Friday crucifixion SDA

“That Day” of the Entombment

in the Friday crucifixion theory

Seventh-day Adventist refuted

by Gerhard Ebersöhn

GE:

Read SDA’s article at the end of my answers.

SDA:

“In a special sense, the prefiguring of His victory over the grave was the capstone of hope for both Old and New Testament believers. Just as the sheaf of firstfruit grain held the promise and assurance of abundant harvest, even so our blessed Lord’s glorious resurrection is the guarantee of a mighty harvest in the resurrection soon to take place. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” John 14:19.

In the light of this tremendous, undeniable evidence of the Word of God, we can positively affirm that Jesus was not, and could not have been, resurrected on the Sabbath. Neither could He have been crucified on a Wednesday or Thursday as this would have Firstfruits fall on the wrong day. With a Wednesday crucifixion and literal 72 hours in the grave, the resurrection would occur on a Saturday Sabbath, which should precisely match the day of Firstfruits (16 Nisan) but does not. With a Wednesday crucifixion, Firstfruits (16 Nisan) will fall on Friday, meaning that the resurrection should also be on Friday. It would seem to be clear that under the Wednesday crucifixion theory, Firstfruits (16 Nisan) can't be fitted in anywhere and remain harmonious with scripture. Therefore, this completely excludes the possibility of a Wednesday crucifixion and 72 hour theory that some would promote.”

......

“The argument for the Wednesday crucifixion theory primarily stems from Matthew 12:40 which states.”

GE:

My answer is not meant to defend a Wednesday-crucifixion or a Friday-crucifixion; my argument is aimed at defending the Bible-truth Jesus was crucified on the first of the three passover-days of Abib 14, 15 and 16; on Abib 14 therefore, which according to both the New Testament and Old Testament Scriptures in the year Jesus was crucified fell on the Fifth Day of the week. (‘The Fifth Day’ 50% equivalent with the modern ‘Thursday’-daytime and 50% equivalent with modern ‘Wednesday-night’).

SDA:

“The argument for the Wednesday crucifixion theory primarily stems from Matthew 12:40 which states. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The proponents of this argument say that in order for Jesus to prove that He is the Messiah that He must have met this condition or He could not be the Messiah. We will be covering a prophecy that is greatly abused by the enemy because it is not understood by the majority, which is that Daniel 9:24-27 proves beyond doubt that Jesus was in fact the Messiah. This is the most powerful and perfect Messianic prophecy in the Word of God proving that Jesus was the Christ. So regardless as to how long Jesus was in the grave, we need not have any doubt that Jesus is the One.”

GE:

I fully agree!

SDA:

“The proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory say they have back tracked the Jewish calendar and established that the Passover sabbath occurred on the Thursday of the week of Christ’s crucifixion and that the Sabbath referred to is not the weekly Sabbath but the Passover only. Before establishing if there is any truth in this statement, observe the following table for an understanding of this entire event.

Passover (Leviticus 23:5)				Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6)
14th	15th	16th	17th		18th	19th	20th
Paschal Lamb Slain	1st Day Feast of Unleaven Bread	The Omer (First Fruits)	-		-	-	-
Not a Sabbath (Luke 23:54)	A Sabbath (Leviticus 23:6-7)	Not a Sabbath	-		-	-	-
Unleaven Bread Eaten
				All Leaven Removed From the House (Exodus 12:19)
Crucifixion	In the tomb	Resurrection	-		-	-	-
1st Day	2nd Day	3rd Day

Note that the beginning of Passover when the lamb was slain is not the Passover sabbath but this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan the following day.”

GE:

Yes, perfectly right, “this day”, “the Passover sabbath” that “occurs on the 15th of Nisan” was the day after and “following”, “the beginning of Passover when the lamb was slain” which “beginning of Passover when the lamb was slain” was the 14th of Nisan. “Passover when the lamb was slain”, was, ‘passover’; but “is not the Passover sabbath”. Just to clarify.

SDA:

“Jesus became our Passover lamb and died at the exact time the Passover lamb would have been sacrificed. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that Christ died at the ninth hour (9 hours after the sun had risen, 3:00 p.m.)

Matthew 27:46 “And about the NINTH HOUR Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

This is the same time that Josephus records the slaughter of the Passover lambs commenced. Christ fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover lambs exactly by giving his life just as the unblemished Passover lambs began to be slain on the 14th of Nisan.”

GE:

So is it or so was it in fact. But that’s about as far as we perhaps could have agreed.

Here’s your version ....

Friday Crucifixion Type Matches Antitype
14 Nisan Friday - Preparation Day				15 Nisan Saturday - 7th day Sabbath				16 Nisan Sunday - First day of week
Lord’s Passover				1st Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread				The Omer Day of Firstfruits
NIGHT		DAY		NIGHT		DAY		NIGHT		DAY
Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn	Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn	Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn
N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D
26:20 27:61	14:17 15:47	22:14 23:56	13:1 19:42	27:62 27:66	16:1	23:56	---	28:1 28:15	16:1 16:13	24:1 24:53	20:1 20:23
1st day unleavened bread is eaten		Passover Lamb slain in evening (afternoon)		A High double Sabbath day				The Third Day (Luke 24:21)
Lord’s Supper Christ arrested in Gethsemane and put on trial		Crucifixion and burial before sundown Women prepare spices.		Rested in the tomb		Rested in the tomb Roman guard set by end of the day		Resurrection before sunrise Tomb discovered empty just before sunrise

Here’s mine .....

THURSDAY Crucifixion Type Matches Antitype

14 Abib
THURSDAY – 5th day

“Preparation of the Passover”

15 Abib
FRIDAY - 6th day

“That Day great-day-sabbath”

16 Abib
”SABBATH before the First Day of the week”

“leaven REMOVED Passover KILLED”

1st Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread FEAST

“FIRST SHEAF WAVE”

NIGHT

DAY

“NIGHT”

“DAY/

LIGHT”

EVEN

ING

MORN

ING

MORN

ING

AFTER

NOON

Mk14:12/17

to 15:20a

15:20b

to 41

15:42

to 46a

46b

to 47

------

Mt26:17/20

to 27:26

27:27

to 56

27:57

to 59

to 61

------

27:62

to 66

28:1

to 4

Lk22:7/14

to 23:25

23:26

to 49

23:50

to 53a

53b

to 56a

56b

------

Jn13:1/29-30

to 18:28

19:14

to 30

19:31/38

to 40

to 42

------

Abib 17 ”First Day of the week”

4th Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread

NIGHT

Mk16:1

“when the

Sabbath had

gone through

Mary M & Mary

& Salome

bought spices that might

anoint him when they go”

Jn20:1

“Mary early darkness still seeth the stone runneth cometh to Simon”

Jn20:3-10

“Peter and other went ... in ... went away again to home”

.... deepest

early

morning

they and

others came

carrying

spices”

Lk24:1

(Lk24:22)

Mk16:2

(Lk24:24)

“very early

before

sunrise....”

“Mary had had stood after....”

Jn20:11

DAY

Jn20:11-15

“saw Jesus

supposing

gardener”

Mk16:9

“very early on

the First Day of

the week”

Mt28:5

“explained

the angel to

the women”

Lk24:13

“journeying

to Emmaus”

“Today is the third day since

THESE THINGS

DELIVERED CONDEMNED

CRUCIFIED”

(14 Nisan

THURSDAY)

Lk24:29

“.... toward

evening

the day is

far spent

....”

SDA:

“Jesus was placed in the sepulchre before sunset as they were in a hurry to bury Jesus because the Sabbath would begin at sundown.”

GE:

SDA, please read that Scripture out for us where it is written, “Jesus was placed in the sepulchre before sunset as they were in a hurry to bury Jesus because the Sabbath would begin at sundown”? [See study, ‘Buried before sunset’.]

True, no matter which ‘sabbath’, “Sabbath would begin at sundown”— the passover’s or the week’s ‘sabbath’. But alas, ‘sabbath’ (whichever) “would” not “begin AT sundown”— ‘sundown’, ‘sabbath’ would have HAD begun!

The question in our Scripture, Lk23:54-56, is not only WHICH ‘sabbath’, but WHEN did ‘sabbath’, BEGIN?! Was ‘sabbath’, in its BEGINNING, or was ‘sabbath’, in its ENDING in

Lk23:54-56A? Was ‘sabbath’ prospective; or was ‘sabbath’ retrospective in Lk23:54-56A and Jn19:41-42?

I am of course alluding to the two Scriptures of “Luke 23:54”, and “Leviticus 23:5-7” referenced in the above table of yours. Because the ‘sabbath’ involved in “Luke 23:54” won’t be found in its beginning in “Luke 23:54”. The ‘sabbath’ in “Luke 23:54” will in Mk15:42/Mt27:57 and Jn19:31/38 be found in its beginning. The ‘sabbath’ involved in “Luke 23:54” is the very ‘sabbath’ spoken of in Jn19:31 and Mk15:42, BUT, IN ITS ENDING!

The crux of the issue is:

1) Is the ‘sabbath’ written of in John 19:31 and Luke 23:54, the ‘sabbath’ written of in Lk23:56b and alluded to in John 19:42a?

2) Where or when, did this ‘sabbath’ begin, and where or when, did it end; “was” it, between John 19:31 and Luke 23:54?

3) Is the ‘sabbath’ found between John 19:31 and Luke 23:54 “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath”, the Sixth Day of the week?

1) The “sabbath” in Jn19:31 was “The Preparation” in distinction to “The Preparation of the Passover” found in Jn19:14.

2) The “sabbath” in Jn19:31, “was .... The Preparation” in Jn19:31, “the preparations of the Jews” in 19:42, STILL.

3) The “sabbath” in Jn19:31 was “The Preparation” in Mk15:42/Mt27:52 and Lk23:54a/Jn19:42 because both text-pairs cover the actions of Joseph and the Burial.

4) Therefore the “sabbath” in Jn19:31 AND Lk23:54b, ALSO “was” “The Preparation .... which is the Fore-Sabbath” in Jn19:31a and Mk15:42/Mt27:57.

“The Preparation” “WAS”, in Jn19:31. It “was” the very “Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” in Mk15:42/Mt27:57, “since THAT DAY was, of great-sabbath’s status”, “of great-sabbath’s status” because ‘sabbath’ of the passover-season and FEAST-DAY ‘sabbath’ “according to the Scriptures” the passover-Scriptures.

The clause, “because that day of great-sabbath was”, does NOT refer to the passover’s “THIRD day according to the Scriptures” – resurrection-day – but it refers to the ‘sabbath’ that was ‘sabbath’ by ordinance “according to the Scriptures”. By ordinance “according to the Scriptures” the passover Scriptures, “was” it the SECOND day of passover’s season and FIRST day of Unleavened Bread EATEN— passover’s FEAST and first of seven ‘ordinary’ calendar-days. (The last of the seven days on 21st of the First Month also had ‘sabbath’s’ status.) It did not matter on which day of the week these ‘sabbaths’ fell, it was a ‘sabbath’ but ALWAYS, “BESIDES”, “the Sabbaths of the LORD” which were on the Seventh Day, Lv23:1-4.

THIS ‘sabbath’ of / on second day of passover and “great day sabbath”, was NOT “the Sabbath according to the (Fourth) COMMANDMENT” on which “the women began to rest” (Lk23:56b) after “the Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” would have ended “mid-afternoon the Sabbath pending”, Mk15:42 and Lk23:54-56a ....

THIS ‘sabbath’ of / on second day of passover and “great day sabbath”, was “That Day of sabbath”

1) that extended from “evening” in Mk15:42/Jn19:31; and

2) that lasted “night” and “that day” ....

“That (great) Day (sabbath)”

“NIGHT”

“DAY/

LIGHT”

15:42

to 46a

46b

to 47

27:57

to 59

to 61

23:50

to 53a

53b

to 56a

19:31/38

to 40

to 42

and ....

3) that UNTIL “by the time of the Jew’s preparations” “as the Sabbath drew on” in Jn19:42/Lk23:54, “was”;

4) and that ONLY ENDED as soon as “the women began to rest the Sabbath” in Lk23:56a.

“.... this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan ....” and

1) “was”, “that (ordinary week-) day” (Jn19:31) BEGINNING—

“.... this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan ....” and

2) “was”, “The Preparation .... which is the Fore-Sabbath” (Mk15:42/Jn19:31) BEGINNING—

“.... this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan ....” and

3) “was .... That Great Day of sabbath” (Jn19:31) BEGINNING—

“.... this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan ....” and ....

4) FROM “by the time of the Jew’s preparations .... as the Sabbath drew on” in Jn19:42/Lk23:54, “was” ENDING—

“.... this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan ....” and

5) “was” ENDING UNTIL BEFORE Lk23:56b.

THIS ‘sabbath’ “DAY of great-sabbath’s esteem” – Friday – IMMEDIATELY PRECEDED “The Sabbath according to the (Fourth) Commandment” that would have had begun when “the women had begun to rest” Friday-night-Saturday, Lk23:56b. NO DAY OCCURRED IN BETWEEN THESE ‘sabbaths’ and only “servile work” was forbidden upon ‘DAYS of great-sabbath’s esteem’, so that the women were not only allowed to prepare spices on it, but in fact all duties of passover’s sabbaths were mandatory. Joseph acted upon “That Day .... because it was a great day of sabbath” and “as was the custom of the Jews to bury” even “according to the Scriptures”. [“Custom” – Apollinaris uses the word “calculation” for ‘custom’, definitely the passover-calculation See study, ‘Apollinaris’.]

The first ‘sabbath’ in ‘back-to-back’ sequence – Friday - was AN ORDINARY WEEK-DAY distinguished by,

1) the fact that it ALSO “was That Great Day of sabbath’s esteem” having been ‘PASSOVER’S sabbath’ according to the Law; and by

2) the fact “It was The Preparation .... which is the Fore-Sabbath” – the Sixth Day of the week.

1) ‘Sabbaton epefohsken’ seen Nominative – Subject is Active –, the FIRST in ‘back-to-back’ sequence ‘sabbath’ (the ‘Friday’), was the “Sabbath (that) drew on mid-afternoon”— in which case it was the Friday’s “Preparation’s-Day” Lk23:54a = “That Day Great-sabbath” that “by the time of the Jews’ preparations” Jn19:42 “began ending towards the Sabbath”.

2) ‘Sabbaton epefohsken’ seen Accusative – Subject is Passive –, the SECOND in ‘back-to-back’ sequence ‘sabbath’ (the ‘Saturday’), was the “Sabbath according to the (Fourth) Commandment” Lk23:56b that in 54b, “drew on” and had not yet begun— “The Sabbath” which “the women according to the (Fourth) Commandment began to REST” Lk23:56a “as soon as / by the time of the Jews’ preparations” Jn19:42, “the Jews’ preparations” was OVER.

“The time of the Jews’ preparations” Jn19:42 was from 3 p.m. “mid-afternoon” when “The Sabbath began to draw near” Lk23:54b until 6 p.m. sunset ‘when evening’, “the women” would have “started to rest the Sabbath” Lk23:56b.

This sequence exactly resembles the Old Testament incidence of the first-ever passover, day for day, symbolic event for symbolic event on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the First Month:

Abib 14 in Jn19:14 “Preparation of the Passover”: Slaughter of sacrifice and removal of leaven as figure of Christ’s dying and death;

Abib 15 second day of passover generally in Jn19:31 “that day being great-day-sabbath” of passover and of first eating – “together with” the eating of the sacrifice – of unleavened bread loaves – Ex12:8 – “in that night to be solemnly observed”. That night, in which “that which remains” of the sacrifice after having been eaten, had to be removed out and burned the next day – figure of the interment of Christ’s bodily remains. Ex12:10b.

Abib 15 – counted and observed from the first day of the First Month observed from the new moon first after spring equinox, and therefore afterwards on any day of the week landing, a ‘sabbath’ the passover’s sabbath day.

Abib 16 – figure of Jesus’ Resurrection, “the third day” of prophecy and passover in particular, and in Lv23:11,15 “the day after the sabbath” of passover (See book 1/1, ‘Crucifixion’, par. 5.1.1.6.1.3.2. Out on the 15th and In on the 16th Nisan and App. p. 325f.)

SDA:

“Note that a preparation day is the day before a Sabbath and so called because it is the day used to prepare for the Sabbath which is going to occur on the following day.

Luke 23:53-54 “And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.””

GE:

1) Abib 14 afternoon:

In the aftermath of the darkness and sudden light accompanied by “a great earthquake” and the bursting open of the graves when Jesus with a loud voice exclaiming, died, “everyone breast-beating, madly fled and left that scene” of the crosses forlorn. Lk23:48-49, Mt27:55-56.

2) Abib 15 after sunset “evening”:

It since Joseph appeared on the scene “now” was in the night after the pandemonium at the crosses on the day before. When Joseph (as Luke says) “suddenly appeared” (23:50a), “It had been evening already since it was The Preparation already”, Mk15:42/Mt27:57/Jn19:31/38.

3) Abib 15 after “evening”, “night”:

Lk23:53a.... The first sentence in this verse stops after where it is said that Joseph “took it (the body) down and wrapped it in linen.” It was the night before the body the next day would be laid in the tomb.

It “now” was the night after the Jews have collected themselves again so that they could eat their passover meal, cf. Jn18:28 with 19:31 (earlier, that night). (Ex12:8)

It “now” was in the night “after these things” of the Jews’ asking Pilate about the crucified, when only Joseph could go in to ask Pilate for the body, for to bury it.

It “now” was night, Joseph only beginning to undertake .... “And he took (the body) down, and wrapped it in linen”— Lk23:53a.

4) Abib 15 after midnight “night”:

“Nicodemus came there with myrrh”; “they treated the body”; “no bone shall be broken”, “great cry”, midnight woes of Egypt’s prophetic scenes!

5) Abib 15 after sunrise morning:

“The women followed in the procession.”

6) Abib 15 “mid-afternoon”:

Thus ONLY THE NEXT DAY could Joseph FINISH to bury the body of Jesus: “And he LAID (the body) in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.” Now only was “that day”, Friday, “That Great Day-sabbath” and “The Preparation (ending) whilst the sabbath drew on.” Only at this stage “by the time of the Jews’ preparations”, Jn19:42, was “that day beginning ending towards the Sabbath”— Imperfect, Lk23:54.

SDA:

“The Hebrew day begins and ends at sunset as the Bible makes plain and Jews practice even today.

Genesis 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

Leviticus 23:32 “It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall you celebrate your sabbath.””

GE:

So is it. Why do you REFUSE this very principle and truth applied in Mk15:42/Mt27:57/Jn19:31/38? Why is it you will not see the beginning of the “evening” and of the “night” and of “That Day” in Mk15:42/Mt27:57/Jn19:31/38? Because you will not see the beginning of “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath”; the beginning of “Preparation and That-Great-Day-sabbath”, in Mk15:42/Mt27:57/Jn19:31/38. That only, is why— you will not allow Abib 15 start where the Bible says it was supposed to start and where to end!

SDA:

“So Jesus died at 3pm and was buried on the preparation day (the day before the Sabbath) before sunset, which would begin THE Sabbath day....”

GE:

Jesus did not die “AND”, was buried on the preparation day the day before the Sabbath before sunset. Jesus died at 3pm on Abib 14, “and everybody left and went back, completely confused”. At least three hours later on and after sunset and after “It had become evening already and The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” AND AFTER the morning-part of the night and morning-part of the day and halve the part of afternoon – after ANOTHER 15 hours – was He “buried on the preparation day (the day before the Sabbath) before sunset, which would begin THE Sabbath day.”

It is going to help you nothing to keep on repeating Joseph buried Jesus before sunset the same day He was crucified on; Joseph did NOT bury Jesus the same day that He was crucified on. Joseph began to undertake in the night after crucifixion-day, and finished undertaking “mid-afternoon” before the Fourth “Commandment-Sabbath”. That is, Joseph BURIED Jesus on FRIDAY —he took the body down in the night and he and Nicodemus prepared the body during the rest of the night. The following day they called the women to attend, who later sat over against the grave and looking inside, “saw how the body was laid”. Then all “left and went home”. All this happened during the whole duration of the Sixth Day and second day of passover and first of seven days of unleavened bread eaten from after sunset until three hours before sunset.

So it is obvious Jesus was crucified and died the day before Friday; was buried on Friday, and rose again from the dead on the day after Friday, “on the day after the sabbath” of the passover, Lv23:11,15, which of course, in that year and incidence of once for all Messianic Fulfilment, happened to be the Seventh Day Sabbath.

Jesus was therefore resurrected on the day “after the sabbath” – on the day after “That-Great-Day-sabbath” of the passover “according to the Scriptures” BOTH Old and New Testament, because Christ rose from the dead “In Sabbath’s fullness being in the very midst of daylight afternoon before the First Day of the week.” (That means every event and every Scripture is accepted LITERALLY.)

SDA:

“.... but which Sabbath day, the first day of Unleavened Bread or the Seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath or was it both? It was in fact both which we will now set out to prove.”

GE:

The ‘sabbath’ meant in Jn19:31 is THERE, explained and indicated perfectly, and in combination with its ‘parallel texts’, Mk15:42/Mt27:57, leaves no doubt as to which day of the week it was. Mark and John with use of indicative Verbs and Pronouns, and Participles and Adjectives and Adverbs and Idiom, DEFINE, WHICH, “THAT DAY of great-sabbath’s importance” was: “that day” mentioned in 31 as having been “The Preparation”. “The Preparation” IS SAID, “was”. And “SINCE it was The Preparation, BECAUSE THAT DAY WAS a great-day-of-a-sabbath”, it follows unambiguously and unmistakable and inevitably, that “that day” in Jn19:31 “was”, the very day Mark SAID, was “The Preparation WHICH IS THE FORE-SABBATH”.

You maintain “The Hebrew day begins and ends at sunset as the Bible makes plain and Jews practice even today.” Isn’t this truth, ‘proof’, for you, SDA, Jesus was crucified the day BEFORE he was buried? Why do you want to prove “that day” of Jesus’ BURIAL, to have been something it was not? To seek the favour of Rome and further the interests of a supposed Resurrection on Sunday?

SDA:

“Luke 23:52-56, 24:1-3 “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation [Friday], and the sabbath drew on. 55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and RESTED THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT. [Seventh day Saturday Sabbath] 24:1-3 Now upon the first day of the week [Sunday], very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.”

The women viewed the sepulchre and the body of Jesus on the preparation day (Friday evening before sunset) and then rested according to the fourth Commandment, on THE Saturday Sabbath. When the Saturday Sabbath had past, the women returned to the tomb at sunrise, and that day was the first day of the week (Sunday). Luke 23:55-56 says, “the women … beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and RESTED THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT.” After viewing the body of Jesus they had only enough time to prepare “spices and ointments” and then rested on THE Seventh day “Sabbath according to the Commandment.”

