sunday was the third day if the first was Thursday-Friday. Thursday-Friday was therefore the day of His burial, the event defining the beginning of the interval.
For two reasons it is indisputable that the day of His burial was the same as the day of His death.
The synoptic Gospels make it plain that Jesus died in the afternoon (Matt. 27:46-50; Mark 15:34-37; Luke 23:44-46). Hence, the foregoing evidence that He died and was buried between the evenings of Thursday and Friday leads inexorably to the conclusion that Friday was the day of His death.
Luke says clearly that the next day after Jesus' death and burial was a Sabbath; that is, a Saturday. It follows that Jesus died on a Friday. Luke's chronology for the period of the entombment is the most explicit.
53 And he [Joseph of Arimathaea] took it [Jesus' body] down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.
54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
Luke 23:53-24:1
Some have argued that the Sabbath mentioned in this narrative (v. 54) is not Saturday, but the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was also a day of rest (Lev. 23:6-7). The following considerations furnish sufficient rebuttal:
Luke is not alone in stating that the Sabbath came one day after Jesus' death. The same assertion appears in the Gospels of Mark and John (Mark 15:42; John 19:31).
All four Gospels concur that Jesus was buried on the "day of preparation" (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14, 31, 42). This expression refers to Friday, the day of preparation for the Sabbath (3). Ancient literature supplies no evidence that this expression ever referred to any day but Friday. Thus, Friday was the day of Jesus' death.
Luke's account brings to our attention that after the women prepared materials for treating the body, they rested on the Sabbath. He is obviously explaining why they did not attend to the body immediately. If He died on Thursday, the explanation is insufficient. If He died on Wednesday, the explanation is not only insufficient, but the women's behavior was bizarre. Despite earlier opportunities, they did not come to work on the body until it had begun to decay and stink.
Objections. Many people believe that Jesus died on a Wednesday or Thursday, not Friday. The case for a longer burial rests primarily on two arguments.
For as Jonas 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.
Matthew 12:40
To underscore the parallel between Jonah's experience and His own, Jesus fitted both to the measure given in Jonah 1:17: three days and three nights. Yet how was this prediction concerning His own experience fulfilled if He was buried on Friday night, only thirty-six hours or so before His resurrection on Sunday morning?
There are two possible explanations. Many commentators have argued that Jewish idiom allowed any part of a day to be considered a whole day-and-night period. But this is doubtful (4).
Another possible explanation assumes that Jesus was giving the duration not of His entombment, but of His death. Scripture teaches that when Jesus died, His soul descended to Sheol, or Hades (Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:27, 31; 1 Pet. 3:18-20), and that His descent to Hades took Him to "the lower parts of the earth" (Eph. 4:9). Therefore, when Jesus spoke of His stay in "the heart of the earth," He was referring to His soul's stay in Hades. To refer to His actual burial placea small excavation at the earth's surfaceas the heart of the earth would have been poetic extravagance indeed.
If the three days and nights started when Jesus died, the sum "three days" creates no difficulty. He was dead during part of the day on Friday and all of the day on Saturday. Christian tradition has always imagined that He did not rise until the first light of Sunday. The three nights are more problematical, however. Yet Jesus' death indeed continued for three nights if the first night by His reckoning was the supernatural darkness that enveloped the world during His final hours on the cross and perhaps for a brief time after He died (Luke 23:44-45) (5).
The limitations on our knowledge keep us from dogmatically asserting which interpretation of the perplexing utterance in Matthew 12:40 is correct. Yet we can assert with confidence that to use this utterance as the main argument against a Friday crucifixion is bad hermeneutics. The doubtful interpretation of a difficult text does not overturn the plain meaning of many simple texts. Much good evidence demands the conclusion that Jesus died on a Friday.
Month and Calendar Day
The Gospel of John places Jesus' trial in the early hours of the morning before the Passover meal.
