Crucificion, day of

m10710

ON WHAT DAY WAS CHRIST CRUCIFIED?

Position presented: Wednesday the 14^th day of the first month (Nisan – April).

This has been a much talked about topic for many years. Few place their thoughts in writing as my research has revealed. Very little is written that I’ve been able to find. That which is written is not totally correct as we shall see.

The three basic views are: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The latter is of course the traditional view as can be seen on any calendar when you see the Friday before Easter marked as Good Friday.

The normal Wednesday and Thursday views are of a more recent vintage but to me are lacking. The presentation of the Wednesday view is lacking when examined with all of Scripture.

The view presented in this paper is a Wednesday crucifixion but is based on better proof than the Wednesday presentation I have seen. This hopefully will be a more correct presentation.

The best way to prove the Wednesday view is by process of elimination. If we disprove the Thursday and Friday views then the Wednesday view is all that is left. It will then be shown that the Wednesday view fits all of the facts of the Scriptural account.

The traditional Friday view is based on the Jewish idea of a day. A.T. Robertson states "The well-known custom of the Jews was to count a part of a day as a whole day of twenty-four hours. Hence a part of a day or night would be counted as a whole day, ...." 1

Mr. Scroggie quotes Rabbi Elazer ben Axaryah, "A day and a night are an Onah (Hebrew for a portion of time), and the portion of an Onah is as the whole of it." 2

With this information people, who hold to the Friday view see Christ being crucified and buried Friday and being raised by Sunday morning. If Christ were buried before 6 P.M. Friday then we have the first day. Saturday 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. is the first night. Saturday 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. is the second day. Sunday 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. is the second night. Christ was then raised shortly after dawn (6 A.M.) that the women would find the grave empty.

The explanation itself disproves the position. Only two nights are involved thus contradicting Christ’s own words when He likened His time in the earth to Jonah’s three days and three nights in the fish.

Mr. Scroggie mentions an early attempt to answer this objection. "An early attempt to account for

‘three nights’ reckoned as a night the darkness from 12.0 to 3.0 P.M. on the Friday (Matt. 27:45), ...." 5

This is quite lacking in its effort to explain the problem.

To hold to the traditional view you must take Christ’s ‘three nights’ as meaning two nights. This is not an acceptable interpretation to most literalists. There is another problem which has not been considered by people holding this view. We will see that a Friday burial is impossible in view of Scripture. By viewing the Old Testament we know that the Jews were not to labor on the Sabbath. We also know that the Passover was followed by the beginning of the week of unleavened bread. The first day of this week also was a Sabbath with no work.

(Exodus 12:3-8; Leviticus 23:6,7) Thus if the burial were Friday, the Passover Saturday and the Feast of Unleavened Bread was Sunday, the women could not have been going to the tomb on a Sabbath. We will see more concerning the Sabbaths later.

The next view is much closer to fitting the facts as Scripture lays them out yet it too is lacking. This view states that Christ was buried before 6 P.M. Thursday thus the first day. 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. was night one. Then 6A.M. to 6 P.M. was day two. Then 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. was night two. Saturday 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. was third day. Then Christ was raised sometime between 6 P.M. and 6 A.M. Sunday for the third night.

We need to mention that the Jews saw a twenty-four hour day as running from 6 P.M. to 6 P.M. The views presented in this paper use this thinking only.

This view fulfills the three days and three nights required if you see a part of a day as a whole day. This must stretch the rules of literal interpretation however, and some are not willing to stretch the rules this far. (This view fits well with the facts of Scripture with this one exception.)