GE:

“.... on the preparation day (Friday evening before sunset)....” On any day ‘before sunset’ is not “evening”; it is ‘afternoon’, exactly what Lk23:54 says, “And that day was the preparation [Friday], and the sabbath drew on.” Literally, “mid-afternoon” or “mid-light(day)-was”-‘ep(i)-e-fohs-k-en’ > ‘epefohsken’.

“Evening” would have been ‘heh opsia’, and would have come after sunset.

“When the Saturday Sabbath had past (sic), the women returned to the tomb at sunrise, and that day was the first day of the week (Sunday).”

When the Sabbath (Saturday) had been past, the women returned to the tomb? They have not before been to the tomb? They also did not go to the tomb when the Sabbath had passed; three of the women bought spices as soon as the Sabbath was over. Mk16:1. Several women went to the tomb after midnight on Sunday morning; in fact, more than once, before “sunrise”!

“Luke 23:55-56 says, “the women … beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.” Mark and Matthew though, does not say “the women … beheld”; they say, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses” ONLY. They were “the women who came with Him from Galilee (and who) followed the procession” to the sepulchre.

They at no stage, ever “view(ed) the body of Jesus” (SDA: “After viewing the body of Jesus ....”) Just before in verse 53a already, Luke mentions how Joseph (and Nicodemus) had “wrapped it (the body) in linen”. That they did long before in the night-hours of the Sixth Day; here (verse 55b, in the early afternoon) they progressed with the wrapped body towards the sepulchre, the women “following after”.

What a waste “now to prove .... that in fact .... the first day of Unleavened Bread”, was “the Seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath”. Nothing and no word in these texts ‘prove’ anything of the sort!

You have NO reason to allege “they had only enough time to prepare “spices and ointments” and then rested”; you have no right to falsely CREATE the impression there scarcely was enough time for the women to prepare spices and ointments. You artfully create a lack of time by shoving the Burial in between 3 p.m. when Jesus died and before when the women would have gone home to before sundown prepare their spices. But it clearly says in Jn19:42 they laid Jesus’ body in the grave “by the time of the Jews’ preparations”— beginning— which was “mid-afternoon” the exact same time that Luke noted Joseph had closed the grave and left and the women went home to prepare their spices. So when was Joseph supposed to have buried Jesus? O, he had enough time left on Friday afternoon? But the women not even had time to prepare a few spices?

The two Marys had enough time just as they had enough spices; as little as they needed to buy spices on Friday afternoon, as little needed the women to hasten for lack of time. It is a fabricated lie of every Sunday-resurrectionist to force the Burial onto the day of the Crucifixion so that they may reach Sunday for the Resurrection.

It is a fabricated lie of every Sunday-resurrectionist to make Friday the day of Crucifixion AND Burial, so that Saturday can be made ‘Still Saturday’, so that Sunday can be made Resurrection-day. It is a fabricated lie IN STEAD OF the truth, ‘Friday’ was “that day” of the Burial ONLY, and Thursday before it was the day of the Crucifixion ONLY, and the Sabbath after Friday and the Burial, was the day of the Resurrection.

SDA:

GE:

Who did ever allege Luke ‘referred’ to “Passover as THE Sabbath or (Passover) “according to the Commandment”? No one but SDA! The writer of Leviticus is it – not Luke – who ‘referred’ to ONE OF the passover-days as “the sabbath” of the passover, Lv23:11,15. That ‘sabbath’ of the passover was the second day on the passover calendar, Abib 15, and (as has been said above already), since it was determined astrometrically from the first day of the First Month (Ex13:10, 12:2, Lv23:4) – it could fall on any day of the week, the ‘Commandment-Sabbath’ included.

The only question in this instance in the Gospels of Jesus’ last passover remaining, is, On which day of the week eventually did the passover’s sabbath, fall? The Gospels give answer: “Since it was The PREPARATION WHICH IS the Fore-Sabbath .... because THAT DAY was a great-day-sabbath”. Since “That Day”, “it was beginning”, “it is a night to be solemnly observed” and not wantonly waved!

Luke DOES “refer to Passover as THE Sabbath” in 54. He says that “day was Preparation-day and has turned towards the Sabbath”. Yes, “It was the Sabbath (Seventh Day that) was approaching”— all the same, “the day was” the same day as John’s in 19:31 and 42, “That Day was great day of a sabbath”!

The ‘passover’ that John refers to in 19:31, “That Day that was a great day of a sabbath”, “that day” Luke refers to in 23:54— “was” the very “DAY the Preparation” that “was” in BOTH Gospels.

Luke resembles John closely,

John has, “The Preparation was .... that day was” (‘paraskeueh ehn .... hehmera ekeinou ehn),

· “the day” (‘heh hehmera’),

· “the day was / would be .... (‘heh hehmera ehn’)

BEGINNING (Ingressive Aorist),

· “Preparation was / would be” (‘paraskeyeh ehn’)

BEGINNING (Ingressive Aorist),

· “since indeed (it) was / would be The Preparation” (‘epei paraskeyeh ehn’),

· “Therefore .... since indeed (it) was / would be Preparation” (‘oun .... epei paraskeyeh ehn’),

· “that day” (‘hemera ekeinou’),

· “that day was / would be” (‘ehn heh hemera ekeinou’),

· “because that day was / would be” (‘ehn gar heh hemera ekeinou’),

· “because great that day was / would be” (‘ehn gar megaleh heh hemera ekeinou’),

· “because great that day was / would be of the sabbath” (‘ehn gar megaleh heh hemera ekeinou tou sabbatou’).

Luke has, “Thé day Preparation indeed sabbath was” (‘kai hehmera ehn paraskeyehs kai sabbaton’).

1) “(the) day” (‘hehmera’),

2) “was / has / had been” (‘hehmera ehn’)

3) ENDING – ‘ehn’ interpreted Imperfect or Constative Aorist,

“the day was / has / had been” (‘hehmera ehn’) (impossible to say “would be”).

4) “the Preparation day (‘paraskeuehs’)

5) “was / has / had been” (‘ehn paraskeuehs’)

3) instead of beginning, ENDING – ‘ehn’ interpreted Imperfect or Constative Aorist,

“The day was / has / had been Preparation” (‘hehmera ehn paraskeuehs’) (impossible to say “would be”).

“Indeed The Preparation was also a sabbath” — ‘kai hehmera ehn paraskeuehs kai sabbaton’.

“Indeed The Preparation was sabbath withdrawing / running out” — ‘kai hehmera ehn paraskeuehs kai sabbaton epéfohsken’.

Luke speaks of the identical day John speaks of, and both speak of “that day / thé day” that has been a “sabbath”; John saying it “was / would be because / since it had begun”; Luke saying it “was ending” because it almost – with three more hours left – “had been”. Lk23:54/Jn19:42.

“That day great day of sabbath” would finally have come to an end as soon as the women would “begin to rest the Sabbath according to (Fourth) Commandment” Lk23:56b, after sunset.

SDA:

“Luke would never refer to Passover as THE Sabbath or “according to the Commandment” and so can only be referring to one of the Ten Commandments of God being the fourth Commandment, the Sabbath of the Lord. This being the case, the woman would on the next available chance return to embalm the body of Jesus. Which day was this? “And very early in the morning the first day of the week.””

GE:

Lk23:54 implies the weekly “Sabbath approaching” whether Accusative or Nominative, Active or Passive, whether “sabbath” be Subject or Object. Abib 15 after three hours would close and Burial ‘sundown’ three hours be past— and Crucifixion and death, twenty four plus three.

Their FIRST ‘available chance’. It would not be their “next chance” since they have had no chance before. It was their last ‘chance’ for the reasons you have just mentioned.

The woman on the first available ‘chance’ in fact returned, to embalm the body of Jesus. Which day was this? “And very early in the morning the first day of the week.” And what happened? SDA and cohorts say then the Resurrection happened, and to say it, they had to PUSH Friday’s END forward virtually onto the Sabbath itself. “The women viewed the sepulchre and the body of Jesus on the preparation day (Friday evening before sunset) and then rested according to the fourth Commandment, on THE Saturday Sabbath.” (“.... before sunset” therefore must be untrue; the women did not begin resting “before sunset”; they began to rest ON the sabbath, i.e., after sunset.) The NAB does the same thing, by wedging in the word ‘sabbath’ into Jn19:42, like this: “Because the Sabbath-day for the Jews almost has begun / virtually has started.”

On which side of the dividing line between The Preparation and The Sabbath does the wedge eventually protrude? Whichever side, not a second came in between the line and the rest of the day it emerged on. So they killed the whole “Time-of-Preparations” that as portion of the Sixth Day is supposed to represent the whole of it.

It is the “Time-of-Preparations” that gives the Sixth Day its name in the Gospels, the SUBSTANTIAL portion of it, the last THREE FULL HOURS of “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” for these very three full hours!

O how they mess with your Word, o God, their cohorts and the Seventh-day Adventists!

SDA:

“The first day of the week is Sunday which follows the Seventh day of the week which is the Seventh day Sabbath.

If Jesus was crucified on Wednesday and this was Passover (Nisan 14) then Thursday would be the Passover Sabbath (Nisan 15) and 72 literal hours would take us to sunset on THE Sabbath, the Seventh day of the week. What would have been the first available time for the woman to return with their “spices and ointments” and embalm the body of Jesus? Their first available chance would have been EARLY Friday morning, the preparation day before the Seventh day Sabbath, but as we have seen this was not the case because we are told that their first chance was on the “first day of the week [Sunday], VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared.”

If Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, there is absolutely no way the woman would have procrastinated two days before opening the tomb on Sunday to embalm His body as it would have stunk of decay as this would have been the fourth day in the tomb. This is what Martha said of her own brother Lazarus.

John 11:39 “Jesus said, Take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he has been dead four days.”

To make the Wednesday theory fit, we would have to come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they did not take opportunity on Friday to embalm the body of Jesus and find ways of manipulating the Word of God to explain “resting on THE Sabbath according to the Commandment.” It does not fit and becomes a stretch of the imagination to try and force this theory into place that we will see soon is impossible.”

GE:

Nevertheless, to make the Friday theory fit, you have to come up with all sorts of side-issues and find excuses for them like why the women did not embalm the body of Jesus whenever, but must manipulate the Word of God to say the women’s “resting on THE Sabbath according to the Commandment” meant that God was as idle as the women were on the Sabbath and therefore would not have raised Christ from the dead on it. By any stretch of the imagination you must create detractions to force the First Day-resurrection theory into the Scriptures which we time and again have seen is impossible. In other words, you have said nothing.

SDA:

“Luke 23:52-56 .... THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT .... (was) A Double Sabbath If Friday was the day of crucifixion then this day would have to be a preparation day for not only Passover but also for the Seventh day Sabbath of the Lord and would therefore be a double Sabbath. Can we prove this from the Word of God for even further evidence?”

GE:

“If Friday was the day of crucifixion then this day would have to be a preparation day for not only Passover but also for the Seventh day Sabbath ....” which is “this day”? You must be speaking of Friday. If Friday was the day of crucifixion then FRIDAY would have to be a preparation day for not only Passover but also for the Seventh day Sabbath ....”, Yes! But now it does not SAY “Friday was the day of crucifixion”; it is SDA’s fabrication. It says, “Since The Preparation .... because That Day was a great day of sabbath.” Just that, and that, LONG AFTER the LAST events and scenes at, and leaving and abandoning of, the cross and The Crucified.

It SAYS – on the morning of Crucifixion-day

BEFORE the Crucifixion –

“It was The Preparation of the Passover” in John 19:14;

and AFTER the Crucifixion and AFTER that Jesus had died

and AFTER “everybody had gone home” Luke 23:47-49

and AFTER “all” had “forsake(n)” Him

and AFTER the Jews had had their Passover-Meal Jn28:18/19:31

and AFTER “evening had had come already” Mk15:42/Mt27:57

and AFTER “It now was The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath already” Mk15:42/Jn19:31,

and “AFTER these things” Jn19:38 of the Jew’s request,

“there arrived there Joseph from Arimathea”.

And therefore does it follow like day the night and night the day, FRIDAY “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” was “That Day” AFTER “The Preparation of the Passover” and AFTER the Crucifixion. “Friday was” NOT “the day OF crucifixion”; the day before Friday was “the day of crucifixion”, and then this day Friday would have to be a preparation day for the Sabbath of the week sequentially, “according to the Scriptures” “the sabbath” of passover and interment of “that which remaineth” of The Sacrifice.

It’s your mistake, SDA, not to distinguish in sequence there are TWO, ‘sabbaths’ involved within the confines of your referred Scripture, “Luke 23:52-56”.

One:

“THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT”, 56b.

The OTHER ‘sabbath’, IMPLIED, but also MENTIONED, which

EXTENDED ....

FROM Lk23:50—

“when suddenly, Joseph” / Mk15:42 / Mt27:57 / Jn19:31,

TO Lk23:54—

“Now (with three hours to go) That Day had been Preparations’-Day mid-afternoon when Sabbath was-a-coming”, and

Jn19:42, “BY THE TIME OF the Jews’ preparations” which is from 3 p.m. on Fridays ....

.... and beyond, to ....

when the OTHER “Sabbath which is going to occur on the following day .... would begin at sundown”— three hours later, 6 p.m., when the women “began to rest the Sabbath according to the Commandment” the Fourth Commandment, ‘kata tehn entolehn’, Lk23:56b.

“Since it was The Preparation .... and because that day was a great-day-sabbath’s-day” BEFORE Jesus’ interment (John 19:31a), it “Now having been evening already”, “was The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” beginning BEFORE Joseph’s undertaking! (Mk15:42)

“This day” – as with Joseph’s undertaking – “since” and in between and throughout its night and three quarters of its daytime, began and ended “That-Day-great-day-of-sabbath’s-status”.

“By the time of the Jews’ preparations” (Jn19:42)

after “Joseph (had closed the grave and had gone home)

mid-afternoon when Sabbath was-a-coming-on”

(Mt27:60b, Lk23:53b-54), it

STILL was “Preparation and .... great-day-sabbath’s-day” (Jn19:31)

WHEN the “Preparation” STILL “the women left for home and prepared spices and ointments” (Lk23:56a) until when

NO LONGER “it was The Preparation”, but

“they had begun to rest the Sabbath according to the (Fourth) Commandment” after the Sabbath would have had begun with sunset. (Lk23:56b)

Joseph undertook to bury and finished Burial, and, the women after the Burial began to prepare and finished to prepare, on one and the same day of ‘Friday’ and well before its ending moment with sunset.

Joseph’s undertaking took the better part —

six to seven eighths, or,

18 to 21 hours, or,

about 6-9 p.m. on Thursday-night to exactly “mid-afternoon” 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon, or,

from after Mk15:42/Mt27:57/Jn19:31b

and lasted until Lk23:54/Jn19:42

of “that-day-of-great-sabbath-Preparation-Fore-Sabbath”

before Lk23:56b/Mk16:1.

“The approaching Sabbath” in Lk23:54, was THE NOT YET PRESENT “Sabbath according to the (Fourth) Commandment” in verse 56b.

1) By having – with three hours to go – said, “Now that day was / had been Preparations’-Day mid-afternoon when / while Sabbath was-a-coming”, Luke wrote about the same day which John wrote about when he wrote, “Since being The Preparation because that-day-a great-day-sabbath’s-day was / would be”.

2) Luke retrospectively implies, alludes to and mentions, “The Preparation-great-day-sabbath” which John prospectively mentioned as the “Preparation and ‘That-Day-Great-Day’-sabbath” that, as Mark and Matthew are saying, “had had already begun .... EVENING HAVING BEGUN.

3) Luke with merely “sabbath” meant, and made mention of “The Preparation-great-day-sabbath” which John had spoken of and that “was running out” or “had begun to run out” at the time when Luke makes mention of. Yes, “The Preparation-great-day-sabbath”.

4) Luke in Lk23:56 – in it’s last clause, 56b – wrote of the weekly Sabbath. The Seventh Day Sabbath would begin after the three hours of “the Jews’ preparations”, Jn19:42. The Seventh Day Sabbath would begin as soon as “the women according to the Commandment” the Fourth Commandment would have “had begun to rest on the Sabbath”.

5) In those three hours left on Friday afternoon

AFTER Joseph had closed the grave and

everybody “had gone home”,

the two Marys who alone attended the entombment –

Lk23:55=Mk15:42/Mt27:61 –

BEFORE “they had begun to rest the Sabbath”,

“prepared spices and ointments”.

6) “After the Sabbath (the second and last in back to back sequence and ‘weekly Sabbath’) had gone through” (Mk16:1), the two Marys “AND SALOME” – for Salome’s sake – “bought spices so that WHEN THEY WOULD GO they might anoint Him.”

7) WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE SABBATH?

“.... EXPLAINED THE ANGEL AND TOLD THE WOMEN ....”

Mt28:5, 1-4!

8) WHEN DID the women “go that they might anoint Him”? Most naturally of course when “carrying their spices they came— deepest morning (of night)” as Luke and only Luke recorded the plain and truthful facts of the night AFTER the Resurrection.

SDA:

“In the Bible, Passover is “always” called Passover and the Seventh day Sabbath is “always” called the Sabbath.”

GE:

I cannot think that you wrote your claim with thought or knowledge.

SDA:

“John 19:31 below says “THE Sabbath” with the word “THE” being the definite article, that is, not “A sabbath” but “THE Sabbath.” Hence this is and can only be the weekly Sabbath.”

GE:

No fine; nobody is upset about it. The Wednesday-crucifixionists don’t know anything; forget them. Jesus was crucified on Thursday, buried on Friday, and resurrected, quote: “On the Sabbath”. Then on Sunday after-sunrise-morning “early”, “risen, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, first (of all)”.

SDA:

“John 19:14 confirms it is a double sabbath. This day is not only the preparation for “THE Sabbath” but also the preparation for “THE Passover” and why it is called a high day.

John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!”

GE:

John 19:14 ‘confirms’ nothing of the kind. On the contrary, it ‘confirms’ the time and day of Jesus’ crucifixion as you very well should know, and everything that had happened BEFORE “the preparation for “THE Sabbath”” had begun when only,

Joseph turned up, Mk15:42, Mt27:57, Jn19:31, and Lk23:50.

Mk15:42, Mt27:57, Jn19:31, and Lk23:50, ‘confirm’ everything that had been done by Joseph AFTER “when evening it had become”. Nothing before it; nothing of the Crucifixion!

These texts, Mk15:42, Mt27:57, Jn19:31, and Lk23:50,

‘confirm’ that “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” (Friday) ALSO had been “that day .... of great-day-sabbath”, the passover-sabbath and Feast High Day, and, that it “Now, had begun already” and for most part “now” was still lying ahead.

Important of this passover and Feast High- or Head-Day-sabbath Abib 15, was,

1) that it uninterruptedly was – with no other day in between – the day AFTER “the first-day-(of-passover)-when-without-leaven they always had to kill the passover sacrifice” Abib 14;

2) that it was the day upon which the passover sacrifice was EATEN / FEASTED;

3) that it was the first of seven days, and the (first) “sabbath” of passover upon which unleavened bread

was eaten;

And MOST important of this passover and Feast High- or Head-Day-sabbath Abib 15, was,

4) that it uninterruptedly was – with no other day in between – the day before “the day after the sabbath” (Lv23:11,15) — that it was the day before Abib 16 of passover’s First Sheaf Wave Offering, so that never otherwise Abib 16 day of First Sheaf Wave Offering

was “the day after the (passover’s) sabbath-day”.

So important is the Prophetic chronological sequence-relation of this Feast- High- or Head-Day-sabbath Abib 15 to its preceding and following passover-days, that truth comes of its proper being taken account of, or lie of its improper being taken account of.

SDA:

“If Friday was the day of crucifixion then this day would have to be a preparation day for not only Passover but also for the Seventh day Sabbath of the Lord and would therefore be a double Sabbath.”

GE:

That is strange? If Friday were the day of crucifixion then

Friday would have had to be “The Preparation of the Passover”

because the day that Jesus was crucified on in Jn19:14, is in fact in Mk14:12/17, Mt26:17/22 and Lk22:7/14, called

“the first day (of passover) they had to kill the passover /

the first day (of passover) they always killed the passover /

the first day (of passover) without leaven / leaven was removed”. But here in Mk15:42/Mt27:57 and Jn19:31//Lk23:50 Friday – having begun Thursday night with “evening” after sunset – is being called “The Preparation .... since (it) having been That Day of sabbath’s-greatness” of the passover – Abib 15 and SECOND day of ‘greater passover’ because it was the first of “seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread” and the first of the two sabbaths of Unleavened Bread Feast-days during ‘passover-week’.

Friday was NOT “the day of crucifixion”, but ‘Friday’ was “That Day” AFTER “the day of crucifixion”!

And there’s nothing wrong with the OTHER FACT that Friday was both Friday and “The Preparation Day” – which had nothing to with the first mentioned fact the day Jesus had been crucified on, was called “The Preparation of the Passover” – “the preparation day” “OF” ONLY, “the passover”.

It therefore is not Friday that ‘was called’ “The Preparation of the Passover”; it’s Friday that ‘was called’ “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath”. “The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month ...” so then it MUST be ‘Thursday’ which was the day of the Crucifixion “and which was called the Passover”.

Even through your quotation from Josephus, SDA, “The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month ...”, you are hiding your, own, deceit. “The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover ....” “that”, Pronoun for “The feast” with which you mean identically “The feast of unleavened bread” because you insinuate – nay, rather assert – the single day that the sacrifice was both killed and eaten on – the day of unleavened bread’s first eating.

This is the second time you deliberately ignored and denied, the Bible-day does not continue over sunset; the Bible-day stops before sunset. You here reckon ‘Friday’ like the heathen do, so that the day the sacrifice was killed on also can be the day that it was eaten, and the first day unleavened bread was eaten, also was the day of Crucifixion. All confused and corrupted!

SDA:

“Nisan ... is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month ... and which was called the Passover. ... The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days.”

GE:

The fourteenth day of the month that was ‘succeeded’ by “The feast of unleavened bread (that) falls on the fifteenth day of the month”, was indeed a day of the greater “feast” Nothing special or ‘unleavened’ was eaten on Abib 14; just usual food. “Nisan fourteenth .... called the Passover” was ‘feast of passover’ just like any other of the eight ‘ordinary days’ of ‘Passover’s Feast’ except it was not one of the “Days of Unleavened Bread”. So, “Nisan fourteenth” is not passover called “The feast”! Nisan fourteenth never, is called “The Feast”. In fact, it is Abib 14 that stands distinguished as “The Passover”.

It was NOT as were Jesus BOTH crucified and died, and buried, on “Nisan fourteenth called the Passover”! Josephus does not – like you, SDA and co. – say the Burial belonged to “Nisan fourteenth called the Passover”. The Burial belonged to “The Feast”, Abib 15. It means you are placing the Burial of the weekly Sabbath, SDA, by placing the Crucifixion of Friday.