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 18:28
The Passover meal was eaten in the evening at the outset of Nisan the fifteenth. Since Jesus died about 3 p.m. on the day of His trial, John's disclosure that the trial fell on the fourteenth of Nisan implies the same date for the Crucifixion. During the afternoon of the fourteenth, many thousands of lambs were slaughtered in the Temple, one for each family or company of people that would eat the Passover meal together in the evening. It is therefore likely that Jesus died just as all the lambs were being killed.
Yet the synoptic Gospels state clearly that the Last Supper was held on the first day of Unleavened Bread. The Gospel of Mark, for example, testifies,
And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?
Mark 14:12
The law of Moses prescribed that the Feast of Unleavened Bread should be celebrated for seven days, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of Nisan (Lev. 23:6). Therefore, as far as the law was concerned, the fifteenth was the first day of the feast. If the Last Supper, in the evening at the start of a new day, was on the fifteenth, Jesus' death in the following afternoon was on the fifteenth also. A cursory examination of the Synoptics might therefore suggest to the reader that Nisan the fifteenth, not the fourteenth, was the date of the Crucifixion.
The explanation for the apparent contradiction between John and the Synoptics is very simple. In Jesus' time, the Jews regarded the fourteenth of Nisan as the first day of Unleavened Bread. The meaning of Mark 14:12 and of the corresponding passages in Matthew and Luke is that the Last Supper was prepared and eaten in the evening at the beginning of the fourteenth. Thus, by implication, the Synoptics place the Crucifixion on Nisan the fourteenth, not the fifteenth.
Several ancient sources agree that the Jews regarded the fourteenth as the first day of the feast.
The Synoptics explicitly identify the Last Supper as a Passover meal (Matt. 26:17-19; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:8-15), but its character does not constrain us to place it on the evening of the fifteenth. The Lord of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8) is also Lord of the Passover. Thus, if Jesus so desired, He could change the day of the Passover meal so that He might share it once more with His beloved disciples. There are hints that the meal was scheduled earlier than usual. When He sent His disciples away to make preparations, He gave them a message for the owner of the upper room:
My time is at hand: I will keep the passover at thy house with my disciples.
Matthew 26:18
The apparent disconnectedness of the two thoughts is dispelled if Jesus meant that His death would prevent Him from keeping the feast on the customary day. He said later to His disciples,
With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until the kingdom of God shall come.
Luke 22:15
No explanation for eating the Passover with His disciples was necessary if the meal were to be celebrated at the usual time and in the usual manner. Something out of the ordinary is clearly indicated.
Passover
Jesus died on the day of Passover sacrifices, probably during the hours when the sacrificial lambs were being killed in the Temple. These lambs and all the lambs previously slain in the yearly Passover ritual were a picture of the Messiah to come.
The Passover ritual originated about 1500 years earlier, at the time of Israel's exodus from Egypt (Ex. 12:1-30). The last plague which God sent upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh that he should release Israel from bondage was the death of all the firstborn. God promised each family in Israel that they could escape this plague merely by sprinkling the blood of a lamb on the door posts and lintel of their house. Just as the lambs of the first Passover bled and died so that those who believed God might escape death, so the coming Messiah would shed His blood and die so that all who believed in Him might escape death. The Messiah's role as a dying lamb is foretold most clearly by the prophet Isaiah.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:6-7
By calling Jesus the Lamb of God, John the Baptist revealed that His death would be the redemptive act prefigured by the Passover ritual (John 1:29). It was therefore not by chance that the Crucifixion fell on Passover Eve. God ordained the coincidence to underscore that Jesus was the promised Redeemer.
Year
Two British physicists, Colin J. Humphreys and W. G. Waddington, have shown from astronomical calculations that in only two of the years framed by A.D. 29 and A.D. 36 could the fourteenth of Nisan have fallen on a Friday: in A.D. 30 and 33 (10). Roger Beckwith has discovered another possibility. The fourteenth of Nisan fell on a Friday in A.D. 36 also if the Jews decided against adding a thirteenth month to the previous year, although the twelfth fell short of the spring equinox (11).