The Wednesday crucifixion however affords the possibility of fitting all the facts from Scripture together with strict literal interpretation of ‘three days and three nights’ into the Wednesday view. Though Mr. Scroggie lays much detail for this position, it seems from Scripture that while his view is correct his proof is somewhat lacking. He goes into detail as to when and where things happened to fit his theory together but tends to split verses from one another chronologically where there is no need. He is also in contradiction with the Old Testament concerning the date of Passover. The 01d Testament calls for Passover to be the 14^thday of Nisan and the Feast of Unleavened Bread to be the 15^thday of Nisan. (Exodus 12:3-8; Leviticus 23:6,7) Mr. Scroggie lists the Passover as the 15^th and makes no reference to the Feast of Unleavened Bread which was also a Sabbath (Leviticus 23:6,7).

Mr. Scroggie, as others also do, tries to show that the phrases "the third day" and "after the third day" refer to the same thing. This type of thinking ought to trouble the literalist. Actually there is no need to tie these phrases together for there is good reason to see them for what they are—slightly different in meaning.

When the Scriptures speak of "on the third day" it is referring to that specific third day. However when the text speaks of after the third day I would suspect it refers to after seventy-two hours. The three times "after the third day" is used it should be noted that the context is His death. He will be killed and after three days He will be raised (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34). His beating and crucifixion preceded the burial by about three hours thus after three days could indicate after seventy-two hours He was raised. This fits well into the chronology of this view and allows for Christ’s being raised "on the third day" while keeping the phrases separate as they should be.

A chart will help lay out the chronology of the view of this paper.

As the accounts are read and correlated we find a chronology as is presented on the following chart.

Jesus and the twelve disciples were together sometime before the Feast of Unleavened Bread (probably Tuesday the 13^th) Christ instructed that the Passover be prepared and they celebrated Passover after 6 P.M. Wednesday the 14^th. They were actually early in their eating the Passover yet it was eaten on the day that the lamb was to be killed. The four accounts must be taken together and Matthew, Mark, and Luke must be interpreted in light of John’s account. John states that it was not yet Passover thus the accounts stating that it was the Day of Unleavened Bread must be interpreted as meaning that the day was close at hand. (Luke indicates this.)

While the twelve and Christ were celebrating Passover Judas left to make final arrangements for the betrayal. (This was Wednesday the l4th after 6 P.M.) Jesus was arrested later and the trials began. Then sentence was passed and He was crucified that day. There are several passages showing that the Jews hurry to get it over with for they wanted to celebrate Passover (after 6 P.M. on the day of the crucifixion).

The unusual part of this is that the Jews were busy preparing to kill the Passover lambs for their meal at the same time their true Passover Lamb was dying on the cross.

Christ was buried just prior to 6 P.M. Wednesday and at 6 P.M. the first day of unleavened bread began and the Jews celebrated.

Christ remained in the tomb for three days and three nights being raised before dawn so that the tomb would be empty when the women came Sunday A.M. shortly after dawn. As can be seen on the chart these are three full days and three full nights in the tomb to fulfill Matthew 12:40. The chart fulfills all the details of Scripture as I see them.

Either a Thursday or a Wednesday crucifixion would be quite possible however the Wednesday view fits the facts stated in Scripture better. The Friday view is quite forced and unnatural.

The whole point however is not "when" but "that". It is important THAT He was crucified and THAT He rose again on the third day as He prophesied.

"And I beheld and, 1o, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God a kingdom of priests, and we shall reign on the earth."4

FOOTNOTES

1 A.T. Robertson, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D., A Harmony of the Gospels (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1950), p. 290.

2 W. Graham Scroggie, D.D., A Guide to the Gospels (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co.), p. 570.

3 Scroggie, p. 570.

4 Revelation 5:6-10.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The Bible.

The Bible. New American Standard Bible.

Robertson, A.T., D.D., LL.D., Litt.D. A Harmony of the Gospels. New York: Harper and How, Publishers, 1950.

Scroggle, W. Graham, D.D. A Guide to the Gospels. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co.

Strong, James, S.T.D., LL.D. Strong’s Exhaustive concordance of the Bible. 1890. New York: Abingdon Press,

Vine, W.E., M.A. An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1966.

Young, Robert, LL.D. Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible. Grand Rapids:

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publlshing Co., 1970