How many people just go along with what they think they know about the death and resurrection of Jesus without ever really studying it? I found that the version I was presented with all my life really was not the truth. Things just didn’t add up. I know how to count and it just truly didn’t make sense and my god is not the author of confusion so there had to be more.
Most have believed that Jesus died on Friday and arose on Sunday, but Jesus said that He would be in the earth for 3 days and nights so when I see and count what I have been told forever this is a sore spot that just didn’t make sense so I wanted to study it and find the truth. You don’t have to agree with me, but I do ask that you research this for yourself so that you will know the truth because again, God is not the author of confusion.
This is a major contradiction. Jesus said, “for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three night in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40) So in looking at this and me being able to count…it just didn’t add up no matter what some people tried to explain. So what’s up?
The scribes and Pharisees wanted a sign from Jesus to prove that He was the Messiah, but instead, Jesus answered them that they were “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah”
Jesus always had and has a reason for everything He said and did so I think this needed to be taken seriously to find out the truth and understand it.
The Bible said that when Jesus died on the cross that He was hurriedly placed in a tomb late in the afternoon, just before sundown because the beginning of a Sabbath was at hand. (John 19:30-42)
Now, put your brain on for a moment at to what most people believe and have been told: Tradition says that Good Friday to Easter Sunday. UMMMMM! Friday sundown to Saturday sundown (and a day in the Bible went from sundown to sundown)….makes Friday sundown to Saturday sundown just one day. Saturday sundown to Sunday morning is a half day. So in adding this up this Friday sundown to Saturday sundown one night and one day. Saturday night to Sunday daybreak is another night…but this only accounts for a total now of two night and one day. So this can’t mean 3 days and three nights as I, and most likely you, have been told. So where are the other night and to days to equal three days and three nights that Jesus, Himself, said that he would be in the grave before rising from the dead? Is this one of those things that non-Christians want to say that doesn’t add up?
Some will tell you that any part of a day is okay for your counting…no…it is not. I want the truth and hopefully, you do as well…because the truth is a great thing to know and understand. In fact, some of the people will tell you things like even a few moments on Friday when they say that Jesus was killed makes it the first day. Again…ummm! They say that all day Saturday is the second day, and first part of the morning on Sunday was the third day. How many people have believed that? I did for years because these people telling me this were people who should have known the truth.
It can’t be so…if I am to believe my Lord and Savior and what He actually did say. So there has to be more to understand. John 20:1 tells us that “on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Did you get that? It was still dark outside. Jesus was not in the tomb when Mary went to the tomb on Sunday morning and found it empty. Jesus was resurrected well before daybreak so He was not in the tomb an of the daylight portion of Sunday…so it could not be counted as a day.
Stop! This doesn’t add up! Jesus never misspoke…ever. So since He didn’t misspeak…something is not right here and it needed to be explained to me, and hopefully you as well.
Okay…what gives? We need to actually understand this because to many who count the time it doesn’t add up to the truth and just because people have told us this…doesn’t make it accurate. Oh, I believe many think it to be true, but I don’t want to mislead anyone in this because this story in the bible is very important and people celebrate the resurrection of Jesus year after year. Don’t they want to understand and believe the truth. It is like the story of Jesus and the wise men who came and brought gifts to Jesus. Jesus was not then in the manager when they came. Jesus was like two years old and living in a house, but people believe that the wise men came to the manger. Look it up and really read it. What we believe matters!
So now we come to biblical festivals in the Bible and especially during the spring of the year. This was when this event took place. If you know the truth on this then everything will make sense to you…but even Bible scholars just don’t present it. To understand first God doesn’t go by mans timetable. Man, for whatever reason, counts the days from midnight and not sunset. However in Genesis 1:5 God tells s that God counts a day as beginning with the evening (sundown) and then the morning/the daylight make one day. God said it and I tend to believe what He says. Oh, we won’t go around counting correctly, but maybe we should. God did this counting all through the days of creation.
Now back to Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, they hurriedly placed Jesus body in Joseph’s tomb just before sundown. (John 1(39-42) Why? Because “A” sabbath was going to begin and all work had to stop and burring someone was considered work. So what is going on?
Let us consider this: There were/are two kinds of sabbaths here. No, you can’t have two Friday night sabbaths…so something more is going on. What could it possibly be? John in John 19:31 does tell us that it was a preparation day, that the bodies of those crucified shouldn’t be kept on the cross on the Sabbath. This was also not the regular sabbath, but a High Sabbath. What? What is/was that? The Jews asked Pilate that the legs of the condemned be broken so that they would die quicker because they would not be able to raise their body on the cross to get air into their lungs.
