The Crucifixion Not Friday

FireDragon76

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Most ancient people in the Mediterranean counted the same way. That is something I remember from my HS Latin class.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Scripture, at least twice, tells us our Lord was crucified on a Friday.

"Then he took [the body of Jesus] down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid Him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning." - Luke 23:53-54

That really ends any possible debate there could even be. Jesus was crucified on the day before the Sabbath, on the day when Jews were preparing for the Sabbath to begin, that's Friday, specifically Friday before sunset. It was nearing sundown on Friday, because it says "the Sabbath was beginning"--the Sabbath begins sundown Friday and ends sundown Saturday.

Our second text is also from Luke's Gospel,

"And He said to them, 'What things?' and they said to Him, 'Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened." - Luke 23:19-21

"The third day since these things happened"

Sunday = Third day
Saturday = Second day
Friday = First day

Jesus died and was buried before sunset on Friday. Jesus spent the entirety of the Sabbath in the grave. And then early Sunday morning He rose from the dead.

Christians celebrate the Lord's resurrection as the Christian Passover, called Pascha in Greek. Early Christians were divided in their customs on whether to celebrate this Feast at the same time as the Jewish Passover (Nisan 14th), a position known as Quartodecimanism (literally Fourteenism); or whether the Feast should always be celebrated on the Lord's Day (aka Sunday). Over time the Quartodeciman position became less popular, and appears to have largely only been retained by a handful of schismatic and heretical groups when at the Council of Nicea, as a periphery issue, resolved to standardize the timing of the Feast.

The gathered bishops came to agree that it would be a good thing if Christians were celebrating the Paschal Feast together, at the same time, and so a method of calculation, which was already in practice in the Church of Alexandria and the other Egyptian churches. This method of computation has continued to be how we do things.

In English-speaking places we usually call the Paschal Feast by the name "Easter", which goes back to when the Anglo-Saxons who invaded Britain were converted to Christianity, and they began to refer to the Paschal Feast by the name of the month it occurred in: Eostermonath; thus referring to the Feast as "Eostre". The only similar thing we see is that in standard German the Paschal Feast is called by the cognate, Ostern. However in some parts of Germany and in regional German dialects the word Paasken (Pascha) is preferred.

The Paschal Feast is the day on which Christians have celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the oldest day on the Christian calendar, and probably emerged among the first Christian communities even during the lifetime of the Apostles--the use of the word Pascha (Passover) clues us in on this. And common sense would tell us that the most central and important event in the Christian religion would be the thing to be given its own celebration.

Overtime the entire week leading up to the Paschal Feast became important, Holy Week or Passion Week, beginning on the day we call Palm Sunday, and concluding on Holy Saturday, also called the Great Sabbath (for Christ our Lord was at rest in His tomb). Between Palm Sunday and Holy Saturday we also remember the Institution of the Holy Eucharist (Maundy Thursday) and the Friday of His death, Good Friday.

Historically and biblically we know the Lord was crucified on a Friday, we remember this and observe this every year as Good Friday. And the Feast of the Lord's Resurrection, the great and holy Feast of Pascha, the Day of Days, is the day we celebrate and declare with our loudest song, praise, and words: Christos anesti! Alithos anesti! Christ is risen! Amen He is risen!

-CryptoLutheran
 
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BobRyan

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True -- very good point
yes - exactly. !
Jesus died and was buried before sunset on Friday. Jesus spent the entirety of the Sabbath in the grave. And then early Sunday morning He rose from the dead.
True that! He is alive.

And as often as we celebrate the communion service "we do declare the Lord's death until He comes" 1 Cor 11:25-26
25 In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Christians celebrate the Lord's resurrection as the Christian Passover, called Pascha in Greek. Early Christians were divided in their customs on whether to celebrate this Feast at the same time as the Jewish Passover
That communion service was held repeatedly in the NT - not just once a year.

Sometimes they did it every day.
 
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prodromos

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Agreed but the calculation for Easter is different for Orthodox than for Catholics and Protestants.
The former celebrate after the Jewish Passover.
The Orthodox still calculate the date according to the Julian calendar, while Catholics and Protestants calculate according to the Gregorian calendar. The calculation is done independent of any Jewish calculations for Passover. We don't rely on the Jews for determining when to celebrate Pascha.
Though the calendars themselves are 13 days apart, the impact that can have on the calculation of the date can be anywhere from the same day to over a month apart.

 
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John G.

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You inadvertently DO rely on the Jews - as you put it.
From the article you cited:

Pascha is always the Sunday following the Paschal Full Moon. Since the PFM is simply the 14th day of the Paschal lunar month, this means that Pascha is the third Sunday in the Paschal lunar month, and can fall on any date in the lunar month from the 15th (the day after the PFM) to the 21st (seven days after the PFM). That the structure of the Paschal lunar month is modelled on that of the scriptural month of 'Aviv (now called Nisan) should be clear. The Paschal lunar month is analogous to the month of 'Aviv. It is in effect a Christian 'Aviv or Nisan'. The 14th day, the Paschal Full Moon, is analogous to the day of the Passover sacrifice, and the third week, the 15th to the 21st, the week whose Lord's Day is Pascha, is analogous to the Week of Unleavened Bread.
 
