How can you say that Jesus was crucified on any day other than Friday, when the calculations do not work out for a Thursday crucifixion?


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I have been to a Jewish Preparation Day, which always starts at about 15:00 hours on a Friday afternoon. All Jewish workers in London who want to celebrate Shabbat are allowed to go home at 15:00 on a Friday afternoon.

Only one Gospel talks of three days and three nights; the other three only talk of three nights. You cannot have three days and three nights. If you have three nights you must have four days because there must be a day either side if each night. So, Thursday day 1, Thursday night, Friday day 2, Friday night, Saturday day 3, Saturday night, Sunday day 4.

Most people like you dear brother want to discount the last day in their calculations. I know that you are never going to say that the Lord was raised late on Saturday night just before Sunday began. But you can't have it both ways. You either discount the first day and the last day, or you include them both.

It must have been at about 15:10 on Friday afternoon that the Lord gave up his spirit. The High Priest was at that very moment slaughtering the Passover lamb in the temple.


Ted’s Response:

Matthew 12:40, Mark 8:31, and John 2:19,20 all mention "three days." The only case of "three nights" that I see in the four gospels is in Matthew 12:40, where he also included the "three days."

Furthermore, there are numerous things mentioned by only one gospel writer that are not included by the others. In each such case, this does not disqualify it as being irrelevant or false simply because no one else referred to it.

Any part of a day or night could qualify as a day or a night. If Jesus was placed in the tomb prior to sunset on Thursday, then from then until sunset was the first day, and from sunset to sunrise was the first night. From sunrise to sunset on Friday was the second day; then Saturday began at sunset, and up to sunrise was the second night. Finally, from sunrise to sunset on Saturday was the third day; then Sunday began at sunset, and up to sunrise was the third night.

As long as Jesus rose before dawn on Sunday, he was dead part of the third night. This would have been three days and three nights.

It is true that I never would say that Jesus was raised late on Saturday night (which would have encompassed the time from sunset following Friday to sunrise on Saturday). That could not have worked out to fulfill Jesus' three days and three nights prophecy.

I do not need to discount the first day or the last day for Jesus to have died at mid-afternoon on Thursday. It all works out the way I have described it.

Had Jesus been entombed before sunset on Friday, and if He had risen during the hours of darkness prior to sunrise on Sunday, this would have encompassed portions of only two days and two nights. It doesn't work.

Since Jesus was our ultimate Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7), He had to parallel the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:3-6. The Passover lamb was selected on Aviv (or Nisan) 10, which was the day Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. The Passover lamb was slaughtered on Aviv 14, which was the day Jesus was crucified. Aviv 10 was Palm Sunday; therefore, His crucifixion day (Aviv 14) was Thursday.


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