Although Josephus not directly says on which day of passover Jesus was buried, the Gospels directly say his Burial belonged with, and to, “The feast of unleavened bread (that) falls on the fifteenth day of the month”. In fact, so does all the Scriptures Old and New Testament say concerning the passover’s second day and first Day of Unleavened Bread eaten— passover’s ‘sabbath-day’.

Several paragraphs, events and time-indications BACK in context in all four Gospels, the day of the Crucifixion is recorded as having been “The Preparation of the Passover” both through implications of events and through being mentioned in Jn19:14 and in 13:1 called the day “before the Feast”. Therefore there must exist definite CHRONOLOGICAL SPACE BETWEEN the two ‘Preparation-Days’. And where two ‘Preparation-days’ are, there must also be two ‘sabbaths’, of course; but they need not be a “double-sabbath”; they don’t need to coincide.

A ‘sabbath’ (OT or NT) need not coincide with another ‘sabbath’ – need not be a “double-sabbath” – to be a “great-day-sabbath” or more precisely, “a-day-of-great-day-sabbath” or even more precisely and correct: “That-Day-of-great-day-sabbath”. It needed to be “the sabbath” NOT “The Sabbath according to the (Fourth) Commandment”, and it was, “the sabbath” of the passover, also called “Feast of Unleavened Bread”, or just, “The Feast”.[[And, just, “That Day” – see study, ‘That-Day-Great-Day-of-sabbath fifteenth day of the First Month’]]

It could happen that a “day-of-great-day-sabbath” occur on the ‘weekly Sabbath’. But in Jn19:31/Lk23:54 every indication and implication shows it was the incidence of the Sixth Day having been “That-Day-of-Great-Day-sabbath” that made that “It was evening already The Preparation which is the Fore-sabbath now .... since being THAT DAY of sabbath’s greatness”— one and the only “That Great Day” “according to the Scriptures” of the PASSOVER!

Not only are separate ‘sabbaths’ clearly demarcated; separate “Preparations” are also clearly demarcated as having belonged to the different ‘sabbaths’ IN BACK TO BACK SEQUENCE involved in these Scriptures.

So our debate is reduced to were the ‘sabbaths’ coinciding of were they consecutive?

Our very case in hand is clear ‘proof’ SDA has got it wrong “In the Bible, Passover is “always” called Passover and the Seventh day Sabbath is “always” called the Sabbath.” Our very case in hand is clear ‘proof’ SDA has got it wrong that “.... we (can) prove this from the Word of God for even further evidence .... “a sabbath” (always is) “THE Sabbath” (and) hence this is and can only be the weekly Sabbath”.

In John 19:14, “And it was the preparation OF the Passover”, the day involved – Crucifixion-day – is ONLY “The Preparation OF the Passover” “when they always killed the passover” Lk22:7/14, because it was “The Preparation” for ONLY “the Passover” in distinction from “The Preparation WHICH is The Fore-Sabbath” Mk15:42 of “the Jews’ preparations” Jn19:42.

The “Preparation of the Passover” was no ‘high day sabbath’ of passover at whichever stage in its history. “The Preparation of the Passover” in the New Testament (as above) is in Jn19:14, Mk14:12/17, Mt26:17/22 and Lk22:7/14 very clearly identifiable for having been

“the first day (of passover) without leaven / leaven was removed /

the first day (of passover) they had to kill the passover /

the first day (of passover) they always killed the passover ....

NEVER “that which remains of it you must burn” or “take out with you”.

Where John writes about “that-day-great-day-of-a-sabbath”, it is AFTER all events and circumstances, or time and DAY OF the Crucifixion; it is no longer, John 19:14. That day which in Jn19:31 “now was That-Day-Great-Day-of-a-sabbath” was that day which in Mk15:42, “Now having been evening already was The Preparation WHICH is The Fore-Sabbath” : “when suddenly there came this man Joseph”, Lk23:50.

John 19:31, Mk15:42/Mt27:57 and Lk23:50, ARE NOT the ‘parallel’ or equivalent texts they are being made by interpreters of Luke 23:54-56 / John 19:42! John 19:31, Mk15:42/Mt27:57, Lk23:50 marks the beginning phase or first three hours of the Sixth Day after sunset; Luke 23:54-56 / John 19:42 marks the Sixth’s Day’s ending phase or last three hours before sunset.

1) From its beginning until its ending, ‘That Day-sabbath’ of and in between Jn19:31 and Lk23:54, followed the Crucifixion and came after Jn19:14.

2) And from its beginning until its ending, ‘That Day-sabbath’ of and in between Jn19:31 and Lk23:54, preceded and came before Lk23:56b.

3) And from its beginning until three hours before its end sundown, ‘That Day-sabbath’ of and in between Jn19:31 and Lk23:54, preceded and came before the rest of it from “by the time of the Jews’ preparations”, “mid-afternoon”, until Lk23:56b that the women “began to rest the Sabbath” and Jn19:42 “by the time of the Jews’ preparations” ENDED.

The UNIVERSAL flaw in people’s and in traditional thinking is that they do not realise this, or ignore it, or deny it, or defy it, or corrupt it in order to adapt it in order to fit and support their traditional and dogmatic misconception of a Sunday-resurrection. Like here, SDA and SDA brothers and sisters and Sunday-friends are all united in doing .... by for example having changed “Now evening was come / had come” KJV, NKJV, ML, RS, into, “Late noon” NAB, “late afternoon” LB.

SDA:

“John 19:14 confirms it is a double sabbath. This day is not only the preparation for “THE Sabbath” but also the preparation for “THE Passover” and why it is called a high day.

John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!”

John 19:31 “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

And so the Gospel of John informs us this double preparation day was in fact before a “high day”, that is a double Sabbath.”

GE:

“John 19:14” is NOT “John 19:31”, and SDA alleging “And so the Gospel of John informs us this double preparation day was in fact before a “high day”, that is a double Sabbath”, is SDA unashamedly lying! Throwing the two texts next each other does not make them speak of the same day! It only disannuls what God has spoken in between them as were His Words like man’s dispensable – destined for the rubbish-bin.

Irrelevant Scriptures are being put together in order to deceive and lead the attention away from the Scriptures that according to context and own content should be associated, be brought together, and be appreciated together. But instead irrelevant Scriptures are being concocted and cooked up TO DESTROY the truth, Christ rose from the dead “ON THE SABBATH” and was Buried on the day in between his crucifixion and resurrection.

SDA:

“This is what “The People’s New Testament (1891) by B. W. Johnson” quotes:

“John 19:31 - That sabbath was a high day. A double Sabbath, both the weekly Sabbath and a passover Sabbath. It was usual Roman custom to leave crucified bodies on the cross, but out of deference to their wishes Pilate consents that the legs of the victims should be broken in order to hasten death, so that the bodies might be taken down and buried. The legs were crushed with a hammer like a sledge and the shock would bring speedy death.”

GE:

Where are your words starting, SDA, and Johnson’s, ending? “That sabbath was a high day” is not, “That sabbath was .... a double Sabbath, both the weekly Sabbath and a passover Sabbath”! You are simply, SDA, dishonest.

“.... out of deference to their wishes Pilate consents ....” It was not “out of deference to their wishes” that Pilate, consented, but out of the JEWS’ deference to their ‘custom’ of their passover feast day and great symbol of their independence, that THEY, begged Pilate SO AS to have the crucified bodies not left on the crosses during its devotional hours “since .... THAT DAY WAS GREAT DAY SABBATH” of their passover to the Jews – their motive and motivation.

“.... so that the bodies might be taken down and buried.”

No, the Jews’ idea was not “that the bodies might be taken down” merely; and least, “that the bodies might be .... buried”. The Jews’ idea was that the bodies and the crosses should be removed from sight altogether “SINCE .... that day was great day sabbath” of their passover to the Jews.

Why? How, would the Jews the morning only riot to have Jesus crucified, but scarcely was He hung, or they – the day barely “mid-afternoon” – beg Pilate (who was very much surprised that He was dead already Mk15:44) to have Him removed again — which was why they asked the legs of the crucified to be broken? Why?

You Friday crucifixionists allege the Jews because they were in a hurry because the sun was just about to set, demanded of Pilate that the crucified be taken out of sight. For what else have their legs broken than to have them die sooner in order to sooner have them removed BECAUSE OF THE IMMINENT SUNSET? If then the Jews because the sun was just about to set were in a hurry, why did they not wake up much sooner?

Because it was not the setting sun that worried them.

In fact, suppose the Jews were inattentive enough to allow the day to virtually pass by before they went to Pilate with their demand, how much time after them remained for Joseph to do what he obviously did at his leisure, definitely in no hurry without any interference or threat of anything? (The Jews only on Saturday morning found out about his doings!) And to have finished all so that the women still could return home and do their usual Sabbath’s preparations as well as get their spices and ointments ready for use (apparently for use after the Sabbath Day)? Then still, the same question remaining to be asked concerning Joseph, why could he not have foreseen and acted quicker? It is a ridiculous notion unrealistic of the real situation, which the Gospels make clear as the setting sun was visible, that nothing of all this took place while or before the sun went down, but only had begun “When now the evening had come and it already was the Preparation” and, that it exactly was “That Great Day of sabbath” that sounded the alarm for the Jews as well as Joseph.

No! The Jews asked because the “THAT DAY” WAS UPON THEM!

“The Jews therefore”, or, “The Jews no sooner”, or, “The Jews because it had become The Preparation .... and that day had been great-day-sabbath, asked”! HERE’S THE REASON!

1) The day of Crucifixion never was “The Feast”; the day they removed the bodies – day of the Burial – was, “The Feast” Jn13:1~31.

2) The day of Crucifixion was “before the Feast” Jn13:1; the day they removed the bodies – day of the Burial – was “ON the Feast” Mt26:5.

3) The day of Crucifixion was, “The Preparation of the Passover” Jn19:14; the day they removed the bodies – day of the Burial – “was The Preparation .... the Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” Mk15:42.

The day they removed the bodies – day of the Burial – was no longer, the day of the Crucifixion.

1) The day the Jews asked Pilate on – the day they removed the bodies, day of the Burial – was, “The Feast”— that’s why they asked as soon as this day had started.

2) The day the Jews asked Pilate – the day they removed the bodies, day of the Burial – “now, was, That Day of the great day-sabbath” Jn19:31— that’s why they asked as soon as this day had started.

3) The day the Jews asked Pilate – the day they removed the bodies, day of the Burial – “now, was, The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath” Jn19:14— that’s why they asked as soon as this day had started.

The day Joseph and the Jews before him asked Pilate – the day of the Burial – “was The Preparation it having become evening already” Mk15:42— that’s why he, and they, asked as soon as this day had started.

1) “The day” Joseph had asked on – the day of the Burial – in the end “was, the Preparation reclining towards the Sabbath” Lk23:54— that’s why Joseph had asked as soon as this day had started.

2) “The day” Joseph had asked on – the day of the Burial – in the end “by the time of the Jews’ preparations because the grave was ready at hand, they laid Jesus there.” Jn19:42— that’s why Joseph had asked as soon as this day had started.

3) “The day” Joseph had asked on – the day of the Burial – they in the end and after it, “rested the Sabbath Day, according to the Commandment.” Lk23:56b— that’s why Joseph had asked as soon as this day had started.

For the Jews after the die is cast to try save the day is unimaginable. It is past ludicrous that suddenly this “great day sabbath” is almost spent like you Sunday crucifixionists say, before the Jews awoke to their dilemma! No, “The Feast” was just beginning, and the Jews immediately realised what it implied for their pride if on this national day of theirs that “King of the Jews” stayed hanging on that hill like the King of Ai after “the sun had come up”. [See study, ‘Buried before sunset’.]

The Jews acted from hatred and to save face, “since now it was The Preparation (beginning) and because that day was of great-day-sabbath’s-IMPORTANCE” to them. Left in public view ON THIS DAY of all days to the JEWS, those symbols of their bondage under Rome would be great embarrassment. So the Jews were left no choice but to go beg their Roman ruler a shameful, degrading favour, once again. Their foul deeds are returned upon them.

Definitely the Jews’ motive was not “that the bodies might be buried”. The Jews did not act out of compassion or respect. They knew what the fate of a crucified person was. Joseph acted out of compassion and respect, yes, because “he was a disciple of Jesus’”. But Joseph also acted because he minded “the custom / law of the Jews to bury”. Not even knowing, the Jews as well as Joseph did everything they did “that the Scriptures might be fulfilled”. Even Pilate. So Joseph undertook so that God’s will would be obeyed according to “His Eternal Purpose” and Council.

So all these factors and aspects militate against the traditional view of a burial immediately after the death by crucifixion of Jesus. MANY things first had to be arranged and done before Joseph could close that grave-entrance. Where commentators cut all corners, Joseph conscientiously bided his time.

SDA:

“For those who believe the Wednesday crucifixion theory, let’s just clarify these facts one more time so there can be no misunderstanding ....”

GE:

Don’t believe the Wednesday crucifixion theory; believe the facts.

SDA:

“For those who believe the Wednesday crucifixion theory, let’s just clarify these facts one more time so there can be no misunderstanding. Passover is ALWAYS called Passover and Passover is NEVER called “THE SABBATH” because obviously “THE SABBATH” is and can only be “THE SABBATH.””

GE:

Fact: Passover’s ‘sabbath’ which was not the Sabbath you want us to think it was, is called “the sabbath” in Lv23:11 and 15; and clearly “the sabbath” of the passover’s several passover-ordinary days was one of eight ordinary passover-days, “That Day” of Abib 15 Passover-Feast-Day— “That-Great-Day” of Abib 15 ‘Passover-Feast-Day’ and SECOND of passover’s eight ordinary, calendar, days.

The first passover-calendar day Abib 14, is passover. And yet another passover-calendar day, Abib 15, is passover; plus six more passover-calendar days not exactly of the same rank are passover, because Abib 15 is the first of seven ordinary passover-days when they ate unleavened loaves of bread. This “Abib 15” and the last of those seven ordinary days of the Days of Unleavened Bread Feast, “Abib 21”, were called “sabbaths”— ‘sabbaths’ of the passover’s Feast of Unleavened Bread— ‘sabbaths’ of the passover which were NOT “THE SABBATH”.

Another passover-ordinary exceptional day, was Abib 16, because, although it never by itself even as a passover-day was a ‘sabbath’ and therefore never was a “great-day-sabbath”, it was the most extra-the-ordinary of ordinary passover-days because it was the day of the bringing and waving before the LORD of the first sheaf offering “after the sabbath day (second day of passover)” (Abib 15). At the same time Abib 16 was the first of the fifty or seven times seven plus one ordinary days of ordinary passover-days to the peculiar because final passover-day of Pentecost.

So, simply the passover’s ‘sabbath’ was a ‘sabbath’ in its own right, and SDAs are simply ignorantly or wilfully denying the FACT JUST LIKE ARE SUNDAYWORSHIPPERS.

Another fact referred to in this discussions a few times already, was, that the calendar was determined by spring equinox and the first new moon after, so that

“the sabbath” BY “YEAR” AND “MONTH” AND “SEASON”, and,

“the Sabbath” BY “WEEK” OR “SEVEN” OR “REST”,

but seldom coincided to cause “a double sabbath” to incur.

Even the ‘fact’ of SDA’s own expression, “double sabbath”, implies and presupposes ‘sabbaths’ otherwise not coinciding, coinciding. So it’s a lot of nonsense “Passover is ALWAYS called Passover and Passover is NEVER called “THE SABBATH” because obviously “THE SABBATH” is and can only be “THE SABBATH””.

SDA:

“When the word “THE” is the definite article and hence exists in the original Greek text, then we know that when it literally says, “THE SABBATH” it is ALWAYS and can ONLY be the Lord's Seventh day Sabbath. So the evidence of this being a double Sabbath and hence a HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover,” which we know it has to be as Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb.”

GE:

Suppose you’re right by having ‘proved’ “When the word ‘THE’ is the definite article and hence exists in the original Greek text, then we know that when it literally says, ‘THE SABBATH’ it is ALWAYS and can ONLY be the Lord's Seventh day Sabbath .... as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover,” which we know it has to be as Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb”, then you or the evidence of this have not proved “‘a HIGH Sabbath’” even.

Two long paragraphs to “evidence”, NOTHING!

That was, assuming you’re right. Even when assuming you’re right, your ‘proofs’ are proven no more than verbose assumptions taken for granted for proofs. What if it’s not assumed you’re right but it’s faced you’re wrong ....?

SDA:

“And John 19:31 says it was the preparation also for “THE SABBATH.””

GE:

1) “Since The Preparation it was ....” in fact! “And already evening it had become since it was (The) Preparation WHICH IS The Fore-Sabbath ....” HOW CAN IT BE DOUBTED?!

2) But ‘it was the preparation’ NOT “also” ‘for “THE SABBATH”’— “it was (The) Preparation which is”, ONLY, ‘for “THE SABBATH”’ : “THE”, “Fore-Sabbath which is” Friday!

3) ‘It was the preparation’ ONLY, ‘for “THE SABBATH”’, NOT “also for” “Passover .... ALWAYS called Passover”. ‘It was the preparation’ ONLY, ‘for “THE SABBATH”’, NOT “also”, “this .... in John 19:14 .... that is the “Preparation of the Passover””.

SDA:

“The word “THE” is definitely the definite article and DOES exist in the Greek text. It is “THE SABBATH” and therefore can ONLY be referring to the Lord’s Seventh day Sabbath. So here is 100% conclusive proof that this is the Preparation day for Passover and the Preparation for “THE SABBATH” and hence beyond ALL doubt proves also that the Passover Sabbath and the Lord’s Seventh day Sabbath did fall on the same day.”

GE:

Beating a dead horse. ““THE” is definitely the definite article and DOES exist”. Who argued? Not me! O I forgot; I did argue; I showed the incidences where it is the weekly Sabbath when the word “sabbath” is used without the Article. But the real ‘problem’ does not lie with your insistence on the Article; it lies with your smuggling in the copulative Conjunction, “and”, “this is the Preparation day for Passover _and_ the Preparation for “THE SABBATH””, just like you did when you wrote of fourteenth Nisan being “that”, “feast” of passover. Such association between these two ‘preparation-days’ is NOWHERE even hinted at in any Gospel. So here is 100% conclusive proof that this is SDA’s scholarly screw-up.

But who – in the first place – said, “.... HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover,” which we know it has to be as Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb. And John 19:31 says it was the preparation also for “THE SABBATH””? Not me! It is SDA who identifies Jn19:14 and Jn19:31 and declare both for having been “THE SABBATH”: “HIGH Sabbath is undeniable .... as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover”. So where now is SDA’s own argument, “Sabbath” was ‘High Sabbath’ and always was “THE Sabbath”?

“HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John”; “Double Sabbath” undeniably is NOT in the book of John.

“.... HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover ....” HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John as it states very clearly in John 19:31 that this “Preparation was .... that great day sabbath / HIGH Sabbath”, as it states very clearly in Mk15:42 that this “Preparation was” the “Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath”. Very clearly this ‘HIGH Sabbath’ is undeniably NOT “the “Preparation of the Passover .... in John 19:14”.

“HIGH Sabbath .... in John 19:14 .... is the “Preparation of the Passover,””? O no! In John 19:14, “THAT ordinary, usual, calendar “DAY was a great DAY of the sabbath’s (importance)” – of the passover’s sabbath’s importance.

No; Jesus by having been killed on Abib 14 on “THE first day they always had to kill the passover (sacrifice)” and “The Preparation of the Passover”, we know that He became our Passover Lamb. Not by having been killed on Abib 15, because He was not killed on Abib 15, because Abib 15 WAS NOT “THE first day they always had to kill the passover (sacrifice)”, but, while it ALWAYS was “a great day sabbath”, Abib 15 in that particular instance “WAS The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath”.

The two different ‘Preparations’ tell us He was crucified and buried on different and consecutive ‘Preparations’— which tells us regardless the fact having been mentioned, there were two consecutive and not coinciding different ‘sabbaths’ each with its consecutive and never coinciding own ‘Preparation-day’.

“.... HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover,” which we know it has to be as Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb. And John 19:31 says it was the preparation also for “THE SABBATH.””.

By putting together that do not belong together you are creating a lie. “.... it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover” .... And John 19:31 says it was the preparation also for “THE SABBATH.”” “.... it was the preparation ....” What is “it”? Was “the “Preparation of the Passover””, “it”, “THE SABBATH”? A blatant lie!

“HIGH Sabbath ... is the “Preparation of the Passover”” is a lie.

““Preparation of the Passover” .... was the preparation also for “THE SABBATH”” is a lie.

“HIGH Sabbath is .... “THE SABBATH”” is a lie derived from lies and therefore is the sum-total of your lying.

SDA:

“This is why it is called a “HIGH SABBATH” and why ALL past theologians and their Commentaries such as Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, John Gill and Wesley all state this is a double Sabbath, i.e., a weekly Sabbath and Passover sabbath.”

GE:

I said you saying “HIGH Sabbath is ....“THE SABBATH”” is a lie derived from lies and therefore is the sum-total of your lying. But I was wrong. Here is the sum-total of your lying, you making “ALL past theologians and their Commentaries such as Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, John Gill and Wesley all” ‘stating’ and teaching “it” – “THE SABBATH” – “is called a “HIGH SABBATH””. None of them ever did what you are doing. They, “all” I dare say without having read any of them myself, might have ‘stated’ or taught “it”, “THE SABBATH”, or, “a “HIGH SABBATH””, or, ‘a great-day-sabbath’ COINCIDING, is called a “double sabbath”; OR, they “all” might have ‘stated’ or taught “it” – a “double sabbath” – is “THE SABBATH”, or, “a “HIGH SABBATH””, or, ‘a great-day-sabbath’ COINCIDING. But no, you, are not making the COINCIDENCE a “double sabbath”; you are telling us THE, “HIGH SABBATH” “in John 19:31”, “THE SABBATH” irrespective and just because “The word “THE” is definitely the definite article and DOES exist in the Greek text” “in John 19:31” was a case of “double sabbath”.

Then you are not the least ashamed even having dragged “all” these good Christians into your gutter of bungling.

SDA:

“Passover is “A SABBATH” and can NEVER be called “THE SABBATH.”

GE:

The stronger you insist the weaker your ‘argument’ gets. There is no logic or precedence in fact in your shouting.

What about the actual wording “On the day after THE sabbath” in Lv23:11,15,16?

And what about ““A SABBATH”” in Ex16:25? Does it refer to THE Sabbath although “called” ‘a sabbath’? Of course does “A SABBATH” refer to “THE SABBATH”. So, as little as ““A SABBATH”” MUST BE “Passover” or ‘passover’s sabbath’, as little MUST “THE SABBATH”, ““always””, “be called “THE SABBATH.”” What when “THE SABBATH”, for example, is called “The Seventh Day”? Is it not THE SABBATH?