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AFrazier

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This is really simple. Given the timeline of Passion week and the number of days definitively enumerated, if Jesus was crucified on Thursday, he would have ridden an ass on the Sabbath, in direct violation of one of the ten commandments. And with that act, he ceases to be a perfect lamb, and our entire faith goes down the toilet.

So I'm going to have to disagree with you.
 
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Aaron112

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Scripture, at least twice, tells us our Lord was crucified on a Friday.
Only in the western/english type of translation/thinking.

In Hebrew and Aramaic in the original this is totally different from centuries of tradition.
 
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Aaron112

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Aaron112

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So it's pretty ridiculous to claim that Easter has "nothing to do with Passover."
Yet truthful that the traditions of easter have nothing to do with either Scripture or Passover. The traditions have different starting point, different reasons, different motives and different results.
 
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prodromos

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Only in the western/english type of translation/thinking.

In Hebrew and Aramaic in the original this is totally different from centuries of tradition.
That's a meaningless assertion.
 
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cfposter

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It was understood that a High Day was a Feast Day. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Tabernacles all fell on the 15th of the month and was a High Day because it was also the weekly Sabbath Day.
 
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The Liturgist

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In Hebrew and Aramaic in the original this is totally different from centuries of tradition.

That’s not true. The largest remaining vernacular Aramaic speaking population, who use Aramaic as their primary or only language, are majority of the members of the Church of the East (around a million) , who speak and worship in Aramaic. The second largest remaining Aramaic speaking population are members of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Antiochian Orthodox Church; the Syriac Orthodox worship in the Classical Syriac dialect of Aramaic, whereas the Antiochians are not particular about the language in which they worship, but in the town of Maaloula in Syria, which was occupied for many months by Al Qaeda during which time they desecrated the local churches, destroying the holy icons, and also held the nuns from the Convent of Mar Tekla captive, and I recall hearing that it has since emerged that Al Qaeda abused the nuns (at the time, the nuns were pressured to deny this abuse occurred), at any rate, all three of these churches, which were never under the control of the Pope of Rome, by the way, believe our Lord was crucified on a Friday.

These three churches also have the highest percentage of Jewish converts relative to their total population of any churches except for the Ethiopian and Eritrean Tewahedo Orthodox Churches (which are in full communion with the Syriac Orthodox Churches of Antioch and the three jurisdictions in India, which also historically spoke Syriac and are largely descended from the Kochin Jews of Kerala; the Holy Apostle Thomas was martyred in Kerala in 53 AD while preaching to the Jews and gentiles of Kerala, and for this reason the Christians of the Malabar Coast are called “Mar Thoma Christians.)” And the Syriac and Ethiopian churches, together with the Armenian and Coptic Orthodox churches, comprise the Oriental Orthodox, who our pious friend @dzheremi is a member of.
 
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The Liturgist

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In any case, my suggestion to anyone reading this thread is to read what our pious and excellent friends @HTacianas @ViaCrucis and @prodromos have written, since their arguments represent best the facts of the matter.
 
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ViaCrucis

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Only in the western/english type of translation/thinking.

In Hebrew and Aramaic in the original this is totally different from centuries of tradition.

Then explain why the Aramaic-speaking churches have always understood the same things I've said.

The only ones who question the traditional understanding are "western/english type" people.

That's two points against your assertion.

-CryptoLutheran
 
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cfposter

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"Friday" doesn't mean "Friday" as it does today. In other words, they had to afix the 6th day or PREPARATION day to a fixed day of the solar week. That day would be 'Friday'. However, the day in which Jesus was crucified was NOT the solar day Friday even though it was the Preparation day (Hence Friday by interpretation).

The Sabbath days were by the lunar weeks (not the Solar weeks). Therefore, the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of the lunar month were the weekly Sabbath days. Therefore, a Sabbath day can fall on any of the solar days (Sunday through Saturday).
 
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prodromos

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The Sabbath days were by the lunar weeks (not the Solar weeks). Therefore, the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of the lunar month were the weekly Sabbath days. Therefore, a Sabbath day can fall on any of the solar days (Sunday through Saturday).
As far as I can remember, you've only given one 'scholar' as a source for the above claim, and as far as I can tell there is no one else who gives any credence to the claims.
 
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cfposter

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As far as I can remember, you've only given one 'scholar' as a source for the above claim, and as far as I can tell there is no one else who gives any credence to the claims.
You mean Philo of Alexandria? The same person the Jews sent to Rome because he was elite in his understanding of Jewish Law that they sent him to consult the Roman Government on Jewish traditions?

More on that - Philo and the Weekly Sabbath
 
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cfposter

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As far as I can remember, you've only given one 'scholar' as a source for the above claim, and as far as I can tell there is no one else who gives any credence to the claims.
Also, I want to point out the Didascalia Apostolorum. After all, it shows the order of the days from the eye witnesses (Apostles) that were present.
 
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