On what day was Jesus Crucified?

Tarheel Baptist

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I posted this on my FB page and received a few comments that 'He was crucified on Wednesday' (a belief I am familiar with).
I found out that a few believe it was on Thursday.

What say you?
 
All the Gospels identify the day of crucifixion using the ordinary words for the sixth day of the week. Cut and dried.
 
Thursday. Pretty easy to prove with time markers for the Passion Week.

John 12:1-8, 12; Mark 11:12, 11:20; Wednesday fairly silent until evening with Lord's Supper, up all night Wed., in the grave Thursday by sun down, Passover Friday (John 12:1-8), Saturday Sabbath, Resurrection near sunrise Sunday morning.

I wouldn't argue with a Wednesday crucifixion, but you just have to decide that the Feast of Passover that happens Thursday (and is NOT the Passover) is a sabbath day as well. Makes Wednesday a very, very busy day. But -like I said, I'm ok with it.
 
I say Friday - not that it makes any difference, so those who want to keep their Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion, and make that case, are welcome to it.

Let's see: Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 27:64, Mark 9:31, Luke 9:22, 13:32, 18:33, 24:7, 21, 48, say Christ would be raised on "the third day."

Hmmm, Friday - First Day; Saturday, Second Day; Sunday, Third Day.

The empty tomb was discovered on Sunday, but can we be sure that Christ was not resurrected earlier, on Saturday? Well, it says in Mark 16:9, "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week . . . "
 
I don't understand why this is even a controversy. The first time I heard anyone question Friday as the crucifixion day, it was by, as I recall, the Armstrongites. A little later, it was Seventh-day Adventists.

It's easy to see why they would cast doubt on a Friday crucifixion. A resurrection on the third day is the basis for Christians' traditional Sunday worship, and so sabbatarians would need to find a way to discredit it. But fundamentalists all worship on Sunday, so there's no need to explain away Sunday as the day of worship.

The only other explanation makes sense is to preserve a particular assumption about the literal meaning of Scripture: that "three days and three nights" means three 24-hour periods, no less. Of course, then they usually go and parrot the sabbatarians' argument for Wednesday--which is three days and four nights. So much for the literal meaning of Scripture.

"Good Thursday" is basically an ad hoc rationalization. Wednesday is obviously too soon (and boy, do they feel stupid for advocating for that all those years), but, by gum, we can't let the prosabbaton be Friday (the only day other than the sabbath that the Jews had a word for).

Funny how all four Gospels completely ignore the fact of one (if the crucifixion was on Thursday) or two days (if on Wednesday), as if they simply didn't exist, even though this is the very climax of their story.[/U]
 
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Oh, good, Krusty brought out the unreadable charts to explain away the plain meaning of "the day before the sabbath."
 
Those charts sure are snazzy, but what do they say? They're all Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic to me.
 
Maybe twist will translate them into 1611 English-eth for thou.

I'm working with "The 70" now to get it translated into Pollock so you can understand it. Then we'll email it to Origen so he can correct our errors.

Once corrected, it will be printed on the back page of Mad magazine and when folded correctly, it will appear to you like magic.
 
Luke 23:44-56 Read it carefully. You don't need to be spiritual to figure it out.


It was near the end of the Jewish sixth day which translates to the common Friday afternoon.
And three days and three nights was a Jewish idiom. Most of the time the Bible says Jesus rose on the third day (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:4).
 
Luke 23:44-56 Read it carefully. You don't need to be spiritual to figure it out.

Now we know you're not spiritual because you got it wrong.
 
All the Gospels identify the day of crucifixion using the ordinary words for the sixth day of the week. Cut and dried.

The never said it was the sixth day. All of them mention that the next day was a sabbath, but many of the Jewish holy days were counted or treated as sabbath days.
 
I say Friday - not that it makes any difference, so those who want to keep their Wednesday or Thursday crucifixion, and make that case, are welcome to it.

Let's see: Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19, 27:64, Mark 9:31, Luke 9:22, 13:32, 18:33, 24:7, 21, 48, say Christ would be raised on "the third day."

Hmmm, Friday - First Day; Saturday, Second Day; Sunday, Third Day.

The empty tomb was discovered on Sunday, but can we be sure that Christ was not resurrected earlier, on Saturday? Well, it says in Mark 16:9, "Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week . . . "

Well, but He was three days and three nights in the earth. If he was buried Fri evening, then Sat morn is 1st day, Sat eve is 1st night, and then you have Sunday.

If He was crucified Wed night, then you have Thursday (in Jewish culture, days start at evening, not morning), so you have (Thu-eve/morn Fri eve/morn and Sat eve/morn), making Sunday when He resurrected, and we know that this was on the first day of the week.
 
The never said it was the sixth day.

In fact, they did. The Greek words paraskeue (preparation day) and prosabbaton (day before the sabbath) are the everyday words for Friday. So all the Gospel authors said it was the sixth day.

From A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich (BDAG), the standard lexicon for biblical Greek:

it was Friday, on which day everything had to be prepared for the Sabbath, when no work was permitted Mt. 27:62. . . . For Christians as well [paraskeue] served to designate the sixth day of the week . . . and so in Mod. Gk. For Christians it is a fast day, as the day of Jesus' death [Didache 8:1].​

Here's the passage referenced from the Didache, a late first- or early second-century treatise on Christian teaching and practice:

And let not your fastings be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and the fifth day of the week; but do ye keep your fast on the fourth and on the preparation (the sixth) day [Gr. paraskeuen]. (Tr. J. B. Lightfoot; source.)​

All of the Gospel writers use this word to denote the day of the crucifixion (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14,31,42). Mark adds one extra bit of information, however, and explains the word further: "it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath." In Greek, "the day before the Sabbath" is a single word: prosabbaton. Again, BDAG have this to say: "i.e. Friday, used to explain the word [paraskeue] Mk 15:42."