What about Lk23:54b and Mt28:1a where “The word “THE”” (– which “is definitely the definite article” you know .... in order to win a match you must score more points than your opponent you know –) DOES NOT “exist in the Greek text”, yet in both ‘the Greek texts’, “THE SABBATH” is meant as well as mentioned?

SDA:

“Passover is just one of many feasts and hence is “A Feast.” You would never hear it called “The Feast” as that it implies it is one of a kind as is the Seventh Day Sabbath. This evidence is 100% conclusive and cannot be debated and alone ends the Wednesday crucifixion argument.”

GE:

Maybe it ends the Wednesday crucifixion argument; but it does not end the Thursday Crucifixion ‘argument’. And it ‘evidences’ nothing in the favour of the basic and presumed assumption of the SDAs and Traditions of men that Jesus’ resurrection was a ‘Sunday-resurrection’.

“Passover is just one of many feasts and hence is “A Feast.”” O yah?

“You would never hear it called “The Feast” as that it implies it is one of a kind as is the Seventh Day Sabbath.” O yah?

“The Seventh Day Sabbath” is just “one of a kind”? Fine.

“You would never hear it (“Passover”) called “The Feast” as that it implies it (“Passover”) is one of a kind ....” Rubbish.

Is it true, “it (“Passover”) “never”, is “called”, “The Feast””? What about the most express case in Nb28:17, “In the fifteenth of this month is THE Feast”? You perhaps think the fifteenth day of the First Month was not ‘the passover’? What about: “That thou eatest, the passover”; “Feast of sacrifice of passover”, Mk 14:12, Ex34:25 et al? “In the fourteenth day of this month is THE passover of the LORD (slaughtered); next (is THE passover) in the fifteenth day of this month THE feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten ....”

“Passover” or “the sabbath”, could be “THE Feast”, “the sabbath” being called so in Lv23:11,15,16 and because among other things as commanded here in Nb28:17f, “Ye shall do no manner of servile work therein; but ye shall offer sacrifice made by fire ....” work, being both prohibited and commanded on “the Feast”.

Whether there are more to hear or never, if I have heard “Passover” or “the sabbath” or “the Sabbath” once, “called “The Feast””, I have heard enough. Hearing “you would never hear it (“Passover” or “the sabbath”) called “The Feast””, one time, I have heard a damned lie. There are lies; then there are damned lies; then there are statistics. Statistics is what we have heard having heard, “You would never hear it called “The Feast” as that it implies it is one of a kind as is the Seventh Day Sabbath.”

More non-lying statistics though:

Ez45:21-23, “21 In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover (and) feast of seven days— unleavened bread shall be eaten. 22 And upon THAT DAY (not normally ‘feast’ or ‘sabbath’) shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the People .... 23 and SEVEN days (not otherwise ‘feast’ or ‘sabbath’) OF THE FEAST he shall prepare a BURNT offering to the LORD .... ”

This certainly is one of the most beautiful and most poignant of recordings of the passover’s and passover’s sabbath’s “Feast” : “THE Feast”, of passover, “THE Feast” of Abib 15: “THAT DAY”! Here we find the Scripture which John in actual fact was referring to and actually QUOTED in 19:31! Texts like Ez45:21-23 and Jer30:7 speak concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and the last Abib 15 that THEN was so ‘earthly’ as “a BURNT offering to the LORD”! The Lord reigns, and rules, and before the world was, determined and destined for each man his boundaries. “The lines unto me are fallen in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” God is great, “even though I go through the valley of death”. Read these Scriptures in whole and see the many textual referrals from it made by several New Testament authors concerning the Christ.

“I have set the LORD always before Me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth: MY FLESH ALSO SHALL REST IN HOPE, FOR THOU WILT NOT LEAVE MY SOUL IN HELL, NEITHER WILT THOU SUFFER THINE HOLY ONE TO SEE CORRUPTION ....” in death and grave, in fact! This Psalm is Prophetic Word concerning the Lamb of God our Passover even in death among the dead and in the grave perfect and perfected— Christ, working our salvation (verse 11).

What have the Church DONE WITH CHRIST’S BURIAL AND DAY OF BURIAL!!? With witches wand of translators’ pen, have they completely erased it from the pages of memory and heart of men— from the pages even of Holy Writ.

SDA:

“While on the topic of the phrase “THE SABBATH,” let’s cover another misunderstanding of the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory. They further try and prove that the Passover sabbath and “THE SABBATH” were on separate days using the following flawed argument.

They insist that the Sabbaths had to fall on different days because of what Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56 says in regards to the issue of the spices used to anoint the body of Jesus. Here are the two verses in contention.

Mark 16:1 “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”

Luke 23:56 “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”

The argument is that since Luke 23:56 says they “prepared spices and ointments” and then “rested the sabbath day according to the commandment,” that this was done before the Sabbath, which of course is true. And Mark 16:1 says “when the sabbath was past” they “bought sweet spices” and so therefore this was done after the Sabbath, which is also true. So their argument is that how could the women have bought spices after the Sabbath, and also prepared spices and rested before the same Sabbath unless there were two Sabbaths involved with a day between them.

GE:

Because this is a repetition of the above, I’ll skip it and leave the argument except to remind everyone I also reject these Wednesday-crucifixionists’ ideas, even for the reasons here advanced by SDA against them, correctly. For in the last analysis the issue is not about the spices or even about the day that Jesus was crucified on, but about the day that He rose on.

SDA:

“But based on their argument, this would now bring in a second serious problem, which is that we would now have a contradiction of scripture or is there another explanation, which also reveals what they overlooked in the first place?

Luke 23:56 says they “prepared spices and ointments,” which means they had some spices and ointments already, which they prepared. Mark 16:1 on the other hand, says that they “bought sweet spices.” So as one would expect, there is no contradiction of scripture. They prepared what spices they had before the Sabbath and no doubt, there would not have been time to buy more before the Sabbath commenced, so if they needed more spices, then they would have had to wait until Sabbath was over before they could purchase however much more spices were required. They “prepared” what spices they had before Sabbath and “bought” more spices when Sabbath ended so everything is harmonious.”

GE:

‘What has been overlooked in the first place?’

“Luke 23:56 says they “prepared spices and ointments,” which means they had some spices and ointments already, which they prepared.”

Hundred percent.

“Mark 16:1 on the other hand, says that they “bought sweet spices.” So as one would expect, there is no contradiction of scripture.”

Hundred percent.

“They prepared what spices they had before the Sabbath ....”

Hundred percent.

But now things begin to look different ....

“They prepared what spices they had before the Sabbath and no doubt, there would not have been time to buy more before the Sabbath commenced ....”.

“.... not time to buy ....” There was enough time before the Sabbath would commence. It was “by the time of the Jews’ preparations” began (Jn19:42). What time on Friday afternoons was – and still is – that? It was only “mid-afternoon” (Lk23:54)! From “mid-afternoon” until just before sunset on Friday afternoons was three hours. Three hours before the Sabbath commenced. Three hours and enough time to also have gone buy more if they foresaw any shortage in what spices they had. But they did not go buy; it is said they “went home and prepared”. So why prepare on Friday afternoon, then go buy on Saturday night? Not because of shortage, because short-stocked, the women would first thing have bought the spices they needed before they would have begun preparing. They “prepared spices” because they had spices and ointments and time enough of.

Yes, the same applies to the time they had available. They had time to go home straight. Then they “prepared” because they had the time and the opportunity which “the Jew’s preparations-time” afforded them. They had enough time to “prepare”; so “they prepared”. (As soon as the ‘translators’ saw this implication for their Sunday-resurrection hoax, they manipulated the text to suit themselves in Jn19:42. See NAB and LB.)

Why did the women on Friday afternoon prepare spices and ointments, but on Saturday night went and buy spices and ointments .... again? They did not go, or buy, ‘again’. This was a one-time thing. And why they went and bought spices after the Sabbath had gone through, is obvious! So obvious indeed most people think so simple a reason cannot be meaningful enough to be the reason.

“With the Sabbath having run out” (after sunset, on the First Day of the week after the Sabbath) the same two Mary’s who the Friday afternoon already had had their spices “prepared”, “AND SALOME”, ““bought” more spices”— obviously for Salome’s sake who the Friday afternoon was absent. “They rested the Sabbath” (Lk) and “after the Sabbath bought” (Mk). The three of them together, “bought spices so that when they would go, they might anoint Him”.

The opportunity to go, would arrive as soon as the watch of the Roman guard by midnight would have expired— in Roman reckoning of days the end of the day. That is why Luke mentioned (24:1) that the women – with the idea of course to anoint him – “carrying their spices, arrived at the tomb deep morning” just after midnight. (‘orthrou batheohs / orthrinai genomenai’, 24:1,22.)

SDA:

“I typically find that the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory are forever clutching at straws to try and prove what it is they have chosen to believe.”

GE:

And I the Adventists .... But the SDAs, they are exempt from criticism; they possess the gift of prophecy!

SDA:

“The following argument the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory also use illustrates this well. They say that the fact that two Sabbaths are involved is confirmed by Matthew 28:1, where the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath” and that the word “Sabbath” used here is actually plural in the original Greek and should be translated “Sabbaths.” This part is in fact true and there are some Bible versions such as Young’s Literal Translation and others that make this clear. But they use this plural argument to insinuate that the Sabbaths once again fell on separate days. As ridiculous as this may seem, in their deception and desperation, they actually prove the opposite and show that these Sabbaths DID fall on the same day. Whatever it was that was done, was done “In the end of the Sabbaths,” meaning it was done as both these Sabbaths ended. You cannot say this unless both Sabbaths ended simultaneously.

Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath[s], as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.””

GE:

“They say that the fact that two Sabbaths are involved is confirmed by Matthew 28:1, where the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath””? Who are they who say so? It’s you SDA who says so .... nobody else. Where do you, SDA, read in Matthew “where the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath””?”

“This part is in fact true” SDA says, “Matthew 28:1, where the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath” and that the word “Sabbath” used here is actually plural in the original Greek and should be translated “Sabbaths””, revealing all their ignorance and compromise with the adulterators of the Word of God.

Then SDA seals his ignorance and compromise by alleging, “and there are some Bible versions such as Young’s Literal Translation and others that make this clear.” Does ‘Young’s Literal Translation’ render “Matthew 28:1, where the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath””? Does ‘Young’s Literal Translation’ read “the women went to the tomb”? I bet it does not! Does ‘Young’s Literal Translation’ read, “after the Sabbath”? Or do I wrongly remember or reckon, that that is not what ‘Young’s Literal Translation’ reads?

SDA maintains “this plural argument .... actually prove(s) .... that these Sabbaths DID fall on the same day.”

SDA – in other words – AGREES Matthew intended to state “In the end of the sabbath[s]”? intended to state “In the end of the Sabbath”? intended to state, “THE SABBATH”? Will SDA now admit “In THE SABBATH” in the first phrase of Mt28:1, in fact, “In the end of the sabbaths”? Not in his life; not on your life!

No, this ‘plural argument’ actually prove(s) that these Sabbaths did NOT fall on the same day. THE EVENT, “where the women went to the tomb fell on “after the Sabbath”, Mk16:1. And THE EVENTS, “There suddenly was a great earthquake and the angel of the Lord descended ....” WHEN Jesus rose from the dead, THOSE events, fell “In the Sabbath’s-time”.

Taken “this part is in fact true” the “plural in the original Greek should be translated “Sabbaths”, can SDA explain how “In the END of the sabbaths” in the first phrase of Mt28:1 was “before, the FIRST of the sabbaths” in the second phrase of Mt28:1? How “AFTER the sabbathS” came “BEFORE the FIRST of the sabbaths”?

See how cleverly SDA evades a straight answer. Instead of facing the consequence, if the “plural in the original Greek should be translated “Sabbaths” it “should be translated “Sabbaths”” in every instance, also in the second phrase in Mt28:1. He has another trump card up his sleeve, “Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath[s], as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”” What all of a sudden changed ‘this part where’ in the second phrase in Matthew 28 the Plural, “sabbaths” ‘is in fact’ NOT ‘true’? What happened that ‘in this part where’ in the second phrase of Matthew 28:1 the Plural ‘sabbaths’ incurs, it should not be “towards the first of the sabbathS”, but must be “toward the first day of the week”?

And can SDA explain how the Greek – ‘eis’ plus Accusative in the second phrase of Mt28:1 – “toward the first day of the week” got ‘translated’, “on”— “on the first day of the week” and still “this part is in fact true”!?

Says SDA, “Whatever it was that was done, was done “In the end of the Sabbaths,” meaning it was done as both these Sabbaths ended.” Yes, and also meaning, consecutively was done as both these Sabbaths the one after the other ended.

But contrary SDA’s arguments whatever was done in fact was done “on the Sabbath” when ‘in fact’, Jesus rose from the dead; because “that” “that was done”, was not “whatever”; it was Jesus who rose from the dead.

Jesus rose from the dead, “In the end of the (only contextual weekly) Sabbath” meant and so NAMED, here in Mt28:1 the first phrase— “ON the Sabbath being (‘epousa’/‘epi-ousehi’/‘epi-phohs-k-ous-ehi’) towards the First Day (‘eis’ mian (hehmeran) of the week (sabbatohn)” meant and so NAMED, here in Mt28:1 the second phrase.

Jesus ALSO rose “In the end (and last) of the” two, back to back, “Sabbaths” implied as well as mentioned as is clear when all the Gospels are taken into consideration. The first was the passover’s ‘sabbath’ in Jn19:31, and the second or last ‘sabbath’ was the Ten Commandments’ “Sabbath” in Mt28:1. The Ten Commandments’ “Sabbath” in Mt28:1a is said to have been “before / towards the First Day of the week”.

SDA:

“The proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory have become so desperate lately to convince the world of known cult leader Herbert W. Armstrong’s erroneous belief that they have resorted to abusing a messianic prophecy.”

GE:

Who, are ‘desperate in their deception’?

‘Lately’? This is how they behaved from the beginning. Nevertheless, what does this help the Seventh-day Adventists in their desperation to convince the world they and their known cult leader Ellen G. White never with their and her erroneous visions and teachings resorted to abusing just about every ‘messianic prophecy’ and Scriptures in toto?

SDA:

“I am not sure if this is just plain ignorance on their part or a deliberate attempt at deception in hope that most do not understand the prophecy and so will believe their deception and convert to their way of thinking.”

GE:

On whose behalf are you pleading?

SDA:

“In any case, this argument just causes them to lose all credibility.”

GE:

Speaking for whose ‘incredibility’?

SDA:

“Daniel 9:27 says “in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” and so the argument is that since the middle of this week refers to the crucifixion of Jesus then it had to be a Wednesday crucifixion as Wednesday is in the middle of the week.”

GE:

The SDAs too have never paid attention to the fact the middle of the week – seeing everybody here so insists on literal divisions and additions – to the fact the middle of the week is not 3 p.m., but is 6 a.m. ‘Wednesdays’, and that that being the case, this splitting hairs and needles and gnats while sight-impaired with beams and rafters and haystacks and camels, it’s no wonder we busy ourselves with totally irrelevant things while missing the prophecies and symbolisms and typology so apparent in the Gospels’ stories of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus from the dead— most obvious and pertinent without a doubt the passover in its very eschatological fulfilment once for all in and through and by Jesus Christ “according to the Scriptures” the immutable Word of God. It’s a neglect of the whole Church.

SDA:

“Regardless of all the current facts, the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory still say, “But one cannot get three days and three nights from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. This is only one day and two nights, what about the other two days and one night? Friday can’t possibly be the day Jesus died.”

GE:

Wednesday crucifixion theory or Friday crucifixion theory whichever, both cannot get three days and three nights from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, or only one day and two nights or three days and three nights, or 72 hours or whatever; both fail in every respect and from whichever perspective; both are no more than a concoction of flaws.

SDA:

“This is the result of trying to use literal, secular thinking and applying it to the text ....”

GE:

This is an overkill – second time. This is the result of NOT trying to use ‘literal’ or ‘secular’ common sense ‘thinking’ and statement of the Scriptures and NOT ‘applying it to the text’. No, the literal, “the sabbath”, must be “THE SABBATH” “because obviously “THE SABBATH” is and can only be “THE SABBATH””. “Passover” and “the sabbath” of the passover or “great-day-sabbath” of the passover, must be “THE SABBATH” because “Passover is ALWAYS called Passover and Passover is NEVER called “THE SABBATH” because obviously “THE SABBATH” is and can only be “THE SABBATH.”” The holy is never the ‘secular’, and the ‘secular’ is never the holy. In the Bible, Passover is “always” called Passover”; “the (‘secular’) third day” (Lk24:21), must be “THE” ‘spiritual’ “THIRD DAY” (Lk24:7,46)— so that even the ‘secular’ “First Day of the week” must be “THE THIRD DAY”.

SDA:

“This is .... implying that there must be a full 72 hours between the crucifixion and the resurrection.

GE:

Your argumentation even, suffers from your fear of using literal, secular thinking and applying it to the text. Who demands “there must be a full 72 hours between the crucifixion and the resurrection”? Not the Wednesday-crucifixionists. You, SDA, is here “implying”. Because you, are not using literal, secular thinking or apply it to the text, so can say such silly things like “to use literal, secular thinking implies a full 72 hours between the crucifixion and the resurrection”. I have not heard of one Wednesday-crucifixionist yet, who claimed “there must be a full 72 hours between the crucifixion and the resurrection”. It is SDA who talks this nonsense. PLEASE use literal, secular thinking and apply it to the text of the Scriptures as well as your opponent’s?

SDA:

“But that (a full 72 hours) is not the intent of the passage. For proof let’s look at what the Gospels and other books have to say about the matter and then we will look at inclusive reckoning, which most know nothing about and explains all.

Matthew 16:21 “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again THE THIRD DAY.”
Matthew 17:23 “And they shall kill him, and THE THIRD DAY he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.”
Matthew 20:19 “And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.”
Matthew 27:64 “Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until THE THIRD DAY, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”
Mark 9:31 “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise THE THIRD DAY.”
Mark 10:34 “And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.”
Luke 9:22 “Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised THE THIRD DAY.”
Luke 13:32 “And he said unto them, Go you, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and THE THIRD DAY I shall be perfected.”
Luke 18:33 “And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.”
Luke 24:7 “Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and THE THIRD DAY rise again.”
Luke 24:21 “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is THE THIRD DAY since these things were done.”
Luke 24:46 “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead THE THIRD DAY:”
John 2:1 “And THE THIRD DAY there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:”
Acts 10:40 “Him God raised up THE THIRD DAY, and showed him openly;”
1 Corinthians 15:4 “And that he was buried, and that he rose again THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures:”

All these scriptures prove Jesus was resurrected ON “the third day” day after His death and burial, not after three literal days. If Jesus rose after 72 hours, then all the above verses would have to read on “the fourth day.”

GE:

Absolutely! What a relief for once to hear the Scriptures! Unfortunately, I have to ask, how does a Scripture like “John 2:1 “And THE THIRD DAY there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there”, “prove”, “Jesus was resurrected ON “the third day””?

Far more serious,

How does “Luke 24:21 “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is THE THIRD DAY since these things were done ....” –

“these things” having been, “how the chief priests and our rulers

1) delivered Him to be

2) condemned to death and have

3) crucified Him” –

“prove Jesus was resurrected ON “the third day” day after His death and burial”? Is that what this Scripture, “Luke 24:21”, say, not even speaking of “all these scriptures”? Who is saying regarding this Scripture, “Luke 24:21”, “the third day” after His death and burial”?”

FAR MORE SERIOUS STILL:

Who wrote, “All these scriptures” – including “Luke 24:21”, “prove Jesus was resurrected ON _“_the third day_”_ after His death and burial”? The author Luke, or the Seventh-day Adventist, SDA?

For having inserted the words, “and burial”, and the quotation marks, _“_the third day_”_, SDA has added his own words and concepts CONTRARY the concepts and words of the Scriptures! Because “Luke 24:21 “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is THE THIRD DAY since these things were done” says NO MORE THAN WHAT IT SAYS and therefore excludes, “and burial”. For good reason that had it been, “after His death and burial”, Jesus would have resurrected on the SECOND day “after His death and burial” and Luke would have written ‘today is the second day since / after’.

Your IGNORING and DENYING “that great day” of Jesus’ entombment explains this obfuscation of the truth, even your denying the most apparent and natural meaning of words, here, the word meaning ‘since’, to mean “after”.

But now Luke 24:20-21 reads, “21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this [the things which are come to pass there (in Jerusalem) in these days (18b)], TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY since THESE things [delivered Him to be condemned to death and have crucified Him (20b)], were done”:— NO burial!

SDA also over and again commits the error of making of anything, something else. Like he makes of “the sabbath”, “THE SABBATH” and of ‘passover’, “THE Passover....high day”.

Of an incidental, “secular”, ‘day’ among other “things which are come to pass there in Jerusalem in these days” and which the Emmaus disciple said “since these things (was) the third day nearly” (“day having been far spent”), SDA makes “THE THIRD DAY I shall be perfected”!

So he twists this ordinary third day “after His (Jesus’) death”, into “THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures after His death and burial” .... and ADDS: “and burial”!

It is SDA’s conceitedness to make of something literal, something spiritual; to make of something general or ‘secular’, something typical and peculiar; of something mundane, something prophetic; something banal, something holy. This is the result of SDA’s improvement on ‘literal, secular thinking’ resulting in confusing ‘literal, secular’ things for totally irrelevant, of different nature and of different meaning things, mangling and wangling the text until implying, and until eventually actually stating,

1) that “today the third day” “must be”, “THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures”— while that is not the intent of the passage, plainly!

2) and forcing “today the third day SINCE ....” to mean “today the third day INCLUDING ....”.

SDA:

“Can we be sure which day was the third day? You will note that the following passage says that on Sunday the “FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK” (verse 1), the two angels said He would rise “THE THIRD DAY” (verse 7) and on the same day on the road to Emmaus the two disciples stated “TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY” (verse 21), and that Jesus said He would rise “THE THIRD DAY” (verse 46). This passage shows that Sunday was the third day that the angels and Jesus were speaking of in which He rose from the grave.”

Luke 24:1-46 “Now UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. … two men stood by them … they said unto them, ... He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke unto you … Saying, 7 The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and THE THIRD DAY rise again. … 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY since these things were done. … 46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead THE THIRD DAY:”

GE:

Please note this, “…”, the dots for the omitted words and sentences and verses and sections. To SDA it means without the omitted words, Luke’s words, “could not state more plainly”, “that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave on the first day of the week. The first day of the week being Sunday.”

