An Easter Story Part 1

When is Good Friday and Easter Sunday actually? The answer to this question may seem obvious to you, its answer, however, is not as simple as you might assume.  First, the Jewish calendar is very different from our own.  The Jewish day begins at sunset rather than midnight. In Genesis we read:

And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.  Genesis 1:5

From this text Jews infer that a day begins with evening, or sunset. Therefore 6 p.m. in the evening is the “zero hour” for the following day.

The Jewish calendar is based on the rotation of the Earth on its axis (a day); the revolution of the moon around the Earth (a month); and the revolution of the Earth around the sun (a year). Because these three phenomena are independent of each other, Jewish calendars appear complicated and strange to our Western minds. The moon revolves around the Earth in about 29½ days on average. The Earth revolves around the sun in about 365¼ days.  There are 12.4 lunar months in one year. Months are either 29 or 30 days and the Jewish years may have either 12 or 13 months. Years of 13 months are referred to “a pregnant year.”

Why is all this important? Jesus was Jewish!  The Gospels record the timing of His crucifixion in relation to the Jewish Passover.  To accurately determine the actual time for the Christian holidays of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter we must refer to the Jewish method for measuring time and not our own. Precision in locating the time of Jesus’ death Biblically is further complicitated by a discrepancy between the account of Synoptic (Matthew, Mark, Luke) Gospels and that of John. John gives us the time of Jesus’ betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection most clearly.

1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. 2 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. . . . 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.    John 13:1–5; 12-16

There is a great difference in ones ability to be ritually pure between the 14th day of Nisan also referred to as the “Day of Preparation” and the 15th day of Nisan. At approximately 10 a.m. on the 14th of Nisan you would have to quit eating or being around any leaven (yeast).

28 Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover.     John 18:28 (ESV)

This delivery of Jesus to Pilate occurred very early on the 14th of Nisan.  That this incident occurs before Passover is evident from Pilate’s offer to release Jesus to them in the future on the day of Passover the 15th of Nisan.

39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”     John 18:39 (ESV)

Jesus was sent to be crucified on the “Day of Preparation”or Nissan 14th at the sixth hour or midday.

14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!”     John 19:14 (ESV)

How do we determine that the day Jesus was crucified on was also a Friday? The day of Preparation is said to be the day before the Sabbath.  The Jewish Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday.  The rush to get Jesus and those crucified with him off of the cross before the Sabbath lets us know that He died on Friday.

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”    John 19:31–37 (NIV)

The rush to bury Jesus also helps us to place the time of His burial on the Friday, Nisan 14.  His burial would have been a rushed affair, because everyone would have wanted to not be ritually unclean to eat the Passover meal with their families that evening.

38 Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. 39 He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40 Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41 At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.     John 19:38–42

John’s timing coincides with the time when the paschal lambs (those slain to be eaten for Passover) were being slain. The male lamb which was to be “without spot or blemish” (Exodus 12:5) was slain on the eve of the Passover, in the afternoon of the 14th of Nisan, at three o’clock, or, if the eve of the Passover fell on Friday,( as it did with Jesus) at two o’clock.  John clearly intends to present Jesus symbolically as the Passover sacrifice.

29 . . . John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

Tomorrow we look at the timing of Jesus’ betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection from the viewpoint of the Synoptic (Matthew, Mark, Luke) Gospels.