Was the Crucifixion Really on Friday and the Resurrection on Sunday?
by
William Arnold III
WmArnold@gmail.com
Question:
The day of our assembling together has nothing to do with any law but to say that Sunday is the Lord's day is a lie. Christ did not die on Friday and did not resurrect the first day of the week. Your Easter celebration is based on a big lie of the romish church and you go right along with it.
Response:
Consider the following:
- Jesus died and was taken down from the cross on the "preparation day" (Greek, paraskeue) - Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31. This day could refer to the day before a Sabbath or the day before a holiday.
- However, this particular preparation day is specifically said to be "the day before the Sabbath" – Mark 15:42.
- Occasionally, the Sabbath would not fall on the last day of the week (Saturday).
- However, this particular Sabbath immediately preceded the first day of the week (Sunday) - Matt. 28:1. Therefore it must have been a Saturday and the preparation day must have been Friday.
- Although a new day for us officially begins at midnight, the Jews began a new day at sunset.
- Therefore, after the sun set on Saturday, Sunday began.
- Jesus rose sometime before sunrise on Sunday morning - Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1.
- Jesus said elsewhere that he would rise "on the third day" - Matt. 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Luke 9:22; 18:33; 24:7; 24:46. Sunday was the third day.
- Finally, Jesus is specifically said to have risen "on the first day of the week" (Sunday, emphasis added) - Mark 16:9. (Although the longer ending of Mark is textually suspect, even most scholars who do not consider it canonical do see it as an accurate account of history).
- Jesus was in the tomb for parts of three days according to Jewish reckoning – the end of Friday, all day Saturday and part of Sunday.
See also my article: "How Was Jesus in the Earth for Three Days and Three Nights?" For a detailed discussion about this issue, which evaluates alternatives views, see: Harold Honer, Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977).
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