It means one could leap from verse 1 to verse 7 to verse 21 to verse 46 and back to verse 21 to not lose, but gain, contextual relevance and relation and meaning as though every time the words “the third day” incur, they meant the same thing and every time further fastened upon that meaning— “Since this is “THE THIRD DAY””, it is “THE THIRD DAY”, “TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY since .... thus it behoved Christ .... to rise from the dead THE THIRD DAY”; “and that he rose again THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures” ...., “TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY” = “THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures” = “TODAY .... Sunday .... IS THE THIRD DAY” .... pellucid logic, and order, my! Or magic and clairvoyance? You tell.

“The third day” or “the third day since” for SDA every time is the same thing that never can be a lesser or ordinary, “secular”, counted, calendar-day; then again, it for SDA is no day than the “secular” but holy Sunday; then again, nothing than the “High Day” of “a double Sabbath”-Seventh Day. Only no ‘usual’ day like “there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day since after these things” and “today” of the disciples’ walking to Emmaus! It is just like for SDA there are no ordinary ‘passover-days’ or ‘feast-days’ or ‘sabbath-days’ or they MUST be “THE Passover” or “THE FEAST” or “THE SABBATH”. For SDA there is no ‘third day’ or it must be “THE THIRD DAY”. For SDA “today the third day” the disciples found themselves in after the Crucifixion, is the “according to the Scriptures the third day”. SDA demolishes contextual relevance and continuity and pertinence, in order to give the meaning he, wants, and not the meaning what the context, common sense, or, truth, wants or demands. SDA destroyed context so that he could destroy plain words and their plain meanings. He changes “the third day according to the Scriptures” into a day of human perception and experience, his own. For never would the disciples have conceited and pretended ‘today is the third and great day of passover since He redeemed Israel as we trusted’. But that is what SDA, all the Protestants, and the great Roman Catholic whore arrogate the disciples did. This is the one issue all Christianity seems to be united on in perfect brotherly love, and idiots like GE are seen as only brewing mischief and hate.

SDA, WHICH ‘third day’ are you talking of with reference to verse 21? You know perfectly well which or what ‘third day’, it is! And you perfectly know it is not “the third day” mentioned in verses 7 or 46! You are overtly trying to deceive!

The question is, can we be sure about which day ‘the third day’ in verse 21 is? Yes, it is – quoting Luke – “.... the third day .... there .... in Jerusalem .... after these things”, the third day counted— counted from or “after” and EXCLUDING Jesus’ CRUCIFIXION. That was the First Day of the week of course (verse 1); no one denies it! But you, SDA, without grounds, cause or reason, PULL, tackle and bulldoze “the third day” of verses 7 and 46, in into 21, where ‘the third day’ is NOT the “according to the Scriptures” eschatological “third day”, but is the “there .... in Jerusalem .... after these things .... the third day since” ORDINARY, day. You with the sheer power of your cunning HAUL the prophetic, passover’s “third day” of Jesus’ resurrection, in into verse 21 where it not at all “fits” or “applies”!

SDA: “THE THIRD DAY according to the Scriptures .... is THE THIRD DAY since.” SDA like with genetic manipulation hybridizes “THE THIRD DAY since” – “the third day .... there .... in Jerusalem .... after these things” – into “the third day” of verses 7 and 46, “the third day according to the Scriptures” – “the third day to rise from the dead”. Then to bear away the palm, SDA clones “the third day according to the Scriptures” – “the third day to rise from the dead” into “Sunday the “FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK” (verse 1)”. SDA jackhammers the day of Jesus’ resurrection in into verse 21 and asserts, “TODAY” – “the third day .... there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day after .... they delivered Him to be crucified” – “IS THE THIRD DAY” of Prophecy, Promise and Covenant and “the third day” of the passover as though “the two angels said He would rise Sunday the “FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK THE THIRD DAY””. Amazing!

SDA stealthily is trying to make of “the third day according to the Scriptures”, “the First Day of the week” by lacing or stringing together “the third day .... there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day after these things”, “the third day according to the Scriptures” and “the First Day of the week” and let the disciple look like they did it and proclaimed “the third day according to the Scriptures” is “the First Day of the week”. How valiant a servant in the service of your highness!

No! The disciples merely ‘counted’ “from”, or “after”, “these things that were done”. More accurately, they ‘wondered’ or ‘surmised’. They no more than speculated. Like the women they “were much perplexed”. “So they talked together of all these things that happened.” Jesus asked them, “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?” And they answered, “We trusted .... we were astonished”.

For three days now are we confused, and cannot make head or tail. Besides all these things we know of: How the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death – which we have seen they did with our own eyes – and have crucified Him – which we only heard they did, because we deserted Him every one of us, as He had told us we would. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, who were at the grave just after midnight; and when they found not his body, they came and told us they had clearly seen angels who told them that He was alive ....

No! say all the Sunday-resurrectionists, I must learn to read, the disciples did not speculate; they distinctly knew and believed, and definitely with having said “today is the third day since these things that were done” were referring to “THE third day” of Jesus’ resurrection “on the First Day of the week”. The disciple’s reference point is actually the Resurrection; not the Crucifixion. I must be confused!

But they degrade “the third day according to the Scriptures” and falsifies both it and “today .... there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day after these things” by placing them on par and making the one to disappear into the other.

They degrade “the third day according to the Scriptures” and falsifies both it and “the third day .... there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day after these things” BY LYING that it was the third day after Jesus was BURIED. Say they all SDA speaking for them all, “All these scriptures prove Jesus was resurrected ON “the third day” day after His death and burial, not after three literal days.” They demean “today .... there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day after these things happened”, by disallowing it its God-given ordinariness of having been a “secular” and “literal day”. In effect they all with lying elevate the “First Day of the week” and “today .... there .... in Jerusalem .... the third day after these things had happened” to a Holy Day of Christian worship. That is idolatry.

No!

“These things which are come to pass there In Jerusalem in these days” were “the things” before Jesus’ burial. “These things” that were BEFORE Jesus’ burial, are: “given over”, “condemned”, and “crucified”. The three days until “today the third day since these things happened / were done” INCLUDED the Burial. The Burial was “after”, or, “since” – ‘apo’ – “these things” and occurred on the first day after or since “these things” and the day “these things” happened on.

“The First Day of the week” was the second day since or after the day of the Burial, Friday. That we are ALL agreeing on! Hallelujah! Now because the interment of “that which remains” of the passover sacrifice was done on the second day of the passover, “The First Day of the week” could not have been “the third day” of passover or day of First Sheaf, but, like Sunday is the second day after Friday, Sunday had to be the second day after the second day of the passover which was the day they removed and burned “that which remained” which was Friday He was buried, the Gospels SAY it, and therefore Sunday was the fourth day of the passover in that year.

“Christ .... was raised the third day according to the Scriptures” 1Cor15:3-4— “the third day” of the passover. Christ therefore was raised the day before Sunday the fourth day of the passover in that year, on ‘Saturday’ therefore.

“Today (Sunday) is the third day since these things happened ....”— the “THINGS” not the “day”, “happened”. “These things” of passover-fulfilment in Christ, “happened”. “These things happened” three days “since/after”, that is, BEFORE .... On which day of the week was that?

What were “these things that happened”? They were:

“delivered; condemned; crucified”.

Therefore:

Sunday “the First Day of the week” “the third day since/after”;

Saturday “Sabbath” the second day “since/after”;

Friday “The Preparation; Feast; BURIED” the first day “since/after”;

Thursday “The Preparation of the Passover” THE DAY OF : “delivered; condemned; crucified”.... NOT FRIDAY!

Therefore the day on which the disciples walked to Emmaus, “The First Day of the week”, was the fourth day of passover; it could not be “the third day”.

The Emmaus disciples did not refer to the Burial; they referred to the Crucifixion and the day of the Crucifixion and that’s why they said “It today (The first Day of the week) is the third day since (or) after these things that occurred.”

What, in fact then, ‘is written’ in Lk24:21? This: quoting Lk24:18b and Lk24:21b: “.... these days .... today .... Today is the third day since these things were done”— “the third day” is the “secular”, “literal”, present, consecutive “third”, ‘day’, counted / applied / used in and of the “secular”, “literal” lives and contemplations of the Emmaus disciples. “The third day” is THEIR “today” present and counted, KNOWN and UNDERSTOOD by THEM “the third day since”; theirs was no “third day” without its “since”.

This ‘third day’ of the Emmaus disciples’ speculation, was not “the third day” in prophecy or type or Antitype “according to the Scriptures” which they did not know or understand or believed, a thing about. “The third day” in prophecy and type “according to the Scriptures” which Christ was the Antitype of, only HE knew, understood, reckoned with, and, kept! “God the Seventh Day from all his works, rested.”

The eschatological ‘third day’ is not mentioned but is presupposed between Mk16:1 and the last verses of the chapter before it. This day, “the Sabbath”, “passed”, while no disciple noticed it or its significance. Even in Mt28:1-4 no human understood or saw what was happening “when suddenly there was an earthquake”; only God knew and determined everything to the letter “according to the Scriptures”. But SDA tells us the disciples on their way to Emmaus explained THEIR ‘third day’ to Jesus, and still are explaining THEIR ‘third day’ to us as having been God’s, “third day according to the Scriptures” on which “it behoved the Christ to rise”! “And God the Seventh Day from ALL, HIS, WORKS, RESTED.”

SDA:

“Those who advocate the Wednesday crucifixion theory must adhere to a Saturday afternoon resurrection since this is “THE THIRD DAY” and the following verse in Mark that could not state more plainly that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave on the first day of the week. The first day of the week being Sunday. Mark 16:9 “Now when Jesus was RISEN early the FIRST day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.””

GE:

“With all these things (that happened since He was delivered over to be crucified) it leads up now to nearly the third day.” SDA though – speaking of this not finished yet day of verse 21 – alleges the disciples explained to Jesus, that his resurrection was not “a Saturday afternoon resurrection since this” — Sunday — “is “THE THIRD DAY””. That’s what SDA does – not the disciples.

Jesus was the One who explained to the Emmaus disciples what “happened” “after” He had been “delivered to be crucified”, namely, that “The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men , and be crucified, and the third day rise again .... Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day” — NOT, to rise “today the third day since these things happened”, what SDA wants us to believe!

“This — Sunday”, “the First Day of the week”, was NOT “THE THIRD DAY” on which Christ had “to rise from the dead .... according to the Scriptures”. “Today” in verse 21 of Jesus’ appearance and speaking to the Emmaus disciples — or rather, of their speaking to Him — was the day “after / since”, “THE THIRD DAY” on which Christ had “to rise” : “already”. Is a more direct implication of Jesus’ resurrection “On the Sabbath before the First Day of the week” (M28:1), possible!? Especially since it is Jesus who is speaking in answer to the disciples’ ‘astonishment’!

SDA:

“.... and the following verse in Mark that could not state more plainly that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave on the first day of the week. Mark 16:9 “Now when Jesus was RISEN early the FIRST day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.””

GE:

“.... state .... plainly that Jesus --- did in fact rise --- from the grave --- on the first day of the week ....” BUT, SDA himself, presents this verse, “Mark 16:9”, ‘plainly’, like this: “Now when Jesus was RISEN early the FIRST day of the week, he appeared first ....”.

Now where is “stated”, “plainly”, “Jesus did in fact rise” or He “did in fact rise” or He “did rise”. Only that, first, please, Where?! NOWHERE! There is no statement as it. The ‘statement’ is: “Now when Jesus was risen” stating HOW, Jesus “appeared”; stating how JESUS, “appeared”: “when / as / being risen”.

The ‘statement’ in Mk16:9 about “when”, is the ‘statement’ about “when Jesus .... appeared”; NOT, about when He rose. There nowhere in Mark or in John or in Luke is any ‘statement’ as to ‘when’ Jesus, rose. Only in Matthew – in 28:1, by circumstantial and eventual implications. So, if SDA wanted, he could have done better, and should have presented this verse, ‘plainly’, like this: “Mark 16:9, “Risen (or) When / As / Being risen (or) When / As / Being the Risen (One), Jesus early on the First Day of the week appeared first to Mary ....”.

Mark could not in fact have stated more plainly that Jesus did NOT rise from the grave on the first day of the week, but “appeared early on the First Day of the week, RISEN, to Mary .... first of all”. Mark could not have confirmed more plainly what he before in verse 2 had said already, that Jesus did NOT “very early before sunrise” rise from the grave on the first day of the week because when the women “on the first day of the week very early before sunrise” inspected the grave, they found confirmed it had been opened in an unexplainable manner, and were told by the angel that Jesus – they not believing yet at that stage – had been “risen” since before “very early before sunrise”. But the angel did not tell the women, WHEN earlier, Jesus had risen. We had to find that out from Matthew 28:1.

SDA:

“The typical response given to try and undermine this overwhelming proof is that Matthew 28:1 says that the women first came to the tomb late on the Sabbath (Saturday) near sunset.

Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

These contradictory words are clarified and made consistent with the previous texts on Mark’s account.”

GE:

“These words”, SDA says, “is overwhelming proof that Matthew 28:1 says .... late on the Sabbath ....”; then SDA quoting another ‘Version’ of “Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week ....”, comments, “These contradictory words ....”.

Isn’t SDA contradicting himself?

Or does SDA speak about some ‘contradiction’ between

“late on the Sabbath” and “as it began to dawn”?

SDA thinks he solved the alleged ‘contradiction’ by having answered himself, “These contradictory words are clarified and made consistent with the previous texts on Mark’s account.”

But try as I may – or am I too stupid – I cannot see any contradiction anywhere. “Late on the Sabbath” in my opinion is just as good as “In the end of the sabbath”, is just as good as “as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” is just as good as all the non-existing statements in the other three Gospels including Mark on this specific point in time of part of day or day or week.

Of course, “as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” interpreted in modern English, is in the morning; but the Version SDA quotes from is the KJV, which is sixteenth and seventeenth century Puritan English and differs with modern Liberal English with twelve hours at least, because “as it began to dawn” in that old English is saying no more or less than “mid-afternoon” “toward the first day of the week” in strict, literal idiomatic sense. [See study, A.T. Robertson Mt28-1]

What about SDA referring to his “previous texts on Mark’s account” also hinted in his appraisal of himself in “this overwhelming proof”? They – many paragraphs back – were,

“Mark 9:31 “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise THE THIRD DAY.”
Mark 10:34 “And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.””

Do the texts explain the phrases here dealt with by SDA? They say nothing about it. SDA’s ‘comments’ therefore ended up just his typical bombastic assertions anyone who could do grade six parsing should see are ungrounded and false.

“.... near sunset ....” What is “near sunset”? seven eighths through the 24 hours of the day fair enough? 7/8? That’s almost a full! In terms of daytime, it’s 3 p.m. already! Near enough to be “near sunset”? Which is precisely the meaning of all four the Greek expressions which Matthew used in 28:1 to pinpoint which specific point in time of part of day and day and week he meant.

_FOUR_ phrases! Matthew DID mean to say what he meant!

1) ‘opse’–“late / almost full / ripe / mature”;

2) ‘sabbatohn’–“Sabbath’s, of Sabbath’s, on/in the Sabbath”;

3) ‘tehi epifooskousehi’–“mid-afternoon / in bright day being”;

4) ‘eis mian sabbaton’ – “towards the First Day of the week”.

Wished Matthew to say “On the First Day of the week”, why instead of all these painstaking statements, could he not have written, like Mark did in 16:9, and Luke in 24:1, and John in 20:1, with a simple and single-phrased Dative?

The problem always arises here, and is very simple to explain, because everybody wants these Scriptures all four, to refer to the event of the Resurrection, while only Matthew’s statement refers to the Resurrection and time of the Resurrection “on the Sabbath Day”, and the other three Gospels refer to 12 hours and more after the Resurrection “on the First Day of the week”. If you believe they all refer to the Resurrection, you will DO ANYTHING NO MATTER HOW IMMORAL to get them all say, ‘On the First Day of the week’.

From here, the problem spreads to the days before the Resurrection— to the days of the Crucifixion and the Burial. Where a “Sabbath’s”-Resurrection implies a ‘Thursday-Crucifixion’, a ‘Sunday-resurrection’ will imply a ‘Friday-crucifixion’. And the ONLY way to do it, is to integrate the two first days of passover into one day; to pull the Crucifixion on onto the day of the Burial, because it is impossible not to recognise from the Gospels that the BURIAL WAS ON FRIDAY! And next step of course is, to corrupt every of the four statements (and many more implications) of Matthew in 28:1.

This is nothing new! Justin Martyr was this method’s and theory’s first inventor. And this very debate raged for centuries in the Church. Since the ‘mergers’ of the “three days”-passover emerged the victors, very few documents on the separate “three days”-passover must have survived, and I have come across only one, of Apollinaris, a sainted heretic if the Roman Catholic Church bothered to take notice of his conclusions on this issue. [See study, ‘Apollinaris’.]

Back to Luke 23:54 ....

“.... near sunset ....” What is “near sunset”? seven eighths through the 24 hours of the day fair enough? 7/8? That’s almost a full! In terms of daytime, it’s 3 p.m.. Near enough to be “near sunset”?

Sunday resurrectionists corrupt “the Sabbath drew near” in Lk23:54 to mean ‘as the Sabbath was beginning’ or ‘has been beginning’ (NAB); Phillips even plays on duplicity, “It was now the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning to dawn”. Or like SDA who ‘explains’ it here, “Matthew 28:1 .... late .... near sunset .... as it began to dawn”. Do they mean ‘dawn’ in the morning’? No; it must be, I think, they mean the Sabbath had begun after sunset. Then they acclaim, “These contradictory words are clarified and made consistent .....”

It was not as the Sabbath was beginning or in the middle of the evening-hour-or-two as some Wednesday-crucifixionists hold.

“It was the (Sixth Day) Preparation ending – afternoon – mid-afternoon the Sabbath approaching”— on Friday, ‘approaching’ ‘drawing near’, literally, “in middle of the light being inclined”.

Where now are “these contradictory words”? Where they belong: with their inventors, the creators; their creators ex nihilo— ‘by nothing’. “These words” are not ‘contradictory’; they are contradictory to your false claims.

SDA:

“Mark 16:1-3 “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?”

The end of the Sabbath and dawn are 12 hours apart. So why the apparent contradiction? The answer is found in the translation of this passage. The original Greek texts contain no chapters, verses or punctuation and were added later by the translators for obvious reasons. By reorganizing that last verse of Matthew 27 and the first verse of Matthew 28, the apparent ambiguity completely disappears.”

GE:

What silly reasoning! Anything is possible if you don’t know what you’re talking about. You yourself observed “The end of the Sabbath and dawn are 12 hours apart”, but still you ask, “So why the apparent contradiction?” What ‘contradiction’ ? In what manner is ‘contradiction’, “apparent”? In which Scripture is “contradiction”, “apparent”? In what “translation of this passage .... is the answer found of this passage”? There’s NO “contradiction” in “this passage” or passages.

Again you presume ‘contradiction’ to gather straw to build a straw-man to burn your bon-fire of the truth. Mark 16:1 is correctly translated: “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.” Mark has written nothing of the Sabbath that in the meantime – since the Burial on Friday – occurred. That’s why he begins the history of the First Day with this introductory note that explains how the women during this night might do what they resolved to do on Friday already, but Salome knew nothing about and the Marys in any case had to wait for over the Sabbath Day.

Mark 16:2 “And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.” Again no fault or weakness in the “translation of this passage”.

The evening before the women bought spices and then had to WAIT UNTIL first opportunity to “when they came, they might anoint Him”. Now, “very early in the morning at the rising of the sun, they came”. Where’s the “contradiction”? EVEN THOUGH THIS (verse 2) IS A SECOND VISIT AT THE TOMB THERE STILL IS NO CONTRADICTION in “this passage” or “in the translation of this passage” or between these two passages of Mk16:1 and 2, or between Mk16:1 to 2 and Mt28:1. There CANNOT be ‘contradiction’ because each of the three passages or verses, tell about its OWN event. As simple as that. Each its OWN event and therefore each text has its own Subject, own Predicate, own time, own place, own personae – you name it – its own. So how can they contradict one another?

There is only an “apparent contradiction” in your thinking, SDA. In what manner is ‘ambiguity’ to “completely disappear” where “The end of the Sabbath and dawn are 12 hours apart” already; at least, 12 hours apart already? Have you succeeded to get the metaphorical parallel lines to meet, or to get the sun retreat in its track? Every time-indication in the Gospels of the Saturday night and Sunday morning is precise; each indicates its own event. Scholars think that if they brought together all the women and the Resurrection out of so many different directions as there were women and angels approaching the grave at the same moment, they have solved their self-created dilemma. They will never get it right. Never, no matter HOW they manhandle and mangle the text through quasi translation. They are fools trying to.

“Mark 16:1-3” and Matthew 28:1 do not deal with the same things – and there are many ‘things’ involved in them; they simply have nothing in common; least, as far as time-indications are concerned.

What “obvious reasons” are you talking of? One or some that completely obviously in the first place never existed or appeared! What bluff! Which “apparent ambiguity” do you see that “completely disappears” as a result of these supposed “obvious reasons”? 12 hours apart stays 12 hours apart. Remove the beam of a single time-period in these texts blurring the vision of both your eyes, and see how apparent the different periods in time spoken of, really are. They are different times; first of all accept the fact; then try get the other factors fall in place. They will as if by themselves.

The ‘answer’ is NOT, ‘found in the translation’ of this or whichever passage. There certainly are grossly incorrect so called ‘translations’. But the translations quoted in this discussion here, were correct— not to say they cannot be improved on. The answer to the supposed ‘problems’ or ‘contradictions’ or ‘ambiguities’ is, These passages are self-explanatory. Each answers and explains just what it says.

SDA:

“The original Greek texts contain no chapters, verses or punctuation and were added later by the translators for obvious reasons. By reorganizing that last verse of Matthew 27 and the first verse of Matthew 28, the apparent ambiguity completely disappears.”

GE:

See study, ‘Matthew 28:1 is an Undividable Unit’. It is impossible to just reorganize a Greek text or “passage’” with ‘adding’ or taking away “punctuation”.

SDA:

“Matthew 27:62-65 “Now the next day [Sabbath], that followed the day of the preparation, [Friday] the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. 65 Pilate said unto them, You have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can.”

Note in verse 62, a request for a guard on the tomb was made on the Sabbath (the day after the preparation) and that the request was for a guard until the third day. The following is how the KJV translates these two verses.

Matthew 27:66 “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”
Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

By simply moving the beginning of verse 28:1 to the end of 27:66 which is obviously where it should have been placed when punctuation and chapters and verse were added, we would have the following.

