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Wednesday, April 04, 2007

My Holy Week

Okay, mind you, it's just a theory of mine. It is my goal to try to correlate Scripture. If any of this upsets you, I don't find it anything worth fighting for, so, please, simply let it go. On the other hand, if you enjoy trying to piece together puzzles and are willing to set aside some long-held ideas that may not be right, well, this might be fun.

In Matt. 12:40, Jesus makes a statement about His death and resurrection:
"For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Now, the normal person, when asked when Jesus died and rose again, will tell you that He died on Friday and rose again on Sunday. This is a problem for me because this isn't "three days and three nights." I know, I know, the standard answer is "Well, the Hebrews measured days from sundown to sundown, so Friday-Saturday-Sunday would be three days." That's all well and good ... but it's not three nights by any measure. So I'm a little bit confused.

So I took a different approach. What do we know? We know that the women found Him alive on "the first day of the week." Okay, good, a time reference. Jesus was discovered alive on Sunday. Funny thing. Beyond that, we know very little. There are references to "the next day" in a variety of places regarding the last week of Jesus's life, but there are holes in the time line and little is certain. The primary reason that we believe that Jesus died on a Friday was that it says that they wanted to bury Him before sundown because the Sabbath was the next day. That's about all we have to go on. So I tried to piece together a possible time line taking into account what we do know.

Working backward from Sunday, we know that "the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment" (Luke 23:55-56). They prepared spices then rested on the Sabbath. Mark says something different. "When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him" (Mark 16:1). So, it appears that women bought the spices on the day after the Sabbath, prepared them, then waited for the Sabbath. That means that there would be a Crucifixion and burial, a Sabbath, a day after the Sabbath, a Sabbath, and the first day of the week. That would mean that Jesus died on a Wednesday, not a Friday.

This is reasonable. This gives us three days and three nights. He died on a Wednesday afternoon and was buried by the evening. Wednesday night is night #1, Thursday is day #1, Thursday night is night #2, Friday is day #2, Friday night is night #3, and Saturday is day #3. Jesus rose the sometime after sundown Saturday evening. This fits. Unfortunately, this pushes back "Good Friday" to "Good Wednesday". It puts the Triumphal Entry on a Friday rather than a Sunday. Well, it moves "Holy Week" to "Holy Week and a half".

But, wait, is there any reason to think that there would be a Sabbath, a day, and a Sabbath? Well, indeed, there is. Biblically, the Passover falls on the 14th of Nisan. That is, the paschal meal (which we know as "the Last Supper") takes place on the 14th of Nisan. This starts a 7-day feast called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Oh, and, as it happens, the day after the 14th of Nisan is "a High Sabbath" (Lev 23:5-7). Now, if the 14th of Nisan falls on a Wednesday, Thursday would be a High Sabbath, Friday would be the second day of the feast (but not a Sabbath), and Saturday would be the normal Sabbath. There we have it -- the exact combination needed to account for Mark's and Luke's accounts and give us exactly what Jesus said would happen.

What changes if we do this? Well, as far as I can tell, just a few traditions. Oh ... and Scripture aligns and agrees. Yeah, that's a good thing. I like it. It's just a theory, but I like it.

8 comments:

Samantha said...

Interesting theory Stan.

At least we know for sure that Jesus Christ died to save His elect. That He indeed, did rise again, defeated death, and now sits at the Right Hand of the Father!

At least we clearly know that that is true! :D

Stan said...

Yes!

And a happy Good Wednesday to you!

Jim Jordan said...

Good work. You might be onto something. One thing is for sure that the resurrection changed the world forever. So Happy Easter today, tomorrow, and every day after that!

Chris Larimer said...

April 6th, 30 AD - it meets all the criteria. Read the whole passover in Exodus 12. You'll see:

Saturday, April 1/Nisan 10: John 12:1-11, Jesus is welcomed into the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. A large group of Jews come to see him there because they believe he raised Lazarus from the dead. This is the fulfillment of Ex. 12:3 "on the tenth day of this month [Nisan] every man shall take a lamb..." The Jews hail Christ as their messiah. The Scribes plot to kill him and Lazarus.

Sunday, April 2/Nisan 11: John 12:12-19 is the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. See Ex. 12:5ƒ, where Jesus is received into Jerusalem.

Monday, April 3/Nisan 12 - Wednesday, April 5/Nisan 14: Jesus sojourns there until he is taken by the authorities to their kangaroo court. They scapegoat him for their national ills, as does Pilate.

Wednesday night: The Last Supper

Early Thursday: Before dawn Jesus was examined by the Sanhandedrin and condemned to die. (Matt. 26: 57ff) He was then turned over to Pilate, who examined Him and reluctantly ordered His crucifixion. (Matt. 27: 1-26) Around noon on Thursday, Jesus was crucified. The Lamb of God slain for the sins of His people. At 3:00 PM, Thursday: Jesus was buried by Joseph and Nicodemus, quickly, as the sabbath of the Passover was about to begin at sunset, the fifteenth day of Nisan.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights: Jesus was in the earth, as He foretold.

Sunday: Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The women who could not get to the tomb because of the two consecutive sabbaths, and the disciples saw Him.

Hanley Family said...

The last time someone brought that up they went further to give the precise date when all that lined up.

"The High Day before which Jesus was to be buried was the feast of
unleavened bread which occurred on a Thursday with Preparation Day
being on a Wednesday, not Friday and Saturday in the year 30AD."

Interesting discussion, anyway. At least most of Christianity, with or without the tradition, agrees on the significance.

Stan said...

Chris,
Yes, I've heard that alternate concept of dying on Thursday. The primary reason appears to be that it lines up nicely with Old Testament concepts. The problem is that it gives no time in between Sabbaths for the women to prepare, and it doesn't seem to give 3 days and 3 nights in the grave, since He wouldn't have been buried until just Thursday evening. But I'm not entirely closed to the idea.

Dana,
I did research the dates in history. Turns out, if my sources are accurate, this particular sequence of Thursday Sabbath/Saturday Sabbath for Passover week occurred, as you said, in 30 AD, but it also occurred in 27 AD. So if we get to heaven and God says, "No, actually, it was 27 AD," I won't be disappointed. ;)

Scott Arnold said...

Stan-

Our Adult Sunday School shared this exact theory last year just before Easter. I agree that it certainly seems Biblical... something to commit a little more study to.

Blessings,
Scott

ChrisB said...

There's obviously no way to know for sure, and there's no real problem with having "Good Wednesday" instead of Good Friday, but historians say that "3 days and 3 nights" should be taken more like a figure of speech and that "a day and a night" essentially means any part of one day. FWIW.