This day of preparation before a Sabbath was to do all your chores and cook your meals so no one would be doing this on the Sabbath which would make it work on the Sabbath and they were not allowed to cook and clean. Sabbath was designated a day of rest. So in this thinking here…Jesus was crucified on preparation day…but not the ordinary sabbath day preparation. How can this be? Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb the day immediately preceding a Sabbath.
Okay…let’s get to the answer now. There were two kinds of Sabbath going on then. The normal Sabbath that happened every week from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday sundown, but this was different this week for there was another Sabbath that didn’t have to fall on a Friday. This Sabbath was called the annual Sabbath day…a high Sabbath day. This is listed in Leviticus 23 and mentioned in various passages throughout the bible and this Sabbath could fall on any day of the week…not just on Friday sundown.
Many have failed to recognize what the Gospel plainly taught. Many just believe that Jesus died on Good Friday and was raised on Sunday which we all call Easter. But this story is wrong because it just doesn’t add up to the truth. Don’t you want to know the truth? I sure do!
But the Bible does tell us the truth, but many just went along with the regular Sabbath as truth and not the Annual Sabbath. John explicitly told/tells us that the Sabbath that began at sundown immediately after Jesus was entombed was one of these “annual Sabbaths”. It was a high Sabbath day. This was different from the normal Sabbath and this Sabbath explains what so few have gone on believing. The high Sabbath was important to be able to understand the truth here.
The Gospel tells us that on the evening before Jesus was condemned and crucified, He kept the Passover with His disciples (Matthew 26:19-20, Mark 14:16-17, Luke 22:13-15) Now listen up…He was crucified on Passover day. Leviticus 23 which lists God’s festivals, tells us that on the day after the Passover a separate festival, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, begins (Leviticus 23:7) The first day of this feast is a holy convocation on which no customary work is to be done. (Leviticus 23:7)
Bible commentaries, encyclopedias, and dictionaries note that John is referring to the annual Sabbath rather than the regular weekly Sabbath day. So wait for a second….the truth is down but why are we skimming over it? Context is everything and the truth stares us in the face.
Passover began at sundown and ended the following day at sundown when this annual Sabbath began. Jesus kept the Passover with His disciples, then was arrested later that night. After daybreak, the next morning Jesus was questioned before Pontius Pilate, crucified, then hurriedly entombed just before the next sunset when the high day, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, began. Also note that the Jews often generically referred to the whole Feast of Unleavened Bread as Passover, explaining why the day of Christ’s trials and His crucifixion is even called “the Preparation Day of the Passover (John 19;14) —that is, of the first Holy Day or the annual Sabbath of the Passover week. Leviticus 23 tells us the order and timing of these day, and the Gospels confirm the order of events as they unfolded.
So……………………………..Jesus was crucified on Wednesday, not Friday as we have been told for so long. The truth is right there in the Bible…so search it out for yourself.
We will find that in the year that Jesus was crucified the Passover meal must have been eaten on Tuesday night and that Wednesday sundown marked the beginning of the “high day” the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Jesus, then, was crucified and entombed on Wednesday afternoon, not on Friday. Proof of this can be found in the Bible if you want to search it out. Truth is important, and again, God is not the author of confusion, and the Friday story is confusing. Because God is not the author of confusion shouldn’t we search to find out what the truth on this matter is?
Jesus had to have been crucified and entombed on a Wednesday afternoon, not on Friday. So let us let the Bible tell the truth in all of this. In the Bible, in Mark 16:1 says: “Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.” Are you reading that?
In that time, if a body of a loved one was placed in a tomb rather than being buried directly in the ground, friends and family would place aromatic spices in the tomb alongside the body to reduce the smell of the deceased remains. Why? Because the body would begin to smell and decay.
Now listen up: since Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb just before the high day…the Sabbath, the Sabbath of unleavened bread, and this took place because the women had no time to go and buy spices before the Sabbath began. They also could not have purchased them on the Sabbath because the shops were closed, and they could not have done this. Listen: Mark says, they bought the spices “after the Sabbath”. If this was the normal sabbath then there would not have been time. Think!
Now notice this: There is another revealing fact in Luke 23:55-56: “And the women who had come with (Christ) from Galilee followed after, and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils, after which “they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment”. Read that several times!!!
Now really pay attention here: So they bought the spices after the Sabbath, and then they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath. Read that again. This would be a clear contradiction between these two Gospel accounts unless two Sabbaths were involved.
Now comprehend this: When we understand the truth and that two different Sabbaths are mentioned…the misunderstanding disappears and we can understand the truth. Mark tells us that after the “high day” Sabbath, which that year must have begun Wednesday evening at sundown and ended Thursday evening at sundown, the women bought the spices to anoint Jesus’ body. Luke tells us that the women prepared the spices…activity which would have taken place on Friday, and that afterward “they rested on the Sabbath (the normal weekly Sabbath day, observed Friday sunset to Saturday sunset) according to the commandment.