Matthew 27:66 “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the sabbath.”
Matthew 28:1 “As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

GE:

What SDA has done changes nothing except to corrupt both the text and the passage and its true meaning! By having moved the beginning of verse 28:1 to the end of 27:66, SDA with clear intention removed and leave out the time stipulated that the grave was sealed and a watch set, “morning of day after The Preparation” Mt27:62, in order to join Matthew 27:66 with Matthew 28:1 so that “they made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the sabbath .... as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week....”

It is important that SDA admits the guard was stationed “for the third day” as such. That is why SDA postponed the setting of the guard until “in the end of the sabbath .... as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week....” meaning to say, without mincing matter, ‘on the First Day, after the Sabbath’. “Note in verse 62, a request for a guard on the tomb was made on the Sabbath (the day after the preparation) and that the request was for a guard until the third day” .... with which SDA again of course – to call a spade a spade – has meant to say, ‘for the First Day, after the Sabbath’.

A guard was, given and the grave was, sealed for the express purpose of having the grave sealed FOR “THE THIRD DAY”— “the third day” of Jesus’ prophetic declaration based on the Scriptures’ and prophets’ prophetic word, “the third day”. It was exactly THIS URGENCY that “the morning after their Preparation” prompted the Jews to bring their request before the heathen Pilate without regard for their holy Sabbath Day. It was exactly due to the fact IT ALREADY WAS “the third day” of Jesus’ declaration which the Jews themselves have heard spoken from His mouth that they confronted Pilate for the umpteenth time during that passover season of theirs. Matthew’s narrative betrays the tone in which Pilate granted the Jews their anxious wish; it is curt and impatient. Pilate could not believe what the Jews were prepared to do for their fear of this Man of Nazareth, a dead man already buried, but the Jews prepared to desecrate their own Sabbath because of him!?

That it was the Sabbath, shows, that Sabbath, was, “the third day” everything turned upon— the day He would rise from the dead again, as He prophesied.

This whole episode is certain proof NO JEW KNEW of Joseph’s undertaking TWO NIGHTS AGO on the Sabbath morning – Mt27:62 – or that he had finished to bury Jesus the afternoon before!

This is proof Jesus was not on the day He died, and immediately after, quickly before the sun would set, buried. If the Jews wanted the grave secured, they would have secured it on the day of the crucifixion, there and then, if Jesus there and then, had been buried. But now they only do it the Sabbath’s morning.

The Jews never wanted Jesus buried; they wanted him to suffer and rot in the dump-hole. So they would not have allowed Joseph to bury Jesus under any circumstance if only they knew!

The Jews must have found out after their Sabbath-night’s sleep about “these things done since”, and wasted no time to realise and to take precaution for the implications for them if Jesus’ prophecy were to come true.

The disciples on their way talked about “these things” which they had no idea about themselves, but only after it had had happened, were informed of by the women. Not in their wildest imagination could the disciples have thought “these things” possible. When Jesus met them on their way, “It today, since these things were done, (was) the third day”. “These things” excluded that which they knew of and had seen themselves “were done” on Crucifixion-day – “These things” excluded the things stipulated in verse 20.

It is for a matter of fact well noted down by Matthew, “in verse 62, a request for a guard on the tomb was made on the Sabbath”, on “.... the day after the preparation” .... “in the morning early”. SDA keeps silent it was “in the morning early”, so that he could change “in the morning early”, into, “in the end of the sabbath .... as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week”!

This is how the Seventh-day Adventists always deal with Scripture. “They also have erred (as if) through wine; (as) through strong drink have they gone off the road; the ‘priest’ and the ‘prophet’ have lost it completely; they are intoxicated by heresy; they receive false vision and judgment like drunkards. Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from (the) milk (of the Word of God), and abhor the fountain (of godly knowledge). For they teach precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little: for with faltering speech and incomprehensible tongue will he speak to his people .... that they might stagger forward and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Wherefore hear the Word of the LORD ye scornful men that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because you have said, we have made covenant with death and with hell .... for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” Is28:7...15.

SDA:

“The following is how the KJV translates these two verses. It was the watch guarding the tomb that began at the end of the Sabbath.”

GE:

Behold Is28:7...15 confirmed: “.... the watch guarding the tomb that began at the end of the Sabbath”!

The watch that began at the end of the Sabbath would have been the first watch of the ‘Saturday night’, which for the Roman guard would have been the second last watch for the day, the watch before the second watch of the night, which for a Roman guard would have ended midnight, and would have ended the day. But the guard never watched the tomb until then, because Matthew tells us that “mid-afternoon”, they were struck down like dead men by the splendour of the angel of the Lord. The women though, could not know, and they would have thought the guard still guarded the grave and only midnight would have allowed them into the grave; because that was why they “Came carrying their spices and ointments deep early morning of night” Lk24:1 after midnight and the last watch of the day for a Roman guard had ended.

But YOU, SDA, WANTS TO TELL US THE GUARD WAS ONLY SET ON SATURDAY NIGHT and not on the Sabbath “early morning daylight after The Preparation” as it is written in Mt27:62-66! It is the most straight-faced but wrangled lie I have ever encountered.

Let me help here, for truth’s sake.

As it is written,

1) The guard was set on the Sabbath “early morning

daylight after The Preparation”, Mt27:65-66, “Have your watch! Leave now! Whatever you do, make fast!”

2) “Going fast, they secured the grave, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”

3) B-U-T, in the end of the Sabbath MID-AFTERNOON as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, WENT Mary Magdalene and the other Mary TO (GO) see the sepulchre.” Mt27:66~28:1.

4) It was THEN that “there suddenly was a great earthquake”

and Christ arose from the dead— with no human near or knowing except the guard struck down “like dead men” who in any case could know of NOTHING “that happened”.

No changes in punctuation are necessary; no changes in wording even; but for probably an improved rendering of the meaning of each word and the whole passage.

SDA:

“Now we find that Matthew and Mark agree completely as to when the women came to the tomb, which was just before the rising of the sun at dawn, on the first day of the week being Sunday.”

GE:

Do they? They do not; they differ in every detail! You see, this is what’s wrong with your Sunday-resurrectionists’ ‘thinking’— the Gospels’ ‘thinking’, is too ‘literal, secular thinking’ to your liking.

1) You talk of “when the women, came to the tomb” as were they the same women who prepared spices and ointments. They were not. Matthew mentions the two Marys, but Mk16:1 mentions three. Mk16:2 mentions no specific women. The women were not the same, and therefore it could not have been one or the same event meant in any of these Scriptures.

2) You talk of “when the women came to the tomb” in Mt28:1-4— you insist they arrived, at, the tomb. They did not; they “went / departed”. Matthew contradicts you, SDA; and so does Mark! Matthew says they “departed ....”.

3) Matthew says they “departed .... TO go look at the tomb, WHEN SUDDENLY THERE WAS A GREAT EARTHQUAKE ....” and the women never got to the tomb on that Sabbath Day! They did not get so far as either to have arrived at the tomb or to have seen the tomb or anything going on at or inside the tomb!

4) You talk of “.... which was just before the rising of the sun at dawn on the first day ....”; Matthew says

“it was / being” (‘-ousehi’)

“in / with / central / height / mid-inclining-over” (‘epi-’) and

“ripe / full / late” (‘opse’),

“day / light / noon” (‘fohs’)

“in / with” (‘tehi –ehi’)

“OF / ON / IN the Sabbath’S” (‘sabbatohn’),

“TOWARDS / BEFORE” (‘eis’) (‘dawn’ by the setting sun)

“AGAINST / BEFORE / TOWARDS” (‘mian’ Acc.) “the First Day of the week” (‘(hehmeran) sabbatohn’).

SDA:

“Since Jesus was to rise the third day, the Roman guards were put in place immediately at the end of the Sabbath because they anticipated that the body of Jesus would be stolen by the Jews sometime on Sunday, the third (and next) day. Had they anticipated the theft on Saturday, then the guard would have been in place by Friday evening the preparation day.”

GE:

So you do tell us the guard was set on Saturday night!

Nobody really “anticipated the theft”; the Jews anticipated that Jesus’ words would come true still. They wanted to prevent them come true. Since Jesus was to rise the third day as the Jews heard Him predict, they asked for the Roman guard, which was put in place immediately “early on the morning after the (Jews’) preparations” the Friday-afternoon before now on the Sabbath “day’s morning” (‘epaurion’)— because they anticipated Jesus would rise from the dead BEFORE the end of the Sabbath .....

“Despite, IN THE END of the Sabbath MID-AFTERNOON as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week .... there suddenly was a great earthquake and the angel of the Lord descended from heaven ....” because BEFORE the end of the Sabbath Jesus against all expectations, regardless all precautionary measures, and exactly according to the Jews’ worst fears, ROSE from the dead.

You, SDA, also talk as though the Jews knew that Joseph had buried Jesus. Well, they did not know. The Jews did not WANT Jesus buried. What they asked Pilate in the night after Jesus’ crucifixion, tells you that. The Jews did not even know that Joseph turned up after them; neither knew they what he had asked of Pilate that night, nor that Pilate had given the body over to him. Joseph that night acted “secretly”, because he knew the Jews would stop at nothing to prevent him from doing what he intended to do.

The story tells “he” – the only one – “who saw how Jesus’ side was pierced told it to others” later on. John witnessed of this one’s witness that it was trustworthy; so on the witness of the one who saw and of John’s to his character, it was true that that night, Jesus’ side was pierced instead of His bones broken. It never happened! And that it happened to Jesus in the time-span of a few minutes or even under a few minutes and at most an hour more keeping in mind the women also had to go home and must have had their preparations done between after Joseph had closed the grave and ‘before sundown’, simply is unrealistic and overtly contrary ALL “the Scriptures”.

Only Pilate and the guard knew of Joseph’s undertaking to bury Jesus’ body; nobody else did! And Joseph somehow later that night must have had Nicodemus called to come help; and probably on Friday the next morning only, could let the two Marys know to attend the final funeral procession.

SDA:

“Jesus was crucified on Friday and died at 3:00 P.M. He rose from the dead somewhere between Saturday after sunset and sunrise on Sunday morning. There is absolutely no way to push the crucifixion back to Wednesday and fit scripture. A Wednesday crucifixion once again is clearly impossible.”

GE:

Once again, a Wednesday crucifixion is clearly impossible; but, once again, you haven’t raised a single word or valid argument against a Thursday-Crucifixion-Friday-Burial-Sabbath-Resurrection.

And you haven’t said a word but to corrupt the Scriptures to ‘prove’ your and the Roman Catholics’ draconic Friday crucifixion AND burial Sunday resurrection dogma. Every Scripture you both touch, you corrupt!

1) “crucified on Friday” versus on “The Preparation of the Passover”;

2) “He rose from the dead .... Saturday after sunset” versus “On the Sabbath, Sabbath’s fullness being mid-afternoon in the daylight”;

3) “He rose .... on Sunday” versus “towards / before the First Day of the week”.

4) “He rose .... sunrise on Sunday morning” versus “He appeared to Mary Magdalene early on Sunday morning”.

5) And you both corrupt the fact and truth of Jesus’ Sabbath’s-Resurrection by keeping silent crucial texts that put Jesus’ BURIAL on the day IN BETWEEN the days of his crucifixion and resurrection, on “that Day” the fifteenth day of the First Month and Sixth Day of the week “The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath”— “the Fore-Sabbath of “the Sabbath according to the Fourth Commandment”.

So that there is no way to push the crucifixion forward onto Friday, and the Burial back onto Crucifixion-day, and the resurrection forward onto Sunday leaving ‘Still Saturday’ a gaping hell, ‘and fit Scripture’— it by the pure witness of the Gospels, being clearly impossible.

SDA:

“Inclusive Reckoning
These following verses are appealed against the already overwhelming evidence to make an attempt to propose a full 72 hours in the grave.”

GE:

Building a straw-man to set on fire o so valiantly. Infatuation will not avail with sober men. But what have you tied up inside and covered up with your straw-man’s straw to make bon-fire of? Let’s see.

SDA:

“These following verses are appealed against the already overwhelming evidence to make an attempt to propose a full 72 hours in the grave. They do seem to say a full three days but if you believe the Bible cannot contradict itself, then these verses MUST be harmonized with the rest of scripture on the subject.”

GE:

No one mentioned “72 hours” but those who argue ‘72 hours’ doesn’t matter whether short of over. And no one mentioned “in the grave”, but they who argue ‘72 hours in the grave’ for or against.

To some ‘72 hours’ may “seem to say a full three days”; but those must still come to the fore. So far, those who argue ‘72 hours’ have been those who either argue “three days and three nights” are not 72 hours long, or more than one hour and one “full day” plus perhaps three quarters of one night – in all not more than 33 hours and one or more minutes over— not even halve of 72 hours!

Or those who argue ‘72 hours’, have been those who argue ‘72 hours’ make say four days, and some even say make five days. Except me, of course, poor fool who cannot understand 72 hours or three full days must be 72 hours of three full days ‘in the grave’.

Except me, of course, poor fool who cannot understand three days are not 72 hours long; who also cannot understand 72 hours in full days cannot be three full days of night and day each.

Jesus argued “three days”; He argued, “the third day”. But He ALSO argued, “three days and three nights” as “days” and “nights” ‘inclusive reckoning’ or by part representing the whole. The night in full; and, the day, in full; AND the night and the day, one day in full; one by one of the “three days” night and day each, “according to the Scriptures” the passover-Scriptures, represented by one moment on each and not by 24 hours of any.

The “three days” night and day each, “according to the Scriptures” the passover-Scriptures, each represented by one moment on it, the day of Crucifixion with the moment of Jesus’ death; the day of Resurrection with the moment of his taking up his life again .... and the day of Burial, with the moment that Joseph closed the door of the grave. Significantly each ‘moment’, “mid-afternoon” the next day anticipating, to the hour, “the ninth hour”, to the daytime, “the third DAY”, to the full day, “three days and three nights”, to the calendar day, “the fourteenth / the fifteenth / the sixteenth day”, to the month, “of the First Month”, to the season, “the passover” and harvest’s “first sheaf”, to the year, “seventy weeks (‘sabbaths’-years’) determined upon thy People”. To the letter, to the type, to the prophecy, to the prophet, to the dispensation, to the Covenant— “according to the Scriptures” TO “IN THE SABBATH’S FULLNESS”, “God the Seventh Day from ALL HIS WORKS, RESTED!”

Jesus even argued “My hour is come”, “the hour is come”, but He NEVER ‘argued’, “72 hours” AND, He NEVER argued separated, loose, unrelated, non-‘inclusive’ day-HALVES or PARTS of ARBITRARY ‘days’ or ‘nights’ not of prophetic typological appointment as passover’s days are appointed and commanded calendar-days of “THE LORD’S FEAST”, “PASSOVER OF YAHWEH”!

“The third day” is not just any kind of ‘third day’ like the third day since Jesus had been crucified; “the third day” is the third day of the passover, and is typical of Jesus’ prophesied resurrection from the dead “after three days” of THE “three days and three nights” of the “sign of the PROPHET Jonas”.

SDA:

“Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Matthew 27:63 “Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.”

GE:

Yours is the most horrible associating of Scriptures and concepts imaginable. It is the third time if I remember you allege “apparently contradictory statements” but fail to show any.

“.... these apparently contradictory statements ....”? Which apparently contradictory statements? The only way to understand these apparently perfectly harmonizing statements is to understand them for ‘Scriptures’. Where ‘literally’ meant; they’re ‘literal’; where they’re figurative language, it’s figurative. And where once only it is idiomatic (“after three days” for “on the third day”) it is idiomatic. What is it you’re trying to explain to us then? That where the Scriptures is mechanical ‘counting’ merely in “Luke 24:21”, it is eschatologically predetermined and through and in Christ fulfilled Truth as in “Matthew 12:40”?

SDA:

“Jesus and His friends spoke and wrote in harmony with the common literacy used those days, and that usage recognized inclusive reckoning of time. In simple language, this means that any part of a day was counted as a whole day. The Jewish Encyclopaedia states. “A short time in the morning of the seventh day is counted as the seventh day; circumcision takes place on the eighth day, even though, of the first day only a few minutes after the birth of the child, these being counted as one day.” Vol. 4, p. 475. Any small part of a day was reckoned as the entire twenty-four hour period. Scores of contradictions would appear in both Old and New Testament if this principle were ignored. We must compare Scripture with Scripture and use the idiom of the language in which the Bible was written. Inclusive reckoning was taken for granted by all the writers of the Scriptures.”

GE:

Inclusive reckoning is not a dead strict rule. Scores of contradictions would appear if this general guideline were taken too far. Inclusive reckoning was not always taken for granted or without exception by any of the writers of the Scriptures. “We must compare Scripture with Scripture and use the idiom of the language in which the Bible was written” That’s the best advice for anyone, provided the Scriptures are taken account of for their own meaning within the full context of each.

SDA:

“These examples are only a few of the many which could be cited to establish this important point. The Hebrew usage requires only that some part of each of the days should be involved in the time period.”

GE:

Even so, SDA, you have made no point yet except an impossible to keep up literary theory of “Hebrew usage”. Keep in mind we have to do with Greek in our Scriptures; not with “Hebrew usage”. Greek uses words with precise meaning; if the word means exclusive, it’s exclusive; if the word means inclusive, it’s inclusive – while in Hebrew the meaning may have been inclusive or exclusive depending on “usage”, context and many factors I have no clue of, but which somebody once told me about.

‘Apo’–“since” in Lk24:21 has exclusive meaning; that I know because my Grammars teach it. But as it appears in context and “usage”, ‘apo’–“since” in Lk24:21 has exclusive meaning even the more. (See study, ‘Three days after’.) That I am also sure of, from what I have here presented before you but know you are just going to throw in the trash-bin. It’s on your conscience.

SDA:

“Those who insist that Christ was in the grave a full seventy-two hours contend that the three days and three nights must be taken in the fullest literal sense. But such a contention is absolutely contrary to the testimony of the Scriptures.”

GE:

Not at all! Why should it be “absolutely contrary to the testimony of the Scriptures .... that the three days and three nights must be taken in the fullest literal sense”? You confuse matters in order to confuse people. You cannot treat contention “that Christ was in the grave a full seventy-two hours” on equal footing with insisting “that the three days and three nights must be taken in the fullest literal sense”. The one is the contention of men; the other is Scripture! The “three days and three nights”, must be taken in the fullest literal sense of the words and of the Scriptures concerning it; and that is, that the “three days and three nights” must be taken in the fullest literal sense of the “three days” and “third day according to the Scriptures” of the passover, of Jonas and of all the Bible. Not in terms of hours; but also not in terms of other or different ‘days’ than the “three days” and the “third day according to the Scriptures” the passover-Scriptures about the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth days of the First Month and the passover.

No one here – not me for sure – “contend”, “in the grave a full seventy-two hours”. See my tables: ‘in the grave’, exactly “mid-afternoon the Sabbath nearing” –‘epefohsken sabbaton’ on Friday, to, exactly “mid-afternoon the First Day nearing” “ON THE SABBATH” (Saturday) –‘sabbatohn tehi epifohskousehi eis mian (hehmeran) sabbatohn’— exactly twelve hours only! That’s 12 hours between the precise two moments which the Gospels state — Lk23:54 grave closed until Mt28:1 grave opened— Contending about ‘hours in the grave’ maliciously turns upon its 72 hours-proponents.

Twelve hours between the precise two moments which the Gospels state, Lk23:54 grave closed until Mt28:1 grave opened, “mid-afternoon”-‘tehi epifohskousehi’.

It means one is contending “that the three days and three nights must be taken in the fullest literal sense” because, Lk23:54 grave closed until Mt28:1 grave opened taken in the fullest literal sense twelve hours in the grave, fulfils the ‘God-given and therefore eschatologically essential one-ness and wholeness’** of the “three-days-and-three-nights”-“according to the Scriptures”-“three days”.

[[** “die gottgegebene und darum eschatologisch-gültige Ganzheit”, Lohmeyer re 12 tribes of Israel.]]

SDA:

“An example of the way the Bible uses the term is found in Esther 4:16. We read these words of Queen Esther to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise.” Esther 4:16. Do not overlook the fact that they were to fast three days and three nights. Yet almost the next verse tells us, “Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court.” Esther 5:1. Here is a perfect example of how three days and three nights terminate on the third day.

In the next example using the book of 1 Kings, the people are told by the king to depart for three days but they return ON the third day and not on the fourth. Why? Because the king did not mean to be gone for a full 72 hours. The counting of days was inclusive in nature. The same day that the king told them to leave was the first day. The second day they stayed away, and then they returned the third day, as the king had intended. This is the exactly the same manner of counting used for the resurrection. It is inclusive in nature with whatever portion of the first and last days being counted as full days.

1 Kings 12:5 “And he said unto them, Depart yet FOR THREE DAYS, then come again to me. And the people departed.”
1 Kings 12:12 “So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam THE THIRD DAY, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again THE THIRD DAY.””

GE:

In not one case of these ‘examples’ of yours of “the term” (sic.), SDA, do we find ‘the-’, or the equivalent of “the, third day according to the Scriptures” with regard to the passover— which we are supposed to be ‘arguing’ about. Although this is the same manner of counting one should use for the resurrection, and although this entails ‘inclusive’ counting which means whatever portion of a day is included, the full day is included and counted, “the manner of counting” does not make of any days thus counted, ‘the’ “according to the Scriptures”–“three days”. It does not make of any one day thus counted, “the third day according to the Scriptures” ‘the Scriptures’ concerning the passover. Whatever portion of any of the “three days” according to the passover-Scriptures being counted as full days, it HAS TO BE a portion of the days of the “three days”, “according to”, the passover-“Scriptures” in any and all parts. They MUST BE the or parts of the fourteenth day of Abib or the fifteenth day of Abib or the sixteenth day of the month of Abib, or “the Scriptures” regarding the passover’s “three days”, are being manhandled.

Esther 4:16, 5:1, 1Kings 12:5 and 1Kings 12:12 are just other examples of Scriptures like Luke 24:21 of instances of words only that indicate days simply, that have NOTHING to do with the “three days” or “the third day according to the Scriptures” the passover-Scriptures. As little right you had to confuse “the third day” in Scriptures like Esther 4:16, 5:1, 1Kings 12:5 and 1Kings 12:12, as little right do you have to confuse Lk24:21 and “the third day” in it with Scriptures like Lk24:7 and 46 and “the third day” in them. Would you say the book of Esther or of 1Kings speak of “the third day” in Lk24:7 and 46? Of course not! So how do you claim “today the third day since” in Lk24:21 was “the third day” of verses 7 and 46? Does the same principle of interpretation not forbid you? The simple principle or law of interpretation, ‘context and relation’?

