What day did Jesus die, Wednesday or Friday?

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uwekezaji

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Do we all agree that Jesus died on the day of Passover , the 14th day of Nissan month of that year? If yes, why do we put crucifixion day on Friday while that day was Wednesday and the next day Thursday was a high Sabbath (one of the seven Jewish annual festivals) that comes a day after Passover as stated in John 19:31.
 
Hi Uwekezaji! We don’t all agree however, Jesus died on Friday and was buried before the next day, which is on Sabbath. To follow the Jewish tradition, Jews shouldn’t have contact with corpses before the sunset to prepare for the Sabbath. We know Sabbath is Saturday. Usually, in ancient times, 6: 00 pm was already the next day. That’s why we celebrate anticipated masses. Some Bible scholars claim that Jesus’ death occurred around 30-33 A.D. I’ve searched for a Jewish Calendar and found out that in the present, 2020, the 14th day of Nissan falls on Wednesday. While last 2016, the 14th day of Nissan falls on Friday. You can search for a Jewish Calendar and Gregorian Calendar to confirm.
 
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I’d never heard the Wednesday theory until the 1980s. Anyhow, here’s the Wednesday theory:

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Regarding Jesus, most Christians observe Good Friday, Low Saturday, and Resurrection Sunday.

• Scripture tells us that Jesus died at 3 p.m. (1500 hours) ( Matt. 27:45-50, Mark 15:33-37; Luke 23:44-46 ).

• The women went to His tomb to anoint Him. They arrived just before sunrise “on the first day of the week” i.e., Sunday ( Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1, John 20:1 ).

• Again, let us name 6 a.m. (0600 hours) as sunrise.

• Since the women arrived just before sunrise, let us propose it was as late as 5:59 a.m. (0559 hours).

• From Friday at 3 p.m. (1500 hours) to Sunday sunrise at 5:59 a.m. (0559 hours) also is 39 hours, less a minute.

In both cases, the Gentle Browser is invited to check our math. Notice that we have sought the maximum number of hours (39 hours). It could have been less. That’s a bit of a problem, because Jesus said He would be dead for more. Jesus said “three days and three nights” ( Matt. 12:40 ). Three days AND three nights is 72 hours, not 39 hours. As a child, your host was told that two “brights” (part of Friday, all of Saturday), plus two “darks” (Fri/Sat overnight, Sat/Sun overnight), plus one “both” (sunrise Sunday) counted as three days and three nights. As a child, your host was told by another teacher that a 24-hour clock running on modern time can be divided into three days and three nights.

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… POST 2 OF 2 (CONCLUSION) …

As an adult, your host became aware of alternate theories. A small but vocal minority argue that Jesus died on Good Wednesday, not Good Friday. Their argument is:

• The Jewish day runs from sunset to sunset, because “the evening and the morning were the nth day” ( Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 ).
• The first month of the Jewish year was called Abib ( Exod. 23:15, 34:18; Deut. 16:1 ).
• Later, that same first month was renamed Nisan ( Esth. 3:7 ).
• The Passover is to be observed on the 14th day of the first month (i.e., Nisan) of the Jewish year ( Exod. 12:18; Lev. 23:5; Num. 9:1-3, 28:16 ).
• The Feast of Unleavened Bread following the Passover is to be observed for seven days ( Exod. 12:15, 18, 34:18; Lev. 23:6; Num. 28:17 ).
• Therefore, The Feast of Unleavened Bread following Passover is to be observed from 15 Nisan through 21 Nisan.
• The lamb is to be slaughtered “in the evening” of the Passover, on 14 Nisan ( Exod. 12:6; Deut. 16:2, 6; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7 ).
• Jesus was and is the Lamb of God ( Exod. 12:5, 46; Numb. 9:12; Psa. 34:20; Isa. 53:7; John 1:29, 13:1, 19:36; Acts 8:32-35; 1 Cor. 5:7; 1 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 5:6, 13:8 ).
• Most Gentile Christians know only of the weekly Sabbath: the day of rest. In Judaism, that day runs from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset ( Gen. 2:2-3, Exod. 20:8-11, 23:12, 34:21; Deut. 5:12-15; Isa. 58:13 ).
• Most Gentile Christians do not know that there can be more than one Sabbath in a week.
• For example, there are three Sabbaths in Passover week. There is the regular weekly Sabbath (the day of rest). Also, the first day (15 Nisan) and the last day (21 Nisan) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are High Sabbath days ( Exod. 12:16; Lev. 23:7-8, Num. 28:18, 25 )
• All four Gospels agree that Jesus was Resurrected on the first day of the week (i.e., Sunday). At that point, the weekly Sabbath day had ended. See Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1, John 20:1 .
• John clarified for a Gentile audience that Jesus died before a High Sabbath ( John 19:31 ).
• This “high” Sabbath and Day of Preparation referred to the onset of Passover. It actually was not customary to refer to an ordinary Friday as a capitalized Day of Preparation for an ordinary Sabbath (the day of rest).
• Therefore, Jesus may have died before one Sabbath and was risen after another Sabbath. (This was the first day—“the evening and the morning were the nth day”—of Passover/the Feast of Unleavened Bread.) Jesus definitely was Resurrected after that weekly Sabbath which is the day of rest.
• This gives us 72+ hours in the grave. It is a better fit for Matt. 12:40 .
• So three days and three nights before Resurrection Sunday … gives us dead at 3 p.m. on Good Wednesday. (Ta-da!)

