Bible Study Seattle

Tradition has it that Friday was the crucifixion of Christ.  Tradition is wrong.  According to the prophecy of Jonah, Jesus would be in the grave for three days and three nights, where a ‘day’ is twelve hours, and a ‘night’ is another twelve hours.  Even if we assume partial days or nights, we still have a minimum of 48.1 hours in the grave.  If Jesus rose as late as 6am Sunday, he would have had to have been lain in the grave before 6am Friday.  But tradition has his death at 3pm Friday afternoon.  It’s also possible that Jesus rose on Saturday.  It appears to be impossible to say which day from the scriptures.  Jesus was laid in the tomb before the Sabbath – the high Sabbath at the start of Passover week.  There were two Sabbaths to Jesus’ resurrection.  Remember what Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of the One who sent me.  And this is the will of the One who sent me: that I should not lose any of all those he has given me but should raise them up on the Last Day.”  John 6:38-39  The Last Day could be the millennial Sabbath (seventh day) or the millennial Jubilee (eighth day).

There is another tradition that Jesus was crucified on Wednesday (some also say Thursday).  John Parsons has a chart of this:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/First_Fruits/first_fruits.html