Now just like the first and the last of the passover’s “three days” are precisely and exclusively indicated by this “inclusive” “manner of counting”, is the middle or second of the passover’s “three days”, precisely and exclusively “according to the Scriptures” indicated by this very same “inclusive” “manner of counting”. In fact, the middle or second of the passover’s “three days” could not be marked more markedly by a “portion of it”, this “portion”, the BEGINNING-‘portion’ of it, namely:— “It being evening already .... since it was The Preparation .... The Preparation which is the Fore-Sabbath .... The Preparation and because That Day was a great-day-of-sabbath’s-importance”. It could not be marked more markedly by a “portion of it”, this “portion”, its ENDING-‘portion’, namely:— “Now that day, had been the (passover-)sabbath (by) mid-afternoon”. Or, “Now that day had been the (Commandment-)Sabbath mid-afternoon approaching.” (Both perspectives are possible.) The time on that day whichever of the two ‘sabbaths’ it was, “was”, “mid-afternoon”. Therefore not only John in 19:31 speaks of the passover’s “sabbath”; Luke in 23:54 – in its first as well as second clauses – also speaks of the passover’s, “sabbath”! TWO Gospels in so many WORDS mention the passover’s ‘sabbath’, Jn19:31 at its commencement, Mk23:54 at its conclusion beginning. And BOTH time the passover’s “sabbath” immediately BEFORE the weekly Sabbath. BOTH identify this passover’s ‘sabbath’ with “The Preparation” identified, unmistakably, “The Fore-Sabbath” by Mark, which could only have been our ‘Friday’.

It is found over more, and, as well, that each of

the “three days” of the “three days and three nights”,

is ‘marked’ and represented by the ‘portion for the whole principle’ by the exact same moment in day-time of each of

fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth days of the First Month,

which was 3 p.m., “the ninth hour”.

“the ninth hour” for Crucifixion-day,

“mid-afternoon” for Burial-day, and,

“mid-afternoon” for Resurrection-day ....

for Thursday, for Friday, and, for the “Sabbath’s” day.

SDA:

“In the following passage the third day clearly means the day after tomorrow, not after 3 full days.

Luke 13:31-33 “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get you out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill you. 32 And he said unto them, Go you, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and THE THIRD DAY I shall be perfected. 33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and tomorrow, and THE DAY FOLLOWING: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.”

We have just seen how Jesus explained the third day. In Luke 13:32 above, He said “today, and tomorrow, and the third day.””

GE:

In these passages again, “the third day” clearly means “THE third day according to the Scriptures” and not merely the third counted day after another day counted from, as in Lk24:21. As with Esther 4:16, 5:1, 1Kings 12:5 and 1Kings 12:12 above.

SDA:

“When Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Sunday afternoon after the resurrection, Cleopas said, “Today is the third day since these things were done.”Luke 24:21. Everyone knows this was on Sunday but if Jesus had been crucified on Wednesday afternoon, Cleopas would have had to say “Today is the fifth day since these things were done.” Later the same day, the first day of the week, Jesus made stated, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.” Luke 24:46. So who was right? Jesus and Cleopas were both right. Those who claim the Wednesday crucifixion are wrong. Christ died on Friday, the preparation for the Sabbath which was the first day. He rested in the tomb on the Sabbath according to the Commandment which was the second day. He arose on the first day of the week which was Sunday and this was the third day.”

GE:
But SDA goes straight ahead and headstrong as ever.

How do you, count, SDA, “if Jesus had been crucified on Wednesday afternoon, Cleopas would have had to say “Today (on Sunday) is the fifth day since these things were done”? If Sunday were the fifth, Saturday would have been the fourth, Friday the third, Thursday the second, Wednesday the first ‘day since these things’ and TUESDAY would have been the day OF these things done.

But like I said above, such frivolous counting makes no argument; the only valid argument is one that follows the typology or prophetic relation to and bearing on the ONLY ‘days’ of concern and relevancy, the “three days” on the passover-calendar of 14, 15 and 16 Abib.

The ‘rule’ or standard of inclusive reckoning, is wrong, when applied in an isolated instance of ‘exclusive’, ‘literal secular’, COUNTING, in this case, of the disciples having counted “three days since” the day they crucified Him. The ‘rule’ or standard of inclusive reckoning is right, when applied in relevant cases of ‘inclusive examples’ of Antitypical fulfilment. Lk24:21 is not one of those cases!

And, the disciples did not count from the day ON which Jesus was crucified, they counted “away from”-‘apo’ the day they had crucified Him upon.

The disciples wondered – with “what manner of communication .... they talked together .... and reasoned” – about what has happened “since these things” which they knew already had happened, had happened on the day that they crucified Him. They wondered about what they did not know about, but only have received rumour of. The disciples did not know He had been buried. The women “astonished” them when they told them they were at the grave. The disciples did not know about the grave even. Jesus had not yet appeared to anyone; the “angels” – the two of them of Luke’s own narration of the Sunday’s earliest-morning visit at the tomb – had only told the women that He had raised; and the women – second hand – told the disciples! The disciples did not know about the angels, or their witness, before the women told them of it.

These disciples wondered about “things” that happened that they had not with their own eyes, seen or could have imagined! Those UNKNOWN things they wondered and surmised about, have been happening “since” the Crucifixion and “since” the day of the Crucifixion which they went through themselves.

“Today is the third day” includes “these things which since happened”— the things they were wondering about.

“Today is the third day” excludes what happened before whatever they “since” have been wondering about.

“Today is the third day since” and excluding those things they did not wonder about since they had seen it with their own eyes happen.

Although “now” it was long after Jesus’ first appearances to the women, the disciples still knew nothing about it. They must have left from Jerusalem before the women reached the apostles with the news of their encounter with the resurrected Lord after sunrise Sunday morning, Mt28:5-8. So these disciples on their way to Emmaus, contemplated the truth or untruth of what THEY THOUGHT “happened SINCE” Jesus had been crucified, and which to them were but ‘astonishing’ rumours. “We trusted it had been He which should have redeemed Israel: and besides all THIS (all these rumours and ‘visions of angels’ that He rose from the dead but nobody had even seen Him yet) today is the third day since these things were done”. These disciples were everyone a doubting Thomas. “These things (which) were done” therefore exactly included “these things (that actually) happened” according to verses 22 to 24 - “all this since” those things mentioned before in verses 14 to 20 — ONLY the things up to and including the Crucifixion — which things again, DIRECTLY relate to “ALL THESE THING WHICH HAPPENED” (verse 14) ‘live’, in verses 1 to 12.

Verses 1 to 12 give occasion to verse 13.

Verse 13 relates forward to verses 14 to 20.

Verses 13 to 20 give occasion to verse 21.

Verse 21 relates forward to verses 22-24.

Verses 22-24 relate BACK to verses 1-12.

Verses 1 to 24 cover NO first hand experienced fact about Jesus “since” his crucifixion and death actually seen by the disciples.

“These things that were done” relate to

BEFORE: “How (they) delivered Him to be condemned to death, and have crucified Him”; and to

AFTER: “Besides all this .... yea, certain women which were early at the tomb astonished us ....”— a DIRECT reference to verse 9! These disciples after the women had “told all these things” of the empty tomb and the angels “unto the eleven and to all the rest”, must immediately have LEFT for Emmaus. It was the only time they have HEARD that Jesus had been buried; they knew no more or about the grave or about what Joseph had done until then. No one of them had been present after they had “delivered Him”, because it says He was “delivered TO, BE, condemned to death, and”, that they “have crucified Him”, which agrees with Jesus’ assurance to them, “You shall all desert Me”!

After the ‘trial’, except for John, Peter was the last disciple who forsook Jesus. No one of the disciples waited for the crucifixion. The other disciples did not even know about John’s whereabouts, so soon did they all desert from “these things that were done”. John was the only and the last disciple who before 9 a.m. and the sudden darkness, “returned home” and left Jesus on the cross behind. No one “was there until the end” (as Ryle thinks).

No one of these disciples knew of anything beyond Jesus’ having been delivered over at sunrise 6 a.m. on Abib 14 “to be” crucified— Jn19:14. That’s what they said; the disciples did not tell Jesus they had seen the crucifixion; they were gone before it. Not they or another disciple knew that Joseph after everything and after “evening had come”, turned up. No disciple – not even any women – knew about Joseph or what he had done after “it now had become evening”, Mk15:42/Mt27:57, Jn19:31/38. NO ONE. Therefore, “Since these things which were done”, EXCLUDES ANYTHING AFTER the ‘delivering-over’ of Jesus to be crucified. And therefore it is undeniable,

verses 1 to 12 give occasion to verse 13 ....

verse 13 relates forward to verses 14 to 20 ....

verses 13 to 20 give occasion to verse 21 ....

verse 21 relates forward to verses 22-24 ....

verses 22-24 relate BACK to verses 1-12 ....

verses 1 to 24 cover no first hand experienced FACT about Jesus “since” his crucifixion and death,

and “these things” were those things AFTER verse 22 and AFTER the crucifixion and ONLY pertained to and included the things that “since happened” until “today the third day”.

“These things that since were done” are inclusive of the day AFTER Jesus had been crucified but exclusive of the day He had been crucified on. If the disciples counted “since” the Burial, “today” would have been the second day “since” the it. But they could not because they recalled or tried to understand the things they have only heard of from the women who astonished them with the news of the grave.

Here in Lk24:21 is no reference to the Burial or to prophetic days which were foretold and had been fulfilled for having been second or “the third day” “according to the Scriptures” of the passover – nothing! See study, ‘Third day since’.

SDA:

“The proponents of a Wednesday crucifixion use a devious argument to explain away the words of Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. They contend that he was not counting the three days from the time of Christ’s death, but rather from the sealing of the tomb by the authorities the day after he was crucified. One could possibly reach back to those events from which to reckon the third day but by no stretch of the imagination could any point beyond the death of Christ be used in computing the three days.

In every related text the third day is counted from the time of His death on the cross. Matthew said He would “be killed, and be raised again the third day.” Matthew 16:21. Mark wrote that He must “be killed, and after three days rise again.” Mark 8:31. Luke’s account reports that He must “be slain, and be raised the third day.” Luke 9:22.

Repeatedly the Scriptures emphasize the death of Jesus as the starting point of the three days. To begin counting a full day after the crucifixion is not only unbiblical but grossly imaginary. The sealing of the tomb is never once referred to in connection with the period of time He was dead.

In light of all the evidence, Matthew 12:40 and 27:63 do not mean a full literal three days and nights or 72 hours, since Jesus clearly rose ON the third day. By Jewish understanding referred to as inclusive reckoning, “three days and three nights” and “after three days” means the same as ON the third day.”

GE:

SDA’s arguments are watertight, until he gets to “In light of all the evidence, Matthew 12:40 and 27:63 do not mean a full literal three days and nights or 72 hours, since Jesus clearly rose ON the third day.” Again, SDA mixes error with truth, and so obfuscates the real ‘issue’. Fact is, in light of all the evidence, Matthew 12:40 and 27:63 DO MEAN, the, full, and, literal, “three days and three nights” of the God-given and therefore eschatologically anticipated “three days” of the passover-Scriptures fulfilled in Christ through Christ to the day, to the date, to the season, to the hour, and even, to the year and, to the day of the week, the Sabbath! And 72 hours was the length of those three days, naturally, because they were those three days and no other. But that was not the point, since even though Christ rose on the very hour predetermined and appointed “mid-afternoon in Sabbath Day’s fullness”, He clearly “rose on the third DAY, according to the Scriptures” in fulfilment of the Scriptures.

SDA:

“Passover Week Proves Resurrection
Now for the final proof positive that the resurrection of Jesus occurred on Sunday. It was to this that Paul turned in his persuasive Corinthian discourse on the resurrection. 1Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

It is very significant that Paul confirmed the death of Jesus, and also His resurrection on the third day on the basis of the Scriptures. Paul evidently understood that the Old Testament contained prophecies which set forth the time sequence of the crucifixion and the resurrection. According to Paul, Jesus had to rise on the third day in order to fulfil the word of God. Jesus also declared in Luke 24:46, “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:” Is there such a scripture in the Old Testament which can establish the actual day that Christ was raised from the dead? Yes! And it had to do with the annual observance of the Passover service.

In Leviticus 23:5-6 we read about the first two days of that solemn Passover week. “In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.”

We will not take time to establish the days of the week for these special observances right now as it is not essential to the proof we are seeking to establish. Just grasp these facts. The fourteenth day of the month was the slaying of the Passover, and the fifteenth day was the feast of unleavened bread.

The next question is what happened on the sixteenth day of the month? Firstfruits was offered on that sixteenth day and this service was first celebrated when the children of Israel came into the Promised Land. Leviticus 23:10-11 says, “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.”

What Sabbath is verse 11 talking about? The weekly Sabbath or the yearly Passover sabbath? The answer appears as we read the actual experience of their entrance into the land, recorded by Joshua. God told them that after entering the Promised Land they should offer the firstfruits to Him before eating of the first harvest themselves. Joshua described how the Israelites passed over the Jordan while the river was flooded at the harvest time. “For Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.” Joshua 3:15. This is very important to understand because the grain was ready for reaping and they would more quickly be able to eat of the land and offer the first sheaf to the Lord.

After crossing dryshod through the flooded Jordan, after God rolled back the waters, the children of Israel camped at Gilgal. Joshua 4:18-19 states, “And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before. 19 And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.”

Now for the next event that took place four days later. Joshua 5:10, “And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.”

In strict obedience to the Lord, the grateful and weary wanderers stopped to slay the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. The next verse tells us what happened on the following day, Joshua 5:11 “And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.”

Notice that they observed the feast of unleavened bread on the fifteenth day of the month, following the slaying of the Passover lamb on the fourteenth. They also ate the last of the old corn, because the new crop of grain was ready to harvest. The next day which was the sixteenth day of the month, “And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.” Joshua 5:12

*14 Nisan*	*15 Nisan*	*16 Nisan*
Passover	Old Corn and Unleavened Bread Eaten	Manna Ceased First Fruits of Canaan Eaten

The sheaf of firstfruits was to be offered to the Lord before they ate of the harvest of the land. Since they began to eat of the fruit of the land on the sixteenth day, following the feast of unleavened bread, it is certain that they offered the firstfruits also on that day. Please remember that the Lord had commanded them to offer the firstfruits of the harvest “on the morrow after the sabbath.” Leviticus 23:11. It was indeed on the day following the yearly sabbath of unleavened bread that the wave sheaf was offered, and the new harvest began to be eaten by the people that selfsame day.

For even more evidence that the commonly accepted chronology is correct, one must really understand the principle of type and antitype. The sequence of days to be observed for Passover was set down in scripture as the “type”. This sequence was symbolic of what was to come when the crucifixion of the Lamb of God actually took place, which is the “antitype.” So the type and antitype must match precisely:

· 14 Nisan, Slaying of Passover lamb. The Lord’s Passover is the type of the crucifixion day.

· 15 Nisan, 1st day of Unleavened Bread, is the second day.

· 16 Nisan, Firstfruits, is a type of the resurrection, and the third day.

By way of historical confirmation of these points, here is the testimony of Josephus, a contemporary of Jesus and a historian: “Nisan ... is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month ... and which was called the Passover. ... The feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days. ... But on the second day of unleavened bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth. ... They also at his anticipation of the firstfruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb, as a burnt offering unto God.” Book III, Chapter X, par. 5, pp. 79, 80.

Christ was Our Passover
How do all these facts relate to the time of Christ’s death and resurrection? Here is where the beauty of the Bible reveals itself. Jesus was the One to whom all those types and ceremonies pointed. He was the true Passover Lamb. That is why John cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God!” John 1:36. Paul showed how Jesus fulfilled the Passover, “…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, … but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

This is precisely why Jesus died on the fourteenth of Nisan. He did it to fulfil the Scriptures. Paul declared that “Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:3. Jesus had to die on the exactly the same day that the Passover lamb died in order to meet the prophetic type and to establish His identity as the true Passover Lamb.

But just as surely as Jesus died on a certain day according to the Scriptures, He also “rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:4. He not only was our Passover, but He was also the firstfruits! Paul ties it specifically to the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” Again in 1 Corinthians 15:23, “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.” No wonder Paul wrote so confidently about the resurrection on the third day according to the Scriptures. Christ rose from the dead as the firstfruits of those that slept. He was the antitype of the wave sheaf, and His resurrection took place on the very day that the wave sheaf was to be presented before the Lord.

Now we can understand why Jesus and His followers used the expression “the third day” more than any other to describe the resurrection. Prophecy had decreed hundreds of years earlier that He would be the fulfilment of the types and shadows surrounding the Passover observance. As the firstfruits, it was essential for Christ to be “harvested” and “presented” before the Lord “on the morrow after the sabbath.” In the year of the crucifixion the Passover sabbath coincided with the weekly Sabbath, making it “a high day.” John 19:31. It was the next day after that Sabbath that Jesus arose from the grave on Sunday.”

GE:

It breaks my heart to see such a beautiful and true recapitulation of the passover of Yahweh so spoiled through its conclusion. So blemished by untruth in the end. So near, yet so far! “In the year of the crucifixion the Passover sabbath coincided with the weekly Sabbath, making it “a high day.” John 19:31. It was the next day after that Sabbath that Jesus arose from the grave on Sunday.”

We have dealt with SDA’s assumptions, miscalculations and false associations.

1) The passover sabbath DID NOT coincide with the weekly Sabbath. Friday was the passover-sabbath, Jn19:31/Mk15:42 (Ex12:37,39; 13:3-5; Lv23:6b et al)

2) Coinciding with the weekly Sabbath, does not make the passover’s ‘sabbath’, ‘a high day’. Being “That-Day” or “That-Great-Day-of-sabbath’s(-status)” — ALWAYS Abib 15 — Abib 15 ALWAYS is “That-Day” or “That-Great-Day-of-sabbath’s(-status)” whether it coincided with the weekly Sabbath or not.

3) First Sheaf-day was NOT the day after the Sabbath Seventh Day— First Sheaf-day WAS “Sabbath’s”— Seventh Day in the year of the crucifixion, the two ‘sabbaths’ having occurred back to back in the year of the crucifixion.

4) Jesus arose NOT from the grave ‘on Sunday’; He arose “When in Sabbath’s fullness in being daylight tending towards the First Day of the week”.

All things dealt with already.

SDA:

“When Mary saw Him in the garden after His resurrection, Jesus said, “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” John 20:17. Why did Jesus ask Mary not to hold or delay Him (as the Greek text implies)? Because Jesus had to ascend that same day to present Himself before the Father as the firstfruits from the dead.”

GE:

On this sorry apologetics, see book 6/2, ‘Save the Sabbath’.

Very briefly, consider, “not to hold or delay Him (as the Greek text implies” .... Wrong! The Greek text implies, and almost exactly says, “Don’t stay by Me or delay, Mary! Forward! Go tell my disciples, quick!” Jesus DID NOT tell Mary not to hold or delay Him.

Pay attention to one of the ‘pillar’-untruths of Seventh-day Adventism, “Because Jesus had to ascend that same day to present Himself before the Father as the firstfruits from the dead.” Nothing can be further from the truth, because Jesus in the grave, rising “from the dead”, presented Himself before the Father ‘The Firstfruits from the dead’. This peculiar heresy of SDAism is meant to minimize if not completely destroy all meaning of the Resurrection for salvation; also to ‘prove’ a created being – an angel – in the absence of the Father raised Christ from the dead; which treason they in allegiance to their ‘Investigative Judgment’ figment commit against the Gospel of Christ.

SDA:

“The biblical proof of those three successive days during Passover week completely shatters the Wednesday crucifixion theory. Jesus had to die on Friday to fulfil the Scriptures concerning His death as the Passover lamb. He had to be resurrected on the third day after His death to meet the scriptural type of the firstfruits. Only three days can be involved in the time sequence or the Word of God is broken.”

GE:

SDA has been arguing so long for ‘inclusive counting’; but what does he do here? “He had to be resurrected on the third day after His death to meet the scriptural type of the firstfruits.”

“.... resurrected on the third day after His death ....” would see Christ rise from the dead on a fourth day.

Suppose He was resurrected on Sunday, then

Sunday is the third day after His death; and

Saturday is the second day after His death; and

Friday is the first day after His death; and

Thursday is the day of His death.

And so did Luke have it in his Book; and so do I have it in my book. But SDA and Tradition and the Romanist Protestants disagree .... But Jesus HAD TO BE BURIED on Friday Abib 15 to fulfil the Scriptures concerning His DEATH on THURSDAY Abib 14 as the Passover lamb. He HAD TO BE RESURRECTED on the day AFTER the day He was BURIED on and ON “the third day according to the Scriptures”, “the third day” of the passover, Abib 16, to meet the scriptural type of the First Sheaf Wave Offering and –day, NOT “the third day after His death”. Only THE “three days” “according to the Scriptures” and the Prophets and the Law, can be involved in the time sequences of the Word of God.

SDA:

“The issues here are much deeper than most people realize. Had Christ not fulfilled every single Old Testament type and shadow pointing forward to His atoning death and resurrection, then how could He be the true Messiah. It was absolutely essential that every prophecy of the Messiah should be fulfilled in His life and death.”

GE:

Yet the SDAs deny the Seventh-day Sabbath any part in this type and shadow pointing forward to Christ essentiality. They choose to keep the Sabbath the Jews keep for dear life.

THURSDAY Crucifixion Type Matches Antitype

14 Abib
THURSDAY – 5th day

“Preparation of the Passover”

15 Abib
FRIDAY - 6th day

“That Day great-day-sabbath”

16 Abib
”SABBATH before the First Day of the week”

“leaven REMOVED Passover KILLED”

1st Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread FEAST

“FIRST SHEAF WAVE”

NIGHT

DAY

“NIGHT”

“DAY/

LIGHT”

EVE

NING

MOR

NING

MOR

NING

AFTER

NOON

Mk14:12/17

to 15:20a

15:20b

to 41

15:42

to 46a

46b

to 47

------

Mt26:17/20

to 27:26

27:27

to 56

27:57

to 59

to 61

------

27:62

to 66

28:1

to 4

Lk22:7/14

to 23:25

23:26

to 49

23:50

to 53a

53b

to 56a

56b

------

Jn13:1/29-30

to 18:28

19:14

to 30

19:31/38

to 40

to 42

------

Abib 17 ”First Day of the week”

4th Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread

NIGHT

Mk16:1

“when the

Sabbath had

gone through

Mary M & Mary

& Salome

bought spices that might

anoint him when they go”

Jn20:1

“Mary early darkness still seeth the stone runneth cometh to Simon”

Jn20:3-10

“Peter and other went ... in ... went away again to home”

.... deepest

early

morning

they and

others came

carrying

spices”

Lk24:1

(Lk24:22)

Mk16:2

(Lk24:24)

“very early

before

sunrise....”

“Mary had had stood after....”