So we can now see that by comparing details in both accounts along with the proper understanding of three days and three nights, we can see that two different Sabbaths are mentioned along with a workday, Friday, in between. The first Sabbath was a “high day” the first day of the Feast of Uneavened Bread, which fell on a Thursday that year. The second Sabbath was the weekly Sabbath.
The original Greek in which the Gospels were written also plainly tells us that two Sabbath days were involved in these accounts. I always find it strange that people just accept something that they don’t study to find when something seems impossible and they just go along with it without trying to truly make sense of it.
In Matthew 28:1 where Matthew writes that the women went to the tomb “after the Sabbath,” the word Sabbath here is actually plural and should be translated “Sabbaths.” Bible versions such as Alfred Marshall’s Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Green’s Literal Translation, Young’s Literal Translation and Ferrar Fenton’s Translation make this clear as well.
So let’s talk resurrection now: When was Jesus resurrected? If Jesus Christ was crucified and entombed on a Wednesday, just before an annual Sabbath began…not the weekly Sabbath…then when?
John 20:1, we noted earlier, tells us that “on the first day of the week Mary Magdalne went to the tomb early, “while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.” Notice it does not say the sun had yet risen. “it was still dark out”, John tells us…when Mary found the tomb empty. So what does that mean?
Okay, this might blow your mind here but obviously Jesus was not resurrected at sunrise on Sunday morning. So when did this happen? The answer is plain if we simply read the Gospels…, especially Jesus’ own words and accept them for what they really say. Listen up: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, Jesus said this in Matthew 12:40.
Now really pay attention here: As we have seen, Jesus must have been entombed…placed… “in the heart of the earth,” just before sundown on a Wednesday. All we have to do now is count forward. One day and one night brings us to Thursday at sundown. Another day and night brings us to Friday at sundown. A third day and night brings us to Saturday at sundown.
Wait a moment here…we have been told that Jesus rose at sunrise but did He? No! According to Jesus own words, He would have emerged from the grave three days and nights after He was entombed, at around the same time…near sunset. Does this fit with the scriptures? Yes, absolutely it does. He was already risen and the tomb was empty when Mary arrived “while it was still dark” on Sunday morning. While no one was around to witness His resurrection “which took place inside a sealed tomb watched over by armed guards, Jesus own words and the details recorded in the Gospel show that it had to have happened three days and three nights after His burial, near sunset at the end of the weekly Sabbath. I know that someone will read this and say this is a lie, but you do the research and see how you would find the truth of this.
No matter who you are and how hard you try to fit three days and three nights into what you have been told if Jesus died on Friday you can’t fit the truth into this to have three days and three nights and Jesus arising on Sunday at sunrise. It didn’t happen that way and the truth of this should help you understand. The good Friday-Easter Sundy tradition simply isn’t true nor is it biblical. People just didn’t read correctly and although they mean well all these years the truth is right there in the word of God.
The words of an angel of God, who so startled the women at the empty tomb, are proven true: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, he has risen, just He said” Matthew 28:5-6.
Should we not stop now just going along with what tradition tells us and should we not find out the truth for ourself? Scripture explains scripture if we just open the word of God, study it, and take God’s word and let God tell us the truth.
Well…many will still not believe this. It is easier for some to just believe the traditions of man over the real word of what God said, how He said it, How He meant it, and they will still go on believing the tradition of man. That is their right. They get to make that decision for themselves. However, I, personally, like to know the truth. I was willing to study and find the truth because it never made sense to me that three days and three nights fit into Friday to Sunday. All their things of a speck of this day and that day made it three days and nights…no it did not. Three days and three nights is three days and three nights. So if you have never heard this…study it for yourself. Really read the word of God to find out the absolute truth in this matter. This does not mean I, personally, will not celebrate the resurrection of my Lord and Savior for I surely will…I just can do it now with understanding and truth. You have to decide what you believe as well. Will you, and are you willing to make a commitment to worship God according to Bible truth or human traditions? The choice is yours to decide. The truth is a great thing.
Oh, you never have to agree with me…no one ever has to, but we should all agree with God’s word and we don’t find that out if we just take someone’s word as truth and we never study to find out the truth of God’s word for ourselves. Jesus is my Lord, my Savior, my hope of heaven. Why would I not want to know the truth? If I am wrong on something God will let me know for He always has. But if this is true and you read, research God’s word and find out that I have put down here is truth…that is freeing. I now can fit three days and three nights into what happened and not just believe the traditions of man. There were two Sabbaths in the story. One as a high-day and one was a weekly Sabbath. It makes so much more sense now to me. Does it to you?