The year 30 is much too early for the Crucifixion.
1. Luke says that John the Baptist began to preach in Tiberius's fifteenth year (Luke 3:1-3). By official Roman reckoning, Tiberius's fifteenth year ran from January 1, A.D. 29, to January 1, A.D. 30 (12). Therefore, the first Passover in Jesus' ministry (the one recorded in John 2:13-25) could not have preceded the Passover of 29. Placing it in 29 crowds the beginning of John's ministry, however. If the first was actually in 30, this cannot be the year of the Crucifixion. We reach the same conclusion even if the first Passover was in 29, since the remainder of Jesus' ministry extended beyond another year.
2. In 26, when Pilate was given his post in Judaea (13), the emperor Tiberius relied heavily upon a certain Sejanus to manage the everyday affairs of government (14). It is therefore likely that Pilate was the choice of Sejanus. According to the Jewish writer Philo, this Sejanus was strongly anti-Jewish (15), so it is not surprising that his appointee Pilate was, during his earlier years in office, severely repressive of the Jews. On several occasions, Pilate deliberately offended Jewish religious scruples, and at least once he then severely punished those who protested (16).
But in the Gospels we see a different Pilate. Instead of standing firm in his desire to release Jesus, he meekly bows to pressure from the Jewish leaders to crucify Him. What accounts for his inconsistent behavior? The best explanation notices the political climate in Rome. In late 31, Sejanus was discovered plotting against the emperor and put to death (17). Afterward, any official associated with Sejanus was under suspicion and in danger of losing his job. Pilate was in particular danger because he had so frequently stirred up unrest among the people he was supposed to be governing, and because, after Sejanus's death, the emperor adopted a new policy toward the Jews, a policy of conciliation rather than repression (18). In fact, Pilate survived in office only until 36 (19). If the Crucifixion fell in 30, Pilate's behavior at the trial of Jesus is out of character. If it fell in 33, his behavior makes sense as a reflection of his precarious situation.
The year 36 is much too late for the Crucifixion.
1. A thorough analysis of chronological data in the Gospels finds that Jesus' ministry ended at the fourth Passover (20). If the first was in 30, the Passover of Jesus' death was no later than 33. Jesus' Parable of the Unfruitful Fig Tree lends strong support to this conclusion (Luke 13:6-9). It views the duration of His ministry as four years, with three already past when He spoke the parable and a fourth remaining. The occasion was when Jesus was visiting the Jerusalem area (Luke 10:38-42), evidently at the time of a feast (Luke 12:1), likely at Passover (Luke 13:1). The latest year for the Crucifixion that can be reconciled with this parable is, again, 33. The Passover of 33 was the end of the fourth year if, with the Jewish habit of inclusive reckoning, Jesus treated the partial year before the Passover of 30 as the first.
2. At least one date in the chronology of Paul's ministry is fairly certain. It is known that Gallio arrived in Corinth and took up his office as proconsul of Achaia in 51 (Acts 18:12) (21). Working backward from this date, we deduce that Paul arrived in the same city in 49 (Acts 18:1-11), and that in 49 or 48 he defended his ministry before the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-30) (22). The many agreements between the record of this council and Paul's reminiscences of a meeting with church leaders (Galatians 2:1-10) leave little doubt that they describe the same event. Paul sets this event fourteen years after his conversion (Galatians 2:1). Thus, his conversion was in 34, 35, or (by inclusive reckoning of the interval) 36, much too early to permit 36 as the date of the Crucifixion.
Date of the Transfiguration Verified
Humphreys and Waddington have shown that the fourteenth of Nisan in AD 33 fell on April 3 (23). The correct date of the CrucifixionApril 3, AD 33generates three arguments establishing that the Transfiguration indeed fell on December 14/15, AD 31. The first argument shows that the proposed date of the Transfiguration is approximately correct. The last two show that it is exactly correct.