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(I just happened to have this handy because my critique of the Left Behind series showed that the Antichrist character went He’s Dead, Jim for 39 hours, less a minute.)

You may now resume your regular discussion. 🍿
 
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The_Old_Maid said:
Therefore, Jesus may have died before one Sabbath and was risen after another Sabbath. (This was the first day—“the evening and the morning were the nth day”—of Passover/the Feast of Unleavened Bread.) Jesus definitely was Resurrected after that weekly Sabbath which is the day of rest.
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So He rose on the fourth day instead of the third.
 
The_Old_Maid said:
• Most Gentile Christians do not know that there can be more than one Sabbath in a week.
• For example, there are three Sabbaths in Passover week. There is the regular weekly Sabbath (the day of rest). Also, the first day (15 Nisan) and the last day (21 Nisan) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread are High Sabbath days ( Exod. 12:16; Lev. 23:7-8, Num. 28:18, 25 )
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Your source is mistaken. There are never “three Sabbaths in a week”. There cannot be more than one Sabbath in a week, for the simple reason that “Sabbath” is the Hebrew word for Saturday. Your source is saying that there can be three Saturdays in a week.

If you look at those references in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, you will see that the word Sabbath is not mentioned in any of those passages.
 
The claim of Jesus dying on Wednesday mostly comes from those who interpret the prediction of 3 days in the tomb as being 3 literal 24-hour days. Thus they reject the standard timeline of a Friday crucifixion and burial, and get around the fact that it refers to the Sabbath as being the day afterwards by saying that it was a special weekday Passover Sabbath it referred to, not the normal Saturday one.

However, there is evidence that, by the Jewish reckoning of time, a Friday burial and Sunday resurrection would have counted as 3 days, as explained here, which solves the problem of the three days. It should further be noted that I believe that the earliest writing that gives a specific day of the week for the crucifixion is Justin Martyr’s First Apology, in which he says it occurred the day before that of Saturn… in other words, Friday. (Ignatius says in the epistle to the Trallians that the crucifixion was the day before the Sabbath, but as the claim is that the Sabbath in question wasn’t the normal Saturday one, his isn’t an explicit statement of Friday as is Justin’s)

Furthermore, the Wednesday claim does have what seems to have a major issue that I don’t think I’ve seen its proponents address. And that’s this. If you look at the timeline prior to the crucifixion, it would put the earlier cleansing of the temple on the Sabbath, the exact day you wouldn’t have people buying and selling things in the Temple. This is explained here:
http://asbereansdid.blogspot.com/2013/03/wednesday-crucifixion-not-likely.html

You might say the buying and selling, breaking the Sabbath, was a demonstration of how the Jewish religion had become corrupt, but given that the criticism Jesus aims at them regarding the Sabbath is they are too heavy-handed regarding it (e.g. Matthew 12), that seems implausible.
 
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The_Old_Maid said:
It actually was not customary to refer to an ordinary Friday as a capitalized Day of Preparation for an ordinary Sabbath (the day of rest).
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“Capitalized”? What is that supposed to mean? There are no capital letters in Hebrew or Aramaic. In modern Greek there are capitals and lowercase letters, but in the first century AD, and for several centuries afterward, there was only a single form of each letter, closely resembling the Greek capitals we know now. The Greek lower-case letters were a later invention.
 
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Do you know that there are other seven Sabbaths in the Jewish festivals that are not necessarily on Saturday? Not every Sabbath is Saturday!
 
Not every Sabbath is Saturday my friend! Read the bible well. Check the Jewish festivals.
 
If I understand your argument correctly, you are claiming to have found a certain number of verses in the OT where festivals such as Passover and the New Year are listed as “Sabbaths.” Would you care to give an example? I haven’t found any, though I haven’t looked at every single one of the hundred-plus occurrences of the word “Sabbath.” The closest I’ve found is Leviticus 23:24, where the first day of the seventh month — nowadays celebrated as Rosh ha-Shanah — is to be commemorated as a “shabbaton,” a “day of rest,” and ten other occurrences of the same word. But “shabbaton” is not the same as “shabbat.”

https://biblehub.com/interlinear/leviticus/23-24.htm
 
Of course, uwekezaji. I knew them but the one that we’re stating is the Sabbath of Nisan on which Jesus was buried, not any other Sabbath.
 
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