So all four Gospel authors do in fact tell us, explicitly, that the day Jesus was crucified was the sixth day of the week.

Well, but He was three days and three nights in the earth.

Have you noticed that of all the Gospels, only Matthew uses that "three days and three nights" idiom? If it's so important that Jesus was dead and buried for three literal days and nights, no less than 72 hours, then why don't the other Gospels use that phrase as well?

It's idiomatic language. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, showing that Jesus is the Messiah promised to them by their prophets. The other Gospels (as well as Matthew) use more direct phrasing such as "he will be raised on the third day" (Matt. 20:19), "on the third day he will rise" (Luke 18:33), or "after three days he will rise" (Mark 9:31;10:34)--probably to avoid confusing Gentile readers who might not be familiar with Jewish idioms.

The first day is the day the event happens. The second day is the day after, and the third day is the day after that. See, for example, Luke 13:32: "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.'" In Jesus' own way of speaking, if the "third day" is the day after tomorrow, then "today" must be the first day.

The risen Christ met two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the "very day" of the resurrection (Luke 24:13). They did not realize who he was, and in explaining what they knew, they told him, "it is now the third day since these things happened" (v. 21). If the women and Peter discovered the empty tomb "that very day," the first day of the week (i.e. Sunday), and that was the third day since Jesus died, then the second day was Saturday, the regular weekly Sabbath, and the first day--the day the crucifixion happened--was Friday.

Gosh. It's like all those Christians have been observing Good Friday all these centuries out of tradition, but they've actually had it right all along.

Fundamentalists latch on to the "three days and three nights" idiom, and miss the point. The sign of Jonah was that Christ, like Jonah, would be buried in the "heart of the earth." It's not the exact number of hours he would be there. The Bible explains itself quite adequately, if only you take the time to pay attention and actually read what it says.
 
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If He was crucified Wed night,

If he was crucified Wednesday night, and Thursday was the sabbath of the feast of unleavened bread, and Saturday was the regular weekly sabbath, then why didn't the women take the burial spices to his tomb on Friday, which was not a day on which work was forbidden? Why did they wait two extra days unnecessarily?
 
Now we know you're not spiritual because you got it wrong.
In fact, they did. The Greek words paraskeue (preparation day) and prosabbaton (day before the sabbath) are the everyday words for Friday. So all the Gospel authors said it was the sixth day.

From A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature by Bauer, Danker, Arndt, and Gingrich (BDAG), the standard lexicon for biblical Greek:

it was Friday, on which day everything had to be prepared for the Sabbath, when no work was permitted Mt. 27:62. . . . For Christians as well [paraskeue] served to designate the sixth day of the week . . . and so in Mod. Gk. For Christians it is a fast day, as the day of Jesus' death [Didache 8:1].​

Here's the passage referenced from the Didache, a late first- or early second-century treatise on Christian teaching and practice:

And let not your fastings be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and the fifth day of the week; but do ye keep your fast on the fourth and on the preparation (the sixth) day [Gr. paraskeuen]. (Tr. J. B. Lightfoot; source.)​

All of the Gospel writers use this word to denote the day of the crucifixion (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:14,31,42). Mark adds one extra bit of information, however, and explains the word further: "it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath." In Greek, "the day before the Sabbath" is a single word: prosabbaton. Again, BDAG have this to say: "i.e. Friday, used to explain the word [paraskeue] Mk 15:42."

So all four Gospel authors do in fact tell us, explicitly, that the day Jesus was crucified was the sixth day of the week.



Have you noticed that of all the Gospels, only Matthew uses that "three days and three nights" idiom? If it's so important that Jesus was dead and buried for three literal days and nights, no less than 72 hours, then why don't the other Gospels use that phrase as well?

It's idiomatic language. Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience, showing that Jesus is the Messiah promised to them by their prophets. The other Gospels (as well as Matthew) use more direct phrasing such as "he will be raised on the third day" (Matt. 20:19), "on the third day he will rise" (Luke 18:33), or "after three days he will rise" (Mark 9:31;10:34)--probably to avoid confusing Gentile readers who might not be familiar with Jewish idioms.

The first day is the day the event happens. The second day is the day after, and the third day is the day after that. See, for example, Luke 13:32: "Go and tell that fox, 'Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.'" In Jesus' own way of speaking, if the "third day" is the day after tomorrow, then "today" must be the first day.

The risen Christ met two disciples on the road to Emmaus on the "very day" of the resurrection (Luke 24:13). They did not realize who he was, and in explaining what they knew, they told him, "it is now the third day since these things happened" (v. 21). If the women and Peter discovered the empty tomb "that very day," the first day of the week (i.e. Sunday), and that was the third day since Jesus died, then the second day was Saturday, the regular weekly Sabbath, and the first day--the day the crucifixion happened--was Friday.

Gosh. It's like all those Christians have been observing Good Friday all these centuries out of tradition, but they've actually had it right all along.

Fundamentalists latch on to the "three days and three nights" idiom, and miss the point. The sign of Jonah was that Christ, like Jonah, would be buried in the "heart of the earth." It's not the exact number of hours he would be there. The Bible explains itself quite adequately, if only you take the time to pay attention and actually read what it says.
Ransom, didn’t you see twist’s chart!???
 
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