WalkInHisFootsteps said:
Yep. It's the truth. There were two sabbaths that week, the first day of unleavened bread and the regular sabbath on saturday. But you can only find this out by looking at all the gospels in parallel, so a lot of people miss it and think that Christ was crucified on a friday.
i agree i looked at the issue awhile back, here are my notes perhaps they will be of some little help to you.
Events surrounding Easter Week
The more i study the more confused i often get.
I didn't expect this kind of result when i was a kid.
I thought that wisdom and certainity came with age and study, not an understanding that opinions vary and things are not as settled as we pretend they are.
For example, what are the details of Easter Week?
1-what day of the week did Jesus die?
2-what day of the week did Jesus arise?
3-how many days was Jesus dead?
reference #1 is:
http://misslink.org/chapel/askaminister/god/sunday.html
This is the example of what i will call the naive normal view of the events. Jesus died Friday afternoon and rose Sunday morning, parts of Friday, and Sunday count as full days so Jesus was in the tomb for 3 days.
Always remember to accept the CLEAR teachings of Scripture without question -- in this case the Friday crucifixion and the Sunday resurrection. Then, seek to reconcile any other (seeming) contradictions to the clear teachings of Scripture. The Holy Ghost will always open your eyes to the Word if you are sincerely seeking the truth. If you are not sincerely seeking truth, then the Lord will perhaps allow you to retain your earthly "wisdom" and skepticism, all of which He says are "foolishness."
What is obvious from the discussion, is that sincere Christians do NOT agree, wisdom is not a single voice. He is seemingly aware of controversy only about the day Jesus arose, not the controversy over the day of death. It is not clear that 1-the day of preparation for for the normal weekly Saturday Sabbath or that 2-parts of days count as whole days.
reference #2 is:
http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/chronology.htm
This is a more sophisticated view, he is aware of all three controversies:
Some object on the basis of Matthew 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." They argue that this requires three 24-hour days. Some argue that since he was raised on a Sunday, he must have been crucified on a Thursday.
However, the NT repeatedly refers to Jesus' resurrection as occurring on the third day, not the fourth day (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; Luke 9:22; 18:33; Acts 10:40; 1 Corinthians 15:4). And the Jews reckoned a part of day as a whole day. So there is no problem with the death of Jesus on Friday, being in the tomb on Saturday, and being raised on Sunday constituting three days in Jewish reckoning.
the most sophisticated is that one that has a political point to prove that is at odds with the rest.
from #3=
http://ad2004.com/prophecytruths/Articles/Prophecy/3days3nights.html a died on wednesday arose on the Sabbath site.
"The lamb was killed between 3 and 6 PM on the afternoon of the 14th of Abib/Nisan and prepared, because the 15th was the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was an annual Sabbath observance (the first and last days of Unleavened Bread were annual Sabbaths in addition to the normal weekly Sabbaths)."
the proof is:
"In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work." Leviticus 23:5-8
how to tell days:
from #2
There have been several attempts to harmonize the accounts. One theory is that two calendars are being used at the same time during the period. The Synoptic Gospels use the method of the Galileans and the Pharisees to reckon the day from sunrise to sunrise, while John's gospels uses the Judean method of reckoning the day from sunset to sunset. However, I'm inclined to adopt the Synoptic chronology. We won't know for sure in this life.
Jesus shall remain in the grave for 3 days:
do parts of days count as a whole day?
In Old Testament the expression one day and one night was an idiom used often by the Jews for a day, even when it was applied to only a part of a day. The Jewish reference to this period as three days and three nights is strictly in accordance with the Jewish mode of reckoning. Evening and morning, or night and day, is the Hebrew phrase for a natural day. It was a maxim among the Jews in computing time, that a part of a day was to be received or computed as the whole.from #2
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matthew 12:38-40
But later on two came forward, and said, "This man stated, I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days." Matthew 26:61
Now on the next day, which is the one after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, "Sir, we remember that when he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I am to rise again.' Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest the disciples come and steal Him away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last deception be worse than the first." Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go, make it secure as you know how." And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. Matthew 27:62-66
#3
the day of preparation and the high Sabbath day
John 19:31-33: Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
A high Sabbath was one that landed on a feast day.from #1
this is the big difference #3 has an annual Sabbath, due to Passover on Thurs. #1 says that day fell on Saturday
some have a political point to make:
Sunday being the Lord's day is a fabrication of the bishop of Rome. Bishop Sixtus instituted this teaching at Rome shortly after the death of the Apostle John, and later Bishops of Rome perpetuated the error he brought into the church. In due time, even the keeping of the Passover bread and wine remembrance was outlawed with excommunication #3 To me this makes the data suspect that it is distorted in order to prove an unpopular or unusual position. But OTOH unpopular positions are sometimes right and in their zeal keep alive truth when the dominant view is in error. So always watch the fringes, but be especially skeptical.
Why bother with this? Why not just believe like the majority of Christians do?
We strive for consistency and completeness. I want to know the important things of the faith, not what i have received for the hands of the Church but what i can learn from the study of Scripture. Does 3 days mean 3 full days? But more importantly the issue illustrates how we are to study and reconcile Scripture with itself. We assume that Scripture is from the hand of a single author-God and any problems are with us and our interpretation. We need to try to put ourselves in the place of the first readers and understand what they did when they read the passages.
History is important, but it is written by the winners of critical events. Christianity was a Jewish religious movement that became first a Hellenized then a Romanized
religion. This movement from Jewish to Gentile did deform some of the teachings, not as some are proposing that Paul created a Christ myth from a nice Jewish teacher's life, but something far less reaching. That is the primary reason for looking at messanic Jewish writings and 'off-the-wall' sites like #3, they sometimes capture things that in the controversies in the Church were discarded minority reports.
Therefore if to a 1st century Jew, parts of days equal whole days, and days are evening and morning measured, then Jesus died Friday afternoon, was buried before dark and arose just after dawn on Sunday, the traditional accounting.
If on the other hand, the passages require that Jesus was in the grave for 3 full days, then the presence of two Sabbaths is required to be understood. The day of preparation is referring to wednesday for His death, and to friday for the getting ready of the spices. Making #3, despite its political agenda, more truth than the traditional.
What i believe is that there is legitimate division over the issues, i am aware of the controversy and i don't take sides, because i have insufficent information to make a decision. To wit: is Friday night, both evening and morning Saturday, and evening Sunday enough to fulfill the prophecy that Jesus will remain in the grave for three days.