Jn20:11

DAY

Jn20:11-15

“saw Jesus

supposing

gardener”

Mk16:9

“very early on

the First Day of

the week”

Mt28:5

“explained

the angel to

the women”

Lk24:13

“journeying

to Emmaus”

“Today is the third day since

THESE THINGS

DELIVERED CONDEMNED

CRUCIFIED”

(14 Nisan

THURSDAY)

Lk24:29

“.... toward

evening

the day is

far spent

....”

COMPARE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .yours

Friday Crucifixion Type Matches Antitype
14 Nisan Friday - Preparation Day				15 Nisan Saturday - 7th day Sabbath				16 Nisan Sunday - First day of week
Lord’s Passover				1st Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread				The Omer Day of Firstfruits
NIGHT		DAY		NIGHT		DAY		NIGHT		DAY
Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn	Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn	Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn
N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D
26:20 27:61	14:17 15:47	22:14 23:56	13:1 19:42	27:62 27:66	16:1	23:56	---	28:1 28:15	16:1 16:13	24:1 24:53	20:1 20:23
1st day unleavened bread is eaten		Passover Lamb slain in evening (afternoon)		A High double Sabbath day				The Third Day (Luke 24:21)
Lord’s Supper Christ arrested in Gethsemane and put on trial		Crucifixion and burial before sundown Women prepare spices.		Rested in the tomb		Rested in the tomb Roman guard set by end of the day		Resurrection before sunrise Tomb discovered empty just before sunrise

Friday crucifixion SDA

Was Jesus crucified on Wednesday or Friday?

The argument for the Wednesday crucifixion theory primarily stems from Matthew 12:40 which states. “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The proponents of this argument say that in order for Jesus to prove that He is the Messiah that He must have met this condition or He could not be the Messiah. We will be covering a prophecy that is greatly abused by the enemy because it is not understood by the majority, which is that Daniel 9:24-27 proves beyond doubt that Jesus was in fact the Messiah. This is the most powerful and perfect Messianic prophecy in the Word of God proving that Jesus was the Christ. So regardless as to how long Jesus was in the grave, we need not have any doubt that Jesus is the One.

The proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory say they have back tracked the Jewish calendar and established that the Passover sabbath occurred on the Thursday of the week of Christ’s crucifixion and that the Sabbath referred to is not the weekly Sabbath but the Passover only. Before establishing if there is any truth in this statement, observe the following table for an understanding of this entire event.

Passover (Leviticus 23:5)				Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:6)
14th	15th	16th	17th		18th	19th	20th
Paschal Lamb Slain	1st Day Feast of Unleaven Bread	The Omer (First Fruits)	-		-	-	-
Not a Sabbath (Luke 23:54)	A Sabbath (Leviticus 23:6-7)	Not a Sabbath	-		-	-	-
Unleaven Bread Eaten
				All Leaven Removed From the House (Exodus 12:19)
Crucifixion	In the tomb	Resurrection	-		-	-	-
1st Day	2nd Day	3rd Day

Note that the beginning of Passover when the lamb was slain is not the Passover sabbath but this day occurs on the 15th of Nisan the following day. Jesus became our Passover lamb and died at the exact time the Passover lamb would have been sacrificed. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that Christ died at the ninth hour (9 hours after the sun had risen, 3:00 p.m.)

Matthew 27:46 “And about the NINTH HOUR Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus was placed in the sepulchre before sunset as they were in a hurry to bury Jesus because the Sabbath would begin at sundown. Note that a preparation day is the day before a Sabbath and so called because it is the day used to prepare for the Sabbath which is going to occur on the following day.

Luke 23:53-54 “And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.”

The Hebrew day begins and ends at sunset as the Bible makes plain and Jews practice even today.

Genesis 1:5 “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

Leviticus 23:32 “It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall you celebrate your sabbath.”

So Jesus died at 3pm and was buried on the preparation day (the day before the Sabbath) before sunset, which would begin THE Sabbath day, but which Sabbath day, the first day of Unleavened Bread or the Seventh day (Saturday) Sabbath or was it both? It was in fact both which we will now set out to prove.

Luke 23:52-56, 24:1-3 “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. 54 And that day was the preparation [Friday], and the sabbath drew on. 55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and RESTED THE SABBATH DAY ACCORDING TO THE COMMANDMENT. [Seventh day Saturday Sabbath] 24:1-3 Now upon the first day of the week [Sunday], very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.”

Luke would never refer to Passover as THE Sabbath or “according to the Commandment” and so can only be referring to one of the Ten Commandments of God being the fourth Commandment, the Sabbath of the Lord. This being the case, the woman would on the next available chance return to embalm the body of Jesus. Which day was this? “And very early in the morning the first day of the week.” The first day of the week is Sunday which follows the Seventh day of the week which is the Seventh day Sabbath.

John 11:39 “Jesus said, Take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he has been dead four days.”

A Double Sabbath
If Friday was the day of crucifixion then this day would have to be a preparation day for not only Passover but also for the Seventh day Sabbath of the Lord and would therefore be a double Sabbath. Can we prove this from the Word of God for even further evidence? In the Bible, Passover is “always” called Passover and the Seventh day Sabbath is “always” called the Sabbath. John 19:31 below says “THE Sabbath” with the word “THE” being the definite article, that is, not “A sabbath” but “THE Sabbath.” Hence this is and can only be the weekly Sabbath. John 19:14 confirms it is a double sabbath. This day is not only the preparation for “THE Sabbath” but also the preparation for “THE Passover” and why it is called a high day.

John 19:14 “And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!”

John 19:31 “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”

And so the Gospel of John informs us this double preparation day was in fact before a “high day”, that is a double Sabbath. This is what “The People’s New Testament (1891) by B. W. Johnson” quotes:

For those who believe the Wednesday crucifixion theory, let’s just clarify these facts one more time so there can be no misunderstanding. Passover is ALWAYS called Passover and Passover is NEVER called “THE SABBATH” because obviously “THE SABBATH” is and can only be “THE SABBATH.” When the word “THE” is the definite article and hence exists in the original Greek text, then we know that when it literally says, “THE SABBATH” it is ALWAYS and can ONLY be the Lord's Seventh day Sabbath. So the evidence of this being a double Sabbath and hence a HIGH Sabbath is undeniable in the book of John as it states very clearly in John 19:14 that this is the “Preparation of the Passover,” which we know it has to be as Jesus becomes our Passover Lamb. And John 19:31 says it was the preparation also for “THE SABBATH.” The word “THE” is definitely the definite article and DOES exist in the Greek text. It is “THE SABBATH” and therefore can ONLY be referring to the Lord’s Seventh day Sabbath. So here is 100% conclusive proof that this is the Preparation day for Passover and the Preparation for “THE SABBATH” and hence beyond ALL doubt proves also that the Passover Sabbath and the Lord’s Seventh day Sabbath did fall on the same day. This is why it is called a “HIGH SABBATH” and why ALL past theologians and their Commentaries such as Albert Barnes, Adam Clarke, John Gill and Wesley all state this is a double Sabbath, i.e., a weekly Sabbath and Passover sabbath. Passover is “A SABBATH” and can NEVER be called “THE SABBATH.” Passover is just one of many feasts and hence is “A Feast.” You would never hear it called “The Feast” as that it implies it is one of a kind as is the Seventh Day Sabbath. This evidence is 100% conclusive and cannot be debated and alone ends the Wednesday crucifixion argument.

While on the topic of the phrase “THE SABBATH,” let’s cover another misunderstanding of the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory. They further try and prove that the Passover sabbath and “THE SABBATH” were on separate days using the following flawed argument. They insist that the Sabbaths had to fall on different days because of what Mark 16:1 and Luke 23:56 says in regards to the issue of the spices used to anoint the body of Jesus. Here are the two verses in contention.

Mark 16:1 “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.”

Luke 23:56 “And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.”

This firstly has one very serious problem. Passover is ALWAYS called Passover and both of these verses actually say “THE SABBATH” with the word “THE” being the definite article. In other words, the word “THE” is in the original Greek text and so both verses are referencing “THE SABBATH,” that is, what can ONLY be the Seventh day Sabbath. So this argument does not prove at all that the Sabbaths fell on different days as BOTH of these verses are referring to the same Seventh day Sabbath. But based on their argument, this would now bring in a second serious problem, which is that we would now have a contradiction of scripture or is there another explanation, which also reveals what they overlooked in the first place?

I typically find that the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory are forever clutching at straws to try and prove what it is they have chosen to believe. The following argument they also use illustrates this well. They say that the fact that two Sabbaths are involved is confirmed by Matthew 28:1, where the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath” and that the word “Sabbath” used here is actually plural in the original Greek and should be translated “Sabbaths.” This part is in fact true and there are some Bible versions such as Young’s Literal Translation and others that make this clear. But they use this plural argument to insinuate that the Sabbaths once again fell on separate days. As ridiculous as this may seem, in their deception and desperation, they actually prove the opposite and show that these Sabbaths DID fall on the same day. Whatever it was that was done, was done “In the end of the Sabbaths,” meaning it was done as both these Sabbaths ended. You cannot say this unless both Sabbaths ended simultaneously.

Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath[s], as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

The proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory have become so desperate lately to convince the world of known cult leader Herbert W. Armstrong’s erroneous belief that they have resorted to abusing a messianic prophecy. I am not sure if this is just plain ignorance on their part or a deliberate attempt at deception in hope that most do not understand the prophecy and so will believe their deception and convert to their way of thinking. In any case, this argument just causes them to lose all credibility.

Daniel 9:27 says “in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” and so the argument is that since the middle of this week refers to the crucifixion of Jesus then it had to be a Wednesday crucifixion as Wednesday is in the middle of the week. The problem is that this is symbolic prophetic time and so a day equals a year here. The start of this week was the baptism of Jesus and the middle of the week is not 3.5 days but 3.5 years and of course was the length of the ministry of Jesus. So this week is not 7 days but 7 years and also where the supposed seven year tribulation comes from. See also Secret Rapture. Below is the prophecy in detail so the truth is perfectly clear and the deception seen.

In Daniel 9:24-27 God gave a prophecy concerning the probation of Israel. Daniel 9:24 reads, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”

God gave Daniel’s people seventy weeks to end their rebellion against Him but if they failed, Israel would be rejected as His chosen nation. The seventy weeks are symbolic prophetic time and so each day represents a literal year (See Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:34). So the seventy weeks would actually be a literal 490 years after which the Israelites were no longer God’s chosen people. The seventy prophetic weeks began with the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.

Daniel 9:25 “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”

That well known starting date is 457 B.C., when Artaxerxes sent out the decree. (Ezra 7:13) From that date the Jews would have exactly 490 years to end their rebellion towards God. The 490 year probation ended in A.D. 34 and the Jews ceased to be God’s chosen race. Daniel 9:25 says that the Messiah would be anointed after the total of 69 (7 + 62) of those prophetic weeks had passed. That would be 483 years from the decree date of 457 B.C. It takes no mathematician to figure the end of that prediction. It brings us to the year A.D. 27, being the exact year that Jesus was baptized by John and the Holy Spirit anointed Him for His ministry. Since “Messiah” means “Anointed One,” this can only be the fulfilment of Daniel’s prophecy that the Messiah would appear in A.D. 27. Seventy weeks were allocated to the Jewish probation but Christ appears as the “Messiah” after 69 weeks. So that leaves the seventieth and final week for Christ to minister before the Jews probation ended. So what happened in this final week?

Daniel 9:27 tells us, “And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.”

The “midst of the week” of course is three and a half prophetic days, and so is actually 3.5 literal years from His baptism to His crucifixion, and according to the Bible, the ministry of Jesus lasted for exactly that, three and a half years. In the spring of A.D. 31 Jesus was crucified and the veil of the temple was rent (Matthew 27:51), signifying the end of sacrifices. By His death He caused the “sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” Another three and a half years would lead up to the end of the seventy weeks and the end of the Jewish probation. During that three and a half years the disciples laboured mainly for the Jews but in A.D. 34 the seventy weeks ended; Stephen was stoned after his immense speech before the council in Acts chapter 7 and the Gospel began to go to the Gentiles (Acts 8:4). The Jews had rejected the gospel message and were no longer God’s chosen people just as the book of Daniel describes. Now the Jews could only be saved as individuals in the same way as the Gentiles.

The seventy weeks or 490 years was the time God gave His chosen nation to end their rebellion where He would then forgive them for their transgressions. Notice how Jesus refers to this prophetic time period here in His conversation with Peter. Seventy times seven is of course 490.

Matthew 18:21 “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.”

Regardless of all the current facts, the proponents of the Wednesday crucifixion theory still say, “But one cannot get three days and three nights from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. This is only one day and two nights, what about the other two days and one night? Friday can’t possibly be the day Jesus died.”

This is the result of trying to use literal, secular thinking and applying it to the text, implying that there must be a full 72 hours between the crucifixion and the resurrection. But that is not the intent of the passage. For proof let’s look at what the Gospels and other books have to say about the matter and then we will look at inclusive reckoning, which most know nothing about and explains all.

Matthew 16:21 “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again THE THIRD DAY.”
Matthew 17:23 “And they shall kill him, and THE THIRD DAY he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.”
Matthew 20:19 “And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.”
Matthew 27:64 “Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until THE THIRD DAY, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.”
Mark 9:31 “For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise THE THIRD DAY.”
Mark 10:34 “And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.”
Luke 9:22 “Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised THE THIRD DAY.”
Luke 13:32 “And he said unto them, Go you, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and THE THIRD DAY I shall be perfected.”
Luke 18:33 “And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and THE THIRD DAY he shall rise again.”
Luke 24:7 “Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and THE THIRD DAY rise again.”
Luke 24:21 “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is THE THIRD DAY since these things were done.”
Luke 24:46 “And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead THE THIRD DAY:”
John 2:1 “And THE THIRD DAY there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:”
Acts 10:40 “Him God raised up THE THIRD DAY, and showed him openly;”
1 Corinthians 15:4 “And that he was buried, and that he rose again THE THIRD DAY according to the scriptures:”

Can we be sure which day was the third day? You will note that the following passage says that on Sunday the “FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK” (verse 1), the two angels said He would rise “THE THIRD DAY” (verse 7), and on the same day on the road to Emmaus the two disciples stated “TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY” (verse 21), and that Jesus said He would rise “THE THIRD DAY” (verse 46). This passage shows that Sunday was the third day that the angels and Jesus were speaking of in which He rose from the grave.

Luke 24:1-46 “Now UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. … two men stood by them … they said unto them, ... He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spoke unto you … Saying, 7 The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and THE THIRD DAY rise again. … 21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY since these things were done. … 46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead THE THIRD DAY:”

Those who advocate the Wednesday crucifixion theory must adhere to a Saturday afternoon resurrection since this is “THE THIRD DAY” and the following verse in Mark that could not state more plainly that Jesus did in fact rise from the grave on the first day of the week. The first day of the week being Sunday.

Mark 16:9 “Now when Jesus was RISEN early the FIRST day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.”

The typical response given to try and undermine this overwhelming proof is that Matthew 28:1 says that the women first came to the tomb late on the Sabbath (Saturday) near sunset.

Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

These contradictory words are clarified and made consistent with the previous texts on Mark’s account.

Mark 16:1-3 “And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?”

Matthew 27:62-65 “Now the next day [Sabbath], that followed the day of the preparation, [Friday] the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 63 Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. 64 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. 65 Pilate said unto them, You have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as you can.”

Matthew 27:66 “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”
Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

By simply moving the beginning of verse 28:1 to the end of 27:66 which is obviously where it should have been placed when punctuation and chapters and verse were added, we would have the following.

Matthew 27:66 “So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch in the end of the sabbath.”
Matthew 28:1 “As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”

It was the watch guarding the tomb that began at the end of the Sabbath. Now we find that Matthew and Mark agree completely as to when the women came to the tomb, which was just before the rising of the sun at dawn, on the first day of the week being Sunday.

Since Jesus was to rise the third day, the Roman guards were put in place immediately at the end of the Sabbath because they anticipated that the body of Jesus would be stolen by the Jews sometime on Sunday, the third (and next) day. Had they anticipated the theft on Saturday, then the guard would have been in place by Friday evening the preparation day.

Jesus was crucified on Friday and died at 3:00 P.M. He rose from the dead somewhere between Saturday after sunset and sunrise on Sunday morning. There is absolutely no way to push the crucifixion back to Wednesday and fit scripture. A Wednesday crucifixion once again is clearly impossible.

Inclusive Reckoning
These following verses are appealed against the already overwhelming evidence to make an attempt to propose a full 72 hours in the grave. They do seem to say a full three days but if you believe the Bible cannot contradict itself, then these verses MUST be harmonized with the rest of scripture on the subject.

Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Matthew 27:63 “Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.”

The only way we can harmonize these apparently contradictory statements is to understand them in the light of inclusive reckoning of time. This was the method used throughout the Bible in computing time. Jesus and His friends spoke and wrote in harmony with the common literacy used those days, and that usage recognized inclusive reckoning of time. In simple language, this means that any part of a day was counted as a whole day. The Jewish Encyclopaedia states. “A short time in the morning of the seventh day is counted as the seventh day; circumcision takes place on the eighth day, even though, of the first day only a few minutes after the birth of the child, these being counted as one day.” Vol. 4, p. 475. Any small part of a day was reckoned as the entire twenty-four hour period. Scores of contradictions would appear in both Old and New Testament if this principle were ignored. We must compare Scripture with Scripture and use the idiom of the language in which the Bible was written. Inclusive reckoning was taken for granted by all the writers of the Scriptures.

These examples are only a few of the many which could be cited to establish this important point. The Hebrew usage requires only that some part of each of the days should be involved in the time period.

Those who insist that Christ was in the grave a full seventy-two hours contend that the three days and three nights must be taken in the fullest literal sense. But such a contention is absolutely contrary to the testimony of the Scriptures. An example of the way the Bible uses the term is found in Esther 4:16. We read these words of Queen Esther to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise.” Esther 4:16. Do not overlook the fact that they were to fast three days and three nights. Yet almost the next verse tells us, “Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court.” Esther 5:1. Here is a perfect example of how three days and three nights terminate on the third day.

1 Kings 12:5 “And he said unto them, Depart yet FOR THREE DAYS, then come again to me. And the people departed.”
1 Kings 12:12 “So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam THE THIRD DAY, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again THE THIRD DAY.”

In the following passage the third day clearly means the day after tomorrow, not after 3 full days.

Luke 13:31-33 “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get you out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill you. 32 And he said unto them, Go you, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and THE THIRD DAY I shall be perfected. 33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and tomorrow, and THE DAY FOLLOWING: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.”

We have just seen how Jesus explained the third day. In Luke 13:32 above, He said “today, and tomorrow, and the third day.” When Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Sunday afternoon after the resurrection, Cleopas said, “Today is the third day since these things were done.” Luke 24:21. Everyone knows this was on Sunday but if Jesus had been crucified on Wednesday afternoon, Cleopas would have had to say “Today is the fifth day since these things were done.” Later the same day, the first day of the week, Jesus made stated, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.” Luke 24:46. So who was right? Jesus and Cleopas were both right. Those who claim the Wednesday crucifixion are wrong. Christ died on Friday, the preparation for the Sabbath which was the first day. He rested in the tomb on the Sabbath according to the Commandment which was the second day. He arose on the first day of the week which was Sunday and this was the third day.

The proponents of a Wednesday crucifixion use a devious argument to explain away the words of Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. They contend that he was not counting the three days from the time of Christ’s death, but rather from the sealing of the tomb by the authorities the day after he was crucified. One could possibly reach back to those events from which to reckon the third day but by no stretch of the imagination could any point beyond the death of Christ be used in computing the three days.

Passover Week Proves Resurrection
Now for the final proof positive that the resurrection of Jesus occurred on Sunday. It was to this that Paul turned in his persuasive Corinthian discourse on the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

14 Nisan	15 Nisan	16 Nisan
Passover	Old Corn and Unleavened Bread Eaten	Manna Ceased First Fruits of Canaan Eaten

· 14 Nisan, Slaying of Passover lamb. The Lord’s Passover is the type of the crucifixion day.

· 15 Nisan, 1st day of Unleavened Bread, is the second day.

· 16 Nisan, Firstfruits, is a type of the resurrection, and the third day.

Christ was Our Passover
How do all these facts relate to the time of Christ’s death and resurrection? Here is where the beauty of the Bible reveals itself. Jesus was the One to whom all those types and ceremonies pointed. He was the true Passover Lamb. That is why John cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God!” John 1:36. Paul showed how Jesus fulfilled the Passover, “…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, … but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

When Mary saw Him in the garden after His resurrection, Jesus said, “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” John 20:17. Why did Jesus ask Mary not to hold or delay Him (as the Greek text implies)? Because Jesus had to ascend that same day to present Himself before the Father as the firstfruits from the dead.

The biblical proof of those three successive days during Passover week completely shatters the Wednesday crucifixion theory. Jesus had to die on Friday to fulfil the Scriptures concerning His death as the Passover lamb. He had to be resurrected on the third day after His death to meet the scriptural type of the firstfruits. Only three days can be involved in the time sequence or the Word of God is broken.

Friday Crucifixion Type Matches Antitype
14 Nisan Friday - Preparation Day				15 Nisan Saturday - 7th day Sabbath				16 Nisan Sunday - First day of week
Lord’s Passover				1st Day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread				The Omer Day of Firstfruits
NIGHT		DAY		NIGHT		DAY		NIGHT		DAY
Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn	Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn	Mt	Mk	Lk	Jn
N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D	N	D
26:20 27:61	14:17 15:47	22:14 23:56	13:1 19:42	27:62 27:66	16:1	23:56	---	28:1 28:15	16:1 16:13	24:1 24:53	20:1 20:23


1st day unleavened bread is eaten		Passover Lamb slain in evening (afternoon)		A High double Sabbath day				The Third Day (Luke 24:21)
Lord’s Supper Christ arrested in Gethsemane and put on trial		Crucifixion and burial before sundown Women prepare spices.		Rested in the tomb		Rested in the tomb Roman guard set by end of the day		Resurrection before sunrise Tomb discovered empty just before sunrise

The issues here are much deeper than most people realize. Had Christ not fulfilled every single Old Testament type and shadow pointing forward to His atoning death and resurrection, then how could He be the true Messiah. It was absolutely essential that every prophecy of the Messiah should be fulfilled in His life and death. In a special sense, the prefiguring of His victory over the grave was the capstone of hope for both Old and New Testament believers. Just as the sheaf of firstfruit grain held the promise and assurance of abundant harvest, even so our blessed Lord’s glorious resurrection is the guarantee of a mighty harvest in the resurrection soon to take place. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” John 14:19.

Some say they have backtracked the calendar to find the day. Select Wednesday crucifixion Page 2 if you want to see if it is possible to use lunar cycles or calculate the day as some of the Wednesday crucifixion proponents claim. Historical information is also provided that shows the year Jesus was crucified. See also the problem of Hebrew to Gregorian calendar converters and experiment with the one provided.”

13 September 2009